Cross-Time Team-Up

 

cover art by Ron Wilson

In 1975, Marvel Comics was publishing a black-and-white magazine featuring the adventures of 1930s pulp hero Doc Savage. Marvel used this opportunity to bring the good Doc into the Marvel universe. He appeared in Giant-Size Spider Man #3, which I review HERE. 

That story, though entertaining, did not include Doc actually MEETING Spidey. It was essentially a two-part adventure, with half taking place in the 1930s and Spidey cleaning up loose ends in 1975. A year or so later, Marvel actually managed to get Doc and a couple of modern Marvel heroes into the same place and time. This is what transpires in Marvel Two-in-One #21 (November 1976), written by Bill Mantlo and with superb art by Ron Wilson.

As the story opens, Doc Savage and Ben Grimm are seperated by four decades. But each is experiencing parallel events. In 1976, Ben and Johnny are visited by Janice Lightner, who has concerns about her twin brother Tom. In 1936, Doc and his crew are visited by Janice's mom, who has concerns about her husband Raymond. 

I love the way the book handles the exposition. For several pages, the events of 1976 are shows in a right-hand column, while the near-parallel events of '36 are shown on the left.

Both ladies have pretty much the same problem. Raymond evented a device that can collect stellar energy, which he plans to infuse into his own body. In '76, Tom Lightner wants to continue his father's experiment and do the same thing.

When the heroes "simultaneously" arrive over the Lightner mansion in their own respective vehicles, both those vehicles are disintegrated and the timelines warp together. Ben, Johnny, Doc and Doc's crew are all suddenly in the same place.

Raymond and Tom have been drawn together across space and time, becoming a villain named Black Sun. There's a fight scene, in which the good guys are not doing well.

But Black Sun can't handle the amount of stellar energy being drawn into him and he falls unconscious. Time resets itself and Doc fades out to return to 1936, leaving behind an aggrevated Ben, who never got a chance to get his autograph.

I'm torn about this issue. The exposition is done in such a clever way that it's fun to read, but it takes up a huge chunk of the story. So the ensuing fight scene is very short and the good guys win by default without really doing anything effective, leaving us with an anti-climactic ending. This is a case where Mantlo and editor Archie Goodwin might have wanted to stretch the action out into another issue.

But this does lead into a story arc of sorts. Ben and Johnny promise to take Tom Lightner to the best doctor in the city--Don Blake. That leads to a two-part story guest-starring Thor. We'll begin a look at those issues in two weeks. Next week, we'll return to the Green Lantern and his search for Sinestro.

Cover Cavalcade

 APRIL IS MARVEL MONSTERS MONTH!!

A Gil Kane cover from 1975.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Night Beat: "The Will of Mrs. Orloff" 6/1/51

Randy gets stuck with the task of telling a man his mother has died. She was a dirt-poor cleaning woman, so it's something of a surprise when a bank book in her name with $50,000 in the account turns up.

Click HERE to download or listen. 

Space Pirates!

 

Read/Watch 'em In Order #168

The third Tom Corbett novel--"On the Trail of the Space Pirates," by Carey Rockwell--was published in 1953. And, by golly, it's a fun one. Of course, it features Space Pirates, which means it is legally required to be fun. But, as with the first two Corbett novels, Rockwell (whoever he or they really were) does great job of telling a fast-paced Space Opera.

The book begins with what should be an easy mission. Captain Strong, along with the three cadets he commands, are ordered to bring the Polaris to an exhibition on Venus that is designed to show off man's latest scientific achievements.

Whether it was a good idea to bring all man's latest achievements to one spot is open to debate. Especially since two men manage to steal a device that allow them to access any vault or cargo hold on any ship that plies the spaceways.

The two escape from Venus and go a-pirating, concentrating at first on stealing weapons from other vessels to arm their own ship. The identity of the pirates are known, so Strong and the boys take on the guise of criminals, visiting the sleazier neighborhoods of Luna City, Marsopolis and other cities to try to get a line on the pirate hideout.

They learn that one of the pirates is connected with a ruthless crook named Bull Coxine. Bull is currently a prisoner on the appropriately named Prison Asteriod. Strong and the cadets head there to question him, only to witness a pirate attack on the prison. There's a mass escape, with Bull leading the prisoners aboard the pirate ship. Tom, thinking quickly, puts on a prisoner's uniform and joins the escapees.

Bull takes over--in fact, he's been the brains of the operation all along, smuggling out messages while he was a prisoner. He plans on looting everything that can be looted. Working from a hideout located somewhere in the asteroid belt, he begins out smarting the Solar Guard on a regular basis. Tom, working from the inside, tries to find a way to sabotage the pirates, but he's soon forced to flee.

Eventually, the Solar Guard tries to lay a trap, luring Bull into attack a ship the pirate thinks is carrying the 20-million-credit payroll for workers on Titan. But Bull is still one step ahead of the good guys. He ruthlessly sacrifices one of his men to spring the trap, then goes after the real payroll, being carried aboard the Polaris by Tom, Roger and Astro.

Tom soon finds himself forced to choose between betraying the Solar Guard or watching his two friends die. All that might save him is if one long-shot trick he set up just before capture pays off. It it doesn't, then Bull Coxine will be able to carry out a plan that might garner him his own fleet and perhaps even take over the Solar System.

The novel often plays out like a hard-boiled detective novel, with the good guys going undercover and following up what clues they can find to stop Bull. But, as it usual with Tom Corbett tales in any medium, the tale emphasizes not just the need for courage, but for intelligence, training and the ability to think under pressure. The Tom Corbett novels are now at 3 wins and no loses.

From Earth to the Phantom Zone to Earth to Qward to Earth

 

cover art by Gil Kane

With Green Lantern #123 (Dec. 1979), Green Arrow disappears from the book after getting a few panels in which G.L. tells him that its too dangerous for him to go to Qward. Green Lantern must go alone. After nine years and 47 issues, writer Denny O'Neil breaks up the team. 

But why is Hal going off to Qward? Well, he's actually very well travelled in this issue, as O'Neil and artist Joe Staton begin the action on Earth, but soon have Hal using the Phantom Zone Projector to try to rescue Guy Gardner from the Zone Criminals. 

There's a brief Lantern vs. Lantern battle--not as epic as last issue but it only lasts a few panels before G.L. shows that he came prepared. He's brought a lead box with him, inside of which is anti-kryptonite. This particular brand of kryptonite only affects Kryptonians with no superpowers, which apparently includes the Criminals while in their ghostly form. This gives Hal a chance to save Guy, but a yellow power beam zaps Guy away.

Hal gathers up the anti-kryptonite to keep from killing the Criminals, then heads back to Earth. But he knows where he needs to go next--a yellow beam means Sinestro and that means a trip to the anti-universe of Qward.

This is where he breaks the "you can't come" news to Ollie and thus regains a solo title. He then finds an entry way into Qward (the Guardians have several pinpointed throughout space) and enters that weird dimension.

He is soon ambushed by Guy, who is now being controlled by Sinestro. Poor man can't catch a break.

As did Don Heck in the previous issue, Joe Staton provides us with some fun images as the various opponents in the ensuing fight summon up various types of contructs. Sinestro finally just threatens to kill Guy outright if Hal doesn't surrender.

Hal, though, belatedly realizes that in Qward, there is air in space. So he smashes some asteroids and summons up a cloud of dust to blind Sinestro. He then starts beating the snot out of the villain.

It looks like a clear win for Hal until he notices that Guy has floated between some rocks and is about to be crushed. While he's saving Guy, Sinestro escapes.

So its back to Earth again, this time with a catatonic Guy Gardner in tow. Guy remains in a coma until GL #190, when the Crisis of Infinite Earths spoiled the DC Universe forever. But in 1979, Hal still has stuff to do. He vows to find Sinestro.

As with the previous issue, I like this one a lot, based mostly on the imaginative depictions of Hal, Guy and Sinestro using their rings. The overall plot, with Hal hopping from one dimension to another, drips with entertaining Comic Book Science. It was a fun time to be reading Green Lantern comics.

And we'll keep reading them. In two weeks, we'll begin a look at Hal's quest to find Sinestro. In the meantime, next week will see Ben Grimm and Doc Savage mixed up in some time travel shenanigans.

Cover Cavalcade

 APRIL IS MARVEL MONSTERS MONTH!!!

A 1973 cover by Mike Ploog. 

Friday's Favorite OTR

 The Six Shooter: "Escape from Smoke Falls" 11/15/53

Britt gets involved in tracking down an escaped prisoner. This job soon ends up involving two other men who are ready to come to blows over a woman.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Three Modern Musketeers

 

cover art by A. Leslie Ross

I just acquired a digital reprint of the January 1938 issue of Adventure Novels and Short Stories and, being a huge fan of Dumas' Three Musketeers, was immediately drawn to read Peter B. Kyne's tale "Three Modern Musketeers." 

It's a seafaring tale and, though the three protagonists' personalities don't parallel Athos, Porthos and Aramis, each of them has a distinct personality and they share a fire-forged friendship.

Though the story actually starts with them going their seperate ways. Merchant captain Scraggs, his first mate Gibney and chief engineer McGuffey argue over money and the trio splits up. 

Scraggs suffers some financial setbacks and is forced to lay up his ship. But things look up when he's hired to run guns to Mexican revolutionaries. (The year this story takes place isn't firmly established, but its mentioned that the Panama Canal is still under construction, so it is set during a time of revolutionary violence in Mexico.) This lets him refit his ship. A cargo of rifles, machine guns and a couple of cannon are brought aboard.

During the journey south, stuff happens and both Gibney and McGuffey rejoin Scraggs. A battle against a gunboat is won, though the Maggie (Scraggs' ship) is shot to pieces before the gunboat is captured. After collecting their fee for gunrunning, the trio uses the gunboat as their new ship and recruits the small crew needed to work it. They christen it Maggie II and decide to give a life of smuggling and piracy a try.

Their first venture involves sailing to a Pacific island Gibney knows of, where they will harvest Black Coral (used to make jewelry), though they might have to fight off a native cannibal tribe to do it.

It's at this point in the story that "Three Modern Musketeers" dates itself. The N-word is dropped frequently when referencing the natives and MacGuffey proves to be an unrepentant, hard-core racist. (Though it should be pointed out that Scraggs and Gibney are mildly critical of him because of this.)

They arrive at the island. The natives claim to be reformed from cannibalism and invite the three men ashore for a feast. Scraggs and Gibney attend over MacGuffey's objection. The irony is that MacGuffey's fears that the natives are still cannibals, based purely on his bigotry, prove to be true. Scraggs and Gibney soon find themselves the intended main course and make a last-minute escape only after MacGuffey begins to rake the island with an anti-aircraft gun.

When running across racial stereotypes in a pulp-era story, I'm generally able to recognize this as a function of the time it was written and, if the story is fun and the racism not an important plot point, then I can still enjoy it as a work of fiction. A story can go too far with this--to use a film example, it's pretty much impossible to enjoy the 1915 silent movie Birth of a Nation because the plot is built on racism and the KKK are the good guys. 

For me, "Three Modern Musketeers" nearly crosses this line. MacGuffey's loud and persistant racism during the climax is just annoying and gets at least partially in the way of enjoying what had up to then been a fun adventure story. But I still like the story overall. The well-written action scenes, the irony of MacGuffey being right about the natives for all the wrong reasons, and at least some criticism of his bigotry from the other two protagonists got me to the end of the tale and left me more or less satisfied.

Sadly, as far as I can determine, this is the only published adventure of Scraggs, Gibney and MacGuffey. 

You can judge the story for yourself. It can be found online HERE. 

A Wedding, A Phantom Zone Projector and a Dead Man Who Isn't Dead.

 

cover art by Dick Giordano

It'll take a moment to set up the background for this issue (Green Lantern/Green Arrow #122, November 1979). Back-up Green Lantern Guy Gardner had supposedly been killed in a Power Battery accident six issues earlier. Guy had been friendly with a gypsy named Kari Limbo, who had psychic powers. Since then, Hal Jordan has gotten friendly with Kari. So, as writer Denny O'Neil and artist Don Heck begin this issue, Hal and Kari are going to the chapel and are gonna get married.

But on the way into the church, Kari has a vision and draws a picture of a Phantom Zone projector. This sends Superman--a guest at the wedding--off to the Fortress of Solitude to check on his projector. Once there, though, he is pulled into the Phantom Zone by what looks suspiciously like a Green Lantern-created construct.

Hal and Kari, meanwhile, are soldiering on with the ceremony. But when they get to the "I do" part, Kari goes into a full-on trance, mumbling about Superman, a power ring and darkness. This pretty heavily implies that Superman is in danger and that it is Green Lantern related.

Well, you can't marry your gal while she's in trance and besides, helping the Man of Steel seems to have become Hal's responsibility. He flies to the Fortress. Unable to get past the security features, he uses his ring to fish up the Phantom Zone projector. Then he recharges his ring and enters the Zone.

What follows is a Lantern vs. Lantern fight, with both GLs using their rings in clever ways. The other GL, to no one's surprise by this point, is Guy Gardner. The accident that supposedly killed him threw him into the Zone, where he's been watching Hal play footsie with Kari. Also, the Phantom Zone criminals, led by General Zod, are controlling him and lending their own will power to his ring. Also, Superman has been beaten unconscious and is being held by the criminals.

It's a cool fight, with Guy gradually coming out ahead thanks to the increased power provided by the criminals. But Superman has been playing possum and interfers at just the right moment. He and Hal save each other from certain death in the ensuing struggle before Hal, who had maintained a link with his power battery to keep an exit open, escapes with Superman in tow.

This issue is pretty cool, mostly because of the clever use of the Phantom Zone in the story and Don Heck's imaginative depiction of a Green Lantern battle. Looking back at the Hal/Kari romance arc that had been playing out in the preceding issues, it can be argued that their relationship was too quick and too superficial to bring enough emotional impact to the spoiled wedding. But two Green Lanterns going up against each other with constructs that include a battle axe, a giant magnet, and giant scissors makes up for a lot. 

At this point, Hal still needs to rescue Guy, but that will have to wait for the next issue, which we will look at next week. We'll then be returning to Green Lantern every few weeks for an epic storyline that builds off of this one, in which Oa itself is threatened with invasion.

Cover Cavalcade

 APRIL IS MARVEL MONSTERS MONTH!

This 1973 cover is by Rich Buckler, with alterations to the woman done by John Romita.