| Jackie Kane (Earth-483) |  You're... you're a duck. Wearing pants.  |
| Howard the Duck | My lawyers tell me I've always been wearing these pants. |
Appearing in "The Dead and the Quick"
Featured Characters:
- Jacali "Jackie" Kane (Earth-483) (First appearance)
- Hurricane (Harry Kane-483) (First appearance; dies)
Supporting Characters:
- Arno Stark (Earth-483) (First appearance; dies)
- Machine Man
- Howard the Duck
- Morbius
Antagonists:
- Zombies (First appearance)
- Kid Colt (Earth-483) (First appearance; dies)
- Black Rider (Earth-483) (First appearance; dies)
- Two-Gun Kid (Matthew Hawk) (Earth-483) (First appearance; dies)
- Arizona Girl (Earth-483) (First appearance; dies)
- Rawhide Kid (Earth-483) (First appearance; dies)
- Phantom Rider (Earth-483) (First appearance; dies)
- Two-Gun Kid (Clay Harder) (Earth-483) (First appearance; dies)
- Little Cloud Kane (Earth-483) (First appearance; dies)
- Iron Mask (Earth-483) (First appearance; dies)
Locations:
- Earth-483 (First appearance)
- Rango (First appearance)
- Boot Hill (First appearance)
- Hurricane Hotel Saloon (First appearance)
- Rango (First appearance)
- Earth-691
Synopsis for "The Dead and the Quick"
In the beginning of the issue, an A.R.M.O.R. report of the later Wild West era of Earth-483 (designated as "The Frontier") tells that this reality is banned from traveling into as it detected a hazardous "planestorm". It is further revealed that Earth-483 is not the only reality in the Multiverse suffering from the "hazard", which turns out to be a zombie virus that is similar to the one that plagued in Earth-2149, as it lands in a graveyard via a meteorite.
The next day, Jacali "Jackie" Kane, the daughter of Harry Kane, the Hurricane, welcomes Arno Stark to the town of Rango, where the West's well known gunslingers are buried in the town's cemetery. Jackie wanted Mr. Stark to interview her father for his reputation as a shootist. As they arrive to Hurricane's saloon they find a temperance group protesting in front of the establishment. Jackie confronts the group's leader and talk her into ceasing their protest as the saloon is all her family had to live through. However, the woman snidely pointed out to her for "plying white men with liquor to drag them to [Jackie's] level." Jackie viciously punches her out. Following this, Jackie and Arno Stark enters inside and meet Hurricane, who is now a aged man. Hurricane then learns from his daughter and Stark that they want him to be employ in Colonel Brett Sabre's Wild West show for him to entertain. And as well from Jackie's insistence in looking for a new life and future as no tourists bothered to come to Rango to see the past's well known gunfighters' graves. As Stark tries to sway him, Hurricane punches him and states that he will not be extorted like his old passed and respected enemy Kid Colt, whose body is mounted in front of the town's pharmacy. Stark angrily leaves.
As Stark walks past the pharmacy, Kid Colt's coffin was burst open. Stark is grabbed into an alley, and killed and eaten by a zombie Colt.
Jackie is angry at her father for blowing their chances and for her to see the world. Hurricane tells her that he will never prostitute his powers as they were originally sacredly gifted. Jackie argues to him that he was a legend in the West ever since her mother Little Cloud died from fever, and now never living it up as it was before. Hurricane simply reply that "legends only live in the memory" and suggested to be like that way. Jackie solemnly decides to leave the town for good before saying goodbye to her mother.
At the cemetery, two riders, who are from Earth-616 and employed by Michael Morbius, observed the meteorite's crater that was left last night. One of the riders, looks into a book about zombie outbreaks which he discover that they are finding a "Ghoul" Type-6810 (popularly known as a "Romero"). He reads that extraterrestrial radiation from the meteorite revives the dead into zombies. Jackie arrives at the graveyard and finds all the graves unearth, including her mother's.
At Rango, a zombie Arno Stark attacks and eats one of the temperance women and follow by a horde of undead gunfighters which includes the Phantom Rider, Two-Gun Kid, the Rawhide Kid, Arizona Girl, and others. The zombies attack and chase the townspeople. The leader of the temperance group panicky runs into Hurricane's saloon and desperately needing Hurricane's help. Outside the zombie gunmen have nearly devoured everyone and are then confronted by a heavily armed Hurricane. The zombies, having tracing memories of Hurricane, surrounds him in a gun draw. Hurricane, using his powers again, draws his guns first and easily dispatches many of his former undead friends and enemies (as according to a Romero, these zombies can be simply kill with a bullet to the head). Just then, he is shocked to see his undead wife Little Cloud. This caught him off guard and allowing the other zombies to shoot Hurricane. Jackie arrives too late to find her father gang up and devour. With his last words, Hurricane tells her daughter that her mother didn't actually died from sickness but accidentally killed by him in their last on-stage gun performances. Jackie is immediately surrounded and Hurricane make his last attempt to save her daughter by passing his powers to her.
Blessed and inheriting her father's powers, Jackie dispatches the zombies and reluctantly killing her undead parents. The last zombie, Iron Mask, is unfazed by Jackie's bullets and attacks her. Just as Iron Mask is on top of her, he is then grotesquely kill by Machine Man, who is one of the riders at the cemetery. He tells Jackie of his origins and purposes in collecting samples from all known types of "brain-munchers" throughout the Multiverse to isolate a cure for the plague on Earth-616. Jackie is incredulous of Machine Man's story until she is convinced by the appearance of the other rider, Howard the Duck. After Machine Man procures a sample from Ghoul Type-6810, he and Howard prepares to move on to another reality. But before they do, Jackie, having learn of the Multiverse, wants to come along with them as there is nothing for her in her world now. Both Machine Man and Howard agrees, and plans to find an "Infected" Type-0211 (a "Boyle"). Which is in a dimension where Earth is under rule by Martians called "The Martian Protectorate".
Solicit Synopsis
Notes
- The "Romero" zombie virus is named after director George Romero, known for directing his "Living Dead" films. As the zombies describe in this issue are similar to the zombies in Romero's movies.