Marvel Comics Offices - February 10, 1992

I saw this video once on Youtube and could never find it again.  Thankfully, Robot6 has come to the rescue!  Karyn Bryant interviews Marvel staffers and editors of the day, including Suzanne Gaffney and Bob Harras of the X-Men.  Notice which issue of UXM, already a few years old at this point, is pinned to Bob Harras' bulletin board.

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2016/02/mtvs-1992-tour-of-marvel-comics-is-a-mind-blowing-mullet-filled-time-capsule/

AVENGERS #369 – December 1993

Bloodties The Finale – Of Kith and Kin

Credits: Bob Harras (writer), Steve Epting and Jan Duursema (pencilers), Tom Palmer (inker), Bill Oakley (letterer), Mike Rockwitz (colorist)

Summary

Exodus creates a psionic shield over Genosha, preventing anyone else from entering the country. He takes Luna from Fabian Cortez and apparently kills him. The Avengers and X-Men meet and respond to Professor Xavier’s call for help. They arrive and assist Xavier, Beast, and US Agent against the Magistrates’ backup. Exodus faces the combined teams, inciting the Mutates into violence and threatening to kill Luna for the sin of being born human. Xavier and the Black Knight defeat Exodus, after Jean Grey telepathically sends information on his weaknesses. Exodus leaves, but not before injuring Quicksilver. Xavier appeals to the Genoshans to stop the violence, asking them not to follow the example of a man willing to kill a child.

Gimmicks

This issue has a cardstock, foil embossed cover.

Review

And, in the final part of this storyline, the X-Men and Avengers fight the same villains they’ve been fighting for the past three chapters, only now they do it together. This structure could actually work if the villains were remotely interesting, but generic Mutates and generic guys in body armor get old fast. Almost two full issues of this crossover were dedicated to selling Exodus as a major villain, but in the end he’s defeated in a two page sequence after Xavier mind-blasts him and Black Knight slices him with his sword. All of the effort spent on building him up seems wasted. Cortez’s apparent death is really the only aspect of the crossover that impacts continuity, and it’s treated pretty casually. Taken on its own, though, it’s actually not that bad of an issue. Harras seems to be invested in the story, and Epting does a good job on the X-Men/Avengers team-up scenes. As the finale to a five-part crossover though, you get the feeling that a lot of the previous chapters have just been filler.

AVENGERS #368 – November 1993

Bloodties Part One – Family Legacy

Credits: Bob Harras (writer), Steve Epting (penciler), Tom Palmer (inker/colorist), Bill Oakley (letterer)

Summary

Magneto’s EM pulse wave has inadvertently created a civil war in Genosha. Fearing that Magneto would inspire the Mutates to rebel, human Genoshans are exterminating them. The Mutates are using their powers to fight back. The government wants Nick Fury and SHIELD to prevent the Avengers from getting involved, fearing their presence would escalate the violence and affect human politics. When pressed, Fury admits to the Avengers that intelligence reports hint that they might be attacked to make a statement against the world’s indifference towards Genosha. Crystal assumes that Luna, her daughter and Magneto’s grandchild, would be a target. The Avengers discover that Luna has been replaced with a Mutate shapeshifter. The Mutate blows herself up to make a statement. The Avengers attempt to go to Genosha, but are blocked by SHIELD agents. Meanwhile, Government agent Henry Gyrich and Avenger US Agent are sent to recruit Professor Xavier, hoping that he can ease tensions in Genosha. Fabian Cortez makes a statement to the world, holding Luna and claiming that he is the leader of the Mutate rebellion. He says that now all humans will be exterminated in Genosha.

Review

This is the start of Bloodties, a crossover between the X-Men and Avengers franchises intended to celebrate their thirtieth anniversaries. I can maybe understand a special issue to celebrate an anniversary, but doing a crossover between two franchises because they started in the same year seems like a stretch. It’s not a bad issue, as Harras is able to make the setup for the storyline pretty interesting. The characters at least have an emotional stake in the story, which sets it above a lot of the crossovers from this era. Steve Epting’s art certainly isn’t at his current level of quality, but it’s decent enough.

There are some natural connections between the Avengers and X-Men, and the first part of the storyline exploits a few of them. Former Avenger Beast is paired again with Henry Gyrich, calling back to the late 70s/early 80s era of Avengers. Crystal is the mother of Magneto’s grandchild, so it’s logical that she would be drawn into the human/mutant conflict. Even though the first part of the story is in an Avengers issue, the crossover already feels more heavily balanced towards the X-universe. Genosha is firmly an X-book concept, and the impetus for the civil war is directly related to the recent X-crossover. The main villain, Fabian Cortez, is also firmly grounded in the X-universe. I’m not too familiar with this era in Avengers history, but it seems like the title is undergoing an X-makeover anyway. The leather jackets, headgear, bad haircuts, headbands, and odd costume designs all look like attempts to mimic the look of the X-titles. Characters with more traditional costumes, like Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch, look extremely out of place. One of the letters on the letters pages praises the book for having “attitude” now. Marvel’s promotional material for this event definitely hasn’t aged well, with even Captain America featured in a leather jacket and chunky headgear.

With Apartheid coming to an end, Marvel apparently decided to look for other global atrocities to find a new direction for Genosha. It looks like they decided on the civil war in Yugoslavia. Fury and SHIELD are introduced into the story solely to indicate the UN’s reluctance to get involved. I have a mental image of a dry erase board in Marvel’s conference room, with names like “North Korea”, “Bosnia-Herzegovina”, “Sudan”, “Afghanistan”, “East Timor”, and “Tibet” written all over it. “Okay, guys…I think we’re on to something…” If Marvel published this story today, I can just imagine Joe Quesada all over cable television, bragging about how smart and relevant this story is. I’m starting to miss the days when the media just ignored us.