X-Force #18

X-Force #18
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Greg Capullo

What Went Down: Part 12 of the X-Cutioner’s Song. Finally, the final issue. We open with the customary Cable splash page for X-Force issues, which is Cable holding a big gun and wearing a costume covered in pouches and pockets. The big energy tower is now showing flashbacks that actually relate to this story, such as Cyclops giving up his son Nathan and scenes from the Askani’son future.

Stryfe reveals that Cable is a “scientific abomination” that was an attempt to preserve the young Nathan’s life. The implication seems to be that the baby Nathan Summers was cloned, and Cable is that clone. After months of fans complaining, this was reversed and it was revealed that Cable is the true son and Stryfe is the clone. But never mind that for now.

Anyways, this angers Cable, and the two begin to fight. Back at Stryfe’s Moon base, the Dark Riders escape, leaving Wolverine, Storm, and Psylocke standing around looking like idiots. Psylocke reveals that she senses Apocalypse is dying.

Iceman, Bishop, and Archangel are elsewhere, looking for more villains. Psylocke contacts Warren, and he flies off to go rub it in Apocalypse’s face. Bishop comments that Warren is no longer among the living, which confuses Iceman.

Polaris and Cannonball wake up outside the force field, but there is nothing they can do to help as Cable and Stryfe continue to fight.

Xavier is awake at the mansion, claiming that Scott and Jean’s lives will be the cost of this conflict.

Archangel finds Apocalypse mortally wounded; the villain asks Warren to finish him off, but Warren leaves him to suffer instead, because he is not a monster. Because Apocalypse desired a clean, fast death, this is obviously a very big disappointment for him.

Stryfe is about to defeat Cable, while Jean is trying to free herself and Cyclops. Havok saves Cable at the last minute, followed by a blast from Cyclops. Jean offers help in healing Stryfe’s wounds, but he doesn’t believe them and chooses to destroy the tower. Jean erects a teke shield to protect them, but Cable and Stryfe are outside of it.

Cable throws Cyclops a remote to hit; then he tackles Stryfe and starts an auto-destruct countdown. Cyclops is hesitant, but then he hits the button, and the explosion is contained by a time vortex. Everyone is sad because Cable apparently died a hero, especially because the story started with everybody thinking he was an assassin.

An epilogue shows Mr. Sinister’s assistant Gordon opening the package Stryfe gave him in exchange for Cyclops and Jean Grey. The canister appears empty, enraging Sinister. Actually, it contained the Legacy Virus; the fact that Sinister’s assistant starts coughing signifies that he is the first one infected, but there will be more on this story later.

How It Was: How about that for some huge ramifications?  Well, this story is only really huge if you were a big X-Force fan. If you were just an X-Men fan, then it was a fun little story that didn’t change a whole lot. Yes Cable’s sacrifice did change the dynamic in X-Force for a while, but don’t feel too bad for Cable. He gets his own solo series and he’ll return in about a year after traipsing around the future for a bit.

Getting to the complaints of this issue. First off, the majority of the X-Men have absolutely nothing to do in this story. Everybody is searching for the Dark Riders, but since the villains escaped, their arcs just kind of fizzle out. The only one who gets a decent scene is Archangel over the mortally wounded Apocalypse. This is a pretty great scene, if rather predictable. And it does offer somewhat of a conclusion to Warren’s struggle with his inner demons.

The end also falls a little flat because despite the characters’ sadness at the sacrifice of Cable, all of the readers knew that Marvel wasn’t going to just kill off a really popular character. Also, the revelation that Cable is a clone is lame. Not because of reasons expressed earlier, but simply because clones are cheap, lame plot devices that writers resort to when they’ve written themselves into a wall (See also Joseph/Magneto and X-23/Wolverine). Personally, I prefer the initial call by writers of making Stryfe the original son and Cable the clone; there is a lot more dramatic mileage for the story if Scott feels massive guilt about trying to save his son and accidentally turning him into a power hungry evil maniac. Plus making Cable the son pretty much negated Stryfe’s purpose, so the villain just faded into obscurity.

All in all, it does give some closure to what happened to Cyclops’ son, and the part where Scott can’t bring himself to push the button is rather well done. Stryfe finally meets his match after being undefeatable for the whole story, and there is the beginning of the Legacy plot, which started out interesting until it went on for almost a decade. As for the entire story itself, if you can ignore the C-list villain teams that all but disappear from the X-books afterward, this is a nice little crossover that highlights just about all of the X-Characters at the time (Except for Excalibur, who apparently don’t count because their team name doesn’t actually start with an X). It makes good use of continuity and furthers a good deal of plot points and character relationships.

B+

X-Men #16

X-Men #16
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Part 11 of the X-Cutioner’s Song. This issue opens up with a really amazing fight between Bishop, Cable, and Wolverine and a bunch of cannon fodder soldiers plus the Dark Riders. Lots of shooting and stabbing ensues. Just when it appears that the good guys are about to be overwhelmed the rest of the X-Men’s forces show up to bail them out.

As the fight continues, Stryfe and his silent android servant Zero observe a hologram of it. Stryfe admires the ferocity and bravery of the X-Men, and then laughs at the fact that he has been able to “manufacture” his own past. He strolls to another room, grabs Cyclops and Jean, and drags them outside the walls, encased in a telekinetic bubble.

Down at the mansion, the Beast is cataloguing Xavier’s recovery.

After the X-Men defeat all of the soldiers, they split off into different strike teams to find Scott and Jean, as well as keep the villains from escaping. Apocalypse goes off by himself.

Wolverine, Storm, and Psylocke track the prisoners to a room in the base; Psylocke insists that they are beyond the door, and when they open it they are all almost sucked out into space.

Apocalypse encounters the Dark Riders, who now work for Stryfe since he beat up their previous master. So Apocalypse attacks them all.

Cable, Cannonball, Polaris, and Havok use Apocalypse’s spacecraft to track Stryfe to a big energy tower thing.

Xavier wakes up screaming after having had a nightmare. He claims that Cable, Stryfe, Cyclops, and Jean are all connected, which all of the readers pretty much knew at this point.

Havok’s crew put on space suits and venture out to the tower. They pass through a force field that knocks out Polaris and Cannonball, yet lets Havok and Cable through (because they’re both part of the Summers’ bloodline). A very nice splash page ends the issue featuring the main villain, the prisoners, and a bunch of flashback scenes that have absolutely nothing to do with this story. Stryfe calls Cable his failed brother and beckons the group to continue.

How It Was: A fantastic issue filled to the brim with action. Penultimate issues usually have the blessing of being able to pull off a fast pace in order to set up the final confrontation. This issue is no exception. So the remaining uninjured X-Characters finally confront the Dark Riders, and everything starts to fall into place.

There isn’t really a lot going on here storywise, so the art definitely carries this issue. Which is fine, since we haven’t really had a full out action issue for a while. Nicieza also throws in some nice little character moments, such as Sam’s anger at Cable for keeping X-Force in the dark, or the banter between Wolverine and his squad at the beginning of the issue. Even Apocalypse gets a rather exciting last stand against his former minions, the Dark Riders. Really, this issue just continues the trend of giving each character one or two very solid moments while focusing mostly on the animosity between Cable and Stryfe.

B+

X-Factor #86

X-Factor #86
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-

Uncanny X-Men #296

Uncanny X-Men #296
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

Post this week

I know I usually post on Tuesdays, but this week isn't going to be good as I've had a bit of a personal emergency.  I might get a chance on Wednesday, but chances are it isn't going to happen until next Sunday or Monday.