Writer: Scott Lobdell
Art: Brandon Peterson
What Went Down: Part 5 of The X-Cutioner’s Song. Apocalypse isn’t doing too well since he was brought out of his healing chamber too early, yet despite the pain he is still climbing his way to his old base. When he finally reaches the building, he finds the Gold Team, Beast, and Quicksilver waiting for him with the unconscious Horsemen on the ground; evidently the X-Men beat up the other two Horsemen in between issues.
Back at the mansion, X-Force is being held prisoner down in the Danger Room, and Strong Guy is kicking Jubilee out for getting into an argument with Shatterstar. Polaris is up in the booth feeling sorry for them since they are just kids; Havok comes and comforts her.
Down in the medical lab, Moira is monitoring Charles’ life signs while Psylocke visits. Psylocke’s internal monologue explains that she intends to kill the Professor as an act of mercy to avoid the inevitable violation of his body and mind that is to come, but she is interrupted by a summons to the war room.
The Gold Team has a big fight with Apocalypse. Apparently Beast is all better from being turned into a starving weakling since he participates in the fight.
At Stryfe’s base, Jean Grey is being violated by hundreds of metal hands. She manages to escape, only to be knocked unconscious by Stryfe. Stryfe makes a bunch of vague allusions about abandoned children.
Over at the X-Men’s war room, Val Cooper briefs all of the teams on everything that has happened up until now. I guess the paper Sinister gave her had Stryfe’s picture on it, because Val also briefs them on the villain. Jubilee brings up the fact that Cable and Stryfe might be the same person, which seems to concern everyone.
Bishop and Wolverine managed to sneak out of the mansion to go to Canada. They are laying siege to Department K, a recurring antagonist for Cable, to find any files that might lead them to their prey. Bishop thanks Wolverine for trusting him enough to let him come, but Wolverine tells him he only did it because Bishop has a record, and he didn’t want to get any of the other X-Men in legal trouble.
Elsewhere, Colossus and Archangel have Apocalypse on the ropes, but he manages to reach a machine that repowers him. He decides that there is no honor in killing his enemies while they are unconscious, so he just teleports away.
In the mansion’s study, Havok and Gambit offer Cannonball an opportunity to help them hunt Cable or the bad guys responsible for this story. Sam agrees.
Finally, Cable shows up at Department K. He is happy to see that the facility is already under assault as it will make it easier for him to obtain the files he came for. That is until Bishop and Wolverine run into him, which cues the cliffhanger for next issue’s big fight.
How It Was: Very exciting: that’s one way to put it. The fight against Apocalypse is pretty cool. Because he’s depowered, the X-Men seem like they have a chance, which builds the tension a little bit. And of course, is there anything cooler than Bishop and Wolverine beating the tar out of anonymous solders? I think not. Yes, the toughest two characters from each of the X-Men squads finally get to team up and the results are action packed, although not necessarily epic.
As for the rest, Val’s little exposition sequence in the middle is kind of dry, but entirely necessary for those readers who don’t follow X-Force or Cable. And Psylocke’s attempt to euthanize the Professor just comes off as really weird, although it does set up her attitude for future stories.
This issue also sees the benching of X-Force. Other than Cannonball, Boomer, and Cable, none of the other X-Force members do anything of note for the rest of this story. That’s okay though because this crossover already has more than enough characters in it. Peterson’s art once again is decent, although there are a couple of slip ups. On page 9 Alex is wiping away a tear on Lorna, but her eye is drawn on her forehead to make it fit.
A fun little issue right before the halfway point.
B
No comments:
Post a Comment