X-amining Juggernaut #1

"A Night in Spite"

April 1997

In a Nutshell

Juggernaut battles D'Spayre and his sister Spite. 

Writer: Joe Kelly
Penciler: Duncan Rouleau
Inkers: Steve Moncuss
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos & Virtual Calligraphy
Editor: Kelly Corvese
Editor-in-Chief: Bob Harras

Plot

At a bar in New Mexico, Juggernaut drinks his troubles away, dealing with local troublemaker Marvin and attracting the eye of the beautiful Alex. The pair depart the bar together, and as they travel, Juggernaut learns Alex is being pursued by her brother, who wants to hurt her. The pair are interrupted by Black Tom, Juggernaut's old partner, who blasts Alex, prompting Juggernaut to strike and seemingly kill him. But just then Alex transforms into Spite, and Black Tom into her brother, D'Spayre. Spite admits she hoped to use Juggernaut against D'Spayre. Angry, Juggernaut tosses her to deal with D'Spayre's demon army while he attacks D'Spayre. Despite the demon's best efforts, Juggernaut just keeps coming. He tells D'Spayre that his life has been defined by despair, so nothing D'Spayre can do will hurt him. With D'Spayre distracted, Spite opens a portal to his home dimension, and Juggernaut tosses him through it, where the Fear Lords intend to make D'Spayre pay for his failure. Spite thanks Juggernaut then departs, with Juggernaut ready for the day they'll meet again. 

Firsts and Other Notables

The cover bills this as Juggernaut's first solo adventure; that's perhaps a bit disingenuous, depending on how you want to define "solo" and "adventure" (from Juggernaut's perspective, his battle with Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man #229-230 was a solo adventure; X-Men Unlimited #12 is more or less a solo Juggernaut story), but it is certainly the first time Juggernaut has headlined a book, even if just for one issue.

This is also something of a sequel to X-Men Unlimited #12 in that it features Spite, sister of D'spayre, who debuted in that issue. To date, this is Spite's last appearance. 

Spite is basically here to hoodwink Juggernaut into her helping her fight her brother. We last saw D'Spayre in Cable #13-14, though he's made a few other appearances elsewhere since then. 

A Work in Progress
When Juggernaut starts to tell Spite (as Alex) his origin, she says he seems a little too young to have been in "the war", which seems like an acknowledgement that in 1997, Juggernaut's Korean War backstory doesn't fit, even if gets slid up to anything outside of Desert Storm. 

The Grim 'n' Gritty 90s

Tawny Kitaen, actress and White Snake video maven, gets name checked. 

TV shows Walker: Texas Ranger and The X-Files get referenced as well (Juggernaut is apparently hanging out in a very pop culture savvy town). 

Young Love

Juggernaut is just *so* happy when he thinks he's seeing Black Tom.

Maybe I just need to get my mind out of the gutter, but given that Spite lures in Juggernaut by appearing as a sexy lady, there's a bit of innuendo to the story's title...

Austin's Analysis
I remain deeply curious about the origins of this issue. While the X-office of 1997 certainly needed little excuse to push out product, what prompted a Juggernaut one-shot? It's not like the kids were clamoring for more Juggernaut, such that such a thing would be an immediate sales slam dunk. A random one-shot like this feels very much like the kind of one-shot characters like Captain Marvel would get to maintain a trademark, except Juggernaut would be an odd character to need to do that for. Given that it features Spite, was this meant to be a sequel to X-Men Unlimited #12 and appear in that series, but then got bumped for some reason? Maybe, but the two issue don't share any creators, so it's not a case of Spite's creator looking to reuse the character. Was this an inventory sitting in a drawer and someone decided maybe they could cash in on Joe Kelly's name now that Deadpool is out? I have no idea. But I'd love to know. 

The comic itself is pretty much a mess. It's visually exhausting, with Duncan Rouleau going Full Rouleau with exaggerated, twisted figures and panel layouts, and Kelly is bringing the same kind of madcap Looney Tunes-esque energy he's bringing to Deadpool. But at least a character like Juggernaut — who is visually at his best when his proportions are unbelievably larger and has a kind of a boisterous personality — is a better fit for that kind of story than, say, Wolverine would be. The larger issue is with the villains, in that D'Spayre is one of those characters who mainly exists to trigger superheroes to think about their past failures and angst, and then have something to physically punch when they work through their issues. So the very thing that makes Juggernaut a good match for the story's energy — his straightforward, knock-'em-sock'em mentality — makes him ill-suited for the antagonist's whole schtick.

Ultimately, that leaves Juggernaut #1 as little more than a curiosity, both for the genesis of its creation and the text itself. It is a comic that lacks a clear reason to exist telling a story in a style that suits its protagonist but with a villain that doesn't. True to its nature as a seemingly random one-shot, it doesn't really advance Juggernaut's character or offer much insight into it, despite using a villain who exists mostly just to do that, nor does it really contribute much to the overall X-Men narrative. I skipped this entirely back in '97, and reading it now, it's clear I didn't miss much.

Next Issue

The sensational character find of 1997 debuts in Uncanny X-Men #345: Maggott!

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