SPIDER-MAN: DEAD MAN’S HAND #1 - April 1997

Aces & Eights

Credits:  Roger Stern (plot), Joe Edkin (script), Darick Robertson & Dan Lawlis (pencilers), Keith Aiken (inks), Christie Scheele & Ian Laughlin (colors), Comicraft (letters)

The Plot:  SHIELD scientist William Allen is exposed to Miles Warren’s virus, transforming him into the third Carrion.  He uses his newly developed powers to turn portions of New York into zombies.  Spider-Man quarantines a group of zombies, then jumps onboard a SHIELD helicopter.  At SHIELD’s headquarters, Spider-Man learns that the Tinkerer’s son has been infected by the zombie virus.  With the Tinkerer’s help, Spider-Man teleports to Wundagore Mountain and asks the High Evolutionary for help.  He refuses, sending Spider-Man back to New York.  Spider-Man turns to Miles Warren’s journal for inspiration, and soon abducts Carrion.  SHIELD scientists are able to cure the zombie plague, and are confident that William Allen can be cured of the Carrion virus.  One of the scientists consulting SHIELD reveals himself to Spider-Man as the High Evolutionary, telling him that he changed his mind after thinking about their conversation.

Web of Continuity:  

• This story establishes the first Carrion as a true clone of Miles Warren.  The second, Malcolm McBride, was created by a virus left by the High Evolutionary in order to sell his story that Miles Warren never created clones.  
• At one point in continuity, Miles Warren was established as an apprentice of the High Evolutionary.  The original retcon was intended to reveal that Miles Warren could never create clones, only genetic duplicates, but the Clone Saga re-established Warren’s cloning ability.
• The High Evolutionary tells Spider-Man that the memories William Allen inherited from Miles Warren are incomplete, meaning that he doesn’t know Spider-Man’s secret ID.  

*See _________ For Details:  The Scarlet Spider learned that the High Evolutionary altered the contents of Miles Warren’s journal in order to cover up his ability to create clones in Scarlet Spider Unlimited #1.  The Maximum Clonage one-shot established Miles Warren created a virus intended to wipe out mankind.  

Production Note:  This is a forty-eight page one-shot, with ads, and a wraparound cover.  The cover price is $2.99.

Review:  When Gerry Conway established back in the 1980s that Miles Warren never actually created clones, this lead to a series of letters asking the question “What about Carrion?”  We know this because Spectacular Spider-Man ran an entire letters page dedicated to these letters.  The answer was revealed in Spectacular Spider-Man #149, making Carrion another product of the genetic replicator virus Warren created.  You could argue that downgrading Warren’s creations from clones to genetic duplicates was playing semantics, but I do think the creation of the second Carrion was a worthy effort.  Under Gerry Conway, and later J. M. DeMatteis, Malcolm McBride was sympathetic, tragic character in the classic Marvel tradition.  Plus, I think Carrion has a strong design, so I’m glad the character was revived in some way.

Years later, the original clone storyline was revisited, and it’s decided that Miles Warren really could create clones after all.  I’ve stated before that this re-retconning didn’t add anything to the overall storyline, and only served to create more hurdles for the creators at the time.  And, unlike Gerry Conway, no one seemed to care enough to answer the question “What about Carrion (II)?”  Two years later, this one-shot appeared, coming out of the office of the more continuity-conscious Tom Brevoort and Glenn Greenberg.  Roger Stern is once again tasked with cleaning up other writers’ sloppy work and trying to get a coherent story out of what could easily be a mess.  His solutions (along with the ones already established by Glenn Herdling in Scarlet Spider Unlimited #1) are fairly simple and not hard to grasp.  Warren studied under the High Evolutionary.  Warren could create clones.  Carrion was his clone.  High Evolutionary wanted to keep his work a secret, so he concocted the “genetic virus” cover story.  High Evolutionary arranged for Carrion II’s creation in order to sell the story.  Carrion III is the work of Miles Warren, yet again.  If you care about keeping this stuff straight, and Marvel still pretended that it did in 1997, it seems to work out.  

Judged as a story and not a continuity patch, the one-shot is still fun.  The plot moves along without getting bogged down in all of the backstory, and Joe Edkin’s script is sharper than most of the work being done on the main titles at the time.  You could argue that the Tinkerer is only there to provide Spider-Man a quick trip to Wundagore and back, but he never comes across as an overly obvious plot device.  (The Tinkerer has a grand tradition of popping up in Roger Stern’s Spider-Man stories anyway.)  The transition from Darick Robertson to Dan Lawlis is smooth, thanks largely to Keith Aiken’s dark, moody inks.  I don’t know why Aiken didn’t do more Spider-Man work during this era, since he seems able to capture the best elements of McFarlane’s inking without going overboard.

My only real complaint about the issue would be Robertson and Lawlis’ eye design.  Spider-Man’s eyes are way too large for the entire story.  They’re stuck on the exaggerated “shocked!” expression Mark Bagley always used, which doesn’t work at all if they’re that big in every single panel.  I’m all for giving artists some leeway when drawing Spider-Man’s costume, but I wish there was more of an effort to keep things from going outrageously off-model.

GENERATION X #39 - June 1998

Return from Forever

Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Terry Dodson w/Dan Lawlis (penciler), Rachel Dodson w/Jon Holdredge (inker), Comicraft (letters), Felix Serrano (colors)

Summary: Dirtnap explodes, unleashing the elements of M-Plate: the St. Croix twins and Emplate. Chamber attacks Emplate, unaware his energy burst will destroy the Citadel. As the Citadel collapses, Emplate and DOA teleport away, while Gen X boards the train with Elwood. Synch and Penance disobey orders and stay behind to free Gaia. Gaia takes them through a hidden Warp Chamber, as the Token leads Skin and Emma to a train station, where they’re reunited with the team. Meanwhile, Synch, Penance, and Gaia emerge from the Warp Chamber in the diner. Synch encounters Dorian and Weasel, who mercilessly beat him.

Continuity Notes: The Token possesses some form of magical power that enables him to lead Emma and Skin to a train station that magically appears under the Biosphere’s treehouse. Gaia runs away as soon as she reaches Earth, and Penance follows Synch’s order to chase her. Dorian and Weasel are angry at Synch for causing a mess when he falls through the Warp Chamber. They throw in a “boy” when talking to him before suddenly turning violent.

Review: Wow, this never ends. This story has so many disparate elements, just touching base on each thread takes up over half of the issue. Taken on their own, most of these ideas have potential. Gaia feels she has an obligation to stay in the Citadel, even as it collapses. Synch risks everything to save her, granting her her first taste of freedom. Dirtnap learns about friendship and honor from the team (who don’t seem broken up about his apparent death, by the way). The daughter of the police chief blackmails her way into the school and runs into an extradimensional Token. Two teenage punks discover a Warp Chamber in the local diner. All of these stories could work as Generation X issues…but why are they all crammed into the same arc? And why shove all of them into the origin story of M, Penance, and Emplate? What do Tokens, or Universal Amalgmation, or Synch getting a beatdown by local hoodlums have to do this? This is the major mystery that goes back to the first issue of the series, and instead of focusing on the central characters in the story, the series devotes issue after issue to unrelated, half-formed ideas. I disagree with the people who hated these issues with a burning passion, but I can understand why they were disappointed.

X-MEN UNLIMITED #8 – October 1995

First Contact

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Dan Lawlis & Tom Grummett (pencilers), Ian Akin (inker), Matt Webb (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary

A young teen named Chris Bradley passes out in his bathroom after suffering from a severe headache. Simultaneously, all of the circuit breakers blow in his house. The next day, he returns to school, as Gambit and Phoenix follow him. After he asks his crush Donna out on a date, Chris begins to feel sick again. He runs to the bathroom as bolts of electricity shoot out of his body. Overwhelmed by his power, he passes out as soon as Gambit and Phoenix find him. They take him back home and talk to his parents, explaining to them that he is a mutant. Chris runs away, refusing to believe the truth. His goes to his friend Jeff for help, but he’s terrified of Chris’ emerging powers. Chris finally admits that he needs help, and travels to the Xavier Institute a few days later. After getting over his initial reluctance, Chris begins to grow close to the X-Men as they teach him how to control his powers. While he’s eating out with the team, Beast reviews his blood tests and gives Xavier bad news. When Chris returns, Xavier tells him that he’s been infected with the Legacy Virus. He runs away, but Iceman manages to calm him down. Chris leaves the mansion and returns home. Jeff refuses to see him, but Donna still embraces Chris, even after learning of his infection.

Continuity Note

This is the first appearance of Chris Bradley, who goes on to become the New Warriors character Bolt. (And, shockingly enough, he's been killed off in recent years. I'll hazard a guess and say Frank Tieri wrote that story.)

Review

This is one of those “X-Men travel to a small town and locate a young teenage mutant” stories, an old chestnut that actually didn’t show up that often during this era (even the cast of Generation X had to be hunted by the Phalanx before the X-Men would acknowledge them). It’s a very predictable, linear story that does have a morbid twist at the end. Unfortunately, revealing that this kid has a lethal disease doesn’t match the tone of the rest of the story, and Mackie doesn’t seem to know where to go with it after introducing the idea. There’s literally only one page dedicated to showing a character comforting Chris after he’s diagnosed, and the majority of that page has to do with Chris’ reaction to his friend abandoning him, not his feelings about dying. The Legacy Virus twist isn’t a bad idea at all, but Mackie isn't able to deal with the shift in tone, and doesn't seem to have anything to say about the concept. The small town scenes are okay, even if the dialogue is fairly bland and the characters don’t have much personality. Chris comes across as a likable enough teenager, built in the original Peter Parker mold that comic companies apparently can’t get enough of.

One major flaw with the story, which is only a flaw if you view it in the context of the overall X-continuity, is the fact that a new teenage mutant is discovered and Generation X has nothing to do with him. The whole premise of that group is to train young mutants, yet it’s only the X-Men who teach Chris about his powers and pal around with him. I understand that having a normal teenager meet the X-Men is supposed to be the hook of the whole story, but if the creators were playing fair with the audience, this would’ve been a Generation X story. There at least should’ve been a throwaway explanation for why he couldn’t have been sent to the school in Massachusetts. The art is by Dan Lawlis and Tom Grummett, who both have soft, cartoonish styles that fit this story. I don’t know what else Lawlis has worked on, but I remember being disappointed that I didn’t see him on more X-projects after this. I remember the art in Unlimited getting really dire around this time as the faux-manga look caught on, so he certainly would’ve been an improvement.