Writing: Steven Seagle
Art: Dan Norton
What Went Down:
On the streets of Ptarmigan Creek, Alaska, a swarm of crows has begun to
attack people on the street. Unaware of
these events, the original five X-Men enjoy drinks at a local restaurant. Jean has interrupted the conversation about
Scott’s new direction because she finds it too serious for the
get-together. The team sees the
pandemonium outside and jump into action.
Outside they decide to help people while trying to remain
incognito. Each hero takes a turn saving
civilians. Sheriff Chris shows up and
shoots a gun in the air, scaring off the birds.
Iceman presents his hypothesis that the crazy shaman is behind this, but
nobody believes him.
At the Agee Institute, Dr. Agee is examining Rogue’s DNA
sample. He talks to his sister about how hideous Rogue is now, and how he’ll
cure her as he did his sister. It is
revealed that his sister is a horrible looking monster in a glass tube. At Scott and Jean’s cabin, the team discusses
recent events while Jean gets into costume.
Staci’s sister Melissa barges in and sees the team as mutants. She says she is okay with it because she has
six toes on each foot, so she’s a mutant too.
Up in space, Bishop (remember him) is still strapped to his
bed while the ship he and Deathbird are on plummets towards a sun. He convinces Deathbird to release him,
feigning feelings for her, and the two are able to plot a new course towards a
nearby planet.
In Alaska the team gets into costume and splits up to get to
the bottom of the rampaging crows.
Iceman goes after the crazy shaman, Beast and Archangel discover toxic
waste in the birds’ habitat, and Cyclops and Jean rescue Chris and his deputy
from a swarm of birds. They are
initially insulting to the mutants until their lives are saved by the
X-Men.
As the birds converge and the team reunites, the birds form
a big person shape. Jean discovers that
one of the birds is a robot and destroys it at the same time that Cyclops
blasts the person-shape and Iceman knocks out the shaman. The bird-person dissipates, although nobody
can say who was responsible. Cyclops’ is
weakened from the use of his power exacerbating his injuries, and Iceman
discovers that the shaman’s “bag of enchantment” is full of bird see. As the rest of the team walks away, Iceman
sees the Indian guy’s spirit form into a bird and fly off (I think). The bird announces the end of the issue.
How It Was:
So…this is an issue where the original X-Men fight a lot of birds. Nuff said.
It really is that simple and there isn’t anything more to it. Most disappointing of all is the way Jean
derails Scott’s new idea for the X-Men; it’s hard to say if Seagle just never
got around to it, or if he never had anything and was just teasing it to fill
up space. Either way it’s a bummer.
And then there’s the fighting with the birds. This issue has some “so ridiculous they’re
good” panels in it, such as Cyclops punching birds mid-air or Iceman beating
birds with a sandwich board. It’s the
kind of thing that’s so absurd that it sort of works in an unintentionally
humorous sort of way.
Then we get to the ambiguous ending…I can’t tell if it’s
supposed to be a true mystery or just playing off of the fact that the plot is
so ridiculous that it shouldn’t matter.
It doesn’t really bother me at the end of the day, but I do find the
robot bird’s presence a little odd.
There are some story inconsistencies; Cyclops and Jean fret the whole
issue over Scott using his power because of his injuries. However, he also manages to carry a grown man
over his shoulder with absolutely no effect whatsoever. Cyclops and Jean work so hard to maintain a
low-profile, but they leave the door unlocked for Melissa to barge right in and
learn everything.
Even odder is the pick-up of Bishop’s thread after about
four months of losing track of it. This
is a pretty sudden shift, made even more abrupt by the solo focus on Bishop
next issue. As for the events affecting
Rogue—this issue more or less states that Agee is crazy, yet the events of #359
seem to brush this aside if I remember right.
This isn’t something that would sell a new comics reader,
but it is fun for longtime X-Men fans to reconnect with the history of the
book. It’s too bad the veteran members
of the team could not have had a bigger threat to go up against. The crows sort of overwhelm this half of the
story though, replacing ambiguous suppositions with the fun character moments
from last issue.
C
No comments:
Post a Comment