CAPTAIN MORS THE AIR PIRATE (1908-1911) STORIES FIFTY-ONE TO FIFTY-FIVE

For Balladeer’s Blog’s overview of the entire Kapitan Mors der Luftpirat series click HERE.

CAPTAIN MORS VS HIS MORTAL ENEMY – The brilliant and deadly Ned Gully, Kapitan Mors’ archenemy, at last returns! Along with his female associate Nelly he is in the Rocky Mountains overseeing the construction of his newest airship – one capable of vertical take-off and landing.

Inevitably the latest discovery of precious metals in the region lures Kapitan Mors and the crew of his Luftschiff to the area for our Air Pirate’s latest round of robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Gully is ready for him and pits his new vessel against our heroes in their deadliest clash yet.

Ned unleashes an experimental gas on Mors and company, a gas that kills swiftly and leaves its victims dead with blackened skin. He also wears new suction cup boots that enable him to walk unencumbered on the outside of his own vessel plus Kapitan Mors’. Few are left alive at story’s end.

IN BATTLE WITH THE WAR PLANET – Rather than pick up from the end of the previous issue, this one joins our heroes on the Kapitan’s spaceship the Meteor rather than the Luftschiff. They are approaching Mars, where they find a dying but populated planet with ruins from warfare everywhere.

The Martian landscape as described here anticipates the dying world that Edgar Rice Burroughs would describe in his first John Carter story in 1911. Similarly, the 1905 novel Gullivar Jones on Mars featured several elements that Burroughs used in John Carter’s tales as I covered HERE.

Kapitan Mors and his crew are attacked by the Martians in their own flying ships. Dogfights result in which our heroes face the electrical rays and solar beams wielded by the warriors of the Red Planet. Ship’s Astronomer Van Halen’s new instruments analyze the planetary atmosphere.

THE MYSTERIOUS FOREST PREDATORS – Once again we get a tale out of order. THIS one picks up from the end of #51. The nearly destroyed Luftschiff has limped to a forested mountain along the American-Mexican border.

Only Kapitan Mors, Ned Gully’s former female associate Nelly and Machinist Mate Stern are still alive from the detachment that Mors took with him to the Rocky Mountains. More people are needed to effect repairs to the Luftschiff so Stern is sent off to reach Mors’ island headquarters near New Zealand.

The masked Kapitan Mors and Nelly wait patiently during Stern’s journey. The masked Air Pirate remains in mourning for his slain wife and daughter so nothing untoward happens between the pair. One day the sounds of clashing artillery are heard approaching Mors and Nelly. Or is it the sound of unknown beasts?

A DESPERATE BATTLE IN SPACE – For unknown reasons, we get a third story out of order. This one is set before #52. Ship’s Astronomer Van Halen had noticed unusual activity on Mars from the observatory on Kapitan Mors’ island lair.

Mors, Van Halen and select crew members flew off in the spaceship the Meteor bound for Mars. As they approach the Red Planet our heroes witness a battle between two space fleets. The first fleet’s vessels are the fish-shaped ships of the hostile inhabitants of Venus encountered twice previously by Mors and company.

The other fleet’s ships are disc-shaped vessels from Mars. The energy beams fired from the spaceships devastate both fleets and at length the Martians detect the Meteor‘s presence and attack. Luckily Kapitan Mors devised ray guns of his own before this space journey.

THE AIR PIRATE AT THE MESSINA EARTHQUAKE – This story is set before the above four tales. On his secret island headquarters Kapitan Mors’ high-tech instruments indicate an earthquake brewing for a location on the Mediterranean coastline.

He and his Luftschiff crew fly to check out Greek and Italian islands hoping to offer humanitarian aid to whoever suffers the imminent quake. On December 28th, 1908 at 5:21am Messina on the island of Sicily was hit by an enormous earthquake followed by a catastrophic tsunami. 

Kapitan Mors and his crew try to save as many people as they can from the dual disasters. Complicating their mission of mercy is the interference of Italian authorities trying to capture our hero and company due to them being wanted around the world.

*** I’ll examine the next several tales in the near future. FOR THE NYCTALOPE, A NEGLECTED FRENCH HERO SIMILAR TO CAPTAIN MORS, CLICK HERE.

Thank you to the Villa Galactica site for some Kapitan Mors trivia and covers.