SKULL THE SLAYER #6

"SWAMP!"
Writer: Bill Mantlo | Artists: Sal Buscema & Steve Gan
Letterer: Karen Mantlo | Colorist: Petra Goldberg | Editor: Marv Wolfman

The Plot: Outside the Tower of Time, as Ann and Jeff watch, Skull removes an arrow from Doctor Corey's arm and does his best to treat the wound -- then the group moves along, Skull carrying the unconscious Corey. Inside the Tower, the Black Knight confronts and kills Slitherogue, but when the alien dies, the Tower collapses. Meanwhile, a survivor of the plane crash, Corporal Freddy Lancer, is found by a passing Navy ship. Aboard, Lancer meets with Jeff's father, Senator "Stoneface" Turner, and vows to find Skull.

Back on the island, Skull and company find the tail end of the crashed plane and gather supplies from within. Soon after, as they float down a river on a makeshift raft, they're attacked by a group of Inca warriors. But when a prehistoric ichthyosaur appears and begins devouring fallen Incas, Skull leaps atop the creature and stabs it repeatedly, his strength belt putting so much force behind his assault that the ichthyosaur explodes.

In the aftermath, as Ann embraces Skull, the Incas begin to chant -- words Corey translates as them calling Skull the "Son of the Sun" and beckoning him to follow them through the swap. Their leader points at a huge golden structure in the distance which Skull believes to be the legendary lost city of El Dorado.

SKULL THE SLAYER #3

"TUMULT IN THE TOWER OF TIME!"
Writer/Editor: Marv Wolfman | Pencils: Steve Gan
Inkers: Pablo Marcos & Steve Gan
Letters: Irv Watanabe | Colors: Michele Wolfman

The Plot: Skull wrestles with a prehistoric beast until it bucks him off, after which he, Ann, Jeff, and Doctor Corey continue their exploration of the prehistoric world. After being nearly trampled by a herd of stampeding dinosaurs, Skull leads the group to see what spooked the animals. They come across a field of skeletal remains tied to posts. From there, they move on to a huge tower, which offers glimpses of various time periods -- a different one on each level.

As they gaze into the tower, the group is attacked by a T-Rex. Skull and Jeff fight the creature, while Corey slips away. Skull figure out that the Tyrannosaur is a robot, and destroys it. Then the group hears Corey scream. They follow him and find that he has stumbled into ancient Egypt, where he's been captured by a Pharaoh's soldiers.

Continuity Notes: Not many in this issue, though it should be noted that Skull's corpse-robbing ways have evidently rubbed off on Ann and Jeff. At Ann's suggestion, all three of them pilfer clothing from the skeletons near the tower. Doctor Corey, however, remains in his normal clothes.

As for the skeletons themselves -- they're from a number of different time periods, and there are extraterrestrials among them (and it is from the alien-but-humanoid bodies that our heroes procure their new cothes). Later, when the group finds the tower, Jeff notes that it is covered in alien writing identical to that which was in the cave where the primitive humans worshipped an alien corpse.

SKULL THE SLAYER #2

"GODS AND SUPER GODS"
Writer/Editor: Marv Wolfman | Artist: Steve Gan
Letterer: San Jose | Colorist: Michele Wolfman

The Plot: Jim Scully is dragged by his caveman captor to a primitive camp, where he's thrown into a cave with the other plane survivors: Ann, Doctor Corey, and a young man named Jeff. Revealing his nickname of Skull, Scully leads the survivors in an escape from the cavemen. But when a herd of rampaging dinosaurs storms through the camp, Skull commandeers one and leads the beasts away. This earns him the respect of the cavemen, who lead the survivors into another cave. There, then find the skeletal remains of an alien in a futuristic chamber.

As Doctor Corey, Ann, and Jeff study alien writing on the wall, Skull decides to pilfer the alien corpse of its skull-buckled belt. He takes and dons the garment, but the alien skeleton crumbles to dust, causing the cavemen to attack. Skull holds them at bay and then joins the other survivors in fleeing to the jungle. They attempt to cross a river to escape the cavemen, but are attacked in the water by a Brontosaurus. Skull begins to glow and somehow subdues the dinosaur. The survivors all make it ashore, where Jeff points out that the glow is coming from Skull's stolen belt.

Continuity Notes: For some reason, the cover logo from issue 1 has already been replaced. The new logo will carry through the remainder of the series, though the issue 1 logo does appear on the title page of this issue (but then never shows up again). I don't know why it was changed, but I liked the first logo a lot better. Its primitive look gave more insight into what the series was about.

Page 1 provides a brief textual recap of all the events in the prior issue, with a few illustrations.

SKULL THE SLAYER #1

"THE COMING OF SKULL THE SLAYER!"
Stan Lee, publisher, presents the beginning of an epic by:
Creator/Writer/Colorist: Marv Wolfman | Artist: Steve Gan
Letterer: Pablo Marcos | Editor: Len Wein

The Plot: Vietnam veteran Jim Scully is aboard a military plane for extridition from Bermuda to the United States, where he is wanted for the murder of his brother. But en route to the U.S., the plane flies into a time/space warp in the Bermuda Triangle, then splits apart and crashes in an prehistoric world. Scully emerges from the front end of the plane, its sole survivor. Meanwhile a trio of additional passengers survives the rear segment's crash.

As Scully hunts for food, he is attacked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Elsewhere, the other survivors are spotted by a group of primitive humans. Scully battles and eventually kills the T-Rex when he stabs it in the eye and sends it plummeting over a cliff. But as he recovers, he is struck in the head by a flung rock, and is surrounded by more primitive beings.

Continuity Notes: Our cast, at least as of issue 1, seems to consist of Jim Scully, and the three other survivors: a man called Doctor Corey, a woman named Ann, and a mostly-silent young man whose name is yet to be revealed.

Rather than recap Scully's backstory, I'll just mention that he was a special forces fighter dispatched to Vietnam and immediately captured, and then I'll let Marv Wolfman's ridiculous narration take it from there: