"LOU BRIGGS"

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial ("Moon-men" (see comments)) (1950s era)

Occupation: Unrevealed

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: "Joe" (last name unrevealed)

Enemies: Earthlings (in general), Martians (including Ro)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Lou Briggs; "Earthling," "Earthman," "stupid" (as called by Ro)

Base of Operations: His New York City apartment; (formerly) Earth's moon (see comments)

First Appearance: Menace#1/1 (March, 1953)

Powers/Abilities: Secretly a humanoid extraterrestrial, he (and presumably others of his race) had reddish skin, large circular eyes, fanged teeth, and a pair of antennae protruding from his forehead; otherwise, he displayed no paranormal abilities.

To disguise himself as a human Caucasian male, his entire body was covered with some sort of artificial epidermal husk.

Height: 6' (by approximation)
Weight: 190 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: None; (in disguise) blond

History:
(Menace#1/1 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, a hostile race of extraterrestrials stationed on the Moon (see comments) sent at least two disguised operatives to Earth--the operatives established the human identities of "Lou Briggs" and "Joe".

   Briggs rented an apartment in upper Manhattan, where he apparently led an ordinary, mundane life (by human standards).

(Menace#1/1) - Late one night, Lou Briggs was awakened by a blinding flash of light outside his bedroom window; above his ceiling, he heard voices speaking in a strange, guttural tongue. Quickly dressing, Briggs dashed up a flight of stairs to the apartment building's roof to investigate--he saw a hovering flying saucer, but before he could collect his thoughts, the spacecraft roared off. Looking over the roof's ledge, Briggs chanced to see the saucer land in Central Park, so he ran down to the street, climbed in his car, and raced to where the saucer touched down.

   At 3:35 AM, Briggs arrived in the park and saw the grounded spacecraft from a distance; moving about the saucer and making repairs to the craft were its occupants--grotesque alien beings with two heads!

   Suddenly, a green ray was projected from the saucer that struck Briggs and sapped his will, forcing him to walk toward the spacecraft; one of the two-headed aliens introduced himself as Ro, leader of the 1st Martian Expeditionary Force. Ro told Briggs that his people had been studying Earth for months, then he forced Briggs to climb aboard the saucer, and the craft took flight into space.

   As the flying saucer orbited Earth, Ro told Briggs that the Martians had come to conquer Earth before Earthlings could develop spaceships of their own and attack Mars; Ro continued that they were holding off their assault because humans had developed atomic weapons to defend themselves, and although the Martians would eventually win the war, both sides would suffer great losses. Consequently, Ro wished to negotiate peace between the inhabitants of Earth and Mars and thus avoid an interplanetary conflict entirely, so he captured Briggs to act as an intermediary between the two planets and deliver his message to the leaders of Earth.

   After tasking Briggs to present his peace proposal, Ro led him to a space-raft and told him that its controls were set to take him back to Central Park; Ro further explained that the space-raft would automatically return to the orbiting flying saucer in 24 hours, and he warned Briggs that if he were not aboard it with the Earth leaders' response when it returned, then Ro would assume his peace proposal had been rejected, and therefore he would issue the order to attack Earth.

   Realizing that the fate of two worlds depended on him, Briggs sat aboard the space-raft as it was launched from the flying saucer; heading back to Earth at unimaginable speed, the space-raft landed in Central Park at exactly 4:15 AM. After Briggs climbed out, he dragged the space-raft to the lake and threw it into the deepest part, where it sank instantly--Briggs let out a sigh of relief, for the space-raft was the only proof that there really were men from Mars, and now no one would ever know about them.

   Briggs raced back to his apartment and telephoned Joe. After telling Joe about his close encounter with the Martians, Briggs informed him of the wonderful news about Ro's 24-hour deadline--as he pulled off his disguise, Briggs excitedly explained to Joe that now they could just let the Martians and Earthlings fight each other, and when the strength of the two sides was depleted, it would be easy for the "Moon-men" to conquer both worlds!

Comments: Created by Stan Lee (writer) and Bill Everett (artist).

This 7-page story--One Head Too Many!--was done with a surprise-ending, and the reader was led to believe that Lou Briggs was human until the final panel.

Briggs referred to his race as "Moon-men," so I'm only assuming he meant Earth's moon and not the moon of some other planet--more than likely, they were not natives of the Moon, but were actually some interstellar race using the Moon as a base.

The true appearance of Lou Briggs reminds me of Googam--maybe Goom had several other offspring we don't know about.

Considering all the various extraterrestrials claiming to come from Mars (e.g. this one, this one, Zetora, etc.), Ro and these "Martians" were likely not natives of the red planet, but were only using it as a base as well. Maybe Mr. Whimple was one of them, and he was disguising himself with a similar husk as Lou Briggs used.

Profile by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
"Lou Briggs" has no known connections to:

"Joe" has no known connections to:

The "Moon-men" have no known connections to:

Ro has no known connections to:

These two-headed Martians have no known connections to:

The Martian flying saucer has no known connections to:

Ro and Martians

An advanced race of beings claiming to be from the planet Mars (see comments), they had green-skinned humanoid bodies and rubbery appendages; they also had two skull-like heads upon their shoulders--it was unrevealed if each head had its own separate and distinct personality.

They flew to Earth in a flying saucer commanded by Ro.

Fearing that Earthlings would develop spaceships and attack Mars, they originally came to Earth to conquer the planet. But Ro feared that a conflict would be too costly to both worlds, so he wished to negotiate a peace between the planets.

Ro captured Lou Briggs (who chanced to witness their flying saucer landing) and tasked him with delivering his peace proposal to Earth's leaders, but he warned Briggs that if he received no response, he would assume his proposal was rejected, and he would therefore give the order to attack Earth--unknown to Ro, Briggs was actually a disguised "Moon-man," whose race considered a war between Earth and Mars to be advantageous to them.

--Menace#1/1

Martian flying saucer

Commanded by Ro and a crew of at least two others, it was the flagship of the 1st Martian Expeditionary Force (although, per Ro, the Martians had "hundreds of others, the same as this one").

It was propelled by "magnetic-gravity force," and both its exterior and interior seemed to be covered with a slimy substance. It was equipped with a will-sapping ray projector, and at least one single-occupant space-raft.

--Menace#1/1

Martian space-raft

A small space-vehicle capable of carrying one occupant, it transported Lou Briggs from the orbiting Martian flying saucer back to New York City's Central Park.

Upon landing in the park, Briggs dragged the light space-raft and threw it into the deepest part of the lake, where it sank instantly.

--Menace#1/1

images: (without ads)
Menace#1/1, p1, pan3 (Main Image - Lou Briggs, changing from his pajamas after hearing voices on apartment roof)
Menace#1/1, p2, pan6 (Headshot - Lou Briggs, after seeing flying saucer hovering above rooftop)
Menace#1/1, p7, pan6 (Lou Briggs (speaking to Joe on telephone), as he begins to peel "skin" from his face)
Menace#1/1, p7, pan7 (Lou Briggs, revealed to be a "Moon-man")
Menace#1/1, p4, pan3 (Ro (left) introduces himself to Lou Briggs)
Menace#1/1, p4, pan7 (Ro, two other Martians, and Lou Briggs (interior of flying saucer))
Menace#1/1, p5, pan6 (Head(s)shot - Ro)
Menace#1/1, p2, pan4 (Martian flying saucer hovering above roof of apartment building; Lou Briggs (left))
Menace#1/1, p3, pan6 (Martian flying saucer, landed in Central Park, projecting will-sapping ray at Lou Briggs)
Menace#1/1, p6, pan2 (aboard flying saucer, Ro presents space-raft to Lou Briggs)
Menace#1/1, p6, pan4 (aboard flying saucer, Ro prepares to launch space-raft with Lou Briggs inside)

Appearances:
Menace#1/1 (March, 1953) - Stan Lee (writer), Bill Everett (pencils and inks), Stan Lee (editor)

First Posted: 12/13/2018
Last updated: 12/13/2018

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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