| As the story opens it appears that Marvel has decided to update the Doc stories to the then present day of the early 70's (Monk in particular gives a clue to this by his clothing which is very much of the period) and this is verified by a comment in the text page in the second issue. But by then, cooler heads had prevailed and the setting for that second part and all subsequent stories was returned to the original 30's-40's era. The plot is pretty straightforward and familiar for those who've read the novel, a strangely garbed assassin climbs a tower next to Doc's NYC headquarters and takes aim through a window at the Fabulous Five (Monk, Ham, Renny, Long Tom, and Johnny) who are awaiting the arrival of Doc Savage himself. The assassin wants Doc it seems so he waits too. Doc appears, fresh from a trip to his secret Fortress of Solitude and we learn that Doc's dad has died of an unkown disease, then heads to his wall safe and discovers papers giving him provisional possession of territory in Hildalgo in Central America, at which time the assassin fires a laser right at him. But trick glass in the window caused the attack to fail and then the team sets about finding out where the shooter is located. The find him and Doc sends Ham off to get the red tape taken care of for a trip to Hildalgo while the rest go to intercept the assassin. Ham leaves via autogyro, and Doc and the rest leave using a tricked out vintage runabout especially equipped with running boards. Doc and the boys get to the location and Doc begins a daring climb up an uncompleted skyscraper after the assassin, and then by use of his athletic skills and some technology in the form of a blinding mirror Doc captures the culprit. An attempt at hypnotism fails and the villain jumps to his death. Doc and the rest return to headquarters to find the wall safe ransacked and a note on the was saying "Savage: Turn back from your quest, lest the Red Death strike once again.". Needless to say this doesn't work and Doc and the boys make plans immediately to head to Hildalgo to avenge the murder of elder Savage. An epilogue introduces us to a mysterious figure called "the Feathered Serpent". |
