X-MEN Episode Thirty-Three - September 9, 1994

Phoenix Saga (Part 5): Child of Light

Written by Mark Edward Edens

Summary:  D’Ken traps the X-Men inside the M’Kraan Crystal, where he is a god.  Phoenix explains that the Crystal will consume all of existence and destroy the universe as we know it.  D’Ken believes he’s triumphant until Phoenix expresses her full power.  She frees the team and traps D’Ken inside the Crystal.  Drawing energy from her teammates, Phoenix finds the strength to take the Crystal to the heart of the sun, where no one could ever disturb it.  Realizing that she’s sacrificing her life, the X-Men say goodbye.

Continuity Notes:  D’Ken’s actions cause chaos on Earth, leading to cameos by Sunfire, M’Jnari (the boy from episode sixteen), War Machine, Alpha Flight, and Spider-Man (or his hand, at least).

“Um, Actually…”:  Phoenix doesn’t have a death scene in the conclusion of the original storyline in the comics.  She draws upon her teammates’ life force in order to repair the damage done to the universe, then returns home with the X-Men.  Her death scene comes years later in the conclusion of “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” which actually has a happy ending in the cartoon.

Saban Quality:  When Storm stops a flood on Earth, her lips don’t move even though she has several lines of dialogue.  Rogue is also given all-white hair in one scene.

Approved By Broadcast Standards:  Beast quotes the Emily Dickinson line: “Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell.”  Even though it isn’t used as a profanity, this is probably the only time the word “hell” ever showed up on a FOX Kids program.

Review:  So, over the course of five episodes, Jean Grey goes from bit player to the most powerful member of the team, saves the universe, and then dies.  I don’t think any other cartoon on television was willing to do a story of this magnitude, and even if FOX and Saban soon blunted the impact of the finale by airing the subsequent episodes out of order, it’s important to remember that the show was still pretty daring by the standards of the day.  Even ignoring Jean's "death" at the end, just the idea of a space opera on this level was insanely ambitious during the days when TV superheroes were still stopping bank robberies.  Fans of the comics likely saw all of this coming (although I was kind of surprised to see Jean get a vague death scene so early), but that doesn’t take anything away from the adaptation.  It’s interesting to witness how the dozen or so issues of the original storyline are shifted into place for the show, and it’s just fun to see obscure characters you recognize from the comics make appearances.  The emotional beats are also played well, which is notable for a show known for some shaky voice acting.  Following this, it’s hard to think of too many particularly bold episodes during the show’s run.  There’s the “Dark Phoenix Saga,” which is fairly loyal to the comics, ignoring that aforementioned happy ending, and after that…not much.  Some solid action/adventure Saturday Morning material, but very few are exceptionally memorable.

Credit to http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmen/ for the screencaps.

X-MEN Episode Thirty-Two - September 8, 1994

 

Phoenix Saga (Part 4): The Starjammers

Written by Mark Edward Edens

Summary:  Phoenix uses her new powers to transport the X-Men to Lilandra’s ship, where she’s hidden the M’Kraan Crystal.  The ship is soon attacked by the Starjammers, who steal the Crystal and kidnap Cyclops.  Their leader, Corsair, explains that he’s using the Crystal as bait to get close to D’Ken.  Cyclops will act as his assassin.  D’Ken outsmarts their plan, however, and manages to steal the M’Kraan Crystal.

Continuity Notes:  

• This episode and the next adapt Uncanny X-Men #107-108.
• The Imperial Guard and the Starjammers debut this episode.  Corsair’s relationship with Cyclops isn’t kept a secret for long, as Phoenix looks inside his mind during their first meeting and sees Cyclops and Havok as children.  Just to make it clear to the audience, Phoenix later explicitly says Corsair is Cyclops’ father aloud to herself.
• Captain Britain, the Inner Circle, and Dr. Strange all make cameos as Phoenix transports the X-Men away from Earth.

Saban Quality:  Wolverine’s glove has four housings on it instead of three in one scene.

Approved By Broadcast Standards:  Corsair heavily implies that D’Ken killed his wife, without actually using the words.

Review:  After three episodes of teasing, the team finally comes into contact with the M’Kraan Crystal, and the villainous (and rather generic) D’Ken.  Even if the storyline is only broadly following the succession of events from the original stories, it’s still hitting all of the high notes, which as a fan I appreciate.  You don’t necessarily have to use the M’Kraan Crystal when doing the Phoenix story, but it’s a nice touch for anyone familiar with the source material.  (Considering that the Crystal was ignored in the comics from 1977 to 1994, I also have to wonder if Bob Harras’ role on the show as consultant influenced its return in the comics during the build-up to “Age of Apocalypse.”)  

As an action-heavy episode, the plot certainly isn’t playing to Akom’s strengths, although I still think the character designs look nice.  The designs for the newly introduced Starjammer and Imperial Guard characters (apparently designed by Frank Brunner) are a very impressive blend of the original Dave Cockrum look and the early ‘90s Jim Lee update.  And Edens does work in a moral dilemma for Cyclops that a network cartoon would ordinarily avoid.  Even if he is ultimately duped by a D’Ken imposter, it’s clear that Cyclops really is willing to kill D’Ken…and he doesn’t even know D’Ken killed his mother yet!

Credit to http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmen/ for the screencaps.

X-MEN Episode Thirty-One - September 7, 1994

Phoenix Saga (Part 3): Cry of the Banshee

Written by Michael Edens

Summary:  Juggernaut kidnaps Lilandra, taking her to his partner, Black Tom.  Their employer, Erik the Red, initially refuses to pay them until he’s intimidated into giving up millions of dollars.  After Jean awakens with the sense that Xavier’s in trouble, the X-Men travel to Muir Island.  With Banshee’s help, they track Juggernaut and Black Tom to Cassidy Keep.  Suddenly, Gladiator enters and punches Juggernaut miles away.  He demands Lilandra return with him, but is fought off by Jean, using her new Phoenix powers.  Meanwhile, D’Ken enters our galaxy.

Continuity Notes:  

• This episode (very) loosely follows the events of Uncanny X-Men #101-103.
• Rogue returns this episode, berating herself for being away on a mysterious “mission” when the X-Men needed her.
• The episode marks the animated debuts of Black Tom and Gladiator.  Banshee also reveals himself as a mutant, following his debut last episode as a seemingly normal Joe.
• When re-aired, this episode featured a different voice for Gladiator.  Judging by my search logs, people remain very curious about this switch.

“Um, Actually…”:  Black Tom claims that he and Banshee are brothers, explaining why their powers won’t work on each other.  The original comics continuity long ago established them as cousins.

Saban Quality:  Another change made during the reruns is in the episode title.  Originally, the chyron listed this as “Phoenix Saga Part III” (notice the fancy Roman numerals).  Later, the title was rewritten as “Phoenix Saga Part 2”…with no Roman numerals and the wrong chapter number.

Review:  This has always been my favorite chapter of the original Phoenix five-parter.  It’s also the one Juggernaut episode that I can't dismiss as boring or just dumb.  Juggernaut doesn’t have a particularly great part in the story, he’s just used well, which is more than I can say for his other appearances.  All of the classic Juggernaut bits make their way into the episode, right down to Xavier mentally attacking him and forcing him to relive his childhood, which is really all I wanted to see as a young fan.  The other Juggernaut episodes either played him as a generic villain or comedic relief; here, he’s a true threat and is actually fun to watch.

Comparing this chapter to the original storyline, I have to acknowledge that this is the one time the cartoon’s changes are obviously an improvement.  Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum weren’t plotting the initial issues specifically as “The Big Phoenix Storyline,” they were just doing a run on X-Men, giving the heroes villains to face every issue while the Erik the Red/Phoenix/Lilandra subplots simmered in the background.  Consequently, that two-and-a-half issue diversion with Juggernaut, Black Tom, and the leprechauns at Banshee’s family castle stands out like a sore thumb when trying to piece together the true story of the Phoenix.  Edens manages to work in Black Tom, Juggernaut, and Banshee into the plot through fairly logical connections to the larger storyline.  Lilandra’s probes are driving Xavier insane, so he goes to Muir Island for help.  There, he meets Moira’s new boyfriend, Banshee.  While in Scotland, Erik the Red hires mercenaries to kidnap Lilandra, super-powered mercenaries that can do the job brainwashed astronauts can’t.  This leads us to Black Tom and Juggernaut.  For fans of the comics, you get to see the characters you remember from the original Phoenix issues, but the story’s been streamlined in a reasonable way to minimize the diversions.  

The Phoenix entity also gets a mercifully simplified backstory.  It’s the guardian of the M’Kraan Crystal, a powerful cosmic artifact that can destroy the galaxy if disturbed.  That’s all we ever really needed to know, and I think we should all be grateful that the show’s producers never felt the need to elaborate on it too much.  For anyone who only remembers the Phoenix from the TV show, I can’t imagine what they’ll think if they ever stumble across the Phoenix Wikipedia page.

Credit to http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmen/ for the screencaps.

X-MEN Episode Thirty - September 6, 1994

Phoenix Saga (Part 2): The Dark Shroud

Written by Mark Edward Edens

Summary:  Shortly after the shuttle crashes into Jamaica Bay, Jean Grey emerges from the water wearing a new costume and proclaiming herself "The Phoenix."  She collapses and is taken to the hospital.  As she recovers, the X-Men are attacked by an evil apparition of Professor Xavier.  He realizes that the alien scanning for his mind has broken down his psychic barriers, causing his dark side to emerge.  Xavier travels to Muir Island for help, and shortly after his arrival, is greeted by the alien Lilandra.  She explains that she needs Xavier’s aid, but is quickly interrupted by the Juggernaut.

Continuity Notes:  

• This episode adapts various events from Uncanny X-Men #101 and #106.
• Xavier meets Moira MacTaggert’s new boyfriend, Banshee, when he arrives on Muir Island.  Their conversation is the first indication on the show that Xavier and Moira where once an item.
• Deadpool makes another cameo as one of the images from Wolverine’s past that Dark Xavier uses to torture him.  Howard the Duck also appears, surprisingly enough, on Beast’s t-shirt in one scene.

“Um, Actually…”:  In Uncanny X-Men #106, Dark Xavier is a side effect of the nightmares Xavier feels are driving him insane, placing the story before the X-Men even leave for space.  Also, Lilandra comes to Earth in the cartoon with a stolen M’Kraan Crystal, while in the comics the X-Men encounter the Crystal after meeting the Shi’ar in space.

Review:  For anyone who doesn’t know, Dark Xavier appears on less than three pages of Uncanny X-Men #106, which was an inventory issue awkwardly inserted into the original Phoenix storyline as a flashback story.  Both Bill Mantlo and Chris Claremont are credited as writers, and since the style isn’t recognizably Claremont, I wonder if Claremont only wrote the framing sequence for the story.  The real hook of that issue is seeing the New X-Men fight evil versions of the original team, with all of this talk of Xavier’s dark side tossed in at the end as a quickie rationalization.  It’s not an obvious candidate to be adapted, but I guess the X-Men needed something to do before being sent off into space again.  Admittedly, it’s the not most ridiculous element of the original storyline that could’ve been adapted.  That would have to be the Cassidy Keep Leprechauns, who showed up during the team’s vacation in Ireland.  

Since Classic X-Men skipped Uncanny X-Men #106, I had no idea as a kid that this Dark Xavier stuff actually came from the comics.  That might’ve influenced my belief that it’s kind of a lame idea.  Devoting over half of the episode to the X-Men fighting illusions just feels like obvious filler, plus the design of Dark Xavier is a bit silly.  It’s just Xavier with a cape; an eeeviiil cape, I guess.  Since the show had the benefit of hindsight, and a penchant for using Jim Lee designs whenever possible, I’m surprised Dark Xavier isn’t wearing the armor Xavier wore in Uncanny X-Men #275, the most recent example of an Xavier-as-villain fake-out.  That could’ve been enough to sway my opinion as a kid.

Even if the action in the episode is largely pointless, that doesn’t mean the chapter is a total loss.  For viewers ignorant of the comics, Jean Grey’s transformation into Phoenix is probably just as shocking as it was for comics fans in 1976.  Fans of the cartoon aren’t used to seeing Jean do much of anything; now, she’s saving the entire team, exhibiting new powers, changing costumes, and speaking in the third person.  That’s almost the equivalent of Cover Girl becoming the most important G. I. Joe.  It’s just not something the audience would’ve ever expected.  Edens also does an admirable job of creating tension amongst the team without overplaying his hand.  Cyclops is angry with Xavier for sending the team into space with no clear objective in mind, which is pretty understandable considering what’s happened to Jean.  Xavier, even in an episode that casts him as an unintentional villain, remains sympathetic during the argument (a skill contemporary Marvel writers lost years ago), and Beast is able to display his personality as the affable voice of reason.  Beast and Wolverine also have a nice scene together, and Gambit (who’s expressing his concern for Jean by going to a nightclub) gets a few one-liners in.  So, there are some entertaining moments, and the Juggernaut cliffhanger did a lot to revive my interest as a kid. 

X-MEN Episode Twenty-Nine - September 5, 1994

Phoenix Saga (Part 1): Sacrifice

Written by Michael Edens

Summary:  Professor Xavier is haunted by images of aliens arriving from space.  On his orders, the X-Men sneak onboard the Eagle One space station.  They’re soon attacked by Erik the Red, an emissary of the alien Shi’ar.  They prevent him from killing the astronauts, but the Eagle One is destroyed during their fight.  They escape in a shuttle, shortly after an alien aircraft emerges from a nearby wormhole.  In order to shield the shuttle from radiation, Jean Grey surrounds the craft with a telekinetic field and pilots the Starcore shuttle back to Earth.  When the shield begins to fail, she screams out in pain.

Continuity Notes:  

• This episode marks the animated debuts of Erik the Red and Peter Corbeau, both characters that play key roles in the original Phoenix storyline.  Shi’ar emperor D’Ken also makes brief appearances as an image on Erik the Red’s wrist-communicator, and the bird image of the Phoenix Force debuts very quickly in the final frame of the episode.
• Much of this episode borrows heavily from Uncanny X-Men #97-100.
• Jubilee and Storm stay behind with the Professor as the team goes into space.  Rogue is away “on a mission” and doesn’t appear in this episode.

“Um, Actually…”:  The radiation invading the shuttle in this episode is created by the contrail left by the strange alien spacecraft (which we learn next episode is piloted by Lilandra).  In the original story, a cosmic storm is hitting the Earth at the precise moment the X-Men pass through.  This cosmic storm was intended to be identical to the one in Fantastic Four #1, tying in with the original (intended) explanation that Jean Grey’s Phoenix powers were created by cosmic radiation.

Production Note:  This five-part serial marks the first time X-Men aired during FOX’s weekday afternoon schedule.

Review:  Can you imagine a time when no outside media adaptations of “The Phoenix Saga” existed?  It’s hard now to appreciate just how badly fans wanted to see these episodes before they aired.  After the first season made it obvious that the show was taking its inspiration directly from the comics, the first question any longtime fan had to ask was “When is (Dark) Phoenix coming?!”  And, to the producers’ credit, they gave the hardcore audience what it wanted, but waited an appropriate amount of time before giving in.  The first season established the characters and the core human/mutant dynamic.  The second season delved into the histories of the cast, while also expanding the reality of the show, bringing in concepts such as Mojoworld and the Savage Land.  By the third season, a space opera wasn’t that big of a stretch.

To truly adapt the original Phoenix storyline, there’s a lot of material to plow through.  And Michael Edens is able to use his twenty minutes wisely and hit the high points of the first four issues of the storyline and fit them all into one episode.  (He also knows that Rogue’s powers would totally eliminate Jean’s role in the climax of the episode, so he’s surreptitiously removed her.)  Unfortunately, that also means he’s dropped some of the best action sequences of the original storyline.  The opening chapters of what retroactively became known as “The Phoenix Saga” brought us the X-Men fighting a brainwashed Havok and Polaris, a new model of Sentinels, and robotic duplicates of the original team.  In this episode, the action consists of the X-Men knocking out innocent astronauts, then fighting brainwashed astronauts after making it into space.  And these are pretty gratuitous fights, too, since the story makes it clear that Jean’s telepathic powers are all that’s needed to slip past them anyway.  Having Cyclops optic-blast innocent astronauts who pose no threat to the team is just a cheap way to insert a fight scene.

As disappointing as the action is, the characters are in the positions they need to be by the episode’s end.  Erik the Red is introduced into the story as an alien staking out a wormhole that’s being investigated by the Eagle One space station; a wormhole that’s going to be bringing us Princess Lilandra in just a few minutes.  The original comics spent months slowly revealing these characters and putting the X-Men in position to meet them, in typical Claremontian fashion, but the show competently gets to the point in twenty minutes.  A lot of dramatic tension is lost when compared to the comics, but I don’t know if fans of the cartoon felt this way.  What's important to establish is that Xavier is having strange visions and an alien has hijacked a space station.  And for all the audience knows, Jean just might die in the next episode.  That’s dramatic enough for a kid, I would say.

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.

SPIDER-MAN TEAM-UP #6 - March 1997

Breaking and Entering!

Credits:  Larry Hama (writer), Dietrich Smith (penciler), Sean Parsons (inks), Tom Smith (colors), Bill Oakley (letters)

The Plot:  Spider-Man passes by Avengers Mansion as the Hulk is breaking in and fighting his way past SHIELD’s forces.  As Spider-Man tries to subdue the Hulk, Aquarian arrives, proposing a peaceful resolution to the conflict.  Suddenly, the trio realizes that a Doombot is also in the mansion, downloading all of the Avengers’ information and sending it to Latveria.  They destroy the Doombot, but not before it successfully completes its mission.  Luckily, a SHIELD Life Model Decoy inserted a virus into the database as it was being downloaded, corrupting the information and Latveria’s power grid.

Web of Continuity:  This story takes place when the Avengers, and Dr. Doom, are assumed dead following Onslaught’s attack on New York.  SHIELD now oversees the mansion.  The Hulk is invading Avengers Mansion to gain access to Tony Stark’s database, which he believes has information that can save his life (he’s dying after being split from Bruce Banner in Onslaught: Marvel Universe.)

Miscellaneous Note:  The indicia on the first page list the previous year.  The cover date is accurate.

Review:  Because one gratuitous quarterly Spider-Man filler comic wasn’t enough in the ‘90s, the fates brought us Spider-Man Team-Up.  I’ve never read an issue of it before, and I only recall one reference to the series after its cancellation: Mark Waid once joked in an interview that the only comic he ever wrote for the money was Spider-Man Team-Up #1.  

I remember this book as yet more product pumped out during the Clone Saga, but it actually survived for two more issues after Peter Parker’s return.  This issue is written by Larry Hama, during his days of random Marvel assignments like Venom and Howard the Duck specials.  I don’t know if he had any say over the guest stars, but I would be curious to know if he genuinely wanted to bring in Aquarian (or “Wundarr the Aquarian” as he’s officially known).  Aquarian was apparently created as a parody character during the flower child days, and it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to use him as another other than a joke.  Hama plays it straight, though, working in some of Aquarian’s hippie philosophy and giving him a few scenes to show off his powers.  He adds essentially nothing to the plot, but I guess if you genuinely like the guy, there’s nothing offensive here.  

Regarding Spider-Man and the Hulk, there are a few decent action scenes between them, although Spider-Man’s justification for entering the story is the tired “just happened to be swingin’ by” set-up, which was already pretty old ten issues into the original Marvel Team-Up.  Probably the best moment in the story is the introduction of the Doombot, which is given a pretty creative means of sneaking into the mansion.  The twist ending is also amusing, although it apparently establishes that the Avengers’ entire database has been destroyed, which I doubt stayed in continuity.

Lost Souls

Credits:  J. M. DeMatteis (plot), Marv Wolfman (script), Bob McLeod (breakdowns), Tom Palmer (finishes), Tom Smith (colors), Bill Oakley (letters)

The Plot:  Dracula pulls a young woman named Raynee out of the crowd in a ballroom.  Later, the police investigate a mass murder inside.  Peter Parker takes photographs and runs into Dr. Strange, who’s also investigating.  Strange later informs Peter, while as Spider-Man, that Dracula is the culprit.  Soon, Dr. Strange is incapacitated by Dracula’s astral form, leading Spider-Man to investigate Dracula’s home.  He encounters a peaceful Dracula, and has dinner with him and Raynee.  Eventually, Strange frees himself, as Spider-Man discovers Dracula’s true nature.  Strange imprisons Dracula and reveals that Raynee is actually a golem created by Dracula to soothe his loneliness.  Dracula escapes, vowing vengeance on the heroes.

Web of Continuity:  This story is treated as the first time Spidey discovers there is an actual Dracula.  I don’t know if that fits with any established Dracula stories, but I’m assuming it’s something Marv Wolfman wouldn’t get wrong.  Spider-Man does briefly forget that Dr. Strange knows his secret identity, though.

I Love the ‘90s:  References include the approaching millennium, The X-Files, and the Macarana.  Spider-Man also spells out a web address with a “www///” leading me to believe someone got “http://” mixed up with “www.”.

"Huh?" Moment:  For some reason, Dracula waited six months to return to the ballroom and commit the murders, or it took six months for the police to discover them.  Either way, I don’t understand why the prologue is set six months in the past.

Review:  Bizarrely, this is not the lead story.  At the very least, the reunion of Marv Wolfman and Tom Palmer on a Dracula story should’ve been hyped, even if that has nothing to do with Spider-Man.  And while it’s obvious the creators wanted to do a Dracula story first and kind of backed into a way to fit it into this book, Spider-Man’s role doesn’t come across as obviously superfluous.  (He is superfluous, just not obviously so.)  His job as a photographer gives him an organic introduction into the story, and he works as a sort of “average Joe” commentator on the supernatural elements.  As Spider-Man’s first meeting with Dracula, however, there’s not much here.  Dr. Strange and Dracula look great, yet Spider-Man’s off-model (McLeod’s interpretation of the post-McFarlane giant eyes always looked wrong to me.)  The story’s main focus is on setting up a Dr. Strange and Dracula rematch, with Raynee added as the human element.  On that level, it’s a decent read.  Spider-Man’s a fun interloper, but he’s clearly not the star.