Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Tom Raney
What Went Down: Things aren’t going too well for the Gold Team since the last issue. Storm is still having a conniption over being swarmed by hideous mutants in an enclosed space, Archangel has abandoned the X-Men to go cry like a little girl at the spot where he lost his wings during the Mutant Massacre, and the Morlocks are rioting in New York. To make matters worse, Colossus and Bishop start the issue out with a confrontation over Bishop’s violent tendencies.
Back at the mansion, Iceman is getting his clock cleaned by Mikhail Rasputin. One of the major themes of Scott Lobdell’s Iceman stories is having Bobby realize that he hasn’t lived up to his potential as far as mastering his own powers as time after time other mutants use his powers better than he can. Mikhail demonstrates how to melt Iceman, turn Iceman into pure ice, and shatter and reform Iceman.
In between issues, it looks as if it was decided that the cause of the Morlocks’ riot was not Masque’s violation of their bodies and minds. Instead, the cause is actually a Morlock boy named Braincell who is projecting his feelings of fear into everyone else.
Colossus and Jean fight one of the most annoying characters I have ever read, MeMe. He’s a Morlock who absorbs people into his body, making him stronger, and he also happens to have the rather aggravating habit of repeating random words twice in his sentences. It annoy annoys me a lot lot. Thankfully, the only way to save the people he’s absorbed is for Jean to shut off his mind. They make a big deal about it being sad and Jean even cries, but I say good riddance to awful characters.
Bishop is also fighting a group of Morlocks, but he is interrupted by the police. They want to arrest him for killing all those mutants before he joined the X-Men. He shoots at their cars in an attempt to scare them away, and Storm takes that exact moment to reenter the fray and chastise Bishop.
As Mikhail beats up Iceman, Calisto tears apart Storm’s room and finds her old vest that she gave to Storm.
Down in the sewer, Xavier has to exit his hover chair to crawl into the small space that the young boy is hiding. In a completely unnecessary gross out scene, the Professor gets his pants caught on something, pulls really hard, and then realizes that it was actually his leg that was caught on something, and he has now ripped that leg open pretty badly. Despite the risk of bleeding to death, the Professor calms the kid down, and the Morlocks calm down in turn.
At the mansion, Calisto and Mikhail kiss; Mikhail explains that he cannot bring himself to kill anybody, but Calisto believes she can change his mind.
How It Was: It’s a big fight issue, occasionally interrupted by Archangel’s weeping and the Professor goring himself on debris. Warren’s weeping in this issue is completely uncalled for since he was joking with the X-Men down in the sewers during the previous issue, as well as the fact that he’s supposed to be the freaking angel of death. I was expecting him to maybe flip out on the Morlocks and give into the dark side that writers had been building up in stories since the original X-Factor. Instead, next issue completely ruins all of that setup by ignoring a lot of it and prematurely ending Archangel’s uncontrollable darkness, except for a brief scene during the crossover. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for characters expressing emotion, but not for them acting pathetic.
Mikhail is still lame, but his fight with Iceman is kind of exciting. Evidently crazy is contagious since Calisto is now acting completely nuts as well. As mentioned before, the scene with MeMe can’t end fast enough. Poor Bishop gets scolded not once, but twice for being too violent. Having the toughest character on the Gold Team being constantly chastised like a school boy is definitely not the way to make him seem cooler.
The art is good, especially the scenes in the sewer with Xavier. The Morlocks are all pretty generic looking, but I guess that’s part of the idea of the whole getting violated by Masque aspect. And even though I do hate it the scene with Archangel crying looks really nice.
It’s a long fight that has nothing to really recommend story or character wise, especially if you’re squeamish. The only really interesting aspect is the possibility of the X-Men and the police coming into conflict over Bishop’s wanted status, but nothing ever comes of this and it’s soon forgotten.
C
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