Good morning,
Hope all's well. I'm starting my weekend with a discussion of the second issue of Marvel's limited series adaptation of the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The cover showed Indy and Doctor Elsa Schneider standing before a skeleton resting in a tomb with scads of rats looking on.
The story began with Indiana driving home. He was concerned after learning from Walter Donovan (last issue) that his father had gone missing while serving as their project lead for the quest for the fabled Holy Grail. He and Marcus Brody arrived to find a mess. The house had been ransacked, and someone had rifled through Indy's mail.
Jones then remembered the book he'd picked up in his mail at Marshall College earlier in the day. It had been sent from Venice, Italy. He unwrapped the package and saw that it was his father's grail diary. Indiana decided to take Donovan up on his offer. Before he boarded the plane bound for Italy, Walter warned him to not trust anyone. Those words would later prove to be rather prophetic.
Jones and Brody arrived in Venice a short while later and were greeted by Doctor Elsa Schneider. She'd worked with Indiana's father and was surprised by his sudden disappearance. They headed toward the library, which was the last place that Elsa had seen Indy's father. She held out a note with the Roman numerals III, VII, and X printed on it. The three and seven could be found inside the library, which was once a Franciscan monastery.
Indiana deduced that the tomb had to be somewhere in the library. He ascended a spiral staircase and saw the Roman numeral ten printed on the floor they'd just been walking across. It turned out that X did mark the spot in this instance. Jones returned to the floor and pried a portion loose to reveal a tunnel underneath.
He and Elsa descended into the sewer. A lit match kept most of the rodent occupants at bay. They found a torch, which they used to locate the tomb. Inside was the body and shield of the second warrior. Indiana used paper and chalk to make a quick rubbing of the inscriptions carved into the tomb's cover before the waters behind them went up in flames.
The duo had to overturn the tomb and use it as cover until they could swim to safety. Schneider and Jones eventually found a staircase that brought them up to the city streets. From there, they engaged in a race with a boat whose riders were shooting at them. They jumped into another similar boat and followed.
Indy finally managed to grab their attacker, who disclosed that he was a member of the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, and that their organization stood to preserve the grail's secrets for a thousand years. Indy let the man go when they neared a dock. After informing the stranger he was there to find his father, Indy was told that he was being held in Brunwald Castle, on the German-Austrian border.
Later that evening, Indiana convened with Marcus. They discussed the day's events, including the term Alexandretta, which was a city that had been demolished by the Knights of the First Crusade centuries ago. They also talked about Iskendrun and the fact that Jones' father knew the route but had no place names to identify. Marcus was to head to Iskenduren in the morning to meet with Sallah. Indy was going after his father.
Indy and Elsa arrived at the castle the following day. Their disguises were seen through by the butler, but Indiana knocked him out so they could enter the gates. It didn't take long for them to see Nazi soldiers or figure out where Indiana's father was being held. Indy used his whip to crash through the prisoner's room and was promptly hit on the head by his dad, who thought the intruder was another Nazi officer at first.
They caught up for a few minutes, and Indy filled his father in on his recent discoveries. The elder Jones was grateful that he'd mailed his grail diary to his son so that it would be out of the hands of their enemies. Indy was thinking about that just as more S.S soldiers burst through the room.
I was hoping for a bit more content, but the last five pages of this issue were dedicated to ad space. I felt like this adaptation was rather faithful to the film. There were a few minor changes, but overall it followed the movie very well. David Michelinie and Bret Blevins made a good team, and it was apparent that they took the source material seriously. I remember watching the castle scenes and describing them to my brother in the theater, knowing that I'd be in that portion of the world the following summer for a while. Even though the castles and other historic buildings I visited that summer after graduating from high school were nothing like the ones in this film, it gave me something to look forward to with optimism.
That's all I have for this morning. Later today, I'll cover the third issue of this miniseries. We'll find out what happened to the Jones boys and see just who they could trust. We'll also learn what happened to Marcus and Sallah, and a lot more. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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