(Planet Comics 003, 1940) The work of the Lord of Jupiter is never done, as Auro (Lord of Jupiter, natch) learns one day when he receives the alarming news that a giant flame-breathing dragon has been carrying off dozens of his subjects. And indeed, not only is there a dragon running around causing trouble but that dragon is actually a guy who can turn into a dragon and who has used his humanoid powers of reasoning to correctly identify Auro…
(Planet Comics 003, 1940) In his first appearance Felon is a fairly ordinary space pirate captain, terrorizing the spaceways with a fleet of cool black delta-shaped ships and a device that intercepts and disrupts communications across the Solar System. In this capacity, Felon gets absolutely trounced by Captain Nelson Cole: his men are beaten up and then blown out of the sky by Cole and the Solar Force. The survivors are taken into custody – Felon is not specifically mentioned…
(Planet Comics 003, 1940) We open on Spurt Hammond, the Planet-Flyer himself, intercepting an alarming series of images from the planet Mercury. Giants? Explosions? Girls!? What could it all mean? It turns out that the girl in question is Princess Zilla, erstwhile ruler of Mercury but recently deposed by her Prime Minister Radgio, who schemes to conquer the world using mutated Mercurians such as the previously-seen giant. Which I suppose strongly implies that Zilla was the ruler of only a…
(Planet Comics 002, 1940) We are introduced to Agra when Earth-woman Ava bursts in to Auro. Lord of Jupiter’s court to warn him that Agra intends to kill him. She really talks up Agra’s prowess vis-a-vis elephant- human- and tree-slaying, and hopefully takes the time to describe his outfit which for all the world looks like it was designed by Mike Grell just after he finished with Disco Era Cosmic Boy. Auro of course does not know the meaning of…
Here they are! Some guys you’ve never heard of! the Press Guardian: In the Press Guardian’s first outing he is known as the Falcon, but he has the same core mission as he will throughout his career: to clean up crime in Central City via the free press, even if he must do so in a pretty bad costume. A fair few places online list reporter Flash Calvert as the Falcon’s secret identity but this is one of your classic…
(Planet Comics 002, 1940) Sinfo is a scientist of the unspecified future who has used his mind control technology to dominate a city of Neptunian Crab-Men and is now looking into the possibility of doing the same to the people of Earth. As such, he has captured space adventurer Buzz Crandall along with his associates Dr and Susan Curan. I have a lot of affection for Sinfo, 100% of which are because I appreciate his aesthetics. Why, just look at…
(Planet Comics 002, 1940) Having defeated the evil Sarko, Flint Baker and his crew are ready to head home to accept their accolades as the as-fas-as-anyone-knows first humans to land on Mars, when word comes from Princess Viga that the city of Ru is facing yet another deadly threat. This time it’s a giant four-armed primate that attacks three times per year and hauls Martians away to an uncertain and terrifying fate. Will Flint Baker help them? Of course he…
(Planet Comics 001, 1940) Quorak, like Moloka before him, seems to have developed his planet-wrecking technology without a clear indication of how he was going to use it. The caption box mentions destroying “all traces of civilization” and Quorak himself speaks of becoming “the greatest power in the whole universe!” but there have to be a lot of steps in the flow chart with “????” and “work this out later” on them. He does look very menacing while sitting at…
(Planet Comics 001, 1940) Zan lives on the far-off planet Volcus and uses the energies of its magnetic core to power his spaceship fleet and capture yet more spaceships. And why does he do this? Why, so that he can turn their crew into science zombies and eventually amass an army large enough to conquer the universe! (he also has this one lady with him at all times and I’m not sure what her role is exactly because she does…
(Planet Comics 001, 1940) We’re in the 1940 run of Planet Comics now, so look out for a fair few of space tyrants with one-word nonsense names. Like Sarko here! Sarko is an Earth man who came to Mars in 1933 and set about conquering the dark side of the planet. Now it’s the near future and Sarko has his sights set on taking over the remainder of Mars and the light-side city of Ru in particular. The… Ruvians? No…