Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Black and White Wednesday: "Politics of Death!" by Mantlo, Perez, and Abel
HiiiYA, Groove-ophiles! Bill Mantlo, George Perez, and Jack Abel's "Politics of Death" (featuring the Sons of the Tiger, natch) is probably one of (if not THE) most violent stories Ol' Groove can remember reading during the Groovy Age (up there with the Punisher tales in Marvel Preview #2 and Marvel Super Action #1 and the Tiger-Man story in Thrilling Adventure Stories #1). Bullets and throwing stars fly, blood squirts, and jaws and necks get kicked around very, very hard. This one has a very authentic "kung fu flick" feel--gritty and hard boiled as any Sonny Chiba movie, baby. Let's carefully peel back the covers of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #17 (September 1975)--but ya might wanna put on a flak jacket first...!
Man did Perez cram a lot of panels into those pages. Never crowded, they are an exquisite array of storytelling. Herein we see glimpses of the brilliance that was later to be manifested in The New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths.
ReplyDeleteoops! page 60, panel one... that guard has six fingers...
ReplyDeleteWooo boy did Sam Peckinpah write this script? Talk about ultraviolent! I read the previous issue to this years ago but never the followup. Thanks Groove!
ReplyDelete- Mike from Trinidad & Tobago.