Russkie-Smashing with AI! JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY / WHERE MONSTERS DWELL "Ruler of Earth!"

Despite the ominous-sounding title (and word balloon)...

...the Artificial Intelligence in this tale is benevolent...until Russkies enter the picture!
(Yeah, Russkies ruin everything!)

So, let's travel to the "future" year of 1990...as seen from 1962...

Appearing as the cover-featured story in one of the final pre-Mighty Thor issues of Atlas' Journey into Mystery (#82 in 1962), this story by plotter/editor Stan Lee, writer Larry Leiber, penciler Jack Kirby, and inker Dick Ayers is a clear Cold War/anti-Communist parable!

But, when the tale was reprinted at the end of the Cold War in Marvel's Where Monsters Dwell #25 (1973)...

...editor Roy Thomas had the hammer and sickle and red star insignias removed from the Russkies' hats...

...and replaced with an "H", which was explained with the change in the dialogue balloon above!
HYDRA???
Why not AIM...who were always more tech-oriented?
So, presumably, there are at least two worlds in the Marvel Multiverse where ROE presides, to this day, over a peaceful Earth!
Bonus for putting up with this all this fanboy mishigas...the lovingly-detailed original art for the spash page by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers!

BTW, did you note how warm, cuddly, and almost teddy-bear-like the cover's ROE is, compared to the version in the story itself?

Russkie-Smashers PLASTIC MAN "Red Wreckers of Rangistan!"

With One of the Most Alliterative Titles I've Ever Seen in Comics...

...this never-reprinted Russkie-Smashing tale is one of the weirdest Plastic Man stories you'll ever see...and that's saying something!

Written by Joe Millard and illustrated by Paul Gustavson, this feature from Quality's Plastic Man #41 (1953) was part of an editorial change from the goofy Golden Age to an era which saw the character become "grim and gritty" battling Communists, aliens, and monsters of various types from dinosaurs and giant ants to zombies!

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Plastic Man 80-Page Giant

Featuring classic tales from each of his eras (Golden Age/Silver Age/Bronze Age)

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Russkie-Smashers PHANTOM LADY "Television Spies!" 2.0

The Phantom Lady Usually Punched Nazis, but in This Case...

...she did so in a totally-redrawn version of a previous Phantom Lady tale! which now has her taking on Russkie spies!

In the original 1948 version of this tale, the tv images were in full glorious color, and television was just beginning to enter American households, so few people had actually seen a tv screen!

But, by the time of this story in Ajax/Farrell's Phantom Lady #3 (1955), almost half the households in America had tvs, but they were almost all b/w sets.

As a result, the tv screens shown in this version of the story were b/w, the way most Americans experienced video at the time.
Plus, in the original tale, it wasn't made clear if it was industrial spying or international spying!

The artist (or artists) of this tale are unknown, but the writer is probably editor Ruth Roche, as usual.

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Phantom Lady

Crime Never Pays!

(With a new Adam Hughes cover!)

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Russkie-Smashers JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Invisible Woman!"

Sometimes, the Best "Man" for Russkie-Smashing is a WOman...

...as this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #43 (1957) aptly-demonstrates!

This story has a rather unique artistic pedigree

Pencils by Syd Shores, who is usually an inker, and inking by one of the (now) most famous pencilers of the era...Matt Baker!
Why did editor Stan Lee make these particular choices?
Did the artists themselves suggest it as a change of pace?
Did Lee want to test to see how they'd do in unfamiliar roles?
I'd note there's also speculation Baker re-penciled certain panels, particularly the ones focused on the female spy!
What's the truth?

We'll never know the answer!

Just enjoy the result!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

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Nazi/Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Hitler's Daughter"

With Don da Con and Muskrat's pseudo-Nazis seizing power...

...we're modifying our format to alternate between Russkie-Smashers and Nazi Smashers starting with this re-presentation!

World War II had ended only a decade earlier when this tale appeared in Quality's Blackhawk #97 (1958), and, if anybody did the math, Hitla (who appears to be in her mid-20s) would've been born around 1930-32...when Hitler wasn't married...but he was involved with Eva Braun...who was never pregnant!
Curiously, at that time in real life, Adolf's half-sister, Angela Raubal, and her 21 year-old daughter Geli, moved into Hitler's home.
Adolf's's relationship towards Geli, while initially kindly, eventually bordered on the obsessive, fueling rumors that they were romantically linked...which Hitler denied.
In late 1931, Geli was found dead at Hitler's flat in Munich.
Verdict: suicide.
Did writer Joe Millard know about this, and could he have used it as a cover story for the imposter daughter in this Dick Dillin-penciled and Chuck Cuidera-inked story?

We'll never know!

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Blackhawk
by William Rotsler
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Russkie-Smashers vs Traitor Politicians GREEN HORNET "Proof of Treason" Conclusion

When Last We Left the Green Hornet and Kato...

Why does Mayoral candidate Wilkes Sherman hire a criminal to bomb the home of nuclear scientist Professor Baldwin?

When the police track down the bomber, an assassin kills him before he can talk.
The Green Hornet, who followed the police to the bomber, trails the murderer back to Sherman, and discovers the politician is actually a Commie spy!

In addition, he learns Professor Baldwin is a former Communist now working for the US, and the Russkies want him brought back behind the Iron Curtain!

When The Green Hornet enters the meeting, the assassin tries to shoot him, but the Hornet KOs the killer with his gas gun.

The Hornet then makes a deal to grab the professor and turn him over to Sherman for $5,000. (It was 1953, remember?)

As a free bonus to Sherman, he'll "get rid" of the unconscious murderer (whom he turns over to the police along with the murder weapon.)

Curiously, the Green Hornet radio show ended in 1952...but this issue of Dell's Four Color Comics (#496) was published in...wait for it...1953!
Note: The second-to-last page of the tale is black-and-white rather than four-color because it appeared on the inside back cover (Both the front and back inside covers were black and white to save money).
The final page of the story was the comic's back cover...in four-color, of course!
The radio episode the comic story is derived from aired 10/17/52 during the final season of the show.
It's available, digitally-remastered, on the Radio Spirits cd collection Green Hornet: Endpoint (which features the final episodes of the show, yet uses the cover of the Hornet's first comic book as it's cover), which you can order below.

And, you can listen to a un-restored version of the episode...

The Green Hornet and Kato didn't appear again in comics until early 1967, when the first issue of their Gold Key series, based on the tv show starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee, was published.

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Green Hornet: EndPoint

(which includes the radio episode this comic story is adapted from!)