Excalibur #71

Excalibur #71
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Ken Lashley, Darick Roberson, and Matthew Ryan

What Went Down: Part 6 of Fatal Attractions: This issue opens with Nightcrawler fighting the Acolyte Spoor on Muir Island. Since the X-Factor part of this crossover depicted Spoor as a prisoner, he has been transferred to the Muir Isle, but he escaped. Spoor’s powers affect people’s emotions, so Nightcrawler almost kills the mutant. Luckily Kitty Pryde pops in and phases Spoor so he doesn’t get his skull bashed in. Moira thanks Rachel, Kitty, and Nightcrawler for bringing Spoor back, and then Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Professor X show up for a visit.

Xavier reveals that he has a plan get Colossus to return to the X-Men; he believes that Peter is suffering from the effects of his injuries from the X-Cutioner in Uncanny X-Men Annual #17. He wants Kitty to trick Peter into coming to Muir Isle so the X-Men can capture him and fix the trauma. Kitty is initially appalled, but eventually she reluctantly agrees.

Kitty sends a message to Avalon. Colossus is convinced that Kitty would never betray him, so he gets permission from Exodus, the new leader of the Acolytes, to journey down to Earth. Exodus tells Amelia Voght to give him an hour before bringing him back. Kitty lashes out at Cyclops and the Professor for forcing the deception. Rachel identifies that Kitty is really just scared that Colossus’ condition won’t affect his decision.

Cable’s computer the Professor identifies a signal from Avalon. Cable says that he has unfinished business with the Acolytes, and thinks it might be a trap for Xavier. Back on Muir Isle, Cyclops and Nightcrawler prepare the device to cure Colossus. Nightcrawler explains the state of Excalibur and the fact that most of its members have either left or been lost. Cyclops comforts him by comparing Excalibur to the original X-Men and showing that change can be good.

Outside, Jean Grey reconciles with Rachel Summers after freaking out on her when they first met. Jean reveals that she and Scott might be getting married soon and having a child. Rachel calls Jean “Mom” for the first time.

Colossus teleports down from space and the X-Men subdue him. On the other side of the island, Cable is climbing up the rock face looking to hunt the Acolytes. Phoenix intercepts him, and reveals her real name. Cable and the Professor both appear to recognize the name Rachel Summers—this is because in the future Rachel founds the Askani, the group that raises Cable. Cable and Rachel fight—at one point Rachel’s body turns into Captain Britain’s—a subplot from the regular series, I’m sure.

Colossus is strapped into a machine that utilizes Cyclops’ optic blasts to burn a hole in his head, somehow repairing the damage. Nightcrawler decides to respond to an intruder alert. Rachel tricks Cable into thinking she’s weakened, and then blindsides him with her telepathy. Nightcrawler confronts the Acolytes Voght, Katu, and Unuscione, and does a fair job of holding them off. Back in the lab, the trauma to Peter is fixed and he is finally able to return to human form. Cyclops and Phoenix (Rachel) join Nightcrawler outside in fighting the Acolytes. The fight ends when Colossus shows up and decides that he still wishes to remain with the Acolytes. The Acolytes teleport away, and the remaining three members of Excalibur decide to stay on Muir Isle to assist Moira in her work.

How It Was: Like the X-Factor issue of the crossover, this issue doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the return of Magneto. However it features characters from the X-Men guest starring, it deals with an important plot point from the crossover, and it has a hologram on the cover, so it’s still part of the crossover. While the Fatal Attractions story really ends in Wolverine #75, this issue serves the dual purposes of following up on Colossus’ defection and trying to lure in new readers by presenting a new status quo that is perfect for jumping on. Sneaky.

The good first. Nightcrawler, Kitty, and Rachel have always been fan favorite X-Men characters, and I always thought that it was a shame that they were condemned for so long on the British X-Men. Excalibur fans might argue with me, but I still think that they belong on the actual X-Men. Besides, nobody read Excalibur for Kylun or Megann, they read it for the big three, if you will. But Lobdell does a great job of bringing their personalities to life, bearing in mind that for a lot of X-Men fans, this is the first time we’ve seen these characters in a while. Nightcrawler’s humor really shines through in his fight scenes. Kitty’s internal conflict and angst over Colossus and her struggles to be seen as an adult fit right into where straight X-Men fans saw her last, but there are still signs of character growth as well. And Phoenix’s sensitivity is used to make peace with Jean, and drop some more hints about Cable’s past. All in all, these are three really likable, relatable characters, and I’m sure this issue succeeded in selling a few more later on.

Now for the bad. Filling a double-sized issue of Excalibur can’t be easy, especially since most of the team is gone. First off, the central plot of fixing Colossus kind of makes sense, but this is something that really should have been done way before Illyana died. And while it was nice of the X-Men to fix Peter so he could return to human form, couldn’t Jean and the Professor read his mind and figure out that it was his decision to be an Acolyte? The major problem is the Cable/Rachel fight, since Cable has absolutely no reason to be there. There’s some grumbling about wanting to confront the Acolytes, but really there is no reason for Cable to show up other than to talk to Rachel and reveal some clues that she is his foster mother/sister from another time stream. Then he gets knocked out... the end. The Acolytes finally get another chance to be in the forefront, and they get completely trounced. I guess there is no better way to build up a villain team than to have them easily dispatched with no tension built whatsoever.

As for Excalibur’s new status quo, it’s not exactly mind-blowing or exciting. They’re moving from England to Scotland—whopee. Part of the reason Excalibur never really took off as a book was that it was never really clarified why there needed to be an international team of mutants; plus this meant that the team was far removed from the other teams and the rest of the Marvel Universe, which can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. And while Excalibur made it for another fifty-some issues, it was almost always the lowest selling of the X-books.

As far as being a finale to a major crossover, this story doesn’t really carry a lot of weight. As a whole, Fatal Attractions is one of the only crossovers I can think of that peaks in the middle and fizzles at the beginning and end; most major storylines save their biggest moment for the epic finale (see X-Cutioner’s Song, Onslaught, Messiah Complex, etc.). Overall the crossover works okay, but there are a lot of unnecessary issues attached; you could basically treat Uncanny X-Men #304-Wolverine #75 as the crossover in its entirety, with X-Force #25 acting as some kind of prelude. This crossover had its moments, almost none of them occur in this issue, and since nothing changes with Colossus, there’s really no need to dig this one up unless you’re a completist.

C-

Wolverine #75

Wolverine #75
Writing: Larry Hama
Art: Adam Kubert

What Went Down: Part 5 of Fatal Attractions: We begin already on the Blackbird, trying to make it back to Earth. Wolverine’s healing factor has been severely taxed from having the adamantium ripped out of his body, and the X-Men are trying to keep him from dying. Xavier and Jean go into his mind to try to repair the mental trauma of the event, and they are treated to a number of flashbacks of Wolverine’s past and villains. They also get a sneak peek of Wolverine’s experiences when he first received his adamantium in the Weapon X lab. Jean complains that they are violating Logan’s memories just like they were with Magneto’s.

Meanwhile, up in the cockpit, it turns out that the Blackbird isn’t really designed to be in space and lots of things are sparking and exploding on the console. The heat shield of the plane fails and everybody gets knocked around. Wolverine regains consciousness and forgoes morphine so that he can focus on healing better. At the mansion, Moira is giving instructions on how to save Wolverine while Jubilee looks very concerned behind her.

More instruments blow up—Quicksilver has to put in all of the commands manually at a very high speed. Wolverine makes Xavier promise to take care of Jubilee, while Jean tries to keep the Blackbird together in the atmosphere with her powers. The rest of the X-Men run in and question Moira. Cyclops has flashbacks to when Jean turned into Phoenix.

Xavier once again enters Wolverine’s mind to find a violent, savage red wasteland. Wolverine sees a light, and Xavier tries to prevent him from going in it. In the cockpit, it turns out that after surviving reentry into the atmosphere, the plane is heading straight for an electrical storm. In Wolverine’s mind, he sees Illyana as an angel. She pushes him away from the light. Jean struggles to keep the cabin closed, but she gets distracted when the plane is hit by lightning. Jean is stuck holding on to the edge of the hatch. As her grip slips, Wolverine regains consciousness, stands up, and saves her.

A couple of days pass, and the X-Men are training in the Danger Room. Wolverine decides that he has to prove that he deserves to be on the team by showing that he can still fight. So Wolverine gets to fight two robots. As the robots beat the tar out of him, Xavier insists that Wolverine must be the one to stop this. During the course of the fight, Logan pops his claws, and everyone discovers that the claws are now made out of bone. Also, Wolverine is bleeding pretty badly because his healing factor isn’t up to closing the wounds.

Later, Jubilee and Wolverine sit outside talking. Jubilee discusses her fears about her growing powers and excitement over her newfound sense of control from the last story arc. Wolverine comforts her, lights a cigar, and starts hacking uncontrollably, showing his weakened state. During the night, Logan leaves the X-Men and leaves a letter for Jubilee asking her to understand and telling her to stick with Xavier.

How It Was: Quite the mixed bag. The first half of the issue is fairly mediocre. Wolverine’s mental trauma is used as an excuse to rehash imagery of Wolverine flashbacks that every Wolverine fan is already familiar with. Wolverine is haunted by the Weapon X lab; he’s haunted by Sabretooth and Deathstrike. And the imagery from modern paintings (such as the fish and melted clock) really don’t belong at all; it’s like Hama asked Kubert to make the image surreal, and Kubert didn’t know what that meant, so he just borrowed images from a couple of surreal paintings. The second trip to Wolverine’s subconscious is a big improvement with a red and black palate and the black outlined enemies that Wolverine is facing. The scene really comes off as primal and animalistic—that is until a naked Illyana angel leads Logan towards and then away from the light.

As for the X-Men on the plane, is it really necessary for the flight home to turn into a comedy of errors? We’re to believe that the same team that owns a teleportation device can’t build a decent plane to go into space. What kind of super hero team is this? It might make a little more sense if the plane was attacked, but it wasn’t. It just starts falling apart. While this is meant to build tension, really it just becomes an exercise in melodrama and futility. When the team finally enters Earth’s atmosphere, they enter a lightning storm, and the moment is almost laughable. Furthermore, it really takes the spotlight away from the main focus, which is Wolverine and his well being. However, the scene does end with the awesome moment of Wolverine getting up in time to save Jean, despite being horribly injured.

The really interesting parts of the story begin after the team returns home. Here we get to explore how Wolverine has been affected by this trauma. In true Wolverine fashion, he refuses to be viewed as vulnerable and sets out to fight something to prove himself, leading to the discovery of the bone claws. Now initially the bone claws were a really neat story idea. They made Wolverine more vulnerable, less indestructible, and they gave him some much-needed adversity to overcome. The problem with the bone claws is that enemies can break them. At first it’s really shocking and dramatic, but the truth of the matter is that Wolverine, as an icon and a character, is pretty much defined by his claws. That’s the reason that everybody thinks he’s so cool. There are plenty of anti-heroes, numerous rough and tough heroes that are kind on the inside. There are even lots of near indestructible heroes. But there are very few characters with indestructible claws who fight ninjas and robots and super villains on a regular basis. This is the reason that none of the cartoons, non-canon comic books and prose books, or video games of the time tried to incorporate the bone claws. Wolverine’s claws are who he is; they’re what make him cool. Hence the adamantium claws are far superior.

But I digress. Hama does a great job of exploring the aftereffects of Wolverine’s loss. From the nice little moment he has with Jubilee, to the way he casually flicks away the cigar after hacking up a lung, it is apparent that Wolverine is a changed character. Of course this leads to him leaving the X-Men, which is a major deficit for the X-Men books, and leads to the attempted recruitment of Sabretooth down the line. Ignoring all of that, we’re left with an issue that is pretty weak and unengaging for the most part, but manages to pick up towards the end and allow for a subtle picture into the feelings and behaviors of the eponymous character.

C+

X-Men #25

X-Men #25
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Part 4 of Fatal Attractions: The U.N. votes to enact the Magneto Protocols, which involves using a series of satellites to surround the Earth in an energy field that prevents Magneto from using his powers within it. Magneto treats this act as a provocation and decides to teach the humans a lesson. Unfortunately for planet Earth, the satellites used in the field are made of metal, so Magneto is able to not only wreck them all with his powers, but he also uses them to create an EM blast that effectively turns off all of the electricity in the entire world. Nick Fury, Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, Sunfire, Nightcrawler, and Captain Britain (who is supposed to be trapped in Limbo) all appear in cameos to give a sense of gravity and show how this story is affecting the entire Marvel Universe.

Of course, the only place to not be stuck in permanent blackout is Xavier’s mansion, since they have Shi’ar technology integrated into their regular technology. Cyclops briefs the team on the situation and explains the worldwide blackout and the fact that millions of people are probably dead because of it. Xavier has taken the position that they are fighting for survival and must finish Magneto once and for all.

Later in the War Room, Beast, Jean, and Cyclops discuss whether the original non-lethal practices of the X-Men are outdated. Xavier walks in on them, sporting an exoskeleton that allows him to walk by using his mental powers. Xavier explains that the plan is to teleport a small team to Avalon and take out Magneto. Because he thinks it may be a suicide mission, Xavier refrains from bringing more of his original students with him. In the changing room, Rogue wonders whose side she will be on, but Gambit reassures her that she will make the right choice.

Xavier gives a rousing speech about the dream, and then the team proceeds to use a Shi’ar teleporter to teleport onto Avalon. It just so happens that Colossus is on security watch for the Acolytes, so he chooses not to alert the rest of the team to the presence of the X-Men.

As the team creeps through the station, they encounter Rusty and Skids. While Jean tries to reason with them, Xavier announces that they don’t have time and uses his powers to make them fall asleep. Then Quicksilver is given the task of uploading a disc into one of the base’s terminals, which tells the base’s computer to teleport the Acolytes off of the base. This leaves Magneto alone for them to deal with. Magneto discovers them and attacks first.

The plan goes that Jean and Xavier are to attack Magneto’s mind while the rest of the squad beats the crap out of him. The telepaths make him relive the horrors and failures of his life: his time in a Nazi concentration camp, the death of Douglas Ramsey, his wife and children abandoning him, and the betrayal of Fabian Cortez. Magneto decides he cannot allow his son to betray him, and is about to kill Quicksilver, when Wolverine jumps in. Unfortunately Jean breaks the connection because she cannot bear to torture Magneto. Wolverine injures Magneto, so in turn Magneto uses his powers to pull the adamantium from Wolverine’s bones. In a fit of rage, Professor X attacks Magneto and uses his powers to wipe the villain’s mind completely. Colossus appears and tells the X-Men that the teleporter is down, but he has sent word for Bishop to come in the Blackbird. Colossus decides to remain on Avalon and take care of Magneto while he is in his catatonic state because he feels guilty for allowing the X-Men to act unhindered. Jean does her best to stabilize Logan, and the squad leaves Peter to his charge.

How It Was: At the time, this was the issue everyone was talking about. Two unthinkable events in one issue: Wolverine loses his adamantium and Professor X uses his powers to destroy Magneto’s mind. The real question is, how has this comic aged?

Well let’s get the negative out of the way. The biggest criticism of this issue, as well as the most valid, is that the entire story is dependent on these deus ex machina style inventions that come out of nowhere. Apparently the X-Men happen to have a Star Trek teleportation device and a suit that can let Professor X walk just lying around, and these devices have never been used before or after this story. It would probably have made more sense if Forge had invented them and let the X-Men use them, or maybe if Nick Fury had let the team borrow them from a SHIELD armory. While it doesn’t ruin the issue, it is a fact that is difficult to reconcile with what we know about the X-Men. And while we’re on the subject of technology, whose idea was it to make a Magneto negating field out of metal satellites? Also, Captain Britain’s appearance is a continuity error; where was the editor on that one?

But the comic does have a lot going for it. There is a palpable sense of tension as Magneto leaves the entire world vulnerable to attack, and kills potentially millions in the process. This is a Magneto who is ready to end the conflict between man and mutant as quickly as possible, and it looks like he might have the upper hand. Also, the team Xavier picks to attack Avalon is pretty awesome. You have Jean and Xavier to attack him mentally, Rogue and Quicksilver because of their relationship towards him to throw him off guard, and Wolverine and Gambit because…well, because they are really popular characters. Honestly, I can’t think of why any great tactician would bring Wolverine to confront Magneto; we’ll call it a senior moment from Xavier. The final confrontation between Xavier and Magneto works really well and feels like a true culmination of all the encounters these two characters have had. It makes logical and emotional sense that Xavier would feel guilt for all of the people Magneto has killed since he has failed to stop Magneto time and time again. Magneto’s final words about underestimating his opponent punctuate the scene perfectly.

As for the loss of adamantium… well, it did happen. While it definitely felt like a stunt to make the crossover feel more epic, Marvel at least stuck to its guns and kept this as the status quo for a number of years. Still, it’s hard to get excited about this issue now, knowing that both Magneto and Wolverine’s adamantium eventually return, and this story has little to no impact on today’s X-Men. You just have to remind yourself that this did open up a number of legitimately good story ideas, and a couple of bad ones, for a character who was already pretty well defined (I’ll get more into my opinions of adamantium vs non-adamantium in the next review). Plus, the fight with Magneto is really good and it’s interesting to see Xavier attacking the villain’s insecurities while the rest of the team combats him with their powers; it’s just unfortunate that once again the Acolytes get pushed to the side so the writers don’t have to deal with them. Overall, this issue feels like a success since it does make long lasting, but not permanent, changes to the status quo and puts a decent cap on the Xavier/Magneto relationship, at least for the time.

B