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.
That lame character aside (made worse this issue with Marion falling for his “charm”), Michelinie continues to do pretty good work on Further Adventures. There’s this neat little subplot about these guys after Indy and Speedy continued from last issue; Michelinie just paces it all really well. I suppose Marion arriving so quick is silly, but she plays so well it’s forgivable.
Sadly, the art’s the problem here. Mel Candido is a terrible inker for both Kerry Gammill and Luke McDonnell, who split the pencilling chores. He’s a little better on McDonnell, which means the issue ends better than it starts, but not by much. It starts real ugly.
Great reveal of the relic at the end too.
CREDITS
The Fourth Nail, Chapter Two: Swords and Spikes!; writer, David Michelinie; pencillers, Kerry Gammill and Luke McDonnell; inker, Mel Candido; colorist, Bob Sharen; letterer, Joe Rosen; editor, Louise Jones; publisher, Marvel Comics.
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.
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.
