Captain Midnight #18

In the Himalayas, Captain Midnight investigates the mysterious death of Professor Evans, the sole survivor of a doomed expedition, after Evans cryptically warns of "flying things" before dying. With the help of his assistant Icky Mudd, he uncovers a conspiracy involving the High Lama’s Grand Vizier and a hidden base where the villain Von Togo has bred giant birds to attack the Indian border. As Captain Midnight confronts Von Togo in a mountain cave, he must outwit the villain’s monstrous creations before they launch their deadly assault.

Captain Midnight and his allies, including inventor Captain Albright and his aides Icky, Chuck, and Joyce, use a portable micro-movie projector to send a signal to a group of lost American flyers stranded on Tomtom Island. When Japanese forces intercept the signal and launch an attack, Captain Midnight uses the projector to project illusions—like a fake image of Hirohito—to outwit the enemy and protect the stranded pilots.

Captain Midnight and his companion Icky soar to a record-breaking 20 miles above Earth in an experimental rocket strato-plane, only to discover a mysterious floating platform suspended in the stratosphere. There, they encounter a lone survivor—Lieutenant Chamberlain, who has been marooned for twenty years after his balloon became trapped at extreme altitude, surviving by fishing for birds and building a makeshift home.

Captain Midnight finds himself stripped of his signature gadgets after a Nazi impostor, Kapitan Mittnacht, steals them and masquerades as the hero. Without his tools, the real Captain Midnight must rely on wits and courage to stop the impostor from stealing a new bulletproof plane, even as the enemy uses his stolen gear to outmaneuver him.