The Plutocratic Plot

Le Rouge, Gustave, and Gustave Guitton. La Conspiration des Milliardaires (The Billionaires' Conspiracy). 1899-1900. Adapted by Brian Stableford as The Dominion of the World 1: The Plutocratic Plot. Tarzana, CA: Hollywood Comics, 2012. "A Black Coat Press Book."

According to John J. Pierce in a ms. in progress, and the Wikipedia entry (with Wikipedia quoted in this sentence), an American billionaire conspiracy "uses Thomas Edison's 'Metal Men' (Karel Čapek coined the term 'robot' only in 1920) and the power of mediums to try to become master of the world."[1] Pierce also mentions more conventional missiles and submarines — but this story is an early use of military robots and an unusual combination of them with, in Pierce's words, "an army of psychics"; cf. and contrast military use of psi-powers and fighting suits in Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Haldeman's The Forever War. Note also (spoiler), Pierce's telling us that "The French eventually come up with a 'psychic accumulator' to defeat the Americans – and usher in a reign of peace and goodwill," with the "psychic accumulator" possibly a device of interest for the superimposition of the technological upon the psionic: cf. and contrast the GHOST BUSTERS movies.

RDE, J. J. Pierce, 20Ap20