Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1992-08-01 07:07:16 |
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Marvel Comics Presents #117-122 (Wolverine)
Issue(s): Marvel Comics Presents #117, Marvel Comics Presents #118, Marvel Comics Presents #119, Marvel Comics Presents #120, Marvel Comics Presents #121, Marvel Comics Presents #122 (Wolverine/Venom story only)
Cover Date: 1992 - Feb 93
Title: Claws and Webs: "Dream a little dream... of me!" / "Dreams are made of this?" / "Dreams can't kill you... but they can sure try!" / "Dreaming with the enemy" / "Dream scars" / "Nightmare's end!"
Credits:
Howard Mackie - Writer
Sam Kieth - Penciler
Sam Kieth / Dwayne Turner - Inker
Mark Powers - Assistant Editor
Terry Kavanagh - Editor
Review/plot:
Dwayne Turner inks issues #120-121 only.
I'm always happy to have Sam Kieth do interior art in this series. His covers always made the book look so appealing, but then you'd open it up and find the usual try-outs and other rough stuff. So even though a Wolverine/Venom feature is about as commercial as you can get, i find this feature to be a bright spot. It is still written by Howard Mackie and features Nightmare yet again, but the latter actually works to our favor because it pretty much allows any semblance of a plot to be dispensed with. Nightmare brings Wolverine and Venom's dream states to another dimension to fight (Wolvie is bolstered by Professor X in the real world). So basically we just get a lot of fun pin-ups from Kieth.
Wolverine and Venom eventually team-up and try to fight Nightmare.
But it turns out they're just playing into Nightmare's plan.
He wanted to get at Professor X through Wolverine (Venom was just a pawn to soften Wolverine up).
But it turns out Professor X was onto Nightmare the whole time.
Fun surreal art from Kieth, and Mackie mostly stays out of the way.
Quality Rating: C+
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: Wolverine describes the death of Mariko as a fresh wound, so this takes place after Wolverine #57 (and therefore all of Wolverine #51-65). Since Venom is appearing here in a dream, it could really take place at any point for him. Venom still shows hatred for Spider-Man, so i suppose it should take place before Amazing Spider-Man #368-375, although it's not like Nightmare couldn't dredge up Venom's probably-not-all-that-subconscious hatred.
References:
- Mariko died in Wolverine #57.
- It seems that Nightmare's scheme here is why he was targeting Wolverine in Marvel Comics Presents #99. Note that it was Dr. Doom who brought Wolverine into the story in Marvel Comics Presents #100, but Doom probably picked Wolverine because he knew that Nightmare had his sights on him.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
In hindsight, it's amazing that it took over four years for Marvel to have Wolverine meet Venom, considering how insanely popular they both were, and that when they *did* finally cross paths it was in MCP and not in some big crossover between the X-Men and Spider-Man titles. This was such an odd, low-key way in which to bring the two of them together that I actually enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.
I wasn't especially excited about Sam Kieth's pervious work on MCP, but his art was a perfect fit for this utterly bizarre story. Kanda strange that he gave Nightmare a loooong neck and a beer belly, but I guess that it fits the exaggerated, cartoony unreality of this serial. that last panel fnord shows of Wolverine popping his claws through Nightmare's head is actually quite funny, in a really twisted sort of way.
So this is where the Maxx, the Leopard Queen and Mr. Gone came from.
