Gorgo #2

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Issue #2
Issue #3
Gorgo
Gorgo issue 2
Written by Joe Gill (Gorgo)
Art by Steven Ditko (Gorgo)
Cover by Steven Ditko[1]
Letters by Jon D. Agostino (Gorgo)
GORGO COMIC Logo.png
Charlton Comics
Gorgo
#1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9#10#11#12#13#14#15#16#17#18#19#20#21#22#23

"The Return of Gorgo" is the second issue of the comic series Gorgo, published by Charlton Comics on August 10, 1961. The Gorgo comic is accompanied by a short story titled "Batch 345A".

Plot

"The Return of Gorgo"

After Gorgo's mother destroyed London rescuing her son, the British military prepared for the monsters' return, building a machine capable of discharging 10 billion volts of electricity into the Irish Sea, the English Channel, and the surrounding waters. When the machine switches on, Gorgo's mother senses it from their underwater home 30,000 feet beneath the surface and drags her child away from the danger zone. They travel west, terrifying sailors, slashing fishing nets, and feasting on cod. While they slumber, however, their weight begins interfering with the Trans-Atlantic telephone cable system, redirecting calls around the globe.

Merril Hyde of International Communications and his assistant Dink are dispatched to mend the cables. As they sail towards the area in the Trouble III, Gorgo spooks another ship, then returns underwater and playfully rips the cable in two. When Hyde dives down to investigate, he finds Gorgo wrapped in the cables, struggling to free himself. Hyde is astonished at the sight, but bravely uses a cutting torch to free Gorgo. The monster chases him to the surface, but stays his hand when staring down Hyde and Dink on their boat. When Gorgo continues following them, Dink slows him down by blowing smoke at him with the ship's oil vaporizers. Docking in New York City, the two men plan to return to the site of the cable break the following morning with a crew.

As Gorgo approaches the shore, Hyde's story reaches the White House; the President, knowing Hyde to be a reliable source, orders an investigation. An observation plane soon spots Gorgo and a nearby fighter jet rushes to attack him, but its missiles have no effect. Gorgo leaps out of the water to grab the plane. Hyde and Dink confront Gorgo again in the Trouble III, keeping him at bay with a flamethrower while trying to lead him further out to sea. Gorgo submerges, then surfaces beneath them, and they leap to safety as the boat is lost. A U.S. Navy cruiser arrives on the scene, but its armored-piercing shells only anger Gorgo further, sending him on a course for New York City. The metropolis is evacuated as the monster comes ashore and wreaks havoc.

Hyde and Dink are rescued by a Coast Guard cutter; based on the British military's failures with conventional weapons, they believe that trapping Gorgo is the better option. He attacks electrical towers, unfazed by 500,000 volts, as his mother awakens to find her son missing. Flown to the mainland, Hyde takes charge of anti-Gorgo operations as National Guard Otis Cleek's advisor. The military lures the monster to the edge of a cliff overlooking sand pit with smoke, then sends him tumbling over the edge by blowing up the cliff. Additional charges bury him up to his neck in sand, causing him to call out to his mother. Hyde, mindful of the parent monster, wants Gorgo returned to the sea, while the military wants him destroyed, or at least imprisoned in his current spot.

Gorgo's mother promptly comes ashore and routs Cleek's forces. He orders all surrounding buildings set ablaze, with the flames steering the monster away from her son - and towards Idlewild Airport. The Air Force futilely clashes with the monster as the President authorizes the use of a hydrogen bomb, to be dropped on New York City in one hour. The remaining populace races for the shelters. The bomb lands a direct hit on Gorgo's mother, but she survives unscathed. After rampaging through Queens, she shoves the United Nations Building, demolishes the Grand Central Station with her tail, punches through the Empire State Building, and turns her attention towards Broadway. Hyde can only watch the destruction until he hits upon the idea of using Gorgo to lure her away from the city. Waving a torch in front of Gorgo, he causes the monster into calling out again. So angered is Gorgo that he also breaks free from the trap; again, Hyde barely survives. Once the two monsters are reunited, an atomic cannon fires two shells filled with a nerve drug at them. Gorgo's mother is only moderately affected, but Gorgo collapses, and she carries him into the ocean. Hyde praises Gorgo's mother for saving him, while Cleek believes that both monsters will soon die. Gorgo recovers, however, and he and his mother resume their undersea slumber.

"Batch 345A"

For six years the narrator has been connected with the Bureau of Fertilizer Research, located outside of Washington, D.C. He starts telling us about himself. He states his name, Dr. Arthur Exter, where he works, and what they do there. Their task is to develop better fertilizers so that farmers of our country and other countries can grow better crops. When they finish a new fertilizer they send it to one of their experimental stations, where they, you guessed it! experiment with the new fertilizer. He talks about his personal life; while his life is simple, he is happy with it. He is married, owns a house, and has three kids. When he gets back from work, his youngest son Ted always asks him the same question: "Anything exciting happen to you?". The answer would always be "No", but with the matter of Batch 345A, he decided to tell Ted about it in a exiting manner. One thousand pounds of Batch 345A were produced, boxed, then sent to Hilburts Island, which was one of the experimental stations. Jeff Perley was in charge of the place. At home they had supper and the kids did their homework, then at 9:00 they went to bed. When the phone rang Arthur said to his wife, Grace, that he almost does not feel like answering the call, as it might be the Henlows waiting for them for a game of bridge, and that he is tired. Grace answered the call and it was Dr. Milbank (the chief of the research company) who wanted to speak to him. He answered and just listened. According to Grace, his face turned white and she asked him if anything was wrong. He replied that he was to wait five minutes and then a special car would pick him up, and he should bring nothing with him. Five minutes later, Mr. Milbank and two other men picked him up. When they came to the edge of the suburban area, a police motorcycle picked them up. They eventually went to a pier, in which a Navy speed boat was waiting for them, where all the sailors were fully armed and Naval destroyers were patrolling the area. He could sense something was wrong. When they eventually arrive at Hilburts Island, he knew something had changed; men were digging deep ditches, others were putting mats of barbed wire into the ground, and others were spraying the ground with chemicals, Jeff led him to a house, and Arthur saw a man who looked like Jeff. It was Jeff, but aged 20 years. The aged Jeff told him that he would show him what they caught with barbed wire and then they talk, then he was escorted to the site, were he saw a giant worm about three stories long. The aged Jeff started introducing the worms and that they grew to this size due to Batch 345A. Arthur asked where Dan Sieme was. The aged Jeff said that Dan Sieme died in a car accident in which he hit a telephone pole. Arthur suggested that since the boxes that pack Batch 345A are all there they could do research on it, but the aged Jeff said that they should burn all of it and dump the ashes into the sea. After the speach, Dr. Milbank stated that they should hunt down all of the worms and that he has men with flaming gas cans ready. He also stated that, because there are destroyers patrolling the area, it might cause a panic. Arthur told the reader about a simple way he caught worms when he was young. Arthur told Milbank that worms are able to drown and that when fishing, you will eventually have to change worms, as they can get too soggy and shrink, so if they cover the entire island the water, the worms would go up but then eventually shrink and drown and that could eliminate them. A radio call was called in to the destroyers, and people started showering the island with water. The worms started rising from the ground; most of them were already destroyed and three of them were kept in cages. By morning, they had won the war against the worms. Three guards rushed towards him, saying that it worked and the worms were getting smaller and smaller. Arthur says to the reader that they remind you of big balloons slowly shrinking when you let some of the air escape. Arthur and the others went onto the ships and went back to the mainland, then Arthur and Milbank found a diner and had a good breakfast. Milbank said that he was the only calm one there and that he should go home and give himself a good rest, Arthur said that if he does not mind, he will go to work as usual, but not before he calls his wife and tell her that he wants roast beef for supper, his favorite dish. Arthur went back to work and when he got home, as usual Ted asked him if anything exiting had happened to him today. Because Arthur was raised to tell the truth and nothing exciting had happened at work, he answered "No".

Appearances

"The Return of Gorgo"

Monsters

Weapons, vehicles, and races

  • Anti-monster electrical generators
  • Trouble 111
  • Ryan Navion
  • Fighter jets
  • Tanks
  • Bomber
  • Hydrogen bomb
  • Atomic cannon

Characters

  • Meril Hyde
  • Dink
  • The President of the United States
  • General Otis Cleek
  • Satterwaite
  • Zizi

Locations

"Batch 345A"

Monsters

  • Giant worms

Weapons, vehicles, races, and organizations

  • Bureau of Fertilizer Research
  • Batch 345A

Characters

  • Dr. Arthur Exter
  • Grace
  • Ted
  • Arthur's other son
  • Arthur's other daughter
  • Hilburt
  • Jeff Perley
  • Dr. Milbank
  • Dan Siemes

Locations

  • Hilburts Island


Trivia

  • Significant time passes between the first and second issues of Gorgo, as Merril Hyde states that the monsters destroyed London "last year."
  • Though not named or clearly seen, the President of the United States resembles then-President John F. Kennedy.
  • Cleek shooting Gorgo and his mother with a nerve drug is similar to how Reptilicus dies in his movie.

External links

References

This is a list of references for Gorgo issue 2. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

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