ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 006

Martians aplenty, plus more! 

Martians: 

Time traveller Scott Rand and his companions stumble into a Martian invasion of Earth during a jaunt to the far-distant future world of 2000 CE, and they immediately get in on the planet-defending action. Featuring a Viking vs Martian battle, for all those fans of classic 2010s mashup humour.

These particular Martians aren't anything special, but I must say that I appreciate their minimalist, doorstop-shaped spacecraft. (Top-Notch Comics 002, 1940)

Martians: 

Scott Rand soon makes his way to Mars proper, where he encounters this very human-looking Martian wearing an outfit that is as jam-packed with retro-futuristic fashion elements as it is possible to be. His particular style of Martians just so happened to have been under attack by the reason for Rand's trip to Mars... (Top-Notch Comics 003, 1940) 

Martians: 

... Kruzzo, the Ice King of Mars, aka the "Master Pirate of Time," leader of this considerably more goblinoid type of Martian, who he leads on raids from their hidden city at the Martian South Pole. Kruzzo has captured 2/3 of Rand's companions, and has messed with the wrong time traveller and the wrong Viking and the wrong scientist and the wrong Ancient Egyptian princess this time, because their entire city ends up getting blown to kingdom come.

I was initially going to lump these guys and the previous ones together, but there are some obvious phenotypical differences between the two groups. Are they and the Martians who tried to invade Earth all different subtypes of the same species, Basil Wolverton style or did three groups of Martian hominid all make the leap to full sentience around the same time? (Top-Notch Comics 003, 1940)

Arurans: 

Bob Steele's whole thing is that he's got a spaceship and he's ready to head to another planet at a moment's notice, to meet alien intelligences and either befriend or befoe them. Despite the chilly reception depicted above, Bob ultimately befriends the Arurans of planet Arura, a civilization with many enemies but no meaningful physiological distinction from any other bunch of white guys. (Funny Picture Stories v1 007, 1937)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 722: DR DOOM

(Science Comics 003, 1940)

Flashback to my times in the Fiction House content-recycling mines of Planet Comics! What we have here is a Dr Doom story nestled snugly into an issue of Science Comics just where Dr Doom stories always go, but it's not the right Dr Doom! Was this a story about a different science villain that was renamed to fit the space, or did "Richard Crater" (Dick Briefer, possibly) just kind of freestyle a fill-in gig and go wildly off-model? Who can say?

What I can say is that this Dr Doom is a villain both more entertaining and more ambitious than our regularly scheduled one. Instead of tormenting a handful of people for his own entertainment, this Dr Doom is blowing up buildings as part of a campaign of terror designed to put him in charge of the world, and he shows off some fantastic bombast while expositing all of this. "Fools! Fools! Fools!"

Of course this sort of thing can not allowed to go on, and since this Dr Doom is very much not a future-man, J Edgar Hoover sends the rough and tumble Bob Steele to take care of him.

Bob doesn't have much trouble making his way to Dr Doom's lair - he merely hops out of his plane and into the remotely-piloted one that Doom uses as a relay for his destructive ray, and after that it's just a matter of waiting to be flown back to a mountain full of costumed goons and then beating all of those goons up. Simple stuff.

Bob and Dr Doom provide an object lesson on the limits of bombast as a tool in everyday life, as it proves ineffective in convincing Bob not to punch Dooms lights out and smash up his laboratory. So long Dr Doom, it's neat that there are two of you (and more to come).