The Executioner Vs. The Assassins

After beating plenty of mobster ass in France and in England, Mack Bolan returns to the U.S.A. in #7, NIGHTMARE IN NEW YORK. No sooner does he step off the damn airplane than hitmen begin circling and have to be eliminated in that gritty Executioner style. However, Bolan suffers serious injury, and is taken by three sexy fashion designers to their apartment to recuperate. Outside of Bolan's new "girlfriends," who appear to be kinda clingy and not terribly bright, even though we're supposed to feel sympathetically toward them, this book follows the Executioner format pretty tightly. Bolan flippantly rips off a Mafia "bank" and, in the well-played climax, invades a lodge where the big Mob families are staging a sit-down meeting. At this point, Bolan is good and pissed after discovering the ravaged body of one of the three girls who befriended him, who had been raped and tortured before her death.

I enjoyed NIGHTMARE IN NEW YORK, but found it less memorable than previous Executioner adventures. While Bolan's bloodlust for the Mafia is what drives him to adventure, it's possible the formula may be becoming repetitious, as opposed to rival Pinnacle heroes like the Penetrator and the Death Merchant, who varied their choice of villain.