Writer: Scott Lobdell
Artist: Brandon Peterson
What Went Down: Part 9 of the X-Cutioner’s Song. Our issue starts out with Cyclops holding Jean Grey with his visor off. The Dark Riders think she is dead, but really she is using her powers to suppress Cyclops’ beams. Together they ambush the Dark Riders and continue running, but Stryfe is observing them on the viewscreen, letting the audience know that this is all planned.
At the X-Men’s home, Beast has successfully extracted the bullet, but the Professor is still sick. Polaris reveals that they are aware of Cable, Bishop, and Wolverine’s team up and tries to keep Beast’s spirits high.
Over on Greymalkin, Cable’s crew is using their page space to recap all of the events of the crossover up to this point; they explain it as if they are trying to go over clues in order to discover Stryfe’s base, but really it’s for those readers who haven’t picked up every issue.
Cyclops and Jean lose their pursuers and discover a baby boy hooked up to Stryfe’s base.
Apocalypse finishes recuperating and offers to save Xavier. Archangel reluctantly backs up Apocalypse’s claim that he is the only one who can help.
As Scott and Jean search for a way to free the baby, Stryfe contacts them telepathically and tells them that by killing the baby, they will kill him as well. Stryfe is convinced that the X-Men will think nothing of sacrificing a baby, and he is taken aback when they refuse. The Dark Riders show up, and the heroes jump off of the balcony rather than endanger the infant. Cyclops shoots a hole in the wall, and some force sucks the couple outside. It is revealed that the baby was really an illusion made by Stryfe and that the whole thing was really a bluff to prove that Cyclops is really evil.
Back on Graymalkin, Wolverine decides that Cyclops and Jean Grey must be on the moon, since they couldn’t possibly be anywhere on Earth; the logic on this one is spotty at best, but it turns out to be true as the last page is a splash of Cyclops and Jean out in space, gasping for air.
How It Was: Lots and lots of talking in this one. The only real action comes from Cyclops and Jean’s escape, but even parts of that are made overly complicated by the writing. Why is it more effective for Jean to hold back Cyclops’ powers and then attack? Why not just attack outright? Also, even though Cyclops is my favorite character, I dislike action scenes with him and Jean because the dialogue often degrades to silly pet names and constant reaffirmations of their love; they’re constantly kissing, holding hands or calling each other “my love” and it can get a little hokey. The scene with the baby is a little overly melodramatic as well, but it does hit the right emotional points for Scott’s character.
Meanwhile Cable, Wolverine, and Bishop are trapped in the plotline that will not advance. The story recap is way too long for its own good, and I still have no idea how Wolverine comes to the conclusion that the villains are on the moon. First the group establishes that Stryfe has to be hiding in plain sight…because he has to be. Then they rule out any locations on Earth because Cerebro and Graymalkin never picked up any signals, despite the fact that Stryfe is a villain from the future and has access to technology that could probably block scans or whatever. So obviously it has to be the moon! Every single scene with these three, arguably the three most popular characters in the X-books, in this issue is pure crap.
On the bright side, the scenes with Apocalypse are nice and ominous, and the reasoning behind them is sound since Apocalypse was already established to know about techno-organics from building Archangel’s wings and infecting Cyclops’ son.
On the art side, the scenes with Apocalypse and Archangel are very dark, but bold, setting the perfect tone. The scenes with Cyclops and Jean fighting are also suitably flashy and bright. My only complaint is that the baby always looked a little creepy to me, but I guess it’s hard to draw a baby with wires sticking out of it and not have it be a little creepy.
Probably the weakest issue of the crossover due to so many pages being taken up by needless exposition.
C
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