Strange Tales #1

Issue Details

Synopsis

This issue features three stories."Destroyer of Worlds" - [Continued from MAN-THING Vol 3 #8] Ellen Brandt finds herself and the Man-Thing (who is exhibiting a harsh, abrasive personality) on a distant planet as they continue their quest for the missing fragments of the Nexus of All Realities. Before long, they are met by the Silver Surfer who has come sensing that the actions of these two would destroy the planet. The spirit voice speaking through the Man-Thing orders the Surfer to leave, but Ellen asks him to show her why he thinks what they do will harm the world. The Surfer pulls her onto his board to show her, and the Man-Thing sprouts wings to follow them.Back on Earth, Jack and Gwyneth Burke have reached Citrusville, Florida, where they enlist the aid of Sheriff Bobby Fillmore in the search for their abducted son, Job.On the alien world, the Silver Surfer shows Ellen a crystal tower which sprang up from the ground when the Nexus fragment she and the Man-Thing seek was flung to this planet. With the rise of the crystal city, a delicate etherial form of life also emerged, which now populates the tower. Ellen finds herself utterly moved by the beauty of the city's inhabitants, and agrees with the Surfer that they mustn't disturb the fragment.The voice from the Man-Thing, however, demands that they take the fragment, and he encases Ellen in a cocoon of energy, while he confronts the Surfer. They do battle and resultant shock waves begin to damage the tower as terror spread across the populace. The cocoon cracks freeing Ellen, and she makes a decision: to save the multiverse, she takes the fragment from its moorings.To the Surfer's horror, the tower collapses, leaving a single crystal shard in his hand. The aggressive spirit that acted through the Man-Thing weeps as well, having released Ellen to do what he in truth could not bring himself to do.Back on Earth, the search by Sheriff Fillmore and the Burkes brings them face-to-face with Mr. Termineus and Job, who now...