10. The Spider's Web

This lesser-known gem comes from Captain Scarlet's brief flurry of new comic strip adventures from the series' own Fleetway comic of the early 1990s. Illustrated in stern, authentic style by Mike White, The Spider's Web sees the Mysterons take a novel approach in recruiting a different kind of enemy agent. Scarlet must unravel the perplexing mystery of several inexplicable deaths linked to the World Security Training Base at Camp Sahara. The Spider's Web paints fresh dynamics for the Mysterons' tactics with this compelling military-flavoured mystery.

9. Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (Spectrum File #1)

John W. Jennison (better known as John Theydon) was well acquainted with writing Gerry Anderson adventures by the time he wrote his debut Captain Scarlet novel, having already written Supercar, Stingray and Thunderbirds stories. The first of his three Spectrum books, simply titled Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, remains his strongest. Theydon delivers breath-taking levels of cinematic adventure with the Mysterons' threat to ravage the Earth's climate. The novel bristles with unnerving energy as Theydon cleverly depicts the Mysterons remaining one step ahead of Spectrum throughout the story. His well-paced narrative swells into an absorbing, globe-trotting thriller that takes Captain Scarlet around the world and into deep space to stop one of the Mysterons' deadliest threats.

8. The Angels: The New Recruits

Mirroring Lady Penelope's pre-Thunderbirds adventures in TV Century 21, sister comic Lady Penelope featured a similar scenario for the five female pilots who would become Spectrum's elite aerial strike force. The Angels ran in Lady Penelope between January 1967 and May 1968. Designed to publicise the characters and concepts of Captain Scarlet prior to its September 1967 debut, the first half of The Angels tells the ongoing stories of five pilots brought together by an unseen commander to prove their worth in joining a newly formed global security outfit. The first story, The New Recruits, establishes the visually dynamic sky-fi adventures of the squad, illustrated in spectacular detail by Jon Davies. The storyline also sets up the intriguingly tense relationships between the characters as they struggle to trust each other and the mystery surrounding their recruitment refuses to deliver easy answers.

7. Countdown #19

Captain Scarlet's string of comic strip adventures in the pages of Countdown throughout the early 1970s are variable in quality, with many storylines bearing compelling ideas that are unfortunately awkward realised through clipped page lengths. Captain Scarlet's fourth untitled story highlights these shortcomings with an ambitious premise buckled by a muddled execution. The Mysterons succeed in hypnotising much of the Earth into a deep slumber, never to awaken, forcing Scarlet to confront the Mysterons on Mars and threaten them with the ultimate retaliation. His plan is to unleash a nuclear assault that will destroy the Earth which will enforce a devastating gravitational realignment of all the planets in the Solar System - including Mars. Scarlet's willingness to sacrifice the Earth feels decidedly out of character, but the strip's cerebral premise make for engrossing action.

6. Sun Burst

In Christmas of 1969, Gerry Anderson fans could enjoy a curious hardback under the Christmas tree in the form of a combined Captain Scarlet and Thunderbirds annual, its content split half and half between Spectrum and International Rescue. The annuals' opening story, Sun Burst, matches an odd premise with a breathless pace as Spectrum determine the mystery of the Mysterons' threat to "set the prisoners free." The threat is soon revealed to be a hijacking of Operation Sunpower to melt the Earth's icy Northern regions and unleash an army of prehistoric mammoths, reborn into the service of the Mysterons! Illustrator Jim Watson keeps a rapid visual pace going as we swing from outer space action to rampaging wildlife in this sharply succinct comic strip. Scarlet in turn must endure deadly injuries to stop the mammoths in their path of destruction.

5. Germ War

Taken from the 1969 Captain Scarlet annual, Germ War is a compact, brilliantly written short story that delivers in an infectious global threat for Spectrum to stop. Spectrum rush to Unity City Hospital in anticipation of the Mysterons' threat to unleash a germ war, where Doctor Luhmere is the obvious target. The hostile doctor's refusal of Spectrum's protection soon spirals out of control and the Mysterons come close to carrying out their threat. This crisply executed adventure tingles with paranoid energy and boasts a superb, action-packed climax involving the Angels and a horridly wounded Scarlet forced to use desperate measures to stop germ warfare from devastating the world.

4. TV Tornado #50 - #51

Action comic TV Tornado, which carried a variety of well-known heroes ranging from Batman, Superman, The Man from UNCLE, The Saint and Tarzan, also carried an unusual Captain Scarlet strip. The Mysterons, illustrated in stark black and white by Don Harely, ran in parallel to the events of the Captain Scarlet TV series. The strip told the continuing adventures of the Mysterons as they travel across the stars to conquer other worlds beyond Earth. One of its most compelling storylines in fact occurs on Mars, in which a trio of human astronauts find themselves captured by the Mysterons, who scheme to utilise them in their quests for galactic dominance. In an intriguing yet sombre tale that twists reader's expectations, the humans' attempts to outwit the Mysterons end in tragedy, but not in the way you may think.

3. TV21 #234 - #238

TV21 gave Captain Scarlet the finale it always lacked in the TV series in the form of its penultimate storyline from the classic comic. Published between issues #234 and #238, this compelling adventure sees Spectrum hatch a tricky plot to stop the Mysterons without actually destroying them. The plan involves launching a network of satellites into orbit around Mars to prevent the Mysterons' retrometabolism capabilities from reaching the Earth. However, this plan rests on Captain Scarlet distracting the Mysterons by journeying to Mars and offering himself to return to the Mysterons' influence! It's an intelligent premise that brings much of Captain Scarlet's story ideas full circle and convincingly ends the war in a stalemate. The storyline compels with its surprisingly haunting imagery of Captain Scarlet and Captain Black's interactions that anticipates their close relationship in New Captain Scarlet.

2. Introducing Captain Scarlet

In a commendable feat of continuity, Introducing Captain Scarlet doesn't take place before or after The Mysterons, but rather, within the events of the TV series' debut episode. The first of five audio dramas released to coincide with the launch of the TV series serves as something of an internal coda of the triggering of the War of Nerves and is situated between the climactic events of the London Car-Vu destruction and Colonel White's final addressing of his Spectrum personnel that closes out the episode. Introducing Captain Scarlet depicts another Spectrum meeting in which Colonel White attempts to make sense of the unravelling events of Spectrum's first encounter with the Mysterons. It's far from the most exciting Captain Scarlet story ever told, but it is satisfying in tidying up some of the pilot episode's looser elements and establishes that Spectrum will have definitive systems in place to understand and maintain Captain Scarlet's newfound indestructibility.

1. 2,000 Ruthless Criminals

There's an abundance of Captain Scarlet stories that can rightly claim to be among its darkest, but this startling short story from the 1968 annual brings grim subject matter with a surprisingly bleak ending, even by Captain Scarlet standards. The Mysterons' threat to release 2000 ruthless criminals is deduced to be the hijacking of a floating sea farming platform that doubles as a maximum security facility for humanity's worst offenders. The oppressive ocean setting makes for foreboding reading, but it's the nature of the Mysterons' threat itself that's so downbeat; there's no need for an army of Mysteron replicas when humanity's own criminals are so hungry for violence once freed. When victory appears secured thanks to Scarlet's daredevil actions in stopping the damaged platform from drifting to the western coast of America, nature itself lends an unhelpful hand in usurping Spectrum's efforts and delivering a shocking victory for the Mysterons.

The classic TV series may be the definitive incarnation of the War of Nerves, but there's plenty of other darkly thrilling gems to be found throughout Captain Scarlet's spin-off media!

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