X-Factor 35 - Inferno

An orphanage is visited by three different groups searching for babies.

X-Factor #35

Writer: Louise Simonson
Guest Penciler: Terry Shoemaker
Guest Inker: Joe Rubinstein
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Petra Scotese
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Whilst Iceman and Beast tackle a living road tanker in New York Cyclops and Marvel Girl have come to the mansion containing the orphanage where Scott grew up. Inside the staff and children are under some strange hypnosis and don't detect them. Scott recalls various moments from his childhood but struggles to reconcile them as they don't match the chronology of his life and also a boy who bossed everyone around even the staff who was nicknamed "Lefty" but really called Nathan. The orphanage is also visited by Nanny, the strange being in a anthropomorphic metal egg suit, together with her orphan maker and a group of children she calls lost Boys (and Girls). Exploring the building Cyclops and Marvel Girl discover a hi tech operation on the lower levels and many babies in suspended animation including Scott's son Christopher. However the area is invaded by Nanny but whilst they are distracted fighting N'astirh's demons also invade and make off with the baby mutant children.

Several long running subplots converge on this issue with mixed effects. After all the build-up Nanny seems rather a disappointment. The idea of a villain who kidnaps children and turns them into her minions has long been seen in fiction and here the addition of fantastical elements such as her mind control powers and drugs as well as her ship and the Orphan Maker's armour helps to get away from some of the more awkward stereotypes that have attached to some such characters over the year. She's also portrayed as genuinely caring for children - so much so that Jean feels that her niece and nephew will be safe with Nanny for now whilst Christopher needs rescuing first. But it's hard to take the egg with a voice seriously. At times she is almost comical, at others highly violent in the way she casually orders the killing of parents. It's a tricky mix and this doesn't really succeed in pulling it off. The demons flying in to take the babies means that Nanny's storyline will not be returned to for a while which feels like it could go on for way too long. But it will need resolving as two of the children Nanny has kidnapped are Jean's sister's.

The exploration of Scott's childhood home is more interesting though why he and Jean don't express more concern about everyone being in a state of hypnosis or the hi tech base on site is surprising. But instead we get a walk through Memory Lane - or in his case Memory Maze as he recalls moments of his powers going off or having to contain them that he can't reconcile with them not developing until later or only being able to watch as Alex was adopted and taken away from the orphanage when Scott was still in a separate hospital. Although there aren't any footnotes it's not hard to see this sounds like an exercise in reconciling continuity problems caused by multiple flashbacks over the years. But there are also hints at something more sinister afoot both from the childhood bully Nathan and in the present.

Although much of the issue is taken up with the battle with Nanny and the demons taking advantage of it there's also a strong story seed here as the mystery of Cyclops's childhood is built on with clear signs this is not merely an exercise in continuity tidying but a major part of the present day story as things heat up.

The Evolutionary War as a whole

And so how does The Evolutionary War stand as a whole?

To be honest not very well.

On paper the project sounds like a good idea - tell a story whereby a powerful being is putting together a master plan with different series tackling different aspects of it. Putting it in the annuals at first glance suggests that there will be forgettable chapters written by guest writers but what's astounding is that of these twelve annuals no less than eleven are written by respective series' regular writer at the time and the twelfth (Web of Spider-Man Annual #4) notably lacked such a regular writer at this stage. So this should be the opportunity to combine a lot of talent and come up with a great spectacle.

Instead we get a rather incoherent mess. The underlying problem is that the various Marvel heroes range incredibly in terms of power and scope such that it becomes hard to believe a master plan can simultaneous involve a war on drugs and investigation of aliens. It's also clear that a lot of writers were not terribly interested in the crossover and instead at best used it to provide motivations and/or some hi-tech foes for the stories. At worst we get attempts to build up other characters and the central plot is ignored. To add to the mess too many of the annuals instead seem to be promoting new characters or guest stars at the expense of both the headline stars and the crossover event.

Where the stories work is when a writer takes the Evolutionary and his plans and uses them to generate a tale that really involves the characters and develops them well. The best chapter is probably New Mutants Annual #4 which uses the event as the opportunity to beef up Mirage and her powers followed by the climax in Avengers Annual #17. But it is saying a lot about the weakness of the chapters as chapters that the third best annual is Alf Annual #1 with little more than a comedic encounter between the start and Evolutionary. At the other end of the scale the worst chapter is Web of Spider-Man Annual #4 that throws far too many elements in and is far more interested in introducing a new character called Poison. Also dire is Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8 that has too much attention devoted to the Young Gods but completely fails to sell the idea of giving them their own title. And whilst Punisher Annual #1 may be a decent Punisher story it is a chapter that cannot even disguise that crossover is completely out of the Punisher's league.

It doesn't help that the lead character is fundamentally misnamed. Evolution is not some fixed path by which a species advances and which can be accelerated. Instead it is adaptation and survival as a species develops to better meet the challenges around them with the natural mutations that best fit the challenges coming to the forefront. What the Evolutionary is aiming for is instead a mass mutation to enhance the species which is a goal in its own but outcome isn't going to turn humans into what they will have evolved into many thousands of years in the future.

And the nature of the individual chapters also means that most of the Evolutionary's plans end in failure because he goes after a big goal and is defeated rather than exploring things on the sidelines. A few vary from this such as his restoration of the Savage Land in X-Men Annual #12 which does actually succeed advance his plan whilst his exploration of the nature of the Professor Warren clones in Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8 is more of a sideline than an actual exploration. But otherwise there are many defeats and it's amazing he's able to get the genetic bomb together by the end.

The plot line of a powerful being wandering in and out of various series had been done a few years earlier with Secret Wars II and it's easy to see why such a format is attractive as it not only makes it easier for readers to not have to buy every single issue to have a clue what's going on but also can be very friendly to changing schedules where the final choice of which series got annuals that year may have changed last minute - certainly The Punisher's first annual came surprisingly early in a series's run and was clearly down to initial huge sales. But it invariably leads to such an inconsistent meander through the books as they all try to do their own thing and slot in the crossover rather than a better structure focusing the plots on the Evolutionary and using the characters as appropriate. Many later crossovers would veer more towards this structure.

The back-up story "The High Evolutionary" is the main direct link between the annuals. It's a pity that a mess resulted in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22 and Fantastic Four Annual #21 getting swapped around such that the lead stories and saga chapters come in different orders but otherwise this is a consistent flow from title to title. It's a good attempt to introduce the Evolutionary and tidy up what had become quite a sprawling backstory but it also shows just what a mess had been created with so many different characters having links to Mount Wundagore over the years that the saga at times struggles with.

Over The Evolutionary War is a failure. The basic storyline just not lend itself to endless appearances across multiple different titles and it's compounded by many of the writers not really incorporating it so well. So much of the crossover is structured to be missable that very little of it is essential and it shows. This was a bold experiment by Marvel and clearly sold well enough that not only would they repeat the structure of crossovers between multiple annuals in later years but DC would also go down that route, but as a story it's a failure.

What If...? 1

What If the Avengers had lost The Evolutionary War?

What If...? #1

Script: Roy Thomas
Breakdowns: Ron Wilson
Finishes: Mike Gustovich
Letters: Mike Heisler
Colors: Tom Vincent
Editing: Craig Anderson
Supervision: Tom DeFalco

The Watcher describes a universe where the final battle of The Evolutionary War ends differently with the genetic bomb going off. All superpowered beings find their powers enhanced whilst all other humans changed to have enhanced larger heads with a greater understanding and telepathic powers. Humans around the world soon find peace and harmony with one another but the super powered beings realise the two types of human cannot live together and so they depart for space, soon joined by the Inhumans and Eternals. They soon take on multiple alien forces including the Kree, Shi'ar and Skrulls, destroying all their armies. Then they defeat Galactus before conquering Death and Eternity to form a single Entity. Back on Earth humanity has evolved into identical looking telepathic beings who one day face the judgement of the Celestials who condemn the planet but the humans have the power to disintegrate one Celestial and drive the others away. Now they form a collective mind on a living planet. Out in space the Entity tells the High Evolutionary it does not need his guidance before passing into another universe and causing a Big Bang to create a new universe with Death and Eternity now separated and the superpowered beings absorbed into one or other. Meanwhile the old universe now lacks its binding forces and folds in on itself as the High Evolutionary watches the end of it all.

The second series of What If...? launched in 1989 some five years after the first had concluded. Now monthly and with fewer pages before it also had a notably more modern focus. Fewer issues would feature alternative takes on the Silver Age and instead there would be more contemporary takes including a good number of tales that tell alternative endings to prominent storylines and crossovers. The very first issue does just this with an alternative take on the previous summer's annual crossover and describes what might have been.

Describes is very much the word as this issue is predominantly a narrated history of the alternative outcome describing a succession of one event after another. There's no attempt to give alternative outcomes to recent Marvel stories and instead we see the humans and super powered beings quickly coming to terms with their genetically accelerated state. Most of the continuity is fine though there are a few characters shown glimpsed who weren't around on Earth at the time such as the Molecule Man or in altered form - a scene with X-Factor is particularly bad as it shows the Angel in his original form and the team used to being feared and loathed when they had a huge public popularity at this time. Wolverine is picked as the leader of the super powered beings for reasons even the others aren't quite sure of, showing a failure to convert his sales popularity into narrative leadership. The space scenes are rather imaginative in suggesting that ultimately the super powered beings could surpass not merely the race of Beyonders but (without naming him) the Beyonder himself. Meanwhile on Earth the humans seem to be evolving into a race from Star Trek whilst the likes of Daredevil and the Vision cope with aging and loneliness in their own ways.

This is a sign of the direction the series would often go with ultimately apocalyptic outcomes and somewhat rushed stories. Unfortunately this one doesn't really reveal much about any individual characters through placing them in alternative circumstances. Instead it's a grand narrative piece of universe building. This would have been an okay later issue but the first one for the new series really should have been more character focused. Instead it shows how big concepts could often produce poor results.

Avengers Annual 17 - The Evolutionary War

The High Evolutionary's genetic bomb is ready to detonate - and the Avengers have disbanded.

(Once again we have an annual with a lot of creators so some of the labels are in a separate post.)

Avengers Annual #17

1st story: Prometheus Mutans!
Writing: Walter Simonson
Penciling: Mark Bright
Inking: Mike & Valerie Gustovich
Lettering Oakley, Heisler, Parker
Coloring: Evelyn Stein
Editing: Mark Gruenwald
Editing in Chief: Tom DeFalco

The Avengers' Hydrobase receives an emergency call from the resurrected Jocasta about the imminent detonation of the High Evolutionary's genetic bomb. But the team has disbanded so the computers summon as many reserve Avengers as it can contact. Thus Captain America, the Falcon, Hercules, the Beast, the Hulk and the second Yellowjacket come to the island to deal with the emergency. First they travel to a base on Long Island where they rescue Jocasta and discover the detail of the Evolutionary's plans. They then head to the Pacific where they find a war breaking out between the undersea kingdoms of Lemuria and Atlantis due to false information supplied by the Evolutionary who sends in a weapon to sterilise the two opposing forces. Finally the three pursue the Evolutionary's submarine base to Krakatoa where the bomb will be detonated in the volcano to spread all over the world. The Avengers battle both the Evolutionary's forces and themselves but the cost is high.

As discussed when looking at Avengers #298 this was a period when the Avengers had disbanded and it would take a little time for a permanent new team to be put together. In the meantime that allowed Walter Simonson to have some fun and bring together a one-off team. Some have wished that this line-up could have become the new Avengers permanently but it's hard to see it working in the long run. For one thing no less than three of the characters were regularly appearing in other series (Captain America and the Incredible Hulk had their own titles whilst the Beast was a part of X-Factor) and if it was difficult enough to co-ordinate the appearances of traditional Avengers such as Captain America it would have been a nightmare to fit in with the continuity of the other books even if one of them was written by the Avengers' writer's spouse. But there's also a strong element of dysfunctionality built into the team. The Hulk is in his "Joe Fixit" era of an amoral mob enforcer who shows reluctance to get involved with saving the world, is no team player and also tries to steal power for himself. Yellowjacket is a criminal drawn in purely because the helmet she stole from the original picked up the summons; she was one of the Masters of Evil who occupied the Avengers Mansion beating up Hercules to an inch of his life and also torturing Captain America (although she herself was not one of the ones who directly did either of those) and both still have strong memories of that. Captain America is on the outs with the US government in this era (with a replacement using the name and costume) which would make it difficult for him to assume a role heading a formally accredited superhero team. Jocasta is highly vulnerable. Only the Falcon could easily stay around in such a line-up at this time.

There's also a question of superhero ethics. The traditions of heroes not killing were under strain by this time and some of the team have no qualms about leaving foes to go to their death or even sending them there. Others less so. But oddly this isn't dwelt on here even though the Hulk charges into the Long Island base and kills all but one of the Gatherers present (though the bodies are not shown on panel). Later the Beast and Captain America willingly implement an idea by the Falcon to set the Gatherers and New Men against each other by playing on the former's prejudices and the result is a lot of killing. Then Hercules battles the High Evolutionary until he is "discorportating". Finally the surviving Avengers flee the submarine as the self-destruct is activated but make no effort to take the surviving Gatherers and New Men with them. Superhero comics were getting ever more darker and just a few years later the regular Avengers series would see the heroes facing the question of whether or not to kill so some of these developments aren't too surprising. But it's odd that there's little acknowledgement here of what the Avengers have been forced to do.

The plot does meander a little and it's hard to escape the feeling that the scenes involving Lemuria and Atlantis were added simply to pad this story out to fill the entire annual (bar six pages for the saga chapter at the end). But it gives lots of good character moments with the Beast especially benefitting as he combines strength, science and humour. Yellowjacket has found herself dragged into all this against her will and is completely scared by the whole situation but comes to the fore first in finding the bomb and then in attacking the Evolutionary long enough to buy time for Hercules. Though unspoken it also gives her a moment of redemption for her past.

There's some dodgy science afoot. The Evolutionary's powers seem incredible here including being able to teleport the Hulk all the way out of the base to the Nevada desert and twice making special cages appear out of nowhere to hold one or more Avengers. The Avengers decide the only way to counter him is to come up with their own super being and so subject Hercules to the genetic accelerator to create their own superbeing. The two fight to destruction with the High Evolutionary blasted into particles and Hercules mutating beyond godhood and out of the plane of existence. For a story rooted around a scientist's grand vision the conclusion has at times felt almost too magical to work. There's also the continued misuse of the term "evolution" when the mutations are done to intelligent design - or intelligent accident as the case may be. Fortunately the ending feels more scientific as a dying Jocasta plugs herself into the submarine's systems and activates the self-destruct mechanism to destroy the genetic bomb before it can be detonated.

This is a harsh brutal showdown to a big event and it feels appropriate that it's a much smaller team who escape at the end compared to the one that arrived. The High Evolutionary's plans may have meandered all over the set of annuals but here the focus is all too clear and the stakes couldn't be higher. The Avengers line-up here is not one that could have lasted but makes for a good team with its own internal problems facing down a major threat to the whole world in the Marvel tradition. Although the story is overlong and could have done with the Lemuria and Atlantis element it nevertheless makes for a strong climax to what has been a rather disappointing crossover.


2nd story: The High Evolutionary: Beyond Life
Story: Mark Gruenwald
Breakdowns: Ron Lim
Finishes: Tony DeZuniga
Letters: M. Yee & J. Rosen
Colors: Gregory Wright
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Chief: Tom DeFalco

The final chapter recounts the High Evolutionary's last appearances before this event. It's a straightforward summary of how Counter-Earth was moved across space by a race of alien beings call the Beyonders and placed in a museum with the whole encounter convincing the Evolutionary that despite being the most evolutionary advanced human in existence he was not a god but merely insignificant. This led to despair as he sought to commit suicide but found himself trapped in his armour that prevented him from using his powers on himself. So he manipulated the Hulk into attacking him to rip open the armour then he devolved himself all the way down to a single celled organism. The final page shows how the armour restored both itself and its occupant, who now regained his confidence and concluded that humanity on its own would never evolve to the level of the aliens he had seen and instead the race as a whole needed a guiding hand which he would give.

This final chapter shows how the character had come back to life after what seemed to be a pretty conclusive death and uses the last stories to provide a convincing explanation as to how the character has expanded the scope of his vision to the scheme seen in the event. It also restores an element of dignity that was lacking in the final Hulk story. As a later chapter recounting ongoing comics rather than stitching together multiple backstories the result is invariably straightforward but it serves to bring readers up to date with the character and provide a springboard for the main event.


Because of the length of the main story there are no other back-ups or features in this annual. Instead the whole thing is devoted to the resolution of the big crossover. Space could have easily been found for features by trimming off the unnecessary part of the main tale but that raises the question of just what would have been contained in the features since there was no regular Avengers team at the time. Also with issue #300 on the horizon it was perhaps better to leave the features for that and instead here have an extended climax to ensure the whole event goes out with a bang.

Avengers Annual 17 - Labels post

Due to the large number of creators on this annual some of the labels have been moved to a separate post.

Avengers 298 - Inferno

When all the Avengers are gone one man still stands - Edwin Jarvis!

Avengers #298

Writing: Walter Simonson
Layouting: John Buscema
Finishing: Tom Palmer
Lettering: Oakley Lopez
Coloring: Eliot R. Brown
Editing: Mark Gruenwald
Editing in Chief: Tom DeFalco

The Avengers have disbanded and their butler Edwin Jarvis has moved back in with his mother, living off his pension. Jarvis soon notices many strange things going on in New York and realises they are connected. He rescues a young woman, Glory Garsen, from falling out of a subway train when the doors suddenly open on the move and realises he must call in help. In a darkened computer room a mysterious man finds himself under attack from his own machines and realises they are linked. Later Jarvis saves Glory from being crushed by two cars but one car then becomes a giant metallic figure to attack when a round shield is thrown.

Inferno came along at a very unusual time in the Avengers' history. Over the course of the previous seven issues the team had been ripped apart first by Marrina turning into a giant sea monster and then by a women calling herself Nebula (let's not get into that continuity minefield here) seducing Dr Druid and using him to use his mental powers to manipulate the team into travelling into a time bubble with a falling out when several members of the Council of Cross-Time Kangs intervened and released the other Avengers from the mental control. By the end the Avengers were either dead, lost in the time vortex, resigned or departed for a struggle in Asgard whilst there were no reserve members available so Thor formally dissolved the team with Jarvis locking up the base. It was quite a brutal exercise in disassembling the team though there have been some even darker ones since.

This leaves the title with no team and just one supporting cast member. And instead of rushing to put together a new team we get a nice little tale of Jarvis doing his bit in the early stages of the strange happenings in New York. Time and again the butler shows himself to be a canny observer with a strong cunning streak in finding ways to deal with the various objects that have come to life, whether threatening a payphone with bolt cutters or realising that the way to drive off to cars is not through brute strength but by smashing a headlight "eye". But he's also realistic enough to realise greater help is needed and so turns to the natural source - Captain America.

(Well strictly speaking he was going by the name "the Captain" at this stage. This was in the period when Steve Rogers had resigned from the role rather than becoming an agent of the American government, arguing that he was actually a symbol of the American people. A replacement was appointed whilst Rogers had adopted a new identity as "the Captain" with a very similar costume albeit in black. In practice a lot of his friends and allies would call him "Captain America" anyway. As his own title was showing, Cap is not a costume but an ideal rooted in one man. And so these reviews will call him "Captain America" throughout.)

This is a strong issue that makes good use of the unusual situation to bring to the forefront a character so often on the margins of the series. It also doesn't rush the recreation of the Avengers, instead merely there's just a hint that Captain America could use some friends to help him deal with the situation. And Jarvis gets the girl despite his shyness and belief that there's no comparison to Cap - but Glory wants a man of courage and gentleness and thinks she's found him.

(It's just a pity that the car that becomes a humanoid looks nothing a Transformer. Perhaps Hasbro had had a word after an earlier issue had featured robotic dinosaurs and a red tank that brought to mind the Dinobots and Warpath.)

X-Factor 34 - Inferno

Death/Angel has his showdown with Cameron Hodge.

X-Factor #34

Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Walt Simonson
Inker: Bob Wiacek
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Petra Scotese
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Death/Angel breaks into the Right's base in Chicago and smashes his way through both the Right's troopers and demons supplied by N'astirh. It transpires that Cameron Hodge has made a deal with the demon from Limbo to supply a list of mutant children. However the list is intercepted by Nanny, the strange egg creature, who goes to rescue the children first (and kill their parents in the process). This causes N'astirh to withdraw his demons to focus on the collection leaving Hodge to the mercy of Death/Angel. Hodge has captured Candy Southern and is slowly killing her when Warren smashes through and the two have their final showdown. Elsewhere Cyclops has deduced that his son may be held in the orphanage he grew up in in Nebraska so heads off there with Marvel Girl.

This is another issue the pointedly tears down part of the legacy of the beginning of this series. It's doubtful that Cameron Hodge was ever originally conceived as anything more than Angel's school contemporary turned publicity director but over the course of successive issues Louise Simonson built him up into a manipulating villain whose schemes could explain away a lot of the awkwardness about the whole mutant busters cover set-up. Hodge has also driven the destruction of Angel in so many ways, with Apocalypse providing the rebirth.

The issue gives us a strong insight into Hodge's motivation and some of it's tricky. The prep/public school educated snob who thinks himself superior by virtue of wealth and education is a recognisable character trope and his horror at the idea of actual "homo superior" is easy to understand. But his attitude to Warren is complex with hints of homosexual feelings for his school friend that turned to hatred of everything else that made Warren happy - the wings, the team and Candy - and a determination to bring them all down. There are also hints that his bigotry is also driven by an element of religious zeal. The problem is that this all adds up to some rather ugly stereotypes of the villain driven by a spurned gay crush combined with the bigoted religious zealot conservative homosexual. It's a relief when Warren loses control of his wings and they decapitate Hodge. However the effect is reduced by this not being Hodge's first seeming death.

Also conforming to an unfortunate stereotype is the fate of Candy Southern. She hasn't actually been seen on panel for a couple of years and here she is unconscious throughout with her mind already destroyed. It's one of the most casual dismissals of a female supporting character going. Worse still she's not some recent creation but someone who's been around since the Silver Age and was actually the leader of the New Defenders. She deserved so much better than die on the slab.

This is very much Warren's issue though both subplots of Nanny's child collection and Cyclops's search for his son seem to be advancing towards resolution soon. But otherwise we have a mostly action and philosophical issue that resolves his quest and prepares the character for redemption in truly spectacular fashion.

X-Terminators 1 - Inferno

The X-Factor children go off to boarding school but don't stay for long.

X-Terminators #1

Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Jon Bogdanove
Inkers: Al Williamson & Al Milgrom
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: John Wellington
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

In Limbo the demons S'ym and N'astirh confront each other with S'ym winning the encounter and declaring his plans to rule Limbo and the realm beyond. He orders N'astirh to kidnap thirteen "power-filled babies" to be used in a rite to achieve this. N'astirh and his followers, the N'astiri, arrive on Earth but are limited by their lack of knowledge of the world and so hunt out small humans "with large heads... no hair... and round... innocent... little eyes..." Meanwhile the children under X-Factor's care are leaving in different directions. Rusty Collins voluntarily surrenders to the naval police in the hope the publicity will help discredit the Mutant Registration Act and help the mutant cause. However instead the authorities plan to make an example of him. The other children are taken to two private boarding schools in New Hampshire. Leech and Artie are placed at St Simons for younger children where they encounter Taki, a young orphan boy embittered by the accident that left him in a wheelchair. It soon becomes clear he has the mutant power to rearrange technology as he slowly befriends Artie and Leech. Skids, Rictor and Boom-Boom are placed at Phillips Academy, a prestigious "prep school" (we'd say "public school") with a number of especially obnoxious pupils. But their time at boarding school doesn't last long as one night the N'astiri kidnap Artie and Leech. With X-Factor uncontactable and the Phillips dorm phone answered by an obnoxious pupil who treats it as joke, Taki sets out to find the others, converting his wheelchair into a helicopter and then a plane. First he recruits the three from Phillips and then they fly to the prison and break out Rusty. The still nameless team fly off to rescue Artie and Leech.

"Now begins Inferno" proclaims the cover. This limited series has long been the overlooked part of the event. It began publication months before Inferno took off and was not mentioned on the adverts for the main part of it. Later in 1996 a trade paperback of the core of Inferno was released and did not include it. It's only been in the 21st century that this omission has been rectified with both the core oversized hardcover and the main two trade paperback volumes including with. Was this omission rooted in 1988? Did the plans for the limited series change suddenly? The build-up in X-Factor had concentrated on the kids going away to boarding school and yet this setting is ditched even in the first issue. Was the series instead conceived as a more or less self-contained affair and only late in the day switched to being a builder for the big crossover event?

It's not clear but it's probably for best that we got something other than a series based around heroes with powers at a boarding school. There's a lot of boarding school fiction around with plenty of possibilities and for a superhero series it would make a contrast to have kids with powers at a regular (in so far as a prep/public school is remotely regular) school as opposed to a small self-contained dedicated school (the New Mutants) or a family of children with glimpses of day school (Power Pack). But it would really require the powers to be hidden in secret rather than for the pupils to be public figures. Over the years the mutant analogy has shifted from race to sexuality and a boarding school set-up would really need the characters' powers to stay a secret to work well. But it's also a tricky scenario to write without descending into cliche about the various pupil types. Not everyone at such a school is an obnoxious tosser who thinks themselves superior because their family can afford to send them there (traditionally the worst are new money) but the other pupils we see at Phillips are all of this type and that's a rather restrictive character base. We learn less about St Simons and it's not even clear if it's a regular junior school or a school for children with special needs as the only other pupil we meet is Taki. Also the plot about Rusty voluntarily returning to prison in the hope of bringing down the Mutant Registration Act is rapidly abandoned.

Instead we get the build up for Inferno. The opening scenes are set in Limbo and establish the two main demons for the event. And S'ym looks a lot better than in previous issues. Gone are the waistcoat and the odd comical poses. He still has a cigar but otherwise he looks much tougher and fiercer, vastly improving the character's credibility. It's astonishing that this comes from the same pencil as the more cartoony pupils at Phillips or indeed Jon Bogdanove's general style. There's also a fun scene when N'astirh and the N'astiris arrive on Earth and encounter a parody of William Gaines, the publisher of EC Comics, in a cemetery that includes a grave for Fredric Wertham, the psychiatrist who led the mid 1950s campaign against comics that drove many out of business and led to the constraints of the Comics Code Authority. The Code was revised multiple times over the years and it's hard to imagine a horror story like Inferno would have been allowed in the early years so it's nice to see such a retort.

This first issue has a lot of setting up to do and so most of the existing characters don't get much development at this point. Instead we get the various shifts to get the kids back together and out to rescue Artie and Leech. Although it has a lot to do in setting things up it works to pull everything together by the end of the issue and get things going.

X-Factor 33 - Inferno

X-Factor face the twin threats of the Alliance of Evil and jumpers.

X-Factor #33

Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Walt Simonson
Inker: Bob Wiacek
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Petra Scotese
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Marvel Girl and Iceman take the younger mutants shopping for items for boarding school but something strange in New York amidst a heatwave with inanimate objects coming to life and attacking people. This includes some of the clothes in the shop. It also transpires that jails have been releasing inmates including the Alliance of Evil who go on an attack spry that brings them to the shop. Meanwhile the Beast's body is fighting off all the outside influences that have been in it over the course of the series and his external form keeps changing between flesh and blue fur, eventually emerging in his fury form with both his strength and intellect restored. Elsewhere the mysterious egg creature arranges a kidnapping of two young mutant children with its henchman living up to the description "Orphan Maker" as it kills their parents. Amidst all this is the looming threat of the Mutant Registration Act with mutants divided over whether to register their identities and powers. Elsewhere Death/Angel is closing in on the Right and Cameron Hodge takes steps to prepare.

Although this is often presented as the first issue of Inferno the crossover name won't appear on the series cover for several more issues and at present the changes to New York are primarily only a backdrop to current events. Instead this issue concentrates on several over developments. The children will soon be going off to school in their own series but also Rusty Collins is still wanted by the naval police for an incident with his powers. This issues brings that to a head as he is finally publicly identified despite his best efforts and decides to turn himself in. The Mutant Registration Act is also a looming shadow with the Alliance of Evil telling the media and the world that they are motivated by opposition to it whilst most of the adult X-Factor members opt to sign but only under their public names. As the Beast's identity is public he has no problems signing completely but still expresses a rebellious streak by making a paper aeroplane out of his form and throwing it at Freedom Force who turn up at the end. Notably though Rusty, the only one of the younger mutants old enough to be legally required to sign, refuses to do so and makes a statement about freedom and human rights. The two ongoing subplots about the children kidnapping and Death/Angel's search for Candy Southern continue apiece. The former is stepping up the action with a very graphic shooting of the parents whilst the latter has surprisingly revealed the organisation he's targeting revealed to be the Right with Cameron Hodge suddenly shown to be alive again despite seemingly dying over in New Mutants #60.

But the big moment of this issue is the restoration of the Beast's blue furry form. Exactly which is the "normal" look for the Beast is a matter of debate. Throughout the original 1960s run of X-Men he was in fleshy form and it was only in the wilderness years of the early 1970s that he got the furry form. But it was as his blue furred form that he gained greater prominence in first Avengers and then Defenders/New Defenders. However when X-Factor began he was soon reverted to the fleshy form as yet another step taken in order to restore even the look of the original five X-Men. Much has been written about the way that big changes and retcons were wreaked on both Cyclops and Marvel Girl in order to get them into place for the launch of the series but it's easy to forget that the other three founding members also underwent changes even though in the case of Beast he didn't lose the fur until the third issue of the series and so was still furry on the cover of issue #1. The next issue caption at the end of issue #32 had proclaimed "...and the change you've all been waiting for!" suggesting that the letters bag at least was not happy with this change.

Much of Louise Simonson's run on the series so far has been the steady dismantling of many of the worst elements from the first five issues of the series that had required a lot of heavy building to get the characters in place for a rather bizarre set-up. To her credit she didn't retcon everything away in the space of a couple of issues but instead slowly used successive storylines to tackle awkward elements like the mutant busters cover or the way Scott had simply walked out on his marriage and child. Not all the changes were complete by this stage but bringing back the Beast's Bronze Age look was another step away. As someone who only discovered the character in his furry form it's natural to see the furry form as the default even though there was a case to retaining the fleshy Silver Age look but Walter Simonson does some striking artwork on the restored Beast both on the cover and in the interior to really make the most of the restored look. However once in action his continuing to wear the full jump suit (though not the cowl) does create a slightly odd look and it's easy to see why this didn't last.

This issue almost hurls the Beast back into action but it doesn't just stop there with the other storylines continuing to develop. But it's the restoration that it's most prominent for as the series continues to determinedly get away from the odd mix of wallowing in Silver Age nostalgia and operating under a cover set-up that bogged down the early days. This is another sign of a title with a strong mojo.

Spectacular Spider-Man Annual 8 - The Evolutionary War

Spider-Man faces new revelations about the Original Clone Saga.

Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8

1st story: Return to Sender
Script: Gerry Conway
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Lettering: Rick Parker
Inks: Keith Williams
Color: Bob Sharon
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

The High Evolutionary is making a couple of final investigations in this penultimate chapter of the event. He goes out into space to investigate the Young Gods, a group of twelve humans genetically advanced by the various pantheons on Earth and taken away by the Celestials, but judges them "only children with god-like powers" and leaves to continue his plans. However Daydreamer reads his mind and discovers his plan with the Young Gods dividing in two over whether they should seek to stop him or not interfere in human destiny. One faction goes to confront the Evolutionary on Earth with the other following to stop them. Meanwhile Spider-Man encounters the Purifiers chasing a woman and is shocked to discover she resembles his dead former girlfriend Gwen Stacy. He soon realises this is her clone and catches up with her when she is captured by the Purifiers. Transported back to the Evolutionary's base Spidey gets caught up in the battle between the Purifiers and the Young Gods whilst the Evolutionary makes a careful study of Gwen's clone and comes to a startling revelation.

There's a lot going on in this annual so let's get the biggest problem out of the way first. The Young Gods simply do not fit into Spider-Man's world. They are a very obscure group of characters originally introduced by Gerry Conway in his early 1970s run on Thor with a later writer refining them and adding the Celestial connection. They have had very few appearances over the years, primarily because few other writers have touched them and Conway was either not at Marvel or working on inappropriate series. Here they just stick out like a sore thumb and it's easy to see why there was no great demand for them to return or be given their own series. The fight scene in the Evolutionary's headquarters (now a giant submarine) could have featured any group of heroes for all the difference it makes. And Daydreamer's role at the end doesn't match her powers which are given in the "Fact Pages" later in the annual as "Limited precognition, verbal and telepathic thought control, the ability to create 'visions'". None of this explains how she is able to neutralise and reverse the effects of a genetic virus that transforms a person "on a cellular level into a near duplicate of the original" and restore "Gwen" to her true self.

This brings us to what the annual should be notable for as the retcon here should by rights have completely stopped one of the most notorious Spider-Man stories of all time. Contrary to myth the heavy retconning of the events of the Original Clone Saga began in the 1980s before anyone had heard of Ben Reilly. The clone of Gwen Stacy had not been seen since the end of the original saga (which was also Conway's last issue of Amazing Spider-Man) when she made her peace with both Peter and what she really was and there was never any real need to bring her back. But here we get the revelation that she isn't a clone after all. The Evolutionary reveals that he wondered how a university professor could have come up with cloning (clearly forgetting that in the Marvel Universe numerous academics have been able to access and develop all manner of advanced technology) and instead that he had developed the genetic virus then kidnapped another woman similar to Gwen and infected her to create what appeared to be a complete genetic duplicate. (Incidentally the name "Joyce Delaney" doesn't appear in this annual despite what some synopses online state.)

There is so much about this that just doesn't make sense. Firstly why is the Evolutionary so concerned about the work of a long dead university professor whose work has left only one remaining clone around? There is nothing indicating that his plans for genetically advancing the human race can be derailed by this. Secondly if cloning was beyond the ability of Warren then how did he come up with the genetic virus? Thirdly if Gwen Stacy wasn't a clone then what about the others? Who was the Spider-Man clone? Carrion claimed to be a clone of Warren gone wrong so who was he actually? Finally if Gwen's clone was actually another woman then how come her disappearance wasn't noticed?

Some of this would be resolved in a forthcoming issue of Spectacular Spider-Man but it began the trend of partial retcons of the Clone Saga that didn't cover every detail and which would require further stories & retcons to clean things up, often including explaining how Carrion fitted into the new version of events. But it's also notable that the revelations in this annual should have closed off the possibility of bringing back any other clones as the genetic virus could simply have been purged from the system. (However instead the annual was largely ignored for much of the Clone Saga with the revelations here simply brushed aside until a persistent assistant editor managed to get the only issue of Scarlet Spider Unlimited to address them. But that's a story for another day.) It's a pity as the genetic virus approach would have been a much easier way to get the story settled once and for all.

It's not clear why (presumably) Conway felt the need to revisit the Clone Saga at all. Was it because there was growing public awareness that cloning did not lead to fully grown identical duplicates being made in laboratories? Was it to shut down the possibility of other writers bringing back the clones? If so then it was spectacularly unsuccessful. But the result is a big retcon of a story from thirteen years earlier that could have just left things there and then.

(On the subject of continuity this story also repeats a common continuity error by Conway. For some reason he repeatedly got the details of Peter's high school years wrong, here claiming that Peter and Mary Jane knew each other then when in fact they didn't meet until Peter was at university. Time and again he would make this error and also imply that Peter had dated Liz Allen in high school with Mary Jane disliking her then. This has appeared so many times and so clearly in his Spider-Man stories from both the 1970s and 1980s that it can't be a mere misinterpretation.)

This annual would have worked a lot better as an earlier chapter in The Evolutionary War when it would have made more sense for the High Evolutionary to be exploring genetic anomalies as he is a natural character to use to explore the truth behind Warren's experiments. It doesn't feel like a penultimate chapter at all and instead feels like a fill-in marking time between the two Avengers annuals. The obsession with the Young Gods also weighs this story down further. However there are some good moments such as the two scenes between Peter and Mary Jane as they face the memory of Gwen and just what it says about their relationship with each other. But overall this is a mess of a story weighed down by a disproportionate focus on inappropriate guest stars and a needless retcon that makes little sense.


2nd story: Opposing forces
Writer: Gerry Conway
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inker: Mike Esposito
Letters: Rick Parker
Color: Bob Sharon
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Several of the Young Gods have travelled to Jerusalem where they discover an ancient robot buried in the hills that feeds off anger and is triggered by the presence of the Young Gods and an Israeli army patrol fighting a group of teenage Palestinian protestors. The Young Gods argue over whether to get involved and charge in but only achieve success when several come together to form the Uni-Mind.

Rather than a back-up focusing on some Spider-Man characters we instead get a solo tale for the Young Gods that shows off the differences in their philosophies about getting involved with human affairs as well as a demonstration of their powers and a rather forced message about the power of working together. This tale just shows why the Young Gods have not interested other writers as they're a rather dull cliched set of characters. Putting the story here along with five "Fact Pages" about them just adds to the sense that they've taken over Spider-Man's annual unnecessarily. It ends with a caption announcing "To Be Continued... Watch future issues of Spectacular Spider-Man to find out where!" but instead they wouldn't be seen again until a multipart story in Marvel Comics Presents in the early 1990s. And it's easy to see why. This is just a waste.


3rd story: The High Evolutionary: Kindred Spirits
Story: Mark Gruenwald
Breakdowns: Ron Lim
Finishes: Tony DeZuniga
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Gregory Wright
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Chief: Tom DeFalco

This chapter tells of how the High Evolutionary returned to mortal form albeit far more advanced than contemporary humans, the creation of Counter-Earth and his relationship with Adam Warlock. The Counter-Earth saga has a notably more scientific approach and veers away from the Biblical parallel of the original story whilst there's also a retelling of the final (for then) showdown between Warlock and the High Evolutionary.

Once more the saga is retelling past Marvel stories though the encounter with Warlock was another flashback due to his own title ending before it could happen (although it was prophesised) and he was soon after killed off. That was one of Mark Gruenwald's earliest pieces of continuity surgery so with this chapter he has now come full circle. Also coming full circle is the way the Evolutionary starts and ends the chapter in his energy thought form, almost as though anyone missing this annual (such as someone who read both Avengers books but not the crossovers) would not feel they were missing something. However it's a pity that the reasons behind Warlock's false belief that Counter-Earth has been destroyed is not explained here beyond speculation that his Soul Gem is interfering with his perception. Otherwise it's a straightforward summary of a distinct period of the Evolutionary's appearances.

Other material includes "The Young Gods Fact Pages!" outlining their origin and each of the characters. Yet again it reinforces the idea that this annual wants to be a Young Gods annual. For some reason a lot of 1980s Spider-Man annuals have a tendency to forget who was the star of the series and suggests that many creators were longing for the days of Marvel Team-Up. This is especially disappointing given how important the revelation in this annual should have been for Spider-Man continuity in the long-term.