Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: golden age, quality comics, ray, Smash Comics

The Cosmic-Powered Origin of The Ray in Smash Comics #14, at Auction

When the Fantastic Four took their now-infamous rocket ride into space in 1961, it was exposure to cosmic rays that gave them their powers.  Of course, this aspect of the team's origin was inspired by the race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to put a human in space during that period, and aspects of the Fantastic Four were influenced by Project Mercury overall.  But over 20 years before that, the Ray's transformation into a superhero by exposure to cosmic rays was also inspired by another series of scientific missions, as humans were starting to explore the edge of space.  Created by Will Eisner and Lou Fine, the Ray's first appearance in Smash Comics #14 is one of the most historically fascinating origins of the Golden Age of comic books, and there's a Smash Comics #14 (Quality, 1940) Condition: GD/VG along with a bunch of other issues of the spectacular Smash Comics series including some great Ray covers up for auction in the 2022 May 29-30 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122222 at Heritage Auctions.

In the Ray's origin moment, reporter Happy Terrill embarks on a trip in an experimental "strato-balloon" which soars into the stratosphere and similarly to the Fantastic Four over 20 years later, gets caught up in a "cosmic storm."  Bathed in the cosmic rays, Terrill is transformed into a figure who can "transmit himself in shafts of light."  The strato-balloon experimental flight was clearly inspired by a number of manned stratosphere balloon flights of the 1930s such as those undertaken by Explorer I and Explorer II, which were conducted in 1934 and 1935 by the U.S. Army.  At this time, such stratosphere balloons were the best way to study cosmic rays.  In fact, Exporer II, which set an altitude record and was highly publicized at that time, included an experiment to specifically study whether cosmic rays might cause mutations in living organisms:

Medical scientists also used Explorer II to see what effect cosmic radiation might have on living organisms by sending Drosophila fruit flies aloft. Although they were carried inside the gondola, all of the adult flies in the package died due to the cold temperatures encountered during the flight. At first, the scientists feared the experiment would be a total loss, then they found some of the larvae and eggs survived and they ended up with 98 individuals for breeding. Subsequent results were inconclusive for any radiation-induced mutations due to the small number of flies returned.

Radiation-created heroes are usually considered the domain of the atomic age and beyond, but there are a few before that, and the Ray is an incredibly underappreciated example.  A historically important superhero inspired by important scientific history, there's a Smash Comics #14 (Quality, 1940) Condition: GD/VG along with a bunch of other issues of the spectacular Smash Comics series including some great Ray covers up for auction in the 2022 May 29-30 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122222 at Heritage Auctions.

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