Mysta vs. The End

In Mysta's final printed adventure (Planet Comics #62) she fights two different battles. She has to help Garro fight a giant robot that's attacking the undersea farms of the planet Aqua, but meanwhile, back on Earth, her secret identity is being questioned as the result of a standard security audit.

The underwater adventure is cool with the giant robot and two different factions of fish-people, but from the perspective of the overall series the interesting part is Garro's quick inclusion of Mysta in the mission. At the end of the last one he implied that he didn't want her participating anymore, but as soon as another crisis arises, he calls her in. He's conspicuously quiet too about evaluating her performance at the end of the Aqua mission, so what are we to make of him?

Assuming that I was right in guessing that he's in love with Mysta and starting to worry about her, perhaps he's realized that his sexist comment to her after the last mission was inappropriate. I don't mean in a Political Correctness way, but just in a I Like This Woman and Want Her to Like Me Too way. Though - unless there was an off-panel apology we don't know about - he's handling it by pretending he never said it and hoping that Mysta will follow suit. If that's the case, Garro's a complete douche.

Something else that may inform the situation though is Mysta's being referred to throughout this story as Technician 3. In the last adventure, her title was Technician 106, which seemed to be an ID number of some kind. As this story opens, she's called Technician Grade 3. That sounds like a job title, but it's immediately truncated to just Technician 3 as the story progresses and used in the same way that Technician 106 was used earlier. Has she gotten a promotion? Like, a really huge promotion? If 106 and 3 refer to grade levels...well, maybe Garro's found a way to apologize after all. Not a cool one, but then Garro's not a cool guy.

As for the security audit, the woman conducting it figures out right away that something's not right about Mysta. We finally learn Mysta's cover name in this story: Ana Thane. The problem is that Mysta's apparently done a lousy job of creating that cover, because there are no records of such a person existing. It's hard to believe that Mysta would have screwed up that badly, so I'm suggesting another theory: that Bron, desperately wanting Mysta to give up her extended undercover mission and return to the Moon, hacked into the Safety Council's servers and purposely erased whatever background Mysta had created for Ana. Frankly, I wish he'd succeeded.

Unfortunately for Bron, he didn't realize that the auditor is a corporate tool and an idiot who's too afraid of making waves to report any discrepancies she finds. Her exact thought is, "If I tell[...]Garro he'll think I'm looney! Perhaps I'd better just close the files on this case." And so she does. Mysta's secret is safe.

Since this was the last Mysta story that Planet Comics published, we'll never know what eventual plans they had for the character, but I'm not sure that's important. I enjoy trying to explain the twists and turns and inconsistencies - creating my own subplots in the process - but I don't seriously think that the writers had long-range plans for the character. The series feels very much like they were making it up as they went along. That's part of its charm, not a criticism, but it does leave it to the reader to create his or her own ending for Mysta's story.

Sleestak likes the idea of Mysta's giving up her Moon fortress for good and settling down more or less permanently in her role as a Safety Council technician, "allowing humanity to once again control their own destiny." That's a great ending from Sleestak's perspective, because he's tended to see the early Mysta as a harsh gatekeeper who controls scientific knowledge through her own strength and technological superiority. He's always acknowledged that her motives were good, but disagreed with some of her draconian methods.

Something about Mysta's first appearance made me want to like her more than that though. Maybe it was the tragedy in her origin: how she was stolen from her crib (along with a male baby) by a scientist who then raised her and her "brother" on the Moon while he poured all the world's knowledge into their brains, how the God of War possessed her "brother" and forced him to kill their "father", and how Mysta had to then kill her own "brother" in self-defense. I think that got to me in a way that made me want to give her the benefit of the doubt as her story unfolded. Even when I questioned some of her choices, I wanted to support her as much as possible.

Which means that I've seen her as less manipulative than maybe Sleestak has. If he's right, I hope with him that she's leaving that behind as her series ends. But if Mysta's mission has always been noble - and executed as nobly as possible - I'd love for her to come clean to Garro, move back to the Moon with Bron, and work openly with the Safety Council to continue keeping the universe safe.

Mysta vs. Cargo X25

In Planet Comics #61, the Safety Council quarantines suspicious cargo and learns that its concerns are justified. When their scans accidentally activate the regrowth of miniaturized demon-birds and uncover a faux terrorist plot, Mysta leaps into action.

There are a few interesting things in this story. First of all, Mysta's secret identity finally gets a name, sort of. It's Technician 106. That's all the identification that Garro seems to know her by, which makes me wonder if he's really just that disinterested (or pretending to be) or if that's all the identification that the Safety Council allows. Also interesting is Garro's attitude toward her at the end. Though Mysta/Technician 106 has proved herself over and over again on missions she's undertaken with Garro, he dismisses her contributions to this one and says, "Leave such things to men, who can handle them."

Here's my theory: Garro's falling for her and is trying to cover it by refusing to use her real name (I bet he knows it; whatever her cover name is, I mean). He's started worrying about her on these missions, which explains - though doesn't excuse - his sexist remark.

Meanwhile, Bron's still holding things together solo on the Moon. He seems to have gotten over his resentment of that situation though and appears to be resigned to his new role. However, he's obviously in love with Mysta and wishes she reciprocated his feelings.

I'll come out and admit to being a Brysta 'shipper. Though Garro and Mysta are clearly interested in each other and we've got kind of a Moonlighting/Castle dynamic going on with them, they'd make a horrible, dysfunctional couple. I'm crossing my fingers that Mysta realizes what a faithful friend she has in Bron. (Sleestak has an equally valid take on Bron's isolation on the Moon that recalls his previous career as a criminal, but I'm hoping it's romance, not force, that's keeping him there.)

Another interesting thing is that Mysta calls her machine-man Robot II in this adventure. The robot's changed a lot since his first appearance in the series, but I think this is the first time Mysta's acknowledged that it's actually a completely new model.

Mysta vs. the Borers of Andros

In Planet Comics #60, Mysta and Safety Council Director Garro head to the planet Andros to oversee the investigation of some energy "impulses" on the supposedly dead world. It's a strange mission for an organization devoted to planetary safety, but probably they're foresighted enough to know that where there are mysterious energy readings there could also be a threat. Turns out of course that they're right.

It's a cool, if straightforward adventure filled with giant, subterranean, metal worms and battle armor and cool flying cars. There's not a lot to comment on other than general awesomeness, but Mysta does continue to mellow in her attitude compared to the hard line she took in her early adventures. Where Garro sees the antagonists of the adventure as "devils," Mysta believes that they can be educated and invited to join the civilized galaxy. Personally, I don't see whatever good she's seeing in the race of what are essentially slavers. Is her struggle with her romantic feelings for Bron and Garro taking away some of her edge?

I wonder if he leniency is related to her memory lapse earlier in the story. While preparing to descend to Andros' surface, Mysta realizes that she used to know something about the planet, but has forgotten what it was. She remembers once she gets a visual cue, but I don't know what caused the lapse. We don't know how old Mysta is or what effect internalizing all of Earth's scientific knowledge had on her brain. Is she just slowing down mentally from natural causes or is this a more serious problem? Is it possibly the result of her being away from her Moon lab for too long? Is there equipment there that helps her organize and retain data?

Mysta faces the Revolt on Planet Xanthia

In this story from Planet Comics #59, an exile of the planet Xanthia returns to take over his homeworld and the Safety Council sends military support to the planet's government. Director Garro again decides to lead the intervention himself, perhaps as a result of his success putting down last issue's prison escape. Is he getting a taste for adventuring?

Naturally he takes along his top aide, Mysta, in her "disguise" as a Safety Technician. This is the first time I noticed the full title of Safety Technician and it can be read a couple of different ways. Without the modifier (and recalling that the Safety Council used to be called the Science Council), I've always read the Technician title as referring to some kind of low-level scientific specialist. So a Safety Technician would be someone like that who just so happens to work for the Safety Council.

On the other hand, maybe Safety describes the type of technical expertise she has. In other words, she's skilled and trained in the technicalities of keeping people safe. If this is the case, it goes a long way towards explaining why she's asked to advise and gets brought along on so many missions. It's a much cooler job.

It would also mean that changing the name of the Science Council to Safety Council was more than just propaganda, but actually indicates a change in function, settling a question I had a while ago.

We also get to see Bron again in this issue as well as the Saturn-shaped UFO from a few issues ago. Bron's apparently having an okay day, because he's not all resentful of Mysta's extended undercover mission like he's recently been. But he is getting a little jumpy at being all alone on the Moon with no one but Mysta's cold and impersonal robot for company.

Mysta: Escape from Paladnor

In Planet Comics #58, the prison-planet of Paladnor - an institution that Mysta created to rehabilitate abusers of scientific knowledge - is wracked by earthquakes and volcanic explosions that threaten to destroy the entire world. Director Garro of the Science Council coordinates a massive rescue of the prisoners, but is the disaster a natural event or an escape attempt by a criminal mastermind?

Garro comes across at first as hopelessly bureaucratic. Informed of the disaster by guardships orbiting Paladnor, Garro's initial reaction is that sending aid is "a tough order to fill," but that the Science Council will do it's best. "Take care of your end and I'll get the ball rolling here," he orders his men who are already on the scene. That sounds like a diplomatic way of saying, "Do what you can, but don't hold your breath about getting any help."

Surprisingly, Garro comes through and is quickly on the planet to coordinate the evacuation. And fortunately, he's also brought along his favorite science technician, who - unknown to him - is actually Mysta. I'll leave it to you to discover what happens.

What I'm most interested in is figuring out why Mysta's still undercover in the Science Council. There have been some hints in the last couple of stories that she may be attracted to Garro, but there's none of that in this one. Her feelings about Garro throughout have vacillated between jealous attraction and scorn at his stupidity. She's on the disdainful side this time and it makes me realize that perhaps she simply doesn't know how she feels about him.

And what about Bron? He's not mentioned in this story, but Mysta was getting almost swoony about him before she met Garro. Makes me wonder if her attraction to Garro isn't a deliberate distraction from Bron. Perhaps her feelings for Bron have frightened her to the point that she needs to get away for a while. Garro's a handsome dude, so perhaps she's torn between being physically attracted to him and being repulsed by his incompetence. Although, if Garro continues performing like he does in this adventure, she may not have as much of a conflict to resolve.

Bad news for all you Brysta 'shippers, but Mystarro folks shouldn't get too comfortable either. If Mysta's reaction to Bron is any indication, she may run out on Garro too if things get heavy.

When you click through to read the whole story (you will, right?), be sure to read Sleestak's thoughts on Mysta's job as Technician. I hadn't put it together as well as he did, but the title obviously has a different function in the Science Council's culture than we're used to and Sleestak's figured it all out.

Mysta vs. the Changeling Mutants

In Planet Comics #57, Mysta faces a plot to destroy the Earth using shape-changing mutants. Actually, the mutants are just used to steal the device that's going to be used to blow up the planet and they're not very good at it. They steal the device all right, but they're barely serviceable as morphs and Mysta's on to them before you can say, "Arrgh! Aaaa!" In fact, even incompetent old Science Council Director Garro knows the mutants are coming and has taken action to prevent it. (The action fails, but still...)

There's an interesting bit at the beginning where Garro announces that he'll be supervising the inspection of all ships from Outer Void Z, the area of space that produces the changeling mutants. You'd think he has better things to do as head of Earth's governing body, but perhaps "supervision" doesn't mean he's personally supervising each and every inspection. Hopefully he's not that much of a mico-manager and is just overseeing the entire process. Maybe the inspection we see him conduct is just a random audit.

Nah. He's a dork.

Be sure to read Sleestak's take on the story in the link above. Where I automatically read nefarious motives into the mutants' leader and saw Earth as merely defending itself against invasion, there's an alternate reading in which Earth is an economic aggressor and Outer Void Z is simply retaliating. As Sleestak explains so well, that interpretation casts a dark shadow over Mysta's resolution to the conflict.

Mysta vs. the Thought-Mites of Andros

In Planet Comics #56, Mysta unpacks her old "thought image" power from the mothballs and uses it against  insect-controlled robots, Saturn-shaped UFOs, and hideous, moving sacks of flesh. But as usual, there's a lot more going on in the story than just that. Mysta's still undercover at the Science Council and a couple of things are happening as a result.

Bron's getting jealous on the Moon, but is that about continually being stuck in the lab while Mysta's off on missions? Or does he somehow sense that she's interested in Garro, the Science Council's director? Mysta doesn't come right out and admit any attraction, but she does muse for a second about her reputation for being cold. Her tone could be regretful, but her train of thought is cut off before she can finish it.

Meanwhile Garro's certainly taking an interest in her. He dismissively calls her "just one technician in thousands," but he obviously can't stop thinking about her, partly because he thinks he recognizes her from somewhere. She's not going out of her way to disguise herself, so he can't have met Mysta before, but you'd think he'd have seen pictures or something. Garro appears to be as dense as his ego is fragile.

Mysta vs. the Safety Council

In Planet Comics #55 (helpfully shared by Sleestak, naturally), Mysta doesn't so much fight giant crickets as watch other people do it while she gets to the threat behind the giant crickets. What's really interesting about this story though is the subplot in which Earth's governing Safety Council (formerly called the Science Council) has selected a new leader who doesn't see the value in Mysta's ubiquitous assistance.

There are a number of reasons worth speculating about why the Science Council changed its name, but Safety Council sounds overly assuring; like they've got something to hide. Science Council was simply descriptive of the organization's mandate to control the dissemination of knowledge. Safety Council implies an external threat that the people of Earth need to be protected from. That's not an invalid concern - as anyone who's been keeping up with Mysta's adventures knows - but actually changing the organization's name indicates an overt change in focus from the management of scientific learning to police action. Troublesome. (Sleestak has a different, equally valid theory that this is an entirely new organization that has possibly taken over the Science Council's role in Earth's leadership. Even if that's true, it's no more reassuring.)

Mysta acts strangely in this adventure too. Not so much at first. Her disguising herself as a technician in order to spy on the Council's new leader is very much like her. As is her willingness to let him fail without her in order to teach him a lesson (of course she stays close enough that she can step in and clean up when needed, but that doesn't go entirely according to her plan). What's weird is that even though the new leader fails and she saves the day, she stays undercover at the end of the story and lets him think that he succeeded. Sleestak speculates that Mysta thinks she can best manipulate the new leader if he isn't threatened by her. That makes perfect sense to me.

Mysta and the Black Bubbles of Zettra

Thanks to my slowness and his industriousness, Sleestak's long past finished posting the entire Mysta series at Lady, That's My Skull even though I'm only about three-quarters done commenting on it. Where I left off was with Planet Comics #53, in which Matt Baker began drawing the series. He's still drawing it in #54 where Mysta investigates some shady goings on at a processing plant.

At first glance it seems like a typical adventure for Mysta: stopping an evil industrialist who would abuse science and knowledge for his own selfish gain. She does use the invisibility cloak she got last issue, but that was the only new thing I noticed until Sleestak pointed out that Mysta's unusually horrified by the villain's fate at the end of the story. Though I haven't always agreed with Sleestak about the extent of Mysta's coldness to others, he's been absolutely right in observing that she's usually extremely generous with the "oh well, that bastard got what he deserved." I totally dig his theory that it's Bron who's having an affect on her. Bron's enough of a tool that I doubt he's intentionally changing her, but her feelings for him seem to be making her more empathetic. Curious to see if that continues.

Mysta, Agent of M.O.O.N.

Continuing to catch up with Sleestak's Mysta Mondays.

This is one of my favorites so far, mostly because Matt Baker drew it, but also because it has a strong secret agent vibe. Mysta's "vacationing" undercover at a resort when she gets word that a scientist acquaintance of hers (who's been experimenting with some weird stuff called Electro-Ions that Mysta's loaned him) sends word that he's in trouble. I put "vacationing" in quotes because - as Sleestak points out - it's suspicious that she just happens to have chosen a resort very close to where Dr. Svord is conducting his tests.

There's a pretty assistant, tragic murders, secret call signs, a sinister villain, and a brutal henchman, all of which remind me of Bond films. There's even the "gadget" of the Invisibility Cloak (predating Harry Potter by almost 50 years), which Mysta seems more interested in than the Electro-Ions that created it. Curious to see if she uses it in future adventures. It sure sounds like she wants to.

Mysta of the Moon vs the Plant-Monsters of Vitan

I've gotten way behind on Sleestak's Mysta series, so I'm going to spend some time catching up. I've moved most of the comics linking to the Annex, but Mysta's different because - like Sleestak - I enjoy reading between the panels and trying to figure out the subtext. Since I want to keep on doing that, I'm keeping Mysta here.

One of the coolest things about deciphering the story-behind-the-story is that Sleestak and I have come up with different takes on Mysta's tactics. We agree that she's benevolent in her intentions, but passionately protective of what she considers to be dangerous knowledge. Where we differ though is in how far her influence extends and to what lengths she goes to control power. I see Mysta as a mostly benign gatekeeper of knowledge who - with the support of Earth's government - sometimes has to act violently to protect the galaxy at large. I hope I'm not misrepresenting Sleestak, but his Mysta is harsher and controls the government.

In Part 18a, Mysta travels through time and fights killer plants. From which we learn a couple of things: 1) that future bio-chemists wear awesome helmets, orange-scaled Speedos, and little else, and 2) that history seems to remember Mysta kindly. When she goes to the future and visits a school, she overhears a lecture about her in which the professor calls her, "our beloved idol."

That seems to support my view of Mysta, but I can't ignore the possibility that she had a really excellent PR firm spinning her legacy in a positive direction. Even if I'm right though, I can't argue with Sleestak's interpretation of that last panel. Mysta's clearly been kissed. Hard.

Pass the Comics: Mysta meets her match

Time to catch up some on Sleestak's collection of Mysta of the Moon comics. I'm behind by about six issues, so I won't catch up completely today, but let's make a dent.

Mysta and the Flaming Column of Earth's Core



In this adventure, Mysta continues her role as a sort of one-woman Science Police, making sure that corporations and individual scientists aren't misusing knowledge or exploiting resources they shouldn't. For instance: harnessing energy from the Earth's core and not only seriously angering the ape-men who live there, but also giving said ape-men the opportunity to retaliate against the surface world.

One of my favorite things about that post though is Sleestak's observation that with Golden Age stories, it's  necessary for readers to fill in details that the ultra-compressed storytelling leaves out. Doing that - and seeing how my details differ from Sleestak's - is a large part of what makes these stories so much fun.

Mysta vs. the Jovian Bat-Men (Not to be confused with Jovial Batman)



A science project from Jupiter goes astray and crashes near Mysta's moonbase. The monstrous scientists who created it then go to great and complicated lengths to get it back, hopefully destroying Mysta in the process. Be sure to read Sleestak's commentary on how the animal-men possibly fit in to the larger, mostly human culture in the solar system.

My own alarm bells went off when Mysta admitted that their technology reveals "a knowledge of science that far surpasses my own." I didn't think such knowledge existed and it's kind of scary to think that it's controlled by such dastardly (though cool-looking) villains.

Something else that gets me wondering is Mysta's claim that she can tell the technology was created by "diabolical minds." I'm not sure how that's possible unless she noticed a weapon or some other kind of violent application that she doesn't mention to "Bron." Sleestak's darker take on Mysta is probably rubbing off on me, but part of me suspects that Mysta's simply afraid and possibly jealous about someone else's technology exceeding her own. However, the optimist in me likes to think that she's just that smart and can tell from looking at the tech that its creators are up to no good.

Mysta on Strato Garrison X-9



When a military outpost requests a Force Screen from Mysta, she sends Bron to deliver it so that she can continue some important research. The scenario raises a couple of questions: what's the garrison for and why are they requesting military equipment from Mysta? The answers aren't hard to guess. With all the Jovian Bat-Men, mad scientists, pirates, and other ne'er-do-wells operating in interplanetary space, Earth has begun to protect the space lanes. And it's not surprising that Mysta is still acting as gatekeeper for all technology with a military application.

What is surprising is how little influence Mysta has over the military. When Bron arrives at the garrison, he discovers that it's been taken over by a band of villains and that it was these who requested the Force Screen. He's captured, but gets word to Mysta who in turn calls in Earth Fleet, led by a Colonel Sarku who's already in the area. Mysta recommends courses of action from the Moon, but Sarku refuses and proceeds in his own way. Mysta is of course proved right, but it's fascinating to me that she has to resort to trickery to do it and never once tries to pull rank, presumably because she has no rank to pull. By the end of the story, Sarku admires her subterfuge and declares that there's nothing to forgive because her plan worked and she just played the game the only way Sarku's rules would allow her. I like this guy. I doubt he'll be back for future stories, but I sure wouldn't mind it if he were.

There are a couple of other interesting things about this story. One is the villains' plan to use girls to keep the garrison's regular soldiers drugged. To pull this off, the bad guys have to also keep the girls drugged, which seems overly complicated. The only explanation I can offer is that the girls - who usually aren't allowed in the garrison - are enough of a distraction to keep the guards from realizing there are strangers in their midst. Torg and his pals probably wouldn't be able to get close enough to the real soldiers to drug them, but the girls can.

The other interesting development is that Mysta shows a bit of jealousy with Bron's being around all those other women. She covers it up quickly, but she's already expressed feelings for him in the past and she slips up again here.

Pass the Comics: To Venus from the Moon

First Men in the Moon



Gold Key Comics! has the comics adaptation of the '60s Ray Harryhausen version of the HG Wells classic.

Mysta of the Moon and the Damp Light



Speaking of the Moon, we need to catch up with Sleestak's presentation of Mysta's adventures. In Part 12, Mysta's still trying to suppress the pursuit of knowledge that can be used for evil purposes. Up to now, I've been giving Mysta the benefit of the doubt concerning her ruthlessness in protecting forbidden areas of exploration, but this story makes me wonder. Rather than stop someone's splitting the atom - something that leads to a consequence I'm very familiar with as a child of the Cold War - this time Mysta's preventing a scientists' exploration of something called Damp Light.

Using a fictional science in the story instead of an actual one has a weird effect. My curiosity gets the better of me and I suddenly want to know more about what Damp Light does. In other words, I'm on the rogue scientist's side on this one. Or would be if he weren't so obviously evil. That he's also a murderer who's raised an equally vile daughter makes the story more exciting, but it's also sort of a moral cop out. It lets Mysta stay the good guy when in other circumstances, she might not be.

No one ever explains why Damp Light is forbidden. It has a nasty effect on a particular kind of insect egg, but my first thought was that that's more the eggs' fault than the light's. Sleestak has a much cooler explanation that also makes more sense of Mysta's objections to Damp Light. He suspects that it mutates insects into giant monsters and postulates that "someone somewhere has a use for giant rampaging bugs...probably the military-industrial complex or a group poised to take over human space."

Sleestak also makes a couple of other fascinating observations in relation to Mysta's sidekick Bron. One I'll leave for my commentary of Part 13, but the other is that - even though Mysta learned he's not the real Bron in Part 11 - "she still refers to her assistant as Bron and not by his true name." Sleestak offers that she maintains the deception in order to protect her positive image in the public eye. I'm not so sure, because she also calls him Bron in private. There's something else going on here, though I'm still trying to figure out what it is. More on this in a minute.

We also learn in this story that Mysta can use her Thought Image form to take control of another person.I don't recall her doing that before, which makes me wonder if it's a recently developed use of her ability or something she's always been able to do, but we just haven't seen yet.

After the break: More Mysta and Adventures on Venus!

Where's my Planet Comics collection?

I've been enjoying Tom Crippen's posts at The Comics Journal lately. He's been showing a lot of Golden Age comics covers and they've been awesome, but it was this one that especially jumped out of me because it's all covers from Planet Comics. Crippen notices the same thing I have about those covers: there are a lot of butt-kicking women on them.

That - plus all the Futura and Mysta stories from Planet that Sleestak's been sharing - makes me finally ask out loud the question that I've been wondering about silently for some time now. Why is no one reprinting these stories? It seems like the time is absolutely ripe for it.

Pass the Comics: The Lord of Jupiter, Captain Venture, and More Mysta

Captain Venture and the Land Beneath the Sea



US Space Probe pilots struggle to survive while stranded in the depths of a strange planet! Says so right on the cover. [Gold Key Comics!]

Mysta of the Moon vs the Pirates of Jupiter



This one turns particularly gruesome when the space pirates Mysta's fighting take out a space ship full of school kids to prove how serious they are. And we actually get to see the kids being sucked into space. Mysta takes it personally.

She also fights an enormous, one-eyed snake. I know. [Lady, That's My Skull]

Mysta vs. The Face



In addition to Mysta and her (newly redesigned) killer robot's fighting some Circus Animals from Space, there's some interesting world-building in this one. Part of Earth's efforts to rebuild its library of knowledge include an organization called Youth for Science and an incentive Mysta's set up called - appropriately - the Mysta Fellowship. There are a couple of ways of interpreting Mysta's motivations for this.

Sleestak from Lady, That's My Skull sees it in light of the severe, even cruel way that Mysta has treated scientists who try to rediscover knowledge she deems dangerous. Is Mysta's fellowship nothing more than a PR move to divert suspicion and keep people in line? It's an interesting question and a valid interpretation.

Personally, I'd like to believe that Mysta's truly altruistic. Yes, she deals harshly with those who purposely ignore her restrictions about forbidden areas of research. But I'm not sure that conflicts with her genuinely wanting to reward those who search for knowledge in "acceptable" fields.

Something else we learn in this story is that Earth has an important metropolitan area called Terra City. We're not told for sure, but it sounds like it could be the capitol of the entire planet.

There's more to be learned about Mysta's universe, but I'll send you to Sleestak for it. As usual, his commentary on the story is every bit as interesting as the comic itself.

Mysta VS. the Moon!



This is a sequel to the last story in which the evil Face replaces the winner of the Mysta Fellowship with his own man. And as the Face slips past Mysta's security thanks to his mole, Mysta's busy fighting flame-men, headless bats, and other indigenous moonlife. [Lady, That's My Skull]

Auro, Lord of Jupiter vs. the Life-Drinkers



Because it can't just be space pirates on our solar system's largest world. [The Comic Book Catacombs]

Pass the Comics: The Might of Mysta

Mysta vs. the Hands



Sleestak's got a couple of more Mysta comics up. The first one pits Mysta against her creepiest adversary yet while also developing the comics' world some. As Sleestak points out, mankind is rebuilding its civilization after being wiped out by Mars, the god of War. Naturally Mysta - guardian of all of Earth's culture - is involved in the project, but we also learn that something called the Earth Council has been formed to facilitate the renewal.

Mysta protects the Grimmest Secret of All Time



The Earth Council also appears in this story and we learn that Mysta - either as the Council's appointed agent or as some sort of ruler over the Council - has the power and authority to prevent certain knowledge from being rediscovered by humanity. This leads to tension when a scientist learns how to split the atom and Mysta wants him stopped. Sleestak's right when he points out that Mysta comes across as frighteningly draconian in this story. Which makes her all the more fascinating to read about.

Pass the Comics: Catching up with Mysta

Time to catch up with my new favorite space girl. Seriously, with all the Golden Age character revivals lately, how has no one started a new Mysta comic? Preferably one with Futura in it, too.

Mysta of the Moon vs. the Protozoa Men



Mysta fights shape-changers and pulls a new power out of her butt. Also, she's now actively adding to her archive of knowledge and culture by including information from other planets. When she started out, she was just a human repository of Earth knowledge, so this is something of a character development.  [Lady, That's My Skull]

Mysta vs. Some Crazy Old monk with a Disintegrator Ray



More development as Mysta is now holding scientific lectures on Earth; previously reported to have been stripped of all knowledge and culture by the god Mars. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes as she's rebuilding. [Lady, That's My Skull]

Mysta vs. a Tiny Man, Some Giant Ants, and Her Own Killer Robot



Mysta reaps the whirlwind for leaving a scientist out of her plans to rebuild Earth. A scientist with a shrinking/growth machine. [Lady, That's My Skull]

Pass the Comics: Attack of the Nostril Lords

Mysta vs. The Manplants of Gor



Mysta and her killer robot go up against a hunchbacked scientist and his army of plant people. [Lady, That's My Skull]

Warlord of Io



Robot 6 has three, short Warlord of Io strips (and an awesome poster) by James Turner.

Pass the Comics: "Well, gentlemen, this sounds like something good!"

Mysta of the Moon vs. The Brain!



In this installment, Mysta and her killer robot fight to liberate a spaceport from an evil, human brain who has a fungus spray weapon, an army of zombies, and a totally hot assistant. [Lady, That's My Skull]

Rex Dexter and the Cone-Shaped Planet Debacle



It was tough to pick just a few panels to share from this one. Dick Briefer's art is fantastic and this thing is full of awesome designs for clothing, ships, cars, equipment, and especially the giant monster.

But almost as compelling as choosing cool designs to show you was the temptation to pick some panels that show off the complete ridiculousness of the story. It's ripped off from King Kong, but that's cool. The mind-blowing part is how much of a total idiot Rex is. He knowingly helps bad guys capture a giant monster, kills the villains only when they turn on him first, and then decides to bring the monster to Earth anyway. He totally deserves what happens to him at the end.

The thing is: I want to read more of Rex's adventures as he blunders through space. It's like Inspector Gadget except that Gadget always ended up doing good in his ineptness. I imagine that Rex leaves a path of destruction behind him. [Atomic Pulp and Other Meltdowns]

Carson of Venus Gathers Tarel



Carson - who knows he's supposed to be gathering the material that Venusians make their ropes from - isn't especially quick on the uptake either. [Diversions of the Groovy Kind]

Pass the Comics: You Kept the Vacuum Tubes

The History of Aquaman Explained



[Comics Alliance]

The Neptonian



Kyle Latino's undersea webcomic has begun.

Zegra, Jungle Empress is The Deserter's Prize



Zegra has to rescue a native girl (and herself) from a couple of former Legionnaires. [The Comic Book Catacombs]

After the break: giant monsters, Tracy villains, Atomic Robo, Mysta of the Moon, and Peppermint Patty kicks some bootie.