We return to our special programing that is the spin-off series Karate Kid! We are now more than a year in, in this bi-monthly book and boy, a lot has happened. Denny O’Neil took over as editor and will also be editing the new book, Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes. Because of this we do have the expectation that there will be more synergy between the two titles. We do not get it here so it does look like we will have to wait a bit longer. And that is a pity, because as this issue demonstrates, they better do something and they better do it fast.

But why do you ask? Do we have troubled waters ahead? Tighten up that white belt, square off against your opponent, and let us find out! 

The Gyro-Master Strikes Twice

We continue from the events last issue and Val Armorr, our beloved Karate Kid, is being placed in a police car on suspicion of him murdering his landlady, Mrs. Geichman. KK denies it but the cops tell him to save it for Commission Banner, because he is handling this case personally.

Iris Jacobs accuses the officer of false arrest and the officer warns her that she might just be booked as an accomplice, when suddenly the street starts to crack open, causing the police car to halt dead in its tracks. 

And out from the cracked street, a bizarrely-spinning machine emerges, causing panic. Out jumps a lone figure with a spinning top as a hat along with his henchmen. He is amazed at his own ingenuity because his spin-borer placed them right in front of the Metropolitan Museum, which happens to be their query. 

The police descend on them, but the lone figure taunts them and tells them they are no match for the Gyro-Master! And then our villain spins so fast that New York’s finest are repelled back. The henchmen quickly take out their gyro-guns and fire them at the police, causing them to also go into a deadly spin, but one they cannot control.

Karate Kid, who has been on the sidelines, decides it is time to get into the game. He breaks his handcuffs and engages the henchmen, employing his skill of martial arts. And since he is the greatest martial artist of the 30th century, no, of all time, the henchmen are no match, and are quickly disabled. 

The battle continues, while in the night-darkened museum, the Gyro-Master finds what he is looking for, none other than the Milan Gyro. With it in his possession, the world will have no choice but to finally recognize the true genius of Elroy Soames, the real name of the Gyro-Master. And as we have grown accustomed to, we are hit with exposition that details the back-story of our villain of the issue:

“Yes, I’ve come a long way since that fateful night, when as a top industrial spy, I broke into the research facilities of a powerful toy cartel, to steal plans for a new super plastic designed to make toys spin at the merest touch. Unfortunately the company’s security system proved somewhat more adept than anticipated.

“Attempting to escape through the laboratories, I stumbled, falling into a monstrous cyclotron used in their experiments. It took the guards only moments to stop the infernal machine, but in that time I had been spun at more than 4000 revolutions per minute! So fast that the super plastic mixture had been forced into the very pores of my skin! 

“As I finally clambered to my feet, I began to turn faster and faster, so fast that I was able to deflect people, billy clubs, even bullets! I soon learned to control my new abilities, and get about using them to good advantage. My early capers brought me funds with which to develop certain aids.”

With storytelling time over, Gyro-Master looks at the Milan Gyro and dreams about the fortune it will surely bring. When he is suddenly interrupted by the Legionnaire, Karate Kid! The Gyro-Master is surprised that he managed to get past all of his henchmen, but is not particularly concerned. GM then starts his deadly spin but it is Karate Kid who is not impressed. He saw what he did to the police and he knows that he cannot simply grab him but he must try to knock him senseless, and delivers a mighty kick.

However, Karate Kid forgot a basic law of physics, when an object spins fast enough, it has a tendency to bounce back. And Karate Kid is violently repelled backward. Karate Kid recovers and begins his chase, when suddenly one of the Gyros spits out a bunch of mini gyros under Karate Kid’s feet, and he slips. In the meantime the police arrive, and Gyro-Master decides that this is enough of a sign to take his leave and runs off.

But one of the officers are emboldened since he knows this museum quite well. And the wing that Gyro-Master ran off to is actually a blind alley. They have him trapped…or did they? For as they round the corner they see that he is gone, and has effectively disappeared. But how? And not only do they not have a suspect, but as Aaron Temple, Curator of the Museum, who arrives on the scene states, the gyro that he stole is not just any gyro. It is in fact one of the oldest, designed by Leonardo da Vinci himself. And since it is on loan from the Italian government, if it is not recovered, they could find themselves in a very unpleasant international incident. 

The police tell him not to worry and they will close this city tighter than Abe Beame’s wallet. They then remember Karate Kid, a suspect in another murder but he is also gone. In fact, if Commission Banner hears about this, they might just lose their pensions. 

But let us leave this scene of frantic circumstance for the moment, and move to the quiet Long Island living room of one Benjamin Day, who is currently playing with his son. The phone rings and his wife says it is for him. Benjamin Day’s stride is confident, his smile content, as he picks up the receiver, only to hear a voice as chill and lifeless as laughter from the grave.

And when Benjamin Day recradles that phone, he is no longer smiling. He informs his wife that the call was nothing and he has to go out for business. His face is grim now, emotionless. As if he has resigned himself to some unpleasant chore. And indeed, as he gathers the tools of his trade, a gentle sigh escapes his lips. For like it or not, he has a job to do. The job of killing a man.

Meanwhile, in front of an increasingly-familiar west side apartment building, Karate Kid and Iris Jacobs return to the scene of the murder in order to find out what happened. But there is a problem, because the police are still there, guarding the crime scene. Karate Kid asks if Iris will help and the answer is an affirmative, if reluctant nod. And soon Iris finds herself at the front door, asking the officer for directions to the Kwai Chang Karate School that will hopefully act as a distraction.

And the distraction works, as Val climbs his way to the side of his apartment building, through the open window, and landing safely in his old apartment. Swiftly, Karate Kid moves to a hovering metal sphere, presses a button, and informs the sphere that their deal did not include murder.

The sphere agrees and assures Karate Kid that no one has been murdered. Mrs Geichman will soon return to normal and will have no memory of the incident. But unfortunately for Val Armorr that does not help him any since the police still think he is a killer. 

The sphere reminds him that such hardships are part of his trial and if he thinks the prize is no longer worth the peril…and then hangs up. The police enter the room having heard some commotion and see Karate Kid standing before them. They know he will not go quietly so instead of talking it out, they attack. But of course this is Karate Kid we are talking about here. And though he knows that they are just doing their job, he also knows he cannot afford to go to jail at this point. And the two officers fall quickly and quietly, in a style worthy of our Karate Kid.

Iris runs into the room and apologizes because she tried to keep the officer occupied. Karate Kid tells her it is okay, he was finished with the monitor globe anyway. Iris is excited and tells him he needs to explain things to her since things are going to fast at the moment. And that is when Karate Kid has a eureka moment. He tells Iris she is brilliant and to follow him immediately. 

Brief explanations are made as a hastily-flagged taxi speeds across town and soon, as a tense Iris Jacobs waits in that taxi, a Karate-robed figure moves nimbly to a window of the Metropolitan Museum, drops inside, and springs to a nearby corridor where he tells Gyro-Master that he can show himself. The game is up.

And then, as if from thin air, a reply is made, acknowledging how clever Karate Kid is and asks him how he guessed his little stratagem. KK replies that since his escape was impossible, he never left at all. He simply made himself spin fast enough where the naked eye could not see him.

Gyro-Master congratulates Karate Kid and acknowledges that his mental powers are almost as acute as his. But that is a problem, because then that makes him too dangerous to live. GM then disperses another set of mini-gyros but Karate Kid manages to avoid them this time. However they were not meant to slip him up. This time, they were meant to emit special vibrations that enable the cunning Gyro-Maser to control inanimate objects. Which just so happen to be a range of Knights on display in the museum. And as true to his word, the metal armored knights descend on Karate Kid and literally try to take off his head. 

But remember, this is the greatest martial artists of not only the 30th Century, but of all time. Karate Kid easily dodges their axe attack and counters with his own powerful kick and punch, shattering the two closest to him. He then swiftly punches the third, and takes it into a powerful grip, before launching it at the last one, easily shattering them both. 

Karate Kid returns to face Gyro-Master who swiftly sets off a stream of tear gas. Karate Kid chokes and Gyro-Masters grabs his grappling hook and flips it through the skylight above. He then starts his trademark spin to literally spin out of the place. But Karate Kid fights through the effect of the tear grass and spots a circled ornament that fell off one of the knights. Squinting through raw, burning lids, Karate Kid sends the sharp metal disc arcing upwards, proving that with any true champion, to try is to succeed. He hits Gyro-Masters squarely forcing him to stop his spin and plummet below, hitting the ground hard and knocking him unconscious. 

And as a new dawn brightens the museum corridor, Karate Kid knows he has to take his leave, lest he end up in hand cuffs once again. Hours later, as the weekend crowd at Washington Square park swells subtly by two, Iris and Karate Kid walk together plotting their next move. Iris suggests that they rest somewhere where Val’s glitzy costume will not attract so much attention. Karate Kid agrees and then with a little luck, they should be left alone long enough to figure out their next move.

Right?

Wrong! For at this very moment, a third, sad-eyed member of the cast watches from a nearby alleyway, where silently he raises an oddly-embellished walking staff. A sharp ‘click’ is heard, and a pallid glow spread to engulf the man’s rigid form, instigating change. And when that awesome metamorphosis is complete, the eyes of Benjamin Day no longer show melancholy, but merely the cold merciless gaze of…

The Hunter!

Next issue: Action! Assassination! And the macabre menace of…Pulsar! On sale the first week in February. 

Creative Team

With issue #7, I think I can safely say that the title is becoming too formulaic. Michelinie once again gave us a ‘villain of the month’ and I have to say he probably was not needed because he really did not do anything. The Gyro-Master did not move the book along in any way, and the issue very much resembled issue #4. In fact it was almost a direct copy of it, having the same exact beats in the same exact places. Whether it was the fights themselves or the monologuing of the backstory by the villain, this was a cookie cutter issue. Also, I think where this issue really failed was that Michelinie decided not to focus on what was set up before. Because if you are interested in the form called writing, and have read a book or two on the subject, then you would also come to the conclusion that this was the issue when the B-Plot had to move into the first position and become the A-Plot. And that did not happen. We still do not know what the mysterious metal globe is. We do know that it did not really kill Mrs. Geichman but what it wants Karate Kid to do is still a mystery. And that should have been revealed by the end of this issue. In fact have two B-Plots; the mysterious metal globe and Benjamin Day, who is probably moving to the A-Plot next issue and become the villain of the month (or two months since this is a bi-monthly book, but you know what I mean).

Would I call this a lazy issue? Probably. But I do not like to be negative because making comic books is hard. Denny O’Neil is probably still getting settled as an editor and is probably still juggling a few things for the future, as well as trying to figure out the direction of the book and where the open ended plot points are supposed to go. So if I had to be kind about this issue, it would be to simply call it a filler issue that we had to swallow before we see what Denny, Paul, and David are really cooking. 

Ric Estrada and Joe Staton did what they needed to do. The issue does look like a direct copy of issue #4 but you cannot fault them for that. There is a nice moment when Gyro-Master makes his first appearance alongside his henchmen when he pops out of the ground, almost in Mole-Man fashion. You have some wonderful expressions in the crowd and they did a great job with that. What started off strong, fizzled out quite quickly though and not even this art team can save the book this time around.

Because nothing really moved other than realizing that Mrs Geichman is not dead, this is probably the weakest issue in the series. But I do have high hopes especially with Denny O’Neil. So Mr. O’Neil, show us what you got!

Karate Comments

We do not have too much in this issue’s Karate Comments. We do have more confirmation from the editors that because Denny O’Neil now guides the destinies of both titles, they can look forward to both magazines drawing closer together in the coming months. Also Levitz’s plan is to get Val to appear with the group again, so let us see if that transpires next week. 

A fun letter of course is from future comic book write and editor (from the time of this issue), Mary Jo Duffy. She is a big fan of the Legion of Super-Heroes and her letters would pop up in the books from time to time. This time she is commenting how the book should not only focus on the martial arts aspect of the character, but also the character as a person. She also commented on the smirk on Brainiac 5’s face in issue #5 was out of character and she has concerns that it will cheapen the book. Despite the good work that Cary Bates and Jim Shooter were doing.

But of course they say that is all a bunch of hog wash and that all groups will have conflict, etc, etc. They then promise there will be more confrontation between Val and Princess Projectra, probably around issue #9, if Levitz decides to pull on that thread. If you were a reader you would have to wait a good four months to find out. 

Finally they end it with a promo for Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #225, the first story from Paul Levitz, which we will cover next week!

Super-Karate Hour

As stated above in Creative Team, the book is getting a bit too formulaic. Especially regarding the fight scenes because the beats seem to be happening more or less in the same place and are starting to even look the same. 

There was not too much action in this issue. And again, it is hard to top issue #2 when Karate Kid faced down a flying meteor thrown at him by Major Disaster. But since we do have to pick a moment, I would say it was when Karate Kid faced down a solid number of the police force squad when had to return to his apartment. He showed constraint and knowing that they meant well and if the circumstances were different, they would actually be on the same side. Sometimes you do not want to destroy and kill but simply to move out of the way. And he did that quite effectively here. 

Here’s hoping we have a bit more action next issue but until then, please remember what our good friend Bob Rodi used to say when he lived in Missouri…

KEEP KICKIN’!