The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

In the Empire Palace Theater in the fictitious Empire City, a young man peers out through a gap in the curtain before being wrenched back by the large hand of a man over eight feet tall. The man is Alois Berg (aka Big Al), and the young man is Tom Mayflower. Big Al berates Tom for looking out at the gathering crowd. Big Al needs Tom to help with the water tank: Something’s wrong with it, but Big Al doesn’t know what. Tom, who was born with one bad leg, lowers himself down to the ground around the tank from his crutch. He quickly finds what’s wrong with the tank: A button has fallen and lodged itself in one of the wheels used for transporting the tank on stage. Tom asks Big Al what is wrong with the Master of Escape, Misterioso (Max Mayflower), their boss and Tom’s uncle. Big Al answers that Max is simply tired. Tom and Al are joined onstage by Omar, and since Big Al simply deflected his earlier question, Tom asks why Big Al and Omar have been acting strangely. Tom wants to know what the Iron Chain is. Omar recedes into the shadows, unnoticed.

At five minutes past eight o’clock, Tom knocks on the door of Max’s dressing room. Max is uncharacteristically tardy, and one of the other performers, Miss Plum Blossom, sent Tom, who is the only one who can disturb Max, to find out if there’s a problem. Tom finds Max sitting at the dressing table. Max is an older man, sinewy and freckled, his once bright orange hair turning gray. Tom and Max banter about the crowd. Tom notices a tiredness in Max’s voice. Tom reminds Max about how wonderful it is that he gets to play in front of a crowd, and Tom reminds him how much he wishes that he could do that. Max tells Tom that someday he will get a chance. This is Tom’s deepest desire, but because of his leg, he doesn’t feel that that day will ever come. Max puts on his skintight, dark-blue costume and makes his way to the stage.

Max performs his escape from the Water Torture tank but has to go backstage after the escape, something he has never done before. Max is bleeding. He has been shot. Max tells Tom to put on one of his costumes—Tom is going to have to do the next escape. Tom knows everything there is to know about autoliberation, having learned everything from Max, but he remains reluctant. Max gives Tom an old-fashioned gold-plated key. Tom does as he is told. When he leaves the dressing room, Tom notices he is no longer walking with a limp.

Tom does an excellent job at escaping from the coffin and emerges to a roaring applause. Omar motions to Tom from the side of the stage.

When Max was younger, he was a spoiled playboy and racked up huge gambling losses. Those to whom he owed money kidnapped him to extract a ransom. The kidnappers abuse Max violently. His family decides to pay the ransom and the news hits the papers. A man wearing a white suit with a golden-key lapel pin reads the headline and then crushes the paper.

Max has given himself over to defeat and despair when the man in the white suit walks into the room where Max is being held. Within a matter of seconds, the man unravels all the ropes and tells Max to flee. The man gives Max a bit of wisdom: “[F]reedom was a debt that could be repaid only by purchasing the freedom of others” (131). At that moment, one of the kidnappers enters, waving a copy of the newspaper. The kidnapper pulls out his gun and shoots the man in the white suit in the belly. Max becomes enraged and rushes the man, trying to wrestle the gun away. The gun goes off and the kidnapper falls to the floor. Max rushes back to the man in the white suit, who is dying. Max wants to know his name, but the man tells him he can’t say: There are rules against it. The man tells Max to stop wasting his life, gives him the golden key from his lapel, and dies.

Max spent the next 10 years and all his inheritance seeking out the lock that the golden key opens. He became a student of Houdini, among others, and mastered the art of autoliberation. Because he had no more money, Max began performing, and his alter ego, Misterioso, was born. While traveling in Canada, Max came across Alois Berg, who was being kept chained as a part of a freak show. Max purchased Big Al’s freedom with the golden key. Just as Max pulled the last chain from Al’s wrist, a man in a white suit emerged from behind a wagon. The man told Max about the League of the Golden Key, a league whose mission it is to roam the world procuring the freedom of others, physically and metaphorically. The League’s nemesis is the Iron Chain.

A member of the Iron Chain is the one who shoots Max while he’s in the Water Torture tank. The Iron Chain has taken over Germany. Max entrusts his key and suit to Tom and then dies. Tom gathers the others who have been with Max since the day he freed them. Everyone working for Max was, at one time, freed by him and has followed him ever since. Tom swears to take over for Max and continue the mission. They all pledge allegiance to one another and the mission. Tom takes on the name the Escapist.

Sam and Joe walk for hours talking about the Escapist. Joe suddenly says that he wishes the Escapist were real and feels ashamed for voicing the desire. Sam understands why Joe wishes the Escapist were real: in order to be able to free his family.

The two continue on through the city at night, developing the story for the Escapist. Sam tells Joe that he’s confident they’re going to make a killing with the comic book, going so far as to promise Joe that they will earn enough money to get his family to America. Sam purchases a paper for Joe so that he can look for news about the situation in Prague. Joe thanks Sam. Sam brushes it aside and says, “Wait till you hear my idea for the cover” (137).

The actual occupants of Palooka Studios (the Rathole from Chapter 7) come home around ten o’clock at night to find Sam, Julie, and Joe. They are accompanied by Frank Pantaleone, an artist Sam greatly admires. Joe Glovsky, Marty Gold, and Davy O’Dowd are not happy to see the three of them in their apartment, using their stuff without permission.

Jerry wants to know who let them in. Sam answers that his girlfriend, Rosa, let them in. Jerry says she’s not his girlfriend. Jerry is somewhat of a playboy and has several girls he sees simultaneously. Davy is impressed with the work that the other three have been doing. The others realize that Joe has talent. Sam starts telling them about his ideas for the comic book he wants to put together, exaggerating and out-and-out lying about Anapol’s commitment to the project and the project’s overall importance and early success at drawing other’s attention. However, he is eventually able to convince the others to join them as they all want in on the world of comic books.

Sam reveals his big idea for the cover: It’s going to be the Escapist punching Adolph Hitler in the face, which greatly appeals to Joe. The others think it might be too political but aren’t that worried about it.

The group works nonstop for two days. Everyone realizes fairly quickly that Sam is the least talented artist of the group. His talents lie elsewhere—he is the writer and idea man. With Sam’s help, Davy O’Dowd develops a character named the Swift, a scientist working on a blood serum called Synth-O-Blood that contains ground-up meteorites. Some foreign spies attempt to steal his formula. He tries to stop the spies and they end up killing his girlfriend during the struggle and he is left dying. He pumps himself full of the experimental serum. It keeps him alive and gives him the power to fly. The drawback is that he perpetually needs the serum or he will die.

Members of the group slip out of the apartment from time to time to get food. Jerry takes Rosa Saks her purse, but for the most part, they all work nonstop, drawing and creating an entire comic book. In addition to creating the Escapist, they also have the Black Hat, who is Julie’s character; Jerry Glovsky’s Snowman, whose adversary is the Obsidian Hand; Davy’s the Swift, and Frank’s Radio Wave.

Joe and Sam discuss what they’ve accomplished; they believe that they’re taking a step in the right direction to accomplishing their goals. While sitting on the floor and falling asleep, Joe mentions how he would like to see Rosa Saks again. Sam wants to know if she was the first girl Joe ever saw naked. Joe tells him that he used to draw nude models at the Fine Arts Academy. Joe asks Sam if he has ever seen a naked woman before. Sam has a story lined up about how he lost his virginity, but he doesn’t use it and instead tells Joe he hasn’t.

The two fall asleep. Marty discovers the two of them, and instead of getting mad that they have broken the earlier rule about not being allowed to sleep at the apartment, he drapes a blanket over the two of them before going back to bed.

It’s Monday morning and Joe and Sam are at Empire Novelty to show Anapol what they’ve come up with. Sam daydreams about being rich enough to buy his mother a house on Long Island and hire a nurse to care for his grandmother, Bubbie.

From the very beginning of the meeting with Anapol, it’s clear that Anapol isn’t excited about the comic. He’s worried about the front cover, and after quickly leafing through the pages, puts it all down and tells Sam that he doesn’t like it and doesn’t get it. Sam is taken aback. Anapol wants to consult with Jack and telephones him to come down and have a look. Anapol does tell Sam that he did a good job and offers him a cigar. He then drops the news that he also wants George Deasey to have a look. This is a terrible blow to Sam, as Sam sees Deasey as too educated and too unqualified for comics. George also appears to always be grouchy.

George and Jack enter the office. George says, “So it’s to be comic books, now, is it? […] The devolution of American culture takes another great step forward” (156). Anapol introduces Sam to George; Sam reluctantly shakes his hand. George and Jack look over the pages of the book together. George asks who did the cover, and Joe introduces himself. George tells him he’s hired. Joe is happy to get the job and doesn’t understand why Sam is having a rough time and feeling humiliated at having George look over their work. George asks Sam if he knows that everything they have done is trash, that comics in general are trash. Sammy tells him that trash sells, to which George heartily agrees. Anapol doesn’t care if it’s trash, so long as it’s the same kind of trash as Superman. George wants to confer with Jack and Anapol without Sam and Joe around, so the two cousins step out into the hall.

When the three men call Joe and Sam back in, they have a deal to offer them. They want to buy the Escapist for $150, which is more than Sam had originally hoped for, and will pay $85 for the rest of the characters. They will also hire both Sam and Joe. Sam will be paid $75 a week and will be George’s assistant. Joe will be paid $6 a page plus $20 for every cover. The others who worked on the book will get $5 a page. However, Jack, Anapol, and George have a caveat: They want a new cover because the Hitler cover makes them uneasy. This does not make Joe happy at all, as drawing the cover had been cathartic for Joe. Sam realizes the importance of the cover for his cousin and tells the men that the cover has to be part of the deal or they walk. He and Joe leave the office. Joe asks, “Sammy, is this a trick? […] Or are we serious?” (161). Sam thinks it over and answers, “You tell me” (161).