Broken Frontier

A little girl opens a creaky wooden door.  Moonlight shines through the dark night behind her. She steps into a room bathed in shadow.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Morlock!” she says.  “Even though I’m blind and can’t see you, I can tell you’re good and kind and gentle.  That’s why I’m going to help you escape from here!”

If only she could see!  She might have noticed the grotesque creature with writhing tentacles and sucker-tipped fingers looming behind her.

The title across the top of the splash page reads, “MORLOCK MUST BE DESTROYED!”

I love it when so much story is packed into a single comic panel.  Such is the mood-setting image foreshadowing the events of the second issue of Atlas Comics' Morlock 2001, one of the most bizarre superhero comics I’ve ever run across. 

Comparing the cover of the issue (which features several futuristic thugs wrestling the title character) with the much creepier splash page, it’s a little hard for the reader to judge what he or she is getting into.  Is this a superhero book?  A horror title?  In all honesty, it’s a bit of both and and a little more to boot.

Sometime in 1975, I ran across a full page ad for a new line of comics from Atlas. The ad featured a cavalcade of wild characters—a bikini-clad she-devil, several barbarians, a spaceman, a cowboy, and a gruesome plant monster.  What more could a growing boy want?  I thought all the characters appeared in the same comic, sort of a time-crossed Dirty Dozen (and I still kind of like the idea) but each of the motley characters had a comic of their own.

One of the comics was Morlock 2001, and I think Atlas would have been hard-pressed to devise a more unusual—and more tragic—good guy.

Even though he looked a little bit like Marvel’s Quicksilver, Morlock hatched fully-grown from something resembling a gigantic, genetically-engineered pea pod into the totalitarian society of the distant future—2001 AD.  The scientist who created him had been murdered (or liquidated, as it was called) by the authorities, and Morlock had been taken into custody and trained as a weapon under the control of dark masters.  An innocent at heart, he didn’t fully understand the corruption of the government … or the terrible nature of his superpowers.  Eventually, he broke free of his masters’ chains and struck out on his own to explore the world. 

But, as you might have guessed, life is seldom easy for the likes of Morlock, especially not in this Orwellian mix of the science fiction, superhero, and horror genres.  The government wanted our hero either brought back under their control or destroyed, and Morlock was running dangerously low on the serum that kept his strange powers in check.

What powers?

As the cover of issue 2 depicts, the touch of Morlock’s bare flesh could infect a victim with a fast-spreading moss like something out of Stephen King’s Creepshow. 

Early in the second issue, a weary Morlock takes refuge in what he believes to be an abandoned boxcar.  He’s rudely awakened by a group of vicious carnies.  Carnies!  Having been to my fair (no pun intended) share of seedy carnivals, I know firsthand how creepy carnies can be, but I had no idea what they were doing hanging out in a freight car, let alone why one of the thugs still wore his red clown’s nose.  No explanation is offered, of course, and it’s a touch that only adds to the comic’s quirky charm.  As the carnies rough Morlock up, our frightened hero warns them not to touch him.

“But Morlock’s warning comes too late!  For as he gazes on in helpless horror, the malignant green fungus transmitted by his touch spreads relentlessly over the twitching, squirming bodies of his three tormentors … until finally, agonizing seconds later, they stand mutely rooted to the freight-car floor, ghastly plants in distorted, human form …”

A cry of “Ngyaaaaaaaaaaaa!” accompanies the adjective-rich mutation of the strange band of muggers.

Later, as Morlock wanders the countryside, he is alerted to trouble by a cild’s screams.  Springing into action, he rescues a little blind girl named Karen from pair of mossy monsters.

Thanks to the splash page, we know Karen may be destined for more danger … but the good news is Morlock has rescued her once already.  Surely he’ll be around to save her again.

Morlock is surprised to learn Karen’s father, Dr. Bertling, has also been experimenting with creating sentient life from plants.  It seems like plant experimentation is a hot topic in the far future of five years ago.  But now Dr. Bertling wants nothing so much as to restore his daughter’s eyesight.  Grateful to Morlock for saving Karen, Dr. Bertling invites him into their home.

But the fates continue to conspire against Morlock.  Dr. Bertling sees a televiewer broadcast offering a hefty sum for the capture of the plantman—enough, in fact, to restore Karen’s vision.  Even though he hates himself for doing it, he pulls a gun on Morlock and locks him in a small wooden shed until the authorities can arrive.

Little does he know, Karen has followed him and intends on freeing her new friend.

“I want to see more than anything in the world,” she thinks, “but not if it means sending poor Mr. Morlock to jail!”

She unlocks the door and steps inside, but little does she know that Morlock’s second power has caused a terrible transformation.

That’s right, without his serum Morlock mutates from time to time into a hulking, mindlessly violent plant creature.  He tries to warn the little girl away, but the change overtakes him and …

He eats her.

The hero of the comic devours the little girl, leaving behind only a puddle of blood.

Of course, Dr. Bertling swears revenge, even if he must pursue Morlock for the rest of his days.

Morlock, on the other hand, is fraught with guilt.

“Oh my God!” he thinks.  “I remember it all!  Every horrifying moment of it!  This time I killed a poor, innocent girl!  How many more must I slay before this madness—this nightmare—finally ends!?”

The issue closes with him wandering off into the sunset.  Reading the comic today, I can almost hear the tear-jerking theme from the Hulk TV show.

I don’t know how many issues of Morlock were published … and I’ not sure how the other characters published by Atlas compared in terms of originality.  But with so many characters getting the revisionist treatment, I think Morlock deserves another look.  Sure, his look might need a bit of a makeover, and maybe he exists in the distant future of 2025 instead of 2001.  I’m sure a writer would have a field day with the crazy adventures of the plantman.

All I ask is that one thing stays the same.

He still eats the kid.