October 1951: Granite Guys and Gravity Gone

In Strange Adventures 13 (Oct. 1951), Adam Blake spends his library lunch hour rocketing off to investigate stone creatures that have mysteriously appeared in Geyser Park, Wyoming (presumably Yellowstone).
Titles edited by Julius Schwartz would often spotlight natural wonders like geysers, waterspouts and the aurora borealis in their stories, providing the opportunity for readers to acquire some painless scientific knowledge through footnotes.
In the course of the adventure When the Earth Was Kidnapped, our planet is dragged toward the blue sun of Alpha Centauri. Gravity goes awry, causing Midwest City citizens to float into the air.
Justice League of America 5 (1961)
It’s the same weird phenomenon the Justice League would encounter in the Gardner Fox story When Gravity Went Wild (Justice League of America 5, June-July 1961).
Stone giants, Earth being dragged through space, gravity upended, a city beneath the Earth, alien beings rocketed back to Alpha Centauri — DC knew how to pack a lot of sensational stuff into eight short pages in 1951. With three other stories and various feature pages in a single issue, that was one dime well spent!
When a mob panicked by Earth’s peril tries to smash the stone men, Captain Comet stops them with a scolding: “Men, lynch law isn’t American! Besides, these creatures may be innocent! Go back to your homes…”
Captain Comet was not only futuristic. He was optimistic.
Coincidentally, an almost identical scene would appear in the film Superman and the Mole Men, released in November 1951. The Man of Steel, too, would defend alien beings from an unthinking lynch mob.
Captain Comet’s peaceful resolution of the interstellar conflict telegraphs what would be another of Schwartz’s recurring themes, seen again and again in Strange Adventures even after the superhero had departed — that intelligent beings can often resolve their differences to the advantage of all concerned, if they stop to use their heads instead of fighting.
Having saved his own planet and an alien race, Captain Comet wraps up his fanciful exploit with a quick nod to The Wizard of Oz.
“The good old sun!” exclaims a park ranger. “You did it, Captain Comet! You brought us home — to our own orbit!”
Captain Comet thinks, “I guess there’s no place like home — for us or the stone people!”
The Man of Destiny was cover-featured in eight of the first 10 issues after his debut, and was clearly the star of Strange Adventures from mid-1951 through early 1952. But he was featured on the cover of only four of the next 10 issues. Comet’s fortunes improved in May 1953, with issue 32, and he was cover-featured for the next 14 issues straight, until June 1954.



Comments

  1. Dan HagenAugust 20, 2024 at 5:56 AM

    Sam Kujava:
    "Captain Comet was not only futuristic. He was optimistic." Well said, Dan, and that sums up DC Comics in that era. A style, a tone, that when abandoned or lost, would not return.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dan HagenAugust 20, 2024 at 7:49 AM

    Foster H. Coker III:
    Great post! I have had a soft spot for Captain Comet since I first met the character in SSoSV #2 in mid-1976.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dan HagenAugust 20, 2024 at 7:50 AM

    Michael Wurl:
    Your posts are always well written and detailed, as well as fun and enlightening.
    Great stuff!

    ReplyDelete

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