Kobra #2, April-May 1976. "Code Name: Gemini!" Written by Martin Pasko, art by Chic Stone & Pablo Marcos, edited by Gerry Conway, cover by Ernie Chua.
In an unknown time, an unknown place, Jason Burr faces his twin brother, Kobra, in a hall of mirrors. The leader of the Kobra worshippers brandishes a mighty scimitar, and swears that Burr will pay for his transgressions. Burr ducks as Kobra swings the scimitar, then Burr kicks Kobra through one of the mirrors. Losing track of where Kobra is, Burr starts wandering through the maze, running into a dead end.
Suddenly, Kobra sends a fist smashing through one of the mirrors, connecting with Burr's jaw, then the villain takes his hood off, showing Burr that their faces are identical. Pulling Burr through the jagged hole in the mirror, Kobra thrusts Burr's neck into the glass...
...and Burr wakes up from his dream, drenched in sweat. His hand and ribs are bandaged from the events in the last issue. Melissa, Jason's girlfriend, comes to his bed. She was letting him sleep, with instructions to wak him at 6. Melissa assures him that with all the wierdness in his life, she's with him.
Meanwhile, at Kobra's ark, Kobra awakens from the same dream, realizing that the link between him and Jason seems to be growing stronger. Then, the sensation of Melissa kissing Jason hits him, reminding him of Natalie, his lost love. Angered, Kobra rampages in his bedroom for a few minutes before he's alerted that the ark is nearing its destination. Below the ark, in a pavilion at the New York World's Fairgrounds, Solaris and his henchmen study the Heliotron before placing it in Solaris' sky-ship. Above, in the ark, Kobra watches, and announces that it's time to attack! His men invade the pavillion to achive the Heliotron, a kind of ultra-violet device.
As Kobra's men attack Solaris' men, the two master villains battle. Kobra quickly gains the upper hand, and Solaris orders one of his men to flee with the Heliotron. Kobra pursues, but one of his men unwittingly blocks his way (Kobra promises double the punishment for the error). Meanwhile, Solaris and his remaining henchmen fly away in a skycraft with the Heliotron.
Later, at Jason Burr's dormitory, Jason fills Melissa in more detail on the events of last issue. He reiterates that Perez is likely to kill Kobra... which would kill Jason, too. At that moment, Lt. Perez shows up with a package for Jason.
Meanwhile, at Kobra's headquarters, the henchman who failed Kobra is locked into an isolation tank filled with venom-gas.
Back at Burr's dorm, Perez tells Jason about the Heliotron, which is capable of killing a man without pain, destroying him entirely. Solaris was a NASA engineer specialist in solar energy, and when he lost his job, he lost his sanity, and developed the Heliotron. Perez figures that Kobra's trying for the Heliotron, and that if Kobra exposes himself to the gizmo's radiation, he might kill himself, killing Jason as well -- giving Jason a stake in things. Perez wants Jason to help him out with a situation: Solaris has threatened to kill the residents of Monville, Long Island at noon tomorrow if New York State doesn't pony up $10 million. Perez plans to stop Solaris, and capture Kobra as well. Perez also has a solution to keeping Jason from harm... a way of protecting him and gathering data on Kobra... A costume and the code-name: Gemini. Jason takes one look at it and laughs his head off.
The next day, the state militia and National Guard stand ready at Montville to defend against Solaris, who shows up in his sky-ship. Also appearing is Kobra's ark, which smashes into Solaris' ship. Solaris and his henchman flee the craft on what appear to be flying surfboards, while Kobra's men do much the same. Solaris' henchman is killed by one of Kobra's men. Above them, Perez and Burr watch in a helicopter. Perez's plan is that the army will blast Kobra's ark while Jason lures Kobra. Burr doesn't want to leave the cockpit, but Perez renders the decision moot by pushing Jason out of the copter, entreating him to turn on his jetpack.
The battle rages below, with Kobra's men converging on Solaris, but they are killed by the Heliotron. Then, Solaris aims the weapon at Jason Burr, whom he's mistaken for Kobra. Kobra leaps from his ark to save Jason (because he doesn't want to be killed, either), but Jason's jet-pack is struck by the beam, sending Jason and Kobra plunging to Earth.
Okay, two ads to share this time around... the first one, above, is self-explanatory... a historical ad, marking the first crossover between DC and Marvel. In today's era of almost routine inter-company crossovers, it's hard to imagine how much of a big deal that meeting between Superman and Spider-Man was!
The second ad, another "NCG Merchandise" offering, features the incredible Super DC Calendar (I wish they'd do those again), gyro-powered Super Stunt Cycles (which I rembember having the Batman one... picked up at K-Mart), a Batman glider plane, Supes and Batman squirt guns (yeah, they ejected water out of their mouths... spit guns, really), a Batman electric toothbrush, and finally, the Super Friends Car! Yeah, I kow... it's a dune buggy... Aquaman's driving it (where does the King of the Seven Seas learn how to drive?!?), with Robin in the passenger seat, while Superman and Batman stand in the back. Apparently, Wonder Woman wasn't allowed to ride in the car 'cause she's a girl.
Anyway... do you have any of those wondeful items in your collection? I want to see a photo with you and the item! And tell me something about it... how you felt when you got it, that kind of thing. E-mail that to me at waffyjon@execpc.com and I'll add 'em to the page!
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