Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!
The
4th Ever DC/MARVEL Super-Hero Team-Up
(by
special guest-columnist
"Big" BILL BRACKEEN)
Roughly a year after the BATMAN/HULK team-up, DC and Marvel jointly announced a meeting of the characters featured in their two best selling titles of the period. That would be THE NEW TEEN TITANS and THE UNCANNY X-MEN, for those of you scoring along at home.
One would have thought that might (logically) have meant a comic produced by either the mega-selling X-MEN team of writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne;or else the equally mega-selling TITANS team of writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Perez (my fav'rit).
Well, as it turned out: we got half of the Claremont/Byrne team, and an altogether unrelated artist...
... but: it's all good.
Claremont was joined by artist extrodinaire Walt [MANHUNTER; THOR] Simonson; and -- between the two of them -- they provided one hell of a ride.
Which is not to say that there weren't a few bumps, however.
This story was markedly different from its trio of predecessors.
Firstly: the beloved tabloid format was gone, to better accomodate the newly born "direct market." Secondly, this story didn't feature comics icons known the whole, wide world over (except for Robin, appearing here in his capacity as team leader of the Teen Titans). Thirdly, one had to be sort of "in the know" to follow the story.
In other words: before I can tell you the story of the time the X-Men and the Teen Titans got together... I gotta give you some background.
The X-Men are a group of "mutants." Sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, the X-Men were basically born with super powers; and were united by their mentor, Professor Charles Xavier,to be trained in the proper use of their abilities, and to stand athwart those mutants who would use their powers against humanity.
Appearing in this particular story would be the "all new, all different" X-Men, made up of original team member and all around leader-type guy Cyclops (hey, I thought they were "all new, all different"...?); the weather- controlling African beauty, Storm; the German-born acrobat and teleporter, Nightcrawler; Russian strong guy, Colossus; the waif-like Kitty Pryde; and feral fan favorite, Wolverine.
Got that?
Okay.
The New Teen Titans were a group of teenage super-heroes made up of various sidekicks of DC's major characters (such as the Batman's partner, Robin; speedster Kid Flash; and amazon wannabe Wonder Girl);and a few non-aligned youthful super-types, like half-man/half-machine Cyborg; alien princess Starfire; the mysterious extra-dimensional empath and healer, Raven; and the shape-shifting smart aleck, Changeling.
Still with me...?
Good.
At the point when this tale appeared, the X-Men had just ended a long, gut-wrenching storyline called "The Dark Phoenix Saga." This was an account of how original X-Men member Jean Grey -- telepathic lover of team leader Cyclops -- became drunk with power, and metamorphosed into a nigh-omnipotent threat to (literally) destroy the entire universe before she (momentarily) regained control of herself and ended her own life, so as not to endanger all she held dear.
Now that I've given you the requisite background: on with the show.
We begin in deep space, in front of the "Source Wall." The villainous Darkseid (all around bad guy, New God, and despotic ruler of the planet Apokalips in Jack Kirby's classic "Fourth World" cycle) meets with the New God Metron (cosmic cold fish and big time information gatherer) to exchange technology, in order to further their respective agendas.
Metron, it seems, wishes to pierce the Source Wall, the better to plumb its fathomless mysteries; and Darkseid, in turn, has some scheme or other in mind which he doesn't much feel like divulging, thank you.
Metron dons the funky "Omega-Phase Helmet" Darkseid gives him, in exchange for his own "Psychon Wave"; and seems (to all appearances) to Blow Up Real Good when his Mobius Chair hits the wall, much to the evil god's obvious amusement.
Here we cut to upstate New York, where the X-Men are engaged in a training session in their euphemistically-dubbed "Danger Room." After working up a good sweat, the team then sits down to a nice dinner prepared by teenaged neophyte member Kitty Pryde; following which, they all lie down for a good, long winter's nap.
Each of the mutants, in turn, has fitful and disturbing dreams of fallen teammate Jean Grey... except for Kitty, who awakens to see the big, craggy boogeyman himself standing over her.
Kitty then reflexively uses her mutant "phasing" power which (allows her to pass through walls, and what-have-you) to fall through the floor of her bedroom and into the living room below, where she's found by her consternated teammates. On his way to find out what all the commotion is about, Cyclops finds himself confronted by an plaintive apparition of his dead love, who entreats him for help before vanishing.
Meanwhile, over at Titans Tower (Titans HQ , by the way): Teen Titans member Raven, who's a bit of a psychic, has a nightmare in which her "soul self" (a dark manifestation of her innermost essence, which she can unleash at will) is shredded and torn asunder by a giant firebird. A Phoenix, if you will.
Naturally, she wakes up more than just a little bit upset. This brings her Titans pals Starfire and Changeling a-runnin'. Starfire recognizes Raven's description of her nightmare nemesis as matching Dark Phoenix, and sounds the Red Alert to the rest of the team.
The various remaining Titans are introduced amongst a storm of hurried exposition, and the team notices that appointed leaderman-in- residence Robin hasn't shown up.
As it turns out, the Boy Wonder is sort of busy on a stakeout in Gotham City, where he runs into the team's old enemy Deathstroke the Terminator (a sort of "super-hit man," basically) and pretty much ends up getting his butt handed to him; and, hence, isn't in any real shape to answer said summons.
Meanwhile: the X-Men have made their joint way to the home of Jean Grey's parents. It seems they, too, have been experiencing similar nightmares, and an identical (apparent) haunting. Professor Xavier contacts them, via astral projection, and informs the not-so Merry Mutants that he's detected the same phenomenon occuring at various sites where Jean's Phoenix powers were previously manifested, in the order in which they originally occurred; and tells them to hit the road for the next location.
The Titans, in the meantime, discover their fallen leader in an alleyway, and compare notes. Starfire arrives late, and obligingly recites the tale of Dark Phoenix, in order to bring everyone (including the reader) up to speed; and charges the group with making sure that the Phoenix entity is destroyed, once and for all.
Robin recalls that Phoenix used to be affiliated with the X-Men...
... annnnnnnnnd: off they go.
With the X-Men galavanting their merry team way across the globe: Professor Xavier finds himself well and truly exhausted,after the day's activities, and drifts off to sleep...
... just in time, in fact, to be taken totally unawares by a furious Starfire, bursting in upon him.
He reflexivly gives her a telepathic whammy that puts her down for the count; but Cyborg and Raven put him out like a light, immediately thereafter. The other Titans bring up the rear, and Robin observes they may, in fact,have made something of a boo-boo.
A scowling Teen Wonder begins to reprimand his troops, at this juncture; only to end up being rudely interrupted by a cadre of Darkseid's trained and murderous "parademons," who bust in all uninvited like, looking for the X-Men.
Making things even more dire for the wholly astonished Titans: said parademons are loaded down with special equipment that the big "D" provided to allow for the mutant powers of their intended targets; which allows them to make short, savage work of the Titans (whom they've mistaken for the regular heroes in residence).
All of them, that is, except for Changeling; who manages to assume the appearance a parademon, himself, and fall in behind the ranks.
While all of this is going on, however: another group of Darkseid's charges, led by the aforementioned Deathstroke, climb all over a particular butte in New Mexico where Phoenix once manifested her powers during... well... the height of passion, let's say (long story; don't ask); where they seem to be putting together some big somethingorother designed to suck up any/all residual Phoenix energy hanging about. The X-Men, in turn, take some exception to this; making a point, thereby, to convincingly bust up the joint.
Unfortunately
for Xavier's charges, however: they're both grossly outnumbered and
outgunned. They get taken out, one by one; and are summarily
escorted back to The Wall, where Darkseid awaits with more deviltry in
mind.
Darkseid takes a moment to weed out some of the more obvious deadwood from his operation; specifically, one Ravok The Ravager, who (foolishly) missed Changeling tagging along as a spy...
... and, then: the big "D" gets down to business.
The X-Men and Titans get strapped into a big whosiwhatsis, which forcibly extracts the X-Men's very memories of their fallen comrade; and -- combined with the vestigal emanations Darkseid has pulled from the various sites --
... Dark Phoenix lives again!
Cyclops finds this all incredibly disheartening, naturally; especially since this twisted version of his dealry departed seems all too eager to play footsie with The Living Embodiment of All Evil that's summoned her.
Then, at Changeling's prompting, Darkseid divulges his master plan; which is (basically) that he's going to use Dark Phoenix to transform Earth into a doppleganger of his nasty-ass homeworld, Apokalips, (complete with continent-sized volcano craters, etc.); and then he's going to use it as a militaristic staging area,from which to take over the rest of the known universe.
And with that, exit our villains, stage left (courtesy of one of Darkseid's ubiquitous "Boom Tubes"); leaving our numerous spandex-clad heroes stranded on a desolate chunk of rock out in deep space, the better to get to know one other.
Once the obligatory introductions are over and done with, then: the two super-teams join forces, pursuant to getting the holy heck out of there; reeling in Metron's drifting "Mobius Chair" from deep space.
Changeling and Kitty Pride accidentally discover the chair's inherent teleportational abilities; and the rest all pile on (after Changeling assumes a suitably large form to readily transport one and all) for the trip back to Earth.
Once back in New York, empath Raven informs Professor Xavier she can sense Darkseid below them in Central Park; far, far below actually. The teams teleport beneath the surface of the earth, where Darkseid's set up shop. Following a brief exploration, they encounter both Deathstroke and a cadre of Parademons; and a battle promptly ensues.
After disposing of their initial opposition, the two teams locate their real targets deep within a sulphurous, pit-like crevice. Taking the offensive, the good guys find themselves largely outclassed by the sheer power of their opponents. They also find themselves unable to stop Phoenix from firing a big, honkin' energy bolt deep into the earth, for the purpose of completing Darkseid's plan.
So: Raven and Professor Xavier take the combined offensive against Phoenix, in an effort to bust up the psychic patch job the big "D" did on her; and actually manage to make her blow a karmic fuse. Fearing that she'll be returned to the void from whence she came, Phoenix then absorbs the energy she had previously expended to make the earth blow up; but it simply isn't enough, ultimately,to reverse her impending discorporation.
Watching as his plan commences to unraveling before his cavernous eyes, Darkseid informs Phoenix that the only way she can stabilize herself is to possess someone; ANYone --
... so: she jumps in Cyclops' body, all quick-like.
Unfortunately (for Darkseid and Phoenix, that is), she could have picked a better target. Melding herself with her former lover rekindles all her long-repressed memories of their former relationship, and all that was good and right within her (plus all that shes going to end up missing, once it's gone for good; nudge, nudge, wink, wink); prompting her to decide that this whole teaming-up-with-Darkseid thing was maybe not such a hot idea, after all.
Rather than exist as a corrupted shade of her former self, ultimately: Phoenix ejects herself from Cyclops, and takes her blistering wrath out on the lord of evil who'd summoned her from the beyond; dragging him back, forcibly, to the Apololipsian Source Wall.
The X-Titans then hang out and get to know each other a little bit better, as Metron reappears to claim his chair at the aformentioned Wall... and to pause just long enough to admire a brand new feature said edifice has sprouted, before murmuring "farewell".
... and this (alas) would be the fourth and final time DC and Marvel characters would keep costumed company in the Bronze Age.
An Embarrassment of Riches (PAGE ONE)
"MORE COMIC BOOKS," YOU SAY...?
The DC Comics Sub-Directory
The Marvel Comics Sub-Directory
The Miscellaneous Comics Sub-Directory
The "Gotta Find That DC Character" Menu
The "Gotta Find That Marvel/Miscellaneous
Character" Menu