‘Amazing Adventures’ No. 23 (March 1974) was written by Don McGregor and illustrated by Herb Trimpe. In this issue, the ‘War of the Worlds’ storyline continues, and the title of this chapter is ‘The Legend Assassins’.
I previously posted an excerpt of this issue taken from the b & w ‘Marvel Essentials: Killraven’ trade paperback, but the excerpt looks much better in full color, as presented here from the original comic. The green-skinned, white-haired chick on the cover is ‘Mint Julep’, a soldier-ess of fortune who threw in with Killraven and his crew on a sporadic basis.
In ‘The Legend Assassins’, Killraven finds himself captured by ‘Rattack’, a mutant human-rat creature who was (prior to the war with the Martians) a secret service agent (!?). In homage to the early 70s thrillers ‘Willard’ (1971) and ‘Ben’ (1972), there is a sequence in which a bound and helpless Killraven serves as a living meal for the little beady-eyed minions of Rattack, which I have posted here. While nowadays such a setup would draw little oversight, this was rather intense stuff for a Code-approved comic published at the end of 1973.
This is what happens,when your a comic writer and don't know what you are doing and just saw Willard,you give us Rattack.
Amazing Adventures Vol 2 23
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You know, ever since I teamed up with K.R., life seems like it's just one rescue mission after another. 
- -- M'Shulla
Appearing in "The Legend Assassins!"Edit
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Killraven's Freemen
- Carmilla Frost
- Old Skull
- M'Shulla
- Hawk
- Grok
- other freemen
Antagonists:
- Rattack
- Abraxas
- Martians
- High Overlord (First appearance)
- Sabre, Toby, other slavers
Other Characters:
- Mint Julep
- Other freewomen
Locations:
Synopsis for "The Legend Assassins!"Edit
Killraven dangles from the tentacles of a Martian at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. Two tripods approach. Killraven slices off one of the tentacles. A Martian says, "We would tear your quivering flesh apart were it not for your political importance!" Old Skull sees Killraven in trouble and knocks M'Shulla down when he tries to block the way. Before M'Shulla can get up, Grok and Carmilla Frost finish off two slavers who threaten him. Old Skull gets past the others, but he is too late—the tripods have carried away Killraven. Mint Julep tells him that she knows where they took Killraven. The freemen escape.
At the White House, Killraven faces the Martian High Overlord, who sentences him to be staked out in the tunnels below. In those tunnels, Rattack tells his rodent companions that he used to be a government agent, before the biological weapons used against the invading Martians changed him.
At the Pentagon, the refuge of Julep's freewomen, she tells the freemen that Killraven is at the White House and that the only safe approach is through the tunnels. The High Overlord tells Killraven, now staked out, that his death will be transmitted through a mural phonics system, which will pick up his feelings as well as sight and sound. To taunt him, they hang his sword nearby. The Martians and their slaves leave. An army of hungry rats emerges from the darkness and begins to feed on Killraven!
The freemen take dyna-gliders through tunnels from the the Pentagon to the White House. Killraven, with one of his restraints chewed through, grabs a torch and scatters the rats. Rattack appears. Killraven gets his sword and begins killing the rats. Rattack sees this and retreats. The freemen arrive.
Notes
- This story takes place in the reality Earth-691.
- The last five pages reprint a story titled "Face of Fear!" which originally appeared in Marvel Tales #128(November 1954).
Trivia
- No trivia.
(March 1974)
Marvel, 1970 Series
- Volume
- 1
- Price
- 0.20 USD
- Pages
- 36
- Indicia Frequency
- bi-monthly
- Publisher's Age Guidelines
- Approved by the Comics Code Authority
- Indicia / Colophon Publisher
- Marvel Comics Group
- Brand
- Marvel Comics Group [entire top banner]
- Editing
- Roy Thomas
- Color
- Color
- Dimensions
- Standard Silver Age U. S.
- Paper Stock
- Glossy cover; Newsprint interior
- Binding
- Saddle-stitched
- Publishing Format
- Was Ongoing Series
The Legend Assassins!
War of the Worlds; Killraven / comic story / 15 pages
- Script
- Don McGregor
- Pencils
- Herb Trimpe
- Inks
- Frank Chiaramonte
- Colors
- Petra Goldberg
- Letters
- John Costanza
- Genre
- science fiction
- Characters
- Killraven; M'Shulla; Old Skull; Hawk; Carmilla Frost; Grok; Mint Julep; Rattack (introduction, origin, villain); High Overlord (introduction, villain); Sabre (villain); Abraxas (villain); Martian Masters (villain)
- Synopsis
- The Martians capture Killraven and plan to broadcast his death to every human slave, destroying his legend.
- Reprints
in Amazing Adventures (Marvel, 1970 series) #30 (May 1975) [see notes]
which is reprinted
in Le Fils de Satan (Arédit-Artima, 1975 series) #19 (1er trimestre 1981) [N&B et remonté [B&W and reframed]]- in Le Fils de Satan (Arédit-Artima, 1975 series) #15 (1er trimestre 1980) [N&B et remonté [B&W and reframed]]
- in Essential Killraven (Marvel, 2005 series) #1 (2005) [black & white]
- Keywords
- Lincoln Memorial; Pentagon; Washington DC; White House
Indexer Notes
First appearance of the High Overlord, first appearance and origin of Rattack. Pages 9-15 of this story are reprinted as pages 6-12 of Amazing Adventures #30.
Face of Fear!
comic story / 4 pages
- Script
- ?
- Pencils
- Tom Cooke (signed)
- Inks
- Tom Cooke (signed)
- Colors
- ?
- Letters
- ?
- Editing
- Stan Lee (original editor)
- Job Number
- E-492
- Genre
- horror-suspense
- Characters
- Michael Wolf; Hiram Wolf
- Reprints
- from Marvel Tales (Marvel, 1949 series) #128 (November 1954) [retitled]
Indexer Notes
Original title: "The Walking Horror."
Job Number from the Atlas Tales website.
Job Number from the Atlas Tales website.
