Broken Frontier

Weirdness abounds in the Marvel universe this week, with vampires, temporal anomalies and alternate realities at every turn-not to mention a smattering of Marvel Apes! Read on…

Dracula and his allies push forward their plan to conquer the United Kingdom and make it a vampire nation in Captain Britain & MI13 #12. The truculent Transylvanian has bent Spitfire to his will, has recruited Lilith and Captain Fate, and now seems to be on the point of ‘turning’ Faiza Hussein’s father and an MI13 agent I assume is Killpower. Brian and the gang learn that the means of stopping them may lie with the skull of deceased vampire hunter Quincy Harker, but their attempt to obtain the skull leads them straight into Dracula’s trap.

Continuity: Quincy Harker first appeared in Tomb of Dracula #7 (1973) and eventually blew himself up whilst trying to kill his longtime nemesis, Dracula, in Tomb of Dracula #70 (1979). Captain Fate, a 200 year old pirate cursed to sail the seas forever in his ship, the Serpents Crown, debuted in Man Thing #13-14 (1975) and later resurfaced in Man Thing vol II #7-8 (1980-81). Lilith; leader of the Lilin, first appeared in Ghost Rider #28 (1992); she has no known connection to Marvel’s other Lilith, who is actually Dracula’s daughter.

Deranged assassin Bullseye-now the new Hawkeye, thanks to Norman Osborn-slips his leash in Dark Reign: Hawkeye #1, and if Norman can’t bring this mad dog to heel, his new ‘Avengers’ team may be finished before it’s even started. Bullseye has always been a homicidal maniac, but Norman foolishly thought he would rein in his violent impulses for the sake of maintaining the charade that he was a hero. Instead, whilst stopping a rogue Hulkbuster robot and its pilot, ‘Hawkeye’ manages to carelessly cause the deaths of thirty six innocent bystanders. Worse still, he then goes on to murder a woman he is supposed to be saving from a gang of would-be rapists…in front of a TV news helicopter! Slight PR disaster there, I think!

Continuity: Bullseye debuted in Daredevil #131 (1976). He became ‘Hawkeye’ in Dark Avengers #1(2009). He has no known connection to Marvel’s previous Bullseye, who appeared in Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD #15 (1969).

Lyra, daughter of the Hulk and Thundra, comes to 21st Century New York on a mysterious mission to save her alternate future in Savage She-Hulk #1-and oddly, the name ‘savage She Hulk’ seems to refer to Lyra herself, not the original Shulkie! Fans of Jen Walters need have no fear though, as our favorite green skinned lady lawyer turns up to challenge Lyra on the final page. But just what is the new She Hulk’s mission, anyway? It seems all has yet to be revealed…

Continuity: Lyra first appeared in the one shot Hulk: Raging Thunder #1 (2008) and subsequently made a surprise return in Hulk Family #1 (also 2008). She wasn’t given a name, however, until this issue!

The specter of the Weapon X Project rears its ugly head again in Wolverine: Weapon X #1. Former government agent Maverick has uncovered evidence that a group called Blackguard have obtained the Weapon X files and are attempting to recreate the experiments that bonded Adamantium to Wolverine’s skeleton and turned him into a human killing machine, and brings it to Wolverine. Naturally, Wolverine has to put a stop to Blackguards activities, but by the time he arrives at their base, it is already deserted. And what does all this have to do with the murder of innocent villagers in Colombia? Oh, well-confusing it may be, but it has the requisite amount of insanely over the top violence to keep even the most jaded Wolverine fan happy, and no doubt all will be revealed in the fullness of time.

Continuity: Maverick debuted in X-Men #5 (1992) but was one of the mutants de-powered on ‘M-Day’. He last appeared in Wolverine: Origins #6. The Weapon X Project was first seen in Marvel Comics Presents #72(1991).

Spider-Man and Wolverine find themselves in worlds very definitely not their own after being zapped by a Thor worshipping vigilante from the future dressed as the Punisher in Timestorm #1. Naturally, it’s all the work of a villain from tomorrow-but in this case, the tomorrow in question appears to be another divergent version of the Marvel 2099 universe! Miguel O’Hara is back too, but the former Spider-Man of 2099 seems to be rather different to how we last saw him. The question now is, what exactly has been done to the fabric of time, and why?

Continuity: Miguel O’Hara first appeared in Spider-Man 2099 #1 (1992). When last seen, he had retired after ushering in a new golden age of peace to the universe. Evidently, that has now all changed, but why and how remains to be seen.

Darkhawk is supposedly learning how to be a Raptor, one of a universal peace keeping force, in War of Kings: Ascension #1, in readiness for his involvement in the War of Kings. Only trouble is, when Chris Powell finally bonds with his Raptor armor and learns its secrets, he finds that his mentor, Talon, has lied to him; the Raptors are far from benign. Turning on Talon, Chris is attacked by him and apparently annihilated, leaving only the Raptor called Razor. Somehow though, I doubt this is the end of Darkhawk.

Continuity: Chris Powell became Darkhawk in Darkhawk #1 (1991), and it was revealed that the Darkhawk armor (actually an android with which Chris switched places, his human body being sent into Null Space) was commissioned by an alien crime lord named Dargin Bokk. Talon’s appearance and his assertion that the Darkhawk armor belongs to an ancient order and was created eons ago appears to directly contradict the previously established origin of the character.   

Frank Castle is dying but not quietly in Punisher Max #69. A black ops group has injected him with a toxin that will kill him in six hours if he doesn’t execute a man for them, so quite naturally Frank has refused. Now, he’s being hunted by his erstwhile employers and the FBI while trying to work out what the mysterious ‘Room 101’ is actually up to. It’s just another day in the life of a crazed vigilante, as ‘Six Hours to Kill’ continues.

Morph assembles a new team of reality hopping exiles in Exiles #1 (yes, another one!) but unfortunately for Blink, the Panther, the Witch, Beast, Forge and Polaris, their mission-to help an alternate Wolverine overthrow Magneto-seems destined to fail as their first view of Wolvie is his head on a spike being held by Sabretooth. Magneto has already won, it appears, and is about to wage war on the world.

All this, plus Peter Parker (or his simian counterpart, at least) begins to question the law of the jungle in Marvel Apes: Spider-Monkey #1, which is nice but may be slightly irrelevant when the Marvel zombies attack the Apeverse! Don’t you just hate it when that happens?