Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1984-05-01 01:02:10 |
| Previous: Dazzler #34 | Up: Main | Next: Uncanny X-Men #183 |
Power Man & Iron Fist #105
Issue(s): Power Man & Iron Fist #105
Cover Date: May 84
Title: "Competition!"
Credits:
Kurt Busiek - Writer
Richard Howell - Penciler
Andy Mushynsky - Inker
Review/plot:
Kurt Busiek's last issue of Power Man & Iron Fist, and his last work at Marvel for a while.
A former prisonmate of Luke Cage's escapes from jail and lucks into some equipment of the Crimebuster, an extremely minor character that was a member of the New Champions that worked with Nova during the Skrull/Xandarian War. Instead of using the equipment to be a villain, he very cleverly becomes a mercenary hero, and therefore creates competition for Power Man & Iron Fist.
Things work themselves out when a bomb is placed in Madison Square Garden by a group called the Black Tigers, who are targeting the visiting Princess Azir and her bodyguard Khumbala Bey.
Jean DeWolff hires both the Heroes for Hire and Crimebuster for this mission.
When the new Crimebuster discovers that the bomb is about to explode, he flees the building, leaving Luke and Danny to take care of it. This ruins his reputation, but he still ends up ahead since he never winds up having to go back to jail. We'll never see this character again, though.
A good little story with elements associated with a good Kurt Busiek story - continuity mining, a nice twists, and some perspective from the villain's point of view.
There's a brief scene with PM&IF fighting Firefly (another character from the Nova series) in the beginning.
It's part of some early misdirection; we're supposed to think that the guy who escaped from jail was Firefly. The new Crimebuster steps in and takes credit for the defeat.
Luke Cage's friend D.W. is wearing a really weird outfit in one panel in this issue. He looks like an elf prince or something.
Colleen is wearing a weird outfit too but i guess it's supposed to be traditional Japanese garb.
Quality Rating: B
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A
References:
- The original Crimebuster appeared in the Skrull/Xandarian War that ran from Nova #24-25 and Fantastic Four #206-209, and he died in ROM #24.
- The group that takes over MSG calls themselves the Black Tigers, but it's noted that they seem to be a home-grown and more extremist version than the group Luke and Danny met in Power Man & Iron Fist #81-82.
- Khumbala Bey, Princess Azir's bodyguard, was previously seen in Marvel Premiere #25 and Iron Fist #7. (His name is spelled with two Ls in those issues, one L in his original issues. MCP doesn't bother to list this guy at all).
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
| Previous: Dazzler #34 | Up: Main | Next: Uncanny X-Men #183 |
Comments
Khumbala Bey got fired by Princess Azir for trying to kill Iron Fist in Marvel Premiere #25; I suspect Busiek made a continuity error.
Princess Azir could have just hired Khumbala back.
The second Crimebuster sort of turns up again in the recent Power Man and Iron Fist miniseries, the one starring the new, young Power Man introduced in the Daredevil crossover "Shadowlands." He never appears alive, but his death is a central plot point.
Busiek's run is disappointing compared to the quality of stories he'd later be known for. However, I found his main strength to be characterization, particularly in "character moments", and the interaction between the mundane and superheroic worlds, not so much plot and the bad guys. Hard to pick up from this site, how successful Busiek was with his strengths in this run.
The major weakness is the same weakness that seems to plague PM & IF throughout their entire run: the lack of a good rogues gallery and dynamic stories. I wonder if in part its because of the nature of the heroes. Both PM & IF are actually quite powerful, and common crime shouldn't present them much of a problem. The two together shouldn't have a problem even with many Spider-Man level villains, although a combo/team up of them could be challenging.
The series needed a soft reboot. The people hiring Heroes for Hire should be corporations and the wealthy, and Danny & Luke need to be travelling around the US and the world fighting high profile cases. Street level crime should be relegated to backstory pro bono work, subplot, or seen through Colleen & Misty calling in Danny & Luke for back up when they find something behind the scenes. There have always been some elements like this in PM & IF, but it hasn't been the book's theme. They just need a better class of villains.
