Thursday, May 25, 2023

John Williams would have punched that scene up nicely.

Every December it's killing me, as I blog last issues for "the end," since I know I have the last issue of this series somewhere, but it would take Indy to find it! Entirely possible there's creepy-crawlies out there in my garage too, as well as the not-zero chance of something massive coming rolling out at you...Anyway, we're still in that pleasant, half-awake moment before the new Indy film comes out and hopes are still probably higher than they should be, so why not hit this issue: from 1984, the Further Adventures of Indiana Jones #18, "The Search for Abner, chapter 2: The City of Yesterday's Forever!" Written by David Michelinie, pencils by Herb Trimpe, inks by Vince Colletta, Danny Bulanadi, and Ernie Chan.
And we open in the Himalayans, with Indy and Marion Ravenwood falling to their deaths...! They were searching for a lost city and Marion's lost dad Abner, one of Indy's old teachers. That relationship was ended when Indy and Marion hooked up, since there was a somewhat problematic age difference there. Indy manages to snag their cut rope bridge on a ledge, but Marion isn't able to hold on, and falls; leaving a devastated Indy to push on. He's shortly captured by local guards, who take him to a domed city...K'un Lun? No, but close? The local priest explains not much, but good news: they had rescued Marion, from a bad landing on a lower outcropping. Then things take a creepy turn, of course: the locals were immortal, from the mystic doodad keeping the city warm, but it was immortality with a few drawbacks, as they couldn't go far from the city without horrible pain. Long since bored with eternal life, they were forcing captured outsiders--like Indy and Marion now--to capture yeti-like creatures, who would then be allowed to kill/free an immortal. As often the case, feels like some extra steps in there.
A Nazi expedition had followed Indy and Marion there; and was now fighting the yetis and the locals; while Indy and Marion try to discover if a masked outsider was Abner: they never find out, but they do manage to dynamite the mystic power-source and get out of there. But, returning to Marshall College, new problems await: an artifact Indy recovered in a previous issue has been proclaimed by experts as a fraud, damaging Indy and the museum's reputation, to the point that Marcus Brody has been removed as curator! Well, I guess that qualifies as a cliffhanger ending...maybe not.

1 comment:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Like how much of an age gap we talking? Like how Red & Sue's originally was before Byrne changed it? Or smaller than that, but still not a good look for Indy?