Astonishing Tales #2 - Marvel Comics

ASTONISHING TALES No. 2, October 1970

Leading with an incredibly fast-paced fist-fight between Ka-Zar and Sergei Kravinoff at the summit of a Manhattan hotel, Issue Two of “Astonishing Tales” must have practically exhausted its adolescent audience by the time the comic’s writer, Roy Thomas, moved on to continue its secondary tale, “Revolution”, featuring the Master of Menace, Doctor Doom. In fact, almost from the very moment Kevin Plunder brazenly walks up to the guesthouse’s reception staff and demands “to see the man called -- Kraven! You will summon him, please -- at once!” the Missouri-born writer’s ten-page “Frenzy On The Fortieth Floor!” depicts the Lord of the Hidden Jungle doing little else but trading punches, kicks and taunts with the man who has kidnapped his Smilodon, Zabu.

Fortunately, so relentless a power struggle actually proves enthrallingly entertaining, not least because the lengthy, action-packed sequence portrays both antagonists using their brains and considerable cunning to consistently outwit one another, rather than just their substantial brawn. Perhaps somewhat significantly, the "Son of the Tiger" is especially well served in this story, allowing his rival to both snare him in an inescapable bola-net, and supposedly be rendered unconscious by “the potency of my tranquiliser spray”, just so the unarmed savage can learn precisely where within the multi-storey building Kraven has his four-legged fanged friend held captive.

Prodigiously pencilled by Jack “King” Kirby, the destructive body blows on show appear thunderously impactive, with Ka-Zar launching one particularly full-blooded punch that carries both Sergei and the Shazam Award-winner’s co-creation out through a glass-pane window; “Astounding! Your reflexes are those of some tree-born simian!” Disappointingly however, it would appear that a couple of the book’s panels featuring close-ups of Plunder were disconcertingly sketched by another unknown artist, and these distinctly dissimilar drawings rather jar with the rest of the pulse-pounding antics on show.

Infinitely more complex, and packed with a significantly larger cast of leading villains is Thomas’ narrative for Victor Von Doom’s rematch with Prince Rudolfo. Establishing both the Machiavellian machinations of the orb-headed Faceless One, alongside the “terrible potentialities” of the heavily bandaged Doomsman, this political piece somehow manages to contain a large scale assault on the impregnable palace of Latveria’s dictatorial monarch, as well as plenty of mystery as to the identity and motivations behind the armed coup.

Writer: Roy Thomas, Artist: Jack Kirby, and Inking: Sam Grainger