NOT BLOG X

CHRONOS #7 - September 1998

2012-01-30T11:29:00.002-05:00

The Killing Rain

Credits: John Francis Moore (writer), Paul Guinan (penciler), Denis Rodier & Steve Leialoha (inks), Ken Bruzenak (letters), Mike Danza (colors)

2113: Chronos and Alex attempt to travel back to the 1970s to investigate David Clinton’s connection to Chronos’ parents, but a vague “temporal interference” separates the duo. Chronos lands in 2113’s Seattle, a dingy shadow of the city that’s owned by a telecom corporation (yeah, that’s spot-on soothsaying). Seattle lives in fear of the Justice League Killer, a shapechanger who only kills when taking the form of the Justice League. As luck would have it, Chronos stumbles across him shortly after arriving in the city. His time-traveling powers and temporal displacement suit aren’t working, so he’s forced to run away from the killer. Clearly, Chronos is still far away from attaining “hero” status.

Chronos is sent to a homeless shelter by two transit officers who are too lazy to fill out any paperwork on a mystery man with no DNA on file. The homeless are given “infotainment vidsets” at the shelter, which Chronos describes as “A little video candy to keep the downtrodden pacified. The Romans did it with bread and circuses.” While watching the type of newscast you normally find in a Paul Verhoeven movie, Chronos discovers that Fiorella Della Ravenna, the socialite he met in the Renaissance, is alive and well in this era.

After repairing his costume, Chronos tracks down Fiorella at an art gallery opening, but only learns that she’s in “a long and painful melodrama” and is also stuck in this era. In a yet another wild coincidence, a police officer at the art exhibit they’re attending just happens to be the Justice League Killer in disguise. Morphing into Green Arrow, he nearly kills Chronos again, but this time he’s saved by Fiorella. The police arrest the killer and we discover that his true name is Hayden Glass, with a DNA copyright belonging to Cadmus. He claims that his father was a superhero who abandoned his mother while she was still pregnant. By posing as the Justice League, he claims that he’s exposing heroes for what they are.

Now, I can’t totally dismiss this issue as time killer, as it formally introduces Hayden Glass, the shape-changing villain from the first issue, and leads Chronos and Fiorella a little closer towards their inevitable romance. But…it’s hard not to view this issue as a diversion that largely exists as an excuse to get the Justice League on the cover. And Paul Guinan certainly has a unique take on the Justice League -- I can’t imagine him trying to draw the characters in Howard Porter’s style -- but even that’s a thin excuse for the shapeshifter plot.

Since I’m not overly familiar with DC continuity, I don’t know if the name “Hayden Glass” is supposed to be significant, and nothing in the issue indicates why exactly he’s chosen the twentieth century version of the Justice League to imitate. I do know that Cadmus has a connection to cloning, so perhaps the idea is that the killer has been cloned repeatedly over the past century, but some confirmation in the actual story would be nice. As for the setting of the issue, Moore’s take on the future isn’t particularly novel, either. Essentially, it’s 1984 with an evil corporation instead of an evil government. I suppose the setting alone isn’t enough to hurt the story, but the sheer coincidence of Chronos running into the killer twice is inexcusable, and as the title’s lead, he’s remarkably ineffective throughout the entire issue.

X-MAN #50 - April 1999

2012-01-27T11:10:00.003-05:00

War of the Mutants Part Two: New Blood

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Luke Ross (penciler), Bud LaRosa (inker), Mike Thomas (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: X-Man confronts Emma, who promises to lead him to Dark Beast if he helps her rescue Generation X. She telepathically traces the team to the New York sewers, where they’re soon confronted by Dark Beast’s new band of villains. Emma slips out of the battle to face Dark Beast, as X-Man and Gaia free Generation X. Gaia discovers a Brood egg, spoiling Dark Beast’s scheme to infect Gen X with the aliens. Dark Beast is revealed as a hologram and disappears. Emma telepathically feeds X-Man information scanned from his monitors, which she says will lead him to Dark Beast. Madelyne Pryor arrives and teleports X-Man away to Ireland, unaware that the Gauntlet is hiding outside of their inn.

Continuity Notes:

Madelyne is apparently trying to kill Ness, according to a brief subplot scene (check out the original art from this page here).
Gaia is suddenly wearing her Generation X uniform, even though the previous installment ended with her in normal clothes.
Dark Beast remarks that Emma performed “work” on his head when he arrived confused and disoriented on this world.That doesn’t make sense, given that they met in Generation X #-1, set ten years ago when Emma was sixteen.Dark Beast actually arrived in this world twenty years ago, according to X-Men Omega.
X-Man seems to believe Fever Pitch is our reality’s version of Holocaust/Nemesis.(If that’s the case, who was the Holocaust Stryfe wrote of in Stryfe’s Strike File?)
As for the rest of Dark Beast’s squad, the new members introduced this issue include Wynter (who’s being mentally controlled by Dark Beast), Obsidian the Dark, Integer, and Iron Maiden.

“Huh?” Moment: Emma tracks Dark Beast -- who, again, is mentally controlling one of his flunkies -- to his hidden lair with his psi-print. The same Dark Beast that’s revealed as a hologram just ten pages later. The story dismisses Emma’s ability to grab him by explaining that this is a “hard light” hologram…but how could hard light create thought patterns?

I Love the '90s: Emma instructs a nosey human student at the school to go watch The X-Files.

Review: This was the “War of the Mutants”?!? Wow...
So, after reviving the Emma Frost/Dark Beast mystery as the thread to tie this crossover together, what do we learn? That Emma helped repair Dark Beast’s mind after he arrived on this earth. (Never mind that the timeline doesn’t work, and none of the other AoA refugees were shown as severely mentally damaged following their arrival on this reality.) That’s the big reveal? Actually, is this even a reveal at all? Wasn’t this covered by the Generation X Flashback issue? If nothing new was supposed to be revealed, what was the point of this?

It certainly wasn’t to tease the idea of X-Man joining Generation X, since no character in the story ever seems to take the prospect seriously. It wasn’t to have X-Man team up with Generation X, since they barely appear in this issue, and are comatose for most of their brief appearance. If the story was supposed to be about the Dark Beast infecting Generation X with the Brood, that idea’s dismissed in the course of two panels. So, what’s left…the introduction of a new team for Dark Beast (who, perhaps, are still supposed to be called Gene Nation, even though the name never appears in the story)? That’s doubtful…Kavanagh doesn’t even seem slightly interested in the new characters. Even the revelation that Fever Pitch is potentially the once-popular AoA character Holocaust is treated as an afterthought. What we’re left with is a pointless crossover with a melodramatic, yet slightly generic, title that should’ve been saved for a higher-profile event. Or maybe a video game.

CABLE ‘99 - April 1999

2012-01-25T11:23:00.004-05:00

Something Sinister This Way Comes

Credits: Michael Higgins & Karl Bollers (writers), German Garcia w/Alitha Martinez (pencilers), Matt Ryan w/Candelario & Koblish (inkers), Mike Rockwitz (colors), BenchMark (letters)

Summary: Mr. Sinister visits Cable’s hideout, revealing to him that he engineered Cable’s creation to use him as the ultimate weapon against Apocalypse. Cable refuses Sinister’s partnership offer, even after he’s warned of Apocalypse’s approaching emissaries. Soon, a local nightclub is attacked by mutants claiming to be Apocalypse’s servants. One of them erases Cable’s powers, triggering his techno-organic virus. Sinister rescues Cable, curing the virus and restoring his telepathic powers. Cable returns home and rescues Irene and Blaquesmith from the emissaries. He reveals to Sinister that he knows they’re actually his Marauders in disguise. Cable demands to know all of Sinister’s secrets, but he revives Cable’s virus and uses the opportunity to escape.

Continuity Notes: A flashback scene reveals that Sinister created the techno-organic virus in the early 1900s in the hopes that it could kill Apocalypse. Instead, it only made him stronger. Apocalypse allowed Sinister to flee, but promised to kill him in the future. Just a few months after this comic was published, another flashback in Uncanny X-Men #376 shows that Apocalypse and Sinister were allies again during the early days of the X-Men, behind-the-scenes of the Living Pharaoh storyline. As for the Marauders, none of them has the ability to erase another mutant’s power, although Scrambler can…yes, scramble his opponent’s powers and make them go haywire.

Review: It’s easy to dismiss this as annual filler, but the creators have worked out a plot that ties in to the regular series’ ongoing storylines, and establishes a few continuity points as well. I’m not sure if anyone was actually looking for important continuity to be established in a Cable annual by this point, but it’s there if you’re interested. The ongoing Cable series has never really known what to do with Mr. Sinister, perhaps because the character’s traditionally a behind-the-scenes schemer and rarely someone who takes an active role in supervillain plots. Yet, his entire gimmick centers around Summers’ DNA, and the precious offspring that will be created by Cyclops and Phoenix. Well, here he is. And he’s had an ongoing series since 1993. Why don’t you care, Sinister? Jeph Loeb tried to write around this by having Sinister hint that he’s been more involved with Cable’s life than he could ever realize, but that hint, of course, went nowhere.

So, the premise moves the book slightly past the “generic” marker, but unfortunately the execution is a disappointment. The art is clearly a rush job, making even the normally excellent German Garcia unrecognizable on many pages. Cable versus the Marauders should be a fantastic fight scene, one that’s been in the works since “Inferno,” but it’s pretty lifeless here. The story attempts to build a thematic link between Apocalypse and Sinister, but the conclusion we’re expected to reach -- Sinister’s no better than Apocalypse because he wants to save humanity for his own experimentation -- isn’t much of a revelation. Cable’s also supposed to learn some grand lesson about appreciating humanity instead of agonizing over his heavy responsibilities, but that’s an idea that Joe Casey's used more effectively in the monthly title. There are a few amusing lines, though, and the script is easier to read than Higgins & Boller’s effort in the previous annual. So, it’s not as terrible as you might expect a late ‘90s Cable annual to be; it’s just regular bad.

GENERATION X #50 - April 1999

2012-01-23T11:25:00.005-05:00

War of the Mutants Part One: Divided We Fall

Credits: Jay Faerber (writer), Terry Dodson (penciler), Rachel Dodson (inker), John Kalisz (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: As the school is opened to human students, Dark Beast and his minions spy on Gen X. When Emma Frost sees footage of X-Man on television, she telepathically reaches out to him. He senses her presence and discerns that Emma has a past with the Dark Beast. Meanwhile, Banshee sees surveillance footage of a helicopter abducting a student and races after him. In town, Gen X is attacked by the Dark Beast’s men. Gaia reaches Emma for help, but they’re suddenly interrupted by X-Man. Finally, Banshee tracks the helicopter to Vermont, where he's attacked by a large man.

Continuity Notes: The Dark Beast comments that he’s hidden in the sewers for decades to avoid being mistaken for this reality’s Hank McCoy. That’s irreconcilable with his earlier appearances, which audaciously claimed that he never even considered this reality had a Hank McCoy.

Emma’s sister Adrienne remarks that it’s good the school has changed its name back to “The Massachusetts Academy” given the public’s mistrust of Professor Xavier following the Onslaught event. That implies that the general public is aware that Xavier was Onslaught, which doesn’t work with continuity. At this point, even his identity as a mutant was still a secret.

Banshee is on the phone with a mystery man (?) who he’s recruiting as the school’s new gym teacher.

Dark Beast’s flunkies consist of new characters Membrain and Fever Pitch, along with a few leftover Gene Nation members, Hemingway and Vessel (whose names don’t seem to appear in this issue, which is annoying given how obscure these villains are).

Review: Generation X #1 and X-Man #1 didn’t debut in the same month, but due to the “Age of Apocalypse” storyline suspending Generation X for four months and X-Man continuing after the AoA stunt ended, they’ve run concurrent issue numbers since #5. No one thought to unite them for their twenty-fifth issues, but aren’t we lucky that someone’s decided to do a crossover during their fiftieth issues. (Of course, just two years later, they’ll reach cancellation together with their seventy-fifth issues. And the world is saved from gratuitous X-spinoffs forever…)

There is one obvious connection between X-Man and Generation X that hasn’t been explored yet, and that’s the teen angle. If Generation X is supposed to be training the next generation of mutants, and X-Man is a teenage mutant, the most powerful in the world, it makes sense to exploit that for one story. Another link would be Emma Frost’s past with X-Man’s arch-nemesis (whenever he bothers to remember X-Man), the Dark Beast. The exact nature of their relationship hasn’t been revealed at this point, even though Scott Lobdell hinted at their shared past early in Generation X’s run, and James Robinson detailed their first meeting in Generation X #-1.

I’m not sure if Jay Faerber was eager to participate in a crossover so early in his run, but he still works in a few decent ideas. Integrating the school with a new human student body opens the door to numerous story possibilities, making me wonder a) why no one’s done it before and b) why the concept was dismissed so quickly after Faerber’s exit. I’ll never understand the attitude that the X-teams shouldn’t be interacting with normal people. Isn’t this the entire point -- to train mutants to use their powers responsibly and be able to enter mainstream society? These titles have to be grounded in reality in order to work, so making the school a literal school and giving the team dozens of potential supporting cast members to interact with makes perfect sense.

Unfortunately, there’s no room to flesh out any of the new students this issue, but Faerber does find the space to split the team up into small groups and work in some characterization scenes. Husk is still angry at Chamber for brushing her off. Chamber doesn’t want to share the school with humans. Skin isn’t willing to believe all humans are bigots. M wants a tattoo to symbolize her ownership of her body. Synch is apparently the object of affection for M, Gaia, and Jubilee. Thankfully, the crossover material is simply used to justify the fight scenes, making this read like a standard Generation X issue that just happens to be concluded in X-Man.

MUTANT X #6 - March 1999

2012-01-20T11:23:00.003-05:00

The Trial of the Brute!

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Cary Nord (penciler), Andrew Pepoy (inker), Gina Going-Raney (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

Summary: The Brute stands trial for the murders of Man-Spider and the Green Goblin. Matt Murdock’s surprise witness is none other than Man-Spider himself, who claims his clone was the true victim. Suddenly, the courtroom is attacked by Hand ninjas and Bullseye, giving Madelyne and the Fallen an opportunity to lock the Brute in an empty room. When he emerges, the Brute dismisses his lawyer, pleads guilty, and asks for the death penalty.

“That’s Crazy Because They’re Different”: Gwen Stacy is a television reporter in this reality. Matt Murdock (presumably his first name is Matt, at least) is a trial lawyer, but no mention is made of Daredevil. Bullseye is essentially the same character, although he has a new costume.

Better Than X-Factor?: Yes, and it’s an improvement over the previous issue. Mackie’s main focus seems to be playing up the Madelyne Summers/Goblin Queen subplot; so much so that the Hand and Bullseye fight scenes are only given a few pages at the end of the issue. An unknown force is manipulating Madelyne into transforming into the Goblin Queen, and while the Fallen is in on her secret, that doesn’t stop her from horribly torturing him off-panel when he steps out of line. These scenes work pretty well, although Mackie seems to have forgotten about them just a few pages later, since the Fallen is still associating with Madelyne without any apparent resentment. Regardless, the Goblin Queen mystery is one of the more promising subplots in the series, so hopefully the payoff will be worth the wait.

Meanwhile, the Brute is on trial, which may or may not be a reference to the Beast’s trial from the first season of the X-Men cartoon. The courtroom scenes are slightly repetitive, but Cary Nord does a great job on the closing fight sequence. Unfortunately, as nice as the fight looks, it feels tacked on. This is the most interesting thing Nord’s been asked to draw in the issue, and it’s rushed through on the final five pages for some reason. At least a few of the numerous pages of Havok thinking to himself or escorting little Scotty around could’ve been cut, easily.

MAGNETO REX #3 - July 1999

2012-01-19T11:21:00.002-05:00

Once We Were Kings

Credits: Joe Pruett (writer), Brandon Peterson (penciler), Batt (inker), Richard Isanove & Monica Kubina (colors), Jon Babcock (letters)

Summary: Magneto defeats Zealot by wrapping him in metal and shooting him into space. Amelia Voght takes Quicksilver to the Mutate camp for Legacy Virus victims, convincing him to stay and attempt to influence Magneto’s actions. Magneto formally takes control of Genosha, expelling most of the remaining humans. The Avengers are stunned to see news reports naming Quicksilver as a member of Magneto’s cabinet. Finally, Magneto thanks Amelia in private for pushing Quicksilver into staying.

Continuity Notes: Zealot’s mutant ability is revealed as the power to control the earth, making his claim of being “one with Genosha” a very literal one. Apocalypse makes a one-page cameo, just to remind us that he’s the star of the next big mutant event.

Review: Actual dialogue from this issue: “I will never embrace your perverted ideologies and become as corrupted in spirit and soul as you have! You have become so twisted in your thinking, so far removed from humanity that Ferris -- a thing of metal and of your own construction, is the only thing in which you place your trust -- while Amelia, who has stood by you for what she perceives to be the right reasons, has not even garnered a glance of affection -- even as she risked her life for your cause.” Yikes. And this isn’t an isolated example used to make the comic seem worse than it is -- the issue is essentially twenty-two pages of turgid nonsense.

So, what’s accomplished by the conclusion of Magneto Rex? We don’t learn any more about Zealot, aside from another claim that he’s Philip Moreau’s brother. No more information than this is given, and apparently we’re supposed to take the retcon at face value. The idea that the Gengineer would callously transform his firstborn son into a Mutate doesn’t exactly match what I remember of his original characterization, considering that Claremont at least tried to make him a sympathetic figure. Now, was there ever a point in tying Zealot and Philip Moreau together? Apparently not. Then again, was there a point in dragging Rogue into this mini? Her previous pairings with Magneto worked very well, so it’s understandable that the creators would want to use her in this series, but she clearly has no impact on the plot.

Let’s see…did Pipeline’s conversion to the other side serve a purpose? Nope, although Magneto did need a teleporter for one scene, so apparently that’s reason enough to justify his presence. How about Fabian Cortez -- did he engage in any of his famous deal making and backstabbing? Did Magneto punish him for trying to kill him, usurping the Acolytes, and kidnapping his granddaughter? Of course not. In fact, he’s gone back to using Cortez as a power battery, even though he should know by now what an idiotic idea this is. What of Alda Huxley, the mysterious new character introduced to facilitate Magneto’s rule of Genosha? Sure, she was just a plot convenience in the original “Magneto War” crossover, but surely she wouldn’t have been brought into the miniseries without some plan for her character. Eh…you know the answer to that by now.

This is Magneto Rex. A flagrant cash grab that coasted on the back of a high-profile crossover and a famous lead character. The story offers absolutely no insight into Magneto’s character, other than the repeated claims that he’s even nastier than ever before. Marvel already tried that angle earlier in the ‘90s and didn’t exactly succeed, but there was at the very least an acknowledgement of the inherit tragedy of the character in most of those stories. And even the worst of those comics, like Uncanny X-Men #304, didn’t give Magneto such horrendous dialogue, or force him to star in stories that clearly had no point outside of existing as product. The only contribution to the ongoing continuity, which would have to be the major appeal to any reader who stuck around after the first issue, is the addition of Quicksilver to Magneto’s cabinet. And, to the creators’ credit, the use of Amelia Voght as a sleeper agent luring him to Magneto’s side actually works as a surprise. But was a three-issue miniseries required to execute this idea? It honestly couldn’t have worked as a few subplot scenes, or an X-Men Unlimited issue? The audience had to pay almost eight dollars to reach this point? I can’t say that I’m shocked that an X-spinoff miniseries is this bad, but I’m genuinely surprised that a limited series that was clearly supposed to be important in many ways could be so appalling.

WOLVERINE #139 - June 1999

2012-01-18T11:21:00.003-05:00

The Freaks Come Out at Night

Credits: Erik Larsen (writer), Lenil Francis Yu (penciler), Dexter Vines (inker), Joe Rosas (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Cable checks in on Wolverine, who’s drinking in a bar owned by his friend Hardcase. Suddenly, the mercenary Longbow crashes into the bar. She’s returned from Madripoor, investigating the disappearances of several people. Wolverine and Cable look outside and discover a man mutated into a lobster. They follow him, and are soon assaulted by more genetic anomalies. They’re lead by Arnim Zola, who quickly kicks Wolverine and Cable out of his ship. Two of his creations also fall to the ground, but Cable neutralizes them with the control device he snatched from Zola. Unbeknownst to Wolverine, Zola has another captive -- his wife, Viper.

Continuity Notes: Hardcase first appeared in Wolverine #5, while the full team of his Harriers debuted in Uncanny X-Men #261. Although nothing in his initial appearance indicated this, Chris Claremont apparently decided by his second appearance in UXM #261 that Hardcase and Wolverine were old friends. The fate of most of the Harriers is disclosed by Hardcase to Wolverine this issue: Blindside “mostly works solo these days,” Warhawk and Deacon are married and living in Bermuda, while Timebomb “got into a bigger spot than he could handle.”

Three of Arnim Zola’s genetic anomalies are given names: Monkey-Boy is a man with two ape heads growing out of his chest, Doughboy is the organic ship Zola uses for transport, and Primus…doesn’t seem to do anything, but he looks like the Silver Surfer. The lobster man is never named, nor is the freak with a giant mouth growing out of his stomach. After their fight, Wolverine comments that his healing factor hasn’t repaired his wounds yet, which is apparently supposed to be significant.

Creative Differences: The debut of the lobster man was intended by Larsen to be a silent splash page. The published page is narrated with thirty-two words.

Review: I’d like to say that the return of Lenil Francis Yu marks an upturn in the book’s quality…but I can’t. This is still an awkward, slightly frustrating read. I know that Larsen wanted to use Yu’s skills for photorealism on utterly freaky comic book designs, and not real life items like motorcycles and handguns, but the result is patchy at best. I’m assuming that this is one of the issues Yu had to draw in a hurry, because for every convincing lobster man he draws, there are numerous figures that just look half-finished. When two of Zola’s freaks fall to the ground with Cable and Wolverine, for example, one of them is so sparsely rendered it’s almost impossible to tell who he’s supposed to be. The storytelling is also disappointing, as a couple of important story points are conveyed in extremely tiny panels that are easy to skip.

Not that he’s given a fantastic story to begin with, of course. The basic idea of pitting Wolverine against Arnim Zola and an army of his freaks is fine, but this never exceeds the quality of a generic Marvel Comics Presents serial. Larsen’s trying to convey the idea that Wolverine’s horribly discouraged following Aria’s death in the previous issue, but he doesn’t seem capable of giving Wolverine a believable personality. He’s just Tough Guy Wolverine and he’s feeling a little down this issue. Perhaps some of this pedestrian scripting can be blamed on overactive editors, but regardless of the culprit, this is bland stuff. Whoever is responsible for having Cable shout “Wa-hoo!” while fighting the bad guys should really be ashamed of himself.

Larsen does try to add some humor to the story, but he’s a little off. I remember Larsen justified bringing Hardcase into the cast because he thought it would be interesting to see one of Wolverine’s numerous “old friends” actually stick around instead of disappearing after one issue. Unfortunately, he also dismissed Hardcase as a Cable knock-off in that interview. He works that idea into the issue by having Hardcase and Cable stare face-to-identical-face and comment on their similarity. Not a bad meta-joke; except Hardcase isn’t a Cable knock-off. He debuted in Wolverine #5, which was released a year before Cable’s first appearance. So even the continuity shout-outs to fans don’t exactly work in this comic.

X-FORCE #87 - February 1999

2012-01-17T11:23:00.003-05:00

Armageddon Now Part One - Family Matters

Credits: John Francis Moore (writer), Jim Cheung (penciler), Mark Morales (inker), Marie Javins (colors), Comicraft’s Dave Lanphear (letters)

Summary: Proudstar receives a message from Tarot warning him that the team will soon be betrayed. Later, Meltdown’s father visits, introducing his new wife and offering Meltdown a chance to join him as a member of the Triune Understanding. She angrily rejects him, and is insulted again when she realizes Sunspot followed her. As Moonstar tries to understand her new cosmic powers, Domino and Jesse Aaronson follow a lead on his missing brother. They discover Christopher Aaronson in Santa Lucia, California. He now leads the New Hellions -- Magma, Paradigm, Tarot, and Switch.

Continuity Notes: As Proudstar points out, Tarot should’ve been dead following the events of Uncanny X-Men #281-282. A flashback to five years ago reveals Tarot and Christopher Aaronson were once in a relationship. He rejected Emma Frost’s offer to join the Hellions at the time, using his powers to block her psychic influence. Christopher divulges that he was identified as a mutant at age six, but escaped government custody at thirteen, using his psionic disruption powers to drive his captors mad.

Meltdown’s father had a vague death scene in X-Force #49 (his trailer exploded). This issue establishes that he survived the explosion and later reevaluated his life, leading him to the Triune Understanding. The Triunes are a cult, allegedly inspired by Scientology, from the concurrent issues of Avengers.

Review: This begins the “Armageddon Now” storyline, which resolves the mystery of the missing Bedlam brother and introduces a new team of Hellions. I don’t think anyone’s surprised at this point that Moore wants to revive the Hellions, but they can serve a purpose outside of nostalgia. It’s not hard to cast them as a legitimate threat to X-Force, who don’t have enough opposing teams to fight, and Moore deserves some credit for acknowledging their horrid death scene and trying to do something with it. Plus, adding Magma to the roster is a nice “Wait a minute!” moment.

I also like the way Moore is integrating Christopher Aaronson into past X-continuity as a “behind-the-scenes” character. This can too often be a cheat, but the foundation of the Hellions is a vague area of backstory with plenty of room to fill, and his presence isn’t being done to undermine past continuity. Pairing him in a relationship with Tarot also humanizes her character a bit. The Hellions actually didn’t appear in too many comics during the New Mutants years, so many of them never moved past the cipher stage. I vaguely recall Tarot receiving some character work in the ‘80s, but it couldn’t have been an extensive amount. She feels like a better defined character this issue, and her connection to Jesse’s brother adds some intrigue to the storyline.

MAGNETO REX #2 - June 1999

2012-01-13T11:24:00.002-05:00

Into Darkness

Credits: Joe Pruett (writer), Brandon Peterson (penciler), Matt Banning (inker), Richard Isanove (colors), Jon Babcock (letters)

Summary: Magneto destroys the satellites and UN planes spying on Genosha. Meanwhile, Amelia Voght convinces Rogue to seek Magneto’s help before rescuing Quicksilver from Zealot. Magneto, however, disavows his son. Rogue and Amelia rescue Quicksilver without his aid, but Zealot soon finds them. As he proclaims himself the true ruler of Genosha, Magneto arrives.

Continuity Notes: Rogue kisses Magneto, hoping to learn the source of his hostile attitude. Magneto is totally unfazed by the kiss (which is either a continuity error or an intentional plot point), and Rogue is left with the sense that “there’s somethin’ else -- somethin’ sinister…sometin’ even you’ve blocked from our mind…” Bolding “sinister” might be a hint that Mr. Sinister has some connection to Magneto’s increasingly cold demeanor, but nothing came from this.

Production Note: No credits are given this issue. The next issue apologizes and runs these credits.

Review: The first issue of this series was dull, but I gave it credit for at least establishing the premise and setting the plot into motion. This issue is unforgivably boring. The plot is bare bones, numerous conversation scenes advance nothing, and the characters have the personality of dishwater. I can’t imagine what aspect of this story the creative team assumed the readers would find interesting by this point. All we know about Zealot is that he’s a sadist who’s somehow amassed a following, virtually all of the cast has interchangeable dialogue (which is unforgivable when you consider that Quicksilver, Rogue, and Amelia Voght have the bulk of the lines...and yes, Rogue has an exaggerated accent, but if you add back the dropped "g"s her speech pattern is no different than anyone else's), and Magneto spends most of his time sitting in meetings, when he isn’t busy irrationally provoking the UN.

I never agreed with the decision to revert Magneto to villainy, but there was at least some intensity to the character during most of his ‘90s appearances. Here, he’s heartless and violent, but the script does nothing to give him a credible personality. He isn’t crazy, he isn’t particularly angry, he isn’t conflicted, he isn’t remorseful…he’s just a generic villain with a horrific “regal” speech pattern. Magneto refusing to rescue his son ought to feel like a big deal, but instead the scene is just as flat and onerous to read as the rest of the comic. Magneto should be a fantastically interesting protagonist for a series. Even if you refuse to go the “shades of gray” route, Magneto has a rich backstory and numerous connections with various corners of the Marvel Universe. It’s shocking to me that someone thought material this tedious suited the character.

CABLE #69 - July 1999

2012-01-12T11:20:00.004-05:00

Millennium Storm Warning

Credits: Joe Casey (writer), Jose Ladronn (penciler), Juan Vlasco & Walden Wong (inks), Gloria Vasquez (colors), Comicraft’s Saida Temofonte (letters)

Summary: Cable is snatched from death by the Chronologists, a group that monitors various timelines. They take him to their mysterious dimension, where Sanctity is being held captive in “the Maximum Secret.” Cable is forced to duel with one of their scientists, Jacob Sutton, to save Sanctity. She is released and promptly disappears. The Chronologists return Cable to his home, where he finds Stacey, Irene, and Blaquesmith waiting for him. Meanwhile, a mystery man leaves a bloody trail to New York.

Continuity Notes: While in the Maximum Secret, Cable suddenly realizes that Rachel Summers implanted the names of the Twelve into his mind weeks earlier.

Creative Differences: The Bullpen Bulletins description of this issue reads: “After the cataclysmic events of ‘Sign of the End Times,’ CABLE is presumed dead. With APOCALYPSE’s hideous scheme just begun, BLAQUESMITH reaches out to the one man left alive who has the most experience with the world’s first mutant: ARCHANGEL!”

Review: Uh, yeah. Cable needed more vague time travel continuity attached to him, right? This issue is (I'm assuming, it's impossible to find info about these characters online) the debut of the Chronologists, a group that exists in-between dimensions and monitors the non-linear lines of reality. How exactly they’re different from the Time Variance Authority, I’m not sure, but Casey’s premise is that Cable’s occasional trips through time are an annoyance to the group. Yet, he also establishes that they’re exaggerating Sanctity’s threat to reality, so they’re not a reliable source of information. Why exactly they’re keeping Sanctity captive, and why they’re engaging Cable in a duel is never revealed. Casey was presumably going somewhere with this, but he’s only a handful of issues away from quitting in protest after Ladronn is booted to make way for Rob Liefeld. So, we’re left with more mystery characters with mystery motives that never amount to anything. At least Ladronn is able to showcase his European sci-fi influences with the designs, though.

GAMBIT #2 - March 1999

2012-01-11T11:23:00.003-05:00

Stormbringers

Credits: Fabian Nicieza & Steve Skroce (story & art), Rob Hunter (inker), Shannon Blanchard (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Gambit and Storm visit Moira MacTaggert on Muir Island. Gambit creates a power blackout in order to cover his secret mission, inadvertently releasing a failsafe that will destroy all of Moira’s mutant research. He saves the data from destruction, but also makes a copy for New Son. Later, Storm reveals to Gambit that she framed his family for one of their jobs during their days as thieves. She explains she did the wrong thing for the right reason, relating it to Gambit’s past with Mr. Sinister. Meanwhile, X-Cutioner recruits a team and Fontanelle invades Tante Mattie’s dreams.

Continuity Notes: Tante Mattie’s dream has her as a little girl in 1891. Gambit arrives to save her from a mob, leading Fontanelle to question if Gambit is older than he appears or a time traveler. The Mengo Brothers, next issue's villains, also debut in a one-page, extremely vague, subplot scene (they’re killing people in Chicago and apparently deleting information from a computer).

Gimmicks: In an effort to lessen falling sales for second issues, Marvel released a variant cover for every #2 issue during this era. This issue’s variant cover is by Adam Kubert.

Review: I’m not sure why Gambit’s friendship with Storm was downplayed after Claremont left the titles, but it’s nice to see Nicieza reviving it for one issue. Taking in all of Gambit’s accumulated backstory, Nicieza’s decided to play up the angle that Gambit’s historically used the ends to justify the means. Nicieza will go on to explore just how far Gambit’s willing to take this, and if he can hold on to this attitude while remaining an X-Man. He also uses the theme as a backdoor way out of Uncanny X-Men #350’s absurd ending, as Storm declares that Gambit was wrong for his past actions, but admits so were the X-Men for leaving him in the Antarctic. They both felt justified in their actions at the time, and realize now that they’re wrong. No hard feelings, right?

The ongoing narration does an effective job of conveying Gambit’s guilt over this theft while also providing some justification for his actions. This is actually a nice example of why arbitrary rules like “No More Captions” are absurd. Yes, many people abused the privilege with outlandishly boring prose, but some writers can use those little boxes of text well. Skroce does a great job of conveying the action sequences, but the prose fleshes out Gambit’s character and suggests ideas that couldn’t be translated by a silent action scene.

The idea that Moira’s rigged her research to be shot into the sky in a rocket and explode following a sixty-second blackout is a little hard to swallow, but the setup plays to Skroce’s strengths (elaborate character movement, explosions, debris) and it kind of works within the context of a superhero universe. Moira doesn’t want Bastion or anyone else to steal her info, but she’s humane enough to at least shoot it into the sky before it explodes. That’s awfully considerate of her.

MUTANT X #5 - February 1999

2012-01-10T11:19:00.002-05:00

Goblins in the Night

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Tom Raney (penciler), Andrew Pepoy (inker), Gina Going (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

Summary: The Six team up with Man-Spider to stop the Green Goblin and his army of cloned goblins. The Green Goblin is cornered by the Fallen and Madelyne, whose Goblin Queen persona has emerged. Man-Spider arrives and is shocked by their behavior. With the Fallen’s help, Madelyne kills Man-Spider and Green Goblin. The Brute witnesses the event, but is silenced when the Fallen threatens to kill his parents. The murders are pinned on the Brute, who is taken into custody.

“That’s Crazy Because They’re Different”: This reality’s Spider-Man goes by Man-Spider, presumably because he has six arms (a callback to the storyline in Amazing Spider-Man #100-102). Also, this reality has a President Starr, which may or may not be a reference to an existing Marvel Universe character.

Better Than X-Factor?: This isn’t much of an improvement, to be honest. At the time, Howard Mackie was the sole in-continuity Spider-Man writer, a responsibility that I don’t think any writer had been given since the spin-offs began, so perhaps he’s playing off the reputation Marvel tried to build for him as the “Spider-Guy” with this issue. Of course, the critical consensus was that Mackie was unsuited to be the Spider-Guy, and the material produced during his stint turned out to be even worse than many were expecting, so this issue isn’t off to a great start. Mackie tries to throw in some clone-related meta-humor, but it feels awkward and a little forced. Plus, his Green Goblin isn’t any different from the standard Green Goblin of the era, right up to the nonsensical “world domination” schemes that were grafted on to Norman Osborn in the late ‘90s, so that’s another letdown.

Revealing that Madelyne and the Fallen are so evil they’ll casually kill their opponents and frame a teammate does up the stakes for this universe, however. We haven’t seen just how nasty Havok’s teammates can be in this reality, perhaps because the creative team was still trying to work out just how far to take the idea, so at the very least some new revelations are being made. Unfortunately, much of the action in this issue is hard to follow, and almost every page is drowning in unnecessary text. There’s also an awkward scene at the end that reveals that the Brute had an off-panel confrontation with the police after leaving the murder scene. I honestly can’t think of a single reason why this scene occurred in-between pages, especially when the Goblin fight dragged on forever. There should’ve been plenty of pages to work that scene in. For the most part, this book hasn’t felt as sloppy as X-Factor could be, but this is not an encouraging sign.

MAGNETO REX #1 - May 1999

2012-01-09T11:25:00.003-05:00

Ascendance

Credits: Joe Pruett (writer), Brandon Peterson (penciler), Matt Banning (inker), Richard Isanove & Liquid! (colors), Jon Babcock (letters)

Summary: Humans flee Genosha as Magneto takes the throne. A Mutate leads him to his first council meeting, which introduces Magneto to Phillip Moreau, Jenny Ransome, Alda Huxley, and Pipeline, a former Magistrate. Phillip informs him that a rebel Mutate, “the Zealot,” is building a resistance against him. Later, Magneto and Pipeline recruit Fabian Cortez to join the council. Meanwhile, Amelia Voght takes Quicksilver to Genosha to see his father. Soon, he’s tricked by Zealot’s followers and kidnapped. Rogue, who’s arrived in Genosha to check on Magneto, witnesses Zealot’s gathering of rebel Mutates.

Continuity Notes: Much to Phillip Moreau’s surprise, Zealot is somehow his long-lost brother. Alda Huxley, the UN representative largely responsible for giving Genosha to Magneto, claims she’s a native Genoshan who only wants the best for her country. The sole explanation for Pipeline turning against the Magistrates is that he finally realized the horror they’ve unleashed. Fabian Cortez is recruited presumably because Magneto’s still recovering from the events of “Magneto War” and needs his amplification powers. (Although he should know by now that Cortez’s powers leave you weaker in the long run.) The Amelia Voght/Quicksilver scenes are another holdover from “Magneto War,” as she was sent to spy on him in an early chapter and not seen again during the crossover.

Production Note: The cover lists this as a May 1999 issue, but the indicia has the date as April 1999.

Review: As much as people seemed to dislike the “Magneto War” crossover, it did at the very least spur some discussion. Magneto Rex, on the other hand, was largely ignored by online fandom, aside from a handful of reviews that dismissed it as dull. You would think that a limited series spinning out of the latest X-over, one that actually did impact the status quo in a meaningful way, would’ve garnered more attention, but the minis had already acquired the nasty label of “Filler” by this point. Once again, I’ll point to the early ‘90s X-miniseries that everyone seemed to buy -- even ones starring obscure characters like Deadpool. If anything, the addition of Brandon Peterson, an artist Marvel once tapped for X-Men before losing him to Rob Liefeld, should’ve given this mini some kind of a boost. Yet, I barely recall anyone even noticing his return.

Joe Pruett was a small-press indie creator the X-office began hiring during this era, giving him this assignment and the scripting duties on Rob Liefeld’s brief return to Cable. Sometimes I wonder how the comics world would be different if this was the indie guy Marvel fell in love with instead of Brian Michael Bendis. I actually have no insight into the style of storytelling Pruett subscribes to, given that this is a fairly generic regurgitation of editorially mandated ideas; I just find it amusing that Marvel was perhaps grooming a small press writer for superstardom a full year before Bendis showed up.

I wish I could’ve found a more descriptive word than “generic” to describe Pruett’s work here, but I can’t. A typical sample of his dialogue reads like this: “This man is so much like his father in terms of stature and strength, and yet so completely different in his deeds and thoughts. Pietro is a reflection of the man that his father once was and should have been -- if he hadn’t given in to the hate and anguish which eventually corrupted his soul.” (That’s Amelia Voght’s inner thoughts, by the way, not a third-person narrative caption.) I will say to his credit that he isn’t padding the first issue and only giving a tiny slice of the story. The backstory of Genosha and Magneto is set up for any potential new readers, a new status quo for the island is established, a large number of characters are brought into the story, and the villain of the piece makes his first move against Magneto. Things do happen, even if the characters are severely lacking in personality.

JLX UNLEASHED! #1 - June 1997

2012-01-06T11:23:00.000-05:00

The Unextinguishable Flame!

Credits: Christopher Priest (writer), Oscar Jimenez (penciler), Hannibal & Rodriguez (inks), Patricia Mulvihill (colors), Ken Lopez (letters)

Summary: The fire-dragon Fing Fang Flame, reanimated by the Hellfire League of Injustice, causes mayhem across the planet. Amazon, against the wishes of her JLA teammates, seeks the help of Mr. X and the imprisoned JLX. Mr. X takes the unstable metamutant Chaos out of suspended animation and travels with the JLX to Tokyo. Chaos is believed dead in battle, inspiring his brother Apollo to snap out his comatose state and absorb the magic fueling Fing Fang Flame. As the authorities arrive, Amazon decides to join the team.

Continuity Notes: The Hellfire League of Injustice merges the Hellfire Club and Injustice League. Chaos is an amalgam of Havok and Spitfire. Only one year later, the name Chaos (or "Xaos") will be used for another Havok amalgam, this one belonging to Cerebro’s team of X-Men.

Review: Just looking at the credits makes it obvious this was one of DC’s contributions to the Amalgam event (although Priest would be back at Marvel by the next year, ending a solid ten-year break with the company). That doesn’t stop JLX from leaning heavily towards the Marvel side, though. Priest has the speech patterns of the X-titles down cold, making this almost indistinguishable from something Scott Lobdell or Fabian Nicieza might’ve written in the ‘90s. The team’s recovering from the government’s latest android attack, Chaos hates Mr. X, Apollo is comatose, Iceberg is desperate to prove herself, Runaway is pining for her missing boyfriend, and Nightcreeper can’t stop cracking jokes. All the team needs is one or two alleged traitors. Actually, I guess they’ve already been betrayed, as Firebird is now the Hellfire member Dark Firebird.

I remember rumors that Priest was considered for the Uncanny X-Men job that went to Joe Casey…I wonder if anyone making that call had ever read this comic? Would this material pull the decision in his favor, or was this the kind of X-comic “New Marvel” was desperate to get away from? Regardless, it’s a shame he didn’t get the assignment. Aside from the fact that it’s hard to imagine anyone not named Chuck Austen doing a worse job than Casey did, it’s obvious Priest knows how to handle this material. The previous JLX one-shot suffered from what seemed to be a snide dismissal of the source material; Priest is able to bring some humor to the concept without mocking the elements that made the X-titles so popular in the first place. There are a few storytelling problems with the issue (Chaos apparently dies twice during the story, but neither scene is very clear), but this is by far one of the better X-related Amalgam comics.

THE MAGNETIC MEN FEATURING MAGNETO #1 - June 1997

2012-01-05T11:25:00.002-05:00

Born Again!

Credits: Tom Peyer (writer), Barry Kitson (penciler), Dan Panosian (inker), Matt Webb & Digital Chameleon (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Having realized his Magnetic Men have attained sentience, Magneto orders Mister Mastermind to create human disguises for them. Reluctantly, the Magnetic Men enter civilian life, as Magneto plots a final confrontation with his brother Will Magnus. Before he can reach Magnus, however, he must rescue the Magnetic Men from the Sinister Society. When he realizes that the Sinister Society are also victims of Will Magnus, Magneto invites them to join his cause. Unfortunately, by the time the team reaches Magnus’ base on Krakoa, all traces of his existence are gone.

Continuity Notes: New amalgams introduced this issue include: Mister Mastermind (Mastermind and Mister Mind), Soniklaw (Klaw and Sonar), Kultron (Ultron and Kobra), Vance Cosmic (Vance Astro and Cosmic Boy), Deathborg (Deathlok and Cyborg), Black Vulture (Vulture and Black Condor, plus perhaps Hawkman), Quasimodox (Quasimodo and Vril Dox), Chemodam (MODOK and Chemo), and Krakoa, the Living Dinosaur Island (Krakoa and Dinosaur Island).

Review: Aside from introducing a new group of amalgamated villains, there isn’t much here the previous Magnetic Men comic didn’t cover. Perhaps the hook is supposed to be that the team has taken on human personas, but this idea goes absolutely nowhere. Before they’re abducted by the Sinister Society, all the team gets to do is stand on a street corner in London for less than one page. Literally, the set up for this idea lasts longer than the execution. (The civilian identities of the Magnetic Men are also elaborate amalgams, but I’m too tired to go through them. It’s not as if the story gets any mileage out of the jokes anyway.) Looking past the odd execution of the human identity concept, we’re left with the team fighting another group of merged villains. And, while the action is competently delivered by Barry Kitson, this just isn’t very exciting. If a sequel to the original Magnetic Men one-shot had to be produced, I wish someone could’ve developed a worthier concept. This easily could’ve been a filler issue of Magnetic Men Unlimited.

EXCITING X-PATROL #1 - June 1997

2012-01-04T11:30:00.005-05:00

The Curse of Brother Brood!

Credits: Barbara Kesel (writer), Bryan Hitch (penciler), Paul Neary (inker), Joe Andreani & Digital Chameleon (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Shatterstarfire reluctantly leaves Niles Cable behind during a battle with Brother Brood, returning to the X-Patrol’s base for help. The team leaves on a rescue mission with their mysterious new member, Jericho. Landing on Zenosha, X-Patrol soon faces the Brood-infected Niles and Terra-X the Destroyer. While battling Niles, Jericho’s rocky disguise is destroyed, revealing Jericho as Niles’ younger self. Niles decides to let his techno-organic virus consume his body and kill the Brood infection. Near death, Niles is saved by the spirit of Raveniya the Healer. Inspired by his younger self, Niles vows to continue fighting.

Continuity Notes: The island of Zenosha is presumably an amalgam, yet plain ol’ Genosha was shown to exist in the Amalgam world in the previous year’s Magneto and the Magnetic Men. This reality’s version of Jericho is a combination of DC’s Jericho, the Thing, and X-Man. Brother Brood is Brother Blood infected by the Brood Queen. Terra-X the Destroyer is an amalgam of the Teen Titan’s bucktoothed traitor Terra and Galactus’ herald Terrax the Destroyer. Raveniya the Healer merges Raven with Mother Askani.

Review: Oh, another Bryan Hitch comic that isn’t marred by excessive detail lines and “realistic” faces. That’s like finding an old Greg Land comic without any traced porn. I’m sure someone at the time thought using “eXciting” on the cover was a cute parody, unaware that Marvel was a mere four years away from using a gratuitous X-dash in the actual title of a comic. Anyway, eXciting X-Patrol is the sequel to the previous year’s X-Patrol, the title that was nominally a merger of the Doom Patrol and various X-spinoffs. Apparently, someone just liked the name, because the Doom Patrol did not play a large role in the amalgams. This year’s special makes it even more obvious that the creators want to do a Teen Titans/X-Force mash-up -- which is fine, but why is this even called X-Patrol? Wouldn’t “X-Titans” or “Titans-X” work just as well?

I’m only familiar with the Titans from a few trade paperbacks, a handful of cartoon episodes, and the relentless Jericho hate online, but I think I’ve caught most of the jokes in this one. It’s hard to deny that Terra-X the Destroyer is a great gag. The Marvel characters chosen to be amalgamated surprised me, but as much as I dislike the Askani and X-Man in the mainstream continuity, Barbara Kesel works them into this story in surprising and funny ways. Her dialogue is a fairly accurate representation of ‘90s era X-team interactions, without crossing the line into snarky condescension. This is a dense read, packed with characters and action, but there’s enough humor to keep fans of either franchise entertained. I can’t imagine what someone unfamiliar with the material being referenced would think of this, though.

DR. STRANGEFATE #1 - April 1996

2012-01-03T11:30:00.002-05:00

The Decrees of Fate

Credits: Ron Marz (writer), Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (penciler), Kevin Nowlan (inker), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

Summary: Dr. Strangefate summons his three agents, Skulk, Jade Nova, and White Witch to find Access, who is presently on the run from Abominite in the sewers. After Skulk and Jade Nova fail, White Witch uses her sorcery to bring Access to Dr. Strangefate. Strangefate knows that Access held the keys to the two realities that form the Amalgam Universe, but is unable to force their location from him. Access escapes, leaving Dr. Strangefate fearful for his world’s survival. He removes his helmet to reveal his true identity, Charles Xavier.

Continuity Notes: Dr. Strangefate is an amalgam of Dr. Strange, Dr. Fate, and Professor Xavier, of course. His servant Myx merges Wong with Mister Mxyzptlk. Skulk (Bruce Banner) is the Hulk and Solomon Grundy. Jade Nova (Frankie Rayner) is somehow a combination of the Frankie Raye Nova, the Green Lantern Jade (perhaps married to Kyle Rayner, based on the last name), DC's Fire, and…John Constantine (?), or perhaps the ‘90s Starman, I guess. White Witch (Wanda Zatara) is Scarlet Witch and Zantana. The Abominite is an amalgam of the Abomination and Hellgrammite.

Review: This is the only Amalgam comic I’ve ever read that even tried to tie in with the main Marvel vs. DC storyline that spawned the event. I probably shouldn’t be surprised, given that Ron Marz co-wrote the miniseries, but I was under the impression that the Amalgam one-shots were written as standalone stories that didn’t require any knowledge of the main event. This story assumes you know something about Access and how he’s involved with the merging of two worlds. I don’t. I’m also not sure why this world’s Charles Xavier has taken this particular identity, and why he’s so protective of the Amalgam Universe, assuming that there’s more to his defensiveness than a simple survival instinct.

I do like some of the specific amalgamations Marz has made, particularly the Hulk/Solomon Grundy mash-up, but most of these characters are pretty light on personality, with the exception of White Witch, who has the empowering character trait of severe horniness. (When Strangefate turns her down, she decides his manservant Myx is good enough. Girl power!) The real highlight of the comic is the pairing of Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan, making this the nicest looking comic of the entire Amalgam stunt. The facial expressions are perfect, the scenery is beautiful, and the layouts are innovative while remaining easy to follow. Given Garcia-Lopez’s reluctance to ever do Marvel work, I wish he could’ve been assigned a more Marvel-centric title, but I’m certainly not complaining about the interpretations of the characters he’s been asked to draw.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #123 - April 1995

2011-12-30T11:25:00.003-05:00

Players and Pawns Part Two - True Lies

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Steven Butler (penciler), Randy Emberlin (inker), Steve Dutro (letterer), Kevin Tinsley (colorist)

The Plot: Flash Thompson and his students are targeted by the Jackal. Ben Reilly defeats him, unaware the Jackal wants to be placed in Ravencroft. As the Jackal is taken away, Jack hands Ben a disc that he claims proves Ben is the original Peter. A verbal command from the Jackal immediately causes Jack to deteriorate. Meanwhile, Kaine has handed Peter Parker documents that allegedly prove that he is the original. When Kaine refuses to answer all of Peter’s questions, Peter charges him. Kaine throws Peter off of a building and escapes. Later, Ben throws the disc into the river, confident in his own identity.

The Subplots: Aunt May awakens from her coma. Meanwhile, another clone travels to New York. Finally, Detective Trevane pursues an arrest warrant.

Web of Continuity: Flash Thompson is now a grade school gym teacher. The third Peter Parker is a needless distraction that only serves to pad the story out even longer. The arrest warrant is for Peter, of course, leading in to the OJ-inspired “Trial of Peter Parker” storyline.

*See _________ For Details: Peter and Ben shut down the Jackal’s lab in Spider-Man #56. Kaine presented Peter with his “evidence” in Spectacular Spider-Man #222; the same issue the mystery of the third Peter Parker began. Ben returns to the smokestack that allegedly incinerated him in Amazing Spider-Man #150 before throwing the disc away.

Creative Differences: Several added thought balloons establish that the Jackal is attacking Flash and his students in order to provoke Ben Reilly. Later, more added thought balloons have the Jackal boasting that he wants to go to Ravencroft because “something” there belongs to him.

Review: The clone storyline was originally supposed to end in Amazing Spider-Man #400, which went on sale the same month this issue was released. Clearly, this was not to be. The standard explanation from the creators is that Marvel’s marketing machine became enamored with the concept and pressured them to keep it going, requiring them to develop one inane plot twist after another to prevent the story from reaching its natural conclusion. Okay, maybe no one involved with the books ever used the phrase “inane plot twist” (in public, at least), but that’s clearly what’s happening by this point. Ben’s the real Peter! No, Peter is…Kaine says so! Who’s Kaine? We can’t say yet, but Peter’s going to fight him for no reason this issue! Wait, this third Peter is the real one…you can trust us now! Uh-oh…the Jackal’s plan is still in motion behind bars! By the way…we’re killing Aunt May next week, but Peter will be too busy digesting prison food to mourn his loss!

As exasperating as the overall storyline is by now, there are a few decent moments in this issue. Ben’s interaction with the original supporting cast has been interesting so far, so working in Flash and his students is a smart move on the creators’ part. Ben’s decision to throw away the evidence that “proves” he’s not a clone is reminiscent of Peter’s choice to throw his test results away in ASM #151, which is a clever callback. Ben’s just as confident in his own identity now as Peter was back then, which is ironic given that Ben’s so adamant that he isn’t Peter anymore. Finally, Steven Butler returns with full pencils, producing the best-looking issue in a while. Unfortunately, he’s still stuck drawing the horrific Scarlet Spider costume, which is several months away from retirement. Yet another reason why this story needs to move on.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #122 - March 1995

2011-12-29T11:21:00.003-05:00

Smoke and Mirrors Part One - The Call

Credits: J. M. DeMatteis (plot), Todd Dezago (script), Steven Butler (breakdowns), Randy Emberlin (finishes), Steve Dutro (letterer), Kevin Tinsley (colorist)

The Plot: Peter Parker and Ben Reilly are suddenly assaulted with visions of the past. A subconscious prompt sends Ben to the mountains. There, he encounters Jack, a diminutive clone of the Jackal. Another deformed Peter Parker clone attacks him, leaving Ben for dead in the snow. Meanwhile, Peter tries to fight off his hallucinations, until he has a vision of Ben’s lifeless body. He declares that he won’t turn his back on Ben.

The Subplots: Kaine watches Ben’s battle with the clone from a distance. In New York, MJ and Anna Watson keep vigil over Aunt May. MJ’s adamant that May will live to see her baby, but Anna prepares her for the worst.

Web of Continuity: Peter has visions of awakening in the Jackal’s lab, causing him to question for the first time if he is in fact the clone.

*See _________ For Details: MJ announced her pregnancy in Spectacular Spider-Man #220. The next chapter of “Smoke and Mirrors” is Amazing Spider-Man #399.

Miscellaneous Note: The Statement of Ownership lists average sales for the year as 199,708 copies with the most recent issue selling 152,500.

Review: And now begins the clone saga phase that has every ridiculous idea from the original storyline exhumed and hauled into modern times. I can understand why the creators would want to revive the Jackal in a storyline about the original clone, but I consider it one of those ideas that is so obvious it's not really worth doing. The Jackal already did everything he needed to do for this storyline back in the ‘70s. He created the clone. And as Gerry Conway revealed while he went out of the way to make his silly old story a bit more respectable, the Jackal wasn’t even capable of cloning in the first place.

Hardly anyone even remembered the Jackal at this point -- his true claim to fame was hiring the Punisher for his first appearance -- so what exactly was served by bringing him back? Apparently, someone thought it was a good idea to give him a tiny clone, a drastically altered “funny” personality, and a ridiculous new motivation that changed his desires from “hot blonde co-ed” to “world domination.” He’s the Jackal in name only, and yet he’s just as pathetic a villain now as ever. I can’t imagine the people invested in this story, the ones who were dying to know about Ben’s past and whether or not Peter was a clone, cared anything about the Jackal, his annoying clone, or his stupid genetic time bombs. He’s just a distraction that unnecessarily stretches the story out for a few more months. Unfortunately, he won’t be the only one.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #121 - February 1995

2011-12-28T11:24:00.002-05:00

Web of Life Part Three - The Hunting

Credits: Todd Dezago (writer), Phil Gosier (breakdowns), Sam De La Rosa & Randy Emberlin (finishes), Steve Dutro (letterer), Kevin Tinsley (colorist)

The Plot: Kaine encounters a gang of thugs who are terrorizing a homeless woman and murders them. Meanwhile, Ben Reilly races to Peter Parker’s home, hoping to catch the Grim Hunter. He’s soon confronted by Kaine, who knocks him unconscious. When the Grim Hunter arrives, Kaine faces him.

The Subplots: Gregor, a friend of the late Kraven the Hunter, fears for his son’s sanity. Elsewhere, Detective Jacob Raven has tracked Kaine’s fingerprints to New York.

*See _________ For Details: The Grim Hunter ended his pursuit of Ben Reilly in Spider-Man #54 after discovering that Ben wasn’t the same Spider-Man he faced earlier. The conclusion to this story arc occurs in Spider-Man #55.

Creative Differences: Portions of Gregor’s monologue are lettering corrections, and an added thought balloon emphasizes that Grim Hunter escaped from Ben in the previous chapter.

Review: Terry Kavanagh isn’t officially gone at this point, but apparently some behind-the-scenes disagreements will soon lead to his departure. Todd Dezago will show up during the early days of the clone saga as a fill-in writer before taking over Sensational Spider-Man after Dan Jurgens’ brief stint. Just based on this issue, I would say he has a better ear for dialogue than Kavanagh, but there’s no noticeable improvement in the plotting. Since Web is released during the first week of the month, it’s placed in an odd position during the crossovers. It always starts the storylines, but never finishes them, leaving every other issue as the third chapter in a four-part storyline. In other words, every other issue is largely “Middle.”

It’s obvious that this issue has a lot of time to kill. Kaine’s opening scene just reiterates the character’s brutal nature (even towards the person he's allegedly saving), while Ben’s introductory action piece is just an elaborate setup for a Miracle on 34^th Street reference. A few more pages are eaten up with a monologue by Gregor, a character who’s never appeared in this book before, but apparently has a connection with the Kraven-spawn that’s about to be killed off. Exciting. We’re halfway through the issue by now. A Kaine subplot establishes that the police are on his trail, so that’s at least one plot advancement. Ben and Kaine then trade off monologues for a couple of pages before having a fight scene that drops a few vague hints about their shared past. Of course, we’re still several months away before any true revelations are made, so this is more stalling, really. Finally, Kaine and Grim Hunter face off on the final page, leading us directly into a different comic that will actually resolve this story. Would even a hardcore completist want to keep buying a comic with stories like this? At the very least, a competent artist could’ve redeemed the action scenes, but the rushed, faux-McFarlane style art just drags the material down even deeper.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #120 - January 1995

2011-12-27T11:24:00.002-05:00

Web of Life Part One - Lure of the Spider

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Steven Butler (breakdowns), Randy Emberlin & Don Hudson (finishes), Kevin Tinsley (colorist), Krol, Powell, & Crespi (letterers)

The Plot: Ben Reilly fills in for the missing Spider-Man, defeating Tombstone and the terrorist group A.R.E.S. on the same night. After spotting Ken Ellis and Betty Brant during one of his fights, Ben visits Betty and considers offering her his story. Instead, he changes his mind and leaves. Meanwhile, the Grim Hunter follows Ben’s path.

The Subplots: Kaine keeps a vigil near Aunt May’s hospital room. He suddenly has a vision of MJ’s death. In Pittsburgh, MJ says goodbye to her sister Gayle.

Web of Continuity: Gayle comments that MJ is “positively glowing,” a subtle hint that she’s pregnant (which is apparently no longer in continuity, regardless of Marvel’s claims that all of your old Spider-Man comics still happened with a shacked-up Peter and MJ). MJ traveled to Pittsburgh to reconcile with her family a few issues earlier in Amazing Spider-Man.

*See _________ For Details: Tombstone’s previous attempts to become a crimelord occurred in Spectacular Spider-Man #204-206. A footnote corrects a narrative caption’s claim that Kraven’s mansion has been abandoned since his death with a reference to the “Pursuit” storyline. A brief shot of Peter Parker near death is accompanied with a plug for the Amazing/Spectacular crossover “Web of Death.” Finally, this story is continued in Spider-Man #54, and a very special announcement will be made in Spectacular Spider-Man #220.

Gimmicks: This is a forty-eight page flipbook. The other side of the comic is a reprint of “Cold Blood” by Greg Cox, a Spider-Man vs. Morbius prose story from the Ultimate Spider-Man collection.

Miscellaneous Note: Ben’s rooftop meeting with Betty is a pretty obvious homage to the Superman/Lois Lane interview scene in the original Superman movie.

Review: Well, if nothing else, there’s a lot going on here. Defenders of the clone saga will always point to the increased sales of the storyline’s opening issues, which is a fair enough argument. After years of lackluster spinoffs and an occasionally bland lead title, the return of the clone (prefaced by the degeneration of Peter Parker into an irrational lunatic) absolutely kicked some excitement back into the titles. That doesn’t mean the idea itself was particularly good, but it was ostentatious enough to make anyone pay attention.

When Mike Sterling says that he sells more clone saga back issues to kids than current Amazing issues at his shop, I’m not surprised. These issues are filled with crazy events -- new mystery characters, death prophesies, numerous villains, a potential replacement for Peter Parker…and somehow, the supporting cast is actually receiving a little more attention as well. (Setting Betty up as a potential love interest for Ben is a far better use of the character than abruptly turning her into a tough-as-nails butch reporter.) A few issues prior, the big drama was whether or not Peter would accept a job taking publicity photos for MJ’s soap opera. Now, he’s undergoing an emotional breakdown while his clone (who might not be a clone) has come out of retirement to fulfill his responsibilities. Even if you think this is a train wreck, it’s hard to ignore.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #119 - November 1994

2011-12-26T11:30:00.002-05:00

The Exile Returns Part Three - Echoes of Silence

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Steven Butler (breakdowns), Randy Emberlin (finishes), Steve Dutro (letterer), Kevin Tinsley (colorist)

The Plot: Ben Reilly collapses outside of his apartment, due to the wounds he sustained fighting Venom. His neighbor, Gabrielle Greer, takes him to a nearby clinic. Daily Bugle reporter Ken Ellis tracks Ben to the clinic, but Ben slips away without being noticed. However, he is found by a woman infected with a clone of Venom’s symbiote. He misunderstands her appeal for help and leaves to prepare for his rematch with Venom. Soon, Ben confronts Venom as he battles the woman in Times Square.

The Subplots: The hitman Kaine is offered a job, but he instead kills the mobsters who sought his services.

Web of Continuity: Since the previous issue, Ken Ellis has coined the moniker Scarlet Spider to describe Ben. Ben’s impact webbing debuts this issue during this rematch with Venom.

*See _________ For Details: Venom gashed Ben’s side in Spider-Man #52, the female Venom’s symbiote has regenerated following Venom: Lethal Protector #6, and the conclusion of this story occurs in Spider-Man #53.

Creative Differences: This issue has numerous lettering corrections, but I can’t tell if any of them are actual rewrites. Some of the female Venom’s monologue is relettered on page twelve, around half of the Kaine subplot scene has been relettered, and Venom’s description of how he’s going to strip the symbiote away from the woman on page twenty-seven is partially relettered.

Review: So, following the previous issue, Ben fought Venom and he got a boo-boo on his side. And, apparently the female with a cloned symbiote from the original Venom mini has returned. (I don’t know if this woman ever received a name, but in this issue, Kavanagh only refers to her as “psycho,” “blondie,” "cuz," and “sister.”) Regardless, I don’t think I missed much by skipping Spider-Man #52. Much of this installment feels like padding, with the big conclusion to the Venom fight being reserved for Spider-Man #53. However, over the course of a few panels we do have the introduction of impact webbing, a concept I honestly like and kind of wish could’ve survived the clone saga. Ben’s neighbor Gabrielle Greer is also given a few panels, but during the short-lived career of Ben Reilly, Gabrielle doesn’t amount to more than a short-lived potential love interest. The Kaine subplot scene is much more significant, though, given later revelations about the character. I’m not sure how this will play out while rereading Web, but my memory is that the identity of Kaine was teased for what seemed like forever, even though it should’ve been pretty obvious all along he was another spider-clone. What else were we supposed to think about a masked man with brown hair and Spider-Man’s physique that debuts during a massive cloning storyline?

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #118 - November 1994

2011-12-23T11:21:00.003-05:00

The Exile Returns Part One - Memories

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Steven Butler (penciler), Randy Emberlin (inker), Steve Dutro (letterer), Kevin Tinsley (colorist)

The Plot: Ben Reilly visits a museum on his way out of New York City. After wandering the city and reflecting on his life as Peter Parker, Ben decides that he can’t leave while Aunt May is dying. When he overhears a news report about Venom on the radio, he returns to the museum to buy a spider-themed sweatshirt he saw earlier. Combining the sweatshirt with a leotard, he creates a new Spider-Man costume.

The Subplots: Betty Brant visits Anna Watson in Aunt May’s hospital room. Meanwhile, Venom tours the city and reflects on his past.

Web of Continuity: If you’re curious to see what exactly is happening in the other Spider-titles during this era, the Life of Reilly site has extensive recaps and behind the scenes commentary by many of the creators involved.

*See _________ For Details: Following the events of the “Power and Responsibility” crossover, Venom returned to New York to ensure that Carnage would not escape Ravencroft.

I Love the ‘90s: The local news station monitoring Venom calls their coverage “Venomwatch ’94.”

Review: And here’s where the hard sell for Ben Reilly begins. The plan was already in place for Ben to replace Peter as the “true” Spider-Man, and even if the creators didn’t quite understand just how badly fandom would reject the idea, they at least knew that they had to put some work into selling it. Unfortunately, they went the predictable route of lessening Peter in order to make Ben look more appealing by comparison. Peter was already a raving lunatic in the preceding storylines, so Ben was automatically depicted as the sensible, more sympathetic Spider-Man in his initial appearances. Over the ensuing months, Peter remains unhinged while Ben is portrayed as a virtual saint. Perhaps the final straw in tearing Peter down was the infamous Spectacular Spider-Man issue that had him slapping Mary Jane, but apparently this scene was perceived differently than the creators intended, so maybe that (horrific) incident wasn’t a part of a concentrated effort to make Peter look bad.

Pitting Ben Reilly against Venom, though, is a clear example of elevating Ben at Peter’s expense. Heck, the last line of dialogue in the issue is “Okay, Venom -- Here’s one Spider-Man who’s not gonna let you run wild!” Get it? Because editorial/marketing concerns had Spider-Man reluctantly form a truce with Venom in Amazing Spider-Man #375, that obviously means that the character of Peter Parker is deeply flawed and deserves to be replaced. Preferably by his “real” self, seeing as how he’s been a clone since 1975 and all. That’s perhaps an exaggeration of the creative team’s intent, but I don’t think it’s much of one. Peter = loser who let Venom go. Ben = true hero who’s going to correct that foolish mistake. The fans will clearly see the logic behind this. They’ll be even more excited to see Ben take over the mantle of Spider-Man…right?

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #117 - October 1994

2011-12-21T11:23:00.002-05:00

Power and Responsibility Part One - Shadow Rising

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Steven Butler (penciler), Randy Emberlin (inker), Steve Dutro (letterer), Kevin Tinsley (colorist)

The Plot: Spider-Man confronts Ben Reilly, incredulous that his clone could’ve survived. During the fight, Ben knocks Spider-Man unconscious and slips away. Meanwhile, Dr. Judas Traveller arrives at Ravencroft with his entourage. He quickly takes over the facility and mentally examines the inmates’ connections to Spider-Man. His devotee Chakra sends a message to Spider-Man -- the inmates will be killed or freed; either way, Spider-Man must face Traveller. Ben overhears the message and secretly follows Spider-Man to Ravencroft.

The Subplots: Mary Jane’s aunt Anna arrives to visit Aunt May in the hospital.

Web of Continuity: Well, obviously, nothing important has happened in the Spider-titles since the last issue of Web.

*See _________ For Details: Dr. Ashley Kafka is still recovering from Shriek’s escape in Amazing Spider-Man #390. The original clone storyline from Amazing #149-151 is mentioned in a later footnote.

Creative Differences: An added thought balloon has Ben remarking that he only kept his old costume as a souvenir. Unfortunately, the extra balloon interrupts a sentence that had been broken into two separate thought balloons, making the addition particularly awkward.

Gimmicks: This issue has a cardstock foil cover and an extra flip book story. The cover price is $2.99.

Review: And now we’ve reached what used to be considered the most controversial Spider-Man story of all time. Of course, this goes back to the days when a) comics were reaching a mainstream audience, and b) readers had enough of an emotional connection to get worked up about this kind of thing. The Marvel Universe is a living, breathing retcon today, so it’s a little difficult to appreciate just how outrageous this story seemed at the time, even before Ben Reilly was revealed as the “one, true” Spider-Man. The clone was dead. He lived and died back in the ‘70s, before much of the audience was even born. And the fans that actually were old enough to remember the original storyline tended to regard it as one of the low points in Spider-Man’s history. He was gone, dead, and virtually forgotten, only getting referenced in a few late ‘80s Spectacular Spider-Man issues (and those stories largely existed to correct the implausible science of the original storyline). Revealing that the clone not only survived, but also had his own life “behind the scenes” of the Marvel Universe for the past twenty years was enough to make many fans apoplectic. And, again, this is before they found out that this was the “real” Peter Parker.

Looking back, with demonic pacts, several origin revisions, and illegitimate Gwen Stacy/Norman Osborn babies in our rearview, the outrage over this story almost feels quaint. I bet Marvel wishes they could get the fans to care so much about a storyline today. Too bad for them, because I think the overabundance of these stunts has left the readers in a permanent state of ennui. You could reveal that Peter Parker and Harry Osborn were secretly lovers during their college roommate days and only the editorial staff of The Advocate would probably care.

As for this specific issue, it really is the best issue of Web in a while. Kavanagh’s dialogue isn’t as overwrought or clunky as usual, and the alternating Spider-Clone/Judas Traveller plots certainly grab your interest. The revival of the clone was Kavanagh’s idea, and perhaps his enthusiasm for the concept is coming through in his work. It would’ve been nice to see some sort of a recap explaining how exactly Spider-Man ended up on a rooftop in a confrontation with his long-thought dead clone, though. Even if this wasn’t labeled the first chapter of a crossover, that’s information that at least warranted an editor’s note. That complaint aside, it’s a decent chapter that stirs up a lot of interest.

The story’s helped a lot by new artist Steven Butler, who seems to be specifically channeling Mark Bagley during this stint. He’s even joined by Bagley’s Amazing inker Randy Emberlin, giving this issue a look that’s virtually identical to the line’s flagship title. I can understand the desire to give each series its own distinctive look, but there’s something to be said for linewide consistency, too. Even subconsciously reminding the readers of Amazing sends the message that Web isn’t a disposable spinoff anymore.

The Double Part One - Born Again!

Credits: J. M. DeMatteis (writer), Liam Sharp (penciler), Robin Riggs (inker), Bill Oakley (letterer), John Kalisz (colorist)

The Plot: Professor Miles Warren creates a clone of Peter Parker. After weeks of abuse, the clone knocks Warren unconscious and escapes his lab.

The Subplots: None.

Web of Continuity: This story shows the unambiguous creation of a Peter Parker clone, rejecting the retcons from Spectacular Spider-Man annual #8 that established Warren’s “clones” as genetic duplicates. Gerry Conway’s retcon of his original clone storyline revealed that Warren merely used a virus that changed the appearance of a person to match that of someone else. Hence, the Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy “clones” were normal people injected with a virus that altered their DNA to resemble Peter and Gwen’s.

*See _________ For Details: The story of the clone continues in Amazing Spider-Man #394.

Review: J. M. DeMatteis is widely viewed as the best writer of these clone stories, and it’s obvious from this back-up that he’s intrigued by the issues of identity and “nature vs. nurture” that cloning introduces. Most of the script is a series of narrative captions offering a poetic reflection on the creation of life and the fundamental question of “Who am I?” that everyone must face. The basic plot consists of an old man beating a naked teenager. That kind of sums up the clone saga right there -- a talented writer could find numerous avenues to explore, but the basic premise is hard to escape. Your thoughtful reflection on human nature might be beautiful, but it’s wrapped around laughably bad science and ridiculous Bronze Age continuity.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN Annual #10 - June 1994

2011-12-19T11:27:00.003-05:00

Shriek, Rattle, and Roll

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (plot), Mike Lackey (writer), Jerry Bingham (penciler), Tom Palmer (inker), Steve Dutro (letterer), Freddy Mendez (colorist)

The Plot: Spider-Man escorts Shriek into Ravencroft, despite his objections that the facility isn’t ready to accept patients. Shriek soon feeds on the negative emotions of a guard and powers herself out of her restraints. She frees her fellow patients, Pyromania, Gale, Mayhem, and Webber, and attacks the staff. With John Jameson’s help, Spider-Man apprehends the inmates.

The Subplots: Warrant and his boss Reynard are using a guard, Barker, as a spy. Their plan is to watch Ravencroft explode and exploit the new bounty hunter opportunities it will generate.

Web of Continuity: Edward Wheelan, formerly the Vermin, now works as a peer counselor at Ravencroft.

Creative Differences: An added thought balloon has Mayhem (who apparently is the only one of the convicts without an online profile) reflecting that she’s only helping the others long enough to kill them after they escape. This was apparently added to justify why Mayhem is joining the other inmates even though a previous scene established that she viewed them as immoral. I don’t think establishing that she wants to kill them as soon as they’re free helps clarify her motivation, though.

Review: Aside from Jerry Bingham’s art, there’s nothing of note here. I don’t even think the introduction of four new Ravencroft patients was intended to do anything more than kill a few pages. In case anyone’s curious, Pyromania is a pyrokinetic, Gale can create massive winds, Mayhem secrets a poisonous gas, and Webber is a “deranged psychotic escape artist,” as opposed to those perfectly stable psychotic escape artists. Two of these villains could’ve given Wizard staffers some easy flatulence jokes, but I can’t imagine anyone else paying these characters a lot of attention. They are such total blank slates that virtually any writer could do something with them, but the Handbook’s already filled with hundreds of generic goons begging for a reinvention.

Daze and Confusion

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (plot), Joey Cavalieri (script), Alex Saviuk (breakdowns), Don Hudson (finishes), Sergio Cariello (letterer), Joe Andreani (colorist)

The Plot: The master hypnotist Daze targets Senator Gaines, who is under Warrant’s protection. Warrant neutralizes Daze and rescues the senator from committing suicide. Reynard injects Daze with truth serum and learns that he works for a criminal cabal known as the Fold.

Review: A caption on the final page asks readers to write in if they want to see more Warrant action. This teaser story, which pits Warrant against a foe that resembles a pedophile cosplaying as Dr. Strange, apparently wasn’t enough to turn the tide in Warrant’s favor. Sadly, we’ll never know the outcome of Warrant’s epic battle with the Fold. I can’t imagine why the comics reading public of 1994 didn’t want more of a character that’s essentially a cyborg Gambit, but sometimes the fates are cruel.

Tabula Rasa

Credits: Mike Lackey (writer), Sergio Cariello (penciler/letterer), Keith Williams (inker), Bob Sharen (colorist)

The Plot: The Black Cat discovers the Black Fox stealing jewelry from her apartment. He claims he’s been hired to return it to its proper owners. After pursuing him she decides to let the Black Fox go, content that the last vestige of her criminal life is gone.

I Love the ‘90s: Black Cat remarks that she wants to settle down with the latest Fabio romance novel.

Review: This is pretty amusing, and the art has a cartoony charm that I like. Mike Lackey’s interpretation of the Black Fox feels a little off (he speaks like a walking thesaurus, which seems like a great exaggeration of his established characterization), but the story remains a fun, quick read. A footnote reminds us that a Black Cat miniseries is coming from Terry Kavanagh and Andrew Wildman, but I doubt it was as entertaining as this back-up.

The Power of Resistance

Credits: Joey Cavalieri (writer), Vince Giarrano (art), Steve Dutro (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist)

The Plot: The Prowler fights the Resistor, a former AIM scientist that’s using local gangs for labor. He recognizes one of the young gang members as a friend of his brother’s. After defeating the Resistor, the Prowler warns the child to make the right choices from now on.

Review: Obviously this is a fairly generic set-up, but I imagine Joey Cavalieri probably would’ve gotten something out of the concept if he had enough room to flesh out the story. I don’t think the little kid Prowler’s so concerned about is even named in the story, which gives you some idea of how rushed the execution is. The art ramps up the excitement a bit, with a style that’s a mash-up of Sam Kieth and early Jae Lee. Looking at this back-up, I wonder why exactly Marvel created a new hero to serve as a Spawn clone, when Prowler was already there with his McFarlane friendly costume and cape. I imagine Spider-Man completists would’ve felt more compelled to buy a Prowler series than a Nightwatch one anyway.

YOUNG HEROES IN LOVE #13 - June 1998

2011-12-16T11:29:00.002-05:00

For Whom the Bell Grumbles

Credits: Dan Raspler (writer), Christopher Jones (penciler), Keith Champagne (inker), Bill Oakley (letterer), Noelle Giddings (colorist)

Following last issue’s revelation, the team now debates whether or not to go forward. And if they go forward, who should lead the Young Heroes?

Monstergirl seizes the opportunity to present herself as the clam, mature voice of reason. She also kisses Off-Ramp during a transparent attempt to draw him closer to her.

Bonfire discerns Junior’s secret identity during a debate over DC continuity (apparently, it’s very important to some people when the term “meta-human” was coined).

Thunderhead is unsure about going forward, especially if it means replacing Hard Drive as the team’s “cape guy.”

Off-Ramp is hurt the most by Hard Drive’s actions. He remains unsure of his decision to join the team and requests a few days off. The team realizes that Off-Ramp is the most valuable member of the Young Heroes, due to his teleportation powers. Without a means to travel to their battles, the team doesn’t have a lot of options.

Junior accidentally tells Zip-Kid he thinks she’s beautiful. She tells him not to apologize for being nice.

Zip-Kid is upset with her boyfriend for casually dismissing her. When she returns home to have “the talk” with him, he unexpectedly proposes to her.

Frostbite views Off-Ramp as his only way home. When he tries to explain this to him, Off-Ramp thinks he’s hitting on him.

More conversations, more manipulation, and more romantic entanglements. Raspler doesn’t advance any of the ongoing storylines very far, but he’s still able to make a conversation scene worth your time. His treatise on how valuable a long-range teleporter would be for a superhero group is something I’ve never thought of before, and he’s managed to make the idea work as a credible conflict for the team members. If you really did live in a remote area of Canada, losing your teammate teleporter would have a fairly significant impact on your life. I’m not sure if he’s serious about a homoerotic subtext to Frostbite and Off-Ramp’s relationship, though, largely because Christopher Jones’ facial expressions can occasionally be hard to decipher.

CHRONOS #6 - August 1998

2011-12-15T11:27:00.002-05:00

The Funeral Party

Credits: John Francis Moore (writer), Paul Guinan (penciler), Dennis Rodier & Steve Leialoha (inks), Ken Bruzenak (letters), Mike Danza (colors)

1998: Chronos and Alex attend David Clinton’s funeral, allowing Walker to give Alex (and any new readers) a history lesson on the original Chronos. The flashback also reveals that Walker Gabriel first met David Clinton while studying his theories on time travel. They became acquaintances, but not truly friends, which is why Walker can’t believe Clinton left him his valuable technical papers and 1934 World’s Fair clock. Inside that clock is a more valuable treasure, the key to Clinton’s safe house. Inside, Chronos and Alex discover paintings stolen from famous painters the day they were finished, rare antiques, and Clinton’s original time travel equipment. Walker’s not thrilled by this, since these items are virtually impossible to fence.

The most shocking discovery in the house is an old photo of David Clinton with Walker’s parents.

Suddenly, one of David Clinton’s old friends, Abel Tarrant (the Tattooed Man), enters. He demands Chronos use the time travel equipment to send him twenty years in the past. Chronos obliges, but unfortunately for Tarrant, Clinton’s old time machine explodes shortly after sending him back to the past. Alex essentially nags Walker into doing something, so he travels back in time to retrieve Tarrant.

1978 (give or take a few years): Chronos encounters Tarrant harassing his twenty-year-old self, bullying him out of getting his first tattoo. Tarrant reveals that this tattoo parlor served as his first crime connection, so he wants to erase the mistake and recreate his past. Tarrant’s tattoos melt into blobs as he doubles over in pain, leading Chronos to take him back to the ‘90s.

A few amusing moments during this scene: Chronos comments that tattoos themselves don’t lead to crime, since everyone he knows under thirty has one. This was written in 1998, before the tattoo fad infected even teenage Disney Channel stars and middle-aged single dads. John Francis Moore also implicitly endorses the Carter Administration by having Chronos tell Tarrant that he’s saving him from the Reagan years. I’m sure this is just a gratuitous partisan shot, but Ronald Reagan will become an important historical touchstone in future issues.

1998: Chronos returns with Tarrant, whose tattoos have returned to normal, signifying the futility of changing the past (and also leaving him free to be dismembered in a future issue of Green Lantern or Suicide Squad). Walker declares that he won’t be looking back at his own life with regret at age forty. Holding the photo of his parents, he’s determined to learn the truth about his past. Apparently, this reflects an edict of DC, who felt the character of Walker Gabriel was too whiney and passive. To Moore’s credit, this issue doesn’t feel like an abrupt change of direction, and I would rather see the mysteries resolved sooner rather than later, so this is one editorial decree I don’t mind. The second half of the series noticeably picks up the pace in the coming issues, and I honestly think the later issues are more entertaining than the early ones, even if the pacing is occasionally bizarre.

YOUNG HEROES IN LOVE #12 - May 1998

2011-12-14T11:26:00.002-05:00

Oh My God! He’s Dead!

Credits: Dan Raspler (writer), Dev Madan (penciler), Keith Champagne (inker), Bill Oakley (letterer), Noel Giddings (colorist)

Oh, he isn’t dead. After the team freaks out, Hard Drive wakes up. He erected a telekinetic shield a split-second before Ricky shot him, so he’s fine. For now. The team grabs Ricky, who dismisses his actions by claiming that he assumed Hard Drive is always protected by a telekinetic shield. Before Off-Ramp teleports him to jail, child genius Ricky quickly discerns one of the biggest mysteries of the series. How could Hard Drive know to erect a shield unless he was reading Ricky’s mind? And if he can read minds, who’s to say he hasn’t been telepathically influencing the team as well? Bonfire, Off-Ramp, and Junior suddenly remember the times they’ve been manipulated by Hard Drive, exposing his past behavior to the team. Everyone unites against their former leader, a fight breaks out, and Hard Drive is revealed as…“emotionally unstable” to say the least. When he comes close to killing Off-Ramp, Hard Drive breaks down and agrees to seek help.

Plus…

Monstergirl also claims that Hard Drive has tampered with her mind, which a handy footnote informs us is a lie. Hard Drive is incensed by her betrayal.

Bonfire will leave the team now that she’s consummated her relationship with Frostbite, at least according to Hard Drive. She doesn’t exactly deny it.

Thunderhead opens a present left by Hard Drive before he left for the hospital. It’s a specially made guitar that fits his large hands.

Frostbite never gets to join the fight. He was out when Off-Ramp teleported in to retrieve him, so he missed everything.

One year into the book’s run, one of the its largest secrets is exposed to the team. That seems like an appropriate amount of time to tease an idea, but then again I’ve read so many ‘90s X-titles, my judgment might be impaired. The action in this issue doesn’t feel as forced as it did in the previous arc, since it’s entirely plausible that the team would react violently to Hard Drive’s dirty secret. The characterization of Hard Drive remains interesting, as he defends his actions by saying he did it all for “the people of the world.” He’s only magnifying emotions, not creating them, and if he’s using his powers to influence other “metas” to help humanity, so what? He desperately wants the team to like him, and when they understandably turn against him, his childlike response to the rejection is brutal. Is Hard Drive comics’ first bi-polar superhero? Is his childishness a commentary on comics fans? Will any of this be resolved before the series is cancelled?

CHRONOS #5 - July 1998

2011-12-13T11:25:00.004-05:00

Legacies

Credits: John Francis Moore (writer), Paul Guinan (penciler), Doug Hazlewood & Dexter Vines (inks), Willie Schubert (letters), Mike Danza (colors)

1998: Chronos returns to his apartment with Alex, who’s amused by his outdated video game systems. Alex receives a message from the mysterious Goodfellow on her Keystone and travels across time with Chronos to the Temple of Eternity. This temple allows Goodfellow’s troupe to travel anywhere though time…which seems kind of redundant given the time-traveling Keystone devices they carry. I realize that the Keystones don’t allow them to travel directly from one era to another -- they have to keep hopping around time until they reach their destination -- but since the time-hopping doesn’t seem to bother them so much, I’m not sure why the temple is supposed to be so important. Why exactly is Moore attaching so much continuity to the troupe’s time travels?

After pushing in a piece of the Gate of Eternity (which resembles a giant Aztec calendar), they travel to…

1865: In nineteenth century France, Chronos meets the leader of the troupe, Lucas Goodfellow. He explains that he was plucked out of time at the moment of death and paired with eleven other “time-lost wayfarers who had been shanghaied by a mysterious power.” He formed the Lucas Goodfellow Traveling Theatrical Troupe to ensure that certain historical events occur. He asks Chronos to join, but he refuses. Later on, a monologue will reveal that he’s scared at the prospect of becoming a hero, and he doesn’t want time travel to ravage his body the way it’s destroyed David Clinton’s.

Alex learns that her grandmother Cassandra has died. Goodfellow hands her a silver dragon necklace that’s been left for her. Chronos touches it and is briefly transported to eleventh century China. (This is the scene featuring the ancient Chinese city of Kaifeng miscolored “in dark purple and chartreuse” that penciler Paul Guinan complained about when announcing the book’s cancellation. And he’s right; the colors on this page are muddy and kind of ugly.) Chronos catches a glimpse of Cassandra, who wears a hood that conceals her face. I have a feeling this is significant later on…

1998: Anyway, Chronos returns home and picks up a photo of his deceased mother. What would you expect anyone with time travelling powers to do? He uses his ability to travel back to his childhood, of course.

1985: Berkley, California. This is one of my favorite sequences in the series. Moore’s already explored some of the traditional science fiction time-travel plots, and now he’s using the premise to examine an idea that’s relatable for everyone. Who wouldn’t want to revisit their childhood home? I wasn’t as old as Walker Gabriel in 1985, but I had a similar collection of Super Powers action figures in my bedroom (although the DC Universe seems to have produced toys that didn’t exist in our world, such as a Golden Age Flash figure). Walker sees his mother and his younger self playing outside. He wants to talk to her, but what could he even say?

Upstairs, Chronos plans on leaving a note for his mother, hoping to warn her of a fatal car accident eight months in the future. He overhears his parents arguing about his birth parents, a subject he didn’t think they knew anything about. He investigates his father’s office and finds a book with yet another Aztec calendar on the outside. He opens it to discover a map of Chronopolis. Touching the drawing, he’s taken to Chronopolis during the days of its construction, and is quickly sent back home by a discourteous cyborg. Back in 1998, Chronos answers the phone to discover his predecessor, David Clinton, is dead.

YOUNG HEROES IN LOVE #11 - April 1998

2011-12-12T11:27:00.003-05:00

Climb Every Mountain to the Headquarters Without Fear!

Credits: Dan Raspler (writer), Dev Madan (penciler), Keith Champagne (inker), Bill Oakley (letterer), Noelle Giddings (colorist)

Grundómu continues to destroy the rainforest, while Junior deduces that the monster is somehow exhaling oxygen like a plant. The team decides to pit Bonfire’s fire powers against Grundómu, while Off-Ramp recruits the nearby scientists. The kid genius, Dr. Renquist (or “Ricky” as he doesn’t like to be called) theorizes that Grundómu is making himself invaluable to humanity by replacing the rainforest. Eventually, Ricky confesses that he created Grundómu and gave him this plan. Ricky is convinced by Junior that any nation on Earth would like to have a “colossal plant-based oxygen machine,” so he orders Grundómu to stop his rampage. Later, the team investigates Ricky’s lab to make sure things are on the up and up. Unfortunately for Hard Drive, Ricky shoots him in the side of the head when he isn’t looking.

In Subplot Land…

Hard Drive tries to encourage Bonfire during the fight, but he’s still upset about her tryst with Frostbite.

Bonfire is apparently having hot flashes, according to the cover blurb. Did DC really intend to associate this character with menopause?

Monstergirl is furious when Off-Ramp asks her why she doesn’t grow larger while fighting the Grundómu. Why exactly she’s so sensitive about her powers remains a mystery.

Frostbite is incensed that he’s been left behind. While taking a walk, he runs into a teacher from issue #6. He learns that “Flying Squirrel” of the Rat Pack is out of jail, and he contemplates checking up on him.

One issue dedicated to a monster fight was a little strange, but two in a row is especially bizarre for this book. I don’t know if Dan Raspler wants a change of pace, or if DC is trying to “mainstream” the title, but there is a sense that the direction of the book is changing. The cliffhanger certainly isn’t of the “________ is kissing ________” variety, but I think it works as an abrupt shock for the readers. I’m not sure what to make of Ricky, who I initially dismissed as a throwaway character, but it’s obvious he’s not supposed to be an incidental. He reads like something straight out of a Mark Waid script, which makes me wonder if Waid (or perhaps Morrison or Millar) ever did anything with the brat.

CHRONOS #4 - June 1998

2011-12-09T11:22:00.003-05:00

Reprise

Credits: John Francis Moore (writer), Paul Guinan (penciler), Steve Leialoha (inks), Ken Bruzenak (letters), Mike Danza (colors)

Outside of Time: Chronos emerges in Chronopolis for the first time, following Vyronis’ activation of the Time Masher. He’s greeted by Alex, now aged seventeen years, who’s working with Rip Hunter to undo the damage created by Vyronis. Chronos learns that he’s some form of temporal anomaly, which makes him the world’s only hope against Vyronis. Alex hands Chronos his displacement suit, which becomes his standard superhero outfit for the series, shortly before the all-powerful future version of Vyronis attacks. With Alex and her allies dead, Chronos teleports back to…

1464: In Florence, Chronos relives his disastrous choice from the previous issue, only now he turns against Vyronis. Vyronis tries to kill him, and in the process, Chronos is bathed in chronal energy after the tachyon generator explodes. Chronos makes a hasty wish to be anywhere but Florence, and suddenly appears…

Whenever Kamandi Is Supposed To Take Place: Chronos and Vyronis find themselves attacked by “Lion Men on ATVs.” Despite what the cover would lead you to believe, though, this scene is only three pages long. Chronos does break Vyronis’ Keystone, which will presumably be important later on, but really this scene exists as a dramatic demonstration of Chronos’ new powers, and as a continuity nod to DC fans. Chronos tests his powers by willing himself to return to fifteenth century Florence. He makes it back, is reunited with Alex, and is ready to face new adventures. But…

1998: David Clinton reminds us again that time isn’t something to be toyed with. He fades out of existence, for perhaps the last time.

So, four issues into the series, Walker Gabriel’s origin and status quo are (mostly) spelled out. He can travel through time, reaching specific eras and locations if he concentrates on objects representing that time and place. He isn’t a straight hero or villain, nor does he have a clear motive at this point. Why exactly he’s a temporal anomaly is the major mystery right now, and Moore’s resolution to the mystery will be his most creative use of time travel during the series’ run.

Paul Guinan’s art is just as delicate and remarkable this issue as it has been since the first issue, although I can see another example of the “camera” being placed too far back. When Chronos punches Vyronis on page nineteen, it should be a big deal. Vyronis has been screwing with Walker since the series began, and this issue opened with a super-powerful Vyronis from the future killing Alex in Chronopolis. Chronos hasn’t had a real physical confrontation with the villain yet, and since he isn’t a particularly physical character (as Walker says, he hasn’t hit anyone since he was eight), Walker punching Vyronis should feel like a big deal. Instead, the panel is a long, skinny one that works in a lot of background we’ve already seen, and shows Traven snatching a gun away from Fiorella. There’s no impact. Maybe Moore asked for all of that in the panel, but I have no idea why he would want the climatic “hero slugs villain” moment crammed in with any other information. At any rate, this is a strong closing chapter for the opening arc, and if there were ever a Chronos trade, this would make the perfect stopping point for the first volume.

YOUNG HEROES IN LOVE #10 - March 1998

2011-12-07T11:27:00.003-05:00

Tremble in Fear -- For the Beast Hunts You!

Credits: Dan Raspler (writer), Christopher Jones (penciler), Keith Champagne (inker), Bill Oakley (letterer), Noelle Giddens (colorist)

So, the logical follow-up to a slow, character-driven issue is to do an action-packed hero vs. monster story. I’ve never heard of Grundómu before, but apparently he lives for “the hunt” and speaks in non-sequiturs like “Belching! Bellicose! I Besiege!” The Young Heroes travel to Brazil to stop the monster, encounter a bratty twelve-year-old scientific genius, and talk about the DC Universe’s abundance of super-powered primates. Finally, they encounter Grundómu. Junior notices that Grundómu actually has a nice smell, which is surprising given his size and sheer monsterness. Why exactly this is brought up is left unclear, but presumably the smell mystery will tie into next issue’s conclusion.

In non-monster news…

Bonfire and Frostbite have returned from their naughty vacation. They want to test their mysterious psychic bond, but are interrupted when Off-Ramp abruptly abducts Bonfire away to participate in the mission.

Thunderhead misses Bonfire. Due to his giant size, he can no longer play guitar and take his mind off his problems.

Zip-Kid considers hanging out with Thunderhead, but when she realizes that going to a bar would require her to take off her mask, she decides to keep her secret identity.

There’s a lot of action here for a book that isn’t supposed to be about the action. Raspler is still incorporating a respectable amount of character work, so this doesn’t feel like a total switch, but I wonder what exactly prompted the change. The Grundómu fight is fun, even if it feels like an unnecessary diversion at this point. The most interesting team interaction this issue comes from Thunderhead and Zip-Kid. Thunderhead’s depression is heightened by his inability to play the guitar (Grant Morrison does the same bit with Beast in New X-Men years later), and Zip-Kid is only now realizing that fraternizing with the team in public will require her to give up her secret identity. At least, she seems to think so. Who’s to say any of her teammates would recognize her face?

CHRONOS #3 - May 1998

2011-12-05T11:21:00.004-05:00

Renaissance Man

Credits: John Francis Moore (writer), Paul Guinan (penciler), Steve Leialoha (inks), Willie Schubert (letters), Mike Danza (colors)

1873: Chronos is caught by the Linear Man, whose name we learn is Traven. The time-traveling actress, whose name is revealed as Alexandra Damaskinos, walks in on them and realizes that Chronos must be the reason why her tribe has been sent to the nineteenth century. During the confrontation, Chronos activates the strange metal disk, which we learn is called a Keystone, and escapes with Alex.

1998: The original Chronos is meeting with a lawyer to discuss his will. He’s represented by the ex-wife of his former foe, the Atom -- Jean Loring. This scene is mainly here to remind us that David Clinton is still fading in and out of existence, but just imagine if the creators of this book really did have access to the future! We could’ve been warned about Identity Crisis years in advance.

1464: Chronos and Alex have landed in Renaissance-era Florence. Some continuity is established (Alex belongs to a group of time-travelers led by a “Goodfellow,” only its members should be able to use the Keystones, they disguise themselves as actors because performers are supposed to be eccentric, the villain Vyronis is a former member, and the tribe can’t travel to anywhen they feel like -- points in time are connected to one another), and another DC character makes a gratuitous cameo. Jason Blood, whose demon form only appears in shadow, is hanging around Vyronis and his lover Fiorella for no obvious reason. He recognizes Chronos, who has no idea who Blood is, which means Moore probably planned on teaming Chronos and the Demon together in a later story (set in an earlier time period, of course).

Outside of Time: At the Vanishing Point, Traven reports to his commander and is sent to another era with a chronal energy surge -- Florence, 1464.

1464: Chronos learns why Vyronis hired him to steal the tachyon generator, and it naturally involves a giant machine that can destroy the entire timeline. Vyronis is convinced that he can use his “Time Masher” to disrupt the flow of time and reshape it however he pleases. Chronos just wants to go home. When Traven arrives to finish his arrest, Chronos manages to steal his gun from him. Chronos strikes a deal with Vyronis; he’ll keep Traven at bay long enough for Vyronis to activate the Time Masher, provided Vyronis sends him back home to 1998. (Who wouldn’t long to relive the days of endless Viagra jokes and the Lewinsky scandal?) Cliffhanger: Vyronis activates the machine and the world disappears in a flash of light. Chronos wonders if he’s made the wrong decision.

Obviously, Moore’s crammed a lot into this issue. This is the most continuity we’ve been exposed to so far, and he’s given several issues worth of information out in just a handful of pages. There’s so much going on Chronos often feels like a bit player in the drama, which is an unusual route to take in an ongoing series. I think the storyline is interesting enough to justify all of the digressions, but I can see why a casual reader would begin to feel lost at this point, and this is only the third issue. When Chronos is allowed to show some personality, we’re reminded that he isn’t a traditional superhero protagonist. Walker isn’t particularly iniquitous, but he’s willing to go along with a villain’s plan if it means getting what he wants. The unpredictably of Chronos’ actions, and where exactly they’ll lead him, is one of my favorite aspects of the book.

And, speaking of time travel, here’s the back cover ad for the original Grand Theft Auto game. Who could’ve guessed where this gimmicky premise would lead?

X-MEN UNLIMITED #23 - June 1999

2011-12-02T11:26:00.003-05:00

Lessons

Credits: Ben Raab (writer), Al Rio (penciler), Livesay/Holdredge (inks), Kevin Somers (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: In the wake of Magneto’s takeover of Genosha, Professor Xavier reflects on his students and the world they must be prepared for. Marrow, Gambit, Rogue, and Shadowcat are irritated by his zealous attitude. Nightcrawler talks to Xavier, challenging him not to give in to fear. Xavier watches the team train in the Danger Room and is proud to have them as his family.

Continuity Notes: After searching the internet, Shadowcat learns her missing father is in Genosha. This is treated as a shocking revelation, but wasn’t this information revealed years earlier in Excalibur?

“Huh?” Moments: Professor Xavier repeatedly points to a videoscreen image of Genosha while trying to make a dramatic point to Nightcrawler. Unfortunately, someone forgot to actually paste an image into the panel, so he’s just pointing to a gray screen. I also wonder if several panels of a confrontation between Xavier and Shadowcat are accidentally missing word balloons.

Review: Wow, another X-Men story that hinges on Professor Xavier acting like a jerk. And it sees print just a few months before “The Shattering,” an X-crossover that uses Professor Xavier acting like a jerk as the impetus for the entire event. There’s enough material out there now for a Professor Xavier: A-Hole trade paperback, I swear. I will say this about Unlimited #23 and “The Shattering” -- there’s an actual point to the stories and Xavier is redeemed by both of their endings. New Marvel has failed pretty miserably in that regard.

The goal of this issue is to provide some insight into Xavier’s state of mind following the events of the “Magneto War” storyline. Since the main titles went off on an interdimensional/outer space arc directly following the crossover, you could argue that the team’s emotional response to the events was skimped over. Raab explores the idea that Xavier views Magneto gaining control of his own country as the ultimate defeat, while also fleshing out how he feels about returning to the X-Men (another plot development that was glossed over during the days of Uncanny and X-Men’s perpetual crossovers).

The story’s padded a bit with scenes of Xavier’s astral form checking out all of the X-characters starring in spin-offs, but for the most part, Raab has a clear focus. Xavier’s discouraged by a major loss, he’s wary about the future, and he’s paranoid that the latest incarnation of the team isn’t prepared. The X-Men simply see him behaving like an irritable bowel and don’t understand what’s wrong, with the exception of Nightcrawler, who once again proves what a nice guy he is by reaching out to the Professor. Nightcrawler throws some of Xavier’s old pep talks back in his face, and Xavier soon realizes that he should never give up hope in the team. The End.

As an epilogue to “Magneto War,” and a traditional “quiet” issue, this is all right. I know some fans have a problem with Al Rio, but I view him as one of the better Wildstorm artists. His characters look a little more human when compared to ones drawn by other artists who work in this style, and he doesn’t go overboard with needless rendering lines. It is a little ridiculous that apparently no one thought about how this story would relate to “The Shattering,” but I’m not surprised at this point. My fan explanation is that Xavier knew the team was annoyed by his overreaction to “Magneto War,” so he used it to add authenticity to his “drive the team away” scheme in “The Shattering.” If Marvel wanted to, they could’ve removed some of Xavier’s first-person narrative captions and just used this story as a “Shattering” prelude. As it is, I’d like to see this issue reprinted as an epilogue in a “Magneto War” trade paperback.

WOLVERINE Annual ‘99 - March 1999

2011-11-30T11:20:00.005-05:00

Crying Wolf!

Credits: Marc Andreyko (writer), Walter McDaniel (penciler), Walden Wong & Scott Koblish (inkers), Gina Going (colors), Heisler & Revenge Graphics (letters)

Summary: Wolverine suspects famed author Duncan Vess is a werewolf. When he follows him home after a book signing, he encounters Deadpool, who’s been hired by a mysterious group to kill Vess. Their fight is interrupted by Lycus, a werewolf who’s targeted Vess for exposing werewolf secrets in his novels. Eventually, a council of elder werewolves appears. They reveal that they hired Deadpool to kill Vess, hoping that a human execution would be more inconspicuous. The Council punishes Lycus for acting on his own by turning him into a wolf. They leave when threatened by Wolverine, and Vess declares that he will go into hiding.

Continuity Notes: A footnote establishes that this story takes place prior to X-Men #90. Walter McDaniel, or perhaps the inkers, doesn’t seem to be drawing Wolverine with bone claws, even though he’s months away from regaining the adamantium.

I Love the ‘90s: Deadpool cites Bob Saget as an example of a hack comic. Presumably, Deadpool would know today that Saget is actually a filthy stand-up with a mean sense of humor. Deadpool would probably be a fan.

Review: I can just imagine the Twilight references if this story had been published today. Maybe they would’ve been funny, as opposed to what we have here. Some writers can give Deadpool brilliantly funny quips, while others can’t seem to go further than generic “light-hearted” banter. There is one amusing moment when Wolverine realizes that Deadpool’s too cheap to make his blades out of silver, but that’s really it. And, honestly, I’m not sure why exactly Marc Andreyko thought that a secret werewolf novelist would’ve served as a legitimate springboard for a Wolverine/Deadpool story. I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by Walter McDaniel’s pencils. Normally, I can’t stand his art from this era, but this is a better job than anything I saw in Deadpool. Sometimes he still resembles a subpar Jeff Matsuda, but his Ed McGuinness-style Deadpool isn’t bad at all.

Beer Run

Credits: Marc Andreyko (writer), Massimiliano Frezzato (art), Andrew Pepoy (inker), Heisler & Revenge Graphics (letters)

Summary: During a poker game, Wolverine takes Nick Fury’s SHIELD car for a beer run. On the way home, he’s abducted by the Hand and forced to fight a dragon. Wolverine escapes as the Hand are sucked into another dimension. Meanwhile, local hoods have stripped Fury’s car. Wolverine finally returns home to discover his friends are asleep.

Continuity Notes: Wolverine is drawn with metal claws in this story as well.

Review: I’m almost positive this story was originally going to appear in a 1998 black and white Wolverine holiday special that was cancelled at the last minute. The one-shot even made its way into the Bullpen Bulletins’ checklist, and “Beer Run” sounds like one of the stories listed in the summary. I seem to recall many fans at the time wondering (rightly so) how exactly something of this caliber ended up as an annual back-up. The gray-tone art by legendary Italian artist Massimiliano Frezzato is absolutely beautiful, blending the story’s elements of action, humor, and fantasy perfectly. The plot is obviously silly, but I was struck by how much it reminds me of post-2000 “New Marvel.” Wolverine is buddies with Captain America, the Thing, She-Hulk, and Nick Fury. He's wearing a wife-beater and jeans. Villains are used with no real concern for continuity (how often can the Hand summon dragons?). Art by a prestigious foreign artist. It stars Wolverine. That’s New Marvel, right? Did they ever reprint this back-up? Aside from the fact that it isn’t needlessly padded out and doesn’t feature any gore, profanity, or heroes fighting each other, it would fit right in with something published today.

GAMBIT #1 - February 1999

2011-11-28T11:19:00.005-05:00

The Man of Steal

Credits: Fabian Nicieza & Steve Skroce (story & art), Rob Hunter (inker), Shannon Blanchard (colors), Comicraft’s Emerson Miranda (letters)

Summary: In China, Gambit steals a spaceship component from an ancient temple. After Gambit rescues archeological engineer Sekmeht Conoway from the crumbling temple, the employees of Elysian Enterprises and American federal agent Carl Denti are unable to find him. He returns home to the X-Men, but receives another mission from New Son via the Courier. Looking to steal more information on the spacecraft, Gambit attacks an Elysian Enterprises convoy lead by the X-Cutioner. When Gambit realizes that the spacecraft is the one that once powered Apocalypse, he decides that no one should have the information and destroys it. In the process, the X-Cutioner is humiliated and three Elysian guards are fired. Meanwhile, a mystery woman examines the dreams of Gambit’s adopted father and the Courier.

Continuity Notes: The ancient ship is a Celestial craft that once belonged to Garbha-Hsien, before it was stolen by Apocalypse. A footnote points to X-Force #37 for details. Carl Denti is the X-Cutioner, of course, and the three security guards fired by Elysian Enterprises (Cosmo, Ellenthrope, and Farley) will appear in future issues.

I Love the '90s: The Courier’s dream takes place in Washington, which of course leads to a Monica Lewinsky reference. The senior LeBeau’s flashback to Gambit’s childhood with Bella Donna is described as “Dawson’s Creek meets Pulp Fiction.”

Gimmicks: This is a double-sized issue without any cover enhancements. However, numerous variant covers were released for the issue. You can view all of them here.

Review: Decompression was already catching on by the late ‘90s, although the phrase “writing for the trade” probably hadn’t been coined yet. (Doing this at Marvel would’ve been foolish, since the company barely released trades during this era.) Fabian Nicieza seemed to be conscious of the fad, and responded by making every issue of Gambit a tightly packed, dense read along the lines of Chris Claremont, Don McGregor, John Francis Moore, etc. If Bill Jemas had actually read a comic by this point, his head would’ve exploded ten pages into this one.

Along with setting up Gambit’s new status quo -- working with the X-Men and secretly for the New Son simultaneously -- Nicieza has also introduced a new group of supporting cast members and villains. And by “introduce” I don’t mean a drawn-out sequence that shows them making coffee in the morning, taking a shower, and driving to work. The very first page establishes C.E.O. Anwar Anubar, archeological engineer Sekmeht Conoway (who we later learn is his daughter), and the concept of Elysian Enterprises. They’re intended to be ongoing foils (and, in Sekmeht, perhaps a love interest) for Gambit, which is somewhat surprising given their low-key introduction, but that’s the nature of the book. You’re actually expected to, y’know, read and pay attention and not presume that everything’s going to be spoon-fed to you. X-Fans were probably already familiar with Carl Denti/X-Cutioner, and perhaps even the Celestial spacecraft, but the combination of new characters, a new status quo, numerous scene changes, some vague subplots, and old continuity references left some fans with a bad impression. I remember several people complaining online that this issue was too difficult to follow. And there is quite a lot thrown at the reader, but any confusion should be alleviated by a second reading.

In terms of characterization, Nicieza seems to be pulling Gambit closer towards the affable rogue he appeared to be in his initial appearances, instead of allowing him to endlessly wallow in patented X-angst. Gambit’s dealing with an ethical dilemma, as he doesn’t know where he fits in with the X-Men and isn’t sure if he should be helping New Son out, but he isn’t whining about it. He’s still having fun and using his powers in creative ways. Nicieza’s throwing Indiana Jones, Robin Hood, and maybe even Tomb Raider into a blender and getting a pretty likable hero/anti-hero out of it.

Steve Skroce was initially used as a major selling point for the book (the title was announced with Skroce as artist before any writer had been found), and he is producing remarkable work. He’s going for the Geoff Darrow “thousand-and-one things happening per page” look, and he’s skilled enough to make it work. Not content merely to draw a million shell casings or glass shards during a fight sequence, Skroce is also working out complicated movements for Gambit, car chases, and giant explosions…often on the same page. Occasionally the page layouts can be a little too busy, but the amount of effort he’s put into the issue is obvious. Even if you’ve already dismissed Gambit as a character, it’s hard to deny that this creative team is putting a lot of thought and energy into this book. Unfortunately, given the glut of X-titles, and the general impression that the franchise had gone off the rails by the late ‘90s, the title always had an uphill battle.

WOLVERINE #138 - May 1999

2011-11-25T11:17:00.003-05:00

Doomsday!

Credits: Erik Larsen (writer), Jeff Matsuda, Steve Scott, & Yancey Labat (pencilers), Jonathan Sibal, Scott Elmer, & Scott Koblish (inkers), Mark Bernardo (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Wolverine helps dozens of the aliens escape before joining forces with Torgo and Aria to stop Galactus. Their plan fails when Aria is unable to possess Galactus and Wolverine’s bone claws aren't sharp enough to destroy his cosmic converter. The Starjammers rescue Wolverine and Aria, but cannot save Torgo. Wolverine watches in horror as Galactus consumes Prison World. He’s also informed that Aria did not survive her injuries. Upon returning to Earth, Wolverine meets with Warbird again and apologizes for hurting her while possessed by Aria.

Review: And now we’ve reached the rushed, chaotic conclusion. I can see what Larsen’s going for here, and on paper it sounds like a decent ending. Wolverine is forced to learn that he isn’t truly “the best there is” after facing a resounding defeat, and is now given a motivation to regain his adamantium. To throw in a few more angst pains, he loses the new alien friends he’s made and is unable to rescue the family of the kid asparagus alien (who’s already lost the rest of his race to Wolverine’s teammate…or however you choose to define Dark Phoenix). Larsen also hammers home the idea that Wolverine refuses to ever quit in a fight, even against Galactus, a side of the character that’s usually glossed over in favor of tired machismo.

That’s all fine, but the execution reads like a long, exasperating sequence of Wolverine running around in circles as aliens get blown up around him. The story’s almost over before we even get to see Wolverine make his move against Galactus. Making matters worse is the trio of pencilers, accompanied by a trio of inkers, that have somehow ended up in the same comic. Jeff Matsuda is Jeff Matsuda (and he’s still looking rushed), Steve Scott’s work is reminiscent of Cully Hamner’s, and Yancey Labat’s pencils resemble early Stuart Immomen. Who could’ve possibly thought this was going to look right? Am I to believe that Marvel didn’t have a dozen manga-style artists on speed dial in the late ‘90s? It’s hard to believe that a title like Wolverine could be such a shoddy production, especially during the debut of a new creative team.

GENERATION X #49 - March 1999

2011-11-24T11:30:00.002-05:00

Trophies

Credits: Jay Faerber (writer), Terry Dodson (penciler), Rachel Dodson (inker), Felix Serrano (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: While sledding with their newest member, Maggott, Generation X is ambushed by the prize hunter Slaughter. Slaughter restrains the team and leaves with his trophies -- Maggott’s slugs. Synch mimics Maggott’s power and creates his own slugs, which free the team from their bonds. They rescue Maggott’s slugs, but Slaughter escapes in a flash of light. Maggott turns down membership in the team in order to track down Slaughter. Meanwhile, Emma visits her older sister Adrienne. When Adrienne’s psychometric powers reveal the true nature of Emma’s school, she agrees to pay its debts. Later, Emma returns to the school with its new headmaster, Adrienne.

Continuity Notes: Synch is able to fly after copying Chamber’s powers, much to Chamber’s surprise. This is presumably a reference to the original Generation X preview special, which claimed that Chamber will one day don a specially-made harness and use his powers to fly.

Review: Maggott was written out of X-Men with a one-page scene that had the Beast suggesting he join Generation X. For approximately six months, fans wondered when exactly this was going to happen. With this issue, the dangling plot thread manages to be resolved, only for Maggott to be shipped off into obscurity twenty-two pages later. New writer Jay Faerber was apparently sympathetic enough to the fans to give them an answer, but as he admitted online, he absolutely hates this character. I guess Faerber is willing to be nice to the readers, but he isn’t going to be a doormat.

I wouldn’t say the issue makes it obvious that Faerber hates Maggott, but he does seem to view him as something of a cartoon. He exceeds Joe Kelly’s quotient for annoying South African slang in virtually every word balloon, for example, which may or not be an intentional joke. When he isn’t speaking in impenetrable catch phrases, Maggott does have a few funny lines (he wants to meet this headmistress that’s always walking around in her underwear), and he’s given a heroic motivation for leaving the team so soon. Then again, you’ve got to wonder why Banshee’s letting him go out on his own to find the villain instead of volunteering Gen X’s help, so maybe it is a little obvious that Faerber can’t wait to be rid of him. Meanwhile, the “Emma’s broke” subplot continues. Adrienne is apparently supposed to be Emma if she never reformed, so her addition to the cast has potential.

CABLE #68 - June 1999

2011-11-23T11:21:00.003-05:00

Sign of the End Times Part 3: Faraway, So Close

Credits: Joe Casey (writer), Jose Ladronn (penciler), Juan Vlasco (inker), Gloria Vasquez (colors), Comicraft’s Saida T. (letters)

Summary: Cable and the Avengers continue to battle the Harbinger. Blaquesmith arrives in New York and uses his thought-projector device to inform Cable of Ozymandias’ prophesy. Cable refuses to allow New York to die, even if it will avert Apocalypse’s rule. Iron Man gives Cable his boots, which Cable uses to fly Harbinger into the atmosphere. Harbinger explodes, while a mystery figure rescues Cable. Stacey watches the skies, convinced that Cable is dead.

Review: It’s another issue of a giant Avengers fight by Ladronn, so this isn’t all bad. Casey can’t seem to craft a story that matches the intensity of the art, though, leaving the “death of New York” concept to sputter out badly. I guess the idea was to emphasize Cable’s evolution as a character through his decision to rescue New York, even if its destruction would guarantee Apocalypse’s defeat. To put it politely, this idea isn’t explored very well. Cable doesn’t even learn of the prophesy until the final pages of the story, the specifics of how exactly the destruction of New York will eventually stop Apocalypse are never given, and at no point does Cable even weigh the options, which makes it a pretty lame ethical dilemma. Some of the character work with Stacey isn’t bad, but the grand tone Casey’s trying to strike with the story just comes across as melodrama. This was a three-issue story about a cyborg fighting some superheroes while he destroys a few buildings. It’s okay to dress it up a bit, but trying so hard to hit the “epic” note just emphasizes how silly the idea was in the first place.

MUTANT X #4 - January 1999

2011-11-22T11:15:00.004-05:00

Secrets and Lies

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Cary Nord (penciler), Andrew Pepoy (inker), Gina Going (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

Summary: While Bloodstorm visits Forge, demons invade the Six’s headquarters. Havok and Scotty are cornered by the monsters, but Madelyne suddenly emerges as the Goblin Queen and saves them. She then abruptly shifts back into her human form.

“That’s Crazy Because They’re Different”: A girl named Kitty is a servant at Forge’s manor. Forge offers himself to Bloodstorm as food, and she seems to believe that feeding on him relieves his unspecified suffering. Bloodstorm can also transform into fog in this reality.

Better Than X-Factor?: Sure. Cary Nord’s just doing fill-ins at this point, but his style matches the dark tone of the story perfectly. There’s a lot of setup going on here, as page after page is dedicated to Scotty’s demonic visions and Madelyne spends several pages being tempted by the actual demons, but the art and colors help to sell the mood. It’s an “Inferno” callback, and as a late ‘80s Marvel fan, I can’t complain about that. Mackie’s also delivered a much more natural and subdued script this month. Perhaps this started as a gimmicky Halloween issue, but it worked out quite well.

WOLVERINE #137 - April 1999

2011-11-21T11:26:00.003-05:00

Countdown to Destruction

Credits: Erik Larsen (writer), Jeff Matsuda (penciler), Jonathan Sibal (inker), Mark Bernardo (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Wolverine rescues Aria, who takes him to Prison World’s main power core. They shut off the power, freeing the inmates. Before they can escape, however, they’re ambushed by the Starjammers, who have agreed to join the Collector’s cause. Corsair explains that Prison World was designed to be invisible to the outside world, but is now exposed without power. Wolverine questions what kind of threat the Collector needs to protect the aliens from, just as Galactus arrives on the horizon.

Creative Differences: The third-person narration on the opening page is mistakenly lettered in Wolverine’s distinctive font. (According to Erik Larsen, almost all of the captions were added by editorial anyway.) Other lettering mistakes include a hand-written correction mixed in with the computer-generated font, and numerous dropped words.

Review: I had given up on the Prison World arc by this point, but if I had made it to this chapter, I probably would’ve stuck around for the final issue. I realize that Galactus too often shows up in outer space stories, and many X-fans hated his appearance in this arc, but his role in this story does work as a legitimate twist. Wolverine’s spent the past several issues fighting to free these aliens, only to discover the Collector is trying to spare them from Galactus. Ooops. Now, the Collector could’ve saved everyone a lot of trouble by simply telling his subjects why he’s gathered them, but I’m under the impression that he’s supposed to be too arrogant and enigmatic to even consider the possibility. I still think the art’s too rushed and inappropriate for the subject matter, but I’ll give Larsen credit for picking up the pace and actually using the setting to his advantage this issue.

CABLE #67 - May 1999

2011-11-18T11:26:00.005-05:00

Sign of the End Times Part 2: Gods’ Footsteps

Credits: Joe Casey (writer), Jose Ladronn (penciler), Juan Vlasco (inker), Gloria Vasquez (colors), Comicraft’s Saida T. (letters)

Summary: The Avengers confront the Harbinger, giving Cable time to recover. Using his Psimitar staff, Cable temporarily immobilizes Harbinger. Soon, Thor arrives and uses his hammer to send him to another dimension. Cable and the Avengers regroup, but Harbinger soon escapes his exile. Apocalypse greets him in New York and activates his detonation code. Meanwhile, Ozymandias informs Blaquesmith that Cable is destined to be the gatherer of the Twelve.

Continuity Notes: A flashback reveals that Cable told Stacey about his life as a time traveler and the importance of his mission just a few hours before the Harbinger arrived.

Review: This is Joe Casey’s first time writing the Avengers, which might be significant for fans of his retro-miniseries. Obviously, there isn’t a lot of room in the story to flesh out the characters, but he seems to have a grasp of their personalities and he makes their appearance feel appropriately momentous. If I were to draw another comparison between Casey and Frank Miller, it’s certainly possible that their appearance here was inspired by the Avengers’ cameo in Daredevil’s “Born Again” arc.

Like the previous issue, this is largely an action piece, with Casey throwing in a few character bits, such as Cable reflecting on the things he never told his father before he leaves for his possibly final confrontation with Harbinger. I don’t care for Casey’s characterization of the Harbinger, since it seems dismissive of James Robinson’s original vision of the character. Robinson seemed to be going for a “discovering humanity” arc, while Casey is simply using him as a doomsday machine. At any rate, the action works pretty well, and Ladronn’s given a lot of cool things to draw. We’re treated to Ladronn’s renditions of the Avengers, Harbinger’s sojourn into an alternate dimension, and the bizarre nineteenth century “regal” redesign of Apocalypse, which is a welcome break from the blue armor.

X-FORCE #86 - Late January 1999

2011-11-17T11:25:00.004-05:00

Experimental Living

Credits: John Francis Moore (writer), Jim Cheung (penciler), Mark Morales, Rob Stull, & Harry Candelario (inks), Marie Javins (colors), Comicraft’s Emerson Miranda (letters)

Summary: X-Force follows Domino to Almost Reno, which is now a ghost town. They eventually find their telepathic friend Mary, who’s discovered another mutant companion, Zack. Agent Briggs and his agents return to kidnap Mary and Zack. X-Force stops them, shortly before Odysseus Indigo arrives. Indigo explains that the Aguilar Institute is a branch of the Damocles Foundation, a group determined to survive the future. Years earlier, the Damocles Foundation mixed mutant and Deviant DNA to give the infertile parents of Almost Reno children. With the exception of Mary and Zack, all of the children have died. X-Force refuses to turn over the two children to Indigo, who peacefully retreats.

Continuity Notes: Indigo says that he is the brother of the “traitor” Ulysses Dragonblood, the Deviant the team encountered in X-Force #84. Almost Reno first appeared in X-Force #77. This issue essentially confirms that Agent Briggs and his SHIELD agents, the villains of #77, are frauds. Apparently, they work for the Damocles Foundation. Zack resembles a gray Ben Grimm, which means he looks like one of those disposable New (or Young?) X-Men characters from the past few years. When he’s hurt in the battle, Moonstar uses her mysterious new powers to heal him.

Review: And here is the all-too-rare sequel to a fill-in issue. X-Force #77 had its moments, but it was heavy on the clichés and stereotypes. Moore corrects a few of those flaws this issue by establishing the generically corrupt SHIELD agents as frauds, and by revealing that nuclear testing didn’t create the child mutants -- it actually made their parents sterile. As a tie-in to the ongoing Damocles Foundation subplot, this isn’t that much of a stretch, so the past continuity works out quite well here.

It is a little odd that the members of X-Force are still exceedingly nasty towards the non-mutant residents of this small town, though. The town’s been kidnapped as a part of the Damocles Foundation’s experiments, and while Indigo promises that they’re okay, the team has no reason to believe him. When Cannonball questions if they should find the citizens, which include Mary’s mother, Domino responds that the town can burn for all she cares. Sheesh. Since she wasn’t even in issue #77, it’s hard to reason why she’s so hostile towards these people. Is she angry that the citizens agreed to genetic testing to cure their sterility? Is that so bad a crime? They just wanted babies. Anyway, aside from those odd bits of characterization, another decent issue.

GENERATION X #48 - February 1999

2011-11-16T11:25:00.003-05:00

Foxes & Scorpions

Credits: Jay Faerber (writer), Terry Dodson (penciler), Rachel Dodson (inker), Felix Serrano (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Irritated by M’s attitude, Jubilee challenges her to a duel in the Danger Room. Elsewhere, Emma learns that she’s lost considerable money in the stock market. When she suggests telepathically manipulating investors, Banshee convinces her to try a legitimate path. She decides to call her older sister, Adrienne. Meanwhile, Husk returns home and is disappointed by Chamber’s cold reaction. Unbeknownst to her, Chamber is following Skin’s advice. Later, Maggot arrives outside the school.

Miscellaneous Note: The title of this issue is a reference to an old middle eastern fable about a fox that carries a scorpion across a river. In Aesop’s fable, the fox is replaced by a frog, but the moral is the same.

Review: Jay Faerber debuts, and while his main story is essentially an extended Danger Room sequence, he introduces enough subplots to keep things fresh. The school’s going broke, Skin is giving Chamber bad relationship advice, Gaia can’t give Husk relationship advice because she’s been strapped to a rock her entire life, and several months after a set-up in X-Men, Maggott finally arrives. The momentum’s starting to pick up again, and it doesn’t hurt to have Terry and Rachel Dodson back, either.

The M/Jubilee fight is mainly there to provide some action and give the Dodsons something interesting to draw, but Faerber also uses the sequence to address how M feels about the months she spent trapped in Penance’s body. Jubilee thinks M shouldn’t be so hostile to her, given the time she spent with Penance. M responds that Jubilee treated her like a pet. Apparently, she’s deeply offended by all of those apples Jubilee brought her during the Lobdell/Bachalo issues. It’s not a very logical grudge to keep, but it’s fitting with M’s character. As M uses the old fable to illustrate, it’s her nature to be this way. Faerber shows very quickly that he gets the characters, so even if this is mainly a set-up issue, it doesn’t feel like a waste of time.

MUTANT X #3 - December 1998

2011-11-15T11:24:00.003-05:00

The Pack

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Tom Raney (penciler), Andrew Pepoy (inker), Gina Going (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

Summary: On their way to Alaska, the Six are shot down by the Canadian military. The team is kidnapped by the Pack, leaving Havok alone. After he accidentally uncovers the abandoned Weapon X facility, the Pack agrees to free the team. Inside, the flood of memories drives the Pack insane, leading to another fight with the Six. Alpha Flight arrives and arrests the Pack. To avoid an international incident, the Six peaceably leave.

“That’s Crazy Because They’re Different”: The Pack consists of Wolverine, Sabretooth, and Wild Child. They’re all feral, and apparently only Wolverine has (limited) verbal skills. In this reality, the Weapon X project existed to create super-soldiers to fight against America in the Canadian/American conflict.

Better Than X-Factor?: Even though this is the weakest issue so far, yes. The idea of a militarized, hostile Canada is so absurd I can’t help but to like it, but the introduction of the Pack is a disappointment. The actual plotting of the issue is also a bit sloppy, as the story requires 1) the Brute to abruptly switch sides twice, with no compelling reason either time, 2) Havok to luckily blast into the hidden entrance of the Weapon X facility, 3) the Pack to irrationally turn on the Six for a second fight, and 4) Alpha Flight to conveniently arrive in time to stop the battle. Mackie is still having some fun with the premise, though. Havok presents a rational argument to the Six, explaining that being stuck in an alternate reality is no more implausible than anything that’s already happened to the team. That’s, you know, a good point. Maddie counters that even if he’s telling the truth, in this reality Havok’s respected by his peers, is married, has a baby, and lives a nice life. Why would he want to give that up? That’s not a bad argument, either. Just think -- two pages of rational conversation in a Howard Mackie comic. How often did that ever happen in X-Factor?

WOLVERINE #136 - March 1999

2011-11-14T11:27:00.004-05:00

Trust

Credits: Erik Larsen (story), Erik Larsen & Eric Stephenson (script), Jeff Matsuda (penciler), Jonathan Sibal (inker), Jason Wright (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Aria is knocked unconscious and sent back to her cell, where an Ovoid returns her consciousness to her body. Torgo escorts Wolverine to his cell, un-handcuffed, hoping that he’ll see the nobility of the Collector’s plans. His fellow captives attack Wolverine, until they realize that he’s an X-Man and not in league with Torgo. Meanwhile, the Collector receives frightening news from space. The Starjammers have also learned information that’s forced them to side against Wolverine.

Review: More aliens, more pointless fight scenes, and more subpar Jeff Matsuda art. We’ve reached our first Star Wars reference, though, which is amazing when you consider that this is the fourth chapter of the story. It is fun to see characters like Torgo (an alien robot from Fantastic Four #91, as a footnote and flashback helpfully inform us) in a Wolverine story, plus Larsen gets continuity points for bringing back one of the asparagus people killed by Dark Phoenix, and for using an Ovoid to transfer Aria back to her proper body. The Marvel Cosmic material isn’t a bad change of pace, but this plot is still extremely thin, and Jeff Matsuda doesn’t seem too interested in drawing it sometimes. The hints about a vague cosmic threat do add some intrigue to the tired story, but it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out who it’s going to be. And as much as the online fans already hated this story at the time, the final two chapters with the big purple menace just sent them over the edge.

THE AVENGERS: EARTH’S MIGHTIEST HEROES Volumes 3 & 4

2011-11-11T20:34:00.002-05:00

Review copies provided by the studio.

Collecting the second half of the first season, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes volumes 3 and 4 are now available on DVD. The first batch of Avengers episodes was a pleasant surprise, with solid designs by the late Boyd Kirkland, smooth animation by Film Roman, and stories that modernized classic Avengers battles with only a small amount of annoying Ultimization. The series clearly improves as the episodes continue, as the character designs tighten up, the digital color palate grows more complex, and the stories develop into multi-part, Avengers-worthy epics. Plus, that irritating mall punk theme song has been chopped in half in the later episodes.

It’s hard to imagine an Avengers fan not getting a kick out of most of these episodes. The storylines draw inspiration from everything from Walt Simonson’s “Casket of Ancient Winters” Thor arc, to Kurt Busiek’s global Kang vs. the World storyline from his final Avengers days. Characters you never really expected to see, such as Mockingbird and Ms. Marvel, even make appearances. Actually, Mockingbird does more than make an appearance; she’s a lead character for a few episodes. This must be what DC fans felt like when characters like Vixen and Captain Atom showed up on Justice League Unlimited. Not that Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is quite on Justice League Unlimited’s level, but it’s the closest any Marvel series has come so far.

Whether or not you wish to own these episodes on DVD likely depends on your level of fandom, but the sets are absolutely worth a rental. The entire first season has also been available via Netflix’s instant streaming service for a while now. I’m not sure when season two is set to begin, but hopefully the wait won’t be too long. This is a show that could easily match the episode runs of the ‘90s Spider-Man and X-Men series, assuming Marvel plays its cards right.

X-FORCE #85 - Early January 1999

2011-11-11T11:23:00.002-05:00

Possession

Credits: John Francis Moore (writer), Angel Unzueta (penciler), Bud LaRosa (inker), Marie Javins (colors), Comicraft’s Emerson Miranda (letters)

Summary: In Latveria, Skids and Locus are possessed by the witch Pandemonia, who forces them to take her to X-Force’s headquarters. When Cannonball, Moonstar, and Jesse Aaronson return home, they discover Pandemonia has possessed their teammates. They travel to the city and find a young sorceress named Jennifer Kale who’s willing to help. They return to battle Pandemonia and the possessed X-Force. With the help of Jennifer, and Moonstar’s strange new powers, Pandemonia is sent back to the Chaos Plane. Meanwhile, while investigating the Aguilar Institute, Domino discovers a shapeshifting child from Almost Reno, New Mexico.

Continuity Notes: Moonstar has been exhibiting odd, almost cosmic-level powers since her encounter with Arcadia in the previous issue.

Review: The Skids/Locus subplot is resolved, in a manner that a) leads into a new story, b) doesn’t take forever to answer the dangling questions, and c) actually makes sense. After the days of the Graydon Creed assassination, mysteriously molting Archangel, and wacky powers Jean Grey, this is a welcome relief. Moore’s quite gifted at spinning plates, bringing forgotten characters back into the mix, and tying everything together into a coherent story. I think he’s a little too obsessed with having the team only hang out with twenty-somethings, to the point that an MTV-friendly sorceress is recruited into the action (because the team doesn’t have Dr. Strange’s phone number), but that’s a minor complaint. The fill-in art is provided by Angel Unzueta, whose style resembles Carlos Pacheco’s early work. Not every page is great, but overall he does a nice job.

CABLE #66 - April 1999

2011-11-10T11:26:00.003-05:00

Sign of the End Times Part 1: Death from Above

Credits: Joe Casey (writer), Ladronn (penciler), Juan Vlasco (inker), Gloria Vasquez (colors), Comicraft’s Saida Temofonte (letters)

Summary: The Harbinger flies over New York, prompting a military response. He diverts the missiles shot at him and destroys the Statue of Liberty. As the city panics, Cable confronts the Harbinger. Their battle destroys the World Trade Center and nearly kills Cable. Suddenly, the Avengers arrive. Meanwhile, Ozymandias explains to Blaquesmith that New York must be destroyed in order to stop Apocalypse. He then hints at another prophesy -- the Twelve.

Continuity Notes: Cable kisses Stacey for the first time before leaving to fight the Harbinger.

I Love the '90s: Apparently, the Marvel Universe is pretty resilient when it comes to rebuilding the World Trade Center. I wonder how long the towers stood in-between the Juggernaut and Harbinger’s attacks?

Review: Remember the late ‘90s, when “widescreen” action and wholesale destruction was considered the cure for the post-boom malaise? I actually never got into those comics, but I certainly remember the hype, and it looks like Joe Casey has fallen for it this issue. And, even if the plot is noticeably thin, you have to acknowledge that Ladronn is doing an incredible job with the visuals. I’m sure the story could’ve been tightened up to remove some of the repetitive Harbinger vs. Army fight pages, but Ladronn makes them look so cool, it’s hard to dismiss them as padding. I am a little disappointed that the Harbinger has returned as a fairly generic villain, although Casey does give him a slight justification for his assault since he was attacked first. The turn from “learning about humanity” to outright destroying large sections of New York is hard to swallow, though. And, as I’ve said before, the casual destruction of giant buildings during a superhero fight scene makes these comics now seem ridiculous in a way the creators never intended.

GENERATION X #47 - January 1999

2011-11-09T11:23:00.002-05:00

She Got Game

Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Aaron Lopresti (penciler), Walden Wong (inker), Felix Serrano (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Forge arrives at the academy to install a new Danger Room in the school’s gym. The new technology is made out of a mysterious metamorphic matter that Forge’s recently discovered and rendered inert. As he lectures the students on ethics, Gaia accidentally revives the Danger Room’s originally programming. It emerges as “Paradox” and attacks Forge. With Emma Frost’s help, a shutdown code is implanted in Paradox’s memory, ending the fight.

Continuity Notes: Forge says he discovered Paradox’s technology during a “recent…adventure.” I have no clue if this is a reference to a published story or merely an idea Hama was percolating. Forge also casually reveals that the school’s Biosphere (or “Bio-Sphere” as it’s often spelled) is made up of a portion of Karkoa’s body. I know that Scott Lobdell teased a Karkoa story towards the end of his run, but I have no memory of this ever being established. At any rate, Karkoa’s desire to be “whole again” is Forge’s explanation for the Biosphere’s recent disappearance. In other news, Artie and Leech have moved into the attic, and Emma discusses Special Education classes for the boys.

Review: Not only does this story involve a sentient Danger Room run amok, but it opens with a surprise Sentinel attack on mutant students gathered in an assembly. Two ideas from Astonishing X-Men in one issue? If I thought for a second that Joss Whedon ever read more than three issues of Generation X, I might be suspicious. Anyway, while Aaron Lopresti can’t capture John Cassaday’s incredible Sentinel attack from Astonishing X-Men #1, Larry Hama has at least written a more plausible “living Danger Room” story. Paradox mentions the irony of Forge teaching an ethics class after essentially enslaving a sentient being, but in Forge’s defense, he honestly thought Paradox’s original programming had been erased. In Astonishing X-Men, Professor Xavier is just a deranged zealot who forced an alien consciousness into slavery because his students “must be trained.” (Perfectly in character, you guys.)

Aside from the novelty that the more mature, serious Marvel that hires “real” writers ended up using the same idea, there’s nothing particularly memorable here. Larry Hama exits with a straightforward action story and a brief dissertation on the nature of superpowers and ethics, which is preferable to overly complicated origin stories and interdimensional hijinks, but it isn’t nearly as interesting as his earlier issues. Before he got into Pookas and Tokens, Hama opened his run with some intriguing character subplots and introduced a few civilian cast members that had potential. He seemed to have the right idea -- focus on the characters and give them a few “normal” people to interact with -- but the M/Penance origin storyline derailed the book spectacularly. After that, he focused on smaller, slightly silly story arcs, but the momentum was lost. Marvel wanted a new direction, so beginning next issue, a young writer named Jay Faerber is given the reigns.

WOLVERINE #135 - Late February 1999

2011-11-08T11:20:00.002-05:00

From Bad to Worse

Credits: Erik Larsen (writer), Jeff Matsuda (penciler), Jonathan Sibal (inker), Jason Wright (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Wolverine and Aria arrive at Prison World, and are promptly attacked by the Collector’s guards. Their ship is destroyed, forcing Wolverine to escape through an air duct. He’s soon spotted by three patrolmen, but he easily defeats them. Suddenly, an alien places a gun to his head. Wolverine’ relieved to learn that the alien is possessed by Aria. Unfortunately, their reunion is interrupted by Torgo and a Sadri Hunter.

Review: Even though this arc was originally released on a bi-weekly schedule, I felt at the time that the story was taking forever to go anywhere. This issue is a good example of how irritating the pace could be -- Wolverine and Aria land on Prison World, and are confronted by Torgo and the Sadri. To be continued! How does that consume an entire issue? I could live with a few pages of Wolverine ripping through the Collector’s henchmen, but not an entire issue, especially when Jeff Matsuda barely seems interested in drawing them. Heck, on some pages, even the colorist looks like he’d rather be painting his house or something. (Maybe there was a technical problem, but a few of the pages have extremely flat colors that look inappropriately bright, which doesn’t help Matsuda’s occasionally sketchy artwork at all.) There’s nothing particularly engaging about the dialogue, either, unless you really want to hear Erik Larsen mocking Wolverine’s old “Canuckle-Head” nickname for the second or third time since his run began.

GAMBIT #1/2 - 1999

2011-11-07T11:20:00.004-05:00

Between Daze

Credits: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Pascual Ferry (penciler), Bob Wiacek & Scott Hanna (inker), Monica Kubina (colors), Jon Babcock (letters)

Summary: Gambit is rescued in the Antarctic by agents of the New Son. In exchange, he’s tasked with rescuing another agent in the Savage Land. Her name is the Courier, and shortly after Gambit frees her from captivity, they’re cornered by the High Evolutionary’s creations. The woman made of green mist that previously rescued Gambit makes her presence known and incinerates the beasts. Gambit allows Courier to leave with plans for a new Terraformer, although he isn’t sure if New Son should have the information.

Continuity Notes: A flashback establishes that the X-Men spent three days looking for Gambit in Antarctica, following Uncanny X-Men #350, but he intentionally hid from them. This is, I believe, the fifth comic to back off from #350’s ending and claim that the X-Men didn’t really abandon him to die.

I'm not sure if the Courier in this issue is supposed to be the male shapeshifter who later appears in the regular series. I'm under the impression that this character is supposed to be an alien.

Review: The X-office made a conscious decision to back off from team books and focus more on solo stars in the late ‘90s, bringing us a Gambit solo series, written by returning writer Fabian Nicieza. I remember some fans complaining that the mail-in Wizard #1/2 issue had important information for the regular series, and Nicieza’s response was that no comic should just be a throw-away story. That means I’m going to have to track down the Gambit Cyber-Comic that was up on Marvel’s website for probably a month or two in 1999 if I’m going to do a comprehensive review of this series.

Gambit was already a popular target for ridicule by the late ‘90s, even by X-fans, so a lot of people missed out on his regular series. I was reluctant to get into the book at first, but a series of positive reviews convinced me to at least give it a shot. I’m glad I did, because Gambit was often the best X-title of the month, especially during its first year. Nicieza was saddled with a ridiculous starting point for the book (Gambit had returned with no real explanation, for some reason a green misty lady lived inside him, no one could tell if he was supposed to be back with Rogue again, and no one wanted to address the “shocking revelations” of Uncanny X-Men #350), but he actually took Gambit from this starting point and made the series work, often by addressing some of Marvel’s mistakes head-on.

This particular issue, however, isn’t a great indication for what’s ahead in the series. Although I do like the way the New Son mystery played out in the regular series, the introduction here isn’t remarkable at all. Gambit already had a mysterious rescuer from his days stranded in the Antarctic, the Green Mist Lady, so there doesn’t appear to be a pressing need to introduce a second savior. The Savage Land sequence is fun, although it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Courier is trapped in the High Evolutionary’s citadel, yet as soon as Gambit frees her, she casually uses the ID supplied to her by the High Evolutionary to take the Terraformer plans. She makes it clear that the High Evolutionary does want New Son to have this information, she just isn’t sure why. Um…so why was she captive in the first place? This kind of storytelling glitch isn’t the best way to tease your monthly series.

I can understand why someone would be wary of the regular book after reading this issue (and Gambit’s previous year of appearances); not that it’s terrible, but a large plot point doesn’t make sense and it stars a character many fans have already dismissed. Thankfully, the regular series goes a long way towards redeeming Gambit, and the quality level is much higher than this #1/2 issue would lead you to believe.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #116 - September 1994

2011-11-04T11:26:00.003-04:00

Live and Let Die Part Four - Crescendo

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Alex Saviuk (breakdowns), Don Hudson (finishes), Steve Dutro (letterer), Kevin Tinsley (colorist)

The Plot: Betty distracts Façade, giving Spider-Man time to recover and fight back. Façade escapes, but shortly after Lance Bannon’s funeral, he returns to the Daily Bugle. Spider-Man resumes the fight and rips open Façade’s armor. The electric shock temporarily knocks him unconscious, giving the man in the FACADE armor time to escape.

The Subplots: Betty vows to continue investigating Archer Bryce, who unexpectedly appears at Lance’s funeral. Jonah Jameson admits to Detective Chase that his son lied about leaving the Bugle with him the night Lance Bannon was killed, leaving John without an alibi. Later, Peter Parker arrives at the hospital to visit Aunt May. May’s mysterious friend arrives at the same time, and runs away when he spots Peter.

Web of Continuity: Spider-Man’s more consistent about calling himself “The Spider” this issue, although the speech pattern still doesn’t match “Shrieking” since he’s still telling jokes and doesn’t seem particularly angry about anything.

Façade visits Lance Bannon’s grave, and while his identity isn’t revealed, we do learn that he’s an adult male who refers to Bannon by his first name.

I Love the ‘90s: Façade calls Betty’s leather vigilante look “a true fashion statement for the nineties.”

Review: “Live and Let Die” concludes, awarding us with no resolution to the storyline’s central mystery, although we are treated to the return of Butch Betty. Not only does she keep a literal armory in her apartment, but she’s also concerned enough about her vigilante image to change into a different outfit before coming to Spider-Man’s rescue. That’s commitment, sister. Just think…about three months ago Marvel Time you were an emotionally broken cult member who couldn’t face the outside world, and now you’re in firefights with hi-tech armored killers. Who says ‘90s comics were dumb?

So, again, the “mystery” turns out to be a waste of trees and the continuity tie-ins with the “Important” Spidey story of the moment don’t work. Façade’s destined to be a joke amongst the few fans who remember him for years, but at least next issue we’re getting the Spider-clone, and that’s not going to make anyone mad at all. What is significant about this issue is that it’s Alex Saviuk’s last one, which is a shame. His work didn’t mesh with Stephen Baskerville’s finishes at all, but thankfully he’s been paired with the more simpatico Don Hudson for the past few issues. Saviuk certainly isn’t going out on the best story in Web’s history, but that’s not his fault. The art is clear, the characters look like themselves, the fight scenes are energetic, and Spider-Man himself has a nice Romita look, even if his eyes are huge now. Saviuk’s art was often the highlight of this title, and his loyalty to the book is certainly admirable. Actually, his loyalty to Spider-Man himself is remarkable, given that he left Web to pencil and ink Spider-Man Adventures, and then moved on to the syndicated newspaper strip. As far as I know, he’s still drawing the Sunday strips.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #115 - August 1994

2011-11-03T11:28:00.002-04:00

Live and Let Die Part Three - Shellshocked!

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Alex Saviuk (breakdowns), Don Hudson (finishes), Steve Dutro (letterer), Kevin Tinsley (colorist)

The Plot: Spider-Man searches Lance Bannon’s apartment and runs into his fiancée. He tries to console her and promises that Lance will be avenged. Meanwhile, Betty has dinner with Archer Bryce. Later that night, Façade breaks into her apartment. Spider-Man arrives to save her, but finds himself paralyzed by Façade’s bio-electric attack.

The Subplots: Aunt May has had a stroke, and Mary Jane is unable to contact Peter, who still refuses to return home. Later, she receives a phone call from May’s mystery friend.

Web of Continuity: This storyline is supposed to be occurring simultaneously with the “Shrieking” arc in Amazing Spider-Man, which established Aunt May’s stroke and Spider-Man’s new anti-social attitude.

*See _________ For Details: The mystery man with a connection to the Parkers will make his next appearance in Spider-Man #49.

I Love the ‘90s: Spider-Man quotes Al Franken’s Stuart Smalley character while fighting Façade.

Review: And, in the shocking penultimate episode of “Live and Let Die”, we discover…that Betty is suspicious that Archer Bryce is Façade. Sound familiar? Almost all of the “clues” in this arc are dedicated to hints that are so obvious they have to be red herrings, while the actual mystery is abandoned to make room for pointless fight scenes and a few cross-continuity references. When Kavanagh focuses on Spider-Man’s guilt over not knowing Lance Bannon well enough, and his feeble attempts to comfort his fiancée, the issue at least has a few pages of competent character work. Unfortunately, they don’t even match the cross-continuity the issue is trying to maintain. Spider-Man’s mindset is radically different in the concurrent “Shrieking” arc, not to mention his speech pattern.

“Shrieking” is the storyline that famously brought us “I AM THE SPIDER!!!” -- perhaps the greatest melodramatic excess of J. M. DeMatteis’ career. The story reads better than a simple summary would have you believe, probably because DeMatteis writes Shriek and Carrion so well in it and Mark Bagley’s art is fantastic, but it’s still one of the more ridiculous Spidey stories. If you are trying to tie in with it, though, that means you have to present a dark, brooding Spider-Man that’s past the point of a nervous breakdown; one that can only view himself as “The Spider” and can’t even bear the sight of his loved ones. Kavanagh is absolutely not writing that character, even if he does throw in one “The Spider” reference early on. Spider-Man’s supposed to be a monosyllabic loon at this point, not someone who’s still joking and throwing SNL references around. I don’t know how the other two monthly Spider-Man titles (or the concurrent annuals and quarterly Spider-Man Unlimited book) handled “Shrieking” at this time, but it’s hard to imagine them doing a worse job.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #114 - July 1994

2011-11-02T11:21:00.004-04:00

Live and Let Die Part II - Who among Us?

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Joey Cavalieri (script, pgs. 1-8), Alex Saviuk (breakdowns), Don Hudson & Fred Fredricks (finishes), Steve Dutro (letterer), Kevin Tinsley (colorist)

The Plot: Lance Bannon develops his roll of film at the Daily Bugle, and is promptly attacked by Façade. Hours later, Betty Brant discovers Lance’s body. Police detective Sloan Chase questions Jonah Jameson, John Jameson, and Cole Cooper but can’t connect them to the murder. Spider-Man suspects Betty might also be in danger, and soon encounters Façade sneaking into the Daily Bugle. Façade abandons the fight when the Bugle employees call the police.

The Subplots: John Jameson lies to Detective Sloan, claiming that he and Jonah went back to his place the previous night to settle their differences. Archer Bryce’s butler Victor sneaks up on Betty in the Bugle and invites her to see Bryce. They open his limo to discover he’s gone. Meanwhile, a mystery figure calls Aunt May.

Web of Continuity: According to Betty’s research, Bryce’s corporation has been lagging in the industry since his parents died last year. Oh, yeah, and that shadowy figure calling Aunt May is merely the first cameo appearance of Ben Reilly. Pay it no mind.

*See _________ For Details: Aunt May is worried about Peter’s mental state, following the events of Amazing #386-388.

Review: So, Lance Bannon survived last issue’s cliffhanger, only to buy it a few pages into this issue. He discovered the shocking secret of Façade, and surely he must pay the price. Rest in Peace, Lance, until you’re accidentally revived in a peripheral Spider-title by a freelancer who didn’t know you were dead.

Returning Lance Bannon from obscurity merely to kill him off is already a questionable move, but knowing that he died to advance a mystery that no one bothered to resolve, and to build the rep of a generic ‘90s Guy in Armor, is unforgivable. Maybe it’s presumptuous of me to suggest that Terry Kavanagh isn’t exactly Arthur Conan Doyle, but I think it’s charitable to even call this a “mystery.” We have no real clues, just a series of suspects with no motivations, and a hero who’s putting virtually no effort into investigating the case. The hints that Façade might be Archer Bryce are so obvious they have to be a red herring, but there’s nothing else in the story to give any other character a motivation. Yes, John Jameson is lying, but why? And is Marvel really going to make him a villain just three issues after establishing him in a new role at Ravencroft? Façade could be Bannon’s fiancée Amy, or the new kid Cole, or the detective, or an anonymous partygoer, and it wouldn’t matter. There’s no particular reason to care.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #113 - June 1994

2011-11-01T11:26:00.001-04:00

Live and Let Die Part One - Darkness Descends

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Alex Saviuk (breakdowns), Stephen Baskerville w/Al Milgrom (finishes), Dutro, Krol, & Babcock (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist)

The Plot: Hearing rumors of a theft, Spider-Man sneaks into Morelle Pharmaceuticals’ unveiling of its neo-bionics project, F.A.C.A.D.E. He confronts Gambit on the rooftop, but their fight ends when Spider-Man’s convinced Gambit isn’t the thief. The Black Cat appears, warning the heroes that something’s wrong inside. Soon, they face the Silencers, and stop them from stealing Morelle’s nuclear-powered generator. Later, Bugle photographer Lance Bannon catches someone sneaking into the F.A.C.A.D.E. armor. “Façade” blasts Bannon in the chest and flies away.

The Subplots: Guests at the Morelle Pharmaceuticals party include Jonah Jameson, Marla Jameson, John Jameson, Dr. Ashley Kafka, Lance Bannon and his fiancé Amy, rookie Bugle photographer Cole Cooper, Betty Brant, Mike Wilson (a lecherous Morelle employee who stumbles across Spider-Man’s fight with the Silencers later on), “renowned European industrialist” Archer Bryce, Victor (Archer’s apparent manservant), and Dr. Thomas Haney, who leads the presentation. Haney’s body is discovered by Lance Bannon at the issue’s end, and the killer is presumably the shadowy figure who’s snuck inside the F.A.C.A.D.E. armor.

Web of Continuity: F.A.C.A.D.E. stands for Full Acclimation Combat and Defense Explo-skeleton. (That’s right. “Explo-skeleton.”) Black Cat says she’s “crossed paths before” with the Silencers. A footnote says, “Remind us to tell you about it sometime.” Looking online, I can't find anyone who's cared enough to create a profile for them. Gambit claims that he’s at the unveiling to make sure members of the Thieves Guild haven’t targeted the project. John Jameson exits the party early after an argument with his father, who disapproves of his new job at Ravencroft.

Gimmicks: This issue comes polybagged with a preview of the upcoming Spider-Man animated series and a facsimile animation cel. I believe the background cover color is what was called a "fifth ink" color. The cover price is $2.95, but a regular-priced edition was also available.

Review: Oh, Façade. This one’s certainly a classic. As future issues will make clear, Kavanagh’s trying to create a murder mystery (Bannon’s merely paralyzed this issue) that uses some of the established supporting cast members and a gaggle of new characters as potential suspects. Kavanagh’s worked overtime inserting characters into this issue, presumably with the goal of creating a few red herrings and perhaps legitimate clues as to Façade’s identity. Unfortunately, as a mystery, the story’s a joke, and not only because the resolution is never given. The book’s a few issues away from getting swallowed into the clone debacle, so poor ol’ Peter Parker’s going to have bigger issues than the unsolved member of a barely remembered supporting cast member from the early ‘80s.

To this issue’s credit, the art’s an improvement over the previous Saviuk/Baskerville team-ups, the Gambit/Spider-Man fight likely thrilled the target audience, and the story’s vague enough at this point to give you hope that maybe this is going somewhere. Unfortunately, “Live and Let Die” turns out to be a prelude to a lengthy, chaotic period of substandard Spidey stories.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #112 - May 1994

2011-10-31T11:28:00.004-04:00

Pursuit Part Three - Trail’s End

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Alex Saviuk (breakdowns), Stephen Baskerville & Al Milgrom (finishes), Krol, Powell, & Dutro (letterers), Nel Yomtov (colorist)

The Plot: The Chameleon stages a prison bus accident, forcing Spider-Man to capture the escaped cons while Chameleon escapes. Spider-Man then follows the explosive clues left by the Chameleon until he reaches his location -- the Kravinoff Estate.

The Subplots: Reynard and Warrant leave government service in order to avoid bad publicity, on the condition that the Deputy Attorney General sends freelance bounty hunter work their way. Dr. Kafka agrees not to reveal Warrant’s recent actions if the government funds a new Ravencroft facility. On Spider-Man’s advice, she calls John Jameson and offers him the role of security chief.

Web of Continuity: Following the revelation that his parents were synthetic robots created by the Chameleon in Amazing Spider-Man #388, Spider-Man has launched a grim search for the villain.

*See _________ For Details: The previous chapters of “Pursuit” are Spider-Man #45 and Spectacular Spider-Man #211. The story is concluded in Amazing Spider-Man#389.

Gimmicks: This issue comes with three free trading cards, bound in the staples, promoting the upcoming Spider-Man trading card series.

Review: If you thought “Lifedeath”’s revelation that Peter Parker’s parents were robots was dumb, “Pursuit” just smacks you in the face and mocks your mother with its inanity. The premise of the mini-crossover is that Spider-Man has been driven over the edge following the exposure of his phony parents, and will stop at nothing to capture, and possibly kill, the Chameleon. The story consists of a lot of grunting, crying, howling with rage, and teeth gritting. Except in the Spectacular chapter, written by short-term writer Mike Lackey, which inconsistently had Spider-Man reverting to his old persona and cracking jokes while in the middle of his blood vendetta. (The four monthly Spider-Man titles had three different editors during this period, which always seemed like a bad idea to me). The most galling moment of this particular chapter has the Chameleon, astonished by Spider-Man’s behavior, reminding him that he’s supposed to be a hero. Spider-Man dutifully rebukes himself, leaves Chameleon behind and rescues the innocents endangered by the escaped criminals, and then goes back to his ‘roid-rage Batman routine. Ugh.

Regardless of my feelings for this crossover, I have to admit that on a purely commercial level, I fell for it. I still purchased Amazing, but rarely looked at the spinoffs by this point. The most recent issue of Web I purchased was during the “Name of the Rose” arc several years earlier. Curious to see if Marvel really would take Spider-Man “too far,” I dutifully collected each issue of this crossover, and even though I was disappointed by each one, I kept going until the conclusion.

Aside from finding the entire event melodramatic and silly, I distinctly remember being stunned by the ‘90s revamp of Alex Saviuk’s style. This was the guy who drew those early, Romita-style Spidey comics I loved as a kid? If I had purchased one of the earlier issues from this era, perhaps I wouldn’t have been so shocked, but considering that Saviuk only did breakdowns on this issue, Stephen Baskerville’s work was particularly unsettling. Did Spidey really look like this now?

Visually, the entire comic was a confusing experience for me, since Al Milgrom seemed to swap random pages with Baskerville as finisher. His pages have a classic Romita look, echoing the style I remembered from those early Web issues (aside from Spidey’s giant eyes, of course). An entire comic with that look I wouldn’t mind, but the abrupt Liefeld-ization of Saviuk’s pencils was a lot for me to take in.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #111 - April 1994

2011-10-28T11:27:00.003-04:00

The Savaging Part Two - Scales of Justice

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Alex Saviuk (penciler), Stephen Baskerville & Sam De La Rosa (inkers), Dutro/Krol/Maley (letterers), Nel Yomtov (colorist)

The Plot: Spider-Man reaches the Everglades shortly after Warrant and his superior Reynard arrive with Billy. They find the Lizard at the abandoned Spanish fort he seized years earlier, which is now being renovated for commercial real estate. Spider-Man rescues Billy and faces both Warrant and the Lizard. As the fort collapses, Spider-Man tries to save Lizard from quicksand, but is stopped by Warrant. When the authorities arrive with Dr. Kafka, the fighting ends. The construction crew attempts to rescue the Lizard, but Spider-Man fears he’s already gone.

The Subplots: MJ is upset that Peter hasn’t spent enough time in their new home, and even attempts to shut off a news report about the Lizard before Peter can see it.

Web of Continuity: This story is supposed to be taking place simultaneously with the “Lifetheft” storyline in Amazing Spider-Man, which just isn’t possible since Peter doesn’t discover that a crazed fan drew a gun on MJ until after he’s transformed into an old man (if you haven’t read “Lifetheft”…yes, that happens). The story can’t take place after “Lifetheft” since that arc leads directly into “Pursuit,” which is the crossover that intersects with the next issue.

Review: So, “The Savaging” turns out to be a typical Lizard story, with some gratuitous bloodshed and obnoxious new characters thrown in. Oh, yeah -- and MJ is becoming an increasingly unlikable and erratic shrew with every issue. It’s amazing to me that the creators of this era didn’t realize that the readers of these titles want to like the lead character’s wife as much as they want to like Spider-Man. MJ was always a popular supporting cast member, probably because she wasn’t a neurotic mess and actually liked to have fun. Her extroverted nature and cheerful attitude played off Peter Parker’s anxious personality very well (and, as later writers revealed to us, masked her own set of personal issues), enabling her to rival sainted Gwen Stacy as a romantic interest. Now, MJ’s stuck in an annoying “cop wife” persona, dragging down every scene that features her. And you can’t blame the marriage on this; the first five years or so of the marriage emphasized MJ’s good nature and willingness to support her husband. This is just cheap, fake drama that doesn’t work.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #110 - March 1994

2011-10-27T11:25:00.005-04:00

The Savaging Part One - Final Sanction

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Alex Saviuk (penciler), Stephen Baskerville (inker), Steve Dutro (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist)

The Plot: The Lizard goes on an interstate murder spree on his way to the Everglades. The government hires hi-tech bounty hunter Warrant to apprehend him. Dr. Ashley Kafka is consulted on the case, and in violation of her orders, leaks news of the Lizard’s release to the press. At the home of the Lizard’s family, Spider-Man discovers Warrant destroying their home during a brutal interrogation. Spider-Man tries to stop him, but Warrant escapes with Billy Connors.

The Subplots: Jonah Jameson is still angry with Robbie Robertson for investigating his wife without permission. Betty Brant, carrying a morgue file on Need Leeds, interrupts their meeting. Meanwhile, MJ is tempted by a pack of cigarettes she finds in an old jacket.

Web of Continuity: Young Billy Connors wants to go by “William” from now on. I don’t think any future writers ever pick up on this. Dr. Ashley Kafka is the director of ~~Arkham Asylum~~ Ravencroft, which debuted a few years earlier in Spectacular Spider-Man.

*See _________ For Details: MJ quit smoking in Amazing #385, and was targeted by a deranged Secret Hospital fan in Amazing #386.

I Love the ‘90s: Leslie Kafka uses the “latest in portable fax technology” to spread word of the Lizard’s escape.

Review: Comedy fodder Warrant debuts, sporting a foot-long ponytail and hair metal band name a solid two years too late. He may or may not be a cyborg too, in case you were incredibly dense and still couldn’t guess which decade spawned the character. He of course has a bad attitude and lazy shaving habits as well, but unlike most of the decade’s anti-heroes, Warrant is apparently intended to be more of an outright villain. I assume that’s what Kavanagh’s going for, since Warrant spends much of the issue terrorizing a woman and her son, before he kidnaps the kid to use as bait for a monster. I have no doubt that Marvel would’ve quickly softened him up and commissioned a limited series for Warrant if someone in the offices thought he had a future as a solo star, though.

Much of the rest of the story is a retread of the early chapters of “Torment,” as we’re treated to a lengthy embellishment of the Lizard’s killing spree that can’t match the mood set in the original storyline (which is far from a classic anyway). Making this more absurd is the straight-faced defense of the Lizard given by Dr. Kafka, which is intercut with images of the Lizard brutally murdering innocent people. If these scenes were supposed to make Kafka look like an idealistic idiot, they’re successful in accomplishing that much, but I’m under the impression that Kavanagh honestly wants us to be sympathetic to the doctor. Sorry, but only J. M. DeMatteis can pull that trick off. She still says and does moronic things in his stories, but somehow DeMatteis makes her point of view seem less absurd.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #109 - February 1994

2011-10-26T11:28:00.002-04:00

A Shock to the System

Credits: Joey Cavalieri (writer), Rurik Tyler (penciler), Sam De La Rosa (inker), Steve Dutro (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist)

The Plot: Spider-Man follows Shocker to a seemingly abandoned TV studio. The studio is actually a secret base belonging to Night Thrasher, who’s hiding an experimental biofeedback harness. After the heroes defeat Shocker in battle, he confesses that he wanted the harness to control his powers, which he’s convinced will kill him. Night Thrasher and Spider-Man combine their scientific knowledge and use the harness to tame Shocker’s powers.

The Subplots: None.

Creative Differences: A few added word balloons elaborate on Night Thrasher’s real name and costume gimmicks, Spider-Man’s spider-sense, and who exactly is going to take Shocker to the Vault after he’s cured.

I Love the '90s: The title of this issue is presumably a reference to an early '90s Billy Idol song.

Miscellaneous Note: The Statement of Ownership has the previous year’s average sales at 332,858 copies with the most recent issue selling (is this a typo?) 432,900 copies. Even Web of Spider-Man almost broke the half a million mark!

Review: Web can never, ever escape filler, can it? Not that this is particularly bad filler, it uses the characters logically and has decent art, but it’s still a page-killer. The most ridiculous element of the issue is a scene that has Shocker literally terrified of Spider-Man’s shadow, but other than that there’s nothing really objectionable here. I’ll give Cavalieri credit for utilizing Spider-Man and Night Thrasher’s scientific expertise and emphasizing Spider-Man’s willingness to help people, even a villain who’s tried to kill him numerous times. So, it reads like a free comic given out at a baseball game, but it’s okay as filler.

The Savaging Prelude - Death Becomes Her!

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Alex Saviuk (penciler), Stephen Baskerville (inker), Steve Dutro (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist)

The Plot: Calypso seduces a Guardsman and breaks into the Vault. She unlocks Curt Connors’ cell, only to be killed by her former pawn when he transforms into the Lizard. The Lizard escapes into the night.

The Subplots: None.

Web of Continuity: A one-page interlude showcases the Parkers’ new brownstone home, which has already debuted in Amazing.

I Love the '90s: “Death Becomes Her” was the name of a popular Bruce Willis/Meryl Streep movie at the time.

Review: The regular creative team was still free to do seven pages, so this issue’s filler is padded out with a brief prelude for the next story arc. “The Savaging” is a sequel to Todd McFarlane’s initial Spider-Man storyline, and it’s about as good as you might expect. Kavanagh actually uses Calypso’s voodoo powers quite well during her brief invasion of the Vault, and killing her off so early in the story arc is an unexpected move, but it’s hard to forget that this is setting up an unbearably bad story. And even if Kavanagh’s scored some shock value with her death, killing off Calypso feels like a waste. Say what you will about McFarlane’s “Torment” storyline, but he did manage to take the ultra-obscure Calypso and sell her as a credible threat.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #108 - January 1994

2011-10-25T11:28:00.002-04:00

The Eye of the Storm

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Alex Saviuk (penciler), Stephen Baskerville (inker), Steve Dutro (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist)

The Plot: Tony Trainer emerges as Sandstorm, creating a fierce “grit-storm” that reflects his confused state of mind. Spider-Man rescues Sandman from the storm, while Quicksand convinces the erratic Sandstorm to join her side. After Spider-Man finds a piece of irradiated shrapnel and reverses its polarity, Sandstorm’s powers fade. Sandman stays by Sandstorm’s side as he’s arrested to make sure he’s treated fairly.

The Subplots: Amidst the chaos, Robbie and Betty save Jonah and Marla from falling off the ESU science building. Jonah offers Betty her job back. Meanwhile, MJ is dodging calls from Secret Hospital’s publicist.

*See _________ For Details: Amazing Spider-Man #385 has the long-awaited resolution to MJ’s riveting smoking subplot.

Creative Differences: A few word balloons are added to explain that Sandman and Quicksand can’t use their powers within Sandstorm’s grit-storm. Later, an added thought balloon has MJ resolving to stop smoking tomorrow.

Review: And, not surprisingly, the debut of Marvel’s latest sand-related villain whimpers out spectacularly. Aside from the white mullet, there’s nothing really objectionable about Sandstorm’s appearance on the cover, but once Stephen Baskerville’s inks get a hold of him, it’s full-on Rob Liefeld/Andrew Wildman/Marat Michaels '90s ugliness. The resolution to every cliffhanger in the previous issue is even more cliché than you might expect, right down to Betty Brant saving her job by rescuing her boss and his wife. Dull, pat, predictable…I’m almost ready for the clone to show up, and I hate the clone storyline.

Tainted Part Two

Credits: Carl Potts (writer), Jesse D. Orozco (penciler), Timothy Tuohy (inker), Steve Dutro (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist)

The Plot: Cardiac escapes Scorpion, only to encounter him again while invading the offices of Tamco Pharmaceuticals. After disabling Scorpion’s tail, Cardiac kills Tamco’s CEO. He then purchases the company, saving the jobs of the honest employees and keeping Tamco’s beneficial drugs on the market.

Review: This is essentially the same as the previous issue, only now Potts is playing on the word “tainted” to describe the business deal that allows Cardiac’s civilian identity to purchase Tamco (its stock price is way down following the CEO’s death and the exposure of its bad drug shipment). That’s actually clever, so at least the ending isn’t as generic as the story’s premise. Potts is essentially writing Cardiac as the white-collar equivalent of the Punisher, and the story offers no judgment of Cardiac’s actions, so it actually becomes an unusual read in retrospect.