We've talked before about
how cool and wonderful War Wheels are, and how surprisingly common the idea has been throughout history.
Still, it may not be
entirely a coincidence that a mere 3 months after this debut...
...something
very similar turned up at another publisher:
But see, these aren't
Nazi War Wheels...they're
alien war wheels, from the world of
Eboli, "
behind the dark side of the moon." Don't worry, it's an
Airboy thing.
Anyway,
Prince Ovid and his wizened mentor have been deposed by the evil
Gorga. They fled to Earth, but he's come to hunt them down.
Hunt them down with...
...WAR WHEELS!!!
And they're just as nasty as the Nazi versions!
They find the prince's crash site...
Yes, they have their own
stupid alien lingo.
Fact: alien War Wheels are even
more unstoppable than Nazi War Wheels!
Well, fortunately for Earth, the prince had been found boy Airboy, who has realized the one chink in the alien War Wheels' armor:
A War Wheel can be stopped...
BY ANOTHER WAR WHEEL!!
One lever controls all!
The winner?
Well, Gorga dies, and Ovid returns to Eboli:
Wait...alien War Wheels can
fly?? Why the hell waste time wandering around the ground, then...?!?!?!
From Airboy Comics Vol. 9 #11 (1952)
This Airboy comic bugs me for the same reason that "Rogue One" does. Here we have an culture with significantly advanced technology, and the opposing forces just walk in and take over. How the heck did Airboy even know what levers to press?
ReplyDeleteAnd "Rogue One" was even worse. The rebel pilots were able just to bluff their way onto the planet holding the top secret (supposedly) plan for the new Death Star. The kill switch for the planet was sitting in an open area -- no building, no nuttin' -- and you didn't need any authorization to kill the defenses. And the rebels were able to access the data files without even logging in. Are we supposed to believe that this culture was not aware of the most basic security techniques?
Jeez
In fairness, the leader of that alien culture told Airboy which lever to press.
ReplyDeleteYour points about Rogue One are well taken, but perhaps 40 years too late. After all, we've had 6 movies showing an R2 unit able to hack any computer on any enemy base or ship in existence within 30 seconds by inserting a probe and turning it three times. If the Death Star itself didn't require log-ins and passwords and two-factor ID, it's hard to expect a research archive would.