Glen Jacobs

name=Glen Jacobs

Journey into Darkness

In 2005, Pocket Books, published Journey into Darkness, a fictionalized 'History' of Kane, which attempts to tie together many of the somewhat glaring plotholes in the continuity of the Kane character. This also winds up retconning a rarely remembered component of the Kane character, in that when he was first seen on Monday Night Raw, his right eye, which was white (or perhaps an off blue, since the book refers to it as being blue), was supposedly blind. This may be a continuity gaffe which Michael Chiapetta, who wrote the story, had placed into the story without knowing beforehand of the fact that the right eye was supposed to be blind (Paul Bearer specifically had claimed that Kane was missing that eye, so it may have been meant to infer that Kane's right eye was a fake). The story ties together pieces of the real life Glen Jacobs with Kane, such as giving the character the name Glen Kane Calaway (Calaway is in fact the real life surname of The Undertaker, who is in fact named Mark Calaway.), and the fact that Kane spent time over in Spain learning his craft. It also goes on to state that Kane is the victim of a rare disorder called Hereditary Senory and Autonomic Neuropathy. This meant that Kane was incapable of feeling pain (however this infers that while Kane could not feel pain, he was still capable of feeling tacitile sensation). It also attempts to explain how Katie Vick came into contact with Kane (this was a massive continuity gaffe at the time the storyline was introduced), and also interweaves Gene Snitsky into Kane's past. However, the story deals very little with some of the much larger components of the Kane character, such as how and when he gained 'powers' similar to the Undertaker. This in itself is a continuity gaffe because of the fact that the Undertaker character has been supposedly capable of 'mystical' feats for the better part of almost two solid decades, which Kane was supposedly capable of matching. The two characters are supposedly able to teleport, and had various other powers, which included shooting fireballs and summoning bolts of lightning. It also does not explain why Kane seemed to suddenly lose his inability to feel pain and then partially regain it. Furthermore, it does not explain why this also was true of the Undertaker, nor of Mankind, one of the on-screen alter egoes of Mick Foley, who also supposedly had similar powers to the Undertaker when that particular gimmick was introduced (Mankind however never regained the same semi-invincibility that The Undertaker and Kane possessed). The story also deals very sparing with the character of The Undertaker himself, and this is more than likely on purpose due to the fact that Undertaker is one of the few true staples of the company and there is always the possibility that any 'history' of the Undertaker would call into question many things which this book details, such as why two individuals such as Undertaker and Kane, who were supposedly possesed of such magical powers, could not in fact find one another for twenty years. It also does not explain why the parents of the Undertaker (only one of whom is directly related to Kane by blood, that being his mother) were buried on Long Island, NY, rather than in Texas where the two characters were supposedly born and, for the most part, grew up. However the book does detail the backstory of Kane with a partial filling of some, though not nearly all, of the larger plotholes behind the character introduced after the events of the Katie Vick angle, and the subsequent unmasking of Kane.

Related Topics:
Retconning - Teleport - Mick Foley

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