Every week, I will spotlight strange but ultimately endearing comic stories (basically, we're talking lots and lots of Silver Age comic books). Here is the archive of all the installments of this feature. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have a suggestion for a future installment!
Today, based on a suggestion from my pal Kristen, we take a look at a bizarre little tale from over 60 years ago in Mystery in Space #8 by John Broome, Bob Oksner and Bernard Sachs, where we see a world where women are in charge and a brave man willing to try to change that! The ending of this tale needs to be seen to be believed!
The set-up for this story, titled "It's a Woman's World!" is simple, women are the dominant gender on Earth and society is essentially a mirror image of 1952 society, only with women in the traditional male role...
Young Greg Dexter, though, rises up against the inequality of the sexes and finds a loophole that means he must be allowed to try out for rocket cadet school....
You have to love the fact that in a female-dominated world, the choice of uniform for rocket pilots is fishnets.
Dexter is too good to be left off of of the dangerous mission (which includes being subjected to electrical shocks to make you immune to them). However, the captain of the mission makes sure that Greg is not actually heavily involved in the mission...
Greg shows off his skills...
Okay, now here's the thing. You end here and you have a somewhat goofy but still endearing tale about gender equality, right? Greg was treated like he was useless but he proved he wasn't and then society realized that hey, maybe men and women could rule together. The thought had to at least CROSS Broome's mind that that would be a proper ending, right?
Broome, however, chose to end the story in a WHOLE other direction....
Words fail me.
I am sure that you all will have words to describe that ending, though, so be sure to share! And if you have a suggestion for a future strange story to spotlight, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com
(By the way, the above story was later reprinted in 1971 in From Beyond the Unknown #11. It was received quite poorly by 1971 readers).