"Visitor from Space" is a Thunderbirds comic strip story. It was first published in TV Century 21, issues 147 to 154, 11th November - 30th December 1967.
Synopsis[]
During a failed rescue, International Rescue accidentally lets loose a very dangerous and terrifying alien creature from Jupiter with stone changing abilities. Now they must stop this abominable extra-terrestrial before the whole world is doomed.
Storyline[]
An Important Mission[]
In space, International freighter ZV 7 is heading for its destination at a space centre. Unfortunately, the ship is giving no response to control so they send their inspection crew to see what the problem is.
They find that the freighter has been ruptured so all the air in the ship has disintegrated, killing all the crew inside. The inspection crew report this to main control and ask to tow the ship. However, the controller insists on getting permission from the HQ to destroy the craft before it crashes to earth. Sometime later his assistant says that under orders from the President and world government that the freighter must be saved at all costs.
Unable to save it, they contact International Rescue. John who is on duty in Thunderbird 5 reports this to Tracy Island and Jeff agrees to send Scott and Virgil in Thunderbirds 1 and 2 to help.
They track co-ordinates of the ZV 7 on a collision course to New York City. Virgil tries to push it off course but fails. Scott then tries in TB1 and successfully bumps the freighter off course.
Virgil then attaches TB2's magnetic clamps to the freighter and together they head for a safe spot to land the ZV 7 safely. They find that they are heading for South America and decide to head there.
Scott notices that one of the bow clamp cables aren't holding and suggests to Virgil to land in the Matto Grosso jungle, which appears to be a desolate spot. However as they reach it, Scott has second thoughts due to the thickness of the terrain, but Virgil is certain they'll find a spot.
Suddenly as Scott feared, one of the cables break and the ZV 7 lands with a mighty crash in the Brazilian jungle, destroying it. Meanwhile a huge menacing red eye is lurking in the cargo hold...
A Dangerous Threat[]
The huge eye is revealed to belong to a monstrous one-eyed, long-necked and long-armed alien creature who frees itself from the cargo hold.
Scott and Virgil are discussing their failure and are still puzzled as to why the ZV 7 had to be saved in the first place.
Virgil lands TB2 and gun in hand decides to inspect the ruins of the freighter. There he finds the crew all dead and the alien suddenly appears behind him, scaring the living daylights out of the IR pilot. He fires his gun in the direction of its menacing eye but it has no effect. The alien then breaks free of the freighter wreckage and makes its way through the jungle.
Scott, who has also seen the alien, tries to contact Virgil but receives no answer, so he decides to land TB1 and search the freighter himself. He finds a boot belonging to Virgil that to his amazement, has been turned to solid stone...
The Alien Attacks[]
After examining the boot, Scott calls out to Virgil, who is lying amongst the wreckage. He helps his brother up and explains the situation. They get an even bigger surprise when they see that some of the trees have been turned to stone in the same way as Virgil's boot. The two brothers figure out that this alien could turn everything it touches to stone.
They report the situation to base and Jeff tells them that he found out from the world government that the freighter contained an unknown alien specimen from Jupiter that could be dangerous.
Scott asks if Brains can help, but Brains says that he needs to be in the exact location of where the incident took place. Virgil leaves for base to pick up Brains while Scott mounts an unpleasant search for the creature.
Following the trail of stone, he finally finds the alien and decides to stop it with a direct missile attack. However it has no effect and in retaliation, the alien stretches out its long arms to crush TB1 in its grip.
Scott manages to maneuver away from it and after contacting his news to his father, he contacts TB2 and lands TB1 in the chosen spot to meet Virgil and Brains...
The Head Hunters[]
After meeting Virgil and Brains, Scott takes the young scientist to the place where the threat first took place. After examining the trees, Brains tells them that even though he cannot say too much without a proper laboratory examination, he is certain that the alien can indeed turn things to stone.
Brains decides to take the Mole to follow it and get a closer look. Scott urges him to take Virgil with him and be careful.
Soon they reach the location of the alien who is asleep. As they cautiously move towards it, three head hunters are lurking behind some trees twenty yards away, one of them is armed with a blow gun.
As Virgil and Brains are discussing what to do next, one of the natives fires a blow dart at them. While Brains is able to duck, the dart catches Virgil in the neck and his screams wake the alien up.
As the head hunters close in, Virgil headbutts one of them in the chest and Brains knocks him out with a punch. The remaining two train their blow guns on Brains, but the alien suddenly grabs them from behind and Brain watches in horror as it uses its eye to turn them to stone.
Brains has just time to duck out of the way while the alien walks off again. Brains quickly makes the antidote for the curare poisoning for the dart that hit Virgil and when he awakens Brains explains the situation. They then decide to use the Mole to track the alien down again. They also decide to take the unconscious remaining head hunter with them, bound up so as not to get any more threats from his tribe.
Hours later, to their horror, they find that the alien has headed for Brasilia, the Brazilian town capital. Sure enough, the alien is rampaging through the city, attacking everything in its path...
Stopping the Alien[]
As they are following the alien, they find that it is reaching the cosmic radiation centre and if it is ruptured, radiation would leak out and destroy life for hundreds of miles.
Virgil and Brains then contact Scott who is on standby waiting for news. They ask him to launch a missile attack to keep the alien away from the reactor shell.
Scott once again takes off in TB1 and attacks the alien again, but it still continues to advance. With the situation getting desperate, Virgil in spite of Brains' protests, uses the Mole to go alone to a fuel dump, five hundred miles away from the main reactor.
He fires his gun at the dump and the place is set ablaze. As Virgil is watching the flames keeping the alien away, the head hunter has managed to free himself from his bonds and attacks Virgil from behind.
The two men struggle and Virgil flips the head hunter on his side and knocks him out.
However the alien has recovered and is making its way through the flames. It attempts to grab the head hunter, but he avoids it then fires his blow gun at the menacing red eye.
The poisonous dart takes effect and the alien staggers and falls to the ground dead. Scott who is high above, watching in TB1 is amazed at what has happened. Meanwhile Virgil looks at the head hunter who saved his life with mutual respect. The head hunter then flees after a proud salute.
Brains arrives and Virgil explains what has happened. He then says how incredible it was that all their technology didn't kill this dangerous creature, but a simple poisonous blow dart did.
Brains, however, interrupts him, saying that there are many people in the Brasilia town that may be trapped from the damage caused by the alien's rampage and need their help so it is up to International Rescue to help them. Virgil agrees and as they see TB1 landing, they decide to go to work straight away...
Characters[]
(in order of appearance)
- ZV 7 pilots
- Orbital station inspectors
- Orbital station controllers
- John Tracy
- Jeff Tracy
- Scott Tracy
- Virgil Tracy
- The Creature
- Brains
- Brazilian tribe
- Brasilia residents
International Rescue Equipment Used[]
Reprint History[]
Notably, Visitor from Space was the only story from the TV21 Thunderbirds run between Mission to Africa and City of Doom not to receive a reprint in the Dutch language as part of TV2000.
It later appeared, in its original English, between issues 16 and 19 of Thunderbirds The Comic in 1992. Around the same time, it would also appear in the Thunderbirds Comic Library book ...In Action (Ravette Books, 1992). Decades later, it would appear in 2011's Menace from Space (titled The Eye of Jupiter), as well as in Thunderbirds: The Comic Collection, published by Egmont Publishing in 2013.
Cover Tie-In[]
Issue 148, the only cover featuring Thunderbirds elements which tied-in to this story, marked the last TB-related cover of TV Century 21 until issue 177, over six months later. This was due in large part to the fact that the first page of the Captain Scarlet strip replaced the newspaper format on the front page of the magazine at the start of 1968, beginning with issue 155.
Trivia[]
- Although he is never seen, "the President" makes the order to save ZV 7 rather than let it be destroyed. Following the TV21 timeline, this would be President Younger's first involvement with the Thunderbirds strip following the retirement of Nikita Bandranaik. Younger would later make an appearance himself in City of Doom.
- Earth had previously come under attack by an alien from Jupiter in the Zero X story Prisoners of the Star.