Dates
- Cover date
- Fall 1943
- On sale
- August 17, 1943
- Pages
- 60
Editions and covers
- Original editionSource ↗
Creators
Stories
- Insects Turn to Crime! Introduction · 3 pages
Chairman Hawkman displays a wax exhibition of a miniature insect world for the JSA members to look at as they arrive at the JSA meeting, and explains what a new master criminal is doing to use insect hormones to create a race of super men-insects to commit crimes! Johnny Thunder comes in late...walking on the ceiling and buzzing like a fly, which demonstrates to the members the urgency of their task to find this madman and defeat his minions.
- Insects Turn to Crime! Chapter 1 · 5 pages
Abner Mason writes to Hawkman about his son, who has been taken by a gang of termite men to the deserted Cartwheel house. The termite men were being used to rob banks, after disabling bank guards with a gummy substance. The Feathered Fury tracks down the gang, but is overcome by the gummy substance and left suspended over a fire that had been set to kill him in the house. But the heat melts the substance and Hawkman escapes, tracking down the thugs and termite men.
- Insects Turn to Crime! Chapter 2 · 5 pages
Serge Astrakoff has discovered a way to make rubber from plants, and he tells Sandman that one evening, while working in his lab, he heard a strange noise and some men that looked like giant snails, bored up from underneath his lab and stole the synthetic rubber formula. The Sandman follows the trail of the "borer-men" and disables them with gas and captures the thugs and secures the formula.
- Insects Turn to Crime! Chapter 3 · 5 pages
The Spectre battles a man known as the Water Bug, who, in reality, is Chick Dempsey, world record holder in a dozen swimming events. Unable to get work after he graduated from college, Dempsey is approached by the King Bee and goes to work for him. He's glad when the Spectre nabs him and then helps the Ghostly Guardian to round up the rest of the gang.
- Insects Turn to Crime! Chapter 4 · 5 pages
An airliner is attacked by hornet men, who force the plane down, and take it away, leaving the passengers stranded. Dr. Fate just happens to pass by the area and is seen by one of the members of King Bee's gang: the Hasher! He reports back to the rest of his gang that Fate is in the area, and sends up the hornet men after him. Fate makes short work of them, then captures Hasher and his gang, then discovers paperwork from the King Bee, and heads out after him.
- Insects Turn to Crime! Chapter 5 · 5 pages
Fred Norman had a fear and hatred of spiders, due to the fact that his friend Jim, whom he had been camping with, was killed by one ten years earlier. Working late in a bank, Fred was startled to see some human spiders invading the bank to steal some loot. Later, Dr. Mid-Nite convinces Fred that he can beat his phobia and together they face these minions of the King Bee. After throwing his blackout bomb into the area to frighten the spider-men, Fred runs out, reconsiders and comes back in to sock one of the thugs whom he thought to be one of his spider enemies, thus over-coming his fear.
- Hop Harrigan at New Guinea · 1.5 pages
- Insects Turn to Crime! Chapter 6 · 5 pages
The city faces the threat of ant-men, who have the power to crush a car in their bare hands. They are being used by the King Bee's thugs to rob local banks, and when the Astral Avenger arrives, he tries to figure out a way to handle them safely without killing them. When Starman discovers that the ant-men are controlled by a microphone through antennas on their heads, Starman pounds the thugs and brings the ant-men under control with that microphone.
- Insects Turn to Crime! Chapter 7 · 5 pages
An emerald necklace called the Green Glacier tells the story of how it was stolen by Grasshopper Men from Carteret's House of Jewels. Arriving on the scene, the Atom directs the grasshopper thieves into a field of grain while he overcomes the human criminals and takes the Glacier into his safe-keeping.
- Insects Turn to Crime! Chapter 8 · 5 pages
Already under the influence of the fly hormone, Johnny goes to the diner where he ate the funny tasting bologna laced with that hormone. He is immediately forced to eat soup also containing the ingredient, and is given a set of wings so he can fly with the rest to commit yet more crimes. Johnny has enough presence of mind to suggest ways to capture the group and the Thunderbolt handles the details, then they head for the King Bee's residence.
- Insects Turn to Crime! Conclusion · 5 pages
Elmer Pane, a lowly bug exterminator, has been made fun of all his life due to his interest in bugs and his career. One day he is able to isolate insect hormones, crystallize them, and find a way of ingesting them in humans to do his bidding. Having overcome Pane's weird creations, the JSA shows up at the King Bee's residence and overpower him, finding the antidote for the hormones which they will use on the King Bee's innocent victims to restore them to their real selves.
Reprinted in
All Star Comics Archives (1991), DC Finest: Justice Society of America: The Plunder of the Psycho-Pirate (2025)