Space Snow Leopard

Space Snow Leopard ("Uchū hyō" 宇宙ヒョウ) is a chapter of the Astro Boy manga which originally ran in Shonen magazine in February 1960.

Plot Summary
Aliens attack the in an Earth unusual way. First, a mysterious blanket of snow falls upon Tokyo that drains all the energy of robots. Only Astro Boy seems to be unaffected, apparently because he has far more energy than most robots, though he is very upset that his parents are among those put out of commission. But next an alien humanoid shows up with a powerful creature that looks just like a leopard, but it sucks up energy like the snow.

Astro is able to fight off the leopard, but the alien takes Higeoyaji prisoner. With the help of several other robots and Professor Ochanomizu, Astro is finally able to rescue him. Ochanomizu instructs the Ministry of Science to build Astro and all the other robots into one huge robot body so that not even the leopard can drain all their energy combined.

In the course of his escape, Higeoyaji discovered the leopard's weakness. It can only absorb artificial energy, so Astro and his friends drag it into the middle of a thundercloud. The lightning takes all the fight out of the leopard. When the alien sees this, he sends word back to his home planet that their invasion has failed and he self-destructs his spaceship. The leopard and all the snow dissolve into nothing.

Collected Volumes
This story has been collected in the following volumes:


 * Astro Boy, Volume 7 (Kodansha)
 * Astro Boy, Volume 5 (Dark Horse)