The Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) starts Friday, April 13, and I’ll be there. With bells on. With press credentials. And with a burning desire to ask at least one comic book author, “What’s it feel like to create a whole race of extraterrestrials?”
Superman made his first appearance in June 1938 within the pages of Action Comics #1. The title character had journeyed to Earth from his home world, Krypton. // DC Comics
The 2012 C2E2 runs April 13–15. The convention, which, in addition to comics, also spans the latest and greatest in the worlds of movies, television, toys, and video games, is being held in the North Building of Chicago’s McCormick Place.
Needless to say, I’m jazzed. If you’re thinking, “What? One of Astronomy’s editors is a geek?” you haven’t been reading the magazine very long. We’re all geeks in one way or another. One of us is a video game addict; another slavishly follows Battlestar Galactica; still another collects PEZ dispensers. I happen to be a comic book geek. And, to me, combining two of my passions seems totally natural.
Astronomy has contributed much to comic books. The first super-hero — Superman — was an extraterrestrial from a planet that writer Jerry Siegel called Krypton. He and artist Joe Shuster created the Man of Steel for DC Comics in 1938. Through the years, they and other writers and artists not only gave Kal-El (Superman’s given name) a life here on Earth, but they fabricated an entire alien civilization for him as a backstory.
In 1961, Marvel Comics created its first superhero comic, The Fantastic Four. Unlike Superman, the group’s members were human. They gained their powers, however, after being exposed to cosmic rays during a mission to outer space.
The Stone Men from Saturn were the villains who opposed Thor in his first appearance in Journey Into Mystery #83. // Marvel Comics
On the dark side, more comic book super-villains came from places other than Earth than I can name: Darkseid. Galactus. Sinestro. Venom. Brainiac. In January 1962, the second issue of
The Fantastic Four introduced us to the Skrulls, beings from the planet Skrullos in the Drox System of the Andromeda Galaxy. That’s right, one of our favorite observing targets: good old M31.
And when Marvel’s Editor Stan Lee created his third superhero — Thor the Norse god of thunder — he didn’t pit him against a mythological foe immediately. Rather, Thor’s first appearance in Journey Into Mystery #83 saw him face off against the Stone Men from Saturn. (My science side says: “Just so you know, even back then I was aware that Saturn doesn’t have a solid surface.” My geek side replies: “But the planet probably has a rocky/metallic core deep within, and, after all, the beings were made of stone.”)
So now I’m headed to C2E2 to see if dark energy, string theory, supernova explosions, or strange new worlds will play a role in comics yet to be written. Here’s hoping I stumble into Stan Lee.