Random Happenstance

I don't know when this post will go up, we'll see if I'm still mad: I just read a couple issues of Tom King's Danger Street, and I don't say this very often, but to hell with that comic. It features all the characters from 1st Issue Special...because they were all in that; that's about all they have in common. Travis is pretty much unrecognizable: he, the 70's Starman, and Metamorpho are going to use Doctor Fate's helmet...to summon, then murder, Darkseid? So they can get on the Justice League? What the--?! I tried to be charitable, and just suggest it wasn't for me; but I dislike it much more than that.

To get that taste out of my mouth, back to the classics: from 1981, Warlord #41, "The Pit" Story and pencils by Mike Grell, inks by Bob Smith. 

In scenic Kaambuka, Travis and Shakira have got sucked into the local palace intrigue, with the thief-turned-king Ashir. He's got an arranged marriage coming up that he's not looking forward to, until he gets a gander at the bride: from neighboring Shamballah, Tara! She's attacked by assassins about as soon as she arrives; but while Travis dispatches them soon enough, Tara pretends not to know him. This was their first meeting since the death of their son, so I thought she might be mad at him, but this wasn't that, nor did she seem bent out of shape by the introduction of Travis's new "constant companion," Shakira! Who takes Ashir aside, then ditches him to chase a mouse; while Travis sneaks up to Tara's chambers, but is seen by a goon. Tara explains, her "council of elders" pushed the marriage on her, since the Theron army was threatening them. (Cue "War on Thera" joke again, even if the spelling changes somewhere there.) Travis thinks he can talk Ashir out of the wedding. Or stab him. Geez, man.

As a cat, Shakira overhears the plot against Ashir, with the unusual appearance of her racing away with a mouse in her mouth; and Tara and Travis are attacked by more assassins. Who aren't very effective, and Travis's Hellfire Sword defends them against a spell, but they get knocked out by a glass full of "the black lotus!" which has been putting fantasy characters under for years. The head bad guy has them hung over the titular pit, which has an orange blobby thing in it; which seems like a creepy thing for Ashir to have in his basement but maybe it came with the place? While the bad guy tries to talk the nobles into joining him, Shakira has brought Ashir, who puts an arrow in his head. Ashir realizes Tara was Travis's...wife? Girl? Steady? It's not handled well: they talk about Tara like she was Travis's property, like a horse; she clocks them both and they had it coming. Fuming, she tells Travis now she "must be won!" Travis resolves to do just that, which involves more stabbing and less flowers than you'd expect, in the next issue.

Also this issue: another "Wizard World" strip with Machiste and Mariah, "The Book of the Dead, part 2" Story and art by Mike Grell, inks by Vince Colletta. This does include a creepy little Gollum-type, who would upgrade himself to the Evil One later. Trying to think of a name for it, when self-improvement is purely for evil...