“Do you smell something bad?” “Of course I do; we’re in a swamp!”
Adventures Of The X-Men #11
Marvel (February, 1997)
“Tower Of Despair”
WRITER: Ralph Macchio
PENCILER: Yancey Labat
INKER: Ralph Cabrera
COLORIST: Paul Becton
SEPARATIONS: World Color
LETTERER: Michael Higgins
EDITOR: Mark Bernardo
The Vanisher did say he wasn’t sure they’d land where they wanted to. While Cyclops and Gambit show up at the Xavier mansion, Storm and Jean arrive in the Florida Everglades. (I wonder if they’ll run into Alec and the Black Stallion?) But it isn’t Kovi they run into but a town full of people filled with despair. Literally, because they’ve met up with D’Spayre (because poor literacy yada yada), a demon who uses his tower to absorb despair to feed the Dweller-In-Darkness. Jean draws D’Spayre into the astral plane to do battle, but it is only a distraction while Storm destroys the tower. With the tower destroyed D’Spayre fears his master’s wrath, but this is Citrusville and our heroines came across the Man-Thing earlier, and whatever fears…burns at the Man-Thing’s touch! Before going back to the swamp, Man-Thing implants a message in Jean’s head. Could it be connected to the M’Kraan crystal suddenly enlarging?
What they got right: Congrats on finding a way to bring the Man-Thing into a kids comic. D’Spayre makes for a good villain and the ladies come up with a good plan to stop him.
What they got wrong: If Man-Thing’s flames are fully psychic (instead of the science/mystic combo of the regular comics), then how did Storm’s rain water put them out?
Recommendation: I’m not really much of a horror person but this was a decent story all things considered. Worth a look if you’re into horror, but it does play a part in the next, and final, issue. Which isn’t completely a good thing, but I’ll get to that when I get to #12.
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