John Romita’s Unexpected Martian Invasion in Menace #6, at Auction

Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Marvel Comics, Stan Lee, Vintage Paper | Tagged: 1953, john romita, marvel, stan lee

A copy of Menace #6 from 1953 is currently up for auction and it has a few notable points including from one John Romita.

We just looked at Menace #9 publishing a classic zombie story by Stan Lee called The Walking Dead in 1953, published by Marvel Comics when they used to be known as Atlas Comics. This was before the Comics Code, when anything horror-related was fine, and the anthology comic book series Menace was full of this stuff. A copy of Menace #6 from 1954 is currently up for auction from Heritage Auctions, and it has a few notable points, including a story from Stan Lee and one from John Romita.

Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett draws the lead story about The Graymoor Ghost, but this and all the other strips in the comic are credited as written by Stan Lee and each drawn by Gene Colan, Russ Heath, and John Romita Sr, who died this past week. This was some of his earliest published work, from seventy years ago, only a few years into his chosen career, and frankly, it’s a belter. Told in the second person, it’s a story about a Martian flying saucer invasion of Earth from the point of view of the flying saucers themselves. And ends with the kind of twist that, well, you wouldn’t be able to do as easily at Marvel comic books today because it would change things far too much.

Because we get a trip to the far future and the successful invasion of Earth by the Flying Saucers… and the saucers are the actual lifeforms that have terraformed Earth and enslaved humanity to serve their needs.

I wonder if I should buy this and send it to Al Ewing, who currently mines ancient Marvel Comics continuity for ideas – including recently making Flexo The Rubber Man into a new Venom – and who also writes the X-Men Red comic set on a terraformed Mars and the mutants who live there. Could Storm and the gang dig a few of these living Martain flying saucers up?

Menace #6 (Atlas, 1953) CGC VG- 3.5 Cream to off-white pages. Bill Everett skeleton cover and art. Gene Colan, Russ Heath, and John Romita Sr. art. Overstreet 2022 VG 4.0 value = $246. CGC census 6/23: 3 in 3.5, 11 higher.

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