Mystery in Space #73 is an issue of the series Mystery in Space (Volume 1) with a cover date of February, 1962.
Synopsis for "The Invisible Raiders of Rann!"
Continuing from last issue, Adam Strange has only 10 minutes to reach the next Zeta-Beam that will transport him to the planet Rann. In doing so he has to intercept it over a rich diamond mine in South Africa, and succeeds in dodging a hail of bullets from the mines guards while intercepting the Zeta-Beam. There he is met by Alanna who greets him with a kiss, when they are finished Adam is shocked to see that Alanna has turned invisible (except for her clothing), and as suddenly as this transformation happens a ship appears ordering the people of Rann to surrender.
En rout to Ranagar, the ship beats them there and begins destroying the city and turning it's people invisible as well. However, the counter attack manages causes the ship to crash land. Suddenly from the ships wreckage, soldiers who are invisible under their uniforms attack, and the people of Rann are unable to stop them with their weapons. Adam manages to corner one of the invaders, and knocks away it's weapon and tackles it. The uniform crumples to the ground, and Adam realizes that perhaps it was all a ruse and the being they're really fighting might be manipulating things from inside the crashed ship still.
Traveling to the crashed shuttle, Adam and Alanna enter and find an energy being inside. The being introduces itself as Ziathrion from the planet Karthal. It explains that it was the greatest scientist on it's world and used it's power to attempt to take over it's world. But the beings people soon combined their powers and removed the core of syntheti-matter that contains Ziathrion's great power. The beings of Karthal then burried the syntheti-matter on Rann and imprisoned Ziathrion. Ziathrion soon escaped and stole a ship and came to Rann to recover the syntheti-matter and used his "invisible soldier" invasion as a smokescreen to retrieve the syntheti-matter. Now immune all weapons, Ziatharion boasts his regained power by offering Adam Strange a futile attempt at trying to stop him. When no other weapons work, Adam suddenly jumps and grabs Ziatharion, just then the Zeta-Beam wears off and the two are transported to Earth.
Ziatharion is now shocked to find that he is now inert, and Adam explains that since Earth is a single-star system (whereas Rann inhabits a triple-star system) Ziatharion is now powerless. With the threat past, Adam then leaves Ziatharion to go and intercept the next Zeta-Beam.
Appearing in "The Invisible Raiders of Rann!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Ziathrion
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Answer Man of Space!"
Evan Wright is a tourist attraction at the information desk of the United Solar Worlds Building and hosts a nightly hyper-spatial telecast "The Wright Answer" watched on many worlds and on ships in space, since he can answer any question where the answer is in a book he has read. However he repeatedly lies to a regular visitor, the boy Jon Drew, that he has read the "Book of the Krull" about a long-vanished race of technologically advanced humanoids whose world was destroyed in a cataclysm. The Solar Worlds' spacecraft Starfire must make an emergency landing on a strange artificial planetoid in order to make repairs. They encounter two robots built by the Krull, one all copper the other all copper except for a zinc arm. The robots have stood vigil for a million years, watching for the return of a huge space beast that repeatedly attacked the Krull, ready to destroy it with a powerful weapon when it appears. Just as the robots finish telling their story, the space beast appears. When the robots turn towards the sealed vat of acid standing between them, in order to activate the weapon, they collapse due to their enormous age. Unable to figure out how to activate the weapon themselves, the crew of the Starfire hyper-radio Earth for help. When a team of top scientists (including Jon Drew's father) is clueless, Jon alerts Evan Wright. Wright instructs the crew to form a dry-cell battery by dipping the robots' copper and zinc arms into the vat of acid. This triggers a mechanism which activates the weapon and the space-beast is disintegrated. Evan resolves that, when John is older, he will tell him the truth -- that he has never read the "Book of the Krull". Evan reflects that Jon's faith in him made come up with the "Wright Answer" to save the crew of the Starfire, even though it was not something he had read before.
Appearing in "The Answer Man of Space!"
Featured Characters:
- Evan Wright
Supporting Characters:
- Jon Drew
- Crew of the Solar Worlds' spacecraft Starfire
Antagonists:
- Space Beast
Other Characters:
- Krull robots
Locations:
- United Solar Worlds Building (22nd Century)
- Krull artificial planetoid
Items:
Vehicles:
- Solar Worlds' spacecraft Starfire
Notes
- Reprinted in Adam Strange Archives, Volume 2.
- Krull starships ("The Answer Man of Space!") later appeared in Superman Family 192 and World of Krypton Vol 1 2.
See Also