Monthly Archives: January 2005

The “Visual Novel” continues this issue, where the main focus is on the villain, Darius Drumm. But first we catch up with Morgan Miller, ten years later, and how his powers of atomic manipuation have developed. They’re then attacked by projections of Drumm, who also attacks Silver Star’s government minder in his car.

This issue gives us the origin of Drumm, the first born of those with the genetic gifts from Bradford Miller’s experiments. Kind of creepy, as we find he was talking and evil at birth, his father was head of some cult, the “Foundation for Self-Denial”, until Darius turned the cult on him. Drumm attacks the Miller home again, and we find out that Tracy Coleman has been in “stasis” for the last ten years, and there are others among the Homo Geneticus that Drumm fears.

Still a lot of set-up, but Drumm is an effective character, if a bit over the top, and his story is among the creepiest things Kirby ever wrote.

Mike Royer inks the 20-page story, while Mike Thibodeaux inks the cover. Back-up story has the Mocker by Ditko.

Published 1983

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Six 1940s Kirby reprints, a total of 52 pages, among the stories in this volume, a few never otherwise reprinted.

First up is the first Vision story, from MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #13 (1940). I’m not sure if there ever was a coherent origin or explanation for the Vision, but he was apparently an extra-dimensional being who pursues justice. In this story he comes to Earth, apparently as the result of a scientist’s experiment, and takes care of a mobster who was planning some revenge against scientists for laughing at his stupidity back in school.

A trio of stories from CAPTAIN AMERICA #1 (1941) follow, beginning with “Meet Captain America”, the classic and oft-reprint origin of Cap.

More interesting, “Murder Ltd.”, featuring Hurricane. I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard an explanation for exactly why Mercury from RED RAVEN #1 became Hurricane in CAPTAIN AMERICA, but it led to some odd mix of mythologies, as you have Hurricane, son of Thor, yet called a Greek immortals, fighting Pluto and using the the identity “Mark Cury”. Anyway, it’s a neat story, if a bit haphazarly written, with a nice scene in the beginning of Hurricane taking a cab and a fight at a masquerade party.

Also from CA #1, the first Tuk, Caveboy story, “Stories From the Dark Age”. In this one, we meet Tuk, living in 50,000 BC, as he hears the story of how his dying guardian Ak, last of the Shaggy Ones, witnessed his parents being exiled from the island of Attilan. All of which begs for a connection to the Inhumans, doesn’t it? Anyway, at the end of the short story, Tuk gets rescued by another man who seems to be of his species, Tanir the Hunter. Very fun story, I’m curious about what the Atlantis promised in the next issue is like.

Later is the previously discussed “The Case of the Hollow Men” from ALL-WINNERS COMICS #1 (1941). Different colouring from the previous reprint, I like it slightly better.

Another Vision story rounds up the book, with the story from MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #23 (1941)

Interesting story about a tribe in Africa which worships a killer man-shark as a god, sacrificing people to it. As a group of explorers are captured, the Vision appears from the smoke and battles the shark, who looks neat.

The cover is a painting by Greg Theakston, mixing Kirby character poses from various sources for a new image.

Published 1999

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Two Kirby/Ayers reprints in this issue, both from RAWHIDE KID #18 (1960).

“At the Mercy of Wolf Waco” is a 13-page story, wherein the Kid is run out of town, doing that usual lame trick of shooting the guns out of everyone’s hands (this time fully a dozen men at once) and then running into the Wolf Waco gang, who were hiding out of town. They recruit him to try to rob a mail-train, which leads to a nice scene where he’s sent with a stack of dynamite to the train, throws it back and boards the train in a hail of gunfire.

Eventually he confronts Waco, who falls off the edge of a cliff. Because you can’t have the Kid actually kill someone.

“A Legend is Born” is a 5-pager takes care of the western comic set-piece missing from the previous story, the saloon, as the Kid, now apparently not recognized by anyone, listening in as various men talk about what they’ve heard about the Rawhide Kid, none of it resembling him. Then the Kid is hassled by Hammer Hogan, who claims to have defeated the Kid, so the Kid finally reveals himself, and mops up the bar with Hogan before fleeing. Even having just seen him, everyone in the bar gives a description of him as tall, with four huge guns and fists the size of hammers, when in fact we’re told he was only five foot three inches, 125 pounds, regular, maybe even small, size hands and two colt .45s.

It’s odd how it alternated in the RK stories. One story he’s recognized on sight by just about everyone, the next he’s not, and he has to prove his identity with his prowess with a gun.

They’re both attractive stories, with the usual Kirby/Ayers flair for drawing the classic western sets and clothing, and full of really good action scenes. I especially liked the horseback action on the two splash pages of the first story.

Published 1971

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