Thursday 21 July 2011

Black Max - coming to an end


Of course, am a massive MASSIVE fan of the strip - but have never seen the last ever episode.
I know, i know, that's not much of a fan really. But there's a heck of a lot of episodes to track down - and when i were 10 (and now) each installment had enough thrills to sustain me and i didn't really need to collect them each week to appreciate what was going on.
And i've, still, something to look forward to.
I know the end is soon here in May '72 and that eventually he snuffs it, as born out in the Demon Dwarf sequel, and it sure has changed tack by this point.
Long gone is Wilson's mission to prove that he's not barking mad, going on and on about the German fighter ace who has a squadron of Giant Bats at his command, but no-one believes him.
Here, in just THREE pages we've got:
Max under arrest in England for war crimes,
his two huge King Bats rescuing him, only to try to eat him,
Wilson teaming up with Max to try and end them once and for all,
and the Demon Dwarf re-surfacing in his Mole-like tunneling machine.
Curiously, we also have Max being dropped by the Bats at Stonehenge and finding that one of the crashed planes had "... gouged a hole in the ground... right alongside the pillars! The... The FOURTH pillar from the setting sun! Somewhere near it... is buried THE STONE OF KOTH!". Which he's mighty happy to then dig up as its "... The key to the Bat People!"
So there we have it - the first sign that things are about to change tack once again and we'll be soon seeing the Bat People - huge, manlike (including todgers) creatures with Bat faces.
Reading this far in, it does make you wonder if the writers had this in mind all along - to have Max start with a solitary Bat, then a squadron of them, then the King Btas, then the Bat People.
Or were they making it up as they went along?

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