The Master? Hell yeah, the third Doctor's episodes with him were awesome!...what do you mean, not that one?

Maybe Roger Delgado could've elevated him out of also-ran status; although that would be a tough row to hoe there. From 1998, Heroes for Hire #10, "Misalliances!" Written by John Ostrander, pencils by Pascual Ferry, inks by Jaime Mendoza.

This issue starts out a bit more conversationally than I'm used to from Ostrander, checking in with the Master (of the World), who was usually Alpha Flight's problem: he was very much like a more tech-savvy Vandal Savage that usually got his ass kicked by Canada. Since Heroes Return was going on at the time, the Master maybe should be concerned about the return of multiple heroes, but he was seemingly more worried other bad guys might be against his plan. Still, his scheme was rolling along, and as he mentioned, he had allies...Meanwhile, at the Oracle headquarters of Heroes for Hire, Iron Fist has just gotten around to telling Luke Cage that he had "summoned K'un Lun," and I'm not positive what that means. Former Human Torch/Oracle boss Jim Hammond isn't especially keen to hear that, either; and since the team was short-handed with several members back with the Avengers (circa Avengers #1, where Jim probably should be; and this predates Luke or Danny joining) Jim had brought in "temps," Misty Knight and Colleen Wing! Who maybe aren't thrilled about the K'un Lun thing, either.

Today's mission, for a secret client Jim won't name, was to get a bioweapons scientist out of Symkaria, which of course means conflict with Silver Sable and her Wild Pack: Danny points out, wasn't she supposed to be a good guy? Yeah, and so were the Thunderbolts. So much continuity today! And even more, as Jim had brought in Deadpool as well, fresh from Deadpool #17...which I don't think I have? Crap. Probably cheaper to buy a friggin' omnibus than track that down. Luke is peeved, thinking Jim had hired Pool just to get back at Danny over K'un Lun; and we see even the Master is mad about it too! (Danny seems to have done, whatever he was doing, seemingly on a whim to tie into the millennium or some nonsense.)

After a couple subplot pages with Scott and Cassie Lang (with Cassie probably younger than most readers remember) we check in with Silver Sable's special Wild Pack for this one: not her usual guys like...I don't know, Battlestar? Crippler? Today she's got regular member Sandman, as well as Paladin, the Cat, and Nomad. Wait, scratch that last one: instead of Nomad, it's Madcap! That reveal comes pretty suddenly, and no one is quite sure why exactly; although Madcap would've known Nomad from Captain America #307, he would've known him as much more clean-shaven than Nomad's 90's look! The battlelines are drawn, but the next issue would have a few surprises...Also, the Cat, Shen Kuei, is, if you're not familiar, is...um...OK, if Shang-Chi was the Simpsons, and Iron Fist was South Park, Shen was King of the Hill: much less renowned, but with a rock-solid overall record and the occasional win over those two. Yeah, that's probably a clear metaphor, sure. Read more!

Alarmingly few Neo-Nazis actually die this issue, the cover not withstanding.

From 1991, Web of Spider-Man #72, "Reckoning" Written by Danny Fingeroth, pencils by David Ross, inks by Al Milgrom, Keith Williams, and Andy Mushynsky.

This was the conclusion of a two-parter, guest-starring Silver Sable and Dominic Fortune; the latter of whom was trying to avenge the death of his son, who briefly took up the mantle, and find out what happened to his lost love, Sabbath. Sabbath's backstory gets a fair bit of page time, as she had been separated from Dom after a spat during WWII, married an anti-Nazi German and had a kid with him, but he was later assassinated and she was taken in by his Nazi-leaning brother. Her daughter was the spitting image of Sabbath, only Nazified.

Thematically, this all hits both Spidey and Sable where they live: Spidey had a bit of a complex, a need to save older mentor figures the way he failed to save Uncle Ben; while all of Sable's training and organization was built around crushing Nazis, this was kind of back-to-basics for them. Dominic gets around a lot, despite being on in years and having chest pains: he leaves a dummy in the hospital to get whacked, then trails the hitter back to the bad guy, who was going to leave town in Dominic's old riverboat! Cheeky bastard...(Actually, that might've been Sabbath's boat; he may have just lived there, but still.) In the end, the bad guys are wrapped up with a disappointingly low body count; Dominic and Sabbath are reunited, if maybe not back together yet, while the daughter seems to have gone full bad; and Sable still calls Spidey "amateur" even if she obviously respects him. Read more!

May have bought this because "Priapus" sounded dirty.

But, it is a title we haven't seen in our seventeen year run! From 1993, Terror, Inc. #12, "Corporate Intimacy (For Love Nor Money Part 4)" Written by D. G. Chichester, pencils by Kirk Van Wormer, inks by Temujin, Bud LaRosa, and Steve George.

This was the penultimate issue of Terror, Inc., who at the very least was a distinctive looking character: he looked like a green catfish man, I always thought. The length of the spikes on his face might vary from artist to artist, but in his series they were good-sized. Terror had a somewhat convoluted history, largely because his co-creator Chichester imported him from St. George #2 in the short-lived Shadowline comics. Terror had some kind of curse, that left him as basically a rotting corpse, but he was able to steal limbs and body parts as replacements. I haven't read a ton of books from him, but he was usually a cheerful-if-morbid ghoul, working as a mercenary.

Crossovers are intended to drive up sales, but I'd guess this one didn't particularly move the needle: "For Love Nor Money" was a six-parter with Cage and Silver Sable: Cage would continue for another four or five issues, while Silver Sable still had a couple years to go. This chapter was the point where the three finally decide to team-up against the bad guy, creepy satyr-looking Priapus. The crossover's MacGuffin, "Vatasayana's Tryst," can make people see their past or lost loves, and the issue ends with Sable fighting off a twisted version of Sandman, Cage is swamped with regret over his lost Reva, and Terror is bogged down in his fantasy and those of the guys he stole the body parts from. Aw, the last issue had Ghost Rider and was an Infinity Crusade crossover! Read more!

Up until the other day, I think I had more Silver Sable action figures than I had Silver Sable comics, but this ties up that score! From 1994, Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #31, "Overload!" Written by Gregory Wright, pencils by Gordon Purcell, inks by Pam Eklund.

Silver is in a bind this month, as she was feeling a surprising amount of guilt for murdering the man that killed her mother, and on top of that she was pregnant, courtesy her ex-husband Basil. Basil? You might know him by his alias, the Foreigner. Although, I'm pretty convinced their relationship was a bit of continuity backfill based on what was probably intended as a joke in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #118: Peter David had talked up how slick the Foreigner was this issue and in #116 with Sabretooth. In #118, the Foreigner arrives in disguise for a luncheon meeting with the Kingpin, who is largely annoyed by him but obviously can't do anything about it. Kingpin hears an explosion across town, that he hadn't scheduled, and Foreigner explains that was "orchids," for his ex-wife. I think that was just a bit of snark, not intended to connect these two. (I've had those issues since they came out, but unfortunately not handy!)

Having apparently only slept with him again to save one of her Wild Pack, Silver had been careful, but is more than distraught at the thought of Foreigner being the dad. The Sandman, who had been crushing on her pretty hard for most of this series, probably would feel the same way, since he discovers the pregnancy when a co-worker hacks into Silver's files to find out why he hadn't been contacted recently. Still, Silver's recently returned father reminds her, she did have to honor her word and complete one final job for the Foreigner, who had invested heavily in a luxury train in Japan. Unfortunately, some were upset at foreign capitalists moving in; as well as outright gangsters looking for a score: Hammerhead! Hesitant to kill after her recent murder, Sable is reluctant to shoot Hammerhead in cold blood, and ends up captured to save hostages. (Plus, I don't know if shooting Hammerhead even in the face would be likely to kill him. Maybe in the eye...)

Silver Sable would end with #35, which I don't have yet! But that was a fairly decent run for the time; and she seemed to avoid some of the lower-end art that plagued other mid-to-lower tier Marvel books then as well. I've always liked Purcell's art, Steven Butler did a number of issues, and I just found out Tom Grindberg had a couple too.
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"Skull."

What's a Fortnite? I haven't played it, but I got a couple of the McFarlane figures on deep clearance at Target (just like the figures in next week's strip, actually!) and I thought the Skull Trooper was pretty good! I think he's technically seven-inch scale, so we have to work around that a little; but weirdly there are also six-inch scale Fortnite figures from Jazwares. There's another version of Skull Trooper on the pegs right now! And maybe some glow-in-the-dark versions.
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"Dark."

Where did Moon Knight go? We'll find out later! Why would Elsa be putting together a team of hunters? Another good question, we'll look into that. Bonus points if you know what monsters each one hunted: Blade's an easy one, but Puma? Well, it's not like I threw him in just because I bought his figure for a Kingpin part and it was handy...
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