I picked up a random issue of The Destroyer a month or so ago, and was pleasantly surprised by what I found--the story, even coming in the middle of it, was terse and exciting, and the artwork by Lee Weeks was solid.This is the very first issue, which kicks off the way any good Marvel magazine should--with a cover by our pal Joe Jusko, whose name you can see as the second file folder behind Remo Williams'.
The magazine opens with a martial arts master being asked to train Remo Williams, for a super-secret project to "cure" America.
Meanwhile, former police officer Williams is being convicted for a murder he says he didn't commit. Williams is sent to the electric chair(!), but then we find that the whole thing is a ruse--Williams was knocked out, given plastic surgery, and is told he's being given "a second chance at life", by a mysterious man with a hook for a hand named MacCleary.
Then there's all kinds of super-secret stuff going on, featuring a council meeting in a dark room, discussing America's safety, a giant radioactive atomic bomb-firing handgun, and some dim-bulb who finds himself in the middle of all this by stealing the gun.
He ends up holed up in a house after the FBI tracks him down, so they send Remo Williams in, which leads to this disturbingly unusual panel:
...you didn't see this happen much to Nick Fury!
The issue ends with a really brutal fight between the guy, named Arlo Deetz, and Remo, with Remo karate-chopping off Arlo's right hand and beating him to a pulp. He secures the gun, and then disappears, off to train with his mysterious martial arts trainer.
These Remo Williams stories are tough and no-frills, and I assume writer Will Murray is partly aping the original novel's style. Either way, they make for an exciting read, and the lack of James Bond-esque crazy gadgetry is cool. Lee Weeks' art is perfect for these stories--simple and effective.
And, except for the Punisher ads on the back cover, you'd be hard pressed to know these were done by Marvel at all, so different in tone than most of the other stuff they were putting out at the time.
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On a completely unrelated note, I've done my first "Guest Blogger" piece over at my pal Pierre's excellent Frankensteinia blog.
So if you just can't get enough of my thoughts on obscure bits of comic book arcana(and who can?), go check it out here. Thanks!
The issue ends with a really brutal fight between the guy, named Arlo Deetz, and Remo, with Remo karate-chopping off Arlo's right hand and beating him to a pulp. He secures the gun, and then disappears, off to train with his mysterious martial arts trainer.
These Remo Williams stories are tough and no-frills, and I assume writer Will Murray is partly aping the original novel's style. Either way, they make for an exciting read, and the lack of James Bond-esque crazy gadgetry is cool. Lee Weeks' art is perfect for these stories--simple and effective.
And, except for the Punisher ads on the back cover, you'd be hard pressed to know these were done by Marvel at all, so different in tone than most of the other stuff they were putting out at the time.
__________________________________________________________
On a completely unrelated note, I've done my first "Guest Blogger" piece over at my pal Pierre's excellent Frankensteinia blog.So if you just can't get enough of my thoughts on obscure bits of comic book arcana(and who can?), go check it out here. Thanks!
1 comment:
I honestly enjoy this magazine better than "Created: The Destroyer". Sapir and Murphy hadn't quite honed the characters yet nor had they really figured out the concept of Sinanju.
Marvel's book does neccesary ret cons to make it more cohesive, establishing Chuin as a master of Sinanju right away and laying the whole concept of Remo being a channel for Shiva.
A lot of people were PO'd by that logo on Remo though......
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