The Bullpen Bulletins page in this comic closes with "Remember, you don't have to buy one copy of every Marvel Comic every month...but it sure helps!" I could barely guess how many they had coming out this particular month, and I wouldn't have remembered this one, either: from October 1991, Zorro #11, "Engagement with Death" Story by Bruce Lansbury, adaptation by Ian Rimmer, pencils by David Taylor, inks by Colin Fawcett. Cover by Alex Toth, which is pretty much what got me to grab this one.
I had no recollection of a Zorro book from Marvel; or would've thought it might've been a more kid-oriented, cartoon tie-in. Or for a movie, but the Mask of Zorro wasn't until 1998. Still, having watched way too much TV, I recognized Bruce Lansbury's name from a ream of shows. This was an adaptation of a 1990 TV episode, "Deceptive Heart," guest-starring Duncan Regehr, the "sex candle ghost" from that episode of Next Generation. Regehr was the lead on this version of Zorro, actually. 88 episodes over four years.
Toth art might've been nice; but while I didn't recognize their names, Taylor and Fawcett do all right. I'm really sure this was during that stretch when Marvel was cranking out like 100 titles a month in the hopes of choking the market, but this wasn't the worst looking I've seen from that lot. Plot-wise, Zorro has to prevent his dad from marrying a golddigger without exposing his identity. Geez, it's your dad, you can probably trust him; but no, Zorro has to make a scene. Maybe your dad just wants a little companionship, and it's up to him if he leaves your inheritance to a trophy wife, ya ungrateful bastard. Ahem...I just hopped up to check Disney+ for a moment, but the only Zorro they had was the Mask of Zorro, edited together from their TV series: the rights for Zorro have been around, yeah. He's been parodied multiple times and the character and setting are probably not as culturally sensitive as you might hope, but he'll be back.
Probably with a rap. That just seems inevitable, now.
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