Post by rberman on Oct 17, 2019 23:25:49 GMT -5
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.
This Lady Daemon origin story was a set-up for her future apperances in X-Men that never happened. Claremont did manage to get Lilith, Marvel's Vampirella knock-off, into X-Men once though. And Dracula twice.
Lady Daemon's basic traits of "child of light and darkness, blessed and cursed with eldritch power and destiny" would find expression in Claremont's characters Phoenix and Magik. The Lovecraftian demon touches her orgasmically, "mind and soul," which is a slight variation on Claremont's usual "body and soul."
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, who 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.
Daughters of the Dragon is 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.
They meet with Angie's editor, who 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.
Daughters of the Dragon is 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.
Two things about this story. First, it's a sequel to Claremont's early story "Angie's Soul" from the Marvel monster mag Vampire Tales #6 (1974). That story showed two Harlem cops, Angie and Sarran, investigating a string of dead junkies and drug dealers and finding that a New York neighborhood is secretly supporting a vampire who cleans up the streets but occasionally requires human sacrifice. He makes Angie into a vampire. Even her brother Thomas and the local priest Father Lyons both support the vampire over the cops.
Second, Claremont deserves some credit for obliquely tackling the thorny 1970s problem of Mafia infiltration of New York society, by way of an allegory in which a neighborhood sells its soul to a vicious killer in order to buy some peace and quiet. The current story is essentially a set up for the panel in which the enraged citizens turn on Misty and Colleen for killing their evil protector. How many Mafia hit men walked away free because of the support of short-sighted citizens who should have been helping put them behind bars? Misty and Colleen are disgusted with their community and seriously consider moving permanently to the beach.
And yes, Claremont does make room for a "body and soul" in this one.
