Good morning,
Hope everyone's been having a great weekend!
This article is dedicated to the fourteenth issue of the first ongoing Indiana Jones comic book title. The cover showed Indy and Marion Ravenwood in a wrecked building, with the face of an unknown character in the background. The story was called "Demons." The issue had a cover date of February 1984.
Indiana was back at Marshall College, but several of his students were distracted by the unexpected rain they were watching from the classroom windows. Professor Jones took a look and learned that several flyers advertising the National Museum's exhibit of the Arnhem Ring were being tossed from a passing hot air balloon. Indy dismissed his class before seeking out the source of his pupils' amusement.
He found Marion in Marcus Brody's office, and Indiana let her know just what he thought of her public relations stunt. While the two of them argued, a clerk named Pondexter tried to ask Brody a question about the inventory he was taking in the basement. Marcus brushed Pondexter aside, focusing his attention on the quarrel.
Pondexter was peeved but left silently. He thought angrily about how his hard work over the years had been mostly overlooked. When he reached the bottom of the staircase, he kicked a file cabinet in frustration. The cabinet moved and revealed a hole in the wall. Pondexter aimed his flashlight at the opening and discovered something interesting.
By then, Indiana, Marcus, and Marion were leaving the university. The conversation was still going on until Indy exclaimed that he had to catch a plane to Alaska in an hour. Marcus asked Marion why the two of them fought so often. Marion explained that Jones had been her first love, and that he'd hurt her deeply. Brody asked if her dedication to her late father, Abner's, memory had created a rift between the two. Marion didn't know how to respond to that question.
Later that evening, Pondexter pored over the diary he'd found, which had once belonged to the museum's former curator, Milos Fortier. It said that the relics and bones in the trunk that the book had rested upon had been found during a dig in Mexico. They were allegedly the property of a kind of god. Fortier had noted that the bones weren't exactly human.
Fortier assumed that the trunk's content belonged to some form of evil deity, because he'd started to feel their unwelcome influence. He put the trunk in the hole where Pondexter found it and destroyed all records of its existence. The last entry in Fortier's journal was made just a few days before he committed suicide. Pondexter was stunned by what he'd read, but wasn't about to stop his efforts of learning more about his discovery.
Indy returned to the college at dusk to give Marcus his itinerary. As he walked to the campus, he saw Marion. The two former lovers started to apologize to each other before hearing a groan from the security guard. Pondexter had taken out the guard and fired at his colleagues with the guard's pistol before driving off.
Indiana and Marion drove off after him in Marcus' car. The rain continued to intensify, making visibility difficult at times. A rockslide started by Pondexter made the path even more perilous. However, Indy was able to drive around the falling obstacles.
They then reached a covered wooden bridge. The duo realized that Pondexter had set the structure on fire when they were inside. It was too late to escape through either side, and the pair were forced to create an opening in the bottom of the burning bridge to survive.
Jones and Ravenwood emerged in the waters below, cold but alive. Indy used his whip to latch onto rocks near the shore and guided Marion to safety. In the meantime, Pondexter gained entrance to a resort that was closed for the season. Indy and Marion had reached a roadside diner and borrowed a police car to continue their pursuit.
Indiana stopped the vehicle when they saw the caretaker for the Sea Vista hotel. He mentioned the break-in and Indy gave him the car to locate the officers at the diner. He and Marion would continue on foot.
By the time Ravenwood and Jones entered the previously deserted hotel, Pondexter was ready for them. He was wearing a crown and brandishing a crude sword from the trunk. He swung the weapon at Indy, who felt the effects of the decades-old poison almost immediately. Marion was able to avert Pondexter's attention momentarily, allowing her to take Indy upstairs.
The couple found a quiet room and had some peace until Pondexter's sword burst through the wall behind them. Indiana tied one end of his whip to the bedpost and prepared for them to rappel down the side of the building. Pondexter cut the whip, sending our heroes reeling.
Marion landed on a balcony, and Indy was able to tie the broken end of the whip to a lamppost and swing toward her. Pondexter was soon upon them, but was now focused on the trunk that Marion balanced precariously on the balcony's ledge. He reached for it, but his weight and momentum carried him over the edge to come crashing to his death on the rocks below.
Indy was feeling fine a few days later when he convened with Marion and Marcus. The relics were now back in the possession of the museum, and it appeared that everything had been resolved. Marcus presented Marion with a telegram that arrived while she'd been visiting Indiana in the hospital. She opened it, and her face went white after reading it. When asked if she'd seen a ghost, Ravenwood replied that she thought that she had.
I felt that the story was okay, but the issue's art was a bit inconsistent. The inking was great in some pages and spotty in others. It would have been nice to have learned more about the history of the artifacts that had been kept in the trunk, but that's a backstory that still has yet to be told.
If you're like me and wonder what was in the telegram addressed to Marion, you'll have to wait for just a bit. Next time, I'll recap the fifteenth issue of this series. Herb Trimpe and Vince Colletta join writer David Michelinie on a new storyline that has Indy set out on the search for another treasure, and another supporting character from Raiders of the Lost Ark makes their debut in this title. Until then, have a great weekend and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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