Marvel Comics Presents (1st series) #12

Issue Date: 
February 1989
Story Title: 
“God’s Country Part III: Iron Curtains” (First Story)
Staff: 


First Story: Ann Nocenti (writer), Rick Leonardi (penciller), P. Craig Russell (inker), Ken Lopez (letterer), Glynis Oliver & Mike Rockwitz (colorists), Terry Kavanagh (editor), Tom DeFalco (editor-in-chief)

Brief Description: 

First Story:

The Cold Warriors can’t dent Colossus’ armor and he manages to stun them long enough to escape with the family in their pick-up truck. Bruce takes them to the police, despite Colossus’ objections, which are centered around the Cold Warriors’ cybernetic powers proving there’s big money and power behind them as opposed to some mafia group. At the station, an officer tells them that they will be shipped off in a van to a location where a special unit that deals with situations like this will help them. However, Peter overhears another officer making a bizarre phone call regarding them and so, when they are all lead outside, he knocks the escort officer over and he and the family steal the van. They immediately object, but Peter wins their trust by pointing out that the officer would not have shot at them during the escape if he were on the level. They go to the family’s house out in the country and Bruce begins to board the place up and hand out guns, as they know it will be the first place people will look for them. Cracking under the pressure, Roxanne fusses to Bruce about messing up the curtains while he boards up the windows. When he tells her not to go funny on him and gives her a shotgun, Roxanne just sits down with it and rambles on about the curtains. Bruce says they’re going to stake out their land like the pioneers and gives a handgun to his young son. However, still young and not understanding their situation, Zackery points the gun at Peter and asks if he is a Commie like his dad says.

Full Summary: 

First Story:
The Cold Warriors are still in a heated battle with Colossus. One with eyebeams says he thinks Colossus is beginning to melt, while Jocko complains about not being able to cut deep enough with his claws. The third with a flamethrower for a hand tells the others to keep at it, until they get to the flesh and blood man inside the armor. As this transpires, the family runs to their pick-up truck, with Zackery begging his father not to abandon Colossus. Bruce tells him to be quiet. P>

Meanwhile, Colossus stuns Jocko with a blow to the head and body slams him into the man with eyebeams. The flame-thrower man continues to shot at Colossus, but the X-Man cuts this short by slamming his own hand cannon into his face. He tells the men that they might have been better off if they’d just been happy with the limbs God gave them. The Cold Warriors are on the ground long enough for Colossus to jump in the back of the family’s truck as they take off down the road. However, the trio quickly recover and call in a Code Six, saying to alert all the locals.

Bruce tells Colossus that he is taking all of them to the police, but Colossus thinks this is a bad idea. Suspicious, Bruce asks what he has to hide, to which Colossus says “nothing!” Bruce explains that Americans don’t have to fear the police; they have a social contract with them for defense and won’t be taken to some prison camp like in Russia. Colossus says this is a bad contract if you give up the right to defend yourself. He goes on to say that the killers in the woods have expensive powers and that big money is behind them. They were not some mere mafia group.

Bruce objects to this sentiment because he says he fought for his country and it will defend him in return, that it won’t betray him. Grampa cuts in by saying Bruce was in Vietnam and asks how often he has to fight for his benefits check. Bruce tells Grampa to shut up. Roxanne ends the argument by saying that they are all scaring her and little Zackery with their yelling. Colossus apologizes and says he just got a little paranoid. He figures things will calm down inside the station.

Later at the station, an officer tells the family and Peter – who has transformed back to his human form – that he will drive them to a special unit that deals with situations like theirs. However, Peter overhears a phone conversation from another officer, where he explains that itis there. The officer then receives some kind of instructions, saying “right” with each one.

A short while later, everyone is being led to a van outside when Peter suddenly shoves the officer over and steals the van. As the officer fires a few shots at the departing vehicle, Bruce yells at Peter and asks what he’s doing. The cops were going to protect them! Peter wins his trust back immediately by pointing out that the cop wouldn’t have shot at women and children if he were on the level.

The family takes Colossus to their house out in the country. Bruce knows that this is the first place they’ll look, still he refuses to budge. He then prepares for any visitors’ arrival by boarding up all the windows and doling out firearms. Peter says they are up against the CIA or somebody in the government because, whoever they are, they have the police working for them. Bruce still refuses to believe his own government is trying to kill his family. He yells that that happens in Peter’s country, not his!

As Bruce begins to board up a window, Roxanne chides him not to muss up the curtains, as she just washed them. Incredulous, Bruce tells her not to get strange. Acting even more strangely, she inexplicably declares that she’ll go fix lunch. Bruce hands her a shotgun and tells her that they have to fortify the family. However, Roxanne just sits down and rambles about lunch and how she just cleaned those curtains.

Bruce insists the family will be like the Founding Fathers or the pioneers, staking out land and defending it on their own because they’re Americans. He hands a handgun to the astonished and smiling Zachery, and returning to boarding up entrances. The boy stares at the pistol for a moment before pointing it at Colossus, asking if he is a Commie like his dad has been saying.

Characters Involved: 

First Story:

Colossus

The Cold Warriors (Jocko, unnamed others)

Bruce, Roxanne, Zackery, Grampa (the family)

Story Notes: 

The other features in the issue are:

2nd story: Man-Thing, “Elements of Terror (part 12 of 12).

3rd story: Hercules, “Noble Fathers Have Noble Sons.”

4th story: Namorita, “Spring Break!”

First story:

This issue takes place while the X-Men pretended to be dead and lived in an abandoned town in the Australian Outback, between Uncanny X-Men #227 and Uncanny X-Men #250.

At the time this issue’s publication, Russia was still a part of the Communist Soviet Union.

Issue Information: 

This Issue has been reprinted in:

Written By: