If you missed the last one…
The alien invasions of Captain Marvel are eleven tales that appeared between 1941 and 1953. Fawcett’s Captain Marvel Adventures began just before the U.S. joined World War II but would end with a major court case in comics copyright history. Between those two events, the comic published four to five adventures each month. Stories ranged from dinosaurs to time travel to robot attacks. The reason so much Science Fiction material appeared in the adventure of the Big Red Cheese was because he was written by old SF Pulp writers like Manly Wade Wellman and Otto Binder.
Right from the first issue, Billy Batson and Captain Marvel had to face alien races that wanted to enslave. “The Monsters of Saturn” (64 Pages of Captain Marvel Adventures #1, March 1941) was written by Manly Wade Wellman and drawn by Jack Kirby and Dick Briefer. The two young artists would go onto create Marvel’s greatest comics (Jack Kirby gave us Thor, Fantastic Four, X-Men and a million others) while Dick Briefer would be the artist behind Prize comics’ Frankenstein. Manly Wade Wellman would be the main scripter for Will Eisner’s The Spirit (as well as a writing career that would include a Pulitzer nomination). For this one moment in their young careers, these giants worked together. The story seems like a copy of Edmond Hamilton’s “Monsters of Mars” (Astounding Stories of Super-Science, April 1931) with dragon-men enslaving humans.
After that initial story, all the remaining invasions will be written by Otto Binder. This Pulp writer transitioned from the pages of Amazing Stories and Wonder Stories to Fawcett Comics. Along with his brother Earl, he was half of “Eando Binder”, the author who would create Adam Link for Ray Palmer’s Amazing Stories. Otto created Mary Marvel (along with his brother Jack) and later would spawn Supergirl for DC. “The Raiders From Space” (Captain Marvel Adventures #20, January 22, 1943) was by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck. Billy Batson tracks down the toad-like aliens of Thoad-Thule to a cave. Their planet has been destroyed so they will take earth. Not if Captain Marvel has anything to say about it!
“Captain Marvel Meets the Visitors From Space” (Captain Marvel Adventures #37, July 1944) by Otto Binder and Pete Costanza. Collectors from the stars come to earth and take whatever they want. Captain and Mary Marvel are powerless to stop them. Only when they explain money to the aliens do they all come to a fair settlement. This is Binder’s first sympathetic aliens. The alien design looks like it was taken from an old Binder Pulp.
“The Invasion From Outer Space” (Captain Marvel Adventures #65, September 1946) was by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck. Finally! An H. G. Wells-style tripod invasion! Captain Marvel has to stem the invasion as his arch-enemy Doctor Sivana plays a dirty game and kidnaps Mary. This reminds me of the Pulp story the Binders wrote that gave us the word “alien” to mean an extraterrestrial, “The Robot Aliens” (Wonder Stories, February 1935)
“Captain Marvel Discovers a New Planet” (Captain Marvel Adventures #72, May 1947) was written by Otto Binder but we aren’t sure who the artist is. When Professor Cathell discovers a new planet, Captain Marvel has to fly there to investigate. The tenth planet is inhabited by a green race living underground. The newcomers pretend to be friendly but when they kidnap Billy it is up to Captain Marvel to drive their planet out of the solar system.
The Roswell Incident took place in June 24, 1947. Ray A. Palmer, the editor of Amazing Stories propelled the UFO idea to a national level with his interview with Kenneth Arnold in the first issue of Fate Magazine. Palmer would leave Ziff-Davis to start his own chain of magazines. He would later publish Flying Saucers in 1957.
“The Space Aggressor” (Captain Marvel Adventures #109, June 1950) was written by Otto Binder and drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger. Ships attack the Earth with atomic flames in retaliation for an attack on them. The real attackers prove to be a rival set of aliens. Billy and Captain Marvel set things straight.
“Citizen of the Universe” (Captain Marvel Adventures #111, August 1950) by Otto Binder and an unknown artist. When an alien from another world visits Earth it is met with horror and hostility by the locals. He turns out to be an escaped criminals from a galactic empire. Captain Marvel fights for him anyway. With this story Binder moves entirely away from hostile aliens, preferring to suggest that aliens might be civilized instead.
“The Mystery of the Flying Saucer” (Captain Marvel Adventures #116, January 1951) was written by Otto Binder but artist is not known. Tim Taine is the most cowardly man alive but when flying saucers drop incendiary bombs on the city Tim swings into action. Captain Marvel shows up and punches Tim in the nose. The whole thing has been a con and there are no flying saucers.
“The Space Orphan” (Captain Marvel Adventures #118, March 1951) by Otto Binder and unknown artist. Captain Marvel ends up with the proverbial child on the doorstep. After raising the baby successfully, he learns it was an experiment and the aliens want to send all their children to earth. What can Cap do?
“Captain Marvel Fights the Flying Disk Danger” (Captain Marvel Adventures #138, November 1952) by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck. Binder finally uses the words “flying saucers” and the spacecraft have that look too. An invasion of flying disks comes to earth, not driven by weird-looking aliens but evil men like King Klonkk. Captain Marvel helps the downtrodden. The fact that the owners of the saucers are basically evil humans is significant. he is moving away from likable green folks again.
“Captain Marvel and the Riddle of the Space Reds” (Captain Marvel Adventures #147, August 1953) by Otto Binder and Kurt Schaffenberger. During the Korean War, the Communists ally themselves with the weird aliens from Pluto. An invasion fleet of Commie Plutonians is headed for Earth. Captain Marvel must save Earth and democracy! This story is like a flashback to the 1940s strips in which Captain Marvel fought Hitler and the Nazis. Propaganda seems more important here than story. It’s a strange mix of both SF and politics.
Fawcett Comics ended as a division of the company in 1953. Otto Binder did not give up on writing comics but moved to DC where his old buddies Julius Schwartz and Mort Weisinger were creating the Silver Age of Superman and Batman. After 1968, Otto would embrace the UFO movement fully with Mankind Child of the Stars with Max Flindt (1974). What had begun as a Pulp theme then a comic story theme became reality for Binder in his last years, which were tragically scarred by the death of his daughter, Mary in 1967.
Next time…Fero, Planetary Detective!
