Atlas-Seaboard Comics - September 1975!

Three books from Atlas-Seaboard in September, and surprisingly, one of them is a debut.

WULF the BARBARIAN #4 was drawn by Jim Craig, and the story continues to plod along. Wulf runs across a trio of thieves who themselves have just come across a rather potent jewel. After significant bloodletting and lots of confusion, Wulf absconds with a horse and the gem itself. We cut to a scene of a monster and a woman fighting, with the monster winning by killing the woman. The monster changes into a man, a former toy maker who as it turns out Wulf knows. Almost immediately Wulf chances upon the scene and in another ironic twist this toymaker/monster is the former of the recently stolen gem. The thieves return, a battle rages, and all die save for Wulf, a lovely thief who runs away. The story ends with Wulf killing the former toymaker and going on to further adventures. We'll never see them as this is the final issue. This issue marks a distinct downfall for this well-crafted fantasy series. This final script was by Mike Friedrich, a talented writer, but it's mostly a mess.

TIGER-MAN #3 gives us some very muscular and inviting Steve Ditko artwork with Al Milgrom inks. The script by Gerry Conway is rambling succession of coincidences, almost all involving mysterious suicides and attempted suicides. Dr. Hill / Tiger-Man investigates and discovers a mad psychiatrist named Dr. Hypnos who compels people to kill themselves. He pulls this trick on Tiger-Man, but ironically our hero is saved by some crooks who attempt to mug him and so save him from immolating himself. He takes a second stab at Hypnos, grabs his monocle, the source of his power, and compels Hypnos to throw himself off a roof. Tiger-Man's adventures have come to an end with this final issue.

And now for the debut...

DEMON HUNTER #1 is a Rich Buckler and David Anthony Kraft offering and introduces Gideon Cross, a disaffected Vietnam vet who seeking meaning in his life after his wife has deserted him finds a cult of demon-worshipers. It's all a tad confusing, but he becomes an agent for them with an ability to cloak his appearance and he goes around collecting blood samples for some unknown purpose. He seems rather unconcerned about this unusual occupation. He's also working as a bodyguard to an apparent crime lord, and these two missions seem to be conjoined somehow. Despite some very interesting Buckler storytelling and typically powerful action sequences, this debut is very compressed and more than a little confusing. We'll never get it clarified at Atlas though as this is the first and last Atlas issue. The story will continue in a fashion at Marvel in the guise of Devil-Slayer.

There is one more month for Atlas-Seaboard. October approaches!

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Morbius - The End Of The Living Vampire!

Clearly Marvel had high hopes for Morbius the Living Vampire. He's given a color series in Adventures into Fear and a black and white series in Vampire Tales. The latter turns out to be pretty good, but the latter suffers badly from a rotating army of artists and different writers as well. The strip spends most of its time in sci-fi wonderlands and seems to forget, unlike his B&W companion that vampires are a horror convention. Sadly, as the color series winds down, things don't improve all that much. 

Frank Robbins nails down the art for a few issues doing a good job in my estimation. The story by Doug Moench begins as a horror story but quickly dives down the science fiction route that had hampered the series to this point. 

Don Heck and Bill Mantlo step in as the Living Vampire finds himself in yet another weird dimension, this time battling a godlike creature with countless eyes. The police officer from the Man-Wolf series Simon Stroud is added to the cast and begins a hunt for Morbius as he had for Man-Wolf. He boisterous but just as effective. 

George Evans steps in to do the art as the story returns to Earth but keeps on pumping along. Martine who had been supportive of Morbius but often been used by his enemies against him, suffers a final indignity when she becomes a vampire herself. 

Frank Robbins returns for the final issue as Martine is at long last saved from her vampiric fate and Stroud for some reason lets Morbius fly away in the final panel of the color series. I'm often struck in these vampire tales how our heroes have such little regard for the nameless victims of characters like Morbius. 

In Vampire Tales things are much different. The series is written by Doug Moench and the art chores now fall to Sonny Trinidad who does an outstanding job. Under a striking Richard Hescox cover we find a compelling story of a lonely widow who is struggling alone against a desperate group of miners. She is kind but sadly her good intentions are not enough to spare her from tragedy. 

Under another Hescox cover we find a second story by Moench and Trinidad which has the Living Vampire battling the "Legion of the Undead", a gang of rich vampires who want to rule the world. There's some spicey treachery in this one before Morbius is able end the threat, at least some of it. 

This is all reprints but Bob Larkin's cover featuring Morbius is one of the finest images of the character ever done. 

In Legion of Monster, the Morbius story has our blood-thirsty protagonist up against a werewolf in a final story by Moench and Trinidad. I should also point out that these black and white stories share space with many ads and articles in which Morbius plays a role. 

Morbius is just one monster among many in this Marvel Premiere tale by Bill Mantlo and Frank Robbins which has this assembled group of creatures battling a demi-god from space. 

Mantlo is the writer again in this Marvel Two-In-One yarn which pits the Thing and Morbius against one of the craziest villains in Marvel history -- the Living Eraser. Arvell Jones and Dick Giordano supply the art. Morbius ends up using the Eraser's tech to send himself to a distant dimension at story's end. 

The story picks up in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man when Morbius seeks to return to Earth. The first part of the story is a three-page frame which sets up a reprint of Marvel Team-Up number three. 

In the subsequent chapters written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by Sal Busema we find out that Morbius is under the influence of an ancient artificial lifeform called the Empathoid which lives off emotions. It possess Morbius and forces him to return to Earth where it can feast. At story's end Spidey lets Morbius fly off yet again after the Empathoid is defeated. 

He's back still sucking the blood of innocents in a story by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema. This time though at the end of the yarn a stray lightning bolt hits Morbius and mysteriously cures him (seemingly) of his vampire curse.

The follow-up is in four issues of The Savage She-Hulk. Mostly these are tales detailing the various woes of Jennifer Walters as she tries to cope with her still relatively role as the green bombshell. A potential cure though might be found by a researcher named Michael Morbius who is trying to find a lasting cure for himself as he lives under house arrest. Ultimately Walters becomes his attorney and gets the former "Living Vampire" off on manslaughter charges for his many crimes. These stories by David Anthony Kraft and artist Mike Vosburg are pretty good and deal with some complex issues but it seems a bit anti-climactic after all that has been written and drawn concerning Morbius. 

I got around to seeing the new Morbius movie a few weeks ago and I rather liked it. I know a bunch of these flicks get slammed for not having an upbeat theme, but this is a vampire movie. and I don't expect things to work out for the best in this universe. I was struck after reading the stories again after so long how close the movie was to the original source material. I'd forgotten all the stuff about the experiments on the ship. There are changes of course, but I expect those. Jared Leto was quite effective as the tortured "Living Vampire".  

No more Morbius to come, but reading through these two somewhat overpriced Epic volumes has really taken me back to a time when Marvel's ambitions often were grander than their capabilities. But in the dross, there are some amazing gems. Those stories in Vampire Tales have a lasting effect. 

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Man-Wolf On The Loose!

Marvel was all about making monsters as the Bronze Age tumbled along. Dracula and Werewolf by Night were buttoning down the supernatural side of the market, while Morbius the Living Vampire spoke to monsters more in line with the modern day. In that vein the Man-Wolf was born. As with Morbius the Mam-Wolf was first allowed to prowl in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man. 

In a two-part tale by Gerry Conway and pencilers Gil Kane and Ross Andru we again meet John Jameson, the son of the blustery publisher of the Daily Bugle J. Jonah Jameson. Jameson the younger was an astronaut and while on the Moon had collected a bauble he wished to keep as a souvenir, but when hung around his neck that "Moonstone" had a nightmarish effect and transformed the young man into a ferocious werewolf. Spidey is able to stop the transformations by ripping the stone from the Man-Wolf's throat and tossing it into the river. 

Soon thereafter Morbius the Living Vampire rescues the "Moonstone" and giving it back to Jameson creates for himself an ally in an attack on Spider-Man. The face off against the Web-Slinger in the first and only issue of Giant-Size Super-Heroes. The story is by Conway and art is by Kane. 

It is decided to give Man-Wolf his own series and no magazine was better titled to host that series than the reprint comic Creatures on the Loose. Doug Moench is given the writing task and the reliable George Tuska takes on the art chores assisted by Vince Colletta. A sturdy police lieutenant named Stroud is given the task to bring the Man-Wolf in when he transforms yet again and thinks he's done his duty when Man-Wolf falls from the top of the Statue of Liberty. 

But of course, he survives to prowl again. I love this cover by Gil Kane, so full of intensity and emotion. 

The Man-Wolf is next pursued by Kraven the Hunter for a mysterious employer. Kraven does what he does best and captures the werewolf. Tony Isabella handled the writing on this one. 

A new team takes over the feature in the next issue. David Anthony Kraft becomes the new writer, and an up-and-coming George Perez makes his mark on color comics. Perez was intended only as a fill-in but he ends up staying with the series until its demise. In this one Stroud learns that Man-Wolf is alive and battles against both Kraven and the Man-Wolf to bring him in.

The scene shifts dramatically to Georgia when we learn that Jameson escapes the trusting Stroud and rides a doomed train into the far South. Jameson is helped by a young couple but then runs up against a deadly mob who surprisingly operate a massive technologically advanced installation underground. 

His battles with this offbeat gang continue as he learns the leader is the vile Hate-Monger. But Nick Fury and his agents of SHIELD arrive to save the day. Meanwhile his girlfriend Kristine Saunders falls under the spell of an untrustworthy man named Harrison Turk. John Jameson survives but one of his new friends does not. 

The adventures of the Man-Wolf take a bizarre turn when John Jameson ends up in orbit and transformed. It's all exceedingly complicated but as he battles against himself and other mysterious barbaric agents we learn the stone is called the "Weirdstone" and the Man-Wolf is defeated.                                                                                        

Man-Wolf is confronted by three people, a blonde barbarian named "Garth", a bearded brute called "Gorjoon", and a seeming sorcerer named "Lambert". At the same time he battles against raiders who seek to take over a space station. It's a melee to say the least but at the very end we learn that the "Weirdstone" has taken over all of Man-Wolf's nervous system. It's a stunner and sadly also the final issue of Creatures on the Loose. The saga of Man-Wolf will have to wait to be completed. 

That robust finale comes in the pages of two issues of Marvel Premiere. We learn that the "Weirdstone" is from another dimension and in that dimension the Man-Wolf is called "Stargod". Jameson has control of his powers in this dimension and leads a team of barbarians into battle against the Harrison Turk who turns out to be a rival leader. He uses his captive Kristine as leverage but in the end Stargod and his forces prevail despite heavy losses. This wild fantasy turn in the strip comes to a halt when both John and his love Kristine are returned to Earth. 

Man-Wolf is off the board until he becomes embroiled in a struggle between Spider-Man and the Frankenstein Monsters in the pages of Marvel Team-Up. This is a rather ho-hum effort by Conway, Sal Buscema and Vinnie Colletta. At the end Jameson is once again captured. And we learn that later in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man that he is put into a cryogenic chamber to await the time when science can remove the stone from his body without killing him. 

In a rousing two-part tale by Marv Wolfman and John Byrne in Amazing Spider-Man, the Man-Wolf is revived and becomes a weapon of vengeance against both Jonah Jameson and Spider-Man. At the end Jameson falls into the river but his descent is interrupted by a strange flash of light. 

That flash of light took him back to the dimension in which he was Stargod. In two issues of The Savage She-Hulk by Kraft and artist Mike Vosburg we get a convoluted tale of what has become of the civilization Stargod left behind. The problem is helped by the Hellcat and her dimension-spanning cloak. It's a rather ramshackle story to be honest though it was nifty see Man-Wolf again. At the end he is zapped back to Earth yet again. 

He shows up in full ferocious Man-Wolf mode in a Spectacular Spider-Man Annual. This story is again written by Kraft and drawn by Jim Sherman, Al Weiss, and Steve Mitchell. Jameson is captured and allows himself to be brought into a facility operated by Doctor Kurt Connors and there with Spider-Man's help a cure is finally found and the "Weirdstone" is at long last freed from Jameson's body and falls into bits. At long last Man-Wolf's strange journey ends eight years after it began during the monster boom in 1973. 

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Zodiac - Who Remembers Scorpio?

When Scorpio shows up in the pages of the Defenders it's almost a legit question as to whether anyone remembers him. This Scorpio is Jake Fury, who has been thought dead since Avengers #72 when the Zodiac itself debuted.

The Defenders are at a transition when Scorpio shows up, Doctor Strange has temporarily quit the non-team and remaining members Nighthawk, Valkyrie and newbie Hellcat are joined by Moon Knight to form the basis of the Defenders through the multi-part Scorpio saga in Defenders #46-50. The story was written by David Anthony Kraft and Roger Slifer with a fill-in issue written by David Warner. The artwork in these issues is what makes them memorable in that we see a fledgling Keith Giffen in full-blown Kirby-copy mode with some potent inks by Dan Green among others.

The story ambles but essentially Jake (Scorpio) Fury seems to be suffering from depression and has been hiding out for many years since his seeming death at the hands of his brother at the end of Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #5. We learn that Jake was in fact the second Scorpio taking over after the first was killed in the debut SHIELD issue. While he's been hiding out in a very high-tech lair he's been using LMD technology to create a doppleganger of his brother as well as a complete set of Life Model Decoy Zodiac members for his own use. The Zodiac Key inexplicably and  literally falls out of the sky and eventually into his hands and he makes good use of this most powerful weapon.

The Defenders are drawn into the affair properly when they are simultaneously made aware that Jack Norris (the estranged husband of Valkyrie) has been kidnapped by Scorpio and are alerted by Moon Knight who has battled Scorpio and nearly been killed at his hands.

Moon Knight gathers up the ragtag team who trick the bellicose Hulk into chasing them to Scorpio's lair. The find Nighthawk trussed up having been captured when he went to save Norris.

In a ferocious fiftieth-issue fist-fight the hastily assembled Defenders battle two-thirds of the revived LMD Zodiac (three of didn't survive the activation and Libra doesn't feel like fighting).

The fight is kinetic and occupies most all the issue but in the end the Defenders are victorious when Scorpio uses a gun to seemingly end his own life. The LMD-Zodiac are trundled off to the care of SHIELD who show up at the end to clean up and Nick Fury is informed his brother is now well and truly dead, something he'd assumed was the case for a few years.

It's a hectic adventure with Scorpio's quixotic personality being the most interesting part. The writing seems a bit too self-aware at times as folks who followed Steve Gerber always seemed in this book to want to somewhat imitate his commentary style.  The LMD-Zodiac are distinctive Giffen creations but their advent marks a real downslide for the Zodiac cartel as real villains in the Marvel Universe. Going forward writers and artists will confuse the LMD group with the originals and it all becomes a bit of a mess, undermining the potential of a great gang of baddies.

And that wraps up our look at the Zodiac cartel. After this it all gets so confusing I cannot tell them apart anymore, and often don't care to try.

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