Before Orange Is The New Black came the Valkyrie-in-jail storyline, combining all my favorite things: Women’s prison stories, superheroes, and blondes. It’s very cool–I think it’s the first time Marvel put one of its heroes in jail.
Part of Enchantress’ spell that put Val in Barbara Norriss’ body makes her unable to fight women, so the big boss of the women’s prison gang pretty much has her way with Val. I wish this storyline had been developed more–I could have read at least two full issues of it.
But, like with every Steve Gerber story, there’s a lot more in these issues.
For one thing, Plantman appears as a solo villiain for the first time. If you think about it, a dude who can control plant life should be pretty powerful–yet in prior appearances he’s been mostly teamed with lame partners like The Eel and Unicorn or taking on Human Torch by himself. Now, he takes on the entire Defenders team.
Another interesting thing: While recovering from brain surgery, Kyle Richmond gets kidnapped by Plant Man. Nighthawk is turning into a full-time “hostage” type. That’s a role most 1970s comics relegate to women, so atta boy Steve G. for doing some gender switching.
Then, Plant Man also captures Dr. Strange and Red Guardian (who is still in the U.S. after doing brain surgery on Kyle because Strange hypnotized her Russian handlers into letting her hang out for a while).
Plant Man is kinda tough in these issues.
Powerless Jack Norriss (remember him? the normal guy who is Barbara Norriss’ husband?) tries to save the day by hiring Power Man to save the day.
Remember what I said about Plantman teaming up with lamer partners?
He’s still doing that. Nebulon intervenes (Plantman is kinda sorta working with Nebulon’s Bozo Gang) and pulls Luke, Strange, and Red Guardian into another dimension, where they fight something that looks like a polar bear…
…until they find their way out of the dimension, where Nighthawk is fighting both of Plantman’s partners at the same time (despite that he just got his brain back, just was a hostage, and each of these guys have single-handedly taken on much more powerful heroes like Iron Man and Human Torch).
In the end, these villains are neutralized, but Nebulon and his Bozos are in the wind.
And then, if all that wasn’t enough for just three skinny issues, Elf with a Gun shows up and kills some tourists in the Grand Canyon. EwaG may be the slowest burning storyline of the 1970s.
This is part of the “Headmen” saga, which is the third-best Steve Gerber story ever.