In my opinion, the Atlas/Seaboard line of comics from the mid-'70s is unfairly maligned and, consequentially, overlooked. I believe many who belittle and disparage Atlas/Seaboard comics are merely repeating what they have heard or read elsewhere and have not actually read the comic books themselves. The reason I believe this is that I often hear the claim that Atlas/Seaboard was "aping Marvel" and that the characters were "Marvel knockoffs." While it may be true Martin Goodman determined that Atlas/Seaboard comics needed to look and read more like Marvel comics, that directive apparently came only after the first couple of issues of most series were already published. Initially, the Atlas/Seaboard line had a wholly different feel than concurrent Marvel or D.C. comics. They were grittier and more grounded in reality, for one thing, what with characters having very limited powers and many of them being more antihero than hero. The Brute killed a young boy in his first issue! The Destructor was only a hero because he wanted vengeance against the mob he used to work for! But today we will discuss...The Cougar!
No, not that cougar--although she is overlooked and underrated as well (I will never understand how Jennifer Aniston can be more popular than Courteney Cox).
This Cougar!
The Cougar #1 was written by Steve Mitchell, who I don't know from Adam, and drawn by Dan Adkins and Frank Springer, two of the most talented artists ever to work in comics. The cover is fantastic. Just check out the acrobatic leap The Cougar is making in his effort to save the blonde damsel in distress from the clutches of a vampire! He puts Daredevil to shame! I want to read this comic based solely on the captivating cover! You don't see a lot of that anymore. The cover copy includes this caption: "A Hollywood Stuntman Turned Night Stalker!"
My understanding is that Atlas/Seaboard originally wanted to license the television series "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" for its comics line but the publisher was too frugal or felt the TV show wasn't successful enough. However, the only thing I really found similar between The Cougar and Carl
Kolchak is that both get involved in supernatural occurrences. There's
not much else I could put my finger on, although I've hardly seen any episodes of the TV show so maybe a more educated reader can inform me if there is anything more to it. In any case, issue #1 is dedicated to Dan Curtis, the television show's producer, which is kind of a classy move in my book since they could just as easily have ripped off the concept without acknowledging it at all.
The story opens with our hero, stuntman Jeff Rand, working on the set of a horror movie. It's not stated, but apparently they are filming on location in a village in Eastern Europe, maybe even Transylvania. As the comic book tells us, Jeff "is known to his fellow stuntmen as The Cougar, due to his cat-like speed and agility." After the day's shooting is done, a fellow employee named Roger goes to check out the castle at which they will be filming the next day. While at the castle, Roger finds what he believes to be a prop stake stuck in a cloak in a coffin. You can surely see where this is going, right?
Good move, Rog!
Ol' Rog removes the stake from the coffin, of course, and immediately afterwards pays the price when a vampire suddenly appears. The comic book cuts away before we see exactly what happens to Roger, but you can be sure it's nothing pleasant.
The vampire then takes to the village streets "to quench his ages-old thirst for blood." He comes upon a tavern where Jeff (in a super hero costume for no apparent reason) is knocking 'em back with Harve, a fellow stuntman, and an unnamed blonde makeup artist. The vampire believes the makeup artist to be "Katya...my love!" The vampire assaults Jeff and attempts to abduct "Katya," resulting in a brawl.
Just like this.
Poor Harve is such a wimp, the vampire knocks the fight out of him faster than you can say Jack Robinson. A policeman turns up and shoots the vampire five times, achieving nothing except the vampire apparently panics and flees. No one tries to stop him. A caption reveals that the blonde makeup artist is called Kathie...any connection with Katya?
The next day Roger, of course, doesn't show up for work and his whereabouts are unknown. Jeff determines to check the castle where Roger was last known to have gone. Roger's body is found there...drained of blood!
So much for Rog.
Jeff goes to an old bookstore to see if he can learn more about the castle outside of town because "it's owner was supposed to be a vampire!" With the assistance of an elderly clerk, Jeff learns that the castle was built by Baron Krolok in the 1600s, who "went off to fight the Turks and when he returned, he did so as one of the undead!" The villagers used "one of his blood-lovers...a girl named Katya" as part of a trap to destroy Baron Krolok. Jeff pieces it all together and arranges police protection for Kathie because she "must look enough like [Katya] for Krolok to think [Kathie] is [Katya]!" The vampire soon turns up at Kathie's door, where he makes short work of the policemen who stand in his way. He kicks in the door and knocks out The Cougar, then abducts Kathie.
Baron Krolok doesn't mess around!
Twenty minutes later, The Cougar regains consciousness, commandeers an old car, and races to Baron Krolok's castle. He proceeds to get the crap beaten out of him for a two full pages.
Vampires are tough!
Soon, though, he finally wises up and breaks a wooden table to make a stake, which he then uses to impale the vampire, thereby ending the undead menace. The end.
You had it coming, Krolok!
I like that The Cougar has no super powers and doesn't even come off as especially bright. Nor does he have a bone to pick with criminals. He's just a really good stuntman and a guy who wants to help his friends. There's no over-the-top emoting as you would find in Marvel if, say, a friend of Peter Parker's was found dead. Unlike Peter would probably do, Jeff feels no senseless guilt over failing to prevent something he wasn't involved in. There's none of this "I'll handle it on my own!" nonsense either; Jeff's first move is to contact the police! It's refreshing. There's nothing especially Marvelesque about it, either, except perhaps the use of the banner across the front cover. And I only wish D.C. had been producing comics as good as this at the time!
Stay tuned for my review of The Cougar #2!
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