Writing: Fabian Nicieza, Gavin Curtis, and Dan Slott
Art: Greg Capullo, Gavin Curtis, and Sandu Florea
What Went Down: Shattershot Part 4: Instead of getting an immediate resolution to Arize’s story, this issue takes us a couple of decades into the future. A group known as the Freeman Armed Network is engaged in combat with a group of spineless ones, members of the same race as Mojo. This battle turns out to be a gladiator style performance for an audience on Mojoworld. The spineless ones are killed, and we discover that the new ruler of Mojoworld is Shatterstar, a member of X-Force in the present. Shatterstar has been the master programmer for a decade, after overthrowing Mojo V, but he is frustrated that he has essentially replaced Mojo’s rule with an equally barbaric one, except this time the spineless ones are the persecuted race instead of the humans.
Outside Xavier’s mansion (in the future, mind you), Arize and two spineless ones named Milton and Shecky teleport in. They are looking to acquire X-Force’s help in overthrowing Shatterstar’s reign. Because the spineless ones were formerly enemies, X-Force attacks them, and we get introductions to the future members of X-Force. The team consists of Cannonball, Siryn, Sunspot, Cyberlock—a combination of the deceased characters Cypher and Warlock, Darkchylde—a grown up Illyana Rasputin, and Powerpax—a descendent of the siblings that make up Power Pack. The team beats on the rebels until they realize their ally Arize is one of them. At the Freeman Network, Shatterstar and his scheduler discuss the missing Arize.
Back at the mansion, using an interface with Cyberlock, Arize shows the history of Mojoworld up to this point. It turns out that the signal he was trying to broadcast in previous issues of Shattershot became distorted through time and space and served as a catalyst for driving his people insane. Later, the group traveled into the future to depose Mojo V and Shatterstar was put in place as the ruler of Mojoworld. The Spineless One rebels are now striving for true equality and democracy, something that interests X-Force very much.
In Mojoworld, the Scheduler plots to kill Shatterstar. Elsewhere, X-Force sneaks into the coliseum. As the battle commences, a mysterious helmeted stranger joins the rebel side and helps to defeat the Freemen. After winning the battle, the stranger reveals himself to be Arize. The Scheduler tries to have him arrested, but X-Force gets in the guards’ way, allowing Arize to speak to his people. As Shatterstar tries to speak reason to his people, the Scheduler pushes him off of the balcony. It’s okay though, because Shatterstar is fine, despite landing on his head.
X-Force fights the Freemen, with Shatterstar joining in the effort. The Scheduler injures Arize with an axe, but Shatterstar defeats her, and then spares her life. Arize gives a nice speech about tolerance and the entire crowd cheers. A hooded individual pulls down his hood and reveals himself to be an elderly Longshot, smiling because he is seeing the fulfillment of his dream after so long.
What Else Went Down: The Wiz Kid, Artie, and Leech are at a private school playing. Taki, the Wiz Kid, has used his amazing technical know how to make TIE Fighters and a lightsaber out of Legos. When the teacher, Mrs. Huntington comes in, Taki turns off the Legos, but the teacher notices the mess and scolds the mutants. Taki has a crush on his teacher, and dutifully brings her the Legos after cleaning them up.
Mrs. Huntington gives Taki a lecture on the responsibility of his powers, then her boyfriend Patrick shows up. Taki is insanely jealous. During the night, he discovers Patrick going through the school’s files and talking to someone on the phone about eliminating filthy mutants. Artie, Leech, and Taki follow Patrick in a hovercraft made from the Wiz Kid’s wheel chair.
The children discover an anti-mutant group and Leech falls out of the hovercraft. While the racists shoot bullets at them, Taki grabs the stolen files just in time for the police to show up. Patrick and his friends are arrested and Mrs. Huntington learns that she was being used. The next day Taki offers himself as a potential future boyfriend in a couple of years.
What Else Also Went Down: Cable assembles his team X-Force for a test of sorts. On the screen he displays the various villains that X-Force has fought and asks different members of the team who they are and how to best defeat them. If this sounds really similar to the list of villains story in the X-Men Annual, well it is.
Anyway, the villains mentioned include: Masque, Garrison Kane, Black Tom Cassidy and the Juggernaut, G.W. Bridge, Deadpool, The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Sunspot and Gideon, Proteus, Stryfe, and the X-Men. The team gets mad at Cable for the inclusion of Sunspot and the X-Men and they all storm out. Domino asks Cable what he was thinking, and Cable insists that his dream and Xavier’s dream are different and that he is trying to win a war.
How It Was: Well…it’s definitely an ending that I didn’t expect. The conclusion of Shattershot goes for a curve ball, and instead of concluding the story, it jumps to an alternate future to show Shatterstar replacing Mojo. It’s a very odd way to resolve Arize’s story. I usually enjoy alternate future/dimension stories, but this one doesn’t use the concept to the fullest. The beauty of the alternate reality is that anything can happen, and in this issue not a lot of anything happens.
The set up itself is okay. Having Shatterstar become what he has always fought against, an oppressive ruler that reinforces prejudice, is interesting, but the writing doesn’t really support this idea. Shatterstar obviously questions the oppression of the spineless ones, so it doesn’t really make sense as to why he’s allowed it to go on for a decade. The X-Force team is pretty cool and has some neat surprises on the roster. It’s a treat for fans to see a grown Illyana, a member of Power Pack, and Doug Ramsey/Warlock on the team. Unfortunately none of the members get any real characterization, and really the members of the team act as guest stars here in their own book. Shatterstar and Arize take center stage and do all of the work, leaving X-Force to stand around, fight a little, and comment out loud on what is happening.
Arize does get to step up as a fighter (complete with what looks like a lightsaber) and it is good to see him actually doing something in his own story. Really he has become an Xavier like figure for the Mojoworld, but it still works as a continuation of the evolution he went through in the first three issues. As for the villains, the Scheduler is pretty one-dimensional and the Freemen Network hardly puts up a fight. What makes this story laughable is that the ruling army has been in power for a decade, and it takes X-Force and Arize about five minutes to overthrow them. It makes you wonder why Arize waited so long at all. So a pathetic threat and an underutilized team that had potential make this one to skip.
As for the back ups, I would love to know who at Marvel decided to put a Wiz Kid story in the back of an annual of X-Force, the supposedly more edgier X-team. These characters all used to appear in the old X-Factor, and they sure are cheesy; I’m talking like Silver Age cheesy. The idea that three kids could overthrow some kind of mutant hate group probably means that the members weren’t all that competent to begin with. This kind of kiddy story is almost embarrassing to read; it’s got that kind of awkward, saccharine sweet tone to it that nobody but really young kids and the hardest of hard core fans could like.
As for the last story, Dan Slott writes the exact same story that he wrote in X-Men Annual #1. Sure the execution is slightly, and I mean slightly different, but the story concept was never really that strong to begin with. It’s not even really a story, it's a load of exposition that reads more like a series of trading cards than a narrative. And the end is really awful, since it involves Cable insisting that his vision is a complete departure from Xavier’s, when in practice it is the exact thing. Also the artist draws an uber-exagerated Cable with shoulders that he could rest televisions on. It looks really, really stupid. So to sum it up, three awful stories make for one obscure issue that isn’t really worth it unless you are a huuuuuuge fan.
D
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