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| Cover C (25%) by John Cassaday |
“The
Fire of Creation: Conclusion”
Everything
that has happened is part of the Shadow's plan – of course. Lamont
Cranston has been acting as an agent of US military intelligence to
successfully get the vital weapons-grade mineral Uranium 235 out of
China and into US hands. I misread the dumb-ass Finnegan as British
– he's actually American, but just as dumb-ass. He's serving a
purpose as well, however, providing cover and a diversion for
Cranston. The plan, of course, meets with success, with plenty of
Japanese blood being spilled along the way. The main Japanese
villain Kondo gets away, but the epilogue shows him being caught
unawares in Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.
I'm
sure there are a lot of Shadow
fans who are really enjoying this series, and it has been good
enough. But it's not really for me. It's obviously based more on
the radio version of the character, with plenty of tweaks even from
that, I'm sure, but even though I've not read all that many of the
pulp novels, those are my
Shadow.
I won't be continuing with this series from here on out.
 |
| Cover B (50%) by Paul Renaud |
“Just
Take It: The Concrete Jungle 2 of 2”
The
villainous Canler, having been humiliated by Tarzan, kidnaps Jane and
her father to lure him into a trap. The confrontation goes about as
you would imagine it would. In the end, the only reason Tarzan does
not kill him is because he is trying to be “civilized,” for the
sake of Jane, so he leaves him strung up for the police to find. He
lives, I'm sure to return to Dynamite's adaptation/expansion of the
original Burroughs novels at some time in the future. He's basically
a blank slate as Burroughs never did anything with the character
after his minor role in the first novel.
As
for Jane and Tarzan, this is of course not enough to bring them back
together – that would be too
radical a departure from the books, and we're not to that point in
the saga yet. Jane is, however, upset because her fiancé Cecil
Clayton has been acting differently since they were in Wisconsin. In
a flashback, we see why – he found and read the discarded telegram
to Tarzan from d'Arnot, revealing that Tarzan is indeed his own
cousin and the true Greystoke heir.
This
was probably my least favorite of all the Dynamite issues thus far.
I found the art noticeably lower in quality. The story is so-so,
mainly redeemed by the intriguing fact that it is the longest (albeit
non-canonical) look at Tarzan's first time away from the jungle,
during the period between the end of the first book and the beginning
of the second.
 |
| Cover A (50%) by Paul Renaud |
[“Vampire
Men of Saturn, Part 1 of 3”]
We
find that Dejah Thoris has been taken prisoner by the mysterious air
ship she spied upon emerging from the cave in the frozen north of
Barsoom – and has been transported all the way to Titan, the
largest moon of Saturn, or rather Vano, the largest moon of Strio, as
her captor calls it, or
rather
Xasoom as the Barsoomians
call the ringed planet. She is in the hands of one of the Vathek, a
race of vampires intent on conquering Mars. With the help of a
fellow prisoner – one of the Palidors, a race kept by the Vathek as
cattle, sources of blood – she escapes on a flying mount, but a
lucky shot by their pursuers leaves her plunging toward the ground
from a height that even her increased relative strength imparted by
the relative size of Barsoom and Vano will not save her from.
Frankly,
this story is doing little more for me than the “Boora Witch”
story arc. I find the art strikingly bad, although the story on my
second reading turns out not to be as bad as I found it at first. At
least there is a pseudo-scientific reason for the Vatheks' vampirism
rather than being supernatural.
 |
| Cover A (50%) by Paul Renaud |
[“Vampire
Men of Saturn, Part 2 of 3”]
Opening
in mid-fall, we find that Dejah Thoris has not only super-strength
because of the lighter gravity of Titan as compared to Mars, but she
can all but fly like Superman! Actually, “That wasn't flying! It
was falling with style!”
Ditto
comment from issue #17.
Review:
http://jcomreader.blogspot.com/2012/11/comic-review-dejah-thoris-18.html
(And no, MCR, it's not just you!)
Cheers!,
and Thanks for reading!
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