There are many pop culture icons that can be described as "extraterrestrial invaders"; however, there are not many of them in the literature. Coincidentally, however, one of the first mentions of extraterrestrial invaders comes from literature: the Martians from H. G. Wells' 1897 novel The War of the Worlds. These hideously ugly creatures roam the Earth in gigantic "fighting machines," or as they are more commonly called tripods, and they devastate all life forms they encounter. Despite their obvious non-human appearance and power, they still suffer from the same pitfalls that humanity and life as a whole suffer from. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay HG Well's Martians first appear in War of the Worlds during the first chapter, after a "meteor" falls to Earth and lands on Horsell Common, in Woking, Surrey. The mysterious nature of this "meteor" is further amplified by what it does next: it opens to reveal several Martians, who the narrator describes as "large and greyish, with oily brown skin", "two large colored eyes", a beak - such as “V-shaped mouth” and “groups of Gorgon tentacles”. Despite the in-depth description of the Martians' appearance, one still finds it difficult to actually imagine them. This presents the first strength of the Martian invaders: their supreme divine invincibility. Wells regards the Martians as "minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of dying beasts, [with] intellects vast, cold, and indifferent." Wells tries to portray these Martians as God-like, giving them infinite strength and a lack of value to other life forms; as a result, the Martians are considered invincible. For example, when the Army surrounded Hornell Commons in an attempt to contain the Martians, the Army was armed with Maxim guns, considered the most advanced weapons ever built (this was the first automatic weapon, which looked a lot like a Gatling gun ). Wells emphasizes the presence of these weapons because, if placed in a historical context, the reader in 1897 would have fully understood the terrible power of the Martian invaders. Additionally, Martians roam the Earth in colossal “fighting machines,” also known as tripods, armed with advanced weapons: most notably, the heat ray and a black smoke chemical weapon. These machines could be eliminated, but in one of the few instances within the novel where this happened, it took three warships with enormous power to do so. While in modern times it doesn't seem like these tripods are very effective, reading this piece through the glasses of someone from 1897, it is a huge demonstration of the devastating power of these machines. The Martians' second strength is their inherent lack of moral compass. While on the surface this would seem like a weakness, especially in the eyes of a human, it actually makes Martians ideal invaders; since the Martians have no moral compass, they have no qualms about wiping out the human race in their quest for domination. Furthermore, because they have no moral compass, they have no need to be rational or fair. There is no diplomacy for the Martians in their search for Earth; either the humans learn to live under them or they try to rebel, and in both cases they are killed. He was a pretty effective antagonist for War of the Worlds. Unfortunately for the Martians, their weaknesses are the same as humanity's. One such example is morality; despite being described as God-like and invincible, the Martian invaders can still be killed by the same means as the.