Life is a battle that we all lose. Which is why you can’t live it like it’s a war.

Welcome back to a very special ad interim, where we pick up from the last issue of Karate Kid ever, #15, and tie up the plot threads in Kamandi #58. Well almost anyway, because there sure is quite a big one left dangling at the very end.

Now, if you thought Karate Kid #15 was weird, you have seen nothing yet. What do I mean you ask? Well, there is only one way to find out and find out we will together and see the fate of our beloved Val Armorr, aka Karate Kid, as he leaves his own book for good before rejoining the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Enter: The Legionnaire

We pick up exactly where we left off from Karate Kid #15, as Karate Kid and Kamandi appear on the big screen of a drive-in theater. Both of them appear to be in a movie. Kamandi is also confused as he quickly recaps last issue how he jumped from one genre to another, finally ending up in a martial arts film. Karate Kid is also confused and wonders why he is attacking this blonde haired kid with a bunch of martial arts students. He does not agree with all of this violence, but if the blonde kid is evil, he should fight him until he finds out what is going on. 

The scene suddenly changes and Karate Kid puts Kamandi in a headlock. This must be another trick of the Time Lord and Major Disaster who have been plaguing him ever sense he tried to return to the thirtieth-century to turn Diamondeth back into Iris Jacobs.  He mentions the talking dogs, and Kamandi immediately asks if he actually met Dr. Canus and Bloodstalker. This confuses Karate Kid even more, and he flips Kamandi over his head, ordering him to return him to Iris and his Time Bubble. Kamandi hits the ground hard but gives one last pea for him to stop because if he met Canus and Bloodstalker then he must be real. Karate Kid says of course he is real but Kamandi points out that everything else is fake. He then points outward to a crowd of parked cars and Karate Kid is astonished to find they are trapped in a drive-in movie (and this author is astonished that Karate Kid would know what a drive-in movie was!).

The scene changes again and the fighting is over. Instead, Kamandi and Karate Kid are surrounded by beautiful women who encourage them to lay down and relax. Meanwhile, Dr. Canus and Bloodstalker continue to investigate the movie, when they are confronted by a pair of those big red lobsters that talk like surfers from Karate Kid #15. They point their paralyzing ray guns at them and shoot, barely missing. Bloodstalker has an idea and suggests they both pretend they were hit and act like they were paralyzed. As the red lobsters get closer, congratulating themselves on a victory, Bloodstalker and Dr. Canus quickly spring into action and seize their ray guns. They continue through the building and knock down a large door, where Kamandi and Karate Kid are being held in an egg-like device that is also projecting them into the movie. Suddenly the film flutters, and it enrages the lobsters watching the movie. Kamandi has an idea and believes if they do not perform, the scene will continue to change. All they have to do is stand still. Sure enough, the scene changes from one classic movie to another and the red lobsters become angry. They decide to all charge the booth together in order to change the film. The mob makes its way to where Kamandi and Karate Kid are and Bloodstalker and Dr. Canus just manage to hide in time. The lobsters lift up the top of the egg and quickly remove Kamandi and Karate Kid from their trap. And as the delicate machinery is torn apart, it explodes. 

Kamandi spots Bloodstalker and Dr. Canus and suggests they take advantage of the diversion and get the heck out of there. The screen eventually goes up in flames and it attracts the attention of a craft, piloted by Pyra, who you remember temporarily changed Iris back into her human form in Karate Kid #15. Pyra moves the craft closer and instructs Spirit to lower the ladder so they can rescue the party. She of course does and they all manage to safely enter the craft. The lobsters, in the meantime, are quite impressed with the show and are re-motivated to rebuild the screen so they can watch the gods again. 

Pyra flies the craft away to safety and has time to tell Karate Kid that she did manage to temporarily change Dimondeth back to Iris Jacobs, but it was too much for her fragile mind and doing so again might destroy her forever. Karate Kid asks her to do it again but she says it cannot be done. Karate Kid is displaced from his own time stream and if he remains here any longer he may never be able to return to his own reality. However, there is something called The Vortex that their ship can take the energy from but they can only used it once. In short he has a choice to make. Turn Dimaondeth back into Iris Jacobs now, or return to his own time in the thirtieth century. But she does not have the energy to do both. Karate Kid tells her he will go back to the thirtieth century because they might have technology that will be able to make Iris Jacobs herself again. Kamandi cannot believe that Pyra found the Vortex which also happens to be the source of the Great Disaster. She confirms as much but then turns back to Karate Kid. It is a risk but his time bubble just might be able to utilize the Vortex power like her ship but she will have to transfer its energy to the Time Bubble first.

Under the alien’s direction, the strange crew begins to prepare for the dangerous transfer of power from the mysterious vortex to the fragile Time Bubble, unaware that their every action is under close observation from the Time Lord and Major Disaster (remember them?) The Time Lord had hoped he had trapped them but he has failed. Pyra has figured out that she can tap the energy from the Vortex and the Time Lord cannot and its power is beyond his grasp. He will not be able to keep Karate Kid in this alternate future. 

We return to the ship and Pyra confirms that the power field is generating at maximum. As the Time Bubble powers up, Karate Kid tells Kamandi it was an honor to fight at his side, and that he would have made a fine Legionnaire. Kamandi returns the thanks and it was great to finally meet another human being, even briefly. Kamandi watches him leave and feels a very special kinship with him. They all watch in anticipation until finally the Time Bubble disappears and they know the power of the Vortex works. The ship moves closer to the Vortex until it is almost on top of it. Yes, at long last the stalwart group stands on the threshold of the goal they have sought for so long. The Vortex, the power source of the Great Disaster that almost destroyed the Earth, but before they can finally reach it, they must pass the wondrous western wall, a wall that seems to stretch on forever. 

Creative Team

What a very weird and crazy end to the Karate Kid series. Honestly, if you were not reading Kamandi at this point you probably did not know what the heck was going on or understand the ending. I only know this because I have not ready Kamandi at all and I have no idea what the ending is all about. I do know from research that the next issue will be the last and Kamandi was also apparently a victim of the DC implosion.

If there is one thing you can say at this point, is that there is still a big major plot point that is dangling around the universe as we speak and that is the fate of Iris Jacobs. I am only a few issues ahead in my Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes reading and I can say that, as of yet, this has not been addressed. I do wonder if we will ever know the fate of Diamoneth and Iris Jacobs.

There is not much I can say about this issue. It is a direct follow up from Karate Kid #15, but the story is so wacky, that the plot does not add up, and it is a very weak issue as a whole. If you thought The Lord of Time and Major Disaster did not do anything in Karate Kid #15, you have another chance to catch it, because they, again, did absolutely nothing. This has to be the biggest waste of characters that I have ever seen in a comic book. Unfortunately, the art from Dick Ayers does not help at all. It is a very simplistic way of storytelling, with his figure work just barely doing the job. Since us Karate Kid fans have been used to the works of Ric Estrada, Joe Staton, and Juan Ortiz, this last offering was definitely a let down.

Also what started the series was the promise of action, and this issue was definitely lacking in it. Except for Karate Kid and Kamandi briefly having that spat, Karate Kid did not do much at all. He simply stood there, literally, and waited for the different movie scenes to pass and after that he simply ran, jumped, and found himself on the spaceship having to make a decision. 

All in all a very disappointing end to the series and if one can conclude anything, it is that Jack C. Harris must have been smoking something when he wrote this, and I do not want any of it. Dare I say, that this is probably one of the worst comic book issues that I have ever read? I do not like to be negative, because making comics is hard. But there is not a lot in this that makes any sense and the production quality of this book is extremely poor and a disservice to fans of both Karate Kid and Kamandi.

Super Karate-Hour

Sadly, this issue was so boring and not full of a action that we cannot find a moment to award the Super Karate Hour. But luckily this will not be our last Super Karate-Hour…

Did you really think this was the end? I sure did! But then I spotted something on one of the social media channels I regularly visit, and saw something that I recognized and knew that I had to include it in this blog. Luckily, I do have a Time Bubble handy that does not need to be powered by some general energy vortex thingy and I can use this Time Bubble to travel to the year 1983. Which issue? You will just have to wait a week to find out in another installment of our ad interim series!

And that is it for now fellow Legionnaires. On Thursday we return to our regular programming but be back this time next week, to what I believe is really the final installment of the Karate Kid series.

In the meantime, as someone used to say, this issue did not end with a bang but with a whimper. And a very big whimper at that. But even though this issue might have gotten you down, please do remember always, and I do mean always, keep kickin’!