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1872 #1

Sep 2015
on-sale: Jul 8, 2015
Gerry Duggan, Nik Virella

1872 #1 cover

Story Name:

Chapter one: Tyranny in Timely


Synopsis

1872 #1 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Red Wolf crosses the Valley of Doom to the town of Timely, dragging a box of TNT behind him to blow up the dam that keeps water from the Indian territories. It's 1872 and Timely is a frontier town that's booming because of the Roxxon silver mines which built the dam. Mayor Wilson Fisk runs the town, and Governor Roxxon is boss of this zone of Battleworld.

Reporter Ben Urich rushes into Fisk's saloon to tell sheriff Steve Rogers about a lynching. He's with drunken Tony Stark. As the sheriff leaves to do his job, Stark remembers when he was a better man. The dam is still standing but Fisk's men, led by Turk, are about to hang Red Wolf until Rogers stops them and takes the prisoner to jail to await trial.

Red Wolf doesn't understand why Steve protects him against other white men. Wilson Fisk pays the sheriff a visit, to remind him that he works for Governor Roxxon. We hear about Rogers' dead deputy Bucky Barnes. The local doctor Bruce Banner tells Stark that Roxxon has just made all explosives illegal - he's now having to smuggle nitro pills to Ben Parker's widow for her heart problem.

Later Tony sees Turk and his men coming into town and starts singing 'Danny Boy' to alert the Irish sheriff. The men split up and Turk tries to silence Stark until Rogers decks him. A warning from Tony allows Steve to shoot another of the gang. The sheriff suggests that the drunk use the spring-activated gun he's got hidden up his sleeve. But Stark has modified the mechanism so that now it just delivers a flask of whisky to his hand.

There are still 2 gunmen left. Steve and Tony take refuge in Stark's place. Rogers tells him to grab a weapon, but Tony says he's sworn off guns and melted all his own down (but there was a rifle with his name on it over the bar). Instead, as Steve shoots a villain coming through 1 door, Tony kicks a bucket of water over in front of the other door. The 4th gunman enters, and Stark electrocutes him.

Stepping outside the sheriff discovers that Turk has recovered and gone. He rushes to the jail where the villain gets the drop on him outside. But Red Wolf reaches through his cell window and drags Turk's gun arm aside, allowing Rogers to shoot him.

Ben Urich is on the sheriff's side but he daren't cross Mayor Fisk for his wife's sake. Rogers expects the newspaper will report that Turk and friends were killed by an Indian raid or something. So he hangs the corpses up outside Fisk's saloon as a message. Urich goes to his office intending to write the truth, but a bottle of whisky douses his ardour.

Fisk gets a telegraph message from Governor Roxxon saying he's sending someone to deal with the problem. Next day 4 strangers arrive in town.


 

Review / Commentaries


1872 #1 Review by (July 22, 2015)
1872 is set in the Valley of Doom zone of Battleworld. Timely was the original Golden Age name of the comics company that would become Marvel. Timely was also a town in Illinois that Kang the Conqueror founded in 1 of his good periods, and presided over as Mayor Victor Timely. The 1872 town in this title may be a variant of that, but Kang only created his town in the early 1900's. Red Wolf is the name of several Marvel Native American characters, most related by deriving their powers from the wolf-god Owayodata. 1, Johnny Wakely, even lived in this period. Turk could be based on a guy of that name who worked for Wilson Fisk/Kingpin and was mainly a character in Daredevil. But he somewhat resembles Turk who was a 1-off villain of Captain America's in Tales of Suspense #95. Meanwhile the white skull makeup of 1 of Turk's mob is possibly supposed to remind us of Captain America villain Crossbones. 2 of the 4 strangers at the end are I believe versions of Bullseye and Elektra. The other 2 may become clearer next issue. 1 could be the Owl, except Owlsely is listed as a lawyer in the town map at the beginning of the issue. (Is this title turning into a Daredevil comic in disguise?)


> 1872 comic book info and issue index

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Nik Virella
Nik Virella
Lee Loughridge
Alex Maleev (Cover Penciler)
Alex Maleev (Cover Inker)
Alex Maleev (Cover Colorist)




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