Astonishing Tales #33 - Marvel Comics

ASTONISHING TALES No.33, January 1976

Buried beneath a veritable ton of hard to read white coloured text upon an inky black background, Bill Mantlo’s script for Issue Thirty Three of “Astonishing Tales” probably still managed to please most of its audience. In fact, the eighteen-page periodical contains a genuinely perturbing series of sub-plots which range from Deathlok slowly dying from a “partial drainage of life-support fluid”, through to the revelation that the despicable Major Simon Ryker apparently has an equally-evil brother who is known as the Homo-Ascendant!”

Disappointingly though, very few of these story-threads are arguably given the time they need to fully develop, and instead are seemingly just hurled together without much in the way of rhyme or reason. One such sequence involves the villainous Ryker himself undergoing some sort of surgical operation which results in the maniac being completely sedated and connected to his all-power Omni-Computer. It seems abundantly clear that the terrified doctors transforming the military officer into “the Saviour Machine” could easily assassinate him during the complicated procedure by “a slight adjustment in its programming” and escape. Yet even though this option is voiced aloud, the general consensus is that the moustached monster would apparently still somehow survive, and then simply take a terrible revenge upon them.

In addition, the sudden appearance of Hellinger (Harlan Ryker) inside a guarded estate belonging to the man-turned-machine’s sibling, debatably makes little sense whatsoever either. Just why the major would knowingly allow so dangerous an adversary access to his futuristic computer systems, create a clone of Luther Manning, and reside next to a room packed full of state-of-the-art laser weapons is never explained. Nor just how the shady character somehow manages to convince the Demolisher to hand-cuff himself to a bomb so as to blow up a castle containing Mike Travers and Nina Ferry; “Hey! The cable! It’s still on! It hasn’t released! That dirty, double-crossin’ son of a -- It’s gonna blow any second, ‘puter!”

What does work however, at least for the majority of this comic book, are Rich Buckler’s layouts. The creator of Deathlok appears to be particularly good at pencilling the inner turmoil taking place behind the resurrected soldier’s eyes, as well as the six-hundred pound cyborg’s physicality – even if he’s simply striding across a grass-covered lawn breaking its blades wherever he steps, or deciding whether to gun someone down.

Script: Bill Mantlo, Pencils: Rich Butler, & Inks/Colors: Klaus Janson