Daily Archives: April 25, 2006

–Link– Marvel webcomics

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Via Mike in a comment to a previous post, Marvel has some of their comics in a web format, including three by Kirby (ETERNALS #1, BLACK PANTHER #1, FANTASTIC FOUR #1). The interface seems more than a bit clunky, and you have to register (for free) to see more than a few pages of each issue, and there are other oddities (check out the date they claim ETERNALS #1 was published!), but check it out if you want.

http://www.marvel.com/digitalcomics/

Justice, Inc. #2 [1975] – The Skywalker

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The first of three issues of the series Kirby drew late in his DC contract, written by Denny O’Neil. Among the few non-Kirby scripts Kirby drew in the 1970s, this series was probably the best, with some goofy pulp adventure. JUSTICE INC had the adventures of Richard Benson, aka The Avenger (title not used for the book for obvious reasons).

In this issue, Benson and his faithful aide Smitty come across a train which crashed when the tracks in front of it vanished. After dispatching some looters, they investigate further, though it doesn’t seem to quite be explained how their investigation takes them to the home of an inventor, Robert Gant, just as he’s being killed.

JusticeInc21975.jpg

Gant’s papers lead them to businessman Abel Darcy, whe turns out to be behind the whole thing, having taken Gant’s inventions, a sound ray that makes steel fall apart and a process to make metal invisible, and the best way he can think of to make money with those is to destroy some buildings and then extort money from the city.

Yeah, the plot has a few holes, but it moves fast, leaves a lot of room for action and has some clever scripting.

Mike Royer inks the cover and the 18-page story.

Published 1975