Some
random Spider-Man books, Part 5
Spider-Man
and the Tri-Sentinel, Round 2…
…the
bad news: No Captain Universe powers
…the
good news: Nova! (not sure that’s gonna help much)
"Death Walk”
Writer – David
Michelinie
Pencils – Mark Bagley
Inks – Sam de la Rosa
Letters – Rick Parker
Colorist – Bob Sharen
Editor – Danny Fingeroth
and Eric Fein
October 1991
Marvel
had this brainy idea back in winter of 1989 to try the old switcharoo on the
superheroes. Fighting the same villains over and over again made for a tired
formula. The X-Men always taking on Magneto and Thor always besting Loki….and
so and so forth. Lame. Boooorrrring!
Someone
in the bullpen (and I’ll be damned if I can figure out who) had a brilliant
story idea: have the villains all swap heroes. Fantastic Four fighting Doc Doom
was a stale idea, but having Thor vs Victor Von Doom was a fresh idea that
excited writers, artists and the comic buying public alike.
How
to get it done was the only problem. I mean, villains don’t tend to work
together even when they stand to gain personally. Given that many of them would
balk at working with rogues of opposing ideologies (think Magento and Red
Skull, for instance)…and others would sooner kill themselves than submit to
another villain’s authority, it seemed impossible to make the idea workable
storywise.
Luckily
for Marvel they had a God in the Machine… Namely Loki, to be exact. Loki masterminded
this scheme to swap out one set of heroes’ foes for another’s, the idea being
that perhaps their powers might prove more effectual against a different
champion of justice. And Loki had through his magic a way to brainwash everyone
into believing they were one in control of the entire scheme.
It
wasn’t easy and eventually when the heroes still found ways to defeat the bad
guys from the Marvel mag one spot over on the spinner rack, Loki’s mind games
fell apart most spectacularly.
Spider-Man
got his share of wild matchups, facing off against Magneto, Graviton, the Hulk,
Trapster, Titiana, Brothers Grimm, Dragon Man, TESS-One and Goliath. The
crowning battle came last, as Loki magically blended three mutant-killing
Sentinels into one vicious engine of destruction and sent it on a rampage to
destroy the nuclear plant near Long Island, killing everyone along the Eastern
seaboard.
Luckily
for everyone involved, Spider-Man was in possession of the Uni-power. The
Uni-power is a special bit of mischief that wanders indiscriminately from
person to person, allowing them to become the cosmically powered Captain
Universe. With this unimaginable force at their command, they are tasked with
averting one great cataclysmic event…
…and
then the power moves on to the next person.
Spider-Man
supposedly blew the “Tri-Sentinel” to dust at the end of Amazing Spider-Man #329,
but all good villains deserve at least one resurrection from the grave, so
low-and-behold ASM #351 found that he wasn’t quite all the way destroyed and
now was in the hands of the radical terrorist survival group The Life
Foundation.
And
by “wasn’t quite all the way destroyed” I mean it doesn’t have so much as
scratched paint.
The
Life Foundation wanted to use the deadly Tri-Sentinel to “secure” their hidden
mountain survival cave with all the other looneys who think the worlds going to
end soon. Of course, in the Marvel 616, the world ending unexpectedly is kind
of a daily worry for everyone that remembers Galactus almost ate the Earth a
little bit ago.
However,
they were smart enough to install a failsafe inside it that would destroy it
utterly (ahem! Again). On the side of them not being so smart, was they sent it
after Spider-Man, since the webslinger had previously foiled their plans.
Somehow
last issue (thanks Crapbox!), Spider-Man got trapped inside the giant robot
while his buddy Nova got a palm full of binding metal coils. The inside of the
Tri Sentinel are just as dangerous as the outsides too, and Spidey finds
himself being gassed to death in an energy bubble. Lucky for him and us that
bubble doesn’t extend below the floor he’s standing on.
Unfortunately,
this maneuver takes him further from where he wants to go: namely a switch that
releases “Antarctic Vibranium” which will melt the Tri-Sentinel in a heartbeat.
Mark Bagley’s doing the pencils here and as the book goes on, you’ll begin to
appreciate his style quite a bit. As soon as Spidey dodges these rivets being
fired at him, that is.
As
Peter tries to figure out a proper path back to that switch a new problem
emerges. First, the Tri-guy chunks Nova into a nearby building…
…and
then rockets its way out of the Life Foundation’s hidden compound. Cameron
Drake, leader of the foundation, orders the scuttling his operation as the
Tri-Sentinel takes off. And he blames it all on our favorite wall-crawler, too.
Richard
Rider isn’t giving up on Spidey and takes off in hot pursuit, pouring on the speed to catch up to the Tri-Sentinel. Spidey meanwhile
has found the central processing unit of the robot, complete with computer
keyboards and he begins hacking its programming. And yes, it does appear that
it is back on course to wreck nuclear devastation on a massive scale.
Using
his wits, Spider-Man grounds the sentinel, but gets trapped in coils for his
trouble. This does allow Nova to catch up, however and he begins an ineffectual
attempt at taking it down from the outside.
Mr.
Drake isn’t out of this mess yet, however. Nova made off with some very
incriminating evidence, and Drake orders a team sent to wipe the disk using a
modified laser cannon before he can expose the foundation or its members.
And
Nova is still tailing the now walking Tri-Sentinel, attempting to lessen the
body count as it makes for the Nuclear facility near Long Island again. Love that swoop in and save!
Spider-Man
uses the robot's own defenses against itself, having it shoot the coils holding
him in place so they are shredded enough for him to escape. But time is rapidly
running out for the pair and the menace looks unstoppable.
The
closer he gets to the failsafe switch, the more deadly the traps coming after
Spidey. So much so, that he’s forced to retreat back to the CPU. It appears the
pair will be unable to stop the death of millions.
…that
is until unlikely help arrives in the form of a Life Foundation airship firing
a beam of laser energy that scrambles electronic data. It tries to take our
Rider and the disk he's carrying, but he’s too swift.
He
uses them to distract the Tri-Sentinel, which puts them in danger, so he saves them. Which allows them to hit him with the beam, and also make it through the Tri-Sentinel's defenses…
…which also appears to mangle up the robot’s
abilities.
…in
a big, big way.
Thinking
in tandem, Rider “coerces” the pilots of the flying lime-green hovercraft to
train their beam on the Tri-Sentinel.
Which
gives Spidey enough time to make it to the fail-safe…
…one
press of which…
…immediately
shorts out our robotic bad guy and…
…leads
to a meltdown on a massively impressive scale…
…that
isn’t without danger to our favorite web-slinger.
But
does lead to some VERY impressive panels. Bagley’s pencils and de la Rosa’s
inks do a fine job of showcasing the story at this point. As do the colors provided by Sharen.
As
our heroes wait for the Antarctic Vibranium to be secured, they share a bit of camaraderie
over their victory and the disappointment of losing the evidence on the Life
Foundation.
Ultimately
though, they part with a bunch of respect for one another.
The
issue climaxes the story from last issue in a great action setpiece, showcasing both Spider-Man
and Nova’s strong points as characters. I’m a huge fan of Sentinels as bad guys
and this one in particular. He’d go down as my second favorite Marvel killer
robot, right behind Nimrod. (third is MODOK, if you must know).
Agree w/you on the art. Excellent stuff. More Bagley please.
ReplyDelete