Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Lastly we have "The Invisible Masters of Earth", in which alien bug creatures invade, and it's up to Cal Higgins, who recently had to give up his ambition to break into show biz as a ventriloquist, to save the day. Can Cal find a way to stop the aliens? And get a job in the process? I bet the answer is "yes", in this Bill Finger/Sid Greene tale!
This story is kind of in the tradition of the movie-maker and the sculptor saving Earth in previous stories. I'm kind of liking this "person with an unlikely skill set" proves vital to saving us all motif.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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I think it's just a generic name, but I noticed that too!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Strange Adventures #59 opens with “The Ark from Planet X”, by John Broome and Sid Greene, in which aliens land on Earth in their giant spaceship, and, after blowing up a mountain, demand that the humans bring them two of every animal on Earth. Given that these aliens seem to be going all Noah on us, a few people wonder if the Earth is doomed, and why the aliens aren’t saving any humans, but that’s just for the dramatic cover shot. Before they leave, the aliens do pick up a nice human couple for their li’l space zoo. Mechanic John Wheeler and his wife Alice soon discover the true intentions of the aliens: they trade strange lifeforms to other aliens in exchange for a metal their civilization depends upon. The Wheelers must find a way to convince the aliens to return them home, before they end up pets or lunch or sex slaves or something!
I thought this tale was pretty decent, especially the building of suspense as to what the aliens are really after. The ending was both predictable and far-fetched, however.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Otto Binder and Gil Kane give us “The Super-Athletes from Outer Space”, which is basically about a high school athletic coach who stumbles across aliens on Earth training for a “planetary track contest”, and how he helps coach them in case they have to compete in simulated Earth conditions. And, of course, seeing the super-athletes from outer space performs forever makes all Earth athletes seem pathetic by comparison, which one would think would really hurt the dude’s ability to successfully perform as a coach, but oh well…
This story is all right, but it’s kind of filler. I expected the coach to save the Earth with his Earth-coaching knowledge or something, but it didn’t happen.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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“Legacy from the Future”, by France Herron and Carmine Infantino, is about this crazy old coot named “Andru 4-S” who dies in the year 2256, and leaves a million dollars to each of his relatives in the year 1956. Fortunately, the people of the year 2256 have just perfected the means to send objects back in time, so they locate the old coots sole living relative in that year, and send him them money. Which is a good thing, because that guy needs the money, as he just sent a rocket to the moon that threatens to destroy us all!
Okay, so I’m not sure how it’s possible that the guy has only one living relative in the year 1956, but overall this is a fairly clever story, if not especially well-executed.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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“The World that Vanished” is a pretty nice John Broome/Sy Barry tale in which a strange object is sent to the Where On Earth television show, which apparently is based around archeologists identifying strange objects sent in by viewers. Anyway, this object proves especially puzzling, and so Professor Donley takes it home with him for further study! Donley manages to decode the writing on the object, and discovers a message from survivors of the planet that used to exist between Mars and Jupiter, warning the inhabitants of the “fourth planet” that any attempt to develop a cosmic ray weapon would result in the planet’s destruction, just as it did theirs! But, of course, as every school kid knows, the “fourth planet” is Mars, so this message was clearly intended for them! Or was it? The Martians who actually sent the message are annoyed to discover the humans misinterpreting its meaning, as those idiot humans hadn’t yet discovered the planet that lies between the Earth and the Sun, Appolo! And those humans are so stupid, if they had discovered it, I bet they would’ve spelled it “Apollo”! Hmph! Anyway, what the heck is going on? Will the brilliant archeologist figure it all out?
This is probably the best story of #59, if a little convoluted with all its twists and turns!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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#60 opens up with “Across the Ages”, by John Broome and Jerry Grandenetti. The premise of this story is that the people of the twenty-second century have developed a means to bring historical figures to their time, quiz them about stuff so that they can get the historical facts right, and then return them home with no memory of their trip. Unfortunately, when this time-conductor dude is bringing back Cleopatra, Columbus, and Napoleon, the machine accidentally breaks down in the 20th century, and while the time-conductor tries to get his three clients to stay put, things get complicated when Columbus and Napoleon run wild in the modern era!
This story has a decent premise, but what it’s really missing are two 20th century aspiring rock-n-roller high school students who seriously need help to pass their history presentations. I mean… this story’s version of Napoleon running wild in the 20th century has him going to the library! Not a water slide in sight!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Otto Binder and Gil Kane give us “The Man Who Remembered 100,000 Years Ago!”, about this high school science teacher who starts having weird seizures in which he teaches his students goofy facts like that there’s only fifteen hours in the day or that the magnetic pole is a the equator or the earth is more land than water. Well, after taking a leave of absence, the teacher discovers that he is actually having flashbacks of information from that part of our brain that stores our “racial memory”, and the info was actually true 100,000 years ago when those memories were stored! And, it’s a good thing, too, because by complete coincidence that info is going to come in handy in saving the Earth in the near future!
Even though I’m tempted to complain about the pseudo-scientific concept of “racial memory”, this is actually a pretty good story, if you ignore the implausible coincidence of his racial memory being activated at exactly the time it was needed to save us all.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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John Broome and Sid Greene’s “Orphan of the Stars” is a really solid story about a teenager who is suddenly informed by a visiting alien that he himself is an alien orphan whose parents were killed when they crash landed on Earth. The visitor warns the kid, Fred Fletcher, that he will soon start developing remarkable abilities far beyond those of Earthlings, and that because of these abilities, he won’t be able to fit in on Earth. The visitor wants Fred to come with him back to his homeworld. Fred shrugs off this whole encounter as silly, but then actually starts developing powers, such as precognition, telepathy, photographic memory, and telekinesis, and these abilities start causing him problems, just as the visitor said they would! Fred must decide whether he wants to take the visitor up on his offer and leave the only home he’s ever known, the Earth!
I liked this story a lot. I’m tempted to suggest that Fred Fletcher would be a nice character for someone to revive in the contemporary DCU, if they haven’t already, but he’d probably just get killed off in the next massive mega-crossover bloodbath or something, so he’s probably better just left in limbo.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Otto Binder and Sy Barry’s “World at the End of the Universe!” is another fantastic tale! It takes place in the 21st century, when the Earth has become part of the United Worlds, a peaceful union of all civilized planets, organized in the year 1999! In it, Earthling Ted Carter is selected as the brightest student at Solar System University, and thus selected to go on a grand tour of the galaxy with other prize-winning students from all over the Milky Way! But after being all “gosh shucks gee wow” at even the most basic sights in the galaxy, like Pyramid Worlds and twin planets joined by a natural land bridge, Ted starts to feel inferior to his fellow student travelers. This will all change, however, when the spaceship is trapped on a strange world at the outermost rim of the galaxy…
Okay, when I first started reading this story, I thought that Ted looked remarkably like Rokk Krinn, right down to the space-helmet he eventually dons, and was planning on posting something about that. However, as the story went on, and the travelers became trapped on a magnetic world, and it is Ted’s knowledge of magnetism that allows him to save the day… wow! I was really hoping this could be twisted into a “Secret Origin of Braal” story, but, alas, it wasn’t to be so. No giant metal monsters on this planet, and the giant ants that are the monsters of the story are almost certainly dead by the end of it! Good riddance! If there’s one giant creature I don’t like, it’s giant ants!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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To start off Strange Adventures #61, Binder and Kane deliver “The Mirages from Space”, about an astronomer who discovers a strange, glassy asteroid that has appeared between Earth and Saturn. Even weirder is when he starts seeing visions of things happening on Saturn as mirages in the desert! Fortunately, though, these mirages clue him into the Saturnians imminent invasion plans for Earth, which he must now figure out how to stop!
This was a pretty decent, if somewhat predictable tale. The astronomer’s movie-director friend plays an important role in the story, which makes the second time Earth has been saved by Hollywood in this volume!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
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A bit better is Binder and Greene’s “The Thermometer Man”, in which an alien from a super-cold world visits Earth. Unfortunately, his body melts at room temperature! He is, however, able to survive in both liquid and gaseous forms, as he eventually discovers as he helps out with various emergencies on Earth! Unfortunately, he begins to prove as much of a menace as a help...
This is a pretty classic “alien with powers visits Earth” goodness. If he had been introduced five years later, I bet “Thermometer Man” would’ve ended up as a recurring Silver Age character.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
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“The Strange Thinking Cap of Willie Jones” is a really nice story by France Herron and Sy Barry, about this lighthouse keeper, Willie Jones, who is incredibly indecisive. He can’t decide which move to make when playing checkers, and hasn’t been able to resolve to ask his gorgeous girlfriend Annie Scott to marry him and stuff like that. So his friend, Professor Travis give him this new invention, a “thinking cap”, that he can ask questions and will flash the correct answer in his mind. With this new cap, Willie is suddenly decisive, and, good thing, too, because he has to foil an alien invasion!
I liked this story quite a bit. It's a very "human" tale amongst all the interstellar invaasion stories. One might complain that it might have worked better without the obligatory “alien invasion”, but nonetheless it was probably my favorite story of this issue.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Another Binder and Greene story closes out this issue. “The Amazing Two-Time Inventions” concerns this inventor who accidentally rewires his vacuum into a time machine! Well, at least one that can pull objects from the future. He is excited when he starts pulling objects from the late thirtieth century, thinking that maybe he can bring back some advanced futuristic technology! Unfortunately, all he seems to be able to get are stuff like an old-timey telephone, a typewriter, a phonograph, and other stuff which was all apparently invented in the 2950s! What the heck is going on?
This is a pretty nice little tale as well, with a nice premise. It also has some brief, but nice character scenes between the inventor and his frustrated wife. It’s a nice comparison with the other Binder and Greene story this issue, “The Thermometer Man”, in that these are two very different style stories, with this one being a much more straightforward sci fi tale, and the other venturing more into Silver Age style super-heroics.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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