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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 30, 2019 22:28:40 GMT -5
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #13Shang-Chi vs the Flying Wallendas! Creative Teams: Shang-Chi- Moench & nebres; SOT-Mantlo, Perez and Abel; Archie Goodwin-edits Synopsis: SOT on the inside cover, with some wonkey anatomy and over-rendering by Ron Wilson. Letters page has praise from William F Wu for Moench making Fu and Chi more realistic characters and criticized another letter that preferred more of the stereotypes. The staf acknowledge the complaint, then try to defend Englehart's more stereotyped depiction of Shang and Fu. That was a constant in MOKF, as Wu was an outspoken critic of the depiction of Asians within the comics, and would also give praise when it moved to making them more realistic characters. However, marvel would often act on the defensive and try to mitigate the criticism with some token aspect that they said showed their heart was in the right place or story demanded, or similar. often, it failed to address the specifics of the complaint, though I do believe that Moench took the criticisms to heart as he develope Shang and Fu, as well as when he added Leiko. Another letter is from one Mike Baron who criticizes the addition of thing like Billy Jack and Man With The Golden Gun as not being martial arts films and the poor fight choreography in the comics; specifically, Vosburg's layouts. If this is the same Mike Baron, he'd put his money where his mouth was, with Badger, which had very definite technique in fight scenes, as well as nexus, which was not martial arts; but, had very definite choreography to actions sequences. Shang-Chi- We pick up from last issue, as Chi and Shareen face Kwai and his thugs, who want the Golden Dragon. Kwai is taking aim to shoot Chi, when shuriken hit his hand and Cho Lee returns, aiding Chi and Shareen. Cho Lee departs, as Chi lectures and says he is not Cho Lee. Shareen says he is mad, truly believing he is the immortal warrior Shadow-Thief. The move on and find Cho Lee's body hanging from a street lamp. Then Shadow-Thief isn't Cho Lee, and the mystery gets weirder. They return to Shareen's hotel and Chi goes up to retrieve the statue, hidden in a mattress. he gets there in time to see Shadow-Thief depart through a window, up a rope ladder to a helicopter. Chi dives out, about 3 or 4 stories, grabs hold of a street lamp (without dislocating his shoulders, at a minimum) and swings to Shareen's car and tells her to follow the helicopter. They do, all the way to connecticut (even though a helo's cruising speed is way faster than a car), where it drops behind a mountain. they find a massive mansion and protected grounds. Chi tells Shareen to wait in the car and he sneaks in the compound, taking out guards left and right. he runs into Shadow-Thief who says the lady or the tiger (or dragon statue, as the case may be and Chi faces a dilemma... Next is an interview with Ron Van Clief, aka The Black Dragon. Van Clief was from new York, served in the Marine corps during the Vietnam era (but, not in Vietnam) and then studied martial arts under several teachers. he was a karate champion, actor, fight choreographer and the oldest person to partake in the Ultimate Fighting Championships, at UFC 4, in 1994, losing by submission, to Royce Gracie. Va Clief starred in such films as The Black Dragon (and its two sequels) The Bamboo Trap and the Squeeze. he performed stunts in F/X, Oz and The Sopranos and was fight choreographer for The Last Dragon. Van Clief was one of the few traditional martial arts figures to give the UFC a try, which added some credibility to what was still a very outlaw promotion (designed to sell Gracie Jujitsu), that was facing increasing criticisms. Sadly, Van Clief's interview is followed by more bullshido ads from Count Dante. Then, there is an article with Piers Anthony and Roberto Fuentes, about the Jason Stryker pulp series. Pictures of Fuentes, demonstrating martial arts techniques are included, with one featuring a Russian sambo leg lock. Sambo is a Russian martial art, mixing judo techniques, catch wrestling (submission catch-as-catch can) and striking. Sambo was best illustrated by UFC fighter Oleg Taktarov, who utilized some of it's leglock techniques, in competition. Another figure was professional wrestler Volk Han, who fought for the Japanese promotion RINGS, which was one of several "shoot" style promotions, where legitimate techniques were used, whil matches were still worked, with finishes predetermined. Han was one of the best workers, along with the Japanese star Kiyoshi Tamura, engaging in exciting submission bouts, to a crowd who mostly bought into it. over time, with the rise of the UFC and the more legitimate Pancrase promotion, Rings evolved into a mixture of worked and real fights, then all-shoot, before closing its doors, in the wake of the Pride promotion dominating. (Volk Han demonstrating Sambo techniques, at a RINGS exhibition) SOT-Bob Diamond is on set, filming a period gangster piece, when filming is stopped, due to the discovery of a murdered corpse. It is the second death on the set and there has also been a string of accidents (shades of The Crow and Brandon Lee). They have been filming in Chinatown, remaking a movie starring a man named Curtis, who was injured on set, in 1925. Someone seems to want to recreate that. Lotus shows up, fearing Bob had been hurt. A uniform cop, Sgt D'Angelo, gives grief to Bob. Bob and Lotus poke around and find a kid hiding, who starts swinging a broken bottle. Bob disarms him, then see the kids street gang friends. Lotus whoops teenage butt, then Bob performs clean up. The cop takes the kid before he can tell Bob what is going on. D'Angelo is trying to stitch up the kid, when a call rings out that Curtis is trapped by a burning vehicle. Bob gets him free and he tells how the original film was exposing corruption in Chinatown and the kid, Sammy Kwai, is the grandson of one of the racketeers. The kid still says he is being framed. It turns out that Curtis can walk, his film was propaganda to blame local businessmen for his own black marketeering and crime and he dies a poetic death... Thoughts: Shang-Chi continues its intriguing mystery, with excellent art by Rudy Nebres. The plot sucks you in and the action is exciting, with Nebres giving it a moody quality. Sons of the Tiger continues to be mediocre. Last issues improvement is let down by this cliched mess, which reads like Mantlo watched Chinatown too many times and perpetuates stereotypes of Chinatown be a corrupt den of vice (though with the twist that this is a frame job). it reads like the worst 70s tv script (and there were plenty of those, without Mantlo doing and even more cliched job). Perez' artwork is okay, not really developed enough to do much with the locale or the fights. Martial arts action is still mostly stereotyped poses. Shang-Chi continues to carry the magazine, from a story standpoint, while the articles have some more interesting stuff than yet another Bruce Lee article. Unfortunately, next issue is all Bruce Lee articles. That is a dry well, even in 1975.
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Post by profh0011 on Jul 31, 2019 12:50:04 GMT -5
"on set, filming a period gangster piece, when filming is stopped, due to the discovery of a murdered corpse"
A film that has become a favorite of mine of late is "THE DEATH KISS" from 1932. It features 3 of the actors from 1931's "DRACULA" in very different roles: Edward Van Sloan plays a movie director; Bela Lugosi plays the producer; and David Manners plays a writer who likes solving mysteries in his spare time. Unlike his various horror films where he always seems to be playing a hopeless wimp, in this film, Manners get to shine. More than anything, his role and his performance in this makes me think he would have perfect to play Simon Templar, "THE SAINT". It's almost a shame he left Hollywood entirely only a short time after this.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 31, 2019 21:54:39 GMT -5
Master of Kung Fu #31It's Lt Gruber and his little tank. Here's the real cover for this issue... Pure James Bond! Creative Team: Doug Moench-writer, Paul Gulacy-pencils, Dan Adkins-inks, Karen Mantlo-letters, Janice Cohen-colors, Len Wein-edits, Q-gadgets Synopsis: When we last left, Chi, Reston and Tarr wee dumped on a ledge, where they caught sight of Velcro's nuclear arsenal. While Tarr and Reston debate, Chi goes into action... Reston and Tarr soon follow and we get out first glimpse of the Gulacy Gun, aka his version of the Walther LP-53 air pistol, used in the James Bond publicity shots... (well, there is the splash page;so, second glimpse). Mayhem ensues, as ever good Bond climax should contain. Velcro is losing his s@#$ and he consults the mysterious Pavane, another henchperson.... Meanwhile, Reston, Tarr and Chi steal a tank (!!!) and move out. Chi doesn't need its armor, so he goes larking about the complex and runs into Pavane.... ...and utters his new kiyaii: "Hummina-hummina-hummina!!!!" Pavane's a fan of Devo and takes their advice. Chi has had enough foreplay and grabs the whip and layeth the smackdown acrosseth her face(th), knocking Pavane out. She used a whip on him, so that makes violence against the female character okay. While he is distracted, Razor Fist sneaks up for a killing stroke, as an increasingly unhinged velcro and goon arrive and Velcro orders him to fire, killing Razor Fist. Tarr and Reston smash through the wall and unload with the tank's machine guns. Velcro runs for cover. meanwhile, offshore, Smith send a motor launch to pick up the boys. Well, no, actually, it's loaded with explosives and sent as a seagoing V-1. Chi puts Pavane out of harms way and hops a ride on the tank and they head for the coast. They continue past the coast, into the sea, while Velcro's goons follow, in speedboats. Quicker than you can fire a very pistol at fuel drums, the boys swim out to the seaplane and the launch heads for the entrance to Velcro's lair, with Chi steering it! the goons try to stop him and he rams them. velcro is trying to escape in a sub. The launch is......um...launched... Chi surfaces in the water and is extracted by helo. Thoughts: Now that's a climax! If Marvel does actually get a Shang-Chi film in production and it doesn't feature action like this, they can go Fu Manchu themselves! This was a bang-up 3-parter that grabbed you from the start and said "This is something brand new and comics will never be the same, again. Gulacy excels in the action sequences and stages the action well across the panels. Pavane proves to be another intriguing character, though she is seen only briefly. Gulacy makes her a hot number, full grown cat with a whip! The name Pavane comes from the classic form of processional dance.... Not sure what that really has to do with the character, other than it is a really cool and exotic name. She doesn't exactly bring to mind dancer, so much as dominatrix, which is deliberate, as many a domme has been a villainess in a pulp adventure. We don't get much of her here; but, she will return, soon. Smith proves a duplicitous old bas...ahem...devil, as he planned on ramming the complex with explosives anyway, regardless of whether Reston achieved his mission of not. Tarr and Chi were there to get him out, though it turns out that Chi was needed to get the boat to target before Velcro could launch a nuke. Velcro proved a pretty interesting villain; but, moench would definitely improve upon him with his next epic, going from James Bond into the Avengers, and I don't mean the superheroes. I don't know why Marvel didn't use Gulacy's splash pages as the covers, as they are so much more evocative. At least they should have been turned into posters. One of my lottery fantasies is commissioning a series of Master of Kung Fu "Bond" posters for the four big epics that the team produced.
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Post by profh0011 on Aug 1, 2019 13:04:51 GMT -5
Still not sure about Pavane, but... here's a thought...
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 1, 2019 19:33:12 GMT -5
I don't think so; there really aren't any similarities to Pavane I'd say more Ursula Andress or Brigitte Bardot
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Post by profh0011 on Aug 1, 2019 21:23:30 GMT -5
Yeah, truthfully, I don't think it's any of those...
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 3, 2019 18:04:12 GMT -5
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #14A Bruce Lee, all the time! Neal Adams doing Bruce, here. Creative Teams: MOKF-Moench & Nebres; SOT-Mantlo, Perez & Adkins, Archie Goodwin-edits Denny O'Neil dusts off Wan Chang O'Shaugnessy for this. Interior Bruce piece by Howard Chaykin. Letters page has one from a female student, at Antioch College, named Hayashi, who praises Lin Sun, of SOT as a strong, masculine Asian male character, then takes them to task for Lotus, as a stereotyped female Asian character, who falls for the caucasian Bob Diamond. Archie acknowledges the viewpoint, suggests no intent but admits there may be an underlying prejudice of making the female follow for the more familiar hero, to the caucasian writer. Mantlo responds with a request to stick around until issues 17 & 18, to see the complaints addressed. Makes it sound like everything is planned (and it may be) but it comes across as "I better fix this but will make it seem like I planned this out, so I don't look racist." I'll give Mantlo the benefit of the doubt, since I have no evidence that he didn't plan this far in advance, though reading this series you have trouble believing it, the way things meander. Archie's editorial remarks that 2 years after his death, Bruce Lee is big business. A central article for the magazine was to be titled The Ripping Off of Bruce Lee; but, they didn't complete it. They really did need to do a piece about the whole Bruceploitation phenomena. All kinds of products were being sold with his image, without permission from Linda Lee or compensation. She was raising two children, alone. There were official sources of income, for the Lee Estate; but a ton of pirated and outright cons. There was a whole wave of fake Bruces, in Hong Kong, with just about every variation on Lee, apart from Leigh. A lot of those movies turned up in late night or weekend syndication packages, on tv and the few I saw were terrible. I'm not a fan of all of Bruce's films (Big Boss is pretty dull and Fists of Fury takes time to get good); but, they were better than the cheap schlock that followed his death. Shang-Chi- We get a recap of things and a reminder that Shareen is bound and suspended between the floor and an overhead weight of spikes. If Chi cuts either end, she will be killed. Shadow-Thief now adds a Fu touch and releases venomous snakes into the room. Cue some Indiana Jones music, or a bit of Hoyt Curtain, if you prefer. A Cobra springs at Chi (uh, no...) and he catches it by the tail end and uses it like a whip to beat off the others. Someone call PETA! Shareen mumbles a whimper, as a cobra wraps around her thigh, about to strike, when Chi whips it away. Chi smacks the snakes head on the floor and tosses it and another wounded snake tot he far side, then leaps up and catches hold of the spikes, while the snakes attack their wounded brethren . Chi kicks the locked door to the room and shatters hit, leaving a large section on the floor. he then hurls the shuriken into the bonds that secure Shareen's arms to the ceiling. he then kicks out some of the spikes and catches the weight, keeping it from hitting the floor, as Shareen collapses on it. he can't hold long and tells Shareen to scoot the door section over to him and he wedges it under the wight and they escape. he then finishes cutting Shareen loose. The owner of the home, Lionel Stern, hears the ruckus and goes to investigate. he holds a gun on Chi, who kicks it away. Stern's wife knows Shareen. Seh attacks Shareen, while Chi goes after Shadow-Thief's helicopter. They fight but ST escapes. Chi and Stern fight and talk and he turns out to have paid ST to steal the Golden Dragon; but, he gets double crossed. Tarr turns up to take the statue for Sir Dennis. Wan Chang does write a piece about Brucesploitation, specifically the movie The Dragon Dies Hard, which marketed itself as a documentary but was pure fantasy, with a bad lookalike. he remarks that a real biopic is begging to be done (took about 2 decades and was marred by fiction, as well) and there is a note about Robert Clouse announcing one- he never did a film; but did produce a biography, in 1989, which was the basis for Dragon, the Bruce Lee Story, in 1993. Instead, Clouse directed some bad martial arts films (The Big Brawl, Force 5, Gymkata) and tv (The Master, with Lee Van Clief as an Occidental ninja master, with a paunch that disappeared when he was in his ninja gear, doubled by a stuntman). There is an article of the philosophy behind Lee's Jeet Kun Do (the Way of the Intercepting Fist), which was to use whatever works and discard what doesn't, rather than traditional katas and drills. In this, Bruce was one of the pioneers of modern mixed martial arts (as demonstrated in his fight with Sammo Hung, at the start of enter the Dragon, where he uses kicking, striking, blocking and trapping techniques, before defeating Sammo with an armbar submission, in a display of grappling). An article about martial arts weapons mixes some fantasy with reality, including perpetuating many of the fallacies of the ninja. SOT-Lin Sun is the focus and he is meditating and smoking some doobage, based on all the incense in the room (no one actually meditated with incense, in the 70s! Little bit of herb, a psychedelic record, some incense to cover the smell and it was mellow yellow, man! ). A samurai appears to Lin and it gets all Kurosawa (dedicated to him, even). he takes Lin to the Valley of Peace, in "Heaven," and they get attacked by bandits... There is a dead village, more fighting, and Lin defeats "death." Some more philosophy and he returns home, thinking it was a dream, but finding a katana, with a ribbon wrapped around it. Thoughts: Chi beat the death trap a little too easily, with the spikes breaking rather conveniently. A little more ingenuity would have been more memorable. Sons of the Tiger continues to be lot of fight scenes with little real artistry (martial, that is) and some bargain philosophy from mantlo. It was a bit boring, to me. leave that to Moench; he does it better. Mantlo should try a bit of plot and characterization. Sons of the Tiger really makes me feel I didn't miss anything special. I recall reading about them in OHTMU, never having seen a single story and the reality of their stories is that they weren't particularly memorable, apart from some art. The future White Tiger was a better offshoot of the thing and the daughters of the Dragon will prove far more memorable. The Bruce Lee articles suggest they are running out of ideas. Whenever martial arts magazines are stuck for anything, they trot out Bruce. Same thing happening here. It was like Starlog, who wen they got stuck for subject matter, ran interviews with lesser Trek actors or examined specific episodes, until they had footage from some second rate sci-fi film, while Lucas was busy in production or post-production of the next Star Wars. The problem is that the Marvel staff doesn't have much martial arts knowledge, nor deep connections to the Hong kong film industry. As such, they are beholding to other sources and film viewing for article fodder. I think they would have been better served by producing a third feature, like Iron Fist or something new.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 3, 2019 18:47:16 GMT -5
Master of Kung Fu #32Fill in issue, so Gulacy can get caught up. Creative Team: Doug Moench-writer, Sal Buscema-breakdowns, Mike Esposito-finishes, Karen Mantlo-letters, George Roussos-colors, Len Wein-edits. Oh, boy; the kung fu stylings of Sifu Sal! Synopsis: (In my best ernie Anderson voice....) Shang-Chi, tarr and nayland Smith are on....the Love Boat! Well actually, they are in Marseilles, where affection can be negotiated at reasonable rates! Chi stares at a fountain and meditates, while Reston and Tarr jibber-jabber. Nayland Smith arrives to tell reston he is flying home with Petrie, while he, tarr and Chi travel by liner to protect a courier, with documents, from enemy spies. While Tarr gets into a battle of words with the ship's captain, Chi helps a blind woman board the ship. Tarr sees stereotypical spies everywhere (I think I know where this is going). they don't even know what teh courier looks like!. Chi ponders if the girl might be a spy, as she seemed to linger, as if trying to overhear Tarr's squabble with the captain. he brings it up at dinner and then spots her. Smith says to bring her over, when they hear a man yell for help. Chi finds attackers working someone over in the fog and opens up the Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu. He ends up having to let the assailants go to rescue the victim, who is hanging over the side. he does so, when the captain shows up and orders Chi and Tar and Smith to be arrested, until the victim intercedes. However, he claims ignorance for why he was attacked. They go back inside to find the dining room busted up. capt. Stubing will be mad! A steward says hooded men abducted the blind woman. They go searching for Therese, the woman. In the morning, word comes that the crew has been unable to locate Therese and they fear she was thrown overboard and the papers are in enemy hands. Chi goes off on his own and is attacked by a horde of goons... They are members of the crew and Smith suspects the captain. They find him dead. This is usually where Columbo tuns up, while on a vacation cruise, or something. "I just have one more question, Shang-Chi....do those robes come in blue? you see, my wife likes me in blue, and....I'm sorry, i'm keeping you..." Smith interrogates one of the crew: the captain and real crew are held prisoner, back near Marseilles. Chi goes looking for the girl and finds the hooded dudes attacking the earlier victim again. he reads another chapter on whoop ass to them, then catches a curvier figure, with knives, like the ones that killed the captain. It's Therese. She tries to attack Chi and misses, falling over the side. Chi throws her a line.....a nautical line, attached to a life ring. Tarr interrogates the victim, who is part of the gang with the fake crew and Smith reveals he is the courier and he hid the papers in the life ring. The papers are soaked through and the ink is smeared to stains. it doesn't matter since it was Lewis Carroll nonsensical passages. The whole thing was a trap to lure out foreign spies. Tarr has to cobble together a crew to sail the ship to England, while Chi mopes. Thoughts: Too convoluted and not as clever as it wants to be. This reads like one of the throwaway stories from DHOKF, which it fulfills the same function, to let nothing important happen until we get to the next real story, next issue. The artwork is nothing to write home about. Not anyone's best.
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Post by profh0011 on Aug 3, 2019 22:02:30 GMT -5
At this point, Jack Abel was George Perez' best and most consistent inker. (I also love what he used to do for Herb Trimpe's pencils.)
On the other hand, Sal Buscema's layouts were nothing to write home about, especially when Mike Esposito was ALSO slacking off, though his work here is merely average, and not of the level that inspired Len Wein to once tell him to "spend less time at the race track and more time at your drawing board" (an infamous story related by someone who saw it happen in the office one day).
Kinda makes me wish Mike Vosburg had done more episodes.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 4, 2019 18:41:38 GMT -5
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #15Iron Fist is back! And Bruce Lee! Seems like forever since the last Bruce Lee article... Cover by Nick Cardy! Creative Teams: Not gonna waste time; this is an all-reprint issue, in black & white, of color comic stories, plus recycled articles. Shang Chi story is a reprint of his battle with Midnight, from SME #16 Iron Fist is from Marvel premiere #16 Shang-Chi second story, from MOKF #19 Movie review from DHOKF #1 Frank McLaughlin article from DHOKF #2 Wan Chang O'Shaugnessy from DHOKF #2 Only real spark is on the letters pag. A couple praise Don McGrgeor's overly serious criticism of the Roger Moore Bond film, The Man With The Golden Gun, putting it in the magazine because of one scene, at a karate school. However, others had different ideas. Ron Fortier, the future writer of Now Comics Green Hornet, Boston Bombers, at Caliber, Terminator: the Burning Earth at Now, some stuff at Marvel, a bunch of things at Tekno, pulp writer and current publisher of Airship 27 line of New Pulp books, writes a pretty scathing piece, taking McGregor to task for focusing on Billy Jack's politics, rather than the hapkid scenes, since it is a martial arts magazine and the same for Bond, ignoring the actual martial artists to whine about how it isn't the Fleming books (newsflash, most of the movies deviated from the books, quite a bit, if not completely). John Warner, who was the editor of those issues, answers back, and dances around the subject, saying their audience falls between comics people who don't care about the articles and martial artists who don't care much about the comics. he says they can't afford to do a third strip; so, the articles are cheap filler (well, that's my interpretation of what he says). Next letter is from one Fred Hembeck, he of the surly knees and elbows. He praises the improvement in the magazine, citing the Rudy Nebres art and the serialized Shang-Chi story, plus the Abe Brown SOT story I'd agree on that one, but not on the Bob Diamond and Lin-Sun stories). The reprints are all good stories, though all three look murky in the scans I have. Don't think it was the scanner or the age of the magazine. Marvel didn't exacly tweak things for this, like they did the Essential volumes (sometimes). Next issue is supposed to be back to the regular stuff. No idea if they were off schedule and needed a fill in or just didn't have ideas, or wanted a vacation. For a fill in issue, it isn't bad, other than the recycled articles.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 4, 2019 19:54:27 GMT -5
Master of Kung Fu #33Confession time: this was my very first Master of Kung Fu comic and cemented my love of it from the start (imagine how disappointed I was when I got some of the earlier issues). We'll get to why, in a bit) Here's what should have been the cover.......... Chi fighting an Auton/Cybernaut is cool; but, Gulacy drawing Chi and Leiko in a mesh bathing suit? Priceless! Creative Team: Doug Moench-writer, Paul Gulacy-pencils, Dan Adkins-inks, John Costanza-letters, Janice Cohen-colors, Len Wein-edits Synopsis: Smith, Tarr and Chi are at Victoria Station, waiting for Reston to arrive to give them a lift. He turns up, in a stylish car and Chi notices a man in a trench coat and hat, moving oddly stiffly, towards Reston. he recognizes something isn't right and yells for reston to get down... (This seems oddly familiar....) Chi leaps into action; but his kicks have little effect. Tarr's bullets aren't much better. Chi grabs the robot by the gun-eyes and twists the head down to fire into its own chest, blowing its guts out! Tarr suspects it is one of Mordillo's toys and Chi asks about Mordillo. Smith says he is a freelance assassin, mostly working for the Red Chinese. He favors gadgets, with macabre twists. Reston doesn't understand why he was targeted, as he hasn't knowingly crossed paths with Mordillo. Smith sends him on to show Chi his new London flat, while he has forensic boys recover the bullets and examine the wreckage for clues. Reston arrives at a high rise, on Kings Road, Chelsea, where Chi will be staying. It's a bit much, for Chi, but I like it... Chi hears some one inside. They bust into the next room and find....... Reston makes the introductions, as Leiko Wu, MI-6 agent, joins the series. Reston fixes Leiko a drink while she dresses (catching glimpses of her reflected on a doorknob and starts to say something about their relationship, when Leiko reminds him that is in the past. The phone rings and the agents have been summoned to MI-6, for a briefing. Smith does the exposition dump, confirming the metal man was Mordillo's toy and that an examination of the recovered slugs reveals words imprinted on them. All three slugs have "My Fair Lady on them. Smith remarks that other slugs were recovered from the bodies of three dead agents, found at the foot of Big Ben (or rather, the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster). The bullets said "Three Blind Mice...See How They Run...The Clock Struck One." All three were killed at One AM, as Big Ben sounded. Next, we learn that a process has been developed to inject fluorocarbons directly into the ozone layer to create holes over specific regions, a form of solar warfare. MI-6 was entrusted with the process. Agent Putnam was conducting counter-espionage operations and was to meet agent Simon Bretnor at Tower Bridge. Putnam was found dead at the scene. A reexamination of the bullet reveals the letters (in tiers) "D-E-D....C-B-C-D...A-B-C...B-C-D" Smith believes Mordillo is involved in a plot to steal the Project Ultraviolet secrets. Reston asks about Bretnor and is told he is missing, which draws anxiety from Leiko. Smith says they don't where he is or if he is alive. A clerk brings Smith a possible decode of the letters from Putnam's bullet. They believe the letters are musical notes and that it represents the tune, "London Bridge is Falling Down..." The My Fair Lady now has context. They assume it means Tower Bridge, often mistaken as London Bridge, which is gone. Leiko disappears. Reston goes after her, while Tarr and Chi head for Tower Bridge. At the bridge, they find a truck. They investigate, when a squad of goons attack....... Tar gets taken out by Chi defeats the squadm, single-handedly. He finds the bomb and tosses it into the Thames. Smith arrives with his men and they comb the bridge for clues. reston turns up and says Leiko is gone, but he found a note from Bretnor to meet him. Tar rides Reston about jealousy and Smith stops them before they come to blows. He also reveals that part of the information on Project Ultraviolet was encoded in Leiko's mind, under hypnosis, as a safeguard. her disappearance could put that info at risk. One of the MI-6 men turns up a note from Putnam, which reveals that Simon Bretnor is Mordillo, then gives latitude and longitude coordinates for an island, in the East China Sea (it's actually in the Nagasaki region, of Japan) The bullets were a feint, as was the bomb. The Target wasn't Tower Bridge, it was Simon Bretnor's Fair Lady: Leiko... Thoughts: Fantastic issue, 40 years later! Moench has really upped the game and Gulacy runs apace. There is a ton of mystery here, and a ton of eposition. Moench uses the briefing to unload much of it; but, the images that Gulacy uses keeps you interested, visually, until they bring you to action scenes. There is a darn good mystery here, and the Project Ultraviolet hook actually has real logic to it. Targeting the ozone layer over an enemy location could have devastating effects to te population. Isolating the effect would be the hard part. This was the era when the public began to learn the damage that had been done to the Ozone Layer and the long term effects, which we are dealing with today. Mordillo is by far the best villain yet. At this point, he is an unknown; but an extremely deadly one, as conveyed by his robot assassin and the various dead agents described in the briefing. This is not a man to take lightly, yet he is obviously psychotic, as well. He has advanced technology at his disposal and seems to be bankrolled largely by the Red Chinese. That's a dangerous combo. At the end, we learn he is a rogue MI-6 agent, which means he probably had access to all kinds of secrets. not only may he have the secret to project Ultraviolet, he may have compromised all kinds of operations, ala Kim Philby and the rest of the Cambridge 5. I've never seen Moench of Gulacy confirm this; but, it is my belief that the name Mordillo is an homage to Argentine cartoonist Guillermo mordillo, who was known simply as Mordillo, whose pantomime cartoons have been published all over the world. there were book collections of his work available in the US, prior to the writing of this issue. Sadly, Mordillo passed away in June, of this year. We don't see bretnor/Mordillo, until the very end; but, he was visually based on James Coburn. gulacy doesn't quite get the likeness down. however, he has refined Reston and he looks very much like Sean Connery, with a hint of Basil Rathbone's nose. Shang-Chi fluctuates a bit, between Bruce Lee and a more generic face. Supposedly, at one point, Marvel got served notice by Linda Lee to stop using Bruce as the likeness for Shang-Chi. Gulacy would use likenesses when he felt moved to do so and more will pop up, down the road. I've never seen mention of any physical basis for Leiko, though there is something vaguely familiar about her face, in the bathtub scene. May have just been someone that Gulacy knew, as he has used friends as models. This is my favorite storyline of all of the MOKF stories; it has everything, from action, mystery, sex appeal, drama, and even a spot of humor. Great atmosphere and memorable new characters. That's what made this a classic. If Velcro started them on that path, Mordillo cemented it. Next issue, we will meet the other character that transcended all others and has never been duplicated.
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Post by profh0011 on Aug 4, 2019 20:57:54 GMT -5
Something that never crossed my mind until a couple years ago...
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Post by profh0011 on Aug 4, 2019 21:00:55 GMT -5
Absurdly, my best friend was also missing the first part of THIS story when he loaned me all his kung fu comics to read. I had to get it as a back-issue, like most of them. I eventually tracked down all the MOKF issues, but never quite got all the DHoKF magazines.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 5, 2019 22:05:01 GMT -5
Deadly Hands of Kung FU #16I don't know what it is, but this cover just screams Mad Magazine to me. Creative Teams: MOKF-Doug Moench & Rudy Nebres; Corpse Rider-John Warner and Sanho Kim; SOT-Bill Mantlo, George Perez & Steve Gan; Don McGregor-edits So, apparently they were lying when they said they couldn't afford a third strip, last issue. Sanho Kim is always good! Synopsis: Inner cover page features a story of the King of Siam, under a mask, defeating the champion of the Mongols, in single combat to stop them from invading. Probably not true; but, it makes for a great story and McLaughlin makes a doozie out of a single page. How about switching with Mantlo and let McLaughlin do a complete story and cut down on the filler in SOT? Shang-Chi- Tarr is demanding the Golden Dragon, on Nayland Smith's orders. Tarr beats info out of Stern and Shareen grabs a gun, takes a potshot at Tarr and jumps out a window. Stern pointed Tarr to a curio shop and Tarr and a confused Chi (join the club, pal) go there, while Stern alerts someone that they have taken the bait. Stern finds his wife Melissa on the ground, hit by Shareen on her way out. She asks about the statue and Stern says they will get it back then wonders why she is suddenly concerned and she beats the snot out of him! See, ask a simple question and the wife overreacts (ducks pillow thrown by own wife). She throws on an overcoat and heads out. Tarr and Chi arrive at the curio shop, look around and find a corpse. Then they find Cho Lee, who is looking more like Christopher Lee... Chi fights a bunch of demons, all with Kwai's face, and his Tarr turns out to be a demon, whose head gets smashed, revealing the GoldenDragon, and Cho Lee vanishes. Chi goes outside and finds the real Tarr and Smith is looking for the state, because it has secret documents hidden inside. Melissa turns up and is actually Jenny Quinn, an agent of Smith's. Chi is confused and I am there with him and they al look up and see an actual Golden Dragon There is an interview with Jhoon Rhee, the man most responsible for bringing tae kwon do to America. He started a school in Washington DC and grew from there, becoming friends with Bruce Lee and Muhammad Ali, working as a coach for him for his fiasco of a fight against Japanese pro wrestler Antonio Inoki. Corpse Rider- A wandering samurai finds a young samurai wielding his sword against a servant and intervenes. He is told that the youngster divorced his wife and the servant was hers and he wants nothing to do with her. The servant says she has died of grief and swore to rise from the grave to claim her vengeance on her husband. He's afraid now and the older samurai tries to comfort him. They go to see an abbott, then are attacked by ninja... The abbott tells the youngster he must jump on the corpse's back, when it rises and hang on for dear life. Well, it happens and it looks all R Crumb, as the young samurai is riding on the back of the woman's corpse. The ninja show up and she attacks them. the older samurai goads her into a storehouse and locks the pair inside, until morning, when he finds only the youngster alive and whining. The old guy berates him and the youngster learns a lesson, which kind of escapes me. SOT-a prison break, but the black prisoner is caught, then deliberately gunned down. Meanwhile, the SOT examine a place that Bob's agent acquired for them to open a kung fu school, on the Lower East Side. Hijinks ensue. Blackbyrd shows up about the prison killing. With him is a man named Halliday of the NCLU (which appears to be in the competing league with the ACLU) who deals with convict rights. Abe gives gim grief and he punches Abe and tells him he had been wrongly convicted of second degree murder, was pardoned by JFK and went to law school because of it. So, shut up, fool! The team goes inside as a performing troupe, which is allowed by the crooked warden, while the sgt of the guard slings racial slurs. Prisoners are brought in and not allowed to look up. they have been beaten and are held at gunpoint. The sgt was done up for burglary by Blackbyrd and he grabs Lotus and forces Abe to fight Lin-Sun. They pull a fake and take out the sgt and the guard with a gun on the prisoner. A riot ensues, the warden shoots himself and the National Guard turns up. Thoughts: Shang Ch is confusing as hell, but looks good. Sanho Kim also looks good; but, Warner's story needed work. Sons of the Tiger is a complete mess that makes no logical sense and the plot sounds like a Charlie's Angels episode, minus the prostitution angle. Weird issue. Sanho Kim is better off writing his own material. Perez still has a long way to go.
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Post by brutalis on Aug 6, 2019 8:00:26 GMT -5
This Deadly Hands #16 was my 1st black and white issue. Perhaps it resonates with me so well that I found it during summer vacation spending a month with my Grandparents up in Payson in the mountains and as it was my only comic with me I read and re-read this bad boy all month long. Growing up in the 70's within the Kung Fu craze this issue captured several different martial arts and 70's grooves. I can look at this one with fond remembrances of my youth and appreciate it more than one who reads it today might. The Nebres artwork is spectacularly stunning and stylized with the black and white helping to show the skill and detailed pencils/inks. Perez was instantly an artist I would begin watching for in any comic. Shang Chi was already one of my favorite comics which leaped even higher with Gulacy coming aboard and becoming more of a spy/action movie comic book but I was really liking this more "Adult" magazine version with an elaborate pulp and mystery tone.
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