The Nyctalope on Mars

"Yvonne and I are on the planet Mars. Thirteen other young women are prisoners, like us. I am not mad. Don't doubt me and come to save me. Your desperate daughters are appealing to you." Xavière de Ciserat. "In violation of my oath to the XV, obedient to Mademoiselle de Ciserat's prayer, I certify the exactitude of the above information." Koynos, Commander-in-Chief of the XV. Leo Saint-Clair, alias the Nyctalope, was created in 1911 by Jean de La Hire, one of France's most prolific serial writers. Gifted with night vision, hypnotic powers and an artificial heart, Saint-Clair is a fearless hero who battles colorful super-villains. His adventures, which spanned 30 years, created a template that was later adopted by such pulp heroes as Doc Savage (1933), before providing the core mythology of American comic books. In "The Nyctalope on Mars" (1911), Leo faces the megalomaniacal Oxus, master of the secret Society of Fifteen, who is plotting to conquer Earth from his base on Mars. After defeating the Fifteen, the Nyctalope must then face an ever more fearsome foe: H. G. Wells' Martians. "The Nyctalope on Mars" predicted the course that popular fiction was to follow in the next 50 years. --Brian Stableford.