Atlas-Seaboard Comics - July 1975!

This is the mother-of-all-months for Atlas-Seaboard. Lots of titles, lots of changes of direction, and sadly lots and lots of cancellations. This month marks the great collapse of the edifice that Martin and Chip Goodman built to spit in the face of their former success story, Marvel. Let's begin.

IRONJAW #4 gives us the "origin" of the barbarian, and this tale by Gary Friedrich and Pablo Marcos is a somewhat overdone saga of a young minstrel who is tortured and maimed by some jealous thugs. A witch tries to save him at the cost of her own immortality, and she is the one who first gives the young man his new jaw and his new name. Ironjaw was the flagship of the Atlas line, the only character to appear in five stories, but this issue is the last. We will never know the second part of Ironjaw's origin. The Atlas-Seaboard tragedy begins to unfold.

GRIM GHOST #3 gives us a Tony Isabella script with more Ernie Colon artwork. This story introduces Brimstone, a demon from Hell who wants to take over the operation. He gives powers to two thugs the Ghost encounters, and the battle is on. Brimstone offers G.G. a role in his revolution, but Dunsinane sees the flaw in Brimstone's plan and rejects him. Satan gives the Ghost some help in the form of Lady Braddock, the same woman who betrayed him in issue #1. It's a clever twist, and it gives the story some real depth. The battle with Brimstone has some neat twists, and I wonder if a young Todd McFarlane ever read this issue. I heard whispers of Spawn throughout. Alas this was the last issue, as despite an excellent Russ Heath cover and a logo change, sales must have not been there. It won't be the last cancellation of the month.

WULF the BARBARIAN #3 offers a change of talent and direction. A Steve Skeates written story with superb Leo Summers artwork, gives us Wulf and his new partner Rymstrydle saving some nobleman and his beautiful daughter from Kangroo-riding Rat-Men (shades of Kamandi) only to find themselves drawn into a struggle between a Master of an Industrial-Wonderland city-state and Wulf's arch-enemy. There is some great derring-do, before the battle is won, and by tale's end Wulf is again alone looking for revenge. There is also a map of Wulf's world in this issue. There will be one more issue.

BRUTE #3 gives us a change of talent and direction as Alan Weiss under Jack Abel inks takes the art chores. The new story by Gary Friedrich (who seems to have taken over all of Mike Fleisher's assignments at this point) puts the Brute in conflict again with the police before he eventually meets up with an android super-agent named Doomstalker. The story ends in a cliff-hanger with the Brute (now possessed of the limited ability to speak) having taken a terrible and fall, and the Doomstalker threatening all of mankind. Alas this is the last issue, and as far as I know the Doomstalker is still standing there.

MORLOCK 2001 AND THE MIDNIGHT MEN #3 (formerly known as simply Morlock 2001) is the saga that gets one of the sharpest twists in direction. Steve Ditko with some Berni Wrightson inks gives the book a new look, and the story involves a scientist horribly burned who leads a revolution against the same oppressive government that gave birth to Morlock. Morlock is taken underground where the newly dubbed "Midnight Man" seeks to enlist him in the war. The Thought Police attack and the battle rages. Morlock seems to fall, even to be dead as the story closes with the Midnight Man vowing to fight on. Issue #4 might have been retitled I suspect, but this series ends with this issue.

PLANET OF VAMPRIES #3 features delicious Russ Heath artwork under a very bland cover. The story by John Albano broadens the saga beyond the limits of the city and gets our hero into the wilderness. The death count is brutal in this issue as of our five astronauts (one was killed in the first issue) only two survive by the last page of this story and they are not together. The wives of both Chris and Craig meet tragic deaths, and a two-page ad by Larry Lieber suggests they will be together again battling more vampires. But this is the last issue.

THE SCORPION #3 tells of the death of Moro Frost, the Scorpion of the previous two issues. The immortal hero has moved on into the then-modern world of 1975 and has become a superhero. This Jim Craig drawn issue is typical superhero stuff with the Scorpion doing a Daredevil thing across NYC battling neo-Nazis who want to revive assorted Nazi villains from the Big One. The battle takes place under the Twin Trade Towers, then new, but it does give the comic a poignancy that it otherwise lacks. This is the last issue of this totally transformed comic. The panic in the Atlas editorial offices is becoming apparent with this particular comic.

WEIRD SUSPENSE #3 featuring THE TARANTULA offers another good dose of Boyette beauty, but the story is a rambling mess with a villain who ineptly used mind-over-matter to battle the star of the book. There are threats and danger, but the book lacks emotional direction. Rich Buckler offers both the cover and the splash page as there seemed to be some rewriting of the original story along the way. This is the last Tarantula story despite the fact #4 is advertised with cover art. Apparently, the next story would have explained the Tarantula was part of some alien invasion early in man's history. But we'll never know for sure.

TARGITT #3 gives us another episode of his war against crime, this time finding him against a ghastly character named Professor Death, neatly drawn by Howard Nostrand. There's nerve gas involved and Targitt's exposure seems to give him some powers of some sort, though this is vaguely explained. There is also something about his outfit giving him mechanical abilities of strength, but again it's vague. By the end of this story Targitt is renamed Man-Stalker and he's left his Magnums behind. Like the Scorpion another superhero is born. But like some many titles this is the last issue. Even the Buckler cover doesn't help things.

TALES OF EVIL #3 gives us the MAN-MONSTER, an Isabella-Buckler effort that has an abrasive Olympic swimmer overcome by weird sparkly stuff and change into a big old monster. Some reporters save him, take him to a hotel, where a costumed villain assaults him and sets fire to the hotel. The hero's father is an equally abrasive rich guy who happens to own the hotel and the Man-Monster is accused by story's end of torching it and his own dad is ordering the cops to shoot him. What happens next? We'll never know. BOG BEAST shows up for another (and final) turn with good art by Romero. Tales of Evil pulls the hat-trick and offers a werewolf for him to battle, making three werewolves in three issues of the abruptly cancelled series.

SAVAGE COMBAT TALES #3 gives us the last SGT.STRYKER'S DEATH SQUAD tale as Goodwin and McWilliams offer up another somewhat tepid story of the usual WWII mayhem. The team goes after Rommel, but miss, though through a complicated network of mistakes by all sides they think they've succeeded. I don't want to be there when they discover they screwed up. But we won't as this is the last issue. The second story is a pretty good tale of WWII with Jack Sparling artwork. It tells of a black vet and a white raw recruit who pull dangerous duty on a dangerous ridge and overcome both danger and racism, if only for the moment. It seems to be the start of a new series, but it's unclear. And sadly it's moot.

THE COUGAR #2 is another tale of Hollywood stuntmen battling supernatural menaces. With worthy Frank Springer artwork, this is a rather bland comic book. Our hero is Jeff Rand, is a Louisiana boy we discover and there's a werewolf in his past. That werewolf might just be his own brother and further seems to be on the loose killing folks all around our hero. We learn the Cougar identity is the result of a failed starring vehicle for our wannabe stuntman, but little is shown beyond that. This a wide-ranging story with little direction, but it does offer a climactic battle and the potential for a change of direction in issue #3 as by story's end the Cougar is paralyzed. We'll never find out, as this is the last issue. Sigh.

The lone debut of the month is...

BLAZING BATTLE TALES #1 starring SGT.HAWK. Hawk is the usual hard-nosed battle-weary hero and he goes after his mission in this effective one-shot story with the stereotypical Native American and Jewish soldiers at his side. I think their names are White Cloud and Goldberg, but any cliche names would have done. There's some decent Jack Sparling art over what claims to be Pat Broderick layouts, though I don't see it myself. Sparling certainly dominates. The second story features a fighter pilot with a six sense about attack targets and might be the beginning of a series, but its unimpressive despite typically good McWilliams artwork. John Severin puts in a two-page offering detailing the heroic efforts of a real soldier. This issue has it all it seems for the war comic fan. Atlas seemed to be clutching at straws by the time this one hit the stands, and even a rather nice Frank Thorne cover doesn't help much.

That's July from Atlas-Seaboard. With this wave of final issues, it's pretty much all over but the crying. Atlas will linger for a few more months, but there will be precious few more comic books from this company that promised so much, but sadly delivered so little in the final analysis. August awaits.

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Favorite Covers - IT! The Living Colossus!

"Greater than Godzilla!" "Mightier than King Kong!" That's pretty strong stuff. And while it wasn't really true, it was still pretty stout stuff for comics of the era. I have real affection for this Tony Isabella and Dick Ayers Marvel monster classic. The concept is pretty clever. A special effects expert finds himself being able to animate IT, the Living Colossus. 

The monster showed up in two early 1950's Atlas monster comics, and during the monster boom of the early 70's was revived again in this series. 

IT found itself fighting other vintage Atlas monsters like the Giant Gargoyles from space, and the ultimate Marvel monster Fin Fang Foom.

The artwork was typical sturdy Ayers. The way the blended old story elements, actual pages and panels from the old comics, struck me as clever then. I'm sure some would attack the technique as cheesy and cheapjack. I liked it then, and I still do. The stories were plots merely meant to offer some excuse to have big monsters fight, but that was adequate and actually true to the genre.

I have a fondness for these. The Gil Kane covers for two issues are superb, two of his best at at a time when he was cranking them out. He clearly was inspired by the visual opportunities this giant monster gave to him.  The other two covers are pretty good too, though I've often wished the final battle with Fin Fang Foom had a bit more oomph. But one can't have everything. 

The 70's saga of the Living Colossus came to an end in the pages of The Incredible Hulk where Bruce Banner's bad boy alter ego ended up crushing the stone giant. I think though, he's returned since. 

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Iron Fist - The Fury Of The Iron Fist!

Marvel dived into the burgeoning Kung Fu craze with the Master of Kung Fu, a series which worked in Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu and existed on the outskirts of the Marvel Universe and other series such as Sons of the Tiger and White Tiger in the pages of the black and white magazine Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, which spoke directly to the fervor that Bruce Lee's films and death had ignited. But the most accessible of the Kung Fu warriors has to have been the four-color Iron Fist, the Living Weapon which debuted in the pages of Marvel Premiere and held court there for many months before being awarded a self-titled series of his own. 

It likely begins in 1933 with a novel by James Hilton's novel Lost Horizon about a lost civilization called Shangri-La in the remote heights of the Himalayas where people can perhaps live forever. This "paradise" is not without its detractors though.  Frank Capra made a movie of the novel in 1937 which was well received by both the public at large and the omnipresent critics. 

So in the earliest days of comics when casting about for a way to explain superhumans (without resorting to the legally treacherous alien planet) Bill Everett created Amazing-Man who came from just such a hidden utopia and was gifted with above average abilities. Amazing-Man was a Centaur publication, one of the earliest publishers of comics. 

The notion was picked up by Pete Morisi under his penname of "PAM" at Charlton when he brought forth Peter Cannon, The Thunderbolt. Once again, we have a hidden paradise which has sent forth a representative who is skilled both mentally and physically beyond normal human standards. Thunderbolt became one of the "Action Heroes" and was for a time seemingly owned by DC until Morisi demonstrated otherwise. 

So, with martial arts all ablaze, it's logical for the creators at Marvel to seek the Himalayan well once again, this time with Daniel Rand-Kai, the Iron Fist. In an origin story by Roy Thomas, Gil Kane and Dick Giordano we learn some of Danny's story, both told in current times as well as copious flashback. He is an orphan raised by the cult which lives and rules the hidden land named K'un-L'un. 

Over the course of the next four issues of the series we slowly learn of Danny Rand's history and see him become the man who in the then current day of 1974 was back in the world fighting the Meachem Corporation headed by the man Iron Fist held responsible for his parents' deaths. Three of the four issues of the series are drawn by the new talent Larry Hama, who brought a sense of legitimacy to the martial artis aspects of the series. Len Wein writes an issue but then Doug Moench came on to write the next three books in the series. By the end Iron Fist has gotten his revenge but its taste is bitter, and the daughter of Meachum now wants her own revenger on Iron Fist. 

Things get incredibly complicated after Iron Fist gets his long-sought revenge when a death cult appears to threaten not only him but his friend Colleen Wing and her father. There is also a mysterious Ninja who has been showing up in the series, and the one who actually killed the murderer of Danny's parents. A trilogy of issues which are written by Tony Isabell and drawn by Arvell Jones. Alas it's a severe drop in quality when Jones takes on the book, though I will confess that I appreciate that he and Isabella hung around for a full story arc. Isabella and Jones are also responsible for introducing Misty Knight, though it will be more than a few issues before we see her again. 

Next it falls to Chris Claremont to take on the writing with Pat Broderick handling the artwork. This team lasts two whole issues, but when the change does come it's a most welcome one. Having solved his own issues Danny Rand as Iron Fist becomes embroiled in the politics of a distant territory called Halwan. Its princess has come under attack by the robotic Monstroid. Iron Fist also battles the murderous Warhawk. 

The twenty-fifth issue of Marvel Premiere is significant for a few reasons. It marks the final issue of Iron Fist's adventures before he gets his own title and more importantly it is the debut at Marvel of one of the most important artists in comics history -- John Byrne. He took on the title when Broderick missed a deadline, and the team of Claremont and Byrne was born. 

The debut of Iron Fist's own title comes in the middle of the storyline, and he is tracking Angar the Screamer when, in classic Marvel tradition, mixes it up with Iron Man. Misty Knight returns in this issue as well, and as rendered by Byrne, she is a knockout owing much to great Pam Grier. 

Master Kahn has kidnapped Colleen Wing as her father suffers in a coma. Iron Fist reflects back on his days in K'un-L'un when he came up against some bizarre plant creatures. The energy on the series is now palpable with Byrne improving with each issue, with first Al McWilliams and then Frank Chiramonte inking his work. 

Claremont takes the action to London where Iron Fist runs afoul of the villain Ravager who turns out to in reality Radion the Atomic Man. There are explosions galore, first a passenger plane and later an iconic tower in the city. Misty Knight's secret is revealed as we learn for the first time she possesses a bionic arm, but sadly it's when she loses it. Claremont likes to set stories in England, where he was born. 

The next three issues of the series follow the quest to rescue Colleen Wing who has been brainwashed and is now poised to attack Iron Fist when he shows up. There are plenty of other baddies such Scimitar and Kumballa Bey for Danny to fight as he tries to save Colleen. Ultimately, he has to use his Iron Fist abilities to bond with her mentally to free her mind and the two then share each other's most delicate secrets. Misty is on the sidelines alas. Khan also shows Danny that K'un-L'un has secrets he didn't know of and that those he trusted all his life might be treacherous. 

It's back to NYC and a trio of tales about a gang called the Golden Tigers led by a chap named Chaka who seek to rule crime in the city. Iron Fist has a really difficult time with this mob even with the help of Misty and Colleen. But ultimately he does indeed win the day. There are also moves afoot on the legal front for Danny to recapture his family's fortune. Byrne in growing by the minute and offers up some truly exciting splash pages showcasing Iron Fist's fighting style. 

Then the Wrecking Crew shows up and they try to force Iron Fist to help them invade the Avengers Mansion with the intention of killing their arch-foe Thor. The God of Thunder never shows up, but Captain America is on hand to assist in bringing these most powerful villains to heel. Of course, before getting down to brass tacks, Cap and Iron Fist mix it up a little bit, following the great Marvel tradition. 

Then it's a one-off as Iron Fist helps a friend he made in England, a former IRA bomber. This move alienates Misty, and she leaves to take on work elsewhere. Iron Fist has his hands full with a returning and souped-up Boomerang. Iron Fist also finds himself being attacked by a mysterious chap who seems to be stealing his chi, or life force. 

Then Claremont and Byrne give us Sabre-Tooth, a ferocious enemy who Iron Fist and Colleen Wing barely defeat in the wilds of Byrne's home country of Canada. 

But the road ends finally with issue fifteen when Iron Fist gets entangled with the then "New X-Men". He takes on Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Wolverine. Of course, it's Logan who started it. I can only assume this was intended as a try-out for Byrne on these characters. For withing a few months Dave Cockrum would step away from the X-Men title and the famous team of Claremont and Byrne would make it one of Marvel's most successful titles ever.

The saga of Iron Fist is wrapped up in the pages of Marvel Team-Up when the Steel Serpent reveals himself and his scheme to rob Iron Fist of his powers. It takes the Daughters of the Dragon (Misty and Colleen) and our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to take the villain down. 

What will become of Danny Rand? The Iron Fist will have to wait for a few months when he guest-stars in the book Power Man. As we know he and Luke Cage will become one of Marvel's most successful comics of the era, an odd blending of the blaxploitation and kung fu crazes which blazed forth in the 70's. But that's a whole other "Epic". 

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