Writer: Peter David
Artist: Jae Lee
What Went Down: Part 10 of the X-Cutioner’s Song. Last issue, Cyclops and Jean Grey escaped Stryfe’s base; unfortunately, his base was on the Moon, so now the couple starts off this issue dying of exposure in outer space.
On Earth, Wolverine is filling in the rest of the X-Men on the “discovery” that Stryfe’s base is on the Moon from last issue. Havok even pokes fun at the ridiculousness of the reasoning behind the reveal. The remaining X-teams organize themselves into squads, and Storm tells Cable, Bishop, and Wolverine to wait for them. Before they go, they want Apocalypse to fulfill his end of the bargain and cure Xavier.
Back at the Moon, Stryfe shows up to rescue Cyclops and Jean with a bubble full of air. Stryfe tells them that their escape was planned and that he will save them if they beg for their lives. When they refuse, Stryfe gets a little ticked.
All the X-Men threaten Apocalypse in case he decides to double-cross them, while Multiple Man alerts Havok that the X-Patriots most likely escaped the hospital. They lie to their boss Val Cooper about there being anything wrong.
Apocalypse begins the process of curing Xavier, but he refuses to tell anybody what he’s doing. Everybody panics because it looks like the virus is enveloping the Professor, but Archangel insists that Apocalypse is their only hope. Then Apocalypse sucks it in himself, a big flash of light occurs, and then Xavier is cured.
There’s a brief scene of a doctor discovering Multiple Man’s duplicate unconscious in the hospital bed. As I’ve said before, I don’t know where this plotline goes from here.
Cable’s group decides to go ahead and teleport to the Moon. After they arrive, they discuss stealthily infiltrating the base before being confronted by the Dark Riders and an army of soldiers.
How It Was: Everything starts coming together rather nicely towards the end as a bunch of the conflicts do get resolved. Everybody learns where Scott and Jean are (and I love how David pokes fun at the stupidity behind the logic they use), and Xavier gets cured. Of course, Apocalypse’s cure does read as a bit of a lucky convenience, i.e. deus ex machina, but it’s a comic book virus so I guess it makes as much sense as anything. The conflict over Xavier’s cure due to the villain’s refusal to explain his tactics is pretty unnecessary, and the tension doesn’t really work at all.
The scenes on the Moon with Scott and Jean aren’t really that compelling either, as once again we see Stryfe underestimate the couple when they refuse to beg for their lives. But I will say that Jae Lee’s art does look particularly good when depicting space; both the gritty dark backgrounds and the panels utilizing negative space provide a very cool effect to look at. The scenes where Apocalypse is curing Xavier are also pretty unique to look at. But there are still some very awkward expressions, such as Havok’s on the second page. And unfortunately, Wolverine, Cable, and Bishop sit around doing nothing for like the third straight issue in a row.
While a lot of subplots get resolved, there isn’t really a lot to this issue; most of the scenes seem a little too long and not a lot actually happens. I don’t think it should take three pages to establish that the kidnapped X-Men are on the Moon, nor do I think that four pages should be used to have the X-Men yell a variety of threats and ultimatums at the only guy who can help them. There are some really good moments, but it just feels like the book is just stalling for time until the next issue. At least things actually take place.
Random Fact: The following issue of X-Factor featured a new regular artist by the name of Joe Quesada. Of course, this is the same man who would go on to become the current Editor and Chief of Marvel Comics. Who would of thought?
B-
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