Creatures on the Loose #14
In "What Happened in... Dead Storage," a 1971 Marvel classic, a seemingly ordinary elevator operator becomes the unexpected center of a tense standoff when a spy takes a passer-by hostage in a hotel. Written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber and illustrated by Don Heck, the story unfolds with quiet dread as the operator calmly reveals a chilling truth: the 13th floor doesn't exist—making the bomb a hollow threat. The cover by Jack Kirby and Paul Reinman captures the moment’s eerie stillness, a 20-cent mystery that lingers long after the ride ends.
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An oddly cheerful elevater operator is held at gunpoint with a passer-by by a spy planning to blow up the hotel. The elevator lets the spy off at the 13th floor, and while the passer-by is terrified, the elevator operator simply fades away, explaining that the bomb will never go off, since there is no 13th floor.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).