September 1952: When Earth Hated Humanity

Captain Comet battles global climate change in Doomsday on Earth (Strange Adventures 24, Sept. 1952).

With the planet shaking itself apart, as volcanoes erupt in Manhattan and whirlpools swallow boats in Lake Erie, accumulated knowledge once again proves to be the key to humanity’s salvation.

In the science fiction and superhero comics edited by Julius Schwartz, knowledge-based professionals invariably save the day, whether they be physicists, archeologists, pilots, forensic scientists, museum directors, lawyers, writers or — like Captain Comet — librarians. Their breadth of learning and cool level-headedness enable them to sort things out even in the face of worldwide catastrophe.

Here, Adam Blake’s perfect mutant memory recalls that these events were predicted in a book in his public library.

Tracing the vanished author deep into the Earth, Captain Comet tangles with a griffin, a mythological creature that has the body, tail and legs of a lion and the head, wings and talons of an eagle. Another such beast will battle the JLA in Secret of the Sinister Sorcerers (Justice League of America 2, Dec. 1960-Jan. 1961).

The source of the trouble turns out to be our planet’s giant, white, multi-eyed, pulsating brain, which has been irritated by our species’ nuclear detonations and is fighting back.

Overwhelmed by the world-brain’s superior mental power, Comet nevertheless manages to shoot and deflate it “like a giant gas bag,” marking the only time an ecological crisis has been solved by lobotomy.