Astonishing Tales #30 - Marvel Comics

ASTONISHING TALES No. 29, June 1975

Having impatiently waited four months for Deathlok the Demolisher’s most recent cliff-hanger to be resolved, thanks to its publisher deciding to reprint the Guardians of the Galaxy’s first appearance from Issue Eighteen of “Marvel Super-Heroes” in the bi-monthly’s preceding instalment, readers were probably rather disappointed by this comic's choppy collaboration of various writers and artists when it finally hit the spinner-racks. In fact, despite such a sizeable chunk of time passing before Luther Manning’s cybernetic return, the poor quality of both its script and layouts clearly shows just how badly illustrator-turned-author Rich Buckler struggled with the book’s latest deadline, and was eventually forced to turn to Doug Moench, as well as pencillers Keith Pollard and Arvell Jones, to finish most of the book's eighteen-page plot.

Disappointingly, this dire situation undoubtedly leaves its mark on “The Soft Parade… Of Slow, Sliding Death” with little of the action concerning the reanimated U.S. Army veteran arguably making much sense whatsoever – including the tragic death of Linc Shane who appears to have been thrown into the publication simply so the character could die pointlessly; “He stood up to Ryker’s goons on his own -- all alone… And for what?!” In addition, the comic’s conclusion probably had a fair few bibliophiles shaking their heads in disbelief, as the synthetic killing machine somehow manages to construct a giant crossbow out of disused car parts, and then somehow uses it to fire a metal beam straight into the super-tank which up until this point had seemingly appeared impervious to any and all firearms.

So unconvincing a tale sadly also extends as far as poor Mike Travers sub-story too, with Manning’s “ex-war buddy” apparently being able to simply re-programme the computer keeping him captive using a “sophisticated input card” he crafted inside his cell. Such ingenuity is clearly admirable. But just doesn’t ring true, especially considering that the man’s successful escape attempt is actually monitored by Simon Ryker’s artificial intelligence all along – and it does absolutely nothing to thwart his actions apart from pathetically plea to its pre-occupied creator for further instructions.

Easily this comic’s biggest let down though has to the book’s artwork, which perhaps understandably appears disagreeably inconsistent. The panels Buckler himself appears to have completed are dynamic enough. However, whilst both Pollard and Jones can clearly sketch an action sequence, the “traditional rendering style” of inker Al McWilliams jars quite a bit with some of the other sequences, and resultantly repeatedly takes the audience right out of the story as they have to acclimatise their eyes to his thin-lined embellishments.

Plot, Layout & Script: Rich Butler, Script: Doug Moench, and Art: Rich Butler, Keith Pollard & Arvell Jones