Created by Dick Briefer for Fox Comics, Rex Dexter premiered in the first issue of Mystery Men Comics, dated Augusdt 1939, and continued for another 23 issues. He was also featured in Rex Dexter #1 (Fall m1940) and in The Eagle #1 (July 1941).
At the 1939 World's Fair, Montague Dexter premiered a rocket ship that he had built. To prove that it would work,he and his wife took off on a journey headed for Mars, but his "experimantal flivver" vanished, presumably lost in the stratosphere. The couple did make it to Mars, however, crashing their shiup. For the next 61 years, Montague Dexter worked on repairing his ship. In the year 2000, the ship was ready to fly, but by then Dester and his wife were too old to withstand the rigors of space flight. It was left to their son Rex, born on Mars, to return to Earth.
(Let me pause here and fill in some blanks. There are Martians: brownish, humanoid, frog-loke beings with disc ears and a tufts of black hair on top of their heads. There Martians hope that Rex will be a link between the people of Mars and those of Earth. Rex himself is tall, handsome, with flowing blond locks; he walks around Mars unprotected -- unloike his father, now 85 and bearded, wearing a space helmet to protect him from (I guess) the Martian atmosphere. One panel showing the wrecked spaceship has a clearly defined large planet Earth looming over the planet like a gibbous moon. Typical 1939 science fiction fare.)
Rex takes off for Earth. Alas, he soon loses control of his ship and it crashes into a large space ship that just happened to be cruising nearby. Rex is able to get into the larger ship, where he finds some Earthmen and one particular lovely Earthgirl, Cynde. (One version of the story has Rex rescuing Cynde from space pirates when they meet; the origen story about Rex changes over time.) The ship radios ahead to Earth that they have Rex -- exciting news for everyone on Earth Rex is greeted by the mayor of New York and is given a parade down Fifth Avenue. He meets with the president, who updates himj on what has happened on Earth since 1939.
One thing that has happened was a devasting European war in the 1950s which left that continent pretty much a barren wasteland, while America grew into a futuristic landscape, complete with flying cars and rocket ships. Living (lurking?) in an old castle on a European mountai top is the evil madman Boris Thorax, the only person in contact with the people of the moon. Unlike the Martians, the Moon People are evil and need slaves; Boris Thorax hatches a plan to give the Moon People all the Earth slaves they want, while at the same time he can become the ruler of Earth. He contacts the Moon People and has them pull the planet Traxis out of orbit to smash it into America. When the people of the western hemisphere realize the coming destrucytion, they will flee to Europe, where Boris will capture them and give them to the Moon People. Bwa-ha-ha.
Rex and the president discover that Traxis is coming to destroy America. They are interupted by Yesoff, a former servant of Boris Thorax who fled when he realized the madman was mad. Yesoff tells Rex and the President what Thorax is up to and he and Rex travel to Europe to stop him. As they head off on their quest, stoic Cynde watches and declares her love for Rex. (BTW, since landing on Easrth, Rex has shorn his locks and nopw sports a typical 1939 haircut.)
Rex and Yesoff climb up tje mountainside to Thorax's lair, Yesoff is looking forward to braking Thorax's neck, but Thorak shoots Yesoff, who falls against the lever controlling the oncoming planet, changing its course so that it crashes harmlessly into the ocean. (Trunamis are evidently not a big worry in the year 2000.) It's left to Rex to break the madman's neck. We close the first episode with Rex lolling against the castle wall, looking at the planet Mars, and dreaming of Cynde...
In later issues, Rex and Cynde vow to protect Earth from and threat and/or invasion. This goes well for a while until an Martian beast that Rex had brought with him escapes and wreaks havoc. (Didn't know about the beast, did you? Neither did we.) The people of Earth are now pissed at Rex and exile him and Cynde. Eventually, there's another alien invasion and Rex manages to stop it, so he is forgiven. Inlater issues, Rex's origen story is altered -- he is now Montague's grandson, was born in 2015, and reached Earth on 2040. Cynde's story changed to have her raised on Mars with Rex. (Comic book readers of 1939 to 1941 have short memories.)
Enjoy all 26 adventures of Rex Dexter of Mars.
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=85292&comicpage=&b=i
This sounds good! I enjoy tales about Mars.
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