Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Greg Capullo
I know I usually only do books directly affecting the X-Men, but I just came upon this little gem at a moving sale, and it ties in pretty well to the X-Cutioner’s Song events. Plus I figure I owe my readers for taking a month break.
What Went Down: Boomer starts off by utilizing the X-Men’s advanced Shiar technology to make a new costume. Her broken jaw (that she received during the X-Cutioner’s Song) seems to have pretty much healed since she spends the scene talking to herself in the mirror. Lila Cheney takes the opportunity to confront her and explain that she no longer has feelings for Cannonball, and Boomer is free to ask him out.
Sunspot and Stevie Hunter have a talk outside about Roberto’s frustrations over his recent behavior and new powers. This doesn’t really matter unless you’re reading X-Force regularly.
Feral, Rictor, and Shatterstar spend the evening in the Danger Room while discussing the death of their leader, Cable, and their potential arrest. Feral is insistent that she’s not going to prison, no matter what. Beast observes them and comments on their savagery and lack of ethics.
Warpath and Siryn sneak into the X-Men’s war room and copy a lot of files, but Xavier is monitoring them the whole time.
Cannonball confronts Xavier about letting X-Force go. This is followed by a one-page subplot about supporting character Copycat being ill.
Cut to the SHIELD helicarrier where G.W. Bridge resigns to Henry Gyrich over X-Force’s involvement in a theft (probably in recent issues).
Back at the mansion, Boomer makes new costumes for the rest of the team. Siryn and Xavier have a heart to heart outside while Cannonball talks with Sunspot and searches through some leaves.
Sam once again confronts the Professor. This time, utilizing both a field mouse he found in the leaves and a metaphor about an open hand and a closed fist, Sam convinces Xavier to let them leave. Outside, Feral kills the mouse Sam used to prove his point and eats it.
Lila Cheney makes a teleportation portal to send X-Force back to their base. Before Cannonball leaves, Xavier reveals the war room theft to Cannonball and wishes him good luck.
How It Was: Presenting X-Force, minus Cable. Yeah, it doesn’t sound too promising to me either, but Nicieza gives a go at presenting the team without their driving force. This issue is a pretty mixed bag; it offers some interesting character moments and some potentially interesting subplots, but there are a lot of dull moments as well. The scenes with Sunspot are particularly boring as I can only assume he is using Stevie to remind readers of everything that happened to him prior to X-Cutioner’s Song. Also, what’s up with the X-Men having a machine that designs clothing? If they own such a machine, why do they shop at all? While Tabitha’s crush on Cannonball and her animosity towards Lila get resolved a little, it seems like a waste just to have her make new clothes for everybody. And some of the costumes are horribly dated: I’m looking at you Warpath—not only do you dress like an Indian, you want to add fringe to that look?
What works in this issue is Cannonball. This is a real coming of age issue for him. Not only does he stand up to Xavier, but he also calls him out for leaving the New Mutants under the charge of Magneto. It’s wonderful to see Cable’s influence rub off on Sam, and Nicieza sets him up really well as a potential successor to Cable’s leadership. It’s issues like this that make Cannonball’s recruitment by the X-Men years later all the harder to swallow as later he is portrayed as an awkward, intimidated wuss. If those creators had read this issue before writing those stories, I can only imagine how much better they would have turned out. I also like how Sam is being set up as the good intentioned leader of a group that he may not be able to trust because they are morally and ethically compromised.
Capullo’s art is really nice, although his Danger Room doesn’t show enough of the room to let the reader really know what is going on. And of course, I guess he deserves some of the blame for those costumes. A mediocre issue brought up by a strong portrayal of Cannonball.
B-
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