BLACK GENESIS: Vol. II, Mission Earth

With no beginning, and not even a hint of an ending, this is not an independent work, but merely Chunk Two of Hubbard's latest pulp megatome, the projected 10-book Mission Earth. So unless you're wild about The Invaders Plan (1985), read no further. Voltarian secret agent Jettero Heller, along with his slimy, dim-witted Apparatus controller Soltan Gris, has arrived on Earth. Heller's mission is to covertly help Earth solve its pollution and energy-supply problems; Gris, however, must--secretly--stop Heller at all costs, according to the orders of his boss, the vile, mad Apparatus chief Lomber Hisst. (Hisst's private plans involve disrupting Voltar with drugs supplied by Earth; thus the secret Voltarian base is located in the opium-growing region of Turkey.) Gris points Heller towards the US and sets him up to fail; but then Gris discovers Heller's private hot-line to the Emperor--so Heller mustn't die. Instead, Heller enjoys a series of farcical adventures involving junkies, hayseed cops, the FBI, the Mafia, a brothel for UN bigwigs, the IRS, and ""Empire University"" of New York. Hubbard's satire occasionally amuses but mostly it's the sledgehammer variety; otherwise: the comic book as before. However, readers completing this volume may take satisfaction in knowing they'll have to fork over only another $151.60 in order to discover how it all comes out in the end.