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Indiana Jones
"The Devil's Cradle"
The Further Adventures of
Indiana Jones
#3
Marvel Comics
Writer: Denny O'Neil
Pencilers: Gene Day & Richard
Howell
Inkers: Mel Candido & Danny
Bulanadi
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Cover: Richard Howell and Danny
Bulanadi
March 1983
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Indy parachutes out of Edith Dunne's doomed
airplane and into a lynch mob.
Notes from the Indiana Jones chronology
This issue takes place immediately after the events of
"22-Karat Doom". A remark by
Indy in this issue seems to place the events of
Raiders of the Lost Ark
a few months before this, which would seem to place this story roughly
around the end of October or beginning of November. But the
following issue ("Gateway to Infinity")
has a remark about trying out for the upcoming Olympics, which
took place August 1-16 of 1936. It might be considered a slip
of the tongue by Indy when he said "months", when he really
meant "weeks", placing this story at the end of July.
Notes from
The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones
The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones is a 2008 publication
that
purports to be Indy's journal as seen throughout The
Young Indiana Chronicles
TV series
and the big screen Indiana
Jones movies. The publication is also annotated with notes
from a functionary of the
Federal Security
Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation, the successor
agency of the Soviet Union's KGB security agency. The KGB relieved Indy of his
journal in 1957 during the events of Indiana
Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
The notations imply the journal was released to other
governments by the FSB in the early 21st Century. However, some
bookend segments of The
Young Indiana Chronicles
depict Old Indy still in
possession of the journal in 1992. The discrepancy has never
been resolved.
The journal as published does not mention the events of this
issue, going from the end of
Raiders of the Lost Ark
in 1936 to
Indy's recovery of the Cross of Coronado in 1938 in The Last
Crusade.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this issue
Indiana Jones
Edith Dunne (mentioned only)
lynch mob
Prospero's grandson
Colonel Bulldog Hannigan
U.S. Army soldiers
Prospero
Didja Notice?
Seeing an old style lynch mob chase down and prepare to hang
a victim, Indy muses he could maybe get a paper for the
Folklore Society out of it rather than risk his own neck
trying to stop it. He is presumably referring to the British
organization called
The Folklore Society, founded in 1878.
On page 5, Indy and his new charge begin to cross a rope or
vine foot bridge over a creek, but the soldiers chasing them
cut the bridge loose, leaving Indy and the other man
clinging to the dangling bridge for life. Indy was in a
similar situation in The Temple of Doom.
On page 7, Indy remarks that a few months ago, he didn't
believe in the power of an ancient Jewish relic, but saw it
destroy a Nazi regiment. He is referring to the Ark of the
Covenant and the events at the end of
Raiders of the Lost Ark.
His comment implies that it occurred "a few months ago."
However, see the NOTES FROM THE INDIANA JONES CHRONOLOGY
above for a correction to this.
The special spring from which Prospero makes his immortality
elixir is in a cave under a rock formation called the
Devil's Cradle. As far as I can tell, this is a fictitious
formation. The name of the U.S. state this story takes place
in is never said (Indy doesn't even know what state he
bailed out of Edith Dunne's plane over). It would seem to be
a state on the east coast because Indy had set the doomed
plane's autopilot in
"22-Karat Doom" to take it
over the Atlantic Ocean. There is a creek called
Devils Cradle Creek in North Carolina, which would fit the
scenario, but I've been unable to find any evidence a rock
formation called the Devil's Cradle as the namesake of the
creek.
The old man's name of Prospero is likely borrowed from that
of the sorcerer in William Shakespeare's play The
Tempest.
It's never explained why, but the cave has a number of stone
statues that appear to be of ancient South American origin,
along the lines of Olmec, Maya, or Aztec cultures.
Indy gets a swallow of the immortality elixir when he is
thrown into the mixing tub. On page 13, his thoughts
indicate it tasted like a combination of grape Nehi and
soap.
Nehi was a U.S. soft drink company known for its
fruit-flavored sodas from 1924-1955. In 1955, the company
changed its name to Royal Crown Company. Nehi is now a brand
of the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group.
On page 18, Indy steals what
appears to be a common military Jeep from the army camp. But
the first Willys Jeep was not produced until 1941.
On page 18, Indy once again
thinks about "making it up as I go along", as he so often
does.
On page 20, Indy fires the field gun artillery piece towed
by the Jeep at the Devil's Cradle rock to knock the
formation down the far side of the mountain, away from the
army camp. As he preps it, he thinks, I saw one of these
things demonstrated once...wish I'd paid more attention. I
think the shell goes in here..." Of course, Indy was a
soldier in WWI, so he should probably already know a fair
amount about how artillery works, more than seeing it
"demonstrated" once!
At the end of the story, Prospero claims to be over four
centuries old, and his grandson two centuries old.
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