Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Re:tro Re:view - Lord of the Jungle #2!

Lord of the Jungle #2 features a dramatic flashback to Tarzan's past parallel with his return to 1950's Africa. The Philip Tan cover has Tarzan posed with vine in one hand and knife in the other! The Tarzan tales continues with writing by Dan Jurgens and illustration by Benito Gallego. The 1950’s setting with the man in the suit at the bow of the ship we see later walking to a dark, shipside dock. Several men attack him, but his steely eyes and reflexes turn the table on them. He is about to stab a boy when he is stopped by Bouanga. His ally, Bouanga, is the boy that the man had seen in a village when he was younger. It is revealed that this middle-aged man in the suit is Tarzan! We open to a splash page where Bouanga’s narration is seen in caption boxes that pan down to the figures of Tarzan and Bouanga. There is a seedy neighborhood and Tarzan reveals that he returned because of a past wrong. Bouanga tells him that he should forget about it. A thief tries to threaten Tarzan with a knife and it takes the lord of the jungle only his angry face to send him running! 


They reach a respectable hotel and Tarzan checks in as Greystoke. It appears that Tarzan has left the jungle behind and taken his British lordship. Some of Gallego’s details in figures reminds me of the pencils of Butch Guice. Still, the worn face of Tarzan strikes me of John Buscema's art. This turns back to Tarzan as a young man swinging through the jungle, disturbing parrots as chimpanzee-like Great Apes watch from the tree branches. Bouanga’s narration explains that Tarzan grew up with his Mangani family protected by his adoptive mother, Kala, from the leader, Kerchak. Tarzan pauses to stare as hunters lasso the neck of a rhino, its tongue hanging out! A leader, Shaw, orders one of the hunters to be ready to shoot. He has a scientist-type, Corey, ready to use his massive tranquilizer needle to knock out the rhino. Bouanga explains that Tarzan finds it unusual to find others with his skin color, but severs a rope with his knife, taken from his father’s abandoned cabin. 


Tarzan tackles the hunter, Hobbs (Hobbs and Shaw like the Fast and Furious spin-off movie?), with the rope, that frees the rhino. Shaw and the other hunters are stunned by Tarzan who only speaks in the jungle language of the Mangani. Still, Shaw is intrigued and introduces himself. Tarzan says his name. Shaw then asks his hunters to encircle him. They have ropes and Tarzan is clever enough to shout “Tand!”, “No!” He elbows a hunter and takes a vine to escape. He returns in the afternoon to his parent’s cabin. Tarzan is fascinated by books, connecting the words with the pictures, but not how to speak. He sees “H is for Hunter”, a human with a rifle. He starts to say, “Bundolo”, “Kill”! Tarzan contemplates himself in a hand-held mirror when he hears gunshots! He takes to the trees and finds the rhino, Buto, killed. The hunters are there with nets and ropes. A net is thrown over Tarzan, but the hunters have to struggle to restrain him. We see Shaw turn in shadow, pure Joe Kubert, when a female Mangani leaps at him! This is Kala of course who bashes away two other hunters. 



She pulls the net off of her adopted son. Then, Shaw shoots her. Tarzan bashes him with a thrown rock. He takes away his wounded mother. They leap off of a cliff into a river. At the cabin, Tarzan helps Kala inside, the same place where his mother, Alice, died! Bouanga notes that Tarzan wants to get healing leaves, but he is stopped by Kala. The gestures and expressions of the dying Kala and helpless Tarzan are great comic book artwork. Closeups of Kala’s face, Tarzan’s hand covers her eyes. A medium shot of a son holding his mother in a dark cabin. We get a splash page of Tarzan holding his mother who raised him. Powerful! In Tarzan of the Apes (1914), African tribesmen kill Kala, but I like this change since Tarzan later defends the tribes. Tarzan buries Kala next to his other parents. We see the pure anger of Tarzan right fist clenched and the jungle bathed in red. Great work throughout to colorists Francesco Segala and Agnes Pozza! Kala's killers are very clear and the Lord of the Jungle may be looking for revenge! Later, Bouanga brings up "Lady Greystoke", Jane, and we may get her place in the story and Bouanga's first meeting with Tarzan. A very dramatic and action packed second issue of Lord of the Jungle


Five Journals out of Five! 


#LordOfTheJungle, #DanJurgens, #BenitoGallego, #FrancescoSegala, #AgnesPozza, #PhilipTan, #Tarzan, #Bouanga, #Greystoke, #Kala, #Shaw


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