Time Warp #4

Pen Pal
Susan Hoskins is described as “a plain girl”.
If she’s plain what do the beautiful women look like? 8-o She doesn’t really look any plainer than the other “girls” in the story, kinda looks like Supergirl.

“slimy, hairy, clammy creatures”
Slimy & hairy??? Usually hair is dry so to best keep a creature warm. Slimy hair doesn’t sound like it would do that.

The Most Special Of Effects
Dialogue indicates that the Oscar for Special Effects was given after the Oscar for Best Picture.
I guess the writer & editor don’t watch the Oscars, because Best Picture is the last award given.

Oddly enough Terrence Michaels, the winner, is pictured standing on stage as the presenter reads his name.
Guess the artist doesn’t watch the Oscars either.

A Switch In Time!
Plot: Time travelers, from a future ravaged by nuclear war, travel back to 1882 to kill Albert Einstein. They can’t kill a kid so they take him back to 1782 in North America where his ideas will be useless. They return to the future to find that the American Indians chased Europeans off of the continent in 1845 thanks to Chief Mushroom Cloud.
Cute idea, but...

Would Albert have come up with his revolutionary ideas if he was taken out of time like that?

Where did the American Indians get the equipment to make an atomic bomb?

Why are Indians in the far future speaking English?

Why are the Indians still dressed as if it were the 1800s?
They have the technology to make an atomic bomb, you’d think they might make other advancements as well.

The Uncommon Cold
Plot: The far future, a space capsule from the late 20th century crashes & an alien-appearing creature comes out and people start catching colds because they have no immunity to it. It’s discovered that the creature was human, but that she went into suspended animation and her cold virus mutated. Time travelers are sent back and cure her before she leaves. Back to the future the capsule crashes, but she doesn’t have a cold, which is terrible because in the 20th century she had discovered a cosmic cloud heading toward Earth that contained a virulent organism that would kill mankind, but it could be destroyed by the common cold germ.
Well obviously we never developed suspended animation technology in the 20th century.

A man sneezes and someone else knows he has a cold.
In a future where viruses no longer exist??? (And, of course, sneezing can happen for non-disease reasons also.)

The scientists in the future use a time scanning technology to learn part of the story.
One wonders why they didn’t learn more? Would it have been that hard to scan Carla’s life a little further back?

Carla Fulton goes into suspended animation & is launched while wearing a long-sleeved pantsuit, but emerges from the crashed capsule wearing a short-sleeved dress.

How could Carla know the cloud would be destroyed by the common cold germ? What astronomical instrument would tell a 20th century scientist that?

Also why weren’t any records of the cloud left?

Why use the risky tact of sending a person into suspended animation and programming the capsule to crash a few minutes before the cloud reaches Earth?

Why not send a sample of a cold germ, or a person with the cold germ, to the cloud?

why not put a sample of a cold germ, or a person with the cold germ, in suspended animation ON EARTH to be awakened at the right time?

Why haven’t these people in the far future rediscovered this cloud that a person with primitive 20th century tools discovered?

The Last Megathus
The Megathus is a creature that no one has seen, it is only known from a probe snapping pictures of it’s bones on a far planet, and yet they know it is the last of it’s kind.
Yeahhhhhhh, riiiiiight, surrrrrrrrre...

The artist reconstruction of the Megathus looks remarkably similar to the real thing.
Amazing given that the only bones were photographed by a space probe. Also amazing if you’ve ever studied the various reconstructions of the dinosaurs since their discovery.

Borger is wearing a space helmet, but somehow he is able to breath in a poisonous gas from outside it.
Kind of defeats the purpose of wearing one doesn’t it.

The far future, a space capsule from the late 20th century crashes & an alien-appearing creature comes out and people start catching colds because they have no immunity to it. It’s discovered that the creature was human, but that she went into suspended animation and her cold virus mutated...

Was the mutation of the virus during suspended animation also responsible for making her look alien? Or is there another reason?

...a cosmic cloud heading toward Earth that contained a virulent organism that would kill mankind, but it could be destroyed by the common cold germ.

So the writers think cosmic clouds are like cumulus clouds on Earth, not thin wisps of matter? Or how thick and dense is this cloud?
How does this cloud get through Earth's atmosphere to the ground to kill mankind?
Also, how did the virulent organism inside the cloud survive space? (Did they mean it was a virus, which is inactive and could survive space? But then why the cloud?)

Was the mutation of the virus during suspended animation also responsible for making her look alien?
Yep.

Or how thick and dense is this cloud?
It looked like a green cumulus cloud.

How does this cloud get through Earth's atmosphere to the ground to kill mankind?
Also, how did the virulent organism inside the cloud survive space?
Neither were explained.

Of course thinking about this brought up another nit.
At the end of the story when Carla realizes she no longer has her cold we can see the big green cloud in the background, but in the previous timeline there was no big green cloud seen when the mutated Carla was moving around.

Also since Carla's capsule crashed a few minutes before the cloud arrived that wouldn't be enough time to save the planet, maybe the people in the city she crashed in would be safe (although spreading cold germs across a city in a few minutes is stretching it), but it would take days or weeks to spread the germs around the planet to keep it safe.

Sooo... all people infected with the mutated virus now look like aliens, too? Or is it the effect of the virus and the suspended animation combined? (And frankly, I don't believe that...)

Also since Carla's capsule crashed a few minutes before the cloud arrived that wouldn't be enough time to save the planet, maybe the people in the city she crashed in would be safe (although spreading cold germs across a city in a few minutes is stretching it), but it would take days or weeks to spread the germs around the planet to keep it safe.

Ah, magical movie/comic weather... But since even Star Trek did it in "Voy. home" (the storm clears immediately after the whales sing at the end), we could cut them some slack on this point.

From the top of the page:

NANJAO. Is it really wise for a superheroine who fights in a short skirt to grow to giant-size? One can only imagine the number of up-skirt shots of Elasti-Girl that exist. Hope she was wearing panties.

Well, it is smart if she's aiming for the 18-to-dead male demographic ...

Sooo... all people infected with the mutated virus now look like aliens, too?
The story didn't follow what happened to the people after they caught their colds.

Or is it the effect of the virus and the suspended animation combined?
Don't know.

(And frankly, I don't believe that...)
What? You think the writer just made it up? 8-o ;-)

{What? You think the writer just made it up? 8-o ;-) }

You mean to tell me that the writers of comic books aren't telling wholly true stories, possible in real life with the physics we know?

Awww, I'm so disappointed!

Since events after Crisis On Infinite Earths, where the multiverse was eliminated, are referred to as "Post-Crisis", will the events after Infinite Crisis, where the multiverse is supposed to be restored, be called "Post-Crisis II"?

Interplanetary Insurance, Inc. Mystery In Space #16 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #218
I love the cynicism of this story.
Plot: An insurance agent, Bert Brandon, will get fired because every creature in the solar system is already insured, so he learns of a newly discovered planetoid with sentient beings, the Lullies who come in humanoid & butterfly-winged versions & the insectoid Krogues. When he discovered that the Lullies are virtually immortal, they can only die by accident, he thinks it’s great because the company (I.I.I.) will never have to pay up. Of course, then he learns that the humanoid Lullies 'die' shedding their bodies to become the butterfly-like Lullies & they are their own next-of-kin & the insurance man realizes that this will cost his company a fortune & he even threatens legal action to avoid payment. Then the Krogues attack and in order to prevent Lullie deaths, he finds a way to blast the Krogues with a telescope lens frying them. The Lullie queen states that I.I.I. won’t have to pay the insurance claims.
Sadly the unethical actions of the insurance man is not a nit. I can see an insurance company salivating over the idea of selling insurance to immortals & then panicking when they might actually have to pay a claim.
However the Lullies motivation seems a little odd.
This is a newly discovered planetoid, so why would the Lullies care about Earth money?
When the queen orders that I.I.I. doesn’t have to pay, but the Lullies will still be wasting money paying premiums (and the firefly people that the Krogues evolved into after being blasted are also immortal & are buying insurance.)
It really is only a happy ending for the insurance agent & I.I.I.

The second form of the Lullies is described as butterfly people, but they have feather wings.

The Square Earth Mystery In Space #22 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #221
This is set in the far, far future. All the way to the year 2000! I... I wonder if we’ll really have easy space travel then? ;-)

Zinda is dating a compulsive gambler, Jason, & rather than just leaving him until he seeks treatment, she goes to her friend Professor Worth to try to trick him into giving up gambling.
Of course if Jason's gambling is compulsive it’ll just be a matter of time before he’s gambling again.

Professor Worth, while using his invention to turn the Earth & Moon into giant dice*, “My super-pressure beam will swiftly and neatly flatten it to four sides!”
Someone should tell the professor that dice have 6 sides.

* Spoiler!!! It’s all a trick.

The Genius Epidemic! Strange Adventures #21 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #223
Caption: It is a scientific fact that even mankind’s greatest geniuses use only one-tenth the thinking potential power of the human brain!”
No.

The Planet That Advanced Backward! Mystery In Space #41 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #224
NANJAO. At the start of this story it’s mentioned that it is the year 3000 and that this family has left Earth because it looks like there might be a war between Earth & Saturn. This story was written by Bill Finger, one of the main writers of Batman. Batman had a story called “Batman Of The Future” where Saturn attacked Earth in the year 3000. Hmmm...

The planet Tyro has a red sun & a green sun.
I don’t think there are any green stars.

I trying to find a weapon that works on Tyro the colonists tried rifles, but stopped using them because the planet’s small size made the blast even louder.
I don’t thinks it works that way.

The Sleeping Peril Of Mars! Mystery In Space #68
Plot: The astronaut, Alan Woods, receives an automated message to stay away from Mars. At some point a cloud with an unknown element became part of Mars’ orbit at the farthest point away from the sun, putting the Martians into suspended animation for 125 years. They woke up with 8 months before they reached the cloud again & started making preparations to leave Mars, but they had to wait till the next period of wakefulness before they could leave. The astronaut crashes on Mars as the planet reaches the cloud and goes to sleep for 125 years.
In 2106 he awakens, but has no memory of the message, humans assuming that the field which sent the message damaged his spacecraft destroyed the field & never received the message. About 8 months later the Klurr Empire shows up to conquer Mars for it’s resources having heard about it from the Martians whom they captured. With their weapons they defeat human ships and land on Mars then Mars passes through the cloud and puts everyone except Woods to sleep (once exposed humans are immune to a second exposure) and he transfers Klurr weapons to human ships and sets up a remote control so he can control them from one ship and uses this to defeat the Klurr ships that had stayed off Mars.
*whew*

The first manned spaceflight will reach Mars in 1981.
Clearly there has been a massive cover-up as I can’t find this information in the history books. ;-)

Wouldn’t Martians count years based on their own orbit rather than Earth’s? The writer, or editor, should have calculated what it would be in Martian years and then had a caption explaining how long this would be in Earth years.

What’s keeping this ‘cloud’ at the aphelion of Mars orbit? It wasn’t always there since the Martians had developed a civilization, but it’s been there since, at least, 1731.

Would a ship really be sent to Mars when it’s at the aphelion?

Amazingly the Martians had no records of the sleep cloud since the Klurr didn’t know of it.

Earth’s Frozen Heat Wave Strange Adventures #161 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #233
Plot: Citrus farmer Marvin X. Marvin is working on a way to prevent frost. When the Earth’s water freezes he figures that his experiment backfired and works to create an antidote. Meanwhile Prof. Marvin X. Marvin discovers a space probe that is radiating an unknown radiation & he figures it caused Earth’s water to freeze and he works to counter the radiation. At the end of the story Earth’s water is back to normal and the reader is asked to decide which Marvin X. Marvin was correct.
Dialogue indicates that it’s only water that comes into contact with the atmosphere that freezes. So water in a canteen is liquid until it’s opened, humans don’t freeze, etc. However it’s not explained how deep the freezing goes.
Are lakes & oceans froze solid or just the surface? Not very good for fish if it’s completely solid.
Also a water pump is shown with the water frozen out of it, but if all water in the pipe froze it should burst.
It’s not explained what happens when people cry, spit, sweat, or urinate. (Ouch!)

At the end of the story it asks the reader to decide which Marvin X. Marvin was right. Problem is on the previous page a caption reads, “with the strange radiation destroyed, the atmosphere returns to normal”. Obviously the writer felt it was Prof. Marvin X. Marvin who was right.

Of course the main problem against farmer Marvin X. Marvin’s experiment causing it is that it was a chemical experiment so the freezing should take a heck of a lot longer as the smoke disseminates through the air.

The Man Who Stole The Air! Strange Adventures #51 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #233
Plot: Testing of a force field over Pentagon Island is successful, until the machine that projects the field won’t shut off. The population is given oxygen & helmets until the field is shut off, but as the tanks run empty no word comes from the scientists, but an enterprising fellow starts selling oxygen refills.

1954 and we have force field technology? (This story was originally printed then so it’s not a bad prediction.)

I find it hard to believe that a test of a force field would be done over a populated area. If the test failed...

Of course the simplest solution to turning off the force field would be to pull the plug, although it’s not ever said how the scientists turned it off.

Barton, who sold gas and scuba equipment, converts his gas tanks to oxygen tanks.
... while it makes for a cute visual, people lined up to get filled up, that seems highly unlikely. What did he do with the gas & how did he avoid the smell of gas?

Clyde Chambers decides to take a boat and see if the force field is weak at sea level. he boat hits something & he figures it’s the field. Turns out it was actually Barton in a scuba outfit stopping the boat with a rock (the water was shallow).
1. How did Barton know what Clyde was going to do? Maybe he overheard, but you can’t tell by the artwork.
2. How did Barton know where Clyde was going to test the field?
3. How did Barton get out there so fast without Clyde noticing?
4. Barton’s station is always shown with a line of people waiting to get oxygen. To do this he would have had to leave them waiting. (It’s possible he could have had an assistant, but we never see one.)
5. Why was Clyde the only one to try this?
6. Why didn’t Clyde try swimming under the force field?

Of course if Clyde had paid attention he would have noticed that the waves were acting normally. The force field didn’t even let air or water in. For that matter doesn’t the ocean usually have breezes over it?

When Clyde confronts Barton, after learning the truth*, he’s wearing his helmet, then takes it off.
Wouldn’t it have been just as effective to walk up to the station without his helmet in the first place?

* Barton tied up the scientists and locked them in the room after they managed to get the field off.

Barton figures his scheme would have been a success because no one would risk taking off their helmet to test the air.
Actually I could see some people doing just that. Heck, if they start gasping for lack of oxygen they could just put their helmets back on.

The Human Icicle! Strange Adventures #53 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #234
Page 1, Panel 1. Kind of a half-sized splash page. It has the main character saying he’s thirsty, but the story later says that he hasn’t seen liquid.

The man sees a berry bush and knows that berries are food. How? I don’t think they have bushes on Pluto.

In a lab the man’s temperature is reduced to Absolute Zero. Shouldn’t that make him a frozen block of ice? Even if, inexplicably, humanoid life evolved on Pluto the temperature would have to be somewhat above Absolute Zero.

Of course, how could the man survive being on Earth? He should have been fried to a crisp. Also the Human who got transported to Pluto in his place should be dead.

The World That Vanished! Strange Adventures #59 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #234
Plot: An unusual artifact is sent to a TV program. One of the experts examines it and discovers a message to the 4th planet warning about the dangers of a cosmic ray weapon. The aliens who created the message want humans to stop developing a cosmic ray weapon because that is their one weakness. However Humans seem to think the message is aimed at Mars...

Professor Donley is interpreting the inscription from an odd artifact & discovers a warning from an alien civilization.
Somehow Donley interprets the names of the planets Mars & Jupiter from the alien text.

When the aliens are discussing the possibility that humans haven’t discovered the planet between Mercury & the Sun the planet chart uses Earth names for the planets, including Apollo for the unknown one.

The Time-Wise Thief Strange Adventures #72 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #235
Classic time paradox here. The thief’s time machine is smashed before he can commit the crime, so the crime never happens. However the time machine stayed ruined despite the fact that the person who smashed it wasn’t there to smash it.
Of course this story is being told by Father Time who could very well be making the whole thing up.

The Human Fishbowl Mystery In Space #27 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #236
Martians need to see if water will be harmful to them when they invade Earth, so they use a device that brings a small body of water to Mars, but are surprised that when it gets there three humans had been swimming in it and are in suspended animation from the cold of space. As the water thaws the humans return to normal.
1. I would think the swimmers would have drowned long before the swimming pool water could have frozen.
2. As I understand it freezing someone doesn’t put them into suspended animation, but instead the freezing water in their bodies bursts through cell walls causing serious injury & probably death.

The Spaceman Who Came To Dinner Strange Adventures #98 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #236
What’s the freezing point of hydrochloric acid? The spaceman drinks it in a room that is 60 degrees below freezing. When the human host brings him some heavy water it starts to freeze almost immediately.

Tommy Tomorrow was a colonel in the Planeteers, a type of space police.

Journey To 1960 World’s Finest Comics #113 Reprinted in DC Super-Stars #6
Tommy & Brent are after a scientist who has invented a time machine to escape into the past. He tells the Planeteers that the machine will explode in an hour & that a person can only return if they are in the same spot where they arrive. He vanishes before their eyes, but in the panel where he is seen disappearing, Tommy spots a reverse gear to bring a subject back & decides to go after him & have Brent pull the lever in 55 minutes.
My problem with this is that Tommy spots the lever, and somehow knows what it is, while the scientist is vanishing. Why not just pull the lever NOW???
(I’m tempted to say Short Story Syndrome, but this story is only a few pages long as it is.)

Space Cabby was a light-hearted (scientifically improbable) series about an unnamed cabby who transported people around the nine planets.

The Luxury Limousine Of Space! Mystery In Space #45 Reprinted in DC Super-Stars #6
Flying through space and SC runs across a space hurricane.
Wha...??? It even has rain.

SC uses a comet to push the cab twice as fast.
The cab has an atomic motor that can apparently transport someone from Earth to Pluto in a day. I seriously doubt a comet will add to the ship’s speed.

The new cab SC gets is too big to go through an asteroid tunnel so he has to take the long way around, “A million miles more”.
The asteroid didn’t look that big.

The Star Rovers were a trio of competitive adventurers, Karel Sorenson, Homer Glint & Rick Purvis, who would go to a place to investigate a mystery, split up & come back to compare notes & theories to discover what really happened.

What Happened On Sirius-4? Mystery In Space #69 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #233
Interesting coincidence. 1960 the radio telescope Project Ozma built. 2060 a radio telescope is built on Mars. 2160 mankind receives it’s first message from space.

2160 and mankind receives it’s first message from space.
??? Given that the message came from Sirius, just 9 light years away, you’d think someone would been to the planet & back by now.

Where Was I Born? -- Venus? Mars? Jupiter? Mystery In Space #77 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #236
Plot: After recovering the sword of a legendary star warrior the Star Rovers each think they come from a different planet. They each go to the planet they think they were born on, but inconsistencies make them think it’s wrong. Turns out Venus, Mars & Jupiter wanted the Sword of Starhedron because it’s metal could be used to poison Earth’s atmosphere and hypno devices were placed in each Rovers’ ship to make them think they were natives of another planet.

For an unknown metal the scientists seem to have a lot of theories about what X-7 can do.

Homer is landing on Jupiter, the caption reads, “toward the doomed city”.
I think they meant Domed.

The red spot of Jupiter is shown as a giant cloud floating over the surface of Jupiter, in an otherwise clear sky.

Venus, Mars & Jupiter all believed that Earth looked down on them for having artificial atmospheres.
???
Despite the Star Rovers claims that Earth doesn’t feel that way & that all the planets should work together, this has got to upset Earth that the governments of 3 other planets would engage in this kind of conspiracy.

The Sword of Starhedron is placed in perpetual orbit between Earth, Mars, & Jupiter.
???
1. How can it be between the orbit of three planets?
2. This is gonna tick off the Venusians.

Who Saved The Earth? Mystery In Space #80 Reprinted in DC Super-Stars #8
Plot: The Star Rovers are off doing their own things when each of them is surprised to learn they have earned the Space-Hero medal for saving the Earth. None of them remember doing anything that could have saved the Earth, but they start telling of some odd events that each of them was involved in, then Earth explains what it was they did that (unintentionally) saved Earth.

It’s never really explained how Earth knew of these attempts to destroy the Earth.

Riffians were going to throw Earth into a no-time continuum using a clever manipulation of magnetic flux.
Seeing as the device was on a planet orbiting Procyon, 11.3 light years distant, how long would it have taken for that magnetic flux to reach Earth?

The Shenn were going to use some kind of weapon that would pull Earth out of orbit & into space. The devices would be “beamed in on the cosmic radiation” of Earth.
Wha...???
I didn’t realize Earth put out “cosmic radiation” & wouldn’t it be drowned out by the radiation of our sun? Especially since this weapon was on a planet around Spica (unfortunately I couldn’t find a distance for this star in my reference books).

Kartivians were going to destroy Earth with a cobalt tensorometer which would blow up the Earth.
1. The timing device was powered by the radioactive Tigerog nest. Couldn’t the Kartivians have found another, reliable, power source?
2. Rigel is 900 light years away so unless the cobalt tensorometer works faster than light...

Of course some of the distances are interesting. In Mystery In Space #69 it took the Star Rovers a week to travel 9 light years to Sirius. here Homer is visiting Rigel, 900 light years away, & Karel remembers Homer telling her of hunting a Canopian agracat, Canopus is 600-1,152 light years away. That’s a lot of traveling time unless they’ve developed some faster engines.

Knights Of The Galaxy was a short-lived series (Mystery In Space #1-8) about a 25th century space police-type group designed along the lines of King Arthur’s knights.

Challenge Of The Robot Knight! Mystery In Space #7 Reprinted in DC Super-Stars #2
A space sector is first referred to as “Sector GIP5”, but later as “Sector GLP5”.

Space Ranger was Rick Starr, who would take on the secret identity of Space Ranger to fight space criminals in the 22nd century. He was aided by his secretary Myra Mason & his shape-changing alien sidekick Cryll.

Man that makes it sound like a better series than it was. Space Ranger fell into an odd sub-genre I call the superhero-spaceman. This is where someone takes the basic spaceman genre (ray guns, spaceships, aliens) and adds unnecessary superhero elements (a day job, secret identity, etc.). Not a style I’m particularly fond of. Pick one genre & stick with it, I say!

Some might think Adam Strange falls into this category, but no because the people he protects know who he is so he’s more of a spaceman in the Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon style.

Captain Comet could be said to fall into this category although with his superpowers he’s more of a superhero with a spaceman motif.

Space Ranger on the other hand has to make an excuse to get away to his secret asteroid base, change into his uniform and play hero without giving away who he really was.

The Great Plutonium Plot Showcase #15 Reprinted in DC Super-Stars #8
When asked why he’s not in prison Gurph says, “There’s no law against escaping... Ha, ha!”
If not then that’s a serious mistake in the 22nd century’s penal code.

Space Ranger coated the shipment of plutonium with audium, a new substance that gives off ultra-sonic waves and he uses an audium scanner to track the thieves... in space.

Space Ranger’s helmet is see-through & all it does is give Rick’s head a bluish look.
Real great way to keep that identity secret.

In space between Jupiter & Saturn Space Ranger & Cryll track down Zandor’s ship by using... a sonic amplifier...

The Army Of Interplanetary Beasts Tales Of The Unexpected #45 Reprinted in DC Super-Stars #4
Apparently a good deal of terraforming and genetic manipulation must have happened between now & the 22nd century because this story features a slew of animals from different planets in our solar system.

Page 6, Panel 6. The Plutonian Horned Dog is colored green instead of orange.

NNAN, but the Martian Sleep-Bunnies & the Neptunian Winged Lizards are both pink, have one eye each and tentacles instead of front limbs.
Interesting design similarities for two different planets. (Then again, given how many humanoids from other planets there are...)

Captain Comet was a mutant born 100,000 years early. He had great mental powers and physical abilities.

Destination Doom! Strange Adventures #14 Reprinted in DC Super-Stars #4
World FV 782
What an odd name for a home planet. I wonder if it had been a colony world originally?

The secretary of defense mentions that they’ve narrowed the list down to 12 men, but then only names 3 men.

Robots from World FV 782 are collecting average humans from around the galaxy so they can figure out how to manufacture them for slaves because all the humans on their world died.
The worlds they’ve gotten specimens from are Earth, Venus & Saturn & their definition of human must be very broad since Octro of Venus is green with pointy, feathery ears & 3 little fins on his forearms.

I wonder if Nilor is from the Saturn moon Titan?

In space a meteor strikes the ship.
In space they are called meteoroids.

Despite the fact that Adam Blake doesn’t wear glasses & as Captain Comet doesn’t wear a mask. It is amazing that Nilor & Octro don’t recognize Captain Comet as being Adam Blake.
I suppose it could be said that he uses his mental abilities to affect people’s perceptions, but nothing in the story ever mentions that.

---

Rereading the original stories it seems like the writers who revived Captain Comet in the '70s really depowered him.

Adam Strange was a science fiction adventurer in the Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon style. He would travel to the planet Rann around Alpha Centauri via Zeta Beam (an interstellar transporter) & defend Rann from whatever menace was threatening it.

One cute bit with the title, when they started reprinting the Adam Strange stories in Strange Adventures they added the name Adam to the cover logo so it read "Adam Strange Adventures". Not sure when they dropped that.

The Secret Of The Eternal City Showcase #17 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #217
Page 9, Panel 1. 2 Rannians are colored blue.

Adam & Alanna turn on a radio broadcast after the Eternals attack the city of Amorak. Surprisingly the radio announcer seems to know quite a bit about the Eternals & why they came to Rann.

Samakand reappears every 25 years to see if Rann has given up the way of war.
You’d think more people would be waiting. As it is only Alanna & Adam are there & that’s only because they think that’s where the meteorite the Eternals want is there.

The coincidences in this story are amazing.
1. Adam is leaping over a chasm when a Zeta Beam strikes him and transports him to Rann.
2. While running from some reptilian creature, Alanna, the daughter of the scientist who invented the Zeta Beam rescues him. (And since the Zeta Beam was not intended to work as a transporter she couldn’t have been expecting him.)
3. Adam & Alanna are in Amorak when the Eternals attack.
4. Samakand just happens to come back into this dimension at this time.

Page 11, Panel 6. A Rannian is orange.

At the end Adam says that Sardath told him when the other Zeta Beams would strike Earth.
Must have happened between panels, since there is no such scene.

The Planet And The Pendulum! Showcase #17 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #218
Coincidence time again.
Adam ends up in Rann in the ruined city of Yardana where the primitive tribe of Zoora puts him in the rainbow doom, which is actually an ancient transporter that sends him to Anthorann, which is where Alanna & Sardath are.
Also Adam is there when the recently attacking Morleen figure out how to get through the Anthorannians shield.

Just before sending their city to another dimension a 1,000 years earlier, the scientists of Samakand created a colony on Anthorann, another planet in the Alpha Centauri system. However the colonists have named their city New Ranagar. NNAN but one would think New Samakand would make more sense.

Also why is the transportation chair in Yardana instead of Samakand?

The big problem with this story is that I think they came up with the title first then had to come up with a story that matched it. Unfortunately the solution was less than impressive.
The Morleen are attacking the colonists on Anthorann because they want to colonize the world & the only source of water is under the protective dome of New Ranagar. The Morleen are unable to crack the dome with their weapons so they decided to use a pendulum made of diamondium, the hardest metal around, to cut through the dome.
I guess the idea of using this metal in the tip of a rocket just didn’t occur to them.

This story is also disappointing since Adam doesn’t really solve the problem by outthinking the enemy, he just flies out with a jet pack and uses a ray gun to cut through the pendulum’s support. *shrug*

The Beast From The Runaway World! Mystery In Space #55 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #220
A Zeta Beam fails to strike Earth, 8 days later Adam journeys to Rann & discovers that in his place had appeared a creature called zaradak. Sardath indicates that a runaway world had come between Earth & Rann & the creature had been zapped & brought to Rann.
In a flashback Alanna is shown waiting when the Zaradak appears indicating that it appeared when Adam was suppose to. A runaway planet would probably be outside our solar system & the zaradak should have appeared hours to days earlier.

Adam notices that zaradak is trying to eat the buildings & surmises that a creature of its size would need to be constantly eating & he has vegetation brought to feed it.
Zaradak has been on Rann for 8 days, apparently rampaging through Ranagar. What has it been eating?

Since zaradak came from a “runaway world” what kind of vegetation was zaradak eating since it wouldn’t have had a sun to grow by?

Duel Of The Two Adam Stranges! Mystery In Space #59 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #221
Because the Zeta Beam is due to strike in a highly populated city, Adam decides to meet the Zeta Beam at the edge of space, so he wears a space helmet. Which is an amazing coincidence since on Rann he gets knocks unconscious by his giant, android double and would have drowned in the sea if not for his space helmet.

The Weapon That Swallowed Men! Mystery In Space #63 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #224
The aliens in this story have a weapon that vacuums people & objects up. Adam realizes that the weapon has to be set for a specific element to work and overcomes it by coating himself and others with thin layers of various elements which the aliens have to vacuum off first.
An interesting idea, that I just don’t think works. The human body is made up of something like 15 different elements. If the weapon was set to Carbon there would still be bits & pieces of people after the weapon had been used. Also the aliens use this weapon to steal cities (they live very long and need new settings every century or so). Buildings are not constructed from one element.

The Fadeaway Doom! Mystery In Space #68
Page 2, Panel 3. Kaskor calls Sardath, “Sardanth”.

Adam says there are 7 worlds of Alpha Centauri.
Interesting since A & B about 2,700,000,000 miles away, according to Star Names Their Lore And Meaning. Although Strange Adventures #217 had a text article stating that A & B were at their closest 887,000,000 miles (about the distance of Saturn from the sun) and at their farthest 3,235,000,000 miles (about the distance from the sun to between Neptune & Pluto). The anti-nit, of course, is that the worlds don’t orbit one star, but all 3.

Is Rhynthar one of the 7 worlds? Alanna recognizes it, but I don’t think Rann has interstellar spaceships.

Adam theorizes that the Dust Devils of Rhynthar are a form of sodium life with a high internal temperature so that when he accidentally blasted sand into one the silicates combined with the sodium & calcium to form glass.
Given that the Dust Devils look like living tornadoes & that they killed all other life on Rhynthar so that it’s a desert world I’m surprised they don’t turn themselves into glass by moving.

The Invisible Raiders Of Rann Mystery In Space #73 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #233
NNANJAO. On the splash page Adam is thinking a thought that in the story is thought by a Rann soldier.

Karthals (a type of energy being) seem to speak in plot points. Helpfully explaining their weaknesses and motivations when there is no need to, like when they are alone or with another of their race who would already know this info.

The Karthals buried the Syntheti-Matter core on Rann because they become immobilized under the rays of different suns. Apparently all that’s needed is to be a triple star system because Alpha Centauri & Zeta Cancri have different types of stars in their systems.
Alpha Centauri A - G2 (yellow), Alpha Centauri B - K1 (orange), Proxima Centauri - M5 (red dwarf)
Zeta Cancri A - F8 (yellow), Zeta Cancri B - G (yellow), Zeta Cancri C - G (yellow dwarf)

The Planet That Came To A Standstill Mystery In Space #75 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #235
Plot: Kanjar Ro escapes from the prison planet that the JLA had imprisoned him on in Justice League of America #3 & decides that since Superman gets his powers from Earth;’s sun he will go to a planet with three suns to get three times the super-powers. While on Rann, using his scientific genius to give himself super-powers, he captures Adam Strange who manages to escape & come up with a plan to stop Kanjar Ro. The JLA discover Kanjar Ro has escaped and send some members to Rann to capture him, but Adam strikes Kanjar Ro’s Gamma Gong paralyzing everyone on the planet. When the Zeta beam wears off Adam is returned to Earth where he encounters the rest of the JLA who all travel to Rann. Kanjar Ro powers are strong enough to fight the JLA single-handedly, but Adam figures out a way to stop him.

This story is a sequel to Justice League of America #3 & is set before Justice League of America #4 (since Flash & the JLA meet Adam in this story & Flash proposes him for membership in issue 4) & yet dialogue indicates that a year has passed since the end of JLA #3. Unfortunately I don’t own JLA #3 so I don’t know if the story was told in flashback or what.

Page 5, Panel 4. Alanna’s word balloon is pointing to Adam.

Adam & Alanna’s bodies become paralyzed, but they are still able to talk. (Shame Gardner Fox didn’t mention that the radios had incorporated the telepathic devices of the improved mentacizers from last issue.)

Adam & Alanna go into orbit around Rann & when Adam mentions that eventually their jets will run out of fuel Alanna thinks that they will crash.
If they were in a stable orbit wouldn’t they just keep orbiting?

The city of Yardana becomes Vardana in this story.

Page 14, Panel 3. Adam’s orange boots are yellow.

I find it hard to believe that Adam actually struck the Gamma Gong hard enough to actually paralyze everyone on the planet.
1. Rann is the size of Earth.
2. How many people and animals died because their bodies were suddenly paralyzed?

Page 21, Panel 2. Adam’s orange gloves are red.

Green Lantern mentions that Kanjar Ro used the Gamma Gong on him in their previous encounter so maybe there is an explanation for why GL didn’t use his will power to break the spell of the Gamma Gong, unfortunately no explanation is given here.

Page 22, Panel 5. Colorist really goofed up. The background is colored purple, except for one section that’s blue & another section that’s pink.

Page 24, Panels 3 & 6. Adam’s orange gloves are white.

Adam figures that since Superman is weakened by kryptonite Kanjar Ro would be weakened by a metal from his home planet (Dhor) & throws Kanjar Ro’s dhorite rod at him.
Problem is kryptonite is deadly because of radiation from when the planet exploded. The dhorite should be stable.

The fact that Kanjar Ro is now vulnerable to dhorite when he wasn't in JLA #3 seems to be based on the idea that Superman could only be affected by kryptonite while he had superpowers. (Yes, there were some stories that said that.)

Also isn’t it just amazing that Adam knew Kanjar Ro’s rod was made of dhorite & not tin or aluminum?

Challenge Of The Rival Starman Mystery In Space #76 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #236
Adam is being pulled toward a magnetic cloud and is using his jets to try & slow himself down.
Unfortunately the jet blast is shown coming out of the back like usual which would seem to be pushing him forward, not back.

The Cloud Creature That Menaced Two Worlds Mystery In Space #81 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #241
Opening caption says that Adam is the only Earthman to make the journey to Rann.
What about Green Lantern, Batman, Aquaman, Flash & Snapper Carr in Mystery In Space #75?

The Robot-Wraith Of Rann Mystery In Space #88 Reprinted in DC Super-Stars #6
In order to give Alanna a gift (a new outfit) Adam puts the dress in a container that he will swing on a chain so it will be outside the Zeta Beam when he goes to Rann and therefore won’t be drawn back to Earth, like Adam, when the Zeta Beam energy fades. Alanna muses that Adam could use that technique to stay on Rann permanently & Adam states that such a trip would be fatal to any life form pulled through space without the Zeta Beams protection.
1. How does Adam know the trip would be fatal. This seems to be the first time he’s tried it & he only did it with an inanimate object, not a living creature.
2. They both seem to forget that in Mystery In Space #75 Kanjar Ro blasted Adam with an energy bolt that made it so if he stayed on Rann for more than a year he would die.

Siren Of The Space Ark Mystery In Space #89 Reprinted in DC Super-Stars #8
Adam takes Brittis to the Gorge of Chrystar.
Not much to see now. In Mystery In Space #76 the Gorge was something special because it was right next to the river Sythaline & the river had worn away the rock so that people could see the fishes swimming in it. However to escape a trap Adam had to blast the window-like rock so now the bottom of the gorge is filled with water.

In Showcase #17 Alanna said that Abyx was the largest of Rann’s 3 oceans. In Mystery In Space #59 there is the sea of Ybys. In this issue we have the Permuvian Sea and the Ioltic Sea.
Okay some could argue that Seas & Oceans are different things, but later stories did refer to Abyx as the Sea of Abyx so Gardner Fox seemed to use them interchangeably.

Planets In Peril Mystery In Space #90 Reprinted in DC Super-Stars #2
This should probably go in the Misc. Team-Ups thread since it featured Adam Strange & Hawkman teaming up, but all the nits are for Adam so I’ll keep it here.

Sardath says he had learned to suspend the Zeta Beam and the editor’s note lists this as happening in Mystery In Space #89 Siren Of the Space Ark. However, unless the reprint I read had been edited, I can’t find any reference to it in that story. Heck I don’t think Sardath even appears in that story.

Oran Dragg tells Adam & Alanna that at the first movement of their legs a magnetic bomb will go off. Adam ties his gun to his harness & starts swinging it around him trying to detect the magnet. In the process the artist draws his legs straight in one panel & bent in another and yet the bomb doesn’t go off.

Beyond The Wall Of Death Strange Adventures #222
Adam: Let’s wipe ‘em out!
Ah, yes. Denny O’Neil truly captured the thoughtful, intelligent, calm, cool & collected character of Adam Strange right there. (No wonder fans were disappointed with this story & just wanted reprints.)

Rereading all these stories I found myself wondering about the leaders of Rann and/or Ranagar. Two of the stories I have (The Fadeaway Doom & Planets In Peril) have scenes that seem to indicate that Sardath is in charge.
Kaskor who’s second in command defers to Sardath in Mystery In Space #68.
It’s Sardath who orders out the army in Mystery In Space #90.
However in other stories where some menace takes over the world we never see who it was that was in charge who handed over the leadership to the menace.

Does Adam get paid to be the Champion of Rann? Rann counts on him, he seems to be a main commander of military forces & sometimes official messengers are sent to tell him of some kind of problem, but we never see evidence of Alanna or Adam doing any other kind of job & yet problems like paying rent or buying food & such never seem to come up.

Given my negative comments on Space Ranger above I was amused to read the following comments in an interview at this month's Sequential Tart.

Arnold Drake: Space Ranger was funny none of the writers liked the character. So you did Space Ranger as a kind of punishment.

ST: What didn't they like about it?

AD: Cornball. Space Ranger had an alien pet which we thought was very cornball, too. So I had a little song I made up. Whenever it was my turn to do Space Ranger, I'd sit down at the typewriter and I would sing, " Spaaaace Ranger, I hate you. Spaaace Ranger, you're miiiine." [Laughs] It made the torture less painful. I wasn't crazy about Mark Merlin either, but it was more interesting than Space Ranger.

Hehehe

The Atomic Knights were the defenders of freedom after World War III. The six knights wore armor that could give them protection from radiation.

The Rise Of The Atomic Knights! Strange Adventures #117 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #217 & 218 also reprinted in DC Super-Stars #2 as The Origin Of The Atomic Knights!
October 9, 1986, World War III begins and devastates the world!
Guess the media had more important things to cover, since I don’t remember this. ;-)
I wonder why the writer picked a date just 26 years in the future?

The technological advances of 1986 are Super-H bombs, Raguns (radiation blasters), R-grenades (radioactive) & Anti-H pills to combat radiation.
Is there a 5-day waiting period to buy raguns? Do you need a prescription for Anti-H pills or do they sell them over the counter? ;-)

It’s said that the super-H explosions are reshaping continents, however in later stories we see cities like Los Angeles, Paris & Washington DC shown to be in ruins. However if these bombs are destructive enough to reshape continents I would expect gaping holes where the cities used to be.

The reprinted half in Strange Adventures #218 has a caption mentioning the 18-day war which contradicts Gardner’s estimate that the war lasted 20 days.
Of course it was just an estimate.
Also I think the caption was from a later issue as the reprint in DC Super-Stars #2 doesn’t have it.

Thanksgiving Day--1990 Strange Adventures #132 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #222
Last issue the Atomic Knights looked back at the spot where Atlantis had sunk into the ocean and no other ships could be seen. This issue we find out that three ships full of Atlantides managed to escape.
So why the heck didn’t anyone see them last issue. Not too many places to hide on the mid-atlantic ocean.

War In Washington Strange Adventures #135 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #223
The villain is using a device that will destroy the ozone layer and kill people with deadly ultra-violet rays.
Not a nit, but an interesting premonition. (Ah, ha! The hole in the ozone layer is really being caused by time-tossed Atlanteans!) ;-)

Gardner & Bryndon need to get to the top of the Washington Monument & stop the ozone destroying ray, but the door has been barricaded. Fortunately the monument is cracked & fractured so there are plenty of hand & toe holds to climb the outside. Which they do... while still wearing armor.
Armor is heavy, metal gloves are not really designed to grip a surface like a bare hand could & metal ‘shoes’ probably don’t have a sole to prevent slipping while climbing.
Additionally the artist drew the cracks in the monument too far apart. Gardner & Bryndon are shown standing between 2 cracks.

Attack Of The Giant Dogs Strange Adventures #138 Reprinted in Strange Adventures #224
2 issues ago Bryndon said their last ragun was out of power. This issue he says that their last ragun is almost out of charge.

Also what happened to those cosmic ray muskets they took from the Atlantides last issue?

When The Earth Blacked Out! Strange Adventures #144
It’s said that 8 nations had nuclear weapons in 1986.
Anyone know if this guess was right?

This story starts off repeating the idea that WWIII started on October 9, 1986, but later it’s said that the mole-creatures energy device that started the war didn’t activate the missile button until October 20.

Tommy Tomorrow
The Trial Of Tommy Tomorrow Action Comics #240 Reprinted in Legion Of Super-Heroes #3
A bank guard with a “television eye” replays what he saw.
Just like TV memories he himself is in the shot.

NNANJAO. The bank guard calls the replay a “kinescope”. Not such an odd word when this story was written in 1958, but nowadays very few people would know what that word means & this story is set in 2058.

perhaps Kinescope will make a comeback by 2058.

Me - Green Lantern mentions that Kanjar Ro used the Gamma Gong on him in their previous encounter so maybe there is an explanation for why GL didn’t use his will power to break the spell of the Gamma Gong, unfortunately no explanation is given here.
No explanation was given in Justice League of America #3 either.

Daily Planet Extra Week of May 5, 1980
(This was the page done up like a newspaper which gave coming attractions for other DC Comics)

In the Ask The Answer Man feature someone asks which villain appeared in Justice League of America #2, Despero or Kanjar Ro. Bob Rozakis answers Kanjar Ro.
Um, no. Neither villain appeared in JLA #2, Despero appeared in JLA #1 & Kanjar Ro appeared in JLA #3.

The Haunted Tank was an... odd war series. The basic premise is that Jeb Stuart Smith, commander of a Stuart tank in WWII, can see & hear the ghost of Civil War General J. E. B. Stuart who helps out his 2 namesakes.

All stories reprinted in Showcase Presents The Haunted Tank

Some general nits & annoyances.

Several times it’s said that Jeb Stuart Smith is the only one who can see & hear the ghost, but a couple of early stories had Jeb unconscious, but the men inside the tank heard a voice they thought was Jeb’s, so presumably they heard General Stuart & just thought it was their commander.
Also Slim saw & heard the general in G. I. Combat #95, although at the story’s end he simply said you can see all sorts of things in the smoke.

My dad said that in reality Stuart tank’s shells usually bounced off of the German Tiger tanks, although in this series the Haunted Tank is able to destroy quite a few Tigers.

Men in the bigger Pershing tanks making fun of the smaller Stuart tank. Given the number of Tiger tanks, submarines & planes this tank crew brought down, you’d think people might have learned that size doesn’t matter.

The sheer number of times that members of the tank crew are knocked unconscious, usually simultaneously. At the beginning it seemed to happen about every other story, although it lessened as the series went on.

The way that something will happen early in the story that will metaphorically, or literally, play out in the main story. (Actually I tend to get annoyed with this in a lot of different types of stories, but it’s especially unsubtle in these stories.)

Tank With Wings! G. I. Combat #89
Actually a parachute rather than wings.

Jeb & company ride their tank as it’s parachuted out of a plane, several holes are shot through the chute by a German plane, & the crew destroy the plane by firing the cannon (which should put undue stress on the already damaged chute) & yet, when it crashed down all the damage to the crew is said to be chattered teeth.
My dad says that usually parachute dropped trucks & tanks hit with enough force that the frames would be fractured or broken.

The Tank And The Turtle! G. I. Combat #91
One of the crew, “That turtle has a much chance of helping us -- as our tank has of perching up on a tree!”
Jeb, “Stranger things have happened in a war!”
“Not that strange!”
Is this guy new? While admittedly it’s only the fifth story, enough strange things have happened that the scoffer should know better.

The Haunted Tank vs Killer Tank! G. I. Combat #94
B Squadron tanks are being picked off by a new “terror weapon”. Jeb realizes that it has to be someone in the squadron, but he doesn’t know who.
Actually it should be pretty obvious. What was the only tank that had disappeared for a while & nobody knew where it was. Most likely that would be the tank that had been taken over by a German group & infiltrated the squadron.

B Squadron encounters a Tiger Tank using civilians as hostages, knowing that Americans would not risk firing, but one of the American tanks attacks so Jeb knows it has a Nazi crew.
Why the heck would Nazi infiltrators attack one of their own tanks? True the Tiger wouldn’t know that M-3 had a German crew so they would be in danger, but there were plenty of targets for the Tiger to shoot at so I wouldn’t imagine that a direct assault would be considered the best option.

Return Of The Ghost Tank! G. I. Combat #100
The title makes it seem like this is a sequel to The Haunted Tank vs Ghost Tank (G.I. Combat #88) but it’s a completely different tank & nothing indicates that the WWI tank had ever appeared before as a 'ghost'.

This story seems to be the first one to drop the Smith from Jeb Stuart Smith’s name since it identifies Jeb’s dad as Lt. Jeb Stuart.

Also the fact that Jeb’s dad had the same name seems to contradict the statement from the first story that his dad named Jeb in honor of General J.E.B. Stuart.
True it could be a reason for giving his son the same name, but I doubt it would be the only reason. For some reason I just assume that fathers who give their sons the same name as themselves are just a wee bit egotistical.

Okayyyyyyy, the first story showed that Jeb & his best friends, the Halcey cousins, Slim, Rick & Arch, grew up together & when the war came signed up in the calvary & they were assigned to the same tank unit.
In this story one of the Halcey cousins asks Jeb why he chose to join a tank unit.
Errrrr..., shouldn’t the guy know since he was there?

Also we, & the characters in the story, find out that Jeb’s dad commanded the first tank in WWI & that Slim, Rick & Arch’s dads were his crew.
Okayyyyyyyy, these guys have been friends since childhood. How the heck could they not know this?
(Yeah, yeah, continuity was never a big deal to Kanigher & he was writing 47 thousand war comics at the time, yadda, yadda, yadda...)

NNANJAO. How old is the Haunted Tank crew & what was the average age of tank crews? Their dads died on the first tank mission so at the least Jeb & company would probably be around their mid to late 20s.

Suicide Mission! Save Him Or Kill Him! The Brave And The Bold #52
No Batman doesn’t team up with The Haunted Tank (although it wouldn’t surprise me if such a story did later appear.) This was a story featuring 3 popular war series characters in one tale, Johnny Cloud (American Indian fighter pilot), The Haunted Tank & Sergeant Rock (& a surprise 4th character as well.)

The B&W cover repo has the DC logo, price & issue number missing. (Checking the cover scan at Comics.org the issue number & price were white on a colored background & DC was in color instead of black. Man that was an ugly cover in color.)

The cover identifies Jeb Stuart Smith as Tankman Stuart. Only once in the actual story is he called Jeb Stuart Smith, the rest of the time Stuart is treated as if it’s his last name.

They free Mlle. Marie from the iron suit the Nazis stuck her in & she seems to be wearing her usually attire, beret, scarf, shirt & short skirt.
Mlle. Marie was supposed to be in the French Resistance. Why do they seem to dress her exactly the same way in all of her appearances?
Also how nice of the Nazis to leave her clothes on.

Time-Bomb Tank! G. I. Combat #105
Jeb says, “Hank, my driver, Rick, my gunner, and Slim, his assistant”.
However, in the first story it was, “Rick, the gunner, Arch, the assistant” [Snip] “Slim, the driver”.
So why the change of assignment for Slim & where did Arch go?

Choose Your War! G. I. Combat #110
The General refers to Jeb as a “Union Bluecoat”.
However in G.I. Combat #102 the General referred to the tank crew as Southerners.
Also why would a northerner name his son after a Confederate general?

No Stripes For Me! Our Army At War #155
So why is this story in the collection? Yes the Haunted Tank makes an appearance, but it’s not like it had to be that tank. You could change the name of the tank commander & the story is not affected at all.

NNAN. Sgt. Rock refers to Jeb’s tank as the “haunted tank”.
Why? Jeb was the only one who knew it was haunted. The crew thought he was crazy for talking to a ghost that wasn’t there & while it’s possible they might have commented about Jeb’s 'craziness' it seems unlikely that they would risk losing such a good commander by blabbing.

Ghost Ace! G. I. Combat #112
Jeb refers to himself as a Northerner, but previously he was a Southerner. (Did he grow up in West Virginia? ;-)

Rick suddenly develops a southern drawl & is said to take his time firing.
On the one hand I suppose Kanigher should be given credit for trying to finally give a member of the crew a personality (usually Slim, Rick & Arch are blandly interchangeable), but 1. since they all grew up together Jeb shouldn’t notice a drawl & 2. previous stories have depended on the gunner firing as fast as possible.

It’s odd that the ghost of Attila the Hun is back. At the end of G. I. Combat #101 when Jeb destroyed the Nazi haunted tank it seemed that the General was able to successfully drive off the Hun for good.

Tank Fight In Death Town! G. I. Combat #113
Introductory caption says, “The only tank with a ghostly godfather”.
Well, if you don’t count the Nazi tank that was haunted by Attila the Hun in issue 101.

Jeb says it is the first time he’s seen the General nowhere near battle.
I’m not sure about that. True he sometimes see the general in an area where battle might occur, but sometimes he does see the General in times & places of relative peace. (Plus he’d heard the General’s ghostly laughter since childhood.)

The Battle Origin Of The Haunted Tank! G. I. Combat #114
The General reveals that he didn’t want to be assigned to a bunch of northerners.
See previous nits about the crew’s regionality.
Secondly the first story revealed that Jeb had heard the General’s ghostly laughter since childhood which indicates that the General has been watching Jeb for a long time.

A couple of stories previously the General said he didn’t know why he was assigned to this crew, but here he does know the reason. (Alexander the Great assigned him to this crew.)

Tank In The Icebox! G. I. Combat #117
The crew encounters a tank frozen in ice in the desert, later a plane bombs the tank with, “a liquid gas of such low intensity that is encases the tank in a solid block of special ice... the desert heat cannot melt!”
Thank you, Mr. Science.
1. Liquid gas? It’s one or the other.
2. Ice that can’t be melted by heat? So it’s quartz? ;-)

Slim is frozen in the opening of the tank (we don’t see what happens to Arch & Rick) & yet he is later thawed out safe & sound.
That is special ice.

Jeb thinks, “chopping holes in the ice must have weakened its atomic structure” so it melted real fast.
errrrrr, yeahhhhhhhh, surrrrrrrrrre, riiiiiiiight...

My Buddy - My Enemy! G. I. Combat #118
Message! Message! Be sure to pay attention to the Message!
Yes, one of those “Isn’t prejudice a terrible thing” stories. Although this features Americans of Japanese descent rather than blacks.

In this story Slim is working as the gunner rather than the driver.

Slim is angry at the Japanese because his brother died on the Bataan death march & he even knows that his brother was shot because he was trying to keep another soldier from collapsing and getting shot.
How would he know the exact reasons? Were the Japanese sending detailed death reports to the US?

Surprisingly neither the other two Halcey cousins, Rick & Arch, nor Jeb, who grew up with Slim & the Halcey cousins, seem to have any feelings for the dead brother.

Target For A Firing Squad! G. I. Combat #119
Page 4, Panel 4. Jeb’s word balloon is pointing to a German plane.

Jonah Hex was scarred bounty hunter from the post-Civil War era west.

Personally I would consider the western dialect the stories are written in to be a nit. It’s certainly annoying.

Welcome To Paradise All-Star Western #10 Reprinted in Showcase Presents Jonah Hex
NANJAO. It’s oddly amusing to see them avoid showing Jonah Hex’s scar in the first story.

Personally I think the writer of Shane should get a co-creator credit for this story. The kid who idolizes Jonah seems to be a direct lift.

The Hundred Dollar Deal! All-Star Western #11 Reprinted in Showcase Presents Jonah Hex
Page 8, Panel 3. Nit or not? Young Hillsworth calls Amy “Miss White”, however we later find out that she & Terry are married, not brother & sister like Terry told Jonah. So the question is have Terry & Amy been pretending to be brother & sister the whole time they’ve lived here or is it a mistake?

Page 10, Panel 5. Jonah shows Amy his scarred face, however she should have already seen it on Page 7, Panels 5 & 6.

Jonah Hex
Showdown At Hard Times Weird Western Tales #22 Reprinted in Showcase Presents Jonah Hex
Hank Brewster mentions teaching Jonah to use a gun & Jonah says that he taught him everything he knows.
Except that in Weird Western Tales #13 we met Windy Taylor who first taught Jonah how to use a gun.
Admittedly maybe Jonah was just being nice to Hank by saying he taught him everything he knows & that he really learned shooting tricks from both men, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
(In reality this story was written by Michael Fleisher while the other was written by John Albano, so I suspect Fleisher either didn’t read that story or forgot that point.)

The Pyrrhus Point Aftermath! Weird Western Tales #24 Reprinted in Showcase Presents Jonah Hex
Jonah & an actor are being pursued by a killer. They’ve lost their weapons and are in a canyon & figure that when they leave he’ll shoot them. The actor decides to knock Jonah out and use his make-up kit to make himself look like Jonah, leaves and gets killed.
Not much of a plan, really. I mean maybe if he had broken up his make-up case and put the flat pieces over his heart he might have stood a (slim) chance of survival. A much better plan would have been to use the make-up to make Jonah look like someone else. The killer really only wanted Jonah, not the actor.

Jonah Hex
Day Of The Tomahawk Weird Western Tales #33 Reprinted in Showcase Presents Jonah Hex
The recap of the last issue has some altered dialogue.

Debbie says, “What is there to like about that disgusting blood-thirsty savage?”
Jonah answers, “He isn’t constantly running his mouth, fer one thing!”
Problem is Joe Bigfoot was constantly running his mouth.

Showcase Presents Jonah Hex
Why the heck did they have non-Jonah Hex stories in a Jonah Hex collection?

There is nothing about the stories that relate the 8 stories to Jonah Hex. Rather than waste pages printing lesser stories they should have just printed more Jonah Hex stories.

DC has more than enough lesser western stars & standalones that they could have run those 8 stories in some other collection.

Outlaw was actually two series rather than one.

The first featured a guy named Rick Wilson who wanted to be a Texas Ranger but because of a stage robbery was hunted as an outlaw by his Texas Ranger father. This ran from All-Star Western #2-5.

The second was about Billy The Kid (not the historical figure, but a woman disguised as a man). This ran from All-Star Western #6-8.

The Billy the Kid stories are the better written of the two. The only thing to recommend the first is the occasional art by Neal Adams.

Draw Death All-Star Western #2 Reprinted in Showcase Presents Jonah Hex
NNAN. Paloma seems to have been a part of the Wilson family for around ten years. (She was adopted as a little girl when rescued by Rick & his father). So why does she still speak with a Mexican accent?

Rick is part of a stage robbery & yet he seems surprised when he’s treated like an outlaw because of that.

Death Deals The Cards! All-Star Western #3 Reprinted in Showcase Presents Jonah Hex
Flashback to the previous issue has some differences.

One big change from the first story is that Paloma & Rick are shown as children of about the same age. However in the first story Rick seemed to be a teenager when he & his father saved Paloma & adopted her. Flashbacks in later stories would keep them around the same age.

Rick blames being an outlaw on his dad. Yeah, robbing that stage had nothing to do with it. Lousy too strict fathers!

No Coffin For A Killer! All-Star Western #4 Reprinted in Showcase Presents Jonah Hex
King Coffin & his gang come and kidnap Paloma, although King Coffin himself is captured. He then says that if he is hung Paloma will be killed.
Obviously getting captured wasn’t part of King Coffin’s plan so how can he be sure his men will do that?
Also why did he decide to kidnap Paloma? No reason is ever given & given how easily he was captured it doesn’t seem to have been very well thought out.

Rick says the hawk has been tagging after him ever since he set its wing after it was broken in a fight with a cougar.
Two cougars, actually.

Hangman Never Loses! All-Star Western #5 Reprinted in Showcase Presents Jonah Hex
Rick goes to a criminal’s hidden lair, under a waterfall at a forgotten railroad spur.
Why would a railroad spur be behind a waterfall? Seeing that the tracks to town still exist, how come no one in town ever found it?

In a great big old retcon it’s revealed that Rick was actually an undercover Texas Ranger the whole time & his father was just pretending to hunt Rick so outlaws would trust him and allow him to get close.
Definitely a last minute change to make the whole series palatable. However it doesn’t explain why Rick would think he was an outlaw when he’s alone.

Captain Comet
Devil's Island In Space! Strange Adventures #28 Reprinted in The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told
At the beginning of the story the hydrogen bomb test is being conducted on Kibini Atoll. At the end of the story it’s being held on Kabini.

NNAN, but what kind of name is Midwest City?

Dragonsword - was a short back-up series that ran in Warlord #51-54. The star was Thiron who was sent to kill a dragon & the dragon’s spirit was imbued in the sword. Later Thiron discovered he was a pawn in a battle between powerful beings. While the story was complete it did end with the possibility of the main character’s return, but I don’t think he ever did.

None of the four parts had a title other than the series name.

Warlord #53
At the end of last issue Thiron had had the Dragonsword knocked away & the final panel had Thiron on the ground in the lower right corner, the Emporer Quisel was in the middle swinging his axe down on Thiron, behind Quisel in the upper left corner were the Archmage Anna, Master Jerrand & Squire Dysilla.
The first page of the story in this issue has Thiron on the left, Quisel facing right smashing a pot that wasn’t there last issue & holding his axe quite differently, and Anna, Jerrand & Dysilla in the background.
Clearly Tom Yeates didn’t bother checking how he left the story in the last part.

The story seems to be set in the distant past, what with all the sword & sorcery (although it’s not actually said to be Earth). Also a comment about Dysilla’s descendents indicates that the Halflings (who appear to be talking chimpanzees with clothes) will evolve into Humans, replacing the “true men” in the story.
But then it’s all supposition, although if it was what Paul Levitz intended then I think Dysilla should have been given a more human-type face than chimpanzee.

OMAC - the One-Man Army Corps was a short-lived (8 issues) Jack Kirby creation about a soldier in the “world that’s coming” fighting for peace. It was later revived as a short back-up series that ran in Warlord #37-39, 42-47.
Trivia note: Dan Mishkin & Gary Cohn who wrote series from 42-47 later recycled some of their ideas (Verner Brothers studio, the Vanquisher) in Blue Devil.

The New Origin Of OMAC! Warlord #37 Reprinted from Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #2 (originally intended for Kamandi #60)
Having never read the original OMAC I can only guess at how much Jim Starlin retconned the original. I’m guessing in the original OMAC was created by humans calling themselves the Global Peace Association. Here they are revealed to have been aliens from the planet Vision in the star system Mira.
1. Planet Vision. Ugh!
2. The blank face masks that the GPA wear appear to have human faces under them & not the round, birdwing-eared faces of the Visionaries.
3. NNANJAO. The Visionaries appear similar to the Arlorans from Strange Adventures #119 (Raiders Of The Giant World), except that they are human-sized instead of giants & have birdwing-like ears instead of butterfly-like ears.

The Decision! Warlord #38
The recap of the previous issue says that OMAC learned he was the creation of aliens who call themselves Visionaries.
Technically he just learned they were from the planet Vision.

Battle Cry Warlord #39
Page 1, Panel 8. “They, too were too late.”
O_o
Perhaps that should read, “They were also too late”?

The one-day battle for St. Louis ended with 56,695 causualties (15,352 IC&C mercenaries & 41,343 Verner Brothers “goons”).
Seems a little high if it’s just soldiers. Possibly the “goons” also counted civilians since St. Louis was Verner Brothers territory, but still with all the technological advancements the future should have, those numbers seem high.

Games Of Power, Games Of Chance Warlord #44
“Seven corporate powers rule the fantastic world that coming”
This, or a variation of it, appears on the title page for the rest of the run. Problem is from this point on there are only 6 corporations running the world as IC&C took over Verner Brothers Entertainment as pointed out in the pages prior to the title page in this issue.

Welcome To The Funhouse Warlord #45
Page 1, Panel 1 & Page 5, Panel 5. Mariela’s green outfit is yellow.

Black Market Warlord #46
OMAC is talking to Brother Eye (the satellite that communicates with him, sends him information & power). At one point during this communication Mariela reacts to something OMAC says thinking he’s talking to her.
Problem is last issue OMAC was talking to Brother Eye in front of her & she didn’t react at all. (In the Warlord run only 2 people ever react to OMAC talking to Brother Eye. I considered it to be a nit, but then figured that maybe people assume he’s insane since he’s said to be a product of the Genetic Wars.)

The Marseilles Connection Warlord #47
Page 8, Panel 2. Wiley Quixote’s face is greyish-purple.

Page 8, Panel 5. His vest is pink rather than purple.

I get the feeling that Mishkin & Cohn had a longer story planned out & then were told to wrap it up quick.
The previous issue OMAC discovered a possible way to ensure peace, which isn’t really followed up much. The story ends with OMAC in bad shape from using a new weapon & leaving with black marketeers, then Z (mad Visionary who can predict the future) confronts & kills Wiley after telling him he’s revised his prediction, that the person he’s seeking will come after a Great Disaster (obvious reference to the Kamandi series). Oddly enough there apparently were plans for Kamandi as a back-up series in Warlord, but it got cancelled for some reason.

Claw The Unconquered was a short-lived (12 issue), sword & sorcery comic, that later had a two-part story published as a backup in Warlord #48 & 49. It’s set in the realm of the fifteen worlds, seven of light, seven of shadow & one in the balance. An ancestor of Valcan’s had been casting a spell and as punishment had his hand replaced by the hand of a demon, a condition that was passed on. Valcan, aka Claw, fought both demons & the influence of his demon hand.

The Curse Of The Claw Warlord #48
Page 5, Panel 3. Shalieka calls the the city of Ichar, “Ishar”.

Hands Across The Hells Warlord #49
Page 5, Panel 6. The demon’s human hand is white.

Generations ago Claw’s ancestor got a demon’s hand, this issue Claw fights the demon who got his ancestor’s hand. The battle however is dragging out & Shalieka tells them that the one way to end this is through a ceremony that she knows how to perform, but one of them will die. They agree & when the spell is performed the three of them are on disks over the Lord of Death. She tells them to clasp cursed hands & then the one who can grab the knife she holds will win.
Thing is to clasp hands Claw & the demon end up facing different directions so Shalieka is actually behind the demon giving Claw a clear advantage.
Admittedly the demon doesn’t really have time to complain about this unfairness, what with Claw grabbing the knife & cutting off the demon’s hand & its falling to Death.
Claw may not object to it since Shalieka is human. (Although at the end we find out she was really working for the Shadow Lords, so maybe not.)

Arak, Son Of Thunder was an American Indian who traveled through Europe in the 8th century. (Basically he gave Roy Thomas a chance to write Conan-type stories while at DC.) The character first appeared in a 16-page preview in Warlord #48 before appearing in his own book the next month.

Arak Son Of Thunder Warlord #48
I'm not sure if this is a nit or not, but it seems fishy.
Pieces of amber are magnetized by electricty & attracted to the metal head of Arak's otumahawk which is about 6 feet away.

The Phantom Stranger
All stories reprinted in Showcase Presents The Phantom Stranger

The early stories in this collection reprint, with new wraparounds, old stories of 2 different series, The Phantom Stranger & Dr. 13, the Ghost-Breaker. I can only assume they chose these 2 series for ironic reasons.

Dr. 13 was basically the rational man who saw through the apparently supernatural to find a logical explanation for it. The writers probably liked the irony of teaming him up with a man who seems to be a ghost. (Although what I've read of the original Phantom Stranger stories, the Stranger also found non-supernatural explanations for the seemingly supernatural.)

However by having Dr. 13 be so against the Stranger & giving him an "I'll prove you're a fake" attitude they've turned him from a rational man into an obsessed loon. They turned the man who looks for the truth into the man who hides from the truth.

Frankly in a world where people get superpowers by coming from another planet, or being exposed to some odd phenomena, a true rational man might actually accept the possibility of ghosts & magic existing as well. Really is it any more unbelievable than superheroes?

Table Of Contents
The TOC does not credit the original appearance of the reprinted portions.

The title of the main story of The Phantom Stranger #4 appears to be "The Dead Don't Sleep Forever!", but the TOC only lists the chapter titles.

No Such Thing As Ghosts! The Phantom Stranger #3
In an incredibly clumsy segue from the envelope to the reprint Terry Thirteen is talking to the owners of the haunted carnival when talk of the supernatural leads him to tell them of another case he worked on. Maybe if the reprint had been about another carnival or circus it might have been appropriate, but it really just came off as a clumsy lead in.

Some Day In Some Dark Alley...
The Phantom Stranger says, "Jay Cahill hired Vasti ten years ago to run his brother's carnival!"
I think that was supposed to be ruin, although Vasti did claim that he was haunting the circus so he could buy it for a song, so maybe he would have run it with Jay as a silent partner?

The Dead Don't Sleep Forever! The Phantom Stranger #4
To the reader The Phantom Stranger says, "Stop! Don't read this sinister shocker! Not unless you're prepared to live on the edge of a nightmare for the rest of your life!"
Yeahhhhhhhhhhhh, riiiiiiiiiight...

Terry Thirteen says, "The same kind of ghost-breaking that my ancestors engaged in! Even though superstitious mobs killed them for it!"
Must be some ancestors we didn't hear about in the good doctor's origin (Star-Spangled Comics #122, reprinted in Showcase #80). There we only heard about the ancestors who dabbled in astronomy, electricity & anesthesia.

This issue the subtlety of The Phantom Stranger vanishes as he uses magic in front of people. I prefer the stories where the Stranger is more subtle with his magic. No doubt trying to make the Stranger into a more obvious superhero type.

The Stranger is identified here as representing the Light, odd considering most stories with him are set at night. Tala, represented as the Night, is introduced as a recurring villainess.

It also introduces 4 teenagers: Spartacus, Attila, Wild Rose & Mister Square who reappear in the next couple of stories.

This next bit may be a nit or not depending on how you want to interpret it.
The secret of the sobbing brownstone is that 18 year old Linda Philips was sealed in by her jealous fiancé in 1869, a 100 years earlier. When the Phantom Stranger opens the wall they find a still living Linda. Dr. Thirteen surmises that she survived through suspended animation.
Yeah, right. The only possible explanation is magic since she would have had no food or water since Reed Jones died (& possibly since he walled her up) & certainly no evidence of bodily waste. The only complaints about the house are a sobbing, not a terrible smell.

The Devil's Playground! The Phantom Stranger #5
Page 2, Panel 6. Attila says, "The sounds turning my spine into a icicle!"
A mistyping, a mislettering, or was it an example of the kid's speech habits?

Page 16, Panel 1. NNAN. Normally Mr. Square is the one who stutters, but here they have Spartacus saying, "H-he's on his last orbit!"

At the beginning the Phantom Stranger says that the ghost of Earl Winthrop returned to atone for the pain & anguish he caused & yet he comes back simply to get someone to cry tears of pity for him so he won't float in eternal loneliness.
Hardly atoning for all the pain & anguish.
Then again I'm not sure Kanigher was thinking straight when he did this story seeing as he actually has the man's ghost appear before he dies. (Written off as a preview of Earl's death by Wild Rose.)

No. 13 Thirteenth Street! The Phantom Stranger #6
In issue 4 the black kid was identified as Attila, here he's called Spartacus. (This story was written by Mike Sekowsky while the earlier 2 were by Robert Kanigher.)

Sekowskey has both Dr. 13 & the Stranger tell people of other encounters they had.
It's one thing when reprinting an old story, but using that to tell new ones???

Tala makes a rather pointless cameo as she has nothing to do with the 'haunting' in the house.

The person responsible is the sister who is upset because after dinner the other sister always takes the pistachio ice cream & leaves her with the chocolate (the other sister thought she liked chocolate).
If both sisters like pistachio why buy chocolate at all??? If they were buying Neapolitan ice cream & one complained about not getting a flavor she liked I could understand it, but generally chocolate & pistachio aren't sold in one carton.

Page 12, Panel 4. The T on guilt didn't print.

Journey To The Tomb Of The Ice Giants! The Phantom Stranger #8
IINM Denny O'Neil worked for Marvel before coming to DC so I wonder if his tale of Ice Giants returning to take back the Earth was something he had planned for Thor?

It was also a relief to not have another story with those four, boring teenagers.

Dr. 13 steps on the hoe to hit Mickey's arm & make him drop the gun, however the previous panel shows Dr. 13 about 5-6 feet away from the hoe & Mickey has already pulled his gun.

A chemist analyzes the ice & says it could only have come from the Arctic.
How could he know that?

The Phantom Stranger says he loathes physical violence.
That's a first. Several of the earlier stories show he's pretty good in a fight.

Obeah Man! The Phantom Stranger #9
NANJ an amusing moment. Dr. 13 sees Attila, Spartacus, Wild Rose & Mister Square & assumes the Phantom Stranger must be around.

Page 14, Panel 5. Printing error. The I from is & most of the A from abroad are missing.

Death... Call Not My Name! The Phantom Stranger #10
Page 17, Panel 5. Dr. 13 says, "The shock off all this".
Of not off.

Walk Not In The Desert's Sun... The Phantom Stranger #11
Somehow two hippies, or similar types, stole a space capsule & launched into space.

Flashback to Tannarak's 'death' last issue has him screaming, "No... Not like this! Noooo!", but he actually said, "The statue-- the statue! No! My life -- my immortality -- Aaaiieeee"

A Child Of Death! The Phantom Stranger #13
Freddy explains the history of his civilization & claims that life was an Eden then, "No man raising his hand against another", "there was no hunger for we shared our food with anyone who came to us", "We shared the earth with great beasts... they do not molest us... they sense the love in our hearts for all living things!"
*Barf*
Does he honestly believe that? Does any animal truly live in peace? Most animals I'm familiar with have moments of strife. Struggles for food are common. Living in peace with great beasts & having love for all living things? What the heck do they eat? Rocks?

The Man With No Heart! The Phantom Stranger #14
At the beginning of the story the Phantom Stranger comes for Broderick Rune.
Why is never revealed.

Page 2, Panel 3. The Stranger says, "I cannot break the bounds of the pentagram!"
Except it's not a pentagram. It has 2 concentric circles & a ring of maybe 9 circles.