post

 

 

Even by the late sixties most science fiction writers had rejected the mutant superpowers theme as absurd; but it was replaced with the ever-popular mutant monster, which already by the seventies had become a cliché. The nuclear cautionary film series Planet of the Apes had given a special twist to the theme of nuclear mutation which was imitated by popular comic book artist and writer Jack Kirby in his Kamandi series.
Even by the late sixties most science fiction writers had rejected the mutant superpowers theme as absurd; but it was replaced with the ever-popular mutant monster, which already by the seventies had become a cliché.
The nuclear cautionary film series Planet of the Apes had given a special twist to the theme of nuclear mutation which was imitated by popular comic book artist and writer Jack Kirby in his Kamandi series.

 

which more than one reader pointed out stole directly from Beneath the Planet of the Apes, with its warhead-worshipping simians.
which more than one reader pointed out stole directly from Beneath the Planet of the Apes, with its warhead-worshiping simians.

 

By the way, the wrecked statue of liberty showed up again in this comic
By the way, the wrecked statue of liberty showed up again in this comic

 

and on the cover of this macho thriller; note the contrast between old and new models of femininity.
and on the cover of this macho thriller; note the contrast between old and new models of femininity.

 

In the 1974 series, Doomsday Squad, the superheroes, far from being able to prevent the war, emerge only after the holocaust has taken place, by accident, according to the absurd illogic of modern warfare. This series was reissued in the eighties, when the theme of the hero roaming the ruined earth had become firmly established as a convention as stereotyped in its characteristics as the western.
In the 1974 series, Doomsday Squad, the superheroes, far from being able to prevent the war, emerge only after the holocaust has taken place, by accident, according to the absurd illogic of modern warfare. This series was reissued in the eighties, when the theme of the hero roaming the ruined earth had become firmly established as a convention as stereotyped in its characteristics as the western.

 

The Ex-Mutants was a series about highly-attractive heroes and heroines who are bred to normality in a world filled with pathetic and dangerous mutants.
The Ex-Mutants was a series about highly-attractive heroes and heroines who are bred to normality in a world filled with pathetic and dangerous mutants.

 

Occasionally the series tried to treat the threat of nuclear war seriously, as in this story in which another world, like their Earth, plunges over the nuclear brink.
Occasionally the series tried to treat the threat of nuclear war seriously, as in this story in which another world, like their Earth, plunges over the nuclear brink.

 

8

Next: Radioactive Rambos