Kobra #5 (November-December, 1975)
"The Eye of the Serpent"
Story - Martin Pasko
Penciller - Rich Buckler
Inker - Frank McLaughlin
Colorist - Carl Gafford
Lettering - Ben Oda
Cover Price: $0.30
This is a book I'd been wanting to take a peek at for quite some time now. My introduction to the character of Kobra... the Deadliest Man Alive came in the pages of Superman, which we discussed a couple months back. There, he came off as a pretty goofy (and gimmicky) fella... and the very idea that DC saw fit to give him his own series a few years earlier completely boggled my mind. How could a villain... one as ssstrange and odd as Kobra carry his own ongoing? Well, we're about to find out... I guess.
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We open on a neat bit where we learn that the issue we'd been expecting has been cancelled, and we'll be getting the story that follows instead. Kobra is burning his way through what would've been the cover of Kobra #5. The issue proper starts in an invisible aircraft hovering over San Francisco. Inside, Kobra is watching some surveillance footage of his twin brother, Jason Burr. Burr is recounting how Kobra has potentially cost him someone dear to him... and he's putting his fist through plate glass to vent off his frustration. There is a turbaned man with him tending to his wounds. We learn that in order for Kobra to become "Lord of Earth" the link between he and Jason must be severed... because, why not?
We shift scenes to hard-boiled detective Jonny Double as he poses as a cabbie outside the office of a woman he calls "Li'l Miss Manslaughter". He goes down her rap sheet for us, and proceeds to watch as she and a potential victim leave. He prepares to tail them, however, a shadowy man approaches in dire need of a cab ride. Not wanting to blow his cover, Jonny takes the fare.
The man enters, and suddenly the cabs meter goes all wonky. I guess this happens from time to time, as Jonny just rolls with it and quotes him a flat-rate. At the destination, the man exits... but leaves his briefcase behind. Now, we all know what people keep in briefcases that they leave in cabs, right? Yup, there's a bomb in there. Thankfully, this ain't Jonny's first run-in with a ticking valise... and so, he drives the cab off a nearby dock... just in the nick of time. A strip of fabric from the case floats to the surface, on it is the symbol of the Kobra.
Speaking of which, Kobra's got eyes all around the city... some of which on Jonny Double. They assumed he'd wriggle his way out of the ol' exploding car gag... so they follow him as he breaks into the office he'd been peeping earlier. Inside, he gets jumped by a trio or goons... who he takes out in as many panels.
He continues on into a computer room. He begins asking the computer questions... only to get cute answers in return. He digs a bit deeper and comes up with the name of CIA Agent Ricardo Perez. He snaps a few shots of the screen and heads back to his hard-boiled office of hard-boiledness.
He calls his contact, Harry... he is given the name of hitman Horst Buchner and is told to call "Big Louie" for further info. Louie tells him that he thinks Horst is dead... and the scuttlebutt points to "cobras". He's starting to put two and two together. A helpful footnote tells us that Buchner was in fact murdered by Kobra.
Hearing about Cobras makes Double call yet another contact... Mack. Mack is pretty freaked out that Jonny's had a run-in with Kobra and lived to tell the tale. He then refers him to... Jason Burr, Kobra's twin brother. After a brief chat, Burr accepts an invite west.
The next morning, Double goes about his daily commute. Special mind is paid to the workers all along the Golden Gate Bridge. That night, he visits a theater to rendezvous with his main man Mack... only to find he'd been shot. Suddenly more bullets ring out, narrowly missing our man. Elsewhere, Jason Burr has trouble getting a plane ticket... oh yeah, and he appears to be getting followed by yet another shadowy individual.
Back at the theater, Jonny Double is in the midst of a firefight with a pair of turbaned fellows. He makes relatively short work of them after a few rounds of tough-guy talk. He shoots them both dead (which he admits is "un-cool"), and hops a street car to get away.
Wouldn'tcha know it... he managed to board the one street car in town that Kobra was hanging out in... they proceed to have a bit of a back and forth, with Kobra quickly losing his patience. He uses his magical (?) gauntlet to destroy the tracks and break the street car loose... careening downhill to certain doom. Elsewhere, Jason finally catches a flight... however, there is a... get this, shadowy man on board as well!
Back in San Francisco, right as the street car is about to plow into a building, Double bails out. Kobra had 'ported a bit earlier. Double's alive... but just barely. Rather than just kill him there, Kobra instead takes him hostage. Back with Burr... his plane catches fire somewhere over Oregon... go figure, right?
Jonny wakes up to find himself strapped to the Golden Gate Bridge! Kobra now reveals his nefarious plot... the workers on the bridge earlier in the week were installing "quakers"... no not the people, or the oatmeal... things that make the Earth shake! The quakers were set to go from the bottom of the bridge straight through the Earth's crust. We close out on the promise that in 20 minutes, San Francisco will fall!
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Really wasn't expecting to dig this... but it wasn't half bad. Not necessarily something I would track down the rest of, but not something I'd think to leave behind in the cheap-o bins either.
Oddly, the character of Kobra didn't really get much face time here... least not as much as I'd imagined he would. Instead we spent most of our time with hard boiled private dick, Jonny Double. The name rang a bell, but I couldn't place him. After doing a bit of checking around, I found that he has since appeared... at least in name, in a late 1990's Vertigo miniseries. That must be where I remember him from. Anyhoo, his exploits were more interesting than I'd thought they were going to be.
Back to Kobra... I'm not sure if my brain is just drawing parallels here but, the whole time reading this he reminded me of Cobra Commander from G.I. Joe. From his lisssp, to his over the top reactions... even to the ridiculously overblown deathtrap. Gotta wonder if Larry Hama drew some inspiration from this fella.
The writing here, pot-boiler mystery bits aside, was pretty good... though perhaps a bit flowery for a story like this. The art was nice throughout, though when the coloring was off... it really hurt my character identification skills. Jonny Double with darker hair or a suit of a different shade could easily be confused for Kobra's twin brother Jason Burr. There were a small handful of panels that I had to give a second glance to see if there may have been a coloring error. Guess that's a problem when the characters don't differentiate in appearance all that much.
Overall... I guess I'd say if you see any issue of Kobra on the cheap, maybe give it a shot. You're likely not going to get anything that'll rock your socks or change your life... but you might just get a fun read.
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Letters Page: (the rumors of our cancellation have been greatly exaggerated edition)
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1st Issue Special #11 (February, 1976)
"Code Name: ASSASSIN"
Writers - Gerry Conway & Steve Skeates
Artists - The Redondo Studio (Nestor & Frank)
Embellisher - Al Milgrom
Cover Price: $0.25
Heyyy, it's another 1st Issue Special... the book only a handful of us... and James Robinson, seem to recall. Such an interesting and ambitious endeavor was this series. It would be interesting for DC (or even Marvel) to try something similar today... of course, that would require people making new (non-derivative) characters and we all know that ain't ever gonna happen!
With my pithiness outta the way, let's check out Code Name: ASSASSIN, who sadly (to my knowledge) lay dormant after this initial outing... until James Robinson breathed some new life into him some decades later... which appears to be a trend for some of these newbies!
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We open outside of an office on the thirtieth story of a high rise building in Midtown Manhattan. Inside there are a trio of mooks led by a Mr. Carmody. They are sweating over someone they call "The Assassin". They believe themselves to be safe and secure up so high, but we know better... ain't that right, True Believer? The Assassin himself is hovering outside the window, being held aloft by what we will learn is his telekinetic powers. Moments later, he crashes through the window, sending the grubby little mobsters scurrying. What's interesting here is that it appears that the Assassin knows what his foes are going to do before they do it. It is indicated via some puffy pink word balloons that he can read their thoughts.
The main-man Carmody crawls over to his desk where he finds his pistol. I mean, really now... you're a mob boss who thinks a guy called "The Assassin" is after you, and you're not packing heat 24/7? Sloppy work, Carmody. You ain't long for this biz. Anyhoo, as he draws his weapon, he realizes that he's already staring down the business end of the Assassin's. The Assassin squeezes the trigger first, however, his type of ammunition is non-lethal.
With Carmody slumped out, our man proceeds to invade his mind searching for some answers. What he finds is that there's a safe inside the desk that houses some important documents. The Assassin uses his pocket blowtorch (!) to break in... and procure the docs... and from the looks of it, enough cash to choke a whale. During the safe-cracking bit, we get a very optimistic footnote that the story of the creator of the pocket blowtorch would be explored in "future issues". Sorry, Gerry...
In the time it takes the Assassin to loot the chest, one of the mooks comes to. The baddie picks up his pistol and attempts to shoot our man in the back... whatta coward. Anyhoo, the Assassin's spidey-sense tips him off that there's a bullet on the way, and he dodges it. In so doing, he also unleashes a blast of "mental energy" at the mobster... so strong a blast that the poor doofus is left brain-dead. Something the Assassin suggests is "almost as permanent as death"... c'mon pal, that's pretty permanent.
We jump to the morning after as the police arrive on the scene. That's another thing about these 1st Issue Specials... we get these weird scenes with officers reacting to stuff. They're all kind of draggy and exposition-heavy too. The officers are joined by a Dr. Stone and we learn that the Assassin is a man named Jonathan Drew... who is also his patient. The officers conclude that it doesn't matter who the Assassin is, because after taking down Carmody... he's as good as dead!
Ya see, he's as good as dead because Victor Grummun the Mob-Master will surely take him out! We helpfully shift scenes to the... bwa-ha-ha!... this is the vaunted Mob-Master... as in "The Master... of the Mob"? This leisure-suit wearing putz? Good Lord... and look at his inner-circle... yeah, they ought to strike fear in the hearts of men worldwide.
Our yacht captain disco king is introduced to his two newest and most creatively-named associates... The Snake and Powerhouse. One of his minions claims that they are the key to taking down the Assassin. Mob-Master is skeptical, and insists that they provide him an exhibition of their powers... so we get a scene that drags on for over three-pages. Oi. We observe that The Snake is... well, snake-like. He's fast and slippery... though he appears to headbutt fools rather than bite or constrict around them. Powerhouse is... c'mon, he's a really strong dude. He can also somehow conduct electricity through his over-sized body. The Grummun is duly impressed by the show.
Back in Manhattan, the Assassin returns home. He sneaks into his window... which kind of begs the question, why? The police seem to know his identity... not sure how much of a secret this all is. Maybe he just feels cooler doing it this way... we'll go with it. Anyhoo, he is surprised to find Dr. Stone waiting for him inside. The Doc pleads with him to "quit this deadly game" and "this game of revenge"... to which, Drew replies that it's not... a game. Stone tells him he's been lucky thus far, as he hasn't had to kill anyone yet... guess we're keeping that brain-dead thing between us, eh?
It is here where we get treated to the Assassin's Secret Origin. We take a trip via flashback to a younger Jonathan standing before his parent's graves. Next to him stands his older sister, and for a time guardian, Marie. We then shift forward several years... Jon is in grad-school, and is taking part in a research experiment concerning E.S.P. being conducted by a Doctor Andrew Stone.
Now, this is pretty great... just as Stone is about to pull the switch on the machine Drew is connected to... one of the lab assistants trips over the power cable! This causes the testing equipment to explode... with Drew still attached.
Our man was either comatose or simply kayoed, however, when he woke up he found that he could move things with his mind.
Some time later we get a short scene with Jon and Marie on a city street. She tells him that she's been working for a very dangerous man... named Victor Grummun... uh-oh. No sooner does she spill the beans than a sports car barrels down the road and unleashes a clatter of machine-gun fire straight into her back. Helluva crack-shot riding shotgun, eh? Nobody else got hit... not even Jon, who was standing less than a foot away! He reacts to this as you would expect... he uses his TK powers to make the sports car go boom! There's a caption at the bottom revealing that the men inside survived... which had to have been added after the fact, there's no way anyone could have gotten out of that blast.
Back in the present, Drew is so angered by the story he's telling that he shatters the glass bottle he was holding. His hand begins to bleed, however, thanks to his TK powers, he's (somehow) able to close the wound.
He heads back into the night... this time with his sights set on Grummun's yacht... which gives us the scene that takes place on the cover of the book! I miss the days when that was a thing.
After taking out one of the guard-goons, our man finds himself jumped by... The Snake and Powerhouse! Uh-oh! How is this gonna play out? Well... your guess is as good as mine in this case, dear reader. The only way we would have found out is if people wrote in and begged for more... which they didn't.
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Read enough 1st Issue Special, they all start to blend together... don't they?
This wasn't a bad issue, in fact, for what it was I rather enjoyed it. There's just a feeling of sameyness for books of this type. We start with an action scene... meet a member or two of the prospective side-cast... go into flashback mode, where someone close to the character gets hurt or killed... then back to the present where the new hero is about to take on their first big threat, only to be cut off by an overly optimistic "same Bat-time, same Bat-Channel" message to close us out.
With that out of the way, I liked the concept... however, I'm not sure folks were ready for the solo escapades of Jonathan Drew. We've talked in the past about DC's various "answers" for The Punisher... Wild Dog and Vigilante (Adrian Chase) foremost among them. I gotta wonder if Code Name: ASSASSIN was the first. After all, Gerry Conway created them both! Punisher first appears in Amazing Spider-Man #129, which only hit shelves two-years before this, with a cover-date of February, 1974!
We've got a pretty similar back-story for the two as well. A loved-one gets taken out by the mob, and the one left behind swears revenge. We get a new wrinkle with Drew's ESPer powers, but overall, not too terribly different. A suppose another difference between the two would be ASSASSIN's relative NERF-ness when compared to ol' Frank's ballistics. Though, we do see Drew brain-dead a fool, and not really show much remorse for it. These two may just be cut from the same cloth!
The dialog here quite suited Drew as a somewhat hesitant... yet at the same time, headstrong vigilante. We get the impression that his only interest in justice is his being honor-bound to avenging the loss of his sister. I'm guessing if this were to continue, that plot would either be left to bubble in the background or solved straight out and lead our man deeper into the criminal-element. I mean, he's dealing with the *snicker* Mob-Master here... you gotta figure his tendrils run deep throughout the DC Universe! Maybe he and the illustrious Mr. Beefer from the Manhunter piece would've become running buddies! I could see them having a stranglehold on the DCU's underworld... Lex who?
The Redondo Studios art here was fantastic. The text piece (included below) makes a big deal out of outsourcing the art to the far off Philippines... which, seems so quaint in 2016 where I can send an email to the Philippines just as fast as I can send one to someone in the next room... it's actually kind of hard to recall a time where it was any different. Pretty scary, that. The cover is done by Mike Grell, and it looks swell as well. From the text piece (again, included below) there seemed to have been a lot of passion (or at least effort) put into this particular issue. It's really too bad that he (and, honestly... most of the 1st Issue Special gang) didn't really go anywhere. Maybe if things went different we could've had a Code Name: ASSASSIN/Lady Cop team-up book!
Overall... I think this is worth at least a flip-through, with an asterisk. It ends on a cliffhanger... and not a terribly intriguing one. However, this is an issue of 1st Issue Special, which in and of itself makes it worth checking out. It's just such a strange odd novelty... truly a piece of weird comics history.
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Batman #401 (November, 1986)
"A Bird in the Hand..."
Writer - Barbara J. Randall
Artist - Trevor Von Eeden
Letterer - John Costanza
Colorist - Adrienne Roy
Editor - Denny O'Neil
Cover Price: $0.75
Wouldja look at that? It's Magpie! In my mind, perhaps the quintessential 1980's DC Comics villain. She doesn't get all that much play, but she always pops into my head when I think of this era. Hell, she even made an appearance in Man of Steel... not the movie, folks... well, maybe she did, I never saw it. I'm talkin' the 1986 John Byrne miniseries here, which was a pretty big deal.
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We open as a well-to-do couple gets ready to attend a hoi-poloi event. The woman latches her wildly opulent necklace around her neck. Unfortunately for her, a miniature Wolverine appears to be inside it. With a SNIK(t)!, a(n adamantium?) blade cuts into her throat... and she bleeds out while her husband talks to himself about how much he hates these kind of affairs.
We shift scenes to the Gotham City Police Department... more specifically, outside the window of Commissioner James Gordon's office. The Batman is listening in to a conversation between Gordon and Detective (?) David Estevez. We learn that they know Magpie to be responsible for the recent jewelry-related crimes because... get this, she left a note. Despite letters from Batman, Superman, the behavioral health and law enforcement world... Magpie is out on bail. By this point, she is already responsible for the deaths of (at least) ten people. As Estevez leaves, Gordon waves Batman in. The bat has deduced that Magpie is going after pendants named after birds... the Eagle's Heart, the Robin's Egg, and Stanley's Turtledove being the last three. He decides that the best course of action might be setting a trap... using the Wayne Collection of precious stones (he claims that Bruce Wayne "owes him one")!
We advance to the event itself. Bruce is acting all "brucey" and aloof. He is introduced to the undercover officer who will be posing as his date for the afternoon, the potentially-not-long-for-this-world Detective Roberta Valle. She is set to wear the Falcon's Eye around her neck.
As more VIPs and socialites shuffle in, we see that among the guest list is G. Gordon Godfrey, the evangelical fellow who is on an anti-superhero crusade. He has a contentious exchange with Ms. Valle which results in his wildly flailing his arms and knocking a waiter (who is carrying a tray of drinks, natch) into her... spilling the delightful green beverage all over her dress.
Bruce waves over a waitress to escort Valle to the washroom to get cleaned up. You'll never guess who the waitress is... c'mon try and guess... okay, times up... it's Magpie in a blonde wig!
She swipes the Falcon's Eye and replaces it with a copy... that spews poisonous gas! So, Valle does what one would do when equipped with a death-maker... she runs through a crowded room to "share the wealth". Gordon gets on evac-duty with the quickness, and Bruce loosens his stylish white bow-tie.
Moments later, the Batman swoops in. Like, literally... he swings in on a line. What that line is connected to, I haven't the foggiest. In the mad rush, a rich-folk riot has broken out. Batman does what he can to keep the peace, and removes the faux-Falcon's Eye from Ms. Valle. She expresses regret for jeopardizing the lives of those around her by... ya know, almost poisoning them.
After the dust settles, and the rich folks and police alike catch their breath... G. Gordon Godfrey decides to, get this... climb up on a table to continue his pontificating. He tries to spin Batman's sudden appearance as an attack rather than anything heroic. C'mon dude... chill out a bit, we've lumbering into cartoon villainy here.
Speaking of cartoon villainy... we got some more of that on the way! But first, we have Robin... who must have just been hanging out in the Batcave waiting for the party to end. He and Batman hop into a decidedly old-school looking Batmobile, dual bubble-windshields and all... and go on the hunt. It doesn't take them long to find their destination... the warehouse of the party-caterer.
Inside we've got Magpie acting all goofy. She's standing among her collection of "pretty birdies" and singing.
Batman and Robin enter by... ya know, walking through the door. Magpie's henchmen hop-to and start blasting away. Luckily, they're all a pretty bad shot. In one of my favorite panels in a long while, one catches a batarang in the face... and just states "Uhhf, that hurt!" Gotta love it!
The battle rages on. Batman starts tossing fools into Magpie's glass-cases of pretty-shiny-things, which vexes her. She attempts to flee, and so Robin does a flippy-do snapmare type move on her... however, rather than grabbing her body... he manages to pull down her top, exposing her Magpie-Mammaries... whoops. As Robin shields his eyes from the birdie-boobies, Magpie gets away. Smooth, Jason... real smooth.
Magpie exits the room, and closes a panel of glass behind her. She then triggers a pretty cartoony death trap, which is set to kill not only our heroes, but her henchfolk as well. Nozzles appear from atop the room... and from them, lasers shoot out. The nozzles begin to lower, promising to slice the room's inhabitants as though they were cheese.
Thinking on his feet, Batman pulls a mirror out of Magpie's display set up to use as a shield. He then nabs a super-multi faceted gemstone to use as a prism of sorts. We follow Magpie as she runs up a flight of stairs... when she reaches the top, she trips and drops her newly-stolen necklace. Whoops.
Back inside the deathtrap, the lasers continue to descend. Batman and Robin hide behind the mirror... neglecting to protect the henchmen, because... ehh, why bother. As the lasers get low enough, Batman holds up the gemstone. This catches one of the beams and redirects it into the glass door... weakening it enough so that Robin can shatter it with a well-placed kick.
While this is going down, Magpie is still laying on the ground after tripping. Okay. She crawls over, ever so slowly, to the Falcon's Eye... and as soon as she grabs it, she finds herself sitting at the foot of the Batman!
She pulls out, not just a gun... but an explosive dart gun... and aims it at the man. Bad move, bird-girl... Batman lifts the window blinds and holds that same super-faceted gemstone into the light. The resulting explosion of shininess dazzles poor Magpie.
Rather than fight on, she proceeds to throw a temper-tantrum about wanting all the pretty things. From here she's easy pickin's, and Batman escorts her out.
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Well... wow. This was kind of a dud. Definitely not the best outing for the Randall (later-Kesel) and Von Eeden here. I've seen this book cited around the internet as being the first "official" post-Crisis issue of Batman, and if that is true... we're kinda stumbling out of the gate here. Oh Magpie, I had such high hopes for you!
The writing went from feeling natural to being stilted almost from panel to panel, and the art... this is definitely not Von Eeden at his Thriller best. That's not really fair... there are some really impressive pages here... it's just not terribly consistent. We get some incredible panels... and one's that kind of feel unnatural, and static. Definitely still love Trevor's work though.
The whole thing kind of feels like a rush-job filler. Both writer and artist here are not the regular creators on this title... and as far as I can tell, this is their only issue together. Max Allan Collins would take over from here... minus a certain Year One tale a few months down the line. Maybe they just didn't know exactly what to do with the character at this point... or were just killing time before Frank Miller righted the ship. Either way... this just didn't do it for me.
This issue is an official tie-in to the Legends crossover (which puts it squarely post-Crisis), and features an appearance from G. Gordon (Glorious) Godfrey as he rather theatrically spreads and foments his anti-superhero propaganda. I mean, the fool was pontificating while standing atop an opulently set table here, for cripes' sake!
I'm guessing the Robin who somehow materializes during this issue is Jason Todd... though in his decidedly pre-Crisis friendly incarnation. Dick was already Nightwing at this point, and had been for a good couple years. I always get a kick out of seeing the non-jerk-ass Jason... just so weird for DC to put Dick Grayson in the ditto-machine and just run with the character that popped out the other end.
This issue also features what may be young Jason's first eyeful of boobies. Truly a coming of age for the nouveau-Robin... Magpie will always have a special place in his heart... as she does mine.
The bit where our dynamic duo had to escape the deathtrap felt like something out of the 1966 TV show... which, is a good thing. This issue does exercise Batman's physicality, detective skills and intellect... I'll definitely give it that. That brought my opinion of the overall package up a few ticks right there.
Breaks my heart to say this, but... you don't really need to seek this one out. If you're in the mood for a (relatively) lighthearted romp... relatively because as you can see there are deaths... and a fair amount of bloodshed... I suppose this isn't the worst thing you could pick up. The Legends bit is really just more of the same from Glorious Godfrey... if you've been following the event, you've surely seen his antics before... and this doesn't deviate from the formula.
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