Mark Hazzard MERC #3 - Video Review by 80s Comics

Welcome back to 80s Comics, where I'm going to take you on a trip with me back to 1987. It's Marvel's New Universe! Don't stop the video, though, because this is Mark Hazzard MERC. Issue number three, possibly the best comic book series in the New Universe. Look at that, he's chain smoking on the cover. And that's just the beginning of what makes it good. Let's check it out.

Mark Hazzard MERC.

His name is Mark, and it's on fire! Has to be good. And it is.

Welcome back to 80s Comics as we take a break from the whimsical, Silver Hawks and Thundercats and kick it violent mass murder mayhem style with Mark Hazzard MERC, issue number three, Philadelphia Freedom from January 1987. This is how Mark Hazzard enjoys his spare time, assembling machine guns, machine guns, machine gum is a very different thing, machine guns, while the police harass him after he killed a bunch of people at his kid's little league game in the previous issue. None of them, and just the bad guy sent to assassinate him, Mark Hazzard. He's not a very nice guy, and that's why we like him. In fact, we learn a lot about his character in this issue. I love the gritty art style. I want to point this out. The art style is very cool. Alan Kupperberg does the storytelling, Jack Fury does the finishing.

This whole issue reads, in fact, the whole series reads like a 1980s action TV drama. Which is a good thing. Hey, there's a Laser Tag ad. And Mark Hazard is hired to serve as a bodyguard for this Israeli politician in the Israeli Day Parade in Philadelphia. He's a bodyguard. And uh apparently, he's got a history with this guy here, another secret service kind of guy.

He strung them up by a flagpole when they were in the academy together. They don't get along. So eventually this guy turns on them. You'll see. Look at these walkie-talkies or those phones. They're great. Whatever they are.

And he's chain smoking throughout the entire issue. It's the eighties after all. Cigarettes are good for you in the eighties. They increase his sense of awareness so that he can spot the rocket launcher in that guy's camera before it shoots the limousine and blows everyone up. He saves the politician.

Mark shoots a bunch of people, but then his friend, who's a giant coward, kicks the Uzi out of his hand because he might hurt civilians. Pretty sure Mark Hazzard wouldn't care if he did. Throws him in jail, and then that's when things get funny. One thing leads to another, and after smashing a building and killing some people with a wrecking ball and then shooting the rest of the survivors, Mark Hazzard does save the politician, but this is where the issue gets really good because, unlike Frank Castle in The Punisher, we don't feel like Mark Hazzard has any real superhero kind of advantage.

Mark Hazzard doesn't have a real superhero kind of advantage. He's not friends with Spider-Man or anything. He just, he gets the job done because he literally doesn't care. He's just completely given up. And I love it at the end, he has a self-righteous heart, but beyond that, he just doesn't care about the collateral damage. And at the end, there's some great storytelling. The storyboarding is really good in this issue.

In end, they capture the terrorists, and they're going to torture them. And you think that Mark Hazzard is going to step in and save them, because he's like, this is intolerable. I'm not going to stand for this. I could not let this continue. I could not live with myself if I permitted this travesty to go on. You think he's going to save these guys, but actually, he's making fun of Rambo for being a giant pussy. Mark Hazzard is making fun of Rambo. They unleash the dogs to eat the prisoners, and then we get an ad for the Thundercats and He-Man.

It's the 80s and Mark Hazzard is chain smoking on the cover of his issue. Like the violence, the mayhem, the destruction, perfectly acceptable. Smoking, that would be right out today. And this issue is terrific. The whole series is a lot of fun. Don't let the fact that it says New Universe scare you. Mark Hazzard, Merck is a good 1980s action packed, gritty read, nice artwork, really good, clever storytelling in this one.

I'm impressed. And so are you, or else you'll have to deal with this guy. Look at him. He shaved off his own eyebrows. Is he smoking, by the way? It's like a cigar. He probably inhales cigars. Or he's getting high as a kite. Who knows? Either one. It's MERC, issue three. Awesome. You would never see this cover today on a Marvel comic book. And do you know why?

Because shooting, stabbing, slaughtering, evisceration, beheading, squashing is perfectly fine, but smoking is right out in the future. And that's a shame because in 1987, Mark Hazzard had the freedom to not have eyebrows and smoke on the cover of his own comic book.

Sometimes it's hard when shooting on the phone to figure out where the camera is. Looking all around. In 1987, you knew where the camera lens was on your VHS camcorder.

Reach for a star!

Mark Hazzard MERC. Issue number three, and this is a very cool series. Don't let the fact that it says New Universe scare you. If you like The Punisher you'll enjoy Mark Hazzard Merc. I think they'd be good friends. They'd probably kill each other, but that would make a fun cover.