It’s time to talk about the second half of Mr. T and the T-Force, but first I thought I’d bring up the trading cards. Most issues would come shrink-wrapped with Mr. T and the T-Force cards. They would tend to show either cover art or a choice panel on the front while the back would include a quick explanation of how Mr. T is awesome in the light of his environment and a quote from T himself. Here are a couple of them for you.

Note: Mr. T and the T-Force has zero mention of racism.

Now, then. Where were we? The latest arc – written by Mike Baron and drawn by Tony de Zuniga – has several subplots going on.

– Justice, a kid Mr. T blackmailed from the first issue, needs to redeem himself for refusing to help Mr. T against a 10-foot-tall dude with a grenade launcher for a hand.
– Mr. T found drugs and drug money in his tenant Mrs. Thibodeaux’s refrigerator. This is due to her grandson Lewis.
– Mr. T has taken the role of bodyguard for Emma, a widow who is constantly mugged by a gang of punks.
– Mr. T is mentoring boxer Sam Slamm, who is set to fight undefeated champion Kevin O’Malley. A bunch of O’Malley’s followers try to thrash Sam because he doesn’t deserve to fight Kevin. Now Mr. T and Sam are on their way to the ring.

Issue #6 begins with the two of them being shouted at by various fans in attendance. It includes this bald guy.

So he’s going to hang Sam and drop a bomb laced with poison on him to make sure he’s dead? Somebody get Ed Boon on the phone, Johnny Cage needs to do this in the next Mortal Kombat. Kind of fucked to have the bald white guy yelling about hanging to a black guy, but whatever. I’m more taken in by that older gentleman in the top right. That guy seems pretty cool. And say, is that Stacy Keach on the other side?

You could say that the skinhead dude goes against what I said a second ago about no mention of racism, except he inexplicably turns black on the next page as he gets in Mr. T’s face. Mr. T roundhouse kicks the dude away and everyone starts to rush them. Sam reluctantly fights them off until Kevin O’Malley yells at everyone to let the man in the ring. When they try to defend their actions, O’Malley points out that he CHOSE to fight Sam in the first place, so let off.

The two touch gloves and go at it. The next few pages dedicate themselves to the fight, which is pretty even and does attempt to implement strategy instead of just the two of them punching back and forth with no rhyme or reason. Mr. T briefly notices Lewis, the drug-dealing grandson of his tenant, talking to someone, but gets his head back into the game. Sam ups his game and the fight goes the distance. Sam and O’Malley come out of it on good terms and it’s believed that Sam should win via decision.

Mr. T briefly confronts Lewis, which leads to Lewis’ friends realizing that Mr. T’s the guy who stole their drug stash. The short of it is…

MR. T GUN DISARM TALLY: 11

Sometime later, Mr. T escorts Emma, as she picks up her money from the government. This time, the amount of thugs has grown to seven. They surround Mr. T and aim their guns. On one hand, this is a smart way around Mr. T’s ability to disarm anyone aiming a gun at him. On the other hand, it also means they’re all going to shoot each other. Morons.

Justice sees this goes down and decides to do something about it. He runs off to get help. Emma, scared out of her wits, wants to give these guys the money, but Mr. T insists she stay strong. Inside, he knows that with the two of them surrounded, there’s no way he can properly shield her.

Suddenly, Sam Slamm and Kevin O’Malley arrive and start tearing ass.

MR. T GUN DISARM TALLY: 12

O’Malley asks Mr. T about being his cornerman due to how good he was with Sam, but Mr. T turns him down. The thugs turn tail and leave their guns behind, allowing Mr. T to sell them off to the police. Sam and O’Malley leave together, talking about other boxers and giving the idea that they’ve become close friends. Mr. T discovers that Justice is the one who saved the day and they thank each other. Emma offers to cook them dinner, since Mr. T refuses payment for his protection services.

Lewis is shown trying to make a deal with a crack dealer to make up for Mr. T getting rid of his drug stash. Lewis is told to lick the dealer’s shoes and he gets on his knees to do just that. Mr. T walks over, the dealer pulls a g—

MR. T GUN DISARM TALLY: 13

Jesus. Okay, so after that, the dealer runs away. Mr. T talks down to Lewis, who is sick of the lectures and tells Mr. T to stay out of his way. Then we get this page.

Mr. T knows we’re there and he just changed his clothes in front of us. I’m not comfortable with that knowledge.

The next two issues are by the creative team of Chuck Dixon and Todd Fox. It starts off with ninjas running around on rooftops, wearing backwards caps and yelling, “Oh, man, we is NOT… gonna pay a LOT… for dis muffla!” so it has that going for it.

Seriously, I do like this little sequence from after the police open fire and one of the ninjas falls to his death.

Mr. T investigates the crime scene and tapes it with his handheld video recorder. A disrespectful kid named Lester shows up and Mr. T tells him he should be in school, not playing hooky. Mr. T starts filming Lester as a way to taunt him, but Lester tells him off. He has a high-paying job, which T notices paid for Lester’s red hightop sneakers. As the kid storms off, Mr. T muses that the kid is tough enough to survive, but he needs to be on the side of good too.

Lester is one of the ninjas from the night before and his leader gives him hell for not stealing the loot from his dying companion’s body before taking off. He and the rest are given the assignment of stealing from a bakery late at night. That’s when an old man shows up with a gun and fires.

Later on, Mr. T and the police hang out and discuss the latest wave of robberies. It’s put together that whoever is behind it is using kids. That way the kids can’t do the time and they have no reason to turn in their teacher. Suddenly, the guy from the bakery shows up and he is a raging tard.

HOLY SHIT, MR. T IS D—oh, never mind. He tilted his head to the side in time. He angrily snatches the gun out of the apologetic man’s hands.

MR. T GUN DISARM TALLY: 14

At this point, we’re averaging two disarms per issue.

Mr. T takes to the rooftops and starts chasing the ninja kids and gains on them. One of them notices how strong the higher rooftops are and they lead Mr. T to the weaker apartment buildings. Mr. T is able to grab one of the ninjas by the shoe, but upon landing on the rooftop, he breaks through and falls several stories into the basement. On paper, that would easily kill a man. But Mr. T? Other than a couple cuts on his head and a smashed up camera, Mr. T is completely fine. Damn, man. He also has the sneaker in hand, which he recognizes as Lester’s. That night, he storms into Lester’s room and scares the bejeezus out of him.

Mr. T drags Lester out of bed, drags him outside, lectures him on prison and throws him into an alley while yelling, “I’m gonna make you my personal hobby, boy!” The fact that Lester’s wearing only tighty-whiteys during this sequence makes that line just a tiny bit creepy.

Mr. T stalks Lester wherever he goes for a couple days. When Lester is telling a friend about it, a van drives up and Lester is abducted. Mr. T attaches a hook to the back bumper to momentarily stop it, but it breaks loose and crashes into a brick wall.

With apologies to Jay Pinkerton, this page is totally asking for it.

At the evil hideout, the boss puts a gun to Lester’s head and asks if he’s in or out. Even though Lester’s mouth is taped up, he mumbles that he’s in and they ease up on him. Later on, the boss talks about a safe on top of a building that’s been advertised as being uncrackable. To blow it open would only destroy the building around it and that would alert the cops and firemen before they could get the loot. Lester comes up with a plan.

Sneaking around the building, Lester has second thoughts, but goes through with the plan anyway. He and the other ninja kids beat up a security guard and Lester is told to finish him off. Lester merely misses a punch on purpose and asks the guy to play dead. As this is going on, Mr. T follows the trail of oil left from the van and finds the hideout. There, he beats up a big dude armed with an axe. He sees the plans for the heist and runs off to put a stop to it.

Lester’s plan is for everyone to physically remove the safe out of the building and then push it off the roof. Gravity takes care of the rest. His boss is ecstatic and calls the kid a born outlaw. He starts celebrating his newfound fortune until Mr. T gets his hands on him. The ninja kids show up and try to use their numbers to their advantage, but they’re just mosquitos to someone as tough as T. One kid pulls an uzi, which we already know is no problem at all for Mr. T to handle, but Lester turns on his teammate anyway.

Lester is all excited and thanks Mr. T for getting through to him, but Mr. T outright does not give a shit.

That’s cold.

That leaves our final two issues, written by Robert Soffega and Aubrey Singer with the art by Todd Fox. While it won’t win any awards, it’s still probably the closest thing this series has to a good story arc. It’s the only time when you can at least accept the danger and drama going on instead of Mr. T taking care of any problem with complete ease. It’s also the one time where Mr. T doesn’t seem to be overly forcing his morality onto others.

It starts at Neighborhood Pride Day, where a criminal Eddie Blades prepares a subtle drug deal. Mr. T, as he’s wont to do, appears and starts kicking all sorts of ass. Two guys pull out their guns and get fruits thrown into their faces. One dude gets hit with a pineapple so hard that his teeth go flying.

MR. T GUN DISARM TALLY: 16

They run off and Eddie Blades escapes. Police Sergeant Kelley appears and yells at Mr. T. This was a sting operation to bring in Eddie Blades and Mr. T mucked it up. Rather than go after Eddie Blades, he seems more interested in scowling at Mr. T for letting Eddie get away. That’s really the only thing that got messed up in this situation, since, as Mr. T attests, there are like a million witnesses.

Eddie Blades is later murdered in his home, strangled to death with a gold chain. A T-Force watch is put in his hand. When Sgt. Kelley discovers this, he asks for Mr. T to be brought in for questioning.

Mr. T meets up with Nurse Janie, one of many forgettable supporting characters. She looks worried and goes into a story about a 13-year-old girl named Holly. She’s pregnant and it’s made her suicidal. She was found cutting herself at school and the principal sent her to the clinic after sedating her. She’s escaped and is out of it due to the drugs. Mr. T agrees to go hunt her down.

He ends up finding her in the subway as she thinks about jumping onto the train tracks. She sees Mr. T coming and runs away in confused fear. She gets onto the tracks as a train’s coming, though luckily Mr. T is able to grab her and escape in time. Holly worms out of his grasp and runs off. He tries to catch up with her, but a couple of cop cars prevent him from moving on.

Eddie Blades worked for Clarence, a middle-aged black man with a white flattop. He seems completely mystified at the idea of Mr. T murdering Eddie and asks for his men to bring him Mr. T. He wants answers.

Mr. T is brought to Sgt. Kelley, who explains the situation. While he doesn’t truly believe Mr. T is the murderer, he does need to question him and all the other T-Force members. For the time being, Mr. T needs to be kept in a cell. Mr. T pleads his case about Holly and how she’s already tried to kill herself twice today, but Kelley has to go by the book. A thunderstorm takes out the power and Kelley tells T to use that as a head start. He wishes him luck in finding Holly and the answers about Eddie’s death, but warns him that police will be looking for him all over.

While evading the police, Mr. T gets word from one of his T-Force members that they’ve seen Holly. Mr. T finds her on a bridge, getting ready to jump. You’d think whichever T-Force member called that in would have been there too, but nope. As he attempts to talk her down, Clarence’s gang appears and tell Mr. T they want him to come with them. When he says Clarence can wait, they angrily fire at Holly. They miss, but she backs over the railing. Mr. T jumps down, catches her in time and lands on a platform. He has no choice but to give in and be brought to Clarence.

Upon meeting Clarence, it’s shown that the two share some kind of history.

Mr. T insists that he has proof that he didn’t kill Eddie and the two make a deal. Mr. T has until morning to find that proof. If he can’t deliver, he’ll pay with his own blood. In the meantime, Holly stays with Clarence as collateral.

Some detective work leads him to discover that the only T-Force member without a wristwatch is Lester, the kid from the previous story. He lost it in a fight to a guy who’s the brother of a Chinese mob boss. Things are starting to come together.

To escape the police, Mr. T borrows a random guy’s motorcycle and the dude is totally okay with it because it’s Mr. T. After evading the cop car by driving through an alley, Mr. T saves a shopkeeper from looters and we discover that this is the place where he gets his supply of handheld video cameras. The shopkeeper gives him some convenient news on the Chinese mob and where they’re meeting up.

Mr. T beats up a couple guards and a ninja with a scimitar. He notices the place is full of heavy duty weapons, probably to be sold to children, as well as a lot of fireworks. He comes across the mobsters and points his camera at them. The leader believes it to be a gun and calmly talks Mr. T down. He framed Mr. T because his organization plans to expand into his territory and they want to nip that Mohawked vigilante problem in the bud. Plus it gives them a free first shot at Clarence while keeping their hands clean.

Mr. T warns them and takes his leave.

So I know he just ran away from all those gunmen, but his actions just caused the destruction of who knows how many guns. That’s as good a reason as any to retire the MR. T GUN DISARM TALLY.

Mr. T jumps out of the building as it explodes in a myriad of fireworks. The criminals escape, but quickly pass out. The cops arrive, Mr. T hands the evidence tape over to Sgt. Kelley and everything’s smoothed over. Clarence drives up and lets out Holly, fulfilling his side of the agreement. He and Mr. T have an Xavier/Magneto argument about their life paths and how they each refuse to join with the other.

According to Holly, Clarence treated her well and told her about how he and Mr. T grew up together. I know Mr. T isn’t the youngest guy around this time, but Clarence aged horribly. I guess the mob will do that to you. Mr. T gives Holly a motivational speech that doesn’t seem forced for once. She’s far more optimistic than before, saying that now that she’s seen the paths two close friends like Mr. T and Clarence can take despite their shared rough environment, she understands that she has to believe in herself and do the right thing.

“Never lose that. And most of all, always remember that you’re not alone.”

Holly holds her hands over her stomach with a look of acceptance. “I know.”

The two quietly look off into the sunrise and the series comes to a close.

The series wasn’t planned to end at this point. The final issue has a blurb about the next storyline. The advertised story would have been about Mr. T donating money to refurbishing a movie theater and there being a conspiracy to assassinate one of the guests on opening night. Other issues brought up a story for issue #13 about a school hostage crisis, which would feature a 3D cover. Alas, the series came to an abrupt end and NOW Comics would take a powder just a couple months later.

If anything, it was definitely the longest lasting Mr. T comic, lasting far longer than any of the other attempts at a fool-pitying series. Plus it did give us some awesome cover art. Check this out.

Mr. T wouldn’t appear in a published comic book for over a decade, though it flew directly under the radar. In-between Mr. T and the T-Force and the following series, the internet had much to say about his exploits. But those can wait for next time.

Similar Posts:

• Mr. T Comic Book Jibba Jabba: Part Two
• Fourcast! 05: You Made Me Read This!
• The Cipher 07/20/10
• Fourcast! 06: Character Continuity Clash Comics!
• 50 Things That Have Been Green Avenged

Posted in comic books, Mr. T Comic Book Jibba Jabba, reviews by Gavok |