X Minus One: "First Contact" 10/6/55
A human ship meets an alien ship in deep space. Both sides would like to make friends, but can they afford to trust one another?
The ending is significantly different from the original novella written by Murray Leinster and not as satisfying, but it's still a good story.
Click HERE to listen or download.
Read/Watch 'em In Order #154
The May 1940 issue of Amazing Stories brought us the third tale in the epic life of Hok, the prehistoric warrior and leader, written by Manly Wade Wellman.
(By the way, the International Science Fiction Database is a wonderful resourse for looking up the publication histories of science fiction, horror and fantasy tales. But they did make a slight error with Wellman's Hok series. They include "Day of the Conquerers," published in Thrilling Wonder Tales in 1940, as part of the series. But that tale, though wonderful in its own right and also about prehistoric men, does not feature Hok. It's a cavemen vs. invading aliens story. And, having written that last sentence, I am now driven to re-visit it soon and review it on this blog.)
Anyway, "Hok Draws the Bow" begins with Hok being saved from Neanderthals (called Gnorrls) by a man named Romm. Romm soon proves himself to be arrogant and greedy, looking for ways to discredit Hok and take over leadership of the tribe. He also casts lustful eyes in the direction of Hok's wife Oleana. He is smart, though. He's invented a way of using a piece of rawhide to put spin on a thrown javelin, thus increasing its range.
But Hok is smart himself. He foils Romm's plans to discredit him. The angry man throws a punch, violating the tradition of hospitality that forced Hok to tolerate him. Romm leaves the village, but he's later seen teaming up with the Gnorrls. In fact, this prehistoric con artist has convinced the Gnorrls to worship him.
That can't be good. But for a time, there is peace. This allows Hok to think about Romm's javelin-throwing trick and experiment with it. Eventually, Hok invents the first working bow.
(There's another blink-and-you'll-miss-it technological advancement in Hok's tribe. They are now living in huts rather than caves. The story doesn't dwell on this, but the implication is that Hok's experience in a doomed Bronze Age city during the last story gave him the idea of the tribe building their own shelters.)
Anyway, Hok has a bow and arrows for himself now, but doesn't have time to teach this new skill to his people before the Gnorrls attack. What follows here is yet another epic battle scene--something Wellman excells at throughout the Hok series. The Gnorrls come in large numbers, using tactics taught to them by Romm. Hok's tribe is forced to retreat and all but eight of its thirty warriors are killed. Desperate fighting and rear-guard actions allow most of the women and children to get away.
Hok asks for help from other clans, but his reputation as a warrior is tarnished by the loss. So he realizes its up to him alone. Armed with his bow, he will attempt to find and kill Romm. If he can do that, the Gnorrl army will cease to be an organized threat.
Well, Hok means to go alone. His wife Oleana refuses to stay behind. So when Hok is captured and about to be burned at the stake, Oleana is nearby to take action. A perfectly thrown javelin frees her husband. And, while Romm leads the Gnorrls in a chase after Oleana, Hok recovers his bow and uses a few well-placed fire arrows to turn the tables on his enemies.
We are now 3/5s of the way through the Hok series and it continues to shine as a great example of how entertaining pulp fiction was. The action scenes are expertly crafted and always exciting. Characterizations are strong and we continue to easily believe in Hok as a great leader and kick-butt warrior. These stories are among Wellman's finest.
You can read this one online HERE.
I love the SF anthologies of the 1950s, because of the variety of tales you would find crammed into any one issue. In this case, for instance, we start out with a Martian spy inhabiting the corpse of a human and then move on to a giant baby unwittingly causing mass destruction.
"The Confessions of a Martian," written by Manly Wade Wellman and drawn by Curt Swan, starts on the planet Mars. The Martians are worried about Earth's attempt to reach the moon. There's been one failed attempt that ended with the ship drifting off into space. What if manking is successful on their next attempt? What if a colonized moon is the first step for invading Mars?
The Martians decide to send a spy to Earth. They recovered the drifting Earth space ship, along with the bodies of the astronauts. The spy's consciousness is transfered into one of the dead guys, then he's teleported to Earth.
He arrives on Earth in the buff, but steals clothes from a scarecrow. He approaches a research facility in time to prevent a communist spy from killing a pretty female scientist.
This gets him a job as a handyman, but he soon demonstrates deep scientific knowledge and is helping to develop a new rocket fuel. When I was reading this story, at this point I thought "I gotta make a snarky comment about no background check being done." But... well, that turns out to be a plot point.
The Martian in a Corpse and the girl scientist fall in love with each other. She also tells him that the moon project is peaceful and there are no plans to invade Mars. The spy passes this on to his bosses on Mars, but they are skeptical.
The spy, by now, has switched sides. But his girlfriend, in the meantime, has become suspicious of him. His fingerprints were checked and he's apparently one of the astronauts lost on the moon mission. She figures he must have ditched the mission because he is a Commie spy. He tells her the truth, but she is a bit skeptical. The poor guy can't get ANYBODY to believe him.
His Martian bosses show up on Earth. The ensuing action scene is pretty nifty.. First, the spy at first lands some solid punches and appears to be winning due to his current body being more used to Earth's higher gravity. But he gets zapped with a paralyzing ray. Fortunately, the Martian-spy-inside-a-human-corpse has a human girlfriend with a pistol. She plugs the Martians and the spy, now thoroughly human in feeling as well as form, begins to warn everyone about the threat from the Red Planet.
It's a strong story, smoothly cramming a lot of story into 10 pages and taking some fun twists and turns.
The next story is "Too Big for This World," written by Manly Rubin using the name Robert Starr and penciled by Bob Oksner.
Dr. Harwood, his wife and his toddler son are living on an island, where the good doctor is studying animals of different sizes. His goal is to create a growth serum and thus increase the world's food supply.
Magnus starts growing rapidly. His mom makes new clothes after sail canvas and using the growth serum on cows ensures a supply of milk. Also, Dr. Harwood used a "tortiose element" in the serum, so Magnus is also invulnerable. Finally, when the kid approaches the size of the Empire State Building, his strides are large enough to allow him to move at 300 miles per hour.
Magnus wades across the ocean to the mainland, where he innocently terrorizes a city and then puts out a forest fire before wandering home. That he's able to find his way home after wandering hundreds of miles isn't discussed, but what the hey.
Dr. Harwood, in the meantime, has developed a reverse-growth serum and Magnus returns to normal size. The problem of world hunger is solved and Magnus is taught an important lesson. Actually, he doesn't seem to learn any lesson at all, but what the hey.
"Too Big for This World" is very, very silly. But it's also very, very fun and its inconsistencies really don't matter at all.
Next week, we look at the side effects of suspended animation and meet a planet with tentacles and a bad attitude.
Philo Vance: "The Coachman Murder Case" 8/31/48
A fishing rod and a shiny house key are the clues that lead Vance to the murderer in "The Coachman Murder Case."
Click HERE to listen or download.
I'm having a hernia repaired this week (well, I am if Night Nurse can stop whining about her love life and get back to work). It's a minor surgery with no risk involved, but it will mean that there are no Wednesday or Thursday posts this week.
You Are There: "Storming of the Bastille" 7/14/47
CBS News covers the beginning of the French Revolution.
Click HERE to listen or download.
Read/Watch 'em In Order #153
The Mummy's Tomb was released in 1942, two years after the previous movie. But it's set 30 years after The Mummy's Hand. This retroactively sets Hand in the early 1910s. The timeline of the Universal Monster movies--and the exact time in which they are set--was always a little elastic. But in this case, the time frames work just fine. There's nothing in Hand to firmly indicate it didn't take place 30 years before it was made. In fact, it actually makes sense, since Egypt in 1940 would have been more concerned with the Afrika Korps than with archeology.
Anyway, Dick Foran and Wallace Ford are back as Steve Banning and Babe Hanson. Now, though, they are made up as old men. Steve is a widower and has a grown son.
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George Zucco also makes a reappearance. He was shot by Babe in the first film, but it turns out he survived. The mummy Kharis had been set on fire, but he was apparently only singed.
Anyway, Zucco's character assigns Mehemet Bey (played by Turhan Bey) to take Kharis to the U.S. and wreak vengence on the entire Banning family. As the book Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films 1931-1946 (1990: written by Michael Brunas, John Brunas and Tom Weaver) points out, there's no explanation why the bad guys wait 30 years before instituting this plan.
I remember how surprised I was when I first saw this film when the stars of the first film (both Steve and Babe) end up getting ruthlessly killed by Kharis so early in the film. Steve's sister is also killed. The 30-year time jump helps make this a little more palatible, since both men are implied to have lived full lives, but it was still a shock. This cycle of Mummy movies aren't the equal to the true classics, but I still liked Steve and Babe.
Steve's son John and the cops eventually tumble to the existance of Kharis.
Mehemet Bey, in the meantime, takes a liking to John's girlfriend and has Kharis kidnap her. This brings everything to a head as John and a torch-bearing posse kill Bey and run the mummy into an abandoned mansion, where the mummy is presumably killed in a fire. But fire didn't completely destroy Kharis in the last film, did it?
"There is a pointed emphasis on speed and efficiency at the expense of character development and atmosphere." (page 318)
All the same, I like the movie. Turhan Bey stands out in his performance as the bad guy. Lon Chaney, Jr. takes over the role of Kharis and, though he isn't given a chance to give the monster any real personality, he does make an effective unstoppable killing machine. And the ending, set in that burning mansion with John Banning fighting to rescue his girl and escape, is quite good. On a more minor but very entertaining point, I do enjoy that the good guys eventually decide that they are indeed pursing a 3000-year-old undead killer based on crime scene forensics.
This, though, is not the end of Kharis.
How many times has a young man tried to impress a girl by taking her to a haunted pueblo and then getting into trouble. It's an old, old story. Indian Chief #9 (January-March 1953) shows us this sort of thing was going on even in Pre-Columbian America.
The writer and artist of "The Haunted Pueblo" are unknown, but (like most of the creators who worked for Dell in the 1950s) they were good at their jobs. The story jumps into the action right away as a young Taos Indian boy named Cloud shows a pretty young lady named Aster that he's not afraid of spooks. Without hesitation, he climbs into the ancient ruins of a pueblo that's rumored to be Ghost Central. Well, he's doesn't find any ghosts. He DOES find Apache warriors who are planning to raid his village. Cloud is captured while Aster hides in a large vase.
Cloud manages to saw through his robes with a piece of broken pottery. We then hit the one arguable weak spot in the otherwise strong story. Cloud tricks his guard into looking directly at the sun--a trick that works only because the guard is apparently an idiot. If you are ever a prisoner, try telling your guard there's a picture on the sun so that he looks directly into it. Try. I dare you. See how well it works.
While the guard is dazzled, Cloud makes a break for it. He finds Aster and they get back to the village. But they can't get anyone to believe there are Apaches hiding in the pueblo. Cloud, in desperation, steals the village shaman's prayer stick. This act can potentially carry the death penalty, but he refuses to return the stick unless someone searches the pueblo.
The shaman, to his credit, figures Cloud wouldn't take a chance like that without a reason. So the pueblo is searched. But the Apaches saw the villagers coming and hid. Nothing is found and the villagers still don't believe Cloud. The village is still in danger.
Cloud and Aster return to the pueblo on their own. Cloud steals a bow and arrow as proof that the Apaches are there, but when the Apaches realize those meddling kids have returned, Cloud uses the weapon to shoot fire arrows as a warning signal.
The kids then spend several desperate minutes holding off the Apaches until help arrives. After a short and brutal fight, the Apaches are captured, the village is saved and Cloud & Aster are vindicated.
As is typical with Indian Chief, the story is expertly told. It moves along at a brisk pace, with the art as well as the script combining to tell the short adventure tale in an effective and exciting manner. Giving that Apache guard the Idiot Ball is definitely a weak point, but overall "The Haunted Pueblo" is an example of the excellent storytelling that was regularly found in the pages of Indian Chief.
You can read it online HERE
No comic book review next week as I'll be in the hospital getting a hernia repaired. In two weeks, we'll begin a two-part look at an issue of Strange Adventures. Martian spies and giant babies will soon abound.
Broadway is My Beat: "The Morris Bernstein Murder" 6/16/50
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The driver of a bakery delivery truck is miurdered. When Detective Glover begins to investigate, someone tries to kill HIM.
Click HERE to listen or download.
It's been nearly a year-and-a-half since I reveiwed L.Sprague de Camp's novel Conan of the Isles. At that time, I promised to PROMPTLY review another novel based on one of Robert E. Howard's characters. Somehow, this got away from me and... well, I'm only now getting to that review. I realize the delay in delivering on this promise has probably caused wars to break out, economies to crumble, family relationships to be destroyed, and kittens to commit suicide. But I'm trying to make up for that.
Anyway, Legion from the Shadows, by Karl Edward Wagner, was published in 1976. It features Bran Mak Morn, a king of the Picts who ruled in northern Britain and fought against Roman invaders in the early 3rd Century.
Wagner, whose had written excellent sword-and-sorcery stories featuring a hero named Kane, proves to be a good match for an REH character. Whereas de Camp's novel was very entertaining, it felt like an Alternate Universe version of Conan rather than the "real" Conan. Legion from the Shadows, though, feels like a "real" Bran Mak Morn story.
Howard had written only a few stories featuring Bran, though two of these are among his absolute best tales. Wagner draws directly on the original stories to build the plot of his novel.
In fact, if you run across this novel, I would recommend reading at least "Worms of the Earth" before reading the novel, since the plot is a direct sequel to the events of that superb horror/adventure yarn. (Reading "Kings of the Night" and the King Kull story "The Shadow Kingdom" is also recommended, though not as necessary. The events of these stories are alluded to in the novel.)
Wagner also did his real-life research, matching the plot up with an historical incident in Roman/British history. At some point in the early 2nd Century, the 9th Roman Legion simply disappeared while serving in Britain. In the novel, we discover that it was wiped out by Picts led by Bran's grandfather. But not all of those Legionaries died. Some of them were entombed in a cavern. It was there they were found by the dwellers who inhabit a vast network of tunnels and caverns beneath the earth's surface.
It's these dwellers--the remnants of a non-human race that had been driven off the surface by humankind in a savage prehistoric war--that Bran had encountered in "Worms of the Earth." While seeking revenge on a Roman officer, Bran has made an alliance with the degenerate race. That hadn't worked out well.
Now the Worms are back, this time with the half-human decendents of the 9th Legion assembled into a formidable military force. They want to reform an alliance with the Picts. And they won't take "no" for an answer. To force Bran's hand in this matter, they kidnap the Pictish king's sister.
Bran pursues them underground to rescue her, but is soon captured himself. What follows is (like many of Howard's original stories) an effective combination of violent adventure and Lovecraftian-influenced cosmic horror. There are battles in the pitch darkness of the underground world. There are escapes, rescues and re-captures. Bran gets unexpected help from a woman warrior who turns out to have her own unexpected agenda. Bran is threatened with having his soul destroyed and his body used as a puppet. His sister is threatened with being turned into a snake.
The sister, named Morgain, is a great character. Brave and resourceful despite her horrific situation, she gets one of the best (and creepiest) action scenes in the book during an escape attempt.
Wagner also recounts the intertwined history of the Picts and the Worms, smoothly weaving that together with Howard's own history of the world that he used to build the worlds of Kull and Conan.
The book's violent conclusion involves Bran and his Picts battling both a terrifying monster and the half-human Legionaires. It's a fantastic novel from start to finish. In my personal Head Canon, it is part of Bran Mak Morn's official history. I think it has earned that spot.
Avengers #111 (May 1973) starts off with Magneto forcing a mind-controlled Wanda to dance for him. I'm not up on modern comics, but I think it's been established that Magneto is not Wanda's dad, which was Canon for a number of years. That would be a good thing, because otherwise this scene would be even creepier than it already is.
Steve Englehart is the writer, while Don Heck does the art. As I mentioned last week, I'm not a huge fan of Heck's art, but this issue is still fun to read and look at.
Anyway, we find out how Magneto is mind-controlling the various X-Men and Avengers he captured last issue. He's figured out how to use the iron in blood to slow the flow of blood to the brain and make sure "my victims have the only the consciousness I allow them!"
In early issues of the X-Men, Magneto occasionally showed telepathic powers, but this soon stopped being mentioned. As for this magnetism-based mind-control power, I don't remember it ever being mentioned again. I may be wrong about that, though. In any case, that power is very much in play for this short story arc.
Meanwhile, the non-captured Avengers (Thor, Vision and Black Panther) have teamed up with Daredevil and Black Widow to rescue the captives. Unfortunately, they don't know where the captives are. But Daredevil theorizes that a nearby meeting of the Atomic Energy Commision might be a target. DD's logic is pure Comic Book Science, but makes sense in that context. Atomics cause mutations, which would interest Magneto.
Magneto and the mind-controlled heroes do indeed attack the conference and kidnap the attendees. The good guys arrive and a well-choreographed fight ensues. But Magneto makes a getaway with his hostages.
That leaves the good guys stumped once again, until Black Panther remembers that Magneto had sicced dinosaurs on the Avengers in the previous issue. They must have come from somewhere nearby. T'Challa will just back-track their scent. So, in the end, the villain will lose because T-Rexes are stinky.
Magneto is mind-controlling the Commission members he kidnapped to get access to atomic installations. But the good guys find his underground base. We get another pretty cool fight scene, but then Magneto steps in to mind-control everyone.
The issue ends with a nice twist. Vision had used his intangibility to inhabit the body of the Piper, Magneto's current minion. He karate-chops Magneto unconscious and thus wins the day.
Comic Book Science reigns again here--he keeps himself intangible enough to avoid damaging Piper's organs, but solidifies his brain just enough to take over Piper's body. I'm completely okay with that.
Vision also explains that the trick is very dangerous to both himself and the person he takes over, so it's not something he would commonly try. That's a perfectly good explanation for why we don't see the Android Avenger doing that trick more often.
I'm still not sure if there's a reason why Magneto didn't keep using mind-control as a common tactic. It would be awfully handy. If anyone knows of if an in-universe explanation was ever given, please comment on it.
Avengers #110 and #111 is an entertaining two-parter. As I stated last week, I'm annoyed that it claims to be a three-parter by inserting an unnecessary crossover with Daredevil #99, which you don't even need to read to follow the story. But, well, it's been a half-century now since this came out. I suppose one should learn to forgive and forget.
Next week, we'll return to the pages of Dell's Indian Chief.
X Minus One: "Chain of Command" 11/21/56
A talking mouse living in a secret atomic research lab asks that the mouse traps in the lab be removed. If a mouse asks you to do something, do it. It turns out they can wield a lot of influence.
Click HERE to listen or download.
Read/Watch 'em In Order #152
By 1940, it must have been pretty obvious to the bigwigs at Universal Pictures that their monsters were money-makers. They could keep churning out sequels and audiences would keep buying tickets.
There had already been three sequels to Frankenstein and one to Dracula. The introduction of the Wolfman was still a year away, but both The Mummy and The Invisible Man would be getting sequels.
Well, The Inivisible Man Returns is definitely a sequel, even though the title tells a bit of a white lie in that it's a different guy turning invisible this time around, so the original not really returning. The Mummy's Hand, though, can be seen as a reboot. The 1932 original featured a resurrected mummy using the name Ardeth Bey and who could pass as a regular human. The 1940 sequel involves an entirely different mummy (named Kharis) who, over the course of a total of four films, never gets out of his mummy wrappings. Or, for that matter, get any dialogue.
The Mummy's Hand takes a little too much time to get to the mummy and some of the comic relief falls a little flat. Though, to be fair, the magician (Cecil Kellaway) has an hilarious scene when he tries to explain to his daughter what he's done with the last of their money. Also, the character of Babe is actually useful in the expedition. If his comedy scenes are only mildly funny, Babe at least serves a useful purpose in the narrative.
I also like that both Marta and Steve use their brains to figure out stuff at key moments. It's Marta who deduces there's a secret entrance to Anaka's tomb somewhere in the first tomb. It's Steve, using his knowledge of hieroglyphics, who finds a way to get to that tomb in time to save Marta.
And, as I said, Tyler's mummy is sincerely creepy. It is apparently completely destroyed at the climax, but--as we all know--it's very, very hard to permanently destroy a Universal monster.
By the way, there are several plot points here (most overtly the existance of a secret society protecting an ancient tomb) that were re-used in slightly altered form for the 1999 reboot of The Mummy.
But that raises an important question that all good nerds are forced to consider. Is The Mummy's Hand a reboot of the 1932 film? Or is it set in the same universe with another mummy popping up as a result of another curse? After all, in a world where one mummy can exist, there's no reason why there can't be a second mummy.
Well, I like to think of the Universal Monsters all existing in the same universe (with the exception of one Invisible Man film which simply can't be made to fit). So I think the 1932 film and the four movies that begin with The Mummy's Hand are indeed in the same universe as Frankenstein, the original Mummy, the Wolfman, the Invisible Man, Dracula and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. It means that, in ancient Egypt, there were two separate incidents in which a guy is cursed to be a mummy after falling for a princess. But those princesses were darn good-lookin', so I'm okay with that idea.
Soon, we'll look at the next film in the Mummy series.
The story starts by adding to some of the ongoing character arcs before moving on to the story. Quicksilver has been missing for some time, but now contacts the Avengers to announce that he was rescued by the Inhumans and has fallen in love with Crystal. Wanda, pleased, announces that she's fallen for the Vision. Pietro does not react well and disconnects after ordering Wanda to dump the android.
More character drama pops up later on and does connect a little more with the main story. Hawkeye, who quit the Avengers after learning that Wanda liked Vision better than him, heads out to San Francisco to see the Black Widow.
Anyway, the drama is appropriate. Marvel Comics had a decades-worth of Soap Opera shenanigans behind it by this point and it was these character-driven arcs that so effectively humanized the protagonists.
But, hey, lets move on to the really cool stuff. Another message comes through on their viewer, showing them the wrecked X-Mansion and unconscious X-Men. The source of this message is mysterious and, not surprisingly, it turns out to be a trap.
Reading this story nowadays, when we are so used to multiple crossovers and various superheroes teaming up on many occasions, it's fun to see the Avengers trying to remember who that Professor X guy is and then reveal that they have no idea where the X-Mansion is. They have to split up and search for it.
They find it eventually. A booby trap gives them a little trouble, but they manage to get the professor, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman and Angel outside.
In dealing with the booby trap, I do wonder why Cap is fighting it while Wanda is barely able to pull Xavier from the room. Couldn't Wanda have hex-blasted the thing while Cap easily carried the professor out? In fact, though I like this issue a lot, my one complaint is that Wanda never gets a chance to show her stuff, even during the ensuing action.
Because lots of action does ensue. Boulders jump up from the ground "like meteors" and we get an awesome Buscema-illustrated three page battle against mind-controlled dinosaurs.
The dinosaurs are defeated and the Avengers are about to confront the Piper, the mutant who has been controlling the monsters. That's when Magneto launches a sneak attack. It was he in Angel's costume, waiting for his chance to strike. He reveals a new mind-control power of his own (something that will be explained in the next issue). He walls off Thor, Vision and Black Panther with boulders, steals the quinjet with the X-Men, Captain America, Iron Man and Wanda are his prisoners.
I do like this story. The action looks cool, with the presence of dinosaurs making everything even better (as is always the case with dinosaurs). Magneto's trap was reasonably clever and the issue ends with an effective cliffhanger. I'm not the biggest fan of Don Heck's art (his figure work always seems a bit stiff to me), but Buscema's art in the second half is great.
I will now rant about something I dislike. The story is said to be continued in Daredevil #99. First, I dislike stories crossing over into different issues, forcing fans to buy something they might not necessarily want to buy. Second, the crossover is largely unnecessary. Most of the Daredevil involves Hawkeye getting into a fight with Daredevil. The uncaptured Avengers show up to get reinforcements. Hawkeye, still in a snit, refuses to come, but Daredevil and the Black Widow do join up.
It's not at all necessary to read this issue to know what's going on in the next issue of The Avengers. A flashback quickly brings us up-to-date and the Hawkeye/Daredevil fight has no effect on the Magneto story. I do love the Marvel Universe of the 1960s and 1970s, but this was a cheap shot.
Anyway, next week, we'll be skipping the Daredevil issue and moving right on to Avengers #111.
