Alien Envoy Stuns Soldiers, Thrilling Wonder Stories Dec 1940

Hilariously predicting nothing about actual diplomacy, this cover imagines first contact as a red-skinned muscular alien in a skirt deploying paralytic light beams to flatten bewildered WWII-era soldiers — no United Nations protocols here. A gleaming silver spacecraft with porthole windows sits behind the imposing extraterrestrial, who crosses his arms with magnificent contempt. The scattered khaki-uniformed men writhe helplessly on green grass, hands raised in futile protest, perfectly capturing pulp SF's conviction that aliens would arrive specifically to humiliate Earth's military.