MAGNUS ROBOT FIGHTER # 13, February 1966 ; Gold Key Comics; featuring "The
Evil Ark of Dr. Noel!", scripted (per GCD credit) by Herb Castle and drawn by
Magnus creator Russ Manning, with assistance from Mike Royer. This story has
been reprinted several times, including in the Gold Key MAGNUS #34 Feb. 1973,
which is the version I'm using to review it, and in Valiant Comics' VINTAGE
MAGNUS series issue #3. The most recent and accessible reprint is in volume 2
of Dark Horse Comics' MAGNUS hardcover archive series.
Review by Bill Henley
A couple of reviews back when I was covering METAL MEN #8 and 9, I mentioned
it was a curiosity that two well remembered Silver Age comics series both
featured protagonists named Magnus who were closely involved with robots; but that
while Robert Kanigherr's METAL MEN tended to treat robots other than the
Metal Men themselves as mindlessly rampaging antagonists, Russ Manning's MAGNUS
ROBOT FIGHTER actually took a much more thoughtful science-fictional approach
as to how robots might function in a human society and what might lead humans
to fight robots. This story is an example of that approach. On the painted
cover (credited in the GCD to George Wilson) , Magnus is in flight over the
surface of the sun (eschewing anything as wimpy as a spacesuit, though he has
some sort of protective aura), while a spaceship is crashing into the sun, and an
ethereal face of girlfriend Leeja appears against the background of space.
"Leeja's telepathic cry for help causes Magnus to risk the sun's fiery
destruction as he attacks THE EVIL ARK OF DR. NOEL!"
As the story begins, Leeja Clane is rudely awakened from a nap by a robot who
seizes and kidnaps her. A nearby robot servant protests, "Stop!
Robots-must-not-harm-humans! It-is-robotic-law!" but otherwise is unable to do anything
except to appeal for orders from a human. As Leeja is borne away by her robot
captor in a small spacecraft, her father, Senator Clane, calls for aid from
the "pol-robs" (robot police) and the Space Patrol. But pursuit is
unavailling, for, to her horror, Leeja's captor announces he is setting course for
"sub-space" (defined in a footnote as "space outside our normal four dimensions--
where many of the normal laws of nature do not apply!") Moreover, the snatching
of Leeja is just one more in a series of similar recent kidnappings. As
Senator Clane heads to raise the alarm at a meeting of North Am's Council, we see
that the Council is already playing host to a confrontation between two
striking figures; Magnus, our hero, and Dr. Laszlo Noel, a bushy-bearded anti-robot
firebrand. He shares Magnus's view that overdependence on robots has made
humanity weak, but his radicalism makes even Magnus himself seem "soft on
robots" in comparison. Noel demands, "All of them (the robots) should be
destroyed!" But Magnus demurs, saying, "I agree with you in part, Dr. Noel,... but all
of the robots should NOT be destroyed! Robots are of use to mankind, but
there should be fewer of them! We should do many of the things they do for us,
before we become completely dependent on them!" The listening council members
scoff at both men; "We should have MORE robots, not fewer!" The angry Noel
stalks out, warning, "You've had your last chance to listen to ME!" Before the
meeting can proceed further, Sen. Clane rushes in shouting about Leeja's
kidnapping. Magnus is shocked, somewhat chauviinistically protesting, "But the
others who vanished were experts...scientists! Leeja is only a girl! I don't
understand!" One who understands all too well is Dr. Noel, who thinks, "Only I
know the reason...as I leave this robot-infested Earth!"
Joining the search for Leeja, Magnus deduces that the small craft in which
Leeja was taken cannot remain long in sub-space, without rendezvousing with a
larger spaceship in normal space; so the task is to find that hidden mother
ship. Meanwhile, Leeja is ushered into the ship in question and discovers the
other kidnapped scientists, unconscious in giant test tubes. She also notices
that the interior temperature of the spaceship is exceptionally warm. The ship
is crewed by robots, but Leeja demands to speak to a human and is pushed into
"the master's cabin" to wait for his return. It occurs to her that she may be
able to contact Magnus telepathically "in the way M'Ree (a human psychic who
appeared in previous stories) has been training me!" She reaches Magnus, but
befopre she can impart more information than that she has found the kidnap
victims and that the spaceship is hot, she is interrupted by the arrival of the
"master"-- Dr. Noel. Noel explains that Leeja and the others have been chosen
for the "privilege" of helping him build a robot-free world "a thousand
galaxies away" from Earth. Ironically, however, having no voluntary human followers
Noel is forced to use robots to crew his "ark", and this may lead to disaster
as, lacking initiative, the robots are having trouble keeping the ship from
drifting into the nearby sun. "My life's work threatened by a brainless metal
scarecrow! It will give me great pleasure when I can junk you and all the
other robots aboard!", Noel growls as he takes the controls himself.
Meanwhile, even though the telepathic transmission from Leeja was cut off,
Magnus has gained from Leej'as mention of abnormal heat the vital clue to deduce
where she is; in a ship hidden close and just beyond the sun, the only place
the solar system's vast network of scanners and patrols cannot reach.
Boarding a small spacecraft, Magnus orders the "pilot-rob" to accelerate to its
limits, brushing off the warning that the "grav-forces" will crush him; "I can take
it! I MUST!" And so, "Magnus strains every superbly-trained muscle to
counter the crushing gravities of acceleration as the craft reaches three-quarters
of the speed of light!" (Uh, Magnus, I really think at that kind of
acceleration your superbly trained muscles and all the rest of you would end up being a
very thin jelly on the walls of the spaceship....) As Magnus's ship reaches
Leeja's location, he finds Noel's ark is orbiting within five million miles of
the sun, too close for safety either for it or for Magnus's own smaller craft.
As his ship and its hapless pilot-rob descends toward the sun's surface,
Magnus ejects in a desperate effort to reach the other ship; "My force-shield
power unit will last two minutes-- at most!" With no time to spare, our hero
reaches an entry port to Noel's ship, breaks in with an "atomic torch", and
reseals the airlock just as his oxygen supply runs out.
Nearly exhausted by the stress of acceleration and deceleration followed by
the grueling space walk, Magnus nonetheless gamely sets out to find and rescue
Leeja and the other kidnap victims. The "secret robot speech-receptor" in his
skull alerts him that the presence of an intruder has been detected and
robots have been sent to capture him. He manages to wreck several of them with his
standard move of a karate chop to the vulnerable robotic neck, but "ship-robs
aren't fighters, but too many...too many...." and at last Magnus is subdued
and dragged into the presence of the ship's master, Dr. Noel. Magnus snaps,
"I might have guessed your talk against robots was only pretense!", but Noel
denies this; "I will destroy all these in my ark after they have served my
purpose!" And what is that purpose? To travel a hundred Earth-years' journey
away, in suspended animation, till they reach a world "beyond the Andromeda
galaxy". "Earth has grown soft and weak! It rejected my plea to get rid of
robots! Now I reject Earth! Soon I will build a new society...peopled only by
those I have carefully chosen (including Leeja, who he has chosen as his wife
without consulting her) where there will be NO robots!" When Magnus protests
again that "properly used robots DO have a place in our civilization", Noel
sneers that they are "vile imitations of man! Counterfeits!"
But Noel's dependence on these "counterfeits", however temporary, is a deadly
weakness to his plan, as his incompetent robot pilots again threaten to send
his ship into a "drift trajectory" into the sun before he can launch it on his
interstellar voyage. Magnus is further shocked to learn that if he does
escape the solar system, Noel intends to leave his ship entirely in the hands of
the robots as Noel, Leeja, and the rest of the humans aboard go into suspended
animation. "But robots can't think, can't react! Any slight accident can
destroy everybody aboard!" Unmoved by this warning, Noel vows to proceed with
his plan, and moreover comes up with a fiendish punishment for Magnus's
interference. The Robot Fighter will be locked in a cell, fed and kept alive by the
robot crew, but not put into "deep sleep" for the hundred-year journey. "You
will grow OLD, WHITE-HAIRED.... Leeja and I will sleep! We will not be a day
older when we arrive at my new world! But YOU will be dead and forgotten!"
As the robots drag him off toward this terrible fate, Magnus tries a last
stratagem on the robots, counting on their inability to "react to the
unexpected". He pretends to fall down from weakness and then, when the robots drag him,
rises up and smashes them before they can report back to Noel. Meanwhile,
Noel prepares to force Leeja to swallow the suspended animation serum; "This must
be the end of all that Magnus and I planned together! Oh, Magnus...." But
Magnus is still trying to come to the rescue, despite the still-increasing heat
aboard the ship and a sudden tilt of the decks. Is our hero feverish and
dizzy in his weakness? No; the ship really is tilting as the robot pilot warns,
"Ship-is-losing-gyro-spin! Strong-trajectory-drift-beginning!" For the
moment, this is a good thing for Leeja as Noel falls and spills the deep sleep
serum. But all of them will receive a "warm welcome" from the sun (to steal a
line from Dr. Doom) unless Magnus can reach the control room and take matters in
hand. Noel is still determined to launch his journey into sub-space, despite
Magnus's warning, when he does reach the control room, that "we've gotten too
near the sun! To start the shift magnetics against the sun's gravity NOW
would tear us apart!" Instead, Magnus urges, Noel must activate the ship's
"repellers", to move away from the sun. But Noel refuses to abandon his master
plan, and he orders his robots to stop Magnus from interfering. "For Leeja...for
those sleeping in that compartment.... I must try one more time!" He manages
to defeat the last remaining robot, but not before Noel has hit the switch to
shift into sub-space-- and, as Magnus warned, the vibration of the shift
begins to tear the ship apart. Seizing the controls, Magnus tries to reverse the
thrust and activate the repellers; "I'll try to save the ship, Dr. Noel-- but
not for your sake!" As the vibrations cease and the ship begins to pull away
from the sun, Magnus tells Leeja, "All we can do (now) is pray!" Their
prayers are answered, as Noel's ship escapes the sun's pull, and they rendezvous
with a Space Patrol cruiser that has been following Magnus. As Noel is dragged
away by "pol-robs," Leeja wonders what will happen to him, and Magnus predicts,
"Banishment, probably...to some asteroid where he can cause no more trouble!"
(Fat chance, Magnus; Noel made several more trouble-making appearances in
later issues, one of which I may review at a later date.) Of Noel, Magnus
says, "He is wrong in thinking all robots should be destroyed! We can learn to
live with them without losing our own strength!" And an adoring Leeja agrees,
"Yes, Magnus-- with your help, North Am stands the best chance of staying
independent-- where men are free!"
Comic book supehero stories, especially up to and including the Silver Age,
tend to see conflicts in very stark and uncomplicated Good vs. Evil terms.
MAGNUS was somewhat of an exception to this rule, particularly with this story,
in which the "bad guy" is, in a way, on the same side as the hero, but Noel's
radicalism and fanaticism make him as much of a threat as any enemy who
believes in robot domination of humanity.
The original MAGNUS #13 features a four-page "Aliens" tale by Manning titled
"Day of the Nightmare!"; unfortunately, since I don't have the original issue,
I don't have this story handy to include in this review.
Magnus creator Russ Manning, with assistance from Mike Royer. This story has
been reprinted several times, including in the Gold Key MAGNUS #34 Feb. 1973,
which is the version I'm using to review it, and in Valiant Comics' VINTAGE
MAGNUS series issue #3. The most recent and accessible reprint is in volume 2
of Dark Horse Comics' MAGNUS hardcover archive series.
Review by Bill Henley
A couple of reviews back when I was covering METAL MEN #8 and 9, I mentioned
it was a curiosity that two well remembered Silver Age comics series both
featured protagonists named Magnus who were closely involved with robots; but that
while Robert Kanigherr's METAL MEN tended to treat robots other than the
Metal Men themselves as mindlessly rampaging antagonists, Russ Manning's MAGNUS
ROBOT FIGHTER actually took a much more thoughtful science-fictional approach
as to how robots might function in a human society and what might lead humans
to fight robots. This story is an example of that approach. On the painted
cover (credited in the GCD to George Wilson) , Magnus is in flight over the
surface of the sun (eschewing anything as wimpy as a spacesuit, though he has
some sort of protective aura), while a spaceship is crashing into the sun, and an
ethereal face of girlfriend Leeja appears against the background of space.
"Leeja's telepathic cry for help causes Magnus to risk the sun's fiery
destruction as he attacks THE EVIL ARK OF DR. NOEL!"
As the story begins, Leeja Clane is rudely awakened from a nap by a robot who
seizes and kidnaps her. A nearby robot servant protests, "Stop!
Robots-must-
except to appeal for orders from a human. As Leeja is borne away by her robot
captor in a small spacecraft, her father, Senator Clane, calls for aid from
the "pol-robs" (robot police) and the Space Patrol. But pursuit is
unavailling, for, to her horror, Leeja's captor announces he is setting course for
"sub-space" (defined in a footnote as "space outside our normal four dimensions--
where many of the normal laws of nature do not apply!") Moreover, the snatching
of Leeja is just one more in a series of similar recent kidnappings. As
Senator Clane heads to raise the alarm at a meeting of North Am's Council, we see
that the Council is already playing host to a confrontation between two
striking figures; Magnus, our hero, and Dr. Laszlo Noel, a bushy-bearded anti-robot
firebrand. He shares Magnus's view that overdependence on robots has made
humanity weak, but his radicalism makes even Magnus himself seem "soft on
robots" in comparison. Noel demands, "All of them (the robots) should be
destroyed!" But Magnus demurs, saying, "I agree with you in part, Dr. Noel,... but all
of the robots should NOT be destroyed! Robots are of use to mankind, but
there should be fewer of them! We should do many of the things they do for us,
before we become completely dependent on them!" The listening council members
scoff at both men; "We should have MORE robots, not fewer!" The angry Noel
stalks out, warning, "You've had your last chance to listen to ME!" Before the
meeting can proceed further, Sen. Clane rushes in shouting about Leeja's
kidnapping. Magnus is shocked, somewhat chauviinistically protesting, "But the
others who vanished were experts...scientist
understand!" One who understands all too well is Dr. Noel, who thinks, "Only I
know the reason...as I leave this robot-infested Earth!"
Joining the search for Leeja, Magnus deduces that the small craft in which
Leeja was taken cannot remain long in sub-space, without rendezvousing with a
larger spaceship in normal space; so the task is to find that hidden mother
ship. Meanwhile, Leeja is ushered into the ship in question and discovers the
other kidnapped scientists, unconscious in giant test tubes. She also notices
that the interior temperature of the spaceship is exceptionally warm. The ship
is crewed by robots, but Leeja demands to speak to a human and is pushed into
"the master's cabin" to wait for his return. It occurs to her that she may be
able to contact Magnus telepathically "in the way M'Ree (a human psychic who
appeared in previous stories) has been training me!" She reaches Magnus, but
befopre she can impart more information than that she has found the kidnap
victims and that the spaceship is hot, she is interrupted by the arrival of the
"master"-- Dr. Noel. Noel explains that Leeja and the others have been chosen
for the "privilege" of helping him build a robot-free world "a thousand
galaxies away" from Earth. Ironically, however, having no voluntary human followers
Noel is forced to use robots to crew his "ark", and this may lead to disaster
as, lacking initiative, the robots are having trouble keeping the ship from
drifting into the nearby sun. "My life's work threatened by a brainless metal
scarecrow! It will give me great pleasure when I can junk you and all the
other robots aboard!", Noel growls as he takes the controls himself.
Meanwhile, even though the telepathic transmission from Leeja was cut off,
Magnus has gained from Leej'as mention of abnormal heat the vital clue to deduce
where she is; in a ship hidden close and just beyond the sun, the only place
the solar system's vast network of scanners and patrols cannot reach.
Boarding a small spacecraft, Magnus orders the "pilot-rob" to accelerate to its
limits, brushing off the warning that the "grav-forces" will crush him; "I can take
it! I MUST!" And so, "Magnus strains every superbly-trained muscle to
counter the crushing gravities of acceleration as the craft reaches three-quarters
of the speed of light!" (Uh, Magnus, I really think at that kind of
acceleration your superbly trained muscles and all the rest of you would end up being a
very thin jelly on the walls of the spaceship...
Leeja's location, he finds Noel's ark is orbiting within five million miles of
the sun, too close for safety either for it or for Magnus's own smaller craft.
As his ship and its hapless pilot-rob descends toward the sun's surface,
Magnus ejects in a desperate effort to reach the other ship; "My force-shield
power unit will last two minutes-- at most!" With no time to spare, our hero
reaches an entry port to Noel's ship, breaks in with an "atomic torch", and
reseals the airlock just as his oxygen supply runs out.
Nearly exhausted by the stress of acceleration and deceleration followed by
the grueling space walk, Magnus nonetheless gamely sets out to find and rescue
Leeja and the other kidnap victims. The "secret robot speech-receptor" in his
skull alerts him that the presence of an intruder has been detected and
robots have been sent to capture him. He manages to wreck several of them with his
standard move of a karate chop to the vulnerable robotic neck, but "ship-robs
aren't fighters, but too many...too many...." and at last Magnus is subdued
and dragged into the presence of the ship's master, Dr. Noel. Magnus snaps,
"I might have guessed your talk against robots was only pretense!", but Noel
denies this; "I will destroy all these in my ark after they have served my
purpose!" And what is that purpose? To travel a hundred Earth-years' journey
away, in suspended animation, till they reach a world "beyond the Andromeda
galaxy". "Earth has grown soft and weak! It rejected my plea to get rid of
robots! Now I reject Earth! Soon I will build a new society...peopled only by
those I have carefully chosen (including Leeja, who he has chosen as his wife
without consulting her) where there will be NO robots!" When Magnus protests
again that "properly used robots DO have a place in our civilization"
sneers that they are "vile imitations of man! Counterfeits!
But Noel's dependence on these "counterfeits"
weakness to his plan, as his incompetent robot pilots again threaten to send
his ship into a "drift trajectory" into the sun before he can launch it on his
interstellar voyage. Magnus is further shocked to learn that if he does
escape the solar system, Noel intends to leave his ship entirely in the hands of
the robots as Noel, Leeja, and the rest of the humans aboard go into suspended
animation. "But robots can't think, can't react! Any slight accident can
destroy everybody aboard!" Unmoved by this warning, Noel vows to proceed with
his plan, and moreover comes up with a fiendish punishment for Magnus's
interference. The Robot Fighter will be locked in a cell, fed and kept alive by the
robot crew, but not put into "deep sleep" for the hundred-year journey. "You
will grow OLD, WHITE-HAIRED.
older when we arrive at my new world! But YOU will be dead and forgotten!"
As the robots drag him off toward this terrible fate, Magnus tries a last
stratagem on the robots, counting on their inability to "react to the
unexpected". He pretends to fall down from weakness and then, when the robots drag him,
rises up and smashes them before they can report back to Noel. Meanwhile,
Noel prepares to force Leeja to swallow the suspended animation serum; "This must
be the end of all that Magnus and I planned together! Oh, Magnus...." But
Magnus is still trying to come to the rescue, despite the still-increasing heat
aboard the ship and a sudden tilt of the decks. Is our hero feverish and
dizzy in his weakness? No; the ship really is tilting as the robot pilot warns,
"Ship-is-losing-
moment, this is a good thing for Leeja as Noel falls and spills the deep sleep
serum. But all of them will receive a "warm welcome" from the sun (to steal a
line from Dr. Doom) unless Magnus can reach the control room and take matters in
hand. Noel is still determined to launch his journey into sub-space, despite
Magnus's warning, when he does reach the control room, that "we've gotten too
near the sun! To start the shift magnetics against the sun's gravity NOW
would tear us apart!" Instead, Magnus urges, Noel must activate the ship's
"repellers", to move away from the sun. But Noel refuses to abandon his master
plan, and he orders his robots to stop Magnus from interfering. "For Leeja...for
those sleeping in that compartment.
to defeat the last remaining robot, but not before Noel has hit the switch to
shift into sub-space-- and, as Magnus warned, the vibration of the shift
begins to tear the ship apart. Seizing the controls, Magnus tries to reverse the
thrust and activate the repellers; "I'll try to save the ship, Dr. Noel-- but
not for your sake!" As the vibrations cease and the ship begins to pull away
from the sun, Magnus tells Leeja, "All we can do (now) is pray!" Their
prayers are answered, as Noel's ship escapes the sun's pull, and they rendezvous
with a Space Patrol cruiser that has been following Magnus. As Noel is dragged
away by "pol-robs," Leeja wonders what will happen to him, and Magnus predicts,
"Banishment, probably...to some asteroid where he can cause no more trouble!"
(Fat chance, Magnus; Noel made several more trouble-making appearances in
later issues, one of which I may review at a later date.) Of Noel, Magnus
says, "He is wrong in thinking all robots should be destroyed! We can learn to
live with them without losing our own strength!" And an adoring Leeja agrees,
"Yes, Magnus-- with your help, North Am stands the best chance of staying
independent-
Comic book supehero stories, especially up to and including the Silver Age,
tend to see conflicts in very stark and uncomplicated Good vs. Evil terms.
MAGNUS was somewhat of an exception to this rule, particularly with this story,
in which the "bad guy" is, in a way, on the same side as the hero, but Noel's
radicalism and fanaticism make him as much of a threat as any enemy who
believes in robot domination of humanity.
The original MAGNUS #13 features a four-page "Aliens" tale by Manning titled
"Day of the Nightmare!"; unfortunately, since I don't have the original issue,
I don't have this story handy to include in this review.
