What If...? 35 - Timequake

What If the Fantastic Five had invaded the Negative Zone?

The last Inferno What If...? issue is part of an unusual experiment for the title. Rather than a simple standalone tale it's part of a five part saga entitled Timequake which I'll look at in whole.

What If...? #35
Writers: Roy Thomas & R.J.M. Lofficer
Penciler: Joe Phillips
Inker: Sam Delarosa
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: Marie Javins
Editor: Craig Anderson
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

In contrast to the usual opening, rather than simply explaining the original history and the point of divergence of the story, here he explains about individuals called a "nexus" who have the power to affect probabilities and the future. Amongst them are the Time Keepers at the end of time who appointed Immortus as Custodian of the Time Stream with the task of pruning alternate realities that threatened their existence. However Immortus tried to use the Scarlet Witch to control all the Nexus Power and so the Time Keepers immobilised him and focused all the Nexus Power through him to preserve the timeline. But now they have discovered four nexuses in realities that escaped the pruning who must be destroyed. The Watcher observes their efforts...

The first reality is one seen before where Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four early in both their careers. Sue is soon to give birth but she and the child are in danger because of the cosmic rays that gave the original four their powers so Reed leads the rest of the Fantastic Five in the Negative Zone to find an anti-matter element to save her. Observing the Time Keepers identify the unborn child (Franklin) to be the nexus and seek to prevent his birth through an agent - Annihilus. Spider-Man is captured but breaks free, taking Annihilus's cosmic rod with him not realising it is what the Five are searching for. The Time Keepers turn to another pawn - Dr Doom. As the Five journey to leave the Negative Zone they are attacked by Doom who seizes the rod but then a pursuing Annihilus intervenes and the two villains fight. Then Doom's spirit is drawn out by a being known as the Whisperer opposed to the Time Keepers who explains they have lied to Doom and how if Sue and her child dies it will lead to Reed going insane and a nuclear war destroying the world. Doom concludes he is being told the truth and throws the rod to Reed telling the Five to flee. Doom and Annihilus battle until consumed in an explosion whilst the Five make it home and save Sue and her child. The Time Keepers comment that one loss is unimportant and they intend to destroy the other three timelines but wonder why Doom helped Reed. They are unaware that Doom was rescued by the Whisperer.

There's a lot going on in this issue and comparatively little is focused on the headline characters. And there's a lot of confusion even in the narration about the relationship of this story to what was seen previously. The very first issue of the original What If...? series (which was written by Roy Thomas and reprinted in The Best of What If trade paperback just a couple of months before this issue hence the limited recap) had focused on Spider-Man joining the Fantastic Four with an effect on the dynamics of the team that ultimately led to Sue leaving the team and marrying the Sub-Mariner. A sequel in issue #21 of the original series (which wasn't written by Thomas or reprinted in the trade paperback) saw the rump of the Fantastic Five steadily break up in severe acrimony to the point that Reed and Johnny launched an attack on Atlantis. Reed ultimately saw the error of his ways and devoted his life to peace between the surface and undersea kingdoms but Johnny was left angry for a future attack. Here the Watcher initially speculates that this isn't actually the reality he observed before but later he hears Reed commenting on how Sue had returned to him and Namor had generously reversed the process that made her breath underwater and the Watcher concludes this is the reality he observed before. However whilst this is credible for a sequel to the events in issue #1 it is not for #21 given the way the Fantastic Five had fallen apart in acrimony and Reed's eventual acceptance of the situation. It is probable that either Thomas had forgotten or was unaware that the original series had had a sequel to the first issue or else this is the comic equivalent of one of those years later film sequels that is a selective sequel to the early movies but deliberately ignores or even contradicts the later movies that are not held in such high regard.

The idea of doing a story based around multiple alternate realities with cosmic entities having an interest in them isn't bad in itself. But it's somewhat at variance with the core principle of What If...? to tell a story of how things might have happened differently if one key element had changed. And with so much explanation at the front the actually reality itself is not very well explained to the point that even the Watcher is confused whilst the story is little more than a retelling of the events of Fantastic Four Annual #6 (the credits even call out the Lee-Kirby issue) with added Spider-Man but ultimately follows the same course until the Time Keepers intervene to add Dr Doom to the equation only for the Whisperer to convince Doom to help the Five. The only real suggestion of dramatic changes comes with the Whisperer explaining how the death of Sue and her child will send Reed over the edge. But this is far from the first What If...? story to show Reed losing first Sue and then his marbles and it is a little hard to credit the idea that he's only one woman away from bringing about the destruction of the planet.

The wider Timequake plotline is also a bit hard to get excited about as it feels rather abstract at this point. The Time Keepers are trying to preserve their timeline but it's really unclear how the nexus beings in alternate timelines threaten it. Instead he have some obscure cosmic entities trying to do something unclear whilst a mysterious being is secretly working against them and scores an initial victory.

Ultimately this is unsatisfying on all levels. Despite presenting an alternative version of the Fantastic Four with Spider-Man as a member it does absolutely nothing more than just retell a classic plot a quarter of a century later. Nor does it make the outside forces intervening sufficiently interesting to care about their effects. And by presenting the story as a sequel to a previous What If...? but ignoring a previous sequel and reversing the changes in those issues before this one even begins the result is an unsatisfactory continuation. All in all forgettable.

(There's also a brief piece entitled What If... Lady Deathstrike got a hangnail? but it's a single one panel gag cartoon and not very funny.)

What If...? 6

What If the X-Men had Lost Inferno?

What If...? #6
Writer: Danny Fingeroth
Penciler: Ron Lim
Inker: Keith Williams
Colorist: Tom Vincent
Letterer: Gary Fields
Editor: Craig Anderson
Ed-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

In this alternate reality S'ym and the Soul Sword were returned to Limbo simultaneously and so he was able to grab the sword and return to Earth where he joined with Madelyne Pryor and slew all the X-Men and X-Factor, bar Wolverine whose demonic form was kept as a pet, then sacrificed Nathan Christopher to open the dimensional rift permanently with the whole of Earth invaded. Dr Strange organises a group of sorcerers including his arch enemy Baron Mordo supported by surviving heroes. Wolverine, the Hulk and S'ym lead an attack from which only Strange, Mordo, Shadowcat and the Human Torch escape. S'ym plans to expand Limbo across the Multiverse and then will be powerful enough to resist the Living Tribunal when it shows up to judge the Earth but time is not on his side. Dr Strange discovers the mannequin of Rachel Summers and frees her. Strange plans to use the Phoenix Force to purge the Earth of all demonic influence though it will kill many humans as well. S'ym, Madelyne and Wolverine attack with Mordo revealing he has betrayed the resistors. In a brutal fight all bar Strange and Rachel are killed with multiple betrayals. Rachel summons Phoenix who engulfs the planet just as the Living Tribunal arrives and allows Earth to live. The survivors of humanity are reduced to starting again in caves. Nine months later Alicia Storm gives birth and names her son after Johnny.

Just eight months after Inferno had ended came this alternative take (don't be fooled by the cover dates; this was slap bang in the middle of Marvel bringing them closer to publication). It's a good idea in principle but it falls into the traps of a lot of What If...? stories that feel the need to show a whole legion of characters from across the Marvel universe even if not strictly necessary - Reed Richards and Dr Doom working together for S'ym is the most obvious needless appearance - and taking a bit too long to explain both the events in the regular universe and the point of divergence in detail that limits the amount of space to tell the story in which is thus limited to Dr Strange rushing around trying to find the magic or power that will stop the demons. Also far too many What If...? stories go for gratuitous killing of popular characters in general fight scenes with many deaths failing to advance the plot. Here at least some of the deaths drive the plot such as Shadowcat's.

The general premise of What If...? is that one thing is changed though here there are actually two changes from regular continuity. The big one is S'ym getting the Soul Sword and returning to Earth in time but other details include Alicia Storm being pregnant when she was not in the regular reality (nor was she actually human but that is a later retcon). Also Dr Druid is shown amongst the group of sorcerers when at this point he was lost in the time vortex though it doesn't affect the flow of the story.

Overall this What If...? focused on characters but doesn't really tell us very much about them through placing them in alternative circumstances. Wolverine is shocked out of his demonic nature when he kills Kitty but his friendships with a succession of young girls have done much to provide the innocent contrast and this reveals little. Dr Strange is shown battling the Inferno demons when he was otherwise engaged during his own series (including being temporarily in the body of a female rat) but again we get little insight into him. Baron Mordo, S'ym and Madelyne Pryor all turn on their respective allies but none was exactly trustworthy. The Human Torch dies heroically but again that's not surprising for the Fantastic Four. When the biggest "revelation" in an issue is that a character then assumed to be human is human and giving birth to a human instead of being a Skrull in disguise who lays eggs and all that is only a revelation because of a retcon a few years later then the story has a problem. This was the very early days of the second series of What If...? and it still hadn't found a workable formula to explain the moment in history that is changed and how, build an altered world, and tell a strong story all in 28 pages. All this really offers is just the chance to see Dr Strange fighting demons and little more of interest.

Power Pack 63 - Inferno

Katie writes about the time the Bogeyman attacked her family.

(This one-shot was released in 2017 as part of Marvel Legacy, a big relaunch focused on the classic characters which included a number of one-shots for series no longer being published with most continuing the classic numbering.)

Power Pack #63

Note confiscated from: Devin Grayson
Margin doodles by: Marika Cresta
Demonstrating perfect penmanship: VC's Joe Caramagna
Caught coloring outside the lines: Chris O'Halloran
Graded by: Sarah Brunstad
Cover Artists: Mike McKone and Rachelle Rosenberg
Variant Cover Artists: June Brigman and Nolan Woodard; John Tyler Christopher
Executive Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor in Chief: Axel Alonso
Chief Creative Officer: Joe Quesada
President: Dan Buckley
Executive Producer: Alan Fine

(Oh for the days when credits were simple!)

Katie stays behind after a class to discuss her essay for a speculative fiction assignment. The first draft tells how during a heatwave she and her siblings were suffering from a fever when her father's old bass Mr Carmody came into the apartment and the whole family fled to the lift where Carmody went off with the parents. The children agreed to go after them but Katie ran off on her own and hit Mr Carmody. The teacher finds the story hard to follow as it's not clear why the parents leave the children in a lift or why Katie hates Mr Carmody. Katie is told to try again with a greater focus on horror and super heroics. She makes Carmody into a real Bogeyman who can possess people and wants to destroy four siblings called Power Pack who he blames for his downfall. He invades their flat and possesses Alex leading to a battle in the street with the other three siblings. As the battle rages she confronts her possessed brother and tells him Carmody can't make her blast her brother and can't make him squash her. The teacher comments how this is a better draft and asks how it ended but Katie just says, "I'm here, aren't I?" The teachers notes how Alex is clearly a source of security for Katie who says her brother is now travelling and suggests she call him.

Okay there's some pretty major continuity errors that stand out when this issue is read in close proximity to the original stories. And that's not just because I chose to include it in this look at Inferno but also because it's included in Power Pack Classic Omnibus Volume 2. For starters just how old is Katie meant to be in the present day? She's at PS 87 Magnet School which in the original run was the number designated to the elementary school (first/lower/primary) she started at just after the events of Inferno (and Julie finished as Katie began with Jack overlapping on both his sisters' times there). In the original run Katie was two years younger than Jack who was three years younger than Julie who was two years younger than Alex. The intro page here establishes that Julie is now in college (university) and Jack in high school so Katie is presumably at least 13 (and even if Julie and Jack are especially young prodigies, the teacher calculates that Alex would be in college by now). Katie and her classmates are certainly drawn looking older than 11. Other latter day appearances of the Pack from the mid 2000s onwards also have her siblings older than the equivalent ages if she was 11. Also her teacher remembers Alex but in the original series he was already in junior high school (middle) when the family moved to New York. Then there's the Pack themselves. Alex is using the codename "Zero-G" for a story set during the original run but he did not adopt that name until the 2000 limited series (the same would happen in the 2019 one-shot Power Pack: Grow Up! which explicitly states it is set around issue #18). More notably the Pack are all using their original powers when Inferno was set after the first swap around. And for a retelling of a story in the original of which their parents learnt about their powers, it appears in both versions the parents already know, having been told by Carmody on a previous occasion. Oh and Katie is blonde like Alex whereas in the original stories she was a redhead like Julie.

I suppose one could explain that the teacher has transferred from the junior high school to the elementary school and so knew Alex from there. Or that there's been some reorganisation of the New York schooling system that has merged the elementary and junior high into a combined/combination school. Or that New York is just very confused as to how the school numbering system works. And perhaps even Katie's first draft has rewritten the Pack's powers so that she's able to hit back against Carmody with the energy powers rather than just chase him with the flight powers. But it does all point to a rather casual approach to continuity which is especially surprising for a one-off special in a line that was pitching a more classic approach and even using the traditional numbering for the series.

Part of the problem is that it is very difficult to bring Power Pack back as they were in the here and now. Appearances by the characters in the 1990s and 2000s saw their ages creep up such that the 2000 limited series was probably about the last time it was possible to have the story of four children together in regular continuity. Since then both Alex and Julie have been shown growing up on other teams, with Alex actually ageing even faster due to his work across time for the Future Foundation, and, as Katie sadly remembers, is now off in space. Nothing is impossible in comics but finding a way to de-age the characters and put them all back together as they once were is too great a task for a one-shot which is why both the 2010s one-shots have instead gone down the route of telling stories set during the classic run. Or not quite.

As well as the wider continuity errors Katie's telling of the story is somewhat distorted from the original. There's no mention of the wider events of Inferno beyond the heatwave and the streets seem normal. I suppose it's possible given the reference to Carmody possessing Luke Cage that the second version could in fact be a later encounter set after the original series (and after Carmody's apparent death in Cage's series though it wasn't the first time he seemingly died) but the implication is that this is Katie rewriting the original events. As a result of all this we get a rather condensed fight scene that climaxes in a showdown based on how two of the siblings care about each other... and no actual conclusion.

It's nice to see Power Pack got revived and this probably led to two more recent projects but this one shot is just not the way to go. Either a reunion years later or a flashback to the old days is workable. This format results in a confused retelling and then rewriting of a past tale with no clear conclusion. And the Inferno connection is so slight that this issue does not need to be included in any future collection of the crossover; indeed including it alongside the original issue #44 would make the discrepancies stand out the more.

Damage Control Vol 1 4 - Inferno

A flashback to the time Wolverine got a pie in the face.

Damage Control #4

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Penciler: Ernie Colon
Inker: Bob Wiacek
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colorist: John Wellington
Editor: Sid Jacobson
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Multiple construction sites have been raided with a large quantity of building materials stolen. The police turn to Damage Control to investigate and John Porter immediately spots a pattern so takes a team to investigate the site of the X-Mansion. John and Bart Rozum see rubble after its recent destruction but Robin Chapel, Lenny Ballinger, Gene Strausser and Albert Cleary see a mansion as normal and Robin remembers visiting before John and Bart joined the company. She remembers how Damage Control did repair work for Professor Xavier during which Gene fiddled with the electronics of the Danger Room. The members of Damage Control and the X-Men found themselves trapped in the room as a simulation of Groucho Marx led a stream of clowns in attacking them as they tried to reach the emergency controls to shut it down. Professor X declared that he had to protect knowledge of the Shi'ar technology in the Danger Room so he used his powers to remove Damage Control's memory and make them see nothing out of the ordinary at the house until their wills overcome it. Back in the present this has caused the team to not see the ruins until now. It transpires the Danger Room's systems are stealing the building materials to rebuild the mansion so they shut off the power. As the company hasn't been contracted it doesn't try to rebuild the mansion. The materials are returned and John tells the police he will maintain confidentiality, privately telling Robin the X-Men died as heroes and he wants to honour their memory.

"Inferno continues... interminably" proclaims a triangle on the cover but complicating matters is that this limited series was clearly delayed in publication with earlier issues featuring either the Avengers line-up of Dr Druid, She-Hulk, Thor and the Black Knight or the Thing in his extreme mutated "pineapple" form after both those were no longer the status quo in their own titles. Similarly here we get an Inferno issue four months after the event is over. To be honest this is more of a satire on the way some crossover events seemingly go on for ever rather than a forgotten part of the story that successive collected editions keep overlooking and I guess in 1989 this was more funny than "Secret Wars II continues in this issue" which at the time could still send people running for the hills.

Damage Control is a very tongue in cheek series, taking a serious concept such as how all the damage from superhero fights gets fixed so quickly and adding in a lot of satire. This first series starts by playing on the various conventions of superhero comics but then evolves into more general humour with the third issue poking fun at corporate publicity and stunts whilst this issue is mainly an excuse for slapstick comedy. Dwayne McDuffie would later admit one of his ambitions had been to throw a custard pie in Wolverine's face and he gets to do that here both on the cover (which wrongly depicts Wolverine in his costume from his solo series) and in the book, with Professor X declining to erase that memory. The flashback is played straight, an invariable consequence of the X-Men's current status quo that makes it difficult to do this sort of guest appearance in the present day, rather than parodying the way series often resort to this mechanism to insert extra adventures, usually emergency fill-in issues.

Overall this issue isn't trying to make any wider points about comic conventions or the industry or wider corporate practices. Even the way some characters use their powers to keep things secret for the public is played straight to force a flashback rather than explored as a means by which the illusion of the ordinary world is maintained. There's a moment where John immediately spots a pattern in the robberies that points to the site that nobody else can see which may parody contemporary amateur detective fiction that often had such moments of instant deduction but otherwise this is really just an excuse to get a pie into Wolverine's face and have him on panel with Groucho Marx. Inferno collected editions are missing nothing by not including it but it's a fun little tale nonetheless.

Power Pack 45 - Inferno

Julie faces the toughest challenge yet - babysitting!

Power Pack #45

Special guest scripts: Julianna Jones
Special guest pencils: June Brigman
Special guest inker: Hilary Barta
Letters: Joe Rosen
Colors: Glynis Oliver
Edits: Carl Potts
Same old Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Julie has a nightmare in which Carmody the Bogeyman taunts her about how the family will never be the same again and how she's growing up but wakes up and Katie comforts her. Later that day she graduates from her current school and has her 11th birthday party. A neighbour upstairs asks her to babysit their toddler Tommy the following evening and she agrees. She wonders if she's grown up or still a little girl and decides the test will be whether she needs to use her powers or not. Tommy proves a challenge, making messes everywhere and crawling off until she finally gets him to sleep. But with only half an hour before his parents return she calls up her sibling to help clean up with the use of their powers. She decides this means she's not very grown up. Later that night she discusses growing up with her whole family and how she'll always be her parents' little girl.

This issue has "Revenge of the Boogy Man [sic] Epilogue" on the cover and so as it's officially branded as the aftermath of the Power Pack storyline from Inferno I'm looking at it here. The cover shows Julie facing multiple images of Carmody but inside that only really occupies the first three pages reinforcing the idea that there was a sudden change of direction ordered upon the series and so rather than continuing to explore the ramifications of a major status quo changer we get this tale about Julie facing growing up.

Julie was named after co-creator Louise Simonson's daughter Julianna - and this issue is the second she's written (after #38) once again focusing on Julie. I don't know if either of her stories are fictionalised versions of events from her own childhood. And as somebody who's a youngest sibling and has never yet babysat I have no idea just what looking after a toddler for the evening is like either. But it is easy to relate to the experience of reaching the end of one school and facing moving on to another even though here we don't have school graduation ceremonies (or at least didn't when I were a lad), especially when one's birthday falls at the end of the school year. Some start evaluating just where exactly they are. Others start distancing themselves from all their previous likes in an attempt. Others still double down on the familiar. This shows Julie taking the first option which is entirely in character for her and approaching it first by drawing up a list then tackling a routine task.

It's a straightforward little character story which speaks to a very real problem children face. But it's not an aftermath issue in any real sense beyond showing the family dynamic is back to normal. The opening sequence may reference recent events but feels a little contrived to justify the cover. This issue's non-inclusion in Inferno collected editions is fully justified but for those interested it can be found in Power Pack Classic Omnibus Volume 2.

X-Factor 40 - Inferno

Archangel cracks an egg with a voice.

X-Factor #40

Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Rob Liefeld
Inker: Allen Milgrom
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Tom Vincent
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

X-Factor return to Ship from Madelyne Pryor's funeral, observed from afar by Nanny and Orphan Maker. Atop Ship they set about returning the crowd to their various homes and schools. Iceman takes Leech, Artie and Taki back to their school then the other four members of X-Factor gather up the mutant babies to the FBI in Washington. The older X-Terminators have missed too much of summer school to go back until the autumn so they stay on Ship with Jean's parents to babysit Nathan Christopher. As their plane flies into Washington it is attacked by Nanny's ship. Nanny and Orphan Maker board the ship and a battle breaks out until Nanny throws Beast into her ship's control panel and is then badly wounded by Archangel, causing ships to come down in the park. Orphan Maker explains that Nanny is a human mutant who worked for the Right until discovering what her technology would be used for but the Right trapped her the egg. She escaped and started rescuing children before others like Mr Sinister could destroy them. Nanny and Orphan Maker teleport away as Jean finds and releases her nephew and niece Joey and Galen who don't recognise her due to Nanny's "pixie dust" drug. The babies and other children are transferred to the custody of Freedom Force who tell them Rusty Collins has been furloughed and so does not have to go back to jail whilst awaiting trial. X-Factor take Joey and Galen to Ship where they recognise their grandparents. Jean and Scott vow to find her sister eventually.

And so we have the wrapping up of the fates of several of the characters from across the crossover. It always seemed a little strange that Scott and Jean so easily accepted that whatever else she did Nanny would care for the children such that they could focus on saving the babies without even making any attempt to track Nanny for later. It's also unclear where the children were kept during Nanny's appearance in the Avengers issues when a good chunk of her ship was destroyed to cover her escape. Although the origin given here makes some sense to give Nanny a credible backstory and motivation she has still been an irritating character throughout too many appearances over the event.

There's also the breaking up of the X-Terminators with the youngest members returned to their school whilst the older ones are left slightly up in the air with hints that they won't be going back to school at all due to institutional nervousness about "incidents". Although it's only mentioned in a caption box at the end, the X-Terminators went on to formally join the New Mutants in issue #76 of their series, thus putting an end to any prospect of another X-Terminators series exploring young mutants living around ordinary humans. It's a pity as the idea had potential though the wards of a publicly known team were probably not the best characters to explore such a situation.

This issue is a landmark as the first Marvel story to be drawn by Rob Liefeld. And it's not the greatest though compared to some of his later work it's clear at Al Milgrom and Tom Vincent managed to rein in some of the excesses. But even through those filters the art frankly isn't very good. It took me several reads of the page to make sense of the scene where the Beast leaps atop Nanny and she throws him forward so he goes through the hole in the roof of X-Factor's ship and into Nanny's where he crashes into the control panel. Liefeld often omits backgrounds (which Vincent sometimes tries to compensate for with colour only indicating buildings and the like) and it can be very confusing as to what's just happened. There are other trade marks such as characters hovering in mid air, awkward poses, groups of characters altering their position relative to each other between panels, two left arms for Cyclops on one page, huge hair (in some panels Jean's is absolutely enormous) and even a few pouches. It's fairly easy to beat up on Liefeld's art and to make him a scapegoat for everything that went wrong with Marvel or the comics industry as a whole in the 1990s (which isn't fair but he was heavily involved in some pretty key moments) but when it makes the comic hard to read and very odd looking then it invariably gets called out. Why anybody thought this was the way forward is a mystery.

But apart from the art this is otherwise a relatively straightforward issue in wrapping up various threads on the periphery of Inferno and finishing off the Nanny subplot before it drags out for too long. There's a real sense of calm closure at the end with all the main plot points resolved and all five members are now clearly sorted out without any more heavy lifting. This is a satisfying conclusion to the main part of the crossover.

(Don't go away though. There's a few more relevant issues to come.)

X-Factor Annual 4 - Inferno Epilogue

Two FBI agents try to find out what happened in New York.

X-Factor Annual #4

(I'll leave the rest of the annual to another time if/when I look at Atlantis Attacks so this is just the Inferno story.)

Inferno Aftermath
Story: Mark Gruenwald
Pencils: Jim Fern
Inks: Joe Rubinstein
Letters: Joe Rosen
Colors: Gregory Wright
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

FBI agent Jacob Farber narrates how he and his partner Elwood McNulty were sent to investigate exactly what happened in New York to cause so much costly damage. They start by interviewing the dentist who turned demonic then a police officer tips them off about the paranormal investigators who got eaten by the lift in the Empire State Building but woke up in a normal lift and found their instruments showed nothing. At the Daily Bugle newsroom J. Jonah Jameson recounts the attack by the demons but all the photographs turned out blank. They then go to speak to the Avengers but Gilgamesh is no help and Captain America is still in poor relations with Washington. Next they ring X-Factor and Ship tells them the team are out so Jake gives them two hours to call back. X-Factor discuss what to say and agree that telling the truth about demons from the netherworld would be damaging to the public. So they decide to give a cover story that it was fake. After consulting with Reed Richards they say some unclear group used a hynoptic ray beam and they suspect hi-tech terrorists. The story is released and the man in the street accepts it but a lurking demon is more surprised.

This back-up story is an interesting look at how the authorities and the public cope with the bizarre incidents that happen in the Marvel universe with plausible cover stories fed to keep people from having to confront the implications of what happens. Bizarrely for a story by Mark Gruenwald, normally the king of continuity, there are some discontinuities here with the whole event from the first animated objects to the final closure of the portal said to have taken place in a single night when the issues took place over a longer period. The closure of the portal seems to have reverted all the actual magic, with the damage stemming from looting, rioting and battles, whereas other issues showed lasting damage. And the newspaper at the end says Inferno was "two days ago" but is dated "January 30 1989" which just adds to the confusion of when in the year Inferno took place. In addition Gilgamesh lists some of the names he has used in the past including "Heracles", a reminder of the total mess with having the Eternals in the same universe as the various gods.

Also just why are the Blues Brothers working for the FBI? Jake and Elwood had previously appeared in a few of Gruenwald's Captain America issues but only with this issue are they drawn so clearly as the band characters.

Overall this is a tame little piece that focuses upon showing how New York returns to normal, that some of the more prominent one-off characters survived and how the public shrug off the whole event given a convincing explanation and the magic not leaving any lasting effects. It's a good effort that would have worked in 1989 when it came out some months after the event but when collected together with the issues it stands out the more how it doesn't quite match the actual aftermath.

Fantastic Four 325 - Inferno

The Silver Surfer arrives in time for a child custody battle.

Fantastic Four #325

Story: S.F.X. Englehart
Guest pencils: Rich Buckler
Guest inks: Romeo Tanghal
Letters: Michael Heisler
Colors: George Roussos
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

(Although not part of Inferno itself or included in the collected editions this is the conclusion to the storyline in the earlier Fantastic Four issues so worth a look at.)

The Silver Surfer noticed the disruption to Mercury's orbit and has come to the Solar System where he finds the Human Torch adrift in space and takes him back to New York. There he is reunited with Mantis and learns how she lost her memories then her powers and her son. He agrees to help her recover him. The Surfer proves unable to turn off the Human Torch's flames then Kang returns accompanied by the High Cotati and a pod containing Mantis's son. The Cotati demand that Mantis cease pursuing her son who they want to be their ambassador to the universe. She refuses so the Cotati determine she must die and unleash the Priests of Pama on her. The Fantastic Four and Surfer join her in fighting back with Kang producing more advanced weaponry to restrain the Surfer. Mantis breaks through to reach the Cotati and fights with her mind, forcing them to flee with the Priests and Kang both withdrawing as well. Mantis announces the Cotati have withdrawn into the realm of pure thought and only she has the training to follow them so she says goodbye to the Surfer and abandons her body to enter the realm. An upset Surfer flies away alone.

And so we reach multiple endings. Not only is this the real ending for the Fantastic Four's Inferno saga (even though Inferno itself has ended by the time the Surfer and Torch reach Earth) but this is also the last issue with Englehart's name on it and the conclusion to his attempt to tell a saga involving Mantis. Englehart would remain on the series for another eight months using the pseudonym "John Harkness" with a bizarre story in which the Fantastic Four wind up being replaced by imposters based on the Silver Age and there were some dreams as well that reflected some of the battles with editorial. The whole thing ends with "Mr Harkness" appearing in the final two panels of issue #333 to agree with Franklin "this was all a mistake" and says "I'll try. But it might take a better man than me to straighten out this mess." With that Englehart was gone and also soon left Silver Surfer. He then wrote an open letter to fanzines about the problems he had had on all three series (West Coast Avengers being the third) at Marvel, directly blaming Tom DeFalco rather the different individual editors. In later years his website would include some details of the disputes that invariably casts a cloud when reading the issues themselves.

This story does not disguise its roots as a rewritten quick piece designed to end things with Mantis with as much dignity as possible whilst Englehart still had any control over her. It makes use of Kang's time travel abilities to go off and make a deal to work with the Cotati for his own revenge but ultimately boils down to little more than a guest star turning up for a fight. The Surfer and Mantis were intended to be reunited to carry forth into adventures in the Surfer's own series but with that avenue cut off Englehart now resorts to removing Mantis from the physical realm altogether. Despite reiterating that she has lost her powers and can only rely on her training she proves able to abandon her body completely in a rushed ending as she chases after the Cotati.

The Cotati's motivations make little sense here. They have manipulated things to arrange for a child to be born to a union between a human and Cotati because... they lost their ability to move and want "an ambulatory plant" to "be our ambassador to the universe". Why they can't just make use of another being's body if they want to walk about is utterly unexplained and they've already shown they can communicate with other beings. It's a feeble motivation for what has turned out to be such a long quest over multiple titles and it feels as though no effort is being made deliberately. The final battle resorts to Mantis still having powers from when she trained to become the Celestial Madonna that she has not demonstrated for a good while.

All in all this feels like a deliberate poor effort with a writer more concerned to write Mantis out of the physical realm than anything else and just throwing out random stuff to get to the conclusion. Combined with some terrible art - the Thing especially looks worse than ever - and the result is a whimpering end to it all.

(Oh and exactly when is Inferno set? This issue takes place in the aftermath but it's called "A Christmas Tale" and features snow. Yet other issues have referenced the summer or Halloween.)

Power Pack 44 - Inferno

Power Pack continue saving lives but can they save their parents?

Power Pack #44

Special guest scripts: Julianna Jones
Special guest pencils: June Brigman
Special guest inker: Hilary Barta
Letters: Joe Rosen
Colors: Glynis Oliver
Edits: Carl Potts
Same old Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Or not quite as the opening splash page is signed "Bogdanove & Heath" which has confused many including some online databases. The above list is what was printed in the issue but is in fact the credits for issue #45 accidentally printed in this issue as well and not the Inferno collections, neither Power Pack Classic Omnibus Volume 2 nor the digital listing online includes a correction. The letters page for a later issue reportedly lists the following as the correct team:

Jon Bogdanove - Writer & penciler
Russ Heath - Inker
...and the rest as above.

As we'll see this credit mistake matters more than most as it offers a very different perspective on what's going on editorially...

The issue opens with Power Pack fighting off demons when the portal reverses and sucks them all back into Limbo. Heading home they find their parents are in a permanent state of shock about the revelation their children are powered superheroes. Eventually Margaret breaks down, crying that she just wants her normal children back. Jim tells the kids to go out and they head off to help with the clear-up operation. Several vehicles are frozen in monstrous form and Alex's attempts to use his powers to rescue people reactivate the animated vehicles. They take a busload of passengers to a hospital which is understaffed and overwhelmed when the New Mutants show up. Mirage uses her powers to create solid images of what the head doctor wants - a small army of health care staff to cope with all the patients and a construction crew to rebuild the hospital. Together with Power Pack and the New Mutants they get the hospital into working order until an army unit shows up. Resting the Powers tell the New Mutants about how their parents now know their secret and can't cope with it. Mirage wishes they could help. Power Pack return home to find their parents in an even worse state with Margaret fantasising over a baby doll and Jim rambling on about not being fit parents good enough for their children. Then the New Mutants come in and tell Jim and Margaret that in order to protect their real children from Carmody the Bogeyman they hid them away and created super powered decoys to stop Carmody but didn't realise the parents would be in danger as well or tell them. Mirage pulls images from Jim and Margaret's mind of their desire - their children as normal. Gosamyr uses her powers to convince them then put them to sleep with the four Power Pack children then taking the place of the images then the New Mutants leave them to sleep and wake up with things back to normal.

To cut to the chase this is one of the worst reset switch stories I have ever read. The mistake with the credits will have convinced many readers that someone in Marvel editorial ordered an immediate undoing of the parents discovering their children's powers and assigned a guest writer to carry out the deed, undoing Jon Bogdanove's work. The discovery that actually this issue is written by Bogdanove complicates things but it still seems that some rapid U-turns have been happening. There was a hint on last issue's cover that the children would soon be going away to Professor Xavier's school and the cover of this issue with the children flying off with a suitcase and the New Mutants alongside them would seem to reinforce that plan, though in the issue itself there's no sign of the suitcase. There's a brief moment near the end where the parents have been put to sleep with the images and the real children assume they've been permanently replaced with duplicates as though that might have been part of the plan but that also doesn't match what's shown on the cover.

It's not clear what caused this change back though one factor may be that the planned new setting was now unavailable. This issue would have been published before the destruction of the mansion in Uncanny X-Men #243 which would leave the fate of the school up in the air. Add in the New Mutants' final loss of confidence in their headmaster Magneto after seeing him conversing with N'astirh in New Mutants #73 and it's likely that the school won't be taking in new pupils any time soon. But also there's a total change in the way Jim and Margaret are reacting to the discovery.

Last issue they were initially shocked and in denial when Carmody forced the children to reveal their powers but the parents soon accepted it and showed strength in dealing with the Bogeyman and the children's reaction to him. It's also worth noting that not only do they live in the Marvel Universe where a lot of strange stuff is public knowledge but by this point they've met aliens and superheroes and often had the child of the Fantastic Four over to stay. It was as though they had come to terms with it until a final panel cliffhanger showed their faces suggesting otherwise. Here they are shown experiencing a nervous breakdown and completely failing to cope with the situation. It's such a sudden shift that really isn't convincing as a motivation for the sudden about turn. Both have been shown as so much stronger than this and deserved better. The revelation had been so heavily debated and so built up to that to just suddenly turn around and unscramble the egg is an atrocious decision that suggests the status quo has to be reset all the time. This is a series of children growing up that has been through status quo changes already (whether moving to New York or swapping the powers around) and would do so again during the rest of its run and once committed to it should have built on the revelation with all the potential it offered. Instead this issue just tries to say it was a bad idea to ever make such a move but in doing so it has to undermine the parents in the process.

As for the means by which it's reversed, Mirage's false explanation is an extremely long speech with one of the biggest word to picture ratio ever seen in comics. It's astonishing that anyone would believe a stranger's claim that actually these are artificial duplicates and here are the real children especially as the actual real children's reaction is not in accord with this cover story. It takes a dose of Gosamyr's powers in order to reinforce convincing Jim and Margaret which may be about the only time Gosamyr has been of any use whatsoever but it's in the cause of an awful move to negate such a big development in the series so it does it not excuse the sheer tedium of the awful story that introduced her. A universe were there are many telepaths and magicians offers much easier ways to pull off this sort of reset rather than bizarre explanations and emotional manipulation but finding one with a connection to the Pack at short notice to have this all reversed in a single issue amidst the clearing up after Inferno might have been a bit of a stretch. So instead we get a lousy explanation to implement a lousy reversion.

This is the single worst issue of Power Pack in the book's whole run. Other issues may have silly stories that are best forgotten and the less said about the end of the series the better but this takes a huge development and stops it dead in its tracks through character destruction and a very silly reset method. There's clearly been an element of editorial diktat handed down and it is frustrating when story ideas get vetoed after they've started resulting in these messy U-turns but the result is this mess of an issue.

The Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger 4

Crotus tries to drive Cloak and Dagger into committing suicide.

The Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger #4

Script: Terry Austin
Pencils: Mike Vosburg
Inks: Terry Austin
Letters: Ken Bruzenaj
Colors: Glynis Oliver
Edits: Carl Potts
Trouble: Tom DeFalco

Crotus and two other demons have avoided being sent back to Limbo and have retain Belasco's spell book. Now he plans to break open the barrier to Limbo again. For this he needs to sacrifice "two mutants whose souls are locked in black despair" and settles on Cloak and Dagger, hoping to make them kill themselves to maximise the effect. Dagger has recently lost her sight and is alone in a flat where Crotus impersonates Cloak and tries to destroy Dagger's faith in him. She realises this is not Cloak and lashes out with her light. She stumbles through the flat until realising exactly Crotus is and fires out, destroying him. Cloak is trapped in an energy bubble orbiting Earth resigned to his fate as the air runs out when the other two demons appear. They take on the forms of Cloak's close family and friends to berate him as a failure. He soon spots the repeated phrases and realises they're real so lures them into the dimension in his cloak before the air expires and he collapses. In New York several of the New Mutants plus Boom Boom are tracking the three demons and arrive at the flat where they learn Dagger has killed one. She fires light to guide them to Cloak and Warlock takes them all up into space only to find Cloak's empty cloak and Dagger declares him dead.

As the full title of this series indicates, at the time it was Marvel's position that Cloak and Dagger are mutants, something that's been gone back and forth on many times over the years. Given the soaring popularity of X-Men and related titles it's understandable that Marvel would do whatever it could to seek to attract some of that popularity to other titles and this is one of the issues where their mutant status is actually a key plot point. However it's not clear why it's taken so long for them to have anything to do Inferno. Although only the fourth issue of this series it was bimonthly and came out of a separation of the Strange Tales title which combined the pair with Dr Strange so had been running for longer than the issue number indicates.

A series that hasn't previously been part of the crossover is an odd place to put what is proclaimed on the cover as "Inferno Finale" (not quite as we'll see in a bit) and an epilogue that deals with the fate of Crotus, a character who could simply have been said to have been pulled back into Limbo when the portal reversed and closed. That said it allows Terry Austin the opportunity to write a tale exploring both lead characters under especially adverse circumstances as the demons try to drive them to suicide. Ironically Cloak is already close to death and accepting there is nothing he can do but Dagger has been resisting her situation until now when she agrees to undergo therapy to cope with her blindness. The appearance of some of the New Mutants at the end provides a way for Dagger to get to Cloak was but otherwise feels like it's just there to reinforce the crossover and advertise their presence on the cover.

On the face of it this story doesn't do the best job of introducing the current status quo for readers visiting due to the crossover. However the letters page reportedly carried a piece by Terry Austin summarising his whole run on the strip since it was in Strange Tales so in 1988 this would have been one of the best series for catering to passing visitors. Unfortunately the collected editions (all?) leave out the letters page so it's not doing so good a job at encouraging readers to check out the series (which has been collected in full across two books). But that isn't the fault of Austin or Potts.

Overall this is a straightforward story that takes the aftermath of the crossover and uses it to tell a story exploring the title characters in depth which is often the best sort of crossover issue. Neither Cloak nor Dagger is at their strongest which adds to the sense of despair and makes for a tougher story. It's just a pity that it has a needless guest appearance thrown in at the end.