I thought we'd give Warren a break and check back in with everybody's favorite Man of Bronze, Doc Savage!Nice cover by Ken Barr--cool layout and great use of colors. And how could you not buy a book with a story called "Ghost-Pirates From The Beyond!"?
The story is, as always, by Doug Moench with art completely by Tony DeZuniga, except the first eight pages pencilled by...Marie Severin?!? Not only can't I tell the difference, I wonder how Marie ended up drawing Doc Savage.
Don't get wrong--Ms.Severin is uber-talented, but she's an unusual choice for Doc Savage, and since she was on staff at Marvel at the time, I'm betting she was pinching in for some lost pages or something.
Anyway, the story opens in Casablanca, where some mysterious armed men break in and murder two police detectives, who are discussing a search for as-yet-unrevealed item. The men then burn the files...
Cut to New York City, and we have Doc's team in casual pursuits--Little John is reading, Long John playing Chess, Renny darts, and Monk and Ham doing their Human Torch/Thing routine(is this where Stan Lee got it from?). Their fight is interrupted by an urgent phone call, the man on the other end looking for Doc Savage. In the middle of the call though, the man is murdered by an even more mysterious-looking ghostly assassin!
Doc Savage shows up and they find a note containing a secret message by the murdered man telling them if he is murdered to go to a residence on fashionable Riverside Drive. They attend a swanky party, only for it to get interrupted by a whole mob of these hooded assassins! Doc and his team kick ass(of course), and he finds some clues that lead them to Casablanca!
It's here they come across a "ghost ship" and after some punching, kicking, and investigating, Doc and his team learn the legend about how the French slaughtered the residents of the village that used to be where Casablanca now stands, and how their is a fortune in treasure buried somewhere beneath the city, something these "ghost pirates" are willing to kill for!
Doc and his team foil the plot, of course, and there's more action and a reveal of who this head "Ghost Pirate" guy really is. It ends on a laugh, as the team and a beautiful woman named Trina(who was kidnapped by the bad guys) head back to the Big Apple.
Like the previous issues, I found these tales to be a lot of fun, filled with exotic locales, some twists here and there, and roaring action. Moench would've been a great choice to write an Indiana Jones comic!
...One little thing. We all know Doc Savage is the epitome of manliness. But it takes real chutzpah to wear a belt buckle with your own name on it:
1 comment:
That belt buckle is mostly likely a left over touch from the Pal movie.
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