Doc Savage #8 - Marvel

Ken Barr delivers a spooky, 50s-monster movie-ish cover to the (*sniff*)final issue of Marvel's Doc Savage b/w magazine experiment. Marvel tried Doc as a color comic, then as a black and white magazine; he would only make one more appearance in a Marvel comic--in an issue of Marvel Two-In-One, of all things(no pun intended)!

After a pin-up by Tom Sutton, and an editorial by John Warner delivering the bad news, we have "The Crimson Plague!" by Doug Moench and Ernie Chan.

One by one, different brilliant scientific minds are kidnapped by a strange glowing tentacled creature. Doc Savage is of course called in to investigate, and he gets even more involved when some of his own team--Monk, Remy, and Ham--are kidnapped also!

Doc travels all over the world on the hunt for his friends and the others, until he breaks his way into a secret hideout(there's always a secret hideout), and does indeed find his friends, under the control of the tentacled creature as well as one of the strangest-looking foes Doc has ever faced:

...yep, its a guy with a giant brain for a hat.

Anyway, Brain Guy here needs other people's big smart brains to turn into energy that will help him control the world. Fool-proof plan!

Once Doc Savage stops laughing(off-panel), he knocks the brain hat off the guy's head. That causes him to lose all common sense, apparently, and he lunges at Doc, who easily moves out of the way, leaving the bad guy to plunge directly into the tentacle monster/ball of energy thingy, killing both of them.

It ends with Doc and his team in the hospital, visiting some of the scientists, and their descriptions of how it felt for this brain creature to be in their heads is strikingly similar to the language Jean-Luc Picard would use on Star Trek: The Next Generation when talking about the Borg. Hmm, did some future Trek writers read this issue growing up?

The issue wraps up with a letters page and two Doc pin-ups, one by Ed Davis and another by Bob Layton and Dick Giordano.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Doc Savage series and Moench's genre-hopping adventures--each issue featuring Doc and his team in a slightly different setting--jungle adventure, globe-hopping spy story, Marvel-style comic book melodrama, and with this issue 50s-era-science-fiction. The art by solid all around, and overall Marvel did pretty well by Lester Dent's creation, I think!

Doc Savage #7 - Marvel

My favorite Doc Savage cover(by Ken Barr)...I love the design, the colors, everything. Nothing's creepier than man-sized bugs...*shudder*

The story is "The Mayan Mutations!" by Doug Moench(as always), Val Meyerik, and Tony DeZuniga. Doc and his team hear about a sacred temple supposedly full of wondrous treasures in Peru.

The temple comes under assault by a band of white men and when some of the local tribesmen tried to defend it, they were murdered. Yet one of them made it in and hasn't been seen since. When the man's wife tried to find him, she was scared off by a giant "night-flier" who looks a lot like the creepy bug depicted on the cover.

Doc and the team head to Peru, where they combat a whole menagerie of giant insects, snakes, and the like. After fending them off, plus the local tribe(who believe Doc and his team are there to steal the treasures, too), Doc makes it in and is attacked by a savage beast-man, who turns out to be genetically mutated by the band of white treasure hunters. One of them shoots Long Tom, and Doc is so disgusted at their greed he hauls off and punches them out, walking off, yelling "Collect the garbage, brothers." Ouch!

This was one of my favorite issues, since the plot is a little less sci-fi and more creepy adventure, and its nice to see Doc actually get really, really mad. He's usually written so stoic and perfect, this was a nice change of pace.

This issue also features two pin-ups by Ed Davis, and a prose story focusing on Little John. A solid issue; too bad it was the next-to-last. *sniff*

Doc Savage #6 - Marvel

A slam-bang cover by Kenn Barr, one worthy of the Man of Bronze. I'm charmed by Doc looking right into the camera, even as he plummets to Earth locked in a death-grip with some weird Bird-Man. I feel like he's going to start telling me about HDTV or something.

After an editorial by John Warner assuring us Doc Savage isn't cancelled(why do I get the feeling then EIC Archie Goodwin called Warner into his office right after this?), we have "The Sky Stealers!" by the reliable team of Doug Moench and Tony DeZuniga.

Doc and the team hear about how an entire town's population of 3,000 people just suddenly died, and they are called in to investigate.

They find some clues pointing them to the Egyptian wing of a museum, where a mummy springs(well, slowly walks) out of a sacophygus and gets the drop on Doc and Monk! The mummy takes out Monk but after a quick fight Doc gets the best of him. They discover that under the mummy's bandages is their friend Renny, who had disappeared earlier.

While this is happening, three men(?) dressed as ancient Egyptian animal gods make off with Monica, a beautiful woman who had tagged along. They plan to sacrifice her on the equinox, so of course the team follows them to the pyramids of Giza. They find a secret passageway in the King's chamber, which leads them to an underground fortress. They stumble across the ceremony, officiated by...

(pause)

You know what? These Moench plots are so intricate and involved that trying to summarize requires a better writer than I for them to make any sense. So I'll just stop here and say that it, like most of the previous issues of Doc Savage, is a lot of fun and full of the random craziness that makes reading them go by in a flash.

They obviously had a few pages to fill, so there's a brief article on Renny, featuring some spot illustrations of Doc and the team by Frank Cirocco.

Doc Savage #5 - Marvel

One of my favorite Doc Savage covers--you've got Doc in a fight to the death with some weird supervillain type guy, and if he survives that, he's got the Loch Ness Monster to contend with! And I'm sure that spooky castle is going to come into play at some point. You don't see a lot of green on comic covers, which makes this stand out that much more to me. Nice job by Ken Barr.

There's a Doc Savage inside cover by Neal Adams, then a letter's page(Mail of Bronze), ansd then we're right into "The Earth-Wreckers" by Doug Moench and Tony DeZuniga.

Starting in Australia, we find a masked man kicking some serious ass as he finds his way to a safe, which he then explodes open. The masked man is revealed to be...Doc Savage!

Cut to: Antarctica, where we see Doc looking for another mysterious object, then again in Africa, then again in Eurasia. Then we cut to Manhattan, and Doc's team of adventurers are opening huge crates of stuff Doc has mailed to himself.

Soon we find the items Doc has been searching out are large-size geographic replicas of various continents, with odd machinery attached to the back. The pieces are put together to form a giant, 30-ft high replica of the Earth itself. Only one piece is missing. As Monk says "Good old North America..."

Turns out every government in the world has been receving anonymous threats, saying a "super bomb" will go off unless a ransom is paid. The governments got together and of course called Doc Savage to figure this out. He has determined that the pieces of this model globe were the detonators for the bombs, and now that he has them all together...Monk accidentally triggers a security field and all the pieces burn up. Gee, thanks, Monk.

Anyway, turns out this wacky plot is by your typical Marvel-style masked madman named "Iron Mask", who calls his underlings "idiotic fools!" and makes them all dress like him, and has a hidden underground fortress. He's right out of Marvel Central Casting.

All this craziness leads to Doc and the gang, plus his cutie-pie cousin Pat Savage(no, really) to Loch Ness, where they believe the Iron Mask's hideout is. While on their way there, they just happen to run into the Loch Ness Monster. At some point I expected a kitchen sink to waft by...

They break in, make mince-meat of Iron Mask's underappreciated goons, but its Pat Savage who gets close enough to Iron Mask(where we see the reason he's so touchy about his mask) to force him to try to escape. It doesn't work--the story ends with a bang, and then a laugh as Monk tries one last time to sexually harass Pat Savage. The end.

Extra features involve a Doc pin-up by Marshall Rogers, a text feature about Doc's pulp roots, and an interview with Mrs.Lester Dent.

While "Earth-Wreckers" is definitely a fun tale, full of crazy gags, globe-hopping, and wild adventure, Iron Mask is so stock a villain that he inspires giggles when you see him rather than feeling any sort of threat. I mean, come, on, the guy is chased away by Pat Savage, for Pete's Sake.

But hey--I found most of these Doc Savage stories by Moench to be wonderfully fun, he can't hit it out of the park every time. I will say that Tony DeZuniga does a nice job, and his renderings of Pat Savage are actually quite sexy, something I didn't really expect. Nice job, Mr.D!

Doc Savage #4 - Marvel

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:

Doc Savage #3 - Marvel

It's time for another adventure with the Man O' Bronze, Doc Savage!

Behind the James Bond-esque high adventure cover by Ken Barr is "The Inferno Scheme!" by Doug Moench, Big John Buscema, and Tony DeZuniga.

A giant robotic eagle(!) breaks into a jewelry store and steals a clawful of uncut diamonds, flying away and unharmed by the hail of bullets by policemen. Then a giant robotic bear(!!) does the same, and the crimes find the attention of Doc and his team.

They are told by a woman--who entrances Renny, one of Doc's team--who claims to be the sister of the mastermind behind these crimes that her brother has a plan for world domination(of course) and now calls himself Inferno!

Doc and the team head for the secret hideout of Inferno, along with the sister. They spread out and face various death-traps and armed guards, until Renny discovers--via a passionate kiss--that this mysterious woman and Inferno(who looks like a sleazy magician) are anything but brother and sister!

There's rockets, more death-traps, the robot bear, and an even bigger robot that looks like he's straight out of The Fantastic Four. Doc, of course, takes care of all of 'em, and yet Renny is so in love that he almost loses his life still believing in this traiterous woman. Doc saves Renny, the mountain hideaway explodes, and the story ends with a tear.

On top of that, Monk gets his own back-up feature courtesy Moench and Rico Rival, titled "A Most Singular Writ of Habeus Corpus"(remember back when we had Habeus Corpus? Ah, the good old days...). Monk meets a sweet woman and runs afoul of her mobster ex-boyfriend, who kidnaps both of them, and Monk's pet pig HC, which is a mistake in every way. Habeus Corpus helps them escape, and Monk lays a beat-down on the mobster.

Monk's persona was definitely similar to the Thing's, and I bet giving Monk his own back-up was an attempt to make him the break-out star of the book. He carries the story well, in the tried-and-true Mighty Marvel Manner!

Doc Savage #2 - Marvel

It's another pulse-pounding adventure with everyone's favorite overly-tanned physician-adventurer, Doc Savage!

After a charming editorial by Marv Wolfman about how Michele, aka Mrs.Wolfman, is completely head-over-heels in love with movie Doc Savage Ron Ely (interviewed for this issue), is the main story "Hell-Reapers at the Heart of Paradise" (great title) by Doug Moench and Tony DeZuniga.

It features mad, out-of-time vikings, lost treasure, even more lost explorers, lizard men, and a mysterious valley under the surface of the earth, all told in high style. It's a fun, rip-roaring adventure, yet full of all the characterization and little Batman-esque gadgets that were hallmarks of the books. Moench had the ability to adapt his writing style to fit the subject, and the chance to tell longer stories in a comics format (this runs almost fifty pages) clearly energized Moench. These were straightforward tales of bold adventure, and a heck of a lot of fun.

Next is the aforementioned Ron Ely interview, which runs a few pages, with pics of him reading Doc Savage #1. It's a little sad to read him talk about the plans for a series of Doc Savage films, knowing it would all come to naught...

Doc Savage #1 - Marvel

The first Marvel issue starring the Man of Bronze--Doc Savage!!

This was part of a massive wave at the time of reviving old pulp heroes and other pop culture relics of the 30s and 40s (old-time radio shows, The Shadow novels, etc.), and Marvel never met a trend they didn't like. They started off with a bang here, with a beautiful cover based on the Doc Savage movie poster (sadly, the best thing about that movie was the poster).

This first issue featured a 52-page (!) adventure titled "The Doom of Thunder Isle" by the ever-prolific Doug Moench, with solid art by John Buscema and Tony DeZuniga. Moench starts the story off with a bang (literally) and then introduces our cast of characters--Doc, plus his team of adventurers Monk, Ham, Renny, Long Tom, and Johnny. It features secret codes, crazy gadgets, a giant zeppelin, uniformed assassins, a damsel in distress, and a mysterious island--all the proper elements for a classic tale of adventure. It's amazing to me how adaptable Moench was in his writing, in that he could tailor his stories to fit whatever settings and genre he was working in.

The issue rounds out with an interview with George Pal, legendary filmmaker and director of the ill-fated but well-intentioned Doc movie. All told, Marvel put together a nice package for their inaugural issue, and we'll see down the line what else they had in store for the Man of Bronze...