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From the Bookshelf: Indiana Jones Omnibus: The Further Adventures
Not that long ago, I got the seventh and final paperback reprinting the old Marvel Star Wars comics. I might have had a thought or two that this closed a long period where there had always been another one in the series to get, although I'd hope "so now what?" wasn't a serious question for me... and then I happened to notice in a local bookstore a different Dark Horse Comics paperback reprinting a different old Marvel comics series. Taking advantage of a sale, I got the first volume of an omnibus of "The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones."
Although interested in this, my thoughts might have been on a minor key as compared to the Star Wars reprints. I'd only ever got one issue of this series when it was being published, although there was one moment (with Indy explaining what he does for his whip and what it does for him even as he teeters with a companion on the brink) I had the peculiar feeling I'd seen before, although I couldn't say when, where, or how. Too, while what might be called an "Indiana Jones Expanded Universe" has collected over the years (I've read the comic for and played the adventure game "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis"), it doesn't have the certain notoriety the Star Wars version built up, which I suppose let me avoid "then and later" feelings. As well, it could be said that Raiders of the Lost Ark set a pattern and the movies that followed didn't change it the way each Star Wars movie did.
The volume did lead off with comics I had seen before: whether through asking my parents for it or just being given it, I had got the adaptation of Raiders of the Lost Ark in a bagged pack not that long after the movie came out. Ahead of it getting on TV, the comics must have been my first introduction to the story... although only an approximate one. Where Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back had been adapted over six comic books, Raiders of the Lost Ark only got three, and there just didn't seem to be room for most of the small details that enlivened both the action sequences and everything else. (Just as one example, in place of the "airplane fight" Indy decks a first mechanic with one punch whereupon the big mechanic shows up with a gun but Marion hits him on the back of a head with a wrench, and collapsing he squeezes off one shot that blows up the flying wing...) The visual action is eked along by plenty of words, whether text captions, dialogue, or monologue (internal or otherwise), and in the end it and some other Marvel Comics adaptations of mid-1980s movies might have helped feed a feeling of mine that comics amounted to "poor man's movies" (although nowadays, of course, movies are made from comics and people complain about what's missing from them...) One small, perhaps peculiar moment near the end of the adaptation did perhaps though shape my interpretations for a long time, where Indy swims out to the German sub fully kitted out (he's also drawn wearing his leather jacket during the abbreviated "basket game" in the streets of Cairo) only to realise his hat floated away in the process. For quite a while, I was convinced Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom had been set before Raiders of the Lost Ark not through any concern that Marion might complicate matters with a new leading lady, but just because Indy would still have his hat then...
Perhaps even now, then, I was a little curious at first as to just when "The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones" (it has a big, blocky cover logo, the logo of Raiders of the Lost Ark not having been adapted yet, although some covers use that one to help attract attention) would be set, but I soon noticed references to the Ark. Things in general didn't feel "incomplete" or "off" at all, as Indy races to lost strongholds, tries to tie up loose ends (going after the golden idol Belloq took from him), gets involved in Stonehenge being used to call some distinctly "Lovecraftian" entities in, seeks a religious artifact in the form of the "Fourth Nail," and winds up in lots of cliffhangers (most of the stories seemed to be told over two issues).
I've noticed in the past some criticisms that Marcus seemed a more "ineffectual comedy relief" character in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade than he did in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and bring that up because I was a little surprised in the first pages of the first issue of the series to see a Marcus who seemed at least something of an ineffectual comedy relief character on the sight of Indy trying to bullwhip the cigarette out of the mouth of a somewhat plain female student. Still, with the series going through a few writers in its first issues, there were some odd moments with respect to all the characters, such as Indy seeming particularly ruthless in the second issue. Something about Indy gunning down natives (which he does more than once) felt just a little uncertain to me in a "even then" way, although now I'm imagining some people might just start protesting "I demand that Indiana Jones have the right to shoot as many aborigines as he has bullets for!" Things do seem to settle down as a regular writer gets established, though. Sallah shows up once (and gets to indulge in one of the small characterising touches left out of the movie adaptation). One more thing that might have surprised me, though, was that after a first female companion (a few issues in) who seemed in the mold of the "later Indy EU" of getting fairly involved for as long as she shows up, Marion reappears and sticks around. I did keep wondering how much she looks like Karen Allen (while I perhaps also wondered if Indy looks as much like Harrison Ford as Han Solo did in the Star Wars comics of the time, that wasn't as much of a question), and at times she's getting involved to write the adventures up for the newspapers. Just as with the movie adaptation, it grew somehow odd for three issues in a row to involve Indy's hat getting knocked off in a melee and it not being retrieved so that at times he does without it for quite a while... (It got knocked off in two following issues as well, but there it got retrieved.)
The experience was interesting, though. There are at least two more volumes adapting the rest of this series, and I can now imagine myself getting them. At the same time, as I said I suppose I can't draw a "then and later" distinction between them and the other Dark Horse Indiana Jones reprints... Still, the thought did occur to me that I really also ought to have comparable reactions suitable for setting down in a post for books that aren't comics reprints.
Although interested in this, my thoughts might have been on a minor key as compared to the Star Wars reprints. I'd only ever got one issue of this series when it was being published, although there was one moment (with Indy explaining what he does for his whip and what it does for him even as he teeters with a companion on the brink) I had the peculiar feeling I'd seen before, although I couldn't say when, where, or how. Too, while what might be called an "Indiana Jones Expanded Universe" has collected over the years (I've read the comic for and played the adventure game "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis"), it doesn't have the certain notoriety the Star Wars version built up, which I suppose let me avoid "then and later" feelings. As well, it could be said that Raiders of the Lost Ark set a pattern and the movies that followed didn't change it the way each Star Wars movie did.
The volume did lead off with comics I had seen before: whether through asking my parents for it or just being given it, I had got the adaptation of Raiders of the Lost Ark in a bagged pack not that long after the movie came out. Ahead of it getting on TV, the comics must have been my first introduction to the story... although only an approximate one. Where Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back had been adapted over six comic books, Raiders of the Lost Ark only got three, and there just didn't seem to be room for most of the small details that enlivened both the action sequences and everything else. (Just as one example, in place of the "airplane fight" Indy decks a first mechanic with one punch whereupon the big mechanic shows up with a gun but Marion hits him on the back of a head with a wrench, and collapsing he squeezes off one shot that blows up the flying wing...) The visual action is eked along by plenty of words, whether text captions, dialogue, or monologue (internal or otherwise), and in the end it and some other Marvel Comics adaptations of mid-1980s movies might have helped feed a feeling of mine that comics amounted to "poor man's movies" (although nowadays, of course, movies are made from comics and people complain about what's missing from them...) One small, perhaps peculiar moment near the end of the adaptation did perhaps though shape my interpretations for a long time, where Indy swims out to the German sub fully kitted out (he's also drawn wearing his leather jacket during the abbreviated "basket game" in the streets of Cairo) only to realise his hat floated away in the process. For quite a while, I was convinced Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom had been set before Raiders of the Lost Ark not through any concern that Marion might complicate matters with a new leading lady, but just because Indy would still have his hat then...
Perhaps even now, then, I was a little curious at first as to just when "The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones" (it has a big, blocky cover logo, the logo of Raiders of the Lost Ark not having been adapted yet, although some covers use that one to help attract attention) would be set, but I soon noticed references to the Ark. Things in general didn't feel "incomplete" or "off" at all, as Indy races to lost strongholds, tries to tie up loose ends (going after the golden idol Belloq took from him), gets involved in Stonehenge being used to call some distinctly "Lovecraftian" entities in, seeks a religious artifact in the form of the "Fourth Nail," and winds up in lots of cliffhangers (most of the stories seemed to be told over two issues).
I've noticed in the past some criticisms that Marcus seemed a more "ineffectual comedy relief" character in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade than he did in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and bring that up because I was a little surprised in the first pages of the first issue of the series to see a Marcus who seemed at least something of an ineffectual comedy relief character on the sight of Indy trying to bullwhip the cigarette out of the mouth of a somewhat plain female student. Still, with the series going through a few writers in its first issues, there were some odd moments with respect to all the characters, such as Indy seeming particularly ruthless in the second issue. Something about Indy gunning down natives (which he does more than once) felt just a little uncertain to me in a "even then" way, although now I'm imagining some people might just start protesting "I demand that Indiana Jones have the right to shoot as many aborigines as he has bullets for!" Things do seem to settle down as a regular writer gets established, though. Sallah shows up once (and gets to indulge in one of the small characterising touches left out of the movie adaptation). One more thing that might have surprised me, though, was that after a first female companion (a few issues in) who seemed in the mold of the "later Indy EU" of getting fairly involved for as long as she shows up, Marion reappears and sticks around. I did keep wondering how much she looks like Karen Allen (while I perhaps also wondered if Indy looks as much like Harrison Ford as Han Solo did in the Star Wars comics of the time, that wasn't as much of a question), and at times she's getting involved to write the adventures up for the newspapers. Just as with the movie adaptation, it grew somehow odd for three issues in a row to involve Indy's hat getting knocked off in a melee and it not being retrieved so that at times he does without it for quite a while... (It got knocked off in two following issues as well, but there it got retrieved.)
The experience was interesting, though. There are at least two more volumes adapting the rest of this series, and I can now imagine myself getting them. At the same time, as I said I suppose I can't draw a "then and later" distinction between them and the other Dark Horse Indiana Jones reprints... Still, the thought did occur to me that I really also ought to have comparable reactions suitable for setting down in a post for books that aren't comics reprints.