Monday Mecha Madness: Before ULTRON...there was MAKINO!

Who created Ultron, the Ultimate Evil AI?

If you go with the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron...Tony Stark aka Iron Man. and Bruce Banner aka The Hulk!

If you go with Marvel Comics history...Henry Pym aka Ant-Man/Giant-Man/Goliath/Yellowjacket/Wasp/etc (Don't ask. It's too long a story...).

In reality, it was writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema in Marvel's Avengers V1 #54 (1967).

But where did Roy come up with the idea?

Well, he "borrowed" it from Captain Video!

Yep!

In #3 of Captain Video's short-lived 1950s Fawcett Comics title, he faced a robot named Makino who killed his scientist creator and then threatened all mankind!

The story left such an impression on the young Roy Thomas that, almost two decades later, he adapted elements of that story into the long-running saga of Ultron!

Roy explained how it came about in TwoMorrows' Alter Ego #114.

You can read the actual comic story on our "brother" RetroBlog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video HERE and HERE!

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Reading Room WORLDS BEYOND "Twice Alive!"

Here's a horror story with a sci-fi slant...

Art by Sheldon Moldoff

...that the cover doesn't really convey, from the HTF anthology Fawcett's Worlds Beyond #1 (1951).

Did the writers of the movie Fantastic Voyage read this tale when they were younger?

The art is by comics legend Bob Powell, but the writer is unknown.

The cover, by Sheldon Moldoff, shows a cavern (with bats!) instead of the inside of a human being, and probably was meant for another story, but it conveys the mood of "Twice Alive", if not the plot points.

Worlds Beyond was retitled Worlds of Fear with #2 and ran for another nine issues.

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Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "Without a Body!"

It's the Last Chapter of Captain Midnight's Adventures in Space...

...as he and Xog, Ruler of Saturn come to final blows!

Xog was never seen or heard from again, even though the comic ran for one more issue!

Illustrated by Leonard Frank, this cover-featured tale from Fawcett's Captain Midnight #66 (1948) proved to be the last journey into space for the intrepid hero as he returned to Earth-bound adventures!

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Captain Midnight Saves the World!

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Tales Twice-Told TERROR TALES "Horrors of the 13th Stroke"

There are a number of horror stories from the 1950s that couldn't be reprinted in the 1960s-early 70s...

...so they were redrawn (and often retitled)!

Pencilled and inked by Sheldon Moldoff, this never-reprinted story from Fawcett's Beware! Terror Tales #5 (1953) apparently was considered too scary for the Comics Code Authority to allow it to be reprinted in color comics!

But black-and-white magazines weren't subject to the CCA!

Guess what happened?

No need...

Just be here  Thursday for the deadly do-over!

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Four Color Fear
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Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "Xog on Earth!"

Xog, the Ruler of Saturn, Didn't Take Kindly to Our Hero Invading His Planet...

...(even though it was in self-defense) and he's about to return the "courtesy"...with interest!

Fawcett's Captain Midnight #65 (1948) brings Xog: Ruler of Saturn!to Earth in a threat so big the US Army has to get involved!
But the Sentinel of the Spaceways can't allow that to happen again!

He'll have a plan for a final confrontation against the sinister Saturnian on the first Saturday of November!

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Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "Beyond the Sun"

If a Hero is Judged by the Quality of His Arch-Enemies...

...Captain Midnight has just made a quantum leap from "space pirate" to "ruler of an entire planet"!

Scientific note: though it was known to the scientific community since the 1930s that Saturn, like Jupiter was a gas giant, science fiction/fantasy stories continued to show them as large planets similar to Earth, but with heavy cloud cover that prevented observation of the surface!
Illustrated by Leonard Frank, Fawcett's Captain Midnight #64 (1948) introduces Cap's second (and final) alien arch-enemy, Xog: Ruler of Saturn!
You'll see more of him next month!

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Captain Midnight Saves the World!

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