KARATE KID #6 (1977)
by David Michelinie & Ric Estrada
cover by Ernie Chan & Mike Grell
The cover promises the Legion is going to guest-star, so maybe this will be better than the previous issues. It would certainly be hard to be worse!
We get an “instant recap” of last issue’s cliffhanger: Karate Kid has been driven insane by Commander Blud.
Also apparently that didn’t have enough fanservice, so here’s Iris posing for the cover of a Conan story.
Karate Kid is just about to kill Blud, but then the Legion shows up!
Note that the only remotely “super-karate” thing is done by Cosmic Boy (of all people!), who takes out Karate Kid by a Vulcan Ku-Jui Nerve Pinch.
There have been bland attempts to push Iris as a love interest to Karate Kid (though he’s shown exactly zero interest). Will Princess Projectra showing up cause some sort of love triangle?
Nope!
You might be wondering: what the heck is the Legion doing here?
Sounds legit.
The team showed up not only to preserve the timeline but to stop Karate Kid from violating the Legion’s “Prime Directive”, which is apparently how we are calling the “no killing rule” now.
I’ve said it before, but I can’t emphasize enough how WEIRD it is to see Karate Kid written like this. In pretty much every story except this series he’s the chill zen warrior who is always cool and collected… not this emotional crybaby.
At least the Legion recognize that he’s completely out of character!
Also Karate Kid’s landlady is electrocuted by his television! Believe it or not that’s going to be a MAJOR plot point next issue.
In addition to the Nth confirmation that Karate Kid is an idiot in this series, we get the confirmation that the 30th century history books are full of s#it.
You ARE an ungrateful clod in this series, KK.
Also SUDDEN ROBOT BIRD! What is this, Metal Men!?
All so that Karate Kid can be thrown into the river, where a tractor beam (???) lures him into an underwater base. (???)
This leads to YET ANOTHER severely underwhelming fight scene, but at least this time it’s against robot and not generic kung-fu goons.
This is Blud’s auxiliary base, where he keeps his robots and submarines… (WTF!?)
…and the force field where he trapped the Legion (double WTF!?), complete with disintegrator ray (triple WTF!?).
Just in case you were wondering: yes, this bozo captured the Legion OFF-PANEL.
Then SUDDEN FLOOD!
Or not. Okay comic, this was relatively clever.
In my headcanon the Legion got captured on purpose to find Blud’s secondary base, because once they are free they defeat his robot army with extreme ease.
Note Cosmic Boy using his powers through his eyes. He hasn’t done that since the very first Legion story, so perhaps they did have Michelinie read SOME Legion.
Blud gets captured, Princess Projectra randomly has a purple costume, and Karate Kid is asked to return to the 30th century… and he doesn’t.
I mentioned that Karate Kid’s landlady being electrocuted was going to be important, and here is the cliffhanger: he’s charged with her murder.
While you’re there, can you also charge him with character assassination?
Historical significance: 0/10
Commander Blud didn’t succeed in changing history or have any other appearance.
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
Look, I don’t mind if Lex Luthor turns out to have an underwater base in the Hudson river, complete with robots and disintegrator rays. It’s his thing. A random dude like Blud should have SOME explanation on why he has this stuff!!!
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
Was this marginally better than most of the previous issues? Yes. Is it still trash? Absolutely!