Saturday, November 21, 2020

JET POWERS #3 (1951)

 Comic book publisher Magazine Enterprises did not make things easy.  Their title Jet Powers was actually titled merely Jet on the covers, and Jet Powers #3 was actually A-1 Comics #35.  A-1 Comics #1 was published circa November 1945 and featured comic strip character Kerry Drake; other issues titles A-1 Comics featured on their cover Texas Slim (#4, #9), Corsair (#5), Rodeo Ryan (#8), Guns of Fact and Fiction (#13), Joan of Arc (#21). Dick Powell (#22), Fibber McGee (#25), Red Hawk  (at least 11 issues, including #90), Red Wind (at least 15 issues, including #108), Straight Arrow's Fury (#119), Scotland Yard (#121), Black Phantom (#122), and Africa (#137) -- each of these titles had the featured story emblazoned in large type on the cover; to see the actual title A-1 Comics, you have to squint.  Other issues of A-1 Comics eliminated that title altogether so that it only appeared in the indicia:  The Avenger (#129. #130, #133, #138), Badmen of the West (#100, #120), Cave Girl (#82, #96, #112, #125), Dogface Dooley (#40, #49. #50), Great Western (#93, #105, #113, #127), Hot Dog (#107, #115, #124, #136), "I'm a Cop" (#111, #126), Manhunt (#63, #77, and possibly others), Muggsy Mouse (#33, #36, #38, #95, #99), Strong Man (#130, #132, #139), Teena (##11, #12. #15), Thun'da (#47, #56, 73, #78, #83, #86), Trail Colt (#24, #26), White Indian (#11. #94. #101, #104, #117, #135), and (of course) Jet Powers (#30, #32, #35), #39).  A number of these characters had their own comic books, mixing those numberings with that of the A-1 Comics numbers.

Phew!  Confusion City.

Jet Powers lasted for only the four issues listed above.  He shared each anthology issue of the comic book with Space Ace (actually, the third character named Space Ace in the Magazine Enterprises Universe!).

Jet is a science hero who uses advanced tech to battle supervillains.

Attention should be paid to the comments of "crashryan" at the link for issue #3:  "The lead Jet Powers tale is an astonishingly bleak story.  The world as we know it really DOES end.  By the time Jet and Su Shan stop the disaster from getting worse, countless millions of people are dead and the 20th century social and economic systems are destroyed.  Whew!  But not to worry.  All of this is forgotten by the time the next story begins.  Everything is back the way it was.  EDIT:  After posting this comment I checked out issue #4 and discovered there was a follow-up story in which Jet and Co. battle would-be tyrants trying to reorganize society.  Issue #4 also has a follow-up to the Jet Powers-in-space story from #3.  The writers really boxed themselves in here.  JP lives in two separate incompatible realities in the same issue.  They probably breathed a sigh of relief when the book was cancelled."

"The Dust Doom" is a cloud of radioactive dust from outer space that descends on Earth, eventually killing everyone except those few that were deep in caves (or cellars, or whatever).  Jet and his lovely oriental assistant Su Shan return from space after trying unsuccessfully to defeat (?) the dust, so he does the next best thing:  he issues a warning to the people of earth.  Get indoors!  Drink water only from deep wells!  Eat only canned food!  Protect your spleens!  As mentioned above, most of the world's population do not heed Jet's words.  The fools!

The second Jet Powers (why am I so tempting to type jet Jackson, instead?) story is "The Devil's Machine," in which the evil Professor Nukla uses his latest device to turn zoo animals into mindless killers, ravaging the Pennsylvania countryside.  The machine actually duplicated a single elephant and a single lion into herds/priodes of the animals.  Ah, but this was only Nukla's first step.  Having tried the machine out on the lower animals he is ready to experiment on a human being.  Nukla's mistake was capturing Jet to perform his experiment on.  (He has also captured a young engaged couple.)   As expected, this story ends with a case of the biter bit.

Also in this issue:  two adventures of Space Ace:  "The Nothing Weapon" and "The Interplanetary War."

Great art by both Bob Powell (on Jet Powers) and Al Williamson (on Space Ace).

Enjoy.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=77227&comicpage=&b=i

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