The Evolutionary War Omnibus

The Amazing Spider-Man (1963-1998) #Annual #22

by Louise Simonson

The High Evolutionary declares war on Earth in this eighties Annual extravaganza, and heroes across the globe must rally to stop him! Featuring the X-Men, Spider-Man, the New Mutants, the Punisher, X-Factor, the Black Panther, the Inhumans, the Eternals and the Fantastic Four! With the villainy of the Kingpin, the Hellfire Club, the Super-Skrull and Terminus! Collecting material from X-FACTOR ANNUAL #3, PUNISHER ANNUAL #1, SILVER SURFER ANNUAL #1, NEW MUTANTS ANNUAL #4, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL (1964) #22, FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #21, UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL (1970) #12, WEB OF SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #4, WEST COAST AVENGERS ANNUAL #3, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #8 and AVENGERS ANNUAL #17.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, X Men

472 pages, Hardcover

First published September 28, 2011

About the author

Louise Simonson (born Mary Louise Alexander and formerly credited as Louise Jones, when married to artist Jeff Jones) is an American comic book writer and editor. She is best known for her work on comic book titles such as Power Pack, X-Factor, New Mutants, Superman, and Steel. She is sometimes referred to by the nickname "Weezie".

Since 1980 she is married to comic book writer and artist Walter Simonson

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

A magnificent piece of continuity and storytelling engineering as the High Evolutionary's aim of forcibly evolving the entire human race spans across the annuals of both Avengers' teams, the Fantastic Four, X-Men, all three Spiderman titles, The Silver Surfer, New Mutants, X-Factor and The Punisher. And in addition across all eleven chapters, the origin of the High Evolutionary by Marc Grunewald is a captivating tale! 6 out of 12

[Alberto Martín de Hijas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Recopilatorio de historias de un crossover de 1987. Bastante pobre en conjunto: Los episodios no conectan unos con otros y en general son bastante flojos, más pensados para promocionar nuevos personajes que para desarrollar la trama. Se salvaría un poco el episodio de X-Men (De
Claremont y Adams) y el final de Los Vengadores, no tanto por su calidad como por ser el único con peso en la trama.

[JB · Rating 4 out of 5]

This omnibus consists of a collection of annuals of different Marvel series written and drawn by some of the greats. To name a few writers: Louise Simonson, Walt Simonson,  Mark Gruenwald, David Michelinie etc.

The annuals in this omnibus feature issues of X-Factor,  Punisher, Silver Surfer, New Mutants, Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Web of Spider-Man, West Coast Avengers, Spectacular Spider-Man and Avengers.

My favorite issues in this omnibus are: all the Spider-Man ones especially the one featuring the clone of Gwen Stacy and the one with Man-Thing and the Kingpin's Miami based "colleague", better know as the Slug  (who is even more robust as the Kingpin), the Fantastic Four one featuring the Inhumans, the West Coast Avengers one featuring Black Panter, the X-Men one etc.

My favorite part of the omnibus has to be the ten chapter story at the end of the book. All written by Mark Gruenwald where we dig deeper in the High Evolutionary's past and motives. This story also tells the origin/birth stories of Jessica Drew aka Spider-Woman, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff aka Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.

Before reading this omnibus all I knew about the High Evolutionary was what I learned from the animated series Spider-Man Unlimited which followed the amazing animated series a lot of people grew up with.

I highly recommend this omnibus to any one who wants to learn more about the High Evolutionary or to any one who's looking for a fun crossover event.

I was thinking which Marvel omnibus to start reading next. Seeing as I have 10 Marvel Omnibusses on my bookshelves and 3 are on their way, it was hard picking one. But after the ten chapter story written by Mark Gruenwald, the choice became much easier. I'm going to read Mark Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme omnibus.

Happy reading every one!

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

As part of my mission to read through the Marvel Comics of the 1980s, I finally decided to read some Omnibus editions.
This Omnibus collects the various 1988 Marvel Annuals that connected to form the Evolutionary War crossover event.

Collected all together like this, the crossover feels like a real mess. Back in 1988, I only read 4 of these; X-Factor, New Mutants, Uncanny X-Men, and the Avengers. Now that I have read them all, I feel like I did not miss much back then!

Each issue is a self-contained story relating the intersection of the High Evolutionary and his nefarious plans for humanity with the events of each individual comic series. Some major changes occur in 4 books that are important for the series going forward. They are the New Mutants (Power change for major character), Fantastic Four (membership change), X-Men (restoring the Savage Land), and Avengers (membership overhaul).

Some issues were great, some were terrible. High Evolutionary seemed to have different bases, weapons, and powers in each story to suit the needs of the various writers. Some had only tangential relationship to the primary story (Punisher, Spectacular Spider-man, Web of Spider-man, Amazing Spider-man), others were more directly involved, but only the Avengers story really was necessary to get the whole idea and resolution.

Overall, this was a bit disappointing. I give 3 stars because there were some excellent parts in there, including the bonus at the end, the full origin of the High Evolutionary.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was..okay. The story was told through a series of Marvel Annuals back in the 80s, but really the stories are only loosely connected. Also, it felt like we got dropped into the middle of the story. There wasn't much buildup and instead we are catapulted right into things. There's nothing outstanding here but not everything is horrible either. It mostly fills like filler stories, which most annuals were. The art wasn't outstanding and was on the lower end of Marvel.

This isn't horrible but I can't say it's good either. Still I don't regret reading it as I have the Punisher Annual and has always been curious how the other stories went. The Punisher was my favorite of this volume, but now at least I know what happened.

[Ed · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite spanning 12 annuals (including Alf, although that isn't collected here) Evolutionary War doesn't actually feel like a crossover. There is very little continuity between issues and many of them only tangentially relate to the High Evolutionary's scheme accelerate humanity's evolution. You could read part 1 (X-Factor) and part 11 (Avengers) and you'd get all of the most relevant High Evolutionary content.

The highlight of the whole crossover is a series of backup strips that present the origin story of the High Evolutionary. It might be the most over-stuffed and batshit crazy origin story in all of the Marvel Universe. I won't even try to recap, but it includes a werewolf, a ghost, the Moloids, child version of Jessica Drew aka Spiderwoman, Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver as babies and a mysterious man in a top hat. It then slips into a summary of the High Evolutionary's adventures ever since he first showed up in an issue of Thor and they are almost as crazy as his origin. The High Evolutionary is a pretty interesting character and it could be interesting to see him in the MCU in a simplified form. It would allow for some interesting investigations of the ethics of genetic engineering and eugenics.

Unsurprisingly, the quality of the main stories ranges widely over this issues. X-Factor Annual #3 introduces High Evolutionary and his plan to accelerate evolution. It also sees him do battle with Apocalypse over their theories of guiding human evolution and sets up the form most of the annuals take: the High Evolutionary is trying to rid the world of Moloids/drugs/Man Thing/dangerous mutants/etc and some hero has to stop him. In this issue, it's the Moloids.

Punisher Annual #1 only lightly ties and sees the Punisher get sucked into High Evolutionary's attempt to destroy a drug cartel. It's a really fun and dark comic. Silver Surfer Annual #1 is a confusing story involving the High Evolutionary attempting to map the Silver Surfer's genome. Also the Eternals are there. It's goofy cosmic stuff and is moderately fun.

New Mutants Annual #4 has a main story that I don't like that ends up with Mirage's power being increased and a backup story that I do like where Mirage explores her new powers. In Fantastic Four #21, the High Evolutionary tries to steal some Terrigen Mist and that sets of a fight with the FF and the Inhumans. It's mostly a standard FF issue from this era and the High Evolutionary is mostly in the background. Amazing Spider-Man Annual 22 is a pretty standard Spidey story but with Daredevil and Speedball co-starring and with the High Evolutionary just in the background.

X-Men Annual #12 is an outlier because the High Evolutionary is sort of a good guy here. For some reason, he wants to recreate the Savage Land (which had been destroyed a few years earlier in an issue of Avengers) even though he had been trying to destroy other outlier society on Earth. The actual content of the issue is almost incomprehensible because it ties in to so many different comics (thanks Claremont!) but the X-Men and the High Evolutionary defeat a giant robot, there's a giant space dog and then the Savage Land is healed.

Web of Spider-Man Annual #4 has a terrible villain in Slug and some super-problematic depictions of Latinos. It's also really dull and has the High Evolutionary trying to seal the Nexus of All Realities. West Coast Avengers Annual #3 is also pretty slight (the High Evolutionary tries to steal Wakanda's vibranium but Black Panther and the West Coast Avengers defeat him) but it's pretty fun. The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8 involves a clone of Gwen Stacy and the terrible forgotten super-team the Young Gods.

Avengers Annual #17 has the real meat of the High Evolutionary plot. He's going to use the volcano Krakatoa to blow up his Gene Bomb and spread it all over the world. But first he tries to sterilize the Atlanteans. Some members of the Avengers reserve squad defeat him and Hercules also dies after being evolved from a God to a mega-God. It's all really dumb but it's pretty fun, too.

[Myrmidon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un crossover particolare, che per la prima volta fu sviluppato negli annual di varie testate, pubblicati nel 1988.
Proprio per questo motivo, non presenta una trama spiccatamente lineare: non abbiamo più parti logicamente e cronologicamente collegate, con una che prosegue dove la precedente si era interrotta; piuttosto, sono storie differenti, unite tutte da una sottotrama comune.
Infatti, il concept di Evolutionary War è che l'Alto Evoluzionario, al secolo il genetista Herbert Wyndham, in seguito ad alcuni suoi fallimenti ha deciso di far evolvere l'umanità, purificandola e innalzando ogni individuo al rango più elevato della scala evolutiva: peccato che intenda farlo espungendo tutti coloro che ritiene geneticamente "indesiderabili" e le specie che costituiscono, a suo parere, un "disastro evolutivo".
Di conseguenza, ogni annual vede i protagonisti della rispettiva serie coinvolti in uno dei numerosi progetti a approntati dall'Alto Evoluzionario per far progredire il suo macabro disegno fanta-eugenetico: per esempio, in X-Factor gli X-Men originali si ritrovano a dover fermare il genocidio dei moloidi, un popolo sotterraneo, perpetrato dagli Eliminatori di Wyndham; oppure, nell'episodio dedicato ai Fantastici Quattro lo si vede attaccare Attilan, la capitale lunare degli Inumani, al fine di rubare le nebbie terrigene, di cui egli ha necessità per i suoi piani; ancora, a New York l'Uomo Ragno, Daredevil e Speedball (qui alla sua prima apparizione) si ritrovano a fare i conti con una serie di omicidi, dovendo infine prevenire la sterilizzazione di tutti i cittadini dal DNA "inaccettabile".
Gli annual in questione sono numerosi e spesso di testate profondamente diverse tra loro, come Silver Surfer e il Punitore, per dire. Proprio questo è, a mio parere, sia il punto di forza che la principale debolezza di questo crossover, dal momento che il lettore potrebbe non essere interessato a una determinata serie, oppure non conoscerne i personaggi: in entrambi i casi, potrebbe sentirsi poco coinvolto dalle vicende di quel particolare episodio, specie considerando che, come già sottolineato, non c'è una trama unica divisa in più parti, ma storie autoconclusive legate da un medesimo concept (con alcune eccezioni, come uno degli annual di Spider-Man in cui quanto successo nell'episodio del Punitore assume rilevanza, oppure quelli di West Coast Avengers e Avengers).
Ciononostante, la maggior parte delle storie sono passabili, con alcune davvero ben realizzate, come l'annual di X-Factor (già solo per il fatto Apocalisse e l'Alto Evoluzionario si prendono a mazzate, dibattendo su quale sia l'approccio corretto nel favorire la selezione naturale), oppure l'annual di Avengers che conclude il crossover, dove alcuni Vendicatori d'emergenza dovranno impedire che Wyndham faccia detonare una "bomba genetica", così da causare una evoluzione coatta nella popolazione terrestre pari a milioni di anni in pochi secondi.
Sicuramente un crossover da recuperare se, come il sottoscritto, apprezzate l'Alto Evoluzionario, un personaggio estremamente accattivante e che, anche quando usato come antagonista, non perde comunque la sua personalità ambigua e compassata, propria di un personaggio talmente oltre l'umano da risultare nei suoi propositi al di là del bene e del male, talmente desideroso di donare all'umanità la perfezione (forse anche per alleviare la solitudine della sua semidivinità), da divenire tragicamente incurante dei metodi estremi con cui intende raggiungere tale scopo.
Insomma, ben lontano da alcuni suoi ben più famigerati "colleghi", quali Sinistro o Arnim Zola.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

File this one under “Things aren't as good as they used to be...and they probably never were.” I eagerly scooped this book up when it came out, apparently oblivious to my memory of reading it when it was originally published. I hated this crossover at the time of original publication. I knew at age 15 that this was nothing more than a cash grab and a scam, refusing to buy the issues that were not a part of my regular titles. The fact that the story was incomplete unless you bought every single double-sized (and double-priced!) issue was an insult to me then and it is even more so to me now. Of course the point of comic companies is to make as much money as possible, but to insult the fans by forcing them to do stuff like this turned me off back then...much like it has today. I buy nothing that Marvel publishes today. If not for collected editions of vintage material they would see none of my money.

The main story is pretty feeble. The High Evolutionary has returned, deciding to fulfill humanity's potential by accelerating their evolution to it's maximum. This story is dragged into places where it doesn't belong. Incorporating The Punisher into this crossover was a bit of a stretch. To be honest most of these stories don't make a lot of sense, or they simply have the High Evolutionary shoe-horned in there for crossover branding purposes. The Amazing Spider-Man Annual with Speedball and Daredevil was fun, in a corny kind of way. The X-Men Annual was underwhelming, then and now. Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8 shows Gerry Conway returning to what was one of the most gaping holes in a plotline from his 1970s run: How a mere college professor could clone a human. Conway's ret-cone only serves to further muddy the waters on the clusterfuck that would soon be known as The Clone Saga a few years later.

If not for the back-up stories in each Annual which chronicled the origin of the High Evolutionary (collected together in the back of the book), I would have ranked this much, much lower. The origin story was highly entertaining, especially when the High Evolutionary was battling Baron Gregory Russoff (the ancestor of Jack Russell, a.k.a. Werewolf By Night).

This isn't a high point in the history of the Marvel Universe, nor is this the best work of any of the creators involved. I will still take this over what passes as Marvel Comics these days. At least everyone is acting true to character and the writers tell a story which serve the characters and not themselves. Not every comic has to wow or shock you, folks.

[Caleb · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well this was a total waste of time. I mean, I get where it might be an interesting story but it feels too much like a story that was crammed into continuity to actually make sense. It doesn't help that it clearly takes place across several months of happenings in the Marvel Universe. This just makes it a pain in the ass to read a run of any series and not either spoil yourself somewhere or just get utterly confused.

The only up side to this at all was the back-up story that tells of the origins of The High Evolutionary. This was intriguing, and it also fills in some historical gaps in the history of the Marvel Universe for those that aren't up to going back and reading a ton of silver age stories. So this is possibly worth reading. The rest of it though, well, all I can say is read the issues that are a part of whatever series you're reading through and know that it probably won't matter much if you don't get the rest of the story. What happens in The Punisher Annual, for example, won't matter much if you're reading through The Avengers or Spiderman.

And that means this book is kinda pointless unless you're a collector because most series already have their annuals from this collected in their respective omnibuses. So yeah, not a high recommendation here.

[Bryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember reading a handful of these annuals as they were being published in 1988 and not being able to follow the larger story they were supposed to be telling. If only I had the complete story, then surely it would all make sense!

Well, no. There’s a loose narrative of the High Evolutionary trying to set off some sort of evolution bomb to instantly evolve humanity thousands of years, but it never really adds up to much. And like most Marvel annuals of the era, they’re often written and/or drawn by B teams of creators.

Mark Gruenwald and Ron Lim do tell a serialized backup story that tells the entire history of the High Evolutionary, and it’s pretty great continuity porn. But outside of that, you can easily skip this one.

[Jeff · Rating 1 out of 5]

This sprawling story over a bunch of late 80’s Marvel Comics annuals is a mixed bagged that adds up to a convoluted thin plot with random and too often silly garbage.

There is a somewhat interesting story added at the end of each annual telling the origin of the High Evolutionary, but even here there are random side stories to link the narrative to previous stories and the broader Marvel Universe. It would have benefitted from both being cut free from the larger storyline and more space to explore the philosophical ideas around evolution. But alas you have to include a werewolf, a talking bovine, Moloids, the Hulk, Spider-Woman, Scarlet Witch, and more into these stories. So even this gets bogged down in absurd silly crap.

[Optimism · Rating 3 out of 5]

back on my marvel comics binge after a rough week a couple weeks ago! this was a long read as it was all annual (ie long) issues. pretty well-contained narrative, but there was definitely some missing content, as happens. but hey, marvel unlimited has big claims in its name, why not challenge it? i've read a sizeable portion of the entire thing at this point, and while this wasn't my favorite arc, it was a good one. next up in the major events: inferno

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first time I read through this book, many years ago, I didn't think it was that great. However, I enjoyed it a lot more this time around, for whatever reason.

Some interesting, loosely-connected storylines with some excellent art. The High Evolutionary is a pretty interesting and nuanced "villain" too.

Of course, some of the stories are better than others though.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

The High Evolutionary decides to make a difference in the world, to do this he decides to destroy all mutants, drugs and bad guys. In doing so he runs into nearly every hero in the Marvel Universe as they try to stop him harming innocents. A fun book, but feels drawn out.

[Ja-Køb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premise. Titles didn’t really crossover like it did with previous events like Contest of Champions or secret wars which I found a tad disappointing. The final annual which was supposed to end it all was really anticlimactic and lackluster.

[Earl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not surprised with how this turns out, but nice storytelling.

[Raul Santiago Almunia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me ha parecido bastante bien. No entiendo que a la gente le parezca tan malo, la cantidad de personajes que conforma estre Crossover está genial y es muy ameno. Además de esto el dibujo es muy bueno

[Juan José · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pff, definitivamente no me gusta el comic clásico, y este me ha parecido especialmente... irregular

[Rexhurne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This crossover event isn't as bad as i thought it would be. There are only a few interesting annuals in the event. The X-factor annual sets up the event and has a really nice philosophical class between Apocalypse and The High Evolutionary (one of the highlights for me). The New mutants and X-Men issues tie into it nicely. Not a surprise those three titles are the most coherent with each other, because Claremont had a part in creating them. The Avengers title ends it. When you focus on those issues (and all the background lore about the evolutionary) and cut off the sidefluff, it's a interesting event that didn't warrant less than 3 stars average for me. It can be (too) confusing for a casual reader, but the payoff is that it is nice for Marvel lore and worldbuilding enthusiasts. It also details the story of the demonlord Chthon that lies buried in the mountain Wendigo, where the high evolutionary decided to make his base of operations. This is really relevant for the MCU phase 4 movies, as this is rumored to be a big villain down the line (see the latest Doctor Strange movie).

The other stories are more tie-ins that you can read or skip depending on your enjoyment of them, without missing anything. But that is normal for a lot of comic events.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars

[Kevruzz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read this entire story, I don’t think I could tell you why the character of High Evolutionary is considered a classic Marvel villain. In fact, I’m not even sure I could tell you why he’s a villain. He has a lot going on, but there’s not much focus to it. He’s sort of an upscale Dr. Moreau dressed as Dr. Doom, but absent the charm or kookiness of either.

The backup stories in each annual chronicling his origin deliver a more compelling and character-driven saga than the main plot, summarizing the Evolutionary’s previous appearances and showing his connections to Marvel mainstays like the Hulk, the Maximoff twins, and the original Spider-Woman. With him finally taking center stage, the result is an action-heavy but fractured yarn lacking in anything resembling build or cohesion. Evo’s ultimate goals are whatever the writer of each issue needs them to be to allow each title’s hero to punch some armored henchmen.

That’s why there’s no point in even summarizing the plot. You could read the very last issue (Avengers Annual 17) and get the only part of the story that really matters. The action probably peaks too early with its title bout between Evo and Apocalypse in the first chapter. Marvel’s annual crossover events were a cool use of the larger world in theory, but I don’t think they ever really got the hang of it or found a way to execute one to its full potential and deliver a classic story.

[Devero · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'omnibus raggruppa la ventina di annual estivi delle testate Marvel che formano un unico, enorme cross-over. L'idea di fondo che li accomuna è l'opera dell'Alto Evoluzionario per portare artificialmente l'umanità ad uno stato superiore. Quindi abbiamo storie tra le più varie, sia graficamente che a livello di temi trattati. Si va dall'abuso di droga e alcol (Punitore e Devil) alla questione dei Mutanti, a quella degli esseri semidivini che vanno a zonzo per la Terra.
Nel complesso alcuni annual sono gradevoli, la maggior parte a dire il vero. Alcuni sono assolutamente da dimenticare. Infine ce ne sono un paio eccellenti, tra cui quello dei Vendicatori che chiude la saga, col destino di Ercole e dell'Alto Evoluzionario stesso.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well this is very '80s, so you get what you expect. It's greatest strength is that the High Evolutionary actually does manage to fit into the plot of each comic--there's a specific reason why he fights X-Factor, New Mutants, Avengers, and so on. Nothing feels overly random. However, this is also the book's greatest weakness, because when you look back at the 11 schemes H.E. has in the 11 different annuals here, it's hard to make collective sense out of them. I see why he's studying the genetics of super-people. I'm less sure why he's wiping out drug cartels in Central America, or why he's interested in (clone) Gwen Stacy's genetics. Also, the books vary in quality quite a bit. Some of them are quite good, some of them are only so-so, and a few of them star characters long-forgotten (and rightly so.)

[Travis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Back in the 90's marvel would do big crossovers in all their annuals, with the occasional crossover into a regular title.
Nice way to keep them self contained, but at the same time it felt like nobody wanted to work on them, so the art was really uneven and the stories were all very clunky.

The occasional good bit, but as a whole they never worked very well.
This one is hurt because you are never really sure what the High Evolutionary's grand scheme is, so what he's doing is treated like it's very important, but it's so vague, you aren't sure why you should care.

The Silver Surfer story where he teams up with the Eternals was good and I really liked the grand finale with the leftover Avengers banding together to stop the High Evolutionary's final grand whatever he was trying to do.

The good bits don't come together very well. So a good, but not a great read.

[Tiamatty · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Evolutionary War is a disjointed, inconsistent mess. Which shouldn't be surprising, given its nature. Rather than have a single writer telling a complete story, they instead had the writer of each book involved contribute a part of it. Some of the stories weren't bad, some actually were bad, and some were downright ridiculous. But none of the stories can really be considered good. And some stories - I'm looking at you, Spider-Man - were used to do massive and pointless retcons that made no sense.

All in all, a very skipable event.

[Matthew Ledrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Amazing Spider-Man (1963-1998) (#Annual #22),
The Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) (#Annual #8),
Web of Spider-Man (1985) (#Annual #4),
Uncanny X-Men (1963) (#Annual #12),
Avengers (1963) (#Annual #17),
Fantastic Four (1961) (#Annual #21),
X-Factor (1986-1998) (#Annual #3),
West Coast Avengers (1985-1994) (#Annual #3),
Silver Surfer (1987) (#Annual #1),
New Mutants (1983-1991) (#Annual #4),
The Punisher (1987) (#Annual #1)

[Justin Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this as single issues as a kid... It is STILL A GREAT story!!!

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in 2005-6 in single issue format.

[Ondra Král · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5*