July 1953: Dilemma of the Disguised Dictator


Frank R. Stockton’s much-anthologized 1882 short story The Lady, or the Tiger? gets a science-fiction update in The Lady or the Tiger-Man (Strange Adventures 34, July 1953).
Captain Comet discovers a planet that seems to be telepathically subjugated by the mind dictator Esklon, who has the white-suited bald fanatic look of Superman’s early foe the Ultra-Humanite—a look designed, in this case, to deceive the reader. Because when Esklon forces Comet to choose between doors which contain a beautiful girl and a powerful, caped Tiger-Man, Esklon uses the distraction of the super-hero’s ensuing struggle with the beastman as an opportunity to kill the Tiger-Man, who was the planet’s true mind dictator.
The story ends with a surprise: Rana, Esklon’s sister and the girl behind the door, stows away on the Cometeer and flies to Earth with Captain Comet “…to learn things that might help my people.”
In the last panel, Adam Blake introduces her to Zackro as his new library assistant.
That leaves me with two questions. How does a woman “stow away” on a small spaceship piloted by a man who has an array of super-senses, including telepathy? And why can poor Lily Torrence, who now has yet another romantic rival for Adam Blake’s affections, never seem to catch a break?
 The tale’s Tiger-Man, meanwhile, would join DC’s surprisingly large collection of tiger-men who appeared in Blackhawk, Batman, My Greatest Adventure, Tales of the Unexpected and World’s Finest Comics.
Batman would face a similar Stockton-inspired dilemma, making the wrong choice in The Purr-fect Crime episode of the Batman TV show in 1966.

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