These days, when you think politics, orange aliens and scientific impossibilities, there is probably a certain startling presidential candidate who comes to mind; but if you are a classic comic-book fan you’re probably thinking From Beyond the Unknown #17 (July, 1972), which featured a different, far less repugnant Republican. Talk about having your imagination staggered.
The current controversial GOP candidate has yet to become our “leader” (and, Grodd willing, he never will), but there is so much about this almost 45 year-old comic cover that is still timely today, in that aliens looking down at our world would surely consider us to be “stark raving mad.”
Just replace the image of Nixon with … let’s call him “Truh-mpf,” and you’ve got a comic cover that perfectly symbolizes the “impossible world” we’re living in. Then again, maybe these aliens would be more sympathetic of our race thanks to the startling resemblance of their skin color to that of our potential leader’s.
It wouldn’t be the first time this comic cover was changed up. “The Impossible World Named Earth” story by Otto Binder was first published in Mystery in Space #30 (February, 1956), with cover art – by the legendary Gil Kane – that featured then-Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
But, in 1972, DC Comics had artist Murphy Anderson redo the Mystery in Space cover for From Beyond the Unknown #17, and Eisenhower (or Izen-Hower, as the aliens like to say) was replaced with Nee-Xon. The change also involved some wording and an interior panel where the presidents were swapped.
Who knows what our future will hold? Super-cooks in space sound amazing, but if Truh-mpf gets elected our country will truly be going beyond the unknown; and as fun as it would be to see, let’s hope that DC will never have to do a third version of this story …
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