Heroes Inc – Issue 20 – Knights and Days

Heroes Incorporated, Issue 20: Knights and Days

Appearing in this issue: Playboy, Human Jackrabbit, Kid Comic, and Plasma-Man. Guest Appearances by: Just about everyone! 

Villains: The Green Knight, the Gauntlet team, various others in cameos.

Cover: A boxing ring in Madison Square with Green Knight and Kid Comic/ Knight Errant facing off.  “Fight of the Century.  Can Kid Comic uphold the Honor of Heroes Inc?”

Opening page: A Kirbesque action scene with Jack Diamond bursting out of the panel. “54-40 is in trouble!  Heroes Incorporate!”

Jack and Kid Comic, the only team members available, arrive at the end of Central Park to find 54-40 being smacked into a lamp post by the Green Knight while her teammate Icer watches on.  Green Knight ignores Jack (“You have already been found unworthy.”) to engage Kid Comic who is in his Corsair form.  The fight does not go well for Kid Comic/Corsair while Jack and Icer watch on, Green Knight smashes him halfway across the park with the flat of her blade.  Jack tries to figure out what to do next to save Kid Comic and he calls to the Green Knight, “Stop!  Green Knight, you consider yourself a paragon of chivalry.  But where is the honor in brawling in the park like a common ruffian?”

The Green Knight turns to look at Jack, “What do you mean, sirrah?”

Jack stands up straight, “Well, if you are going to be a knight in America, you should challenge him to fight in an American venue.”

The Green Knight rests on her sword, “Such as?”

Jack smiles, “Madison Square Gardens, next Sunday night.  You and him, one on one.”

The Green Knight nods, “Done.  I shall be there.”  She takes Icer and goes.

One page of several panels of Kid Comic in various forms training with the other members of Heroes Inc.  The next page is all panels of Kid Comic as Knight Errant training.  Jack meets with the Grey Man (leader of the Gauntlet, the group which the Green Knight belongs to) and agree that the Gauntlet team can watch the fight from a covered box without risk of arrest.  Janice does research into the legends of Camelot and that of the Green Knight (including a one page recap of the legend of Gwain and the Green Knight).  Tickets to the match are sold to benefit the Red Cross.

Splash two-page of Madison Square Garden with tons of cameos, all the members of Heroes Inc (except JetMan) are there, the Misfits of Science, Captain Liberty, MinuteMan and MinuteMaid, Reggie the Talking Gorilla, the Duke of Stirling, various politicians (including Barry Goldwater and Bobby Kennedy) and film stars and, up in a corner, a man with white hair in a white three-piece suit . . .

Kid Comic appears is in his Knight Errant form.  With Captain Liberty is acting as referee.  The fight is quite dramatic with first Knight Errant then Green Knight having the upper hand.  But Knight Errant comes back strong and the Green Knight offers her surrender.  It is accepted and the heroes and the Green Knight retire to a feast at one of the better restaurants in New York.

Is this the start of the rehabilitation of the Green Knight?  Or a more complex plot by the Gauntlet?

Flip back to Issue 19.

Onward to Summaries of Issues 21 and 22!

Back to Heroes Inc Roll Call.

Notes: This game was quite fun, especially the discussion of the cameos.  The man in the white suit is a reference to Planetary of which we were all great fans.

Photos: “madison sqaure garden entrance” by ikarusmedia is licensed under CC BY 2.0.