MC2:
-Mayday is the tough, sporty daughter of Spider-Man (now a semi-crippled Police Detective) and Mary Jane, living in a world in which Aunt May stayed dead- the MC2 Universe, which has one of those "Doom Patrol Fandoms". All I know is that ten freaking years of requests, "This is not a request, but have you ever considered building MC2?" requests, and jokes about building it anyways have made me despise the MC2 universe, and consider myself one of its biggest detractors :p. Plus, it's both impossible (the characters have very little bio information out there and I have no access to the books) and uninteresting ("slightly modified versions of established characters! Yay!"). So suck it, MC2 universe.
-Truth be told, I don't know QUITE how many "Have you ever considered building MC2?" requests I've had over the years. For all I know, it was twice and I just exaggerated it due to annoyance. But I was planning on never statting up the thing, but then I randomly looked through the back-issue stuff at the nearby Used Bookstore, and discovered a pile of most of the
A-Next series- an "Avengers in the Future" book. Figuring that it looked interesting enough and it only cost about seven bucks or something, I picked up the issues and decided to placate poor, desperate Spectrum, who'd always go on about MC2 for whatever reason
.
A-NEXT:
-Comics like this are really why the term "mediocre" exists. It's not bad. Nothing in it bothers me or is offensive to my eyes of brain. But it's not GOOD, either. It's just... a bunch of STUFF that happens. All of the conflicts seem like they're ABOUT to reach some heavy point, but never do. Everything is exceptionally bland and uninteresting- it reminds me of Mark Gruenwald's
Quasar, which suffered from the same kind of thing- a book that's more of a dry, encyclopedic description of stuff that happens. Characters give exposition about what things are like in the future, we see snippets of some people (Jubilee leads... *ugh*... the "X-People", while Speedball is a large, muscular former Avenger).
The dialogue is rather... "simple" in a way. Tom DeFalco's writing is odd in that it comes off as very dated, like it's a relic of the early 1970s or something- not as bombastic as Stan Lee's stuff, or even Roy Thomas's... but people speak rather plainly, but with big, obvious statements. The thing is so "New Reader-Friendly" that everyone speaks at least half their dialogue in exposition, and start each issue saying each other's names so there's no confusion. It's very "Silver Age". It's not really an INSULT to say that... but it comes off weird- this is a late '90s book that reads like something 20 years older. It actually reads like it's intended for younger children. Which, given how the MC-2 'verse was... is actually probably BENEFICIAL. This is back when Marvel was still pretending that it could appeal to children.
My main issue is with the characters- most of them are just not that interesting. Kevin Masterson (Thunderstrike) is a bit plain and dull as a character. He wants to keep his dad's legacy alive, but kind of just walks through life like it's a very casual thing- no real effort put into it. He's a bit too "normal"- just some guy with a college career, with no real passion for that OR his heroics. Stinger (Cassie Lang) is similarly dull as dishwater- just some generic lady hero, though sort of the team's leader. Mainframe is mysterious and a bit of a dick, which keeps things a bit interesting. J2 is fittingly immature, and it's interesting how he's SO young that it causes friction with the rest of the team. But then halfway through the series, the book suddenly adds on four new characters, three of whom are among the most boring characters in history, with barely a single character trait between them.
But like I said... everything feels scaled-back, as if the creative team (Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz) were just firing on a single cylinder, instead of all of them. The team meets up, casually decices to stay together, then just starts going on boring away missions that end up revealing one legacy character or another, but doesn't focus on any of them enough for it to matter.
The Story:
The book starts off with Thunderstrike (Kevin Masterson- who was then the young son of the recently-dead second Thor), Stinger (Cassandra Lang- who was then a young child and supporting character for Ant-Man), J-2 (new son of the Juggernaut), Mainframe (a mysterious armored guy) and the adult Jolt, Speedball and Jubilee. The latter three do the "leave by the second issue" thing, and the remainder decide to stay on as The Avengers in a new time.
Subsequently, the four heroes travel around doing stuff- Bill Foster's son John becomes "Earth Sentry", gaining Captain Marvel-like powers. Doc Magus, the new Sorcerer Supreme, has the team fight the reformed Defenders. The Black Panther's son, the Coal Tiger (named for an early possible name for T'Challa), also shows up. Suddenly, four NEW members arrive, all bearing similarities to the "Cap's Kooky Quartet" era of the team- American Dream (a lady Captain America), Freebooter (a Swordsman-lookalike), Crimson Curse (albinistic Scarlet Witch-type) and Bluestreak (a fame-crazy speedster).
Doctor Doom appears, but is revealed to be Kristoff Vernard, who has a peaceful reunion with Cassie (during this time, he & Cassie were sorta-love-interest/childhood friends in the
Fantastic Four book. Eventually, we discover the true nature of Mainframe (who'd been giving some Doom-like hints), and find out what happened to the original Avengers- they were lost in battle in another dimension. They wind up in an alternate Earth where the Red Skull won WWII and was replaced by his student, Doctor Doom, and Thunderstrike decides to stay behind to hang out with his father (who's alive in this world). The remaining Avengers are attacked by a group of villains including the children of Hank & Janet Pym, while many of the allies they've made over the course of the series (Coal Tiger, Earth Sentry, Argo, Blacklight) help them pull out a win.
The series is cancelled with
A-Next #12, with a blunt confession from DeFalco that "the book just isn't selling the number of issues required for all the effort and money we put into it". Like most of the MC2 line, it didn't do that well in sales, but UNLIKE
Spider-Girl (the line's signature title), it never got the letter-writing campaigns or the credibility with young female audiences to pull it out of the fire.
The characters have largely vanished since then, but a five-issue Limited Series came out in late 2006, adding a few new members to the team.
Characters:
Stinger
Thunderstrike II
J2
Mainframe
The Crimson Curse
American Dream
The Freebooter
Bluestreak
Other MC2 Characters:
Ladyhawk
Raptor
The Buzz
Blacklight
Wild Thing