X-Men Unlimited #3

X-Men Unlimited #3

Writing: Fabian Nicieza

Art: Mike McKone

This issue takes place between Uncanny #308 and X-Men #28

What Went Down:  Maverick breaks into a church to discover the grisly murder of a priest.  He is tracking Sabretooth, and discovers the mutant holding another dead priest.  Sabretooth is on a killing spree because his assistant Birdy, a telepath, died and is no longer around to give him the “glow” which calms him down.  The two fight, and Sabretooth manages to stab Maverick with his claws before fleeing.  Maverick decides he needs Wolverine’s help.  In Germany, we see an old man named Mr. Geinstach attempting to hire a mercenary named Bashur to kill Sabretooth because of his killing spree.  It turns out all the victims were members of a government operation, even the priest.  Bashur refuses the job since the potential for failure is so high, but recommends Maverick and Wolverine.  He also deduces that Sabretooth’s next target will be in Japan due to the conspiracy.

In Westchester, Gambit is freaking out as Rogue drives like a maniac on the road; Maverick is tracking them.  When the X-Men return to the mansion, Bishop greets them with his guns drawn.  He was worried because they entered without activating the perimeter override, but apparently it can just read biosignatures, so it doesn’t matter.  While all the X-Men argue, Maverick attacks them with anesthetic gas and tranquilizer darts.  After taking down the three X-Men, Beast and Professor X show up and calmly ask Maverick what he’s doing.  He’s here to recruit Wolverine, and decided it was somehow easier to attack the X-Men first.  Beast explains that Wolverine left the team after losing his adamantium, but offers the X-Men’s help.

Sabretooth meets with the merc Bashur, asking where he can find a telepath.  Bashur tells him that there is one on the Yahsida estate, and that Maverick is already on his way.  On the Blackbird, Bashur contacts Maverick and tells him what he told Sabretooth.  Maverick and the X-Men debate whether they should kill Sabretooth, and the team decides to split up.  Rogue, Gambit, and Bishop go to Germany to protect Geintach, while Beast and Maverick go to Japan.

In Germany the X-Men find everyone dead, and Sabretooth ambushes them.  Rogue accidentally absorbs Creed’s memories, and Bishop is forced to let Creed go for Rogue’s life.  In Japan, the remaining two protagonists meet with the Silver Samurai and agree to help him fight Sabretooth, despite having been adversaries as recently as X-Men #22. 

Sabretooth fights through the ninja guards and discovers that the telepath in question is an old man whose mind shut down after the bombing at Nagasaki.  The man wakes up long enough to link everyone’s minds.  Creed thinks back to his Team X days when he was assigned to kill a man and his family.  Creed had to chase the young boy, who only wanted to say goodbye to his pet rabbit. Sabretooth has been killing everyone connected to this operation.  When Beast wakes up, the old man has been killed by Sabretooth, with messages of help written in blood on the walls. 

Sabretooth decides to go to the X-Mansion.  Professor X calmly greets him and holds him off with his mental powers. The X-Men show up and Bishop shoots Creed in the head.  Using this opportunity, Xavier enters Creed’s mind to view a memory of a young Creed locked in a basement and forced to kill a rabbit to survive.  Having learned harshly that killing is the only way to survive, Xavier feels sympathy for Sabretooth and offers to help him.   He tells the X-Men that Sabretooth will be staying.  We end on Creed and Xavier standing in the Danger Room simulating the outdoors.  Xavier explains that he is a prisoner, and that Charles is man enough to stop him.

How It Was:  This is a slight improvement over last issue and does significantly impact the main titles for years to come.  Also it works a lot better because the focus of the story, Sabretooth, has a lot more to do and say this time, as opposed to dozens of people just talking about him.  Sabretooth actually feels dangerous here as he’s finally allowed to kill people, and while the bunny rabbit thing is corny, I like what it says about the character.  The idea that he was conditioned as a young child to think that killing is a means to survival, that attachment is a weakness, well that’s as good a take on what motivates Sabretooth as any.  It’s better than, “I just like killing people because I’m evil.”

The X-Men don’t come out too well this issue.  They get taken down once by Maverick and again by Sabretooth in a matter of a few panels.  What’s worse is how repetitive the action is.  Sabretooth holds a character by the neck and threatens to kill them no less than three times this issue.  Although I will admit that the repetition does pay off in the climax when Bishop once again has Sabretooth at gunpoint and just shoots him in the head.  Maverick doesn’t get a lot to do once he shows up to explain the plot to the X-Men, and the Silver Samurai is similarly wasted.  Sure we get to see him eventually in his armor carrying his cool glowing sword, but he doesn’t ever actually use it.  His only role is to be the caretaker of the plot device old man.

You know who does come out great in this issue?  Xavier.  Man he’s tough, not even blinking when confronted by Maverick or Sabretooth.  The surety of his position is fantastic as he makes his decisions without giving a crap about his students’ positions because he knows that morally he’s right.  Who are they to judge Sabretooth when he hasn’t had any of the benefits that the other X-Men have had?

Mike McKone’s art is disappointing.  When characters are standing around and talking, they look fantastic, but any time they fight on the same panel it looks awkward and stiff.  Thus the emotional stuff works a great deal better, and the action is dialed back quite a bit.  There’s one bizarre sequence where the X-Men are between Sabretooth and the telepath, so he dives through a door or window and ends up next to the telepath.  Also Gambit’s eyes should be red in the opening, but that’s not McKone’s fault.

Ultimately this is a much more satisfying villain-centric story.  It’s still padded out quite a bit (the killing debate could be a little shorter), but there’s enough here to make you think the writers have bright plans for the future of Sabretooth and the X-Men.  Xavier gets some awesome moments, and although Sabretooth’s flashbacks are a little sappy, they work as a way of taking him beyond the two dimensional maniac he’s always been, especially now that Wolverine isn’t around anymore.

For X-Fans

X-Men Unlimited #2

X-Men Unlimited #2

Writing: Fabian Nicieza

Art: Jan Duursema

Note: This story takes place between Uncanny#306 and X-Men #25

What Went Down:  Our giant-sized story starts on a flashback of Magneto fighting the East German army as the military tries to overtake Wundagore Mountain.  A soldier named Adrian Eiskalt and his brother Ute flee the battle, but Ute stumbles into and knocks over the tombstone of Magneto’s wife Magda.  Enraged, Magneto kills Ute and leaves Adrian…who swears revenge.

This flashback was actually a story Adrian was telling his psychiatrist.  The doctor tells Adrian he has to let go, even as he fantasizes about killing Magneto.  At Empire State University, Gabrielle Haller gives a lecture on the history of Magneto, and whether he should be labeled a dictator or a crusader.  On a plane to Manhattan, Adrian reads the book Fatal Attractions—a study on mutants and Magneto.  Adrian mistakes a passenger for Magneto and almost kills him with a poison needle disguised as a pen.

Once in Manhattan, Adrian watches an ABC News special where Ted Koppel interviews J.B. Chambers, the author of the Fatal Attractions book, and Graydon Creed.  The author offers that humans can live with mutants, and that there is merit to Magneto’s positions.  The next day Adrian has breakfast with Gabrielle Haller, asking for her help in apprehending Magneto, even though he means to kill the Master of Magnetism.  Gabrielle can sense Adrian’s personal stake, and tells him he will doom himself.

On a boat in the Atlantic, Exodus appears to the New Brotherhood of Mutants, but only tries to recruit Phantazia.  She refuses, and the other members are offended that they weren’t selected.  Later Adrian interviews the Toad about working with Magneto and listens to the tape.  We next see Gabrielle Haller talking to Moira MacTaggert about their previous relationships with Charles Xavier.  Gabrielle asks Moira about her studies of Magneto when he was regressed to a child, and also asks for her help neutralizing him.  Moira still blames herself for Magneto not turning out right, so she agrees. 

At a Genetech Bio lab, scientists show Adrian and Gabrielle the new armor that will hide Adrian from the magnetic spectrum (these are the suits that Storm stole the plans for in Uncanny #305).  He is also shown a plastic taser to be used to capture Magneto, but Adrian knows he can modify it to kill. 

In Washington, Peter Gyrich, Val Cooper, and Alexi Vazhin meet with Gabrielle and Adrian.  The first half of the Fatal Attractions crossover has occurred, so it is confirmed that Magneto is definitely alive.  The government agents debate the merits of attacking Magneto, while Adrian thinks he knows where the mutant will go.

At Wundagore Mountain, Magneto is once again visiting the grave of Magda.  Adrian sneaks up on him and has him targeted.  Suddenly Adrian returns to the flashback and reveals that Ute—his brother, pulled a gun on Magneto, and it was the ricochet off Magneto’s forcefield that killed him.  Adrian drops his gun, and the two men look at each other with understanding.  Adrian attempts to shoot himself in the head, but realizes he’s lost nothing except for the hatred he’s been carrying.

How It Was: Hard to believe that once upon a time you could get a sixty page comic in the nineties for the price of a twenty page comic today.  Then again, if this was the standard for content today, would you want to pay that at all?  This issue is a loose tie-in to the Fatal Attractions crossover.  It’s not part of the crossover, but it deals with its events and focuses on its main antagonist Magneto. Much as Magneto’s crusade against humanity is a response to the death of his family, we are given a new protagonist inspired by a dead brother to gain our new perspective on Magneto.

Although Adrian is very one note, there is something fascinating about the way he ignores his surroundings as he focuses on Magneto’s death.  This story works best when it does juxtapose Adrian’s quest with Magneto’s, and whether Magneto is motivated by compassion or vengeance or ego or guilt.  We see all these outsiders weigh in on Magneto, and the only hints we get from the actual man are when he visits his wife’s grave, which could lean toward any or all of the motivations.  The art is very nice looking as far as the characters go; in the first couple of pages, Magneto looks awe inspiring.  Unfortunately the backgrounds let down the image somewhat, as some of the tanks and soldiers don’t look like they’re drawn properly in the background, giving the impression that Magneto is just attacking tiny men.  Also, it seems unnecessary in the latter pages to draw Adrian exactly like Gambit from the neck up.  There’s also a tiny error with a word balloon that is pointing to Graydon Creed when it should be pointing off panel as the response from his opponent. 

The real problem with this issue is that there is far too much exposition.  Yes his history during the Holocaust is very important to our understanding of him here, but it just never ends.  Gabrielle’s history of him lasts for four pages!  Toad talks about resenting him as a member of the Brotherhood for another six!  With sixty pages to fill, it’s obvious that Nicieza is padding out this story as much as possible, but the story suffers because of this; we get away from Adrian and his perspective as all these other characters ramble on. 

And it’s not just Magneto exposition here.  There’s the TV debate that is three pages of summarizing the themes of the X-Men, and nine pages with a scientist explaining Adrian’s tech.  He repeats how it will make him invisible to Magneto like three times.  This writing just isn’t succinct or gripping and it really waters down the main conflict.

Worst of all, the end tries to create a twist, but really it isn’t a twist, it’s just that information has been withheld until the end.  Ute pulled a gun on Magneto, which Adrian decides makes his whole rationalization moot.  The problem is that this fact really weakens Adrian’s position throughout the book.  Adrian himself is a soldier, so he should understand the principles behind self-defense.  Also it cheapens the conflict within Magneto; I much prefer the idea of Magneto overreacting over a personal trespass directly after fighting a huge battle.  One of the great metaphors of Magneto, which is used this issue, is that in trying to prevent another Hitler he becomes more like the man.  It might be nice to see Magneto have to confront this aspect of his worldview and personality.  Also, it seems odd that Adrian would collect all this info on Magneto when he was just going to sneak up and shoot him in the back. 

This might’ve made an okay forty page story in an annual, or even a decent ten or twenty page story.  But there’s too much here that distracts from the main ideas this story is trying to get across.  I will admit as a comic fan it is neat to see all these nods to continuity, from the Silver Age to the Claremont/Jim Lee stuff, but ultimately it detracts from the story.  There is a lot of attention to detail, but most of it isn’t in service to the story.  Plus after going through all of that, it’s disappointing to see Adrian drop his gun without even a word exchanged by the two men.

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