X-MEN UNLIMITED #13 - December 1996

Previously…in X-Men Unlimited: Nothing happened. It’s X-Men Unlimited, so the stories are usually filler.

Fugitive from Space!

Credits: George Perez (plot), Jorge Gonzalez (script), Duncan Rouleau, Jim Calafiore, & Andrew Robinson (pencilers), Hunter, McKenna, & Milgrom (inkers), Tom Smith & Malibu (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: The X-Men arrive with Binary at the UN Starcore space station, hoping to resuscitate its energy core. Suddenly, Shi’ar commander K’illace arrives to arrest Binary, claiming that her powers make her a threat to the universe. A blast of energy teleports everyone to the Shi’ar Empire, where they discover Binary’s powers are out of control and K’illace is injured. As Binary struggles to drain energy from a defective white star she created months earlier, the X-Men petition Deathbird to spare her life. Lilandra sends a message, warning of another threat, the Silver Surfer. She claims that Silver Surfer recently destroyed his home planet of Zenn-La and is heading into Shi’ar territory. The X-Men meet Silver Surfer in space and travel to the remains of Zenn-La, where he proclaims his innocence. A bio-technic force called the Inciters is now occupying Zenn-La’s remains. Beast deduces that the Inciters were behind framing Silver Surfer, manipulating Binary’s powers, and the disruption of the white star. Silver Surfer uses his cosmic surfboard to defeat the Inciters. The Shi’ar send the heroes home, although Lilandra refuses to reveal the existence of the Inciters to her people.

Continuity Notes: This was published about a year before Binary’s powers were downgraded and she renamed herself Warbird (and later Ms. Marvel again). I’m assuming Zenn-La was destroyed during George Perez’s run on Silver Surfer.

Review: I remember reading a friend’s copy of this issue when it was released. We spent our lunch period mocking the atrocious artwork and often impenetrable plot. A few months later, that friend stopped buying comics. Hmmm…. George Perez was writing a few titles for Marvel during this era, and I guess he was in the right place at the right time to be the warm body chosen to fill in for this specific issue of Unlimited. Jorge Gonzalez is a name I’m not very familiar with, but you’ll see that he shows up in a lot of the peripheral X-books of this time, particularly on the ones edited by Kelly Corvese. His scripts tend to be boilerplate superhero material that isn’t particularly good or bad. I doubt there was much he could do with this plot, since it’s horribly cramped and moves so quickly there’s never enough time to process anything that’s going on. I will give Gonzalez credit for remembering that the Silver Surfer only located uninhabited planets for Galactus as his herald, which is a continuity point that’s often forgotten. (It doesn’t make this specific story any better; I’m just glad someone remembered.) The art actually isn’t as bad as I remembered, although one of the three artists turns in the occasional page that’s just horrific. Do you really want an example? How about this…

Junction

Credits: Jorge Gonzalez (writer), Greg Land (penciler), Mark McKenna (inker), Brad Vancata (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letterer)

Summary: Juggernaut returns to his hometown of Junction, New York on the night of its Halloween festival. After encountering pranksters that remind him of the bullies he endured growing up, he goes on a rampage. Gomurr the Ancient suddenly appears, revealing to Juggernaut that Marie Cavendish, the one person who defended him as a child, was injured during his riot. He takes her to the hospital, but is jeered by the locals. Juggernaut leaves town, ignoring Gomurr’s warning that he can’t escape his powers’ curse.

Review: I don’t think there were any plans to rehabilitate Juggernaut at this time, but you would see the occasional story that tried to humanize the character. This follows up on an idea from the previous issue, that Juggernaut can never change what he is and is actually cursed by his powers. That idea is expressed well enough, although this is all pretty cliché. It’s nice to see Greg Land art that predates his discovery of Cinemax, but he’s really just serving the story and doing little else.

X-MEN #91& '99 Annual – August 1999

X-Men #91

Technical Difficulties

Credits: Alan Davis (plot), Terry Kavanagh (script), Andrew Robinson & Dan Panosian (art), Marie Javins (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Major Sole unveils a new Deathlok, despite Nick Fury’s objections. Meanwhile, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, and Colossus follow Douglock’s trail to the nearby SHIELD helicarrier. Douglock overtakes the craft by mentally controlling the crew. Nick Fury goes into hiding and plots a way to fight back. Later, Douglock tries to resist the Red Skull, who is controlling his body.

Review: Most of this is M-Tech setup, so it’s not particularly engaging. Davis keeps the action scenes on Muir Island, while the rest of the cast has some downtime at the mansion. Rogue (who wasn’t with the team when Ejulp kidnapped them) is just returning from the Magneto Rex miniseries. She apparently feels guilty about “chasing after the Magneto she remembered” (I’m paraphrasing because I don’t feel like retyping her phonetically spelled accent), and wants to make it up to Gambit with a night out. Instead, she gets stuck listening to recaps of the past few issues of this storyline, and then runs away when Wolverine demands she tell him what’s going on in Genosha. The story toys with the idea that Rogue’s jealous of Gambit’s new relationship with Marrow, but nothing really comes of it. This is the only real character work in this issue, and it only works if you buy the meeker interpretation of Rogue, the girl who just can’t quit that rascal Gambit. This issue is probably most notable for the bizarre fill-in art. Andrew Robinson has an extremely cartoony style, which results in some facial expressions that are better suited for Saturday morning television than a superhero comic. He pulls off a few nice Rick Leonardi-style panels, but most of his pages are just distracting. Dan Panosian apparently drew the last few pages of the story, and his sketchy, more angular style doesn’t match Robinson’s look, although I guess both artists could be labeled “cartoony”.

X-Men Annual ‘99

Metal Works

Credits: Alan Davis (plot), Terry Kavanagh (script), Rick Leonardi (penciler), Bob Wiacek (inker), Joe Rosas (colors), Bullpen/D.S. & P.T. (letters)

Summary: Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Colossus and Nick Fury develop a plan to stop the Red Skull. Meanwhile, the Red Skull forces Major Sole to develop neural implants similar to the ones Douglock has created, which will enable him to command an army. Douglock, unable to free himself from the Red Skull’s control, commands Deathlok to kill him. Shadowcat arrives and tries to talk Douglock out of suicide. Elsewhere, Colossus and Machine Man free the imprisoned SHIELD agents, while Nightcrawler and Nick Fury confront the Red Skull. When Nightcrawler teleports the Red Skull’s techno-organic hand away, his hold over Douglock disappears. The remaining X-Men arrive and help most of the crew escape. However, Red Skull manages to escape with a few SHIELD agents under his command.

Continuity Notes: This story takes place after Captain America (vol. 3) #19. The Red Skull’s final wish from the Cosmic Cube was to be taken “somewhere safe…far away from people…to find a power that can control the world”. He was sent to Muir Island, where he was discovered by Douglock. After touching him, the Red Skull’s left hand became techno-organic, and he was granted control over Douglock. I have no idea if this specific storyline, which has him escaping in the SHIELD helicarrier, was ever resolved.

Commercial Break: This issue has ads for both the R-rated American Pie movie, and the Disney Channel original movie Smart House. There’s also a Kool-Aid on the back that declares “Grown-ups have to pay for stuff…but kids have the Kool-Aid ticket to fun”. Pre-Quesada, Marvel’s entire line consisted of all-ages material, even though the majority of its audience was probably over eighteen. I’m not sure if Kool-Aid or the Disney Channel actually knew this, but it’s interesting that Marvel was able to get away with advertising adult material and kids products at the same time. You would think having a broad appeal to advertisers would’ve been attractive to Marvel, but they’ve made a decision to target most of their titles towards older fans and move the all-ages material over to its own separate line.

Review: And now the M-Tech material is almost unbearable. With the exception of Shadowcat’s brief attempt at talking Douglock out of suicide, there’s really no characterization here, so you’re left with a fairly generic action story with the X-Men plugged inside. The Red Skull does have potential as an X-Men villain, since it’s logical that he would hate mutants as much as any other minority group, but the story doesn’t use him very effectively. Leonardi’s art is fine, and the plot is more bland than truly objectionable, yet the final product is just a chore to finish. Kavanagh’s script is so wordy, packed with unnecessary exposition and techno-babble, that it’s absolutely no fun to read. To make matters worse, for some reason this issue was lettered internally at Marvel’s Bullpen. It’s a rather crude attempt at computer lettering, which often has letters within the same word spaced far apart from one another. A text-heavy comic with ugly text is just inexcusable, period. If the goal of this storyline was to build up excitement for the M-Tech line, I’m afraid it might’ve had the opposite effect.