Ka-Zar the Savage 11 (February 1982)

Marvel ought to turn this one into a movie. Not a Ka-Zar movie, but a movie about the backstory–Dante Alighieri the action star. Jones’s Dante chased a Cthulhu-worshipping cur from Italy to Antarctica to save his girlfriend, discovering a long abandoned Atlantean vacation resort, which eventually the bad guy turns into Hell. And Dante writes Inferno about it.

It’d be an awesome movie, even if the recap in the comic is only a few pages.

The craziness of that plot, unfortunately, is the most substance in the issue. It’s an action issue, with a lot of scene humor, and it’s good. It’s just not substantive.

Josef Rubinstein takes over the inks to mixed result. Ka-Zar’s face is better, but Shanna’s is worse. But the art does seem stronger. It’s unclear if it’s Rubinstein or Anderson finally having something interesting to draw.

Jones hasn’t fully recovered, but close enough.

Conan the Barbarian (1970) #12

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Conan has another dalliance, this time as consort to a queen. It doesn’t turn out so well for him—well, he gets in trouble because of her fetching handmaid as well. At least in the queen’s perspective. To Conan, he’s getting weary of women.

The sex is so obvious, I was a little surprised to see the Comics Code on the cover.

Thomas gets in a first and second act here, not much of a third one. There’s an organic feel to the plotting though—it’s very nice how he passes two weeks in brief narration.

The ending is Conan and the handmaid against the queen’s pet monster. Windsor-Smith does an excellent job of the action, using pages full of small panels to convey the scene.

The backup is a story of a knight’s machinations to marry the king’s daughter. Great art from Kane. Thomas paces it poorly though.

The Immortal Iron Fist: The Origin of Danny Rand (2008) #1

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Thank goodness Marvel felt the need to recolor the first two appearances of Iron Fist with some terrible glossy digital coloring from Andrew Crossley. Someone with time on his or her hands should do a comparison between Crossley’s “modern” colors here and the originals from Marvel Premiere.

Oddly, there’s a classy opening from Fraction and Kano–I think that opening must be Fraction’s last work on Iron Fist–and Kano does his own, non-glossy colors.

The origin issues hold up pretty well. Both Thomas and Wein write in the second person, which makes the whole experience–learning about K’un-L’un, Iron Fist’s origin, Danny Rand’s traumatic childhood–palatable. Kane pencils the first part, Hama the second, Giordano inks them both smoothly. Even the silly coloring can’t mess up Giordano inks on a kung fu comic.

The reprinted stories aren’t classics in the quality sense, but they’re solid seventies stuff.

The Immortal Iron Fist: The Origin of Danny Rand 1 (October 2008)

Oddly, there’s a classy opening from Fraction and Kano–I think that opening must be Fraction’s last work on Iron Fist–and Kano does his own, non-glossy colors.

The reprinted stories aren’t classics in the quality sense, but they’re solid seventies stuff.

CREDITS

The Origin of Danny Rand; writer, Matt Fraction; artist and colorist, Kano; letterer, Dave Lanphear. The Fury of Iron Fist!; writer, Roy Thomas; penciller, Gil Kane; inker, Dick Giordano; colorist, Andrew Crossley; letterer, Gaspar Saladino. Heart of the Dragon!; writers, Thomas and Len Wein; penciller, Larry Hama; inker, Giordano; colorist, Crossley; letterer, Saladino. Editors, Cory Levine, Thomas and Jeff Youngquist; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Detective Comics (1937) #520

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You know what… I’m not sure I’ve seen a better inker on Newton than Alfredo Alcala. The art this issue is exceptional. It’s so wonderful, it makes up for Conway’s leap off the judgement bridge.

The story itself isn’t bad. Batman is putting together all the clues about Rupert Thorne, as Thorne hires Dr. Thirteen to ghost-bust Hugo Strange. Then Batman has to just Deadshot out of prison, which I guess provides the issue’s action sequence.

For whatever reason, Conway writes it in second person, the narration describing each character’s thoughts to him (Vicki Vale doesn’t get that treatment). It’s absolutely horrendous. I think Conway’s doing it to get the tension up, since his lengthy arc is about to end… but it utterly fails.

Thank goodness for the art.

The Catwoman backup is genial. It’s got nice Gil Kane art and Rozakis’s script is fine. While filler, it’s got potential.

Detective Comics 520 (November 1982)

Thank goodness for the art.

The Catwoman backup is genial. It’s got nice Gil Kane art and Rozakis’s script is fine. While filler, it’s got potential.

CREDITS

The Haunting of “Boss” Thorne; writer, Gerry Conway; penciller, Don Newton; inker, Alfredo Alcala; colorist, Adrienne Roy; letterer, Ben Oda. The Cat and the Conover Caper!; writer, Bob Rozakis; artist, Gil Kane; colorist, Tom Ziuko; letterer, Adam Kubert. Editors, Carl Gafford and Len Wein; publisher, DC Comics.