Classification: Extraterrestrial (Martians, 1950s era)
Location/Base of Operations: Mars
Known Members: Geroko, unidentified Martian ruler, unidentified Martian military lord
Affiliations: None
Enemies: Earthlings (including Dave and Claire Oren, unidentified boy)
First Appearance: Tales of Suspense I#4/5 (July, 1959)
Powers/Abilities: Although intelligent and technologically advanced (in comparison to Earth), these Martians apparently possessed no paranormal physical abilities. They observed events on Earth with a telescopic view-screen.
Geroko traveled to Earth in a spacecraft, and carried a satchel with explosive mixtures to make a bomb.
Traits: These Martians were highly xenophobic, and wanted to prevent Earthlings from coming to their planet.
In comparison to humans, they were tiny in size, but apparently were unaware of it.
Type: Semi-humanoid
Average height: 1" (see comments)
Eyes: Two (on head)
Fingers: Three (including opposable thumb)
Toes: Unrevealed
Skin color: Pink (see comments)
History:
(Tales of Suspense I#4/5 (fb) _BTS) - The past of
these tiny inhabitants of Mars is largely unrevealed, but they developed
a long-range viewer to observe Earth's progress. They learned that
Earthlings were violent and could not even live in peace among their own
kind.
After seeing that humans were building a rocket to travel to Mars, the Martians were determined to keep Earthlings from ever setting foot on their world. They began to build their own spacecraft and chose Geroko to pilot it to Earth, so he could destroy the humans' rocket.
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(Tales of Suspense I#4/5) - As the Earth rocket neared completion, the Martians finished construction of their own spacecraft. The Martian ruler met with his military lord and Geroko; although their spacecraft would only be able to make a one-way voyage to Earth with no hope of returning, Geroko willingly accepted all risks and consequences of his assignment to destroy the Earth rocket with explosives. Geroko climbed aboard the spacecraft and took flight; shortly afterward, the Martian spacecraft crashed on Earth and burst into flames, but Geroko crawled unhurt from the wreckage, with his explosive mixtures intact. After hours of walking through the unfamiliar Earth countryside, Geroko at last arrived at the rocket's launch site (...or so he thought). Climbing inside the rocket, Geroko prepared the explosive mixture to build a time-bomb, which was so powerful that there would be no possibility of the Earthlings repairing the damage to the rocket; since he couldn't take the chance of being seen leaving the rocket and thus have the humans discover his bomb, Geroko decided he would remain aboard it -- he was happy to sacrifice his own life to prevent Earthlings from ever reaching Mars. Moments later, the bomb exploded and the rocket was destroyed. But in spite of Geroko's sacrifice, Earth's rocket to Mars was successfully launched -- unbeknownst to the one-inch tall Geroko, he had actually climbed inside a child's plastic toy replica of the real rocketship (see comments). |
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Comments: Created by an unidentified writer and Steve Ditko.
This story was done with a surprise ending, and the tiny size of Geroko (...and therefore the other Martians) wasn't revealed to the readers until the last panel; this story gimmick--tiny aliens misjudging their sizes in comparison to Earthlings--would be used several times over the years (e.g. the Goloks, Lord Sett, Tim Boo Ba, Xanna).
The Martians appeared to have Caucasian skin-coloring in only one panel (see headshots), but it was probably a coloring error, because Geroko's skin was a darker shade of pink in the remainder of the story.
Since there have been no known flights from Earth to Mars (yet), let alone in the 1950s, these events probably didn't take place in Reality-616, but possibly an alternate Earth where space travel had developed earlier.
This 5-page story--One of Us Is a Martian!--was featured on the Jack Kirby cover, where the human-sized Martian didn't resemble Geroko at all. The title and cover implied that the Martian saboteur would be impersonating a human, but that wasn't the case with Geroko.
It remains to be explained how so many different races/beings allegedly originated from Mars.
Profile by Ron Fredricks.
CLARIFICATIONS:
These Martians have no known connection to:
Geroko has no known connection to:
Rocketship X-0 has no known connection to:
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Perhaps 8-inches long, this space-vessel was built by the tiny inhabitants of Mars. Although it was capable of faster-than-light speeds, it was unable to return to Mars after reaching Earth. Geroko the Martian was selected to pilot the spacecraft on a one-way journey to Earth, where his mission was to destroy the Earthlings' own rocketship with explosives, and thus prevent humans from ever reaching Mars. Although Geroko managed to make a controlled crash-landing on Earth, the damaged spacecraft burst into flames, but he managed to escape unharmed with his explosives intact. (Comment: A caption described its speed as "faster than streaked lightning," which I interpreted as faster-than-light.) --Tales of Suspense I#4/5 |
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Dave was an astronaut, and Claire was his wife. Dave was chosen to pilot Rocketship X-0 from Earth to Mars, but Claire had a vague premonition that something terrible was going to happen when the rocket launched, and she begged Dave not to go -- both were unaware that Geroko the Martian was on a mission to destroy the rocket and prevent humans from ever reaching Mars. But the rocket was successfully launched, because the one-inch tall Geroko had instead mistakenly blown up a child's toy replica of the rocket. --Tales of Suspense I#4/5 |
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When Rocketship X-0 was about to make the historic first flight to Mars, plastic and metal scale-model replicas of it were commercially produced, and the toys were popular with children. A boy's mother had bought him a plastic replica of the rocket; but while the boy was playing with it, the toy suddenly exploded, and the boy began to cry -- his mother speculated that the plastic toy had been left out in the sun too long, but she assured her whining child that she would buy him one made of metal next time. Both the boy and his mother were unaware that the toy had actually been destroyed by the one-inch tall Martian Geroko, who came to Earth to sabotage Rocketship X-0 and thus prevent humans from ever reaching Mars; but the tiny alien saboteur had mistaken the toy for the real rocket. --Tales of Suspense I#4/5 |
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images: (without ads)
Tales of Suspense I#4/5, p3, pan5 (Geroko with satchel of explosives, inside [toy-replica] rocket)
Tales of Suspense I#4/5, p2, pan2 (headshots - Geroko, Martian military lord, Martian ruler)
Tales of Suspense I#4/5, p3, pan4 (Geroko outside what he believes to be Earth rocketship [actually boy's toy-replica])
Tales of Suspense I#4/5, p5, pan7 (Geroko [red circle] outside boy's rocketship replica; boy's leg [background])
Tales of Suspense I#4/5, cover (Martian with human face-mask removed)
Tales of Suspense I#4/5, p3, pan1 (Geroko's spacecraft crashes on Earth)
Tales of Suspense I#4/5, p3, pan2-3 (Geroko's spacecraft in flames; Geroko)
Tales of Suspense I#4/5, p3, pan6 (Dave and Claire Oren)
Tales of Suspense I#4/5, p5, pan4-6 (Rocketship X-0 successfully takes flight; Dave and Claire Oren)
Tales of Suspense I#4/5, p4, pan6-7 (Geroko inside boy's toy rocketship as it explodes)
Tales of Suspense I#4/5, p5, pan1 (destroyed toy rocketship, boy cries)
Tales of Suspense I#4/5, p5, pan2-3 (boy cries over his destroyed toy replica rocketship; other boys with toy replicas)
Appearances:
Tales of Suspense I#4/5 (July, 1959) - unidentified writer, Steve Ditko (pencils/inks), Artie Simek (letters), Stan Lee (editor)
First Posted: 08/30/2026
Last updated: 08/30/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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