JONAS CASE

Real Name: Jonas Case

Identity/Class: Human (1950s)

Occupation: Deepsea diver, explorer

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Barbara (girlfriend/fiancee), Mack (co-worker), unidentified doctor

Enemies: "Girl Behind the Glass" (see comments)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile

First Appearance: Astonishing#59/2 (March, 1957)

Powers/Abilities: Skilled in the use of a diving suit and SCUBA gear, Jonas Case was employed as a professional deep-sea diver.  During one of his routine dives, Case discovered the undersea city of "Lost Atlantis".

Height: 5' 11" (by approximation)
Weight: 175 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Unknown
Hair: Brown

History: (Astonishing#59/2 (fb) - BTS) - Deep-sea diver Jonas Case was employed by a coastal oil company which drilled for oil at the bottom of the sea (see comments).  Although his girlfriend Barbara refused to marry him until he quit diving, Case was compelled to continue with his occupation because he secretly felt as though something beckoned him from the ocean depths.

(Astonishing#59/2) - One day, Case and his diving partner Mack were lowered to the sea floor, where they were planting explosive charges to explore for oil.  As Case scraped dirt away from the ocean floor to plant the dynamite, he discovered a glass-like substance under the silt, which he found to be a transparent dome that enclosed a fantastic city.  On a balcony of one of the city's buildings, Case saw a breathtakingly beautiful woman.  So transfixed was Case by the woman that he neglected his work, and he didn't hear a warning that the dynamite was ready to go off.   Suddenly, Case found himself being violently pulled back to the surface just as the explosive charges were detonated, and he was knocked unconscious by the blast.

   Later, when Case revived, he found himself laying in a hospital bed, recovering from a concussion.  The doctor recommended to Case that he take a few weeks off to recuperate.  Remembering his discovery, Case asked his doctor if he'd ever heard of a city beneath the sea, and the doctor mentioned the legend of "Lost Atlantis".  During the weeks of his convalescence that followed, Case obsessively read all he could find about "Lost Atlantis". He believed that he had finally found what beckoned him from the ocean depths, and felt that it was his destiny to find the undersea city and the beautiful woman.

   When he had fully recuperated, Case bought a boat and SCUBA gear, and he sailed to the location where he found the domed city.  He dived beneath the surface and found a tunnel on the sea floor that led to the cavern that contained "Lost Atlantis".  As he swam around the city's dome, looking for an opening, Case saw the beautiful girl swimming gracefully towards him.  But upon seeing her up close for the first time, Case was horrified to learn that the girl actually looked like a predatory sea-creature (see comments), and she seemed to be hunting him.  Case quickly swam back through the tunnel to the sea bottom, and planted a dynamite charge to blast the hole shut.

   Case reached the surface and returned to his boat just as the explosive went off, and he decided that when he returned to shore, he would tell Barbara that he was through with diving.

Comments: Created by an unidentified writer and Jay Scott Pike (artist).

Although it was somewhat similar to the tale of Ted Higgens, Jonas Case's story had a bit of a darker ending--if it had appeared a few years earlier, before the Comics Code went into effect, the conclusion probably would have been more gruesome.

Maybe the oil company that employed Case was Roxxon.

In regards to the "Girl Behind the Glass": This character was never named in this 4-page story, so I just identified her by the story's title.  Although she looked beautiful and otherwise appeared normally human to Case when he first saw her, possibly the structure of the transparent dome blurred or distorted his vision of her, or maybe she physically transformed after exposure to seawater.

No origin was revealed for "Lost Atlantis" or its inhabitants.  Presumably, it sank during the Great Cataclysm, and since it was a domed city, maybe it had some connection to Kala's Atlantis/Netherworld.

Or, another theory: It was established that a contingent of winged Inhumans seceded from the Great Refuge to become the Avians/Bird People (e.g. Cheiros).  Maybe there had also been a group of Inhumans with aquatic-based powers, who established their separate colony beneath the sea (I believe we've only seen one Inhuman--Triton--with aquatic powers, so it seems reasonable that there could have been others with similar characteristics).

Maybe there is some connection to the Shark-People enemies of Namor during the 1950s or the undersear vampires Aqueos seen a few years ago in the Namor: The First Mutant series.
--Markus Raymond

This story was reprinted in Strange Tales I#177 (December, 1974).

Profile by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Jonas Case has no known connections to:

"Lost Atlantis" has no known connections to:

The "Girl Behind the Glass" has no known connections to:

Unidentified doctor

He was the physician who attended to Jonas Case after Case was injured in an undersea explosion.  When Case asked him if he'd ever heard of a city beneath the sea, the doctor mentioned the legend of "Lost Atlantis".

--Astonishing#59/2

"Lost Atlantis"

A fantastic city enclosed within a glass-like dome, it was located in a huge cavern beneath the sea floor.  It was populated by an undisclosed number of inhabitants, including the "Girl Behind the Glass".

(It was unclear if the inhabitants were air-breathers; there appear to be trees and shrubs growing within the city, which implies there was an atmosphere inside the dome.)

--Astonishing#59/2

"Girl Behind the Glass"

One of the inhabitants of "Lost Atlantis," she was sitting on a balcony when Jonas Case first discovered her domed city--at the time, he thought she was the loveliest woman he had ever seen.  Some time later, Case returned to her city, and the girl swam outside the dome to meet him.  But Case was horrified when he saw that she really looked like a predatory sea creature (see comments).

   Standing about eight feet tall, she had gill slits on her neck, an absence of ears, webbed hands and feet, scaly skin, and a mouth filled with ferocious shark-like teeth.

   Thinking that the statuesque girl was hunting for him, Case destroyed the entrance to her city before he swam back to the surface.

--Astonishing#59/2

images: (without ads)
Astonishing#59/2, p1, pan1 (Jonas Case in diving suit; Mack in background)
Astonishing#59/2, p3, pan3 (Jonas Case (head bandaged) recuperating in hospital bed)
Astonishing#59/2, p3, pan5 (Jonas Case reads about "Lost Atlantis" while thinking about "Girl Behind the Glass")
Astonishing#59/2, p4, pan6 (Jonas Case in SCUBA gear)
Astonishing#59/2, p3, pan4 (Unidentified doctor mentions "Lost Atlantis" to Case)
Astonishing#59/2, p2, pan4 (Case's first look at "Lost Atlantis")
Astonishing#59/2, p4, pan1 (Case swimming to "Lost Atlantis")
Astonishing#59/2, p2, pan5 (Case's first look at "Girl Behind the Glass")
Astonishing#59/2, p4, pan4 (Case sees what "Girl Behind the Glass" actually looks like, "Lost Atlantis" in background)
Astonishing#59/2, p4, pan5 (shark-like teeth of the "Girl Behind the Glass" in foreground, as Case looks on in horror in background)

Appearances:
Astonishing#59/2 (March, 1957) - unidentified writer, Jay Scott Pike (artist), Stan Lee (editor)

Last updated: 03/21/16

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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