Doc Savage was raised to be the perfect man. A skilled surgeon and a master of many other scientific disciplines, Doc was also trained to physical perfection, and he was called the Man of Bronze because of his sun-bronzed skin. When his father is murdered, Doc swears to dedicate his life to punishing evil. In that mission he is accompanied by five close friends: dapper Harvard lawyer Ham Brooks, engineer Renny Renwick, verbose archaeologist Johnny Littlejohn, electrical expert Long Tom, and apelike but brilliant chemical genius Monk.
In each story, the group travels to exotic locations to do battle with a variety of criminals and villains. Doc typically carries an assortment of gadgets—such as pellets filled with knockout gas, oxygen pills, and miniature bombs—and his friends are armed with specially designed submachine guns that fire different types of ammunition, including “mercy” bullets that simply render people unconscious. Doc also has a number of specialized vehicles at his disposal, including airplanes, a submarine, and a high-speed zeppelin.
His adventures are extremely fast-paced, one action sequence quickly leading to another as Doc outsmarts and outfights his opponents. Based in New York City, Doc works out of headquarters located on the 86th floor of an unnamed skyscraper (assumed by many fans to be the Empire State Building).