Cable #16

Cable #16
Writing: Larry Hama
Art: Steve Skroce

What Went Down: This issue opens on Cable and Wolverine arguing like a couple of young siblings in the back seat of the plane. Cyclops has been piloting the plane with no radar or radio all the way to the Phalanx base in Tibet. Also he has been piloting the plane upside down for some reason. Inside the base, Stephen Lang is seemingly trying to corrupt Psylocke, while actually he is telepathically revealing to her that he is on her side and does not want the Phalanx to absorb all carbon-based life on Earth. The plane crashes into the base, but the X-Men bailed out before the crash. Now they have to climb the mountain without using their powers, otherwise the Phalanx will detect them.

Inside the base, Cameron Hodge complains that they should kill all of the captive X-Men. He also insists that he senses mutants climbing up the mountain, but Lang convinces him that it is impossible for anyone to scale the mountain. Lang tells Psylocke that she most allow her mind to be infected by the Phalanx to free the other X-Men.

The heroes outside climb the mountain, with an especially harrowing sequence involving the scaling of an overhang with Cable almost falling. Hodge sees that Psylocke has effectively been infected by Lang, and the infected Psylocke reveals Lang’s traitorous ideas to Hodge. Cable, Jean, and Scott burst through the wall as a distraction while Logan goes off to free the X-Men. With the X-Men free, Cable and Jean channel their powers through Psylocke, which results in the destruction of Phalanx towers around the world, and the deaths of all the Phalanx members. The X-Men escape the collapsing fortress, and Lang also escapes, thinking to himself that now he is free to pursue his goal of destroying all mutants. At the last minute, Hodge pulls him back into the base before it explodes. On the other side of the galaxy it is revealed that there are more Phalanx ready to invade Earth, or other planets for that matter.

How It Was: The conclusion to the Phalanx Saga, and that is basically it…no more, no less. Whereas the previous issue had lots of information to fill its double-sized page count with, this issue struggles to find things to do with the characters. The X-Men climb the mountain for way too many pages, and Hama seems insistent on pushing this childish antagonistic relationship on Cable and Logan. Sure the characters aren’t supposed to like each other, but they don’t have to behave like immature brats the whole time when the fate of the world is hanging on them. Whether they’re threatening each other or arguing in the plane, their interactions come off as annoying.

The plot to overthrow the Phalanx is way too complex and wraps everything together a little too neatly. I can’t understand why the X-Men need to take the time to climb the mountain when their plan is essentially to burst through the walls and attack the Phalanx. Couldn’t they do this at the beginning of the issue with the plane crash? Also we find out that there are now hundreds of Phalanx towers all across the world (a plot point that managed to avoid explanation during all of the expository recap sequences throughout this story) and Psylocke just wipes them all out automatically at the end of the story. That’s kind of pathetic for an invading army of higher beings, and it’s hard to care since we never really knew about these to begin with. Plus all of the scheming and deception of Stephen Lang never pays off in any meaningful way. Unlike Fatal Attractions, Phalanx Covenant doesn’t really alter the status quo in any significant way, other than the start of Generation X, which is really a let down.

As for the art, Steve Skroce is pretty solid, and goes on to get even better years later in the Gambit ongoing series. Unlike most artists, he draws a very reasonably proportioned Cable. However he doesn’t really do anything creative with the Phalanx, drawing them as ordinary blocky yellow robot people. Still, the fight at the end is exciting, even if there aren’t any real surprises in it.

This issue serves as the conclusion to a story with boring villains that goes on a little too long for its own good. Not a lot to recommend, other than the fight at the end.
 
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