First Issue Special - Code Name: Assassin!

When Jack "King" Kirby departed Marvel to land at DC it was blockbuster news. Some years later when young but up and coming writer Gerry Conway did likewise it was less so, but DC still treated Conway a great deal of respect and gave him not insubstantial control over his projects. At Marvel Conway had written most of the top titles at one time or another, and while he was scripting The Amazing Spider-Man he had the Wall-Crawler battle a grim and gritty type called The Punisher. The Punisher was a hit and returned in the pages of Spidey again and again and again, eventually getting some solo adventures here and there before becoming in the 80's one of Marvel's most profitable characters. Well Conway clearly wanted lightning to strike twice when he concocted Code Name: Assassin for DC. Alas the lighting missed quite badly. 

Conway tapes Steve Skeates to script this effort with the Redondo Studio doing the penciling chores for 1st Issue Special #11. Al is tapped to ink this effort which put me in mind of Frank Robbins in many respects. Assassin is the orphan Jonathan Drew who had been subjected to experiments by a Doctor Stone, experiments which went wrong but ended up giving Johnny telekinetic powers. Later Johnny's sister Marie is killed by the gangster Victor Grummun, who she had been working for to pay for Johnny's education. So using his new powers Johnny adopts the guise of "Assassin" to seek revenge on Grummun. Grummun enlists the aid of two enforcers named "The Snake" and "Powerhouse". The former has amazing agility and flexibility and the latter is strong and immune to electrical shocks. The story ends as these two face off against Assassin. 

It's a ho-hum effort for the most part. For whatever reason I'm never convinced of Johnny's desire for revenge, it seems somehow just a plot device and lacks emotional resonance. That's what made Frank Castle so effective, the way his internal pain maddened him and his relentless and ruthless manner. Assassin seems just like anyone and not truly driven. 

Next time we take a look at these specials it means the arrival from the stars. 

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