X-Men: Liberators
#4
Writing: Joe
Harris
Art: Phil Jimenez
What Went Down: No flashback for the opening. Instead Omega Red bursts into Province 13 and
threatens General Sergei. Sergei says
their transaction is complete, but Red wants to know why the X-Men are
involved. Nightcrawler is busy digging
up graves in the cold wilderness, searching for Wolverine. Colossus surprises him, and they are both set
upon by a naked Wolverine asking for his clothes.
At Province 13 the guards are on high alert, and the
students are being evacuated. Ariana is
being used as bait to draw out Nikolas. Nanya
and her friend return to the classroom and meet Nightcrawler, while Omega Red
confronts Wolverine. As Kurt talks to
the two young girls, the Wolverine/Omega Red fight spills through a
window. Omega threatens the young girls,
while Colossus goes to rescue Ariana.
Sergei sets fire to his office, while we see signs that
Nikolas has accepted the bait. Kurt and
Logan rescue the girls just in time for Nikolas to appear. Nikolas fights the villain, with Red fleeing
as his body starts to shut down. Ariana
confronts her son, and sets him free from his hard existence with a shard of
broken glass. At the same time, Colossus
takes Nanya from General Sergei just before he kills himself. In the epilogue, we see that Ariana has
adopted Nanya and is taking care of her.
The issue ends with a continuation of the flashback from
issue #1; Colossus holds a pneumatic press up while his friends are
rescued. The story ends with the three
X-Men being greeted by the rest of the team in the present.
How It Was: The issue opens with a compelling sequence of
Nightcrawler desperately digging through snowy graves to find Wolverine; it
would’ve been rather engaging if we didn’t see Wolverine dig himself out last
issue.
So after three issues revolving around the fate of
Nikolas, the last issue tries to squeeze some tension out of putting the little
girls in danger that we hardly know or care about. Moreover, Omega Red is the one that threatens
them, and for no other reason than because he’s a huge jerk. His purpose in the story is so non-existent
that after a one panel confrontation with Nikolas, Omega Red realizes there’s
no reason for him to be there and leaves.
There’s weak attempt to humanize General Sergei at the
end that doesn’t quite work, but I will admit that Harris does squeeze some
tragedy out of Ariana and Nikolas’ reunion.
Having both characters agonize over not being with each other for two
issues, only to have Nikolas killed by the only being that can touch him… well it’s
pretty sad. Colossus learns to be
happier by appreciating what he has, which is a fine enough way to end his
journey after the grimness he’s been through.
The art is fantastic, only flawed by some pretty major
coloring mistakes on the final page for most of the X-Men. Even though all the fights consist of nothing
but Omega Red grabbing and throwing people, it still looks really great. I can’t really understand the aversion to
fighting in this series; the few fights we do see feel very dull and hurried. The final, climactic battle between Nikolas
and Omega Red consists of them staring angrily at each other before Omega runs
off complaining about pain.
This is a pretty disappointing series all told. I’m not so much bothered by how generic the
plot and villains are; it’s just that the entire execution feels rushed,
although competent. All the X-Men are in
character, but they don’t feel like they have much to do or say in this
story. It takes Colossus all of one page
to deal with his family’s death, and although Nightcrawler and Wolverine are
there for moral support, they have absolutely nothing to add. Nikolas unfortunately has no voice or
personality, so although we can feel bad for him as readers, we can’t connect
with him or find anything redeemable in his presence. Everyone else just serves as mouth pieces to
push the story around, with Omega Red in the middle to make the story
authentically Russian, I guess. I don’t
think you’d miss a thing if you avoided this series because it is never
mentioned ever again.
For Completists