My Rating
“Pyramid Of Peril!”
Cast back to Earth by the ancient Elementals, N’Kantu the Living Mummy finds himself enslaved once again. After spending his mortal life fighting to free the Swarili people from bondage, the ancient chieftain must now bend to the will of four godlike beings who claim to predate Atlantis itself.
Their command is simple.
Find the Ruby Scarab.
The powerful artifact dates back to the days of ancient Atlantis, and the Elementals need N’Kantu to retrieve it. Unfortunately, neither the Living Mummy nor his new masters realize that the scarab is protected by another sinister force—one empowered by the mysterious X-gene!
N’Kantu soon finds himself caught between two worlds of power he barely understands. Ancient magic controls his actions while mutant abilities stand between him and the artifact. Yet beneath the rotting bandages remains the mind of a warrior who once led an entire people against their oppressors.
N’Kantu has survived slavery, betrayal, mummification, two thousand years of imprisonment, bullets, bombs, and the streets of modern New York City.
What’s one mutant?
Can the Living Mummy defend himself against both ancient magic and mutant abilities long enough to retrieve the Atlantean artifact? Will Professor Abdol or Doctor Skarab reach the Pyramid of the Dead before N’Kantu is destroyed? What connection does the Ruby Scarab have to the Elementals? What terrible secrets remain hidden in the pits beneath the royal chambers of a forgotten Pharaoh?
Collect the series to find out!
“The Secret Of The Universe!”
A pilot dying from a terminal illness prepares to leave Earth aboard an experimental spacecraft capable of traveling at the speed of light.
The technology remains untested.
The mission could kill him.
He volunteers anyway.
Humanity still has countless unanswered questions about the universe, and this dying man has little time left on Earth. If his final journey can answer even one of those age-old mysteries, perhaps his children—and their children—will benefit from the knowledge he leaves behind.
As the experimental craft leaves Earth’s orbit, one man begins a journey into the unknown in search of something humanity has pursued since the beginning of civilization.
The secret of the universe.
This is the story of one such man.
Reviewer Notes
Mummies and mutants and Atlanteans, oh my!
Supernatural Thrillers #9 throws practically everything but the kitchen sink at N’Kantu, and you know what? I’m completely fine with that. What began several issues ago as Marvel’s attempt to reinvent the classic mummy has evolved into a wonderfully bizarre supernatural adventure involving ancient Egyptian curses, lost Atlantean artifacts, godlike beings, mutants, and enough Marvel mythology to fill a pyramid.
N’Kantu is also one pretty tough cookie for a guy whose superpowers basically came from being wrapped in bandages and buried beneath the sand for two thousand years. Every time somebody thinks they have the Living Mummy under control, he finds another reserve of strength and starts swinging. I love this guy more and more with every issue I read.
There is also something wonderfully ironic about the Elementals enslaving N’Kantu. This is a man who led a slave uprising against Pharaoh Aram-Set and paid for that rebellion with two thousand years of living imprisonment. Now he finally returns to the world only to have another group of arrogant rulers force him into servitude. You almost have to feel sorry for whoever eventually discovers how angry N’Kantu is going to be when he breaks free.
The introduction of mutant powers adds another layer of Marvel weirdness to the story. We are no longer reading about a mummy stumbling through a dark museum or chasing archaeologists around an Egyptian tomb. N’Kantu now exists firmly inside the larger Marvel Universe, where ancient sorcery, lost civilizations, mutant abilities, and costumed superhumans can all collide without anyone stopping to ask whether this is getting ridiculous.
It is getting ridiculous.
That’s why it’s fun!
I also enjoyed seeing the story reach into other corners of Marvel lore. There are connections here that will feel familiar to readers of the X-Men side of the Marvel Universe, while all the ancient kingdoms, forgotten civilizations, sorcerers, and mystical artifacts would feel right at home in the pages of Conan the Barbarian or Kull the Conqueror. That mixture gives the Living Mummy stories a much larger playground than I expected when I started reading them.
The backup feature, “The Secret Of The Universe!,” changes gears completely. Instead of mummies and mutants beating the hell out of one another, we get an old-fashioned science-fiction tale about a dying man volunteering for an experimental journey into space. It has that classic speculative setup I enjoy in these older anthology stories: take one enormous scientific question, throw an ordinary human being directly into it, and wait for the inevitable twist.
If you enjoy Marvel’s 1970s horror books, I highly recommend tracking down the Supernatural Thrillers run while copies are still reasonably affordable. There are only fifteen issues in the complete series, and the Living Mummy storyline alone has turned out to be much more entertaining than I expected.
I’m giving Supernatural Thrillers #9 a solid four out of five stars.
Mummies. Mutants. Atlanteans. Ancient Egyptian pyramids.
Fun, fun, fun!