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Post by samurai32 on Sept 10, 2019 18:33:43 GMT -5
Master of Kung Fu #30Kitties! (Mild Language; actually pretty tame for Sylvester, he's a pretty salty kitty) Creative Team: Doug Moench-writer, Paul Gulacy-pencils, Dan Adkins-inks, Artie Simek-letters, Janice Cohen-colors, Len Wein-edits Synopsis: Gulacy's splash page... When we last left the Gulf of Lions, Chi was facing Razor Fist, Clive reston had set off explosives to destroy Carlton Velcro's supply of raw opium, and Chi and Tarr were supposed to get him out of the fortified compound. We now return, with the butt whooping already in progress....... Chi tries to reason with the bruiser, then flips past him. He grabs a candelabra (high tech lair and the guy lights it with candles...) and uses it to block Razor Fist's strikes. However, hot wax pretty much makes it untenable and Chi drops it. Razor Fist goes to slash Chi and he catches the blade between his palms, then shows why he is the Master of Kung Fu... Meanwhile, Reston has been cot and he didn't get all of the opium. he banters with Velcro, while Tarr is on a ledge, outside, trying to figure out how to rescue Reston, when guards on the ground actually do their job. Tarr is spotted and he dives through the window to avoid being shot, right into the fire, with reston. he creates enough distraction for the pair of them to bolt down a corridor and end up playing Han Solo on the Death Star... Tarr and Reston are caught and interrogated. Back at the ranch, Chi still has one blade to worry about. Razor Fist strikes and Chi ducks and RF gets the blade jammed into a statue and Chi makes the most of his indow of opportunity... He picks up the ear of the statue and moves on. Of the coast, Petrie and Nayland Smith wait in their seaplane. Smith broods about the mission, while dressed like MacArthur. Reston and Tarr are put before a trap door, that will drop them into the panther-infested moat. Just then a guard goes down after being hit by some object. It was the ear from the statue and Chi enters and faces the other guard... He threatens to drop a bomb if tarr and reston aren't released and Velcro gives in. They run from the room and Velcro goes over to a console, flicks a switch and the bridge they are crossing suddenly drops a section, and dumps them into the panther-infested moat. Reston yells for Chi to throw the bomb and he does...it was the ear. Plan B is running to a door they spotted, which isn't locked. Tarr and reston get in, while Chi plays with thelitties, then gets yanked inside. They walk through an area and step on a grate and it swivels and dumps them into a chute. They eventually come out of a rock ledge, in a cavern, where they see all of this.... Thoughts: More tremendous action as Chi gets to unfold more martial arts, Tarr and Reston do a lot of running and falling, and Razor Fist does the job to Shang-Chi. Velcro's little seaside resort has al kinds of traps, straight out of Dr No and the Avengers (tv show, like The House That Jack Built). Tons of mayhem, and a surprise related to Velcro's other business: nuclear terrorism! Greath Thunderballs of Fire! Gulacy needs help with issue and Adkins proves a perfect inker, as the mood is maintained and the look of Chi is refined, as he favors Bruce Lee even more. Tarr's hair continues to come back in (MI-6 must have had Rogaine earlier than the rest) and Reston hasn't yet taken on the look of Sean Connery. Funny enough, with all of the great character work, Gulacy struggles with the architecture of Velcro's fortress and with basic vehicles. That ;ast page looks rather flat, when you examine those elements (and the missiles). He does some Steranko touches; but, Sterank was a bit more polished. Gulacy will improve; but, he is no Ken Adam. So, we wrap up with the next chapter; what lies in store for us? How about Pavane? Does nobody else notice that Shang breaks Razor Fists right arm/blade, but later drawings show the right intact and the left broken?
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 12, 2019 18:19:07 GMT -5
Just a quick note to say I haven't abandoned my reviews; but, it may be a little while before I pick them up. The RIP thread, on the Community forum, will explain things.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 19, 2019 14:20:01 GMT -5
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #26It's about time they had a Bruce Lee issue!! Creative Team: White Tiger-Bill Mantlo & Jim Sherman; Swordquest-John Warner & Tony DeZuniga; John Warner-editor Synopsis: White Tiger-WT faces some high tech assassins and Abe Brown faces a snake pit and Mole. Blackbyrd is okay an slowly inches his hand towards his revolver, while the killers are focused on WT. Then, he opens fire, freeing the police detective to also attack. They free Hector's sister, take down the killers and Hector kicks the leader out a window, to his death. His sister flips out on him and runs off. Blackbyrd gets Hector to help him with the investigation into Jack of Heart's father's death. Abe hasn't done anything yet and Bob Diamond is caught in an avalanche, believed dead, which is the cable that Lin-Sun receives. At the end, Bob crawls out of a hole, alive. There follows on article on the film, Bruce Lee, Life and Legend. Then, an interview with Robert Clouse. Swordquest-Kwanh-Che enters a tea house to rest and is attacked by ninja. Sun Ok and her master are at another, when the Raven's ninjas turn up there. Seagull is waiting for them and they blow up good; they bow up real good. Kwang-Che is approached about teaming up with some others to prevent Raven from stealing plans to an ironclad ship and kill it's inventor. This ship is preventing the Japanese from moving their ar forward, to China. Kwang-Che and the woman, Cho Yun Chinsong, are sent to stop him. They meet up with Tomar, a Portuguese who works with the inventor. Kwang-Che insults Ch and she runs off, She gets over it and Tomar rounds the lovers up and then the ninja attack. The trio fight, protect the inventor, take away the plans and escape. the "turtle" ship decimates the Japanese, but the trio's ship is hit by cannon fire and sinks. It seems the Raven may have won. Thoughts: Meh....White Tiger is okay; but, nothing much happens, except the assassins are beaten back and Hector's sister runs out on him. Nothing happens with Abe, in North Africa. Swordquest really drops in narrative quality without Sanho Kim. Warner seems to be all over the place and I can't tell if it is because his plot is so disjointed or that he is trying to make sense of DeZuniga's art, via the Marvel Method. Sanho Kim probably brought a lot of the history to this and did much to shape the story. Warner seems a bit lost. Seagull and Sun-Ok are on their own, while Kwang-Che is recruited by the Chinese to protect the inventor, whose weapon is defending Korea. That's fine; but, it doesn't seem to have been plotted out very thoroughly and it's rather choppy, as a result.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 19, 2019 14:52:12 GMT -5
Master of Kung Fu #44Creative Team: Doug Moench-writer, Paul Gulacy-pencils, Jack Abel-inks, Annette Kawecki-;etters, Don Warfield-colors, Archie Goodwin-edits Synopsis: Shock-Wave is being hauled away as Ducharme explains to Shang-Chi and Leiko Wu how she, Fu's concubine, became Agent D for Sir Dennis Nayland Smith... She was in love with a Si-Fan, sent to kill Smith and Petrie. The attack failed and her lover, Pan Chen survived. They fled Hunan, by Fu found them. Pan Chen was killed slowly, by hordes of poisonous spiders, while Ducharme watched. She was cast aside and went to Smith. He convinced her to feed info to Fu and curry favor, and become his mole inside Fu's organization. She spent years feeding info, while suffering Fu's pleasures; but, now, she is blown and the Golden Daggers are after her. Meanwhile, in London, Reston and Larner hunt for bombers and inside moles. Laner identifies the bomb components as the work of a man named Tarrant (cute), in Switzerland. In Switzerland, Sir Hubert Griswold entertains his guests. He relays orders for Chi and leiko to go to Lausanne, to meet Reston. The MI-6 mole, Petrie, relays that info, to set a trap. Smith stops by and collects Petrie to visit Tarr, in hospital. The agents meet and head to Lausanne to find the Golden Dagger HQ. Leiko goes on motorcycle, while Clive and Chi take a sports car. They get held up behind a truck, before they are able to pass, then a green sports car appears from nowhere, passes them and a man pops up and opens fire... A low hanging bridge takes out the gunner, while Clive shoots the driver dead, through the car window. Leiko runs into her own trap and handles it... However, Oriental Expediters fire the world's strangest bazooka and drop her with a rockslide and capture her... Reston and Chi come to a house, in the mountains. They sneak in; but Reston gets caught by some OE guys. They fight. In London, Shock-Wave is wheeled in and he mutters to Petrie about the bomb and Smith hears. Petrie shoots Smith, puts the gun in SW's hand and calls the guards. Chi and Reston beat up the OE goons and face a surprise visitor... Thoughts: Twists and turns and high body counts. Petrie has been exposed, but Smith has been shot. Leiko is captured and Reston and Chi are now facing Fah Lo Suee. Ducharme is at Griswold's estate, still a target of Fu's forces. Lots of intrigue. We also get a great action sequence, with the car attack on Chi and Reston, which the Bond crew would have loved to create. Exciting issue.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 25, 2019 15:54:06 GMT -5
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #27Creative Team: WT-Mantlo & Ron Wilson, Swordquest: John Warner & Tony DeZuniga, John Warner-edits White Tiger: Hector is aiding Blackbyrd and the cop in trying to locate El Tigre. The hassle a bar and the barman, Whitewash, an albino. Whitewash unlaods with a tommy gun, as Hector is distracted by a tv. The bullets miss the cop and Blackbyrd and WT disarms him. Then he notices something funny about the tv, like a camera lens and suddenly the tv is blasting at them. WT takes it out and Blackbyrd drops the N-word, to Whitewash to get him to talk. WT talks with a young girl who is playing handball, who gets blown up in an explosion. Hector's younger, junkie brother, Filipo, stumbles into the family home, half dead. That is followed by a pair of features on real martial artists and a film review of the Jim Kelly film, Hot Potato (not one of his etter ones) and the Lee Van Clief film, The Stranger and the Gunfighter. Swordquest: Kwang Che, Chinsong and Tomar have made it to shore and pull in a crate of food, floating in the surf. However, Raven's ship happens along and fires upon them. they move inland and encounter Raven's men, wo take them prisoner. They are Chinese brigands, paid by Raven. They hide when mounted Chinese soldiers happen along. They are brought to a mountain fortress, where they find Raven and his ninja... Kwang Che attacks and gets beaten down. We learn that Kwang Che's firesword had been handed to his father by Raven's father, after an alliance between Korea and Japan, to stop a Mongol invasion. Raven felt betrayed and claims the sword as his own. Kwang Che is taken away, then one of the ninja turns on the rest and turns out to be a mole, working to stop Raven. he frees Kwang Che and sends him out, promising to free Chinsong and Tomar. Kwang Che runs into some of the brigands and fights. The others show up and help fight the brigands. The ninja mole offers to block the attack and let the three escape and takes an arrow to the soldier. then, the Imperial Chinese Army turn up. Thought: White Tiger doesn't amount to much, other than seeing Hector's sister falling apart, over the knowledge that he is WT. Meanwhile, Mantlo tries to be edgy with dialogue from a Blaxploitation movie. Problem is, coming from a white writer, it is problematic. Blackbyrd uses the slur, so it's coming from an African-American character; but, given the nature of these stories, feels too forced. i previously talked about the excessive use of "boy", with Mole and Abe, how clumsy it felt. This isn't much better. The problem is that Mantlo hasn't really established credible dialogue styles to justify the use of such language. His use of Spanish, with Hector and his family is a bit haphazard, though not as bad. I have to wonder what Ron Wilson thought, when he saw the finished comic, since he would have drawn it before the dialoguing. The basic context is fine, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. This was a common problem in comics of the 70s, as they took their cues from tv and movies; but, were mostly white, middle class, suburban writers, with little knowledge of the streets, credible use of slang, and how to create rounded characters within those trappings, rather than stereotypes. Swordquest continues to be a bit slighter than it aims to be. Sanho Kim is really missed, in terms of his artistic and probably plotting contributions. This feels too episodic and lacks the tight narrative that would seem to be required of an epic.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 25, 2019 16:36:17 GMT -5
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #28This is a Bruce Lee issue, with a comic biography of him. Creative Team:Martin sands-writer, Joe Staton-Pencils, Tony DeZuniga & the Tribe-inks, John Warner-edits Synopsis: The story begins in Hong Kong, withBruce being rushed to hospital... Bruce's birth, in San Francisco, is covered in a text piece, with spot illustrations, then it transitions to his teenage years, in Hong Kong and back to graphic format. We see Bruce get into street brawls, with little training, then turn to martial arts training. he is mentored by Yip Man, master of the Wing Chun style of kung fu. He gets into more brawls, skilled in fighting; but, lacking the spiritual discipline of tao. He eventually figures it out (someone has been reading the Tao Te Chang). It then sends Bruce to America, in another text transition piece with exposition dump. He starts his school and performs demonstrations of Jun Fan Gung Fu at Ed Parker's tournaments, then lands the role of Kato, on the Green Hornet. We end this part with the series cancelled and an offer from Hong Kong. An article on the philosophy of Bruce's The Tao of Jeet Kun Do follows. the book laid out Bruce's approach to the spiritual side of martial arts and his concept of breaking with tradition and using what works and disposing of those things that have no real place in combat. Bruce was one of the early proponents of wat would become known as "mixed martial arts," as he trained with Gene LeBell to learn grappling techniques (both judo and submission wrestling), as well as exchange techniques with some of his students, including grappler Larry Hartsell and Filipino martial artist Dan Inosanto, who taught him kali and other styles from the Philippines. There is a film piece, then the bio resumes. Bruce is rejected by Hollywood and goes to Hong Kong. However, the film they show is Enter the Dragon, which was a Hollywood production, with robert Clouse, after his HK films (The Big Boss, Fists of Fury). it then flashes back to a weightlifting accident that hospitalized him, where he developed the book The Tao of Jeet Kun Do. There is also a scene of Bruce holding baby Brandon... We see Bruce scout the potential of making a film, called the Silent Flute, in India; but, the lack of trained stunt people makes it too hard. he returns to Hong Kong and we get more text exposition about his earlier films and problems with tabloid gossip. We see filming of return of the Dragon, stardom of Enter the Dragon's release, rumors of affairs and then Bruce's death. Thoughts: decent bio, if rather thinly sketched. Space limitations are a problem and it ignores a lot. Subjects like Bruce's childhood career in Hong Kong movies are left to the text portion. It also ignores that Bruce was a dancer, who frequented dance clubs and competitions and his background in dance gave him his footwork in the martial arts. Many who trained with him, worked on films with him, or saw him in demonstrations remarked on his speed and footwork. It ignores his groundbreaking training techniques, such us sparring with fencers to work on hand speed against a foil. He moved away from bulk weightlifting to muscle conditioning, focusing more on the interactions of muscles and experimented with electrical stimulation methods for muscles (which could be rather dangerous). The feature really fails in covering his family life and how big a deal it was for him to be married to a white woman, in that age. We don't see their romance or much of their family life. We see baby Brandon, but not daughter Shannon, though the last page of the story has an image of Bruce holding both children. The sad irony is the statement that Bruce makes, that Brandon will be bigger than he was. Unfortunately, brandon was just getting noticed, when an on-set accident led to his death, while filming The Crow. Bruce died at age 32. Brandon was 28. Joe Staton does a decent job, though the likeness isn't particularly close. That may be related to whether or not this was approved by Linda Lee, as she would have control over his likeness. Marvel could do the story, without her approval, using a more generic likeness. The inking moves it away from Staton's more cartoony style, of the period, though it is his pencils that give weight to things. He does ed up being somewhat overpowered by DeZuniga & company. This had been in the works, without being on the schedule and was inserted in the place of the material in the next issue, despite the previous issue promising continuation of those stories.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 25, 2019 17:13:01 GMT -5
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #29Swordquest is missing its finale, which makes no sense, given that they skipped a whole issue. Instead, we get Shang-Chi and Iron Fist together. Creative Team: MOKF & IF-Doug Moench and Rudy Nebres, WT-Mantlo and Wilson, with Sonny Trinidad & Rudy Mesina, John Warner-edits Synopsis: Shang Chi is in the sewers of London, looking for a kidnapped demolitions expert, forced into a maze, where he fights Si-Fan assassins... Iron Fist is also in the sewers, looking for a kidnapped Colleen Wing. He fights Si-Fan and travels through the maze. Chi runs into another and is led to a central chamber, where a man in an iron mask holds the target. IF fights his way through and ends up in the same chamber. Everything turns out to be a bluff. Fu Manchu isn't involved and Colleen was not kidnapped. He forces Chi and IF to fight. they do a pro wrestling match until IF is in a position to use his Iron Fist and smash the balcony where Ironmask stands, dropping him away from the captive bomb expert. A bomb set at London Bridge (Tower Bridge, actually) is a dud, designed only for smoke and noise. Ironmask is revealed as an old compatriot of Smith's, who was brainwashed and his Si-Fan are phonies. Don McGregor savages The Stranger and the Gunfighter. That is followed by a short piece on new martial arts novels and books. White Tiger-In the wake of the girl's death, a mob of onlookers becomes rowdy, calling White Tiger a killer. A riot breaks out and WT and Blackbyrd fight for their lives. WT takes out the mob, but goes a bit nuts and has to be stopped by blackbyrd, who also drops some Latino racial slurs (rhymes with "pick"). Jack of Hearts wakes up at the hospital and takes off, using his explosive powers to fly through the air, looking for vengeance. El Tigre is still unknown. Lin-Sun and Lotus still think Bob Diamond is dead and he crawls out of the avalanche. Abe survives being shot by Mole and is considered the deliverer of the people he is with. They call him Black Tiger (which i guess means he will be facing Tiger Mask, at Sumo Hall, in Japan). Thoughts: The Shang-Chi/Iron Fist team up ends up being less than epic, as have previous crossovers. It's all a bit too contrived and meaningless. It reads like an average Marvel team-Up story, though Moench is a better writer than most who did those stories. Don't know why they continue to waste these team ups, instead of developing a big epic, other than Moench is the only one who had long term success with this and he doesn't control Ion Fist. White Tiger is more punching and kicking, with shock endings. hector's brother is rigged with a bomb and needs help. hector's fight with the mob is way too contrived and Blackbyrd spout Dirty Harry-isms isn't character development. The SOT have been ignored, then shoved back in too often and their story seems to go nowhere. If Warner is editing Mantlo's material, he's doing a p-poor job of it. There are some decent plot elements here; but, the rest is pointless distraction. Drop the multiple plot threads and stick to one story and bring it to a conclusion and move on. Mantlo just isn't able to manage subplots, like Claremont and they got out of control in his books, more often than not). The rest is filler, though if you enjoy quickie adventure pulps, the book section makes for a nice reference, as it covers more of the Black Samurai series (which spawned the Jim Kelly movie) and The Baroness, a Modesty Blaise/Emma Peel ripoff, with less depth. These were sold in paperback racks, alongside Shadow and Doc Savage reprints, Mack Bolan and destroyer novels, and similar fare (including Conan and his ilk).
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 25, 2019 19:22:40 GMT -5
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #30Creative Team: WT-Mantlo & Perez and Sonny Trinidad; Swordquest-Warner and DeZuniga; John Warner-edits Synopsis: WT-Jack of Hearts turns up at the site of the riot and gets the 411 from Blackbyrd and the cop).... Blackbyrd gets a bit snarky and Jack vaporizes his pistol, then flies off. BB set up the confrontation to get Jack looking for El Tigre. Hector whines about being hero, then has visions of dead people, including Jack's dad and gets over it. He hears his sister scream and finds the guys who are menacing his sister, while his brother is wired with dynamite. he takes out the hoods... Then bro reveals the dynamite, which is payback for not delivering heroin to El Tigre. While this goes down, Jack berates the Daily Globe reporter for their bad story and sets the record straight, Bob Diamond runs into a bear, Lin-Sun & Lotus find out they are the beneficiaries of Bob's money (he's believed dead) amd reject it (and the oily exec who worked for Bob wants it for himself), and Abe is leading revolutionaries, in North Africa, under a mask and a burnoose, as Black Tiger. There is a piece about Aaron Banks, promoter of those martial arts demos on ABC's Wide World of Sports, with shots of him breaking those stereotypical thin karate boards (notice it's never a 2x4?) and tossing Roger Moore, on the Mike Douglas Show. The guy looks like a cross between Tiny Tim and Alice Cooper... More movie news, including Murder By Death (!!!) and Super Weapon (w/ Ron Van Clief). Murder By death is a great comedy; but, there are no martial arts on display; just Peter Sellers in yellowface. Swordquest-The Chines Army lets the trio go; but ot the helpful ninja. They question if he is one of them and they have to do a Peter and deny him, leading to his death. They are allowed to depart. In the woods, they are attacked by people who turn out to be some of Seagull's men. They are taken to him, where he explains that he created a network of agents who fight for no nation, just to defend the weak. Chinsong offers Kwang Che some nookie They then travel to Japan and work with Seagull's men to stop Raven from killing the regent and Seagull fights Raven and is killed by treachery. Kwang Che jumps into the fight, gets his hands on the firesword and kills raven. He then breaks the sword out of grief. A ninja tells him Seagull's work will go on and Kwang and the rest leave and we see the ninja is Sun Ok. Thoughts: Nice to see Perez back; but, the story still needs work. At least the interludes was left for the end. I'm so ready for the SOT to be done, as it distracts from the better White Tiger story, which isn't really progressing well. Mantlo is spending way too much time just going from fight to fight without advancing the search for El Tigre. The man was never gonna be a mystery writer. Archie Goodwin would have real clues leading somewhere. Swordquest ends with big fights and it doesn't end up being the American Lone Wolf and Cub, which I think was Warner's intention. There is a decent story there; but, there are some confusing changes in scenes and character likenesses are too similar, when Sanho Kim wasn't involved. Warner talks about the future of the magazine, with rotating back-ups and White Tiger as the lead; but, the future will be short. Daughters of the Dragon coming up.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 25, 2019 21:38:21 GMT -5
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #31White Tiger is being attacked by the Tick!! Rudy Nebres did the cover and the interior, with an equally ripped Shang Chi. Someone introduced him to abs. Creative Team: Mantlo, Staton & Trinidad-story & art; John Warner-edits White Tiger, Shang-Chi, & Iron Fist team up. Under Mantlo's pen. So, MTU story, no doubt, minus Spidey banter. Synopsis: Fred Hembeck takes Marvel to task for all they left out of the Bruce bio, in #28, though in a constructive manner. Hector's brother has taken him to a waterfront spot... A freighter pulls into port (without tugs and at a rate that would have it crash through the pier...) and it is named El Tigre, with a Chilean flag (not Panama?). Hector leaps down, astonishing Filipo. Jack flies in and lands, surprising Filipo. Then the high tech ninja goons show up, El Tigre is the ship, Stryke is their leader and the fight is on. WT goes sneaky while they fight.Meanwhile, Chi is in NYC, with Danny Rand, after flying back from London and stop by Nightwing Restorations, where lights are on and voices are heard. inside are Misty Knight and Blackbyrd, who knew each others as cops. Blackbyrd tells them about WT and El Tige and they head out to take a peak. On the ship, WT is poking through the ship and comes across guards, tosses his amulets, ducks some bullets and fights. He then runs into Mr Wender and more armed goods. Blackbyrd flies a Huey out, with Chi and IF, who then hop down to help out Jack. Blackbyrd's helo is hit and crashes into the anchor chain and the ship breaks loose (even though you don't drop anchor when you moor to a pier). That jars everyone off kilter and the heroes make a comeback. They whoop the villains, WT ad Filipo find everyone dead, and WT reveals he figured out that Filipo killed them all, when he removed himself from the fight and that he was El Tigre. he expects the help of Fu Manchu and Fu blows him off. Filipo triggers a 5 minute timer and everyone leaves and he goes up. More film reviews and talk of martial arts schools and competitions. Thoughts: Meh......... Mantlo underwhelms with a twist ending that doesn't really work, logically and contrived crossovers. Lots of fight scenes, nice Staton art; but, it feels like they just pulled an ending out of their collective..............um, files. The story looks good, which has been the saving grace of White Tiger, though Mantlo rose to the occasion in some installments. Mantlo is decent with beginnings, but uneven through chapters and rushes the ending. It was better with Perez, who I have to believe had a hand in the plotting.
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Post by tarkintino on Sept 25, 2019 21:59:53 GMT -5
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #28 That's a rough cover. I guess no one should have expected accuracy at this point in time; the comic bio is selling the manufactured story about his death (or the hospital part of it) as much as Bruceploitation films such as Bruce Lee: The Man the Myth. It appears the woman is supposed to be Linda Lee, with the man at her side being Raymond Chow? If so, the truth of the matter is that Chow called Linda and told her Bruce was being transported to the hospital (in fact, she arrived before the ambulance did). Moreover, Chow not only saw Lee clearly dead in co-star/mistress Betty Ting Pei's apartment, but dressed Lee's nude body and waited before calling an ambulance, so he could avoid scandal (not that it worked) by concocting the story that Lee was merely rehearsing a part. Again, this was a comic, but it--like so many publications--sold the myth, instead of facts. More inaccuracies; when Lee first worked on The Green Hornet, he was injuring stuntmen (sending some to the hospital) quite often, as he knew nothing about stunt fighting for the camera, so he had to learn the art of stunt performance. Although he did work to control his movements, he would return to his actor/stunt people-hurting ways in his Hong Kong films. Well, not rejected outright; after the cancellation of The Green Hornet, he did have guest roles on Ironside, Here Come the Brides, the movie Marlowe and what is considered one of his best part, on the short-lived Longstreet starring James Franciscus (best known as astronaut Brent from 1970's Beneath the Planet of the Apes). Indeed.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 25, 2019 22:28:57 GMT -5
Deadly hands of Kung Fu #32Rudy Nebres actually makes Colleen Wing look Asian (or of Asian ancestry), which she often didn't. Creative Team: Daughters of the Dragon-Chris Claremont and Marshall Rogers, SOT-Mantlo & Staton & Trinidad; John Warner-edits Synopsis: Daughters of the Dragon- Colleen Wing and Misty Knight are in Hong Kong, in a bar/brothel, called Jolly's, and are asking for info on an Emil Vachon (younger brother of Mad Dog Maurice, Butcher Paul, and Vivian, I assume). The bartender tries to threaten and Misty snaps his bungstarter (Hehehehehehehe.....) They leave and a Bruce Lee-lookin' mo-fo, named Chung, sends one of his goons to tail them. Colleen flashes back to the funeral of her Japanese grandfather, where her uncle (head of the Japanese Secret Service) told her about Vachon and his part in his death) Back in the present, they are attacked by Han, the goon. Cue the music..... The ladies proceed to open a can of demure whoop-ass..... Sheer numbers make the fight difficult and the leaders fight to make an escape hole and run, losing some clothing in the bargain (funny how that happens, though Modesty Blaise used to tear off her skirt to fight, which I think Claremont & Rogers are homaging). they have a running fight and run into a police station, minus tops and then get the police to send out a decoy and spot Chung. he's ID'd by the detective and Colleen follows. She sees the decoy vehicle overturned and everyone dead. Colleen spots him, but hides. Chung shoves her aside to get to an appointment. Colleen follows. Misty shows up with a boat and they follow him out into the harbor. They spot the junk which is his target and tool up, where Misty pulls out an ancient Luger (actually an Erma ET-22 .22 cal Navy Luger) and Colleen gets a sword, after getting into her leotard (Misty has black combat clothes, while Colleen dresses for aerobics; what's wrong with this picture?) The sneak on board, get caught, whoop ass, get surrounded and Misty pulls out a 50 round drum magazine for the Luger and hoes to town (those things were notorious for jamming and abandoned by the German Army). An explosion occurs, Misty and Colleen are unconscious in the water and get picked up by Chung. More articles, including a mention that Raymond Chow is working to finish Game of Death, Bruce's in production film, when he died. they would use body doubles and even included footage of Bruce's HK funeral. Sons of the Tiger-Kleig, the scummy exec for Bob Diamond is reviewing the past and introduces new find, Harmony Killdragon, hot chick martial artist and potential assassin. Abe Brown is leading revolutionaries in north Africa and Bob Diamond turns up alive, having killed a bear, with his martial arts skills (uh--hunh). Harmony attacks Lin-Sun and Lotus, in NYC... She's got a personal beef,claiming Master Kee is responsible for the deaths of her villagers. However, she changes her tune, attacks Klieg, wounds him, his assistant gets hurt, Blackbyrd and WT show up and Bob Diamond turns up, in a wheel chair. Thoughts: Great stuff with the Daughters of the Dragon, if a bit gratuitous and lacking in intrigue. Fightin sells this magazine. marshal Rogers is a welcome change for this magazine, as he is polished, dynamic, and creative with layouts. We get long distance bare boobs, with Colleen (Misty remains covered). It's not a deep story; but, it is exciting and entertaining. The same can't be said for SOT. This is more of the same. Killdragon comes out of nowhere, has a vague motivation, yet turns babyface quickly. Bob is found and suddenly shows up at the end, with little passage of time. Staton is doing what he can with the art. This just needs to end. Fortunately............
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 25, 2019 23:24:38 GMT -5
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #33Creative Team: MOKF-Moench & Nebres, DOTD-Claremont & Rogers; John Warner-edits Last issue. Synopsis: Shang-Chi-Chis is walking around, is nearly hit by falling debris and ends up heading into a fight. he gets mixed up in a dojo war, befriending a kid whose sister and boyfriend were attacked by members of a rival dojo. They turn up again and all hell breaks loose... It comes to an end, with a death and an undercover cop, who had been gathering evidence. There is an interview with Bob Wall, O'Hara, in Enter the Dragon, and later convicted of grand theft, in conjunction with real estate fraud, though the fraud charges were dropped. Chuck Norris paid restitution, if he would be parrolled, so he could work to pay back te money owed. Real peach of a guy. Bruce should of F-ed him up more. DOTD-Colleen and Misty are trussed up and have been brought to a private island fortress, where they are bathed, while goons look on. (Claremont writing porn now?) They are dressed and dolled up and brought before Vachon, who has anti-gravity technology (who doesn't, in the Marvel Universe?). He plays Bond villain and they are told they will be sold as slaves, after being addicted to heroin (yup, this sounds like the plot to The Abductors or any other Cherie Caffaro film). They bolt and run into Chung and his electric bolo. Colleen is down and Misty submits to the heroin needle. They are kept captive, in their undies, and subjected to more skag. The doctor, Hartman, makes Colleen beg for more and degrades her, ripping off her dress. Misty breaks free and snaps Hartman's neck, since she was injected in her bionic arm. Colleen needs to detox, though, and meditates buck nekkid and it gets all Trainspotting. Misty goes out and kicks guard butt, then runs into Chung. They fight on a bridge... Misty beats the lemonade out of him, then gets sucker-kicked by Vachon. he's better than Misty, who uses her bionics to counter him, untila wobbly Colleen shows up and enters the fight. She tricks him into defending then moves past to a weapons cache and grabs a katana. Then it is all Guard! Turn! Parry! Spin! Thrust! Twang! Colleen fights through withdrawl as Chung grabs a match-grade target rifle and Misty gets out her Luger and plugs him. Then Colleen slices Vachon... They leave their card and walk out. Thoughts: Shang Chi was a typical DHOKF story. Moench was doing more exciting stuff in the real book. These were just minor episodes. Daughters of the Dragon turns into an exploitation film, with a Bond villain, and then has butt-kicking action, despite the realities of heroin detoxing. Comics. Decent stuff and exciting story, while further showing that, strong female characters or not, Claremont has issues with women. His characters suffer through a lot, far more than the males, and usually in the kinky spectrum. he may have (rightly) railed about Carol Danvers, in Avengers 200; but, he isn't winning points here, with this stuff. It's more adult and it oozes men's adventure pulp plotting, which probably would have sold this magazine better, had they used similar fare. This is announced as the last issue, as Marvel axed it, Doc Savage and Planet of the Apes. Hulk went color, while Marvel preview and Savage Sword of Conan remained black & whites. Warner claims sales were fine; but, i suspect not fine enough and were probably trending down, as the martial arts fad was fading fast and this hadn't been a hotbed of great stories. Master of Kung Fu had some good episodes; but nothing of real note and usually suffered under artists who didn't have the style or power of a Paul Gulacy or Jim Starlin. Rudy Nebres had a nice touch; but, was better suited to stuff like the Punisher. Iron Fist was never used very well in his limited installments and the crossovers with Shang-Chi were pretty forgettable. Sons of the Tiger was a hot mess from the start, with some nice art but little character development or focus. Mantlo was the first writer to stick around for more than a couple of stories; but, he just didn't have the action chops for really compelling stories. Perez helped immensely, when he came on, green though he was (very green) as he had a better sense of plotting. The Kieth Giffen intro for Jack of Hearts was fine, but he was gone quickly. This was never a hotbed of martial arts visuals, except when Frank McLaughlin drew it. Abe Brown made for a better solo character, with Blackbyrd as a supporting character. White Tiger got a decent start; but got lost when perez left and Mantlo seemed to lose the thread and just repeated things for chapters, until a rather illogical end. Swordquest had a great start and had an okay finish; but, really needed Sanho Kim for the entire length. Sme of the other experiments were interesting, but never developed, like Samurai. The biggest problem is that they were doing a martial arts magazine with people who knew jack about them and a very select few artists who could portray them. MOKF suffered from this; but, hit upon the terrific idea of mixing Bruce Lee with James Bond. Gulacy did his research on the martial arts and went to town on the spy action. That kind of enthusiasm was needed here. Mantlo at least tried; but just didn't have the chops, yet. Daughters of the Dragon finished things ona high note, as that was the best thing to come along in forever, especially with Marshall Rogers on the art. So, here endeth Deadly hands of Kung Fu. I had grown tired of alternating and Shang-Chi was largely absent, killing the reason for continuing. Also, it was hard to be even snarky about some of the boring stuff, plus personal issues. Now, we can get back to the Master of Kung Fu epic and some damn good comics, rather than some just decent comics.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 26, 2019 20:08:07 GMT -5
Master of Kung Fu #45Creative Team: Moench & Gulacy, Pablo Marcos-inks, John Costanza-letters, Petra Goldberg-colors, Archie Goodwin-editor. At this point, each chapter is told through the point of view of a different character. This issue is from Shang-Chi's POV. Synopsis: Fah Lo Suee has shown up and the Manchu family (or is it the Fu Family, given Asian naming conventions) isn't big on reunions. She orders the death of reston, then Shang -Chi. She sends out her thug, Bolo and Kimba. John McCarthy asks both sides if they are ready, then shouts "Let's get it on!" (You had to watch the early days of the UFC). Meanwhile, Smith is rushed to the ER for treatment of his gunshot wounds, after Petrie shot him, then put the gun in Shock-Wave's hands. Larner visits Tarr in hospital and they bury the hatchet. Back in Switzerland, Chi has defeated Reston's opponent, but is distracted by thoughts of Leiko, who is not doing well... We cut to a video screen , as we see divers locate a giant oyster and bring it to the surface.... Bolo sneaks up on Chi, but Reston tosses him a weapon and he takes him down. Sis holds a Luger on him. Her accomplice, Tarrant, the bomb man, is coming in. Fah Lo Suee says join her or die and adds the enticement that MI-6 agents are dying, thanks to a mole. She reveals it is Petrie. We see Larner comforting Miss greville, and Tarrant irks Fah Lo Suee. Meanwhile, the OE guys arrive at their destination and untie Leiko, who proceeds to whoop their hinders and escape.. Meanwhile, Petrie tries to knife Smith and is stopped by Larner. Back in the land of chocolate (Mmmmmmmmm....the Land of Chocolate.........haughhhhhhhhhlllll), Fah Lo Suee decides to listen to Tarrant and Leave, gives Chi & reston a chance to join. reston agrees, to bide for time, but Chi has had enough. FLS leave two goons to kill them and leaves. They trash talk Chi and then Leiko shows up behind them to shut them up. The goons have their weapons to the boys' heads and leiko must shoot one first, so Chi gets saved, then she sweeps across to the other, as reston ducks. They go after FLS & Tarrant and blast through the OE goons. They get aboard and Clive rips off the scarf covering Tarrant's face, revealing Griswold, their Swiss contact. He gets a rifle butt to the head and goes down as the launch pulls away from the pier, leaving behind Chi & Leiko. Thoughts: bang up issue, with a lot of reveals. We knew Petrie was the mole and now he has been caught, by Larner. Fah Lo Suee is revealed to be behind both the Golden Daggers and Oriental Expediters, who are renegade Si-Fan. The bomb maker Tarrant is really Sir Herbert Griswold, the MI-6 man in Switzerland. That explains how OE was a step ahead of everything and how they were trying to get to Agent D, for info on Fu's movements, to defeat him. The question now is what's gonna happen to Clive, will Smith survive and what's inside the giant oyster, besides one kick-ass pearl? Marcos adds fine touches to Glacy's art and PG's action continues to be the best in comics, of that era. This was one of the few books with real fight choreography, which is about telling a story, physically, and it is something few comic artists really learn. I'm assuming the assassin names are homages. Bolo was the name of Han's head goon, in Enter the Dragon, played by Yang Sze, who became known as Bolo Yeung, from then on. Bolo was a huge star in Hong Kong, first working for the Shaw Brothers, then for Raymond Chow and others. He also had some roles in US productions, including, most notably, Bloodsport. Kimba was the name for Osamu tezuka's manga and anime series, Kimba the White Lion, which Disney swiped for The Lion King (right down to the name), as the Simpsons pointed out. Tarrant, as I may have mentioned, is probably an homage to Sir Gerald Tarrant, the head of british Intelligence, in the Modesty Blaise strip. He tries to recruit Modesty in the first storyline, though she declines to join his organization. However, she does hold a debt to him and takes his mission. She would then later take missions for good causes or to help friends. There is one element, visually, that I must comment on. There are a couple of panels with some really awkward weapons handling. I have no proof; but, suspect Gulacy is a southpaw, because he has characters hold weapons with their right hand, in ways that they wouldn't, unless they were a lefty and were confused. it could also be the placement of the figure made inserting the weapon an issue and time was against correcting it. Minor detail; but it stands out, like a Hollywood production where the actor obviously has no clue about which end of the gun to point at the target. Or stupid stuff, like an SNL skit, where Ed Asner hires a bunch of mercs to rescue Mary Tyler Moore from syndicated reruns, and Jim Belushi keeps snapping the magazine of an Uzi in and out (watch the sketch sometime; it gets annoying. if it had been a pump action shotgun, he would have cycled the thing about a dozen times and have no ammo in it). Gulacy goes for fantasy weapons; but, they mostly look like they would work (Kirby got stylistic; but, they were usually based on Thompson submachine guns, German MP-40s and Lugers). In later years, Gulacy would use real, but exotic firearms.
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Post by profh0011 on Sept 26, 2019 21:31:44 GMT -5
It's hard to describe the kind of impact these comics had on me and my own work back in the 70s.
Pablo Marcos is infinitely better than Sal Trapani (or Tom Sutton, whose style was merely out-of-place).... but even looking at these pages NOW, good God, do I WISH Dan Adkins had inked every one of these episodes instead.
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Post by berkley on Sept 26, 2019 23:16:50 GMT -5
I think Marcos gets better very quickly and some of the upcoming issues are right up there with Adkins,s MoKF work. Even in this issue, most of it's great, but a few pages or panels - the splash page, especially - are weak.
I'll never understand how Gulacy drew such a great-looking Leiko Wu and such an atrocious Fah Lo Suee. Maybe he was trying too hard to make them look different, e.g. giving the latter that awful perm?
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