Firestorm #52 – “A Giant There Was” – Gerry Conway/Joe Brozowski/Steve Mitchell
Last issue, a wrestler named King Crusher was given experimental drugs by his sleazy manager Eddie Slick (who just happens to be a dead ringer for Martin Stein). When the drugs turned Crusher into an over-muscled behemoth, he went nuts and came after Eddie, who took off. But guess who just happened to be on a date right across the street? Yeah, so when Crusher comes out of the arena looking to waste Eddie, the first person he sees is Stein … who he assumes is Eddie. Stein manages to avoid being pulped and Crusher brings a building down on himself. Stein finds Eddie hiding in an alley and realizes it’s him Crusher is
after. Eddie takes off but leaves his wallet behind and Stein grabs it. As rumbles start coming from the demolished building, Stein leaves his date with the cops and sneaks away so he can trigger the change to Firestorm. Crusher pops out of the rubble, now green and totally hulked-out, still wanting to smash Eddie. At Vandemeer University, Ronnie is talking to Doreen about the “accident” where Hugo was paralyzed while wearing Ronnie’s football helmet because the strap was cut. Ronnie wonders if Cliff Carmichael might have 
sabotaged the helmet, hoping to hurt him. When he sees someone sneaking around the gym, he figures it might be Carmichael trying to steal the evidence. Ronnie goes in to check and gets clonked by Carmichael. Before he can really recover, Stein triggers the Firestorm merger and Ronnie has to explain why they have a massive headache. Firestorm tries to stop Crusher, but he’s too strong, so Stein suggests they track down Eddie. They find him hiding at the gym where Crusher trained and Eddie tells them the mob was backing Eddie and supplied the drugs to pump him up, but now they figure he’s pretty much washed out, so they don’t really care what happens to him. Crusher
shows up to waste Eddie and Firestorm flies off with him, making sure Crusher follows them. Eddie tells Firestorm where his supplier is and they head to the mob boss’s house where the scientist who developed the drug is meeting with the boss. Firestorm busts in and demands the formula for the rug, which the scientist is happy to give once Crusher shows up and starts trashing the place. Using Stein’s scientific knowledge, Firestorm comes up with a cure for Crusher’s condition, injecting him with a giant syringe … but only after he’s totalled the mobster’s house and the scientist who started the whole mess.
Vigilante #34 – “Detonation” – Paul Kupperberg/Tod Smith/Rick Magyar
This one starts with Vigilante showing up at the scene of the latest mob massacre, hoping to figure out who’s behind all the killings of mobsters lately. He ends up having to fight both sides and takes out most of the killers, leaving a mess behind for the cops to sort out. After changing back to Dave Winston, he goes to visit Adrian Chase in hospital. Adrian was caught in the latest health club bombing last issue. We see Lieutenant Stein having a covert meeting with the reporter Nussbaum. Stein gives him the evidence he’s collected (unofficially) about Chase’s involvement in Judge Welles’s death and the possible connection to
Vigilante. Stein claims he only wants to see justice done, but Nussbaum says he seems to be obsessed with Chase and warns him not to lose his objectivity. In the hospital, Adrian is doing well (thanks to his fast-healing), but wakes up to find Dave and Marcia (Adrian’s ex) holding hands. They were just comforting each other while worrying about Adrian, but he freaks and tells them to get lost. They leave, and Adrian is alone again, a state he seems to prefer these days. Later, Dave pays a hacker to tap into the police computers so he can get info on the health club bomber. He finds a bunch of stuff the cops haven’t made public, 
including a sketch of a possible suspect. The bomber strikes again (he’s a religious nut who believes health clubs are hotbeds for fornicators), but this time a cop spots him leaving and chases him. The bomber leaves a booby trap in an alley and the cop gets blown up, giving the bomber a chance to escape. Vigilante tracks down a weapons dealer named Sarge, a Rambo wannabe who pretends he’s a combat vet, but was actually rejected from the Army as 4-F. Vigilante beats the shit out of Sarge, who finally admits he sold some plastique to a guy and provides the location of the sale. Adrian checks himself out of the hospital against doctor’s orders and heads home. Vigilante stakes out the theatre where the bomber bought the plastique,
hoping he lives in the neighbourhood. After tedious vigil, Vigilante changes back to Dave Winston and heads home, but runs into the bomber in the subway station. A cop spots the bomber too and he takes off, prompting a chase. Dave tries to warn the cop not to get too close, but he corners the bomber, who tosses a bomb, blowing the cop to hell and knocking Dave for a loop. The bomber escapes and Dave figures things can’t get much worse, but we see the headline on a newspaper stating that Adrian Chase is being implicated in Judge Welles’s death.
Warlord #110 – “The Secret of Skyra III” – Michael Fleisher/Ron Randall
Travis Morgan and Shakira are still searching for the Greenfire Sea when they come across a barely-dressed blonde being menaced by crocodile-men. Morgan wastes them and the blonde (Asmara) tells him she’s from a flying city and came to the surface to get herbs for her ailing father. Her flight belt malfunctioned and she ended up in the clutches of the crocodile-,men. Asmara asks Morgan to help her find the herbs and promises to give him and Shakira flight belts to speed their journey. Far to the west, Machiste and Mariah are picked up in the
ocean by fishermen, who recognize Machiste and inform him that N’dosma has taken the throne of Kiro and told everyone Machiste was dead. Machiste realizes N’dosma must’ve sent the assassins after him and gets pissed off, planning to take back his throne (which pleases Mariah, since Machiste had been acting all mopey lately). Up north, Morgan goes into a cave to get some lichens and has to fight off a bear. Outside Kiro, Machiste and Mariah sneak into some old sewer tunnels, but end up running into a bunch of guards. Meanwhile, 
Morgan tries to harvest a giant poppy and gets ambushed by a huge mantis. Shakira distracts it long enough for Morgan to behead it. When they see pterodactyls swooping down on them, Morgan figures they’re in even more trouble, but Asmara says the reptiles are tame beasts from her flying city and they can ride them back there. Morgan remembers Skyra (the flying city he explored way back in issue 8) and hopes this place isn’t as deadly. Turns out this city is called Skyra III (apparently there were a number of Skyras built) and when they arrive, they find out Asmara was actually gathering items for a scavenger hunt.
Unfortunately, the leader of Skyra III (Asmara’s father) doesn’t want surface folk talking about their city, so he orders his robots to kill Morgan and Shakira. Morgan blasts the robots with his Automag, sabotages the anti-gravity drive, and forces the Skyrans to hand over two flying belts. Morgan and Shakira fly away, leaving the city to float slowly to the ground … right in the middle of the crocodile men whose egg Asmara stole.