Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Atomic Age, Avon Periodicals, children of the atom

Comics' First Mutant Children of the Atom? Strange Worlds 7 at Auction

Over a decade ago, a 1953 Mechanix Illustrated article about Mutants by Otto Binder and illustrated by Kurt Schaffenberger made the rounds online with claims that it was one of the inspirations for radiation-inspired heroes from the Hulk to X-Men.  But that article was likely in turn inspired by Wilmar Shiras's critically acclaimed Children of the Atom from earlier that year.  That novel was an expansion of five of the author's previous stories from Astounding Science Fiction, which ran 1948-1950, and like the title itself, had a plot that sounds very familiar to us today: children born to parents exposed to atomic radiation have become mutants, and are brought together in a secret school for such gifted children where they can explore their unique powers away from a world that would probably shun and fear them.  Of course, both Binder's article and Children of the Atom were also influenced by the 1936 novel Odd John — the story that coined the term Homo Superior.

The point is that such ideas evolve over time, even after they jump into comics.  Much has been made over the years about  Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's story "The Man in the Sky" in Marvel's Amazing Adult Fantasy #14, from 1962, which seems inspired by Children of the Atom and also serves as a prelude of sorts for the Marvel mutants to come.  But the story "The Man Who Fought the World" also seems to be strongly influenced by Shiras's work (likely based on the original Astounding Science Fiction stories, as it came out shortly before the Children of the Atom collection) and was published a decade earlier in Avon Periodicals title Strange Worlds.  There's a Strange Worlds #7 (Avon, 1952) Condition: FN+ featuring what just might be the first Marvel-style mutant child of the atom up for auction in the 2022 May 29-30 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122222 from Heritage Auctions.

The opening captions and dialog of The Man Who Fought the World describe a now-familiar-sounding tale, pretty clearly inspired by the Children of the Atom concept: "Harlan Ammo was a freak of nature — a human born a thousand years too soon. It gave him a very strange power, baffling to today's scientific world. He wanted to use his power for good. He wanted to save mankind from its own suicidal doom. But they called him a madman, fiend, monster.  Halran's father was a scientist. He soon understood, and he tried to explain it to his wife."

He is what science calls a mutant, Anne. A biological abnormality! It need not be a bad thing. He could represent a tremendous advance in the development of the human race.

Halran's mother had been an army nurse, a war prisoner in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped. His father had helped develop atomic fission, constantly exposed to radiation.  And now their child…

The young atomic-age-inspired mutant boy Halran grew up to develop a tremendous intellect, speed, teleportation powers and other abilities and became shunned and hunted by the world as he set about using them.  It's all a familiar-sounding story today, but this Strange Worlds tale might be the first version inspired by the Children of the Atom stories in comics.  There's a Strange Worlds #7 (Avon, 1952) Condition: FN+ featuring what just might be the first Marvel-style mutant child of the atom up for auction in the 2022 May 29-30 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122222 from Heritage Auctions.

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