X-Men #47

X-Men #47
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: The X-Babies find themselves in Little Italy after running away from Gog and Magog last issue. A priest stops to help them and this affords them a chance to recap the plot. Gog and Magog show up, and the X-Babies keep running.

The club from last issue has been completely destroyed, but Bishop and Gambit were somehow able to survive and blow themselves out of the rubble. Gambit reasserts that he would never willingly hurt the X-Men, but Bishop brushes him off so they can go look for the X-Babies.

At the bookstore, Baby Storm and Baby Iceman are fighting with each other, but Jean uses her powers to hide them from the crowd. The X-Babies convince the two X-Men to help them; Iceman mentions that they aren’t real, but Jean detects psionic imprints, so even if they started out as artificial lifeforms, they are alive now.

The rest of the X-Babies hide in a carnival stuffed animal shelf while Gog and Magog tear the carnival apart. Gambit and Bishop show up to save the day, but the fight ends with the X-Men pinned. The X-Babies decide to help fight back with water pistols and a mallet. Then Jean and Bobby show up with rest of the X-Babies to help out. They freeze the bad guys, but the bad guys break out. Magog is about to eat all the X-Babies when a blinding light interrupts him. The light came from former X-Man and current co-leader of Mojoworld, Dazzler.

Gog and Magog refer to her as “your majesty” but Dazzler insists that she has no role in the new political structure; she teleports the two minions away after chastising them. Dazzler then tells the kids that they can live with her and Longshot until the political situation stabilizes in Mojoworld. The X-Men share pleasantries with Dazzler, and Jean interrupts Iceman from asking about all the mouths to feed. As the X-Babies teleport away, Jean tells Iceman that she didn’t sense any life within Alison, inferring that she had a miscarriage. At the mansion, Xavier summons Tabitha Smith, aka Boomer, to explain to her that he is turning Sabretooth over to the government in Uncanny #328.

How It Was: Well…this is something different. Scott Lobdell tries to lighten things up a little with the X-Babies, but the problem is that none of the humor is particularly clever, or for that matter funny. All of the jokes revolve around the cuteness and immaturity of the X-Babies, which can be hilarious when done right: see Runaways’ Molly Hayes. But none of these jokes are really funny, although Kubert’s representations are cute enough to make you smile when you see them.

As for the rest, well we’ve dumped most of the characterization for faster paced action, but it’s action against Gog and Magog, so I can’t imagine anybody caring. And the whole thing resolves itself anti-climactically when we learn that the two minions mixed up their orders. Seeing Dazzler is kind of neat, except it’s only for about three pages—enough time for the X-Men to say hi real quickly. And I never understood why Jean assumes Dazzler had a miscarriage; she hasn’t been seen for thirty-six issues, surely that’s enough time in comic time for a pregnancy to come to term. Heck, Ka-Zar and Shanna’s pregnancy happened almost entirely off-panel, and then that baby just kind of disappeared. But I digress.

This is a very weird story that doesn’t work because it isn’t all that funny and it wraps up a little too neatly for its own good. Really it’s a bit of a disaster, but the art is nice.

D

X-Men #46

X-Men #46
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Gambit is taking Bishop out for a night at an underground gambling establishment that he knows of. Bishop doesn’t take kindly to being frisked at the door, so he beats up the bouncers. It’s quite clear he does not view this as a fun night out.

At the same time, Iceman is helping Jean shop for books for her niece and nephew. Actually he’s using this opportunity to talk about his self-confidence issues with his powers. In an underground base in the mid-west, some soldiers are investigating the disappearance of fifteen scientists while talking to Senator Kelly. All of the computer screens have the words “Onslaught” on them.

At the club, Gambit asks Bishop whether he still thinks Gambit might be the traitor; Bishop admits that he trusts that Gambit’s intentions are pure, although he still thinks Gambit might turn out to be the traitor.

At the gambling tables some of the patrons feel something rubbing against their legs. They pull out guns, look under the tables, and discover the X-Babies. Two of the gamblers threaten to kill the X-Babies, but they defend themselves with their powers. When people try to intervene, Gambit and Bishop take it upon themselves to protect the children.

At the bookstore, Bobby asks Jean to check his mind for signs of Emma Frost. After discussing the progress of her own powers in comparison to Bobby’s, the two are interrupted by the Iceman and Storm X-Babies. In South America outside a barn, a young woman comes across an unconscious Magneto.

After Bishop and Gambit finish off the mob, the children tell them that they are on the run from Gog and Magog. At that moment, the two Mojoworld villains appear from a portal announcing that they are going to cancel the X-Babies.

How It Was: Well Scott Lobdell’s workload doubles as he takes over writing duties for standard X-Men as well as Uncanny. It’s obvious that with this first arc he is trying for a story with a lighter tone, since the last year of X-books has been killer diseases and post-apocalyptic wastelands. The problem is, he goes about doing this with the X-Babies.

Now the X-Babies—miniature child versions of the regular X-Men—began life in a short story by Chris Claremont, who was parodying the way that Marvel was capitalizing on the X-Men’s success with numerous spinoffs. Of course in the eighties there was only like two or three spinoffs and in the nineties there were a lot more.

Anyways, Lobdell’s take on the X-Babies doesn’t seem to be trying to satirize anything. Instead, he’s playing them straight as children with super powers, which is fine, but it isn’t very interesting or funny. All of the jokes revolve around the children adorably begging for help and arguing with each other, or they revolve around X-Baby Cyclops’ lisp, which gets quite old. On top of that, we get a cliffhanger introducing D-list villains Gog and Magog for next issue, so there’s not a whole lot to look forward to with this story.

Iceman is still worrying about how little he’s done with his powers, a plot point that feels like it has been going on for years. The one shining character thread of this comic belongs to Gambit. After being rejected by Rogue for being unable to reveal aspects of his past, it’s interesting to see Gambit gravitate to Bishop, the other X-Man who doesn’t trust him. What we see is Remy hiding behind his scoundrel side while trying to see if he can convince Bishop that he is not a bad guy, in hopes that he might someday be able to do the same for Rogue and the rest of the X-Men. It’s rather touching to see such a subtle and complex reaction as the fallout from the last couple of issues of Gambit dealing with losing Rogue.

The art works really well, especially in terms of selling the seediness of the club that Gambit and Bishop go to. The X-Babies are suitably silly and adorable looking, even if they don’t have a lot to say or do. I would call this a disappointing debut for Lobdell on X-Men, which is unfortunate since he is capable of much better work. It’s hard to tell if he was caught unaware by Fabian Nicieza’s resignation (Nicieza left because he felt there was too much editorial interference), or if this was just a misfire.

D+

Uncanny X-Men '95 Annual

Uncanny X-Men ‘95
Writing: Terry Kavanagh
Art: Bryan Hitch

What Went Down: Cannonball stops by the Massachusetts Academy, interrupting a game of basketball between the members of Generation X. There’s some tension between Sam and Emma since she used to lead the New Mutants’ old enemies, the Hellions. Sam’s sister Husk tackles him, but it’s just for fun. Sam warns Paige about Emma, and then says that they have family business to take care of.

Sam and Paige’s sister Joelle is staying with mutant named Preacher, although nobody knows he’s a mutant. His power causes him to paint scenes of different events and the future, so lately he has been painting scenes from the Age of Apocalypse. We learn that Joelle and Preacher are members of Humanity’s Last Stand, a survivalist compound dedicated to preserving humanity.

Bishop, Storm, and Wolverine go with the Guthries for their visit home. Because they live in Kentucky, Sam’s mother has about seven or eight children. The oldest of the kids at home, Josh, is rather abrupt with X-Men, and Mrs. Guthrie blames herself for all her kids feeling trapped. She tells the X-Men about the pro-human cult, but Cannonball insists that he can take care of it himself.

Cannonball and Husk go to a Last Stand rally, which basically blames mutants for being an abomination in God’s eyes. Preacher is brought up to explain his visions as a cautionary tale of the dangerous future that mutants might bring. A mystery person sends a group of armored robots to stop Cannonball and Husk.

Sam and Paige find Joelle and learn that she is essentially acting out for attention. Paige follows the leader of the group, while Cannonball is attacked by the armored figures. He gets beat up, but manages to fly away. At the same time, Paige learns that the HLS is run by a member of the Trask family, and that he has manipulated the truth about Preacher’s visions to fit his needs.

Cannonball crashes in front of the Guthrie farm and asks for help from the other X-Men. A member of the Stand named Garibaldi ambushes Husk, and she is captured. Cannonball remembers hearing the Trask name while he was down, so the X-Men set off to rescue his sisters. Meanwhile Preacher tells Joelle that they need to escape after he sees members beating up Paige. Cannonball rescues her, but they are ambushed by more armored soldiers. Bishop finds Joelle and Preacher, but even more soldiers attack him.

Wolverine and Storm assist the Guthrie siblings, and Wolverine lets us know that they are fighting Nimrod technology. Since they’re only robots, Bishop creates a cave-in that traps the robots right as his friends escape. Girabaldi tells the X-Men to leave because they don’t have a legal right to be there, but they are content with knowing that they have uncovered the truth.

The X-Men say goodbye and Bishop asks about the boy Joelle was with. We then see a panel of Preacher painting a portrait of Joelle somewhere else.

How It Was: Wow, out of the last twelve reviews, half of them have been double-sized; my brain can’t take much more of this. Anywho, this is another of Marvel’s 1995 annuals, this one written by Terry Kavanagh. One of the first things to stand out is that this writer knows how to write Cannonball. He’s confident, competent, and not afraid to confront any of the “senior” X-Men. He has no trouble standing up to Emma Frost or telling Storm and Wolverine that he doesn’t want their help. This, my friends, is the Sam Guthrie we all know and love.

It’s unfortunate that Marvel feels the need to portray people who live in rural areas as bumpkins that spit out umpteen amounts of children, but that precedent was established well before Kavanagh got here. And while Humanity’s Last Stand is based on many real world survivalist movements, it’s disappointing to see that the members are so easily tricked into following the organization. Joelle and Preacher come off as slightly less sympathetic since they were both dumb enough to get involved with this group in the first place. And while Hitch’s art is very good, the designs for the nimrods are completely wrong, and they should be more difficult to defeat.

This is a pretty standard set up for a one-off X-Men story: rescuing someone from some form of supremacist group. This particular one seems to focus on hatred through religion, but without any of the articulate spiritual or political views that past antagonists like William Stryker or Robert Kelly have presented in the past. Plus, to my knowledge, we never actually meet the mystery Trask member who is in charge of the organization. This is competent, but nothing outstanding, along with some awesome Bryan Hitch art.

C

Uncanny X-Men #326

Uncanny X-Men #326
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Joe Madureira

What Went Down: Gambit is sitting on the mansion’s roof looking sad while he thinks about Rogue and his own past. Storm comes up to talk to him, but Gambit doesn’t feel like sharing. Instead, Gambit asks her about the fight with Marrow, and she avoids sharing her feelings as well. Gambit asks if she thinks people can change, and Storm wonders if the true nature of a person can ever be altered.

Over at the World Health Organization in San Francisco, Beast is giving a lecture on the Legacy Virus to a convention of scientists. Charles Xavier interrupts the lecture, alleging that there have only really been nine recorded cases of the virus and wondering if this virus really deserves to be classified as the enormous threat the media has made it out to be. Beast brings up the potential for an epidemic, but Xavier counters that this could have been a preexisting condition in some mutants. This enrages Renee Majcomb, a political leader in Genosha whose people have been dying of the virus quite regularly. Then they bring out Val Cooper to testify that the Legacy Virus isn’t a medical crisis.

On Muir Island, Moira MacTaggert watches the conference with the rest of Excalibur. In discussion they bring up that Legacy is more of a designer gene, whatever that means. At the Xavier Institute, Boom Boom of X-Force has been helping to take care of Sabretooth during his recuperation from his head wound. While the Danger Room is set to a calming forest setting, it seems that Sabretooth has started hunting the virtual animals, leading Tabitha to believe that Creed might be faking his newfound kindness. After Boomer leaves, Gambit shows up to confront Creed about his past.

Driving home from the conference, Beast ponders the seriousness of the PR stunt he pulled with Xavier; he wonders if they are risking public safety to deflate fear and prejudice. Beast slams on the brakes when he discovers Xavier’s empty hover chair abandoned on the side of the road. He finds Xavier sitting on a rock contemplating his own guilt. Charles shares his concerns about the Legacy Virus and Sabretooth, but Beast insists that Xavier is worrying about nothing.

Gambit uses the Danger Room to show Creed holograms of various people that he murdered; many of them were trying to help him. Sabretooth acts anguished and lashes out at the holograms. Then Gambit shows Sabretooth a hologram of the flashback scene from X-Men #33 where Creed had Gambit’s girlfriend and brother tied up and held off a roof. Gambit replays the scene over and over, and this seems to have an effect on Sabretooth. Storm interrupts and is angry that Gambit is seemingly torturing their prisoner. She locks Creed in a cage in the dark, but Creed repeats something from his memories that shows that he might be faking.

Beast insists that Xavier is not responsible for how Sabretooth is, and that he tried his best. In the end, Xavier realizes he tried his best, but he is still only human.

How It Was: For an issue that is really low on action, this one turns out to be really, really good. Both the A and B storylines tie together really well as they both deal with the themes of deception and redemption, but in totally different ways. This is Lobdell characterization at its best.

Xavier and Beast venture into the murky waters of ethical responsibility and the medical community. Once again Lobdell presents balanced arguments for both sides of the argument. On the one hand, Xavier wants to downplay the severity of the disease to prevent people from getting caught up in fear and prejudice, reflecting the very real world treatment of many AIDS sufferers. At the same time Beast is concerned that they are misleading people by contesting the dangers of the virus. It really makes you stop and think about the ways in which statistics and experts are used in the news today, and the ways in which people try to control the “spin” of certain stories.

The Xavier scenes at the end don’t work quite as well. First, the rock he is sitting on seems impossibly large for a paralyzed man to safely scale, and it is too far away from his chair. Emotionally, it does work quite as well as it should because a lot of it centers on Xavier’s frustrations to cure Sabretooth. Yes there is a lot of discussion of redemption and things being out Xavier’s hands that does tie in well thematically, but the fact is that up to this point we haven’t really seen any scenes of Xavier trying to help Sabretooth in any of the X-books. True this all could’ve been happening off-panel, but it still comes off as a little hard to believe, given how adamant Xavier was about not giving up on Sabretooth at the beginning of the story.

The Gambit story line is phenomenal with Remy taking the opportunity to both get back at Creed for screwing with his relationship with Rogue, while also trying to prove to himself that people can change. It all builds wonderfully off the opening scenes with he and Storm discussing whether people can change; Gambit needs to hear that they can so he won’t be haunted by his past, but Storm needs to think they can’t change so she can justify her killing of Marrow in Uncanny #325. When Gambit is parading out the holograms of Creed’s victims, he’s not just trying to torture Sabretooth, he’s desperately searching for remorse or compassion to show that if Sabretooth can change his nature, so can he. This is some dynamically effective writing. The only real glitch is the end where Storm chastises Gambit for his poor treatment of Sabretooth, and then proceeds to lock the prisoner in a cage that is too small for him and leave him in the dark. I would say that comes off a little bit like hypocrisy.

The art works really well in some parts; the opening sequence with Storm and Gambit sitting outside with lightning flashing in the background looks really great. My only real complaint is that Joe Mad makes Sabretooth’s body look a little too much like the Beast’s, which is especially apparent when Gambit projects the flashback of Creed’s original costume and design. Still, this is a fantastic issue that features a lot of great looks at different character motivations.

A