Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1978-08-01 00:06:10 |
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Marvel Premiere #43
Issue(s): Marvel Premiere #43
Cover Date: Aug 78
Title: "In Manhattan, they play for keeps"
Credits:
Don McGregor - Writer
Tom Sutton - Penciler
Tom Sutton - Inker
Review/plot:
Paladin is hired by a lady to defend her from her crazy ex-boyfriend (or maybe husband). He also falls in love with her. Paladin seems like the kind of guy that falls in love with all of his female clients, earnestly. For a while, anyway.
The boyfriend is a villain called Phantasm, a "transient handler at a government plutonium waste plant" that got overexposed and bought a costume that was modeled after Mr. Fear.
Phantasm dies in this story. Not directly killed by Paladin, although that would have been appropriate since Paladin isn't a traditional super-hero and at the time they were fighting Paladin thought that "Marsha" had been killed, although it turned out to not be the case.
Don McGregor wrote this story, so it's full of entertaining non-expository narration and dialogue. Some might find it superfluous but i find it adds a level of depth to the story.
The art is a bit cluttered.
Quality Rating: C+
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A
References:
- For the Mr. Fear reference, the footnote just says "See issues of Daredevil"!. Thanks! Looks like the last appearance of a Mr. Fear was Daredevil #91 back in 1972.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
I always thought Paladin had a lot of potential. He could combine the elements of james bond (travelling round the world, international love affairs, hi tech gadgets) with superheroing and the "hero for hire" aspect, but he never took off. Maybe the fact he never caught on is due in part to his relatively ugly costume. This story didnt really help his cause either.
Also, I wonder if it was actually intended to be one of the Mr. Fears but changed for whatever reason in the dialougue. many all the Fears were dead at this point.
Besides the ugly costume, Paladin also had a gun which was "bigger'n Clint Eastwood's .44 Magnum" at a time when superheroes with guns were still pretty controversial in comics. Punisher was still a long way from having his own series at this time if I'm not mistaken. Plus Paladin had a very derivative name to go with his ugly costume. Movies like "Dirty Harry" and "Death Wish" had made a big impact in the '70s, and that was likely the audience that Marvel and Don McGregor were aiming for, but a large part of the more vocal readership was still highly opposed to the idea of superheroes with guns. Marvel was going to have to try harder. Like with the Punisher, who ultimately did catch on, but only after a lot of controversy.
