The Road to Crisis

Ahhh, I’ve been in a really retrospective mood lately, so I decided to slow down the blog and take a look into the past. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, but my biggest and longest mod happened to be a little thing called “Crisis: DC/Marvel Alliance.” If it’s not obvious from the name alone, it involved a crossover between companies and an event type crisis. Not rocket science, right? So, what was the stimulus that resulted in this mod being green-lighted? I can honestly tell you that it wasn’t just one thing, and it was built up over several projects I had completed at the time. Follow me, dear readers, as we go through my time capsule.

The Beginning:

The year was 2006, and not only was there a particular boon in activity within the community, but also it was a time ofdiligence on my behalf, as I had practically become a mini-mod making machine. What’s a mini-mod, you ask? There’s no real definition for the term, but I classify it as a mod under 6 missions with a short play time. If one were to look at my total count from that year alone, from X-men: Classic to Crisis: DC/Marvel Alliance, I had successfully completed nine (9) mods out of the sixteen (16) I have under my belt. It was my most active year and because of that, a story was made that many have asked me about, but I have never fully expressed the project’s background. Now, I shall reveal exactly how this story came together, and how the other mods helped forge its creation.

War of the Mutants:

Interestingly enough, the story of Crisis began in a mod that I never finished but was released for a short time. A tale that involved the X-men, a personal favorite of mine, in a war against Apocalypse, The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and a new group of alien enemies created by myself known as the Nucleians. During the mod, the X-men found themselves in several heated battles against The Brotherhood who are under the control of the evil shape-shifter Mystique. Unaware as to why The Brotherhood are trying so hard to disrupt New York City, the X-men are surprised to find themselves working alongside Magneto who recently had his leadership challenged. After nearly losing the city in an attack orchestrated by Mystique, the X-men are faced with the challenge of going toe-to-toe with some of their own, as the Nucleians, alien balls of light led by Renegade Supreme, have taken over the minds and bodies of their friends to use as weapons. If that wasn’t enough for the X-men to handle, Apocalypse had begun to infiltrate the minds of mutants in an effort to rebuild his own depleting forces. Things finally come to a head after Archangel and Marrow, two of Apocalypse’s newly converted slaves, kidnap Professor X. In response, Cyclops is forced to lead his team against two of the X-men’s most deadly foes: the wanna-be master of mutant kind and creatures capable of making time their mistress.

Dark Intentions:

JLU: Dark Intentions was my first foray into DC related mods, and it was meant to serve as a lost episode of the Cartoon Network toon, Justice League Unlimited. I set it up as a two mission mod with a magic based villain created by Chuckles that went by the weird name of Amalgamage.He was meant to serve as a villain that was a bit corny, insane, and someone you really wouldn’t want to mess with in real life. I don’t know if I succeeded on that front because he did so very little in the mod but having a villain that was so off-the-wall that he turned a whole town of citizens into chickens was unique, I’d like to say. This mod also happened to introduce some of the DC heroes that eventually made their way into Crisis as playable characters. In fact, I’d like to say that the majority showed up again in one form or another. On the story side of things, Amalgamage and his effect on the timeline I created for these characters didn’t come into play until AFTER Crisis, so there’s really not much to report here. It was just a quick little mod meant to give the DC lovers some attention before BentonGrey came along with his DCUG.

Webs that Bind:

Spider-man: Webs that Bind is probably one of my favorite and most difficult mods of this period. Not only did it involve one of my favorite characters and some new coding tricks on my part, but it also formed the very basis of Crisis and quite a few mods that followed it. Setup as a giant team-up between the Web-head and his assorted friends, this mod was the first where I featured villains in collaborations in an effort to defeat their enemies. Although it wasn’t particularly obvious to those that hadn’t read my outlines, this little adventure also served as the spiritual predecessor to X-men: War of the Mutants.  It is here, my friends, where the story truly began.

After the destruction of their planet, the Nucleians, now known as Renegades, had been eying the inhabitants of the Marvel Universe for a while. Anxious to begin their reign, the Renegades set into motion a series of plans to overcome Earth’s defenses, starting with the bad luck prone Peter Parker and his lovely girlfriend, Mary Jane. While manipulating time to his advantage, Renegade Superior utilizes The Rhino in an effort to lead Spider-man into the open in order to test his abilities. Unaware that he is falling into the trap, Spidey realizes that the Rhino couldn’t possibly be working alone in his recent attacks.When his suspicions are confirmed when The Rhino drops a strange crystal and disappears in front of his eyes, Spider-man slowly begins to piece together that his foes aren’t truly themselves anymore. Things only get much weirder when Parker finds himself working alongside the Avengers, the X-men, and finally Daredevil and Black Cat as the Renegades strengthen their hold over the universe. Finally losing his cool when faced with the challenge of defeating Green Goblin again, Peter surmises that he’s being manipulated by an intergalactic race that has kidnapped and converted his girlfriend into a being known as Flara and are using another mind-controlled hero from their universe as their final weapon. At the mod’s conclusion, Spider-man frees Rayzon, warrior of light, from his confusion. To make amends for his part in Earth’s manipulation, Rayzon sacrifices himself to restore the natural timeline. Unfortunately, his death wasn’t enough to undo what the Renegades had set into motion.