1985 #4

Background

Every kid who has ever read a comic has fantasized about what would happen if the heroes in the funny books could exist in real life. In this book we meet Toby and we see what happens when super villains roam free in a city with no superheroes.

Villains cause havoc all through the town. Can anyone stand against them? When we last left off the Lizard was on top of Jerry's Ice Cream van...

Story Details

After a rough van ride through town (and through a billboard) the Lizard briefly chases Jerry and Toby. Jerry hesitates to do anything when the Lizard grabs Toby. The military fires on the Lizard who flees the scene and spares Toby.

It's 1964 at the Wyncham house. There are a lot of people standing on the front lawn. Clyde's mom accuses Jerry of summoning them there with his mind. Clyde's dad knocks on the door. Clyde's mom threatens to kill Jerry. The narrator explains that one of these kids is the first mutant of this world and unable to control his powers well.

The army is ordered to evacuate everyone in the area believing the villains to be Russian spies. Toby's mom Julie has refused to leave her house until Toby returns. Jerry sets off to retrieve her warning Toby not to follow him. The courageous Toby attempts to rally his friend Darius and the comic book workers on a mission to help "save the world." His friends refuse forcing Toby to venture off on his own.

More villains are seen killing and causing mayhem including the Blob, Molten man, Wendigo and Bullseye. The Melter also is seen graphically melting a living soldier. Toby comes to the conclusion that there must be a doorway letting all these villains in and he finds it at the Wyncham House. He runs through it to escape the Trapster, who reports that he's on his tail. Toby then lands in the Marvel Universe and says, "Somebody call the Avengers. It's an emergency."

General Comments

This book is starting to fall apart. It was so good too. There is a scene right before Jerry sets off to save Julie where a gas truck is flung through the air and explodes in front of a crowd of people. That would almost certainly cause mass hysteria but instead the people a drawn as if they're just calmly observing a camp fire. Not to mention the fact the Jerry, Toby and his friends are unharmed by the explosion that occurred right in front of them.

Toby may be a little too brave. I understand that he is a brave kid but he did get snatched up and nearly killed by the Lizard. I can't think of any kid who would venture off to save the world having suffered through that. I'm sure its possible it's just not probable.

When Toby crosses over into the Marvel world Toby says, "Somebody call the Avengers. It's an emergency." Shouldn't he be shouting that? Shouldn't he be using exclamation points for both sentences? It could be that he's overwhelmed by what he sees but its still inconsistent with his excited expression in the full page picture.

Also it seems as if Tommy Edwards is starting to get a little lax in his art. The last three issues where really good but this one seems a little wanting. The "campfire" scene, the last page Toby yelling for the Avengers and the preview for the next cover all look weaker than the rest of his work.

Overall Rating

This issue raises a couple of questions and was enough to keep my interest. The art is mostly good but the attention to detail isn't all there. In my mind, everyone should have died in the truck explosion. Hopefully it'll pick back up in the next issue. Three webs.