Martii!

This is going to be a full and varied month at the Dojo. As you can tell the Silver Surfer will be making his presence known, but you'll have to wait until the end of the month for my full review of Norrin Radd's earliest misadventures. I haven't read a new Surfer story in ages, but back in the heyday he was one of Marvel's richest characters. 

The ongoing look at the adventures of the Ghost Who Walks will also continue. I am reviewing his Charlton comics appearances as well as the Avon novel series. Both were reprinted by Hermes Press some years ago and have been languishing waiting for me to get to them. I am enjoying it mightily. 

Likewise, my ongoing reading of the OZ novels by Frank L. Baum. I will assert here and now that the books are not what I was expecting. I've read raves about these American classics all my life and I'm beginning to get a sense of what everyone is on about. 

I'm going to squeeze in at least one trip to Astro City this month as well. These books have been fantastic to read again, making so much more sense than reading them periodically. There is a richness in the world imagined by Busiek and Anderson and Ross which is greater than the sum of its many well-crafted parts. 

Crime will rear its ugly head as well here as we take a spin down the Road to Perdition, the amazing graphic novel by Max Allan Collins. There are more than a few twists and turns in that odyssey for the characters and the readers as well. 

Neal Adams was arguably the most influential artist of his generation or for that matter a few generations since his influence as a mentor and the studio Continuity Associates was a breeding ground for many younger pros. He created some of the most iconic comics in my reading experience and I'd like to take a look at some of those over the course of this year. This month the focus is on Deadman. 

And I want to spend a little time with the Abominable Snowman. Admittedly I want to do that from the comfort and relative safety of my easy chair in my warm and comfy home, but nonetheless the legend of the ABSM as he's designated is as alluring as any in the modern world. 

All this and perhaps even more this month at the Dojo. Take a moment or two and drop by amigos. 

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Panther's Rage - Jungle Kings!

"Panther's Rage" comes to a climax in issue seventeen of Jungle Action as Erik Killmonger finally launches his all-out attack on the heart of Wakanda. Leading his assembled troopers and a multitude of giant dinosaurs he brings destruction and mayhem to the settled and industrialized center of the kingdom. It has been a full year since the Panther returned to Wakanda and first confronted Killmonger atop the great waterfall. Since then he's had to do a lot of soul searching and confront many weird menaces, some created wrought by Killmonger's science and some the result of palace intrigue within his own ranks. But now T'Challa is galvanized, no longer plagued by doubt or second guessing and owning his own responsibility in the rise of the rebel Killmonger. So it is with a righteous anger on behalf of his suffering subjects which motivates the king to battle the usurper. The fight as the injured W'Kabi and his family see destruction rumbled toward them and Taku comes under threat but Venomm steps in. Some of Killmonger's allies are killed but many more are captured and atop the falls where it began the war between T'Challa and Erik Killmonger comes to an end and a small boy, still grieving over his lost father has a role to play.

Two months later in the epilogue we find the kingdom of Wakanda still recovering from the events of the war with Killmonger. Taku takes Venomm home to America and W'Kabi's family still leaves despite their developing understanding of how they feel.  But the danger is not over as the mistress of Killmonger seeks some measure of revenger and aided by her mute giant ally captures the Panther. It is W'Kabi, now possessing a metal arm to replace the one he lost in the war is instrumental in saving the Panther and despite some rough treatment T'Challa emerge triumphant again, his kingdom safe for the moment, but as we now know that is all the safety any of us has.

In the end "Panther's Rage" is a massive story told over the course of two real calendar years and over one year of literary time which attempts to explore the feelings and thoughts of people dealing with change and living up their own responsibilities. We meet T'Challa, a man less certain of his own goals and ambitions, a sign of maturity, but also something of a deficiency in a leader who appears to dither. He is surrounded by advisors, some who are overly intellectual and some who rely to heavily on emotions, but few who are able to blend these aspects of human nature to full effect, that is until the end of the story when he has been tempered by the many battles he has fought.

Erik Killmonger is a fascinating figure, a charismatic and brave leader who like most of his ilk has limited regard for his acolytes and an overweening confidence in himself. He wants revenge for what was taken from him and fights the Panther and all he stands for to attempt to balm that hurt. Out of that anger and sense of betrayal his rebellion has taken over the thinking of the those around him and consumes the concerns of everyone in the kingdom.

In the end McGregor's writing is so luxuriously dense that it's a chore to consume, his overly rich descriptions becomes a little bewildering as your eye rushes to decode the pictures which drive the story ahead. "Panther's Rage" is a work of art more significant because of how it is structured, a long continuing tale with a heavy reliance on interior analysis, than how effectively it does what it does. Now it seems all stories are like this, but then it was a relative rarity to find a story that pushed ahead so relentlessly month after month.

It was very very memorable though and one of Marvel's highest achievements during the Bronze Age of Comics.

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Sundown For A Superhero!

Jeff Aclin and Bob McLeod

Frank Miller and Terry Austin

Al Milgrom
When Captain Marvel was cancelled for the third time in 1979 the stories already written and drawn for the series showed up a few months later in the pages of a revived Marvel Spotlight. The first three issues of the new title were produced by Doug Moench and Pat Broderick and closed out the good Captain's struggles against sundry cosmic menaces.

Steve Ditko
The fourth issue produced drawn by the enigmatic Steve Ditko and scripted by the late great Archie Goodwin is a real charmer, but it was clearly a file story which had been set aside to forestall the "Dreaded Deadline Doom" which afflicted so many Marvel series during the era. It's neat to think that Ditko put his creative hand to the character who was in point of fact inspired to no small degree by his own creation, Charlton's Captain Atom. Read "Shadow Doom" here.

Frank Miller and Terry Austin
Marvel Spotlight then went on to feature other characters such as Star-Lord, Dragon Lord, and Captain Universe. In the midst of that though Captain Marvel continued to appear, such as the eighth issue which featured some early impressive work by Frank Miller.

Michael Nasser
As it turns out Captain Marvel had one more Bronze Age story in him, which was scheduled for Marvel Spotlight #12. Alas the series ended with issue eleven and the story went unpublished and largely unknown for many years. The cover by Michael Nasser was produced for the never-to-be-published-on-its-own 1980 final epic.

Keiron Dwyer
The story "Last Night the Sun Came Down...and Sang to Me" written by Peter B. Gillis and drawn by Jerry Bingham and Bruce Patterson was at last published a decade later in 1990 in the third issue of the revived Marvel Super-Heroes, a series specifically developed it seems to clear out the files in Marvel's offices.

The story dealt with Appala the Queen of the Sun and how Captain Marvel was accidentally harming her. For more check out this link.

In the case of Captain Marvel, a hero cancelled and revived repeatedly, the sun came down exceedingly slowly. But it did eventually come down. 

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My Favorite Comic Covers -- Codename: Danger!

I've always adored this cover image by Rick Buckler and Bob Mcleod! It's got that neat hard edge that Buckler could be so good at when he was in his own style, a subtle blend of Neal Adams and John Buscema. The story underneath this one is pretty decent too, offering a Mission Impossible-like scenario with the hero Paul Makor a tough-as-nails operative who gets particular talent for particular missions.

This book was to be part of David Singer's comics empire alongside the luscious The Futurians by Dave Cockrum and the revived Thunder Agents, but all that tumbled apart for a host of legal reasons it seems. There are three more issues of Codename:Danger but they have a more superheroic flavor to them, and I never got them. This is the only issue featuring the work of Buckler. And this is one fantastic cover, my favorite ever by Buckler and that's saying something.

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