GENERATION X #62 - April 2000

 

Prey

Credits:  Jay Faerber (writer), Matt Smith, Nelson DeCastro, Yancey Labat, & Darren Auck (pencilers), John Czop, Jason Martin, & Rodney Ramos (inkers), Kevin Tinsley (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary:  Using her telepathy, M is able to fend off DeLaCorte’s psychic influence.  M tries to expose DeLaCorte to the local police, but he’s immune to sunlight.  That night, she’s attacked by Tabby, a girl DeLaCorte “turned” earlier.  She impales Tabby on a stake, then seeks out DeLaCorte in his office.  His secretary, Mrs. Hilmersson, exposes herself as a vampire and covers DeLaCorte’s escape.  Eventually, M catches up with DeLaCorte and impales him on a building’s spire.  Following his death, the school closes down and M returns to the Massachusetts Academy.

Continuity Notes:  According to M’s research, being bitten doesn’t make you a vampire (unless you’re actually killed), but does enable the vampire to mentally control you.  As for DeLaCorte’s ability to withstand sunlight, he credits a process credited by Captain America villain Baron Blood.

Review:  Jay Faerber concludes his run, and as I suspected, there’s no room to resolve any of the ongoing subplots he left growing in the background.  I suppose he could’ve resolved this vampire plot in just a few pages and spent the rest of the issue rushing through Adrienne Frost’s story arc, or providing some resolution to the romantic entanglements amongst the team, but that would’ve surely shortchanged all of the storylines.  Instead, he devotes the entire issue to M, who narrates the story in what I’m assuming is an homage to Buffy.  Her unwillingness to call in Generation X for help is treated as an intentional plot point, driving home the idea that M is determined to move away from the team.  Unfortunately, the story doesn’t give her much of an arc to go through, so her decision to return to the school at the end feels largely arbitrary.  The extremely inconsistent art, which makes M sometimes unrecognizable, doesn’t help things either.  Not a great issue to go out on, but Jay Faerber’s stint as writer is still a clear highlight of the book’s run.

THE BOOK OF FATE #11 - December 1997

The Perception of Doors

Credits: Keith Giffen (plot), Alan Grant (script), Matt Smith (penciler), Steve Mitchell (inker), Gaspar (letterer), Mike Danza (colorist)

Summary: To escape his prison cell, Fate concentrates on where he’s “supposed to be.” He suddenly appears in a strange room with Amethyst and two of her followers. She tells him that his “time will come” shortly before he materializes in Arnold’s bathroom. Vera reluctantly volunteers to help him go into hiding, but Fate walks off. He’s soon greeted by Sentinel, who offers to send Fate into Exile until the mystic community clears him. In Exile, Fate meets Lobo.

We Get Letters: The editors admit in the letter column that the “Convergence” crossover was confusing and didn’t have a clear reason to exist. They seem especially proud of a crossover they edited called “Final Night,” though.

I Love the ‘90s: Vera says that Jared’s face is “better known that Princess Di’s.”

Miscellaneous Note: The title of the issue is likely a reference to a novel by Aldous Huxley called The Doors of Perception.

Review: With one issue left to go, an entire issue is squandered on merely getting Fate from Point A to Point B, intercut with a few vague, futile conversations. Knowing that the Jared Stevens Fate is one issue away from disappearing into obscurity, it’s hard for me to care about Dr. Occult lecturing Vera on the importance of Jared learning to teleport on his own, a conversation that lasts several pages. (What was the point of bringing Vera into the book in the first place? I was never entirely certain on what her brother’s role was supposed to be, so seeing him replaced towards the end of the book’s run with his nerdy sister is even more vexing.) And there’s Amethyst’s evil plot, which I doubt is going to be thwarted in the next twenty-two pages. (If anyone did bother to bring Amethyst back into the DC continuity of this era, I suspect it was to undo these changes and make her a heroine again anyway.) Finally, Sentinel appears to set up the inevitable Lobo guest shot. This may tie in with the ongoing subplot that has Sentinel suing Jared for his mystic artifacts, but it’s not as if that storyline brought a lot of excitement to the series in the first place.

One more issue…

NIGHT FORCE #8 - July 1997

Gems (Convergence Part Two)

Credits: Marv Wolfman (writer), Matt Smith (penciler), Steve Mitchell (inker), John Costanza (letterer), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

Summary: A pregnant runaway named Lea crashes her car into a young man. She takes him to the nearest home, the mansion that belongs to Baron Winters. Winters treats the young man, discovering that he has no pores, nipples, or sex organs. While Winters is distracted with Lea, the young man, Child, awakens and searches the manor for a link to the Conclave. Members of the Infinity Cult watch through Child’s eyes as he attempts to trap the manor inside limbo. Topaz suddenly appears and fights Child. Baron Winters interrupts the fight and casts both of them out, ignoring Topaz’s warnings of Amethyst’s plans. When Winters returns to his room, he discovers the Infinity Cult has removed Lea’s child and killed her.

Irrelevant Continuity: Lea was first introduced to the Infinity Cult by her local Senator, who is presumably the same Senator we saw in the previous chapter of the crossover. What exactly the Infinity Cult is isn’t explained, but the story helpfully explains how they gang-raped Lea and impregnated her with twins “one light, one dark” that could be the saviors of the universe.  Remember, any comic without gang rape is at least 40% less daring and relevant.

Review: “Convergence” continues through three other DC Casualties from the ‘90s, making this a strong contender for the “Crossover Least Likely Ever To Be Reprinted” prize. My knowledge of Night Force is that it was an early ‘80s DC series created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan after both left Marvel. It didn’t have a lengthy Tomb of Dracula run, but it was revived by Wolfman and a rotating series of artists in the late ‘90s. This issue is penciled by Matt Smith, an artist who bravely blends Mike Mignola with more Mike Mignola to create a look that’s oddly reminiscent of Mike Mignola. His characters can be hard to tell apart, and while most of his storytelling is clear, his depiction of Topaz’s exit from his fight with Child leads me to believe the character has spontaneously exploded, which I don’t believe was the writer’s intent. Not that Wolfman’s plot is perfectly clear, either. The concept of Night Force is never explained during the story, nor is the Infinity Cult or the elements from Book of Fate that precede this issue. New readers picking up this comic for the crossover have to be confused, possibly just as much as the existing readers who don’t follow Book of Fate (which is often impenetrable anyway.) I hate it when fans declare that a book “deserved” to be cancelled, but it’s not hard for me to discern why DC’s fringe titles couldn’t maintain an audience. This is far more reader-unfriendly than the average X-book from the ‘90s.