Today we present some of the many aliens of Jupiter.
Ganymede Pirates:
After facing the upsetting menace of Orro, Ted Hunt and Jane Martin, the Star Rovers, are captured by space pirates and taken to their home base on Ganymede. Whether they are native to Ganymede is hard to say, as the Space Rover Solar System is one that is populated mostly by aliens that look like white guys. This could be a completely heterogeneous group of Ceresians, Martians, Venusians, Jovians and humans and we would never be able to tell without some sort of census.
These pirates are just that, pirates, and are mostly concerned with plundering and partying. More importantly, they have Prince Kongor of Jupiter imprisoned in their dungeons, and he helps the Space Rovers to escape and head down to the (terrestrial, oxygen atmosphere, non-crushing gravity) planet Jupiter. (Exciting Comics 006, 1940)
Jovians:
Ted, Jane and Kongor head back to Kongor's home: Amkor, capital city of the small country of Xalia, which turns out to have been annexed by the nation of Iraz while he was away. Now, Kongor's treacherous cousin Hajeck rules as Governor under the Dictator Chotan, and while all this is a bit of a word salad it is an extremely nice change of pace after reading so many comics featuring aliens from single-biome worlds featuring homogeneous cultures living under a single world government. Wowee, there are multiple countries on this one, fellows! The Space Rovers topple all of the Bad Governments in favour of putting their personal friend Kongor in charge, of course. (Exciting Comics 007, 1941)
Jupiter Brutes:
After the Hardwich family crash their family space-coupe on the terrestrial planet Jupiter, their unnamed son is the only survivor. Raised by a Jovian tiger, the lad grows up big and strong and eventually starts exploring. On top of a nearby cliff he discovers a village of ape-men that the text refers to as "Jupiter Brutes" or merely "Brutes" and befriends them via the universal language: punching. The Jupiter Brute society doesn't get too much fleshing out over the course of the story but I sure do appreciate their tree house village.
Oh, by the way: that Jovian jungle lad? Why he was none other than Auro, Lord of Jupiter. (Planet Comics 001, 1940)
Jupiter Giants:
Finally, we have the Jupiter Giants, who are still improbably humanoid but scaled up to improbably size to match that of their planet. We only meet the one Jupiter Giant, who flies over in a huge rocket ship to essentially bully the Earth. Is this sadistic lout representative of his culture or does he have to turn to such acts because he is an outcast at home? Hard to say.
The Jupiter Giant gets his comeuppance in the form of a beating from the size-changing Red Comet, who would have been justified in subsequently hurling him into the Sun as retribution for the mass murder and destruction, but who instead crams him back into his spaceship and sends him back from whence he came to think about what he did. (Planet Comics 006, 1940)
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