Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: amazing fantasy, x-men

Fear of Marvel Mutants before the X-Men, Up for Auction

A story which drew upon both the fiction and the real fears of Mutants in its time, "The Man in the Sky" was a step towards Marvel's X-Men.

A few years 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.  And perhaps it was to some extent, 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 the author's previous short stories from Astounding Science Fiction, 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 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.  Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's story "The Man in the Sky" in Marvel's Amazing Adult Fantasy #14 seems inspired by Children of the Atom and but also serves as a prelude of sorts for the Marvel Mutants to come. There's a copy of Amazing Adult Fantasy #14 (Marvel, 1962) Condition: VG up for auction in the 2024 July 14-16 Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction #122429 at Heritage Auctions.

A sequence early on in The Man in the Sky explains the genesis of the Mutant of that story in a way that seems directly inspired by Children of the Atom:

Perhaps it all started with the big bomb, for Brad Carter was an atomic scientist. During his years of research, his body absorbed small doses of radiation every day… not enough to harm him, but…

…enough to affect his infant son, Tad. But, who could have suspected that the seemingly normal baby would grow up to become…

A Mutant!

Concerns about the effect of radiation on living creatures had gone mainstream by the early 1950s, as atomic bomb tests began to grow more and more frequent  News stories even broached the concept of "beneficial mutation" and addressed the possibility that the rate of human mutation could increase in subsequent generations in the vicinity of the fallout zones of atomic bomb tests.

Likely inspired by Children of the Atom, and the news of the day, such stories began to appear along specific and now-familiar lines in fiction.   Season one, episode 22 of the ABC television series Tales of Tomorrow, an episode titled The Children's Room which appeared on February 29, 1952, explored some of these themes. But the story The Man Who Fought the World in Strange Worlds #7 is directly on point here and 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).

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.  More famously, the Weird Science #20 story The Loathsome used these same themes the next year.

A decade later, such fears were perhaps more relevant than ever, and Amazing Adult Fantasy #14 brought the Children of the Atom theme to Marvel, a little over a year before the debut of X-Men #1.  There's even a Professor X type of figure in the story to help guide the young Mutant to his destiny. A fascinating issue in the context of both comic and real world history, there's a copy of Amazing Adult Fantasy #14 (Marvel, 1962) Condition: VG up for auction in the 2024 July 14-16 Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction #122429 at Heritage Auctions.

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