Bookshelf: Man from Atlantis #3 (Comic Book)

Man from Atlantis #3
First Published April 1978
Published by Marvel Comics Group

At the end of issue #2, which I reviewed in October of 2009, poor Mark Harris was helplessly strapped to an operating table, a mind-controlled Dr. Elizabeth Merrill standing over him with a scalpel in her hand, ready to dissect him for the fiendish Mr. Schubert! As issue #3 opens, Schubert leaves Dr. Merrill to her work; Mark struggles to escape but is too weak. Just before Dr. Merrill makes the first incision, Mark lets loose a sonic scream. It not only gives Dr. Merrill pause, it also destroys her mind-controlling bracelet and destroys a window. Since they’re underwater, the ocean soon fills the room, refreshing Mark.

Mark grabs Dr. Merrill and quickly swims her to safety. He then also saves Dr. Simon and several sailors who were also under Schubert’s control before going after Schubert himself, who escapes via a Seatopia’s mono-rail station. Schubert laments that he is cursed to be an “intellectual giant” while the rest of the world is filled with “mental mediocrities.” But Schubert has a plan: he’ll “cleanse” the world with his mist, transporting millions to Seatopia, “re-educating” them and returning them to the surface. Free will is hardly something to be missed for a world without crisis, a world ruled by Schubert.

But first, Schubert has to contend with Mark Harris, who has followed him to the mist chamber. Schubert is pretty darn strong for an older, portly gentleman, and after stunning him with a blaster he manages to knock Mark away from him with a chair. He then decides to destroy Seatopia just to get rid of Mark and releases the mist, which he has modified to destroy anything. Schubert makes his escape in a mini-sub, leaving Mark to his doom. Or not.

Man from Atlantis #3 Front
Man from Atlantis #3 Front – Copyright 1978 Marvel Comics Group

Mark realizes he can escape through the mini-sub’s launch tube and does. He’s able to catch up with the mini-sub and grapples with it, attempting to stop Schubert from making his getaway. But Schubert fires up his afterburners and Mark is forced to let go. Sadly, he is then caught between two batches of mist and is disintegrated. Mark catches up with Dr. Merrill and the others aboard the Cetacean and announces that Schubert has fallen victim to the real secret of the Bermuda triangle (whatever that means).

Once again, the artwork isn’t all that great. Schubert’s beard and sideburns are all over the place, Dr. Merrill looks like a lifeless husk, and fairly often characters have no color in their eyes, or their lips or other body parts. I can’t even describe some of the facial expressions. They’re just plain weird. And there seem to be a lot of advertisements in this book. It runs 32 pages but 15 of them are ads, among them full pages for Super Sea-Monkeys, Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew t-shirts, assorted Star Wars items, Marvel’s Devil Dinosaurs, Synometrics, Hostess Cup Cakes and a Super Bodybuilding Course.


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2 Replies to “Bookshelf: Man from Atlantis #3 (Comic Book)”

  1. If “THE MAN FROM ATLANTIS” had lasted a season or two more, the comic book would have certainly lasted longer- and perhaps Mister Schubert wasn’t really “disintegrated” after all? We’ll never know. That’s why there’s “fan fiction” to perpertuate those scenarios….

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