History of the MC2: Operation Zero Tolerance

 

Continuing with our run of X-Men ’97 tie-in content, today I’d like to turn your attention to the 1997 X-Men comic crossover event storyline Operation: Zero Tolerance and examine its effect and connections to the MC2 Universe. This entry is called History of the MC2: Operation Zero Tolerance.

 

At the conclusion of the massive 1996 Marvel crossover event Onslaught, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Dr. Bruce Banner and even Doctor Doom apparently perished saving the world from the psychic entity known as Onslaught, a massively powerful psionic manifestation of the combined consciousnesses of Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto (Onslaught: Marvel Universe One-Shot). In the fallout of this seismic event, Xavier voluntarily surrendered himself (X-Men (Vol. 2) #57) and was placed in a secret facility run by the mysterious Bastion (Onslaught: Epilogue).

 

Having allied himself with various well-placed government figures and anti-mutant groups, Bastion had quickly position himself into a place of power. To cover-up mutant-hating presidential candidate Graydon Greed’s history from the public, Bastion killed Daily Bugle reporter Nick Bandouveris (Uncanny X-Men #339).Shortly afterwards, Creed would be assassinated (by Mystique, as we learn in X-Men Forever), stoking anti-mutant sentiment and fast-tracking the implementation of Operation Zero Tolerance (X-Factor #130).

 

During the Operation Zero Tolerance event itself, Bastion captures and tortures Jubilee, orders his forces to shoot down a team of X-Men and invades the Xavier’s Institute for Higher Learning where he gains access to sensitive information on various mutants. With his government supported mutant-targeted initiative, Bastion had converted numerous humans into Prime Sentinel sleeper agents throughout the world using cybernetic nanotech implants, set to hunt down mutants when activated. During a confrontation with Iceman, Bastion is finally stopped when the government figures who approved Operation Zero Tolerance back out of their course of action and authorize S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to arrest Bastion and shut down the operation.

 

This brings us to the MC2, where we learn that Mr Woodhill, the social studies teacher at Upper Saddle River High was involved in a crash ten years prior, spending a year in the hospital as a result. While there Woodhill was transformed into a Sleeper Sentinel, including suppression implants to ensure he remained unaware he was a cyborg. Jubilee explains that the X-Men had years ago attempted to find all these Sleeper Prime Sentinels but some -such as Mr Woodhill- had gone undetected. Using a program devised by Dr McCoy and Forge, the Sleeper Sentinels would have their Sentinel activation nullified, allowing them to continue living out their lives believing they were ordinary humans (Wild Thing #3).

 

This acts to fill in more information about the history of the MC2. The most notable implication being that in the MC2, Bastion likely continued producing more of his Prime Sentinels using unwilling patients well after the events of Operation Zero Tolerance.

 

Furthermore, this could mean the fleshed-out (pun intended) origin for Bastion depicted in Cable/Machine Man Annual ’98 and Machine Man/Bastion Annual ‘98 is also valid in MC2.  After the strong hints in X-Men (Vol. 2) #69, we learn that Bastion is an amalgam of the Sentinel Master Mold and the future Sentinel prototype Nimrod resulting from a journey through the mystical portal known as the Siege Perilous during the events of Uncanny X-Men #247.

 

Operation Zero Tolerance also provides a few other connections to the MC2, with the Wolverine tie-in issues being the last written by MC2-alumni Larry Hama’s, bringing to end a nearly hundred issue run. The Generation X series tie-ins were followed by a fill-in issue written by MC2 co-create Tom Defalco. This adds some credence to the notion that these are the point at which these series diverge into the MC2’s own timeline. Notably, Jubilee continues to wear a version of her Generation X-era red costume beneath her iconic yellow coat in the MC2. 

It's always fascinating to me to look back and consider what elements from the Main Marvel Universe comics of the 90’s have an unexpected or surprising impact on the MC2. A huge thanks to arias-98105 for all the help on this and many other posts!

 

Until I go through a mystical aperture, merge with another being and emerge as something different, I remain

 

frogoat

 

 

Halloween: Spider-Girl's Birthday

 

Well, Halloween is upon us once more and that means it is time to wish May ‘Mayday’ Parker aka Spider-Girl a Happy Birthday! Or is it? Let’s take a look at the situation.

 

At the commencement of the now legendary (and infamous) Clone Saga of the 90’s Peter and Mary Jane Parker learn they are going to have a baby and indeed, Mary Jane is pregnant throughout the entirety of the Saga. These same events play out in the MC2's past also, as seen in Spider-Girl #48-#49. Mary Jane apparently goes into a particularly painful and unusual labor after her food is spiked by Alison Mongrain (Sensational Spider-Man #11).

 

Mary Jane is taken to hospital where she learns from a Doctor Folsome that her regular doctor is not available. In the birthing suite, Mary Jane asks if her baby is breathing and is told by Folsome ‘everything is going exactly as planned’ as an unseen Norman Osborn watches on. Following an agonising delivery, Mary Jane again asks Folsome ‘why isn’t she crying’ before breaking down in tears. The doctor offers his condolences, while Mongrain (disguised as a nurse) wheels an unidentified ‘package’ to her car. Alison meets up with her employer at the docks where she is told she is going to Europe with a sizable bonus as she boards a yacht. Mongrain’s employer tells her she can call him by his real name: Norman Osborn (Amazing Spider-Man #418, Spider-Girl #48). Unbeknownst to both of them, Kaine will track down Mongrain.

 

 

All these events transpire across the day and through the night of October 31^st, Halloween. Thus, May ‘Mayday’ Parker was born on October 31^st in both the Main Marvel Universe and the MC2. So why is her birthday celebrated well after Christmas (Spider-Girl #54) in Spider-Girl #67? Well, this is a question I worked on answering many years ago now with good friend and excellent Spider-Man scholar Big Al. Here is an extract of our efforts from his own blog on Tumblr:

 

 

It is simply not logical that practically a whole year elapses between the Season of the Serpent and Marked for Death arcs, especially given how Mayday was clearly stated to be fifteen at the start of the series.

Whilst we don’t know for sure when Mayday celebrates her birthday in contrast to when Season of the Serpent happens (the latter arc itself spanning an uncertain amount of time itself) it wouldn’t be unreasonable to estimate that at most we’re talking late February maybe early March, but even that is a fairly extreme guess. But no way is it October.

Myself and Frogoat from this fair site in discussing this topic ultimately resolved to take our conundrum to the sources themselves and so Frogoat kindly asked Mr. Tom DeFalco and Mr Ron Frenz about the discrepancy at hand. Here is what Mr. Frenz had to say on the matter:

‘May’s birthday is considered to be October 31st.(As celebrated by and on this very message board!)Any story(seeming)inconsistency that suggests otherwise has been officially designated a SNAFU by no-less a legendary figure as Mr.Tom DeFalco himself.

 

May’s “Special Day” as shown, I believe, in our tenth-anniversary issue is a separate celebration of the day May was returned to her loving Parents by “Uncle Kaine.“

 

Oh, and shame on you for not knowing all of this. Shame, I say. ;D

 

Regards,

Ron.’

 

Well there you have it. Just a simple mistake.

But this wouldn’t be Continuity Confusion if we just left it there right?

Without starting any heated debates about continuity, what’s on the page vs. authorial intent or anything like that for the sake of argument let’s agree that Season of the Serpent happened at Christmas and that Mayday’s birthday occurred shortly thereafter.

How could this possibly in-universe make any kind of sense if we know for a fact that Mayday’s birthday falls on October 31^st?

 

 

So now that we have a co-creator’s comment, we must work out a No-Prize explanation for why Mayday’s birthday is celebrated months later. The answer is surprisingly simple, given that officially, baby May Parker was presumably declared deceased on October 31^st. We also know that months passed where Alison Mongrain travelled Europe in a yacht with the newborn May, while Peter and Mary Jane mourned their lost baby (Spider-Girl #48-#49). So, here is the most explanation Big Al and myself arrived at, again quoted from his post:

 

So, why not try this on for size. Given how she was presumed stillborn it is possible that Mayday was not given a birth certificate on October 31^st and may even have lacked one entirely during her abduction. There would however have been a record of her death.

This would’ve created a great deal of legal hassle for Peter, MJ and their lawyers not least because of them having to explain the circumstances of May’s abduction and retrieval. But the point is that they would have had to more than likely fill out an all-new birth certificate and legal records. My proposition is that when they did that Peter and MJ essentially assigned Mayday a different date as her birthday other than October 31. And if you think about it this makes a certain amount of sense emotionally speaking as October 31 would be a day that would hold very painful memories for Peter and MJ. So why not choose to celebrate the life of their daughter on a day free from the taint of any sad recollections?

 

Thanks to Big Al and to my fellow MC2 fanatic arias-98105 for their immense help and continual tolerance of my abysmal memory. With all that out of the way, we can assume that the Parker Family celebrate Mayday’s birthday sometime at least a few months after her actual birth, a good guess being around late February at the earliest. Gee, I bet that was a paperwork nightmare…Wait does that mean May's a probably a few months older than she thinks?!

 

Happy Birthday, May ‘Mayday’ Parker and Rest in Peace Ben Reilly. Have a good Halloween, everyone!

 

Until I stop rehashing old points of interest and plucking at threads, I remain

 

frogoat