X-Force Annual #1

I know I reviewed the majority of Shattershot months ago, but I just got the final issue through the mail over Christmas break. Mile High Comics rocks! So for your reading enjoyment, I present this summary of the conclusion to that story.  For the previous parts click here.

X-Force Annual #1
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

Uncanny X-Men #319

Uncanny X-Men #319
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Steve Epting


What Went Down: In spite of Iceman’s cruel swimming pool prank in X-Men #38, Rogue and Bobby have nevertheless bonded. Rogue has agreed to go along with Bobby to his parents’ house for dinner. We open on the two mutants staring in wonder at the impressive ice castle that Iceman has built on the beach. He then shares a depressing story about his father who disapproved of sandcastle building when Bobby was younger because he saw it as a form of dreaming. Then Bobby flips out about Emma Frost’s use of his body again.

Back at the mansion, Xavier is asleep. In his dream, he is sitting on a sand dune in Israel reflecting on how happy he was when he lived there. Magneto appears in the dream and asks Xavier what he thinks would have happened if Magneto wasn’t there to undermine his goals.

Iceman tries to change the subject by bringing up the fact that Gambit is a jerk for leading Rogue on. She doesn’t agree at first, but later relents in light of all of the evidence. As the two have a moment, Bobby’s rude and racist dad interrupts to complain that they’re late for dinner. Bobby’s mom, on the other hand, is incredibly nice and just ignores and represses everything about her husband.

Out in New York, Psylocke is singing at a fancy restaurant that Archangel owns. Warren congratulates her, and the two take the time to talk about their relationship. In a bit of retconning of a previous story, we learn that Cameron Hodge had taken over Worthington Enterprises, but not his personal family fortune. They also decide that they’re going to try to play their relationship straight, without all the melodrama and clichés of standard superhero relationships.

At the Drake’s, Bobby’s dad is convinced that he and Rogue are dating and brings up Bobby’s previous girlfriend, Opal, in a negative light. This sets Bobby off, and he uses his powers on his father’s newspaper. The two Drakes fight and Mr. Drake complains about his girlfriends being Japanese or mutants. Bobby storms off, and Rogue expresses her surprise that Bobby never mentioned his father was a bigot.

Over in Xavier’s dream, Magneto is showing Xavier a wasteland of bodies that represent the victims of their conflict. Xavier gets angry at Magneto, stating that there is no point in speculating on what might’ve been. The Magneto image reveals himself to be Legion, Xavier’s son from his relationship with Gabrielle Haller.

Back on Long Island, Bobby is making a sandcastle and talking with Rogue. She consoles him about his father, and they both come to the conclusion that dreaming is a beautiful thing.

At the mansion, Beast wakes up the Professor after being alerted by a psionic distress call. Xavier briefs Beast on the fact that Legion has returned, and that David’s multiple personalities have now fused into one single mind. All of this of course is setting up the Legion Quest next month.

How It Was: Another quiet, talky issue, but really this is the only one for a while that deals directly with actual subplots that will continue after Age of the Apocalypse. Also the end directly sets up Legion Quest, so realistically this story occurs after X-Men #39. If you think about it, the last couple of issues have been solely dealing with the Phalanx and the set up for Generation X, while the upcoming storyline deals solely with Legion and the Age of Apocalypse, so this is really the only glimpse of the greater picture of the X-Men for almost the whole year.

First up we have Rogue and Iceman, which actually sets up a series of stories after Legion Quest that involve the two driving around the country and helping each other deal with their issues. It also continues a storyline from Uncanny that involves Bobby’s dad being a huge bigot. It’s by the numbers and predictable, and it really is hard to imagine how Bobby and his mother could both be so oblivious to the fact that Mr. Drake is a racist up until this point. And there is some heavily forced symbolism involving sandcastles and hope/dreams, although it does give guest artist Steve Epting an excuse to draw a really beautiful ice castle. Of course the reader knows that the only place for Drake’s father to go is to redeem himself, or just fade to obscurity, but Lobdell manages to set up a good dynamic between Iceman and Rogue, two characters who on the surface seem completely different, but who both find common ground in this story.

The Psylocke/Archangel stuff is even less exciting. Basically it is the writers’ way of announcing that they are officially a couple. It is nice that Lobdell sets up the fact that they are going to play the relationship straight and try to avoid the melodrama of most comic book couples. Still, it’s two characters flying around and talking about their relationship, nothing really groundbreaking. The Xavier set up for Legion Quest works in the sense that it alerts the heroes to the conflict of the story, but doesn’t really serve any other purpose.

What really saves this issue is Steve Epting’s art, which is gorgeous. Yes Joe Mad is once again missing from his regular art duties, but in this instance I feel like it might have been a deliberate decision since Epting’s art fits a lot better with the low-key, talky tone of this story. Joe Mad’s action-flavored manga infused style wouldn’t have fit this story at all. This is really a gorgeous issue with the already mentioned ice castle, great depictions of the New York skyline at night, and even great panels of Rogue and Iceman sitting on the beach and looking at birds. All-in-all it’s an unexciting issue, but there is some great character definition and some dazzling visuals to behold.

B-

X-Men #39

X-Men #39
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Terry Dodson

What Went Down: Our story begins with a flashback of Cyclops’ grandfather, Phillip Summers, dogfighting with Nazi planes during World War II. The final panel is a shot of a plane going down in the present. Luckily Adam-X, a Shi’ar mutant also known as X-treme, happens to be passing by in the woods of Northern Alaska. He manages to pull Phillip out of the wreckage before it explodes.

At the mansion’s boathouse, which is the new home of Scott Summers and Jean Grey, Beast is trying to engage Jean in some gossip that really only serves as an advertisement for the Rogue mini-series—out now! Jean seems distracted because she is thinking about her sister that was absorbed by the Phalanx, which we discovered three issues ago even though she wasn’t around. Cyclops shows up, and expresses concern over a phone call he received from his grandmother about his missing grandfather. Beast and Jean agree to go to Alaska with Scott and help search for him.

Back in the Alaska wilderness, Phillip and Adam bond over small talk while Adam sets up a shelter and a fire. Adam shares that his entire family was killed, and it reminds Phillip of his grandson Scott and his friends. In what appears to be a dream, but might be a hallucination, Legion is out in the desert where he sees Destiny and some crystal figures of the X-Men. Destiny tells him to go fulfill his father’s dream. In what I think is a setup for the Rogue mini, Bella Donna is given control of the Assassin’s Guild at the funeral of her father; she also vows revenge against Gambit.

Back in Alaska, a blizzard is brewing outside the shelter. Phillip shares that he wanted to fly his plane one last time, despite the fact that his doctor had just told him that his eyesight was failing. He then pieces together that Adam isn’t from Earth, and asks to be shown the star where he came from. As Phillip freezes to death, Adam uses his mutant power, the power to ignite electrolytes in a person’s blood, to save Phillip. Just then a rescue helicopter discovers the shelter.

Days later at the hospital, Cyclops, Jean, and Mrs. Summers are all amazed that Phillip was able to survive. One of Phillip’s friends explains that there was no way Phillip could have survived on his own, and that bloodstains were found in the area. Jean’s telepathy detects a stranger in Phillip’s room, so she goes up by herself to check who it is. She finds Adam, and Adam asks her to use her powers to share his memories of space flight with Phillip. Adam says that Phillip gave him hope and then disappears.

Cyclops comes in and asks if everything is okay, to which Jean responds that everything is wonderful. It is revealed that Scott and Jean are being observed on a monitor; we only see a red glove belonging to a mystery person and a blue glove and bit of cape that obviously belong to Mr. Sinister.

How It Was: Is this a joke? No…all right then. Because Fabian Nicieza demanded it, a story about Cyclops’ grandfather and Adam-X. This comes off as a really random tangent to the main storyline, unless you understand Nicieza’s thought process on it. You see, initially the writer planned for Adam to be the mysterious third Summers brother—he would have been the illegitimate offspring of Cyclops’ mother Kate and the Shi’ar Emperor D’ken, who presumably would have raped her. That story never materialized, and years and years later Ed Brubaker wrote a story where he created a new character named Vulcan to be the third Summers. So what we end up with is this obscure one-off story that now has no apparent purpose.

This is a pretty contrived story as well. Adam is wandering the Great White North randomly when Phillip Summers decides to take a flight even though he is losing his eyesight. This is especially weird since last issue Adam was interviewing Carter Ryking, who pointed him towards the X-Men. It’s like Nicieza totally forgot writing that part, since Adam doesn’t follow up on any of it, even when he meets the X-Men at the end of this story. Adam himself looks like a wood elf dressed like Fred Durst, but his outfit is a hundred times better than his regular costume, seen on the cover. As for his character, well he is the standard alien outsider trying to discover what it means to be human. While it’s not terrible, it’s certainly territory that has already been thoroughly explored with characters like the Silver Surfer, the Vision, Adam Warlock, regular Warlock, and a wealth of other Marvel Comics heroes. Plus his codename is X-Treme, making for one of the worst super hero names of the 90s, and that is really saying something. Still, the two characters do share some nice moments, although Adam’s return to the hospital at the end is a little cheesy. And Jean’s reaction to a total stranger in her grandfather-in-law’s room is perplexing and silly.

The rest of the issue is standard fare for this period. The Legion Quest storyline gets another foreshadow involving a desert and crystal X-Men statues. In case you’re wondering about the recurring crystal theme, well the events of the next story end up affecting the M’kraan crystal from the Phoenix storyline for some reason. There are also a couple of in-story plugs for the Rogue mini-series, and it is nice to see a time when creators actually cared to incorporate the events of a mini-series into the regular title; you don’t see that too often anymore.

The art is good, although some artistic choices don’t really fit the tone of the story. After Cyclops shares the news that his grandfather is missing, there is a really corny panel where Jean consoles him in a panel shaped like a heart. The flashbacks to World War II do look really great, even though they don’t really belong in an X-Men story. This one is a total misfire. It’s not even about the X-Men, and because of changes in planning it really is of little consequence. Really for completists only.

D+