Aggressors - The new hero pulp

The first of my October Halloween series of The Aggressors meet the supernatural. In this adventure of the Penetrator Mark Hardin meets Vlad Dosadan Magarac, Count Dracula. Magarac claims to be a descendant of the original Count Dracula, who was cruelly defamed by Bram Stoker. Upset by this, Magarac has decided to use a vibrating weapon to set off earthquakes which activates a volcano chain.*

The Penetrator arrives to stop this madman, who claims to be a true vampire. He discovers that several bodies have turned up around the site of the first tremors totally drained of blood.

As if this isn't bad enough the Mafia has also arrived to stop Magarac who is disrupting their activities and there is an uprising of the local indians. The Penetrator is certainly a busy boy.

After wiping out the mobsters, who decided that killing The Penetrator would be a nice side benefit to their mission. Mark manages to subdue the Indian rebellion by getting them to help him storm Magarac's headquarters.

There is nice touch where a corrupt ATF agent working for Magarac is killed by the attacking forces is surprised that The Penetrator and his allies have automatic weapons because automatic weapons are illegal in that state.

Magarac flees and is followed by the Penetrator and the pair eventually battle using chainsaws in a forest. The image of the Pentrator and the black cloaked vampire dueling with chainsaws lopping tree limbs struck me as a very cool image and would be cool to see on film. This was the one image I had kept from my first reading of this book two years ago.

**Spoiler** to head just highlight the next bit.



Not surprisingly Magarac is killed by impalement on one of the lopped tree branches through the heart.

**End Spoiler**

So it is never clarified if Magarac is a real vampire or just one sick puppy.


A very groovy work.

* This was the same weapon seen in Penetrator #21 The Supergun Mission, now nowhere is this explained in the book. Whilst the footnote can be overused by other writers (Joseph Rosenberger to name one) it can be really handy to direct us to other books like in this case.

This is the earliest of the Nick Carter Killmasters I own. In it Nicholas J. Huntington Carter poses as a special ambassador. The cover promised me Casablanca, full of spies, but Nick spends most of his time in Nyanga, a new African country which is blaming America for a spate of terrorist bombings, a view supported by the Russians in the country.

Carter investigates and discovers that it is actually a Red Chinese plot to take over the country. After bedding two ladies and killing several bad guys Carter is able to stop the Chinese plot to forment revolution in Nyanga.

Throughout this mission Carter is followed by a greenfaced man with google eyes named Laszlo, I imagine that he looks like Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) from CASABLANCA. Carter follows Laszlo to Casablanca for the final chapter of the book where he takes out Ten Wong, the Chinese master mind behind the plot with his own deadly garden.

Aside from the disappointment that so little of the book was set in Casablanca, it's nice to see the Killmaster in action.

In this adventure, Taggart discovers a conspiracy to replace the President of the United States with an impostor. Why? Unlike the movie DAVE, which uses the same idea, a cabal of arms dealers calling themselves Alpha Four is behind the plot to stir up trouble between the United States and Russia and China.

For most of the book Taggart has to try and prove that the man in the Oval Office isn't the man elected by the people. Of course Alpha Four isn't about to let Taggart just waltz in and find this out, so Taggart has to kill several henchmen, even managing to get a few of the members of Alpha Four themselves.

Eventually Taggart discovers that the President is an impostor *spoilers ahead* and assassinates him.

I'm rather enjoying the Taggart books. Each conspiracy is different and delivers the thrills.

The Specialist is Jack Sullivan, Viet nam veteran, mercinary for hire. Sullivan has been in retirement for three years since the death of his girlfriend in a bomb meant for him.

Reluctantly he takes on the job of killing deposed African dictator Magg Ottoowa, from Julia Penn. Penn and her twin sister were abducted and tortured by the dictator, when the twin sister was killed in front of Julia. Julia is driven mad by this event and hires Sullivan to bring her the head of Ottoowa. Julia also tries to seduce Sullivan, but her idea is whispering sweet nothings is asking about how Sullivan will kill Ottoowa and Sullivan rejects her.

Sullivan discovers that Ottaawa has hired Hayden, an old friend of Sullivan's as his head of security. Sullivan's attempts to get Ottoowa become a battle between the friends.

Sullivan is ultimately successful and he decides to rid the world of scum like Ottoowa.

There are some very nice scenes where Sullivan remembers his childhood and how the lessons his father taught him made him the man he is today.

The Killsquad is a team of six death row inmates given a second chance, to form a tactical strike team, a Dirty half-Dozen if you will. The team's leader is John "Hangman" Smith, the only non death row inmate, who selected these six men (large figure on cover).

The team consists of Tommy Williams (firing over Smith's chin)the one-eyed pirate leader of a crack paramilitary armed robbery force, Mac White (crouching beside Williams) left the Ku Klux Klan after six months because he hated the other Klansmen and the rest of humanity, Leroy "Lightening Bomber" Walker (left of White)ex heavy weight contender who killed three people in a fit of rage, Rollo "Icepick" Barnes (bottom left corner of cover) Harlem Hitman, Lucien Schnell (middle bottom of cover) son of a Nazi butcher, this mercenary went on a rape and murder spree whilst hunting for his father, and James Jackson (bottom right corner) drug runner set up for the murder of federal agents.

The Killsquad team face their second mission together and we see them start to become a cohesive unit as they battle Reverand Eli St. Judas and his mad cult. St. Judas also has a renegade green beret team Charlie Company in his employ. St. Judas has Charlie company kidnap several Russian diplomats and the Killsquad must face the more experienced Charlie Company and a compound of drug fuelled cultists and rabid wolves.

A solid actioner well worth hunting down.