I think I always start with the back cover.

The front cover has the bar code, right? Ah, let's just do this: from 1994, Marvel Comics Presents #158, opening with the ClanDestine preview "Scare Tactics" Written and penciled by Alan Davis, inks by Mark Farmer. Fighting an array of robots, youngsters Rory and Pandora are gung-ho, until they're crushed! The Hulk-ish Walter is furious with Woody Allen-lookalike Newton; since this was supposed to be a Danger Room-style training session to scare the kids out of superheroing, but they survive and thrive...which makes the rest of the family concerned they would be discovered. This issue might've been discovered by scalpers, after the ClanDestine's somewhat baffling appearance on Disney's Ms. Marvel show, but I wrote the rest of this post before that!

Next, Kymaera...you know, Kymaera? OK, Namorita, from when she was blue! She wasn't thrilled about it either, and was trying to get to geneticist Matrix to maybe get changed back. I'm not sure how exactly that was going to happen, or how she was going to convince Matrix to do that, since the cape-wearing drama queen scuttles her sub and abandons her crew to get away. Kymaera saves the crew and turns them over to the Coast Guard, but laments she may never be what she was...Of course she'd get changed back at some point there. ("Reversal of Fortune, part 4 of 4" Story and art by Ed Lazellari, inks by Joe Rosas.)

Under the other cover, we find yet another middle chapter of a Vengeance serial--good grief, I'll see how one ends someday. Michael Badilino has fallen prey to the old "give up my powers, oh wait, now they're being misused and I have to take them back" plot. Phantome is now rampaging through the city as a knockoff of Vengeance, which makes her a knockoff of a knockoff of Ghost Rider; while her old thug Gargantua tries to get Michael to save his boss and change her back. After she melts a homeless guy's face (!) and tries the same on Michael, he realizes he still has her powers; Phantome just manifested her own somehow. With multiple deaths (including Gargantua, apparently) she realizes she'd lost it, but with her and Vengeance surrounded by fuel cannisters on a burning pier, it may be too little, too late! ("Altered Spirits, part 3 of 4, Fire and Blood" Written by Chris Cooper, pencils by Reggie Jones, inks by Fred Harper.)

Lastly, the conclusion of a Shang-Chi three-parter, "The Gauntlet" Written by Karl Bollers, pencils by Cary Nord, inks by Bambos Gorgio. Shang manages to rescue Leiko, but is then drugged by Lazarus, then has a flashback to his childhood and another ordeal at the hands of Fu Manchu nope, he's just referred to as "my father" here, multiple times! Shang's dad tries to force him to kill and fails, but that doesn't save the victim. Shang comes back to end the gauntlet with the "silent shout," which doesn't seem to be one he uses often? Ever?

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I had looked it up the other day, but "the Cross-Time Caper" in Excalibur was like 30 years ago! And today's book a mere twelve or so: Clandestine #3, story and pencils by Alan Davis, inks by Mark Farmer.

This issue's cover is a homage to Davis's own Excalibur #1; which hasn't been homaged as many times as Maguire's Justice League #1, but it's had a few! And this was midway through their last (to date) limited series but ties back into the Cross-Time Caper era, as a misadventure involving a role-play date (best left alone!) leads to Dominic thrown through a dimensional doorway and landing on Excalibur's train! Their Marvel-misunderstanding scuffle doesn't last long; partially because Excalibur is pretty polite for a super-team, but they also have the best telepath, Rachel. (Jean < Emma < Rachel < Alan Davis's Rachel. I will brook no discussion on this topic.)
Landing on yet another alternate reality, Kitty quizzes Dom, and doesn't think he's from their earth, since he was from 2008. Kitty doesn't say what year she was from, but it "definitely" wasn't 2008. But after Kurt saves some ungrateful slaves and Rachel punches out some remote-controlled red dinosaurs, an alien ship knocks them out and takes some of them! Ooh, I bought this random issue out of a quarter bin to blog, and have the whole series elsewhere, but are they on Killraven's earth?

Also this issue: the main plot involving the Clan Destine losing control of their powers continues. When their dad Adam disappears, the youngest of the family, masked kids Rory and Pandora; try to get their older siblings Kay Cera and Sam from a goth wedding. Goth wedding? It may actually have vampires!

I took a second to look up the sales numbers and...man, this issue sold worse than Simon Dark? Well, I haven't read that, maybe it was swell--oh, c'mon, Jenna Jameson's Shadow Hunter sold better? I wish I could sit comics in the corner to make it think about what it's done, since as always, Alan Davis draws the living hell out of this.
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