The Transformation  Romana Annette  09/15/2008

I once owned a copy of this comic book story.  It came out sometime during 1952 or 1953, shortly after news of Christine Jorgenson’s sexual-reassignment-surgery hit the headlines.  While Christine Jorgensen was not the first male to undergo SRS, she was the first who made the news.
This story seemed to have been written by an older adolescent. It is full of nonsequiturs and questionable or impossible plot lines.  When my mother saw this comic, she was quite angry, warning me to never buy anything such as this again.

There was a typical 1950’s plot: the dread of the coming of World War III.

Now we are introduced to the brilliant, but self-centered, scientist and his associates, who have no intention of becoming casualties of war.

The war will be really nasty, but they have a recently-completed spaceship.  Actually, it is a space probe, but they can cleverly turn it into a manned vehicle.

All the guys want to escape in the spaceship; no one wonders the slightest about the efficacy of the idea, or how they will carry all the needed supplies.

Betty wants to go too!  What a novel idea, considering that the whole expedition is just designed to save a bunch of men who have no relationships.  Still, it does not seem like a good idea to bring just one woman.

It is lucky that no one else knows about this secret spaceship.

And there she is: a classic, but untested design.  Hey, where are their suitcases?

It actually works!  They are off into space.  They are escaping all Earth’s problems.

This is long before NASA sent probes to Mars.   What a surprise they are in for when they land.  Hey, didn’t Betty pack?  She is still wearing that same red dress.  She also constantly has to remind Lars about the possibilities in conjugal life.

They have already reached Mars.  That was easy; NASA could learn from them.

Uh oh, something is really wrong.  Comic book spaceships usually work just fine.

That is a really nasty hull breach.  How can anyone survive the cold temperatures and thin, unbreathable air?

There are some problems, since Lars has a headache.  However, this can’t be Mars.  They have landed on a different planet, or entered a different reality.

This must have been ghastly.

The laboratory survived!  Without it, any scientist would have gone crazy.

Lars decides to create some mischief in his laboratory.  He has opened the secret doctrine of The Sex-Change, cleverly hidden in the hold of the spaceship.

Now comes the revelation: Lars has been hiding transgendered feelings.  He can’t wait to perform his self-service sex-change, but Betty is still alive!

Darn it; they called off World War III, and Betty is on her way back.  She needs to replace that red dress as soon as possible.

Again, this can’t be Mars.  It is some unknown habitable planet.

Betty races to be reunited with Lars.  Surprise, the transformation worked superbly!

This is really embarrassing.  Lars did not consult the required qualified psychiatrist before transforming, and he destroyed the laboratory.  This totally dashes the They Lived Happily Ever After ending, unless Betty becomes a lesbian.  The moral is: Never Destroy the Laboratory.