Artwork by Jack Kirby
In the opening pages of Fantastic Four #98, Reed Richards is studying a message intercepted from the alien race known as the Kree. “The symbols are the same as those I saw before, the last time we battled the Kree,” he tells Sue Storm. “They had left a Sentry on Earth once before, what if they’ve also left another?” As he attempts to mentally calculate the possibilities, the computer he is using to analyze the data finally deciphers a solitary word within the message – “Tranquility.”
Ben Grimm, meanwhile, is nearby reading the latest edition of a New York newspaper. “Apollo Go!” the headline blares. “Sea of Tranquility Target for Moon Walk.” When Reed Richards notices the newspaper, he snatches it from Grimm’s hands and declares, “What a fool I’ve been! I should have made the connection immediately. Somewhere in space, the murderous Kree have been watching us, monitoring our progress. And they’re concerned about our plan for humans to set foot upon the Sea of Tranquility.”
In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a Kree Sentry mechanically raises a small, submerged island to the surface. His assignment is to use a concealed device to awaken a nameless mass hidden on the Moon eons ago by the Kree, a living entity whose sole purpose is to destroy any life it encounters – including the crew of Apollo 11.
In her 2020 book Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo, Teasel Muir-Harmony explores the efforts of the United States Information Service (USIA) to promote the Apollo 11 mission around the world. In 1969, the United States was not the most popular country on the planet. Although the Vietnam War had a lot to do with it, the U.S. had also intervened – both directly and covertly – in numerous countries, and there was a perception that the United States was both arrogant and self-righteous as well.
The Apollo 11 mission transcended those negative views by capturing the imagination of even the most vocal American critics. By emphasizing that the lunar mission was “for all mankind,” portraying astronauts as “envoys of mankind in outer space,” and encouraging global “participation” in the Moon landing, worldwide interest swelled.
Using a missile lent to them by NASA, Richards and fellow Fantastic Four members Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm blast off from New York City and travel to the Pacific Ocean with lightning speed. Almost immediately upon landing, they are confronted by the Sentry, who easily outwits Reed Richards and Johnny Storm by using Mr. Fantastic’s elongated body to block a blast from the Human Torch. He is no match for Ben Grimm, however, who knocks the Sentry unconscious with one mighty blow.
The narrative momentarily shifts to Florida, where a large crowd cheers as the Saturn V rocket carrying the Apollo 11 astronauts lifts off from Cape Kennedy. Around the world in the Marvel Universe – from Paris to New York and even the Soviet Union – people are riveted by the event, watching the launch on live television or listening to it on their radios. When a police officer in the Big Apple pulls over a taxi, the driver tells him, “Ya can’t gimme a ticket now! I’m tuned ta Mission Control!” The officer replies, “Who said anything about a ticket? I wanna hear what’s happening up there, and since you got a radio on….”
In an effort to make Apollo 11 a truly international event, small flags from each member of the United Nations were transported to the lunar surface and then presented to their respective heads of state upon the astronauts’ return. The fact that the Ghana flag was headed to the Moon was front page news in the African country.
The Voice of America (VOA) radio network, meanwhile, asked each of its affiliates to put up posters and take out ads in local newspapers about the upcoming mission. Singapore designed its own poster and plastered it in radio shops, schools, and community centers, while newspaper ads appeared in countries across Africa. The BBC agreed to broadcast VOA coverage of Apollo 11 throughout Great Britain, and relay stations in the Philippines, Thailand, and Japan were equipped with satellite circuits to help boost their signals to China, Korea, and the Soviet Union.
Buttons featuring the lunar model with an astronaut helmet and the word “Apollo” were given away in red, white, and blue colors but contained no reference to the United States. Ten thousand Serbians visited the local USIA office, most of them looking for the buttons, while 100,000 buttons were distributed in Warsaw. Thirty-six exhibits spread across Japan attracted close to a million people, a full-scale model of the lunar model in New Delhi attracted thirteen thousand visitors a day, and 300,000 visited the Apollo exhibit at the First International Fair in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Local students were trained as guides at each of the exhibits.
“OK, let’s git back home ’n see what we missed on TV,” Ben Grimm tells the others, but Reed Richards believes that the sentry was just a “watchdog” and that the superheroes need to find what he was guarding. “You got a grudge against them astronauts, or somethin’?” the Thing asks. “How come ya won’t let me watch ’em land on the Moon?”
While Grimm stays behind to keep an eye on the Sentry, Richards and Johnny Storm enter an opening in the ground and make their way downward to investigate. At the bottom of the hole, they find a large mechanical device that is tracking the path of Apollo 11. Although unable to decipher its exact purpose, Reed Richards realizes it is a threat and needs to be deactivated. Before either he or Johnny Storm can get close to the device, however, invisible rays bombard and weaken them.
While Reed Richards and Johnny Storm lie helpless in the underground lair of the Sentry, disaster is about to erupt 250,000 miles away – “Above the craters of the Moon, Apollo’s Lunar Module prepares for landing. But, beneath the barren, craggy surface, a deadly mass stirs itself at last. Silently, effortlessly, it slithers below the module, waiting for the fateful moment when its victim lands above!”
Almost ninety-four percent of American households with television sets watched the launch of Apollo 11 in July 1969. CBS coverage – hosted by legendary anchor Walter Cronkite – dominated the ratings, garnering more national viewers than ABC and NBC combined. CBS was also the news channel of choice internationally, with the network’s Man on the Moon special broadcast in countries from England to Panama to South Vietnam.
CBS correspondent David Schoumacher interviewed journalists from Italy and France who were onsite at Cape Kennedy, asking, “Is this considered truly a feat of mankind, or do you resent the fact that it is an America accomplishment?” Ruggero Orlando replied, “No, no, no, in Italy it is absolutely connected with the idea of universality,” while Louis Deroche of France added, “I think it is truly an international feat.”
Ben Grimm has grown bored on the surface and ventures into the hole to see what has become of his two companions. He quickly smashes the Kree device before the rays have any effect on him, then grabs the weakened Reed Richards and Johnny Storm and attempts to leap upward. Fortunately the blast from the exploding Kree machine adds force to the Thing’s trajectory and delivers the three superheroes safely to the surface.
The superheroes make their way back to their rocket in seconds and are already headed home by the time a blast deep inside the Sentry’s lair consumes the island. “I still don’t git it,” Ben Grimm tells the others. “What good did we do? What wuz it all about?” Even Reed Richards is dumbfounded, admitting that they may never know the true intent of the Sentry’s mission.
Meanwhile on the Moon, the living mass – no longer controlled by the destroyed Kree device – dissolves into nothingness as the Apollo 11 Lunar Module safely lands in the Sea of Tranquility. An astronaut steps out of the hatch, puts his foot on the lunar surface and declares, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Back on Earth in the real world, the entire planet stood still. Central Park in New York City was filled with ten thousand people watching on large television screens. Blackjack dealers in Las Vegas paused to watch special TVs placed throughout the casinos. Prisoners scheduled to be released in Bangkok reportedly refused to leave because their jail was showing coverage of the Moon landing. The streets of Mexico City, Oslo, Rome, and Belgrade were deserted, as everyone was at home watching the historic event.
For one brief moment, it appeared as though the entire world was truly united – not just in the factual world but within the fictional Marvel Comics Universe as well.
Anthony Letizia