I continue with my review of Marvel's adaptations of Kenneth (Lester Dent) Robeson's Doc Savage novels.
Doc Savage #5 begins a two-part adaptation of The Monsters. The title of this story is "The Monsters" and it's adapted by Steve Englehart, scripted by Gardner F. Fox and features artwork by Ross Andru and Tom Palmer. The tale begins with a trapper named Bruno Hen under attack by mysterious creatures against which his shotgun is no good. Carl McBride, another trapper finds Hen dying and fulfills his dying request that he take Hen's money and hire Doc Savage to avenger him. Next we see McBride aboard a Ford Tri-Motoer heading to NYC and talking up his plan to a beautiful blonde who fills him in on Doc and his aides and how they don't necessarily take jobs for money. There's a mysterious ad in the newspaper saying "The Monsters Are Coming". McBride gets to Doc's skyscraper but when he steps off the elevator a thug guns him down and would have done likewise for Doc Savage but for bulletproof glass. Doc takes the case and orders Monk and Ham to follow the killer, develops clues to Michigan, then reports to the location where Monk and Ham have followed the gunman. It's a giant walled-in estate but a grappling hook later Doc is skipping across the unusual electrical fencing that sits on top of the walled estate from corner to corner. Slipping into the mansion he comes under attack while Monk and Ham work their way toward him. Once inside he finds the same blonde who had spoken to McBride and she reveals herself to be Jean Morris a lion tamer with a special talent for speaking Swahili. Just then a giagantic head breaks through the floor of the mansion and just as quickly disappears, seemingly inside a truck that rushes away from the building. Jean Morris likewise disappears. Doc then goes into the basement and finds Griswold Rock, the owner of the estate who claims he was abducted by criminal genius named Pere Teston. Doc orders Renny to track the truck which Doc has tagged with ultra-violet markers. Renny does, but has his plane shot down. Doc shows up to find the abandoned truck with Renny captive inside. Hearing the ticking of a bomb, he saves Renny but before he can penetrate the mystery in the back of the truck it explodes leaving Doc and his aides to watch a plane escape into the distance.
Doc Savage #6 finishes this story with a story titled "Where Giants Walk!". It's written by Gardner F. Fox, and drawn by the team of Ross Andru and Frank Giacoia. I like Giacoia, but there is a definite loss of atmosphere and mood with the loss of Palmer. The story begins dramatically with a giant hand rising out of a lake and grabbing Doc's plane. Doc and his aides have followed the clues to Michigan and they find themselves fighting off many giants. Doc finds Bruno Hen's cabin then is shot at. He chases the gunman and finds his body in a sand bog. They find a note on his body and follow the clues to a deserted mill where they find Griswold Rock who claims he got a telegram from Doc to show up there. The team then go to a hotel to regroup and get word from Renny about the giant who died in the truck. Renny is supposed to come meet Doc, Monk, and Ham, but next morning they get word he has crashed his plane. Rushing out to assist him, Doc and his team come under attack which they repel with their superfirers. Renny shows up later and he and Doc use the Auto-Gyro to head back to town while Monk chases the hoods. Doc finds Ham having suffered an attack and Griswold Rock missing. Monk returns and the team takes the Auto-Gyro to find the ultimate hideout of the criminals only to be waylaid by another plane with Jean Morris inside. The attack results in both planes going into the lake where two giants appear armored with plates of steel. Doc and his team along with Morris are captured by the giants and taken to the criminal gang who are hiding underneath a tarpaulin made to look like an island from the air, and then who put them into a deep pit. Doc escapes the pit, finds evidence that can be of use to him in the criminal lab and then returns to captivity. Next morning he tells the giant monsters, criminals in fact who have been changed as part of a criminal scheme, that they cannot be changed back. This causes a riot between the giants and the normal-sized gang and they battle one another. Meanwhile Doc finds the Pere Teston, not a criminal and saves him. One of the giants releases poisonous chlorine into the air but Doc and his team are safe in makeshift air pockets. When they emerge they find everyone in the gang, monster and hood, dead along with their real leader Griswold Rock.
This is a pretty decent adaptation of the plot-heavy tale. Thankfully the whole business of some of the monsterous giants being African Mongoloids has been dropped. It's a curious detail from the original story and would've been out of place in this modernized version. Though that then does make Jean Morris's presence pointless. But in the press of the action, that detail doesn't matter all that much. Gardner Fox as the writer certainly gives this tale a real pulp connection, though I have to confess his script didn't seem as tight as Englehart's had been.
More next time as Doc and his team confront meet up with Werewolves!
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I did not know Fox wrote for Marvel, let alone Doc Savage.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered why Conan was such a Marvel success and yet Doc Savage was not. Both books seem to have good writing and art.
Then again, I only bought Doc in the Giant-Size Team-up. Never read it because it was poorly stapled together and thus always on the bottom of the pile either at my nightstand or in the big crate outside where I kept my collection.
PS: Like your reviews. Can't wait to read your opinion about the Avenger #1 (both the pulp and Jack Kirby's comic)