Monday, October 13, 2014

Manic Monday Bonus--Human Achievements Piss Off The Gods!

Ah, the heady, far-flung future of 1985...







To insert a bit of historical hindsight that this 1957 comic lacks: Yes, in 1954, Roger Bannister did indeed "break the 4-minute mile," running the distance in 3:59.4, beating the old record by 2 seconds. Bannister became a household name and a hero for accomplishing a feat that some had said was physically impossible.

Sadly, though, there was no three-minute mile in 1976, nor anyone closing in on a 2-minute mile in 1985. The current world record is 3:43.13, set in 1999. So I guess there are limits to how fast man can run long distances. Sorry, 1957 comic book.

Still, they're setting this up as a moral lesson, as well:

Oh, it's going to be one of those "hubris is bad" stories, eh?

Well, yes, because an unknown runner ends up on the track:







But...



Damn!!




D'oh!! And I thought it was Barry Allen...

So, I guess the lesson is, "don't dare aspire to great feats, or the ancient gods will turn up and embarrass you"? Which means the gods are kinda dicks...

From Unusual Tales #6 (1957)

3 comments:

SF said...

The ancient gods were totally dicks. That's pretty much canon.

SallyP said...

Hah! Foolish Mortals!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, compared to some of the punishments for hubris the gods doled out in myth, this is pretty mild!

(Although, it helps that Hermes/Mercury was once of the less testy ones, and more likely to prank you than smite you.)