There is heavy fighting for control of Hokkaido. The Japanese are finally gaining the upper hand. Their navy hits the Soviet navy hard and disrupts the Soviet reinforcements. Air superiority is also being won by the Japanese. They start to encircle the Soviet defenders at Fukagawa City.
The story continues to interest me. It cuts between scenes from many different viewpoints. The art is very accurate in depicting the various weapons, ships and aircraft. It holds back nothing with prisoners being executed because the situation doesn’t allow for their handling. Soldiers overcoming their fear and pissing their pants. A fun look at an alternate history.
Writers: Don & Linda Pendleton adapted from his novel.
Artists: Sandu Florea and Mike Deodato, Sr.
Mack Bolan continues his war against the Mafia. He starts with their loan shark operation. Posing as someone important he enters the place as an auditor. He takes half a million and burns the records. The he goes after Leo Turrin but gets wounded by Turrin’s wife. He manages to find shelter with a woman who lives alone and decides to help him. She takes care of his wounds and shelters him from the police. The mob is really going after Bolan after his attempted assassination of the head capo.
The third issue is another excellent adaptation of the novel. Unfortunately, what was to be a four-part series ends with this issue. Innovation went bankrupt and we never did get the final issue. That was a shame since with Don writing it was a very faithful adaptation. There were plans to continue adapting his books. While the comic readers don’t get an ending, I would highly recommend reading the book. It is easily available after all these years and still a fun read.
Aknaton and Vanth manage to hold off the Zygoteans long enough for Whis’par, Juliet and Za to blow the Horn of Infinity. This destroys the galaxy and turns the three into gods. Aknation and Vanth are saved by Aknation who puts them in a bubble in suspended animation. One million years later they arrive on a planet in a new galaxy. Vanth is angry and kills Aknation for saving him. Aknation knew that Vanth would kill him and welcomes death. He tells Vanth that his destiny is to save this galaxy from the fate of the Milky Way.
“After the Galaxy Dies”
Interview by Archie Goodwin
An interview with the creator, writer and artist of the Metamorphosis Odyssey series.
“The Last Centaur”
Writer & Artists: Tim Conrad
The story of the centaurs from Greek mythology.
“Children of the Stars”
Writer & Artist: Charles Vess
The surviving sister finds out her past when the demon destroyed her parents. She has to go and destroy the demons soul.
“Weirdworld: The Dragonmasters of Klarn Part 1 A Game Gods Play”
Writer: Doug Moench
Artists: John Buscema and Marie Severin
The gods play a game with Weirdworld. A dark wizard has corrupted the soul of Velanna who with Tyndall is living among some dwarves. This wizard also destroys a crystal that is keeping the dragons asleep. The dragons come and destroy the village but Tyndall manages to communicate with them to stop. The villagers blame them for the attack and kick them out. The two with Mud Butt go to visit a wizard that has to power to save the world.
“Tales of Torment”
By David Kasakove
An article on the underground comics of the sixties and seventies.
“Match and Set”
Writer & Artist: Lee Marrs
A man and woman are fighting each other, and both fall and get stuck on an outcropping. They have to work together to save themselves. At the end it is revealed this is part of marriage therapy in the future.
“Mediaview”
By Dennis O’Neal
Reviews of Escape from New York, Tarzan the Ape Man and Wolfen. Didn’t like the first two but loved the third.
“Isolation and Illusion”
Writer & Artist: P. Craig Russell
An angel flies around and sees stuff.
Well, this issue had some great stuff. Particularly the ending to Metamorphosis Odyssey. It came to a satisfactory conclusion. It was an ongoing series from the beginning and always something I enjoyed. Starlin continues the series with graphic novels about Vanth which I would like to read in the future.
They also started a new continuing series with Weirdworld. I love Weirdworld and this was a great place to continue the series. Otherwise, everything else was mediocre or downright dumb like the final story.
Conan and Hobbs stop at a tavern in a small Corinthian village. There a barmaid recognizes Conan from an incident eleven years ago where a magistrate was killed by a jade serpent that Conan had. This gets the attention of the soldiers in the tavern. The commander isn’t interested in the incident but needs men for an upcoming war with a neighboring city-state. Conan and Hobbs are drafted, and they head out.
They come on the lost city of Lanjau where Conan battled a dragon and living skeletons. They find the enemy army at the city but dead. They are now purple corpses. The soldiers start to loot the bodies when tall priests in purple robes come and claim the bodies. Conan recognizes them as Hyberborean witchmen but the commander of the army knocks him out. He wants no fight with the priests. The priests do resurrect the dead soldiers and the skeleton warriors Conan defeated years ago. They march on the village and turn the soldiers with the purple plague. Conan at the end is also infected with the plague.
This was another fun Thomas story. We get another bit of nostalgia from the early days with the jade serpent and city of Lanjau. This is also continuing to show that the Hyberboreans are the main enemy in this storyline called the Coming of Shuma Gorath which is part 4 of the series. Ends on a cliffhanger with Conan infected and the skeleton warriors coming for him.
It is 1000 years before John Carter arrives on Mars. Dejah is a sheltered princess with little experience of the world. Giant spiders attack Helium and force Dejah to flee. Some guy has made a deal with the Kaldanes. For their help in overthrowing the royal family he will give them red men to experiment on. Only with Dejah escaped there is still the possibility of her organizing a rebellion. Dejah with her handmaiden Rroo must go to an island through a dangerous forest filled with calot eating trees.
A new Dejah series and one written by the guy who did the last John Carter one. I didn’t care for his last series and this one is a bit meh. It’s not bad so far but doesn’t really impress me. An interesting concept of a young pre-Carter princess. So far not much character development and you don’t even know the names of the main baddie. I guess we will see where this goes.
The Soviets continue to advance. They capture the main city of Asahikawa in urban fighting. They execute a group of volunteer patriots as terrorists. Helicopter battles fill the sky. The Soviets also decide to invade China and initially have great success. The Japanese though start to make some headway in the battle.
Another fun issue of an alternate WWIII. Told from both perspectives of the Japanese and Soviets. They seem to be having great success in China. The Chinese soldiers are surrendering in mass. The Japanese still have a chance if they can retake the city of Asahikawa and isolate the Soviets.
Writers: Don & Linda Pendleton adapting his novel.
Artists: Sandu Florea and Mike Deodato, Jr.
Mack Bolan has infiltrated the mob. He is assigned to Leo Turrin who runs the prostitution segment for the Organization. He gets shown around and shown the big computer that runs the place. Later a police sergeant comes and warns Bolan that the mob is on to him. They put out a contract on Bolan. Bolan thanks him and sets up an ambush at his place. He kills the assassins. Then he goes and burns down the whorehouse. He goes to the head capo’s house and kills his guards and leaves a message that Bolan is out to get him.
Don does a really good job of adapting his book. It follows the novel closely. He was really ahead of his time by knowing about computers back in 1969. A real tightly plotted story that delivers on excitement and action. The artists that drew this book are also top notch.
Two men stranded on an alien planet play a game where they hunt each other.
“Maker”
Writer & Artist: Mark Wheatley
A corporation called W.E. Planet Inc. is in the business of making custom made planets. They use makers who use psychic power to create. One of the makers is in a bad place about the recent death of his wife and causes chaos.
“Ankhesenamun”
Writer & Artist: Trina Robbins
Ankhesenamun is the wife of Tutankhamun. She is having an affair with a god and this god kills King Tut.
“Fantasy in a Package”
By Archie Goodwin
An article on art portfolios from prominent artists.
“Metamorphosis Odyssey: Dreamsend”
Writer & Artist: Jim Starlin
Aknaton takes the group to a temple where the Horn of Infinity is located. They have to fight through the Zygoteans.
“Contact”
Writer & Artist: Tim Conrad
A deep spaceship from Earth makes contact with an alien.
“Children of the Stars”
Writer & Artist: Charles Vess
A brother and sister contact a demon who killed their parents and wants them dead too. A witch saves them, but the brother gets stabbed by a knife and is in critical condition.
“Bookview”
By Jo Duffy
A review of The Magic Labyrinth by Philip Jose Farmer which she didn’t care for. Also, Mythconceptions by Robert Asprin which she liked.
“Punk Zone”
Writer: Denny Daley
Artist: Michael Saenz
A mining colony long abandoned has two gangs that battle.
“Mediaview”
By Dennis O’Neal
Reviews the movies Legend of the Lone Ranger, Outland, Superman II and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Only the Lone Ranger movie wasn’t good.
“Gameview”
By Steven Grant
An article on video games.
“Shiny Beast”
Writer & Artist: Rick Veitch
A man sees colors and buys a magazine called Shiny Beast. It takes the color from the world.
This issue was mostly a bust. Most of the stories were both written and drawn by the same person. Seems they decided to be experimental and didn’t care for any of them although the art looked nice. Only the Punk story and Metamorphosis were good. The Children of the Stars is supposed to be a new continuing story and it was so-so. The reviews were interesting. Otherwise, a subpar issue.
While having a dinner with Queen Yaila and her consort, Conan tells of his time as a captive of Queen Vammatar in Hyberborea. The evil queen had captured Conan and his fellow Aesir. The queen used Conan for her personal pleasure. She had his fellow comrades put in an arena to be killed by her zombies. Conan decided he couldn’t stand by and jumps into the arena to fight with them. As only three are left and about to be killed by the zombies, news arrives of the Aesir attacking the castle. Lead by Rann the daughter of the chieftain, Vammatar has the survivors put in the dungeon. Conan manages to break the neck of the jailor and with his two companions flee underground. There they find an icy lake with fire coming out of the Earth. There are also dead in the water. Conan and his companions gather the weapons and bring them to the fighting between the Aesir and Hyberboreans. These weapons have power to kill zombies, and this allows the Aesir to escape. Conan makes his way to Corinthia which is another story.
This issue Roy gives us a bit of closure from an old story from Savage Sword. An adaptation of a De Camp tale. It was really cool to get this continuation as I always wondered how Conan escaped from the Hyberboreans. He chose a good time to tell this and fit it into the continuing story.
Barbarella and crew go to the Architect’s planet and find it deserted. She uses the mind probe on Durix and this takes her to where the spirits of the Architects have gone. They are ready to initiate their goal of making the universe in their image. Barbarella argues with them and convinces them that they are wrong. They come to the realization that Barbarella is right. They will leave the universe. All but Vix will remain with Barbarella. After this Taln comes and tells Barbarella he realizes that he is from another universe. He has to leave her to find this universe.
The ending of this series was a bit anticlimactic. I mean Barbarella just argues the reason why the Architects are wrong, and they agree. Still, I liked this series. Dynamite did a good job of hiring Sarah. She turned this series around from the first writer who wasn’t that good. Plus, the artists on the ones after are just brilliant. Some of the best artwork I ever seen. Thats a main reason I loved the new series. I hope that Sarah continues with this and keep assigning the top-notch artistic talent.
Comic book cave of awesome 