Review by Frank Plowright
Moreso than any other Marvel comic, 1970s production Skull the Slayer resembles the type of material serialised in British weekly adventure comics of the 1960s and 1970s. It mixes dinosaurs, cavemen, aliens, robots, mercenaries, ancient Egypt, Aztecs, Merlin, a vengeful senator and eventually superheroes in a bonkers mash-up largely generated by the writers constantly changing, and each taking a swerve in direction. Despite being an admirable attempt to diversify Marvel’s output from superheroes, it never prompted great fondness when serialised, so to see the entire run collected is a surprise.
At the time Marv Wolfman began Skull the Slayer he was winning critical acclaim for his vision of Dracula. However, this isn’t of the same calibre. Much in the manner of today’s “reality” TV shows, Wolfman contrives to have a bunch of ideologically incompatible people travelling on a plane through the Bermuda Triangle. There’s a liberal African American physicist, a hippie chick, a quiet teenage boy and Jim Scully, a former soldier being escorted back to the USA as a killer. When the plane hops a dimension to the land of the dinosaurs the accompanying pilots and soldiers are quickly written out.
Wolfman’s plan is obviously for Scully to become a hero in the manner of John Carter in a land of constant peril, and he’s soon stripped down to his trousers and boots to see off a dinosaur. Shortly after that he discovers a belt that increases his strength. It’s over-written with an irritatingly smug narrative voice, but as smoothly drawn by Steve Gan the action scenes hit the spot. Scully is fleshed out via flashbacks to his time in service, and Wolfman introduces a further wrinkle opening the door to different adventures.
At which point Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema take over, introducing an alien despot, whittling down the main cast and introducing Scully to the Black Knight and Merlin. Englehart only lasts the single chapter before Bill Mantlo acquires the series and raises it to bonkers level. He ignores much of what Englehart did, restoring the cast and giving them new motivations. There’s an energy rush to the madcap plot, but not much in the way of coherency.
With constant change and no direction it’s little wonder Skull the Slayer didn’t catch on, but for the few fans who remained until the end Marvel had the courtesy to tie up the plots in Marvel Two-in-One. The Thing and Mr Fantastic also drop through the Bermuda triangle portal and there’s the treat of the Thing battling dinosaurs, which just about transmits through Ernie Chan’s uninspired art. Not that Buscema was enthused either. Marv Wolfman finishes the series he began by in turn ignoring most of Mantlo’s plots, picking up on Scully and co. a short time after the previous material.
Whatever catches readers at an early age sticks deep, and there are some enthusiastic reviews of Skull the Slayer to be found online, but anyone coming to this without childhood memories is unlikely to be impressed.
