David Mazzucchelli does the pencils this issue. Best looking Indiana Jones so far.
It’s a strange issue, with Michelinie actually concentrating more on Indy and Marion’s romance than any archeological adventure. He even has a super villain type thing going on, with an irate handyman finding lost artifacts and going insane.
In an abandoned old hotel no less.
There are lots of scenes. The issue takes a while to read even though nothing really happens with the bad guy other than him being a nutty jerk. And Micheline doesn’t even spend much time with Indy and Marion as they chase him. Even though the bad guy’s thought balloons are dreadfully overwritten, Micheline clearly wants to pace the romance plot carefully.
The issue works out, even if it’s often boring, just because it’s absolutely gorgeous and Micheline does take his main characters seriously.
Mazzucchelli draws a fantastic, lush thirties Connecticut too.
CREDITS
Demons; writer, David Michelinie; penciller, David Mazzucchelli; inker, The Saint; colorist, Robbie Carosella; letterer, Joe Rosen; editor, Eliot Brown; publisher, Marvel Comics.
What a difference a penciller makes… Ricardo Villamonte really doesn’t cut it. Indy’s always got a befuddled look.
I can’t believe I forgot to mention Indy’s Spanish gypsy sidekick from last issue–he returns here–I think he’s based on Speedy Gonzales. There’s the yellow sombrero and the annoying dialect.
It’s another great plot from Michelinie. He writes some decent exposition too. His dialogue is inconsistent though. For whatever reason he can’t write Indy’s dialogue. Everyone else’s is fine though. Very strange. I think it has to do with him writing Indy as a tough guy first, smart guy second.
It’s an adequate, underwhelming resolution. Michelinie handles the cliffhanger from last issue well then sends Indy off into the jungle. It’s the jungle from the beginning of Raiders, but there’s no fanfare to its return. There is another Raiders connection–the villain has a secret–but it’s lame.
Michelinie–writing off a plot from Archie Goodwin–does a direct sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s practically a reunion issue too. While Marion and Marcus show up all the time, a slimmed down Sallah is in the first half of the issue (Michelinie sticks to the established Further plot structure).
Michelinie wraps up the story with an all action issue. He splits it, after bringing everyone together a couple times, between the Nazis and Indy and Marion. They all discover this lost tribe of evil Atlantis descendants. It would seem the only reason the tribe is evil is to give Michelinie an excuse to keep killing them whenever a scene needs to progress. They’re really tall too; apparently Marion’s just as good as hand-to-hand combat as Indy.
Michelinie definitely seems to have a formula–apparently based on Raiders–Indy starts the issue on one artifact hunt, it leads to a second hunt, which somehow has Nazis involved. It’s only the seventh issue of Further Adventures and it feels like there’s not going to be much interesting outside the little character moments.
Something goes very wrong when Terry Austin inks Howard Chaykin. Austin takes away all of Chaykin’s hard jaws, for example. I only caught one the entire issue. So while Chaykin does try some dynamic composition for the story, the art never clicks. Especially not on people. It’s a little better on the action.