Issue(s): Power Man #34
Cover Date: Aug 76
Title: "Death, taxes, and springtime vendettas!"
Credits:
Don McGregor - Writer
Frank Robbins - Penciler
Frank Springer - Inker

Review/plot:
Spear's seemingly developmentally challenged brother gets involved in Spear's vendetta. He's a professional wrestler called the Mangler...

...and he gives Cage a harder time than i would have thought. As suspected, it is turning out that Spear's problem with Dr. Burstein has to do with his days as a doctor that experimented on prisoners. It seems Spear and Mangler's brother died due to Burstein's experiments. Burstein is still acting as though he's not quite sure of why Spear is attacking him, which leads me to believe there's a twist coming up.

Also this issue, an Oliver P. Sneagle from the IRS shows up at Luke's office to ask why he hasn't been paying taxes.

And here's the latest edition of Luke's vending machine travails.

We get another glimpse at policeman Quentin Chase's family life, and i'm happy to report that it is their last appearance, not because i don't like them but because normally when you meet civilians that have nothing to do with the main plot, it's because you're setting them up for a tragedy to kick off a future story.

I don't often show it, but the seedy 1970s setting of Times Square is almost as much a character in this series as the actual characters.

As i've said before, this always seems weird to me since i've only known Times Square since it's been "cleaned up" and turned into a kind of Disneyland. So i don't know how accurate this depiction is, but it makes for a unique setting in a Marvel comic.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Even though last issue seemingly ended in a cliff hanger, this issue takes place some time later. It seems that the Spear has been repeatedly showing up at Burstein's clinic to threaten him.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

D.W.'s girlfriend Win appears in this issue.

Added her and expanding the vending machine scan to include her. Thanks.

I also wonder now if she was meant to be the girlfriend that dumped DW in Power Man & Iron Fist #88, with miscolored hair.

If all the photos in the 1970s weekly sex newspaper Screw are anything to go by, I'd say the depiction of Times Square here is as accurate as the Comics Code would allow.

As the contemporaneous movie 'Taxi Driver' makes clear, New York in 1976, Times Square in particular, was no picnic.