Before Sting turned into the Crow.
WCW World Championship Wrestling #3
Marvel Comics (June, 1992)
“Bruise Cruise” WRITER: Mike Lackey PENCILER: Ron Wilson INKER: Don Hudson COLORIST: Kevin Tinsley LETTERER: Michael Higgins EDITOR: Mike Rockwitz
The “Bruise Cruise” was a special ocean cruise sponsored by WCW where wrestlers would compete during the cruise. On this particular one, Sting’s enemy, the WCW Ghoul, decides to mess with the man he’s been stalking for a while at this point. He hires Cactus Jack and the Young Pistols, Steve Armstrong and Tracy Smothers, to kidnap the captain and a few contest winners to send the Stinger through a gauntlet with clues leading him to a bomb. While Sting defeats all three, the Ghoul knew they would. This was only part of his further psychological assault on the man called Sting.
What they got right: While less wrestling that the first issue, what was there was still good. It’s also a good story as Sting fights his way to Cactus Jack through the Pistols.
What they got wrong: Steve Armstrong is the only one whose last name is given and their called the Pistols when their tag-team name was the Young Pistols. Yukon Pete was an original for Sting to take out in the opening but they already had a lumberjack at WCW at the time, Big Josh. There’s one panel where the bomb looks more like a test tube filled with liquid than the wrapped up dynamite the rest of the time. Finally, WCW fans already recognized that the name WCW Ghoul was incorrect, since he was called the Phantom, not the Ghoul. And he had already been revealed by this point to be Ravishing Rick Rude, proving that alliances and wrestling storylines sometimes change too fast for the comics to keep up.
Recommendation: A fun adventure, and it’s nice to see Sting as he used to be before he went all dark and junk. A good one for fans to look up. I wish I had more issues of this comic, but I don’t.
“Yesterday’s” Comic> WCW #1
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