"GREG GARLAN"

Real Name: Agent Beta-1

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Martian; 1950s era)

Occupation: Invasion scout

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: His fellow Martians

Enemies: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Greg Garlan

Base of Operations: New York City; originally from Mars

First Appearance: Journey into Mystery I#15/5 (April, 1954)

Powers/Abilities: Having had his body surgically altered, and his mind thoroughly indoctrinated with false memories, Martian Beta-1 completely believed himself to be human; he displayed no paranormal physical abilities.

Height: Unrevealed (6'; by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Brown (while in human form)

History:
(Journey into Mystery I#15/5 (fb) - BTS) - To make arrangements for a possible invasion of Earth, Martians surgically altered one of their own--Beta-1--and implanted false memories into his mind; when the procedures were completed, Beta-1 believed himself to be human Greg Garlan. After somehow being transported to Earth, the sleeper agent began his life as an Earthling, with his past life on Mars completely forgotten by him.

(Journey into Mystery I#15/5) - Desiring to take a trip to Paris and Rome, Garlan went to apply for a passport; the clerk gave him the necessary forms to fill out, and told Garlan he would need to supply information from his school record, employment record, and birth certificate.

   When Garlan took the the application to (what he believed to be) his old public school, they could find no record of his ever attending there, although Garlan could distinctly remember the names of his former teachers.

   Garlan next went to Lake Auto Works, his former employer, where five years earlier, he had (supposedly) worked for three years; although Garlan knew the name of his former supervisor, he was told they had no record of his ever having worked there, and he angrily blamed the office for its inefficiency.

   The distraught Garlan returned to the passport office and told the clerk about the unusual happenings with his missing records. The clerk advised him to go to the Bureau of Health to get his birth certificate, since that was the main documentation they required; but when Garlan went to that office, the bureau's clerks spent hours searching in vain for his (nonexistent) birth certificate. Blaming the "bumbling bureaucrats" for his plight, the agitated Garlan pushed one of the clerks aside and searched the file drawers himself, but he was also unsuccessful at finding any record of his birth.

   Garlan next went to the newspaper's "morgue" and searched old newspapers for the significant dates of his life, yet there was no mention of his name in any birth columns or graduation columns.

   The next morning, the haggard and shaken Garlan returned to the passport office and told the clerk that all records of his past had seemingly vanished; since he could not furnish the proper verification, the clerk denied Garlan a passport. Greatly angered, Garlan attacked the clerk and began to strangle him, but two other clerks restrained him and had him taken to Bellevue Hospital.

   While under the care of a psychiatrist, Garlan was injected with the "truth serum"; but when questioned about his personal history, he gave the same responses about his past. The psychiatrist concluded that since there were no records to verify Garlan's statements, his delusion seemed so real to him that it affected his subconscious mind, and concluded that Garlan was hopelessly insane.

   When Garlan revived, two guards escorted him from the psychiatrist's office and locked him in a padded cell. But when the guards later returned with Garlan's dinner, they saw him explode and burst into flame, leaving no trace of his body behind.

   Meanwhile on Mars, Beta-1's superiors had been forced to disintegrate him because he had been imprisoned, and therefore had lost his usefulness--now they would have to send someone else to scout Earth for a possible invasion.

Comments: Created b y Paul S. Newman and Ed Winiarski.

This 5-page story--The Man Who Was Nobody--was done with a surprise ending, and "Garlan's" true nature wasn't revealed until the final two panels (see sub-profile below).

The basic plot of this story reminded me of similar stories about amnesiac aliens who mistakenly thought they were human, such as the Skrull Zankor.

And speaking of Skrulls: These Martians kind of looked a little like Skrulls, so maybe they were actually an offshoot of the Skrull race.

Beta-1's true form was never depicted, but we can assume that he originally resembled the other Martians. 

It remains to be explained how so many different races/beings allegedly originated from Mars.

Profile by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Beta-1 / "Greg Garlan" has no known connections to:

Beta-1's fellow Martians should not be confused with:

Beta-1's fellow Martians

Possibly reptilian humanoids, they (names unrevealed) possessed scaly green skin, large pointed ears, and antennae protruding at the top of their heads.

They selected Beta-1 as a scout for a possible invasion of Earth; after they surgically altered his body and brainwashed his mind with false memories, Beta-1 believed himself to be Earthling Greg Garlan.

They monitored Beta-1's progress, but after the disguised agent was imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital, they decided that he had outlived his usefulness and disintegrated him. They also destroyed all their records of Beta-1--in the event that Mars ever developed a friendly relationship with Earth, they wanted to leave no trace of Beta-1's existence behind.

--Journey into Mystery I#15/5

images: (without ads)
Journey into Mystery I#15/5, p1, pan1 (main image - Greg Garlan)
Journey into Mystery I#15/5, p2, pan7 (headshot - Greg Garlan)
Journey into Mystery I#15/5, p4, pan5 (Greg Garlan restrained by two passport office clerks)
Journey into Mystery I#15/5, p5, pan4 (Greg Garlan explodes in padded cell)
Journey into Mystery I#15/5, p5, pan6 (Martians)
Journey into Mystery I#15/5, p5, pan7 (Martians)

Appearances:
Journey into Mystery I#15/5 (April, 1954) - Paul S. Newman (writer), Ed Winiarski (pencils/inks), Stan Lee (editor)

First posted: 09/15/2025
Last updated: 09/15/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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