Jungle Comics #3 - pt. 2

We're picking up where we left off with Tabu, Wizard of the Jungle. Stripped from his creator, Fletcher Hanks, and put in the hands of a more capable artist, will Tabu be less weird?

Polymorphing into a pigeon isn't too weird, and we already know from two previous adventures that Tabu has the brevet ranks to cast a 4th level spell.

Weirder is a 1930s villain comfortable with punching women, but maybe weirder still is that Velma is in the African jungle and still wearing a jacket. I feel for you, Velma; in my old age I have poor circulation now and get cold easily too.

That Tabu is felled by a bullet is weirdest of all, from a game mechanics perspective, because a magic-user of his level should have had enough hit points to take that shot and stay on his feet. Unless he was playing possum to lure out the villains?

I also want to call attention to that fifth panel, as there's a good amount of detail for outdoor ruins one can gather from that panel -- carved pillars, fallen trees, large skeletons, rocks, shrubs, and abandoned buildings.

 For whatever reason, Tabu allows himself to be tied up despite now being conscious (the bullet either stunned him or he was playing possum, as I suspect), and perhaps it's because Vilma was being threatened if he didn't comply. With these golden age stories being so short, sometimes you have to read the extra story between the panels. Anyway, that looks like a pretty nasty deathtrap, but since he's only tied to the elephants with rope, breaking loose requires just a simple wrecking things roll vs. the door category.

 So, deathtrap take two! This time, Blackwall gets the idea to sick a rhino on him. Because Tabu is still in a deathtrap, the rhino's charge can do lethal damage, whereas normally it would do no more than render him unconscious.

Who says things like, "It's tearing down at him with the impetus of a locomotive"? Probably someone who says things like, "Look at Charles tear into those scones with the impetus of a starving man!"

These clue coupons are clever, and could be a good source for random crime clues I can gather here. From this one, we add checking the flesh around a wound to see if it's swollen in such a way that suggests a poisoned weapon.

Although we already know Tabu can snap ropes, he decides to show off one of his most powerful spells by polymorphing into a rock. Polymorphing into a mineral is a much higher level spell than normal polymorphing, as the spells are written now.

Let's jump into the next story now, which is Camilla, Queen of the Lost Empire. We don't know the backstory of these characters, but Camilla is extremely trusting of an old man who tells her to set herself on fire to get her old kingdom back. I don't know about you, but I'd be concerned that the old geezer has a wicked sense of humor and is about to fatally prank me -- particularly when he starts prancing about and spouting "lo mozo co nomo" around the fire.

Camilla seems to be invoking Baal, the ancient earth and fertility god of Canaan and Phoenicia. You might know him from the bad press he got in the Old Testament.

Turns out the old guy was telling the truth after all! He seems to have cast a Wish spell for her that basically restores everything to the way it was earlier in the previous story.

Jon is either really trying hard to impress Ruth or he's pretty dumb, as it would have been a lot smarter to run from a big crowd of swordsmen than to stand and wait for them to reach him. From what we've been told, Jon and Ruth had no overwhelming need to explore the ruins other than curiosity, so if they had just left and never come back they would have been much safer. Or they could have ran, waited for nightfall, and then tried to sneak in.

The Blue Bath is a terrible name for a deathtrap, but the idea of a magic pool that can age you to death is a good deathtrap. Or at least it would be if Ruth actually looked older than 50 when she comes out. I wonder, if Camilla hates her so bad, why she doesn't leave her in longer. Maybe the pool doesn't age you more the longer you stay in, but a one-time aging in a random range of years -- say, 10-60. That said, I wonder if being dragged out of a pit by grappling hooks isn't itself a pretty tough punishment; I'd say that would do 2-8 points of damage, 1-4 for the hooks digging into her and 1-4 more if they drag her up the wall.  

The python pit, in comparison, is a pretty mundane deathtrap. There's 1-6 falling damage for going into the pit, and then he could get killed by the constrictor snake, but Camilla was nice enough to let him have a weapon in the pit with him. That Camilla can never get over Jon!

Geez, Jon, do you really have it in for snakes? All you had to do was kill the snake, not dice it!

Awfully convenient how Camilla's fountain of youth is left completely unguarded. Magic water is also, apparently, extremely volatile when exposed to fire...whereas ordinary water would simply extinguish the torch. Don't eat anything spicy for awhile, Ruth!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)