Journey into Mystery #73

In a remote New Mexico atomic lab, a scientist’s routine day takes a terrifying turn when a spider, caught in his pants cuff, is exposed to radiation and grows into a monstrous, sentient creature. As the spider begins to speak and attack, the physicist must use his wits to outmaneuver the creature, leading to a desperate trap involving a test missile and a final, explosive confrontation.

In "What Lurks on Channel X?", a skeptical couple receives a mysterious free TV from a stranger, only to find their lives upended by strange programming that slowly saps their will. As the device begins to influence them and the world around them, they must fight to reclaim their minds before the signal’s true source—aliens from Pluto—arrives to claim Earth. The story’s twist hinges on a simple act of defiance, leaving the couple grateful and the landlord utterly bewildered.

In "Menace from Mars!" from Journey into Mystery #73 (1961), a group of visiting Martians conduct a chilling test of humanity by interrogating a human through a machine designed to detect greed, hatred, and deceit. Their findings leave them reassured—until they realize too late they’ve judged the moral character of a man whose mind is far from what it seems.

In "One Look Means Doom!" from Journey into Mystery #73, a newly arrived couple settles into a haunted castle, unaware of its deadly secret. When the man uncovers the imprisoned Medusa, his blindness becomes the key to a chilling twist—her gaze, deadly to all others, cannot touch him, but she doesn’t know it, and her fate hinges on a single, tragic misjudgment.