OLEG

Real Name: Leibo Retteroff

Identity/Class: Human technology user (1950s)

Occupation: Foreign agent

Group Membership: Leader of Spacemen

Affiliations: Spacemen

Enemies: Betty Dean, Sub-Mariner, U.S. Navy frogmen

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: "The Great Oleg," "my reverent self" (as called by himself); "the Master" (as called by the Spacemen); "Buster" (as called by Namor)

Base of Operations: An uncharted island somewhere in the Atlantic

First Appearance: Young Men#26/3 (March, 1954)

Powers/Abilities: To perpetrate their hoax of being alien invaders, Oleg and the Spacemen wore "spacesuits" which concealed their identities and afforded them some degree of protection -- Oleg's suit allowed him to survive underwater.

As part of their ruse, Oleg and the Spacemen employed some technological devices (all unseen), such as "rain-makers" to create storms of hurricane-level force, and "electronic super-magnets" to pull planes from the sky.

Oleg and the Spacemen were also armed with some form of handguns and rifles.

History: (Young Men#26/3 (fb) - BTS) - Oleg and his men set up a base on a small island in the Atlantic Ocean.

(Young Men#26/3) - A commercial airliner, bearing the Sub-Mariner and Betty Dean among its full load of passengers, was crossing the Atlantic from Europe when it flew into a severe storm; it was magnetically pulled from the sky and crashlanded into the ocean.

  Breaking out emergency rafts, the passengers and crew abandoned the plane. They saw a small flotilla of rescue boats headed their way, but were suspicious of their strangely-garbed (and so very prompt) rescuers; nevertheless, they climbed into the boats and were taken to the beach of a small island -- the plane was later hauled to the beach as well.

  Namor, Betty, and the others were taken to a long, low pavilion of strangely futuristic design. Namor then whispered his thoughts of their rescuers to Betty ("Sufferin' Shad, Betty! These creatures are SPACEMEN!"), but he was ordered silent as Oleg presented himself and spoke. Oleg explained that he considered Earthlings to be the lowest form of life in the universe, but because mankind had somehow stumbled upon the secret of atomic warfare, the "master of the outer universe" was not happy about this; therefore, Oleg was going to send an ultimatum to the President, and the passengers were being held hostage -- they would all be executed unless American warmongers gave up their atomic and hydrogen bombs.

  Namor was taken to a prison cell, but by cleverly faking weakness, he got one of the Spacemen to bring him a glass of water, then he broke free. Running to the beach, Namor went aboard the crashed plane, but found the radio destroyed. After knocking out one of the Spacemen ("III") guarding the plane, the Sub-Mariner found a portable emergency radio the Spacemen had overlooked, and gave it to Betty, telling her that he would contact her later.

  Jumping into the sea, Namor swam to New York. He met with Commander Nelson of the U.S. Navy, and the two formulated a plan of attack, then Namor radioed Betty and told her of the plan.

  When Oleg discovered that the Sub-Mariner was missing, he ordered all prisoners to be executed, but Betty (following Namor's plan) told him of a plane that would be passing by the area -- Flight G-2, a plane carrying American diplomats and statesmen. Thinking this plane would have more valuable hostages, Oleg rescinded his order and had all prisoners returned to their cells. Oleg then had the Spacemen make preparations to bring down Flight G-2.

  Four hours later, Flight G-2 was struck by a storm, pulled from the sky, and crashed into the ocean. As the flotilla of Spacemen went to the plane in search of survivors, their boats were capsized by the Navy frogmen who had actually been aboard the plane, and the heavily-clad Spacemen sank beneath the waves. Under the Sub-Mariner's leadership, the frogmen righted the boats and sailed them back to the island's beach. But watching these events with binoculars, Oleg ordered the remaining Spacemen to deploy and repel the assault.

  The frogmen hit the beach and were met with a furious attack from the handful of Spacemen guarding the shore, but the "aliens" were no match for the superior forces of the frogmen. Namor ordered the frogmen to hold off the Spacemen while he went after Oleg.

  Diving into the surf, Oleg tried to flee, but he was eventually caught by Namor, who ripped off Oleg's headgear and revealed him to be human. Namor returned Oleg to the surface to face the captured Spacemen and liberated prisoners. The Sub-Mariner showed them that Oleg had only been an agent for "one of our Communist-dominated neighbor countries". When asked by Betty how he saw through the diabolical plot, Namor explained that Oleg and the Spacemen made two mistakes that aroused his suspicions:

1. They victimized only America, when everyone knows that both England and Russia have the atomic bomb, too.
2. There were no space ships on the island...therefore, how could they have come from outer space?

Comments: Created by an unknown writer and Bill Everett.

The exact location of the Spacemen's island base was never given, but it was said to be 2300 miles from New York -- Namor swam that distance in just under 12 hours.

In regards to how many Spacemen there were: All of them had Roman numerals on their chests -- Oleg (being the leader) had "I", and the highest number I could make out was "XIV", so we can assume that Oleg had at least thirteen henchmen.

The Russians used the fake alien invasion plot other times: Martians (Igor,Ivan) [Tales to Astonish I#3 (May, 1959) 2nd story "I Discovered The Men From Mars!"--stopped by American spy Dan Hadley], [Tales of Suspense I#26 (February, 1962) 2nd story "Never Trust A Martian" (Communist Spies plan to fake a Martian invasion, but they get abducted and killed by real Martians)] and then Mongu. The Russians must have borrowed the idea from the Nazis [Gool (Ludwig) and his Martians [Captain America Comics#15 (June, 1942) Captain America 2nd story (In Gotham City)].
--Gammatotem

This story was reprinted in Marvel Super-Heroes I#19 (March, 1969).

Oleg received a real name in Betty Dean's profile in the Marvel Mystery Handbook.

Profile by John Kaminski

CLARIFICATIONS:
Oleg has no known connection to:

• Oleg, Latverian, old ally of Lucas Cross @ Blade III#6
• Oleg, Russian, father of Magdalena/Virgin @ Soldier X#2
• Oleg, ran illegal immigrant slavery ring, exposed by Nightcrawler @ Nightcrawler II#1
• any other characters with similar names

The Spacemen have no known connections to:

• Spacemen, believed to be heroes, supported by J. Jonah Jameson @ Untold Tales of Spider-Man#4
• any other characters with similar names

Spacemen

None identified, they included "II", "III", "IV", "V", "X", "XI", and "XIV" (see comments). They were the henchmen for Oleg in his scheme to bring America to its knees, but they were all defeated by the superior forces of the U.S. Navy. --Young Men#26/3

images:
Young Men#26/3, p3, pan1 (main image)