Good afternoon,
I'm starting this week with a summary of the seventh issue of Marvel's Indiana Jones title. The cover showed Indy grabbing Marion Ravenwood's arm to save her from alligators, not knowing that snakes were near the branch his whip was tied around. The story was called "Africa Screams! Chapter 1." The issue had a cover date of July 1983.
The tale began in a French vineyard, where Indy was holding a gun to his old rival, McIver. Jones admired how the monastery was being used as a front for international artifact thieves. Indiana was there to retrieve the Piute Summoning Stone for the National Museum. He spotted the globe and grabbed a nearby piece of parchment to cover it. Meanwhile, McIver stood against a doorway and pressed a button that silently summoned several gunmen.
Indy ducked in time before his foes started firing. They missed their target, but one of the shots broke the door lock, making it easier for the American professor to escape. He tossed off his robe as he fled and used his old reliable bullwhip to bring a tapestry hanging from a wall down on some of his pursuers. Jones returned fire as he ran up a set of stairs. He continued to run until he ran into a dead end. The only way out was through a fourth-floor window.
Jones had no choice but to jump, right into a barrel filled with grapes. He got up, punched one of the villains, and hightailed it to a truck to make his getaway. Indy escaped that time, but McIver was sure they'd meet again before long.
Some time later, Indy returned home. He was telling Marcus Brody about his adventure as his friend examined the map that Jones had wrapped the stone in. Brody explained that it might be worth more than a hundred summoning stones. The map supposedly showed the movements of a clan of people around 1600 B.C. known as the Shintay, a group that was rumored to have split off from the legendary Atlantis.
Brody knew that any artifacts recovered from that tribe would be masterful finds. He encouraged Indy to set a course for Africa. That thought was echoed by Marion, who entered the house by picking the lock with a bobby pin. She thought that the Times would pay well for an exclusive and eventually convinced the two associates to let her join Jones on the adventure.
Marion and Indy arrived in a small village in Cameroon, Western Africa, several days later. It was the last civilized outpost before entering the Congo. They headed for the trading post to acquire supplies. Indiana inquired with the shopkeeper and learned that a Dutch expedition had come through a few days before in search of a rare orchid for medical research and had hired every able body available. Indy thought that was too much to just be a coincidence and decided that they would continue on alone.
The duo constructed a raft and floated down a tributary of the Sankuru River until their peace was broken up by an attack from an angry hippopotamus. They were surprised, knowing how docile this kind of animal usually was. Indy prevented the hippo from making a meal out of them, but when they turned around, the Americans saw crocodiles entering the water and heading their way.
Jones tossed his bullwhip at the nearest tree and kept it from the crocodile's reach. However, what he didn't see was a large boa constrictor that had wrapped itself around that very branch. Anyone who saw the Raiders of the Lost Ark knows how Jones is deathly afraid of snakes, and he sat there in shock as Marion grabbed Indy's revolver and fired at the animal. Her shots took out the constrictor, as well as the branch that the whip was attached to.
Indy came to in time to examine their predicament and swung them away, right into a pit of quicksand. As the pair started to sink, with the whip now out of reach, Doctor Curt Vogel of the Dutch pharmaceutical expedition threw a rope their way. While one of his porters helped them get to solid ground, his suspiciously German-sounding soldiers shot the crocodiles to eliminate that threat.
Vogel scolded the gunmen for using violent force before inviting his guests to join them at their camp. The trio enjoyed a hearty dinner that evening, but Indy and Marion were still a bit wary. Traveling with such heavy weapons and using the same route as theirs was a bit much. Jones opted to fish things out on his own. He crept into one tent and found a crate of ammunition marked with the Nazi swastika.
He'd just learned that fact when he was alerted to the sound of Vogel's voice from behind him, except that his host was now dressed in a Nazi colonel's military uniform. Vogel then brought out his partner, who was none other than McIver. The Scot explained that he'd planned the trip using a copy of the map Indy had made off with and that his German counterparts had financed the excursion.
Vogel was about to execute the intruder when Jones kicked a lamp into one of the open ammunition crates. The resulting discharges allowed Indy to exit the tent. He soon caught up with Marion, and the duo ran for the mountains. They tried to stay as quiet as possible while staying out of sight of the Nazis, but a loud growl from neither of them indicated that they weren't alone.
I was familiar with penciler Kerry Gammil's work from the seventieth issue of Star Wars and a few Marvel Team-Up stories, and I felt that his artwork really fit in with Sam Dela Rosa's inks and David Michelinie's plot. I just wish that Gammill had stayed on beyond this storyline. This was another issue full of action and well-placed humor.
This story concludes next issue, which I'll discuss in more detail tomorrow. We'll find out just who was in the hiding place with Indy and Marion, and whether or not the Shintay actually existed. We'll also see just what the Nazis were planning to do if and when they found the rumored tribe. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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