Cover Cavalcade

 APRIL IS KILLER ROBOT MONTH!

This 1969 cover is by George Wilson.

Giant Robot Monsters and Still More Teenage Shenanigans

 

cover art by Vic Prezzio

As teenage sidekicks go, the teenage Outsiders do okay for themselves. In Magnus Robot Fighter #14 (May 1966), they help save the world. 

"The Monster Robs" is written by Herb Kastle and is drawn (in his usual magnificent fashion) by Russ Manning. The story begins with a meteor landing in a city park. In any science fiction story, this is never a good thing. Meteors are never just meteors. They always bring something ominous. 

In this case, they bring bubbles that seep out of the meteor whenever its dark. In turn, these bubbles cause robots to enlarge and go on rampages. Both the meteor in the park and a fragment picked up by one of the Outsiders do this.

Soon, there are giant robots rampaging throughout the city. Magnus rips the head off of one, but has to resort to an experimental ray gun to take them out enmasse. 

Magnus is soon urging the North Am city council to destroy all robots, because otherwise they will grow big enough in mass to threaten the Earth. But obstrusive bureacrats exist in the future as well as in the present. They complain about the cost of the damage done so far, but refuse to consider losing more money by dealing with the problem.

Fortunately, the Outsiders have been experimenting with the fragment they have and have discovered the bubbles that enlarge the robots and also that the meteor only emits them when it is dark. They have to tackle a robot to make a rather unauthorized entrance into the council chamber, but they soon bring Magnus up to speed.

Magnus confirms the information about the bubbles, but that raises a question of what to do about it. The meteor is indestructable and it can't be encased in metal, because the bubbles would merely make the metal grow. (A bit of a plot hole here--if the bubbles enlarge all metal and not just robots, why aren't the buildings of North Am growing larger?)

Well, before they can deal with the meteor, they need to take care of a few more attacking giant robots. When Magnus is knocked out in the ensuing fight, the Outsiders use some clever tactics to take out a few giants themselves.

Eventually, Magnus hits upon the idea of encasing the meteor in quartz. This, plus an whopping big ray gun to destroy the giants, soon solves the problem.

As with the issue we looked at last week, the Outsiders tend to cause trouble by sometimes ignoring rules or safety measures (sneaking into a restricted area in issue #8, taking a piece of the meteor in this issue). But they always accept responsibility, act intelligently in dangerous situations and are willing to put themselves at risk to do what's right. As I said above, as teenage sidekicks, they do okay for themselves.

Next week, we'll watch Superman sit around and do nothing.

Robots, Bad Weather and the Shenanigans of Teenagers

 

cover art by George Wilson

We learn in Magnus Robot Fighter #8 (November 1964--written & drawn by Russ Manning) that there was once a war between those who wanted a giant weather control tower built and those that didn't. 

The pro-weather control faction won and this seems to be a good thing, as this issue opens with a celebration of the 1,100th anniversary of that victory. The crowds are givin the opportunity to experience different weather conditions and just have fun.

Well, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye--or rather, when an insane battle robot takes over the weather tower.

At first, no one knows exactly why the weather has gone wild, but Magnus soon has a chance to save a teenager from some rogue robots and gets an explanation.

The kid (named Howie) is one of four teenagers in a group called the Outsiders, which have been inspired by Magnus to work to be independently capable and not depend so much on robots. Ironically, while climbing down to see the site of the last battle between the pro- and anti-weather control factions, they unearth an old Battle Robot, which is programed to take over the weather control tower and use it to wreak destruction. The Outsiders make a valiant attempt to stop it with an avalanche, but it blasts its way through. Taking over both the weather tower and the the robots guarding it. Those were the robots trying to kill poor Howie before he could warn anyone.

There's a lot of detail in the plot to make it all work, but Manning gives us the exposition through an action-packed flashback that provides us all the information we need without slowing the story down at all. It's an example of expert graphic storytelling.

Storming the weather tower is now the thing to do. With Howie tagging along, Magnus out-fights guard robots and uses his intelligence to get past weather related obstacles (such as a literal acid rain). Once again, it is expert graphic storytelling. Manning provides us with superb art and with a hero who has to use both his physical abilities and his brains to win out.

Reaching the tower, Magnus finds the other three Outsiders, who snatch up rayguns from destroyed guard robots and give the Robot Fighter cover while he rips the head off the battle robot and saves the day. One of the Outsiders is wounded during the fighting, but 40th Century medical care saves his life.

A nice touch at the end is the Outsiders' willingness to take responsibility for letting loose the battle robot. But Magnus figures that would have happened eventually and they weren't to blame (an arguable point, since the boys had been rock-climbing in a restricted area), but the four boys had literally put their lives on the line to save the city, so we can give this to them. 

As is typical of Russ Manning's Magnus stories, this one is glorious. The art is fantastic and the story is solid and well-constructed.

In fact, let's spend another week with Magnus, looking at another issue that involves the Outsiders.

Cover Cavalcade

 

February is George Wilson Month. This one is from 1969.

Magical Robots!

cover art by Vic Prezio

The whole point of Magnus Robot Fighter was to, well, have the hero fight robots. Magnus lived a couple of thousand years in the future, where he realizes that humanity if becoming a little too dependent on robots. He's trained in martial arts to a degree where he can shatter steal, so he's the go-to guy when a robot goes rogue or an evil human is using robots for nefarious purposes.

The original Gold Key Magnus comic was created, written and drawn by Russ Manning, who provided consistently excellent art. Working within a premise that at first might sound limiting in terms of plot variety, Manning ending up giving us a unique comic book full of clever plot ideas.

For instance, Magnus #21 (February 1968) is about a robot powered by black magic. It begins with a ghost-like figure springing a couple of criminals from prison. It's a wonderful way to start off an issue that will grow increasingly bizarre while still following a definite internal logic. The crooks simply walk out of prison and, though robots try to raise an alarm, but the humans have been hexed so that they see nothing untoward. In fact, the humans order the poor robots to have their logic circuits checked.

The crooks are brought to a secret hideout and ordered to build a robot powered by black magic, using incantations rather than tools to put the thing together. This robot, which will be powered by the belief of humanity that robots are essential, will presumably be invulnerable to harm.

And at first, this seems to be true. The bad guys use a magic spell on the food suppy of North Am (the continent-sized city that Magnus watches over), draining everyone of will power. Magnus is affected by the spell as well. So, when he tries to fight the magic robot, a combination of this and the fact that magic is being used on him in various horrific ways, means he soon loses the fight.

The panel below, in which poor Magnus' arms have been turned into feathers, is by itself worth the price of the book.

But a Native American doctor and his family are unaffected by the will-sapping spell. Magnus finds out why when he's brought to what is essentially a holo-deck recreation of a Blackfoot settlement, created to remind the Indians of where they came from.

It turns out that the Blackfoot tribe still grows their own food, so they weren't hit by the will-sapping spell. This allows Magnus to form the core of a resistance group. Unaffected food is slipped into the main supply and Magnus prepares to fight the evil robot while video cameras broadcast the battle across North Am. The idea here is that the people will root for Magnus and the Blackfoot tribe will use this faith in Magnus to magically power him up.


Anyway, this works. Magnus has a rematch against the robot and beats it (giving us yet another classic panel along the way). The crooks are caught and its discovered that the ghost that started the whole business was sent by Malev-6, an evil robot planet that is also a reoccuring villain in the series.

To appreciate this comic, you have to be okay with introducing magic into Magnus' overtly science fiction universe. But if you are willing to go along with this (and I am), then Manning succeeds in giving us yet another clever variation of the Magnus-fights-robots concept, strengthened by great pencil work and two of my personal favorite panels of comic art.

Next week, we'll visit with Daredevil as he fights a very, very tall supervillain.