X-Men #65

X-Men #65

Writing: Scott Lobdell

Art: Carlos Pacheco

What Went Down:  Jean Grey wakes up to find herself confronted by the Heroes Reborn version of Iron Man.  Since Iron Man died during Onslaught, and the X-Men don’t exist in the Heroes Reborn universe, they both assume that the other person is an enemy and fight for two pages before Jean disappears.  In the mountains we see a couple backpacking for their honeymoon when they are passed overhead by the X-Men’s plane—pursued by Bastion’s forces.

Jean wakes up, but she doesn’t have time to share her experience with Iron Man because a hole has been blown in the plane.  Cannonball decides to jump out and cover the X-Men’s escape.

At a bar in Canton, Ohio, a group of civilians watch on the news as Henry Peter Gyrich announces that the X-Men are known terrorists, and the government has enacted Operation Zero Tolerance—a program to arrest all mutants and stop the potential threat they represent.  Most of the patrons cheer, except for an elderly Japanese couple that remembers the Japanese internment camps in America during World War II. 

In the air above Colorado, Cannonball is attacked by a new kind of Sentinel.  These are Prime Sentinels, and since they are newer, by comic book logic they are also deadlier.  At the Xavier Institute police surround the school while Bastion’s forces invade it.  Cyclops gets knocked out of the plane by a blast from the Sentinels, and he is captured. 

At a hospital in the Bronx, a group of doctors and nurses watch the news coverage of Operation Zero Tolerance.  When Doctor, and secret mutant, Cecilia Reyes is asked her opinion, she unenthusiastically replies that it is about time.

Meanwhile Cannonball and Storm are captured, leaving Jean and Wolverine alone in the plane that is crashing.  The plane crashes, but we don’t see if they survive.  At his father’s home, Iceman watches these events with his dad, and tells him that he needs to help his friends.  Bastion projects a holographic message to Xavier, showing him that OZT has invaded the mansion and found Cerebro.  Even though the files are encrypted, it is only a matter of time before files will be opened. 

How It Was:  Operation Zero Tolerance jumps out the gate with a huge development for our heroes—all mutants are now outlaws.  The X-Men get taken in within one issue, while their home is invaded, making things seem pretty bleak.  It’s hard to express just how well this issue reads compared to the previous year’s worth of stories; it’s like comparing Watchman to anything by Rob Liefeld.  There is finally an actual threat, and the X-Men are caught offguard, and challenged in this story.  These may sound like simple narrative tenants to follow, but it’s been many, many issues since we’ve seen anything resembling a decent obstacle to the X-Men’s safety.  The outlaw status for all mutants is an exciting angle, and it’s a shame it’s potential isn’t explored more.

The fight with the Sentinels is adequately done, although it’s a shame parts of it are delivered solely through exposition so everything can be fit in one issue.  It’s unnecessary to be skipping parts of the fight when the first five pages are so superfluous; we get three pages of Jean meeting Heroes Reborn Iron Man for God knows what reason, followed by two pages of background characters observing the fight from the ground.  An odd use of space to say the least, but Pacheco’s art is really great.  Normally I really hate the “newsfeed as exposition” in comics, but it is a small price to pay to get everything set up in one issue.

What really makes this issue worth the read is the end with Bastion storming the mansion. Seeing the defeat and helplessness in Xavier’s face says more than any army of Sentinels ever could, and the fact that Bastion could possibly use his files plus Cerebro really raises the stakes.

There are some hints that this story hasn’t been completely thought out.  Henry Gyrich shows up on the news to deliver all the exposition about the government plan, but it’s unclear what his role is.  He seems adamant about Zero Tolerance in this book, but later we see him plotting with Senator Kelly to foil Bastion.

There’s not a lot of room for character, but Jean and Logan get some nice moments.  This issue does its duty of setting up the event and making it look like an epic.  The odds are finally against them and that’s usually when the X-Men are at their best.  While the cliffhangers elicits the right amount of dread, we’ll have to wait a bit to it resolved, due to the next month being Flashback month!  Still a promising, and maybe misleading, start.

B+