January 1953: The Cosmic Convicts

Invisibility and flight are considered to be the top two fantasy super powers, and I’ve long been intrigued by any story that featured either.
For example, the 1935 Doc Savage adventure The Spook Legion, featuring an invisible criminal gang, was the first that prompted me to part with the two quarters necessary to buy one of the Man of Bronze’s Bantam paperback reprints. The dramatic hook: how could a protagonist possibly overcome invisible enemies?
In 1953, the Man of Destiny faced the same predicament.
When a hydrogen bomb is stolen from a Pacific atoll during a test countdown, accredited observer Captain Comet traces the crime to invisible thieves from the planet Lamia in Devil’s Island in Space (Strange Adventures 28, Jan. 1953).
Devil’s Island, a penal colony in French Guiana, was notorious for its harsh treatment of prisoners. The island penitentiary operated from 1852 until the very year this issue of Strange Adventures was published.
Turns out that the Septarch, the ruling council of seven on the planet, gave their most incorrigible criminals a choice — a painless death or exile “…on a backward, semi-civilized world called Earth.”
But the criminals’ leader Mag-A-Til, setting up headquarters in a western cave, recreates a Lamian invisibility ray so they can steal the H-bomb, which they plan to use to power a space ship.
Another nuclear explosive would be stolen during a bomb test in Journey Into Mystery 86 (Nov. 1962), but the Mighty Thor would retrieve it by defeating Zarrko the Tomorrow Man.
Comet spots the criminal’s invisible aircraft with the Cometeer’s radar, but his ship is grounded by a ray blast. As the invisible criminals’ uranium thefts mount, Comet anticipates where they will strike and is able to thwart their super-scientific deviousness with the low-tech solution of a paint sprayer.
Dripping with bright yellow paint, the interplanetary exiles become an easy target for the man of 100,000 A.D.
“As long as I can see the creatures, I can hit them with enough concentrated mental energy to paralyze them for a while,” he thinks.
Comet’s telepathic probe reveals the criminals’ origin, so the superhero hauls them back to Lamia and confronts the ruling council.
“Your superior science gives you know right to use Earth as a dumping ground for your criminals,” he tells them. “It better not happen again!”
Zooming back to Earth with his ultra-spectrum drive, Comet thinks, “They promised to find an uninhabited world to exile their criminals to from now on! And they’d better keep their promise — or they’ll get another visit from me — that won’t be nearly as friendly!”
The story ends with the happy sight of an H-bomb exploding as expected.

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