Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 175: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 160

February 1959

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Strange Tales #67

Cover by Joe Sinnott

"Trapped Between Two Worlds!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

"I Seek the Sea Serpent" (a: Don Heck) ★★★

"I Was the Invisible Man!" (a: Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule)

(r: Strange Tales Annual #2)

(r: Giant-Size Man-Thing #1) ★★1/2

"The Man Who Never Was!" (a: Carl Burgos) ★1/2

Brilliantly smart egghead scientist Jeff Raye is working on a matter transporter when his *%$#ing cat gets nosy and pushes the wrong button. Jeff is instantly transported to another planet, in another galaxy, one ruled by war-hungry tyrants. These mad warriors see Jeff's machine as a way for them to conquer the universe, but Jeff has an ace up his sleeve and returns to Earth to destroy his dangerous invention.

I won't even attempt to figure out what most of "Trapped Between Two Worlds!" is about; there's just too much science fictiony mumbo-jumbo for my small brain to work out. I'll quickly say, though, that Ditko's emergence as one of the go-to Atlas artists is an immediate game changer. This doesn't look anything like the strips that were running only a few months before and the extra page count (six as opposed to three or four) will help the stories breathe. 

Efrem becomes obsessed with the legend of a sea serpent that supposedly rears its head now and then in the waters of South America. With the help of a small crew, Efrem explores the aforementioned sea waters and, sure enough, the sea serpent makes an appearance, but a panicked captain fires a harpoon and kills the beast. It sinks to the bottom of the ocean and, when Efrem dives down to recover the really big corpse, the truth is unveiled. The thing was an alien from the water planet Aqua-Centurious, and it was merely trying to reach its damaged ship at the bottom. Now, all its secrets are lost, thanks to the foolishness of man. 

Big monsters were all the rage at the local cinema in 1958, so it's no wonder Atlas would dip its toes in the sub-genre (very soon the company would simply take its shoes off and dive right in). I enjoyed "I Seek the Sea Serpent" very much and must once more cast a positive vote for the art of Don Heck. Now, I agree he was no Al Williamson when it came to dinosaurs and big monsters, but he got the job done and his human characters are more than stick figures. I'm all in on this new era (for now).

Decades before playing drums for U2, Adam Clayton was just another brilliantly smart egghead working on his big invention, the Vibra-Light™, a groundbreaking gizmo that changes sound into light and other really cool, useful tricks. Setting the machine on stun, Adam receives a dose of fabricated ray beams and finds he can travel at the speed of light. This makes him virtually invisible. While out running through the streets doing silly tricks (pinching girls on the rump, etc.), Adam happens upon a gang of bank robbers and steals their booty.

Though he contemplates keeping the dough and entering a life of crime, Adam has a better idea. He returns the cash to the cops and lets them know there's a new boss in town: the Invisible Man! Evidently, one of the benefits of the Vibra-Light™ is that it enables Adam to do things he never could do before, so he builds houses and KOs boxing champs for fun and profit. But, alas, Adam discovers that his new power is also draining his energy and aging him at an alarming clip, so he puts his Invisible Man identity out to pasture and retires to live out what few years he has left.

What a downer of a climax! I love it! I'm glad the writer (Kirby?) opted not to push Adam into the cliched life of crime and instead chose helping his fellow man (well, except when he takes the tires off the car belonging to a couple of hot rodders while they're speeding down the highway). The National Enquirer-esque confessional titles ("I Was the Invisible Man!") are in full swing already, as is the dawn of Jack Kirby's utter dominance of Atlas/Marvel science fiction. Hard to believe that this was only the fifth appearance by Kirby in the Atlas sf titles; from now until November 1962 (when the sf/f stories would dry up altogether), Kirby would work on a further 186 stories and miss work only two months in that time. 

The spinning wheel inside the Atlas break room gets spun one more time and lands on... the time machine (I believe the wheel actually had only three options); therefore, we get the mundane and oft-told tale of Eric Bohn, the greedy assistant to smart, genius scientist, Professor Atherton, who's just put the last touches (blue paint job) on his time machine. Eric urges the prof to go back in time and make lots of money, but the egghead warns that if anything in the past gets changed, yadda yadda yadda. Do I have to tell you that Eric isn't listening to his mentor's speech and decides he's going back to find where Captain Kidd stashed his gold? Of course, he accidentally shoots and kills one of his ancestors (Holy Coincidence!) and thus disappears. I would love to report that "The Man Who Never Was!" is the last time travel tale we'll have to read for a while, but I'm sure the next one is right around the corner.-Peter

Strange Worlds #2

Cover by Steve Ditko

"I Was a Prisoner on the Planet of Plunder!" (a: Don Heck) 

(r: Strange Tales Annual #2) ★★

"I Was the Miracle Man" 

(a: Al Williamson & Marvin Stein?) ★1/2

"I Saw the Day the World Ended!" (a: Bob Bean?) ★

"The Little Lost Planet" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

"I Am the Scourge of Atlantis!" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

Rick Dugan, agent of IGSSD (Inter-Galactic Spaceways Security Division) tackles his toughest case yet: six cargo ships have been hijacked on Route 34 (just west of the Kessel Run) and his boss wants Rick to disguise himself as a cargo ship captain and see what's what. Since none of the captains of the hijacked cargo ships have been able to provide intel, Dugan is convinced the perps are using hypnotism to pull off their heists.

Dugan visits many planets and all seems calm and serene until he hits Promixa the Second and suddenly the veil is lifted. The aliens on Proxima have been stealing the cargo by using a sinister form of hypnotism--hyper-sonic frequencies! Instead of hypnotizing with their eyes, these guys hum you to sleep and then commit their foul deeds. Lucky for Dugan he's deaf! Oh yeah, you read that right. Evidently, far into the future, special agents don't need their hearing to do the job. The twist of "I Was a Prisoner on the Planet of Plunder!" is a cheat, fer sure, but Don Heck doesn't seem to have read the script and just goes about his business of producing pleasant panels. 

"I Was the Miracle Man" is the story of Bruno Storme, the world's most intelligent guy, who becomes bored being the best at everything, so he builds himself a rocket ship and flies to another galaxy to conquer some unknown planet. Unfortunately for Bruno, this planet is populated by really smart geniuses who put Bruno on exhibit in a zoo. We've seen that last panel a thousand times before and it's no better this time. The usual dazzling graphics of Al Williamson are watered down by an awful inking job; it's tough to see Al through the muck.

Speaking of muck, I dare anyone to wade through the slop passed off as art on "I Saw the Day the World Ended!" Literally the world's smartest man, Professor Garth is working on a machine that can see the future (and telecast it without commercial interruption), but the poor guy has a heart attack just before he plugs the darn thing in. The military, deciding it's in the best interest of mankind to find out what's around the corner, orders the machine hooked up and the view screen spits out a video of the sun exploding and Earth facing an ice age. 

The smart thing to do would be to hide the extinction of mankind from the extinguishees, but the military has never been accused of making astute decisions, so word gets leaked. Prof. Garth awakens from his long sleep and is told what's happened. The egghead, lying in his hospital bed, chuckles and admits his machine has a few kinks to be worked out. It's showing a video of the past rather than the future! A final panel explains that once mankind was given hope, we began loving our neighbor and inviting the commies over for dinner. 

A small planet continually pops up in the skies when a calamity occurs. A falling statue in India threatens to crush hundreds until the little ball rescues them. An ocean liner strikes an iceberg and, before it can sink, it is teleported to a safe shore by the beaming little planet. Several more accidents are halted thanks to this visitor from space. But why is it here? Because, as we're told in the finale, it's "The Little Lost Planet"! Like "Trapped Between Two Worlds!," the script is a bit wonky and at times makes little to no sense, but I really dig what Ditko is doing with his layouts. Large panels are invaded by smaller ones, which can be crowded out by other small ones. Like Bernie Krigstein, Ditko was throwing the formula right out the break room window and doing whatever the hell he wanted, inspiring future artists such as Jim Steranko in the process. 

Last and definitely least this issue is "I Am the Scourge of Atlantis!," wherein the population of the sunken city decide it's high time to invade the surface world, but when they get there they see something so horrible they tuck tail and run. The awful sight? A toddler on the beach. You see, Atlantis was a really tiny nation when it sunk. This clunker signals the return of Dick Ayers, who'd been on sabbatical since 1957 and who will see lots of work between now and the sunset of Atlas.-Peter

World of Fantasy #16

Cover by Carl Burgos and Bob Forgione (?)

"Nightmare Planet" (a: Joe Sinnott)

(r: Strange Tales Annual #2) ★★

"Arise, Oh Geni..." (a: Steve Ditko)

(r: Vault of Evil #15) ★★

"Worlds Within Worlds!" (a: Carl Burgos)

(r: Strange Tales Annual #2) ★1/2

"Beware the Future!" (a: Al Williamson) ★1/2

"Prison 2000 A.D." (a: Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule)

(r: Strange Tales Annual #2) ★★

Through his telescope, a scientist observes a "Nightmare Planet" hurtling toward Earth! It's 2000 times bigger than the sun and populated by giant soldiers. Colonel Ken Travers is sent into space with a dozen men in order to find out what the aliens' intentions are. He arrives on the huge planet, sees that everything and everyone seems to be standing still, and realizes that time passes more slowly there. Ken returns to Earth to share the good news that the aliens won't even notice our planet, since it's so small and they'll pass by it before they're even aware it's there.

We've seen this twist before. The only novel thing about the latest version is that Joe Sinnott's art is smooth and competent, though it's nothing special.

A history teacher named Claude Hicks, who has terrible hay fever, finds the famous lamp among ancient ruins and releases the genie, who announces that he is all-powerful and has no intention of being Claude's slave. The genie quickly catches Claude's hay fever and is made so miserable by his own sneezing and coughing that he begs Claude to return him to the lamp. Claude throws it down a deep water hole so the genie will never again be freed. The story is terrible, but "Arise, Oh Geni..." features gorgeous art by Steve Ditko, so at least it's nice to look at.

In 2590, scientist Paul Stratton is certain that there are "Worlds Within Worlds!" and that a universe can exist in a drop of water. Despite his efforts to magnify tiny things, no one believes him. Unbeknownst to Paul, in the drop of water is a tiny world, where another scientist is ridiculed for his theory that there could be a bigger world out there somewhere. Every last thing in this story is predictable, right down to the snoozer of a finish. Carl Burgos's art is adequate.

Luther Zorn invents a time machine in 1965 but tells his wife it must be kept a secret, since knowledge of the future would cause mankind's downfall. Emma nags him until he goes public and soon he sends government officials into the future, where all of the world's problems have been solved. This news causes people of Luther's time to stop trying, since they think the golden future is guaranteed. Luther sends himself and Emma fifty years into the future, leaving the machine set to be destroyed after they leave. What do they find in the altered future? Who knows? I really have no idea what the end of this story means. It seems like Luther decided that mankind would just have to find out about the future when it arrives. At least Al Williamson's art is decent, though nowhere near his best.

In the year 2000, crimes are rare, so when John Fox commits one he is captured and sent to "Prison 2000 A.D." Quickly escaping, he hops on a rocket ship and flies to Vestas 203 in the asteroid belt, where he uses his wits to survive. One day a group of miners arrive and establish a colony. John is unmoved when they tell him that a ten year old boy wandered off, but when he encounters the boy in danger and helps him, John is welcomed into the colony, where he becomes happy and productive. In reality, John has been in prison the whole time and his adventures were put into his mind; he'll serve his six-year sentence in this way and emerge a better man.

I prefer Ditko's art to Kirby's, but this is a satisfying story with an ending I didn't expect.-Jack

Next Week...
More Giant Monster Madness
From "The King"