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!
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