Unearthly Adventure Comics #252 - The RetConQuest Part 1

With a cover-date of March 1958 and on newsstands in January of 1958, Unearthly Adventure Comics #252 continued the tales of the Unwanted (as some of the less welcoming newspapers of Port Henry had come to describe them). As with their first tale it had a high science fiction concept, introducing concepts such as time travel and paradoxes to the title.

Based on the adventure of the same name written by Steve Kenson. Some text taken from that adventure. Adapted for the Port Henry Campaign.

Cast of Characters

• Robert Builder/The Atomizer - Reporter for the Port Henry Times-Herald, nuclear man granted powers by Trinity nuclear test.
• Susan Samiel - Widowed reporter for the Port Henry Times-Herald, sorceress. Specializes in binding magic.
• Heiro Silver Wave/The Cardiff Giant - immortal child of a Delaware Indians and Greek Titan. Able to grow in size and drain energy.
• US-Polaris 1 - Robot space probe invented by Jack Parsons. Altered by aliens and now possessing telekinetic abilities. 

Capsule Summary

Something had happened. All that remained of the heroes were Robert Builder and Susan Samiel. But they had no superpowers. And never had. For several years the Earth had been conquered by the vile Tempus Khan. For reasons unknown to them Khan's robots were hunting them. They'd been hiding out on Sentinel Island, once a happy place dominated by boardwalks, beaches, and thrill rides but now a ruin. With the robots closing in on them they fled down the steps to Sentinel Island's subway, once the link to the city proper but now in ruins. Much to their surprise they found a working train waiting for them. With little to lose they boarded it... 

In the flickering light as it strobes past the moving train, a green glow emanated from the cars ahead, floated into their car, resolving itself into a humanoid form clad in flowing robes. A hood obscured most of his features, apart from the flowing beard and glowing eyes in its depths, hands folded in the long sleeves of his robe. “Do no fear,” he said in a low, echoing voice. “I am Master Tulku, and you are this world’s last hope.” With that he put his hands on Samiel and Builder and suddenly they remembered who they were. Or who they were supposed to be. US-Polaris 1 and the Cardiff Giant appeared as well.

“Through the power of your memories, I have restored you to your rightful forms. Time is not as it should be, for Tempus Khan—he who imagines himself Master of Time—has altered the course of your history. This conquest should not be, but if it is allowed to continue, Khan’s quantum stabilizers will harden time’s flow into a fixed point, and nothing will be able to undo what he has done.

"First, I must transport you back to pivotal moments in your own origins, for I have created a paradox bubble, restoring you to your proper selves despite the changes Khan has made to your timelines. You must insure your own origins. After which you can destroy Khan's quantum stabilizers to lock your own pasts back into being and restore the timeline."

With that, he brought them back to their own pasts, though the entire group went to each past:

• Tempus Khan had interfered with Susan Samiel's origin by having the police rescue her when she was about to be made a virgin sacrifice to a demon. In the proper timeline the demon was rather upset that the cult had not done their homework and was sacrificing a widow who clearly did not meet the virgin sacrifice criteria. The pendant she received from her father activated during this and bestowed upon her sorceress powers. To restore the timeline, the four blocked the police long enough while preventing them from being killed by the enraged demon.
• While US-Polaris 1 was only months old, Khan undid his creation by seeing that his creator, Jack Parsons, was killed in an explosion back in 1952, prior to him restarting his career in rocketry. The explosion had taken place in the original timeline but Parsons survived it with cybernetic prosthetics which he created himself and later refined and combined with his rocketry talents to make US-Polaris 1. Tempus Khan sent a robot back in time to finish Parsons off. Our heroes put a stop to that.
• Tempus Khan altered the history of thousands of years ago, stopping Heracles from freeing the Cardiff Giant's father, the Titan Prometheus. Traveling back in time they slew the giant eagle that had been devouring his liver daily. The Cardiff Giant also suggested when Prometheus was in North America he should bury some gold plates in what would become Manchester, New York...

To be continued...

GM Note - Jack Parsons was a real man - an early rocket scientist who was involved in some very weird stuff. In real life he died in that 1952 explosion.