Issue(s): Midnight Sons Unlimited #3
Cover Date: Oct 93
Title: "Sins of Spider-X"
Credits:
Mort Todd - Writer
Mort Todd / Javier Saltares / John Czop / Ken Meyer Jr. / Doug Braithwaite & Vincent Giarrano / Pat Redding - Penciler
Pat Redding / Mike Witherby / Mark Pennington / Ken Meyer Jr. / Cam Smith & Vincent Giarrano - Inker
Lia Pelosi - Assistant Editor
Hildy Mesnik - Editor

Review/plot:
The format of this Midnight Sons Unlimited is more what i would have wanted from the title than the first two issues. It's a single story involving all (or at least most) of the Midnight Sons, and also features Spider-Man as a guest star. My main reservation (aside from the story not being that great, but that's a separate matter) is that the Midnight Sons are in perpetual crossover mode this entire year, so a team-up here doesn't feel special. But the Spider-Man appearance adds something, and in any event i still think this is a better use of the book than having four random stories better suited for Marvel Comics Presents.

The story starts with a very poor depiction of the Paralyzer. He was last seen as a member of the Resistants, an interesting but underutilized radical pro-mutant rights group. But in this story he's doing some generic super-villainy. And to the degree that he references his history, it's all the way back to his Mutant Force days, and the footnote further fumbles that by citing his first appearance, when he was actually with a little-remembered incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Zapped by a third rate villain, chewed out by his boss, and returning home to watch his wife on television kissing another man, Spider-Man is feeling depressed. And that's when the Darkhold Dwarf shows up.

The next thing we know, there's a creature going around calling itself Spider-X (!) and it sure looks like a mutated Spider-Man. Ghost Rider and Blaze are the first to encounter it, and they make the reasonable assumption that it is Spidey.

They find Spider-X capturing criminals with intent to suck the marrow from their bones. They fight...

...and Ghost Rider manages to give him his Penance Stare, but the fact that he has eight eyes dilutes the effect and it escapes.

Meanwhile, it turns out that the Nightstalkers have come from Boston to New York, in part to investigate a letter sent to their detective agency.

The letter writer, a young man named Brian Kornfeld, was concerned about the rising crime rate in New York, especially after his mom was mugged, and had been writing to various super-heroes. The Nightstalkers interview his mother and find that he had a Spider-Man costume. Spider-X then breaks into her home. It targets Blade specifically, saying that he has the scent of the Darkhold.

The letter and the Spider-Man costume apparently not being enough, the creature also promises Brian's mom that he won't hurt her. It then runs off with her. The Nightstalkers are kind of dense about putting two and two together here, instead blaming Spider-Man.

They hunt Spider-X down and fight it some more, but it hears about Paralyzer on television. Paralyzer has commandeered a power station. Spider-X leaves the fight. The Nightstalkers then learn that Spider-X has killed the man that mugged Brian's mom. You guys getting it yet?

Major change in the art style (by Ken Meyer Jr.) for the Darkhold portion of the story.

Only Victoria and Jinx are around at this time.

They are rescued by Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze.

The creature flees again. Morbius spots it next.

When he follows it, he finds Spider-Man, who is looking just fine.

Spider-Man knocks Morbius out, and we learn that Spidey rejected the Dwarf's offer. When Morbius wakes up, they agree to work together, and they find Spider-X. Everybody else shows up after that as well.

This is all in the backdrop of a power outage thanks to Paralyzer. He's used the power plant to summon Zzzax.

At this point the Midnight Sons have figured out that Spider-X was trying to do good, so i guess it's ok that Morbius hypnotizes him into going out to fight Zzzax in a blaze of glory.

Zzzax doesn't really put up much of a fight.

Spider-Man then tries to capture Morbius, but he's prevented by Hannibal King.

There's also still the matter of Paralyzer, but he's out of juice and outnumbered.

A lot of flaws here. The writing, in general, is bad. The changes in art style, from Mort Todd's cartoony opening chapter to the dark and serious painted Ken Meyer portion, don't really help with setting a tone. Todd's style is best in line with his goofy story, and if all the art looked like that i'd probably be more relaxed about accepting the story, with the understanding that it's all supposed to be silly. Without that, you have the forcing of Paralyzer (granted, a very minor villain, but still) into a generic villain role because the story requires it, the contrivance by which Spider-Man and Morbius are able to temporarily work together, and the fact that Blade, who recently tried to murder the rest of the Midnight Sons, works alongside them without any objections. There's also the pretty casual way that they kill off poor Spider-X (i mean, with a name like that, i thought he was going to get his own series) and the standard genre convention of all these characters happening to get involved in this story even though half of them don't normally operate out of New York. Most of these things are of the sort that you'd overlook for an annual (the characterization issues are the biggest sticking point for me), and that's basically the same situation here, although i continue to look for the justification to have such "annuals" on a quarterly basis.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Louise Hastings is said to still be in Rome, placing this during the portion of Darkhold #13 where she was doing research at the Vatican. At the end of Darkhold #13-14, the Redeemers get a call from Johnny Blaze saying that Lilith is back. That's meant to be a set-up for the Siege of Darkness crossover. What's a little weird though is that the start of Siege of Darkness has the Midnight Sons arguing because Blaze is saying that Lilith is dead but can't produce a body. So it's not clear how seriously to take Blaze's phone call at the end of Darkhold #14. We could pretend the call was happening during Road to Vengeance, when she really was "back". The problem is that Johnny Blaze becomes a cyborg in Road To Vengeance, and he's not a cyborg in this story. So it seems that the beginning portion of Darkhold #13, up until Louise Hastings leaves for Rome, takes place before this story, but the rest of Darkhold #13-14 takes place a while afterwards. Which works well since Darkhold #13 is partially told in flashbacks anyway.

References:

• Paralyzer - then Shocker - first appeared in Captain America annual #4 when he was part of Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. He joined Mutant Force in Defenders #78. As noted above, his latest group was actually the Resistants, which debuted in Captain America #343.
  
• Ghost Rider first wonders if the spider webs they encounter mark the return of Shelob from Spirits of Vengeance #11.
  
• Blade was possessed by the Demogorge during the Midnight Massacre, beginning in Nightstalkers #10.
  
• Morbius says that when he and Spider-Man last met, "it was on bad terms due to Spider-Man's simple definition of justice". The footnote points us to Maximum Carnage, which ended in Spider-Man Unlimited #2.
  
• Zzzax was last seen in Marvel Comics Presents #8 (and i am surprised and pleased to report that there's an actual - and accurate - footnote for this).

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A