Inferno, Part 13

NAME
Inferno, Part 13

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 A.D. Prog 48

DATELINE
21 Jan 78

This prog had the third Dan Dare cover in a row by Dave Gibbons, another six Supernova Cards and Invasion, Bonjo From Beyond The Stars, Dan Dare, Judge Dredd, Tharg's Future Shocks and The Visible Man strips.

PAGE COUNT
4

REPRINTS
The Complete Harlem Heroes.


SYNOPSIS
The Harlem Hellcats recruit some cheerleaders and get more than they bargained for.

FIRSTS & LASTS
First appearance of the Hell-Kittens and Pearly who has the honour of being the first female character in Inferno to speak.

INFORMATION
The Harlem Hellcats' Firebowl is ready for their first home game, against the Firbank Fiends. They have been advertising for cheerleaders: the Hell-Kittens. During play the cheerleaders shelter in a pod.

Score so far: Harlem Hellcats 1 cave-in (3 points) to the Firbank Fiends nil.

GIANT
He is disorientated by Pearly's H and begins to fall.

SLIM
He's not worried about the Syndicate.

ZACK
He has taken it upon himself to interview the potential Harlem Hellcats' cheerleaders personally.

MOODY BLOO
He rebounds the ball off the far wall of the Firebowl, deflects it off one of the Firbank Fiends' bikers and is responsible for scoring a cave-in.

OTHER CHARACTERS
PEARLY
She is recruited as a Hell-Kitten, a cheerleader for the Harlem Hellcats. Pearly carries the H in their Hellcats display, but she uses it to transmit some form of invisible energy to disorientate Giant.

DEATHS
None.

BEST LINES
Giant: "Need any help, Zack?"
Zack: "Uuh? N-no thanks, Giant. I was...j-just selecting a cheer-leader. Pearly, here, seems to have the...uuh...right qualifications!"

WORST LINES
Pearly: "Did ya see how Giant made that score, girls...?...It was feed-back in a million!"

What?

CATCHPHRASES
The Hell-Kittens bring back a feature of Harlem Heroes I didn't realise I'd missed: the rhyming chant. In this case it's "Ridin' hard and flying high. That's the Hellcats, score or die!"

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
None.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
Giant calls Zack Casanova, a reference to Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt (1725-1798) who became so famous for his affairs with women that his name is now synonymous with womaniser.

The Hell-Kittens costumes resemble Catwoman, a character first appearing in the first issue of Batman (1940).

MISTAKES
The caption reads 'The rest of the Hellcats were putting Moody Bloo, the Harlem Cave-Man, through his paces...', but the three successive panels just show him with Junk.

RETROSPECT
None.

NOTES
None.

CREDITS
Script: Tom Tully
Artist: Belardinelli
Letters: Tom Frame

REVIEW
It's odd to read about an Inferno match and have the focus not be on the opposition, but between the fire, the Hell-Kittens, the cave-in and the fall this part isn't particularly focussed. It has a solid cliffhanger, but one that we've already seen more than once in Harlem Heroes.

To Be Continued.