Appearing in "Even in Death..."
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- The X-Men
- Man-Thing (Ted Sallis)
- Captain Lee Forrester
- Jock Forrester (First appearance; dies)
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Paolo & Frank, crewmen on the Arcadia
- Unnamed crew of the Arcadia
- Christopher Summers (Vision or hallucination)
- Katherine Summers (Vision or hallucination)
- Marvel Girl (Jean Grey) (Vision or hallucination)
- Beast (Henry "Hank" McCoy) (Vision or hallucination)
- Iceman (Bobby Drake) (Vision or hallucination)
- Havok (Alex Summers) (Vision or hallucination)
- Polaris (Lorna Dane) (Vision or hallucination)
- X-Sentinels (Vision or hallucination)
- Storm - (Vision or hallucination)
- Colossus - (Vision or hallucination)
- Wolverine - (Vision or hallucination)
- Nightcrawler - (Vision or hallucination)
- Larry Trask (Referenced)
Races and Species:
Locations:
Items:
- Ruby-Quartz Sunglasses
- X-Uniforms
- Wolverine's Suit
- Adamantium (on Wolverine's claws)
- Cyclops' Visor, Ver. 2
Vehicles:
- Arcadia, Lee's trawler
Synopsis for "Even in Death..."
Jock Forrester, broken by the news that he is being killed by cancer, returned to the swamp he grew up in. Unbeknownst to him, he is watched by two entities: the empathic Man-Thing and a sinister presence. That presence pushes Jock over the edge, causing him to take his own life, and then it reveals itself as D'Spayre. Man-Thing attacks him,[1] but D'Spayre is victorious, and then takes the form of Jock Forrester.
Not too far away, Scott Summers is adapting to life as a fisherman. After a successful fishing trip the crew head to a pub, where Scott catches up on his letters. Meanwhile at the X-Mansion, reconstruction is preceding apace.[2] Wolverine and Nightcrawler are playfully ribbing Kitty for the amount of damage she caused, but unintentionally end up hurting her feelings. Back at the pub, Scott's shipmates get him up to play some pool, and while everyone is distracted by the football game he uses his optic beams instead of the pool cue to sink every ball on the table. Lee gets a call from her 'father' asking her to come visit, and she asks Scott if he minds keeping her company. Scott agrees.
They enter the house, only to discover that "Jock" is actually D'Spayre, and Lee's father killed himself that morning. Then reality goes wild.
Scott finds himself as a child on the plane with his parents, being pushed out with Alex in the only parachute.[3] Then he finds himself in Larry Trask's sentinel base with his brother, only the original X-Men were dead.[4] Suddenly, sentinels that look like the new X-Men batter through the walls, and though Cyclops manages to destroy them all, Alex is slain. But the sentinels rise again, but then Scott finds himself with Jean on a mesa.[5] They kiss, and then suddenly Scott is wearing a tux over his costume and walking down the aisle with Jean, whose clothes switched from one incarnation to the next. They reach the altar, and are pronounced man and wife, and then Jean asks Scott to remove his visor, telling him nothing will happen - but this time[6] he blasts her. Coming back to reality, but laden with despair, Scott runs from D'Spayre and tumbles headlong through a window, falling to the ground below. He lies there for a long time.
Coming to his senses, he discovers Man-Thing approaching him. Almost blasting the creature, he realizes he isn't under attack, as the Man-Thing traveled past him towards the door. Scott follows to find Lee in the grip of D'Spayre. Man-Thing attacks the demon, but D'Spayre causes him to fear, which causes the Man-Thing to set himself on fire. After proving Cyclops' optic beams to be useless, D'Spayre disappears, but Cyclops recalls him by thinking of Jean, and then grabs hold of him. Cyclops has beaten his fear, and his resolve bolsters the Man-Thing, who grabs hold of D'Spayre and the two are locked in a death-grip as Scott grabs Lee and flee from the now-burning house. Then they leave.
In the morning, the house is ashes and the resurrected Man-Thing searches for signs of D'Spayre, but finds none.
Notes
- D'Spayre previously appeared in Doctor Strange 37. He will appear next in Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #55.
- This issue references X-Men Vol 1 08 (adolescent Scott and Alex having to bail out of their parent's plane), X-Men Vol 1 59 (the original X-Men vs the Sentinels) and X-Men Vol 1 132 (Phoenix asking Cyclops to remove his visor).
See Also
Recommended Reading
- Marvel Team-Up #68 - featuring Spider-Man, first appearance of D'Spayre
- X-Men #101 - Jean Grey's 'death' and 'rebirth' as Phoenix
- X-Men #129 - X-Men #137 - Dark Phoenix Saga
Links and References
- The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators - accessed on 07/12/2009
- Official Marvel Index to the X-Men (Vol. 2) #3 - See for further referencing
References
- ↑ Man-Thing and D'Spayre have fought before, in Marvel Team-Up #68.
- ↑ The mansion was seriously damaged during Kitty's fight with an N'Garai demon in Uncanny X-Men #143.
- ↑ From Cyclops childhood. Previously, related background was revealed in X-Men #107.
- ↑ The X-Men battled Larry Trask's sentinels in X-Men #57 - 59.
- ↑ Scott and Jean took time for themselves on a mesa previously while visiting Angel in X-Men #132. There Phoenix managed to contain the power of Scott's optic blasts telekinetically.
- ↑ ibid.