X-Men Unlimited #4
Writing: Scott
Lobdell
Art: Richard
Bennett
What Went Down: Mystique kills a US General for working with
the Friends of Humanity. In a mansion in
France, Graydon Creed has been living with some random woman. The couple is interrupted by a private
investigator Graydon has hired; the investigator confirms that Sabretooth and
Mystique are his parents and offers to reveal the identity of his brother for
more money. Enraged, Creed beats the
man, offering to spare him if he reveals the information. After the man whispers it to Creed, Creed
kills the man. When his sugar momma
demands Creed leave, Creed threatens her and mentions he has issues with being
kicked out and abandoned.
At Dulles Airport, a disguised Nightcrawler scares an
abusive father into being nicer to his son.
Rogue shows up and chastises him, as both mutants wonder why Forge has
summoned them. They go to Arlington
Cemetery for the funeral of the murdered general. Both notice Graydon Creed in attendance right
before the priest insults the dead man and kicks over the casket. The corpse has a bomb attached to it, and the
priest is revealed to be Mystique. Rogue
gets rid of the bomb while Nightcrawler pulls Mystique from the soldiers firing
on her. Mystique punches Kurt, mentions
some vague hints about his birth, and escapes.
As the guards close in on Nightcrawler, Rogue flies him off.
Forge questions Graydon Creed about Mystique’s
appearance. After he leaves, Rogue and
Kurt come out and discuss Mystique.
Forge reveals that during Mystique’s treatment, she went through his
files. Forge then tells the two X-Men
that they may have a chance of reaching the good part of Mystique, although he
refuses to tell Nightcrawler why.
Rogue and Nightcrawler fly to Mystique’s house in
Caldecott, Mississippi. Rogue recalls
her first meeting with Mystique, before she took Rogue in and raised her. The two split up, and Nightcrawler flashes
back to a memory flirting with his foster sister Amanda Sefton.
Creed confronts Nightcrawler and reveals they are
brothers as he attacks Kurt, and that Mystique is their mother. Graydon explains that Mystique was posing as
a German Count’s wife, but was discovered when Kurt was born a mutant. While a mob chased her, Mystique lost the
baby and it was thrown over a waterfall.
As the two brothers fight, Rogue remembers the triggering
of her powers with a boy she liked named Cody.
When Cody appears in the present to comfort and taunt her, Rogue
realizes it is Mystique in disguise.
Rogue wants to know if she ever knew the real Mystique. While the two women argue, Graydon shows up
with the unconscious Nightcrawler.
Mystique explains he abandoned Graydon when he turned twelve and didn’t
develop mutant powers, and that he killed Kurt as an act of
self-preservation. Mystique actually
turned into a villager and was the one who threw baby Nightcrawler in the
waterfall.
In the present, Mystique shoots at Graydon, who teleports. This Graydon was Nightcrawler using an image
inducer, with the real Graydon dressed in Kurt’s costume. Creed summons an attack helicopter to kill
Nightcrawler, Rogue, and Mystique. Rogue
attacks the gunship, but is forced to stop in order to save Kurt and
Raven. Mystique lets go of the cliff on
purpose so Rogue will rescue Nightcrawler.
As Nightcrawler wonders why Mystique did what she did, Rogue flies him
off into the sunset.
How It Was: Continuing the trend of focusing more on
villains than heroes in the last two issues, here we get the spotlight placed
on Mystique. The problem is that the
Mystique in this issue is very inconsistent, going from tragic and
misunderstood to completely psychotic and unremorseful in the span of mere
panels. Lobdell picks up on some vague
hints Chris Claremont had put in about Mystique and Nightcrawler looking
similar back in the eighties. The
revelation that the two characters were mother and son didn’t do a lot for
either character.
As with every issue of Unlimited, the story is quite
padded out. The opening murder scene is
seven pages just to establish Mystique killing a random general for working
with the Friends of Humanity. Many of
the flashbacks also seem unnecessary; it’s good to include the scene of Rogue
first meeting Mystique (Question: Why does little girl Rogue have a shotgun?),
but the scene of Rogue’s powers first triggering is an unnecessary
retread. Also Nightcrawler’s flashback
to the circus doesn’t do anything but establish his pattern of hitting on
foster sisters (he hits on Rogue earlier in the book).
But I’m nitpicking.
One aspect that works really well in this book is the idea that Rogue
doesn’t know how to rectify the mother of her childhood to the Mystique of
present day. That’s a great angle since
Rogue obviously has love for her, but doesn’t know if she was being manipulated
or if Mystique really cares about her.
Nightcrawler doesn’t fair as well; he gets beat up a lot this issue, and
while Mystique does sacrifice herself at the end for him, there’s every
indication that she doesn’t really care about him. Speaking of which, the end is completely
absurd where Nightcrawler can’t teleport to safety and Rogue, who can lift cars
and take out helicopters, can’t carry Nightcrawler and Mystique at the same
time.
So the plotting is pretty scattered and drawn out, and
things happen for no clear reason (why wouldn’t Forge tell Nightcrawler his
relation to Mystique right there?), and Mystique and Creed both come off as
homicidal maniacs as opposed to villains with believable motives. While the main attraction is supposed to be
the revelation of Nightcrawler’s mom, the real highlights involve Rogue trying
to come to terms with her own feelings towards Mystique.
Completists Only
