Writing: Steve Seagle
Art: John Cassady, Terry Dodson, and a whole bunch more
What Went Down:
On a plane to Alaska, Jean Grey is telepathically searching for the
Professor, but her abilities are hampered by something or someone on the
plane. The plane lurches as a small
aircraft attaches to it. Cyclops and
Jean discuss her troubles until they are interrupted by Staci, their new
Alaskan neighbor. As the couples talk, another
passenger panics and has to be restrained.
At the institute, Archangel flies over to assist the team
with the cleanup from X-Men #70 and say goodbye to Scott and Jean, unaware that
they’ve already left. Wolverine
complains that it’s been three days since they asked for help, and Warren
should’ve been there to help from the start.
Warren tries to explain that he’s been busy with his business and his
relationship; Maggott and Logan mock him.
Joseph even complains that Betsy should’ve teleported him to a
hospital. Archangel leaves angry; he’s
observed by Marrow, who is infatuated by him.
Back in the air, the plane is invaded by soldiers of
AIM. Since they are an organization
dedicated to science, all the agents are named after famous scientists. The soldiers capture a Dr. Sibelius and ask
him about the entity. Dr. Sibelius tells
them that they have no idea what they’re dealing with, so the AIM members shoot
him with a taser. Jean is away from her
seat, so she decides to look for the Entity.
Suddenly, all of the passengers and soldiers are overwhelmed
by memories of sad moments in their lives.
The soldiers tase the unruly passenger; Cyclops goes to stop them, but
decides his eyebeams would be too much strain on his injuries. Back in Westchester, Cannonball receives a
letter from Tabitha “Boom Boom” Smith inviting him to go to Colossal Man, a
Burning Man analogue for the Marvel Universe, with the rest of his old
teammates in X-Force. Sam flies off, and
the editor plugs his adventures in X-Force #75.
In the storage compartments on the plane Jean discovers the
entity: a fiery ghost presence that has been imprisoned. The Entity can control emotions, and Jean is
afraid to use her powers around it.
Instead, Jean hides as AIM brings the scientist below, but Dr. Sibelius
explains that Entity’s container is rigged to explode if it is opened at this
high of an altitude. The soldiers are
assaulted by another wave of negative emotions.
Outside the plane, the AIM hovercraft detaches to let the
plane land, but ends up crashing into the plane’s wing. Cyclops tackles one of the guards, and a
pilot hits another with a fire extinguisher, saving the passengers. Jean takes out another guard and convinces
Entity to project calm emotions into everyone on the plane so they won’t panic. After the plane lands, Jean talks to the
government officials on behalf of Entity, saying that she should be freed. The soldiers are from Department H, basically
the Canadian equivalent of Weapon X.
Jean and Scott finish the issue talking to their new neighbors about how
crazy an adventure they just had.
How It Was:
After the heartfelt goodbye of X-Men #71, it’s surprising and a little
disappointing to see Cyclops and Jean Grey again so soon afterwards. Yes, this story was teased last issue, but
with Cyclops on the mend, how good of an adventure could the two really get
into? The answer is not a great one,
especially since it is dependent on an extraordinary amount of
coincidences. The plane that they’re on
contains their future neighbors, an imprisoned disembodied spirit that controls
emotions, has two super heroes on it, and is the target of an AIM robbery. Again Seagle is going for a seemingly normal
everyday experience interrupted by the fact that the protagonists live in the
Marvel Universe, but this one feels really forced.
The Entity itself is a curious character because the
descriptions of it as a firebird always led me to believe that it was the
Phoenix Force, or somehow related to it.
This would explain some of the events that take place in the next few
issues. But then the climax is Entity
making everyone feel good about themselves, and then disappearing to never be
seen again. Pretty lame. The rest of the action isn’t great either: we
get Scott and Jean punching out a couple of guards and Cyclops complaining
about his injury for like ten pages straight.
The Archangel thread is also a surprising choice. I do like that Seagle acknowledges Warren and
Betsy’s exclusion from the events of X-Men #70, but this scene seems like a lot
of overreaction, and not a lot comes of it.
Psylocke was teleporting everyone home after an adventure, so why does
it matter to everybody where they ended up?
And Archangel sounds like such a twat when he complains how hard his
life is compared to the X-Men. He’s a
freaking billionaire! It’s not a
particularly interesting direction to take Archangel, and it’s an even worse
choice to introduce Marrow’s infatuation with him when he’s complaining about
how hard it is to maintain an apartment, a business, and a relationship. Yes, I know the writers are setting up this
religious experience to further Marrow’s character transformation, but hearing
Warren whine like he does would go against everything Marrow believes about survival
and superficial trappings making you weak.
And now for the huge issue with this issue. The cover boasts more artists than any other
single issue, and they’re probably right.
There are six pencillers and six inkers.
Which leads to the obvious question: how does it look? And then the answer which is: pretty
terrible. The art is horribly
inconsistent, with drastically different art styles being swapped in the middle
of scenes. It’s incredibly jarring. For example, the beginning of Archangel’s
argument is drawn in a dark, thickly inked and sketchy style with a drab, dull
color palate. Then you turn the page and
it switches to bright colors and typical Marvel house style with virtually no
inks. Cyclops goes from the thickest
five-o-clock shadow you’ve ever seen to completely shaved a few pages
later. It’s clear that the X-offices
were still scrambling to replace Joe Madureira as a regular pencil, but there’s
no excuse for this. If you’re trying to
sell comics as a legitimate entertainment form next to movies and TV, more
effort has to go into the product to make it look good. So we end up with a mediocre story with a lot
of art snags.
D+
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