Web of Spiderman 71 and 72 “Fortune’s Fury” and “The Reckoning” Dec 1990 and Jan 1991

 

Script by Danny Fingeroth Art by Dave Ross

There was another Dominic Fortune story published in between the Iron Man and these issues but this two parter finishes the clash between Dominic Fortune and Simon Steele (aka Baron Wolfgang Von Lundt).  It took four years to get to this story – five since the first Web of Spiderman issue.

Peter Parker just happens to be walking past when someone tries to kill Dominic Fortune, visiting the grave of his son Jerry (interestingly the grave just reads Fortunov, no first name or dates.) Dom asks Peter to let him into the Bugle archives to find a clue so he can track down Simon Steele and kill him.  Peter refuses trying to persuade Fortune to let the police do their job.

We then cross to Simon Steele, hiding in his town house a wanted man for the killing of Jerry Fortunov and the US has cancelled his unofficial immunity for helping them at the end of the war.  Steele is killing all the witnesses and young Sabbath is using a computer virus to erase all computerised trace of Wolfgang Von Lundt as well as the physical files held by Interpol.  Once that’s done it’s off to South America for Sabbath and Steele. 

Peter is researching Dominic Fortune and there is an interview Dom gave to the Bugle a few years back (presumably after the events of Marvel Team Up 120 to see if he could get any clues.)

Dom tells that he and Raven were in Rotterdam just before the Nazi invasion and they had a fight.  He went to get her and she had left.  Dom was evacuated and returned three years later as a GI.  The war broke him and he searched for years for Sabbath until the Mississippi Queen was sold.  Dom then married and had children and retired.

Peter is then given an assignment to get pictures of the last witness of Von Lundt’s war crimes.  The witness named Myers is under heavy police protection but when Peter arrives there are no police and the hit squad is on the roof. Another wave of killers strike and Silver Sable and the Wild Pack launch a counter attack and capture the goons.  The Wild Pack were formed to track Nazis and they are on Steele’s case.  Sable’s radio then announces that her men at Fortune’s are under attack.  Spidey tags along and manages to take out a tank before Steele’s men are stopped.  Under interrogation the captured men reveal Steele’s location.

Fortune mentions that he knew Sable’s father but he was going to get Steele first even if he is going into a trap. Pay attention, the fact that Dom met both Silver Sable and her father will be important later.

Dom makes his way to Steele and is about kill the man when Spidey and the Wild Pack arrive.  But they don’t stop him, it’s the original Sabbath Raven who tells Dom he’s not a killer.

Steele then sets off his trap and we discover that the older Sabbath is his wife, just as the bomb blows up the townhouse.

Oh no! we end on a cliffhanger, are Dom, Spidey and Silver Sable dead?

Luckily we don’t have to wait, I have the next issue (seriously I’m getting a little tired of is Old Man Dom dead?)

Spidey has sensed the bomb and threw it away minimising the effects of the blast and holds up the fallen wall long enough for everyone to escape.  Dominic apparently has a heart attack and goes to the hospital as Sable and Spidey keep searching. 

Peter visits Dom in the hospital when Sable tells him to go away and discovers that Fortune has been killed by a killer.

Ha can’t fool me, Dom isn’t dead, I bet he didn’t even have a heart attack it’s all a ruse to follow the killer.  Sure enough there is Dom and his men follow the killer to the Mississippi Queen to rescue Sabbath senior.  She tells him that after they separated she joined Heinrich Von Lundt, a resistance fighter.  After the war they married and had a daughter Elena, but Heinrich was assassinated.

Wolfgang reached out to his sister in law and niece, and offered to marry Sabbath to help him become an American citizen. But it was Wolfgang’s revenge on his brother, raising his daughter as his protégé.

After story Dom and Sabbath are captured but Silver Sable and Spiderman come to the rescue.  Dom threatens to kill Steele and Elena when Elena shoots her mother.  The Wild Pack round up all of Steele’s men.

Spiderman saves Sabbath, but she won’t abandon her daughter and he vows to try to win her back.

The End

That’s where the saga of Old Man Dom ended.  There is one more story from this time that we’ll look at next.  I think they went to the “is Dom dead?” well too many times. 

Iron Man 212 and 213 “Precious Legacy” and “Fortune’s Child” Nov and Dec 1986

 

Story by Danny Fingleroth and art by Dwayne Turner (212) and Javier Saltares (213).

Our first two part story and Bob Layton does the covers with no Chaykin involvement.

The story opens in Tony Stark’s Los Angeles laboratory and he’s dealing with the death of one of his staff and the reaction of his sister, Cly Erwin, who also works there.  I suppose since it is Iron Man’s book we should deal with his on going plots.

But we then head to Long Island and see David Fortunov, better known as Dominic Fortune, talking with his son Jerry.  Dom is working out and telling his son that he feels the best he has in years since returning to being Dominic Fortune (And it agrees with him in each appearance he seems to be growing back his hair.)

Jerry is threatening to have his father committed. Jerry points out an award the David Fortunov won as Pontiac Dealer of the Year in 1965 but Dom says he was dead inside.  The trail to Sabbath is leading to Simon Steele, Jerry suggests that there have been attempts on his life (see Web of Spiderman #10) and may be he should back off.

Just then Dom gets a call from his private eye, he has found Sabbath Raven in Los Angeles.  Jerry resists signing the committal papers and follows his dad to LA.

We then head to Steele Industries and discover that Simon Steele has hired Iron Monger to take out Dominic Fortune and Spiderman if he shows up. Simon and a young woman he calls Sabbath. 

Jerry has been looking for his father and runs into Cly Erwin, they end up discussing their issues and decide to help each other. 

Dom has walked right into a trap but manages to catch a passing helicopter with a grappling hook and ride the rope to safety.  Dom jumps off on the roof of the convention centre where an electronics expo is being held.  Tony and Rhodey are there and Iron Monger attacks Dom crashing into the convention centre.  Tony suits up and fights Iron Monger (who is no longer Obadiah Stane) but Iron Monger blast Dom, just as Jerry and Cly arrive on the scene.  Dom says that he is dying and father and son say their goodbyes as Dom fades away.  A doctor arrives on the scene and declares Dom dead. 

The next day Jerry decides to continue his father’s legacy as the new Dominic Fortune and wearing the suit.  And on that cliff hanger the issue ends.

The next issue opens with the new Dominic Fortune fighting thugs to get some information. (Luckily his old man taught him to take care of himself in a fight.)  He finds out where Steele is holed up and records a message for his wife Betty explaining that he must become the new Dominic Fortune to capture his father’s murderers.

Cly tries to talk him out of it but he won’t listen. So she goes to see Tony to see if he can talk to Jerry. Jerry refuses to listen and leave the matter to the police.  Tony points out that Jerry is an amateur which the young lawyer points out that Iron Man was a beginner once too. Unable to Jerry, Tony follows in stealth mode.

At Steele’s mansion we discover that the original Dominic Fortune isn’t dead. And he is introduced to the still youthful Sabbath Raven.

Iron man is delayed stopping a traffic accident and Jerry arrives at the Steele mansion where he is captured and lead to his father’s cell only for Dom to use the opportunity to escape.  Father and son team up to capture Steele.  Iron Man arrives to help but Steele and Sabbath have created and electronics scrambler that freezes Tony’s armour.

Jerry shoves his father out of the path of a bullet and is hit.  Steele and Sabbath take advantage of the arrival of more guards to escape.  Cly has arrived and turns off the scrambler and they beat the guards.

Jerry dies in his father’s arms.  The next day Dominic returns to New York with his son’s body.  Cly reveals that the young woman is the daughter of the original Sabbath Raven and Steele’s brother. Dom swears to capture his son’s killers.

A nice two part story, I’m not too keen on the fakeout death and I wouldn’t have objected to Jerry being Dominic Fortune a bit longer maybe getting some training from his father.

I’m not sure if Jerry is the son we saw in the Spiderman issues that son wears glasses and Jerry doesn’t.  The other son has three children and there is no hint that Jerry has kids.  It’s a nice tale of legacies and Cly’s struggles with her brother’s legacy nicely ties the story into Dominic Fortune’s here.

 

Web of Spider-Man #10 “There, but for Fortune” Jan 1986

 

Script by Danny Fingeroth and Art by Jim Mooney.

It took Dom, 3 and a bit years to return to comics and he is working with Spider-Man again. With Howard Chaykin back to provide a cover. Spidey has gotten a new black suit (surely nothing could go wrong with that).

The story opens in 1940, Dom and Sabbath are doing the Brigand for Hire fighting Nazi agents before America entered the war and capture German Baron Wolfgang Von Lundt.

Dom is remembering this as some street thugs are chasing him.  Dom manages to tackle two of the three when Spider-Man stops the third using a gun and takes Fortune to medical attention.

The thugs return to their employer Simon Steele, who we discover is actually Wolfgang Von Lundt.  The thugs report that Spider-Man was involved.

Peter Parker visits Dom in the hospital and Fortune’s son is visiting trying to get his Dad back in a retirement home. 

Steele hires the Shocker to kill Dom and if Spider-Man was collateral damage well there’s a bonus for that.

After Dom is released, he visits Peter at the Bugle looking to get the paper’s archives for clues. We discover that Sabbath Raven was born Gina Morelli (what it wasn’t her birthname?) and was recorded going missing in 1942 while travelling in Europe.

Dom is about to head to Europe to follow the over 40 year old trail (the story seems to be set in 1985, the flashback to 1940 was 45 years ago.) When the Shocker strikes.  There’s a fight Shocker and some goons are captured.

We see Steele talking to a woman named Sabbath and the mystery deepens…

I had this when it came out I remember the roll of quarters.  Steele and his connection to Sabbath is going to be interesting.  Mooney draws Dom with a little more hair than we saw in Marvel Team Up.  Old man Dom does not put on his swashbuckling outfit.

There are a couple other subplots from the Spiderman series but generally this is a good stand alone story.

We are told that Dom is 70 years old making his birth year 1915 (that’ll be important later).

Where next for this mystery?  Not Spider-Man but Iron Man.

Marvel Team Up #120 “Old Soldiers” August 1982

 

Script J.M. Dematteis art by Kerry Gammell

For the first time, we see Fortune without Chaykin in any fashion not even the cover for this issue that teams Dominic Fortune with Spider-Man. 

How does our Brigand for Hire who operated in the 1930s come to team up with Spider-man?  The cover shows Fortune still looking young.  What happens?

The story opens with Peter Parker visiting his Aunt May and her fiancé Nathan Lubensky at the retirement home.  It’s a party but there is one grumpy geezer, David Fortunoff, (hey editor it was spelt Fortunov in earlier stories and later stores).

It looks like the sliding timescale left ole Dom behind. Dom lost Sabbath Raven during the war, he married and had a family.  After the death of his wife, he went to live with one of his sons and his family of wife and three children before moving into the retirement home.

However, the villain Turner D. Century flies past his window and David finds his old swash-buckling costume and becomes Dominic Fortune again to chase the criminal.  Peter follows to find out what is happening and maybe get some photos for the Bugle (gotta make rent, right?) except he forgot his camera.

Dom tells Turner that he keeps tabs on the criminal element and he heard of the villain’s encounter with Spider-Woman (*Spider-Woman #33).  Turner explains he’s not a bad guy he’s just trying to bring America back to the values that made it great.  Dom plays along to keep an eye on him. 

Turner has a sonic weapon that only affects those under 65 killing them, which he demonstrates as Spiderman bursts in. 

Spiderman collapses and Dom thinks he’s dead.  So it is up to Fortune to stop Turner but when he catches up to the villain, he has a heart turn and collapses.

Turner is about to unleash his weapon when Spider-Man webs him.  Turns out the device only briefly knocks youngsters out not killing them.  And Dom is alright too. I was starting to worry for a moment. 

Dominic Fortune is back and he is going to track down Sabbath Raven.

The resolution was a little pat with the machine not working and Fortune shrugging off what appeared to be heart attack.  But it wasn’t a bad way to update Dominic Fortune. 

I’ll admit I’m a little torn, there’s part of me that likes the idea of heroes aging rather than being eternally the same age – Tim Drake and I were 15 together – he’s still 15 and well I’m not. But there’s also the idea of seeing heroes in their prime, I want to see the hero in their prime.  The last two Indy films were fine but there’s a reason people keep fan recasting Indy because they want more adventures of Indy in his prime and not having to pass the heavy lifting to his son and goddaughter.

The cover promised me Dom in his prime but didn’t deliver but nearly every other character who served in WW2 either has that retconned out or some sort of status or immortality serum to keep them young.  So it is nice to see someone age appropriate to have that in their history.

First time away from Howard Chaykin and it was an okay story with a good set up for more appearances of Dominic Fortune Brigand for Hire!

Dominic Fortune in “Slay Bells” in Hulk! 25 Feb 1981

 Story Denny O’Neil Art Howard Chaykin

Dom is still working for Ferdley’s Milk in the fifth and final adventure in Hulk Magazine where he is invited to meet the British Ambassador when he is accosted by The Silhouette who thinks that Fortune is an Irish assassin trying to kill the ambassador. 

The Silhouette is a less competent version of the Shadow and Dom really has no time for his nonsense.  The Silhouette’s real identity Lamar Canfield is hosting the party for the ambassador.  Sorry Canfield and his companion Margo Payne swear that he is not the Silhouette.

When Santa arrives with gifts for all the guests and kidnaps the ambassador.  Dom knocks out The Silhouette and rescues the ambassador.

It’s an interesting story seeing Dominic Fortune interacting with a version of the Shadow, a few years later Chaykin would do a Shadow miniseries for DC (1986) and another for Dynamite (2014). 

Dominic Fortune in “The Tiny Terror Tumble” in Hulk! 24 Dec 1980

 

Story Denny O’Neil Art Howard Chaykin

So as part of his advertising Dom has to appear on the radio show Ferdley’s Milk Hour with Tina Timons.  Tina is a movie star (kinda like Shirley Temple) and sings on the radio to promote her movies.  She has an annoying cutesy-wootsy with a widdle lisp and Dom is less than impressed until an audience member Lancelot Mahoney tries to charge the stage. 

Dom leaps into action and tackles the man who is led off mentioning that he knows a secret.

We discover the secret – Tiny Tina is not a little girl but a midget with a facelift (like Ester in the Orphan movies) who has slept with the head of the studio and blackmailed him into letting her make movies.  Mahoney is her ex-husband.

Her manager hires Fortune to be a proactive bodyguard killing Mahoney before he can blow the whistle. Of course, making it look like self defence. 

Dom tells Sabbath to stay in the car – which if you guessed she doesn’t do, you’d be right.  But Sabbath overhears the plan and stops Dom from killing Mahoney. 

Very unhappy, Dom confronts Tina who is canoodling with her new paramour, she likes her men dumb and strong.  Dom gets into a fight and Tina pulls a gun only for Sabbath to take it from her.  Sabbath has called in a favour with the Commissioner (from Ghoul of My Dreams) to arrest Tiny Tina.

I have so many questions – Tina is posing as a girl of six and her new boyfriend is okay with that.  Did the studio head know she was a woman or did he think she was a young girl when he slept with her?

At this point the rest of the Hulk magazine is in black and white but Fortune’s adventures are in colour still.  It really makes the story stand out.