Release: March 30, 1953
Cover: July-August 1953
10 cents
Publisher: EC Comics
By: Wood
8 pages
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| POSTLUDE | Marvels #2 | |
| Tales of Suspense #72 | Reading order | Sgt. Fury #22 |
To whoever finds this note… I love you.
The Grand Comics Database credits the plot to Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein with a script by Feldstein. The coloring is credited to Marie Severin and the lettering to Jim wroten. The artist is Wally Wood.
Astute observers will notice our latest entry in our Marvel reading is not a Marvel comic. This was published by EC Comics in 1953.
Why are we reading it?
Three reasons. One, Wally Wood is soon finishing up his time at Marvel. I’d alluded before to his astounding science fiction work in the past. We may as well read a story. Two, thematically, this is basically the story of the X-Men in comic form a decade earlier. Three, we are about to read Marvels #2, which explicitly references this comic, drawing the parallels to the X-Men.
The issue features 3 other sci/fi tales and a text story, including an adaptation of a Ray Bradbury story, and the story about cryogenic slumber and space travel the cover is based on (eerily similar to that awful film Passengers, except more self-aware). Another tale is titled “The Reformers”, and non-subtly mocks those who would foment outrage about comics. Great stories, all.
Warning. This is much darker and more intense a story than our normal Marvel reading. EC Comics were famously dark, to the point where they became the center of a nationwide outrage against the comics medium.
This is the story of a mutant girl.
It begins with then-current events. Operation Ivy. The US military conducted a nuclear test on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, October 31, 1952, the first successful explosion of a hydrogen bomb.
This comic then speculates on the fate of a soldier exposed to the radiation from the fallout. A soldier who goes home, marries, and sires a child. A child who is born hideously deformed.
For his wife’s sake, he and the doctor agree to a lie, to tell her the baby was stillborn, and secretly place it in an institution.
As the years pass, the nurses find the child unbearable to deal with, describing her as a monster, as loathsome and despicable. We never see the child’s offenses; we only hear the nurses describe the awful things she does.
When they catch her sneaking out at night to deliver a note, they think they can prove to Dr. Simms how awful she is and have her removed. The note may be her attempt to contact and conspire with other evil mutants.
It’s worth noting that 7 pages into an 8 page story, they’ve deliberately not shown us the child at the center of the story. We have only seen how people react to her. Her father and the doctor who decided she should be hidden away. The nurses at the orphanage who hate her so.
Wood has to frame the story in every panel to keep the girl just out of sight, and convey the nurses’ feelings through his detailed and expressive faces.
Finally, on the last page, we see the child. They chase her and attempt to retrieve the note. In running away, she falls from a tree onto a spiked wall and dies.
We never learn the child’s name.
The nurses read the note which should prove what evil schemes she is up to.
“To whoever finds this note… I love you.”
Rating: ★★★★½, 87/100
Characters:
- Eddie Simpson
- Gwenny Simpson
- Dr. Simms
- Miss Ferby
- Mona
- The girl
Story notes:
- Nuclear test near Eniwetok on November 1, 1952. First successful explosion of a hydrogen bomb.
- Dr. Simms informs Eddie that his wife Gwenny gave birth to an atomic freak because of atomic mutation. The medical community has been keeping such mutations a secret.
- Eddie and Dr. Simms agree to pretend the baby died, not even telling the mother the truth. The baby is placed in an institution.
- Eddie and Gwenny later give birth to a healthy boy.
- Nurses agree not to have birthday party for child.
- Nurses insister Dr. Simms relocate her, though he finds her peaceful and intelligent.
- They notice her sneaking out at night to deliver a note and plan to catch her in the act the next night.
- In pursuing the child, she is accidentally killed. The note indicated the child was loving after all.
| Previous | Next | |
|---|---|---|
| POSTLUDE | Marvels #2 | |
| Tales of Suspense #72 | Reading order | Sgt. Fury #22 |
