Post on 08-Mar-2016
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Chapter 22 Spring 1950Planet Comics #64
Planet Comics #64 (Spring 1950) marks the
finale to the Futura Saga. It took far longer to
get there then I originally planned but the Planet
Comics issues I was seeking are pretty rare
and hard to get a hold of. Fortunately there are
friends and other resources that allowed me to
fill in the gaps in her story. This issue is one of
those online copies floating around.
Futura's tale began in Planet Comics issue #43
in July of 1946. Secretary Marcia Reynolds is
kidnapped from Earth and enslaved for medical
experiments by the Brain-Men of Pan-Cosmos.
She escapes, a bit too easily in fact, and steals
a ship intending to head back to Earth.
Unknown to Marcia Reynolds, now called
Futura by her captors, her escape is being
carefully monitored to measure her suitability for
inclusion into the Pan-Cosmos genome.
Planet Comics #64 (Spring 1950)
Planet Comics #64 (Spring 1950)
Forced into situations that test her mettle, Futura evades her intended fate and gains allies, makes enemies and is a central witness to the fact that messiahs can be dangerous to your health. As her story continues, Futura becomes a wild card and her presence as a destabilizing threat to the status quo could not be tolerated by those in power. Fortunately for Futura the fragmented leaders of occupied space are corrupt, lazy and not used to rebellion from their cowed populace. Futura meets every challenge, fighting back ferociously and without hesitation.
For Futura does not just defeat an opponent,
no. She utterly destroys an enemy by erasing
their entire culture leaving them without a power
base. What remains when she is done renders
them in a state where they are no threat for the
foreseeable future. While this tactic is not
necessarily the action of a hero it certainly is
that of a leader of nations. This Geo-political
approach on a galactic scale is something that
having recently emerged from a devastating
World War the readers of the day could easily
identify with.
Planet Comics
was a science fiction comic-book title
produced by Fiction House and issued
from Jan. 1940 (issue 1) to Winter 1953
(issue 73). Like many of Fiction House's
early comics titles, Planet Comics was a
spinoff of a pulp magazine, in this case
Planet Stories, which featured space
operatic tales of muscular, heroic space
adventurers who were quick with their 'ray
pistols' and always running into gorgeous
females who needed rescue from bug-
eyed space aliens or fiendish interstellar
bad guys.
Planet Comics #1 (January 1940)
Planet Comics was considered by noted fan Raymond Miller to be "perhaps the best of the
Fiction House group," as well as "most collected and most valued." In Miller's opinion, it
"wasn't really featuring good art or stories... in the first dozen or so issues," not gaining most
of "its better known characters" until "about the 10th issue." "Only 3 of its long running strips
started with the first issue... Flint Baker, Auro - Lord of Jupiter, and the Red Comet."