My Rating
“The End Of All Things!”
“The Book Of Job — Part 01: Termineus/Terminus”
Deep in the Florida Everglades, a small group gathers at the edge of a secluded pool hidden within the marshlands. This strange body of water serves as the gateway to the Nexus of All Realities. Sheriff Donald Robert Fillmore readies his men as they wait for the Man-Thing to emerge from the damaged portal. No one knows his whereabouts, but that hardly matters to the sheriff. The adopted son of Jack and Gwyneth Burke has disappeared, and Fillmore suspects the swamp monster kidnapped him.
Within minutes, a small rowboat emerges from the cold mist surrounding the vortex. Inside sits the missing boy, Job. A massive figure lumbers through the fog close behind him. The Man-Thing has returned to the mortal plane, but something has changed. An ancient deity named K’ad-Mon now controls his body through the magical staff discovered by his wife, Ellen. All hope has not disappeared just yet.
Will two gods from a long-forgotten pagan religion allow the destruction of the Nexus of All Realities? Can the Man-Thing break free from K’ad-Mon’s control before Job destroys the Nexus Fragment? Is this the end of Earth as we know it?
“Love Is Colder Than Death — Part 03”
Detectives Len and Phil arrive at a Lower East Side Catholic church in search of a serial killer with an appetite for blood. Their only lead involves an elusive homeless man named Lump. At first, the detectives considered him another possible murder victim, but mounting evidence now points them in another direction. Only one person remains who might provide some answers: Father Adobe.
The Catholic priest provides outreach services to the street dwellers and transients who roam the neighborhoods near the harbor. Len and Phil sit in a pew near the rear of the church and watch Father Adobe clean near the confessional booths. The priest certainly doesn’t speak like your typical man of the cloth. Len figures a lifetime spent mingling with the unwashed masses can take its toll on even the most pious servant of God. Unfortunately, Father Adobe provides only one solid lead — a name: Jack Russell.
Three blocks north of the church, a heavily armed retrieval team enters the New York sewer system. Each man carries night-vision goggles, body armor, automatic weapons, and shotguns. Someone has sent these men underground with simple orders: shoot to kill. Only the squad leader knows the identity of their target.
Will Jack Russell find the true killer beneath the streets of New York City before it’s too late? Has Father Adobe lost his faith in Heaven and mankind? Can Brother Steven maintain control over his vampire sect?
“A Funeral In The Woods — Part One”
The new magistrate, Yuen Fu Sheng, isn’t accustomed to hearing the word “no” from the peasant farmers of his province. However, when a ruler taxes his population to the point of starvation, what else can they offer? Yuen has a simple solution to the problem: slaves!
Yesterday afternoon, the new magistrate received a summons from the Forbidden City. The Emperor wishes to meet his new servant, and tradition demands that Yuen provide a suitable tribute. The magistrate prepares his men for the long trek north to the Chinese capital. Tomorrow, they march!
What is the legend of the hopping corpse that has thrown the mountain village into such an uproar? Do mysterious ghosts and fox spirits really haunt the woods surrounding the trade route? Who ordered a macabre funeral procession to travel through the forest at midnight? Collect the series to find out!
Reviewer Notes
Strange Tales Volume 04 #2 gives us three more stories — and not a single ending! I’m a little bummed because the Werewolf By Night storyline continues beyond this book, but from my research, Marvel never published the follow-up scripts. Did Marvel simply wash its hands of Jack Russell and the adult-themed Strange Tales experiment? Whatever happened behind the scenes, readers never received a proper conclusion.
The Man-Thing story continues the quest for the Nexus Fragment, and I found the storyline interesting enough. Unfortunately, the artwork nearly killed it for me. It looks like Marvel hired a really bad tattoo artist and told him to airbrush his way to victory. On top of that, I strongly suggest leaving Copperplate fonts out of the letterer’s playbook. Speaking as an old man, the wilder the font gets, the harder it becomes to read through trifocals. Did I just age myself?
The Enjoyment
I enjoyed “Love Is Colder Than Death” much more. The investigation surrounding Jack Russell continues to build, while the armed retrieval team entering the sewers adds another layer of danger to an already bloody situation. Unfortunately, knowing that Marvel never properly finished this storyline makes the whole thing bittersweet. Just when the mystery starts gaining momentum, you realize there isn’t much track left ahead.
The third story, “A Funeral In The Woods,” also grabbed my attention, but it ended far too quickly. After reading the 2023 run of Doctor Strange, the Hong Kong Jiangshi boss Billy immediately reminded me of the hopping corpse featured here. Chinese mythology contains a treasure trove of demons, ghosts, fox spirits, and other supernatural creatures that fit perfectly inside a Marvel horror book. I would have gladly read more of this story.
If not for the atrocious airbrush artwork in the Man-Thing chapter, I probably would have given Strange Tales Volume 04 #2 five out of five stars. The stories themselves kept me entertained, and the book throws plenty of supernatural weirdness at the reader. Unfortunately, I have to dock a point for Marvel’s experiment in airbrushing. This issue gets four out of five stars.