Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Joe Madureira
What Went Down: Professor X has decided that Sabretooth is a lost cause, so he and the X-Men are getting ready to turn Creed over to Valerie Cooper of X-Factor. Xavier is happy that he tried, even though we never saw it on panel. Jean shows Bishop and Cyclops that Sabretooth was faking his rehabilitation by demonstrating that the serene forest scene that he had been spending time in looked like a creepy haunted wood with dead carcasses through Sabretooth’s mental perspective. Bishop thinks they should kill Creed, but Cyclops argues that they can’t kill everyone who disagrees with their beliefs. Bishop brings up the repressed memories of the Age of Apocalypse that he has been seeing and expresses frustration that Xavier is too busy to help him. Scott and Jean reflect on their own experiences with time compression from The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix.
Sabretooth continues to argue with Xavier, trying to get Charles to admit he is jealous of Creed’s freedom. Val Cooper interrupts to check in. Jean and Cyclops try to comfort Xavier about his guilt for failing, but Xavier brushes them off.
Boomer from X-Force shows up in Sabretooth’s cell. She is angry that Sabretooth was faking his injuries because she felt a connection with him when she was helping to rehabilitate him. Psylocke watches silently, while conveying support that Tabitha is standing up for herself. Sabretooth manages to anger Boomer, causing her to blow up his restraints. Once free, Creed is about to kill the girl, but Psylocke intervenes and a big fight begins. Psylocke tries to end the fight with her psychic knife, but it turns out that the injury to his brain that Wolverine gave him now makes Creed immune to telepathy. So Sabretooth ends up gutting Psylocke. The other X-Men respond, but it is too late; Sabretooth has escaped.
How It Was: So despite saving the Gen X kids during the Phalanx saga, and being a hero in Age of Apocalypse, and the head wound that seemingly made him gentler, Lobdell decides to write Sabretooth back into being a villain. There’s nothing wrong with this except for the fact that it’s such an anti-climax after a plot line that has lasted for almost three years. Xavier’s change of heart feels very sudden, and although there are legitimate reasons for turning Creed over, it’s hard not to feel like Xavier is just giving up since we never actually saw him try to help the villain. I guess you could write it off as foreshadowing of some kind for Onslaught.
It’s also surprising to see that X-Force is still living at the mansion, but this goes on for many more months. I like the interaction between Boomer and Sabretooth, although the point he gets her to overreact on seems to be Cannonball learning about her past as a villain, which he is already aware of. Psylocke gets some nice moments to shine, since she hasn’t had anything to do in about half a year.
Sorry to say, but the art really lets this issue down, as it is definitely not Joe Mad’s best work. Sabretooth is drawn with ridiculous proportions this issue; I’m talking like Strong Guy from X-Factor proportions. He looks like he has an absurd amount of muscles this issue. Also, the main dramatic crux of the issue, Psylocke getting mortally wounded, doesn’t have the impact it could’ve since Psylocke is essentially drawn with her eyes closed. This isn’t really the artist’s fault so much as the Comics Code Authority of the time, but it still reduces the effectiveness of what should be a fairly shocking event; the artist just isn’t allowed to properly show what happened to her.
This is actually an okay set up to a couple of stories that are not so great. While I admire Lobdell for trying to put some of the focus back on Psylocke, the results of the upcoming story end up complicating her even more while delivering a mediocre story. Still I guess this issue does have some unexpected moments, at least if you can manage to ignore the cover.
B-
No comments:
Post a Comment