THE FEATHERED OCTOPUS by Kenneth Robeson (Bantam 1970)

• Originally published in Doc Savage Magazine, September 1937
• Reprinted by Bantam as DS # 48
• Lester Dent writing as Kenneth Robeson

Doc Savage grapples with a Dr. No-like villain plotting to control the world’s commercial airlines in this standard series entry. Some mild twists in the formula — Doc is offstage for nearly half the book; the usually misogynistic Long Tom Roberts falls head over heels for a Nordic blonde beauty — make it an entertaining time-waster for fans.

Doc’s enemy is High Lar, a mysterious South Seas business tycoon and ex-pirate. Rumored to wear an intricate robe of rare feathers and to keep a giant octopus as a pet (which he feeds people to), High Lar is appropriately nicknamed “The Feathered Octopus”. Assisted by his fanatically loyal wife, a Eurasian femme fatale called Lo Lar, he’s methodically gaining control of all major airlines operating in the Pacific. This is achieved via fraud, extortion, kidnapping and murder. Supreme confidence in these methods leads him to challenge Doc Savage on the bronze man’s home turf, the good ol’ USA. Although not widely publicized, Doc is the owner of a big air transport concern that High Lar has targeted for acquisition.

Ultimately Doc must penetrate High Lar’s remote island fortress to rescue his aides and thwart the villain’s scheme. The Man of Bronze man does end up fighting that killer octopus, as promised by the cover, but the sequence is ridiculously rushed — it’s over in just a couple of sentences!

Yet another promising Doc adventure undermined by a much too hasty climax.

Grade: C+

Musical Interlude

One to watch

Ade Salmon

Paul Naschy, R.I.P.

Oh no. Today we lost one of my favorites, a man who made the "groovy age of horror" immeasurably groovier.

Thanks to absence from El Blog Ausente for letting me know.

Here's commiserating with my pals from Eurotrash Paradise, whose enjoyment and discussion of Naschy have been so integral to my own appreciation for the man. Of those who have blogs:

• David Zuzelo (Tomb It May Concern)
• Dan Taylor (Exploitation Retrospect)
• Holger Haase (Hammer and Beyond)

Of course, there's Mirek Miro's outstanding website, Mark of Naschy.

Other appreciations:

• Cinebeats
• Taliesin Meets the Vampires
• Classic Horror
• Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies

I'm sure there will be others as the sad news spreads.

Here's my favorite post I did about him, comparing Klimovsky's Werewolf Shadow with Naschy's later remake Night of the Werewolf, both excellent in their own ways.

BLACKEST NIGHT: More about 5

My previous post about Blackest Night #5 was mainly devoted to examining the multiple ways it shook up what has been a repetitive, static crossover event. I didn't get to say quite everything I wanted to about it, though, so here's the rest.

The Flash is not a character I've ever liked much. His power and costume have always bored me. One of the first things I noticed when I started reading Blackest Night were the tweaks to 'zazz up his look--specifically, the multiple afterblurs and lightning that signal how fast he's always moving. Conceptually, I thought they made clever sense, but the image above is the first time they really hit me on a gut level, and made the Flash seem that much cooler and more dynamic in action. It's exhilarating, the way they trace the sweep of his motion and the pose this panel ultimately captures. I can practically feel the G's he's pulling through that curve.

I also like this image:

I imagine Geoff Johns thinking, Wouldn't it be awesome to see all three Flashes running together? Well, yes, it kinda is. Anyone who's ever known the joy of running in formation with teammates in whatever sport when you all are in the flow and in the zone, surely must recall it here, only magnified to the speed of fighter jets, and with the added rush of running straight toward danger in combat. Big, big kudos to Ivan Reis for instilling these images with such a muscle-deep sense of fantastic motion nobody could ever experience in real life. That, right there, is part of the core appeal of superhero comics, and what they do best when they nail it like this.

Here's a sweet sequence of panels--just a few fleeting, nice character touches in the midst of all the chaos. We get Kid Flash remarking on how fast the black rings move. Then, this moment between Donna and Wonder Woman is so touching. Imagine if you could see--really see--how much somebody cares for you, but only as you succumb to a horrible zombifying curse. Just beautifully bittersweet.

This issue wasn't perfect, though. My biggest complaint is how Nekron and Black Hand mostly hung back and stayed out of the fighting--and just as glaringly, how the superheroes let them! Just look at this--we've got Nekron standing right in front of the Black Lantern battery, with Black Hand nearby, and all the superheroes are facing away from them, the source of all the trouble, and wasting time on cannon fodder zombies. I'm sorry, but if I'm Superman, I plow Nekron through that lantern at top fucking speed. I guess that's the problem with Superman--any writer who uses him in a scene like this has to answer the question, "Why doesn't Superman just _____?" Mind you, this is before the League of Lanterns shows up, too, so at this point, nobody's engaging the Big Bad whatsoever. This also goes to the one irritating flaw in the panel of the Flashes I mention above--they run straight past Nekron, and he lets them. Neither party seems inclined to engage with the other. Is this any way to stage a fight scene?

Well, that about covers it for this installment. Tomorrow Thursday, we get the first issues of the next wave of tie-in miniseries, Flash and Wonder Woman. I have to say, I'm concerned about these, especially in light of the way BN 5 ends. When in the timeline of the event will these be set? Flash has been front-and-center in Blackest Night since the first issue, so his tie-in mini will have to be set sometime later. Does that mean his story is going to diverge, and he'll be leaving the main series? As for Wonder Woman, she's now a Black Lantern, so will her tie-in be set before issue 5? I think that would suck, and think all tie-ins going forward should reflect the current state-of-play. We'll see, I guess.