Writing: Joe Kelly
Art: Carlos Pacheco
What Went Down:
Marrow is in the Morlock tunnels with a suffering Calisto, praying for
Calisto to be saved. We see that she is
praying to a handmade doll of Archangel, calling him the one who was reborn. Coincidentally,
Archangel is flying high over New York, enjoying the feeling of flying with his
organic wings. He has decided that he
must confront his personal demons, which involves revisiting the Morlock
tunnels…the place where he first lost his natural wings.
At Harry’s Hideaway, Wolverine is talking to the proprietor
and reading the paper about the mysterious murders and mutilations in the
city. At the mansion, Beast and Cecilia
are testing Maggott’s powers while he hams it up. Maggott throws a snowball at Cecilia, causing
Beast to laugh, so Cecilia tackles Beast.
Maggott notices that Eany and Meany, his slugs, have disappeared.
Down in the sewers, Marrow goes off for fresh water while
Archangel relives his memories of the Morlock Massacre. He crashes in the sewer, and he is confronted
by the Abomination. Marrow observes this
from far away.
Wolverine examines a crime scene, using fake credentials to
gain access. Below, Archangel knows he
is outmatched by Abomination, so he tries to get away. Marrow realizes he is going the wrong way,
and runs off to help him. In her
weakened state, someone approaches Calisto with a needle. Calisto hallucinates that it is Colossus, who
she used to share a relationship with; the stranger notes it is strange that
she sees Colossus, but plays along.
Marrow confronts Abomination to try to buy Archangel time to
escape. Warren feels ashamed that a
young girl is coming to his rescue, so he makes a stand to save Marrow. Back at Xavier’s, Maggott finds his slugs,
but finds evidence that they may’ve murdered someone.
Abomination tries to disillusion Marrow by showing Warren
how ugly she is. Abomination lashes out
and tries to explain that they will never be appreciated by the surface
world. Marrow digs out some knives and
throws them at Abomination’s eyes.
Wolverine is running back to the mansion after smelling Maggott’s
slugs at the crime scene. Suddenly, he
is attacked from behind. Abomination
pulls out the knives and debates with Archangel whether Marrow can ever be
accepted on the surface. Abomination
walks off, warning Marrow that she’ll be back.
Marrow reveals her real name of Sarah to Warren, and Warren says he’ll
put in a good word for her to the X-Men.
Archangel notices that her knives are old flechettes from when he had
metal wings, but Marrow disappears before he can question her. Maggott finds Wolverine in the snow covered
in blood and thinks that his slugs are responsible.
How It Was:
This is a bit of a random one, with a ton of coincidences driving it,
but it’s actually a fun little shot of Warren and Sarah’s personalities. This is one of the better stories to feature
Archangel; he hasn’t had much to do in any X-Men stories in a while. Kelly wisely ejects the horrible idea that
Warren thinks his life is super difficult, instead choosing to focus on his more
traumatic and sympathetic experiences.
Whether intentional or not, this serves as an excellent revisit of the
previous Morlock story with Archangel, where he froze up and cried for the
whole story. Kelly sets this up as
something that Warren has to do in response to all of the changes that have
occurred in his life; he hasn’t really had to time to process anything, and he
has to show himself that he can take charge of his own destiny.
As for Marrow, this is a strange turn to have her crush
on/worship Archangel, but Kelly wisely focuses mostly on the power of the
imagery. The idea that as a child Marrow
wanted something to believe in is a solid direction that isn’t really exploited
enough here; Marrow comes off as a little out-of-character after having
rejected so much from the material world.
It’s a shame that the story chooses to ignore Marrow’s past life as a terrorist
because I think that might make for a more interesting conflict. Still, it’s nice to see that the writers are
actually doing something with her and not letting her fade to the background.
As for the plot, it’s quite odd that Marrow wouldn’t seek
help from the X-Men if Calisto was actually dying. Also, I’m unfamiliar with the Abomination
having anything to do with the Morlocks before this, so his appearance seems
out of the ordinary. Kelly has clearly
set up the themes of darkness and redemption, but in dealing with both
characters’ histories, it’s strange that they’d confront an antagonist that has
so little to do with both of them. Plus
his motivations are a little off. First
he wants to kill both of them, and then it becomes a debate over whether Marrow
can be accepted on the surface. Yes the angel and devil parallels are not lost
on me, yet it feels a little over done.
I think this might’ve worked better if Marrow had just attacked
Archangel for trespassing, with the two eventually coming to an understanding
over their dark histories and mutual respect.
The stuff with Marrow’s hero worship and the Abomination doesn’t quite
fit.
As for the subplot with Calisto, this gets forgotten after X-Men #79, so don’t get your hopes
up. It was supposed to lead into a story
about the Dark Beast and his connections to the Morlocks, which might’ve been
interesting, but we’ll never know.
The art is pretty fantastic; Pacheco brings his A game and
does a great job contrasting the bright snow-filled sky with the dark,
oppressive sewers. In a story where so
much of it is dependent on atmosphere, Pacheco sells us on the quiet desperation
of Marrow taking care of Calisto, or the internal struggle between Archangel
and his memories. The only flaw, although it’s a pretty big one, is the final
page. It’s supposed to be a big reveal
that Maggott’s slugs have potentially mutilated Wolverine, but due to the
Comics Code, we only get Wolverine with a scar on his chest screaming. It doesn’t really convey the horror that
Maggott is feeling; it looks more like Maggott walked in on him in his
underwear.
This is probably the best Archangel story of the nineties,
which isn’t saying a lot, but still it’s pretty good. I question the structure of the story, but I
really like where it takes the characters, and I like the overwhelming odds,
even though the threat just sort of peters out and walks away. It’s still worth a look.
B-
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