Blast

Origin
Space Ranger Blast is sent on a mission by the Chief Ranger to track down the mysterious leader of a space pirate gang. The gang is equipped with "thousands of fantastically ingenious devices" which make them unstoppable.

Blast fakes his death. He takes on the identity with the name "Mason" and goes undercover to crack the gang. He discovers the pirate leader is a physicist named Torro who faked his own death. Blast arrests Torro with the help of his fellow Space Rangers. On the trip back, Torro overcomes Blast with an immobilizing gas and escapes with another spacecraft.

Blast begins to play cat-and-mouse with Torro, chasing the man across the universe. Torro wearies of the unending chase. He crashes his ship into Blast's own spacecraft.

They both are marooned on an uncharted planetoid. Blast is weaponless. Torro fires the last charge of his weapon at Blast and misses. Blast tells Torro that he has one weapon left: Element X. He describes it as the "unknown element left in a man when he's been stripped of everything else. It's courage and fortitude and moral conviction."

Realizing Blast won't quit, Torro surrenders. Blast creates a makeshift signal flare to alert rescuers, Blast returns with his prisoner to Earth.

Public Domain Appearances

 * Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #7