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Quote1 Self pity and a defeatist attitude will hurt your progress a lot more than ill health does. Quote2
Iron Fist

Appearing in "Day Of the Dredlox"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Several people abducted by the Dredlox
    • janitor (Unnamed)
    • actress (Unnamed)

Locations:

Items:

  • Temporal Polarization Destabilizer (First appearance)
  • Dredlox's Time Platform (First appearance)

Vehicles:

  • Gamble's bookshop (First appearance)

Synopsis for "Day Of the Dredlox"

Power Man and Iron Fist visit the theater where their friend Bob Diamond is playing the lead role of Professor J.A. Gamble in a play called "The Day of the Dredlox." Danny and Luke agree that, although the Dredlox look real and dangerous when on stage, the robot props are considerably less impressive when seen up close. After the trio and Colleen Wing leave, the spiteful janitor is attacked by some unseen force.

The next day, Power Man meets up with Iron Fist at the Heroes for Hire Office, where Bob has arrived to hire the heroes' services because of a series of strange events and disappearances at the theater where he is acting. After deciding to take the case, the trio are attacked by laser blasts from unseen attackers as soon as they exit the building. Power Man, Iron Fist, and Bob manage to dodge these blasts and save passersby from the attack but when Luke reaches the alley from where the blasts were fired he finds it empty. With the attack having stopped as suddenly as it started, the heroes are left puzzled as to what is going on.

The guys find an evening of romance between their respective partners is hard now that Misty and Harmony are living together. Deciding to hang out together as a group instead, their evening plans are cut short when Danny gets a panicked call from Bob. Rushing to the theater, the Heroes for Hire find that the Dredlox have come to life and are attacking them with real lasers. Finding themselves outnumbered, Power Man and Iron Fist are forced to retreat and decide to hide within a nearby bookshop that happens to still be open. Once inside, they discover that the interior of the shop is a lot larger on the inside than its tiny exterior, and they are greeted by a man who introduces himself as Professor Justin Alphonse Gamble. After claiming that he wrote the play using a pen name and that it was based on a chapter from his diary, Gamble also reveals that the Dredlox apparently think that Diamond is him because they have no idea how much his appearance has changed in the last ninety-five years. Although Danny believes Gamble, Luke strongly doubts his story and wants to go back to fighting the robots. Gamble reveals that he has been busy working on a device to banish the Dredlox back to their own era but doesn't know how to sneak it into their headquarters. Luke assures Gamble that Iron Fist is the best there is at sneaking.

In the building nearby that is their headquarters, the Dredlox try to force Diamond to repair their malfunctioning time platform. They also want "Gamble" to share with them his knowledge of the secrets of time and space, and threaten to incinerate another of the kidnapped people if he refuses to comply.

Once Gamble has completed his Temporal Polarization Destabilizer, Power Man and Iron Fist break into the Dredlox's base, interrupting their attempt to force Diamond to help them. With their captors now distracted, Diamond seizes the opportunity to get himself and the other kidnapped people away from the danger. As Luke and Danny keep the Dredlox occupied, Gamble sneaks into the building, attaches his device to the Time Platform and turns it on. This causes the Time Platform and all of the Dredlox to disappear. As Danny and Luke congratulate Gamble, Diamond arrives with some police officers and is stunned to see that the time machine and the robots are no longer there. When Luke suggests that Diamond ask the prof, he and Danny are surprised to find that Gamble has also disappeared and that the bookshop where they had first met him is now gone without a trace.

Notes

  • Professor J.A, Gamble and the Dredlox appear to be homages to the Doctor and his recurring foes, the Daleks.
  • Although Professor Gamble refers to the murderous machines as the Dredlox and that name is used in the play that is an adaptation of a chapter from his diary, the robots never actually refer to themselves by that name (or any name) in this issue. The next story in which they appear will establish that their true name is the Incinerators and that they only called themselves "Dreadlox" for a while.[1]
    • That story will also establish that what appeared to be a bookshop in this issue is actually one of the Time Variance Authority's Time Capsules, time vessels that can change their exterior appearance and whose interior space is larger than their external shell, like the TARDIS used by the Doctor.
  • This issue contains a letters page, Power/Fistfuls. The five letters that are published are from Domenic Cecullo, Rick S. Jones, T.M. Maple, Gordon Manley, and Roger Myers.

See Also

Links and References

References

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