Astonishing [comic]
Entry updated 29 June 2026. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1951-1957). Atlas Comics (see Marvel Comics). 61 issues (numbered #3-#63). Artists include Sol Brodsky, Carl Burgos, Dick Ayers, Tony DiPreta and Ed Winiarski; others who worked only on 1-2 strips include Lou Cameron, Reed Crandall, Steve Ditko, Myron Fass, Jack Kirby, Roy G Krenkel and Gray Morrow. Script writers include Bill Everett, Stan Lee, Paul S Newman and Carl Wessler. 36 pages, initially with 3-4 strips per issue, increasing to 5-6, plus a short text story.
Astonishing continued the numbering of Marvel Boy (two issues, 1950), reflected in #3-#6's focus on the Superhero Marvel Boy – first appearance Marvel Boy #1 (December 1950), created by Stan Lee and Russ Heath – who has 2-3 stories in each of those issues. Bob Grayson is the son of a Jewish Scientist who went to Uranus (see Outer Planets) after the Nazis (see World War Two) accidentally killed his wife and daughter. Growing up in the Utopian civilisation of Uranus, he returns to Earth as a young man to fight crime; though acclimatized to Uranus and weaker than the average man (he has to take daily uranium pills to stay alive and give him strength), he is intelligent and armed with bracelets that control Gravity and light (see Superpowers); he gets a job as an insurance investigator. In one of #3's tales Bob fends off an Invasion of Uranus by the "Satanians", who wrongly believe their planet is heading towards the Sun. As his planet lacks the equipment and knowledge to so, an Alien moves to Earth and builds an "anti-radioactivity Ray" that cleans up contaminated areas: his people intend to use it when they invade Earth (#5). Another humanoid alien scientist "from the satellite planet Agros" invents a cloth which shrinks on contact with human flesh; his plan is to make clothes from it and thus wipe out everyone on Earth, for unspecified reasons (#6)
Despite #3-#5 having a banner reading "astonishing tales of science fiction" the non-Marvel Boy stories are usually Horror or fantasy: this is rectified from #6 with "astonishing tales of the supernatural", becoming "terror tales of the night" for #20-#33; then, after a few bannerless issues, the blander "all brand-new astonishing tales". From #7 it is a horror comic with occasional sf tales, but gradually the sf content comes to dominate. Astonishing reflects 1950s comics history: the superhero's decline in popularity, the boom in horror comics, with the resulting moral panic (see Fredric Wertham) leading to the industry's shift to a blander, moralistic horror and greater use of sf plots. The horror era – which lasted until the mid-30s issue numbers – was Astonishing's strongest (with some good covers, particularly #30); the subsequent period was full of slight, forgettable stories, often with unsubtle Cold War propaganda, and usually too short to develop any interesting ideas they might contain (though there are exceptions).
Sf stories include "The Man-Eater" (#8), featuring humanoid bat-like aliens who can Shapeshift into human form and devour people; as the authorities are powerless, Paranoia and fear spread, and there is no happy ending. #10 is all sf. Scientists create Zombies and a shrinking fluid (see Miniaturization). "I Solved the Problem" is set in 3500 CE, a Utopia, save that with no disease and extended lives, the Earth is now covered with buildings with nowhere left to produce food; a scientist comes up with the answer, a nutritious plant that grows speedily on buildings; unfortunately the proves too successful, engulfing humanity and becoming the sole life on the planet. In "Melvin the Martian" Earth is losing its war with Mars but fools its sole prisoner into stealing a Spaceship in which to return home; this is also a "planet-busting H-bomb".
In "A Thousand Years" (#19) a scientist briefly tests his Suspended Animation machine on a Cat: this is a success, so he releases the animal, and after further refinements uses the device on himself to avoid an imminent nuclear war. Awakening a thousand years later he finds the Earth ruled by now humanoid cats who have wiped out humanity; his prototype had boosted the Intelligence of their common ancestor. Wilbur invents a mass produced Robot to serve mankind in "Poor Wilbur" (#24); unfortunately, to avoid wear and tear he makes them indestructible and – when the consequences if this sinks in – they decide to enslave humanity. "Age Before Beauty" (#28) has a vain middle-aged man crashing on a planet and falling for the young nurse that tends to him; surprised he does not object to her youth (twenty-one), she agrees to marry him: he is initially pleased she seems to be growing younger, but becomes embarrassed when it continues. A doctor says she is suffering from "extreme youth" and a transfusion is required; thinking he means blood the husband volunteers, only to learn it is an "age transfusion": he ends up a dying baby, his wife delighted to be in her late middle age. One of the most impressive tales is "The Eyes" (#30), where enormous tentacled eyeballs that come from the sea, and from whose pupil shines a light that melts flesh and bone; they head for graveyards and take the eyeballs from corpses then return to the sea to nurse them until fully grown. In the same issue "Rulers of Earth" has alien invaders easily take over our pacifist planet, but then rather naively follow the ruler's suggestion of training young Earthmen for their army. "I Ain't Got No Body" (#33) has a scientist perform an Identity Exchange with a tramp: the scientist as tramp dies in an accident, and the tramp as scientist anticipates an easy life, until the scientist's wife poisons him. "Fair Exchange" (#40) Earth spacemen land on a new planet; shortly after an alien ship lands and a friendly conversation ensues. The humans assume they are locals so when the aliens (who are just passing through) mention their own planet's commonest element is uranium they acquire this planet's mineral rights in exchange for their hydroponics technology, unaware that the planet is barren. "The Radioactive Man" (#43) has a man wandering into a nuclear test site during an atomic explosion, which turns him Invisible for a few weeks, enabling him to sneak into business meetings and make investments based on what he hears: his stocks boom ... only to discover the explosion also sent him back to October 1929 (see Time Travel) and the great Wall Street crash. "Inside the House" (#44) has a couple win a house in a contest they never entered; though pleased, they are wary of a strange, bare room. A con-artist couple persuade them to leave by falsely claiming they are the true winners, then unwisely enter the room: the rest of the house falls apart and a spaceship housing the room flies to Mars with its specimens for Martian scientists. In "The Hidden Valley" (#53) a journalist finds a Tibetan Lost Race, frozen in time (see Suspended Animation): in 955 CE they used Technology to contact Mars, only for the isolationist Martians to respond accordingly. "The Black Boxes" (#57) has the USA failing to find a defence against a new Russian rocket, but the world's sky fills with millions of small black boxes that render the weapon useless: a bemused scientist is given credit, though he has no idea where the boxes came from. "Danger in the Streets" (#58) is a retelling of the King Midas myth: a scientist is exposed to an atomic pile and everything he touches turns to uranium: he thinks this will make him wealthy, until even his food turns to uranium; fortunately he is eventually cured. In "Endless Journey" (#58) an escaped prisoner consumes a chemist's formula which Teleports the drinker to anywhere in the world he thinks of, with the drawback of remaining in a place for only a few minutes before being stuck in limbo; the victim must constantly think of places to be. In the same issue's "The Night of May 10th" it is 10 May in 4956 CE, and a janitor accidentality turns on an unfinished time machine, causing Time in Reverse events on the present day's 10 May; the effects are beneficial.
Stories involving Mars and martians are common; others include a pacifist alien trying and failing to warn Earth of his people's imminent invasion. On learning an alien's home world is made of gold, a greedy scientist forces the alien to take him there; unfortunately it is the Sun. A man builds a rain maker in a drought-stricken area: sure enough it rains, but the locals insist it was a coincidence; it does not stop raining until they apologize. At an observatory two scientists discuss life on other worlds and conclude the mathematics means there will be worlds like ours but with slight differences; cut to an observatory on another planet where two Dinosaurs are having the same conversation. A time machine takes a dictator back 50 years, where he plans to use modern science to rule the world – only to arrive as a baby. A man's job is to keep a clockwork machine at the centre of the Earth wound, otherwise Gravity will fail. [SP]
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