When I was a kid I was always confused about the Modred/Mordred thing. Was Modred Marvel's version of Mordred? Did they misspell it accidentally? It was a while before I found out his whole story. My first encounter with him was MTIO #71, which was after he had been reduced to the mind of a child.

If memory serves, I got this comic in a Whitman pack or something like that and recognized the name or looked it up in our encyclopedias and read the Arthurian lore.  I was poking around before writing this, checking the history of Mordred, as a figure in the Arthur legends.  Modred and Mordred have both been used, deriving from the Welsh Medraut or Medrawt.  His first recorded appearance is in the Annales Cambrie, where there is a brief mention that he and Arthur perish at the Battle of Camlann.  That's really all it says, without assigning any good or evil notions to him.  That was written in the 10th Century; so, even it wasn't contemporary.  Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, from the 12th Century portrays him as the son of King Lot and Arthur's nephew, a traitor.  That influences later stuff, including Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur.

I haven't read his first appearance, in Marvel Chillers, but he is described in references as a sorcerer apprentice who is assigned to Merlin, but rebels, leading to this story.  His Merlin turns out to be a fake, on top of things.  I just flipped through it on line and it doesn't seem that Bill Mantlo is trying to tie him to the Arthurian Morded, in any version, just the era.  I suspect he wanted to use the name because of the Arthurian connection, but not the lore.  I suspect Marv intended to tie him more into things, as he brings Morgan Le Fay into conflict with Spider-Woman, early on.

There was a use of Mordred, as Mordred the Evil, in the Atlas Black Knight comics, alongside Morgan Le Fay; so, this spelling, might have been chosen to differentiate this character from the previous one, who was portrayed as Arthur's illegitimate and traitorous son.

Marvel Team-Up #34



Spidey and Valkyrie

Let's see how Conway handles another Defender.

Creative Team: Gerry "Not Steve Gerber" Conway-writer, Sal "Is Sal Buscema" Buscema-layouts, Vince "Not Giving a @##$% " Coletta, Dave "Not Ethan" Hunt-letters, George "Not the Brothers" Roussos-colors, Len "Not Glynis" Wein-editor.

Wait, the Brothers' name is Russo. Okay, George "Not Jacques or Raymond" Roussos.....No, wait, that's Rougeau.... Wait....wait,,,,I got it.....George "Not Demis" Roussos



Synopsis: Spidey is moping about the Gwen clone again, when we get a repeat of last issue, as Meteor Man attacks him from behind. He gets knocked stupid and dumped into the water, while MM leaves. meanwhile, Nighthawk arrives at his riding academy, which is serving as defenders HQ and interrupts Valkyrie, while she exercises Aragorn. (the horse, not Viggo Mortenson...that would not be a Code-approved comic!) He tells her about the battle with the Meteor Man, his mental illness, and Spidey's attitude, then Val tells him off for abandoning Meteor Man to Spidey....



First sensible thing in this whole storyline. She rides off to help and we cut back to New York, where a couple of cops come across teens dancing in an abandoned church and Gerry has them overreact like every writer in the 70s did, when writing about cops (except maybe Joseph Wambaugh ). They go in and find Jeremiah, the prophet (I keep telling you, he's a bullfrog)...



If it had been an Anglican abandoned church, they would have found Christopher Lee. Jeremiah sees the cops, gets all Sal Buscema-faced and yells at the Fuzz. he blasts them and leaves nothing but a pile of ash, as the gang goes back to making like Tomy Manero.

Spidey hears a bulletin over his handy portable police scanner and thinks it is Meteor Man. he turns up, as does Valkyrie; but, Spidey says he is going alone and the cops tell the little lady to get behind the police line, where it is safe. Not sure if there is a page missing or not from the reading source; but, in my source, we go from the cop grabbing Val's hand to her standing inside a building with Spidey, sword drawn, about to stick meteor Man. Sure reads like a page is missing. we jump from page 17 to 22, with only a letter page in between.

Anyway, I assume Val decked the cop and went inside and we find everyone squaring off. Val attacks first but gets all Ms Magazine when MM hits her from behind, in self defense....



She decks him, but he escapes and she discovers the owner tied up, so they abandon the chase. he reveals that MM stole a figurine made from a meteorite. They go after, there is more aerial battle, as Valkyrie bursts Meteor Man's balloon...



Spidey save Valkyrie, who is knocked off her high horse (well, winged horse) and MM crashes to the ground but survives. this is witnessed by Jeremiah, who has a sneaky look on his face.

Thoughts: remember my early question, about Conway handling another Defender? Well, it's a mixed bag. Val comes off better than Nighthawk, but just as preachy and faux "woke." Conway's attempts at Women's Lib dialogue just sounds cartoonish and just feeds into stereotypes perpetuated by opponents of women's rights. It certainly isn't helped by the fact that Valkyrie is in her shell casings and bathing suit costume and is in a submissive position on the cover or that she is the one rescued by Spider-Man, despite being stronger than he is and probably able to withstand the drop better. The next issue's cover has her chained down, menaced by demons; so, I doubt Gloria Steinem was about to write an intro to a collection of these comics (then again, she did for WW and she got tied up more than anyone this side of Bettie Page). At least Valkyrie is a more active figure in this story, which puts her one up on Nighthawk. meanwhile, the Jeremiah subplot really brings things to a halt, every time he turns up. The red spandex outfit isn't doing him any favors, either.

I'm still not overjoyed with Conway's stories on MTU, especially after Len, who had a better handle on team-up dynamics. Gerry just seems to want to do Spidey stories with guest stars horning in. It's easy to forget how young Conway was, when he was writing this stuff. He was a precocious writer, as Spider-Man demonstrated; but, he still had a lot of maturing to do and didn't handle other characters as well. Even Spidey had its highs and lows, though the highs were things like The Death of Gwen Stacy. I kind of get the feeling that Len is more hands-off with Conway than Roy might have been.

Anyway, next issue is another Torch issue, as Spidey gets another Giant Size go 'round, with Dr Strange brought in. Oh, joy, more mystical stuff.

Marvel Two-in-One #34



Thing and Nighthawk!

I get the feeling that is not a special effect there, as much as a reaction by the kid who is getting swung around by the monster. If so....ewwwwwww!!

Creative Team: Marv Wolfman-writer/editor, Ron Wilson-pencils, Pablo Marcos-inks, Bruce Patterson-letters, Sam Kato-colors

Any relation to the Green Hornet's sidekick? if so, it would be a neat trick to be related to a fictional character!

Synopsis: nighthawk has flown into London (and boy are his arms tired!........Sorry) and it looks like he has been hitting the gym...



He is there for a board meeting of one of his companies and arrives late, throwing off the excuse of stopping a hijacking of his plane. Yeah, right; we have no footage of this so Kyle is just making excuses. Anyway, the British company has found something extraordinary in a rock, in the Himalayas. Kyle is a bit peeved about being called to look at rocks, when a scientist interrupts and tells him to read a report that he probably should have read on the plane. Meanwhile, Thing is at Dr Kort's, where he has succeeded in stabilizing Deathlok and removing the boobytrap...



Nick Fury turns up and delivers Ben his promised Havanas (well, one cigar...it was a long flight) and he and his agents (including Dum-Dum Dugan) take Deathlok away. Before he can stew too long, the doctor gets a call from Kyle Richmond and brings ben along to consult on their rock. Kyle wants to revive the organism trapped inside, despite the protests of others and needs Kort's help. They get to work and release some Cthulhu wannabe.



He emits some kind of smoke that knocks everyone, including Ben out and leaves. He then finds a little girl playing by a stream, which is never a good thing, in a monster story. The kid screams and her father and another man, who are out hunting, hear her and come running through foliage that looks a bit tropical for England. They find her unconscious by the stream and go looking for whatever made her scream (after getting her to a hospital). ben and Kyle wake up and go looking for the creature.



The kid is awake and okay, while the creature comes across an injured deer and helps it, before ET ever landed. The kid's father takes a potshot at it, but he's no Alvin York and Ben and Nighthawk prevent him from getting another shot off. The monster crashes off. While this goes on, the kid is left unattended in the examining room and yanks out an electrical plug, which sparks and starts a fire, which Nighthawk spots from the air. he also sees the monster climbing the side of the building. Nighthawk gets some kids out, then we see the monster do the same...



The creature sees humans and takes the kids to them, so they will be safe, and gets shot for his trouble. he gets up and moves on, returning to the hospital to rescue nighthawk, who is trapped under a burning roof beam, and the little girl. He succeeds and Ben puts out the fire with water scooped up in a church bell (never pour water on an electrical fire!) the creature delivers the girl, safe and sound, then collapses and dies. Nigthawk tells off the hunters after they call the creature a monster, in rather over-wrought fashion.

Thoughts: Well, not the most original idea; but, a pretty exciting issue. The monster's thoughts are narrated and we learn that others of his kind came to earth in 1908 and were destroyed in an explosion, a reference to the Tunguska Event, where a meteor exploded in an air burst in Siberia and devastated the surrounding area, for over 800 square miles, much like a nuclear blast. The shockwave was the equivalent of an earhtquake with a 5.0 magnitude on the Richter Scale.

The basic plot is your usual misunderstood monster story, ala Frankenstein, which is to be expected, from a Wolfman. About the only thing missing is an Igor, who would have been there, if Terry Pratchett had done this ("Yeth, mathter!" Check out his Carpe Juggulum, Monstrous Regiment, and Making Money for some prime Igor usage). Ron still needs better reference for England, as his forest looks a bit too tropical, as mentioned above. The hunters are carrying rifles, rather than shotguns, which I at first thought a mistake; but, a little research shows that "deer stalking" is done with rifles, though usually on private land, with the land owner's permission. This looked like public land, though nothing is ever stated, in the story. It just feels more American than British.

My knowledge of old sci-fi stories is a bit haphazard; so, I have no idea of whether a benevolent alien, mistaken as a monster, had been done before, but I suspect so; probably pretty far back. as it is, the creature's reactions here are very much like ET, which was a few years down the road. Heck, the story name drops Star Wars, which was still relatively new to theaters (along with Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind). There was an unproduced screenplay, by Satyajit Ray, called the Alien, based on a Bengali sci-fi story, called Bankubabur Bandhu, about an alien that befriends a boy and pulls pranks on villagers. Ray later accused Stephen Spielberg of plagiarism, in relation to ET, something Martin Scorsese has said at least influenced Spielberg's script. Spielberg claimed no knowledhe of it and claimed to have been in high school when it was written, but he was working in Hollywood in 1969 and the script was around, in copies, as Columbia was supposed to produce it, until Ray had a falling out over Michael Wilson claiming co-writing and copyright on the story, despite not working with Ray on the actual story. The descript of the alien in Ray's story is remarkably similar to the final look of ET.

Marv has Fury back to acting like a Richard, which seemed par for the course for 70s Marvel, despite making him and SHIELD look heroic, a few issues back. It's not quite as bad as others, as he mostly just stiffs Ben on his stogies, while he takes Deathlok away. Given Deathlok is a living weapon, this isn't necessarily outside Fury's jurisdiction. It's not exactly like Fury orchestrating a hostile takeover of Stark Industries to put them back into weapons development, as in Iron Man.

Next issue has Skull the Slayer, Marvel's answer to not having the Burroughs licenses.

Marvel Team-Up #35



Human Torch & Dr Strange.

Valkyrie, the baddest lady to swing a sword, is reduced to damsel-in-distress.

Creative Team: Gerry Conway-writer, Sal Buscema-layouts, Vince Coletta-finishes, Charlotte Jetter-letters, Phil Rache-colors, Len Wein-editor

Synopsis: Doc Strange is using the old Orb to spy on the Human Torch, because he is worried about Valkyrie, who is missing, as is Spidey, who is off Giant Sizing. Ever the drama queen, Strange emotes to Clea, then goes off to see Johnny...



I just want to pause here to bask in the enlightenment that Gerry Conway has displayed in this series, with his portrayal of women. Valkyrie, a fierce warrior maiden who is pretty damn strong, is ineffective in a fight and is now the victim of a cult, while Clea, a powerful sorceress in her own right, is told to stay home and not mess up her pretty little hands. Shame he didn't get a chance to write the Ms Marvel series.

Doc finds Johnny, tells him to stop wise-assing and asks if he has any idea where Spidey and/or Val might have gone. They then split up, because this is a team-up book, so send the characters in opposite directions. Johhny goes to check out Fester's old place and runs into a kid who babbles on about Jeremiah and some missing lady...



Torch interrogates the rugrat, though the kid lacks focus, and learns the kid has seen Val, then gets whammied by Jeremiah, a man who should really rethink his wardrobe...



Of course, Val turns out to be tied to an altar (somehow, because the sides look solid, yet the ropes seem to go under the slab), while Johnny is tied to a beam, from which he burns away the ropes, when he awakens....



Jeremiah's whammy is stronger than Johnny's FLAME ON! and Torch goes down for the count. There is much singing and dancing (Three Dog Night's greatest hits, no doubt...).

Meanwhile, Dr Strange has gone to the same prison that Nighthawk visited, instead of talking to Nighthawk, his teammate, and talks to the warden, who says Fester is in no shape to talk. Doc sense danger and astral flies off to find a monster spectre over Manhattan. Doc enters the energy field and Sal tries to do Ditko, with mixed results...



Doc defeats the spectral goons and Val disappears back to the material world (she is a material girl) and Doc has to go there.

Torch wakes up again and since ropes didn't work the first time, the cultists tied him up again, with similar results. Torch finds Val back from the ethereal plane and battles Mr Poorly Chosen Spandex Bodysuit, again. The cultists start waking up from their trance, as Jeremiah expends energy trying to whammy Torch, who is swerving around the room. Torch realizes his power comes from them and uses fire to break their concentration and weaken Spandex Boy. Torch still ends up getting his hinder whooped...



Doc turns up, waves a hand and off Jeremiah goes to the Ditko Dimension. Val wakes up and is mad at herself for being a victim, instead of at Gerry Conway for his poor characterization. The cultists wander off and Doc says let them go. Torch goes home to tinker with a jalopy and give Ben hotfeet. Val and Doc go back to facing Bozos and Headmen.

Thoughts: This whole sequence of issues has been one big exercise in "meh..." It's not bad enough to be a steaming pile of Aragorn droppings; but, it isn't even mildly entertaining, let alone good. The Meteor Man stuff was just bizarre and Jeremiah gets thrown in from left field and ends up a cliched bit for Dr Strange to eliminate with a wave of his hand, after wasting time for most of the issue. These have been very poor team-up stories, under any context. If you are going to have a guest star, in a solo title or as the co-star of a team-up, they need to have a significant role; or else, you might as well retitle this Marvel Cameo Appearance. Quite frankly, if I was the editor, unless the sales are phenomenal, I would be giving serious consideration to removing Conway from the title. Of course, that begs the question as to who would write it, as the previous writer, Len, who did fun and entertaining stories, is busy trying to control chaos and Roy does whatever he wants. Conway certainly isn't putting in the same effort he was on Amazing Spider-Man (though this era of Spidey, with Jackal and Grizzly and such, has its share of critics {I've only read bits and pieces of the era and was okay with it, though the character was always too whiny for my tastes}). Conway is around for a couple of more issues; but, I believe his leaving the book is more due to his going over to DC, which was around this time frame.

Not sure whose idea Jeremiah's costume was; but, it's a bad idea for the body type that Sal gives him. There is a reason why pudgier villains wore looser costumes. This is the superhero universe equivalent of the guy in a speedo, on a public beach, who is not an Olympic medalist.

Well, let's see what Spidey was up to, while Torch was getting spanked and Dr Strange waited until the end of the book to solve the problem by himself.

Giant Size Spider-Man #5



Spidey and Man-Thing...

...but not Giant Size Man-Thing.

The fact that Marvel actually published such a title just shows that no one was at the helm and Stan wasn't even on the ship!

Creative Team: Gerry Conway-writer, Ross Andru-pencils, Mike Esposito-inks, Artie Simek-letters, Petra Goldberg-colors, Len Wein-editor.

Synopsis: Spidey is done fighting the Scorpion, in his own book (the goofy dude, with the tale, not the Howard Chaykin pulp hero). He is tired of New York and needs a break. After assaulting and insulting some guy on the street, he sees a news report which reminds us of the time when Steve Gerber was really cooking and Conway tries to be funny and fails.....



Howard Dhuck.....ah-ha-ha-ha......ah-ha-ha-ha....stop it, you're killing me.

Peter Parker convinces J Jonah to give him Micky Money to go to fantastic Florida and get Popping Photos of the Magnificent Man-Thing (alliteration goes a long way). He then calls Dr Curt Connors to say he is coming down alligator-way and could use some help, so that the Lizard can run into Man-Thing. He then engages in some soap opera.

Dr Connors knocks over a vial of stuff, while his brother Dan and wife Roseanne are busy raiding the refrigerator for beer. he turns into the lizard, but Dan and Roseanne miss it, because they are too busy dealing with Jackie's low self-esteem, while Darlene makes smart-ass comments. Cousin Chuck just cleans his rifle and sets his jaw.

On the other hand, Martha Connors hears the commotion and gets knocked aside like Magenta Thompson, in Shaft......





Lizard goes off into the swamp, looking for Man-Thing, for vaguely remembered reasons.

Meanwhile, Peter engages in even more soap opera, as he visits Gwen Clone. She is busy dealing with the madness of waking up in a world where Gerald Ford is president and some guy named Chevy is mocking him.

Down in the Everglades, Man-Thing finds yet another dude about to commit suicide, while Conway tries his hand at Gerber-style socio-economic satirical commentary...



Man-Thing stops a gator from attacking, because they will do that sort of thing for no reason. I saw it every week on Gentle Ben and if you can't trust Clint Howard and Dennis Weaver, who can you trust?

Lacking an airboat, Man-Thing just breaks the reptiles spine and leaves it for dead. The suicidal dude sees a chance to revive his fortunes, when he recognizes Man-Thing as the monster who messed up the F.A. Schist (get it? Subtle, Gerber.....subtle!) and he speeds away in his car.

Spidey turns up in the swamp (after talking to Martha, on the phone, as told via expository dialogue) and is immediately attacked by the Lizard, who is conveniently in the same spot...



They fight and Martha turns up, sees the fight and tries to drive off the Lizard, with what Gerry Conway says is a high pressure hose, but which Ross Andru drew as the thickness of a garden hose...



Seriously, if that were a high pressure hose, Martha would have been knocked on her back, again, and the nozzle would be flying around a replicant who has been gut shot.

Spidey has had enough and resorts to biting the Lizard in the tail, while the ref's back is turned...



Lizard calls him a cheater and Spidey webs him to a tree, cause it's not like he is really strong or anything.

Elsewhere, Everglades Championship Wrestling has the formerly suicidal dude tracking Man-Thing, when every reptile around starts to follow Man-Thing, no doubt en route to the battle royal, where the winner gets a giant novelty check for $10,000 and a brand new Cadillac, which will be destroyed by the heels.

They all turn up to attack Spidey, thanks to the Lizard....



Suicidal Dude turns up and sees the melee and Martha begs for help. he just happens to be a chemist and she just happens to have the formula for the Lizard antidote and drags him off to mix a pitcher....



Not sure how the pina colada mix helps in the formula.....maybe it gives it a nice tropical flavor.

Man-Thing turns babyface and swings Lizard around by his tail...



Spidey and Man-Thing double-team the Lizard, while the chemist mixes cocktails and suffers crises of confidence, then the reptiles try to make the save. The Chemist runs out with the antidote and trips over a snake and drops the vial, but Spidey nabs it with a web and throws it on the Lizard. The ref is busy trying to her the reptiles out of the ring and misses the blatant use of a foreign object. Lizard transforms back into Curt Connors and Spidey gets the pin and the Cadillac. Man-Thing chases the reptiles back to the locker room and Mean Gene does the post-match interview.

There follows a reprint of some Steve Ditko goodness, as Spidey battles the Beetle, with some interference/help from the Torch (tow-may-to, tow-maw-to).

Thoughts: Far more entertaining story here, from Conway; though, again, the co-star is really more of a supporting character, as Conway delves heavily in Spidey's soap opera trappings and Man-Thing is more of obstacle than a partner. Still, at least there is a decent, if retreaded plot and plenty of exciting action, not to mention wives in hotpants and midriff-baring crop tops!

Conway's attempts at aping Gerber's style, for Man-Thing, falls pretty darn flat, as he doesn't have the satirical edge to his writing; or, quite frankly, the same level of writing skill. Conway was doing fine without trying to ape Gerber and it ends up being disruptive and false. At least he didn't try to bring in the rest of that weird bunch to the story, as I think he would have ended up in over his head. As it is, Man-Thing gets used relatively well and contributes to both the conflict and resolution, even if it is rather convenient that the man he saved is a chemist who can mix the antidote to cause the Lizard to transform back to Dr Connors. We also never get to see Peter board a plane or talk to Martha, yet he goes exactly where the Lizard is lurking.

Andru and Esposito have a good handle on the action and the reptiles look as they should and Man-Thing is suitably monstrous, if not quite as mucky, as he should be.

The visit to Gwen was rather a plot-stopping detour, but I suppose was directed at regular Spider-Man readers, as Conway seemed to like to drag the soap opera into other Spidey realms. I suppose how intrusive that is depends on your ties or interests in the regular series. All I know is that nothing good came of clones, not then and not later (although at least then, it was a shorter storyline) and not in space opera properties.

So, we continue the trend of the Giant Size Spidey team-ups being way better than the Torch team-ups; and, the usual Conway MTU issues. The last issue of GSS-M is a reprint of Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4; so, we will skip that apart from mocking Flash Thompson appearing in an Army uniform that is colored Air Force blue...

Marvel Two-in-One #35



Thing & Skull, the Slayer

So, that's what they looked like, underneath....



Creative Team: Marv Wolfman-writer/editor, Ernie Chan-art, John Costanza-letters, Michelle Wolfman-colors.

Synopsis: Ben has stopped at Cape Canaveral, at the request of an old Army buddy (now in the Air Force) to fly the R-37 Bird of Prey, a new supersonic aircraft. The mission is to "penetrate the Bermuda Triangle," despite the fact that aircraft and ships passed through it constantly, without ever disappearing (it compromises between half and 1 1/2 million square miles, depending on how it is defined, encompassing some of the most heavily traveled territory in the world).



In actuality, Ben is looking for an Air Force bomber that disappeared, carrying a cobalt-based nuclear weapon. Ben's search area leads him into an encounter with a pteranodon, flying out of a vortex. It chomps onto the plane and takes Ben to a Land That Time Forgot....



Or, at least, a Land That Got Canceled, Due to Low Sales.....



Marv reminds us of the 8 issues of the series that he (briefly) wrote and brings us up to speed, as the heroes were facing a cliffhanger, with no resolution. Enter Ben to finish up the story. Our gang is being held as prisoners and potential sacrifices by a time-displaced Aztec priest, who looks very European and is aided by stereotypical African tribesmen and dinosaurs. Ben beats up the stereotypes, first (of course) and then asks what in the name of HG Wells is going on?



Should have asked Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, since it is more up his alley. Or Edgar Rice Burroughs. Anyway, since Doug McClure isn't around, Ben dumps the priest on the ground, smashes his altar and does his Samson impression on the temple...



Rather fitting that Benjamin J Grimm re-enacts the deed of a Hebrew superhero. Skull and his bunch join in the fun and there are bodies and debris flying everywhere. Skull wrangles a pteranodon away from ben, while running his mouth the entire time. They regroup at Ben's plane, but they can't get out because some of the batteries were destroyed in the chomping. Jeff Turner, runaway and son of a senator, hits upon the idea of salvaging their downed aircraft for parts. It was a C-130 Hercules, a prop aircraft, not a supersonic jet; but, hey, maybe they can adapt them!

A T-Rex turns up and before you can say "Bang a gong, get it on!" Ben is punching it, to no avail. Skull rips up a tree trunk and gives it lockjaw...



...and they all run away. Rex follows and they end up at a cliff (of course) and dive into the ocean below. They swim away and end up among a bunch of sauropods.



Thoughts: So, we are back to where we started with this thing, in the Land of Misfit Stories. Marv is using MTIO to wrap up some storylines, and not for the first time. Both Deathlok and Spider-Woman were continuations of previous adventures and this picks up where his canceled Skull the Slayer left off. Since that wasn't exactly a major hit (hence the cancellation), a lot of time has to be spent filling in the backstory to the guest stars, leaving Ben as pretty much the supporting character in his own book. He gets to clobber some folks (poorly chosen stereotypes), but can't handle one little ol' T-Rex. This is a guy who fights the Hulk and spots him 2 rounds. Let's have some consistency with his strength levels, shall we?

Marv emphasizes that the R-37 is a supersonic aircraft; but, most military fighter jets have been since the X-1 broke the sound barrier and even reconnaissance aircraft, by those days, were supersonic, with the SR-71 Blackbird flying at Mach 3 (the U-2 was still subsonic, but flew at very high altitudes). The SR-71 wasn't exactly advertised by the Air Force, it had flown recon flights over Vietnam and had already turned up in both the X-Men and Mike Grell's Warlord, at DC. Of course, Dave Cockrum was an Air Force brat and a Navy veteran and Grell is an Air Force vet, who served in Saigon, during the Vietnam War, drawing charts and graphs for briefings. Guess Marv wanted something that sounded experimental and exotic. It is drawn more like a lifting body, such as seen in the pilot film of the Six Million Dollar Man, as Ernie Chan gives it very little wing surface.

The basic story, once you get past all of the recap/introduction, is pretty exciting and Ernie Chan gets to have temples collapsing, dinosaurs attacking, native bodies flying and even hot chicks doing kung fu. His dinosaurs look great (based on 1977 public conceptualizations) and his human figures are fine (aside from the African stereotypes and the European-looking Aztec priest), though Ben looks a bit wonky in certain panels. Ernie was part of the Filipino community of artists who came to work in the US; and, like most of his peers, excels more at this kind of adventure than your standard superhero comics. He knows how to make dinosaurs and jungles look just right for the atmosphere of the story and he stages the action well.

This is part one of the story, which continues next issue, as Reed gets involved (someone has to get them out of the past!)