Martian (The War of the Worlds)
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In the novel
The Martians are described as octopus-like creatures: the "body" consisting of a disembodied head nearly 4 ft (1.22 m) across, having two eyes; a V-shaped, beak-like mouth; and two branches each of eight 'almost whip-like' tentacles, grouped around the mouth, referred to as the 'hands'. They reproduce asexually, by "budding" off from a parent. Internally, the Martians consist of a brain, lungs, heart, and blood vessels; they have no organs for digestion, and therefore sustain themselves on Earth by mechanically transfusing blood via pipettes from other animals, notably humans. The ear, a single tympanic membrane located on the back of the head, is believed "useless" in Earth's denser atmosphere. The Martians' arrival on Earth is aboard large, cylindrical spacecraft launched from some kind of immense space gun on Mars. Their chief weapon of war is the Heat-Ray, a directed-energy weapon capable of incinerating any organism it strikes. This is mounted on an articulated arm attached to the front of the tall tripod, called a 'fighting-machine' in Wells' novel, which travels across the landscape destroying humans and their habitat. A secondary weapon, the "black smoke", is a toxic gas released from canisters launched at a distance from bazooka-like tubes, referred to in the novel as a "gun," which kills humans and animals alike; it is rendered harmless by Martian high-pressure steam jets and water. Mention is also made of a Martian aircraft, but it is hardly seen, except to possibly spread the deadly Black Smoke from above over a wider area. A red weed (or red creeper) is left as an indicator of their presence with floral or fungal ties to their home-world.
Evidence of a second race of Martian appear in the dominant race's cylindrical transport vessels, presumably for use as their food supply while in transit; but they are all killed before the Martians reach Earth. These secondary Martians are bipedal, nearly 6 ft (1.83 m) tall, and have "round, erect heads, and large eyes in flinty sockets"; however, their fragile physical structure, made up of weak skeletons and muscles, would have been broken by Earth's heavier gravitational pull. It is possible that these creatures are not native Martians, but similar to the Selenites described in Wells's other interplanetary work, The First Men in the Moon.
Based on their physical features, the Martians might be the descendants of a species similar to human beings, that evolution has reduced to only a large brain and head and two groupings of eight tentacles (hands). They are described as sluggish under terrestrial gravity, which is roughly three times stronger than that of Mars. It is reported that several Martians attempt to "stand" on their tentacles, implying that they are capable of locomotion in this manner while in Mars' lighter gravity, but not on Earth.
Communication between the Martians is never made evident, but the narrator, as he sees Martians working together without audible means, concludes that they use telepathy. He makes mention of a "queer hooting" sound, but attributes it to the exhalation of air prior to fatally transfusing blood from their human victims. Some evidence of audible communication is associated with the Martian Fighting-Machine, which are described emitting siren-like calls, and the repeated "Aloo, aloo" call (similar to a cry of alarm or despair) that echoes throughout London after the mass death from bacterial infection of the Martians.
Despite their advancement, the Martians' technology lacks the wheel, and it is implied they are ignorant of disease and decomposition. It is theorized that their advanced technology eliminated whatever indigenous diseases were present on Mars, and so they no longer remembered their effects. Ultimately, their lack of knowledge or preparation against any bacteria indigenous to Earth, causes their destruction here (though the epilogue states they may have successfully invaded Venus) by what Wells described as "putrefactive bacteria," which digests organic materials upon death.
In other adaptations
Most adaptations of
Most versions of the Martians differ from Wells' version. Despite a lack of verbal language in the novel (with the exception of the battle cry, "Aloo"), for example, many versions give them one nevertheless.
Edison's Conquest
In one of the first sequels, 1898's unauthorized
At the top of the steps on a magnificent golden throne, sat the Emperor himself. There are some busts of Caracalla which I have seen that are almost as ugly as the face of the Martian ruler. He was of gigantic stature, larger than the majority of his subjects, and as near as I could judge must have been between 15 ft (4.57 m) and 16 ft (4.88 m) in height[...]I had also learned from [a Martian slave] that Mars was under a military government, and that the military class had absolute control of the planet. I was somewhat startled, then, in looking at the head and centre of the great military system of Mars, to find in his appearance a striking confirmation of the speculations of our terrestrial phrenologists. His broad, mis-shapen head bulged in those parts where they had placed the so-called organs of combativeness, destructiveness, etc.
Also in Edison's Conquest of Mars, a number of Martians were said to have managed to return to Mars after their compatriots died out, by building another space cylinder and launching it from Bergen County, New Jersey. The blast of the launch is said to be large enough to have destroyed the remains of New York City that the Martians had left alone.
DC Comics
In a crossover with the early Superman mythos, Lex Luthor helps the Martians, although he eventually betrays them. Scarlet Traces reverses this, with a Martian survivor helping the British prepare for a counter-invasion of Mars.
Marvel Comics
In the
The Martians would later have a small appearance in 2010's
The Martians later appeared in 2015 in All-New Invaders #11-15. The story was collected under the title "The Martians are Coming".[2]
1953 film
In the 1953 film adaptation, the Martians are short, brown creatures having three-fingered hands with suction cups at the end of long arms and a cyclopean eye divided into three sections: one red, one green, and one blue. The bottom-half of the creature is never fully shown; but blueprints show three legs having each a single suction-cup toe, similar to those on their fingers; other art shows two legs. No description of the alien's internal structure is given; but they are revealed to have blood, and their anemic blood cells are viewed by scientists under a microscope. As in other versions of the story, the Martians succumb to terrestrial bacteria. The aliens appear to have no use for human beings, unlike the original book's Martians who also used them as a blood supply.
Asylum films
In the
In the sequel
Pendragon Pictures film
In the film
Other
In
In Rainbow Mars they also appear as one of the many races from inhabiting Mars; killed not by bacteria but by the higher gravity of Earth, which caused organ ruptures and internal bleeding. They are mentioned as having launched two invasions of Earth, one in the early 20th century and the second in the 1950s (to correspond with the novel and 1953 movie).
In the Wold Newton family, they are mentioned as possibly related to the kaldanes and Cthulhuoids.
The Mars People from the game Metal Slug are inspired by the designs of the Martians.
The novel series known as The Tripods features a race of extraterrestrials invading Earth by means of gigantic, three-legged machines compatible with Wells' description of "a great body of machinery on a tripod stand"; but these are not used as war-machines, and the extraterrestrials commanding them do not use humans as prey.
Non-Martians
Not all of the antagonistic invaders are from Mars. Because science has revealed that the red planet is devoid of intelligent life, the concept of using Martians is sometimes dropped from some adaptations as it is no longer deemed realistic.
TV series
One of the earliest known to take a new spin on the invaders was in a pilot presentation made by George Pal for an unrealized War of the Worlds TV series. Though Pal's 1953 film is established as a basis for the look of the invaders and their technology (their war machines bearing no clear dissimilarities), there is no seeming intended continuation. These invaders, depicted only in production art, only differ in certain detail as they appear leaner and their cyclopean eye sporting apparently only a single color. The most notable difference is that these aliens are not stated to be Martians. In part of the series' set-up, humanity sends ships to pursue the defeated invaders. Instead of chasing them to Mars, they are tracked down to the distant Alpha Centauri. It is then revealed that these aliens are not even the main villains, but rather an underling race to a greater force that is not revealed in the presentation.
The actual
2005 film
Virtually nothing is known about the alien invaders in
Other
In
In the Scarlet Traces comic, it is eventually revealed that the Martians came from a planet that exploded to form the asteroid belt; they then settled on Mars, driving the native species into extinction before launching similar wars against the races of Mercury, Venus, the Moon, and finally Earth. (A similar concept appears in Diane Duane's A Wizard of Mars.)
In "
In the Killraven comics, the "Martians" are an extrasolar race who used Mars as a staging area.
The octopus-like aliens of the 1978 game Space Invaders were inspired by Wells' Martians, as game designer Tomohiro Nishikado was a fan of the novel.[4]
Names
Wells never gave the Martians a specific name.
One of the earliest names of the race was the Mor-Taxans, from the 1980s TV show. In
In Ian McDonald's short story "The Queen of Night's Aria", a sequel to The War of the Worlds published in the 2013 George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois anthology Old Mars, the Wells Martians are named the Uliri.
Bibliography
- Gosling, John. Waging the War of the Worlds. Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland, 2009 (paperback, ISBN 0786441054).
References
- ^ Avengers Vol. 4 #4
- ^ All-New Invaders #11-15
- ^ Guimont, Edward (August 2019), "At the Mountains of Mars: Viewing the Red Planet through a Lovecraftian Lens", Lovecraftian Proceedings No. 3: Papers from Necronomicon Providence 2017, New York: Hippocampus Press, pp. 61–63
- ^ Kiphshidze, N; Zubiashvili, T; Chagunava, K (October 2005). "The Creation of Space Invaders". Edge. No. 154. Future plc. pp. 7–13.
External links
- 'War Of The Worlds Invasion' Large site on the history and influence of The War Of The Worlds