Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #23Ken Barr cover, with a look at the Sam Peckinpah movie, The Killer Elite, with James Caan.
Creative Teams: IF-Claremont & Nebres; WT-Mantlo, Gil Kane & Rico Rival; Archie Goodwin-edits.
Synopsis: Interior cover has a Rudy Nebres Shang-Chi, with awkward handling of nunchucks. Someone in the letters page praises the SOT as being 3-dimensional characters. They must be reading an alternate universe version of the stories I've seen. Abe is the only one I would call even remotely 3-dimensional and White Tiger has had far more depth and realism (in contrast to the fantastic element of his transformations).
John Warner notes the quickie martial arts film boom seemed to have faded, though martial arts are a more prominent portion of action films, showing staying power (a by-product of more martial artists as stunt and fight choreographers, in response to the kung fu fad). He then notes they get a lot of letters from comics fans but few from martial arts enthusiasts. I would tend to suspect that the percentage of pure martial arts fans, with no interest in comics, was pretty small in their readership. The majority would be a mix of those with interests in both worlds, and pure comic fans. A real martial arts student, who had no interest in comic book stories, isn't reading this magazine. They are reading things like Black Belt and inside Kung Fu, where real martial artists are providing demonstrations/instructional pieces, debating effectiveness of techniques and styles and selling martial arts gear. Thos magazines were filled with frauds, like Count Dante and Frank Dux (and later, Bart Vale); but, that is where you went if you wanted to read about Bruce, Chuck and other movie martial artists, as well as guys like Donnie Williams and Steve Muhammad, Bill "Superfoot" Wallace, Bob Wall, Pat Johnson, Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, "Judo" Gene LeBell, Yip Man, Dan Inosanto or other martial artists.
IF-Danny and Jade face Silver Dragon, in the Land of the Dead (or their minds, or something...)
Danny is getting his butt kicked, even though he isn't afraid to hit a lady. She even gets a pretty good hammerlock on him. Jade whines, off to the side, then gets nabbed by Dhasha Khan. then, a goon alerts him that the Bowman and an army have taken their city and things have gone pear-shaped. Now that Dhasha has Jade, he plans to release the N'garai, who were seen in X-Men. Oh, joy...
Silver Dragon removes her mask and reveals the face of Danny's dead mother. She kicks his ass for not sending her flowers, on Mother's day, then has him hanging off a cliff. Dhasha yells at her to kill him and she rebels, and we see Heather Duncan Rand meet Wendell, fall in love, marry and have a child.
She is murdered and awakens in the Land of the Dead...
She rebels against Dhasha and refuses to kill Danny, and is blasted by DK. Danny loses his s@#$ and opens up a can of whoop ass on DK, which leads to them transitioning into the "real world" and a cliffhanger.
Next is a review of The Killer Elite, with James Caan and Robert Duvall, directed by Sam Peckinpah. Caan and Duvall are contract agents for the CIA, through a private company. they help a defector escape, then get doubke crossed and Caan is nearly crippled. he has to undergo surgery and rehab, wearing a brace on his arm. he learns martial arts to defend himself and gets approached to take a job to help an Asian man and get revenge on the double crossers. it's all part of an internal power struggle in the private company. the film is a mix of martial arts, espionage thriller, political intrigue and violent action. It's a bit on the slow side; but, has some great action scenes and fine character work from Duvall and Caan, as well as Burt Young and Bo Hopkins. The films stunt and fight choreography team included many legit martial artists, including Gene LeBell, Dan Inosanto and Donnie Williams...
The film also had a cameo from adult film star Uschi Digard.
Next is a piece about the Golden Harvest film, Dragon Flies, a joint Hong Kong/Australia production, shot in Australia. Golden Harvest was Raymond Chow's company, which would make a star of Jackie Chan, as well as actresses Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh, and Anita Mui, as well as director John Woo, and his favorite actor, Chow Yun-Fat. Golden Harvest was a major step up from the Shaw brothers kung fu factory, which churned out many of the early kung fu films brought to America. The Shaws still had some great films; but, they worked on the cheap and story was secondary to spectacle. Golden harvest was a bit classier, with better writing and acting.
WT-Jack of Hearts and White Tiger face off...
JOH thinks WT is a murderer and refuses to listen to him. They fight on a rooftop and WT sends Jack over the side. He uses his explosive blasts to stop his fall and send him back to the roof and attack White Tiger. Jack then accuses WT of murdering his father. Meanwhile, in North Africa, Abe chases after the Mole, after the 747 has crashed in the desert. mole shoots him, while taunting him with "colored boy." I guess Marvel wasn't willing to use harder racial taunts. Either way, it sounds dumb and probably would have been more effective if they had just used "boy." Mole is stopped by some bedouins, with submachine guns. They take him prisoner and help Abe. meanwhile, mole's cohorts are also still alive. Back in NY, Lin-Sun and Lotus see the news about Abe's plane crashing. They go to find a phone, to contact Bob, who is filming in Canada.
Jack tells of how his father had developed the Zero Fluid, capable of providing clean energy and the wave of the future. He argues with investors. They are attacked by high tech mercenaries, working for the investor. The father is killed and Jack is chased to the lab, where he falls into the Zero Fluid, which transforms him and gives him his power. Half his face is affected, cosmetically and one of the first things he sees, by his father's dead body, are playing cards, including the Jack of Hearts. And thus, a complicated costume is born. He says the hoods were to meet The Tiger, in the South Bronx. WT plays possum and attacks Jack and they both fall over the side, landing on a partially wrecked car (Jack blasted it the last time he went over the roof) and totals it. poor Mr Gomez. they survive; but, jack is out of it. the cops show up, with the detective, Hector's sister, and Blackbyrd.
Dunh-dunh-duh!
Thoughts: Iron Fist
FINALLY gets to a point, though with a lot of pointless action in the midst of things. Rudy nebres makes it all look beautiful. This thing was a one issue story, with a lot of filler to stretch it to 6 issues and we still aren't done. Chapters 2-4 are incomprehensible and repetitive, so this is a welcome change. White Tiger is mostly Marvel hero miscommunication fight and by-the-numbers origin story. Everything is pretty formulaic, with Gil Kane doing fairly average layouts and scenes. Martial arts haven't been strong in this thing since Frank McLaughlin; but they are totally out the window, now. Standard superhero fight, all the way. The Jack of Hearts origin is copied from numerous previous characters, including Steel Sterling and the Joker. I'm surprised Mantlo didn't have the Jack playing card come flying at him, as an omen (not that finding that particular card isn't convenient enough).
The stuff with Abe continues and we don't see how he survived the crash; and, as noted above, Mole's attempts at racial slurs are pretty weak. Either commit to doing it or drop it completely; this is a pretty sad middle ground. I don't advocate the use of racial slurs for shock value; but, this was so bad that it makes the Billy Jack films and In the Heat of the Night seem subtle.