Unearthly Adventure Comics #255 - Invasion of the Humans

Unearthly Adventure Comics #255 had a cover date of June of 1958 and appeared on newsstands in April of that year. It returned to the science fiction tropes of issue #251, giving the first hints as to the cosmos around Earth.

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.
• US-Polaris 1 - Robot space probe invented by Jack Parsons. Altered by aliens and now possessing telekinetic abilities. 

Capsule Summary

Note - several elements of this are inspired or taken from Fainting Goat Games' The Great Game Icons supplement. 

Robert, Susan, and US-Polaris 1 were setting up the Unwanted's headquarters, located in an underground bunker built by the US government several years ago as part of an abandoned plan for a military base. It had been purchased by Heiro Silver Water for a possible base. Still able to survive a nuclear attack, the area above it had become a moderately successful drive-in movie theater on the outskirts of town. 

A trouble alert got their attention - an unidentified flying object had crashed in Millennium, Arizona, pursued by two other unidentified flying objects - UFOs which had shot down two US Air Force fighters. 

A spell and horrific trip through a dimensional portal later, Susan teleported them to Millennium. A large fire had broken out where a small spaceship had crashed. Two flying robots were firing their lasers at it while blaring warnings in a variety of languages for Terrans to stay clear. The trio finished them off with speed, though US Polaris 1's telekinesis shorted out, forcing it to use its retractable arms to throw one at the other.

Within the ship were two humans... two women, one dressed in classical Greek attire, the other dressed in what would be appropriate club wear in the 1990s but not the 1950s... They spoke English and were introduced as Nemesis and Lilith - not ominous names at all.

After they got the fire under control, Nemesis explained they were from a human colony. There were indeed humans in space. Over ten thousand years ago the Titans subjected Earth to a mystical radiation that triggered superhuman powers in many - and altered the DNA of many others, introducing the possibility of superhuman powers to the human genetic code, a gene that would lie largely dormant for thousands of years... The Titans used the uplifted humans as their soldiers in their wars of galactic conquest, becoming the scourge of the Three Galaxies. The Titans were eventually defeated and their human soldier-slaves were nearly wiped out in a war of genocide. Nemesis and Lilith were from a human colony that had survived in secret over centuries and had come to Earth in search of other humans - and to liberate Earth from the radio blockade the galaxy had imposed on Earth, for there was a jammer on the Moon. Magicking up some space suits, the trio teleported to the Moon with Lilith and Nemesis to see for themselves. Awaiting them was a guardian, Dayna Forthright, the Ghostlight Centurion.

Dayna Forthright, from
The Great Game

A strange parley took place, with Dayna confirming that she was guardian indeed enforcing a radio (and hyperspace) blockade around Earth - but for Earth's protection, for the people of the Three Galaxies feared humans more than any other species and the only way to stop the genocide of humanity was to blockade Earth. She claimed that Lilith and Nemesis sought to trigger a war - for with the jammer destroyed (a nearby monolith being the jammer, of dimensions 1x4x9 for those keeping track of such things...) humanity would learn of the rest of the galaxy - and would be invaded by the many civilizations of the Three Galaxies. At that, Nemesis claimed that Earth would stop them, for she was a general and under her leadership, Earth would triumph! Yes, it turned out Lilith and Nemesis were not descendants of Titan soldiers but had led armies in the Galactic Wars, spending the last two thousand years in stasis while waiting for Earth to have sufficient technology to be worth ruling. 

Battle commenced. Lilith, though savage and armed with claws and poison, was defeated fairly easily but Nemsis was a challenge indeed, with her force field and ability to generate spontaneous superpowers, either to counteract another superhuman's powers or to imitate it. Eventually, Robert Builder, the Atomizer defeated her by going incorporeal and slipping his hand through her force field - then blasting her...

In the aftermath of the battle, Dayna took the heroes to her base and took custody of Lilith and Nemesis. Dayna explained that she and her people, the Sirians, were against the blockade, but could see no other way to protect humanity - indeed, she had sabotaged some space launches, but doing so was dangerous. She indicated she would be willing at some point to take them to meet some of the inhabitants of the Three Galaxies and convince them that humans were no threat - something the heroes chuckled at, what with the two superpowers of Earth ready for war at a moment's notice...