Weird Science #4

When the crew of the United Earth Scout-Rocket #269 investigates a mysterious satellite moon orbiting a planet of unimaginable density, their mission to map uncharted terrain takes a terrifying turn. Captain Don Mitchel, Lieutenant Sidney Gerson, and mineralogist Harold Kolby soon find themselves trapped in a deadly situation where the laws of physics themselves seem to betray them. As the ship’s systems fail and the crew faces the unknown, the fate of the crew—and the secret of the alien child Fznk—begins to unfold in ways no one could have predicted.

Calvin Henkel, haunted by the eerie sense that he’s relived this moment before, confides in his wife Florence that a parallel world must exist—one that mirrors their lives down to the smallest detail. As he becomes obsessed with the idea of crossing over to erase his double, the line between reality and repetition begins to blur, leaving him and those around him caught in a fragile, unsettling truth.

In "Disassembled!", a curious electrical engineer discovers a mysterious metal object inside an abandoned flying saucer and brings it back to his lab to uncover its secrets. When the object suddenly screams in pain, he realizes it’s not just a machine—it’s alive. Before he can react, another alien arrives: a living robot determined to learn what makes humans tick, by disassembling the engineer himself.

In the year 4152, where eternal youth is enforced by injections, Martin—550 years old and weary of endless existence—meets Jean, a woman equally worn down by centuries of life. As their bond deepens, they are sent to a remote colony planet without the means to prolong life, where they must face the natural course of aging. The Precious Years captures a quiet, poignant moment of renewal in a world that has forgotten what it means to truly live.

In the silent vastness of a distant world, a rocket carrying Earth's last survivors touches down on a planet haunted by a place known as the Soul Well—where forgotten things, once flesh and blood, linger in endless waiting. As the crew of the doomed vessel confronts the quiet dread of their new home, they find themselves drawn into a mystery deeper than death itself, where every shadow holds a name they once knew.

In "Right on the Button!", a young woman on Mars faces a chilling mystery when an alien invasion unfolds—except the invaders look exactly like the native Martians. When she notices a strange detail on her husband during their wedding night, she realizes the terrifying truth: the aliens are born from eggs, not through childbirth. Now, with the fate of her planet at stake, she must decide what it means to be human—and what must be done.

In "Keyed Up!", a tense standoff unfolds aboard a stranded spaceship where old grudges turn deadly. When Guernsey is left outside after a meteor strike, his decaying body becomes a haunting fixture just beyond the viewport—until Benson, driven by guilt and fear, ventures out to remove it, only to find himself trapped in the same fate he tried to avoid.

In "The Loathsome!", a deformed girl raised in an orphanage struggles with isolation and the quiet cruelty of the women who care for her. When the staff dismisses her tenth birthday as unworthy of celebration, her quiet defiance takes a haunting turn as she leaves cryptic notes in the trees, leading to a tragic and unforgettable moment beneath the orphanage’s spiked wall.

When Martha grows uneasy about Leonard Hill—her intended victim—she can't shake the feeling that something's off. Her suspicions spiral when she realizes she might not be dealing with just one version of him. As the truth unfolds, she finds herself facing a shocking duplication she never expected.

In "The Reformers," a group of interdimensional enforcers tasked with blaming societal decay on things like comic books and promiscuous clothing find themselves stunned when they land on a world where such indulgences coexist with peace and integrity. Despite their mission to stir unrest, they’re baffled by a society that thrives without corruption—until their boss, Satan, reveals the truth: they’re not on a planet of sin, but of Heaven.

In a far-future mission to seed a new world, fifty men and fifty women are cryogenically frozen for a century-long voyage—each destined to awaken only once, to begin a new life. But when Sid, one of the men, tries to exploit the system for a year-long romance with a single woman, his plans unravel when she has her own dangerous agenda. With the mission’s fate hanging in the balance, tensions rise among the frozen crew—especially when Wendy, a woman with a hidden agenda, begins to stir.

In "EC Confidential!", the editor of Fables Publishing Company grows uneasy as the bizarre tales in Weird Science begin to mirror real events—until a sudden alien assault reveals a shocking truth: the editor, along with Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein, and the entire staff, are actually survivors from Venus, hiding on Earth after the destruction of their world.

George Hill, shattered by his wife Katherine’s affair with Leonard Phelps, makes a chilling decision: he hires a mysterious figure to create a stringless marionette of her, then stages her murder in a twisted act of revenge. But when the police—led by Smith—arrive, the line between reality and performance begins to blur, and the true nature of the crime becomes impossible to define.

Forbes, stranded on a distant planet for years, finds unexpected connection with a mute girl who becomes his only companion. When a rescue mission arrives and claims she’s not real, his world shatters—leading to a violent unraveling. But as the wreckage settles, Velda returns in a way no one could have predicted.

In a quiet corner of a world that never welcomed her, a young woman raised in isolation grapples with the weight of being seen as monstrous—until a sudden arrival from the stars offers a chance to return to a place where she might finally belong. The Ugly One explores identity, belonging, and the strange, shifting nature of beauty through a poignant tale of a life shaped by rejection and the quiet hope of home.

In a quiet lab buried beneath the weight of tomorrow, a nameless professor unleashes a time machine with a radical plan: send Adam and Eve back to a world before humanity, to seed a new race of superior beings. But as the two travelers stand on the edge of Earth’s ancient past, they face a choice that challenges the very idea of creation—what does it mean to begin anew when you hold the power to shape life itself?

In a quiet clinic, a doctor treats a raving man brought in from a park, using a strange diathermy machine to calm him. As the treatment ends, the man is cured—but a mysterious burn mark remains on his forehead, one that echoes a pattern seen on others before him. The truth behind the mark is far stranger than anyone suspects, hidden in the quiet hum of the machine and the unseen visitors it summons.

In "My World," the narrator recounts the boundless power to shape realities—where every scene, from cosmic battles to quiet moments of loss, unfolds at will. Through vivid contrasts of life and death, alien and human, beauty and ruin, the story reveals a creator who holds all narratives in their hands. The final twist? The entire tale is being drawn by Wally Wood.

In "Outcast of the Stars," a devoted father dreams of sharing the vast beauty of space with his children, though he can’t afford a real rocket. With only a broken prototype and his last savings, he builds a hopeful illusion—crafting a dazzling show of flight to spark wonder in their eyes.