Master Of Kung Fu - Fight Without Pity!

Master of Kung Fu - Fight Without Pity is all about the art of Paul Gulacy. Gulacy had become the regular artist on the series, albeit with many fill-in jobs by other talents since the departure of Jim Starlin. He was a young and rough talent but one could see his Steranko-inspired style cohering with each job he turned in. With this volume he has come of age and his artwork is simply stunning. The stories created by him and Dough Moench are among the most compelling in the long run of the series. 

The new distinctive direction begins with a trio of tales in which Shang-Chi agrees to work officially for Sir Nayland Smith and his secret service. His first mission is to confront a drug trafficker named Velcro. Shang-Chi pursues him to his remote island fortress and battles his agents Razorfist and the whip-wielding Pavane. I want to note that as much as I love and appreciate his work, the Masterof Kung Fu series was hampered by some indifferent Gil Kane covers which only hint at the quality of the work beneath those covers. In general, the covers are much too similar and I'm hard pressed to attach any single memory to most of them. 

Sal Buscema steps in to give Gulacy a hand with a story about secret documents aboard a ship filled with all manner of dangerous folk. 

Gulacy is back in time for a trilogy featuring the menace of Mordillo, an eccentric villain who turns out to be someone close to the organization. Pavane is back and we encounter the peculiar Brynocki, an an artificial man with real feelings. Mordillo has a secret island (don't they all) which is whimsical and filled with threats from nursery rhymes and fables. Most importantly we meet for the first time Leiko Wu, an agent of Smith's outfit and a fetching love interest for Shang-Chi. 

Then we get an offbeat two-part tale from Moench drawn by Keith Pollard about a magical circus of sorts filled with a menagerie of mythical and mysterious creatures, all led by a man named Moon Sun. This is a strange tale which brought to my mind The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles Finney which was made into a movie starring Tony Randall. 

In Master of Kung Fu's one and only annual he meets Iron Fist for the first time and the two martial arts heroes battle a magician named Quan-St'ar in the land of S'hara-Sharn, a land which is the dark opposite of K'un-L'un. Once again Keith Pollard does the artistic honors. Pollard's art is not especially well suited to martial arts action but his storytelling is very concise. 

Then Shang-Chi finds himself going to rescue a damsel in distress who doesn't want his help since she's fallen in love with Shen Kuei, the Cat, the "villain" of the story. Gulacy's artwork continues to get even more refined as Shang-Chi begins to look more and more like movie icon Bruce Lee. 

We encounter the "Murder Agency" in the next issue which sets up a number of plot elements which will play out as the series progresses. Gulacy's artwork is exquisite in this Moench story which introduces us to another cast member, a disgraced former agent named Larner. 

The story is interrupted by a fill-in of sorts drawn by Sal Buscema in which Shang-Chi reflects back four years earlier when he came into conflict with his "brother" Midnight. We get to see these two characters before they come to a death match in the second adventure of the series. 

Gulacy is back in fine form as the story of the Murder Agency unfolds. It turns out it has connections to the other main character in this comic book - Fu Manchu. We get a superior villain in these issues named Shockwave who combines martial arts with high voltage. He gives Shang-Chi a pretty good drubbing, his worst defeat of the series.  Of course Shang-Chi recovers. 

Shang-Chi and Clive Reston come up against the Golden Daggers, an outfit of former Si-Fan who serve Fah Lo Suee. The battle between her and her father is coming to dramatic climax and the world itself is in the balance. There has been much intrigue in the series, and hidden villains are revealed and Sir Nayland Smith himself finds himself facing his mortality. 

Then we are treated to Doug Moench's and Paul Gulacy's masterpiece. Gulacy has had wonderful inkers on the series such as Dan Adkins among others, but when Pablo Marcos steps in the artwork becomes luminescent. Shang-Chi is now in full Bruce Lee mode as he is just one of Nayland Smith's agents working to forestall Fu Manchu's latest threat which will destroy the world by destroying the Moon itself. To make these stories even tastier we get a break from the regular narration from Shang-Chi's point of view and each chapter is related from a different character such as Clive Reston, Sir Nayland Smith, Blackjack Tarr, and Leiko Wu with Fu Manchu himself narrating the final installment. 

Though he had never done a cover before, Gulacy supplies a magnificent portrait of Shang-Chi for the epilogue. Jim Craig takes over the art chores as the team that saved the world from Fu Manchu decides to go their separate ways. Moench is throwing aside the espionage angle for a time, as his partner Paul Gulacy bids a farewell to the series which made his reputation. 

Keith Pollard is back on art in a weird and wild story which see the return of Rufus T. Hackstabber. This is a story set in Morroco and offers the reader more than a few echoes of the Bogie classic. Other familiar faces appear in a story which is actually a sequel to the third issue of the Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu series. 

This volume closes out with the Ernie Chan cover for a reprint of the twentieth issue of Master if Kung Fu. We also get some choice ads, covers and original artwork. A very handsome Epic volume this is indeed. 

Though he was almost never able to do any covers for the series when he was the main artist, Paul Gulacy did return to the series from time to time to gives us another glimpse of his singular vision of Shang-Chi. These covers are not contained in the Epic volume but since this tome bids a farewell to Gulacy I thought it fair to include them. 

There's a little bit more Master of Kung Fu to come as he will team up from time to time with Iron Fist in the pages of The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. The Dojo takes a gander next week. 

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Goliath In Black!

Tony Isabella has crafted a reputation for writing black heroes. His creation DC's Black Lightning being  the most famous of his outings in this arena. But he began at Marvel and there he wrote some singular issues of the comic Luke Cage, Power Man and later he crafted the earliest adventures of Black Goliath.

In the debut issue of Black Goliath (smartly drawn by George Tuska and Vince Colletta) we meet the fifteen foot giant who is in his off hours Bill Foster, a talented bio-chemist who had in earlier days assisted Henry Pym and it was there that he'd "perfected" the growing formula which Pym had dabbled with for many years. In that first issue we find a Goliath who is reminiscing about his early days in the Watts community and who ends up fighting some low-level criminals he chances upon. Later we learn that Foster is a man in full command of his power, who can elevate to fifteen feet on a whim and who is running a research lab manned by three up and coming talented young scientists. He seems to be a man well positioned for a successful life, but as we well know the lot of a superhero is rarely blissful..

We'd first met Black Goliath in the pages of Luke Cage, Power Man when the aforementioned Hero for Hire came to blows with the giant when he was searching for his lady love Claire Temple. Turns out Claire is the ex-wife of Foster and had joined him on the West Coast to help because she thought he was trapped at the fifteen foot size. Apparently this is a lie perpetrated by Foster to keep Claire close.

Black Goliath and Luke Cage face off, but both find themselves fighting as a duo against the Circus of Crime. 

I love the Circus of Crime, but this is not one of their most entertaining outings. Cage and Foster quickly dispense with them and Black Goliath moves on the headline his own title, but only briefly. 

Black Goliath only lasted four more issues and rated on visit with Spidey in Marvel Team-Up. Later Bill Foster changed his fighting name to Giant-Man and fought alongside the Thing in Marvel-Two-In-One. He became a background character at Marvel for many years.

Always it seemed he was a hero looking for a place to fight, a time to show his worth. The very stuff of tragedy. 

On a final note, let me that I always loved the corner box image for these the Black Goliath comics, brief though was their stay. 

Note: This post originally appeared at Rip Jagger's Other Dojo. 

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The Eternals And The Dreaming Celestial!

With the advent of the direct-sales market in the 1980's, comic book companies were able to offer up limited series which came in the three, four, or sometimes twelve issue versions. These were remarkable because it allowed for some characters to get a peak at an audience without a full-blown commitment to a series which might need canceling after only a few issues of poor sales. Among the most famous of the limited series of course was Crisis on Infinite Earths for DC and for Marvel there was Secret Wars. But there was also at Marvel a twelve issue series for The Eternals. This one was one written by Peter B. Gillis and drawn by Sal Buscema with inks in the early issues by Al Gordon. But before the limited could kick off there was some necessary housecleaning concerning the Eternals. But it didn't really start there. 

In the sixth Iron Man Annual the spanking new Iron Man Rhodey Rhoades discovers the Eternals and the Deviants and finds the former enslaved by the latter due to pernicious mind mines which render the Eternals powerless. There is just one problem with this story, and that's there are not enough Eternals. They are rescued right enough, but only in the final pages where they clean up on the Deviants. Zuras, the leader of the Eternals has been murdered though and that will have consequences. 

Next the Eternals show up in a trio of Avengers issues by Roger Stern and Al Milgrom, in which for the first time Eros of Titan learns of his heritage and its connection to the Eternals and Inhumans of Earth. It all begins with a party thrown by Sersi (a common event in Eternals stories) and before you know it the Avengers are part of a scheme by the bizarre villain Maelstrom (who is part Deviant and part Inhuman) to gain power when the Eternals are within the Uni-Mind. The upshot of this story is that with the demise of Zuras, most of the Eternal population decide to leave the planet Earth and seek their fortunes among the stars. 

The Gillis-Buscema story picks up at this point and we find the remaining Eteranals are Ikarus, Thena, Makkari, Sprite, and Sersi alongside new Eternals Phastos, Korphyos, and Kingo. These seem to be Eternals who have done an especially effective job of blending into human society or have found singular purpose in the world. Thena seeks to become their leader and assume the power of Zuras and the others accept her but not with the respect she feels she deserves. Also on hand are the Deviant mutates Karkus and Reject (who is now called "Sweet Prince"). Also on hand is Margo Damian. 

The main villain of this story is High-Priest Ghaur a priest of the Deviant culture and despite some shenangians by Kro who eventually assumes the leadership role in Lemuria, it is Ghaur and his Deviant cultists who have a plan to give them immense power over not only Deviants, but also humans and Eternals, and perhaps even the Celestials themselves. 

We meet Phastos who is something of a recluse but is of great benefit to the Eternals in that he manufactures many of their primary weapons. In keeping with the Eternals conceit that they resemble in many ways the classic Greek Gods, Phastos of course evokes Hephaestus from that pantheon. 

Kingo on the other hand is a Samurai who just so happens to also be an actor in Samurai movies. He has taken "Sweet Prince" under his wing and is attempting to cool the ferocious mutate's temper and make him an even more effective warrior. 

Much of the story in the early episodes concerns itself with Thena and her troubles as leader of the Eternals. Two things prey on her mind, one is a perception that she is not respected by her peers as was Zuras and her heartfelt affection for the Deviant Kro. The latter might go to explain the former. 

On the other hand Ikaris is proving to be a warrior of a relentless nature pressing always for the few remaining Eternals to go on the offensive against perceived Deviant threats. When the Deviants breach the Pyramid of the Winds which had been guarded by the Polar Eternals for untold ages, Ikaris is convinced they are up to dastardly deeds and he would be right. Their plot concerns the "Dreaming Celestial" a member of the Celestials' Second Host, this renegade was put down by his peers and entombed beneath the Pyramid of the Winds. 

With Thena and Kro on the run from both the Deviants and the Eternals, as both are understood to be traitors to their kind, Ghaur gains access to the tools to revive the Dreaming Celestial and seemingly bend the mighty being to his will. 

My favorite single story in this entire run (with the debut issue a close second) is issue nine which showcases one of Sersi's wildly entertaining parties. Many familiar faces and costumes show up as this is essentially a raucous comedy issue. So well done by both Gillis and Buscema, it's a damn shame that this is their final issue in the series. 

With the ninth issue Walt Simonson takes over the writing and Keith Pollard steps into the penciling chair. All I can find out about the change is that seemingly Jim Shooter did not particularly like Gillis's scripts so I guess that moved him on. Why Sal Buscema left with him is unknown, at least to me. 

The story beings to wind up to its finale with the Eternals infiltrate the city of the Deviants in an effort to stop Ghaur's schemes. Thena and Kro as well as Margo Damien are in the city as well. 

Spoiler Alert: Sadly, this story sees fit to kill off Margo Damien, though the plot device is used to send an attack out on Ikaris. The death of Margo was unexpected and really didn't add up to much given how long she'd been in this storyline, from the very beginning in the original series. It left a sour tasted for certain. End of Spoiler Alert. 

Paul Ryan takes over the pencils in the finale with Ghaur having gotten the power of the Dreaming Celestial and seemingly having become him to some degree. How it all ends I'll leave out of this review, but I will note that weirdly the Eternals seems to fade from this final chapter and the newly organized West Coast Avengers handle a bit more of the fight that I'd have imagined. This is a series that begins with a great deal of energy and does a fine job of freshening the Eternals concept for the 80's Marvel Universe. It's a shame that Gillis and Buscema were not allowed to complete their work as I suspect the finale would've been a bit better. Still and all it's a rousing read for Eternals fans. 

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