X-Men #73
Writing: Joe Kelly
Art: Jeff Johnson
What Went Down:
It’s New Year’s Eve and Joseph is contemplating his place on the
team. His meditation is interrupted by a
pillow to the head as Rogue yells at him for watching her sleep. Downstairs the X-Men are wallpapering the
mansion with terrible-looking green and red striped paper. Beast jumps down and reads a letter written
from Professor X in prison, but it depresses Wolverine because in reality
Charles is a prisoner for being who he is.
Joseph speaks of Charles’ tenacity and spirit, but Wolverine storms off
anyway.
In the Zero Tolerance Hulkbuster base, Senator Kelly is
being led by an assistant to go and free Charles Xavier. In Rio de Janeiro, Sebastian Shaw is ignoring
his assistant who is organizing the Hellfire Club’s New Year’s Ball. Back at the mansion, Maggott is talking to
his slugs about how nice it is to have new friends when Joseph appears and asks
him to explain how he knows Magneto.
Outside, a mystery person observes them.
In an autopsy room, a cop and a forensics specialist go over
another victim of the mystery murderer in Salem. While the victim looks to be mauled by an
animal, marks on his body resemble internal examinations. At Xavier’s, Marrow knocks over Cecilia while
stealing her bag and medical books.
Cecilia chases after Marrow, knocking Beast away with her force
field. Although Marrow gets away, Beast
is impressed that she used her powers offensively.
Beast also shows her a morale boosting exercise. He has pinned a sheet of paper on the wall
for X-Men to post New Year’s resolutions on.
One of Beast’s goals is to cure the Legacy Virus, so Cecilia bets him
that he can’t do it in a year. Beast
accepts the bet, and invites her to record her own goal.
Up in the air, Joseph recaps how Maggott called him friend
in Antarctica. Maggott’s internal
monologue explains that the real Magneto has sworn him to secrecy. Joseph is attacked by energy blasts, causing
him to drop Maggott. The attacker is
Sabra, and she is there to apprehend Joseph, thinking he is Magneto.
At Shaw’s party, we get cameos from Norman Osborn, Warren
Worthington, Betsy Braddock, and Tony Stark.
Fitzroy interrupts Shaw for official inner circle business, but Shaw is
depressed that the Inner Circle has failed so often, and that by next year
there probably won’t even be one.
Storm and Wolverine both fill out Beast’s sheet, and Storm
tries to apologize to Logan for pushing him to solve her problem with
Marrow. Wolverine brushes it off, saying
he knew what he was getting into, and that he still showed Marrow that she
wasn’t invincible.
In Germany the parcel addressed to Storm from Africa is
about to be sent back for insufficient postage.
Some African tribal warriors appear and threaten the postmaster.
Sabra easily defeats Maggott. She is about to kill Joseph when Maggott
explains that he isn’t really Magneto.
In the OZT base, Senator Kelly discovers that Charles Xavier’s cell is
empty. At the Hellfire Club party, Shaw
tells a mystery person called Wraith that he accepts, and the picture of the
gold idol bursts into flames. Sabra
wakes Joseph up, and Maggott tells him that he isn’t the real Magneto. Sabra offers him a chance to find out who he
really is, but he must leave with her now without saying goodbye to his
friends, since he may be part of a plot of some kind. As the two leave, Sabra reveals that she
knows Maggott’s real name is Japheth.
Finally, Beast watches the ball drop at midnight by
himself. He is depressed that no one
else joined him, until he finds that four of the X-Men have added their own
resolutions to his.
How It Was:
This is a fun one, and I have to say that most of this is due to Joe
Kelly’s awesome writing of the Beast.
The jolly genius is the heart of this issue, trying to look devil may
care, but also showing distress at the state of the team currently. His New Year’s resolutions are fun and
hopeful, and I enjoy the playful nature of his relationship with Cecilia
Reyes. Some might take this as being
unfaithful to Trish Tilby, but Trish is so boring and generic anyways. Bottom line: every panel with Beast in it is
delightful.
As for the story depicted on the cover, this turns out to be
more of Maggott’s story than Joseph’s.
I’ve always liked Maggott; he’s got a unique power and his dialogue is
usually pretty funny (I love how he hopes Storm is showering outside
again). However after rereading this
issue, I am starting to see why he was never a runaway hit with the fans. Namely, he gets his butt kicked a lot. I never realized it before, but he gets
trounced by Psylocke, Juggernaut, Sauron, and now royally by Sabra. It’s a shame that he never puts up much of a
fight because I feel like he’s an unconventional and likable character.
As for Joseph…poor Joseph.
For a while he was the exciting new direction of the X-Men—the good
Magneto, trying to redeem himself without falling to the same fate of his past
life. But over time he just got pushed
further and further to the background.
Now with the new recruits coming, nobody really has time for him, so
Joseph has to go. I understand where the
creators were coming from with an already overabundant cast of characters, but
I always felt that Joseph should’ve had a better exit. At the very least he deserved a goodbye to
the other characters. Here Joseph just
gets told a bunch of stuff the reader already knew from Uncanny #350 and X-Men
#72, then he’s shipped off with Maggott’s real name thrown in as a sign of good
will. Pretty disappointing for such a
noble character.
Outside of the weak fight with Sabra, and her seemingly out
of nowhere fixation with Magneto, the rest of the book is solid. Along with Beast’s goofiness, the scene where
Wolverine and Storm talk about Marrow is excellent. It shows their relationship and personalities
off to the tee. Johnson’s pencils aren’t
as sharp as Pacheco’s, but they’re still bright and clear. Kelly continues to excel at bringing these
characters out and making their relationships and conflicts readable and fun.
B+
