(Fantastic Comics 012, 1940)
Kaos, a Venusian scientist, has a plan that in true comics book fashion is both simple (invade the Earth with overwhelming force, thus taking over almost immediately) and overly complicated (hypnotize the local population of giant vultures and then feed them super vitamins extracted from a specially-bred vine, thus making them even more giant and so fast that they are unbeatable, then teleport them to Earth as your main invasion force). Also: those are some crazy legs on those vultures.
Kaos may be the villain who benefits the most from a frequent plot element in Stardust the Super Wizard adventures, that Stardust lives so gosh darned far away. Thus, despite the fact that Stardust watched Kaos' entire plan unfold on his View-Plate and Thought-Recorder, Kaos has enough time to effectively conquer the planet while the Super Wizard is on his commute.
Once Stardust actually shows up, Kaos is subdued in exactly two panels. The vultures take a bit longer but in short order both they and "Kaos-the-Worm" are on their way back to Venus. There's no mention of removing the birds' physical enhancements so I guess it's now up to the Venusians to deal with millions of huge powerful super-fast vultures.
This is the issue in which a young woman orphaned in the vulture attacks attaches herself to Stardust and ends up returning to his star with him to live. I don't know if this was intended to be a sexy situation or not - the two of them certainly do seem to be giving each other significant looks, but the same panels are really emphasizing just how much bigger Stardust is than her. It's unsettling! Though she never appears again in a Fletcher Hanks story, this unnamed character is a frequent feature of more recent Stardust works, so I felt I should include her.
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