When Kane debuted in 1997, he was portrayed as a one-dimensional cartoon; The Undertaker's long-lost brother, a cross between the Dead Man and Frankenstein. And of course, even though WWE has attempted to give his character a few more "layers" over the years, they haven't been very stellar attempts.

 

Journey Into Darkness is possibly the most ambitious attempt to date to explain the Kane character, and how he, The Undertaker, Paul Bearer and the notorious Katie Vick fit in.

 

Now, make no mistake about this -- this is hardly an "unauthorized" story; the WWE logo on the cover should tell you at least that much. The "unauthorized" reference makes everything sound a bit more ominous, I guess.

 

It's still no small task to explain Kane's madness, at least more than the Russo-esque account that was force-fed to us, and conveniently changed numerous times during the late 90's. One minute, he killed his parents. The next minute, it was actually The Undertaker who did the deed. One minute, he and Taker are mortal enemies, and the next minute, they're best of friends. One minute, he needed a voice-box to speak, the next minute... well, you get the picture.

 

That's what Journey attempts to explain, in a writing style that borrows more than a little from Stephen King. We begin with a four year-old Glen Jacob Callaway (tying Kane's real name of Glen Jacobs and Taker's Mark Callaway in somewhat), awakening as his family's funeral home burns to the ground and apparently, with him being the only survivor.

 

..... OR WAS HE????