MARTIANSMARTIANS
Classification: Cephalopod
extraterrestrial race
Location/Base of Operations: At least formerly Mars
Known Members: None identified
Affiliations: They at least feigned an alliance with Mark Bardo
Enemies: Humanity, in general
First Appearance: Astonishing#36 (December, 1954)
Powers/Abilities: The Martians could telepathically project their thoughts across at-least planetary distances.
They also could design equipment to transport themselves and mineral content across planetary distances, although they apparently had to have a machine at both the origin and destination.
They possessed fanged teeth at the
lowest point of their head/body, between their two foremost tentacles,
with another pair of tentacles facing in the more posterior position.
They also had small arm-like tentacle/appendages on either side of their head/body.
Traits: Imperialistic, the Martians wished to conquer Earth.
Type: Bilaterally symmetric cephalopods
Eyes: One (central on head; only a vertical slit pupil was seen amidst a white background (sclera +/- white iris?)
Fingers: None. Their tentacles ended in a pointed tip
Toes: None. Their tentacles ended in a pointed tip
Skin color: Purple
Average height: Unrevealed; they were not seen in relation to humanity
History:
(Astonishing#36 (fb) - BTS) - Having searched Earth for a mind
they could reach, the Martians found Mark Bardo, who was employed at a
government laboratory in Montana involved in a program to determine
what metals existed on Mars and other planets.
(Astonishing#36 - BTS) - Martians communicated
telepathically with Bardo, telling him that Mars was a dying planet and
that those who would survive must leave, but they had no space travel
and needed him build a machine that would teleport them to Earth. They
told the greedy Bardo that Mars abounded in gold and that they would
give him all he wanted in exchange for his service. They would give him
the details, and he must find a place to build it in secret.
Each night for the next few days, the Martians
spoke telepathically to Bardo, and he kept a record of the
conversations in his diary.
Bardo found an old, uninhabited cabin in a
valley, he secretly brought the necessary materials he had stolen from
the laboratories where he worked, after which the Martians told him to
remain where the machine was to built and assemble the parts as they
instructed.
As Bardo did so, the planetary metal-detecting
machine was completed at the government lab and findings were being
recorded. Bardo's absence was noted, and a co-worker searched his room
and found his diary.
(Astonishing#36) - Having completed the machine, Bardo pulled the lever to open the orifice, and he glimpsed the Martians. "Even through the voids of space...the evilness of the monsters came..."
The Martians praised him and then told him to pull the other lever, and
they would come through to Earth and conquer it. However, they assured
him that he would have high honor when the rest of his race were
slaved. Recoiling from the alien's "awful evilness," Bardo briefly
considered whether he should loose these creatures upon Earth..
At Bardo's request, the Martians showed him a
huge almost pyramid of gold, and they promised him the power he craved.
(Astonishing#36 - BTS) - Any reluctance was overwhelmed by his desire for power and wealth, and Bardo pulled the lever.
(Astonishing#36 (fb) - BTS) - Molten gold poured through the machine, apparently killing him and burying his cabin.
(Astonishing#36 - BTS) - Bardo's former
co-workers, having found his diary, traveled to his cabin and found the
valley filled with hot bubbling lava.
One of his co-workers theorized that thought
waves, like light waves, would take thousands of years to cross the
void of space from Mars to Earth, and another concluded that the
Martians who had sent thought waves to Bardo had probably been dead for
thousands of years. They further discussed that their findings
indicated that the gold on Mars existed currently as a seething mass of
heavy liquid.
Comments: Created by unidentified writer and Pete Tumlinson.
The surprise ending is fun on superficial reading, but it's a whole lot of nonsense when you involve actual data; you can forgive writers at the time as they didn't have the internet and would have either replied on an encyclopedias or from asking someone they thought might know (or just making something up and figuring no one would know better).
The story is somewhat based on the theory that
thought waves, like light, takes thousands of years to travel from
Earth to Mars.
We don't know how quickly telepathic communication
can travel, but that's in the hands of the sci-fi writer and the
circumstances of the fictional nature of the story.
However, based on the maximum and minimum distance
between Earth and Mars based on their relative orbits, my half-ass
internet research (using space.com) tells me that the time for light to
travel from Earth to Mars would be between 3 and 24 minutes.
Also, if it took thousands of years for telepathy to
travel to Earth, how did they reach Mark Bardo in the present and set
up the whole plan? They communicated, answering his questions without
any delay.
Also, again based on a limited understanding and
research from space.com, I don't think the surface of Mars would ever
have been so hot that gold would be like magma (molten lava). Further
from than the sun than Earth and having a thin atmosphere that is
largely CO2, Mars in recent times is so cold that its average
temperature is about -80 F (-60 C), and it doesn't really have liquid
water, just ice. On a summer day near the equator, it might reach 70 F
(20 C), but overnight, it plummets to -100 F (-73 C).
But regardless, certainly not hot enough to melt gold, which is like 1950 F (roughly 1065 C).
So, is this an alternate reality?
Not necessarily.
Who's to say that the Martians didn't just play a
prank on the humans who were planning to plunder their precious metals,
telepathically manipulating them and sending molten gold to dissuade
humanity from investigating.
Or perhaps the Man on the Wall used a weapon to melt
the gold, killing Bardo and the Martians who sought to invade Earth.
And perhaps he used other technology to alter the findings of the
government research team.
Regardless, it remains to be explained how so many different races/beings allegedly originated from Mars.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
These Martians should be distinguished from:
images: (without ads)
Astonishing#36, pg. 1, panel 1 (main image);
pg. 3, panel 1 (telepathic communication);
pg. 4, panel 4 (with gold);
pg. 5, panel 7 (molten gold)
Appearances:
Astonishing#36 "Greed" (December, 1954) - unidentified writer, Pete Tumlinson (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
First posted: 11/21/2025
Last updated: 11/21/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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