Evolutionary War

The High Evolutionary has rededicated himself to guiding and enhancing the evolution of humanity so that his race may one day be supreme to all others. To this end he initiates several concurrent efforts to accelerate human evolution and eliminate perceived threats to mankind’s genetic purity. He unleashes attacks all over the world to guide the way of human evolution.

Year Published: 1988
Issues Total: 11

I thought this was an interesting crossover event since it was covered in just Annuals. I tried collecting them all at the time but found the story not very interesting and pretty costly as a 15-year-old kid at the time. I had the omnibus and reread it not long ago and still found it sub-par.

The Evolutionary War continues...

Yes, this is real...2010...



And for contrast...1993...

The Evolutionary War continues...


(^I love Art Adams.)

Oh, hell, I can't believe it.

For decades I remembered seeing an image of Spiderman and the Kingpin in a wig/toupee and was never able to find the comic it was from. That's it. Turned out it wasn't the Kingpin after all!

I actually loved the Evolutionary War back in the day and thought it was ingenious to have a crossover placed in annuals instead of regular issues. Yes, I own the omnibus but have been afraid of sullying my fond memories of that Summer from my youth. So I haven't actually read the issues in over 30 years, lol. I can still remember bicycling back home from the comic shop with those annuals hanging between my handlebars.

You should read it and report back. I would love to hear your opinion.

And jeez, that Silver Surfer cover is just so awful. I always hated it. Looks like a cheap Harvey comic.

The Evolutionary War concludes!





And Marvel is far from tired of crossovers and will, in fact, triple down in 1988 for a third crossover event! No wonder the comic bust is coming. You can see it approaching from a mile away.

Preview of next crossover!

I wasn't really a fan of those annual events Marvel did back in the 1980s -- at least Evolutionary War and Atlantis Attacks. They were generally hard to follow, and sort of forced you to buy the annuals of books you didn't read to get the whole thing. And, on top of that, annual distribution to the newsstand market was always spotty at best, at least for me.

I much preferred the smaller scale monthly crossovers they did after that, that were only spread across four annuals (ie, "Days of Future Present" that ran through Fantastic Four, New Mutants, X-Factor, and X-Men; "Kings of Pain" that ran through New Warriors, New Mutants, X-Factor, and X-Men). You did get some odd ones, though, like "Lifeform" that started in the Punisher annual and ended in the Silver Surfer annual. Even then, those stories seemed rushed and poorly thought out. I mean, good god, "Days of Future Present" started out with art by Jackson Guice and ended with art by Arthur Adams, and had Bogdanove, Milgrom, and Wozniak inbetween -- bookended with killer art with Marvel's biggest eyesores sandwiched in the middle.

DC absolutely nailed the annual crossover format with "Armageddon 2001," though. Easy enough to understand without reading every annual. It was actually going to have actual consequences and an impact on the greater DCU after it ended.

But they crashed on the landing when they panicked and changed the ending because everyone had figured out who was going to become Monarch. Ruined the whole fucking thing and gave a big finger to everyone who followed it.

I don't think the ending ruined the annuals for Armageddon 2001 at all... the whole concept of each annual being it's own elseworlds still held up, even if it completely destroyed a character I really liked at the time.

Next reading event:
Inferno

Demons from Limbo invade earth. Their plan revolves around Illyana Rasputin of the New Mutants, as her mutant power allows her to open passages between Limbo and Earth.

Year Published: 1988
Total Issues: 39

If you just concentrated on Uncanny and X-Factor for Inferno (Claremont and Louise) it was a damn good storyline. I still to this day haven't read the New Mutants and I've never read tie ins to any crossover unless it's a book I already read (Acts of Vengeance I'm looking at you)

Inferno reading event continues...


(^I always like it when covers break through the logos, mess with the price tags, UPCs, etc.)

Inferno reading event continues...

Here's an idea of what you got inside these photo cover comics...

All this unadulterated liking! Where's the Comics Code when ya need 'em??

Oh... his name is CLINT... I thought she was saying something else.

The first one looks like Vera Miles. The second Barbara Hale.

I'll give you credit even though the second one has her name right there.

My question is, were these tie ins with the movie or did they just get some random covershot to promote that movie and the inside was totally unrelated?

After the Dark Phoenix saga and Days of Future Past, Inferno is my favorite X-Men crossover event. Maybe my favorite since I was reading it monthly as it happened, and read the other two long after they were published.