Russkie-Smashers SPACE ADVENTURES "Captain Atom II '...on Planet X' "

Despite the misleading title, Our Russkie-Smashing Hero never leaves Earth orbit...

...as you'll see in this tale from Charlton's Space Adventures #36 (1960)!

WOW!

Writer Joe Gill and illustrator Steve Ditko jammed a lot into just five pages!

These days, that'd be a whole issue, if not a two-parter!

As you saw, "Planet X" was, in fact, an artificial satellite, not another planet!
But the code-name made for a catchy title for an extremely-action-packed tale, eh?

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Captain Atom

Volume 1

Russkie-Smashers SPURS JACKSON AND HIS SPACE VIGILANTES "Spurs Sees RED!"

Space Western Comics (the ORIGINAL Cowboys vs Aliens) returns...

...once more with Spurs Jackson and His Space Vigilantes battling Commies...piloting a flying saucer!

(Hey it was the 1950s!)

Sadly, the Russkies didn't even salvage a crashed alien ship and retro-engineered it's tech.

It's just a disguised Flying Wing...which both we and they were working on at the time.

(We were also working on our own flying saucers, but don't tell the Russkies!)

Art was by John Belfi, with a script by Walter (The Shadow) Gibson!.

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Chi-Com Crushing with The Duke! CRAZY, MAN, CRAZY! "Bloodshot Alley"

Technically, this is a Cold War adventure starring the legendary John Wayne...

...and though Blood Alley didn't have a comic adaptation, it did have a never-reprinted comic parody...penciled and inked (and possibly written) by none other than Jack (King) Kirby!
Warning: May be NSFW/NSFS due to ethnic stereotypes common to the era.

Appearing in Charlton's Crazy, Man, Crazy V2N2 (1956), this piece makes us wish Kirby had done some serious John Wayne comics and/or even more humor work!

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Russkie-Smashers LIBERTY BELLE "Freedom's Star"

The Russkies continued to be a threat into the 1970s and early 1980s...

...as this never-reprinted tale from Charlton's E-Man V1N5 (1974) so aptly demonstrates!

Apparently, the audience interest wasn't there, since the concluding chapter never appeared!.

Note: I, in fact, did write in, but I may have well been the only one!
The script, besides dealing with Commies, also goes into Women's Lib, which was in its' heyday.

The character has reappeared recently, without any mention of what happened on the space station!

And, before you ask, the Golden Age DC character, also named Liberty Belle, hadn't appeared since 1947, except in a 1972 reprint, so the name/trademark was available at the time.

DC's character would reappear in new stories in 1981 and her daughter, also called Liberty Belle, would debut in 2006, sometimes working alongside her mother!
Both still appear in DC books to this day.

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Ditko Shrugged

The Uncompromising Life of the Artist Behind Spider-Man

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Russkie-Smashers BLUE BEETLE "Rookie Trouble!"

We presented a Russkie-Smashing story featuring this character HERE...

...and, oddly, though Dan Garret had been a cop since 1940, he's still considered a "rookie"....in 1955!

This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Blue Beetle #20 (1955) was part of the first batch of new stories about the character after several issues of reprints from the original Fox Comics run.
Penciler Ted Galindo, inker Ray Osrin, and an unknown writer treated the character as a less-powerful Superman, with most of the Man of Steel's powers and relationships transposed to Dan Garret/Blue Beetle and his supporting cast!
There are some changes in his abilities from his just-reprinted Fox Comics tales, so this may actually be a reboot, and not merely a continuation of the earlier series, though it's never clearly-defined!

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Russkie Savers SPACE ADVENTURES "Captain Atom: 2nd Man in Space"

Putin didn't take a holiday over Christmas, continuing to attack Ukrainian targets...

...but we Americans are far more benevolent than the ex-KGB putz and his allies!

So, in the spirit of the season...

This tale from Charlton's Space Adventures V3N34 (1960) was published almost a year before the USSR's Yuri Gargarin became the first man in space on April 12, 1961.
Note: Not to minimize the achievement, but Gargarin made only one orbit before returning to Earth.
But the fact the Soviets had put both the first satellite (Sputnik) and the first man into space made America all the more determined to beat them to the Moon...which we did!
BTW, the "vaccine" in this tale written by Joe Gill and illustrated by Steve Ditko is total hogwash.
No drug would've counteracted the effects of acceleration on a human body!

Next Week:

No More "Mr Nice Guy!"

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Captain Atom

Volume 1

Russkie-Smashers BLUE BEETLE "Last Chance!"

Another costumed Russkie-Smasher takes the battle against evil to the vacuum of deep space...

...just as Blackhawk, Captain Atom, and Spurs Jackson and His Space Vigilantes did!

This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Blue Beetle #20 (1955) was part of the first batch of new stories about the character after several issues of reprints from the original Fox Comics run.
Penciler Ted Galindo, inker Ray Osrin, and an unknown writer treated the character as a less-powerful Superman, with most of the Man of Steel's powers and relationships transposed to Dan Garret/Blue Beetle and his supporting cast!
Note: for December, we're taking a break from Russkie-Smashing to do Yuletide tales featuring superheroes!
The Russkie-Smashing will resume after the New Year!

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