Writer – Jim Shooter
Artist – Gil Kane
Inker – Wally Wood

Krellik has left Captain Action reeling after the events of the last issue and to make matters worse, he then steals the magical coins that the good Captain has on him. Now Krellik is in possession of five coins and defeating him seems all but impossible. Be that as it may, Arno is not going to give up and races back to the States in order to confront the villain once more, though not before arming himself with some of the remaining coins he has left. This leads to multiple run-ins between the two foes as the two of them try to get the better of the other and all of it is done expertly by Jim Shooter, Gil Kane and Wally Wood. The back and forth is to be expected as that is par for the course between heroes and villains but the creators of this book make it entertaining as each tries to lay traps that they hope will catch their nemesis unawares and lead to the other getting the upper hand. For most of this tale, it looks to be Krellik as he not only has Arno’s coins but the coin of the evil gods as well which gives him all sorts of magical powers, something Captain Action is unaccustomed to as he can only carry so many at a time. Also in the mix is Action Boy, the son of Arno who has taken on a secret identity of his own so that he might be his dad’s sidekick and Krellik takes full advantage of this fact, using the son against the father, perceiving him to be Arno’s weakness which in fact, he is. By the end of it all, Krellik does so again but this time, things go against the man in more ways than one as Captain Action is finally ready for the man and has been playing the long game with Krellik, unbeknownst to the latter. Shooter packs the story full of action while moving forward with little bits of characterization that make Arno and his son just a little bit more interesting, not that they were not already. A lot of coins make their debut with this issue with a lot of powers accompanying them and the namedropping of a lot of gods which makes one wonder just how much research Shooter had to do to write this issue. Kane joins the book as lead penciller with Wood still on board to lend his expertise inking over them and everything looks fantastic. Like many a good superhero epic, this one had a happy ending with the promise of more action and fisticuffs in the coming issue.

4 out of 5