KILLRAVEN SIX: THE LEGEND ASSASSINS

FOR PART ONE OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF THIS OLD, OLD MARVEL STORYLINE CLICK HERE  The revisions I would make are scattered throughout the synopsis below.

AMAZING ADVENTURES Vol 2 #23 (March 1974)

Title: THE LEGEND ASSASSINS

Revised Title: Since I would save the attempted execution of Killraven for the next issue instead of this one, I would use For He’s A Jolly Dead Rebel as the title for this part and save The Legend Assassins for next time.

Synopsis: Killraven and his Freemen (M’Shulla, Old Skull, Hawk, Carmilla Frost and Grok) continue to battle against hopeless odds at the Lincoln Memorial Slave Market, where the Martians buy and sell humans as either slave labor or to be used as food.

Battling at their side is their fellow rebel Mint Julep, the green-skinned plant/ human hybrid created by Martian science and her unnamed Freewomen. Both bands of guerillas have freed their comrades who were being auctioned off and are trying to fight their way free of the increasing numbers of Martians and their human quislings closing in on the area.

Killraven has no trouble killing the mob of actual Martians that he was thrown to at the end of last issue. Their sluggish movements in Earth’s greater gravity negated the advantage of their superior numbers and their many tentacles. KR fights his way clear with his sword and photo-nuclear pistol and the Martians slink away to shelter since, even now, they have only LIMITED immunity to Earth germs.

A pair of Tripods manage to snair Killraven and carry him off before the other rebels can free him. Mint Julep convinces KR’s Freemen to escape with her since she and her Freewomen have hidden lairs all around this territory of theirs.

REVISION: Writer Don McGregor had not yet hit his stride writing about Killraven’s adventures and I feel he messed up the story structure to this three-parter. I would have had ALL the Freemen – including KR – escape with Mint Julep and her band.

The quisling Sabre (no relation to the later Don McGregor figure) would, like in the real story, salute the fleeing Freemen with his sword, wishing he could be one of them. 

With Killraven using The Power to keep all of them undetected by the sensors and alarms of the aliens (Zetans in my revisions, NOT ridiculous Martians) the rebels all escape to the subterranean hideouts of Mint and her people. They follow abandoned subway lines to a sub-level of the Pentagon, one of their lairs.

Dialogue will make it clear that she and her Freewomen practically rule the comings and goings through the old subway system beneath the city because they know them inside-out and massacare any human quislings like Sabre and his men if they try to pursue them there. And, for reasons not known YET, the aliens themselves are too terrified to personally venture into the old subways OR the sub-levels of the Pentagon.    

REVISION CONTINUED, as I throw out almost everything McGregor did in this issue: A montage will show Killraven’s band and Mint’s band working together over a series of several days or weeks, pulling off guerilla sabotage missions throughout Washington DC as well as carrying out raids to free humans slated for the slave market, thus swelling the ranks of Mint Julep’s now co-ed gang. 

Through it all, Killraven and Mint have been brainstorming about the possibility of a really big blow against the alien overlords. At last, with help from Deathlok’s memories of pre-invasion America, they decide to excavate what can be recovered from the now-submerged area of Washington where the Library of Congress was housed. This will help make up for the book collection destroyed by the Zetans at Killraven’s Staten Island rebel colony awhile back. 

The combined rebel bands at length celebrate New Year’s Eve of 2018 into 2019. To keep from laughing I would change all time references to just “Forty-five years from now” like it would have been to 1974 readers. NOTE: In the original story this New Year’s Eve celebration comes in the third and final chapter.

During the festivities Killraven and Mint would hook up, and M’Shulla would tell Carmilla about his feelings for her (like really happened in this issue), prompting THEM to hook up, too. Hawk and Old Skull would find temporary mates to oink and boink with, too, while a sullen Deathlok (my revisions’ substitute for Grok) joins the rebels on sentry duty.

Elsewhere in Washington, DC, at the White House in fact, the Zetans and their quislings are bowing and scraping before the newly-arrived, armored figure of the High Overlord – in my revisions named Abraxas the High Overlord, while Abraxas the slave auctioneer would just be called the Auctioneer.

The High Overlord (and yes, his real form is concealed in armor, but remember, this story came 3 years BEFORE Darth Vader in Star Wars) chews out his subordinates for the way they’ve let Killraven transfer his New York reign of terror to Washington. He promises to show them how it’s done by wiping out Killraven, Mint Julep and all of their Freemen.

The High Overlord introduces them to the newly-created rat/ humanoid hybrid Rattack (called simply Vermin here in my revision). Vermin, with his symbiotic control of rats (all of them mutated to much larger than normal size 45 years from now) can infiltrate those subterranean regions that the Zetans themselves dare not enter. He has been successful elsewhere in the world at hunting down and exterminating OTHER bands of humans who have hidden underground and will presumably kill KR, Mint and company as well.     

A few days later, Killraven, Mint, KR’s Freemen and several of Mint’s band are making their way through old, disused tunnels. After days of scouting expeditions to clear a path all the way back to the Pentagon hideout they are ready to begin their covert operation to retrieve whatever is left of the Library of Congress and transport all of it to drier locations, in hope of preserving it for future generations after the alien invaders have been defeated.

As they move along into the last, uncleared section, they are attacked by large mutated bats but after a battle they kill them all. (NOTE: The battle with bats came in part three originally) Moving further, they arrive just above the vast pool of polluted and unclean water beneath which lies the ruined and collapsed building housing the Library of Congress.

Quietly as possible, to avoid detection by any aliens or their allies like Sabre, the rebels set up their ropes and pullies to begin the lengthy process of hauling up whatever books and such can be salvaged from the ruins under the water. (Picture a quasi-Indiana Jones archaeological setup)

Meanwhile, back at the sub-Pentagon hideout, the sentries are taken down by a swarm of rats after killing a few. They didn’t realize it was a coordinated attack since it was just rats and they were unaware of Vermin’s existence or abilities.

With the sentries down, Vermin and his rats overwhelm the rest of the rebels there, driving off those rebels who escape the teeth and claws of Vermin and his rats.

Examining the dead scattered throughout the HQ, Vermin realizes KR and Mint and others are missing but finds a map in the briefing room. A map indicating the submerged Library of Congress must be where the rest of the rebels are striking. Vermin informs the High Overlord of this via his wrist radio.

Back with our main characters, Killraven, Mint Julep, Hawk, Old Skull, M’Shulla, Carmilla Frost and Deathlok dive beneath the waters wearing breathing gear rigged up by their scientist Carmilla. More of Mint’s enlarged band wait above to begin pulling up whatever the exploratory team finds.

Swimming or walking through the murky waters, KR and company find some of the cultural loot they’re looking for. Unfortunately, they then notice they are being attacked by an undersea alien monster like the kind that killed Arrow last issue.

And that would be the cliffhanger ending for this issue, which underwent my most drastic and extensive revisions of any issue yet.   

FOR PART SEVEN CLICK HERE 

I’LL EXAMINE THE NEXT ISSUE SOON. KEEP CHECKING BACK FOR UPDATES.             

FOR MY EXAMINATION OF THE 7-PART ADAM WARLOCK STORY WHERE HE FACES THE MAGUS, THANOS AND OTHERS. * FIRST APPEARANCE OF GAMORA, TOO* CLICK HERE

FOR MY EXAMINATION OF THE CELESTIAL MADONNA SAGA STARRING MANTIS AND THE AVENGERS (THE TEAM SHE FIRST BELONGED TO IN THE 1970s) – FEATURES THE FIRST THANOS WAR PLUS THE AVENGERS-DEFENDERS WAR – CLICK HERE

FOR MY EXAMINATION OF THE 13-PART BLACK PANTHER STORY TITLED PANTHER’S RAGE CLICK HERE       

FOR MY EXAMINATION OF THE ORIGINAL 9-PART KREE-SKRULL WAR CLICK HERE

FOR THE AUSTRALIAN SUPERHERO PANTHEON CLICK  HERE

FOR MORE SUPERHEROES CLICK HERE:  Superheroes 

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog, 2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.