Number 1829: Power to the primates people!

Now where have we seen this story before? Man arrives on planet in spaceship, and on that planet is taken prisoner by gorillas, the intelligent species, while humans are beasts.

Power Nelson, Futureman, returns to us in this story. I have shown a couple of Power Nelson stories before, including the story after this story. So this is the first story featuring Zora, the Interplanetary Nurse, who you will also see if you click on the thumbnail below the story. The entry on Power Nelson in the website Public Domain Superheroes says that the character did not last long, just from Power Comics #1 through #23. And even so by the latter days of the strip all of the future settings disappeared and he became just an everyday superhero, contemporary to the time of publication.

Zora teaches Power a code, which she uses to confuse the enemy. I worked out a couple of the coded messages Zora sends. For page 6 panel 2 she is saying “CALLING! POWER! NELSON!” and in the next panel she says, “COME! PLANET! ATO! TROUBLE! ZORA!” Well, that was about 10 minutes of my life lost forever, but I did it for you, dear readers. The other code at the bottom of the last page you’ll have to figure out yourselves.

From Prize Comics #5 (1940). Grand Comics Database guesses the artwork is by Dick Sprang.

As promised, more Power Nelson, Futureman. Just click on the thumbnail.

Posted in: Pappy Comics