Strange Adventures #162 is an issue of the series Strange Adventures (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 1964.
Synopsis for "Mystery of the 12 O'Clock Man"
In the year 1978, a rocket scientist named Benjamin Forbes appears to disappear uncontrollably every Friday, from 12:00 noon to 1:00 PM. This has happened every week the past month, but Ben cannot remember where he goes or what he does during that time. One Saturday, he tries to gather information about his past from the orphanage where he remembers growing up, and the school he remembers attending for junior high. To his surprise, neither place has records on a Benjamin Forbes.
While Ben wonders why someone would try to hide his past from him, he starts devising a plan to find out where he disappears to every Friday. He spends the next week constructing a miniature video camera, and clasps it to his tie on Friday morning. By pushing record immediately before 12:00 noon strikes, Ben manages to capture video and sound of where he disappears to.
When Ben watches the video that night, he discovers that it shows him delivering security information about humanity's progress in space travel to a group of green-eyed aliens, who refer to him as, "B-4". The video also shows the aliens boasting about the technological and biological advances they've made, such as the ability to create a synthetic human, and implant him with artificial memories. They declare that the product of those experiments, the synthetic spy B-4, has proven helpful in obtaining information that could help them travel to and conquer other planets, including Earth.
With Ben's complete knowledge of his being and purpose awakened, he vows to try and stop his creators from dominating the planet he now calls home. The following Friday, Ben attempts to dupe the aliens with false information about Earth. When this sets off a lie detector, B-4's creators deem him faulty, and activate his disintegration. As Ben slowly shuts down, he nobly uses his remaining energy to short-circuit the laboratory's "electronic brain", destroying the aliens' records of all the information they planned to use in their conquest of the universe.
Appearing in "Mystery of the 12 O'Clock Man"
Featured Characters:
- Benjamin Forbes/B-4 (Single appearance; dies)
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Unnamed aliens
Other Characters:
- Charlie (Single appearance)
Locations:
- 1978
- Earth's Moon
- The American Rocket Base
- Pleasant Dale Orphanage
- Jr. High School
- Ben Forbes' apartment
- The aliens' laboratory
Items
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The 13-Day Wonder"
Appearing in "The 13-Day Wonder"
Featured Characters:
- Matt Sommers
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Kenny Brown
- Harry Daniels
Locations:
- Coalville
Items
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Case of the 14 Clueless Crimes"
Appearing in "The Case of the 14 Clueless Crimes"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Ilda (robot secretary)
Antagonists:
- A Jewel Thief
Other Characters:
Locations:
- 21st Century
- New City
- Metro-Town
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- Notice how each story has a sequential number in their title (RE: 12, 13 and 14).
- The first story implies there was a sixth manned landing on the Moon in 1978, what would be the future in the year of publication of this issue; Moreover, in Real World, the sixth manned landing on Moon took place in 1972.
See Also