Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Art Thibert
What Went Down: Yes, once again there is an allusion on the cover to Ryking’s name being Hazard, and once again nobody calls him that.
Ryking shares a bunch of childhood memories with Charles and then rants a lot. He alludes that the murder of Charles’ father at the hands of Kurt Marko might have gone farther, but nothing ever comes of this. He shows the professor a bunch of file cabinets and papers, and then he reveals a secret staircase that leads to an underground section of the plant, even though the stairs are drawn going up, not down.
The X-Men arrive and split up. Rogue tries to get Wolverine to open up about his past, but he isn’t having it. Also, Cyclops is wearing a telephone operator’s headset for some reason. Wolverine and Rogue find the stairway leading underground; they say they’re going “down there” except once again the staircase is still drawn to go up.
When Cyclops’ team gets to the bottom floor, they find Rogue and Wolverine already captured by Carter.
Back at the mansion, Cannonball calls for some reason. Jubilee asks if he wants to leave a message, but he doesn’t. This might have something to do with Cable missing before the X-Cutioner’s Song story that goes on in next issue, but I have no idea.
In Istanbul, former X-Factor sidekicks and New Mutants Rusty and Skids are working for the villain Stryfe because they’ve been brainwashed. They offer Stryfe a tapestry that depicts Apocalypse, since both villains play an important part in the crossover.
The X-Men fight Ryking until Cyclops blasts the taser mechanisms on his armor. Apparently Carter needed those to channel his power, so he explodes. Xavier uses his powers to save Carter somehow, and despite the entire factory being leveled, not to mention that the X-Men were on the underground floor, they crawl out of the rubble with no serious injuries.
Wolverine threatens Carter because he wants the villain to talk, but Xavier explains that Carter didn’t really know anything. As the X-Men walk away, a sheet with the words Shiva Scenario, as well as Brian Xavier, Kurt Marko, and Alexander Ryking’s names on it blows past.
How It Was: What a freaking tease! In case you missed my comments on last issue, this ends the saga of Almagordo/Xavier’s father for a very long time. Mike Carey picks up the plot thread in X-Men Legacy #213 in 2008, when this issue was written in 1992! You do the math. So not only does Carter waste Xavier’s time by not revealing any actual information, he wastes our time as well.
It’s an okay fight scene and the art is pretty good, but there are some really sloppy mistakes. Please see the aforementioned underground stairway that always leads up for some reason. Also, Beast’s proportions switch around an awful lot, even from panel to panel on the same page, and for some reason Rogue’s arm isn’t colored on one page. All that being said, it’s still a pretty good effort considering this was probably a rush job. After all, Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio were basically running the X-Men, and when they left for Image, Marvel probably had a cow trying to replace them.
Once again, it’s a pretty mediocre issue that probably would have been better if the plot had gone somewhere. The fact that Carter convinces the audience that he has important secrets and then delivers jack just really grinds my gears.
D
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