In this issue, Tom's crew receives a mysterious message from space. Upon deciphering it the confusion only grows. They are tasked with taking the longest space voyage on record to seek out the origin of the message. What they find is not what they expected!
Cover
First of all, look at that cover! I was immediately blown away by how distinctive it was. The image of Tom Corbett floating in space, dimly lit, in his fuchsia space suit against a murky blue-green backdrop really struck me.
A mysterious message from space
We find Tom Corbett, Roger, and Astro in the middle of their Spacecode Reading class when a mysterious message from space is received by Astro. Roger, confident in his decoding skills, tries and quickly fails. Angered and embarrassed, he lunges for Astro thinking he's the butt of some joke. I found that the primary artist for this story focused more on good composition and less on fine details like faces. You can see this in the dynamic arrangement of the characters in the opening shot juxtaposed with the varying degree of detail in their faces.
Tom - in an effort to defuse the situation - offers to have the station's language expert take a look. Unsurprisingly, the expert is also stumped. On a hunch, Tom decides to feed the message into Cybernic Sally - their "thinking machine" - as it can solve any problem given. As an aside, what a name, Cybernic Sally! I suppose today we have Alexa and Siri whereas yesterday we had Sally, not much has changed in a certain sense!
Tom feeds in the message - which reads "Xuivi grax ki kubi magi xorki" - and the machine spits out "Life impossible on these planets. Third planet from sun has places covered by air, but rest of it is almost vacuum. Return to home base." I love this panel. The lighting and proportion seems to imbue Cybernic Sally with a sense of awe and mystery.
Frustrated by the cryptic nature of the decoded message, Roger picks another fight with Astro. It's at this exact moment that their professor walks in on them. Outraged at their collective lack of composure, he orders them into his office for a disciplinary hearing with him and Commander Arkwright. The dynamics of Roger lunging for Astro are well communicated in this panel - the motion lines help to convey a sense of energy and motion.
Journeying into the deep
They recount the message. Roger, in an unexpected move, fesses to starting the scuffle. The three are expecting expulsion when, to their great surprise, they are instead tasked with investigating the origin of the message by the Commander.
Their destination is a recently discovered solar system named "Sirius". Just before they are about to blast off on their ship, dubbed Polaris, they are greeted by Alfie who states that he's been ordered to go with them by Commander Arkwright. Cybernic Sally has built up the alien's language from the original message and Alfie has studied it in order to teach it to the crew. I enjoyed Alfie's pose, it seems to convey a bit of his nerdy, innocent character.
Roger, always at odds with all things "nerdy", wants nothing to do with studying. He's overruled by the Polaris' captain and Alfie is allowed to join. I started out this post by saying that the artist seems to focus more on composition than faces. This one is an exception, I thought Roger's face was captured well - especially where his fingers meet his hair.
The crew spend the next few weeks using the study machine - which resembles a pair of headphones - to learn the Sirian language. After a long flight they finally arrive. This may be my favourite panel from this story! What a gorgeous depiction of our galaxy.
Mysterious Lakes
Their scans indicate that there are many planets in Sirius but only three have atmospheres close to that of earth. After checking the first planet to no avail, they decide to land on the second and find nothing much of interest except some giant pools of water. I really liked the swoosh of the spaceship. I don't know if it was intentional, but it was especially aesthetically pleasing to have the curve of the word bubble follow the action line of the "swoosh".
Tom gets an uneasy feeling from the lakes. It's as if their perimeter is _too_ round - as if they are made by someone. Roger is skeptical, but upon closer inspection Tom notices that the sand bank is made of some kind of alloy; the bodies of water resembling gargantuan storage tanks.
Peering into the tanks, an even greater surprise awaits them. They house massive, abandoned underwater cities! Roger, ever confident, asserts that the tanks hold the cities so no one else can use them while the aliens are away. Perhaps the aliens stepped out to grab some alien milk from the alien store and don't want anyone to call dibs on their city while they're out?
Before we can ruminate on this much further, Tom ushers them back to the ship to check on the final of the habitable planets to see if anything else may be learned. I chose this panel for the incredible hue of red the colorist chose coupled with the yellow used to illuminate Alfie and the captain.
First contact
The final planet is covered completely in water. After descending into the atmosphere, they are greeted by alien ships rising up out of the ocean. They are hailed by Tador Quetzakl - a captain of one of the alien ships - who orders them to land at his spaceport. The ocean water was really well rendered here; the splash of the waves evocative of a turbulent sea.
Confused by the apparent absence of any place to land, Tador bids them to follow his ship into the depths of the ocean. It's at this point that Captain Strong - the leader of the human crew - has an epiphany. This species are water-breathing and their atmosphere is water! An illustration within an illustration! Something about the way the artist found a way to "cartoonify" the illustration of the man in water and air is very pleasing.
After landing and exiting their ship, the crews surmises that in absence of any fire or combustion the water people must use a form of magnetism as their primary source of energy. This is a close tie for my favourite panel. I love the motion captured in the little girl as she skips rope underwater!
Tador explains to them that his task is to bring them to the leaders of his world: The Supreme Three.
Upon approaching the council they learn that it is composed of the General of the military, the science officer, and an unnamed member. The General is puzzled by a species that cannot breathe water. The science officer explains that these humans must be a rare breed who breathe air. In a fine break from causality, the General logically decides it is time to launch their military expedition to earth at once.
Internal strife
After facing pushback from his two counterparts the General stages a coup and uses his military powers to declare himself the sole ruler of Sirius: The Supreme One! Something that struck me here was the depiction of the humans' space suites. If you look closely, the hand is in a mitten, not a glove with individual fingers! A common feature of spacesuits that we expect by default wasn't so common back then it seems!
The General orders his men to take the crew to the planet's Zoo for all to gawk at. The crew is in despair but Tom reassures them that these people seem good and will likely not approve of a military dictatorship.
At that very moment they receive a visitor referring to herself as Trixl. She brings them human food but more than that, she has a message for them. The people are soon to revolt against the General - with Tador Quetzakl as the leader of the rebels - and for them to be ready to escape out of the Zoo at any moment.
They suit up, and not a moment too late. The glass to their pod is destroyed by Trixl who rushes them to the spaceport.
The tide turns
They meet up with the Rebels and are told that the rebellion is succeeding. But right then, their mirth is interrupted by a worldwide broadcast by the General. His army has been defeated but, in a surprise turn, he has taken control of the central magnetic powerhouse - the sole source of energy for the entire planet. I lied, this is my favourite panel! Something about the way the artist captured Trixl's anatomy and movement simultaneously really stood out to me.
The Rebel leaders feel as though they are cornered. They can't rush the powerhouse as the General can turn off the world's energy rendering their weapons useless.
The Rebel leaders are on the brink of surrender when Tom has an idea. They can rush the powerhouse using weapons they brought from earth - weapons not dependent on magnetism. They can use potassium bombs that will burn bright and explode, serving as a distraction to the General who has likely never seen anything burn before in his life.
They gather the potassium explosives and let loose! They eagerly await the collective assault by the humans and Sirians but the Sirians are nowhere to be found! It seems both sides of the fight, the military and the Rebels, have been temporarily blinded! Eventually they see Captain Strong going in alone. They follow and disarm the remaining military personal as well as the General.
Victory through teamwork
Tom orders Roger to relay their success to Tador. Roger eagerly agrees and takes the opportunity to boast about this central role (not really) in the siege to Trixl.
The crew depart Sirius as friends of the Sirians with Quetzakl's blessing and gratitude. On their way home Roger can be seen studying furiously as he tries to decipher a secret message Trixl wrote for him before they left. This panel is black and white because it was printed on the last inside page of the comic book which was not colored. Oddly enough, the final page was printed on the back of the comic book. I wonder if they may have accidentally mixed up the page count during planning. Or perhaps it's intentional in order to show a gag on the back to draw the eyes of those passing by.
Upon landing back on Earth Roger runs off to Cybernic Sally to decode the message. He is thoroughly embarrassed when he reads it which says: "Dear Roger, you're a very sweet boy but you're awfully swell-headed ... and the biggest liar in the universe"
My thoughts
I really enjoyed the story of Space Cadet #9. It seemed to serve two purposes: to give us a mystery to work through and to simultaneously take us on a tour of what it would be like living in the future, replete with rockets, cybernetic computers, and faster-than-light space travel.
The art really drew me in, especially the cover. If it did for you as well and you would like more Space Cadet in your life, good news! You can buy a 24x36 inch, museum-quality poster, made on thick and durable matte paper, of the cover of Space Cadet #9 (the cover shown at the top of this post) by visiting our shop!