Number 846

The World Saver comes through again

I'm an old science fiction reader but I shouldn't assume that everyone knows about Edmond Hamilton. He began his writing career in 1926 with a story, "The Monster-God of Mamurth" in Weird Tales, and was one of the most prolific and successful writers of science fiction up until his death in 1977. Hamilton, through his connections with DC editors Mort Weisinger and Julius Schwartz, wrote many comic book stories, most anonymously.

Hamilton was known amongst science fiction fans variously as World Saver, World Wrecker, Universe Saver, etc., for his plots, which often involved Earth being threatened with total destruction, with a hero saving the whole planet. So it is with "The Comet Peril!" from Mystery In Space #2, 1951, a story that gives Hamilton a byline. (He has another story in the issue, too, under the pen-name Robert Starr.) It's one of the future-in-the-past stories I've mentioned before: stories that were written years before the future date in the story, which we are now reading years after the date has passed. It's pretty obvious our planet didn't get hauled out of orbit by Halley's Comet's in 1986.

Artwork is by Murphy Anderson.