Fantastic Four 322 - Inferno

A battle breaks out between two fundamental forces.

Fantastic Four #322

Story: Steve Englehart
Pencils: Keith Pollard
Finishes: Joe Sinnott
Letters: John Workman
Colors: George Roussos
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Chief: Tom DeFalco

Graviton is flying the chunk of Earth that had been his base back towards the planet as he reflects on how he survived an encounter with the West Coast Avengers. In New York the remaining three members of the Fantastic Four - the Thing (Ben Grimm), the Human Torch (Johnny Storm) and Ms Marvel (Sharon Ventura) - tackle mailboxes, bins and bikes that have all come to life. A rogue Watcher observes from high up in the Empire State Building as Graviton arrives in the city, encounters the demons and reflects on how his power could prevent the merger of two separate dimensions. But before he can decide to do it or not Ben and Sharon attack with Johnny soon joining. Graviton quickly overcomes them and is crushing them with his power when the Torch tries again and challenges the fundamental force of gravity with the equally fundamental force of fire using temperature changes to keep Graviton off balance until Ben knocks him out. The observing Watcher notes how Ben did what he thought was right but stopped Graviton from dealing with the wider threat. Meanwhile Johnny finds it a little harder to turn off his flame.

This issue is an interesting staging post. As has been discussed in some of the other reviews and elsewhere on the web it was around this time that Steve Englehart had big disputes with his editors that resulted in him leaving West Coast Avengers, Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer one by one, and also trying to transfer key plots and ideas from one title to another. Here this only manifests with the use of Graviton, a hitherto Avengers foe who was seemingly being built up to be one of the main recurring enemies for the West Coast team, with the bigger transfer coming in the next issue. What's a more notable sign of editorial disputes at this stage is that the Fantastic Four have been numerically inaccurate for several issues now since the departure of Crystal in the annual and no fourth member has yet come forward.

Also notable is the way that Inferno is only used as a small backdrop at this stage with a few demons and animated objects running around and Graviton's consideration of trying to stop the dimensions merging is more theoretical than a driving plot point. Instead this is a character and action issue as the Three try to take down Graviton upon seeing him and considering their current situation. There's a scene where Sharon and Ben reflect on how her appearance is changing from leathery skin to a rockier form much as Ben's did in the past. Although this follows the pattern with the Thing it must also have been a relief for the artists to make Sharon a little easier to draw - especially as Ben's current "pineapple" look must have been a nightmare and probably wasn't designed or agreed with long-term use in mind. Ben tells Sharon that there may be a way for her to change back as there was once for him but a mental block was in the way. However although it's not explicitly said it seems Sharon has come to terms with her current form making Ben's comments feel crass.

This was Joe Sinnott's final issue of the series. His first was as early as #5 and he'd been the series's regular inker for most of the period since #44 bar the John Byrne years (when Byrne did his own inking). He would switch to Thor for a few years before retiring (although he continued to do the Spider-Man newspaper strip until it ended in 2019) so it's a pity that he left on such a flat issue that doesn't feature the traditional line-up when there was editorial pressure to go back to it. This is unfortunately just an example of how crossovers often mandate an excessive number of issues with some such as these forgettable.

Amazing Spider-Man 311 - Inferno

Spider-Man must deal with the consequences of the death of a would-be hero.

Amazing Spider-Man #311

Writer: David Michelinie
Artist: Todd McFarlane
Letters: Rick Parker
Color: Bob Sharen & Evelyn Stein
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Outside New York's main library two lion statues come to life and Spider-Man tackles them. Swinging down an alley he rescues a couple from a mugging when a wall suddenly turns into a giant and attacks him. One of the couple tries to help by hitting the giant's ankle and gets crushed into the ground. Spider-Man destroys the giant by throwing a car through it but the man's death eats away at him and over the next day Peter is permanently distracted. Then at a bar he steps in to help subdue a bully and Mary Jane explains that like the man in the alley Peter stepped in to help regardless because that's who he is and the man died of his own choice. Peter comes to accept the situation and as Spider-Man he goes to retrieve his camera from the alley - only to discover there's no sign of the fight as if it was all an illusion. After getting information from the mugger he locates and overpowers the true cause - Mysterio.

Up to this point the Spider-Man titles had generally avoided crossovers especially those that required the creative teams to all work together. Kraven's Last Hunt and Mad Dog Ward were each done by a single creative team and run over all three titles instead of in just one. Secret Wars II crossovers had dipped in and out of the three series but never involving more than two at any given point. The crossovers with Inferno were thus the first time all three books would come together to tell a linked story though at this stage the only hint is on the final page as Harry Osborn deals with dreams about a goblin not realising another is watching his house. It was quite a significant step forwards though it would take several years before all then four titles would regularly crossover for years on end. Reportedly it was also unpopular with some readers at the time who either only subscribed to one of the series or who didn't have all three easily distributed in their neck of the woods which in part explains why it remained a rare thing. But it makes sense to tie the series together when taking part in a bigger crossover rather than giving three separate storylines within one big event.

This first issue is surprisingly tame though and rather working through the obvious. In a scenario where everyday objects are suddenly coming to life and attacking people there's an obvious suspect within the Spider-Man rogues' gallery. So it makes sense to get him out of the way. This is a pretty straightforward Mysterio story in which he fakes a situation to make Spider-Man doubt himself with a showdown on the set of a science fiction movie ("Star Fight IV: The Return of the Sequel") with some special effects. It's perhaps over simple with the scenes with Mysterio over focused on splashy art at the expense of plot, a sign of what would come to be called the Image style growing in prominence at the time. As a result this is a rather dull start to the Spider-Man part of the crossover.

X-Terminators 2 - Inferno

The X-Factor kids find a name and costumes as they pursue Artie and Leech's kidnappers.

X-Terminators #2

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

N'astirh cannot get the staff it seems with Crotus having failed to grasp just what a baby is having kidnapped Leech and Artie. But the two young mutants soon display their power and Archie briefly transmits an image of his location. The other X-Factor kids and Taki see the image and realise they must head to New York. On the way they break into a clothes shop and adopt new outfits with Taki creating a computer on his chair to access his trust fund and pay for it as well as announcing his machine has a spelling checker which the demons overhear. The kids adopt the name "X-Terminators" and arrive in New York only to find they cannot contact help so will have to find Artie and Leech themselves. Taki notices demons but the others don't believe him until Crotus carries him off. Crotus presents him to N'astirh and declares the boy can use his computer to process information - such as spells.

This issue is rather thin on plot and instead focuses on establishing the characters and also showing the continued kidnapping of actual babies. Everyone gets at least one scene to show their powers whether it's Rictor shaking a coin for the phone out of an old Pepsi machine, Boom Boom blowing up the machine, Skids protecting everyone with her forcefield, Taki rebuilding the machine (to the modern design) or Rusty keeping everyone warm until they get some proper clothes. In the shop Boom Boom and Skids pick new outfits for everyone. Apart from Rusty's top they look more like clothes than superhero costumes and typically for Boom Boom they are very much of their time (and thus now very dated). The demons also get some good moments especially Crotus who is largely played for laughs but shows a determination to get back into N'astirh's good books and then get to eat Artie and Leech. It's not all fun as we see some particularly nasty kidnappings of babies.

But overall this issue prompts the idea that most stories come in three acts and a four part story or mini-series will invariably have one issue that's largely about marking time and focusing on highlighting the characters. This is that issue and whether it works or not depends heavily on whether the characters work. Some work better than others with Rictor feeling a bit of a cipher whilst Taki gets much of the focus but feels too much of a stereotype. But overall they're a likeable enough group to keep the interest going.

Uncanny X-Men 239 - Inferno

Mr Sinister reflects on the X-Men and what his plans might have come to.

Uncanny X-Men #239

Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciler: Marc Silvestri
Inker: Dan Green
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Glynis Oliver
Editor: Bob Harras
Bouncer: Tom DeFalco

In New York the Empire State Building is growing in size and one of its lifts consumes a family of tourists. Meanwhile Mr Sinister reflects on the X-Men and how he expected to one day confront them but now they are (presumed) dead. After calming down Malice who is unhappy with being permanently in the body of Polaris (Lorna Dane) Mr Sinister reflects on several of the X-Men individuality as, unbeknownst to him, they enjoy some relaxation time in Australia. Dazzler goes singing in a pub. Havok is coming to terms with the violent streak he has adopted including killed some of the Brood. Storm discovers that Jean Grey is alive and confronts Wolverine about his not telling her. Psylocke, Colossus and Rogue are training exercising with the latter temporarily taken over by Carol Danvers's psyche. And Madelyne is intriguing. She shows the ability to read Havok's thoughts and seduces him. Elsewhere Mr Sinister comments on how he had great plans for her then turns his attention to her son, Nathan Christopher Charles Summers. Madelyne and N'astirh communicate further.

This is a classic character piece between events that also serves to really introduce Mr Sinister after only one previous appearance. The character has been given a modified colour scheme with the green removed and instead his armour is now bluey-purple with red trimmings that will remain his default look for many years give or take some variation in just how blue or purple. It is a great improvement. His goals of replacing humans with mutants are straightforward but his plans remain a mystery since many of them were based around the X-Men. Otherwise he shows his power in calmly dealing with an angry Malice before continuing to reflect, not realising N'astirh is also watching.

With the X-Men relaxing one of the two big moments involves Storm discovering that Jean Grey is alive. This brings up yet another problem from the initial X-Factor set-up. Despite that title now having been around for three years the two teams have never actually met. They missed each other in the tunnels in the Mutant Massacre and then had separate contributions to both the Fall of the Mutants and the Evolutionary War. But X-Factor have not been some hidden organisation and during their mutant busters cover days their alternative disguises as the X-Terminators did not evade coverage either. It is astonishing that the X-Men have not previously seen any footage and realised who she is.

The main focus in Australia is on Madelyne as she seduces her brother-in-law, demonstrates telepathy, briefly has a flaming bird effect around her and communicates with N'astirh to arrange revenge on the Marauders and find her son. Successive issues have built up Madelyne towards this moment and there's a real sense of tragedy to her descent that makes her actions more credible.

This issue is a classic prologue character re-establishing piece and it does it well along with reintroducing Mr Sinister and making him seem a credible threat. Now the pieces are all in place for the conflagration ahead.

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.)