Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Opening up Strange Adventures #62, Broome and Infantino give us the rather convoluted tale of “The Fireproof Man!”, in which a scientist and his dog stumble across some aliens planning on igniting the Earth into a small sun and living on the Moon. When the aliens see our hero, they fire their vibrator gun at our hero, unsure exactly what effect it will have in our atmosphere. It appears to the aliens to damage his mind, making him act like a lower creature, but, unbeknownst to them, it actually switches his mind with that of his dog! So, trapped now in canine form, our hero must seek help from his scientist partner to deal with the aliens!
I kind of liked this story, which was a little more complex than usual, having both the man/dog mind-switch plot and the dealing with aliens planning on burning the Earth plot. The scientist in dog form’s attempts to communicate with his partner are a nice bit as well!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Broome and Sid Greene deliver “The Emperor of Planet X!”, in which John Abbot, handyman at a top secret scientific facility, finds himself suddenly transported to another dimension. The primitive people of this dimension are at first frightened by his appearance, but, when he startles them with the “magic” of a few basic high school chemistry experiments, they decide to make him their emperor! Will Abbot be able to retain his spot as Emperor, or will he be forced to resume his sad sack existence as a nobody back in our dimension?
This story is really fantastic, with a great lesson at the end about underestimating/overestimating our actual importance in the grand scheme of things!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Otto Binder and Gil Kane give us “The Invaders from Inner Space!”, in which two zoologists come across this weird cliff side that apparently “echoes” with voices from the past! That would be a pretty cool premise for a story, but quickly they discover that underground people are planning on invading the surface world, and have been scouting this area in the recent past! The zoologists must find a way to thwart the invasion!
I would really have like to seen more about the cool sound-storing rocks, but, hey, it’s a story about invasion by a mysterious underground civilization, so of course I’m going to love it! There’s a great couple of pages of the subterraneans speculating about the existence of a world beyond their stone sky, and discovering the new world! It’s got a fairly typical “invaders defeated by a common object they don’t have where they come from” ending, but it’s still pretty cool!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Lastly in this issue we have “The Watchdogs of the Universe!”, by Binder and Greene. Little Danny’s dad regularly tells him bedtimes stories before he goes to sleep, and he’s especially fond of the science fiction stories his father makes up! Well, one night his father tells him an adventure he himself had when he accidentally stumbled across a group of aliens preventing a volcano from erupting. The aliens had been invisible, but he is able to see them because of the volcanic ash, and after confronting them, he discovers that they are the “Watchdogs of Space!”, who travel around from planet to planet helping prevent disasters, while keeping their existence a secret. Unfortunately, since he has discovered their existence, he must be taken with them, in order to preserve the secret! But why are the watchdogs so intent on hiding their existence, when they could be honored as heroes on hundreds of worlds? And how does dad ever make it home so that he can tell this story to Danny?
This is another solid tale in a really nice issue! The Watchdogs are kind of a proto-GLC. I wish we’d gotten to see more of their origins, since all we know is that they have been around for ages, and is made up of “brave men of any world”. Anyway, good stuff!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk, keep these up! I was reading through them the other day from my phone (which is why I didn't post).
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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“World at the End of the Universe!” & “The Watchdogs of the Universe!” can be read here.
From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Hmm... I thought the Watchdogs of the Universe seemed familiar, but I didn't remember World at the End of the Universe at all!
For the record, there's a solid Legion connection coming up in (I believe) #72!
[ August 12, 2010, 10:03 AM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
On to #63:
Joe Samachson and Jerry Grandenetti collaborate on “I was the Man in the Moon”, about an auto mechanic whose face suddenly appears on the moon! Turns out this is all a plot by the moonmen to discredit and make people fear him, as it has been predicted by the moonmen’s supercomputer, Moonavac, that he will, in about ten years, invent a propulsion system capable of reaching the moon. So the mechanic must find a way to get his life straightened out, with the FBI investigating him, everyone distrusting him, and the moonmen constantly haunting his dreams!
It seems to me that changing the features of the moon to resemble the mechanic’s face is a pretty extreme measure to go to. This is a pretty decent example of a “self-fulfilling prophecy” kind of story, in which something happens because of the attempts to prevent it from happening, though I’m not sure why the moonmen can’t just, you know, kill the guy themselves.
Funny line: “Many other strange things have been happening lately, Ken! Cyclones, hurricanes, tidal waves… Looks as if Mother Nature is going on a rampage! But the strangest phenomenon of all is… your face!”
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
“The Sign-Language of Space!”, by Binder and Greene, concerns an American Indian forest ranger who comes across aliens who have landed on Earth! Every attempt by the military to communicate with the alien fails, until the forest ranger employs American Indian sign language! The alien tells of how a new ice age threatened his planet, and his people had to build a giant space arc and search for another world to live on! When asked why they came to Earth, the alien seems to suggest that the Earthling “beat it”, to leave Earth as rapidly as possible! Since it seems like the aliens are planning on taking over Earth, the military quickly take the exploration party prisoner. But could they have mis-interpreted the alien message?
Okay, so this is another Binder tale about (mis)communication between us and aliens. It turns what could’ve been a pretty cheesy idea (the aliens understand Indian sign language) into something kind of interesting, because of the miscommunication aspect.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Jerry Coleman and Gil Kane present “Strange Journey to Earth!” about an alien who suddenly lands in the middle of the city, and begins behaving strangely. He pretty much ignores humans, except to force them away, and commences leveling buildings and drilling holes in the city streets and filling them with some strange pellets. Everyone is puzzled by the strange behavior of the alien, until schoolteacher Jeff Sanders figures out a way to chase him away!
This is actually a pretty cool little story concerning the mystery of what the alien was doing. I have to admit I didn’t figure out what was going on, partially because it actually seems incredibly implausible for a number of reasons. But it’s a neat story nonetheless.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
“Catastrophe County, USA!” is a memorable story by Hamilton and Greene in which a group of scientists are chosen as part of a secret project to test structures against various sorts of artificially simulated natural disasters. Tragedy strikes quickly, however, when the architect of one of the structures is carried off with his building during the first manmade tornado! Then other mysterious acts of sabotage quickly been occurring. But who’d want to sabotage the project and why? And who could it be, since the project was top secret?
This is a pretty classic Hamilton story. I could easily imagine this being a Superman story, with Clark Kent assigned to cover the top secret tests for a future newspaper story or something (and only surviving the sabotage attempts due to being secretly Superman).
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Coming up next issue: Gorillas in Space!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
So, “Gorillas in Space!” opens up Strange Adventure #64, with Bill Finger and Carmine Infantino giving us the tale of a group of scientists who are about to launch the first manned space satellite. Suddenly, their work is interrupted when a ship lands on Earth nearby, and out walks a group of gorillas in spacesuits! The gorillas then precede to tell the scientists that they themselves were, in reality, a similar group of scientists who had built their own space station privately and launched it, only to discover once in orbit that the cosmic rays in space devolved them into gorillas! They warn that the scientists must cease their attempts to explore space, or a similar fate will befall them. One scientist, Dr. Owens, is suspicious of their story, and decides to risk being changed into a gorilla himself to find out what’s really going on!
This is one of those stories where the cover/splash page is far more exciting than the actual story ends up being. I was totally bummed that it wasn’t really about gorillas beating us into space!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Binder and Greene give us the kind of interesting story, “The Maze of Mars!”. In it, a hiker stumbles across a strange mountain tunnel, which he begins to explore. Suddenly, a creature from outer space appears behind him! So he ducks into the tunnel maze, and desperately tries to find his way through it, the space creature following him all the way, seemingly very interested in his movements! What does the space creature want? Is he an alien scientist testing the hiker’s intelligence, like a rat in a maze? Only if he can find his way through will he find out!
While I liked this story, I couldn’t help but feel that it could’ve been a bit better. It’s got a bit of a “horror story” aspect to it, and perhaps it would’ve been stronger if they could’ve played that up more, which was probably impossible given the time at which this was published.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Next up is “The Man Who Discovered the West Pole!”, by Binder and Kane. Now this was an awesome story! One of the best in the book! In it… science goes wild! Telescopes start acting as microscopes! Boiling food turns it ice cold!, Crashing cars bounce off each other like rubber balls! Astronomer Paul Gibson figures out that this is all being caused by a strange electric comet that he discovered passing by Earth recently. Remembering an ancient Egyptian legend according to which the Earth possessed not only a North and South Pole, but also an East and West Pole, Gibson determines that the passing comet screwed up the “electrical poles” on two sides of the Earth. Since the East Pole is in the middle of the ocean, he decides to head for Equatorial Africa to find the West Pole, and hopefully find a way to put a stop to the madness, while people fight off attacks from giant sparrows and towns sink into a ground turned into ooze!
This story is fantastic on a number of levels! The whole East/West Pole idea is one of the coolest things I’ve come across in a while, and one that hasn’t been done to death like some of the other story concepts. And I absolutely love all the “Science goes wild!” scenes interspersed throughout the story.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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