The writer who co-created the most famous alien in pop culture...
...tried
twice in the 1950s to introduce ongoing Martian superheroes to comics (and potentially other media)!
First up was
Lars of Mars!
What if 1950s sci-fi shows like
Captain Video or
Space Patrol were
real?
And the aliens were
real aliens, including the TV show's hero who was a heroic Martian secret agent pretending to be an American actor playing a heroic Martian superhero?
That was the "meta-before there-
was-meta" premise of the 1951 short-lived (two issue) series,
Lars of Mars.
During his run,
Lars battled other aliens, Commies, and crooks, while protecting his "secret identity" from his nosy producer (who bore a disturbing resemblance to
Lois Lane).
That's not suprising since the writer was also the editor of the
Ziff-Davis comics line...Jerry Siegel, co-creator of
Superman!
Despite first-rate art by Murphy Anderson (who would later become a major
Superman illustrator in the 1970s) the premise didn't sell.
So Siegel tried again the next year, adding a couple of twists to the concept!
Tarka, the
Crusader from Mars, was the
first Martian to commit murder in over half a century.
(It was actually manslaughter since it was an accidental killing while fighting with another man over a woman.)
Instead of being imprisoned, he was sent to Earth, where he (and the woman he was fighting for) were given cover identities as a businessman and his secretary.
The pair were given assignments by the Martian government with the caveat that if they failed, the Earth (with them still on it) would be obliterated rather than allow a threat they couldn't stop to spread to other worlds!
You can read the
entire Lars of Mars series...including a never-reprinted conclusion (in 3-D, no less) by clicking
HERE!
You can read the entire
Crusader from Mars series by clicking
HERE!
featuring the covers of both issues of Lars of Mars!
