Adventure into Mystery
Entry updated 27 April 2026. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1956-1957). Marvel Comics. 8 issues. Artists include Bill Everett, John Forte, George Roussos, Robert Q. Sale and Manny Stallman. Script writers include Carl Wessler. 36 pages, comprising 6 strips and a short text story.
Adventure into Mystery was an anthology series of predominantly sf stories, save for #8 which included only one. #1 opens with "Future Tense" in which a caped man introduces himself to playwright Rod Clayton: "a scanner" from the far future, his job is to monitor the past for occurrences that might affect his present (see Time Police), and Rod's play, about a Scientist who discovers the means of "opening up" an unused part of the brain, is one such event (it is implied the play would encourage research). That area of the brain is filled with "primordial memory" which the present-day mind cannot handle, so "man's golden age" wouldn't come to pass. Rod is given a choice: to have his memory of the play erased, or come with the Scanner to the future. Thinking of his girlfriend – and learning everyone in the future is taller than him and bald – he chooses the former. "The Conquerors" has the oldest, human-like civilization in the galaxy invading a primitive planet, to educate the natives for exploitation; instead the "savages" educate their captors, teaching them "the dignity of man" and that "civilization progresses for the good of man, not the state" (see Politics) and will spread this message throughout the universe, for the invaded planet was Earth. "Where the Grass is Always Greener" has a young mer-couple (see Under the Sea) visiting the surface world; after experiencing some boorishness they conclude "We should never have left home." "I won't ever be envious or curious about other people or other worlds."
"Straw Man" (#2) has a formless and not-too-bright Alien looking for a human to possess (see Identity Transfer), but occupies a scarecrow instead. "The Man Who Saw the Saucer" retells "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" folktale, but with a Flying Saucer (see UFOs). "Among the Missing" reveals that in 2160 Robots do all the work, resulting in a listless populace who can no longer direct them: they kidnap the best of the present-day's scientists to help them (see Time Travel), but a psychologist points out this means their otherwise Utopian future won't happen (see Time Paradox), so the scientists are returned. "Good-Bye Forever" (#3) has a scientist employed by a dictator to invent a Weapon that will enable him to rule the world; owing to a misplaced tube he is transported to another Dimension where there is peace. His interference almost brings war; lesson learnt, he returns to his world and destroys the weapon. "Bedlam" has an explorer bumping into an alien scientific expedition in South America. They explain they will not make contact because humanity would react badly; the explorer disagrees and persuades them to disguise him as an alien to prove his point; he is wrong.
A man finds Atlantis in "Voice in the Shell" (#4), but the inhabitants' faces strike him as evil, so he decides to keep his discovery secret. "Change Your Face, Sir" (#5) has the overthrown dictator and his chief of secret police attempting to avoid capture by forcing a scientist to use his speedy plastic surgery Invention on them (see Medicine): he does so, but when they eventually peel off the bandages each looks like the other. "Secret of the Glittering Glob" (#6) concerns a substance named "gravium" extracted from the Earth's core: this is stolen and unwisely pocketed by thieves who are then dragged by Gravity back down the shaft used to extract it. In "The Man Who Wasn't" an "image projection machine" enables dissenters to escape a communist state: the rebels' images are solid and can converse. A scientist accidentally invents an Invisibility potion in "The Invisible Doom" (#7): a janitor steals it to commit crimes, but the scientist fools him by pretending the antidote does not work (apparently "the guy who's invisible doesn't look invisible to himself"). In "The Watcher" another scientist invents a portal, allowing him to view and interact with scenes anywhere: on attempting to discover its range, the vacuum of space and a sun's radiation almost kill him, before he sees an alien civilization that proves hostile, forcing him to destroy his invention before they get to him. He vows to rebuild it – but this time with the involvement of other scientists and thinkers. "Mission...Murder" sees foreign agents send a Robot to kill a US mathematical genius, only to discover said genius is a robot too, and had predicted the attack. "Trapped in the Room of Darkness" has a machine designed to reform incorrigible criminals, but actually creates an honest double: when the process is reversed, the subject's "good" instincts are now able to control the bad ones. Save for one sf story about a time machine, #8 is all Fantasy.
Hampered by each strip being only 3-4 pages, Adventure into Mystery mostly consisted of forgettable tales. Of the handful of exceptions, two are memorable for the wrong reasons: "Where the Grass is Always Greener" with its message of conformity and discouraging curiosity, and the smugness of "The Conquerors". [SP]
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