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THE AVENGERS PROJECT: CHAPTER 4 – THE HULK
Chapter 4
The Hulk is the strongest one there is or ever will be. A character that was beset by printing issues, coloring mistakes and general disinterest upon initial release, The Hulk has to be one of Marvel’s biggest pop culture breakthroughs. The many iterations, eras and actors portraying the character have created something that is beyond what one can rationalize. The Green Goliath has graced the cover of Rolling Stone, met Tom Wolfe and made Lou Ferrigno a nerd culture icon. No matter what the character did, America loved him and people were wearing purple pants everywhere you went. The TV show and lame Ang Lee adaptation were a given by the point. Yeah, it’s an Asian director crafting a tale of artists disappointing their authoritative parents and turning into rage monsters! I get it and I don’t care. My preference is somewhere between Bixby’s calm and Ruffalo’s compassion in the role.
Dr. Robert Bruce Banner began life as an abused child desperately trying to protect his mother. After some time, an adult Banner calls out his father for the abuse and then kills him. Burying the incident as an accident in his mind, this incident of rage begins a cycle of repression and anger that creates The Hulk. The actual green monster man would appear after Rick Jones drove out onto a Gamma Bomb testing site. The fallout would smack into Banner’s body and start the process of making a Hulk. Some time would pass and then Banner would change for the first time. From there, it was Stan Lee trying to figure out how to work the transformations for best story effect.
Gamma radiation is a unique concept that Stan Lee pretty much threw out the window. The conceit behind the Hulk was another early 60s nuclear scare metaphor that aped the best parts of Jekyll and Hyde. The Hulk was going to be a brainy scientist that became a hulking beast that took revenge on the Sci-Fi conceits of the burgeoning Marvel Universe. Over the decades, he would find out new things about the Gamma Bomb. But, we’ll offer up more about that later. The Hulk would fight a handful of small time villains including Tyrannus before his first series was cancelled. A few scant months later, he joined The Avengers. His featured role was being turned into a mechanical circus clown by Loki after being manipulated into creating the event that brought The Avengers together. Just like the movie! But, minus Tom Hiddleston and the mechanical clown stuff.
After facing an early cancellation, The Hulk made his way to The Avengers and quickly left after two issues. The reason he left was due to blasting himself with excessive Gamma Radiation to aid his transformations. Now, the Hulk was changing at random and Banner didn’t feel he could control the beast anymore. Shortly after leaving the team and fighting with Dr. Pym for a bit, the Hulk first discovers that stress is the key to his Hulk transformations. While trying to control his stress/anger, the Hulk becomes far more savage and Banner’s intelligence loses hold. Running alongside these developments, Major Glenn Talbot and General Thunderbolt Ross are using the Army to hunt down The Hulk and now Banner due to Talbot witnessing one of the Hulk’s random transformations.
The Hulk would return to The Avengers at odd times for anniversaries, but General Thunderbolt Ross would have a longer stretch as a member during his Red Hulk phase. If you think that’s a spoiler, then you might also be shocked to hear that Snape killed Dumbledore. To save time, I’ll take us through the next 15 years of Hulk history in one breath. Ready? Hulk nearly gets married to Betty, but Glenn gets in the way. Hulk goes into space, meets a green Empress that uses magic to cure him of the savage Hulk nature. Hulk meets The Wendigo and Wolverine, fights both. Hulk goes back into space and meets Rocket Raccoon. The Hulk also becomes a Defenders founding member, but then we start going all psychological in the 80s right before Peter David takes over the book.
Banner/Hulk has always been viewed as a liability and his most recent role has been as space outcast. The “Planet Hulk” storyline has turned into this short run that has captured geekdom’s attention. Honestly, I’m a bigger fan of his rage rampage against the Marvel Superhero Illuminati that abandoned him to die in space. “World War Hulk” and “Planet Hulk” need each other, but “World War Hulk” allows decades’ worth of rage pour out of The Hulk against the heroes that treated him like dirt. Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Stephen Strange and Black Bolt could’ve cured The Hulk at any time or tried to help the guy. The heroes did it for anyone else, but Banner was always kept at arm’s length.
Now, the Illuminati of the Marvel Universe has killed Hulk’s new wife, unborn child and left him to die in Space. The Hulk fought for his life on a gladiatorial world and made his way back to do the right thing. The Illuminati deserved to get their ass kicked. The efforts to push down Banner after what was a well deserved revenge shoved me away from the character for a bit. But, I appreciated Mark Waid’s efforts on the book. Banner realizes that he needs a legacy outside of the Hulk, so he offers up the Hulk as a living weapon for S.H.I.E.L.D. to use against superhuman enemies. Things were going great until “Original Sin” happened and Banner learned something about Stark.
The Gamma Bomb that went crazy and mutated Banner into the Hulk was Tony Stark’s fault. The drunken weapons magnate thought that Banner made a mistake and changed the design of the bomb about a day before the fateful blast. The problem was that Banner wasn’t wrong and Stark’s tampering created the event that birth the Hulk. Fearing for his life and the fate of his world, Stark tries to make amends in the present by helping to find a way to fix Banner’s problems. So, he injects Extremis into his brain. Extremis was the techno-organic system that created one of Stark’s most memorable armor suits and it was the plot device for “Iron Man 3”.
After the Stark origin revelations, The Hulk found himself infected with Extremis and birthed a new personality dubbed Doc Green. Doc Green goes all “Armor Wars”, as he realizes that the planet has way too many Gamma powered individuals. So, he finds a way to depower everyone that he can touch. A few like She Hulk manage to escape his wrath, but Doc Green seems unhinged to his S.H.I.E.L.D. science team and others. Unbeknownst to the Modern Marvel Universe, Doc Green is taking steps to become The Maestro of the future. Who’s The Maestro? He’s the aged Hulk of a distant future who has slaughtered all of Marvel’s heroes and villains so that he reigns supreme. It’s funny what 53 years can do to a character.
THE X-MEN PROJECT: CHAPTER 42 – SABRETOOTH IS A DOG MAN
Chapter 42
Victor Creed was born sometime/somewhere in the 19th century Canadian Frontier. While Logan’s origin tale does the future Wolverine no favors, readers learn that Victor Creed had it much worse. When his mutant powers first appeared, his father caged him and would rip his canine teeth out of his skull everyday. The teeth would grow back due to his healing factor and the process would repeat until Victor killed his father. Victor escaped his home to reunite his brother and sister. His siblings had recently liberated a rather savage mutant from Nathaniel Essex. The future Mr. Sinister had been collecting mutants in Canada to slice and dice. Thus, the chalky geneticist is the reason why Sabretooth’s siblings were able to introduce Victor to Wolverine.
Things happen and Saul Creed ends up getting killed. Victor blames Wolverine for what happened and a vendetta is born. Year later, Sabretooth would retaliate against Logan by killing his lover Silver Fox. Due to the Hama run and later tampering, it would turn out that Wolverine wasn’t that fond of Silver Fox. Plus, she didn’t die. Everyone would later reunite as part of Team X. Throw in John Wraith and Maverick to round out our mutant Black Ops team and you’ve got the early to mid 90s in a nutshell. During this time, Sabretooth throws down with Mystique and sires Graydon Creed. Some time after that, Sabretooth abandons Team X to work as a freelance mercenary in Saigon.
Victor and Logan first met in the Modern Era after Sabretooth had teamed up with the Constrictor to fight Iron Fist and Misty Knight. While Phoenix showed up around some of those early Iron Fist stories, nothing directly connected Wolvie to Sabretooth until the Mutant Massacre. Right before Gambit recruits Sabretooth for the Marauders, Sabretooth fights The Black Cat and Spider-Man on behalf of The Foreigner. The Black Cat nearly loses her leg to Sabretooth, but is saved thanks to a well-placed crowbar. But, things aren’t resolved as Sabretooth gets the orders to head into the Morlock Tunnels to murder innocent homeless mutants.
Sabretooth is directly implicated in the deaths of Mole and Chickenwings. But, the worse comes when Sabretooth follows the Morlock tunnels back into the X-Mansion. Psylocke is left alone to defend the Mansion against Sabretooth and wins. Sabretooth would later gravely injure Psylocke during a brief period of captivity. But, that’s an aspect of what Sabretooth does. He likes to find the most defenseless people and abuse them. Make no mistake that Sabretooth is one of the worst mutants allowed to love, but there is a method to his madness. Later, he would work with the Marauders to target Polaris and Madelyne Pryor at strategic times to draw the X-Men into a larger trap.
When Sabretooth started a life of costume mercenary work. He aimed small, but always meant to feed a larger desire of carnage. It was only after dealing with mutant telepaths that would give him the Glow would cause him to taper off. The “glow” were the Psionic charges that telepaths would fire into his brain that would cause Sabretooth to calm down suggesting that there might be a chemical imbalance to the mutant. Sabretooth would later hire the mutant telepath Birdy to keep him telepathically charged, but Birdy would later be killed by his son Graydon Creed. Fearing for his mental sanctity, Sabretooth would turn to the X-Men for help as a means of getting his psionic fix.
A bone claw to the brain from Wolverine fixed this matter and then we went back into traditional violent Sabretooth mode. Sabretooth would later be shipped off to X-Factor where he worked as a secret government mole designated to assassinate team members who stepped out of line. This echoes back to his work within the Marauders, as a long-term planner who knew that he was always being called upon to clean up messes. Sabretooth would later work with a revamped Weapon X program, Apocalypse and Romulus to keep crafting plans to keep Wolverine on the ropes. Things were going good until Wolverine used the Muramasa blade to cut off Sabretooth’s left arm and head.
Over the years, there has been an attempt to force bonds between Wolverine and Sabretooth. Whether it’s tying their origins to a long lost lineage of Lupine Human ancestors or trying to suggest that they are father and son. None of that pans out, as writers realize that it would only serve to take the vicious bite out of Victor Creed. Well, this all changed when Sabretooth died and was sent to Hell. Wolverine went after him to find that his spirit had been broken and he was left as a lap dog for the Devil. Victor steals Satan’s sword and battles it out with Wolverine, because that the way things are done. As quick as that sudden mood change was, Sabretooth dies again in Hell. But, that all is forgotten by the time that he returns to Earth to start a Yakuza gang war. Comics, people.
The one thing about the character that continues to make me happy is his willingness to slip back in awful acts of evil. He guts the homeless, kills women, attacks children and lives to destroy the mutant world. He works to balance out Wolverine, as Logan constantly sees what he could’ve been had things gone wrong. That being said, Victor Creed goes beyond that with the Sabretooth persona. He is a mutant given true power over his destiny, but all he wants to do is rack up a bodycount. Nothing is as frightening as someone that can hear something like Xavier’s dream and scoff at it. Not because he can’t follow it, but because he’s already decided that terror is the only thing that matters in life.
In a Post-Axis Marvel Universe, I’m not sure that I truly buy an inverted Sabretooth. What Remender wants to do with the new Avengers team is neat, but there are too many character shifts to make it work. I’ll be intrigued to see if Rogue’s Avengers team can go out of its way to forgive a mutant or two that took part in genocide. But, that might just be the fatal moralist in me. Some actions should never be forgiven and Sabretooth has had his razor sharp talons in quite a few of those pies.
THE X-MEN PROJECT: CHAPTER 41 – MYSTIQUE HAS A TON OF SEX
Chapter 41
Mystique is such a loaded character. For the longest time, she was presented as the evil foster mother figure until the 90s spent so much time showing how she slept her way around the Marvel Universe. What got left in the dust was the fact that she was a polyglot who had lived for more than 100 years while experimenting with her sexuality. The sexuality angle is hard to pin down on Mystique, as it’s hard to assume that her base form is the true representation of the shape-shifter. Mystique identifies as female, but could easily grow external genitals and bang half of Madripoor. I want to get all of this out of the way, as it has little impact on my views of the character.
Mystique first appeared as a Ms. Marvel villain, who brutally killed that killer’s lover and infiltrated her government workplace. What’s so amusing about that infiltration is that Mystique kept that government job for more than a decade. That would be like if Lex Luthor put on a pair of glasses to work at the Daily Planet. Then, he spent every waking hour abusing the power of the press and starting memes about Superman being a dick. But, what did Mystique do before all of this? I hate to say it, but you can easily trace her back story via her children and other hangers-on.
Before Mystique infiltrated DARPA, she was a young mutant at the dawn of the 20th Century. While struggling to survive, she met a young Irene Adler (Destiny), whose age will continue to be a sticking point for many years to come. They had an off-panel romantic relationship that lasted for many decades. FUN FACT: Mystique and Destiny were originally intended to be Nightcrawler’s parents. Mystique would’ve shifted into a dude form and knocked up Destiny to create the world’s greatest Fuzzy Elf. Being as that was a Jim Shooter era story, Jim Shooter went into one of his patented giant rages over a brilliant story idea. Nightcrawler would later be revealed to have been the son of a mutant demon from Hell, who Mystique banged while cheating on her German baron husband. While this would eventually introduce the world to the Bamfs, there is so much garbage to shovel around in regards to that story.
Graydon Creed was the result of Sabretooth and Mystique having sex while the duo was on assignment in Berlin. Apparently, shape shifting makes your womb super fertile. When Mystique found out that Graydon wouldn’t be a mutant, she abandoned the kid to the Marvel grade orphanage system. She would later take part in a time shifted manipulated assassination attempt that allowed her to shoot Graydon in the face…to death. People tend to forget about that, as I feel like I’m one of 10 people that actually read the X-Men Forever mini-series. Now, let’s move onto her favorite kid.
Destiny and Mystique adopted Rogue, after they found her as a runway in Mississippi. Mystique bonded with the powerful little girl who had no idea how to control herself. She would groom the young woman into the perfect mutant soldier, but she went too far. Rogue would take off across the country to fight Ms. Marvel to the death for insulting/injuring her foster mother. That’s when Rogue went super crazy absorby and stole Ms. Marvel’s powers on a permanent basis. Mystique did her best to try and control Rogue’s new power surge, but Rogue quickly became a liability that others exposed. Mastermind would manipulate the Hellfire Club and other factions to destroy Rogue’s grip on the Ms. Marvel persona. The result would shatter Rogue’s mind and send her away from Mystique and to the X-Men.
During this time, Mystique would first assemble her Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. She tried to killed Senator Robert Kelly, but she was stopped by a future version of Kitty Pryde. Dystopian futures were prevent and Mystique would spent the next few years between two roles. Constant revenge on the X-Men for stealing Rogue away from her and using her government position to create a legal task force to hunt the X-Men. Freedom Force was formed right when I discovered Mystique and I dug the genius move. She was a government employee who used her secret identity to manipulate efforts to protect her friends and hunt her enemies. The idea would run its course by the end of Claremont’s legendary run, but it work well for what it was.
The Muir Isle Saga would see Mystique hide out as Val Cooper to mess with The Shadow King. Ultimately, she reconciles with Rogue and makes peace with the death of Destiny. Destiny’s death will be covered at a later time, but rest assured it impacted Mystique. Things were going for Raven Darkholme until the constant shifting caused her mind to start to break down. Mystique would spent most of the 1990s in Forge’s care, as he tried to treat her burgeoning mental illness. Forge would later recruit Mystique into his X-Factor team, while she wanted to use the position to avenge Destiny’s death by murdering Legion. Legion was Professor Xavier’s crazy mentally powered son that he had with a Holocaust survivor that he telepathically manipulated. For those that want a little more in-depth coverage on that ethical violation, I recommend checking out the latest episode of Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men.
Legion would go on to cause the Age of Apocalypse which is getting an entry so large that I started writing it last October and it’ll be done by the end of March/early April. Let’s do the 00s in one big swoop. Mystique would learn that Destiny was behind the anti-mutant conspiracy that she dedicated her life to fighting. Destiny foresaw the need for a cause to unite mutants around, but Mystique went bonkers and lashed out at the world. She reformed her Brotherhood, destroyed the Muir Isle research center, caused Dr. Moira MacTaggert’s death, depowered Wolfsbane temporarily and contributed to the successful assassination of Senator Robert Kelly. She also slits Banshee’s throat and stops the spread of the X-Corps. The X-Corps weren’t the worst idea, just poorly executed.
Mystique would become a double agent for Xavier in Vaughn’s underrated solo series. This would lead Mystique to join the team and work with Rogue’s squad to defeat Apocalypse and his newly assembled Horsemen. Mystique would later betray the X-Men, help usher in the first new mutant birth and then cure Rogue of her mental issues and retained power absorption. While Rogue recovered, Wolverine hunted Mystique down and gutted her within an inch of her life. Wolvie left Mystique to bleed to death and die, but she recovered.
Mystique gets sent to Hell, comes back with new powers and proceeds to take her wrath out on the X-Men. She aids Norman Osborn’s Dark X-Men project, she helps to create the Hellfire Academy and eventually purchased the island of Madripoor from Hydra. Mystique in the All-New Bendis era has become the de-facto villain of the X-Men, as she messes with the new students, the time displaced Original Five and the main team equally. Mystique’s loyalty to Rogue or anyone else is at an all-time low, but it doesn’t matter. She’s finally become the villain that her early Ms. Marvel days hinted that she would become. The blue lady came out on top.
THE X-MEN PROJECT: AN ISSUE GUIDE TO CHAPTERS 21-40
A brief word about this interstitial guide
While working on this project and the previous Spidey Project, I’ve casual readers and new comic fans asking for direct references to the comics I discuss. Below, I’m going to give you a breakdown of each comic mentioned, context and the issue that in which you may find the material.
Chapter 21 – Phoenix II (Rachel Summers)
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #199 – Rachel gains the Phoenix Force.
Chapter 22- Longshot
Longshot #1-6 – Origin of Longshot, Longshot arrives on Earth from the Mojoverse.
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #242 – Longshot and Dazzler begin their romance.
Chapter 23 – Psylocke
New Mutants Vol. 1 Annual #2 – Psylocke is kidnapped and taken to the Mojoverse. Gains bionic eyes.
Chapter 24 – Forge
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #184 – Forge gets recruited by the U.S. Government to create a weapon to neutralize mutant powers.
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #227 – Forge seemingly kills the X-Men to stop the Adversary. The Outback Era begins.
Chapter 25 – Jubilee
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #244 – Jubilee sneaks back to the Australian Outback HQ with the X-Women.
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #256-258 – Jubilee helps Wolverine fight the Mandarin.
Chapter 26 – Gambit
X-Men Vol. 2 #10 – Gambit begins romance with Rogue.
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #350 – Gambit reveals that he lead the Marauders into the Morlock Tunnels to start the Mutant Massacre.
Chapter 27 – Cannonball
Marvel Graphic Novel #4 – Cannonball leaves Kentucky to join the New Mutants.
X-Force Vol. 1 #44 – Cannonball joins the X-Men.
Avengers Vol. 5 #1 – Cannonball is asked to join the Avengers by Captain America.
Avengers Vol. 5 #35 – Cannonball has a child with Izzy Kane (Smasher).
Chapter 28 – Operation: Zero Tolerance
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #345 – Maggott tries to find the X-Men.
X-Men Vol. 2 #65 – Dr. Cecilia Reyes joins the interim X-Men.
X-Men Vol. 2 #67 – Sabra helps the X-Men to fight Bastion
Chapter 29 – Generation X
Generation X Vol. 1 # 1 – Chamber joins the team.
Chapter 30 – Stacy X
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #399 – Stacy X first encounters the X-Men.
New Warriors Vol. 4 #16 – Killed in action by Skybolt
Chapter 31 – Sage
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #132 – Sage first appears as the undercover Tessa of the Hellfire Club.
Chapter 32 – Slipstream and Lifeguard
X-Treme X-Men Vol. 1 #6 – Slipstream and Lifeguard first encounter the X-Men.
Chapter 33 – The Imperial Guard
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #107 – The Imperial Guard first appears.
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #137 – The Imperial Guard and the Uncanny X-Men fight for the life of the Phoenix.
Chapter 34 – Bishop
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #282 – Bishop arrives in the past chasing after Trevor Fitzroy
Chapter 35 – Cable
Cable Vol. 1 #6 – Cable is confirmed to be Nathan Christopher Summers.
Cable Vol. 1 # -1 – Cable arrives in the past and meets Dr. Moira MacTaggert for the first time.
Chapter 36 – Eve of Destruction
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #392 – The Genoshan Assault team is formed.
Chapter 37 – The White Queen (Emma Frost)
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #129 – The White Queen first fights the X-Men.
New X-Men Vol. 1 #116 – The White Queen joins the X-Men.
Chapter 38 – Xorn
New X-Men Vol. 1 Annual 2001 – Xorn is discovered by Cyclops and Emma Frost.
Chapter 39 – The Juggernaut
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #12 – Juggernaut first fights the X-Men.
Avengers Vol. 3 #23-25 – Cyttorak tries to turn Juggernaut into his Avatar. The Avengers stop it.
Chapter 40 – Deadpool
Deadpool Vol. 1 #1 – The Joe Kelly funny Deadpool era begins.
THE X-MEN PROJECT: CHAPTER 40 – DEADPOOL CAN SEE YOU
Chapter 40
Deadpool splits Marvel fans a lot. Some like the character’s abrasive style, while others feel that he represents the continued legacy of the 1990s for the books. It took some time, but I’ve found myself growing quite fond of the Merc with a Mouth. Beginning as one of the Weapon X lot, Deadpool started life as an obvious rip-off of Deathstroke the Terminator. Hell, most of Liefeld’s time on New Mutants was spent telling the world how much he loved the Wolfman/Perez era of “New Teen Titans”. The character would break out in a series of mini-series that people can’t remember outside of the art. But, it did start his love affair with Siryn. That means something, right?
Whenever, we learn about Wade Wilson’s life before becoming the Merc with a Mouth…it just becomes more and more depressing. He had cancer, but he had a healing factor. So, the Weapon X super soldier project deal burned him into a Krueger style mess. But, he lost his mind and gained a super healing factor. The fourth wall breaks and comicdom gets to learn about those quaint yellow self-aware narration boxes. The healing factor constantly replaces aging and damaged brain cells, so this has been used to explain away massive head trauma and how he can deflect telepathic attacks. It’s also the source of his insanity and ability to see the readers. But, everyone he has ever loved has died. Well, he recently found his long lost daughter. I guess that means it all worked out.
When Deadpool joined X-Force, a lot of Old School fans thought we were getting a return to slice-and-dice Wade Wilson from his early days. Deadpool participated in the murder of the Apocalypse child clone, plus other mercenary shenanigans that the X-Men did a Black Ops fashion. I bring this up, because Deadpool also had a ton of terrible solo series work following the end of Kelly’s work on the character. If you like constant pop culture references and manipulations to Deadpool’s healing factor, then that will do it for you. Otherwise, it’s a forgettable time for the character. Everyone should take a moment to thank Rick Remender for saving him.
Deadpool is a character that has sparked many interpretations. The Daniel Way era played up the dark hilarity, while not offering much to the overall legacy. Christopher Priest spent his time trying to run away from what Joe Kelly did. Gail Simone barely got a chance to make a dent before she split and we’re currently in the Remender/Duggan/Posehn era. Who knows what we’re going to see in a post Secret Wars Marvel for Deadpool? Hopefully, there’s a third mode outside of happy kill man and Deathstroke merc style kill man. Duggan and Posehn are using their flashback issues of their current run to help explain a lot of this personality shifts, so there might be something emerging. I’m not quite sure yet, as that’s the issue with commenting on an ongoing run.
However, everyone keeps returning to the work that Joe Kelly did back in the 1990s. The video game did it, that test reel trailer with Ryan Reynolds did it and almost every writer evokes the happy killer mode. Mark Waid went on record about the take after he wrote the second mini-series. Waid told Wizard back in 1997 that he didn’t feel comfortable writing a criminal that hadn’t paid for his crimes. Later writers would show that Wade Wilson had his memory tampered with or insanity caused him to do many of the acts that made him famous. Honestly, it feels like a bit of a cop out. Remender addressed the issue during his X-Force run, but the focus was mainly throw on Wolverine with Deadpool and the others getting the backwash.
There is one thing missing from a lot of the current use of Deadpool. So much of his early years were spent showing that Deadpool had a long history of working with the Marvel Universe’s mercenaries. Most of the early Joe Kelly issues show that Bullseye was practically his best friend. Then, there’s the constant battling with Taskmaster. Deadpool is supposed to be one of the top mercenaries in the game, but he rarely is shown killing for profit anymore. The 00s turned him more into the X-Men’s weird friend or kept forcing him to hang out with Cable. There’s something about the character’s personality that is lost through constant team-ups. While he’s not a loner, his criminal background shouldn’t be ignored.
One thing I do miss with Deadpool is the use of sidekicks. I first started following the character when he kept Blind Al and Weasel around. Then, there was Bob – Agent of Hydra. Now, he’s got a SHIELD Agent friend and his long lost daughter. Deadpool needs a family to give him a reason to keep fighting. That excellent flashback issue (-1) showed what happens to Wade Wilson when he’s down and out with nobody for support. He makes stupid decisions like joining Weapon X. It has become a bit of a Marvel cliche with the Weapon X characters since Wolverine joined the X-Men, but friends tend to calm psychos down. At least, that’s what Chris Claremont taught me. Chris Claremont and a heaping helping of anti-psychotic pills.
As we come to a close on our second section of the project, I’d like to thank everyone for sticking it out so far. If you haven’t seen a particular favorite appear yet, you’re going to start seeing more events and teams getting covered en masse. We’re picking up speed and heading right into our next project timed for the release of “Age of Ultron”. When everything is said and done, all readers will be able to look at the three collected projects as a fun giant Wiki to explain away the weirdness of the Marvel Universe. That is unless Jonathan Hickman wrecks it all in “Secret Wars”. HICKMAN!
That final panel isn’t terribly related to anything I said, I just find head shots in comics to be funny. Plus, Star Wars. Corporate synergy!
THE X-MEN PROJECT: CHAPTER 39 – THE JUGGERNAUT
Chapter 39
Cain Marko began life as Charles Xavier’s step-brother. Xavier and Marko’s parents worked at a nuclear test site in New Mexico and the two young men never got along. Over time, Kurt Marko favors Charles Xavier and starts to abuse his son. The general disdain between the brothers grows as time goes on. Eventually, the two men join the Army and head off to Southeast Asia. While exploring some jungle terrain, Cain finds a cave that contains the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak. Cain takes the Gem and becomes the Juggernaut, causing a cave-in. Charles Xavier assumes that his step-brother is dead and moves on with the rest of his life.
Cain would make his debut as The Juggernaut during an all-out assault on the X-Mansion. The first class of X-Men were powerless to stop him, as the team had been together for barely a year. Professor X would eventually have to call The Human Torch for an assist, since this was a time before Chuck telepathically lobotomized threats. This leads to the X-Men popping off Juggernaut’s helmet and Professor X shutting him down. This would become Juggy’s achilles heel for ages, as the helmet was the only thing blocking psionic attacks. Juggernaut’s second appearance pushed the X-Men into having Doctor Strange teleporting him to the home dimension of Cyttorak.
The Juggernaut has been around for ages, but his scuffles tend to stick to a few people. Hell, he didn’t really break outside of Spider-Woman, The X-Men, Hulk and Doctor Strange until the late 80s during Acts of Vengeance. Well, that would be overlooking his classic Spider-Man storyline that proved that Roger Stern is one of only three people that should be allowed to write the character. But, let’s stop for a moment. We just jumped from the late 60s to the 80s in one swoop. In the time between, Juggernaut met his best friend in Ireland. Banshee’s older cousin was naturally a villain because he was named Black Tom. The only people named Black Tom that don’t become villains are the poor guys that get unfortunate monikers because there are more than two Toms at work.
Black Tom Cassidy would spend most of the next few years pushing Juggernaut around in their partnership. He’d get Juggy to fight Spider-Woman, the X-Men, Thor and X-Force. That last scuffle with X-Force ended up with Black Tom getting jacked up by late Liefeld era Cable. The Juggernaut would go rogue for a bit, while Black Tom became a vegetable man that stalked Generation X. Most of the 1990s were spent with Juggernaut getting tied up with the whole Onslaught Saga and then he got dumped into the Ultraverse. For the young ones out there, the Ultraverse was the Malibu Comics Universe featuring characters like Prime and Night Man. You never heard of these characters because Marvel buried all of that crap in an unmarked grave about a year after buying the company. It didn’t stop them from cashing in on the one Malibu Comics property that became a hit. Tangents like this are how I end up talking about “Men in Black” in a Juggernaut breakdown.
The Crimson Gem of Cyttorak started getting an in-depth history around the end of the 1990s and early 00s. Sure, a few issues had explored it before, but never to the world building degree that Lobdell and Busiek dug up. During this time, the history of Cyttorak was explored more as it was revealed that Cyttorak had made the Juggernaut into his Avatar on Earth. There were other mystical gems scattered around the globe and now Cyttorak’s people were taking over their Avatars. The Juggernaut fought it long enough to help Captain America and the Avengers stop the attack. The Cyttorak Avatar angle would keep getting developed, as Juggernaut encountered different energy sources that Cyttorak took as an affront to its powers.
Cain Marko would gain the power of Captain Universe and find one of the hammers during “Fear Itself”. After the X-Men learned that Cyttorak would take new Avatars if the original host became tainted, Colossus took the gem from Cain and became the new Juggernaut. Cain would stumble across a few attempts to regain his power after that, but nothing ever stuck. Eventually, Magik used the Soulsword to purge Cyttorak away from Colossus. Cyttorak would eventually attempt to seek out former hosts in a bid to get a new Juggernaut. This led Cain Marko to kidnap the Vanisher and go searching for Cyttorak.
Cain Marko did try to use The Juggernaut for good, after making friends with a young mutant named Sammy. Unfortunately, a surprise attack by Black Tom Cassidy resulted in the young boy’s death. Juggernaut returned to wrecking havoc and began his path back to being a villain. There were pit stops along the way in books like New Excalibur and Thunderbolts. There was a time where it seemed that Cain was going to be redeemed. But, events during World War Hulk showed Cain that he was going to be forever dependent on the powers of Gem of Cyttorak. Cyttorak had conditions for granting his powers, such as making sure the host was full of hate and no emotional connections to the mortal world. Turning on Charles for one last time, Cain gave up the last bits of human decency to become the unstoppable Juggernaut.
But, such has been the case with the Juggernaut since its creation. A behemoth of pure hatred and anger that can’t be stopped due to the emotional baggage of its host. Watching Cain Marko struggle over the years for acceptance and a desire to have some real power has created a rich tapestry. It’s only in recent years that we’ve gotten to see the toil that it has taken on Marko. The guy has shown since the 1970s that he wants friends, but the pressures of Cyttorak demand a certain allegiance. In a way, the character has become an energy vampire of sorts. This is where Marvel has excelled with the X-Universe and I would love to see a return to these character dynamics. Yeah, I know…The Juggernaut isn’t a mutant. But, the sentiment remains.
