War is Over, Cybertron (If You Want It)

This week at CBR, I continue my retrospective on Dreamwave's Transformers reboot from the 2000s. Is this possibly fan service done right? 

Dreamwave's Ultra Magnus Reveal was the Ultimate Transformers Fan Service

 

This week at CBR, I revisit the second Dreamwave Transformers miniseries, which made your playroom fan theories canon.

WOLVERINE/PUNISHER: REVELATION #4 - September 1999

So This is Hell

Credits: Tom Sniegoski & Christopher Golden (writers), Pat Lee (pencils & colors), Alvin Lee (inks), Sigmund Torre (background assist), Angela Tsang (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: The Punisher finds Revelation and protects her from the robots. To stop her from reaching the surface, he reaches into his angelic arsenal and summons a weapon that can’t harm her -- a crystal that holds the essence of her slain parents. The warhead robot appears and, despite the efforts of Wolverine and Punisher, fatally injures Revelation. Punisher places the warhead inside the hole in his chest and absorbs the blast. The Council of Thrones arrives and takes Revelation to Heaven. Healed, the Punisher reflects with Lucy. Meanwhile, Wolverine ponders the afterlife.

Review: The last issue hinted that, perhaps, this mini could redeem itself a bit by giving the Punisher a meaningful moral dilemma -- killing Revelation for what could be his only chance of ever seeing his family again. This issue resolves that ethical quandary by giving the Punisher whatever magic powers he needs for a Get Out of the Plot Free card. Just a few pages after magically pulling out a “weapon” that works like a Hallmark card, he’s also able to fill up the hole in his chest with a bomb blast and walk away none the worse for it. It’s hard to imagine why this status quo didn’t last, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, Wolverine remains incredulous at the idea of an afterlife, even after a lengthy battle with angel-powers Punisher, and witnessing first hand a host of angels taking a young woman to Heaven. Oh, yeah, Wolverine also traveled to HELL with Punisher (and let’s not forget Ghost Rider) in one of the highest-selling prestige format comics of all time. He still can’t wrap his head around this stuff? If the writers wanted to explore Wolverine’s willingness to believe in Hell but his skepticism towards Heaven, that’s an interesting idea that could work as a legitimate character arc, but that’s not what we’re getting. Wolverine’s disbelief doesn’t offer any insights into his character, and none of the events of the story seems to impact him in any way. His skepticism about the afterlife has barely been mentioned in the previous chapters, so pulling it out now as an emotional hook for this issue just seems like an odd choice, anyway. The final page of the comic even has Wolverine wistfully staring at the night sky, fruitlessly looking for answers…probably the most banal conclusion you could execute in any “faith” story. All of the Photoshop tricks in the world can’t cover up writing (and art) this shoddy.

WOLVERINE/PUNISHER: REVELATION #3 - August 1999

One Shot at Heaven

Credits: Tom Sniegoski & Christopher Golden (writers), Pat Lee (pencils), Alvin Lee (inks), Sigmund Torre (background assist), Angelo Tsang (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: The Punisher is injured while fighting the robots, discovering that his angelic powers seem unable to heal the hole in his chest. He carries on with Wolverine, but both fail to apprehend Revelation. After she knocks the heroes down with an energy burst, the Punisher realizes he’s sick. Meanwhile, a failsafe bomb designed by Soteira is triggered. Elsewhere, the Council of Thrones watches the events, fearful that Revelation will reach the surface.

Continuity Notes: A series of narrative captions attempts to explain how exactly Soteira built a sci-fi lab inside the Morlock Tunnels. The explanation is that the Morlocks often stole the material she needed from the surface, and that the failsafe bomb was appropriated from the Dark Beast.

Review: Assuming you’re willing to go along with the angelic Punisher makeover, there are a few decent character moments this issue. The Punisher is close to dying, his redemption mission incomplete, which means he’s damned to Hell and will never see his family again. This is motivation enough for him to kill Revelation, leaving Wolverine (who just lost his girlfriend to Revelation) to be the unlikely advocate for mercy. This is just a brief scene that doesn’t characterize the issue, but it is adequately written and I have to admit that it’s a justifiable use of the characters. Plus, a few narrative captions are thrown in to rationalize the peculiar misuse of the Morlocks in the previous issue, so...they tried, at least. The idea that the Morlocks had a secret futuristic anime lab in one corner of the sewers while their general population lived like paupers (and easy targets for a group of mercenaries) is still too absurd to buy, though, even if you’re bringing in the Dark Beast to help sell the idea. While I’m handing out backhanded praise, I’ll also point out that the art has noticeably improved this issue, even if many of the pages still look wonky.

WOLVERINE/PUNISHER: REVELATION #2 - July 1999

Ascension

Credits: Tom Sniegoski & Christopher Golden (writers), Pat Lee (pencils & colors), Alvin Lee (inker), Angelo Tsang (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: In the sewers, Wolverine discovers a holographic message left by a Morlock scientist named Soteira. She tells the story of a girl named Revelation who emits an uncontrollable death aura. After Revelation’s parents died, Soteira tried to help her control her powers. When Soteira grew too sick, she placed Revelation in a cryogenic freeze and created robotic guards to prevent anyone from disturbing her body. Wolverine tracks down the adult Revelation but is nearly killed by her. Using his powers of psychometry, the Punisher reaches the scene and is attacked by Wolverine as he gains consciousness. The Punisher subdues Wolverine by shooting him in the head. Clear-headed, Wolverine agrees to team with the Punisher, as robotic guards suddenly emerge.

Continuity Notes: I’m sure ninety-eight percent of my readers already know this, but the Morlocks are not a hi-tech race of scientists with access to advanced robotic and cybernetic technology. They live like homeless people.

Review: I think this is obviously Not Very Good, but I’ll try to list the few highlights. The concept that Revelation was raised religious and can’t let go of the guilt she feels for accidentally killing her parents has potential. Sniegoski & Golden get some use out of the idea this issue by revealing that she imagined herself in Hell during her years in the cryogenic freeze, which is causing her to hallucinate Wolverine as a demon and motivate her desire to reach the surface, which she now perceives as Heaven. The idea could also work as a parallel to the Punisher’s new status quo, assuming you think the angelic Punisher deserves any attention in the first place.

But…c’mon. It’s rather obvious that the creators behind this comic don’t know what a Morlock is, yet feel oddly compelled to drag them into the story. This extremely vague knowledge of X-continuity, where writers seem to only be aware of a character’s name and perhaps a one-sentence description, will infiltrate the X-books once the Marvel Knights approach dominates Marvel. (I believe Geoff Johns will go on to write a Morlocks miniseries that places them in Chicago, living in a world where Sentinels openly kill mutants on sight.) In my opinion, it’s one of the main reasons why the X-books have collapsed in popularity since the dawn of the new millennium. That ongoing soap opera that continued to build and build and build on the past was gone, replaced by arbitrary characterizations and relentless shock value that only served to alienate even more fans. I’m not saying that someone writing Fantastic Four or Avengers has to be an expert on X-continuity, but if you want the sales bump that comes with Wolverine as a co-headliner, perhaps you should do ten minutes of research before using these characters so casually? (And, yes, I know the next issue has a throwaway rationalization that brings Dark Beast into the mix, but it's not enough to make the idea work.)

Ignoring the continuity complaints, the book still has problems. Any page that describes the Punisher’s angelic psychometric powers just feels wrong, and the obligatory fight scene between Wolverine and Punisher is a poorly executed waste of time. Pat Lee’s goofy interpretation of these characters also doesn’t suit the story, although I see the colorists have worked overtime to distract from the amateurish art.

WOLVERINE/PUNISHER: REVELATION #1 - June 1999

Ladies in Waiting

Credits: Tom Sniegoski & Christopher Golden (writers), Pat Lee (penciler), Alvin Lee (inker), Angelo Tsang & Pat Lee (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Wolverine goes on a date with his new girlfriend Caley Blair, while the Punisher escorts his friend’s sister Lucy home. After stopping a drive-by shooting with his new angelic powers, the Punisher is abruptly kidnapped by the Council of Thrones, a group of angels who demand he use his powers in their service. He refuses and returns home. During Wolverine’s date, Caley is called away on museum business. He follows her to the museum’s dig underneath New York’s subway tunnels. A mysterious force emerges from the tunnels and kills Caley. Simultaneously, a sickness infects the local citizens, including Lucy.

“Huh?” Moment: As he dons his costume on the final page, Wolverine reflects: “It ain’t been long enough since I had occasion to dress like this. It sure ain’t what I wanted. But Caley was somethin’ special.” Is there an implication here that Wolverine doesn’t wear his costume all of the time while fighting evil? In titles such as Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, and Wolverine?

I Love the ‘90s: Caley wears a beeper, and is even paged 9-1-1 when the excavation accident happens.

Review: I haven’t really discussed the Marvel Knights line yet; the line that seemed like such a good idea at the time, and has aged about as well as a Backstreet Boys album. The narrative that certain people like to advance is that Marvel was a creatively bankrupt storing house of old IPs in the late ‘90s, the House of Dull Bland Comics that apparently no one was buying. It took the vision of Joe Quesada (and, oh yeah, Jimmy Palmiotti) to create a line that rose above the banality to produce Smart Daring Comics that could reach a mainstream audience. I will politely call this revisionist history.

Bob Harras had his faults, and favoritism was certainly one of them. It’s obvious that certain creators of dubious talent were allowed to stay way too long on various X-Men and Spider-Man titles. It’s clear that too many X-titles were being published and the overall line was lacking focus, while the Spider-Man books were mired in an embarrassing attempt at forced nostalgia that seemed to be alienating both old and new readers. But the “core” Marvel Universe was doing just fine, and that’s not a minor accomplishment. A portion of the audience had turned on Dan Jurgens and Chris Claremont by this point, but the rest of the line was being written by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, and Mark Waid. These guys know superheroes. Young Turks like Joe Kelly, Brian K. Vaughn, Joe Casey, and Joseph Harris were starting to make a name for themselves on other titles. And what about the art? George Perez, John Romita, Jr., Andy Kubert, Ron Garney…nothing to sneeze at. For the first time in years, mainstays like Captain America and Thor were consistently outperforming the average X-spinoff.

So…X-titles in a rut, but still selling (comparatively) well. Spider-Man forced into a relaunch that commercially flames out within a year. Mainstream Marvel titles doing very well. Not a perfect track record, but Marvel is still selling more comics than anyone else, and there are really no problems that couldn’t be fixed with a little planning and a couple of new creative teams. That leaves the “edgier” Marvel books. The ones that once were literally called “Marvel Edge” (I swear.) Well, Marvel had mixed results farming four of its core titles out to Wildstorm and Extreme Studios during Heroes Reborn, but overall those books sold quite well and generated a lot of publicity for characters that had been ignored for years. Why not license a few of the street-level books, along with some of the more obscure titles that ordinarily can’t make it to issue twenty-five, to another studio? Only this time, the books will be firmly set in the Marvel Universe, no continuity is rebooted, and the people responsible for the books physically move into the Marvel offices. It’s almost as if they learned something from Heroes Reborn.

In the fall of 1998, Event Comics founders Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti moved to Marvel to create Marvel Knights. The idea was that only top-tier creators would be assigned these comics, and the art and production values would be impeccable. The first book announced was Daredevil by Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada. At the time, Joe Quesada wasn’t known as an artist with a penchant for chubby heroes with dopey faces, and Kevin Smith was viewed as a promising young screenwriter who happened to like comics. Really, someone from movies writing a comic? That’s crazy. Plus, everyone likes Daredevil, even if his book is rarely in the Top Ten. This was going to be a hit.

The other Marvel Knights titles included an Inhumans miniseries by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee (an unusual pairing that actually worked out, even if some people complained that the series was too slow), an ongoing Black Panther series by cult-favorite writer Christopher Priest and former Wolverine artist Mark Texeira (which debuts strong and receives great reviews), and a supernatural-themed Punisher miniseries by Tom Sniegoski & Christopher Golden and legendary horror artist Bernie Wrightson (umm…).

Marvel Knights was a massive hit, commercially and critically. These were intelligent, stylish superhero comics with production values that were previously reserved for overpriced prestige-format titles (slick paper was still something of a rarity on standard-line Marvel and DC comics of the era). I’m not sure if any of those books have aged well, with the exception of Black Panther, perhaps because it didn’t try to be so SERIOUS, but at the time, the consensus seemed to be that the Marvel Knights titles were the best mainstream superhero comics in years. Some fans began to demand a Marvel Knights takeover of the entire line. And yet, whenever the brilliance of Marvel Knights was discussed, everyone seemed to forget about that Punisher limited series…

The initial Punisher miniseries received scathing reviews; forget the Bernie Wrightson art…this thing was dumb. The Punisher should not be hanging out with angels. He should not be facing supernatural villains. His guns shouldn’t be glowing, and they should actually look like guns. Who the heck were the guys writing this thing, anyway? Because people liked the other MK titles so much, they were willing to dismiss this as a fluke. Surely if Joe Quesada (the more vocal of the duo, and clearly the one with the highest profile) was to take over Marvel, you wouldn’t have a series of no-name writers making arbitrary and shockingly misguided changes to established Marvel characters…right?

This leads us to 1999’s second wave of Marvel Knights titles. Wolverine/Punisher: Revelation is a follow-up to the previous year’s Punisher series, and it’s a sign that maybe someone at Marvel Knights can be slow to admit to a mistake. Perhaps it’s the same person who thinks adding Wolverine to everything makes it better. Aside from the addition of Wolverine, the commercial hook of the mini is allegedly Pat Lee’s colors and art. Pat Lee was already pretty unpopular with the hardcore internet comics fandom of the time, but Wizard magazine loved him. His status as a “hot” artist seemed to be based on his ability to mimic not just manga but more specifically anime. His pages looked like something out of Ghost in the Shell…until you actually looked at his art and realized that he can’t draw faces or anatomy or tell a coherent story to save his life. Credit to Lee for using technology to develop a new coloring style for comics, but everything Udon Studios publishes today puts this work to shame.

The story opens with Wolverine going on a date with a previously unknown girlfriend named Caley. It’s kind of a presumptuous idea for people who aren’t in charge of the character to be throwing into a miniseries, but in fairness, Wolverine’s love life has been virtually non-existent for around ten years at this point. I mean, he’s married to Viper, but everyone tried to forget that. I don’t necessarily mind the debut of a new girlfriend, and Sniegoski & Golden do have the decency to do a believable flashback that establishes how they met. My first thought upon seeing Caley was that she was going to be killed off in the final issue. She doesn’t even make it to the final page of the first issue. So much for being daring and unpredictable, Marvel Knights. Having Wolverine do a mental rundown of all of his other dead girlfriends just a few pages into the story doesn’t exactly make Caley’s ultimate fate too hard to figure out, either.

Wolverine’s story is intercut with scenes of the Punisher starting a new domestic life with his friend’s sister (I initially assumed this was his friend's daughter, since Punisher served with this guy in Vietnam and Lucy looks around twenty), using glowing supernatural cannons to non-lethally stop criminals, and later talking to angels. All things the Punisher should not be doing. His path begins to cross with Wolverine’s when the generic mystical plot device underneath New York is accidentally unleashed. Not that they actually meet in this issue, of course. “Sophisticated” comics take time. Doesn’t this sound exciting? Quesada and Palmiotti have been given creative freedom, huge budgets, high production values, and this is what they produce? If this is the Marvel Knights’ idea of “quality control,” it’s a bad omen for Marvel’s future.

GLORY/ANGELA #1 - April 1996

Angels in Hell

Credits: Rob Liefeld (story), Jim Valentino (script, layouts), Andy Park & Pat Lee (pencils), Sean Parsons & Marlo Alquiza w/Alan Martinez & Kyle Roberts (inks), Christian Lichtner & Extreme Color (colors), Steve Dutro (letters)

Summary: Metatron informs Glory and Angela that Celestine has been possessed by Malebolgia since her resurrection. They travel to Hell to rescue the captive Celestine, discovering that Malebolgia has expanded his rule past the Eighth Circle. Glory and Angela are unable to defeat Malebolgia, but they receive help from an unexpected source -- Lucifer. Lucifer sends Malebolgia back to the Eighth Circle and returns Celestine’s soul. He takes the heroes to his posh lair and opens a doorway to the previously unknown Tenth Circle, the Elysium. Celestine is restored as an angel, while Glory and Angela are returned to Earth by Metatron.

Spawntinuity: Malebolgia declares himself second only to Lucifer, which is a more specific categorization of his place in Hell than Spawn has revealed so far. Lucifer is portrayed as a handsome, middle-aged man in a business suit. He tells Angela they’ll meet again soon.

The Big Names: Future "controversy" magnet Pat Lee is the co-artist. Randy Queen’s Darkchylde is previewed in a backup story.

Creative Differences: The title of this one-shot was originally solicited as “Hell’s Angels.”

Review: Hmm…this final chapter of an Extreme Studios crossover looks like a rushed mess. I just can’t believe it. Judging by the recap of the middle issues of the crossover, all we’ve missed is a fight scene between the Extreme heroes and an army of undead soldiers resurrected by Celestine with the angels’ satellite, and the “shocking” revelation that Malebolgia’s possessed her the entire time. The finale consists of more pointless fights, a few splash pages of Malebolgia (the only character the artists seem interested in drawing), and the introduction of Lucifer. I guess there’s some irony in having Lucifer play the Deus Ex Machina role, but it’s hard not to view this as a stereotypically bad Extreme comic.

As far as ‘90s crossovers go, this one was remarkably low-key. I don’t recall any promotion in Spawn whatsoever for it, and don’t remember any hype in Wizard for the event, either. Clearly, this was an attempt to cash in on the “Bad Girl” fad, but it’s also the first major storyline to bridge the Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld corners of Image (Spawn and Chapel have a history, and Badrock faced Violator, but they never triggered a crossover event). It seems like it should’ve been a bigger deal. In terms of Spawn continuity, it’s Angela’s first appearance since her miniseries, the introduction of Malebolgia’s boss Lucifer, and the final confirmation of an idea hinted at in Alan Moore’s first fill-in…the Tenth Circle of Hell is actually Heaven. McFarlane was even introducing a new angel, Tiffany, into the mythos at this time. Couldn’t he have coordinated it with this event? This storyline opened with a decent premise; unfortunately, no one seemed too interested in the execution.