NEW WARRIORS Annual #1 - August 1991

Kings of Pain Part 1 - Errant Knights

Credits:  Fabian Nicieza (writer), Mark Bagley (penciler), Jeff Albrecht (inker), Tom Vincent (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

Summary:  X-Force and the New Warriors battle until Cable calls a truce.  Two executives at Genetech swear that the Alliance lied about working for them, leading Cable to break into Frenzy’s prison cell.  She reveals that their true employer is AIM, who used them as bodyguards for Harness and Piecemeal.  Soon, a team lead by Marvel Boy breaks into a warehouse owned by AIM, discovering inside “humanoid shell casings.”  In Japan, Harness and Piecemeal absorb more energy, as Piecemeal grows more bloated.  Meanwhile, Cannonball’s team travels to Xavier’s underground bunker to cross-reference Cerebro’s mutant database with the information given to them by Genetech.  When the teams reunite, Cable realizes that Harness and Piecemeal are trying to revive Proteus.

Continuity Notes:  

• Frenzy is being held in the Quebec Provincial Prison, which is a superhuman prison within the Marvel Universe that’s totally new to me.
• Cable recognizes New Warriors member Chord (Chord?!) from his mercenary days (“North Africa, ‘73” to be exact.)  Chord knows Cable as “Winters,” leading him to respond “The name's Cable...this year. ”  “Winters” could obviously be seen as a play on “Summers,” providing another early clue that Cable is Nathan Summers.
• Cannonball is able to use his blast shield to protect the entire X-Force team after Chord throws a grenade at them.  I don’t recall him being able to expand his shield in such a way on other occasions, even if the early issues of X-Force paid some lip service to his developing powers.
• Shatterstar uses his energy channeling/sword-blast powers twice this issue, which is probably more than he ever used them during the entire run of X-Force.
• The locks on the bunker under Xavier’s mansion have been changed.  Boom-Boom comments that “they” changed them, with “they” being X-Factor I assume since the X-Men are off in space until “The Muir Island Saga” begins.
• According to Cerebro’s records, Proteus died on 10/13/1987.  That means the late ‘70s Claremont/Byrne run on Uncanny X-Men happened four years ago Marvel Time at this point in continuity.  Four years seems a bit much, in my opinion.  Considering how slowly characters like Kitty Pryde aged during that period, I would place it closer to two years.

I Love the '90s:  Boom-Boom understands the scientific jargon spoken by the higher-ups at Genetech…NOT!

Review:  X-Force and the New Warriors fight, which I imagine was a huge deal for at least some portion of the audience.  New Warriors wasn’t a book I followed as a kid, so the fight doesn’t mean a lot to me, but I know both teams had pretty hardcore fanbases in the early ‘90s.  As far as superhero fights go, this isn’t so bad, as Nicieza is able to explain who each of the characters are fairly naturally and work in a few decent jokes.  Having Mark Bagley pencil the fight doesn’t hurt, either.  He clearly knows how to keep the New Warriors on-model, and I like his interpretation of X-Force.

Once the obligatory fight is over, that means it’s time for the story to really begin, and it’s certainly one worthy of Nicieza’s reputation for…intricate plotting.  The New Warriors are working security for their friends at Genetech.  Genetech was hired by Ophrah Industries to “create a DNA matrix for a cellular mix…etc. etc. etc. ...blah blah blah.”  A front organization for AIM hired the Alliance of Evil to guard two of its associates (or pawns, maybe?), as they leech energy from various locations, which is somehow what Genetech has also wanted to do.  (What does that have to do with DNA?)  The Alliance (perhaps) lied and pointed X-Force towards Genetech, who swear they don’t know the Alliance, but surely they’re also lying to the heroes, right?  The Genetech exec stuttered before he gave an answer, and we all know people only stutter in comics when they lie.  Later, the heroes discover that AIM is working on shells similar to SHIELD LMDs that can contain energy and be controlled like toy soldiers.  All of this leads to the revelation that new characters Harness and Piecemeal are absorbing Proteus’ energy from all across the globe.  In the background, a shadowy figure that’s obviously Gideon is playing chess with an even more shadowy figure, laughing about how these pawns are being used.

I can’t imagine the bulk of the audience at this time really wanted to keep track of so many plot points.  Most of the kids reading this probably just wanted X-Force and the New Warriors to start fighting each other again by the time they reached the end.  (And I can't imagine what a kid thought about the abused, horribly bloated Piecemeal.)  Older readers who might have the patience to try and follow all of the plot details were, I'd wager,  just annoyed by the attempt to revive Proteus.  Having Harness and Piecemeal traveling all across the globe absorbing his leftover energy is automatically going to upset any continuity purist who remembers that Proteus never traveled outside of Scotland, for starters.  In fairness, Nicieza establishes that the energy wavelength is strongest in Edinburgh, where Proteus died, implying that his energy signature was so strong it reached out across the world.  That’s comic book science plausible, sure.  But spreading the energy out is yet another wrinkle that’s been added to an already dense plot.  It also complicates the opening with the X-Terminators from the last chapter.  So those kid mutants just happened to be living in a boarding school where energy from a dead mutant killed years earlier has accumulated?  But what’s really grating is just the concept of reviving Proteus.  The original story is a classic, in part, because people left it alone after it was over.  Nicieza toyed with the idea of reviving Proteus earlier in a Classic X-Men back-up, but he didn’t actually go through with it.  Now, he’s teasing the readers again, but this time it looks like he’s serious, and that’s not a good thing.

Origins of the New Warriors

Credits:  Eric Fein (writer), Tom Morgan (breakdowns), Marie Severin and Jeff Albrecht (finishes), Kevin Tinsley, Suzanne Gaffney, and Ed Lazellari (colors), Rick Parker (letters)

Summary:  The origins of the New Warriors are recapped in various stories.

I Love the '90s:  Namorita compares her family drama to Dallas.

Review:  Every New Warrior has his or her origin recapped in a different story, which probably wasn’t a bad idea since some of these characters have origins from the most obscure corners of the Marvel Universe.  The stories do the most basic job of conveying the information, which is all I really expected them to do.  They might not be too exciting to read today, but as a kid who wanted to know more about Marvel history, these kinds of recap stories were greatly appreciated.

To Bounce or Not to Bounce

Credits:  Dan Slott (writer), John Calimee (penciler), Don Hudson (inks), Kevin Tinsley (colors), Rick Parker (letters)

Summary:  Chord gives Speedball a serum that will allow Genetech to study his kinetic field.  While he waits for an hour for it to kick in, he tries to patrol the city, but is continually rescued by heroes when attempting to activate his kinetic powers.  Later, he discovers that the serum could temporarily cancel his powers.

I Love the '90s:  Speedball worries that the green serum will turn him into a Ninja Turtle.  On the very next panel, he also gives us the second “NOT!” of the issue.

Review:  It’s a comedy story by Dan Slott, a Marvel staffer destined to go nowhere in the comics industry.  The joke is that Speedball is trying to activate his powers by doing dangerous stunts, such as jumping off a building, but is continually rescued by various Marvel heroes.  On the final page, we learn that he actually could’ve died at any time since his powers were cancelled during the previous hour.  It’s funny, but here’s the real highlight…

I swear to you, there’s a joke in this story about Speedball adding spikes to his costume!  It’s there on page 58, I promise.  How did this not get scanned and posted all over the internet in 2007?  Sure, no one probably cares now, but Dave's Long Box could've made gold out of this had it been discovered back in the previous decade.

UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN - Part Seven

Arms and the Man

Written by Keith R. A. DeCandido

The Plot: Biographer Randall Andros decides to write his next book on Dr. Octopus, focusing on his past as respected scientist Otto Octavius. After interviewing former colleagues and Daily Bugle staff members, Randall is unable to attain a firm idea of who Octavius is. Unexpectedly, Octavius gives Randall an opportunity for an interview. He ends the interview after a few questions, and when Randall returns home that evening, he’s shot by one of Octavius’ henchmen. Spider-Man arrives, hoping to warn Randall away from Octavius, in time to save him.

Web of Continuity: This story is set immediately after Amazing Spider-Man annual #15.

Review: Told from the point-of-view of Dr. Octopus’ unwise biographer, this is an extensive character piece on the villain that attempts to reveal who exactly Dr. Octopus was before his accident. There is actually some controversy amongst fans on this subject, mainly because different writers have different interpretations on who Otto Octavius was before radiation infected his brain. DeCandido makes those contradictions a story point, as Randall interviews any living person he can find with a connection to Octavius and finds that no two people have the same opinion of him. Was he merely arrogant, or truly megalomaniacal? Did Octavius have compassion for other humans, or did he always view them as annoyances? Most importantly, is he crazy or genuinely evil? There’s a lot of great character work in this piece, and it’s heartening to know that DeCandido looked into one of the few previous attempts to flesh out Dr. Octopus, Spider-Man Unlimited #3, and used that story to his advantage. Of course, once modern Marvel took a look back on Octavius’ past (conveniently at the time of Spider-Man 2’s release), all of this work was bulldozed.

My Enemy, My Savior

Written by Eric Fein

The Plot: Jonah Jameson, recipient of the Humanitarian of the Year honor, is kidnapped by Alistair Smythe and the Scorpion. Strapping Jameson inside a Spider-Slayer, they send him to the Daily Bugle building to wreck havoc until the robot self-destructs. Spider-Man arrives, fights off Scorpion, and rescues Jameson. Later, Smythe berates Scorpion for blowing their scheme. Their fight is interrupted by Spider-Man, who followed the tracer he left on Scorpion. That night, Jameson attends his award ceremony and refuses the honor, citing his role in creating Scorpion and the Spider-Slayers. However, he pledges to continue his crusade against costumed menaces like Spider-Man.

Web of Continuity: This story is set in “recent Spider-Man continuity” according to the Continuity Guide. “Recent” would be 1997, although Kate Cushing appears in the story as a Bugle editor, and she was written out of the books a year earlier during the final days of the clone saga. Unless we’re to believe this story took place during the Pursuit/Shrieking/Scarlet Spider days, it would have to be set some time around Amazing Spider-Man #375.

Review: I wonder why the “Untold Tales” in this book skip all the way from 1980 to 1997? That skips over the Roger Stern Amazing era, the debut of the alien costume, the Black Cat days, and the early marriage years. And after a seventeen-year break in continuity, this is what we get -- a generic Jameson vs. Villains He’s Created story? Jameson works when he’s over-the-top absurd, or unexpectedly poignant on those rare occasions. He’s neither here; even having him refuse his Humanitarian of the Year award because of his past mistakes is muted by the story’s admission that Jameson had already faced the legal consequences of funding Scorpion and the Slayers years earlier. It’s hard to discern what the point of the story is supposed to be, and it’s not as if we haven’t seen this basic premise numerous times before.

WEB OF SPIDER-MAN Annual #8 - August 1992

The Dark at the End of the Tunnel (The Hero Killers, Part Three)

Credits: David Michelinie (writer), Scott McDaniel (penciler), Keith Williams (inker), Steve Dutro (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist)

The Plot: Spider-Man teams with the New Warriors to rescue their teammate, Speedball. They battle supervillains employed by Justin Hammer at the scientific research station where Speedball is being held. During the fight, Silhouette is kidnapped, and Firestar discovers the body of Gamma Flight’s Auric. Later, the united heroes find Auric’s sister, Silver. She inadvertently leads them into a trap, where Speedball’s powers are used against the heroes.

The Subplots: None.

*See _________ For Details: Speedball was kidnapped in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #26. The final installment of this storyline appears in New Warriors Annual #2.

Review: This is the only chapter of this crossover that I own, but the basic concept sounds promising. As the Sphinx explains on the final page, a group of villains are inverting the government’s Project Pegasus program and analyzing the powers of heroes for their own ends. Spider-Man’s research reveals that the conspiracy involves the Life Foundation, the Brand Corporation, and Justin Hammer, which is a nice cross-section of Marvel villains, and at least two Michelinie creations. I’ve always enjoyed stories that have villains forming alliances, and this plot sounds like a perfectly logical scheme, within the context of the Marvel Universe, for the villains to be pursuing. The rest of the story is an extended fight scene, competently rendered by a pre-stylized Scott McDaniel, which has Spider-Man and the New Warriors fighting a cross-section of Marvel villains that range from Rhino and Boomerang to obscure losers like Bombshell and Stiletto. It’s not deep, but it’s fun.

First Kill - Part Three

Credits: David Michelinie (writer), Aaron Lopresti (penciler), Bruce Jones (inker), Rick Parker (letterer), Kevin Tinsley (colorist)

The Plot: Venom kills Bruno Markham in retaliation for the murder of an inventor whose work was stolen by Markham. When the victim’s nephew expresses remorse for helping Markham take his work, Venom gives him a second chance. Later, Eddie Brock decides to bond with the alien symbiote permanently.

*See _________ For Details: This story is continued from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #26 and Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #12 (incorrectly listed as #11 in the footnotes).

Creative Differences: The narrative captions leading up to Markham’s death are clearly not lettered by Rick Parker.

Review: The ongoing Venom series of miniseries is about to begin, which is why this year’s Spider-annuals are running a prequel story that shows Venom as an anti-hero fighting for justice in his own warped way. This is only eight pages, and without the context of the previous chapters, it’s hard to make much of a judgment. I was never a fan of using Venom as a vigilante, though, and retroactively inserting quasi-heroic adventures into his past just sounds like a bad idea.

The Security Gauntlet

Credits: G. Alan Barnum (writer), Tod Smith (penciler), Don Hudson (inker), Dave Sharpe (letterer), Sara Mossoff (colorist)

The Plot: While testing a family friend’s security system, Black Cat encounters Hydro-Man. She tricks him into an airtight display case and locks him inside.

Review: It’s eight pages of Black Cat skulking around a house and then fighting Hydro-Man. Nothing else going on, except a joke in the final panel that suggests she doesn’t trust herself as a security consultant because she’s still tempted to steal. Filler, obviously.

Down Memory Lane (Spider-Man’s Top Ten Team-Ups)

Credits: Tom Brevoort & Mike Kanterovich (writers), Aaron Lopresti (penciler & inker), Steve Dutro (letterer)

The Plot: Spider-Man reflects on various heroes he’s teamed up with while waiting for MJ to return home. He finally declares his marriage to MJ to be his most successful team-up yet.

Review: It’s a story co-written by Tom “Youth” Brevoort reaffirming Peter Parker’s marriage. Make of that what you will. Some of the in-jokes are humorous, such as Spider-Man’s funny feeling that he has something in common with Dr. Strange.

Evil’s Light - Part Three: Charge of the Light Brigade

Credits: Eric Fein (writer), Vince Evans (penciler), Don Hudson (inker), Dave Sharpe (letterer), John Kalisz (colorist)

The Plot: Cloak pulls Lightmaster into his Dark Dimension, angering the businessman, Chadwick, who’s using his powers for research. Cloak follows Dagger’s command to stop fighting and releases the comatose Lightmaster. Chadwick threatens to press charges, but can’t because he isn’t operating within the law either.

*See _________ For Details: A footnote says Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #12 has all of the details of the story so far.

Review: Another shred of a story that’s hard to properly judge. Pairing Cloak and Dagger against Lightmaster isn’t a bad idea, although I have a feeling this is another story about a generically evil businessman exploiting a villain for profit and then biting off more than he can chew. Unless Eric Fein had a great twist on the concept, it doesn’t sound very interesting.

EXCALIBUR ANNUAL #2 – 1994

The Interpretation of Dreams

Credits: Richard Ashford (writer), John Royle (penciler), Moy/Anderson/Carani (inkers), Janice Chiang (letterer), Ariane (colorist)

Summary

Britanic has a vision of fighting a battle with his brother, Jaime Braddock, in the year 2040. Their sister Psylocke uses her psychic powers to enter Jaime’s comatose mind. Britanic joins her as they tour Jaime’s memories. They watch as Jaime grows to resent having to care for his younger siblings, and the close bond they share with each other. When they try to help, Jaime resists their intrusion into his mind. After mentally confronting both of his siblings, Jaime creates a false childhood memory of joining them inside their secret hiding place. When Psylocke tries to tell him that they have a chance to reconcile, he wakes up and fights against her in reality. Britanic attacks, and the two stare into each other’s eyes for the first time in years. Jaime goes back into his coma. As the twins leave, Jaime dreams of playing with his siblings inside their hiding place.

Continuity Note

How exactly Jaime Braddock ended up in a coma and in custody isn’t explained. He was last seen escaping the Braddock’s mansion with Saty-Yr-9 in Excalibur #56.

Review

I didn’t have high hopes for an annual story during Excalibur’s awkward post-Davis era, but this is worse than I expected. The premise isn’t a bad one, as previous writers have told quite a few interesting stories about the Braddocks’ childhood. The idea that Jaime resented his younger siblings is a nice human emotion to ground the story in, but nothing else about this story works. Why does Britanic have visions of fighting a battle with his brother in the future? Who knows. By the time the story’s over, it seems like even the writer has forgotten about it. Why is Psylocke performing some type of dangerous psychic invasion on her brother, which she acknowledges isn’t really a function of her powers, when they could ask Professor Xavier or Phoenix for help? It’s a pretty glaring omission, especially when you consider all of the work Marvel was doing at the time to connect the X-Men characters to Exclaibur. The actual events of the story are a confused mess, not helped at all by the stiff, clumsy artwork. There should be a lot of emotional weight in a story about a dysfunctional sibling relationship, but there’s nothing in here to make you care about any of the characters involved. It’s a weak effort that just fails on every level.

Black Queen Rising

Credits: Eric Fein (writer), Daerick Gross (penciler), Candelario/Austin/Wiacek/Anderson (inkers), Janice Chiang (letterer), Monica Bennett (colorist)

Summary

Selene sends a summons out to Amanda Sefton, threatening to kill everyone on the plane where she’s working if she doesn’t help her. Amanda agrees, and teleports to the mysterious mansion where Selene’s being held. Selene is still trapped inside Fitzroy’s spooling chamber, which is continuously ripping her body apart and stitching it together again. When Amanda frees her, Selene tries to shove Amanda in her place, but is stopped when Nightcrawler suddenly teleports in. Selene throws Nightcrawler into the device, explaining that someone must take her place, or else the spooling chamber will self-destruct and destroy the entire mansion. Amanda uses her powers to blast Selene outside of the building and frees Nightcrawler. He tries to teleport away, but the building’s power dampener won’t let him use his powers. Amanda encourages him to combine powers with her and they escape. Selene escapes into the night, realizing that she left the chamber before she was fully reassembled, causing her legs to bleed continuously.

Approved By The Comics Code Authority

In the final page of the story, Selene’s legs are covered in blood from her excessive wounds. Considering her outfit, it looks like a drawing from some sort of fetish magazine.

Continuity Note

Selene was trapped inside Fitzroy’s spooling chamber ever since Uncanny X-Men #301.

Review

I guess Marvel wanted a story that freed Selene up again, so they put it in an Excalibur annual with some pages to fill. Selene has no specific reason to select Amanda Sefton to free her; a fact the story keeps reminding us of by pointing out repeatedly that they’ve never even met. The fight between Selene and Amanda isn’t engaging at all, and Nightcrawler’s sudden rescue makes no sense. Nightcrawler says that he found Amanda after getting her “coordinates” from the plane’s crew, yet Amanda teleported away to find Selene. How could they know specifically where she went? Does anyone even know that Amanda’s a sorceress? I like some of the artwork, but it’s extremely inconsistent, which is probably due to the four inkers the story required. How does a sixteen-page story end up with four inkers?

A Change of Worlds

Credits: Kim Yale (writer), Jaye Gardner (plot assist), Hannibal King & Yancy Labat (pencilers), Minor/Champagne/Caranni (inkers), Dave Sharpe (letterer), Chris Matthys (colorist)

Summary

Kitty receives a collection of old floppy discs that contain Doug Ramsey’s journals. She tells Douglock to read them, but he doesn’t recognize any of the memories. Nightcrawler encourages Kitty to accept Douglock for who he is, and not who she wants him to be.

Review

It’s the strongest story in the annual, even though it’s going over material that the monthly book has already covered. The first person narration by Doug Ramsey on the discs is nicely done, and it serves as a good introduction to the character. Some of the dialogue is unnatural and the art is once again inconsistent, but the story mostly accomplishes what it set out to do.