Hello and welcome to another week of comic book greatness in Ye Olde School Café! In this installment, we’ll be diving even deeper into the Evolutionary War! This is a long story that bounces around a lot, but let’s face it, when dealing with the High Evolutionary, and almost all of the Marvel Universe, you’d have to, right? The next couple of issues all have prominent characters, but ones that vary quite a lot. This doesn’t undermine the overall theme of the High Evolutionary trying to attain his ultimate goal!
In New Mutants Annual #4, two alleged Morlocks are attacked by the Purifiers. The two mutants, Bulk and Glow Worm, are mutants that emit strong levels of radiation, and this has the Purifiers worried. They eventually capture them, though, and then are transported to a secret facility where they hook them up to some sort of machine. Over at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, Magneto is running things like a drill sergeant, and this ticks off Sunspot, so he walks out. The rest of the team is left to take the brunt of Magneto’s anger.
Many miles away from all of that, Magma and her friend, Manuel, are having a discussion on her father’s demand that she marry someone she doesn’t even know, let alone love. Before you know it, they are both attacked by the Purifiers, and Magma is abducted. The next scene shows Emma Frost getting a phone call from Magma’s father, explaining what’s happened. Emma then wants to talk to Magneto about what has transpired. The New Mutants eavesdrop on their conversation, and decide to take matters into their own hands. They’re then whisked away by the power of Magik to the exact spot of the Purifiers and their friend, Amara. The team goes into action, and Rahne gets savage with some of the villains. Sam launches through the air, and swoops in and grabs Amara. The scene quickly turns ugly, though, as Mirage leaps at the head guy, but gets tossed at the machine that was holding the Morlocks. It takes away her powers completely, and the team is noticeably rattled.
The team is reeling, but then Mirage realizes that the machine didn’t take her powers away, but now allows her to create solid constructs out of illusions. A horde of demons then attacks the entire room full of people, but once Mirage gets her hands on her Spirit Lance, the demons disappear. Outside, The Hellfire Club smashes the door in, and hurries to find Magma. As they run into the room, the team hides in the room next door, Magneto begins to interrogate the villains, and the team gets worried that they’ll spill the beans. Magneto also lets it slip that the Hellfire Club has “plans” for Magma. The team then makes a quick exit using Magik’s teleportation powers.
The next chapter is told in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22. Spidey is up to his usual tricks, and busts a warehouse full of hoods. As he returns home to MJ, they share a quick moment together, but are stunned when a TV reporter claims that Spidey killed the gang back at the warehouse. Little do they know, it was a set up by another crime boss. The next day, Matt Murdoch is reading the newspaper (with his extrasensory abilities), and realizes that Daredevil must get involved! The day after, Pete gets told by Ben Urich that J. Jonah is on his soapbox again about Spidey.
Meanwhile, the Kingpin is telling his minions that the recent actions of the Punisher in South America have cost him dearly. He wants to find out who or what is behind the robot suits that threatened his drug business. Later that night, Daredevil approaches Spidey. He tells him that he’ll help out in finding who is responsible for the frame up on Spidey. The next day, in an alleyway, we see a young guy getting bullied. When he’s pushed to the ground, he begins to glow, and then bounces around like an out of control atom. He levels a couple of the bullies, and then ends up on the roof. As he watches, two men in robotic suits show up and kill the thugs. Speedball vows to find out what’s going on.
Spidey and Daredevil then comb the seedy underworld of New York looking for answers. The Kingpin begins to find a clue to the identity of the men in the suits. Kingpin then nearly kills one of his henchmen in anger. Speedball is doing some investigating on his own, too. Again, back to the Kingpin, and he tells his lackey that he wants to feed Daredevil and Spidey some false information to trap them. Speaking of that duo, they enter a bar that looks pretty seedy, and begin to clean house. As they make their way to the top guy, they’re informed that the alleged “new guy” has an address across town on top of the Empire State Building. Spidey and Daredevil immediately jump into action, smash through the window, and then engage the men in the suits.
As things are progressing well, Speedball shows up and throws a monkey wrench into the whole operation. As things are falling apart slightly for the Kingpin, he has some of his boys arrange a little meeting, and tells one of the thugs from earlier that he will take the blame for the deaths in the warehouse. Back in his office, Kingpin realizes that something bigger is going on. He actually looks scared and admits that he’s worried. This is something totally new and out of character for him. Little does he know that his intuition is right on the money, because the High Evolutionary has plans that will stun everyone!
Well, that’s it for now, but be back next week for the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to enter this grand tale! See you next week!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net