Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1989-10-01 02:10:43 |
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Marvel Comics Presents #41 (Freedom Force)
Issue(s): Marvel Comics Presents #41 (Freedom Force story only)
Cover Date: Jan 90
Title: "Forced fed!"
Credits:
Scott Lobdell - Writer
Dave Cockrum - Penciler
Bruce D. Patterson - Inker
Kelly Corvese - Assistant Editor
Terry Kavanagh - Editor
Review/plot:
Senator Robert Kelly has gone to South America for some photo opportunities promoting the War on Drugs, but he's captured by a bunch of Pancho Villa bandits straight out of a Johnny Quest episode and their yacht pirate boss.
They are working for a Senior Muerte.
Who turns out to be Mystique.
They've come to rescue Kelly, but he wants them to destroy Muerte and his drug empire.
Muerte and his group of super-powered goons called The Grip go after Freedom Force.
Or whatever they are. They don't give the Blob much trouble.
Avalanche destroys the church where Muerte was keeping his money, and then Freedom Force and Kelly leave while Muerte makes ineffective threats. I know they're ineffective because lord knows this group of losers won't be showing up again.
You could potentially construct an interesting story about America's drug war on South America and the use of government super-heroes to destroy drugs being grown in another country. Or you could deliver this nonsense.
Quality Rating: D
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP place this between Freedom Force's appearances in X-Factor #40 and New Mutants #78, while Destiny is still alive. Since, if you don't blink, you can catch her in a panel.
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
FNORD - with stories like these in Marvel Comics Presents (I would never dare shorten it to "MCP"), it's no wonder you wait until the end of the comic year to review these.
The title says this is issue 41, but the "issue" field says 42. Which is it?
Yeah, thanks Morgan.
Okay, while this is not an especially memorable story, it is noteworthy for having Dave Cockrum as the penciler. Specifically, he draws Mystique in this story. I point this out because Cockrum was actually the person who designed the character of Mystique. As Cockrum related in 2003:
"This drawing was done for fun and hung in my office until my partner Chris Claremont wandered in one day, saw her, and started to drool. ‘I want her!’ he said. He named her Mystique, gave her powers and added her to the Uncanny X-Men rogues gallery."
I believe that despite having come up with Mystique's look Cockrum had didn't have many opportunities to actually draw the character in any stories he worked on. This is one of the few times I can think of where he drew Mystique in a published story.
You can view a scan of that Cockrum concept drawing on my blog...
https://benjaminherman.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/remembering-dave-cockrum/
Bizarrely, if you look carefully at the helicopter scene, on one page it's Spiral in the helicopter and on another page it's Destiny. Maybe that's why the MCP placed this before Destiny's death.
Added that scan of Destiny and added her as a Character Appearing. Thanks.
