Wow, those really are some bizarre adventures.

Marvel Preview #24



I was mistaken in calling this cover Logan's Run meets Thank God It's Friday. It's more like Logan's Run meets Can't Stop the Music



Creative Team: Bill Mantlo-writer, Val Mayerik-art; Lynn Graeme-edits

Don't know how they missed P Craig Russell for this. As it is, mayerik looks like he is channeling a mix of Howard Chaykin and Russell.





Synopsis: It is the year 2181. Human dominion is spread across the solar system, worlds are terraformed, except the Earth's moon. It is a neglected mining colony, with crime-ridden domes. The Terran Ambassador heads off on his own, opens a illbox and finds it empty, then spontaneously combusts, creating an accident. his charred remains are found and evidence of Firelites. We cut to Earth and what passed for dance in the 22nd Century, which involves partial female nudity and a male dancer whose bulging area is at least covered, if not subdued. Two men, Stanhope and Esterhaze are there to meet a new agent, the male dancer. Esterhaze briefs the dancer, Paradox. The ambassador was there to mediate issues between humans and engineered miners. he married a new bride, daughter of an influential family and threw many parties. one participant, Sebastian Season is implicated in trafficking narcotics. Fireflites were derived from gelignite and would cause explosion, if an antidote wasn't taken in time.

The ambassador was being exploited to interfere in relations, refused and went off to die. Paradox arrives and then we see a Lunan go to a lab, where he meets Yaz, a weaponsmaker. The lunan is Paradox, who can change form.



Yaz was Paradox's mentor and trained him as an agent. After an ambush by smugglers, he is injured and saved through gene surgery, giving him his shape-shifting abilities. Yaz outfits Paradox with a weapon. Paradox meets the widow and sees some funny business with a chauffeur. Paradox infiltrates Season's casino, in disguise, wins a bunch of money and gets talked into a higher stakes game. It involved Fireflites and he sees the widow there...



Paradox is attacked while under but Yaz's weapon helps him out and he gets the antidote and gives it to the widow. They escape and she explains. The chauffeur is a guard and she must keep taking the antidote. Yaz is murdered Paradox goes after Season; but, eventually learns that the widow was behind things, as she had been a Lunan who was transformed.

Thoughts: This is a pretty cliched mystery story, stuck into a sci-fi setting. The visuals of the city is pure Logan's Run dome and transport tubes. The drug element is as old as detective stories, whether it is opium, heroin, cocaine, or whatever. Shapeshifting is just disguise work. nothing really stands out in all of this. It's not surprising that nothing really came of it. Mayerik's art is good, they take advantage of the nudity option; but, it never really rises above an average sci-fi mystery. The Stars My Destination it isn't. However, it is fine for what it is.

Personally, I think if they had camped this up and went for the whole disco/sci-fi mash-up and went nuts, it would have been a lot more entertaining. As it is, there is more than a bit of homoeroticism, but a definite unwillingness to push it beyond window dressing. It plays at Paradox being bisexual, without really stating it. Closest it comes is in the climax, with Paradox taking the form of the widow, while revealing the truth to her. It's a lot of tease of something more interesting. However, you weren't going to get a gay story from Marvel (or DC), at this point. No Pied Pipers or Sandman trasngendered characters, no Northstar, no publishing Stuck Rubber Baby.

Mayerik was part of the Ohio-based community that included Russell and Dan Adkins, who helped get him into the industry, which explains the similarity to Russell. I have to think Russell would have had more visual flair with this; but, he was busy with Elric and his opera work. Mayerik does good with what he is given. Mantlo goes overboard with narration and there are a lot of talking heads in this.

This is the end of Marvel Preview. Lynn Graeme announces that the magazine is being retitled Bizarre Adventures and will continue in that line, with more issues like the previous one. Cover artist Paul Gulacy will return, as he handles a Ralph Macchio Black Widow adventure, with cameos by Humphrey Bogart and Michael Caine.

My favorite work by Val Mayerik was the short-lived "Samurai" series in Warren's EERIE magazine. It was written by Larry Hama, and the mix of philosophy and BRUTAL VIOLENCE was quite stunning and unforgettable.

Some years later, it continued from another publisher under the title "YOUNG MASTER".

Bizarre Adventures #25



Marvel Preview is renamed Bizarre Adventures and continues the numbering (got to maintain those second class mailing privileges). Paul Gulacy gives us the movie poster cover. Now, if only they could do a Black Widow movie worthy of Gulacy's imagery.

Creative Teams: Black Widow-Ralph Macchio-writer, Paul Gulacy-art; Lady daemon-Chris Claremont-writer, Michael Golden-art; Daughters of the Dragon-Chris Claremont-writer, Marshall Rogers-art; Lynn Graeme-edits

Synopses: Black Widow-In South Africa, at some isolated fort, a British agent is radioing in a report, when his pursuers catch up to him. A firefight ensues and he is killed...



We cut to New York, where Natasha Romanoff wakes up, the morning after a new Year's party. there is a note left on the pillow by her companion for the evening and she goes downstairs to answer the buzzing noise. She clicks in to receive a message from SHIELD. The dead agent was MI-6's Prescott, who uncovered a Soviet arms depot, being used to feed pro-Marxist revolutionaries, in the region. At the head of this is Irma Klausvichnova, a former instructor of Natasha's. She is to locate the depot, infiltrate and terminate Klausvichnova.

We cut to Kenya, and a hidden facility near Mt Kenya. Irma receives a report of a shipment due to arrive from Nairobi. We learn that "Irma" is a SHIELD agent, in disguise, and that Prescott had killed the real Irma! We cut to the Nairobi rail station and see someone in safari gear observing below...



He spots his target and Black Widow, in a hijab and niqab (traditional muslim female attire, in public). The man in the raincoat (Bishop) boards the train, then a guard finds a surprise, as he runs into Black Widow. She takes out the guard with a high kick to the face and then bolts. others come on the scene and rush after her, failing to check the roof, where she observes them. She then travels down the train, via rooftop. She enters a car and finds it empty. meanwhile, our safari outfitted observer is ina Land Rover and observes back up helicopters jumping the gun. On the train, natasha runs into Mr Bishop. Bishop interrogates Natasha and is satisfied she is okay.

The train pulls up to the fortress and guards turn their weapons on Natasha. They are interrupted by the helos, which launch an airstrike...



...and a commando assault. While the battle rages, Black Widow hunts for Irma, then encounters her ina corridor. The meeting goes differently than planned...



Bishop turns his pistol on natasha and takes aim, but is hit from behind...



Her savior is Langley, her companion from New Years Eve. he explains that he knew Bishop in the 40s and 50s and he was a mercenary. he joined their side, but he didn't trust him. prescott got the dirt on Bishop and killed Irma. Bishop was sent to relay orders to the fake Irma, and the commando raid was to give him a chance to try to kill the look alike. The commandos launched the assault early and Widow's move caused an timing issue, leading to the fake's death. Widow was sent to distract Bishop and help draw him out. She was kept in the dark about the fake, in case she acted differently and tipped Bishop. Widow is angry and Langley says everyone is expendable.

Natasha is POd and walks off, leaving Langley to his private joke.

Lady Daemon-In Scotland, Maegan Daemon is born in the Summer Solstice, in 1904. She is 6 and her sister Alisabeth, and she are companions. Her sister has her first period and performs a magic ritual over an ancient book, on the roof of their keep. The next day, their mother is found, ripped limb from limb. Maegan studies and repeats the process on her first period. Their father dies. Alisabeth goes to Europe while Maegan remains.

When Maegan is 21, Alisabeth returns and meets with the clan elders, in secret. They disappear and Alisabeth renounces claim to the family title, making Maegan Lady daemon. She also leaves her a crystal necklace and Maegan's power grows. her clan prospers as the world plunges into the Great Depression. She and a boyfriend look through the tarot deck and find two Death cards. She then travels south and finds Alisabeth conducting a ritual at Stonehenge, but cannot stop her. She then travels to America on the Hindenburg. Maegan lays out a spread and then Alisabeth appears and draws Maegan through the decks to the internal skeleton of the dirigible, where they chat...



She summons a demon, the boyfriend shoots it with his revolver, setting it on fire and the airship explodes in flame, crashing to the Earth. Maegan survives to be Lady daemon, forever bound to her sister, one opposing the other.

Daughters of the Dragon-Misty Knight and Colleen Wng are on the run from some goons. They flash back to the start, as they were answering the call of a police contact and find him dead, at a subway station. they make a report to the police and Misty spots someone. later, at their offices, an old friend of Misty's, Angie Freeman, turns up. She and Misty catch up and Misty passes out from the wine, to be awakened by Colleen, the next morning. She is wearing a gold choker that Angie had on and doesn't remember how it got there. they are summoned by a medical examiner. the cop they were to meet had been dead for 10 days. they talk to colleagues and he was working on why crime rates in his neighborhood suddenly dropped to zero. he had an identikit sketch of Angie, which Misty hides. They go to the cop's apartment and find a choker like Misty's. they meet neighbors, who wear similar wolfhead chokers.

They meet with Angie's editor,w ho says she was working on a piece about bizarre murders of junkies, prostitutes and pimps, possibly related to killings in Europe. Misty meets up with Angie and shares a cab and Angie sinks fangs into her. She is taken away and Colleen followed in another cab. She broke Misty out, leading to the thugs chasing them. They split up and Coleen escapes on a subway train (on the undercarriage!) and then gets home and grabs her katana. She then goes to the cops neighbors and threatens them into pointing her to Misty, who is held for some ritual. Colleen interrupts and slices through the crowd, then impales Angie's arm with her wakizashi. Misty grabs Colleen by the throat and chokes her out. She is about to bite her throat when she rebels, grabs the katana and goes to town. Angie still has control and brings Misty close. Colleen hits her with a silver hairneedle and breaks her hold. Misty swats her away and impales her with a piece of a broken barrier. Colleen then cuts her head off. the crowd gets ugly, but backs down. They had sided with the vampire for protection. Colleen and Misty go off on a Caribbean vacation, for the epilogue.

Thoughts: Lady Daemon is typical Claremont magical stuff. It's rather muddled and lacks quite a bit of logic and also indulges in some underage nudity, as the childhood rituals would have occured at the onset of puberty, which makes for some pervy shots, which suggest Lynn Graeme was asleep on the job. It's from a distance; but, still; this is the kind of thing that could have brought legal action, had anyone noticed, fromt he outside. As it was, this issue was supposed to be Marvel Preview # 24; but, Michael Golden was in a car accident and was late with the art. The Hindenburg angle is contrived and was probably inspired by the 1975 Robert Wise film, starring George C Scott, which perpetuated conspiracy theories, via a fictional thriller/disaster film approach. I didn't think much of it; ut, it's not really my cup of tea.

Daughters of the Dragonis fine; but, the back and forth timeline gets confusing and the vampire bit ends up being cliched. Marshall Rogers' art is a bit subdued, compared to his other work. It's not quite up to the story from the end of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, though it is just as kinky, with an allusion to Angie being gay, as Misty remarks she is "not that way," when they met up in the cab. there is also a definite BDSM vibe with the ritual, at the climax...



The real star of this is the Black Widow story, which revels in cynical spy thrillers, particularly Len Deighton. This obviously informs Paul Gulacy's use of Michael Caine, as Harry Palmer, for the model of Bishop, complete with raincoat and glasses. Langley is Humphrey Bogart. There is plenty of action and intrigue and we see how far Gulacy has progressed since Master of Kung Fu. At the time this was done, Gulacy put out a Black Widow portfolio, in conjunction with SQP....



I first saw that in a mailing, from a company from whom I had ordered a few back issues. The artwork was stunning and I really wanted to get it, but, it was a bit pricey for me, at the time. I later found the portfolio at a convention and bought it. A few years after it was produced, MTV debuted and on that network I saw the video for Frida (Anni-Frid Lyngstad), for "I Know There's Something Going On," with her walking through city streets, in a raincoat, in dark lighting and it reminded me of the images...



Gee, can you spot Phil Collins' involvement?

At the same time, there was The Human League's "Don't You Want Me?"...



Pretty much any noirish cinema with an attractive woman in a trenchcoat, collar turned up, skulking in shadows. Gulacy really fills the imagery with atmosphere, both in the portfolio and in the story.

Macchio's script is pretty good, one of his best stories (and he didn't have many really exceptional ones, though several really good to great ones, with Mark Gruenwald). he does need a geography lesson, though, as Kenya is in East Africa, not Southern and definitely not near South Africa. Also, white soldiers loading arms on a train in Nairobi is goins to raise suspicion, that long after independence from Britain. Really, if the Soviets were running arms, Angola would have been a more likely staging area, as Cuba was backing one side of the Angolan Civil War, while the CIA was backing UNITA. Meanwhile, everyone else was caught in the crossfire.

This story would later be reprinted, along with the Perez story, from marvel Fanfare (also by Macchio). Actually, Macchio was probably the best Black Widow writer, all things considered. He also got to work with top notch artists, on his stories, and the stories were tailored to their strengths. Wouldn't have minded a few more.

Marvel Graphic Novel #20: “Greenberg the Vampire” (1986)

Well, there’s a lot that could be said about this one, which puts it a cut above others in this series. Its villain, Lilith, goes back into antiquity but was fleshed out most clearly in the medieval Jewish document The Alphabet of Ben Sira. She then acquired Kabbalistic significance and was conflated with the vampiric Greek mythical creature, the Lamia. Lilith is a baby stealer and sexual temptress, both of which are seen here in her interactions with Oscar over the course of his life. She can be restrained by the actions of three angels, so Jews were encouraged to wear amulets bearing their three names, as Tony Isabella explained to us in Vampire Tales #4 (1974):





Isabella is being delicate with Lilith’s offense, which more specifically was a demand to be on top during sexual intercourse. This came to be seen as a symbol of self-determinism in modern society, leading her to be celebrated in events such as the mid-90s Lilith Fair, a traveling music festival of female singer-songwriters organized by Canadian artist Sarah Mclachlan. As for DeMatteis, he's been thinking about an autobiography involving vampires for a while.



When the hero of a written work is himself a writer, it’s practically a foregone conclusion that he is a stand-in for the author. Greenberg the Vampire is best understood in conversation with DeMatteis’ three other autobiographical comic books of the period: Brooklyn Dreams (almost a straight autobiography); Iceman (autobiography veiled in a superhero/fantasy story); and Moonshadow (autobiography veiled in a space opera). They all deal with DeMatteis’ childhood as a Jewish/Catholic lad, and with first sexual experiences, including deflowering as a teen in the hands of an experienced older woman. The details vary, but the broad strokes are the same.





Moonshadow and Iceman have a lot to say about the relationship between a child and a father who seems like a god. In contrast, Greenberg the Vampire spends its time on the Jewish side of his family, his mother’s side:



Ira is one of the family members pictured above. In Moonshadow, Ira is sort of a hirsute, brutish monster uncle who alternately protects and abuses the mixed-race protagonist.



Oscar the protagonist is an insecure writer who feels the need to criticize the works of other aspiring writers:



But later he confesses this was just jealousy. Also, a peek at Oscar’s own writing reveals that just like Dematteis at the time, he’s writing a space opera about a young protagonist losing his virginity to an experienced older woman:



Oscar gets a job writing a film script but can’t get the job done, and he’s wracked by guilt for his attraction toward the sixteen year old female lead Evie (=Eve), who turns out to be Lilith in disguise, drawing him in.



Eventually the demon is vanquished by the power of familial love, just like the demon/god/father figure Oblivion in Iceman:





After the action is over, DeMatteis (through Oscar) gives a lengthy dissertation on the writer’s need to express the experiences of his own life through a fantasy allegory:



The story of his father kicking him out on supposed grounds of illegitimacy shows up Brooklyn Dreams as well. That kind of thing would really screw a kid up. It's just more evidence that all the typewritten sections of Greenberg the Vampire come from other writings that DeMatteis himself wrote as freestanding pieces but never published.





DeMatteis talks a lot in Moonshadow and Brooklyn Dreams about masturbation as a potent stress-reliever, so I couldn't help but think I found it here as well, even though it's a weird weird way to talk about it, if it's even that. Or maybe a gay reference?

Gulacy was producing some great black and white work around this time - what was it, late 70s or early 80s? Once again though, I don't like the cover much.