The Punisher Annual 1 - The Evolutionary War

The Punisher encounters an Evolutionary War on Drugs.

(Due to the large number of creators the labels for some have been put in a separate post.)

The Punisher Annual #1

1st story: Evolutionary Jihad
Script: Mike Baron
Pencils: Mark Texeira
Inks: Scott Williams
Letters: Jim Novak
Colors: Janet Jackson
Edits: Carl Potts
Eliminator in Chief: Tom DeFalco

The problem with a line wide crossover, or at least one encompassing all the series with annuals, is that it's going to take in some extremely different series with very different power levels and perspectives. Both this annual and the next one demonstrate the extremities of this as they take in what were in 1988 Marvel's hottest new series.

The Punisher had been running for less than a year when this first annual came along and so it's very likely The Evolutionary War was approved before it was realised there would be an encounter on such a scale. The nature  of this crossover overall is such that individual events can be easily added or dropped from the overall plan but the different power levels can result in some very strange aspects to the plan.

The solution here is to tell a relatively straightforward typical Punisher story in which one faction is armed with high tech weaponry. The High Evolutionary's Eliminators aren't that much more advanced than some of the other more technological foes the Punisher and so don't feel out of place here whilst the Evolutionary himself is never seen, only mentioned. However the goal in this annual is ridiculous.

Here the High Evolutionary has launched a war on drugs and comments by his Eliminators imply that they're going after the whole chain from producers all the way through to users. It just feels absurd that such a broad target would be selected for such physical resources. It would be easy to refine the target to some particular drug variant only grown in the vicinity but as it stands it's an unbelievable goal. Still the practical result is that the Punisher gets to fight some hi-tech guys in Colombia.

This is yet another tale of a fight with a  Latin American drug baron, a cliche even at the time. However Mike Baron's script gives some good development to "El Caiman", presenting him as also a devoted father and popular philanthropist who has done far more for the local people than their own government. He and the Punisher end up in an alliance of convenience against the Eliminators and there's a real sense that they've come to respect one another enough that they'll let each go when the threat is removed. However both know that this cannot be and so when they find themselves in El Caiman's aquarium at the end the Punisher has no option but to fire a bullet to break the glass and feed the drug lord to his own pet from whom he takes his nickname.

As a Punisher story this is a good one-off tale that doesn't require an in-depth knowledge of the character and his continuity to understand it. But as a chapter in The Evolutionary War it's struggling to disguise just how difficult it is to fit that event into this series. The Evolutionary's goals are just too unrealistic to make sense.


2nd story: 3 Hearts
Writer: Roger Salick
Artist: Mike Bosburg
Letterer: Ken Bruzenak
Colorist: Max Scheele

This solo tale for Microchip is named after a Japanese proverb that a person has three hearts - the one they show to the world, the one they keep to themselves and the one they don't even know about. Microchip finds out what he is capable of when he goes to the help of the widow of an old friend whose new husband has become an assassin for hire and is even trying to kill his wife lest she report him. Although Microchip has developed many weapons for others, here we see his private nervousness over whether he himself can pull the trigger when he tracks down the assassin reporting back. We also get the comedy as he smuggles an anti-tank gun into a hotel. And then the story ends with showing his deviousness and ruthlessness as he confronts the assassin and seemingly makes a deal.

It's a good exploration of Microchip's character and capabilities when he doesn't have the Punisher around him but the story's title is rather over laboured with excess dialogue seeking to justify it. But otherwise this is just the sort of piece that super-size annuals should have.


3rd story: The High Evolutionary: Pet Project
Story: Mark Gruenwald
Pencils: Paris Cullins
Inks: Tony DeZuniga
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Gregory Wright
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Herbert Edgar Wyndham was expelled from Oxford after losing his temper with key professors and then he found his home was insufficiently isolated to carry out his experiments. Salvation came when he met again with Jonathan Drew whose wife had inherited land in the Balkans and so they set up a laboratory there.

It's a relatively straightforward chapter that continues the themes of Wyndham being in a hurry, impatient with the conventional speed of science and being detached from conventional society. But it also exposes a problem with the character's name and aims. Evolution is the development of a species as it adapts to conditions with beneficial mutations coming to dominate as best able to survive. By definition it is not possible to stick an organism in a machine and flick a switch to turn it into what a later evolved descendant will be. Yet that is precisely what Wyndham is shown attempting. At best he can accelerate the individual organism's development to deal with the rays of his machine but nothing more.

This flaw goes back to the character's original appearance and suggests that his creators did not have the strongest understanding of evolutionary science when they named him. It raises the question as to what is the character's actual goal.

Also included is a guide to the Punisher's Battle Van and a diagram of his New Jersey warehouse.

Overall this is a good Punisher annual but a disappointing The Evolutionary War one. The Punisher was always going to be one of the hardest characters to fit into the overall event but even so the draw here just doesn't stand up well. It is unfortunate that both the first two annuals in this event have been disappointing.

Uncanny X-Men 258 - Acts of Vengeance

The third and final issue of the X-Men's contribution to the crossover may include the phrase "act of vengeance" but otherwise there's still no indication of the wider events going on. Given that these issues are the most reprinted and best known of the whole thing, it's a pity such an absent image has been left for many reasons them in subsequent years. The "act of vengeance" in question is carried out by the Hand on their own old foe, Wolverine, with no sign of the wider scheme of trading enemies. The Mandarin returns for the showdown but with no mention of his current associates.

Uncanny X-Men #258

Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciler: Jim Lee
Inker: Scott Williams
Colourist: Glynis Oliver
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Instead this story, written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Jim Lee, see the conclusion of the Hand's corruption of Psylocke as they seek to do the same to Wolverine. Meanwhile the Mandarin makes a more rudimentary attempt to alter Jubilee so as to de-Americanise her as she is "a daughter of the Middle Kingdom" even though she doesn't speak the language and feels thoroughly American. Emphasising the Mandarin as a modern-day Chinese nationalist, seeking to advance power through economics, technology and crime, has brought the villain a long way from being an "imitation Fu Manchu" in some underground wizard's lair and shows that he can be made to work in the modern era without resorting to worn out stereotypes.

Much of the issue is focused on attempts by the Hand to transform Wolverine though he keeps on fighting it and the mentalscape scenes aren't as interesting as the ones with Psylocke two issues ago. However the continued presence of illusions of both Carol Danvers and Nick Fury offers complications as they start to appear to Psylocke via a mental link with Wolverine, adding to the madness. Elsewhere Jubilee struggles against her captors and also against their determination to push her into a traditional Chinese role, even declaring "No speakee Chinese -- only American!" Her powers are getting stronger to the point where she lets off a huge blast that devastates the Mandarin's mansion, a prelude to the final battle.

The Mandarin is finally seen in his armour in this issue, which he strangely wears beneath one of his robes, but once again the colouring is confusing - the cover has the standard dark and light blue but inside it's depicted in red and grey. We see the outcome of Psylocke's conditioning and it's a pity that she doesn't actually free herself but instead has to be rescued by Wolverine and his own demons. The battle is also notable for another direct quoting of the Batman movie when Wolverine asks the Mandarin "you ever dance with the devil by the pale moonlight?", a question that neither understands. Marvel at the time didn't need to be constantly homaging and quoting the big DC movie and these references have dated heavily.

As ever, this isn't really a good chapter of the wider crossover since the three issues as a whole have ignored the broader set-up completely. As the conclusion of an X-Men story arc this is more a straightforward issue for moving the plots forward, but the failure to revert Psylocke's race change was a missed opportunity to quickly undo what is ultimately a very bad idea.

Uncanny X-Men #258 has been reprinted in:

• Uncanny X-Men Acts of Vengeance (Boxtree, 1995)
• X-Men: Mutations (1996)
• X-Men Visionaries: Jim Lee (2002)
• Essential X-Men volume 9 (2009)
• Acts of Vengeance Crossover Omnibus (2011)
• X-Men by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee Omnibus Volume 1 (2011)

Uncanny X-Men 256 - Acts of Vengeance

We come now to the first of the X-Men issues of the crossover, written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Jim Lee, the latter doing a second fill-in issue about a year before he became the series's regular artist. These are probably the best-known chapters of the whole event and have certainly had more reprints than anything else, with only Amazing Spider-Man #328 coming close. So it's surprising to see how little direct connection there is to the wider crossover. Instead this issue could easily have stood alone as one of any number where a villain from another series appears in the title without any wider motivations.

Uncanny X-Men #256

Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciler: Jim Lee
Inker: Scott Williams
Colourist: Glynis Oliver
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Editor: Bob Harras
Tai-Pan: Tom DeFalco

For reasons that I'll discuss when looking at the next issue, the chronology of Wolverine's adventures pretty much forces the X-Men issues to be placed relatively late in the crossover under just about any order. One result is that up to now in the wider storyline the Mandarin has been the least used of the six leading villains, just appearing at their meetings in either his strange bare-chested 1980s costume or the blue battle armour that had recently superseded it. Part of the reason is that he's a rather awkward character for many creators to use, often dismissed as "A poor man's Fu Manchu" and not just by the Red Skull (who thinks this in Captain America #367) and similar comments go right back to some of the character's earliest appearances. By the late 1980s there was a growing backlash against the stereotypes and this presented problems when it came to characters created in earlier days. One solution was to transform them where possible. Ming the Merciless was recoloured green for the Defenders of the Earth cartoon, a practice that would later be applied to the Mandarin on the mid 1990s Iron Man cartoon. But that wasn't an easily available option in an ongoing fictional universe. Another option was to simply not use the characters any more, but the Mandarin's position as Iron Man's traditional archenemy again made it difficult to ignore him. However that probably explains why so few of the "Acts of Vengeance" issues wanted to use the character, especially when there was the option to get to play with some of the big-name villains like Doctor Doom instead. But here in X-Men Chris Claremont had already done a memorable story (only for John Byrne to rapidly it) and so instead picks up an underused character.

For this issue the story has decided to present the Mandarin pretty much as the Hong Kong equivalent of the Kingpin. We first see him in an office in a skyscraper, dressed in a suit and smoking a cigarette, a far cry from a mystic in a darkened underground lair full of opium smoke or indeed from a wizard in armour as he's appeared more recently, including elsewhere in the crossover. His concerns are entirely business ones, focused especially on how to develop his criminal empire and prepare for the-then forthcoming transfer of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China. And as part of expanding his power in the area he entertains an offer from the Hand, a guild of assassins who offer him a gift of a particular individual.

This issue came out during one of the oddest periods of X-Men history of all, when the remains of the team had faced defeat at the hands of the cyborg Reavers and had instead opted to run away, with most of them scattered to the winds by entering the Siege Perilous crystal to be recreated in new lives elsewhere, leaving Wolverine to find them. Coming straight off the back of a period when the X-Men were presumed dead and magic spells made them invisible to detectors, the result is that they have been an unknown force for a long time. (This also explains why they haven't been targeted by the alliance of super-villains.) A shocked Psylocke has been found by the Hand who subject her to both physical and mental changes to make her into an assassin.

This is the famous issue where Psylocke is transformed from a British telepath who felt so vulnerable in battle that she always wore armour in the field to an east Asian ninja warrior in a skin-tight costume. It's a bold transformation to say the least and it's difficult to imagine something like this being tried today. There's always controversy whenever a character's race is changed in an adaptation or alternative universe, but performing an in-continuity race change would draw far more. However back in the day Psylocke's new form proved wildly popular and explains why what was intended as only a temporary move has become permanent despite a few attempts to undo it. The in-story justification given is that "We can't have a westerner running the Hong Kong underworld". How the change is performed isn't really explained here - during the switch all we see is a dream sequence including a moment where Betsy is dragged to a make-up chair and given a full makeover, then she's seen in her new body and later we see she has been changed in reality as well. (All the stuff about Kwannon/Revanche is a later retcon and that character doesn't appear here at all.) The sequence itself mainly focuses on Psylocke's mental transformation, symbolised by her steady collection of the Mandarin's ten rings of power, as she journeys through sequences from her life. Even to a regular X-Men reader this sequence can be difficult to follow if one hadn't read the original Captain Britain stories, but to a reader only picking up the issue because of the crossover it must have been especially hard to penetrate the continuity as her past is deconstructed. Still it makes for a dramatic climax.

As a crossover chapter this is unfortunately disappointing because it basically ignores the wider plotline and contains such a continuity heavy extended scene. And the decision to alter a character's race is rather unfortunate, even if it was only meant to be temporary and did radically transform Psylocke's popularity. However the issue does well to make the Mandarin a more modern threat and builds a dark scenario for the future.

Uncanny X-Men #256 has been reprinted in:

• Uncanny X-Men Acts of Vengeance (Boxtree, 1995)
• X-Men: Mutations (1996)
• X-Men Visionaries: Jim Lee (2002)
• Essential X-Men volume 9 (2009)
• Acts of Vengeance Crossover Omnibus (2011)
• X-Men by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee Omnibus Volume 1 (2011)

Sidesteps: Power Pack Classic volume 3

Power Pack Classic volume 3 contains issues #18 to #26, plus Thor #363. Almost all the Power Pack issues are written by Louise Simonson, with the exception of issue #21 which is by Terry Austin. They are drawn by a mix of Brent Anderson, Jon Bogdanove, Bob McLeod and Scott Williams. The Thor issue is written and drawn by Walter Simonson.

There's still a strong element of the rest of the Marvel universe at the start of this volume, but after issue #20 the guest appearances drop away to cameos except for issue #26. But in the first three issues we get in succession a Secret Wars II crossover that is also half of a crossover with Thor (although Thor himself doesn't appear until his own series), then a double-sized Thanksgiving special that sees return appearances for Cloak and Dagger, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde (billed on the cover as such - did she ever get a consistent identity?), Beta Ray Bill, and Annalee and Leech from the Morlocks. Then issue #20 sees a team-up with the New Mutants Cannonball, Mirage and Wolfsbane. After that the guest appearances drop away to cameos, even though some are highlighted on the cover such as Spider-Man (#21) and the Fantastic Four (#23), but the final issue in the volume sees Cloak and Dagger appear once more. Some of the intervening issues take the children away from Earth, but even those set on it are focused on the regular characters rather than endless guest stars. As a further step towards giving all the Power children plenty of space there's a somewhat rotated reduced usage of Franklin, Kofi and Friday. What's also nice about the Secret Wars II crossover is that it actually has repercussions on the series as a whole, with the Powers' mother badly injured by the rampage of Kurse, and subsequent issues explore how the family react to this.

A common theme throughout these issues is of the development of powers and self-confidences. Kofi steadily learns how to refine his ability to teleport and take others with him, as well as finally learning why his father Yrik is hostile towards him. Franklin's powers steadily develop to the point where he has occasional precognition even while awake and is successful at preventing the foreseen disasters. He also proves able to use control his dream powers to the point where he direct himself, see the present and even interact with others via astral projection. At the same time he continues to feel abandoned by his parents (though in part because they go off searching for him) but comes to be ever more part of the Power Pack family. But Alex and Katie get some of the strongest material. Their mother was injured whilst buying materials for Alex's school project, and he blames himself, getting angrier and angrier with himself and with others. To add to the tensions is his poor handling of his relationship with fellow school pupil Allison, and the rivalry from Johnny Rival. It climaxes when sledding in the park when Alex saves Allison from going under ice, but then uses his gravity powers in a fight with Johnny. Alex's attitude to the others is poor at times, especially Katie who feels pushed around at often used as little more than a gun, making her hate her energy powers. Things climax on the Snark homeworld in issue #25.

Before then we see the Power family coping with the shock of Margaret's hospitalisation with Professor James Power particularly hard hit and the children left over more to their own devices. This contributes to a number of stories such as a hospital vigil when they encounter monsters from the realm of Limbo and Mirage of the New Mutants fights off the arrival of death for Margaret. Issue #19 is a double-sized special for Thanksgiving, in which Katie organises a party for the team's friends, to the annoyance of Alex and Julie who think it inappropriate, and Katie also successfully diverts a parade balloon to the hospital in the hope that it will cheer up her mother. Meanwhile Leech has annoyed Annalee, who has the power to project her emotions onto others. Cue much chaos all round. Another tale sees the author of Katie's favourite books kidnapped and it falls to Jack and Katie to rescue her.

However there is one major storyline steadily built up to and it pays off well. The Snark Empire is consumed by a power struggle as the Emperor's health fades, and one of the Queen Mothers (a title that here indicates the mothers of the princes who struggle to become Emperor, rather than the widow of the previous one) is seeking weapons to ensure her son will win the conflict to succeed him. Issues in the earlier volumes have already touched upon the struggle, including the origin story, but now we get a strong struggle on Snarkworld itself as the four Power children are kidnapped with the intention of stealing their powers to transfer to Prince Jakal. In the ensuing conflict everyone, including Franklin, Kofi and Friday, have to face the ultimate challenge but they eventually win through. However in the process they lose their powers and gain different ones.

This was the first of several power transfers throughout the history of the team and offers a degree of diversity. Although new codenames aren't used in these issues, Alex now has the energy powers, Julie the density powers, Jack the gravity powers and Katie the lightspeed powers. This resolves the problem of Katie hating what she can do with her energy powers and Alex feeling he has to bully her to use them, but also offers new possibilities for the issues to come. However the storyline also sees the destruction of Friday, and it's uncertain if he or she can be repaired, whilst Kofi reconciles with his father in the epilogue and returns to the Kymellian homeworld. Meanwhile the Power children return to their parents, with their mother now out of hospital, for a warm welcome home - and a meal of James's much hated lentil soup! It's a good moment on which the volume ends.

I previously wrote that I had no information about the series' sales and in particular any indication as to whether it was especially popular in channels most traditionally associated with children. So it's surprising to see at the end of issue #25 a note announcing the series will be "in a new bi-monthly format available only in comics specialty [sic] shops and through subscription!" Dropping in frequency is usually a sign of weak sales all round, whilst abandoning the newsstands would suggest that the title didn't have a particular reach amongst younger readers. I stress "suggest" because I still have no information about subscriptions and this was a general period when the overall American comics market was shifting so that comic shops rather than newsstands were the primary source of sales (for a whole load of reasons beyond this post's scope, this didn't really happen with British comics although many specialist shops existed here for imports of American comics) so a book going direct market only meant less then than in earlier years. And a common criticism is that comic shops were, and some still are, inaccessible to younger children, often being located away from the main shopping centres where they're unlikely to be seen and frequently doing little to encourage children, or some parents, to go inside.

(Although the note at the end of issue #25 suggests the series was in trouble, it would last until issue #62 and some of the changes were at least partially reversed. From issue #33 onwards the frequency was increased to nine issues a year. The cover design from issue #40 onwards indicates that the series had returned to newstands.)

The art for the most part in these issues holds up well and manages to remember that the stars are children, not tiny adults. However at times John Bogdanove draws Franklin a little too young for my liking, and in some long shots he is rather cartoony. Otherwise the art brings everything to life vividly. There is one standout error in page order when two pages in issue #24 (pages 209 & 210) are printed in reverse order but I don't know if that was an error in the original issue or created by the tradepaperback. Otherwise the reproduction is excellent.

Overall this is a petty solid volume that shows the series at what should have been its height, but sales had other ideas. Nevertheless this is a good set of adventures featuring a highly likeable set of characters in a diverse set of situations - what should be a natural combination but which takes real talent to pull off. Never once does the series forget that it stars children but there's no dumbing down - instead the world and universe they're in is shown to be a place of both joy and fear, of wonder and terror, of tragedy and triumph. The series is very underrated.

(Unfortunately this may be it for Power Pack issues. A fourth volume was due to be released earlier this year, taking the series up to issue #36 and over the half-way point, but it was cancelled late in the day. This probably also means the series won't be Essentialised anytime soon even if Marvel didn't have a policy of trying to avoid overlaps between the Classics and Essentials. However a number of individual issues from later in the run have been included in various collected editions handling crossovers.)