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Space War [comic]

Entry updated 21 August 2023. Tagged: Comics, Publication.

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US Comic (1959-1964). Charlton Comics. 27 issues. Artists include Steve Ditko, Bill Molno and Rocco "Rocke" Mastroserio. Most of the scripts were by Joe Gill. Usually 3-6 sf comic strips per issue and a two-page text story. During 1978-1979 further issues were published (#28-#34), but these consisted of reprints from various earlier Charlton Comics.

Though War in space is one of this comic's commonest tropes, it did not dominate for the first few years; for example, issue #1 only has one battle, with space pirates. Atypically, issue #4 does have three Earth invasions – by creatures from another Dimension (their robots rust in the rain and bring back the common cold to their masters); the Nerds – who are "the violent people of north Neptune" (see Outer Planets); and finally, Jovians (see Jupiter).

Other stories include the Moon's inhabitants voting No to turning the Earth into a miniature sun, as it might hold life – the Scientists who made the proposal ignore the democratic process and approach Earth to start the transformation: humanity is saved when an artificial satellite accidentally crashes into their Spaceship. A patrol discovers why Stars are going out – an Alien spacecraft from an old, dead galaxy is siphoning and storing energy from our galaxy's suns (see Power Sources). Vegetable men "allied with all plant life on Earth – each blade of grass, every leaf, the algae in your seas are our friends" plan conquest but are killed off by a Robot filled with plant-killing pests. An Amnesiac discovers the reason he lacks memories: he is a robot. During a galactic war four men undergo Cryogenic freezing to make a journey of 250 light years, awakening 250 years later – only to be met by spaceships from Earth; one recognizes this is the inevitable result of technological advances made whilst they slept – but also wonders, who won the war ... do the spaceships contain humanity or their conquerors? Humanity has found no other intelligent life in the universe – explorers do find cute animals on one planet, only to discover they're robots, who have dismantled their ship: all the crew can do is await their makers. One story has humanoid aliens who form pairs (female and winged males) that share one mind; in another, giant snails accidentally brought back from Uranus terrorize the Earth.

"The First Martian Bomb" (#10) has an unprovoked Martian attack on Earth leaving only 50,000 survivors most of whom devote themselves to revenge, building a spaceship and a bomb to destroy Mars. The story is less US-centric than usual, with a Malayan scientist building the ship and a Spanish physicist designing the bomb: the American hero and the physicist – a woman (who suggests women might be more suited to space travel) – fly to Mars, but after seeing Martian children on their scanner they cannot bring themselves to set off the bomb. "The Imitators" (#19) has Commander Jane Aabb returning home with her spacefleet after defeating an alien force: they find themselves on a facsimile of Earth, the original having been moved by metal giants. She orders the release of methane ammonia to corrode the giants, who surrender; this is a rare example of a story with a female protagonist (see Feminism).

The early and, to a lesser extent, mid-run of the comic are the most interesting, containing a greater variety of stories – such as "Dreamer in Space" (#4) where a man, after years alone in space, wishes to retire on Earth, but humanity's Paranoid reaction to him makes it impossible. Later issues' plots favour arrogant invaders easily defeated by hotheaded heroes who prefer fists to ray guns. One alien admits their superiority: "Your fighting heart, your steadfast refusals to acknowledge defeat ... these things are what other creatures lack and we submit to these qualities." There's also more outright misogyny in this era (see Women in SF), "Action at Station 4!" (#25) being a particularly obnoxious example. Various Clichés recur, particularly invaders who are revealed to be tiny (see Great and Small), or obscured aliens who turn out to be beautiful women (whose men have usually died out). Throughout the run there are, inevitably, many filler stories, having a series of events leading to a dull conclusion: a damaged alien Spaceship briefly detains an Earth ship – they make a copy then depart in it (the opening story in #1); or, aliens plan to conquer a planet, but when they launch their missiles they find it has a Force Field defence and so they go away. Another tale has Earth ruled by a tyrannical giant Computer ... that has an off switch. Sometimes a story's strength is in the telling rather than the plot, particularly when Steve Ditko is doing the telling, for example "Exiled to Earth" (#5) has a Venusian arguing there might be intelligent life on Earth; he is mocked and sent there in an untested spaceship, more as a punishment than for research. On arrival he is attacked by prehistoric humanity and returns to admits he is wrong; over the next 100,000 years the Venusians explore the rest of the Galaxy but never again visit Earth. Another fine example is "The Comeback" (#10) with a man rendered insubstantial and drifting through space after wandering onto a nuclear testing ground. [SP]

further reading

  • Space War, Volume 1 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2022) [graph: collects issues #1-#5: in the publisher's Silver Age Classics series: illus/various: hb/Dick Giordano]
  • Space War, Volume 2 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2022) [graph: collects issues #6-#10: in the publisher's Silver Age Classics series: illus/various: hb/Dick Giordano]
  • Space War, Volume 3 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2022) [graph: collects issues #11-#15: in the publisher's Silver Age Classics series: illus/various: hb/Rocco "Rocke" Mastroserio]
  • Space War, Volume 4 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2023) [graph: collects issues #16-#20: in the publisher's Silver Age Classics series: illus/various: hb/Dick Giordano]
  • Space War, Volume 5 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2023) [graph: collects issues #21-#25: in the publisher's Silver Age Classics series: illus/various: hb/Dick Giordano]

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