X-Men #34

X-Men #34
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: In Nebraska, the Blue Team visits the orphanage where Scott Summers grew up. This same orphanage also turns out to be one of Mr. Sinister’s safehouses for his lab. Psylocke and Gambit sneak in while Rogue and Beast wait in the plane. The X-Men are investigating Sinister’s research into the Legacy Virus to make sure everything is kosher.

Using intelligence from Sabretooth, Gambit and Psylocke find the hidden door to the lab. Inside they discover the Marauder Riptide, which surprises everyone since he is supposed to be dead. After knocking him out, Gambit observes weird rashes on Riptide’s skin. Rogue bursts in and demonstrates worry for Gambit’s safety. After finding another hidden door, the X-Men discover Threnody strapped to a number of machines. It turns out that Sinister is out fighting X-Factor at the moment. She lets the blue team know that their presence has triggered security drones, but the Beast is able to disable them through a computer.

Everyone is relieved to see that Threnody is okay, given that she has been in the care of one of their most deadly enemies. Threnody is thankful because Sinister has helped her to control her powers and learn new things. The X-Men try to convince her that Sinister will want more from her, and that she is really a prisoner here. Upon learning that they fought Riptide, Threnody reveals that he was a clone and that his clone partner was probably also released.

The team is then attacked by an unfinished clone of Sabretooth. Rogue takes the opportunity to take her aggressions for the real Creed out on the clone and defeats it in one hit. After seeing this Threnody decides to destroy Sinister’s DNA bank so no one else would be hurt by it. Beast tries to convince her to come with them, but Threnody feels that she still needs to help stop Sinister from the inside.

How It Was: First I just want to say that clones are stupid and stories with clones as either the hero or villain are cheap and stupid. Really they only exist in this story to create some action sequences, and as a retcon for all of the various stories that contained accidental character appearances from Marauders after their deaths.

It is really nice to see the X-Men actually follow up on a storyline instead of just responding to emergencies, but I can’t say that I’m particularly excited to see Threnody again. She’s not really the most exciting supporting character ever, and she turns on Sinister rather quickly. First she is convinced he has mutantkind’s best interest at heart, then after seeing his clones she thinks that all of his painstaking work must be wiped out. Of course it doesn’t really matter because later stories reveal that Sinister just had another set of DNA samples lying around.  Also it doesn’t make sense as to why she would stick around after trashing Sinister’s lab; isn’t there a possibility that he might be mad?

Other than that, this issue is okay. There is also a needless scene where Beast foils Sinister’s security system with a computer that feels tacked on to push the story forward. After this issue, we’re not going to see a lot about the Legacy Virus, so this marks one of the last issues to focus solely on it for a really long time.

C

X-Men #33

X-Men #33
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Another mysterious tale from the X-Men’s past. This issue centers on Sabretooth telling Rogue the story of how he met Gambit years ago in Paris. If you’re wondering why Rogue has waited this long to ask Sabretooth about it, well she has her reasons, I guess. Anywho, Gambit first meets Sabretooth when defending a girl named Genevieve. Sabretooth and Gambit are both after a pendant that Genevieve has stolen; Sabretooth wants to just kill her and take it, but Gambit wants to have a little fun, so he enters into a relationship with her before stealing the pendant.

In case you’re wondering if Sabretooth’s story can be trusted, he has a mental camera device to project his thoughts, so we know it’s all true. Also, it is fortunate that Sabretooth decided to stalk Gambit for the week before striking at him, otherwise there might have been a lot of holes in his story.

Gambit meets with his foster brother Henri, a character that recently died in Gambit’s mini-series around the same time. Henri criticizes Gambit for not just taking the pendant, but Gambit is only a couple months from his arranged marriage, so he wants to have some fun before settling down.

Later, Gambit and Genevieve steal some bread and wine, and Gambit reveals his powers to her; all the while Sabretooth is still stalking and observing him.

Back in the present, Beast catches Jubilee goofing off instead of working on her book report. Hank is considering infiltrating one of Mr. Sinister’s strongholds, but he doesn’t know if he should trust Creed or not.

After spending the night with Genevieve, Remy finally steals the pendant. Unfortunately for him, Creed kidnaps her and his brother and sets up a meeting at Notre Dame. With both prisoners tied up, Creed tells Gambit that after he throws the pendant, he’s going to drop both of them. Remy chooses to save his brother, leaving Genevieve to fall to her death. Before she dies, she tells Gambit that she would’ve gladly given Remy the pendant if he asked.

Later, Rogue confronts Gambit about the story; she is obviously not impressed with it. Gambit claims that he was young and stupid, but Rogue doesn’t know if she should trust him. Beast visits Sabretooth and offers him a chance to help them and “live in the world.” After Beast leaves, Sabretooth’s projector flashes back to Leni Zauber (Mystique in disguise) holding his son Graydon Creed as a baby.

How It Was: This is actually a really interesting story. With the pretty much sole focus on Sabretooth’s story, we get an interesting glimpse into both his and Gambit’s personality. It’s fun to see Gambit as a novice, fully embracing his roguish lifestyle. While it feels contrived that Creed would follow Gambit for so long, if you can suspend your disbelief it makes for a very good story. For the first time in months an encounter with a villain generates legitimate tension, even if it is a flashback, because there are actual stakes to Gambit’s encounter.

And yes, there are consequences. It’s refreshing to see that Rogue is reasonably conflicted between her attraction for Gambit and the fact that any sensible woman would avoid him like the plague after hearing a story like that. There really is nothing Gambit can possibly say, so this makes for another chapter in the long, bumpy, soap opera-y road that is the Rogue/Gambit romance.

Kubert does a fantastic job realizing the architecture of Paris and making it feel like the story actually takes place there. The flashback versions of all of the characters are also very nicely done. An awesome one-and-done story for Gambit fans that has some real emotional consequences tied to it.

B+