“Um guys, a little help here?”
Sleepwalker #17
Marvel (October, 1992)
“Portals Of Power” finale “Doorway To Doom” WRITER/CREATOR: Bob Budiansky PENCILER: Bret Blevins INKER: Mike Manley COLORIST: Marie Javins LETTERER: Rich Starkings EDITOR: Don Daley
(continued from Darkhawk #20) Darkhawk manages to stop the billboard from crashing on the people, but he isn’t happy with Sleepwalker leaving him behind. Meanwhile, “Sleepy” tracks the Brotherhood before his human host, Rick Sheridan, wakes up and pulls him back to his mind. (From what I know, Sleepwalker can exist in our world when Rick is asleep, allowing Sleepwalker to search for a way back to the Mindscape, where he lives. That’s what he’s been trying to get Portal to do during this storyline.) When Rick finds out about Spider-Man’s disappearance, he leaves a message for Sleepwalker to try to rescue him. After Sleepwalker makes peace with Darkhawk they go to rescue Portal from the Brotherhood. With Portal still under Sauron’s control, our heroes take him to a scientist who specializes in optics to free him. In gratitude Portal agrees to send Sleepwalker back but he has him rescue Spider-Man instead. Everyone goes their separate way. While all of this was going on, Rick got the attention of a new girl in the building, Janine, whom he asks out…and she leads him right to her gang!
What they got right: This was a good end to the “Portals Of Power” storyline as the heroes part on good terms (except for Portal, who really isn’t a hero per say, just not a villain). The fight with the Brotherhood might have been interesting…
What they got wrong: …except sometimes the art didn’t make sense, like when Darkhawk somehow redirected Pyro’s fire even though we couldn’t see his shield and he wasn’t close enough to move Pyro’s arm. The bigger culprit was during Rick first meeting with Janine. The newspaper showing Spidey’s disappearance is either floating in midair or the artist failed to show Rick grabbing a newspaper like the one Janine never dropped. Speaking of which, she had Lifeldian body proportions in the first panel and first two panels have her in a position that shows off her huge breasts, including the bikini top she is wearing and claims she will be going to the park to look at want ads. Even in the summer, where this comic claims later to take place in, that’s not typical New York park wear, is it? Was it part of Janine’s plan to trap Rick?
Other notes: Yes, Transformers fans, I did catch that the scientist Sleepwalker and Darkhawk take Portal to was named Charles Fong, but he isn’t the same character (at least I don’t think he is after the continuities were split) from the Scraplets two-parter Budiansky wrote.
Recommendation: A good conclusion but to get the full story you’ll need Darkhawk #s 19-20.
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