UNCANNY X-MEN #273 - February 1991

Too Many Mutants! (Or Whose House IS This, Anyway?)
Credits:  Chris Claremont (writer), Whilce Portacio, Klaus Janson, John Byrne, Rick Leonardi, Marc Silvestri, Michael Golden, Larry Stroman, & Jim Lee (pencilers), Scott Williams (inker), Tom Orzechowski (letters), Joe Rosas (colors)

Summary:  Following the Genoshan battle, the united X-teams regroup in the underground complex beneath Xavier’s mansion.  Storm, Cyclops, and Marvel Girl debate what to do next, while Cable makes his case for leading the united teams.  Later, Marvel Girl uses Cerebro to locate the missing X-Men.  She’s ambushed by the Shadow King and narrowly rescued by Psylocke.  Eventually, the X-Men emerge in new uniforms, ready to follow Storm.  Shortly after Cyclops and Marvel Girl say goodbye, Lila Cheney arrives and teleports the team away, claiming Xavier needs their help.

Continuity Notes: 

• Gambit “officially” joins the X-Men this issue, in the sense that Storm refuses to leave with him, so he decides to stick around.  At the end of the story, he’s wearing an X-uniform with the rest of the team.  Gambit’s casual decision to stay probably ties in to Claremont’s rumored original plan to reveal Gambit's a spy for Mr. Sinister.
• This is the issue that ignited the long-running fan speculation that Gambit was a reincarnated Longshot.  While Wolverine and Gambit are sparring in the Danger Room, Wolverine remarks that his moves are similar to Longshot’s.  On the next panel, a hologram of Lady Deathstrike emerges and attacks Wolverine.  In an altered word balloon, Jubilee questions who turned that sequence on.   The scene then cuts to Gambit smiling with his left eye glowing, much like Longshot’s.
• Wolverine is barely able to keep up with Gambit during their duel, which continues Claremont’s subplot regarding Wolverine’s slow recovery after the Reavers’ attack in Uncanny X-Men #251.
• Marvel Girl, yes still “Marvel Girl” at this point, only has telekinetic powers and must rely on Psylocke to rescue her from Shadow King.  Her telepathy will return a few months later in X-Factor.
• Wolfsbane and Havok are still in Genosha following “X-Tinction Agenda.”  Forge is working on a way to reverse the “Mutate transmodation” Wolfsbane’s endured.  He speculates that the longer she’s a Mutate, the harder it will be to cure her.
• Psylocke says the Hand used “magic as well as science” to physically alter her into their assassin.  The readers will receive a much, much more complicated explanation years later.

Creative Differences:  With eight pencilers, it’s not surprising to learn this issue had deadline problems.  John Byrne had this to say on his website years ago:
"Bob Harras, then the X-Editor, called and asked if I could do six pages for this issue. I was up to my eyeballs in work, so I declined. So he asked if I could do three. I agreed, and they sent me a plot. I drew the three pages
and sent them in. Then Bob called and said 'You drew three pages! That plot was for one page!'

Woulda bin a real time saver if they'd updated me on that before they sent me the plot! "

Approved By The Comics Code Authority:  When Marvel Girl takes a shower (right in front of Psylocke), Joe Rosas colors in the steam to match the contours of her body.  This is the first time I ever saw a colorist attempt to make comic art racier than originally intended.  Within five years, colorist-added nipple pokes will be all the rage.

Review:  Is this the first “quiet” post-crossover X-comic?  I believe it is.  Just think of all of the variations of this issue the X-office published in the ‘90s following Claremont’s departure.  Everyone knows that the numerous subplots and mysteries were inspired by Claremont’s work, but it’s easy to forget that even the downtime issue that followed almost every crossover has its genesis in Claremont’s initial run.  I can’t imagine Claremont thought he was starting a trend; he was probably just looking at the cast following “X-Tinction Agenda” and asking the same question the characters ask this issue -- what to do with all of these mutants?

I thought it would be interesting to look back at the era post-“X-Tinction Agenda,” as it paves the way for the 1991 revamps of the titles (the revamps that nudged me towards X-completism).  What stands out about this issue is Claremont’s ability to write the characters as rational adults, people capable of having a thoughtful conversation about how they’ve reached this point and how to go forward.  Storm acknowledges that faking the X-Men’s death was likely a mistake.  Cyclops is bothered that no one’s truly replaced Xavier and mentored the third generation of mutants.  Marvel Girl is concerned that Magneto has apparently reverted to villainy (not that she ever bought his conversion.)  Cable’s annoyed that the others can’t see that they’re in the middle of a war, and throws his hat in for leadership of all of the X-teams.  And as absurd as this might sound in a recap, Claremont handles the scene remarkably well.  Claremont writes Cable as more of a grouch than Louise Simonson has so far, but he's still rational, falling in more with Claremont’s “noble warriors” than the cheap Punisher clone he’ll soon turn into.  Cable’s position doesn’t come across as unreasonable at all, and even Storm questions if he’s right.

When the story isn’t focused on the main philosophical debate, Claremont has some fun with the rest of the cast.  Iceman and Boom-Boom get into a prank war, Archangel and Cannonball introduce the Danger Room to anyone not around since issue #225 or so, Gambit gets to outmaneuver Wolverine (something that almost never happened in these days), and a few of the ongoing subplots get touched upon.  As much as this issue might be remembered as “downtime,” there are three action sequences and a cliffhanger ending.  Two of those action scenes even advance ongoing subplots, which is a reminder of just how tight a plotter Claremont can be.  And even the pages that don’t tie in with the dozen or so subplots Claremont’s juggling are entertaining in their own right, as he’s clearly having fun writing characters he hasn’t touched in years.

Regarding the artist jam, the pages do have some level of consistency, since Scott Williams was somehow able to ink the entire issue.  I definitely thought this was a strange looking issue as a kid, but I never thought it looked rushed or shoddy.  The oddest pages to me were Michael Golden’s Gambit/Wolverine fight, although today they’re my favorite.  It’s also cool to see Scott Williams giving Rick Leonardi and Marc Silvestri highly polished inks, considering how rarely they’re inked in that style.  Compare this comic to some of the jam issues the ‘90s will later bring us and it’s practically art.  This is an issue that could’ve easily been a mess, but I enjoyed it a lot as a kid and I think it holds up very well.

SHOWCASE ‘93 #8 - August 1993

Bad Judgment

Credits:  Doug Moench (writer), Klaus Janson (artist/colorist), Ken Bruzenak (letterer)

Summary:  Batman is rescued in the river by Two-Face’s men and brought to their hideout.  Two-Face holds a mock trial for Batman, accusing him of breaking their alliance during his days as D.A. Harvey Dent.  Robin and Alfred locate Batman and create a distraction that allows him to escape.  When Two-Face soon corners Batman several stories up, Robin throws his bolo at him, knocking Two-Face off the building.  Batman rescues Two-Face and rebukes Robin for playing by Two-Face's rules.  In the present day, Batman wakes from his coma and tells Robin that he actually made the right decision.

Irrelevant Continuity:  In this era of continuity, Batman and Harvey Dent were allies until Dent became obsessed with Boss Maroney and began breaking the rules.  Maroney goes on to become the mobster that scars Dent’s face in court during Two-Face’s origin story.

Review:  This doesn’t feel as shallow as the previous installment, even if it is clearly filler.  In this chapter, Moench plays up Harvey Dent’s past relationship with Batman, which was ruined after Dent became increasingly obsessed and lost sight of reality.  Years later, Batman’s now pushed himself to the edge and is suffering from his own poor judgment.  Apparently, the idea is that Robin, with his youthful verve and innocence, is the most clear-thinking individual in the entire story, although I would take issue with this.  As Batman points out, Robin had no way of knowing if Batman was capable of catching Two-Face when he knocked him off the edge, which would’ve made Robin culpable in Two-Face’s death.  Batman, in any context, would not abide this.  (Let’s ignore that Cracked.com article.)  Batman chewing Robin out for this is perfectly in-character and consistent with the moral code he’s displayed throughout his career.  Having Batman come out of his coma and spontaneously change his mind isn’t just a cheap ending for the story, it’s not consistent with everything we know about Batman.  I can see the point Moench is trying to make, but the story he’s crafted doesn’t support his argument.

SHOWCASE ‘93 #7 - July 1993

Double Cross

Credits:  Doug Moench (writer), Klaus Janson (artist/colorist), Ken Bruzenak (letterer)

Summary:  As Robin and Alfred watch over the comatose Batman, Robin flashes back to three weeks earlier.  Two-Face, after escaping Arkham during the breakout, targets mobster Legs Lyman.  He kills Lyman and leaves his body inside a museum as a clue for Batman.  Batman pursues the case, dismissing Robin’s offer for help.  Two-Face, now leading Lyman’s gang, ambushes Batman and forces him to crash the Batmobile into the river.

Irrelevant Continuity:  Klaus Janson’s Batmobile is extremely off-model.  For some reason he’s decided it should resemble a ‘70s Cadillac.

I Love the ‘90s: I guess I’m obligated to mention the title of this series.  DC curiously decided to run Showcase as a twelve-issue series every year, renaming it to match the new year every January.

Review:  DC somehow decided that this Showcase two-parter deserved to be reprinted in the Knightfall trade, as opposed to all of the early Bane appearances, the original “Venom” storyline, or the Sword of Azrael miniseries.  I guess they felt obligated because the covers list this storyline as official chapters of “Knightfall,” even continuing the numbering from the Bat-titles, and didn’t want readers complaining about missing the all-important thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of the crossover.  I imagine “Knightfall” only crossed over into Showcase in order to give the lower-selling title some attention, because this is by no means an essential story for the event.  With the removal of a few lines of dialogue and the quickie framing sequence, this could easily occur at any time in early ‘90s Bat-continuity.  I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this were an inventory story that just ended up in Showcase because Batman was obligated to appear in the book for a few issues out of the year.

Of course, none of this means the story is bad when judged on its own merits.  And in its defense, it’s a nice-looking Klaus Janson comic with better-than-average colors and lettering for the era.  But aside from a cute bit about the Brontosaurus during the museum scene (it’s “the only dinosaur with two names” because scientists originally mixed up two species when naming it), the story’s extremely flat.  And the awkward placement of the arc ruins the flow of the overall storyline, as it requires the narrative to flash back three weeks for no good reason.

GAMBIT #4 - December 1997

Heaven’s Promise

Credits: Terry Kavanagh w/ Howard Mackie (writers), Klaus Janson (penciler), Bill Sienkiewicz (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters), Christie Scheele (colors)

Summary: Anielle bathes Sibyl in light, rescuing Gambit. They arrive in Rome, where they’re soon confronted by Oliver Stoker and his demonic army. Stoker unveils his newest follower, Katrina, who has been perverted into the “Black Kat.” Katrina turns on her mentor, Padre Bonavita, and prepares to kill him. Gambit agrees to give Stoker Anielle in exchange for Katrina’s soul. Stoker disappears with Anielle, as Katrina returns to normal. Padre Bonavita explains that Anielle was created for this specific purpose and only has a short lifespan. Stoker gave up the true prize, Katrina’s soul. Later, Gambit visits the Vatican, where Katrina is praying, but not as a nun. He returns the Cross of Redemption and kneels to pray.

Review: So, after four issues of adventures with an angel and demonic forces, Gambit decides that he really does believe. Doing any story about faith can be tricky, but the idea of an atheist in the Marvel Universe, in the middle of a literal battle between Heaven and Hell, is faintly ridiculous. Fabian Nicieza kept the idea of Gambit as a believer during his solo series, so I guess Gambit is out of the Marvel Universe Atheist Club, which might be helpful information for Jim Starlin if he writes any more cosmic miniseries.

The story ends with a slight copout, as Gambit turns the angel over to the demon, only to learn she’s going to fade out of existence soon anyway. Revealing that Katrina, an actual human soul, was the true prize all along actually works pretty well as a twist ending, though. The story does take some advantage of Gambit’s role as a darker hero, as it’s revealed that Stoker needed someone between good and evil to handle Anielle (pure good wouldn’t be inclined to turn her over, and pure evil would’ve burned at her touch). One idea that isn’t very clear is Gambit’s role in Katrina’s corruption. Apparently, growing close to him lead her to reconsider becoming a nun, yet the two characters have barely interacted during most of the series. Maybe the original idea was to do a full-blown love story between the two, but someone reconsidered, perhaps because they weren’t sure if Gambit was supposed to be with Rogue at this point (again, this mini doesn’t comfortably fit anywhere in continuity). Having Gambit influence someone into exploring the line between right and wrong would be a nice use of the character, but if that was an intentional plot point, the execution is flawed (and, really, "The Black Kat"?). Overall, I did find myself enjoying this more than the initial miniseries. The story does try to use Gambit’s character as a means to explore a few ideas, which is preferable to more torturous “revelations” from his past. Plus, we’re spared the Thieves Guild.

GAMBIT #3 - November 1997

True Colors

Credits: Terry Kavanagh w/Howard Mackie (writers), Klaus Janson (penciler), Bill Sinkiewicz (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters), Christie Scheele (colors)

Summary: Gambit escapes with Anielle, as Oliver Stoker kidnaps Katrina. Gambit follows Katrina’s orders and travels to the Vatican with Anielle, while Stoker tortures Katrina with images of the late Marcelo as a demon. While on a train to Rome, Sibyl and Stoker’s demonic hound Cerberus track down Gambit. A plague of locusts emerges from Sibyl’s mouth.

“Huh?” Moments: The nun in the church Gambit crashed into at the end of the last issue is now supposed to be Katrina. Aside from the fact that Gambit didn’t recognize her voice last issue, how exactly she managed to be at the right church at the right time is unclear (if she’s supposed to have powers, she hasn’t shown them so far; plus, Stoker consistently refers to her as a “mortal.”) Also, Anielle is suddenly wearing clothes under Gambit’s trenchcoat in-between panels.

Review: This issue is light on plot, but it’s heavy on running. The first third of the issue is entirely dedicated to Gambit running away from Stoker, while the majority of the rest of the story focuses on his escape to Europe with Anielle. The story does introduce the idea that perhaps Marcelo (and even Gambit) have been doing Stoker’s will all along, but this comes from Stoker himself so there’s no real reason to trust the revelations. The angel mystery advances slowly, as Gambit spends more time with Anielle, who still doesn’t speak but now seems to have some telepathic communication with Gambit. She offers some vague clues about him making her “special,” just before Sibyl pops up to show off her freaky new powers. It all looks appropriately dark and gritty, which helps a rather mundane plot.

GAMBIT #2 - October 1997

Shadow Rise

Credits: Terry Kavanagh & Howard Mackie (writers), Klaus Janson (artist), Comicraft (letters), Christie Scheele (colors)

Summary: Gambit is rescued by Vatican agents Marcelo and Katrina. Gambit grows close to Katrina as he recovers, unaware she's in training to become a nun. Marcelo searches the city for the angel, which Gambit has named Anielle. A woman named Sibyl suddenly enters, commanding what appears to be a pack of armed zombies. Marcelo is killed in the battle, as Gambit escapes to protect Anielle. Sibyl follows, revealing her demonic wings. Gambit and Anielle flee inside a church, where the mysterious Oliver Stoker suddenly enters.

Continuity Notes: Katrina refers to Tante Mattie as “Mattie Baptiste,” and intimates that they’re all a part of an organization known as the Grigori. Gambit questions if they’re really descendants of fallen angels, as biblical apocrypha states. Katrina doesn’t give much of an answer.

Review: Look, Terry Kavanagh has arrived. I’m not sure how the script was divided between Mackie and Kavanagh, but this flows a little easier than most of their individual works from this era. With maybe one or two exceptions, Gambit’s phonetic accent is even tolerable. The big exception is Gambit explaining what the Grigori are through that insane accent (“Angels from the dawn o’ Genesis, fallen in de sunderin’ o’ Heaven. Not heavy enough wit’ sin t’crash t’rough de Earth int’ de burnin’ abyss wit’ their darker brethren…”). Like the first issue, this has non-believer Gambit thrown into an adventure with characters out of some sort of Catholic fan-fiction. Most of the mysterious characters with cameos in the first issue are fleshed out here, which is one advantage of forcing these writers to work within a limited series format. There’s no “we’ll get around to revealing that shadow figure” or “the mysterious conspiracy will be explored in detail later” nonsense if you only have four issues to deal with. Gambit also receives some character work, as the issue opens with an extended monologue during his near-death experience. He’s reflecting on his past sins and his place in the darkness, which wasn’t anything new for the character, but the sequence works surprisingly well. Klaus Janson’s moody art helps a lot, as we see Gambit swimming through darkness, emerging in his own grave, and fighting against the zombies that want to drag him back down. Gambit’s previous angsting probably would’ve been less annoying with the proper visual accompaniment.

GAMBIT #1 - September 1997

Falling Star

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Klaus Janson (artist), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters), Christie Scheele (colors)

Summary: In Miami, Gambit steals the Cross of Redemption from a Cuban gangster. A vision of Tante Mattie suddenly appears, asking Gambit to do “the Lord’s work.” Gambit refuses, then tries to escape the gangster’s security. While running past the beach, Gambit is drawn towards a nude woman emerging from the water. Enthralled, he wraps her in his coat as the men continue to chase him. They gun down Gambit, who falls into the water. He has a vision of the woman as an angel as he apparently dies.

Continuity Notes: Good luck placing this one in continuity. Gambit says he’s doing an old-fashioned theft to ground himself after his outer space adventure. An editor’s note points towards Uncanny X-Men #342-#344, which is apparently as long as that storyline was supposed to last. Instead, it dragged on until issue #350, and ended with Gambit being left for dead in Antarctica. My No-Prize explanation is that Gambit was actually referring to another space adventure we never saw, or perhaps the story is set after he escaped Antarctica but before he rejoined the X-Men.

Production Note: The indicia lists this as Gambit vol.1, no. 1, which shows someone had a short memory.

Review: The first Gambit limited series came out of the X-Men’s 30^th anniversary event, during the height of the character’s popularity. I didn’t think it was particularly great, but I dutifully purchased every issue and accepted it as a legitimate part of X-continuity. Four years later, I have a vague recollection of flipping through one issue of this series and quickly placing it back on the stands. Not only had Gambit’s popularity begun to cool, but the utterly insane number of X-related miniseries and one-shots pumped out of various Marvel offices had left the spinoff material toxic. Even if I was a full-grown adult with a decent paying job, I couldn’t have justified buying all of the X-product shoved out between 1996 and 1998. I still liked the X-Men and didn’t even consider buying over half of this stuff. Who exactly was the audience for all of these books?

As quickly as this miniseries sunk into obscurity, there is an odd significance to it. A rumor began to circulate (either through Wizard or one of Marvel’s hype pages) that a character debuting in this series would have major repercussions for the Marvel Universe in the future. I’m assuming the character in question is the female angel introduced in this issue. She apparently was going to tie in with the “Marvel Crisis” Warren Ellis was writing, which would’ve served as a Marvel continuity reboot towards the end of the millennium. Marvel got cold feet about the project (but still went ahead with their misguided plan to rewrite Spider-Man’s origin with Spider-Man: Chapter One), and Ellis’ original plans apparently made their way into the Ultimate Universe years later.

The starting place for this story seems to be, of all things, the ‘90s X-Men animated series. The “Nightcrawler” episode established Gambit as an atheist, most likely to play off the other X-Men who were open to Nightcrawler’s beliefs. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but Howard Mackie is giving us a Gambit who’s suddenly hostile to faith; declaring that he doesn’t believe in redemption, or “Him,” and is going to do what he wants whenever he wants to do it. So, of course, after he steals a cross, his Catholic godmother appears, demanding he do a mission for God, shortly before an angel washes up on the beach. Not exactly subtle, but this is a Howard Mackie comic (I’m sure I’ve said those words before). At least there’s a clear idea for a story so far, which is more than X-Factor could muster for more than five pages at a time. Gambit’s feelings on redemption are fertile ground for a story, especially in light of his “secret shame,” which is going to be revealed a few months later in Uncanny X-Men #350. I don’t have high hopes that the theme will be explored well, but I’m willing to be surprised. And Klaus Janson is the artist, so this miniseries automatically looks better than the rest of the ancillary X-clutter.

BATMAN/SPAWN - 1994

War Devil

Credits:  Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant (writers), Klaus Janson (art), Klaus Janson & Steve Buccellato (colors), Todd Klein (letters)

Summary:  In 1590, on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, the colony mysteriously disappears.  The only clue is the word “Croatoan” which is carved into a tree.  Six years ago in Gotham City, Batman fails to stop Al Simmons from assassinating Simon Vesper, a businessman constructing the massive Gotham Tower.  Today, Spawn reads a headline announcing the completion of Gotham Tower.  He arrives in Gotham, sensing evil.  Meanwhile, Vesper rises from the grave.  Batman investigates Gotham Tower and discovers a dead body.  A pentagram and the word “Croatoan” are written in blood.  Spawn spots Batman, and assuming he’s a demon, picks a fight.  Spawn’s costume cuts off his power supply, allowing Batman to win the battle.  The two team up to stop Simon Vesper, whose selective blackout is creating a pentagram shape in the Gotham skyline.  He calls the dead to rise from their graves, promising to feast on 100,000 souls this time.  Spawn learns that Vesper is the demon Croatoan, who arranged for his own assassination six years earlier.  Croatoan wants Spawn’s soul as a bonus, but with Batman’s help, he is defeated. 

Spawntinuity:  This is DC’s contribution to the crossover, so it doesn’t count in Spawn continuity.  Both Batman/Spawn and Spawn/Batman are treated as the first meeting between the characters.  The disappearance of the Roanoke Island settlement is a true story, often described as America’s first mystery.

Review:  This crossover occasionally comes up on Chuck Dixon’s message board.  From memory, I’ve learned that all three Bat-writers of the era were assigned so that royalties could be shared, Alan Grant volunteered to read the entire run of Spawn and gave a hilarious recap of the series to his fellow writers, and Dixon is responsible for the deadpan “You can call me Al” joke.  The story is more intricate than anything McFarlane or his guest writers have attempted at this point, reading as you’d expect a Denny O’Neil-edited DC comic to read.  The connection to Roanoke Island is clever, there’s a little bit of detective work, and the one-shot manages to cram a lot of story into forty-eight pages.  While these guys obviously know how to write Batman, Spawn is a little out-of-focus.  The writers seem to think that Spawn is a Claremontian “big talk” character with a poetic soul, while McFarlane tends to write him as a relatively normal guy who’s just frustrated by the unreal circumstances that surround him.  He is given a small character arc, as he wonders at the beginning if he can find his “real face,” and then declares at the end that he’ll be a man like Batman, who wears his real face “without apology.”

I’ve heard rumors over the years that McFarlane didn’t like this crossover.  I don’t know if they’re true, but I wonder how McFarlane reacted to Janson’s artwork.  I think most artists would be happy to see a Klaus Janson rendition of their creation, and Janson’s gritty enough for the character, but it is odd to see Spawn drawn in such a “straight” style.  Janson is far from a dull artist, but he is the first penciler to draw Spawn without the excessive stylization.  The cape is still ridiculously large, but it’s no longer covering Spawn’s body, which allows, God forbid, a few shots of real anatomy.  Janson also avoids drawing (for much of the comic, at least) shadows over every object, weird angles, and odd page layouts.  If Spawn were a DC character, this is probably what his book would’ve looked like.