Space Detective
Entry updated 16 January 2023. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1951-1952). Four issues. Avon Periodicals, Inc (see Avon Comics). Artists include Tex Blaisdell, Gene Fawcette, Joe Orlando and Wally Wood. Writers of scripts include Walter Gibson. Each issue has four comic strips, plus one or two short text stories (except #2).
Wealthy young philanthropist Rod Hathway's hobby is "relieving the miseries of the poor", but he also has a secret identity: The Space Detective. Rod and his secretary Dot Kenny are "Avenger and Teena, interplanetary crime fighters" – using deduction, Technology and fisticuffs in the name of justice (see Crime and Punishment). Each issue has a three part serial where they pursue a villain through the Solar System. In #1 they frustrate the criminal activities of Martian renegade Maag, whether it be raiding Spaceships, manufacturing opium on Venus (see Drugs) or robbing banks. Maag's defeat is a tad fortuitous – having captured the pair, he unwisely turns his back on Rod, who promptly wraps manacles around his neck. In #2 they face Gargoyle, who employs the Bat Women of Mercury ("born with imbecile brains and with violent criminal instincts impossible to change"), turns Mars's Robots into murderers and steals slaves from the legalized Saturn (see Outer Planets) slave trade. When finally captured. Rod promises the slaves they will be taken to Earth where there is no Slavery (the nearest we get to a criticism of the practice). The villain in #3 is a master of disguise, the Chameleon, first met as part of an acting troupe travelling to Venus, then at the pearl fisheries of Neptune and finally hunted down on Jupiter, where he has turned the local mole people into killers. #4 has Rod and Dot meet the Beastman, initially crossing his path on Earth, then aboard a spaceliner; he's next seen on Ganymede, where he's persuaded wasp women to steal the pollen from the winged elf girls who collect it for the local perfume industry. He is finally confronted and defeated on Vulcan, having incited the local "imbecile" Flame Women to help him steal thorium ingots.
The first two series are nicely illustrated (particularly #1): having brains rather than brawn as the main means of defeating evil is a welcome change from many of this era's sf comic heroes. The final two series are weaker, with problems often solved by violence or luck. The setting has its uncomfortable elements, with most of the solar system having a colonial feel, humans holding power and indigenous populations often portrayed as primitive and easily led (see Imperialism). This is not dissimilar from other sf comics of the period, but seems more pronounced here.
The four tales that do not involve Rod and Dot are the non-sf Lucky Dale, Girl Detective in #1; #2 has the Shadow Squad, an American police organization in 2000 that deals with politically touchy crimes (it has the look of a series, but this seems to be the only story): here they foil a plot by revolutionaries to smuggle weapons from the USA into Spain by submarine. It's not clear whether Spain in 2000 is still the fascist dictatorship it was in the year of publication. #3 has "The Revolt of the Robots", where mine workers are starving after being sacked, as it is cheaper to use robots managed by Targan, a man we have seen arrive from the future (see Time Travel) and who believes robots will supersede humanity. The owner's son, Bob, sides with the workers and persuades his father to rehire some of the men: Targan responds by setting the robots on them, but they are halted when Bob knocks out Targan ... who is revealed to be a robot from 2301. "Cargo from Mars" in #4 is a reprint from Strange Worlds #19. [SP]
further reading
- Space Detective – Volume 1 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2014) [graph: collects issues #1-#4 of Space Detective, plus one issue each of Attack on Planet Mars, Rocket to the Moon and Robotmen of the Lost Planet: in the publisher's Pre-Code Classics series: illus/various: hb/Joe Orlando]
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