15 Ways The 1980s Were The Greatest Spider-Man Decade

You know those internet lists that provide 10-15 justifications for a lofty premise?  I wrote one of those.

WOLVERINE Vs. SPIDER-MAN - March 1995

Life’s End

Credits:  Erik Larsen (writer & penciler), Joe Rubinstein (inks), Gregory Wright (colors), Jade Moede (letters)

Part One - Fist Fight

Summary:  Spider-Man spots Wolverine on a rooftop and impulsively attacks him, believing him to be an impostor.  Eventually, Spider-Man realizes that he was wrong.  Wolverine explains to Spider-Man that he’s staking out a warehouse where a young mutant and her father are being held captive.  Spider-Man’s shocked to discover the warehouse is where he caught his uncle’s killer years earlier.  Spider-Man and Wolverine enter the warehouse and trigger a trap.

Part Two - Child’s Play

Summary:  The heroes dodge the automated defenses, then face armed criminals and the supervillains Whiplash, Bloodlust, and Critical Mass.  Spider-Man’s stunned when he realizes that Critical Mass is his fourth grade classmate Arnie Gunderson.  The villains order the captive mutant to use her powers against Spider-Man and Wolverine.  They’re knocked unconscious by her blast of light.

Part Three - Breaking Point

Summary:  Spider-Man and Wolverine recover from the blast and retaliate.  Spider-Man’s in for another shock when he discovers that one of Critical Mass’ armed goons is his dentist.  To force the heroes to surrender, one of the villains puts a gun to the young mutant’s head.  Her powers erupt and destroy the warehouse.  Later, Spider-Man questions if the entire ordeal was a dream when talking to MJ.  Elsewhere, Wolverine sees the girl and her father off at the airport, as they leave to start a new life.

Continuity Notes:  

• The story is set pre-X-Men #1, when the X-Men are still believed dead.  That’s why Spider-Man thinks Wolverine is an impostor at the beginning.
• Based on Wolverine’s dialogue on the final page, no one was hurt in the explosion because the girl teleported everyone away.
• The mutant girl and her father are intended to be the original Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel, although they’re obviously not identified by name.  When writing the monthly Wolverine series, Larsen planned on reviving the girl as the new Marvel Girl, but Chris Claremont used the name for a character in Fantastic Four before Larsen had a chance to reintroduce her.
• Whiplash, Bloodlust, and Critical Mass all debut in this serial.  Whiplash and Bloodlust soon reappear in Amazing Spider-Man as members of the Femme Fatales.  Another one of Critical Mass’ henchmen is a thinly veiled version of Erik Larsen’s Dragon character. Looking online, he's been dubbed "The Savage Fin."
• Spider-Man’s dentist is dressed as Uncle Ben’s killer, as seen in Amazing Fantasy #15.  He claims that he owes Spider-Man for “what he did to my brother,” but no further information is given.

Creative Differences:  Erik Larsen complained in a Savage Dragon letter column about this serial being reprinted without his original credits, implying that it was an intentional slight on Marvel’s part.  The truth is, Marvel was bad about including credits in a few of the Marvel Comics Presents reprints, presumably because the credits were on the inside front cover in MCP and not written on the actual artwork.  Also, Larsen has said that Marvel’s lawyers claimed that Marvel owned the Dragon based on his cameo appearance here, overlooking that Dragon debuted years earlier in small-press B&W comics.

Production Notes:  This is a thirty-two page reprint of Marvel Comics Presents #48-50.  The reprint includes ads, but does have a cardstock cover and glossy paper at a $2.50 cover price.  Amazingly, nothing in the comic tells the reader it’s a reprint; however, the indicia is clearly recycled from the original Marvel Comics Presents issues.  A note at the bottom tells readers to write to Weapon X (the name of one of MCP’s longest-running serials) for subscription information.

Review:  It’s not hard to guess why this material was recycled by Marvel a few years after its initial release.  Not only does it feature work by an Image founder, but it’s also Spider-Man and Wolverine together in the same story.  They also fight for a few pages, which gives Marvel an excuse to name it Spider-Man VS. Wolverine, even though it’s hard to imagine that their three-page fight scene pleased any fan of hero vs. hero brawls.  Oddly enough, some of the more obvious MCP candidates for reprints remained untouched by Marvel in the ‘90s.  I’m specifically thinking of the Wolverine/Venom serial, featuring art by Sam Kieth, which didn’t earn a reprint special during the ‘90s.

This is one of Erik Larsen’s earliest writing jobs, which helps to explain why it’s so nuts.  For starters, this is Larsen from his “Name Withheld” era, which means he seems to have a chip on his shoulder regarding most professional comic writers.  Larsen starts the story with Spider-Man delivering an extensive monologue cataloging every coincidence that’s occurring in his life, a thinly-veiled jab at what Larsen perceived as lazy writing.  (Although all of the more recent examples cited by Spidey aren’t coincidences; Black Cat was dating Flash specifically to agitate Spider-Man, the Puma purchased the Bugle explicitly to repay a debt to Spider-Man, and Glory Grant was wooed by Eduardo Lobo in order to gain access to Daily Bugle files.)  Larsen then goes out of his way to write the most ridiculous coincidences he possibly can, making them increasingly absurd until it’s obvious he’s doing this as a joke.  In case anyone thinks this is too dumb, Larsen throws in a half-hearted “maybe this was all a dream…” conversation towards the end, although it’s unlikely to appease anyone who hates parody stories.  The overall tone of the story isn’t particularly jokey, and Larsen seemed serious about returning to these characters one day, so I’m not clear on what he thought he was doing.  Surely Larsen doesn’t want to establish that Peter’s dentist is his uncle’s murderer’s brother, but if the story is canon, that means all of the dumb coincidences “count” too.  

So, it’s not really a comedy story, but does it work as a simple superhero team-up story?  Yes and no.  On a very basic level, it’s entertaining.  Larsen was upfront at the time about not doing “boring” stories and giving the readers what he thought they wanted, which is relentless action.  Larsen crams a lot of action into the three brief chapters, and given that the eight-page format of MCP doesn’t lend itself to deep material, I can’t blame him for the choice.  Larsen’s art from this era can be polarizing, but I like his quirky Spider-Man and think his Wolverine doesn’t look so bad when Larsen is channeling Walt Simonson’s interpretation.  (On other pages, Wolverine looks very Liefeldian, and that ain't pretty.) Larsen’s art is certainly packed with energy, and I’ve always enjoyed Larsen’s panel layouts.  Every page grabs your attention, at the very least.  Not surprisingly, the weakest element of the serial is the story.  The parody elements make it impossible to take the plot seriously, and other elements, such as the girl developing vaguely defined powers whenever the story needs her to, are annoying.  Spider-Man also has a few lines of dialogue that are so random, such as spontaneously mentioning that his “friend” is a photographer to Wolverine during the fight, I have to wonder if some of the word balloons disappeared somewhere along the way.  Overall, it’s not nearly on the level of early Savage Dragon, and it’s certainly not much of an argument that Larsen can write anything better than the “hackwork” he was forced to pencil back in the day.  If you like simple team-up stories and have a high tolerance for shenanigans, though, you could do worse.

WOLVERINE #149 - April 2000

Resurrection

Credits:  Erik Larsen (writer), Graham Nolan (penciler), Jimmy Palmiotti (inker), Marie Javins (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary:  Wolverine, now dealing with the loss of his powers, escapes the rain at Marvel Burger, the fast food restaurant that employs Nova’s alter ego.  Wolverine then searches the area to find the Magneto robot that appeared earlier.  He’s soon abducted by the Reanimator, who has assembled an army of discarded robots.  Nova notices the disturbance nearby and soon recruits the help of the New Warriors.  They learn that the Reanimator is a mutant who can no longer control his robotic creations after losing his powers.  The last of the robots is destroyed and Reanimator is sent to prison.

Continuity Notes:  

• All mutants have lost their powers following the events of Uncanny X-Men #379.
• The Reanimator is revealed as the shadowy villain from Wolverine #140.
• The robots brought to life by the Reanimator are all from existing Marvel continuity, even though there are no footnotes to point you to their first appearances.  One of the robots appears to be the Living Brain from Amazing Spider-Man #8, a “forgotten” robot that actually shows up fairly often if you think about it.

“Huh?” Moment:  The robots are somehow still sentient, even though Reanimator lost his powers weeks ago (and is only now discovering it.)

Review:  Erik Larsen closes out his run, resolving one of his dangling plotlines (one that apparently made its way into Nova as well).  I’m not sure if anyone was too engrossed in the “shadowy figure controlling robots” mystery, as it was the obviously the most pedestrian of the ideas introduced by Larsen during his run.  What we really needed was the true identity of Khyber, because I know that’s been keeping me up nights.  

I recognize that Larsen wanted to tell different Wolverine stories during his stint; to pull him away from the “ninja and super-assassins” (a term Wolverine actually uses this issue on the final page) and towards more traditional Marvel villains.  Theoretically, that’s fine, but I think it led to stories that often felt like generic Bronze Age comics with Wolverine shoehorned in as the protagonist.  This issue is probably the most egregious example.  Wolverine stumbles on to villain, Nova helps, Wolverine beats villain.  The Reanimator is only notable for having a bizarre speech pattern, and I can’t tell what the point is supposed to be.  I think the idea is that he’s just not good at making villainous threats, but I’m not sure.  If the joke doesn’t come across, it’s not a great one.  

The art for the issue is handled by Graham Nolan, who had a brief stint doing random jobs for the X-office during the end of the Bob Harras days.  Nolan’s not flashy, but he serves the story well and I like his interpretation of Wolverine.  Unfortunately, the look of the issue is ruined by the odd coloring choices.  Everything’s too bright, and virtually all of the colors just look flat.  I can only assume that this is the work of the dirt-cheap color separators Marvel used to hire out of Ireland.  Apparently, everyone within Marvel hated their work, but they were the only company that most mainstream Marvel titles were allowed to use.

WOLVERINE #148 - March 2000

 

Same As It Never Was

Credits:  Erik Larsen (writer), Roger Cruz (penciler), Andy Owens & Scott Koblish (inks), Wilson Ramos (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary:  Annihilus and Blastaar attack the Fantastic Four, but are soon defeated and sent back to the Negative Zone.  The team takes a break, but is recalled when President Kelly is assassinated by Dr. Doom.  The FF investigate, and learn “Dr. Doom” is actually a clone under the command of Arnim Zola.  When the Doom clone self-destructs, Zola is left in the blast zone as the team escapes.  Outside the remains of the White House, Graydon Creed is sworn in.  The heroes watch in dismay.

Continuity Notes:  

• The Fantastic Four of this reality consists of Wolverine, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, and Hulk.  You might remember them as the “New Fantastic Four” from Fantastic Four #347.  According to Wolverine, the “new” team reformed after the original FF died battling “the High Lord.”
• Wolverine is dating Stacey, Cable’s girlfriend at the time in our reality.
• Spider-Man and MJ are married in this reality, and their daughter May lives with them in the FF’s headquarters.
• Wolverine reminds the rest of the FF that Doom died along with several of this reality’s heroes fighting X-Man, “after he defeated Apocalypse and became the High Lord.”  Just imagine if X-Man actually did have something worth doing in this crossover…

I Love the '90s:  Wolverine remarks that President Kelly won’t be eyeing the interns any longer.  Larsen also sneaks in a reference to “Advantageous!” -- readers of this site might catch the joke.

Review:  You might recall the premise behind “Ages of Apocalypse” had Apocalypse warping reality within his chamber, in order to….do something.  That’s why the previous chapters of the crossover only featured characters already present for the “Twelve” storyline in lead roles.  Apparently, no one at Marvel realized that Wolverine wasn’t present for that section of the story at all, so his solo title ended up participating in the crossover anyway.  It’s a boneheaded mistake, and yet, this issue is perhaps the most enjoyable of the “Ages of Apocalypse” crossover issues.

As I’ve said before, one reason why people responded so viscerally to the original “Age of Apocalypse” event was because it placed the reader inside a fully-formed world.  Astonishing X-Men #1 could’ve easily been the Uncanny X-Men #322 of the AoA world, assuming Apocalypse allowed comics to be published and humans could gain access to them in their slave camps.  This feels as if you’re walking into the middle of a New Fantastic Four comic (don’t ask me why it’s being published as Wolverine), and it’s actually a fun place to hang out.  Annihilus and Blastaar want revenge on the new FF just based on their name, Bruce Banner’s wife has become the Harpy again, Graydon Creed is scheming for ways to replace President Kelly, and Arnim Zola has an evil cloning scheme in the works (which is a reference to a storyline Larsen has already been building in Wolverine).  There are also the kind of character-driven subplots you’d expect to see in a long-running book, as Ghost Rider and Wolverine separately wonder if they fit in with their teammates, Bruce Banner remains unable to control which incarnation of the Hulk he transforms into, Wolverine mourns the X-Men, and Peter and MJ adjust to life as parents in an insane world.  It’s honestly fun to read; utterly pointless, but very entertaining.  The only true shortcoming of the issue is Roger Cruz’s art, which works fine as a Joe Mad pastiche for most of the story, until he has to draw normal civilian characters.  I don’t know of any artist that’s managed to make Peter Parker and Bruce Banner look interchangeable, but apparently Cruz doesn’t seem to notice the difference.

WOLVERINE #147 - February 2000

Into the Light

Credits:  Fabian Nicieza (plot), Erik Larsen (script), Roger Cruz (penciler), Derek Fridolfs and Andy Owens (inks), Wilson Ramos (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary:  Overcome with the darkness in his soul, Archangel flies into the city.  Wolverine follows.  Psylocke stays in telepathic contact while Wolverine tries to deprogram Archangel.  Eventually, Archangel realizes his true purpose and allows Psylocke to break contact before the Shadow King can resurface.  Archangel, his wings now bathed in light, takes away the fear of a girl with cancer.  He soon flies to another hospital to find Abraham Kieros, Apocalypse’s original War.  Archangel bathes him in light, curing Kieros of his paralysis.  With Archangel back to normal, he discusses how to move forward with Wolverine.

Continuity Notes:  

•  Psylocke still can't use her powers for fear of unleashing the Shadow King, following the events of "Psi-War."
• The Abraham Kieros incarnation of War last appeared during the “X-Cutioner’s Song” crossover.  When exactly Apocalypse took his powers away is never revealed.
• The story flashes back to the molting of Archangel’s metal wings in Uncanny X-Men #338, indicating that the transformation of his wings into light is the final evolution Ozymandias hinted at in the story.

Review:  The credits now clarify that Nicieza is plotting and Larsen is scripting, although this does not read like Larsen’s work at all.  Aside from the fact that Larsen rarely if ever wrote third-person captions during these days, the dialogue is a little more haughty than I would expect from Larsen.  As it happens, the scripting is better this issue than in most of Larsen’s Wolverine issues, so whatever might be happening behind the scenes, the published comic doesn’t seem to have suffered.

As you might have gleaned from the summary, there isn’t a lot of Wolverine in this issue.  This is clearly an X-Men story, and it isn’t a bad one, but anyone who just wanted to buy Wolverine and didn’t care about the main crossovers is sure to hate this issue even more than the previous one.  I imagine most readers of this title, after years of Yu’s hyper-detailed work, probably weren’t thrilled with Roger Cruz turning up with another Joe Mad impression, either.  This isn’t even on par with Cruz’s other fill-ins from this era, making me question if this was done on a ridiculous deadline, or if the inkers were simply incompatible.

Ignoring which spinoff this story happened to appear in, it actually stands out as one of the better chapters in the 1999 Apocalypse crossover.  With two members of the X-Men having been recruited as Death, it would be foolish not to draw them together and get a story out of it.  Dragging out the long-forgotten original War, and retconning something of a friendship between him and Archangel, also gives the story a strong continuity with the previous Apocalypse storylines, an element the main crossover began to lack as it drifted into something of a mess thanks to erratic editorial decisions.  Not that this storyline makes perfect sense, of course.  I don’t understand why Apocalypse would have “gifted” Archangel with light wings that can heal (apparently only one person, although that girl’s going to die of cancer very bravely), or why he bothered with Wolverine in the first place if he could simply bring Archangel back under his influence, but as the story of Archangel putting Apocalypse in his past, it works.  

WOLVERINE #146 - January 2000

Through a Dark Tunnel

Credits:  Fabian Nicieza and Erik Larsen (writers), Mike Miller (penciler), Durruthy/Massengill/Christian (inkers), Marie Javins (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary:  Archangel, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, and Jubilee search the Morlock Tunnels for Death, who’s recently escaped the mansion.  Psylocke uses Cerebro to telepathically connect with the team, which is soon ambushed by Death.  Individually, they try to revive his memories and restore Wolverine’s proper persona.  Eventually, Psylocke reaches Wolverine, as Jubilee stands before him offering no defense.  However, just as Wolverine’s personality reemerges, Archangel undergoes a strange transformation.

Continuity Notes:  

• Psylocke must use Cerebro to access her telepathy, since directly entering her mind would release the Shadow King following the events of X-Men #79.
• Shadowcat shows no reaction when she phases directly through Wolverine’s adamantium, which would seem to contradict Wolverine #126’s claim that phasing through adamantium is horribly painful.
• I can't recall any issue from the main chapters of this crossover that had Death/Wolverine captured and actually contained in the mansion.

“Huh?” Moment:  An errant word balloon belonging to Nightcrawler appears after Death/Wolverine stabs Shadowcat in the foot.  I can’t tell if it’s meant to be there or not.  I guess it could work as Nightcrawler’s response to Shadowcat’s line (She tells Wolverine he isn’t this mean, Nightcrawler interjects “Hah!  Kitty may have ‘pegged’ me, mein freund, but she skewered you.”), but it doesn’t match the tone.  Why would Nightcrawler joke around like this after seeing his friend get stabbed?

Review:  Even while these issues were being released, I think Erik Larsen made it clear he wasn’t overly interested in keeping up with all of the details of the latest line-wide crossover.  My memory is that Fabian Nicieza was brought in to co-write these issues while Larsen was on a vacation, although I’m not sure how the labor was divided.  The dialogue doesn’t read like Larsen’s work, leading me to wonder if his main contribution was in the plotting.  Larsen’s Wolverine issues tended to have references and flashbacks to various Uncanny X-Men stories from the Claremont era, and this issue is filled with them as the team tries to talk Wolverine out of Apocalypse’s brainwashing.  Perhaps Nicieza provided a rough outline based on his knowledge of where the crossover would be, Larsen plotted it out page-by-page, and Nicieza scripted it?  Then again, the dialogue doesn’t really sound like Nicieza’s, either.  Considering the state of the X-office during this time, it’s also a possibility that much of the script came for editorial.

Regardless, this is a little more coherent than the average Larsen issue, and its insertion into the ongoing Apocalypse crossover works rather well.  The chapter that has Wolverine returning to his true personality probably should be run in his solo book, and the addition of Archangel is a smart decision.  (Archangel was severely underused in the other X-titles during the 1999 Apocalypse crossover.)  Drawing Archangel back into whatever Apocalypse might have planned is a nice way to pull the story away from a pat happy ending, and it works with the established continuity.  

Continuity purists would also be happy to see the return of the classic Wolverine/Archangel rivalry (“classic” to anyone who remembers Claremont’s portrayal of their relationship, at least).  I was always bothered as a kid that the post-Claremont writers just ignored the fact that Wolverine and Archangel hate each other after the X-Men and X-Factor teams merged.  I was certain that one day someone would do a story following up on the rivalry, but it never happened.  Instead, we got Bishop, Omega Red, and the Upstarts.  

HULK #8 - November 1999

Death Match

Credits: Erik Larsen (writer), Ron Garney (penciler), Sal Buscema (inker), Steve Buccellato (colors), John Workman (letters)

Summary: Wolverine attacks the Hulk, temporarily blinding him, only to have the Hulk crush the claws on his left hand. During their fight, Tyrranus regains control of the Hulk, forcing him to grow more ferocious. Wolverine leads Hulk into an abandoned mine, where the Hulk inadvertently releases a gas that reverts him into Bruce Banner. Banner explains that Tyrranus is the person responsible for the Hulk’s recent rages, and Wolverine agrees to let Banner go in order to stop him.

Continuity Notes: Apocalypse’s newest Horseman of Death watches the fight via videoscreen. This is, of course, the real Wolverine. The mystery man standing next to Death mentions that Hulk once served as Apocalypse’s Horseman of War, and orders Death to take care of him.

Review: Hulk #8 ended up directly crossing over with Wolverine after Erik Larsen was given the job at the last minute. Former writer John Byrne and new editor Tom Brevoort had a mysterious disagreement (some of the rumors that went around online were hilarious), that ended with Byrne leaving the book. As I recall, Marvel’s official line was that Byrne quit, while Byrne claimed he had been fired. Regardless, Hulk was up for a new writer, and world’s biggest Hulk fanboy Erik Larsen eagerly campaigned for the job. He didn’t get it, but he was given one issue to fill in; I believe Wolverine was always supposed to guest star this issue, so it made sense.

The issue is, not surprisingly, an extended fight scene. Larsen does throw in a bit of human interest in two scenes, one that has a series of narrative captions describe the life of the fifteen-year-old girl the Hulk is close to killing, and a TV news montage that shows various reactions to the Hulk, but this is clearly all about the fighting. Hulk fans seemed to hate this issue, apparently because Hulk “wasn’t strong enough” (a complaint Hulk fans seemed to make a lot in this era) during the fight. Larsen allows Wolverine to hurt Hulk temporarily by stabbing his eyes and clawing him in the groin, which seems reasonable to me, but it certainly seemed to make people angry. What the fans chose to ignore is the overall flow of the battle, which often has Wolverine running away from Hulk and avoiding his giant fists.

The action is effectively rendered by Ron Garney (with great inks by Hulk legend Sal Buscema), so even if the fight feels a little long, it certainly looks nice. The main problem with the story is the ending, which not only has a mysterious gas conveniently reverting Hulk into Banner, but Wolverine casually walking away after Banner explains Tyrranus’ plan to him. Wolverine’s discovered that a bloodthirsty supervillain is mind-controlling the Hulk, and his response is to wish Banner luck and go along on his merry way? I’m not saying I want an extended, editorially mandated Wolverine/Hulk crossover, but surely Wolverine would’ve done something to help out.

WOLVERINE #144 - November 1999

First Cut!

Credits: Erik Larsen & Eric Stephenson (writers), Mike Miller (penciler), Vince Russell (inker), Marie Javins & Joe Rosas (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Wolverine dons his costume for the first time to go on a trial mission for Department H. He’s suddenly kidnapped during the test by the Leader, who’s also abducted Hercules and Karkas. Leader explains his plan to use them against the Hulk, not counting on Wolverine to sneak out of his bonds. Wolverine, Hercules, and Karkas defeat the Leader, and after Wolverine eventually returns to Canada, he’s eager to accept his first official mission -- stopping the Hulk. In the present day, Dum Dum Dugan sends Wolverine on yet another mission against the Hulk.

Continuity Notes:

· The Leader’s appearance in this flashback is set shortly after Marvel Feature #11.

· Unlike the Guts and Glory one-shot, this story understands that Wolverine’s first mission in costume was his battle against the Hulk and Wendigo, detailed in Incredible Hulk #180-181. The story has to label that fight his first “official” mission in order for these events to fit, however.

· Wolverine comments that Alpha Flight was behaving oddly during his previous encounter with them, and that he might need to investigate in the future. This was likely a line thrown in to give Larsen/Stephenson some room for a few retcons following complaints about the previous arc.

Review: I think this issue comes the closest to capturing the Bronze Age feel Larsen tried to bring to Wolverine during his brief stint. It’s fun to read, not only because the story pits Wolverine against an unlikely opponent with even more unlikely allies, but also because the character’s voice feels more natural, and the art isn’t cluttered or rushed. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t consider Mike Miller a welcome replacement for Leinil Francis Yu, but it’s obvious he understands how to choreograph complicated fight scenes in a way Yu can’t grasp. He also isn’t inconsistently lavishing great detail on a few characters while leaving sketchy stick figures in the background; every page of the comic is well-constructed and all of the figures look appropriately fleshed out. Is there a point to doing a prequel to Wolverine’s first fight with the Hulk? Not really, unless you count a mini-crossover with Hulk #8 enough justification for another Wolverine flashback story, but it is honestly entertaining.

WOLVERINE #143 - October 1999

Rebirth

Credits: Erik Larsen & Eric Stephenson (writers), Leinil Francis Yu (penciler), Dexter Vines (inker), Marie Javins (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Wolverine helps Vindicator and his duplicate escape, while Kane is sent to stop them. Wolverine battles Kane as Vindicator frees the rest of Alpha Flight. During their escape, they discover that AIM has Snowbird’s body in suspended animation. With the help of Vindicator’s duplicate, AIM is chased away. Unfortunately, the battle suit Vindicator’s duplicate stole from AIM during the battle is severely damaged. The ensuing explosion kills the duplicate.

Continuity Notes: Snowbird’s resurrection was controversial at the time, apparently because Sasquatch was living in her old body by the end of Alpha Flight. Her teammates somehow forget this throughout the story.

Approved By The Comics Code Authority: Heather Hudson’s revealing costume is toned down again, as her exposed flesh is colored gray throughout the issue.

Review: Larsen and Stephenson’s ham-fisted revival of the original Alpha Flight continues, as the teenage Vindicator from Steven Seagal’s run is killed, Snowbird’s previous continuity is ignored in favor of a quickie resurrection, and the team is reunited to face once again the shadowy elements of Department H. I think the only people really invested in this would be hardcore Alpha Flight fans, and as I mentioned earlier, they all seemed to hate this arc. Wolverine has rarely interacted with Alpha Flight since the early ‘80s, so the only element of the story that might interest X-fans of this era would be the appearance by Kane. Instead of carrying on Nicieza’s characterization of the reluctant soldier, Larsen and Stephenson present him as a mindless drone for AIM. And Leinil Francis Yu has seen fit to give him a spiky ponytail. It’s obvious the story is hinting that he’s been brainwashed, but no confirmation is given and he simply disappears when it’s time for the fighting to be over. So, more “MYSTERY!” instead of an actual plot.

Loose Ends

Credits: Eric Stephenson (writer), Rob Jensen (penciler), Bob Wiacek (inker), Gina Going (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Alpha Flight studies the reanimated body of Snowbird. Sasquatch theorizes that Snowbird’s mystic body has a healing factor similar to Wolverine’s. Vindicator suddenly realizes why AIM was so interested in Snowbird; he suggests they’re exploiting her as the connection between science and the supernatural.

Review: This is a backup story designed to fit in all of the exposition that couldn’t be worked into the main story, which was mainly concerned with poorly choreographed fight scenes. I was a bit relieved to see Jensen take over as artist for a few pages; there’s nothing flashy about his work, but his figures are well-constructed and his storytelling is clear. The story is just there to hint at horrible things this faction of AIM is supposedly up to, and I’m going to take a shot in the dark and guess that none of these hints are paid off before Larsen/Stephenson leave the book.

WOLVERINE #142 - September 1999

Reunion!

Credits: Erik Larsen & Eric Stephenson (writers), Lenil Francis Yu (penciler), Dexter Vines & Scott Kiblish (inkers), Glynis Oliver (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Wolverine teams with Alpha Flight to rescue Mac Hudson and his synthoid duplicate from AIM. Wolverine escapes as the team is gassed, and soon locates Mac and his duplicate in a lab. MODOK refuses to send more AIM agents after Wolverine; instead he calls upon the current Weapon X, Kane.

Continuity Notes: Inexplicably, Alpha Flight now consists of the original team. A throwaway explanation reveals that the previous incarnation of Alpha Flight has been downgraded to the training team Beta Flight. Heather Hudson also reveals that her relationship with Puck is now over, although they remain friends.

Creative Differences: Notice that the colorist has given Heather Hudson a more modest costume on the cover.

“Huh?” Moments: Wolverine uses “Crikey!” as an exclamation. Slightly more defensible is his use of “Criminey!” later in the issue, but that’s bizarre, too. MODOK also has this dialogue in his opening appearance: “Leadin’ them…that is the mutant Wolverine, is it not?” Since when does MODOK drop “G”s?

Review: Erik Larsen was pretty open about how much he hated almost everything Marvel did in the ‘90s, so it’s not a big surprise that he’s revived the original lineup of Alpha Flight (more famously, he wanted to reveal that the ‘90s Elektra had been a Skrull in a throwaway gag in Nova). Going about it in such an indolent manner is a mistake though, considering that a lot of continuity work would be required to fix all of the ridiculous changes forced upon the original cast. In this issue, we’re just supposed to accept the new-old team, which makes about as much sense as the X-Men suddenly reappearing in their 1963 forms next month. And even if you’re a hardcore Alpha Flight fan and don’t care how exactly the original members have returned, I doubt you’re too thrilled with the formerly demure Heather Hudson prancing around in an outfit straight out of a Penthouse cover. The only redeeming factors in the issue are Lenil Francis Yu’s intricate renditions of AIM technology and the striking new outfits he’s designed for AIM’s soldiers. Unfortunately, he doesn’t give the fight scenes the same attention, so many of them are poorly choreographed and hard to follow.

WOLVERINE #140 - July 1999

Vengeance

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

Summary: Wolverine and Nightcrawler investigate a Magneto sighting at a junkyard, only to learn that “Magneto” is one of several animated junk-robots. They defeat the robots but never discover their creator. Later, at a diner, Wolverine fights a group of unruly patrons before Solo and Cardiac suddenly appear to demand a rematch. Nightcrawler stops the fight by informing them of Wolverine’s possession during their initial brawl. Upon returning home, Wolverine questions Xavier’s new obsessive attitude but receives no answers.

Continuity Notes: This story explicitly takes place after the X-Men’s outer space adventure in X-Men #89, which means the Wolverine appearing in this series for the next several issues is a Skrull impersonator.

Creative Differences: There was speculation at the time that Larsen didn’t write the final two pages of this story (which have an irritated Marrow walking away from Xavier and Wolverine questioning his relentless training exercises). I don’t recall Larsen confirming this, but this may be one of the editorially scripted scenes he cited in a few interviews at the time.

“Huh?” Moment: Solo is wearing a giant X-Men style “X” belt-buckle when he debuts in this issue. The belt buckle is obscured in every panel featuring him after this, so maybe someone was trying to cover it up but just happened to miss that first (giant) panel.

Review: Larsen’s first arc was largely a misfire, but luckily Lenil Francis Yu has returned as artist, and the story isn’t a multi-part space epic. On the other hand, calling this a “story” is a little generous. The issue opens with a fight scene with no resolution (and there won’t be one until Larsen’s final issue), followed by a pointless bar diner fight, then a largely meaningless fight with two Larsen co-creations that he’s somehow managed to sneak into the book again. After that, the editors have decided that we need two pages to remind everyone of the “Shattering” crossover in the main books. The pages that aren’t filled with gratuitous fights hint at Wolverine going over the edge again, and while Nightcrawler is a good choice to play the role of Logan’s conscience, the dialogue is too clunky and the overall plot is too disjointed for this to work.

WOLVERINE #141 - August 1999

Broken Dreams

Credits: Erik Larsen & Eric Stephenson (writers), Lenil Francis Yu (penciler), Dexter Vines (inker), Marie Javins (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: At Xavier’s behest, Wolverine performs a computer test at Gen X’s school. Gateway materializes and abruptly teleports Wolverine and Jubilee to the Swiss Alps. They find sanctuary inside Cable’s chalet, unaware that it’s now occupied by Donald Pierce, who’s used Cable’s technology and database to build a suit of adamantium armor. Wolverine attacks, but their battle is interrupted by the mysterious Khyber. Khyber targets Pierce, destroying Cable’s chalet during their fight. He emerges with Pierce’s body and teleports away. Wolverine and Jubilee are left in the cold, waiting for Gateway to create another portal.

Continuity Notes:

· Pierce discovered Cable’s Swiss hideout after Sebastian Shaw left him for dead in Cable #53. He claims that he stumbled upon Cable’s abandoned sky cycle, which carried him to the chalet.

· Synch leads Generation X (sans Jubilee) in an impromptu attack on Wolverine. Synch claims it was merely a training exercise, but Jubilee has a suspicion that something else was going on. I have no idea if this was ever resolved, but it’s quickly forgotten this issue.

Review: Larsen’s entered a pattern of one-issue action stories that pair Wolverine with members of the various X-teams. This could work, but it runs the danger of quickly turning the book into a series of disposable Wolverine Team-Up stories, which is what this issue mostly feels like. Of course there’s nothing wrong with pitting Wolverine and Jubilee against Donald Pierce, especially if another book has already gone though the effort of reviving him. As this issue points out, he’s the villain Wolverine and Jubilee fought against during their first meeting, so using him as the antagonist elicits emotions that, say, a Sauron fight probably wouldn’t produce. And, while I’m not sure who exactly is responsible for writing the first-person captions, I’ll give them credit for doing a nice job with Jubilee’s narration. Her boredom with high school life and desire to return to the X-Men was dropped ages ago in Generation X¸ but I’m glad someone thought to revive it.

The problem is that this is yet another issue that has Wolverine randomly running into trouble with another X-character, trouble that somehow involves a mysterious figure sneaking away with no explanation. Khyber is…apparently a cyborg that maybe looks like Wolverine…I guess? (Yu’s art isn’t very clear.) He’s also wearing a costume reminiscent of the one Wolverine will be wearing a few months from now when he’s brainwashing into becoming Death…so is that significant? Who knows. All we know is that he hates Donald Pierce, which conveniently leads to him finishing Wolverine’s fight and then teleporting away. Add this to the pointless Gen X fight in the issue’s opening, which the story goes out of its way to point out as odd, and you’re left with a comic that seems to be killing pages and lazily concluding stories with no explanation outside of “MYSTERY!” Although the dialogue is much less painful, this is far too reminiscent of the stunts Howard Mackie was pulling on X-Factor during that series’ nadir.