Remember that 1969 Bullpen Bulletin where Stan’s Soapbox said they’d be only doing done-in-ones from now on? Well, that was all talk.When we have comics like this one, or the much more serialized Marvel Comics Presents in the 1990s, I’m going to have to cut them up by story. This book is evenly split between Doctor Doom and Ka-Zar stories, but both halves of the book tell multi-episode stories that begin and end in different issues of the series. So this post is about the Ka-Zar half of these issues.
It starts with that terrific splash page, leading you to believe that Kraven is coming after Ka-Zar, but on the next page we get the punchline: Zabu. He wants to hunt Ka-Zar’s cat.
What follows is as good a Ka-Zar story as you’ll ever read. Kraven captures the tiger and brings him back to New York, so we first get a battle between Marvel’s most famous K-characters in The Savage Land, and then another in New York City.
The battle dominates issue #2.
The art is Jack Kirby, but it’s sketchier than his usual stuff. It’s a real good story. Then about halfway through the second issue, while Ka-Zar is fighting Kraven, a strange man rescues Zabu.
Petrified Man is really a part of the next story, but they some groundwork for it here.
The battle with Ka-Zar ends when Kraven runs away to lick his wounds. And when Ka-Zar returns to his hotel room, Petrified Man and Zabu are waiting with an ominous cliffhanger.
