The Nyctalope on Mars

Leo Saint-Clair, alias the Nyctalope, was created in 1911 by Jean de La Hire, one of France’s most prolific serial writers. Gifted with night vision, hypnotic powers and an artificial heart, Saint-Clair is a fearless hero who battles colorful super-villains. His adventures, which spanned 30 years, created a template that was later adopted by such pulp heroes as Doc Savage (1933), before providing the core mythology of American comic books. In The Nyctalope on Mars (1911), Leo faces the megalomaniacal Oxus, master of the secret society of the Fifteen, who is plotting to conquer Earth from his secret base on Mars. After defeating the Fifteen, the Nyctalope must then face an ever more fearsome foe: H. G. Wells’ Martians. “The Nyctalope on Mars predicted the course that popular fiction was to follow in the next 50 years.” Brian Stableford.