Dead Men Walking
Credits: Glenn Herdling (writer), Glenn Greenberg (story assist), Shawn McManus (artist), John Kalisz (colors), Comicraft (letters)
The Plot:
Spider-Man encounters Ramon, a man drugged to act like a zombie. The
next day at the Daily Bugle, he learns Ramon is Glory Grant’s cousin.
After taking Glory to visit Ramon at Ravencroft, Peter discovers
federal agent Shotgun at Glory’s apartment. Shotgun is investigating
Glory, since she was one of the survivors of a cruise ship that
recently sank. Shortly, Spider-Man is caught in a fight between Shotgun
and the Zombie, who has arrived from New Orleans. Glory saves
Shotgun’s life, proving her innocence to him. However, while later
investigating the ship’s wreckage with Shotgun, Glory turns on him and
leaves him to drown. Glory, now dressed as Calypso, breaks Ramon out of
Ravencroft and summons the Zombie to help her dig up Calypso’s grave.
Spider-Man arrives and allows Calypso to resurrect her body in order to
save Glory. Calypso escapes and Glory returns to normal. The Zombie
leaves after Glory gives him Calypso’s talisman.
The Subplots:
MJ and Peter spend a night watching movies at home. When MJ falls
asleep, he changes into Spider-Man to check on Glory again. Drugs
shipped from Haiti have turned Glory’s cousin into a “zombie.” Shotgun
claims that the latest shipment is on the cruise ship that sank. While
possessed by Calypso, Glory acts on her attraction to Shotgun and
seduces him when he spends the night at her apartment. Later, she’s
relieved when Dr. Kafka revives Shotgun after his near-drowning. Dr.
Kafka also administers a cure to Ramon.
*See _________ For Details: Calypso claims her physical body has been recovering since her death in Web of Spider-Man #109. Her spirit resided in the Talisman of Damballah, which once
controlled the Zombie. One of Calypso’s agents knew to give the
talisman to Glory during her Caribbean vacation because he sensed their
mutual hatred of Spider-Man, which is a reference to the conclusion of
the Lobos Brothers arc in Web of Spider-Man #55.
I Love the ‘90s: Peter and MJ check out movies at a video store before their night at home.
Review:
You might recall that “Torment” was based on an idea by Glenn
Herdling, who returns this issue to revive Calypso after her utterly
pointless death in Terry Kavanagh’s Web of Spider-Man
run. Herdling was also the assistant editor on the titles during the
extended Lobos Brothers arc, which ended with Glory Grant perfectly
willing to kill Spider-Man for the werewolf mobster she loved. (Yup.
Check the archives.) That scene was casually ignored after the story
ended, as Glory disappeared into obscurity as soon as Gerry Conway left
the books in the early ‘90s. I have no idea if Conway had any concrete
plans on what was next for Glory following her relationship with Eduardo
Lobo, but I kind of doubt he intended for her to be possessed by the
spirit of Calypso.
Unfortunately,
what we have here is another case of a Daily Bugle cast member defying
all odds and somehow getting dragged into a scheme involving one of Spider-Man's established villains.
Never one of Iron Fist's villains, oddly enough. Glory just so happens to be on a cruise ship that takes in a boat of
Haitian refugees, one of which is a servant of Calypso, who is able to
discern that Glory has a subconscious hatred of Spider-Man going back to
a story that hasn’t been referenced in years. Simultaneously, the
cruise ship is also carrying drugs from Haiti; drugs that will soon turn
Glory’s cousin into a zombie back in America. Those are just too many
coincidences to accept in one story, and that’s before we even get to
the fact that Ashley Kafka happens to be the doctor treating Ramon.
Now,
for some reason, the story goes out of its way to differentiate between
the “Zombieastral” (zombies created by chemicals) and “Zombiecadavre”
(a resurrected corpse). Both are used in the story, and neither adds
much of anything. The basic idea of Calypso possessing Glory Grant and
using Glory to resurrect her original body has problems, but at least
there’s nothing fundamentally convoluted about it. For some reason,
Herdling feels the need to complicate the plot with the old ‘70s Zombie,
political strife in Haiti, a new street drug that zombifies people,
Glory’s cousin, and, oh yeah, Shotgun. You might remember Shotgun from
practically any Marvel title drawn by John Romita, Jr. in the ‘90s.
(Romita, Jr. was even supposed to do a monthly Shotgun
series during the heyday of Big Guns & Attitude, but it never
materialized.) This might just be Shotgun’s first appearance not drawn by Romita. And the artist turns out to be Shawn McManus of all people, doing a job that’s just as polarizing as his Sensational Spider-Man
annual in the previous year. Initially, I had to wonder why Herdling
felt the need to use Shotgun during the story, but eventually decided to
shrug my shoulders and go along with it since Shotgun works about as
well as any other government agent character. Then again, Shotgun’s
only here due to the inane “zombie drug” plot thread, the one that adds
zilch to the plot, so he stands out as another distraction.
All this said, I have to admit to some affection for this issue. I love the original Lobos Brothers arc from Web,
so any attempt to pick up on a loose thread and follow up on Glory
Grant is appreciated. And as much as “Torment” has become a source of
ridicule over the years, it did reestablish Calypso as a real threat, so
it’s nice to see the mistake of killing her off rectified. I’m also
impressed that Herdling somehow found a way to drag in two obscure
characters from distant corners of the Marvel Universe like Zombie and
Shotgun and put them into the same story. It felt like a story grafted
onto another story that didn’t need it at all, but still, that’s a
decent quota of forgotten Marvel characters.
1 comment:
Shotgun showed up as they were wrapping up the Punisher books in '95, not drawn by JR jr.
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