Writing: Roy Thomas
Art: Dave Ross
What Went Down: Part 3 of Bloodties: The first page of this issue is the Avengers (both standard and West Coast) not in Genosha bursting angrily into the UN. Yes, prepare for a lecture on political responsibility…because you asked for it, nuff said. Hawkeye criticizes the UN for standing by while people in Genosha are dying, and the rest of the heroes debate Clint’s brash and blunt methods. The UN politicians notice that the Avengers’ chairman, Black Widow is oddly silent.
Over at Genosha, Exodus confronts the Avengers. After knocking Crystal back, War Machine attacks Exodus as the rest of the Avengers stand around Crystal and do nothing. Even as the fight goes on, another group of humans and mutants are about to riot… again. The Avengers’ methods of resolving this are somewhat questionable; the Scarlet Witch makes a gas main explode, which can’t be safe, and the Black Knight complains about trying to fight civilians with a lethal weapon, even though the last issue of this crossover demonstrated that his energy sword is non-lethal. Crystal ends the confrontation by summoning a wall of water to separate the two sides. Then Crystal and Wanda run off to look for Luna.
Elsewhere in Genosha, U.S. Agent, Beast, and Xavier are in a sewer; this contradicts last issue, where Xavier and Beast were trying to ditch Agent, and Agent was tracking them. Now they appear to just be on the same side. There is an odd, completely out of character scene where Beast complains about not needing the help of a non-mutant. Together, the group uncovers a hidden concentration camp for mutant prisoners. Before they can be freed, a group of soldiers called the Magistrate Elite ambush the heroes.
Jumping over to the X-Men, they are still fighting generic mutants, and Quicksilver’s costume has gotten darker. Jean Grey shows some out of character behavior when she freaks out and loses concentration because Cyclops gets winged. Anyways, the X-Men beat the soldiers, and the Fabian Cortez from last issue is revealed to be a shapeshifting mutant.
The fight between War Machine and Exodus continues as Exodus uses racist remarks to trick the Avenger into getting close to him. Once trapped, War Machine is turned into “a flesh-and-blood vegetable,” but next issue he is fine. The issue ends on a very unflattering drawing of Sersi challenging Exodus for the next fight.
How It Was: An odd example of a crossover issue. While normally this story would be used to try to boost sales of the flagging West Coast Avengers title, the fact was that the series was being canceled next issue, so there was no need to impress readers with any big events. Instead we get the majority of the West Coast team standing around and accusing the UN of not doing their jobs for this issue and next issue. It’s as exciting as it sounds, and that is not very exciting at all. I guess this is significant because it does set up the disbanding of the team in the next issue, but as a middle chapter in a major crossover between two powerhouse teams, it is just really bad.
The only West Coast Avenger to do anything this issue is War Machine, as he has a long pointless fight with Exodus. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an exciting, well-drawn fight, but it’s really just a stalling exercise to keep Exodus from just going off to find Cortez and further the plot. The rest of the Avengers spend the issue doing the same thing they did last issue: breaking up a riot—do you get why people call this crossover boring and unoriginal yet? And the scene with the Beast and U.S. Agent is just ruined for two reasons. First, there is no way that the Beast would need to be reminded by Professor X why it is wrong to criticize people for not being mutants. Second of all, while the revelation of a concentration camp does raise the stakes in the story a little, the fact is that it comes off as a little inappropriate. More importantly, it shifts the conflict so that both sides aren’t equally at fault anymore; now the humans are once again the clear villains in the conflict, even though the point of the story was that both sides are fighting because of the non-existent threat of Magneto and were equally at fault. This story could have easily served as an allegory for the senseless wars fought in the name of various figures and deities, but in the hands of so many creators, the story just turns into a mess. And how come U.S. Agent is helping Xavier, when Xavier was trying to ditch him last issue?
As for the X-Men, Revanche has disappeared and Archangel has shown up out of nowhere for the first time this story. The fact that the creators can’t keep track of which X-Men are in this story is not a good sign. The rest is just a generic fight with generic enemy soldiers. As for the art, I don’t know a lot about Dave Ross, but the last page of the issue really says it all for me. Sersi looks like a victim of third world hunger and her right knee is bent at an impossible angle. Even the cover of this issue isn’t trying hard to impress. Once again, nothing of interest or significance happens at all, except for the events at the UN that have some ramifications. The best way I can put this is that it took me over fifteen years to add this issue to my collection, and the plot of the story was perfectly understandable for the years before I ever owned it. For completists only.
D
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