Monday, June 08, 2020

Things have not been great lately, to the point that it's tough to work up the gumption to pick up a comic, let alone make fun of one. Then a comic just irks you, and it all comes rushing back: from 1993, Marvel Comics Presents #126.

If this cover had been facing out, I would've bought this issue much more quickly than I did: Steve Lightle Ghost Rider and Typhoid Mary? I hadn't realized Typhoid had been in this title more, but this was midway through a Ghost Rider/Typhoid Mary serial, "Walking Wounded." We're coming in cold here, but an unhinged security guard appears to be lashing out at women in general and "tramps and harpies" specifically, because as a child his mommy told him "bad women took (his) daddy away." That probably wouldn't hold a lot of water with Typhoid even if she knew, and she lights him up like a family barbeque. Ghost Rider is in a bit of a bind, since Typhoid deserves punishment, but doing so spills the innocent blood of Mary, who may have been attracted to Dan. Wait, Dan Ketch? Come on. I'm going to be brutally honest here, his only character traits were he had a motorcycle and he disappeared a lot. You could do better, Mary. ("Jerk the Bait" Story and script by Ann Nocenti, story and art by Steve Lightle.)

Dave Hoover penciled two features this issue, and we'll start with Iron Fist, "The Book of Changes, part 2 of 6: A Mystery Wrapped in a Puzzle Inside an Enigma" Written by Joey Cavalieri, inks by Jeff Albrecht. Defending a mysterious pyramid Anomaly, Iron Fist has captured escape artist Skeleton Ki, but he's broken out by a pair of A.I.M. troops. Fist is uncharacteristically upset with longtime girlfriend Misty Knight for worrying about him instead of tracking A.I.M, but he suspects someone of betraying him and Rand Industries to Hydra and A.I.M. Not trusting anyone, he takes the Anomaly and stomps off. Man, Misty could do better, too.

I liked Hoover's art better in the She-Hulk feature, the conclusion to "Adrenazon's Revenge: To Thine Own Self Be True" Written by Kelly Corvese, inks by Robert Campanella. The titular Adrenazon wanted to take Jen's place, to get away from her own life as the widow of a drunk driver that committed suicide, presumably after Jen put him away. When Adrenazon tries to kill Jen with a bulldozer, she has a flashback to her husband running down some bystanders, and realizes she can't do it. With the problem largely solved, then the cops show up, after Jen for breaking jail, and Adrenazon gets shot. Still, she's okay in the end, if sadder and wiser and not green.

Finally, the main lead feature, Wolverine/Lynx "Passion Play, part 4 of 6, Widow's Sting" Written by Scott Lobdell, pencils by Dennis Jensen, inks by John Holdredge. Lynx? We don't really see much of her this issue, as Black Widow enters the quest to recover the mysterious girl who had been injected with a secret drug and then kidnapped by Imus Champion. Wolvie, French hero Le Peregrine, and German the Courier get into Champion's lab disguised as mad scientists-turned-mutated assassins the Fleshtones. I know I missed some chapters, but what? This feels like somebody at Marvel thought they should hop on the name Lynx before anyone else grabbed it.

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