SECRET AGENT X-9 PART 1

JANUARY 22ND, 1934 - SEPTEMBER 11TH, 1934
SEPTEMBER 12TH, 1934 - DECEMBER 15TH, 1934
By Dashiell Hammett & Alex Raymond

Secret Agent X-9 begins his newspaper run in grand fashion, with a storyline that runs over nine months and sees him tangling with a local mob as he works to solve the murder of a wealthy magnate.

Strangely, I'm not sure yet exactly what X-9 is supposed to be. I mean, obviously he's a secret agent. He spends this storyline going by the name of "Dexter", but he mentions more than once that it's an alias and says at one point that he's used so many names, he doesn't remember what his real one is. He reports to a mysterious "Chief" and a quick flash of his ID is all it takes for the cops to immediately snap to attention and begin taking orders from him.

It all adds up so far, right? He's clearly some kind of super G-Man with top security clearance. But if that's the case, then why does the soon-to-be-murdered Mister Tarleton Powers ring him up at home and ask him for protection like he's a common private detective? Is that part of his cover? It's never explained. But in any case, it's a good thing this random old guy does call our protagonist, because he's quickly swept up in the murder investigation, which leads him to uncover a plot by local gangsters, led by "The Top", to hijack a shipment of gold bullion coming into the United States.

X-9 thwarts their piracy, but the story isn't over. He's figured out who killed Powers and why (the mob was blackmailing Powers, but when he learned they wanted to use his yacht in their hijacking, he decided enough was enough) -- but he still needs to learn who "The Top" is. And along the way, he discovers even more secrets about Powers, such as the fact that his widow was having an affair before he was killed and that his fortune was never his in the first place -- he had swindled his own brother out of it.

Eventually the brother appears, as an addled old man, and claims to know who "The Top" is. But it turns out he's a rambling madman, and nearly (accidentally) gets X-9 and his own beautiful daughter, Evelyn, killed. In the end, X-9 realizes who "the Top" actually is and kills him in a shootout.

This is sort of a bizarre story. I feel like maybe something was lost in translation between Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond. Certainly both are extremely talented in their respective fields, but their collaboration feels half-baked. My best guess would be that the fault lies with Hammett. A brilliant novelist does not necessarily equal a brilliant -- even an adequate -- comic strip writer. Raymond's pictures are always quite clear, so assuming he was following Hammett's script, I can't see that the problem would lay on his side of the equation.

For example, very early in the story, a man calls up Tarleton's widow, claiming to be "The Top" and demanding blackmail money. In the end, this man turns out to be "The Top"! So was "The Top's" true identity supposed to be a mystery? I assumed so. It's presented as one through the entire story, so I assumed the guy on the phone was just impersonating the villain to get back at Mrs. Tarleton (she had just wronged him a few days earlier). But nope! Not a red herring at all. He just... is "The Top".

There's also a scene partway through the storyline, where X-19 finds a cigarette holder and pockets it as a clue. Then he spends a long time trying to figure out who "The Top" is. Eventually he calls up the character who turns out to be "The Top" and invites him over, then reveals that his cigarette holder gave him away.

Huh?!

Let's be clear -- there's no "Aha!" moment where some other clue makes X-19 realize what the cigarette case means. It really comes across like he's known what it meant all along, but ran around searching for "The Top" for no apparent reason.

The next storyline rounds out the rest of the year, running a much shorter three months. In it, a millionaire crusader named Marlowe asks X-9 for protection as he prepares a group of captains of industry to declare war on crime. But Marlowe is kidnapped en route to the West Coast by a villain calling himself "The Mask". Naturally X-9 begins a search for Marlowe, and eventually finds his way, undercover, to "The Mask's" dude ranch, where he frees Marlow and his entourage. The storyline culminates with a midair duel between "The Mask's" escape plane and a plane carrying X-9 and his reporter friend, Terry Burke.

This arc is far more straightforward and easy to follow than the last one. Its length certainly has something to do with that, but the simple truth is that the writing just makes more sense here. There is a clear plot, clearly defined villains and suspects, and even an actual red herring or two before "The Mask" is unmasked. I've read that Dashiell Hammett wrote the X-19 strip's first four storylines, so this should still be him handling that duty, but something has clearly changed. Perhaps an editor is paying more attention to Hammett's scripts, or perhaps Hammett himself has simply figured out the formula (though the idea he'd do it overnight after the previous storyline ended seems odd, unless he supplied scripts for the entire arc in advance and then wrote this next one while the previous was still being drawn and published).

But whatever the case, I look forward to this improved X-19 carrying us the rest of the way through Alex Raymond's run. Hopefully I won't be disappointed! (And speaking of Raymond, I'll speak a bit about his artwork on the strip in next week's post.)