Synopsis
Ka-Zar (1997 series) #8 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
Last issue we (but not Ka-Zar and Shanna) learned that most of the events of the previous issues, including the claim that the 2 halves of a medallion Kevin and Parnival Plunder's father left them each were the key to great power, were in fact just to lure them away from the Savage Land and keep them in New York while Parnival's men located a huge cubic mechanism in the SL and transported it to Central Park for Plunderer's shadowy master trapped in a pocket dimension. It ended with said master ordering the mechanism activated immediately. But it's not going to happen quite yet.
This issue begins with mysterious Agents planting large red 'eggs' all over Manhattan while discussing how the Avengers, Fantastic Four and Dr Doom disappeared in the 'Onslaught mess'. Agent Blue plants 1 in a fountain in the Park asking who's left to protect the City, just as Ka-Zar and Zabu the smilodon dash past on 'walkies'. KZ's wristwatch beeps to remind him of a 10-00 appointment with a lawyer, and they head back to the Plaza Hotel ...
... where the penthouse suite has been turned into a Savage Land away from home, and Shanna is chatting to the lawyer Matt Murdock, an old flame of hers. When KZ&Z arrive Matt tells them the result of the investigation they asked him to carry out (in #5). Bluntly, despite what Parnival said (#4), there is no inheritance from their father that they haven't already had. But he asks to see the medallion half that Kevin has. Kevin recounts how his explorer father discovered the Savage Land and brought back some valuable Anti-Metal, an isotope of vibranium. The medallion halves were the key to the vault containing the metal. Murdock 'guesses' that Kevin and Daredevil found the vault and unlocked it (DD#12-14, Ka-Zar's 1st app after his debut in X-Men #10). But Matt's sensitive fingers now detect the map of a maze on the medallion.
But we look in on the pocket dimension where Parnival talks with his master while they wait for word on progress with the Central Park plan. The master regales him with memories :- How he used a Cosmic Cube, and later his Infinity Gauntlet, to defeat Earth's mightiest heroes, and sitting on his massive space throne homage to Death he annihilated worlds and stars. And finally we learn that it's Thanos, who now tells us that he 'stumbled' into this dimension with strength depleted so that he is unable to leave. But (in Annual '97) he contacted Plunderer with what we now learn was a plan to get hold of the machine that transformed part of the Antarctic into the Savage Land (and keeps it like that). The current action is an experiment to see if it will work somewhere else, in this case Manhattan. If it works then Thanos can use it to modify planets and hence(?) control the universe. Parnival asks him what made him think of the Savage Land, and the Titan hesitantly admits that he doesn't know. But he reaffirms his promise that Plunder will rule this world (or at least *a* world). PP's troops report that they're ready for the final stage, but that will also require taking away the power that currently keeps the machine's presence cloaked. Parnival OK's that and they report that Stage Omega will begin in 15 minutes.
We'll pass the time with Ka-Zar and Shanna who are currently pining for their son Matthew who they left for safety in the SL with his nanny Zira. Kevin's also still trying to work out what turned him from jungle lord to technogeek since Matt was born. He looks through his photo album of him and Parny when they were young kids with toys to play with. Then he realises that he lost most of his later childhood when he was stranded in the Land, and he never really grew up. And now he's not ready to face fatherhood so he's retreated to modern 'toys'. He 'knows' he can't admit this to his wife so he decides on a distraction - the medallion. And they rush out with Zabu ...
... to invade Parnival's skyscraper offices (again). PP has returned from the pocket dimension to his penthouse office. Hearing the alarms and reports from his beleaguered guards the germaphobe dons a protective hazmat suit and then tells them to let the trio through. Kevin demands to know what Parnival is up to. P admits that he lied about a further inheritance from their father. He willingly hands over his part of the medallion. And then he contacts his troops in Central Park and tells them to activate the machine. Meanwhile Shanna puts the 2 halves of the medallion and a light bulb goes off in her head.
But outside there's chaos as vegetation goes wild and grows large. And the red eggs hatch releasing fully-grown dinosaurs. And Manhattan is transmuted into an urban jungle.
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Shanna (
Shanna Plunder).
