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"Forbidden Fruit"
Battlestar Galactica #18 (Marvel)
Written by Steven Grant and Walt Simonson
Layouts by Sal Buscema
Pencils by
Walt Simonson
Inks by Klaus Janson
August 1980 |
Apollo’s
showdown with the transformed Enoch.
Story Summary
Picking up from last issue, the transformed Enoch has captured
Athena, Cassiopeia, and Sapphire on the surface of the jungle
planet where the other brutes have tied them to posts. He places
a pile of jungle fruit in front of each, waiting for the heat of
day to ripen it so the odor will force them to partake as it did
him.
But Apollo has followed their crashed Vipers to the planet's
surface and jumps him. Enoch directs the other brutes to attack him but, just then, Boomer flies over in his
Viper,
frightening off the primitives. With solar flare activity
preventing communications, Apollo sends Boomer and the women
back to the
Galactica to warn them of the danger of the fruit
already on board. Meanwhile, he seeks out Enoch in the jungle to
try to bring him back to the fleet to find a cure for his
transformation.
After another encounter, Enoch accidentally falls off a cliff.
Apollo clambers down to the dying beast and Enoch finally
realizes how he had been growing violent and primitive in his
new, powerful body and apologizes to Apollo before dying.
THE END
Didja Notice?
Commander Adama's log gives the date as
143-58-06.
After Apollo frees Athena, Cassiopeia, and
Sapphire from Enoch's clutches, he orders the three of them and
Boomer to head back to the Galactica to warn them of the danger
of the fruit. But the women's Vipers were all damaged and
crash-landed in "Ape and Essence". And we only see one
Viper
approach and land on the Galactica on page 22. So, are
we to believe all four pilots were crammed into one Viper?!
Lucky Boomer! (Co-Writer Steven Grant admits essentially the
same thing in the lettercol of BSG #20!) The No-Prize solution, is that they actually
took Apollo's Viper as well (even though we don't see it on page
22), so there would be only two in each ship (still cramped!).
We don't actually see Apollo leave the planet at the end of the
story, so his Viper could be gone and he has to be picked up by
a shuttle shortly after his confrontation with Enoch.
Notes from Battlestar Bulletins
In the
Battlestar Bulletins lettercol of BSG #21, letter writer Dominic
Dewlay complains about this story, arguing what's the point of a
fruit that forces people to eat it? He seems to be unaware that
the point of fruit (on Earth anyway!) is for something to eat
it. It has evolved that way so that mobile creatures will take
and eat the fruit elsewhere, discarding the seeds on new soil
and allowing the species to spread to other locales. However,
the story's writer, Steven Grant, answers Dominic that this
particular fruit has evolved to transform the hungry victim into
a carnivorous creature that no longer wants to eat fruit!
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