In 1961, just before Atlas Comics became Marvel Comics and jumped back into the superhero business, yet another of its many science fiction anthologies hit the newsstands. Amazing Adventures #1 (June 1961) featured three stories, the first of which was written by Larry Lieber and drawn by Jack Kirby.
During this time, the Earth was getting invaded a lot by many different aliens. It seems that every other Wednesday was Alien Invasion Day. You could almost set your watch by it.
"Torr" tells the story of one of those invasions, though it starts out as if its a murder mystery, with a man named Paul Ramsey on trial for murdering his friend John Carter.
I don't know, by the way, if using the name "John Carter" was a shout-out to Edgar Rice Burroughs. It would be fun if it is, though, so let's go with that.
Anyway, Paul and John were atronomers who observe a space ship landing on earth. The guy flying that ship is a monsterous alien named Torr, who communicates via telapathy and amkes no bones about his plans to conquer Earth and enslave humanity.
John takes a potshot at Torr with a shotgun, which does no immediate harm to the alien, but makes him realize that there might be more weapons on Earth capable of hurting him. After forcing the two humans into a cave and blocking off the entrance, he then proceeds to switch bodies with John Carter. Once this is done, he is in complete control of Carter's body, but Carter can't quite manage to control Torr's body, which Torr-inside-John can control with thought waves.
The idea here is that Torr can now look over Earth and start his conquest without anyone knowing he's there. He forces Paul to drive him into the city, giving Paul a wristwatch-like device that can't come off. If Paul tells anyone about Torr, the device will send a signal to Torr's people, telling them where Earth is.
Torr also helpfully explains how he'll conquer Earth on his own--by releasing a hypnotic vapor that will cause everyone to hallucinate horrible, nightmarish events until they surrender.
Though Torr keeps hiting the stereotype of the Evil Villain who explains his plans for no reason, the plan itself is a pretty scary and dramatically effective threat, while the device Paul wears that keeps him from telling anyone about Torr is a unique plot twist.
Anyway, Paul realizes the only thing that can stop Torr is to kill him, even though it means killing his friend's body. And that's how Paul ends up on trial for murder while refusing to explain why he did it.
Up to now, clever ploting and typically wonderful Jack Kirby art have moved the story along nicely--especially Jack's images of a world engulfed in nightmare hallucinations. I'm not sure I care for the final plot twist, though, in which John Carter comes back to life because Paul had actually shot Torr.
I don't think this quite makes sense even in context of this story. It is John's body that still has bullet holes in it, regardless of whose life force was inhabiting it at the moment he was shot. Also, the story might have arguably been more effective if it ended with John being executed for the murder, performing what was essentially an act of self-sacrifice to save humanity.
This is arguable, though, and the story is overall a very good one.
Next week, Spider Man meets Dracula... almost.
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