Writing: Larry Hama
Art: Adam Kubert
What Went Down: Cyclops and Jean Grey are flying over Muir Island, hoping to get in touch with Professor X. Instead, three members of the Phalanx named Larissa, Egon, and Nkotha attack them; for some reason these Phalanx members are giants compared to the ones in other issues. The plane crashes and Cyclops and Jean attack the aliens, all the while wondering what happened to the Professor and Excalibur.
Wolverine received a telepathic message from Xavier about the problems on Muir Island, and he has chartered a plane piloted by a gentleman named Harry to fly over the island, so he can parachute down. During his descent, he is grabbed by one of the Phalanx, but Cyclops and Jean rescue him.
At the Phalanx base, Stephen Lang is trying to learn how to absorb Psylocke, since the Phalanx cannot absorb mutants. Lang has been having doubts about the Phalanx plan and worries that Larissa might have read his thoughts.
After escaping, the Phalanx follow the X-Men along some underground power cables. Wolverine remarks that the couple seems older somehow, which is an allusion to the Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix mini. The aliens are about to attack when they are shot by an unknown assailant who turns out to be Cable. Of course this is significant since Scott and Jean just spent twelve years in the future raising a young Cable, and it inspires a lot of conflicting emotions in the couple.
After destroying the Phalanx members, Wolverine accuses Cable of potentially being an imposter, but Jean insists it is him. The group recaps the story up to this point and brings up the twist that Cable is more susceptible to absorption since his body is already part techno-organic due to the T.O. disease he has. Also they need a macguffin inside the infected Lab Building in order to find the captured X-Men.
Cable and Jean use a telepathic bond to attack the Phalanx while Cyclops and Wolverine run in together; Jean worries about this because it might involve sharing memories, and she doesn’t want Cable to find out that she and Scott raised him because it might endanger the future somehow. While fighting the Phalanx on the astral plane Cable sees a memory of Redd, Jean’s identity as his foster mother in the future, and this opens up a weakness for the Phalanx to exploit. Inside the lab Logan and Scott fight the third Phalanx member.
Cable rallies thanks to another memory from Jean, but the two get kicked out of the astral plane. Jean tries to reengage, but Cable is through with telepathy and decides to start shooting his giant gun. Cyclops and Wolverine run out with the information, but accessing it has caused a self-destruct to initiate. The group has three minutes to get off the island. Fortunately, Harry the pilot has decided to come back for them. Cable decides to hold the Phalanx off for as long as he can while the others escape.
Jean is able to telekinetically stop the plane in mid-air so the heroes can get on. Wolverine goes back for Cable, who is about to be absorbed. He rescues Cable and they make a daring escape right before the facility explodes. The X-Men announce that they are going to Tibet to stop the Phalanx and save the other X-Men.
How It Was: It’s a celebration as Wolverine returns to the X-Men for the first time since Wolverine #75. Sure he doesn’t rejoin the team for another couple of issues, but this is still exciting. This also happens to be a double-sized issue, and there sure is a lot going on here for a book that only has four main characters.
First off, even though this issue is part of the Phalanx storyline and it occurs in Wolverine’s title, a lot of this issue focuses on the relationship between Cyclops, Jean, and Cable. There’s nothing wrong with this, it seems like a weird story and issue to bring all of this information up. Then again, I guess it is a crossover with Cable. Most of this comes through telepathic conversations between Scott and Jean, as well as some flashes of memory on the astral plane. It is definitely appropriate that Hama explores this material since it is the first meeting of Cable and the Summerses since The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix revealed Cable's origins, but I can’t really understand the rationale of keeping their history secret from Cable. Revealing their identity can’t really affect the future since it occurred in Cable’s past. Plus he figures it out in a couple of months anyway.
Then there’s the simple fact that there are too many words in this book. Since it is his book, we are stuck with Wolverine’s internal monologue that shares with us such uninteresting facts as his associations with jumping out of a plane during World War II and his surprise at the power of the Phalanx. Plus there is a ton of exposition about the Phalanx plot line, The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix mini, the purpose of Muir Island, and the histories of the characters. While this is all necessary information for readers that solely read Wolverine, it is all reiteration for the majority of X-Men fans, and it really slows down a story that at its root is just the group assembling, learning the location of their goal from a computer, and then escaping.
As for the Phalanx, Hama doesn’t really make them any more interesting than any of the other writers before him. They’re still all one-dimensional alien invaders set on taking over the world. However visually they are really interesting thanks to the vision of penciler Adam Kubert. Adam Kubert, as opposed to his brother Andy who drew X-Men at this time, does some interesting things with the scale and design of the Phalanx. There is a really nice sequence where Wolverine cuts up one of the Phalanx’s faces, and the sections of face float around on tendrils and look really creepy. Unfortunately, like most of the artists of the time, Kubert also draws an absurdly exaggerated Cable with gigantic shoulders that are too big for his head, oversized guns, and hundreds of pouches all over his body. It is almost the quintessential Rob Liefield Cable.
It’s not a superb issue, but it does star some great characters and it has a good amount of action in it. Surprisingly it features more depth for the Cyclops/Jean/Cable relationship than later issues of X-Men would.
C+
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