Uncanny X-Men #283

Uncanny X-Men #283
Writing: Whilce Portacio and John Byrne
Art: Whilce Portacio

What Went Down: Bishop and his team show up with guns blazing. Initially they make the attempt to collar the enemy mutants to send them back to their home time. However, once Fitzroy demonstrates that none of them can go back to the future without dying, they decide that the only solution is for them to kill every criminal.

In an attempt to save their master, some of the criminals use holographic image inducers to mimic Fitzroy’s appearance in hopes of confusing Bishop and his XSE soldiers. One of the mutants mentions that they are from the future causing Storm to wonder if they are from the Days of the Future Past storyline, which they are not.

Bishop first demonstrates his power to absorb energy and redirect it by actually using the power in the same way as the mutant he absorbed it from, in this case through his eyes. Later issues have him just absorb the energy and shoot it from his hands.

Colossus moves in to stop Bishop and tells him that the X-Men do not stand by while people get killed. This inspires conflicting feelings in Bishop since in his time the X-Men are revered legends.

During the commotion, Shinobi Shaw’s guards capture Fitzroy and take him to see their leader.

Bishop decides that the X-Men are too pacifist to be the same ones that he grew up worshiping. Interestingly, he also claims that Archangel isn’t supposed to look blue with metal wings; you could say that this was foreshadowing for developments in the 2000s with X-titles, but I really, really doubt it.

Bishop uses a bracelet on Colossus to take his powers, and views it as further proof since the real Colossus couldn’t possibly be beaten so easily. A large fight ensues, but ends when Storm gets a hold of Bishop’s gun and points it at his chest point blank.

Overhead in the Blackbird, Professor X is trying to put Jean’s mind back in her body while Forge pilots. Xavier expresses how amazing it is that Jean was able to do this. During the process, Charles notes that another presence was observing them; this is the Gamemaster, the being in charge of the Upstart competition. Other than that the process works fine, and Jean is back in her body.

Cut to Shinobi Shaw’s jet, where Shinobi is informing Fitzroy that his Sentinels were able to reattach his finger. Fitzroy claims that he took the ring fairly, but a screen informs him that the Gamemaster is in favor of Shaw, since Fitzroy failed to kill Emma Frost and Jean Grey. Shinobi holds a toast with a group of other people who he claims are fellow Upstarts. Since the Upstarts team that is revealed later is completely different, you can pretty much ignore anyone you see here.

Shinobi’s soldiers also planted explosives on Fitzroy’s base. While Bishop and Storm argue, the explosives are triggered. Storm uses a…errr “pressure dome” to protect the Gold Team, while Bishop and his team just run away.

The team rejoins the Professor and Forge on the Blackbird. Colossus gets medical treatment while Storm wonders why Bishop’s uniform was so similar to the X-Men’s, and whether or not he is from the future.

The final scene is the Gamemaster, who looks like Lobot from Empire Strikes Back (look it up on Wikipedia) talking with Selene, the Black Queen, who is sitting on a throne. They discuss how nobody understands the true purpose of the Upstart competition.

How It Was: Wonderful issue. Bishop and his pragmatic XSE troops make an exciting debut, open up a number of potential questions to be solved later, and act as good foils for the X-Men. The fact that the X-Men can’t even prove their own identities to Bishop also makes for a great twist, as well as Storm’s confusion over how Xavier’s dream could possibly be turned into a group of paramilitary extremists. Fantastic.

Of less interest is everything involving the Upstarts. Not that it’s poorly done; it’s just that it really is a false start. Everything about the team up until this point gets ignored the next time we see the team in Uncanny, except for their goal of killing mutants. Also, for only having four members, the dialogue for Gold Squad is pretty weak. Colossus lectures the whole time on why killing is wrong, Iceman demonstrates backhanded resentment towards Storm’s leadership for some reason, and Archangel doesn’t really say anything worth noting. Things improve a little bit once Scott Lobdell takes over in a couple of months. Plus, nobody shows any emotion over the fact that the Hellions just died. Sure they were villains, but most of them were also teenagers; you’d think it might affect the X-Men a little.

As for art, it’s pretty much the same as last issue. The characters are wonderfully detailed, but there is almost no background art, just solid colors behind the characters. And oddly in some of the scenes with Xavier on the Blackbird, he is colored in lime green tints; the effect feels like it’s meant to evoke some kind of horror tone, but since it’s all but a given that Jean is going to be okay, it’s hard not to feel like the tension is wasted or completely inappropriate. Still, overall very, very good.

A

Uncanny X-Men #282

Uncanny X-Men #282
Writing: Whilce Portacio and John Byrne
Art: Whilce Portacio

What Went Down: Forge and Xavier are playing the chess match they started in X-Men #5—even though it hasn’t come out yet in real time, it still occurs first in Marvel time. Forge uses a device to block Professor X’s powers so Xavier can’t cheat, but he still loses anyways. As they discuss a rematch, the Gold Squad shows up with Jean Grey’s body and a Sentinel head that Storm is somehow levitating with her powers—maybe it’s supposed to be wind, but it just looks like blue energy.

Storm is forced to explain that Fitzroy and the Sentinels escaped with the White Queen and the rest of the Hellions, even though nothing like that happened last issue. Xavier uses his powers and discovers that Jean is not dead because her psyche has survived.

Fitzroy surprises Shinobi in his bedroom with Donald Pierce’s head, but don’t worry, Pierce will be back. Fitzroy also shows him the unconscious Emma Frost, who now has Jean Grey’s mind inside of her. The time traveler wants Shinobi’s ring, and ends up cutting off his finger to get it, which seems kind of uncalled for.

Back at the mansion, the X-Men use the Sentinel head to find Fitzroy’s arctic base. Forge and the Professor both decide to accompany the Gold Squad as they rescue Jean/Emma.

Fitzroy’s sidekick Bantam appears for the first time. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t appear again in any of the main X-Men titles, but he does show up in some of the Bishop origin Minis that come up later.

The Blackbird arrives and Xavier comments that it was odd that he didn’t sense Emma Frost’s death. Of course, that’s because she’s not dead.

Strangely, the base contains more Hellion prisoners than actually existing Hellions; I guess Emma had recently expanded her school. Also strange, one of the Sentinels tells Fitzroy that he has detected the X-Men’s plane, and the moron basically ignores it. Instead, he kills Tarot(poor girl died twice in one story) and uses her energy to summon more henchmen from his home time. One of them decides he doesn’t want to be a lackey, so Fitzroy uses him as an example to demonstrate that any portals back to his home time are fatal to the traveler.

Jean attacks Fitzroy using Emma’s body; surprisingly, she has access to her own powers despite being in a different person’s body. The X-Men burst in, and a cool fight ensues. As all of Fitzroy’s henchmen and Sentinels are defeated, he absorbs and kills all of the remaining Hellions and uses their energy to bring even more evil mutants from his time. The Gold Squad is in danger of being overwhelmed until the arrival of Bishop…and of course his teammates Malcolm and Randall.

How It Was: Not outstanding, but next issue gets a lot better. This issue doesn’t start out very strongly, with Storm having to explain what should have happened at the end of last issue, except didn’t. Also, Xavier figures out that Jean is in Emma’s body really quickly, especially considering that later he brings up the fact that nothing like this has ever happened before.

Fitzroy’s also a problem as he is not a very spectacular villain. Having handed two mutant teams their behinds in the previous issue, this issue has him acting like a complete idiot. Despite having an army of the most sophisticated, futuristic Sentinels ever and an unlimited supply of henchmen, he still manages to be beaten really quickly. Why doesn’t he use the unstoppable suit of armor from the previous issue? You can also tell the Upstart concept hasn’t been that thought out yet since Shinobi and Fitzroy’s early hostile relationship bears no resemblance to their cold, professional one in later issues. Also, the significance of the ring is initially made out as the prize of the contest, even though it’s not and gets forgotten about after this story.

The art is pretty nice, except that there is a distinct deficit of background art, so it is difficult to get a sense of space for any of the settings. But the character designs for Fitzroy’s various henchmen are all varied and distinct, so the fight doesn’t get too boring, and I’ve always loved the Sentinels as villains—robots make for great fight scenes because the heroes can go all out on them without the censors getting angry.

Of course the big deal about this issue is the appearance of Bishop, who almost single handedly saves this title from mediocrity. Bishop’s a wonderful character; his appearance opens up a couple of interesting subplots. Plus, one of my favorite conventions of the super hero genre is the apocalyptic future where the heroes have lost, etc. Easily the most successful new X-character of the 90s, later writers struggled with making him relevant after his purpose was resolved, and his timeline was almost definitely averted. Still, in these early issues, he is an exciting contrast to the pacifist X-Men and their hopes and optimism.

C

Uncanny X-Men #281

Uncanny X-Men #281
Writing: Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, and John Byrne
Art: Whilce Portacio

What Went Down: Our story starts with the unsuspecting Reavers drinking and discussing how boring it is being cyborg villains located in the middle of the Australian Outback. Suddenly, a squad of Sentinels shows up to kill them all.

Over in New York, the White Queen, Emma Frost, has invited the Gold Squad to a party at the Hellfire Club. Traditionally, the Hellfire Club was a group of evil mutants who wanted to control the world, but after this story they go through several different concepts.

Jean Grey is uncomfortable since the last time she was at the HC, she was coerced into becoming the Dark Phoenix and almost destroyed the universe. Actually, these aren’t her memories; they are the Phoenix’s, but after the Inferno storyline Jean gained all of the memories that the Phoenix had when it was impersonating her.

Meanwhile the rest of the team is talking with members of the Hellions: a group of students taught by Emma Frost who used to fight the New Mutants a lot. Iceman is flirting with Hellion member Roulette, while Hellion member Beef gets in Colossus’s face. The Hellion Empath tells them to stop, but later stories decided he wasn’t there, even though he clearly is.

Emma Frost slams a female soldier through the door, claiming that the mystery soldier was trying to kill her. This is the reason why she asked the X-Men to come.

Next, the reader is introduced to Shinobi Shaw, son of former Hellfire leader Sebastian Shaw, and Trevor Fitzroy, a time traveler from the future. Shinobi is in a pool surrounded by beautiful men and women to demonstrate how spoiled he is. They are discussing the Upstarts: a team of people competing for a prize by killing mutants to score points. Fitzroy is trying to become a member of the Upstarts after killing the Reavers (even though they were cyborgs, not mutants); Shinobi is in the lead because he allegedly killed his father, although Sebastian gets better. Fitzroy threatens Shaw and then leaves to go to the Hellfire Club.

In the meantime, Emma is using her powers to torture the assassin when Storm demands that she stop. This starts a battle between the Gold Team and the Hellions. Jean gets angry and stops them all with her powers, insisting that they should be helping each other. Fitzroy appears and kills the Hellion Jetstream.

Back in Australia, Donald Pierce and Lady Deathstrike are still fighting Fitzroy’s Sentinels. These Sentinels demonstrate that they can repair themselves automatically. Deathstrike escapes when she realizes that they are only after Pierce.

Pierce goes to the mute teleporting mutant/plot device Gateway and asks to be teleported to whoever is responsible. Since Fitzroy is at the HC, that’s where he goes with Sentinels pursuing.

Back in New York, Fitzroy kills Beef, and the X-Men and Hellions attack him. Fitzroy’s armor protects him from telepathy and grants him super strength and invisibility. We learn later that his mutant power is to absorb people’s life force to power portals between time and space.

The X-Men have Fitzroy under control until Pierce and the Sentinels pop in. Pierce gets killed, but he also comes back later, and the White Queen apparently gets killed, although she is actually just in a coma. The Sentinels also apparently kill Tarot, but she shows up in the next issue to get killed again by Fitzroy. Finally Jean Grey also apparently gets killed, but we all know that isn’t going to stick.  Please note the emphasis on apparently in all of these cases.

The issue ends with Senator Kelly storming into the completely decimated club and demanding that the X-Men be held accountable for endangering people; they respond by showing Jean’s apparent corpse, but she isn’t really dead, I promise.

How It Was: Ah, finally an adventure starring the Gold Team. Although it features arguably the less interesting of the two squads, there are still a lot of major developments with this issue—namely the deaths of a whole lot of characters. Of course these are comic book deaths, so most of them are currently alive and kicking again, but at the time this felt pretty significant. Unfortunately, the concept of the Upstarts is pretty limited since their whole purpose is to kill mutants for points, and you can’t have major characters dying every other issue. It’s also difficult to get worked up about the Upstarts themselves, since the concept kind of fizzles after the introduction of the Legacy Virus, when creators just decided to end the concept over in X-Force and the New Warriors. So there is no closure to this storyline to be had in the pages of X-Men. Fitzroy might also be another question mark for present fans, but he was a major bad guy at the time and has a lot to do with Bishop’s origin.

The characterization is hit or miss. I really like Jean’s foreboding feelings about returning to the Hellfire Club since they act as a good connection to her history and also act as foreshadowing for her eventual “death” at the end of the issue. The rest of the team is kind of bland; the Gold Team never had the chemistry or humor that the Blue Squad did, although Iceman tries his darndest. Some of the dialogue is just out of place; why does Storm feel it is necessary to remark that Fitzroy’s powers are similar to the Super Skrull when there is absolutely no connection between the two characters? Plus once the Hellions start dropping, nobody acts concerned other than Emma; Iceman even cracks some inappropriate jokes which further deter the seriousness that should be present, but isn’t. These are characters that fans have known for a very long time, and one could argue that their deaths aren’t allowed enough impact. Also, the ending is horribly flubbed, but more on that next issue.

B-

X-Men #7

X-Men #7
Writing: Jim Lee and Scott Lobdell
Art: Jim Lee and Art Thibert

What Went Down: The finale of the Omega Red Saga… sounds more epic than it actually is. In any case, Wolverine is once again strapped to the memory-restoring device.

Sabretooth is acting weird; he can’t stop repeating his last line of dialogue from issue #6. The Hand ninjas with him notice this, but choose to ignore it because Creed is just so intimidating.

Andrea of Fenris is pressuring Dr. Cornelius to turn up the juice on his machine even though it might kill Logan. Although hesitant, he still does, and we learn that Logan had “one more assignment” for Janice as she was dying.

Matsuo figures out where the c-synthesizer is and orders Cornelius to finish off Wolverine, but before he can, Psylocke attacks. She states that Wolverine’s near death last issue freed her from Matsuo’s control, which is weird since that occurred before she was under his thrall in the first place.

At the same time, Maverick breaks free, attacks the Hand guards, and finds the location of the X-Men. It is revealed that Sabretooth is actually under Psylocke’s control (in case you didn’t see that coming).

As Maverick arrives to free the X-Men, Psylocke gets knocked out, and Creed regains his freedom. Beast and Jubilee free themselves and take him out.

Wolverine breaks free and attacks Omega, and the rest of the Blue Team show up and a big fight proceeds. During the fight, some stored chemicals ignite, so the X-Men have to make a big dramatic escape before the building blows up, which they do.

Over in Mojoworld, Longshot’s rebellion didn’t go so well since most of his forces are dead in the street, and Mojo is holding Longshot’s beaten body. Dazzler thinks to herself that she needs to summon more X-Men.

Back in Germany, Wolverine tells the rest of the team he has one more job to do. Cyclops tells him if he needs help, he can always ask. It’s very touching.

Later, Matsuo has some of the Hand digging up Janice Hollenbeck’s grave to get the carbonadium synthesizer. Unfortunately for him, Wolverine has already dug up the body, hidden in its casket, and reburied himself somehow. He bursts out, kills the ninjas, and chops off Matsuo’s hand. Dr. Cornelius threatens Wolverine with a gun to his head, but Maverick shows up and pops the good doctor in the head instead. Wolverine gives the synthesizer to Maverick because he senses it belongs to him. The End.

How It Was: This story always feels longer than it actually is; it could easily lose an issue and not lose much. The main problem with this story is that a lot of the twists don’t feel like they were thought out ahead of time; they just don’t fit with the continuity of the story and feel added in at the last minute. When the book claims Psylocke overcame her conditioning when Wolverine almost died last issue, the reader knows it doesn’t make sense because Matsuo didn’t take control of her until after Wolverine almost died. As for the villains, Psylocke manages to take down half of Fenris and Omega Red by herself, which makes it all the more perplexing how the whole team had so much trouble with them. Also, Sabretooth doesn’t contribute a whole heck of a lot this issue except for getting controlled and beat up, and his sidekick Birdy has completely vanished.

On the other hand, the ending sequence at the graveyard is excellently done and provides great atmosphere with the rain and dark shading. Even though it’s only two pages it is a very effective, gritty, fast paced scene, which is helped a lot by the panel layout. As for the Mojoverse scene, it’s very disappointing that we don’t get to see the doomed assault on Mojo. Yes, we all knew it was going to fail so the X-Men could show up and fix it, but it still would have been nice to watch them try.

As I’ve stated before, it’s hard to get excited about this story because most of it gets forgotten after Jim Lee leaves in a few issues. Fenris disappear, Omega Red goes on to appear as a reoccurring villain just about any time the X-Men go to Russia (like in issue #18), and Matsuo forgets about the Upstarts and moves onto the Psylocke/Revanche storyline in issue 21. Even the carbondadium synthesizer gets completely forgotten about for almost 15 years, until Daniel Way brings it up again in Wolverine Origins #6-10, so don’t hold your breath waiting for the significance of that maguffin to show up in this blog.

C+

Next Week: Uncanny #281-283

X-Men #6

X-Men #6
Writing: Jim Lee and Scott Lobdell
Art: Jim Lee and Art Thibert

What Went Down: Hey, Scott Lobdell is writing the dialogue! Remember that name because in a couple of issues, he starts writing the X-books for a really, really long time.

On to the issue. Cyclops and Beast take out a number of Hand ninjas, even though they don’t look like ninjas right now, with flashy powers and one-liners. They are looking for Wolverine with Jubilee, when they are all attacked and captured by, you guessed it, Omega Red.

Over in another part of the building, Maverick is trying to resuscitate Wolverine who has inconveniently decided to try to die. Three things to point out: 1. Maverick is now speaking German, even though last issue he spoke only in English. Actually, he is speaking in English translated from German, but this is still important in telling us who he is working for. 2. It turns out that Wolverine did hit the ground after he jumped out of that window last issue, even though the art showed him just disappearing, with no splatter marks on the ground. 3. Maverick explains that the mystery canister from last issue was actually full of healing cells extracted from Wolverine’s body, but it broke when he did or did not hit the ground—hence the dying.

Back in another urine tinted flashback, the team gets cornered by Omega Red, who is colored yellow and red as opposed to yellow and black. Creed/future Sabretooth panics, kills Janice=the agent they were supposed to protect, and pushes everyone out the window where they fall a number of stories. Creed than figures out that they are all mutants since none of them died.

Cut to the Mojoverse, where Lila has unhelpfully teleported Longshot, The Dazzler, and herself right to Mojo’s base and can no longer teleport away. The heroes fight Mojo’s guards, run away, and are saved by a member of Longshot’s resistance. Later, Longshot and Dazzler spend a tender moment outside under the stars.

Back on Earth proper, Rogue, Gambit, and Psylocke are fighting more guys in red trench coats… I mean ninjas. Fenris shows up to take out Gambit with an energy blast, and Matsuo triggers a post-hypnotic suggestion in Psylocke that causes her to take down Rogue.

Psylocke’s attack on Rogue causes Wolverine to wake up—at this point in continuity, Psylocke and Wolverine share a psychic link similar to Cyclops and Jean Grey’s. I’m unfamiliar with the story this happens in, it was before my time as they say, but it doesn’t matter a whole lot because this psychic link is completely ignored after this story.

Anyways, Wolverine attacks Maverick, and Maverick realizes that Wolverine doesn’t remember who he is. Another flashback shows Wolverine flipping out on Creed and walking away from the group. In the present, Sabretooth, dressed like a pimp for some reason, and his assistant Birdy show up at the villains’ base and jam the cameras.

Once inside, Sabretooth taunts all of the shackled X-Men. Most importantly, Creed reveals that he already knows Gambit and alludes to having injured him before.

Maverick and Wolverine go down to the sewers where they are ambushed by Sabretooth, now dressed in his normal costume, and the hypnotically controlled Psylocke; the fight isn't shown, but the end result is both heroes being carried away unconscious.

Fenris and Matsuo toast the success of Sabretooth—Matsuo explains that until they find the location of the c-synthesizer, Omega Red still needs the life force of others to sustain him. He suggests killing one of the X-Men. DUN-DUH-DUNNN!

How It Was: It’s the standard “all the heroes get captured in the third act before escaping and defeating the villains in the fourth act” set up. The main plot thread is not exactly innovative, but the stuff in Mojoworld is a little more fun. The recurring gag of everybody calling Mojo a fat blob like he’s not there, as well as a well placed Terminator parody, show that Lee and Lobdell at least get the humor and absurdity that are necessary for a decent Mojo story.

As for the main thread, it starts to drag at this point. The introduction of Sabretooth adds yet another villain to the already crowded plot; he basically gets brought in because you can’t have a token “Wolverine’s past” story without him. At least he doesn’t constantly complain about the synthesizer like every other villain in this story. As for the stuff with Psylocke being controlled, it’s pretty iffy and gets even more questionable after next issue’s explanation. And Maverick’s recollections of the events of the previous issue bear little resemblance to what actually occurred, which is kind of disconcerting.

The art is as always good, but with a few questionable choices. The dull looking yellow filtered flashbacks return, but then the final flashback is dark blue and black and works a lot better. Also all of the villains have weird colored dust clouds following them: Omega Red has a green one, although it might just be his “death factor,” and Sabretooth has a brown cloud trailing him when he shows up in the sewer with Psylocke. Hmmm… a brown cloud in the sewer, what could that be? Actually, now that I mention it, the cover also has the weird cloud on it as well. Oh, and Matsuo’s face isn’t colored in on the second to last page. Way to drop the ball!

C

X-Men #5

X-Men #5
Writers: Jim Lee and John Byrne
Art: Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Art Thibert, Bob Wiacek, and Joe Rubinstein

What Went Down: Cerebro alerts Forge that the majority of the Blue squad has been captured. Forge complains that the computer’s voice is too emotionless, but that doesn’t really matter to the reader because this is a book. Cyclops enlists Colossus and Psylocke to help in the rescue. Betsy was in the pool, so she is wearing a bikini that is even more shameless than her normal costume. In fact, it’s made even more laughable by the fact that she tries to put a tiny jacket on to cover up.

Everyone, besides Wolverine, who was captured last issue is in the back of a fake ambulance. Gambit manages to get hold of a card and free everyone, but than the truck in front of them explodes. Colossus finds Wolverine’s mask which leads Cyclops to ponder if Wolverine even had his uniform with him (which he did last issue, but he wasn’t wearing his mask).

Cut to Omega Red beating the tar out of Wolverine outdoors in snowy Berlin while being observed by Matsuo, Fenris, and Dr. Cornelius from the Weapon X story. After being knocked out, Wolverine is strapped to a machine and flashes back to his covert operations days with Sabretooth and an unknown agent—back in the present, our villains reveal that they are after a maguffin called the carbonadium synthesizer, which Wolverine is supposed to know about. It's supposed to help Omega Red control his powers better or something.

All the X-Men meet to discuss the plan of action; the Gold Team is dressed up because they are about to go to the Hellfire Club in Uncanny #281, even though that comic came out four months prior. Psylocke vouches for Jubilee to go with the Blue Team, Banshee leaves to go after Moira, Xavier is seen looking at a file labeled Project Xavier which is foreshadowing a much later subplot, and Forge and the Professor begin the chess game that they are seen playing in Uncanny #282.

Maverick shows up in his first appearance; he is also looking for the c-synthesizer, and he is that other agent in the flashbacks. He stages a distraction allowing Wolverine to escape. Logan is seen running from Omega with a non-descript canister—the dialogue makes you think it is the c-synthesizer, but it’s not… honest. Wolvie escapes out a window and disappears; at the same time he is having more flashbacks of his team trying to extract an undercover agent named Janice.

The X-Men track Wolverine and infiltrate the building he was being held in. Meanwhile, Maverick takes Wolverine to a room in the building with a computer. He explains that the X-Men are probably going to die, and then Wolverine passes out.

The issue ends, oddly, with a scene in the Mojoverse. Dazzler has lost her memory and Lila Cheney is trying to help her remember the X-Men. Longshot bursts in and kisses Dazzler, Spiral bursts in and threatens everyone, and Lila teleports everyone away. This is set up for the upcoming story in X-Men #10-11.

How It Was: Lots for you if you are a fan of Wolverine. There is more on the connection between Omega Red and Wolverine, some flashbacks with everyone wearing weird visors on their heads, and the introduction of Maverick, who proves to be a very enduring character with his own ties to the Weapon X program. The scenes where Wolverine is conscious are easily the most interesting of the issue. The only problem is the canister that magically appears in Wolverines hands as he escapes, then disappears after Maverick rescues him, only to be conveniently explained away next issue.

As for the rest…well it’s all pretty much like I said last issue. All of the villains are boring, except Omega Red, and it’s hard to get excited since after this arc most of them just disappear or show up in different capacities which completely ignore this story. They all seem to be alluding to the Upstarts storyline in Uncanny, but none of them ever become a part of that team. Plus, all they’re really after is a standard maguffin to help Omega Red control his powers better, but he seems just fine in later stories without it.

As for the rest of the X-Men, there is some struggling to find something to do with them. The sequence with Cyclops and crew in the beginning is pretty unnecessary since the captured X-Men rescue themselves, and the writing struggles to either find something to do with all of these characters or fill up space. Forge complains about the computer’s voice, the X-Men sit down and explain how they are going to rescue Wolverine instead of just doing it; a lot of this comes off as space filler rather than necessary to the plot.

The art is great, except for the flashbacks. Jim Lee’s pencils are fine, but the costume designs for Team X are a mix between standard black ops soldiers and Robocop, and the art department decided that the flashbacks should be colored in what can only be described as urine yellow and black.

C+

X-Men #4

Real quick: this arc begins before the Upstarts story in Uncanny #281-283 and runs concurrently through it starting with the next issue, so I will be reviewing this story first. Also, Chris Claremont is out, so Jim Lee is doing the art and the plotting while John Byrne is responsible for the script. This leads to some discrepancies later.

X-Men #4
Writers: Jim Lee and John Byrne
Art: Jim Lee

What Went Down: The book opens with a weird cult ritual/medical experiment that ends in the deaths of a lot of Russians. The result is the birth of Omega Red. This is Omega’s first appearance and he is probably one of the most successful villains created in the 90s as far as not fading into obscurity by being absolutely horrible. Matsuo Tsuryaba greets him and offers him revenge on Wolverine.

The X-Men are playing basketball at the mansion; traditionally they would’ve been playing baseball, but starting with this issue basketball becomes the standby for a couple of years. Rogue accuses Gambit of cheating because they’re not using powers and his powers include, “natural agility.” This results in a fight.

Elsewhere at the mansion, Moira is having nightmares about her son, Proteus, and Magneto as a result of the previous issues. Oddly, Dr. MacTaggert is asleep during the middle of the day. At any rate, Professor X, Banshee, and Cyclops burst into her room because Xavier sensed her psychic distress, even though he wasn’t trying. Honest. Everyone once again reassures Moira that what happened in the last story arc wasn’t her fault, although Xavier has to help Banshee with his mental powers because Sean’s jaw is still broken from last issue.

Moira appears to be calming down until Rogue bursts in through the wall after being hit by an energy-charged basketball courtesy of Gambit. Moira runs off hysterically. Strangely, neither Cyclops nor Professor X are angry with the other X-Men for destroying a room in the mansion or traumatizing Moira.

In Berlin, Matsuo is shown meeting C-list villains Andrea and Andreas von Strucker, collectively known as Fenris; they are the children of Captain America villain and nazi scientist Baron von Strucker. The meeting is about Fenris’ desire to use Omega Red and their money to obtain immortality somehow.

Gambit once again tries to kiss Rogue and is rewarded by getting socked; he is still convinced Rogue’s power won’t hurt him. Sean is still trying to comfort Moira, but it is not going so well. She eventually decides to leave the mansion because… well, she just insists that she can’t stay.

Gambit and Rogue get ready to go on their first date, but Beast, Wolverine, and Jubilee decide that they are going with the couple to make sure Gambit behaves. Gambit tries to lose his chaperons, but all the X-Men are soon attacked and captured by the Hand and Omega Red. I don't know why, but the ninjas of the Hand are now wearing sunglasses and trench coats, and Wolverine is back in his old yellow and blue uniform. Moira’s taxi passes by, but she is too distraught to look out the window and notice her friends being hauled off.

How It Was: Well, for the first time in three decades Chris Claremont is completely unattached to a single X-Men project. Jim Lee had been credited as co-plotter for the previous arc and his first crack at solo plotter is pretty solid. Despite coming off as a mostly stereotypical evil communist Russian, Omega Red has managed to become a fairly popular villain since his first appearance; it’s hard to tell whether this is due to his eerie, corpse-like design, or the fact that his origin is tied to Wolverine’s. Visually, he has a lot going for him, although his “death factor” is a very contrived attempt to provide an evil equivalent to Wolverine’s healing factor. Having heroes get sick and fall over around him is kind of a lame way for them to get defeated, and later writers would usually ignore this power and have Red suck the life out of them with his tentacles.

The scenes with the X-Men playing ball are really solid. Jubilee provides some humorous moments; Gambit and Rogue demonstrate their dysfunctional/flirtatious relationship; and Wolverine gets to act grouchy and potentially violent. Unfortunately, the scenes with everyone else attempting to calm down Moira are a pretty painful attempt to get her out of the mansion on the part of the creators. The whole time she just cries and overreacts to everything Banshee and Xavier tell her. Plus, Moira justified why she wasn’t responsible for Magneto’s return to evil in the last issue, so the whole point should be moot. It’s even more difficult to get excited about this plot line because it will be completely dropped and forgotten in a couple of months when Moira returns to help treat the Legacy Virus. The scenes with Matsuo and Fenris are okay, but these ultimately lead nowhere also, as Fenris disappears after this arc.

The art is great. All of the X-Men look great in their sports and evening wear, the end battle with ninjas is dutifully flashy and action packed, and the opening sequences with Omega Red are suitably disturbing. And even though the poses during the basketball game are a little exaggerated, they still give off a nice sense of speed and movement. A great issue held back by plots that will go nowhere and a perplexing direction for Moira.

B+