THE ULTIMATE SUPER-VILLAINS Part Six - August 1996

Traps

Written by Ken Grobe

Summary:  The Trapster is unable to find work while on parole, until he meets TV infomercial mogul Morrie through the internet.  Adopting a new identity, he moves to Los Angeles to create adhesive devices, and over the months, becomes friends with Morrie and his assistant Kim.  When he’s pressured into appearing on an infomercial to sell one of his inventions, the Wizard recognizes him.  After getting into contact with him, the Trapster is convinced that the Wizard will blow his new identity and he’ll be arrested again.  Panic-stricken, he holds an infomercial audience hostage and threatens to commit suicide.  Kim talks him out of it, and professes her love, shortly before US Agent arrives and arrests him.  Unexpectedly, the Trapster’s earnest speech makes him a star, which infuriates the Wizard.

Continuity Notes:  

• The Wizard and the Trapster were teammates in the Frightful Four.  The Wizard has been arrested for kidnapping Silver Sable in-between the other stories in this collection.
• US Agent is described as an employee of Stark International, following the dissolution of Force Works.
• The author seems to be under the impression that the Marvel Universe is much older than any of the comics acknowledged at the time.  The Wizard says he’s been following the wrong path (during an insincere press conference) for twenty years, and later the Trapster claims he’s been a supervillain for half his life.  Not long after this book was published, Marvel released the Lost Generation miniseries, which was based on the premise that the Marvel Universe began only seven years ago!

Not Approved By The Comics Code Authority:  Trapster casually tosses off “goddamn” three times in the story.

I Love the '90s:  The Trapster is described as the hottest “victim of circumstance” since Rodney King, and the Oprah and Ila May (who?) talk shows cover his story.

Review:  I don’t quite understand the reasoning that gives the longest story in the anthology (thirty-eight pages!) to the Trapster, a character who’s only been defined by his joke status for around thirty years now.  (Are there any Trapster stories now that don’t hinge on him being a loser?)  This is clearly written as an attempt to humanize the character and give the audience a new way of looking at him, and it’s fairly successful in that regard, but it’s hard not to find any Trapster story at least a little boring.  

My major issue with the story is the flimsy reasoning for why Trapster is faking his identity in the first place; it’s not like he’s going to be caught doing anything truly evil, and his only technical crime is not informing his parole officer that he’s moved to Los Angeles.  And given how important his scientific expertise is to Morrie’s business, it’s hard to imagine that Morrie wouldn’t have arranged for Trapster to work from his home state.  This bit of false drama might’ve been intentional on Grobe’s part, admittedly, since he seems to be going with the idea that the Trapster’s problems largely stem from his own self-esteem issues.  Rather than telling Morrie the truth and arranging a way to work out of New York, his response to potential exposure is to take a TV studio hostage and commit public suicide.  He’s a bit of a drama queen.  Kim talks him down, telling him he’s clinically depressed (a nice callback to an earlier reference to her studying Psychology at night), and they share a sweet moment before he’s unceremoniously knocked to the ground by US Agent.  US Agent does seem like an odd choice as the hero, but he was located on the west coast at this time, and Grobe seems to be well aware of his role as the Marvel Universe’s jerkiest hero, which is exactly what he needs to be in this scene.

Accepting that the Trapster’s main dilemma is intentionally inflated, the story’s enjoyable enough.  It does drag a bit in places, and surely some other character is more deserving of the page count, but it’s a worthy addition to the “Please Take Trapster Seriously” archives.

One for the Road

Written by James Dawson

Summary:  A retired, unnamed villain sits alone in a diner.  He’s barely tolerated by the owner, Grace, and eventually gets up to leave after spending a night reflecting on his past.  After Grace derisively calls him by his supervillain name, the name he wants to forget, he kills her.  He walks into the night, wondering which hero will capture him.

Review:  The villain of this story is identified as only “?” on the title page, and with the exception of a few references to Captain America and Iron Man, there’s nothing in this story to tie the character to the Marvel Universe.  Or to any fictional superhero universe for that matter; the concept could work probably just as well starring any criminal that can’t escape his past.  The final story in the anthology, this represents the villains’ point of view, voicing complaints about how indiscriminately hard the heroes hit and how little anyone cares about a supervillain's civil rights.  Dawson manages to make the protagonist just sympathetic enough while maintaining a creepy tone throughout the story.  This is another entry that could’ve been at home in a modern horror anthology.

THE ULTIMATE SUPER-VILLAINS Part Five - August 1996

Mayhem Party

Written by Robert Sheckley

Summary:  Psychologist Charles Morrison decides to use Carnage to prove that his method of exaggerating the id, ego, and superego can rehabilitate criminals.  He lures Carnage to a conference populated by serial killers, and soon tricks him into ingesting concentrated ego.  After Carnage is lured into a mirrored room, his lust for violence is sated, until he grows annoyed with Dr. Morrison for crowding his image.  Morrison stays in the room with Carnage too long, asking questions, and is killed.

Continuity Notes:  I can only assume this is a reference to one of the Clone Saga issues…Carnage uses his recently discovered ability to “transmit himself across cyberspace” (what?) in the story.

Not Approved By The Comics Code Authority:  Carnage actually shouts, “Tough shit!” which is the harshest profanity I’ve read in any of the Marvel prose novels.

Review:  I don’t think anyone reading this short story thinks Carnage is actually going to be cured by Dr. Morrison’s serum, but Sheckley does an admirable job of adding a few red herrings into the story, and the premise is kind of clever.  The story hinges on the ironic twist at the end; Morrison is actually killed by his own ego, because he can’t stop asking Carnage questions about his own procedure.  It’s an idea worthy of The Twilight Zone.  Carnage could’ve been cured if he’d been allowed to wallow in the “terminal stage of narcissism” (based on the belief that violence is a result of insufficient ego, not too much), but his doctor’s desperation to validate his theories to his peers allows Carnage to survive.

The Night I Almost Saved Silver Sable

Written by Tom DeFalco

Summary:  Sandman is notified that the Wizard has kidnapped his employer, Silver Sable.  Unbeknownst to Sandman, Silver Sable allowed herself to be kidnapped and is awaiting the chance to apprehend Wizard.  Sandman is caught sneaking into Wizard’s hideout, forcing Silver Sable to make her move early.  Wizard escapes, but his gang is apprehended.

Continuity Notes:  Sandman, while narrating this story, refers to himself as “Bill Baker.”  Sandman’s real name in the comics has gone from Flint Marko, to William “Flint” Marko, to William Baker, to (I believe) Flint Marko once again after John Byrne declared that Sandman never truly reformed during his infamous stint on the Spider-Man titles.

Review:  For some reason, Tom DeFalco chooses the Sandman to star in a tribute to old pulp detective novels.  I only know the stereotypes associated with the genre, and rarely find tributes or parodies of it that entertaining.  (Tracer Bullet is the only exception, really.)  Overlooking the fact that the Sandman’s dimwit persona makes him a somewhat annoying narrator, casting him as a stand-in for Mike Hammer just seems like an odd move anyway.  When did Sandman remind anyone of an old detective novel?  A first-person Sandman story focusing on why he’s chosen to reform and expressing some remorse for his past could be worth reading, but I have no idea what DeFalco was thinking here.

Who Do You Want Me to be?

Written by Ann Nocenti

Summary:  Mary Walker awakens with no memory of her past.  Flashes of the past reveal her innocent Mary persona drawing in susceptible men, Bloody Mary attacking a wife beater, Typhoid Mary seducing a prison psychologist, and a painted woman in a mysterious ceremony.  As she tries to piece her memory together, Mary grows close to Kobu, a man she met outside her office.  Looking in his closet, she discovers a sheet with impressions of painted images on it.  The memory of the ceremony returns.  She berates Kobu for selling her into the ritual, despite his pleas that it was her idea.  As sirens approach, she leaves the bloodied Kobu behind.

Review:  I wonder if a licensed Typhoid novel series would find a mainstream audience.  Despite the fractured narrative, this is probably the easiest read in the entire anthology, and its content is certainly strong enough to exist independently of any established Marvel continuity.  Just like “Ripples,” this is legitimately good on its own merits, and probably would’ve found a larger contemporary fiction audience if it didn’t appear in a book with a painting of the Abomination on the cover.  (I’m not saying this to diminish the other contributions to the anthology; I just wonder if the stories that don’t have any obvious connections to superhero comics could’ve reached an audience that normally dismisses this material.)  

“Who Do You Want Me to be?” follows the events of the Typhoid miniseries, which brought us the premise of Mary Walker, the “normal” persona, using her three other identities to work as a detective.  Nocenti utilizes an amnesia gimmick, similar to one Memento will use years later, to have Mary Walker try to piece together who she is and why she woke up one morning in a slutty red dress, following notes she left for herself earlier.  The seemingly random flashbacks allow Nocenti to give each persona a scene to establish her personality, making good use of the limited space allowed her, while also setting up the mystery of the painted woman to be resolved in the climax.  Not that we’re ever told too much about the mysterious ceremony, which apparently involves drunken men abducting a woman and using her body as a canvas during the preamble to some surely horrible ritual, but we know enough to get the idea.  And the ambiguity of Kobu’s role, if he’s honestly deranged or if he only sold Mary to help her Bloody Mary persona infiltrate the group, is well played.  The ending, which has the allegedly normal, together Mary Walker beating Kobu while her Bloody Mary persona stays dormant and leaves the violence up to her, is truly brutal.  If you’re familiar with Typhoid’s appearances in Nocenti’s comics, this is essentially a greatest hits of material she’s already explored, but it’s still worth tracking down.

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.

THE ULTIMATE SUPER-VILLAINS Part Three - August 1996

Private Exhibition
Written by Pierce Askegren

Summary:  After being released on parole, the Painter lives a seemingly quiet life in his art studio.  He’s ambushed one day by his former partner, “Scar” Tobin, and Tobin’s new henchman, Eric.  Tobin demands the Painter’s magic paints.  After futilely claiming that they no longer exist, the Painter finally reveals himself as a “self-portrait” created by the real Painter.  After tormenting the intruders with his magic paintings, the Painter eventually forces Tobin and Eric to disappear.

Continuity Notes:  The Painter, or more specifically “the Painter of a Thousand Perils,” was a Human Torch villain during the Strange Tales days.  He was also used in the “Art Attack” storyline in Web of Spider-Man, which ended with the revelation that the Painter is some form of sentient alien cockroach creature. 

Review:  It’s not terrible, but I would have to label this one the weakest story in the anthology so far.  The novelty of pulling the Painter out of obscurity has already been eaten up by that Web of Spider-Man arc, and the nature of his powers doesn’t exactly lend itself to prose anyway.  Askegren has clearly given the character some thought, coming up with the rationalization that he hasn’t ruled the world yet because he’s adamant that his paintings be perfect first, but there’s really nothing here to make me care that much about the Painter.  I liked him better as the exploding cockroach colony, to be honest.



All Creatures Great and Skrull
Written by Greg Cox

Summary:  The Super-Skrull arrives on Earth to apprehend Kree rebel Persa.  After stalking her throughout New York City, he eventually chases her to the Avengers Mansion.  Persa reveals Super-Skrull’s true identity to Vision, then runs inside during their fight.  Eventually, Super-Skrull and Vision learn that Persa’s mission was to kill the new Shi’ar Avenger Deathcry, who was able to easily defeat Persa on her own.  Vision refuses to turn Persa over to the Shi’ar, forcing Super-Skrull to retreat in shame.

Continuity Notes:  This story occurs following the Shi’ar’s victory over the Kree in “Operation: Galactic Storm.”  Deathcry was a short-lived Avenger during the final days before “Heroes Reborn.” 

Not Approved By The Comics Code Authority:  One of the street thugs that accosts Super-Skrull in his human form shouts out “you sonofabitch!” during their fight.

Review:  When Avengers Mansion entered the story, my first thought was:  “Are they going to use the actual Avengers from 1996?  Even Deathcry?”  The answer is yes, surprisingly.  And the basic idea of a Shi’ar member of the Avengers attracting Kree rebels, and by extension, Skrulls, actually isn’t a bad one.  Unfortunately, this Shi’ar member is the infamous Deathcry.  The only thing I really know about Deathcry is that you’re supposed to hate her, and her brief appearance in the story doesn’t dissuade that notion.  Aside from that, using her as the crux of the plot after several pages building up the mystery of Persa’s mission on Earth, is just a letdown. 

As a story of the Super-Skrull making his way through New York as discreetly as possible, the opening is pretty enjoyable (and Cox deserves some credit for coming up with numerous reasons why he isn’t just staying invisible the entire time.)  But once the Avengers enter, the reader has to wade through a lengthy, dull fight scene with Vision, and then we’re supposed to believe that Deathcry is somehow important to anybody.  Nope.  On to the next one…


The Deviant Ones
Written by Glenn Greenberg

Summary:  Inside the Vault, Venom and the Absorbing Man are fitted with experimental manacles that suppress their powers.  Venom’s alien symbiote reacts violently to the handcuffs and sends out a psychic shriek that disrupts the prison’s electricity.  In the confusion, Venom and the Absorbing Man escape, still chained together.  They hide out in the home of an elderly widower named Wally, and soon discover a shocking secret in Wally’s basement.  Venom is eventually able to free himself from the manacles, leaving Absorbing Man unconscious for the authorities to find. 

Continuity Notes:  This story has a character named Marvin Walsh, a balding heavy-set man in this mid-40s, as the warden of the Vault.  Looking online, I see another character named Truman Marsh was once warden in the comics, someone named Howard G. Hardman was apparently the original warden, and even Henry Gyrich was warden of the Vault at one point.

Review:  The title of this story is a direct nod to The Defiant Ones, a 1958 black and white film about two bickering convicts that are shackled together while on the run.  I’m not sure why Greenberg selected Venom and the Absorbing Man to star in an homage to the film, but they’re a fairly entertaining pairing.  In the early pages of the story, I wondered for a while if the Vault officials were going to use Absorbing Man’s powers to somehow remove the symbiote from Eddie Brock, but Greenberg doesn’t get to that bit until the very end.  In the meantime, we have deluded do-gooder Venom paired with relentless thug Absorbing Man, and eventually they run into sad old widower Wally.  That’s when the story almost veers into Pulp Fiction territory, but I won’t spoil the surprise.  There are no great revelations about the main characters, outside of establishing Eddie Brock as a twenty-four hour news junkie, but Greenberg gets a decent amount of material out of the pairing, and the twist at the end is fun.

THE ULTIMATE SUPER-VILLAINS Part Two - August 1996

If Wishes Were Horses
Written by Tony Isabella and Bob Ingersoll

Summary:  The Ringmaster reflects on his childhood, recalling the incident that prevented him from doing a horse act in the circus.  Later, he discovered his father’s diary, and to his horror, learned of his past as a Nazi.  He never forgave his father.  Hoping to restore the magic of the circus, he dedicated himself to hypnotism.  After inheriting the failing circus from his parents, Ringmaster eventually succumbed to using his father’s Nullatron device to brainwash his creditors.  The circus soon evolved into a criminal front.  In the present, Ringmaster discovers their audience tonight consists of a children’s cancer charity.  He orders his troupe to perform a genuine show, allowing the circus to remain pure for the children.

Continuity Notes:  The original Golden Age Ringmaster was Fritz Tiboldt.  The Nullatron  is the device on his hat that hypnotizes people.  His son, the current Ringmaster, is Maynard Tiboldt.  Looking online, Fritz and his wife were murdered by Nazis in the comic continuity, while they die of natural causes in this story.

Review:  Surely no anthology of Marvel Comics supervillains would be complete without twenty pages of prose focused on the Ringmaster.  While this might seem like an obvious candidate to skip over, there’s a lot of good material here.  Isabella and Ingersoll flesh out Ringmaster in a credible way without making him unrecognizable, and the concept of duty “forcing” both Tiboldts to cross lines they swore they never would is executed well.  After the story reaches the point that Maynard Tiboldt is clearly a villain and actually getting quite good at avoiding the authorities, it’s easy to wonder why there are three pages left.  Bringing in the children at the very end and giving Maynard a respectable justification for giving up crime for just one night is a poignant way to end the story, tying everything back to the opening without overloading on schmaltz. 


Doom (Squared)
Written by Joey Cavalieri

Summary:  An escape artist named Theo invades Latveria’s borders.  He sends a subtle message to its citizens, encouraging them to break away from Dr. Doom.  Doom allows Theo entry into his castle after Theo solves a series of mysteries.  Doom discovers that Theo’s DNA structure has been changed to match his own.  When Theo falls for Doom’s final trick, he’s killed.  Doom sends Theo’s ashes to his uncle Phoebus, the ruler of nearby Sylvania.  When Phoebus throws the urn down in anger, the same virus that killed Theo is released in the castle.

Continuity Notes:  I’ve never heard of the fictitious Marvel country of Sylvania before.  (It's apparently a reference to the movie Duck Soup.)  What other countries that share names with electronics brands exist in the MU?  The Republic of Panasonic?  The liberated islands of Magnavox?

Review:  So, Doom’ story is half as long as Ringmaster’s.  That makes sense.  Actually, I’m not complaining.  Brevity never hurt anybody, and Cavalieri is able to tell the story he needs to tell in only a handful of pages.  The narrative opens with Doom playing a game (described as the Latverian equivalent of “Battleship”) against a Doombot that’s had its intellect increased a hundred fold.  When Doom finally defeats it, he questions if he’ll ever find an equal.  Abruptly, the scene shifts to Theo’s story, and while it’s obvious that Theo is being played as an intellectual rival to Doom, we don’t understand the significance until Cavalieri reveals Theo as a sort of biological Doombot.  It’s a simple story that reasserts the idea that no one is Doom’s equal.  Not a robot with an enhanced brain.  Not a younger model with designer DNA.  Even a rival for his intellect couldn’t match his sheer ruthlessness.  Cavalieri gets the point across effectively, allowing the anthology to quickly move on to…


Child’s Play
Written by Robert L. Washington III

Summary:  After Ghost Rider stops one of Mephisto’s schemes, Mephisto turns his focus on a child named James Carruthers.  Mephisto tricks James into believing that Ghost Rider is a villain, offering to grant him superpowers, and to cure his terminally ill brother, if he agrees to a bargain.  James is given ice powers, which he uses against Ghost Rider.  When Ghost Rider stops their fight to help a civilian, James realizes he’s no villain.  Mephisto arrives enraged, demanding James honor their deal.  Ghost Rider voluntarily transforms back into a human, technically fulfilling James’ agreement.  Mephisto revokes James’ powers, but does heal James’ brother.

Review:  The only characters in the Marvel Universe dumb enough to make a deal with Mephisto should be children.  Period.  This is a fairly generic story, although Washington has chosen an appropriate hero to be targeted by Mephisto (one that a child could easily believe is a villain), and the scenes that flesh out James work pretty well.  The sudden narrative shift from third-person narration to James’ first-hand account, right down to the ebonics, could annoy some readers, but James is kind of likeable by the end.  I mean, his brother’s sick and the bigger kids pick on him all the time.  Leave him alone, okay?

THE ULTIMATE SUPER-VILLAINS Part One - August 1996

To the Victor
Written by Richard Lee Byers

Summary:  Kang uses his fortieth century technology to kill New York’s heroes and rule the Earth.  Baron Mordo, Cobra, and the Abomination volunteer to act as his governors and help Kang defeat the other villains that challenge his rule.  Years later, Baron Mordo double-crosses the weary Kang and allows Dormammu to invade the Earth.  Kang travels back to the day he detonated a bomb in New York, and with the aid of his reluctant adviser Bruce Banner, stops his younger self.  Having averted that reality from existing, Kang fades away.

Continuity Notes:  Kang invades during the early days of the Marvel Universe, when Namor is still considered a villain and before Galactus visited Earth.

I Love the '90s:  Kang’s rule in the present day is referred to repeatedly as “the 20th century.”  I don’t know how Byers could’ve avoided this, but surely someone noticed that this reference would’ve been outdated in just a few years.

Review:  Years before Kurt Busiek will pen an extensive “Kang rules the world” storyline in Avengers, horror and fantasy writer Richard Lee Byers opens this anthology with a similar theme.  The story also predates Mark Waid’s treatise on a supervillain actually conquering the world in Empire, so he was clearly on to something.  The story’s hook is that Kang is simply unqualified to rule the world, as if any one person could dictate everything from flood relief in Central America to food distribution in the Sahara to a resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.  Kang’s also at a disadvantage because the only people willing to serve him as lieutenants are scum like Cobra and the Abomination.  Byers creates an interesting dynamic between Bruce Banner and Kang at the end of the story, and manages to keep a nice balance between drama and humor up until the end.  Kang’s realization that he’d rather be the aggressor over the defender sums up his character pretty well, and as a character study for a villain I’ve never cared about very much, this actually works as a decent opener for the anthology.



Connect the Dots
Written by Adam-Troy Castro

Summary:  Magneto and Xavier independently travel to Sunset Falls to recruit a young mutant named Joshua.  Joshua, a boy with mental problems obsessed with “connections,” possesses the ability to merge humans and objects together, creating gestalt creatures.  After Joshua merges Magneto and Xavier together, they’re forced to defend themselves from the massive monster of merged townspeople, and Joshua, who’s absorbed a portion of their powers.  With Xavier’s help, Magneto focuses on his childhood memory of being buried underneath his dead family and uses it to inspire the townspeople to free themselves.  The psychic backlash leaves Joshua comatose.  Later, Xavier and Magneto part as enemies, but with a new understanding of each other.

Continuity Notes:  Magneto’s memory of Nazis killing his family, leaving Magneto fighting to free himself at the bottom of the pile, was dramatized in Uncanny X-Men #274.

I Love the '90s:  More references to the story taking place in the twentieth century, this time the “closing half” and “final days.”

Review:  While not as weighty as the Chris Claremont material that inspired it, this is still a worthy addition to the pantheon of Xavier/Magneto stories.  Knowing that this was published simultaneously with Marvel’s sad efforts to make Magneto a genocidal maniac, followed by an amnesiac teenager, just irritates me.  There’s so much that could be done with Magneto following Claremont’s framework, but instead he was squandered for over a decade as fodder for holographic event comics and inane mysteries with no real resolution.  Castro is able to cut right to the core of the character, drawing upon his life of sadness and guilt, while also acknowledging his transparent efforts to justify his cruel acts as necessary for the defense of mutantkind.  The only person Joshua can find that Magneto shares any connection with is Xavier, who has his own issues, but they’re not as inherently interesting as the damaged goods Magneto’s been saddled with.  It's likely the best Xavier and Magneto story from this era, even if an inordinate amount of time is spent on the rather absurd villain of the piece. 



Firetrap
Written by Michael Jan Friedman

Summary:  Loki secretly follows Thor as he rescues people from a tenement fire.  He watches as Thor falls for the trap set by Hrok of the Surtursons, who boasts that he will torture Thor for all eternity.  Loki uses his magics to defeat Hrok, without Thor’s knowledge.  As Thor flies away, Loki reflects that only he will have the privilege of defeating his stepbrother.

Review:  This is a decent character story on Loki, the twist being that after an extensive monologue about his hatred for his brother, he ends up saving him from the story’s true villain.  Personally, I think Loki’s more entertaining when he has some level of affection for Thor (the initial Thor movie handled this well, I thought), as opposed to Friedman’s premise that he’s saving Thor because he doesn’t want anyone else to have the bragging rights.  Regardless, it’s a solid read that’s easily accessible for anyone scared away by the faux-Shakespeare interpretation of the characters from the comics of this era.