Time and Time Again – The Man Who Lived Forever!

By The Telltale Mind on July 30, 2025 • ( 3 Comments )

Everyone wants to live forever, and most would love to travel through time, seeing things they have never seen, experiencing those moments they might have missed or those yet to come. Anyone who says they do not is most likely telling a falsehood, for there is always something that speaks to that person, whether it be in the past or be it in the future. As for living forever, nobody wants to die, and if one cannot see the past, they can at least experience everything that is still forthcoming. Strange Adventures #145, released in 1962, looks at both of these things in a single story called The Man Who Lived Forever!

Evans Talbot is a biophysicist who has created an elixir that will allow him to be immortal. It is not as easy as simply drinking the liquid, though, as he must go into suspended animation for it to take effect, and the time spent means he will miss out on a thousand years of human evolution. Suffice it to say, the lure of living forever is worth any price, and so Talbot locks himself away, hoping to wake up in some future utopia where he will begin his new life. Awakening in a new future, Talbot finds that Earth has been invaded by aliens, that some war must have taken place, and that humanity has lost. Talbot means to aid his fellow man in getting rid of the aliens, but things are easier said than done. While he does eventually accomplish his task, he finds that mankind has started devolving, and it is all because of him. Being immortal, he sets himself to find a cure. By that, he means to learn the entirety of human science, no matter how long it takes so that he might create a time machine and save humanity by stopping his younger self from imbibing his elixir of eternal life.

Written by the legendary Gardner Fox and drawn by the incredible Murphy Anderson, they craft a tale that finds a man excited at the prospect of living forever. He is also a man who will go to whatever lengths are necessary to fix the mistakes he has made along the way. What is quite interesting about this story is that the biophysicist is smart, yet humble enough to acknowledge that he does not know everything and takes the time to learn what he does not know. To craft the time machine, which is so integral to this tale, he spends over ten thousand years studying everything that he can about every science, math and so forth, so that he might accomplish his ultimate goal. His immortality means he no longer needs to eat or drink. He can spend every waking moment studying and trying to figure out which time-track he needs to change. That is also of the utmost importance, for if he takes the wrong track, he may not achieve the desired outcome, and despite his considerable investment in this research, he still has no idea if any of it will work. Be that as it may, he is still willing to put it all on the line to restore humanity, whether that bright future works out for them or not, he cannot and will not be the last man alive.

There is a lot to love in this short story, whether it be the words laid down by Fox and its lead, a character that is both admirable and unselfish in nature. The man is a hero in every sense of the word, despite those around him knowing nothing about his deeds. The artwork by Anderson is wonderful to look at, both clean and detailed in that classic way most stories from the Fifties and Sixties were illustrated. It gives the reader a sense of wonder when reading it, almost as if the audience were also stepping back through time. There is a bit of action to be had, which helps to keep things moving along at a great pace, with Talbot trying to take on the aliens that have enslaved the human race. His first try might have proved futile, but he got them in the end.

Being a short story, there is only so much that the authors can tell. It makes one wonder just where it could have gone next, if the story had continued on for a bit. There was a happy ending to be had, and that was great, but Talbot is immortal, has a wealth of knowledge, and he has a time machine. He could do anything, go anywhere, go anywhen. What would Talbot do if he got tired of watching humanity pass him by? Would he go back home and live out his life in the past? Would he go even farther into the future? It poses many interesting questions, the least of which is what would you do?