Strange Adventures #35 is an issue of the series Strange Adventures (Volume 1) with a cover date of August, 1953.
Synopsis for "The Cosmic Chessboard"
At the bidding of the Guardians of the Universe (no, not those ones), Captain Comet attends the Interplanetary Chess Match on Pluto. Shortly after the first match begins, the contestants are gassed and imprisoned by Pygr-gar, the Plutonian grandmaster, who hopes to siphon off the others' brain power in order to bring his synthetic soldiers to life and conquer the Solar System. Captain Comet manages to break free and challenge Pygr-gar to a chess match for the group's freedom, only to be nearly gunned down by a concealed chess piece gun when he wins. Pygr-gar is subdued and the Solar System is saved.
Appearing in "The Cosmic Chessboard"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Alavan of Mars
- Xtanl of Venus
Antagonists:
- Pygr-gar of Pluto
Other Characters:
- Guardians of the Clockwork Universe
- Nestro
- Lucy Torrence
Locations:
- Midwest City
- Midwest City Park
- Pluto
Items:
- Kniton Nerve Gas
- Synthetic Soldiers
- Ray guns
- Chess piece gun
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Time Killer"
Alan Hunter is the curator of a zoo located next to the base where the world's only working time machine is kept under heavy guard, since it could be used to change the past in catastrophic ways. Vowing to be careful, Hunter takes advantage of a doctor friend's trip to the base in order to travel back "one million years" and take pictures of the dinosaurs, mammoths and sabre-tooth tigers that he sees, thus becoming the greatest zoo curator of all.
Just as he is about to return to the present he is attacked by a pterodactyl and accidentally crushes a small seed, leading to a chain of events that leave the world dominated by Native Americans. Horrified, Hunter returns to the past to avoid destroying the seed, but ends up taking the pterodactyl itself back to the present with him. He crashes the time machine in a cage at his zoo, but discovers that he is the only man alive in a world of enormous, sentient birds. As the story closes he is trying to repair the time machine and undo his mistake yet again.
Appearing in "The Time Killer"
Featured Characters:
- Alan Hunter, Zoo Curator
Supporting Characters:
- Dinosaurs
- Prehistoric Mammals
Locations:
- Metropolitan Zoo
- Time Machine Base
- The Age of Dinosaurs (and also some mammals)
- Alternate Present Dominated by Native Americans
- Alternate Present Dominated by Man-Sized, Intelligent Birds
Items:
- "Time Suit"
Vehicles:
- Time Machine
Synopsis for "The Aquarium of Tomorrow"
A Mr. Scott buys a failing aquarium and begins making a fortune by exhibiting fish the likes of which no-one has ever seen before. As he is gloating over his money and the fact that he has fooled everyone by beaming images of fish from other planets into his tanks using his three-dimensional projector, a "Mr. Fisk" arrives, claiming to be from the Department of Fisheries. Fisk wants to know where Scott acquired one specimen in particular, one that resembles a scaled humanoid, but Scott produces a gun and attempts to run him off. In the ensuing struggle, Scott is killed.
"Fisk" flees to a small submarine and returns to his home, an undersea kingdom in the Atlantic, and reports that with Scott's death the existence of their race remains a secret. However, as Fisk left fingerprints at the scene, and as those prints could spur further investigation, he is ordered to return to the surface and die of suffocation.
Appearing in "The Aquarium of Tomorrow"
Featured Characters:
- Scott
Supporting Characters:
- Pearson
Antagonists:
- "Mr. Fisk"
Other Characters:
- Man-Eating Ungus
Locations:
- Pearson's Aquarium/ Scott's Aquarium
- Undersea Kingdom
Items:
- Three-dimensional Projector
Vehicles:
- Mono-sub
Trivia
The Venusian prisoner (pictured on cover) bears more than a passing resemblance to the original form of JLA foe Despero. Captain Comet has dealings with a group called the Guardians of the Universe that look like regular Caucasian humans.
See Also