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Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Amazing Adventures #20

Cover for Amazing Adventures (Marvel, 1970 series) #20

2018 AD. 

A time of death. 

Okay then! And we have a new creative team- Marv Wolfman and Herb Trimpe are the writer/ artist- that's three artists in the last three issues! Killraven is in the middle of battle with his ally M'Shulla and they are outnumbered so they take refuge in a museum. Just happens to have ancient weapons- you know, crossbows and stuff. That's helpful! They soon deal with their enemies and after pillaging for arms they set out for camp. There's a humorous moment as Killraven learns to drive and Killraven shares some intel he learned on their raid. The Martian overlords have a base at LaGuardia airport, and Killraven means to strike them there. 

Killraven, just to recapis the leader of the Freemen, a resistance group fighting the Martians. that's all you need to know, really. As they head for home they of course run into a Martian tripod, but they manage to fell it by destabilizing it. That seems easy. Alas, the intel was bait and the resistance fall into a trap. Duh! They're captured and Killraven has to fight some dude called the Warlord. Original, that. 

I have a feeling these comics are going to have a lot of this- victories, reversals, trips to the arena, and whatnot. This series is still finding its legs, after all. Consistency is key. The art in this is not very good, the story's thin, but there's a haunting quality to the post- apocalyptic landscape, the sense of a shattered New York City. This series just needs a little creative oomph. 


Some observations  

Like many comics (especially older comics like this) there is a lot of talking in battle. They also like to refer to themselves in the third person and make various pronouncements and so forth. 

M'Shulla is referred to as a "black" several times, which was jarring. I get that this was the 70's, but still??!? 

2 comments:

  1. That cover is so wonderfully retro -- everyone looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his Conan days!

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