Out of This World #1

Jeff Marlow, a feature writer for the Evening Standard, investigates a tip about an eccentric miser living in isolation—only to discover that the "miser" is actually Xordu, an alien from the third galaxy who's been masquerading as an Earthling while collecting one of every material object on Earth to study back home. When Marlow witnesses Xordu's matter-dematerializing blue ray in action, he becomes entangled in a secret that could change everything—if anyone would believe him.

Prospector Larry Ames is alone in his mountain cabin when a visitor from the fourth planet arrives with an unusual business proposition—to purchase Ames himself and take him back across the stars. Trapped by the alien's hypnotic power and facing an impossible choice, Ames must find a way to break free before the moon rises and the creature's ship departs for the cosmos. Years later, a transformed and haunted Ames refuses to share what he learned in those mountains, even as other fortune-seekers follow in his footsteps.

Astronomers John Barr and Charles Farnum witness a catastrophic sight through their telescope—a planetoid hurtling straight toward Earth. With humanity's first space rocket finally complete and armed with a hydrogen bomb, the two scientists join pilot Colonel Logan on a desperate mission into the void to destroy the threat before it's too late. But a stowaway named Krawn has his own plans for the mission and for Earth's future, and his vision of conquest won't tolerate any rivals.