Journey into Darkness: An Unauthorized History of Kane
Journey into Darkness is a 2005 novel written by Michael Chiappetta and David Stern and published by Pocket Books for World Wrestling Entertainment. The book is a history of Kane and ties together pieces of the real-life Glenn Jacobs, such as giving the character the name Glen Jacob Callaway, and the idea that he took the name 'Kane' from his mother's maiden name, as she was referred to several times as "Susanna Kane". The story also deals very sparingly with The Undertaker, Kane's brother. This was the first WWE novel, the second being Big Apple Take Down.[citation needed]
Continuity
The Callaway name which runs contrary to the spelling of Mark Calaway (the wrestler who portrays The Undertaker), as established by the caption to a high school yearbook photograph and his father's obituary.[citation needed]
The alteration of the Undertaker's real life last name in the book is therefore understandable as a real life history which involves both Kane and The Undertaker, as well as Paul Bearer. In addition, Glenn Jacobs' name has been spelled incorrectly in some sources as "Glen", possibly because of this.[1][2] Jacobs also had the 's' dropped to simply become Jacob, which makes sense for a middle name.
Kane spent time over in Spain learning his craft. (The real-life Jacobs was born in Madrid while his father was stationed in Spain with the United States Air Force.) It also goes on to state that Kane is the victim of a rare disorder called "Hereditary Sensory and Autonomic Neuropathy". This meant that Kane was incapable of feeling pain, but could still feel other sensations through touch. It also attempts to explain how Katie Vick came into contact with Kane — a massive continuity gaffe at the time she was introduced.[citation needed]
Loose ends
The story deals very little with some of the much larger components of Kane, such as how and when he gained supernatural abilities similar to The Undertaker's. It also does not explain where The Undertaker gained his abilities. It does claim that Kane has a condition called HSAN (Hereditary Sensory and Autonomous Neuropathy) which, although it does not remove the ability to feel tactile sensation, renders Kane incapable of feeling pain unless it is in great amounts, as an attempt to explain why Kane seemingly feels no physical pain in the early days of his career unless he sustains large amounts of punishment during matches. This creates a plothole in that it does not explain why the Undertaker seems to have the same ability to shrug off or outright ignore pain in his early incarnations despite not having the same condition as Kane.[citation needed]
This in itself is a continuity gaffe because the Undertaker has been shown to be capable of utilizing superhuman and highflying abilities, which Kane was supposedly capable of matching due to having similar and in some cases identical abilities. The two characters are supposedly able to sustain enormous amounts of physical punishment and had various other abilities which include mind manipulation a form of energy manipulation. Both Kane and Undertaker seemed to include the ability to utilize the Chokeslam and Tombstone Piledriver and seemingly highflying agility for men their size as both are nearly seven feet tall in real life and are in fact billed as seven feet tall. The Undertaker could cause people to have hallucinations. Kane, by comparison, was shown to have a superhuman ability to survive damage that should have killed him in very brutal ways, such as being thrown into a dumpster engulfed in flames and being trapped inside a limo that was driven into the underside of a truck as extreme examples. It also does not explain why both Kane and the Undertaker seemed to suddenly lose their inability to feel pain and then partially regain it. Also, it mentions that the fire happened on May 19, on an episode of RAW, the official date was May 19. As May 19 was the release date of the film See No Evil, the date of the fire is probably a retcon, as the date which Kane battled someone supposedly from Kane's past who had begun impersonating him. It is also the date his parents died.[citation needed]
It also does not explain why the parents of the Undertaker (his mother being Kane's blood relative) were buried on Long Island, New York, rather than in Texas where the two brothers 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 Kane introduced after the events of the Katie Vick angle, and the subsequent unmasking of Kane.[citation needed]
The one thing it does explain is the exact reason why the Callaways died in the fire which supposedly scarred Kane. This does more or less confirm comments and assertions by the Undertaker that he had set the fire, but his reasons for doing it were entirely skewed, apparently for the purpose of causing emotional harm to Kane himself later on in WWE storylines, but this little tidbit does dispel some theories that Paul Bearer had somehow brainwashed The Undertaker into saying that he had set the fire. (Though the book makes vague allusions to the idea that Paul Bearer MAY have in fact somehow brainwashed the Undertaker prior to the events of WWE's Judgment Day even in October 1998, in which the Ministry of Darkness storyline began, explaining his sudden heel turn.) It does however, completely invalidate the earlier story The Undertaker had told about the events of the fire. So the book at the same time upholds and yet debunks certain parts of existing WWE canon. Specifically, the changes made to the canon state that what happened was a complete accident, and that Undertaker had fled the house in fear. In previous WWE canon established from the days of the Ministry of Darkness storyline, Undertaker still asserts to having set the fire, but claimed originally to have done it because Kane was 'Weak as a child just like [Kane] was weak now'. Despite this Kane and the Undertaker later joined forces two years later, during which Undertaker still boasted about setting the fire, but also claimed a protectiveness of his family. The Undertaker & Kane were also friends back in High School.[citation needed]
