X-MEN LEGENDS - June 2000 (Part Two)

Welcome to the X-Men, Madrox

Written by Steve Lyons

Summary:  After arriving at Xavier’s school, Madrox reluctantly leaves his room and meets the X-Men.  Unsure of how to interact with others, Madrox creates duplicates to spend time with the team while he returns to the safety of his room.  While in town with Havok and Polaris, one duplicate is attacked by anti-mutant bigots.  Inside the Danger Room, another duplicate learns that the X-Men spend most of their time fighting other mutants.  A third duplicate explores the grounds and meets a non-descript man.  The mystery man soon reveals himself as the Super-Adaptoid and attacks the team.  Madrox leaves his room and personally witnesses the bravery of his duplicates when facing the Super-Adaptoid.  He develops a plan to give the Super-Adaptoid his abilities, knowing that eventually the Super-Adaptoid will over-tax its system and burn out its powers.  Later, after returning to his room, Madrox decides that life as an X-Man would be even lonelier than his current solitary existence.  

Continuity Notes:  “Welcome to the X-Men, Madrox” takes place in-between Giant Size Fantastic Four #4 (February 1975) and Giant Size X-Men #1 (October 1975).  In the story, the Danger Room uses realistic holographic images, but it’s my understanding that the Danger Room’s holograms (created with Shi’ar technology) didn’t debut until New Mutants #1 (March 1983).

Review:  The “about the authors” piece in the back of the novel indicates that Steve Lyons had wanted to write a Madrox story for a while, and it’s obvious over the course of this piece that he’s a fan of the character.  Madrox’s isolation, and the sense of futility that comes with having every option available, are a part of what makes Madrox unique, and Lyons has clearly put a decent amount of thought behind the concept.  Madrox stories really can go anywhere, and I like Lyons’ portrayal of Madrox as a recluse, using his duplicates to explore the outside world while he hides in the safety of his bedroom.  The story hinges on Madrox’s initial appearance, which had him living alone in a farmhouse after the loss of his parents.  Madrox, at this point, has had very limited exposure to the outside world and is literally his own best friend.  While the scenes that get inside Madrox’s head are great, I do question why the bulk of the story is concerned with Madrox learning (via his duplicates) that he possesses the makings of a hero.  I’ve never thought of Madrox as being un-heroic, but he’s never been portrayed as a traditional, straight-forward hero figure either, so heroism alone isn’t really a defining trait for the character.  By the end of the story, Madrox decides (after being exposed to human intolerance and learning that even mutants can’t get along with each other) that he isn’t ready for this life, so he goes back into hiding.  As a continuity implant, it works as an explanation for why Madrox didn’t join the “All-New” X-Men team, but it makes for an odd story.  Madrox doesn’t think he can be a hero, proves he can be a hero, then decides he isn’t ready to be a hero, the end.  I realize that the story has to end with Madrox going back into hiding, but I don’t quite understand the route Lyons takes to get there.

Peace Offering

Written by Michael Stewart

Summary:  Following the X-Men’s fight with Iron Fist at Jean Grey and Misty Knight’s apartment, Wolverine secretly enters with a dove as a peace offering.  After initially mistaking Wolverine for an intruder, Misty questions Wolverine on why he doesn’t act on his feelings for Jean.  Hand ninjas suddenly enter, seeking to kill Misty for her investigation into a Japanese crimelord.  Wolverine and Misty stop the first group of attackers, but another emerges shortly after Jean returns home.  Jean is cut by a drugged shuriken and Wolverine leaves to find the ninja who threw it.  After Misty defeats the final ninja, Jean’s powers burn out the poison.  Wolverine returns after failing to locate Jean’s attacker, but can’t bring himself to enter the apartment.

Continuity Notes:  This story is set during the time Jean Grey and Misty Knight were roommates.  It takes place between Uncanny X-Men #108 and #109, and shortly after Iron Fist #15.

Review:  It’s another retcon story about the legendary, forbidden love between Wolverine and Jean Grey.  I’m not a huge fan of the concept, but I have to acknowledge that Michael Stewart does have an excellent grasp on Wolverine’s character.  Too often Wolverine is given his current personality in the flashback stories, but it’s important to remember that he really was a different character when he first joined the X-Men.  Stewart sets the story just as Wolverine was evolving, actually opening himself up to other people and recognizing that he can no longer hide behind the façade that he’s more animal than man.  Stewart does a nice job having Wolverine voice his insecurities over whether or not Jean could ever accept him while staying true to the character and not turning Wolverine into a wuss.  It’s a thin line to walk, but Stewart writes a well-rounded Wolverine that evokes a classic Claremontian feel.  

I do have to gripe about the anthology’s first negative instance of prequel-itis, however.  Stewart heavily implies that the mystery ninja who strikes Jean is none other than Yukio (“Gotcha!”).  I don’t recall it ever being established that Yukio worked with the Hand, and even if the idea can work within continuity, the sheer coincidence of Wolverine’s future lover nearly killing his unrequited love is too hard to swallow.  Also, wouldn’t Wolverine have recognized her scent when they met for the first time in the Wolverine limited series?

THE ULTIMATE SUPER-VILLAINS Part Four - August 1996

Sins of the Flesh
Written by Steve Lyons

Summary:  Former Stark International employee Mark Grace announces to the public that he’s created genuine artificial intelligence.  Iron Man and Giant-Man attend his press conference and watch the demonstration of his two “HelpMates.”  Ultron enters and steals the female HelpMate, declaring her his partner.  Grace admits to the heroes that he hasn’t created AI; the HelpMates are actually actors wearing suits similar to Iron Man’s.  Iron Man and Giant-Man track Ultron to his lair shortly after he discovers the robot is actually an actress.  Ultron merely leaves.  To their shock, the heroes discover that Ulton left the actress alive.  Later, Ultron ponders the experience and attempts to justify his decision to let the actress live.

Review:  I can imagine most Ultron fans hating this story.  Not only does it posit that Ultron could be fooled, even for one page, by a human imitating a robot, but also that he might actually have feelings for this person.  To Lyons’ credit, he spends most of the story acknowledging Ultron’s established characterization, making his odd change of heart an intentional plot point and not a continuity error.  And the final scene of Ultron trying to convince himself that he absolutely does not have feelings for anyone, and had a perfectly logical explanation for allowing the woman to live, is executed quite well.  Lyons also seems to have a better knack for scripting superhero fight scenes in the prose format than some of the other writers in the anthology.  However, the material just doesn’t feel right for the character, and the story is surprisingly light on laughs, given the absurd nature of the plot.


Jason’s Nightmare
Written by Steve Rasnic Tem

Summary:  Nineteen-year-old eccentric Jason regularly dreams of a pale twin and his horse.  One night during a dream, the horse escorts him to his double, and Jason discovers his twin is actually Nightmare.  Nightmare forces Jason to watch the horrific dream images he captures from people, using them to torture doppelgangers of superheroes.  Jason eventually uses his imagination to empower the heroes, enabling them to defeat Nightmare.  He wakes and discovers a clay replica of Nightmare on his nightstand.  Jason mashes it up, but it returns to its shape after he leaves the room.

Review:  I haven’t watched a Nightmare on Elm Street movie since I was a kid -- do all of them end with the teenager using his or her imagination to kill Freddie?  That would seem to be the simplest, and most obvious, way to end a story about a nightmare villain, so I can’t tell if Tem is doing this an homage to other stories in this genre or if he’s merely using it as a quickie ending after he’s finished with what he has to say.  Overlooking the ending, the story’s pretty interesting as a character study of Jason, the town weirdo who’s been convinced since he was a child that his twin lives in the realm of dreams.  I would’ve preferred to read more about Jason’s life in the real world as opposed to the fairly standard description of Nightmare’s realm, but thankfully this is a genuinely short story, so even the more mundane scenes don’t last too long.

Ripples
Written by Jose R. Nieto

Summary:  Fearing that her husband will report their mutant daughter to the authorities, Maria checks Laurita out of school and drives south.  After their car breaks down, they seek refuge in a hotel in the Utah desert.  The owner, Joshua, is initially shocked by Laurita’s mutant ability to project her emotions, but quickly accepts Maria and Laurita into the hotel.  Later, Maria’s brother Carlos arrives, claiming that Laurita’s father wants them back.  The residents soon experience strange visions; one leads Joshua to commit suicide.  Eventually, Maria realizes that “Carlos” is not her brother.  He reveals himself as D’Spayre and exposes his plans for Laurita.  Maria and Laurita are trapped in his realm, until Laurita accepts Maria’s love for her and uses the emotion to drive D’Spayre away.

Review:  Unlike most of the stories in this anthology, “Ripples” has very little to do with the starring villain.  D’Spayre could just as easily be an unnamed demon or spirit that wants to exploit a girl with strange abilities, making this the most Stephen King-esque of the stories in the book.  Which isn’t a criticism; I suspect that if “Ripples” had appeared in a standard horror or fantasy anthology instead of a Marvel Comics Super-Villains collection, it would’ve won several awards. 

Nieto’s ability to flesh out all of the characters, and then tie in all of their angsty flashbacks into the main story’s conclusion, is remarkable.  (Even a seemingly offhand reference to the thirty-something Maria gaining weight in the story’s opening is important later.)  Maria is haunted by her suspicion that her father tried to drown her during their escape from Cuba, Laurita has been a frequent runaway since her powers indirectly killed a classmate, and Joshua is living out his deceased wife’s dream of running a hotel, all to assuage his guilt over her death.  The “ripples” of life, how one action influences the next, have lead all of the characters to their lowest point.  The story’s ending might sound like pure cheese when coldly written out in a summary, but the execution is quite touching.  Even if the basic concept might not be very different from most D’Spayre stories, the characters feel real, and D’Sparye himself is kept in the background for just as long as he needs to be.  This is genuinely good; I would recommend tracking this paperback down merely for this story.

UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN - Part Six

Poison in the Soul

Written by Glenn Greenberg

The Plot: Peter learns from Harry Osborn that their classmate Marty Shultz has committed suicide. Peter immediately flashes back to weeks earlier, when Marty reached out to him, only to be stood up when Peter had to go into action as Spider-Man. Still uncomfortable with his guilt, Peter skips the funeral and goes on a Daily Bugle assignment to find the Shocker. After a brief altercation, Spider-Man follows the Shocker to a cemetery. He soon realizes that the Shocker is Marty’s brother. He allows Shocker to visit Marty’s grave before taking him back to prison.

The Subplots: Peter has recently proposed to Mary Jane and is waiting for her answer at the beginning of the story. In the closing paragraphs, the story shifts ahead a few weeks after she turns him down. Spider-Man travels to the Brooklyn Bridge and reflects on moving forward with life.

Web of Continuity: The Continuity Guide lists this story as taking place “around the events of Amazing Spider-Man #183-184.” Aside from giving the Shocker a younger brother, the story also reveals that his parents died when they were young, leaving Marty alone as Shocker pursued a life of crime.

Review: “Poison in the Soul” is one of the book’s best stories, with a spot-on characterization of Peter Parker and very real emotional sequences that take advantage of the subject matter without crossing the line into mawkishness. Greenberg’s also chosen an interesting era for a story that confronts Peter with young adult suicide. The most obvious choice for a story following Peter’s failed proposal to MJ would be some form of romance, while Greenberg’s focusing instead on a larger issue. Peter is graduating college and entering true adulthood. His love for MJ has given him the courage to move on after Gwen’s death, and now he feels confident enough in their relationship to reveal his secret identity and begin a life together. Marty, for the reasons the story never makes clear (understandably, since he was only an acquaintance of Peter’s) can only see more pain and bitterness in his future. The Shocker is squandering his by refusing to give up crime. Spider-Man gives him an inspirational speech (which is nicely written, even if we know that Shocker won’t listen to a word of it) at the end and makes his own peace with Marty’s death.

There are two flaws that are hard for me to ignore, though. I always hate the massive coincidences that connect Peter Parker’s personal life to one of his villains somehow. This isn’t that bad of an example, since it’s the Shocker’s brother and not the Shocker himself that Peter went to college with, but still…Peter Parker’s freshman lab partner just so happened to be the Shocker’s brother? My other complaint is one that Greenberg himself mentioned in the “Life of Reilly” serial -- the Brooklyn Bridge. Again. There aren’t any supervillain fights this time, thankfully, and the story itself is about moving on so it’s a fitting place for Spider-Man to say goodbye…but can we please never see this bridge again?

Livewires

Written by Steve Lyons

The Plot: ESU student Marcy Kane is allowed to conduct experiments on Electro, confident that his powers can be contained by an electrical circuit. Practical joker Steve Hopkins is removed from the project by Marcy, but not before he insults and mocks the captive Electro. Later, one of Steve’s pranks causes a brief power outage, allowing Electro his opportunity to escape. He takes Steve hostage and is soon confronted by Spider-Man. When Electro has Spider-Man pinned, Steve knocks him out with a plastic skeleton he was saving for a future prank.

The Subplots: Peter Parker is forced to call off his date with Deb Whitman in order to keep an eye on the Electro experiment. His lie that he needed to cover the story for the Daily Globe is blown that night when a Globe reporter and photographer arrive.

Web of Continuity: This story takes place shortly after Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #45.

Review: I guess someone had to step up and represent the long-forgotten days of Marcy Kane, Steve Hopkins, and Deb Whitman. Unfortunately, the story is even less memorable than the era that created this supporting cast. With no real emotional hook for the story, the most interesting event is obnoxious prankster Steve Hopkins coming face-to-face with Electro just a few hours after he viciously insulted him. That is funny, and there’s a cute meta-joke about Spider-Man and clones (one of the few decent ones I’ve ever read), but that’s really it. I just discovered that Roger Stern wrote many Spectacular Spider-Man comics from this era; I imagine he would've been a better choice to represent this chapter in Spider-Man's history.