Power Man And Iron Fist #79: Day Of The Dredlox

Writer: Mary Jo Duffy
Penciler: Kerry Gammill
Inker: Ricardo Villamonte
Letterer: Jom Vovak
Colorist: Christie Scheele
Editor: Denny O'Neil
Editor-In-Chief: Jim Shooter

If there's one comic that I'm never selling, it's gotta be Power Man And Iron Fist #79.

No matter how heavy the odds, Power Man and Iron Fist, aka Luke Cage and Danny Rand, just don't know how to face them seriously.

Which is ironic, given that the two are hardly wisecrackers. It's more that Power Man has such a short temper on him, while Iron Fist… has less of one. No, it's the writers who control them that have the love of the absurd.

In this month's issue, our titular twosome find themselves up against trundling alien robot midgets, who fire lasers everywhere, and keep on chanting the electronically capitalised war-cry "IN-CIN-ER-ATE! IN-CIN-ER-ATE!"


Humm, does this seem at all familiar?

After some ingenius subterfuge, Luke and Danny flee across the street and take refuge in a small bookshop, only to discover that the antiquated building is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

Power Man: "Who...?"

Offering them tea inside is the eccentric, and improbably old, Professor Gamble, who hatches a plot with them to defeat the 'Dredlox' using a machine he's building.

I guess it goes without saying that once the metal meanies have been defeated, Power Man and Iron Fist return to Gamble's bookshop, only to find that the entire building has mysteriously dematerialised, complete with the gap it left between the shops on either side sealed up too.

Well, if you're a regular reader of this blog then you've probably already worked out why this was the first US Marvel comic I ever got.

It's Power Man And Iron Fist Meet Doctor Who.

(Was there ever a greater title for a movie?)

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised - author Mary Jo Duffy is the same person who, a little over a year earlier, had composed an extensive write-up on Doctor Who's history for Marvel Premiere Featuring Doctor Who #57, when her appreciation of the series had come through loud and clear.

Now, if we could just get Luke and Danny to return the crossover favour in an episode of the Doctor Who TV series, ideally played by Donald Faison and Zach Braff…

Casting hat-tip: Herschel

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