SONS OF THE TIGER PART 3

As presented in DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU Nos. 6 - 8.

"THE WAY OF THE JACKAL!"
Story: Jim Dennis | Art: George Pérez & Frank Springer

"TIGERS IN A MIND-CAGE!"
Writer: Bill Mantlo | Artists: George Pérez & Bob McLeod

"STORM OF VENGEANCE!
Story: Bill Mantlo | Art: George Pérez & Al Milgrom

The Plot: (DEADLY HANDS #6) The Sons of the Tiger enter a New York martial arts tournament in order to draw attention to themselves as bait for the Seven Silent Ones. During the Tournament, Lin Sun humiliates a student of a large man named Paan. Later, Paan lures Bob Diamond into a trap and captures him, then uses Bob to bring Lin and Abe Brown into his clutches. Paan forces Lin to fight several of his students at once, while Bob and Abe watch. But eventually the Sons of the Tiger unite to defeat the villains.

(DEADLY HANDS #7) In their hotel room, the Sons are visited by a man named Harrison Budge, who gases and abducts them. In an undisclosed location, Budge sends the Sons separately into three chambers where they face their inner demons. After overcoming these fears, the Sons reunite to confront Budge. He sets robots against them, but the Sons defeat the mechanoids and capture Budge.

(DEADLY HANDS #8) Back at their hotel once more, the Sons attempt to interrogate Budge -- but their efforts are interrupted by a gang of ninjas. Budge escapes during the fight and the Sons pursue, finding a clue that leads them to Welfare Island beneath the Queensboro Bridge. There, they fight and defeat Budge again, and then are attacked by a massive sumo warrior. The Sons claim victory over this new foe as well, and a mystery woman appears, triggering a bomb that blows up one of the bridge's supports.

SONS OF THE TIGER PART 2 - THE MASTER PLAN OF FU MANCHU

As presented in DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU SPECIAL No. 1.

"TITLE PAGE" & "EPILOG"
Script: Tony Isabella | Art: John Buscema
Featuring supporting characters created by Sax Rohmer.

"CHAPTER 1: IRON FIST"
Script: Doug Moench | Art: Frank McLaughlin & the Crusty Bunkers

"CHAPTER 2: THE SONS OF THE TIGER!"
Script: Chris Claremont | Art: Herb Trimpe

"CHAPTER 3: THE HANDS OF SHANG-CHI, MASTER OF KUNG FU
Script: Doug Moench | Art: Mike Vosburg & Dan Adkins

For its first "Summer Special", DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU presents a serial starring all of of Marvel's 1970s martial arts characters in a "non" team-up, pitting them against the insidious Doctor Fu Manchu, archenemy and father of Shang-Chi. The story begins with a one-page prologue, a pin-up showing the Sons of the Tiger, Iron Fist, and Shang-Chi, with Fu Manchu's face hovering above them, as narration briefly explains who all our our protagonists are. From there, we move into the serial proper, starting with Iron Fist:

The Plot: Iron Fist is wandering the back alleys of New York when he comes across a Chinese U.N. delegate on the verge of death. Befor the man expires, he tells Iron Fist that his five compatriots were abducted. Iron Fist battles two of the kidnappers, who show up in search of the now-deceased delegate. One of the villains escapes, and Iron Fist pursues him to a warehouse, where he battles the kidnappers' master, a sumo warrior named Tsu-Gamo. Iron Fist defeats Tsu-Gamo and his men, but finds that the delegates have been spirited away.

Subsequently, Abe Brown, Lin Sun, and Bob Diamond arrive in New York for a martial arts tournament, but find themselves attacked at the airport by agents of Lo Chin and the Seven Silent Ones. The Sons defeat the men and escape, and the next morning see a news report about the missing Chinese delegates. When China's deputy foreign minister appears onscreen from the United Nations, Lin's tiger amulet tingles. He leads Bob and Abe to the U.N. to investigate, where they attempt to stop Chinese agents from kidnapping the American delegation. But the Sons fail, and the Americans are taken, leading the president to demand their return, lest China face the consequences. And unknown to all, the "Chinese" are actually agents of Fu Manchu's Si-Fan organization.

SONS OF THE TIGER PART 1

As presented in DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU Nos. 1, 3, and 4.

"THE SONS OF THE TIGER!" | "THE TRAIL OF THE NINJA!"
"NIGHT OF THE DEATH-DREAM!"
Author: Gerry Conway | Editor & Advisor: Roy Thomas
Artists: Dick Giordano & Frank McLaughlin (pts. 1 & 2) | Don Perlin & Dan Adkins (pt. 3)

The Plot: (DEADLY HANDS #1) One night in San Francisco's Chinatown, on his way home from a martial arts tournament, a young man named Lin Sun is attacked by a group of ninjas. He fights them off, but upon entering the dojo where he trains, finds his Master Kee dying thanks to the ninjas. Kee tells Lin to take the three jade tiger amulets that he keeps in the dojo, and to go seek out the school's two other best students, Abe Brown and Bob Diamond -- then Kee dies in Lin's arms. Lin takes the amulets and locates Abe first, helping him to fight off a group of drug dealers. The two move along to the penthouse apartment of Bob, a movie star, and save him from a ninja attack as well.

Bob and Abe each take one amulet and the trio sets out for the only ninjutsu school in San Francisco, where they fight its master, Sui Tu Kama. Using the mystical amulets to triple their individual fighting skills, the "Sons of the Tiger" defeat Kama and his ninja followers, and discover a hidden opium den in the dojo as well. Abe believes Master Kee has been avenged, but Lin states that Kama had a master, and vows to find him.

(DEADLY HANDS #3) Following a lead, Lin Sun arrives at Janto Imports on the San Francisco waterfront. He is attacked by ninjas and holds his own, but is eventually defeated. Meanwhile, Abe and Bob, who abandoned Lin to continue his mission alone after they felt they had sufficiently avenged Master Kee, have a change of heart and go after their friend. They find Lin about to be killed by an old man named Lo Chin and his minions. Abe and Bob rescue Lin and the group fights together once more, defeating Lo Chin's men and destroying his stolen sonic cannon -- but in the aftermath of the fight, Lo Chin has vanished.

(DEADLY HANDS #4) Following yet another lead, the Sons arrive at the airport, where they try to stop Lo Chin from boarding a plane. But the craft takes off with Lin having chased Lo Chin aboard. Bob and Abe hitch a ride as it rises into the air, leading to a battle aboard the plane. Eventually it crashes, apparently with Lo Chin aboard, but the Sons bail out to watch the wreckage burn.

THE SONS OF THE TIGER

Okay, this is something I've wanted to read for decades. Back when I was a kid, Marvel used to cram every year's annuals with backup stories. In Spider-Man's case, that usually meant short tales starring characters in his orbit. Not necessarily always members of his supporting cast, but sometimes other heroes he ran into, but who didn't have their own series. One of these was the Prowler, who featured in two or three annual backups in the late eighties/early nineties. And one of the Prowler backups, "Jaded Perceptions" from 1993's SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #13, featured the Prowler's brother, Abe Brown, who co-owned a martial arts dojo with his friend Lin Sun -- and who, it turned out, had been a hero-type himself years earlier, alongside a group of his fellow martial artists.*

See, the Prowler's real name, long establsihed since Stan Lee and John Romita introduced him in the sixties, was Hobie Brown. And in the seventies, Marvel published a serial in their DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU magazine called "The Sons of the Tiger". (Bear with me here; this will all make sense in the end. I hope.) That serial starred a trio of martial artists: Abe Brown, Lin Sun, and Bob Diamond. So eventually, circa 1989, somebody at Marvel realized that they had this character named Hobie Brown and they had this character named Abe Brown. Both were black men. They had the same last name. Why not make them brothers?

Yeah, it seems weird on its face. Brown isn't exactly an uncommon last name that would make you think two characters of the same ethnicity sharing it simply had to be related. But if that hadn't happened, I never would've learned about the Sons of the Tiger. That story I mentioned, "Jaded Perceptions", features Abe and Lin explaining their backstory from DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU. And I don't know why, but twelve-year-old me just thought the Sons sounded really cool. Three martial artists with magical jade amulets doing kung-fu on the mean streets of San Francsico and New York (among other places) -- what's not to love? (It should be noted that I have long been a fan of "exploitation" cinema, but apparently I was a fan of it in comic book form before I even knew what it was!)

BOB MORANE RESURRECTION VOLUMES 1 & 2

"RARE EARTH" | "THE VILLAGE THAT DIDN'T EXIST"
Writers: Luc Brunschwig & Aurélien Ducoudray
Artist: Dimitri Armand | Colorist: Hugo Facio
Based on the novels of Henri Vernes

As I discovered (and mentioned) while looking at the third RIC HOCHET book a few weeks ago, this Bob Morane character was a contemporary of Ric's, having been created around the same time -- albeit in a series of novels rather than comics. But Morane eventually branched out into graphic novels as well (plus a TV show and other media adaptations over the decades). However, unlike Ric, who appeared to remain forever set in the 1960s (at least in the recent books I looked at), Morane's adventures seem to always be set in the modern day (again, at least per these two new volumes).

And as it happened, I had picked up two BOB MORANE books -- the only two available in English, so far as I can tell -- in some Comixology sale or another a while back. The stories were originally published in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and comprise one single story arc which, while somewhat resolved by the end of book two, ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.

Book one opens with our hero, French soldier Bob Morane, standing trial over an event that occurred in the recent past, when he was part of a U.N. peacekeeping detail in Nigeria. We quickly learn that Morane defied orders to save the life of a Nigerian presidential candidate, which landed him in hot water with his superiors. But when that candidate, Oussman, is elected, he negotiates Morane's pardon and invites the ex-soldier to come work with him as an advisor. The story then skips ahead six years, as we find that a French tech company, Belfon, is working to provide aid to Nigeria, under Morane's auspices.