The First Men In The Moon

In honor of Neil Armstrong's one small step onto the moon on July 20, 1969, here, a Classics Illustrated cover (#144 from May, 1958), depicting what H. G. Wells thought of, when he wrote his novel, The First Men In The Moon.

Wells' men had a little more of an adventure on their trip, and encountered people there, as this alternate cover shows!

Destination Moon Comic

Destination Moon was a movie, but it was also a comic book that came out in 1950 by Fawcett!


With a photo cover with scenes from the movie, Otto Binder, Dick Rockwell and Sam Burlockoff adapted the movie written by Rip Van Ronkel, Robert Heinlein and James O'Hanlon. 

The movie also came out in 1950, and focuses on 4 would be astronauts who wanted to make sure the American Flag was the first to be planted on the moon.  So, this fantastic group put together a rocket they called "Luna"...

....and headed out to the moon, which they had to do quickly, as the government was making a court order to prevent private exploration of space.  They had problems in space, as well as when they landed on the moon, which they said they did for all mankind.  

But, they miscalculated the amount of fuel needed to return....would one of them have to stay behind?

A historical movie, important for its special effects and realistic portrayal of space travel (though it would take about 19 years for us to make it to the moon) produced by George Pal and directed by Irving Pichel.  The movie won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
 

Amazingly, this story was reprinted by Charlton in March, 1956, with its first page used as the cover of Space Adventures #20, and this movie and comic were just one small step....to the United States making it to the moon for real!

 

Superboy's Moon Exile

In the shadow of United States landing on the moon, in an issue of Superboy that came out in the month of August after the Moon Landing (Superboy #160 of October, 1969), was a story about the time Superboy spent on the Moon, captured under this cover by Neal Adams.

In "I Chose External Exile" by Frank Robbins, Bob Brown and Wally Wood, Clark Kent and Lana Lang meet visiting Egyptian envoy Abdul Amahdi and his daughter, Cleop in Smallville.  Cleop becomes interested in both Clark and Superboy, much to Lana's dismay.  Superboy attends a ball with Cleop, after which, they kiss, but this seems to crush Cleop, killing her....and Superboy exiles himself to the moon.

Cleop (who doesn't appear dead), returns to the party, confronts Lana, who meets with her on the roof, then it appears Lana kills her by throwing Cleop off the roof, with Pete Ross witnessing the event.

Lana is arrested, but Superboy, using his vision powers, sees what's going on, returns to Earth, and confesses his own crime.  A little research finds Abdul was not who he claimed to be, but was instead Professor Tingly, who had unearthed Cleopatra....and, animated her as revenge against Professor Lang (Lana's father).

Case solved, and Superboy could go back to his life to grow up to eventually become Superman....

Superman and The Legion of Super-Heroes On The Moon

Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes once met on the moon, and it was quite the disaster.

But, perhaps we're skipping a little a head of ourselves in this story....and that's exactly what Superman was doing at the time.

So, perhaps it would be better to step back a bit, to allow you to catch up....

The Linear Men

It all started in Adventures Of Superman #476 (March, 1991, by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding), with Clark Kent trying to get use to being engaged to Lois Lane, ended up having to help Booster Gold (the greatest hero you've never know) against a Linear Man (one of the self-appointed protectors of the timestream), who wanted to return Booster Gold to his proper time (Booster was originally a resident of the 25th Century, who "borrowed" some equipment from the Space Museum, to travel back in time to become a hero....).

The encounter did nothing to change Booster's status as a hero before his time, but did send Superman forward in time, where he met the charter members of the Legion of Super-Heroes (Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad) early in their career, but for Superman, it was the first time meeting the Legion (after the Crisis On Infinite Earths, Superman hadn't had his career as Superboy, so hadn't met the Legion of Super-Heroes until recently...).

Lost In The '40s Tonight

In Action Comics #663 (March, 1991 by Roger Stern and Bob McLeod), the Legion, busy with saving their city at the time, are startled to meet Superman, having not yet met him this early in their careers, get distracted, so an explosion there sends Superman back in time...


....all the way to 1943, where after a brief distraction at a circus, Superman gets the idea of enlisting the help of the then young and active Justice Society of America at their townhouse...but, the ghostly guardian, the Spectre, advises against that, rightfully saying that meeting Superman would mess up the JSA's history (which had already been changed in the aftermath of the Crisis On Infinite Earths so that they didn't have a Superman in their ranks), so sends the time-lost Man of Steel across the world to...

The Warsaw Ghetto

With Superman #54 (April, 1991 by Jerry Ordway and Dennis Janke), Superman did get more involved in World War II, messing up the life of the immortal General Zieten (whom Superman had just met in the modern day a few weeks previously, as Mr. Z, and where Clark's fiance, Lois Lane, was currently worried about the missing Clark Kent/Superman)...

....deciding to take a more active role in World War II due to seeing the suffering of citizens of Warsaw (unconcerned about historical damage he could cause), Superman tried to stop an experimental Nazi bomb, which exploded, engulfing him and sending him back to the future (but still beyond his own time....).   

Death Rekindled

The explosion sent Superman into space, meeting the Legion of Super-Heroes again (further along in their timeline, with members of the team being Lightning Lad, Phantom Girl, Shrinking Violet, Ultra Boy and Wildfire...corresponding to their time in the 1970s, or is that 2970s?).  

This adventure from Adventures Of Superman #476 (April, 1991 by Dan Jurgens and Art Thibert) against the menace of the Sun-Eater (a gaseous creature that....well, eats suns).  

The Legion had a bomb that they planned to use to stop the creature, but, yet again, it was Superman who was there to help defeat the menace.

That bomb's explosion sent Superman back in time yet again...  

Many Long Years Ago...

Back to Action Comics #664 (April, 1991, by Roger Stern and Bob McLeod), and to a meeting with a Tyrannosaurus Rex! 

You'd think Superman would be alone at this time, but it didn't work out that way, as he met up with Atom's foe, Chronos, who had been trapped in this time period after a battle with the Blue Beetle.

Chronos had plans to return to his own time, but that was fouled up by Superman (so Chronos had to put himself in suspended animation and get home the long way, but even then, Chronos arrived to modern time early, letting him be better prepared for future battles with the Atom), while Superman ended up a little farther in the future (but still the past), and, with yet another explosion, ended up in...

Camelot

With Superman #55 (May, 1991 by Jerry Ordway), Superman found himself in the court of Camelot, as it was under attack by the forces of Morgan Le Fey and Mordred, and being protected by Merlin, and his demon, Etrigan.

Superman wasn't as much help against all the magic menaces that were around (as Kryptonian powers don't seem to work well against magic), so Merlin was forced to use desperate measures to save Camelot, bonding Etrigan to the human druid, Jason Blood, while Superman found himself yet another explosion, hurtling him into the far future once again (all the while, Lois wondering where Clark was...).

Moon Rocked

Getting readers of this article to where we started with, with Adventures Of Superman #478 (May, 1991, by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding), with Superman, and members of the Legion of Super-Heroes (from a period in their future called "Five Years Ahead" with members Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Laurel Gand, Chameleon Boy (going by Cham), Shrinking Violet (going by Vi), Furball (formerly Timber Wolf), where their were facing off against a homicidal Daxamite by the name of Dev-Em, with plans to blow up Earth's moon (as the Earth at this time had been taken over by the Dominators).

Superman shows up, but this time, stops the explosion of the moon.  That's when the Linear Man shows up, knowing that the moon must explode at this time, and continues the countdown, resulting in the moon exploding (sending Superman back to his home time, and Lois, with the knowledge that the Earth will lose its moon in 2995....).

As for the fate of the moon, and the future of the Earth, the Legion of Super-Heroes have to deal with that, starting with Legion of Super-Heroes #19 (June, 1991, with stories by Keith Giffen, Tom and Mary Bierbaum and Al Gordon, making their bleak future that much more dismal....

...at least until time resets the Legion's future (which happens again and again for a while....).

Blue Area of the Moon

On July 20, 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong uttered the immortal worlds...


"That's one small step for [a] man, and one giant leap for mankind".

(This scene, from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #98, May, 1970 entitled "Doomsday on the Moon!"...


....wherein three of the Fantastic Four were behind the scenes, fighting Kree Sentry #9168, while Sue was still back on Earth, recovering from the birth of her son, Franklin Richards!  The "a" was something Neil Armstrong said he had said, but static interfered with it in the transmission to Earth).


Quite a moving scene..

....but, the Fantastic Four had been to the moon before!

Feels Like The First Time

Back in Fantastic Four #13 (April, 1963, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), the Fantastic Four completed the mission that originally got them their powers, by getting to the moon...this time, in competition with the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes (Miklho, Peotor and Igor), and while the Fantastic Four had proper shielding this time, the Russians didn't, so they got super-powers on their way to the moon.  Both groups were headed toward the Blue Area of the Moon, which, they discovered had an abandoned city, as well as an Earth-like atmosphere...and one resident...the Watcher!

Watching You

Uatu the Watcher was part of an alien race that watched over beings in the universe, who had a strict noninterference code to not aid the races they watched (due to previous interference by other Watchers, that resulted in an immature race getting nuclear weapons and destroying themselves thanks to the Watchers interference, as told in Tales of Suspense #53, May, 1964).

But, Uatu seemed to like the Fantastic Four, interfering with the Molecule Man (Fantastic Four #20, November, 1963), the wedding of Reed and Sue (Fantastic Four Annual #3, 1965), and trying to hide Earth from planet-eater Galactus (Fantastic Four #48, March, 1966)!  Uatu was even placed on trial for these acts (but was sentenced to continue his job, with less interference in Captain Marvel #37 to #39 in 1975).  The Watcher even had his own back-up series in Tales of Suspense (starting in #49, January, 1964, and running to #58, October, 1964), as well as telling tales of alternate timelines of the Marvel Universe (Earth-616), starting with What If? #1 (February, 1977)...but, perhaps it's best not to open that can of worms just yet...

Love Is A Battlefield

The X-Men ended up on the Blue Area of the Moon, thanks to Professor X's love and head the Shi'ar, and the X-Men battled the Imperial Guard for the life of what they thought was Jean Grey (really, the Phoenix) all in X-Men #137 (September, 1980 by Chris Claremont and John Byrne).  Wolverine even has a brief encounter with the Watcher in his citadel (that does not go well for Wolverine).

The teams fight under the observation of Skrull and Kree agents (the Skrull and Kree are intergalactic races introduced on Earth in the Fantastic Four, and they have been warring for a long time... and the Kree were creators of the Blue City, left in ruins, on the moon, while the Skrulls had created the Blue Area of the Moon, to test the Kree and the Cotati, who created the atmosphere of the area...all a million years ago!).  This moment was also revisited by the Watcher a few times in What If?.

Moving On Up 

The Inhumans even became neighbors to the Watcher for a time...

...after the Earth had become too polluted for them to live their, even in their hidden city of Attilan (also called the Great Refuge).

 (The city of Attilan first appeared in Fantastic Four #47 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, February, 1966 and the Inhumans as a whole first appeared in Fantastic Four #45, December, 1965, also by Lee and Kirby), with Attilan moving to the moon in Fantastic Four #240 (March, 1982, by John Byrne).

The moon proved a good home for the Inhumans...


...and a reawakening of their Kree genes, as the Inhumans were descendants of humans experimented on by the Kree.

Randac was a leader of the Inhumans, and he discovered the Terrigen Mist, which is what the Inhumans needed to be exposed to in order to gain their powers. 

These powers were often unpredictable....and changed the recipients in unexpected ways. 

Randac's story started in Thor #146 (November, 1967), with more tales of the early Inhumans (pre-Fantastic Four meeting) coming in Thor #147 (in December, 1967, with Sentry #459 being activated by Randac's work as Randac planned to expose all his people to the Terrigan Mist), and the youth of Inhumans leader Black Bolt, getting his time and powers with the mist, in Thor #148 (January, 1968) and Black Bolt, Medusa, Maximus and Triton history until Thor #152 (May, 1968).

The Inhumans knew they could move their home, as they had done it before from the North Atlantic Ocean to the Himalayas, with the help of the Eternals (another ancient super-powered race, hidden on Earth, and created by Jack Kirby), as revealed in What If? #29 and #30 (October and November, 1981), all before Black Bolt met the FF in Fantastic Four #45, and well before the Inhumans first stand alone series in the first ten issues of Amazing Adventures (from August, 1970 to August, 1972)...and the Inhumans getting involved in the Kree-Skrull War in Avengers #95 (January, 1972).

So, with all this, you can see how connected all of Lee and Kirby's creations are, and that the imagination to take us to the moon, also connected to our fantasies of how we see ourselves in the stars and how we are all connected in our dreams!