Writing: Larry Hama
Art: Lenil Francis Yu
What Went Down: The Inhabitants of the New Mexico research colony uncover the X-Men from their hiding spot to ask them about being turned into mindless cyborgs. Once in contact with the mutants, three of the people transform into Prime Sentinels and attack. After two of the Sentinels are taken out, the third one grabs a hostage. Although the dialogue the Sentinel uses says that he is temporarily paralyzing the civilians, the artist is clearly under the impression that the hostages are being killed.
After the fight, all the people realize that what Mustang
was saying is true. Some wonder if it’s
not worth the price to be better, but Mustang ends the debate by saying it’s
not worth it. Next we see Bastion
talking about Sabra escaping from Israel.
He then contacts Dr. Prospero, the man behind the Prime Sentinel
program, who is actually Bastion’s assistant Harper, a tertiary character that
appeared in Uncanny #337. Harper is told
to activate all the Sentinels because SHIELD is on the verge of being activated
against them.
Out in the desert, Jubilee has escaped from Zero Tolerance
(in Gen X #31, which I’ve never read).
She is thinking about Wolverine when someone surprises her. Outside the clinic, Cyclops explains the plan
off attack, but Wolverine catches Jubilee’s scent and runs off without telling
anyone why.
The attacker who snuck up on Jubilee turns out to just be a
cactus. Unfortunately, by attacking the
cactus, Jubilee leads a Prime Sentinel to her location. She manages to shoot her fireworks down the
Sentinel’s mouth, but it continues to function.
The girl is about to be killed when Wolverine appears and saves the day.
Later, we see the patients’ bus crashed through the
clinic. Wolverine carries Jubilee to the
other X-Men, and they’re all excited to see each other. It turns out the clinic was empty when they
arrived, and the patients destroyed whatever was left after crashing their bus
through the door. After learning the
clinic has been breached, Bastion tells his men to activate the special
experimental Hunter Killer Sentinel. Of
course this Sentinel just happens to be the X-Men’s new friend, Mustang!
How It Was:
This issue is a fair mix of action and plot, although this story is
starting to show signs of disorganization and stalling for time. We get a little more on the Prime Sentinel
manufacturing before the X-Men go to shut it down. But surprise! It’s already evacuated. So we don’t get any real closure on the
Sentinel clinic…this is the Operation Zero Tolerance that I remember.
I do like Jubilee in this issue. It’s nice to see that even though she’s
escaped, she still has quite a few obstacles ahead of her. And attacking a cactus is a nice way to show
the effects of the physical and mental anguish she’s gone through. More than anyone, Jubilee has embodied the
suffering of mutants that was supposed to be universal throughout this
storyline. So it’s pretty fulfilling
when Wolverine rescues her, and it’s probably the closest we get to
satisfaction as far as the heroes vanquishing the villains.
I think everyone reading this saw Mustang turning Sentinel
from a mile away, but Hama needs something to base the climax around. After all, we know at this point that Hama
isn’t going to kill any X-Men, but he could force the X-Men to kill him. The art is still really great; the fight at
the beginning is pretty brutal. So
brutal in fact that the art doesn’t match up too well with the story; even
though the Sentinels say they are stunning people, it looks a lot like they’re
blowing the skin from their bones. Other
than this odd misstep, Yu is on all cylinders.
Even with such a huge cast, this is completely a Wolverine story, with the
eponymous character getting all the coolest moments. Still, it would’ve been nice if there had
been some bigger or more exciting events at the clinic, as opposed to a boring,
empty building with no revelations or payoff for the X-Men. Wolverine and Jubilee really carry this one,
along with the opening action.
C
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