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.

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. 

Dominic Fortune in “Moo over Manhattan” in Hulk! 23 Oct 1980

 Story Denny O’Neil Art Howard Chaykin

Dominic and Sabbath have stuck around New York and Dom has managed to get a celebrity endorsement for Ferdley’s Milk.  “Sure is yummy kids! I have it before all my adventures.”  Fortune tells us.

And his first job is to meet Hollywood star Chisholm Smith, who he knew in the old neighbourhood as Herkie Slivowitz.  Smith gets attacked and Dom steps in to help. 

Only we discover that Smith is a Nazi sympathiser and working with Baron Strucker to assassinate the guest of honour Senator Foster at the premiere of Smith’s new movie (who becomes Senator Fulton when we meet him – oopsie editors) 

Dominic’s agent Acey Dugan shows Fortune proof that Smith is a Nazi and the pair begin to fight as Sabbath realises that the Senator who is visiting the men’s room is in danger.  Dom knocks out Smith and rescues the Senator.  Great publicity for Ferdley’s milk.

Another cracker of a story, with a nice touch of connection to the Marvel universe proper with the appearance of Baron Strucker, who doesn’t do much but it was a nice touch.

Dominic Fortune in “Ghoul of my Dreams” in Hulk! 22 August 1980

 Story Denny O’Neil Art Howard Chaykin

Dom is out gambling and for once has decided to quit when he was ahead.  Of course, it would be that moment that the police have forgotten about their protection payoffs and raid the place.

Luckily for Dom, the Commissioner needs a Brigand for Hire.  It appears that he’s sweet on Zelda Pinkley who is running around with Louie Kelt a gangster.  Luckily Sabbath knows Zelda from school and manages an invitation. 

Dom asks around and Kelt is a bad man selling blood to the Spanish Civil War and is rumoured to be a Zombie.  Sabbath rings Dom and tells him that Kelt’s men are zombies and Zelda is getting married to Kelt tonight.

Naturally, Dom tries to stop the wedding and discovers that garlic, holy water and crosses don’t work on zombies but a solid right hook does.  He manages to stop the zombie gangsters and rescue Zelda – who is disappointed that she will have to cancel her honeymoon.

Again the art is awesome and the fights are great.  I like the idea that Dom confuses zombies and vampires.  The idea is similar to The Scorpion #2 but plays it completely different.  And shows that Dom is his own character with original adventures and not retooled Scorpion adventures.

The Marvel Premiere story was published after this.

Dominic Fortune in “All in Color for a Crime” in Hulk! 21 Jun 1980

 

Story Denny O’Neil Art Howard Chaykin

Before the Marvel Premiere issue, Dom got his first colour adventure in Hulk 21.  As a magazine the stories could be more mature and free of the Comics Code.  Tying into the Hulk TV show at the time, this is the first of five adventures.  Issues 21 & 22 appeared before Marvel Premiere #56.

The story starts in 1937 and Dom and Sabbath are heading to New York as Dom has discovered that there is a comic book character The Purple Slasher that looks a lot like Dom.  While Superman didn’t make print until 1938, masked and costumed characters had been appearing in pulps, comic strips and comic books before that.

Chaykin certainly knows his comics history and this comes into play here and in his later series “Hey Kids Comics”.

Dom and Sabbath visit the old neighbourhood and discovers that the artist has been missing for the last few weeks.  It turns out that the Nazis have taken over the comic shop and using the Purple Slasher to spread propaganda (naturally use the Jewish creators to create Nazi propaganda).

We get several fight scenes as the Nazis try to stop Dominic from freeing the cartoonists.  There is a lovely fight scene over black and white panels of the Purple Slasher with Fortune in painted colour mirroring his fictional counterpart.  The painted colours are lovely and are still vivid for a book that is over 40 years old.

Marvel Premiere #56: Dominic Fortune “The Big Top Barter Resolution”

 

 written by David Micheline (from plot by Len Wein and Chaykin) and art by Howard Chaykin. October 1980.

Our first full length adventure and the first story to tie into the Marvel Universe proper.

The story opens with Timothy “Dum Dum” Dugan getting into a brawl aboard the Mississippi Queen.  Dum Dum first appeared back in 1963 in Sgt Fury and the Howling Commandos #1 and this story takes place before that adventure.

Dum Dum owns a circus that some mobsters want to buy, the mobsters were giving him grief and so Dum Dum naturally taunts them by staking the circus.  And if you guessed he lost it to the house, you’d be right.

Sabbath now owns the circus and is happy to sell to the mobster’s boss, Spencer Keene, to recoup her money. That is until he calls her a tender morsel and the deal is off.

The circus starts giving shows to pay back the money but there are several acts of sabotage that only Dom’s quick thinking and action stops. But the mentalist, Cephallo’s trailer is stolen.  Turns out Keene only wanted the mentalist to open a safe without touching it.  Cephallo isn’t in the trailer but his assistant Glory is.  Glory is the real mentalist and is able to open the safe but Dom and Dum Dum burst in to rescue her, causing the safe to explode. 

The subsequent fight and airshow attract a crowd. Glory gets a movie deal, Sabbath returns the circus to Dum Dum, and Dom and Sabbath ride off into the sunset on an elephant.

This is a good story, it works even if you don’t know who Dum Dum Dugan is but it places the action into the larger Marvel patchwork. 

Dominic Fortune in “The Messiah in the Saddle Resolution” in Marvel Super Action #1 January 1976

 

Story and art by Howard Chaykin (reprinted Marvel Preview #20 Winter 1980)

Another black and white magazine and another early Punisher story as well as Bobbi Morse’s first superhero identity The Huntress (apparently before her second costumed adventure a certain Bat-daughter snaffled the codename so Bobbi then became Mockingbird)

We are treated to a Chaykin Pin up of Fortune, The Punisher and the Huntress.

This is a clever story, washed up silent movie star Noble Flagg has returned to Hollywood to save the city from sin.  Flagg, apparently, can call down the wrath of God as Earthquakes hit brothels, casinos and drug dens.  But Dom recognises his adviser from back East as Olga Cimaglia, who he ratted on to save his own neck, causing him to move to Los Angeles for his health.  We also discover that Dominic Fortune isn’t his real name but rather David Fortunov.

Turns out Flagg has an Earthquake machine and he is just eliminating the competition so Olga can take over the West Coast action.  There are double crosses and even after getting paid Fortune is still broke.

I love a good earthquake machine and this is a clever use of one.  And we get a little of Dom’s history here as well.

In Marvel Preview #20 we are promised a new story to appear soon.  So that will be my next story covered but before that there were new stories that appear in the Hulk! Magazine.

Dominic Fortune in “The Power Broker Resolution!” In Marvel Preview #2 June 1975

 

Script by Len Wein and art by Howard Chaykin (reprinted Marvel Preview #20 Winter 1980)

As I pointed out in my last post, this appears to have been published after The Scorpion #2 and before #3.  It’s a black and white 12 page story so I imagine that Chaykin was able to turn it out fairly quickly. 

Marvel Preview was a Black & White magazine.  This issue also features the first Punisher solo story and an interview with Don Pendleton.  I originally bought my copy for the Pendleton interview and discovered the other joys inside including a Chaykin pinup of The Punisher and Dominic Fortune.

This story was reprinted in issue #20 along with the second Fortune story and foreword and introductions by Chaykin talking about the creation of Dominic Fortune and these stories.  As Dom appears on the cover of that issue, I’ve used it here.

Chaykin tells us that he was annoyed by [now defunct company] pulling the switcheroo on him and that he visited the Marvel offices in the hopes of getting work.  Apparently, there was a bit of that going around at the time.  Chaykin basically ambushes Marv Wolfman and Len Wein and pitches something similar to The Scorpion (which was more in spirit of Doc Savage, The Shadow) but more in the lighter vein of The Spirit and Plastic Man.  Making for more a laid back West Coast hero that the East Coast serious hero.  See Dominic Fortune is nothing like The Scorpion aside from them both being heroes in the 1930s.  (Actually now I want a crossover between the two.)

Fortune is a gambler, who lives on a gambling ship “The Mississippi Queen” and is up to his eyeballs in debt to Sabbath Raven, his girlfriend and owner of the casino in question.

Dom takes jobs only to pay off his debts, in many ways Dominic Fortune feels like a 1930s version of Travis McGee who had debuted just over a decade earlier. 

The story opens with a potential client coming to see Dom.  She is the ex-wife of Jacob Einhorn, a multi-millionaire who owes his ex-wife $250000.  Einhorn is also the owner of publishing empire and extremely private, with his estate Skycliff guarded with landmines.

Our man Fortune has a plan and Raven flies him in on an autogyro.  Dom then leaps off with wing-kites and glides into the estate.  Of course, a wind gust nearly sends Dom to his doom but he survives only to discover that Einhorn is collaborating with the Japanese aiding them with intelligence and propaganda.  Dom realises that Einhorn wants to profit off a second World War a full three years before Pearl Harbour. 

There is a fight as the Japanese realise that there is an intruder who knows about Einhorn’s activities.  And Fortune has to pull out every trick in the book to come out alive.  While Einhorn is taken out by his allies, Fortune is able to retrieve the money owed to his client.

I have to say Chaykin’s art really sings in Black and White with the action flowing beautifully.  There’s a certain irony that Chaykin was kicked off of The Scorpion in an effort to make the character more like Marvel and Chaykin not only turns around and sells a version of the character to Marvel but also gets it into print before the Marvelised version.

This is a great adventure and I am looking forward to more.

The Scorpion #3 Night of the Golden Fuhrer

 

Atlas- Seaboard Written by Gabriel Levy and illustrated by Jim Craig  July 1975

The third and final issue of The Scorpion, like most of the Atlas line many of characters had revamp to make them more (Marvel) superheroes.  Chaykin left the title and a new creative team took over the title. – Now I had intended to cover all the stories in publication order but I thought that certain stories are better being talked about together, so all the Scorpion stories together and then the initial three Dominic Fortune stories.  Interestingly, the first Fortune story was published in between issues 2 & 3 of the Scorpion.

The story opens in 1943 with Moro Frost fighting in World War Two, his plane is shot down and explodes leaving no body and only his dog tags.  And as we all know, if there’s no body they’re not dead.

The story then opens in 1975 (the present) and there is a new Scorpion fighting crime.  He is David Harper editor of the Daily Times who wears a spandex suit with a lovely blue and orange colour scheme.  A mixture of The Green Hornet and Spiderman or Daredevil.  It’s left in the air if Harper is a new identity for Moro Frost or just the bearer of the Scorpion legacy.  (I have my own theories on that but that’s for my concluding article/timeline.  There is a line that this Scorpion had heard Nazi rhetoric 30 years earlier and didn’t buy it then)

The adventure proper opens with Rabbi Akibah and his daughter Sara attacked by neo-Nazis lead by the Golden Fuhrer – a Nazi in a gold mask.

The Nazis leave Sara behind warning her to keep her mouth shut.  She immediately calls the police and tells her employer David Harper.  Harper sends her home so he can investigate as The Scorpion.

There’s an odd bit where The Scorpion climbs out the window only to discover that there is no ledge and he has to use his wrist grappling hook.

Sara returns home so the Nazi can kidnap her for leverage on her father.  (Seriously Nazis take the girl in the first place – she can’t call the police if you had taken her in the first place and her father would have been more cooperative)

We discover that the Rabbi is a Jewish Mystic who in World War Two summoned the Golem of Prague to fight against the Nazis.  These neo Nazis think he can resurrect their dead leaders from World War Two but he summons the Golem that he kept in his basement (it is suggested that he built a new golem in the opening).  The Golem bursts out of the Akibah house as the Scorpion arrives.  The Scorpion fights the Golem but the Golem creates a psychic link to show where the Rabbi and his daughter are being kept.

The Scorpion then follows the Golem and the pair attack the Nazis.  The Scorpion ties up several of the henchmen as the Golem attacks the Golden Fuhrer.  The Scorpion tries to save the Fuhrer but is unsuccessful and the Golem smashes a sewerage tank flooding the building and only The Scorpion, Sara and her father escape (that we know of).

It’s not a bad story and after the first two stories is a change of pace.  It’s an action packed story but The Scorpion is now fighting intolerance in all its forms – it comes across a little preachy.  If it was published today some would call it woke or SJW but that part of the story isn’t overpowering.

The redesign of the Scorpion’s costume is okay but what is the point of that colour scheme? 

Maybe with more stories, I would have warmed to this version of the character more but that was not to be.  Atlas folded soon after and we pick up our story over in Marvel.

The Scorpion #2 The Devil Doll Commission

 

Atlas- Seaboard Written and illustrated by Howard Chaykin  May 1975

The second story starts with The Scorpion being hired by the wife of a missing financier with rumours of voodoo and black magic.  Frost is about to refuse the case when he is attacked by a lion.  A lion who returns to human form after death.

Intrigued The Scorpion begins his investigation and discovers that the missing financier has no history prior to 1930 the same time a Chicago gangster died in an accident.  The Scorpion finds the man dead seemingly of a heart attack in a locked room.  But the discovery of a voodoo doll suggests murder.

Ruby discovers that the gangster’s partner is in town and that the widow is the only person who can access the Panamanian bank accounts where the money was hidden. Our villains kidnap Ruby thinking she is the widow and kill the voodoo priestess.

The Scorpion finds the dying priestess who tells him that she expected the double cross and set up a couple of hexes to get her revenge from the grave.  The Scorpion races to rescue Ruby from the first hex, a spell on a pet lion cub to turn him into a giant raging beast.

Stopping the beast and narrowly avoiding being shot to death, the Scorpion is informed that the dead man’s body has disappeared from the morgue.  Realising that the second hex has made a zombie to kill his wife, the Scorpion races across town to prevent the death of his client.

The zombie is unstoppable and the Scorpion blows up the house. The story ends with the Scorpion telling reporters he’s not waiving his fee.

The cover image of zombies attacking Ruby doesn’t appear in the story, with only the one zombie attacking the widow not Ruby and that Zombie looks nothing like those on the cover.

Again it’s another high action story, with the Scorpion racing around town investigating and saving people from the voodoo hexes.

The Scorpion #1

 

Atlas- Seaboard Written and illustrated by Howard Chaykin  Feb 1975

The Scorpion is a man known as Moro Frost – at least that’s what he is known circa 1938,  before that he was known by several names ranging from the  American Civil War until the end of World War One. 

JC Clellan Lowe – a balloonist for the Union Army

Virgil Torrent – special envoy to President Teddy Roosevelt

Ben Turck – mercenary flying for Villa against Pershing

Michael Christy - flying for Lafayette Escadrille in 1917-1918.

But those aren’t really important perhaps had Chaykin stayed with the series and had it lasted longer this back story would have been used more.

The Scorpion is a fun character, he’s aviation based troubleshooter.  The story starts when Moro Frost and his companion Ruby Bishop witness a plane crash.  The owner of the airline recognises The Scorpion and hires him to investigate the mysterious series of unexplained crashes that have happened recently. 

We discover that it is a shipping magnate who as hired two henchmen to target the planes with a sonic weapon that kills the pilots and then destroys the engine with no sign of foul play.

The Scorpion takes one of the runs for the airlines but as an ace pilot he is able to out manoeuvre the villain’s plane and shoot them out of the sky.

The magnate once hearing the Scorpion is involved wants no further part in the caper but the two henchmen are upset that the Scorpion shot them down and destroyed the sonic weapon.  They kill the magnate and kidnap Ruby Bishop.

Frost fights with the saboteurs and rescues Ruby.  The bad guys try to fly off and bomb the airfield to kill Frost.  Frost chases them on his motorcycle and shoots the plane out of the sky.

It’s a good start, The Scorpion has a strong reputation that he is recognised several times and commands a high price.  His vest is lined with chain mail making it a good shield but and nasty weapon.  He has a cool look and story is exciting with a lot of action.

The idea that Moro Frost is immortal isn’t really played with in the story, in the fight with the bad guys we are told that he is tough but he doesn’t sustain enough damage to highlight that he may be immortal.

The Saga of Dominic Fortune

Over the years, I've followed many, many characters - most of whom have a distinctly pulp flavor.  I could rattle them off for hours.  

Sometimes the character is new or simply new to me.  Other times I will rediscover a character that I had forgotten about or was only able to find one or two issues back in the day.  With the internet, expanding that collection or reacquiring books, movies or comics from the past is a lot easier.  

It's the latter case with Dominic Fortune, many years ago in the last century I picked up Web of Spiderman #10 

Who was this Dominic Fortune?  I must have bought this when it came out at the newsagent.  It didn't stay in the collection for one of the moves and I don't recall being aware that there were more adventures of Dominic Fortune.  I remember him using a roll of dimes or quarters as knuckledusters.

A few weeks back something reminded me of Dominic Fortune, and I started down the rabbit hole.  My wallet was less than happy with me, but I eventually managed to acquire the complete adventures of Dominic Fortune. More than that, Fortune was created by Howard Chaykin, and Chaykin had a test run for Fortune with Scorpion for Atlas Comics.  Chaykin drew the first two issues before the powers that be decided to make the series more superhero for the third and final issue.

So over the next few weeks, I will be looking at the three issues of the Scorpion and the Adventures of Dominic Fortune.  I will look at each individual story whether it be told as a short in an anthology, a single issue or a run of several issues and will do this in more or less publication order.

Come back next week for the first thrilling adventure of The Scorpion.

The Great Vigilante reread: Vigilante Southland 2016

Here we are at the end of the road.  So after Dorian Chase's viiglante ended.  There was no more Vigilante.

The New 52 had Pat Trayce make a couple of appearances in the Deathstroke title.

But 2016 was a very good year.  DC wound back some of their New 52 changes with Rebirth and brought back some of the iconic versions of characters.

For Season 5 of Arrow it was announced that Adrian Chase and Vigilante would appear.

And DC announces that there is a new Vigilante series Vigilante Southland, which used the Vigilante logo from Adrian Chase's series.

Could it be that Adrian Chase was being ressurrected?  It seemed possible.

Instead we got a new Vigilante Donny Fairchild in a six issue miniseries written by Gary Phillips and art by Elana Casagrande.  However only the first three issues were released in floppies and the other half of the series was a trade exclusive.

It seems that poor reviews and sales killed the series but at least the entire series was released in a trade paperback.

When the series came out I pointed out some of the problems I had with the series as the continuity was a little hard to follow ie the main character shaves his head between panels.  and this reread was a much soomther experience knowing some of these things but I needed to have muddled through it the first time figure out what was going on,

In many ways the story reminded me of the Howard Chaykin Miniseries Midnight Men (for Marvel's Heavy Hitter line).  Donny Fairchild has no connection to any previous Vigilante (including the original Greg Saunders)  but there seems to be a group of vigilantes operating in LA, Donny's girlfriend Dorrie Smallwood wears a similar outfit and is killed at the start of the story.  As far as I can tell she never uses a codename like Vigilante.

Her mentor Mike Relagardo, used the indentity of the Eastsider 20 years ago before he was shot and paralysed.  I like the idea of a legacy group of heros all operating in the same area using differnt names but I'm not sure if Vigilante is be the best alter ego for this idea.

But the floppies kept me interested enough to seek out the trade.

But Gary Phillips wasn't only one reviving Vigilante in 2016.  Arrow brought Adrian Chase and The Vigilante into the series in season 5.

In a surprise move Chase wasn't The Vigilante - he was Prometheus the big bad of that season.  Arrow as a show cops a lot of crticism for not being 100% faithful in the adaptation, but I don't mind it.

In this case it meant the the reveal of Prometheus was a surprise because as comic readers we expected Chase to be Vigilante and I was going "who is Vigilante?"  (BTW there was a sweet George Perez sketch of Vigilante in at least one episode)

In season Six we discover that Dinah (Black Canary III) Drake's old police partner Vincent Sobol.

Vigilante was a fun antagonist for Team Arrow and who knows someone might cast a Donny Fairbanks, Dorian Chase, Justin Powell, Dave Winston or Alan Welles and bring back the Vigilante.