This series is one of the forgotten treasures of the late Bronze Age. Marvel needed new characters and settings in case they lost their Silver Age roster in a lawsuit from Jack Kirby. The New Universe was one response to this threat, but this series represented another approach, with an original sci-fi story by Peter Gillis, not connected to the "616 Universe" as it was later known, nor to the New Universe.
Alien barbarians are raiding Earth using stolen technology they don't understand. Humans develop a super-soldier project that grants unpredictable super-powers. Worse, each soldier is guaranteed to explode within twelve months. Between that biological time bomb and the regular casualties of war, the cast of this series turned over regularly.
This unusual issue focuses on the alien commander Hammersmith, who has been stranded on Earth thanks to the Morituri team. He hijacks an Earth family in their car to reunite him with his troops. On this page, they are no longer cooperating. Will he murder them?
A handwritten note at the top of the page asks for the first two panels to be reversed on the printed page, and that's exactly what we see in the "additional images" section. To accomplish the switcheroo, a stat of each panel was once pasted directly onto this page of original art in the appropriate locations. Yellow glue residue is evident throughout both of those panels, but the stats have been lost somewhere along the way. Anderson's pencil notations along the other margins suggest dialogue to scripter Peter Gillis.
Originally, I had this page falsely attributed to Scott Williams, who inked much of the series. However, I showed it to Steve Leialoha, who immediately recognized the inking as the work of Al Williamson. I'm always amazed by the eye that artists have for such things.
