Jack of Hearts 2

Jack of Hearts 2
Feb 1984

Heart to Heart
By Bill Mantlo, George Freeman

Jack is free but pursued by those who were his keepers (SHIELD) and by aliens who seek to capture him. Jack understands SHIELD’s motivations and Marcy explains to him who the aliens are and why they are after him. They are from Contraxia, the same planet that Jack’s mother and Marcy Kane came from. Marcy reveals her true appearance and her origin and then proceeds to tell Jack, with the help of some Contraxian technology, all about her home world.

She tells him that Contraxia’s sun is dying. Marcy is a scientist, one of many emissaries sent by the Sun Priestesses of Contraxia in search of a possible solution to their planet’s problem. She tries to encourage Jack to return to Contraxia with her and Commander Varga, the leader of the alien forces whom he has already fought once.

Marcy and Jack stay hidden in the wilderness of Maine for a little while. Their hiding spot is revealed after Marcy shows Jack a replay of the car crash in which his mother died. He reacts by attempting to help the hologram of his mother. He blasts a wide radius of forest around himself and Marcy. Both sets of pursuers notice the energy surge and are able to pinpoint its location.

The Contraxians get to Jack first. They capture Marcy, beam her aboard their spaceship and then attempt to subdue Jack. Nick Fury, Martins, and several other agents of SHIELD show up in time to lend Jack a hand fighting the Contraxian forces. The battle spills overs into the town of Portsmouth. When the fighting is done all but one of the alien spacecraft have been destroyed.

Jack follows the last spaceship out to the outer atmosphere of the Earth. There the mothership awaits. Marcy calls to Jack, urging him once again to join her and to help Contraxia. Jack agrees, boards the mothership, which then quickly disappears into hyperspace. Nick Fury and the forces of SHIELD give up pursuit at this point and wish Jack luck as the issue ends.

Lots of fighting and backstory in this chapter. Once again I think Freeman does a wonderful job with the layouts and artwork in general. I love the reveals. Not all of them get a moment. This probably could have worked as a graphic novel but I do en enjoy the story in the limited series format. The only advantage to the graphic novel format would be the bigger pages.