The Fiendish Experiment

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Episode 34 of The Trigan Empire

The Fiendish Experiment
aka The Man who could turn himself to Water
The Hydro Man (The Collection)
De gestolen formule (Dutch title)
The Stolen Formula (Dutch title, translated)

Written by Mike Butterworth
Illustrated by Don Lawrence

The Fiendish Experiment was originally published in 9 instalments in issues 550 (29 July 1972) to 558 (23 September 1972) of Look and Learn magazine.

It is reprinted in Volume 9 of The Trigan Empire—The Collection (the Don Lawrence Collection).

It is reprinted in Volume 3 of The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire (Rebellion).

Plot summary

Janno and the pilot Vella perform a dangerous stunt during an air show. Their two planes are connected by a chain. After the flight, a man approaches Vella. He says that Vella must pay his debts. Vella and Janno visit Peric. Peric says he has made an important discovery, but that it is very dangerous. As they leave, Vella steals the book with the formulas.

Vella frees a great scientist from the mines, who was serving his sentence there. This scientist, Zerros, builds a device with which he manipulates Vella. As a result, Vella is able to turn into water and back into a normal human. When he takes the form of water, he can deliver electric shocks to people. In this way, he first kills his creditor.

During a visit from the emperor of Daveli, Janno and Vella must perform the dangerous air stunt one more time. Because Janno has to sneeze during the flight, Vella crashes, but just before the crash, he turns himself into water. His plane is completely destroyed, but he doesn’t have a single scratch. Everyone is very surprised by this.

That evening, Vella turns into water again and steals the crown of the emperor of Daveli. He also goes to the imperial archives and there discovers the greatest secrets of Trigan City. He finds out that Trigan City has missiles aimed at Daveli and blackmails the emperor by threatening to reveal this. Emperor Trigo decides to pay two thousand zersts to prevent this.

Together with Janno, he brings the ransom. Janno stays behind to see who comes to collect the ransom, but he is struck by the electrically charged water. However, he is only unconscious and tells the story to Peric. Peric immediately understands that someone has stolen his formula.

Vella now kidnaps the emperor of Daveli and wants to demand ransom for him. He hides the emperor in a remote cave. Meanwhile, the police of Trigan City have discovered Vella’s apartment with Zerros’s equipment. Peric has realized that Vella stole the formula because of the plane crash, in which he remained unharmed.

Vella flies back from the remote cave to Trigan City but gets caught in a storm. He turns himself into water but is struck by lightning. All the water droplets evaporate. Zerros reveals where the emperor of Daveli is.