X-Men #71

X-Men #71
Writing: Joe Kelly
Art: Carlos Pacheco

What Went Down:  This issue is narrated by Jean Grey.  We open on Jean telekinetically meditating and trying to wipe the mansion of traumatizing telepathic residue, conveniently allowing her to recap the last couple of issues.  Cyclops, newly operated on, yells out in pain, but when Jean recovers, Scott has fallen back asleep.  Both of them are preparing for a vacation to Alaska to help Scott heal.

Downstairs, most of the X-Men are being repulsed by Marrow’s bad manners at the breakfast table.  Beast and Cecilia Reyes analyze one of Marrow’s bone shards, and Cecilia accidentally makes a comment that sounds like a pass at Beast.  Marrow gets angry at the X-Men for judging her and throws her food on the floor.  Jean walks in and Cannonball gets in a fight with Maggott over the language he uses in front of the lady. 

Outside, Wolverine helps Storm dig up her tiara and some golden coins she has hidden for emergencies.  They discuss their guests, especially Marrow, whom neither of them trusts.  Jean tries to sneak up on the pair, but Logan still manages to detect her.  Jean observes that Logan doesn’t want her to leave, even though he’d never admit it.

Cannonball has decided to take Cecilia and Maggott to Westchester, and Jean decides to join them.  Marrow interrupts, noting that she wasn’t invited because of her appearance.  Maggott offers to stay with her, but she rebukes him and storms off after arguing with Storm. 

At the Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw is being served tea by his servant Kiko and recalling the events of a recent Cable story.  A mysterious shadowed figure appears, stops time around them, and presents Shaw with a picture of a golden idol that distresses Shaw.  We also see what appears to be crow or raven.

At the mansion, Beast says goodbye to Trish Tilby and Iceman as they drive home together.  Wolverine has a man-to-man talk with Cyclops, expressing his concerns about the new recruits.  He tells Scott that if he leaves, things will be done differently.

While in Westchester, everyone bickers until they notice a news story announcing that the Avengers and the Fantastic Four have returned after “dying” during Onslaught.  Jean allows herself to get lost in the feelings of hope from the crowd of people.  In the attic, Wolverine and Storm discuss how they are going to handle Marrow.  In Cairo, we get a quick set up scene of a man running a package to a mail pile outside a plane.  As soon as he puts the package in, the man starts to bleed to death, but he tells Anansi that he has beaten him.  The package is addressed to Storm.

Back in Westchester, the group seems more hopeful.  We get another subplot setup of a homeless man getting murdered while Cannonball asks Maggott where his slugs are.  The next day Jean and Scott leave after discussing the future of the team.  In an epilogue, Marrow is carving things in the wall of her room and complaining about the X-Men.  Wolverine appears and tells her that she needs to be taught a lesson.

How It Was:  Even though the last story was kind of a wash, it was still supposed to be a major crossover, meaning that this issue is a quiet, contemplative issue that examines the new status quo.  Basically there are three new potential recruits, all of the X-Men’s nice things are gone, and Cyclops and Jean Grey are taking a break from the team.  And although it’s not much, it’s a solid direction for the book; certainly more than we ever got in the post-Onslaught issues. 

This is a great issue for Jean, who hasn’t had a lot to do recently.  She makes for the perfect narrator since she knows the established characters inside and out, and Kelly’s script really emphasizes this.  From Jean’s confusion over how Logan detected her downwind to her reaction to Storm’s hidden trove, Kelly establishes that Jean is a lynchpin to the X-Men, and he actually manages to make it feel like her leaving affects the team significantly.  In fact all of the characters really come into their own under Kelly’s hand.  Marrow’s rebellious attitude really shines as she riles up everyone else in the group.  She remains sympathetic even though she is purposefully trying to antagonize the team due to the fact that she’s had such a hard life and most of her arguments are actually true.  In another interesting dynamic, it’s clear that Storm and Wolverine aren’t being objective or open to Marrow at all, yet their view also has credence given recent issues with Sabertooth and Onslaught.  Even the flirting between Beast and Cecilia is enjoyable.

The center of the story, the Marvel heroes returning, is handled very nicely.  In what could’ve come off as an in-house ad for the Heroes Return line, Kelly puts the focus on the X-Men’s reaction to learning that Onslaught did not kill the heroes.  The moment of hope at the end makes for a good juxtaposition to the frustration and melancholy that have led up to it thus far. 

So really this issue is just an exercise in great characterization.  Well, the conflict between Cannonball and Maggott feels forced, but other than that everyone else comes off perfectly.  The only other misfire with this issue is the Sebastian Shaw subplot that gets mentioned in a couple of future issues before disappearing forever.  It’s disappointing to see this problem persist with a new creative team, but I guess it can’t be helped.  Overall this is still a fantastic issue.  There is absolutely no action at all, but the characters and interactions are handled so well, you’ll hardly notice.

A

Onslaught: Marvel Universe

Onslaught: Marvel Universe
Writing: Scott Lobdell and Mark Waid
Art: Adam Kubert and Joe Bennet

What Went Down: The Watcher (yes, again with the Watcher) opens the issue after the final battle, speaking about the end of the Age of Wonders. He also claims that his job is done, but we all know that isn’t true. We cut back to Xavier facing off against Onslaught from the end of X-Men #56. Because he has no powers, Xavier isn’t doing too well. The X-Men show up, knock Onslaught away, and rescue Xavier. Onslaught makes a giant hand out of rock to attack the mutants, then blasts them into submission. Fortunately the combined forces of the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Dr. Doom, and the Hulk show up for the rescue.

The fight begins and Joseph is knocked unconscious by some debris. Xavier crawls to him and gets Joseph behind cover. Inside Onslaught, Franklin and Nate Grey discuss possibly escaping. Outside, Iron Man explains that everyone is equipped with psi-scramblers, even though nobody is seen wearing them. Cyclops claims that the X-Men are protected by Cable and Jean, even though Onslaught is supposed to be more powerful than everyone. Onslaught erects a force shield and creates a…wait for it…second sun in the sky whose gravity threatens to destroy the Earth. In practice, all it does is make the battle really windy.

Nate Grey reflects that a five-year-old kid is braver than he is. He reaches out to Cable since they share a connection as the same person from different dimensions. Cable senses them and concocts a plan to use Joseph, Xavier, and himself to magnify each other’s powers to save Franklin and Nate. Doom gives a long monologue about how it’s up to him to save the day while various secondary characters of the Marvel Universe see the second sun and wonder if the world is going to end.

Here’s how the heroes get through Onslaught’s forcefield. Vision merges with Rogue, which isn’t his power—he’s supposed to just turn intangible. Wolverine pierces the field, with his bone claws mind you, and Namor and Giant-Man hold the hole open for Vision/Rogue to fly through and hit Onslaught, which appears ineffective, but destroys the force field nonetheless.

The Hulk asks Jean to shut off Banner so that he can lose control on Onslaught and go all out. She leaves the memory of Betty Ross, but turns Hulk savage. He and Onslaught beat each other while the forces of nature rip the area around the heroes apart. Hulk hits Onslaught so hard that a huge explosion occurs, destroying Onslaught and separating Banner from the Hulk.

The heroes think they’ve won, but Onslaught has just “evolved” into his final energy form. Without a body to fight, the heroes figure that the energy needs a physical vessel to destroy. Thor flies in first, followed by all the other heroes of the Marvel Universe in varying groups. Inside Onslaught, the area the prisoners are in is starting to break down.

Mr. Fantastic stops Wolverine, Crystal, and Quicksilver from going in the energy. He explains that because Onslaught was unaffected by Rogue’s attack, that mutant genetic patterns give him more power because he began life as a mutant. Of course, then he has to make some plot convenient excuse for the Scarlet Witch related to her powers, but there you have it. Quicksilver is saddened, but relieved that his wife will be spared, but she tells him that Richards said nothing about Inhumans, and runs into the void.

Doom tries to absorb some of Onslaught’s energy to use in a later plot, but Hawkeye and Iron Man stop him and send him into the void with them. Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman are the last non-mutant heroes; they tell Cyclops to attack the energy as soon as they’re in and not to hold back. There is a huge explosion, and Bruce Banner gets sucked into the Void right as it’s happening. Xavier and Joseph are also able to save Nate and Franklin right as the explosion takes place. As the heroes die, Franklin uses his vast, plot convenient powers to create a pocket universe for their spirits to go to, thus creating the Heroes Reborn Universe for the Image relaunch. From the perspective of news reporters outside, the world at large believes that the X-Men betrayed the other heroes and killed them, which causes further hatred towards mutants in future X-Men arcs. Professor X consoles Franklin about the death of his family, and we see a blue ball in the grass that is actually the pocket universe itself. No, really, there is an entire universe in that young boy’s ball.

Professor X asks Nate Grey to take him above the rooftops to survey the damage. Nate is really impressed with the heroes, and wishes he could’ve learned more from them. Going back to Uatu, it turns out he wasn’t just narrating to nobody; he was still talking with Apocalypse. Apocalypse agrees that it is an impressive story, but also realizes with so many heroes dead it is the perfect time to try to conquer the world himself.

How It Was: Well it’s finally over, and unlike the majority of this crossover, significant events actually take place. There’s some big action scenes, a surprising detail to characters and relationships, and it really captures the grand scope of the Marvel Universe’s New York. And while there are definitely a lot of issues with the story structure in general, I have to say that there are enough really good moments to outweigh some of them. Quite simply, this absolutely feels like it affects the entirety of the Marvel Universe, and it really does…for the following year. Waid’s script manages to catch most of the character beats that longtime FF and Avengers fans want to see, from Quicksilver’s anguish over Crystal’s death to the forgiveness of Giant-Man and the Wasp. Seeing the Hulk fight Onslaught is pretty awesome, even though he’s only been a presence in his own title and an issue of Cable. Yes, it gets a little schmaltzy and emotional at times, but the heroes are aware that they are literally sacrificing their lives for the world, so it works. Unlike many gratuitous character deaths for shock value in events, this one feels handled with love and respect as the writers go out of their way to show them as noble and heroic as they can.

So as usual, the handling of the characters is fantastic. Where does it go wrong? Well there are far too many characters in this book to be fighting just one villain. Yes Onslaught is supposed to be this cosmic level bad guy, but whereas characters like Dark Phoenix and Galactus have specific abilities and powers, Onslaught’s powers are just made up as the writers go along. Creating a second sun isn’t impressive, it’s just ridiculous, and while it’s handled as serious at the beginning, it really just gets ignored for the remainder of the issue. Then he creates an impenetrable forcefield. Oh wait, the heroes penetrated it, now he’s turned to energy. There is no real logic whatsoever to what Onslaught does; it’s all for the sake of editorially mandated plot convenience. Certain heroes have to end up in Heroes Reborn and others can’t. Thus we get the absurd rule that mutants can’t fight Onslaught, except for Scarlet Witch, and Namor, who the writers and editors forgot is also a mutant. Also, Cannonball, Archangel, and Psylocke are missing for no particularly good reason, but it’s not like their inclusion would have mattered much.

Which brings us to the real problem with this issue, with this whole series in general. It’s an X-Men story where the X-Men have been completely pushed to the side to spotlight the Avengers and Fantastic Four in order to justify a gimmicky relaunch of four of their titles. The X-Men start off the issue on their own, but quickly get overshadowed by the real heroes. Even Xavier and Joseph, who should theoretically have something really significant to contribute since they were the genesis of the villain, get nothing to do except rescue some prisoners. I do like the angle that humans view the X-Men as traitors at the end of the story, but surely the X-Men could just explain the circumstances to people. I guess they were worried that people would learn Xavier was Onslaught, but there probably was a way around it. And what the heck happened to Onslaught’s mutant armies and Sentinels?

The art captures the story quite nicely, but like everything else with Onslaught, inconsistencies abound. The psi-armor that was made such a huge deal out of for issues on end isn’t even drawn on the heroes, and the X-Men decide they don’t even need it. Trish Tilby is drawn completely wrong, and the everyday people of New York are drawn just going about their lives while the battle is raging. Haven’t Sentinels been attacking New York? Wasn’t there a huge EMP that took out all the power in the city? Why is Foggy Nelson just out buying groceries with Karen Page while the writers at the Bugle are just going to work like usual? Shouldn’t they evacuate? I don’t know, maybe I’m just thinking too hard about this.

While I was expecting to hate rereading this issue, I have to say it is more of a mixed bag than pure garbage. Parts of it are very, very stupid, like a little boy creates an entire universe with his imagination and puts it in a blue ball stupid. But there are some undeniably cool parts for the Marvel heroes, even if it does come at the expense of the X-Men. Sure, running into a ball of energy isn’t exactly the most stunning personal sacrifice to be depicted in comics, but this does end up feeling really important. Plus it indirectly leads to the Heroes Return Avengers, which is one of my favorite comic series of all time (Go Buisek and Perez!). It could’ve been a lot worse, I guess, but it kind of, sort of holds up, though not completely.

C+

Avengers #402

Avengers #402
Writing: Mark Waid
Art: Mike Deodato and Tom Palmer

What Went Down: The Avengers start out by rescuing a subway full of people trapped underground. Didn’t something similar already happen in Uncanny? Don’t worry about it! Once they get above ground, Captain America seems overwhelmed by the chaos around them, as buildings crumble and fires rage. The Avengers spend some time rescuing civilians and getting them to safety. They come across the Black Widow, technically the leader of the Avengers at this point, being mobbed by desperate people. Cap orders them away, and the Widow goes off to help more people.

Iron Man and Giant Man show up and tell the Avengers that they’ve completed the psionic armor. Unfortunately they’ve brought it with them, right as they are attacked by Post and Holocaust. The two villains are trying to steal the armor, and they have cloaking fields that render them invisible. While they fight the Avengers, the surrounding civilians begin to feel hopeless as the heroes are beaten. As the fight rages, Wasp asks Captain America what they should do; he replies that they can’t beat them. The Wasp is shocked to hear that Cap is giving up, but what Cap meant was that they couldn’t beat the villains head-on and needed to trick them. So Captain America throws his shield, triggers Post’s cloak, and tricks Holocaust into shooting him. While Holocaust is shocked by his actions, the Avengers beat the crap out of him. The crowd cheers, inspired by the Avengers’ victory. Onslaught appears on a giant screen to taunt the heroes. They destroy the screen and charge off, while saying “Avengers Assemble” of course.

How It Was: This is actually the last issue of the Avengers’ initial run. After the Onslaught storyline, the Avengers get shuffled off to the Heroes Reborn universe and the numbering starts over at issue one. So Mark Waid had the task of providing a closing to the Marvel Universe’s greatest heroes while making it fit within the Onslaught crossover. Oh, and he couldn’t resolve anything in the Onslaught storyline either. What we get is an issue of the Avengers doing what they do best, saving lives and inspiring people, followed by a fight with two C-list X-Men villains, which probably isn’t the conclusion Stan Lee would have envisioned 401 issues prior.

The story is okay, nothing spectacular. Mark Waid doesn’t even get a chance to wrap up any of the dangling sub plots his tenure as writer had set up (Kurt Buisek would handle them years later), and he also has the unpleasant duty of writing the issue that essentially makes his job obsolete. Black Widow gets brushed aside during the course of the story because she can’t go to Heroes Reborn; she’s needed in Daredevil and around the Marvel Universe. Vision is still lying on a bed off panel and Hawkeye is nowhere to be found, so they don’t get to be in the finale either. Come to think of it, while this Avengers roster consists solely of veterans, these are not the best versions of these characters. We have teenage Tony Stark/Iron Man, a Wasp who is an actual insect person, the poorly named Giant Man, and redesigns of classic costumes for characters like the Scarlet Witch and Thor that show how hard the Avengers Bullpen was trying to rip off the look of the X-Men.

So they’re rescuing civilians, which is fine except that the same thing is happening in every other Marvel book, and then they have to fight two villains that they have nothing to do with. The art is phenomenal and it really makes the issue. The battle is brutal as heroes are ambushed and thrown around. The mislead of the disheartened Captain America is a little contrived, but it’s not like Waid can really build drama any other way, since the plot isn’t allowed to proceed until Onslaught: Marvel Universe.

This is just a really odd issue to end the Avengers on. Waid definitely does his best, and at least the characters aren’t overshadowed in their own book as the X-Men have been in theirs’. Considering how bad the next year was for Avengers fans, this probably didn’t seem so bad, but it still feels like Earth’s Mightiest Heroes deserved better.

C+

X-Men #55

X-Men #55
Writing: Mark Waid
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: We open on an average citizen of New York waking up and opening his curtain to reveal a Sentinel staring right at him. It seems that Onslaught has found a way to reprogram the Sentinels to attack New York City, as opposed to just hunting mutants. The combined forces of the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Avengers observe the chaos on a rooftop. Through conversation the characters fill each other in on the fact that Franklin Richards has been abducted, and Magneto has been discovered de-aged and with amnesia. Rogue tries to comfort Joseph, who feels guilty about causing Onslaught, while Gambit wonders if she can trust Joseph. The heroes split up with some of them going off to fight Sentinels while all the genius characters retreat to come up with some weaponry to fight against Onslaught.

In what I think is the Astral Plane, Onslaught is taunting young Franklin with Charlie—the illusion he used to capture the boy. Onslaught wants to use Franklin’s powers to alter reality in some way. Over the ocean, a group of X-Men are returning from Muir Island after having gotten the Xavier Protocols from Moira MacTaggert. The Xavier Protocols are instructions Xavier created that outline the weaknesses of all the X-Men, including Xavier himself. At Four Freedoms Plaza, the science team is examining the armor Mr. Fantastic’s father used to protect himself from Franklin’s powers. On the airplane Cyclops uncovers plans for psionic armor.

Throughout Manhattan we get panels of heroes beating the tar out of Sentinels. Rogue and Joseph are working together when Gambit destroys a Sentinel that was sneaking up on Joseph. Gambit blames Joseph for Onslaught, and the three argue until Iceman defeats another Sentinel behind them. Iceman points towards Central Park, where a huge citadel appears out of thin air, an effect of Franklin’s powers. Onslaught appears at the top with a monologue about the ascension of mutantkind.

The heroes move in to attack, but Onslaught lets out a giant EMP wave that knocks out all of the electricity in the city. It also causes a huge shockwave and takes out some of the heroes like Vision and Iron Man. Another unfortunate side effect is that it shorts out the Xavier Protocols, and causes the plane Cyclops and the rest are in to plummet out of the sky. Joseph raises some debris off the heroes, and everyone stands around looking defeated. The story ends with a page of Ozymandias carving a new sculpture of Onslaught that shows him evolving.

How It Was: This actually isn’t too bad when taken on its own. Waid has a lot of characters to deal with and does a good job of keeping them all from sounding the same. With Rogue’s return to the X-titles, he wastes no time establishing the Gambit/Rogue/Joseph triangle and handles it really well. The script balances the tension and hopelessness of the heroes, while Andy Kubert draws some awesome pictures of heroes beating up Sentinels. Kubert even manages to make the heroes standing around look awesome; I love how he draws the Human Torch, long shots of the city look awesome, and he totally sells the drama of the EMP blast sequence.

Characterization and art aside, this issue still suffers from the same problems all the other ones do. Many events that seem significant end up not mattering by the end of the story. Both the psionic armor and the armor for Franklin’s power wind up being almost inconsequential, although other issues do deal with it. Do you want to know why Onslaught needs Franklin? So do I; I guess he gives the villain an excuse to be able to just do anything, but it’s not very satisfying and it doesn’t feel like it’s building towards anything. He talks about the ascension of mutants, but it’s hard to see how having an army of Sentinels attack Manhattan helps to make mutants more free. But I do love the Sentinels as villains. Also, I love how the story just skips the inevitable plane crash of Cyclops and the others; I guess it’s just assumed they’ll make it because we never see what actually happens.

This is pretty much the best an issue in the Onslaught crossover can get at the end of “Phase 1”. The character work is solid and the art is fantastic. From this point on, with the start of Phase 2, there are only three kinds of Onslaught issues. 1. Random heroes fight Sentinels or random followers of Onslaught for an issue. 2. Random heroes rescue civilians for an issue. 3. Random heroes have an inconsequential fight with Onslaught that doesn’t affect the resolution one bit. It’s definitely not as clear of a direction as Uncanny #335 left us with, and quite frankly it starts to get old after a month of every Marvel book taking place in Onslaught ravaged Manhattan with absolutely no real story progress until the end. Yes characters show up and change, things do happen, but none of it matters until the Marvel Universe one-shot at the end. Still, Waid and Kubert were able get some weight and drama out of this disorganized mess, so that counts for a lot.

B

Fantastic Four #415

Fantastic Four #415
Writing: Tom DeFalco
Art: Carlos Pacheco

What Went Down: We enter on Franklin Richards and Charlie—the mental projection Onslaught is using to trick Franklin—in the middle of a gypsy circus. A woman named Magda—most likely Magneto’s former wife and the mother of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch—warns Charles that the child is innocent. The entire circus turns out to be an illusion created by Franklin as a test of his reality manipulating powers. When he hears his family’s ship return, Franklin abandons the illusion and runs to greet them.

At this point in FF continuity you should know that the team is hanging out with a Skrull named Lyja and Mr. Fantastic’s father Nathaniel Richards. Professor X shows up at the FF’s waiting room asking to see Mr. Fantastic while the Avengers are calling on the com line. Scott Lang, the current Ant-Man of the time, answers the call from Bishop, Iceman, and a number of Avengers. They try to warn him that the Professor is a threat, but Onslaught knocks Scott unconscious.

In another room, Xavier insists that Franklin must join his School for Gifted Youngsters. When Reed and Sue refuse, Xavier reveals himself as Onslaught and attacks them. The X-Men/Avengers arrive, and all the heroes split up to locate Franklin, Onslaught, and Scott Lang. Crystal, the Human Torch, and Nathaniel find Scott Lang unconscious, but they are all defeated by Onslaught. Lyja tries tricking Onslaught by taking Franklin’s appearance, but she, the Thing, and Hawkeye are also defeated. Bishop and the Invisible Woman check Franklin’s room; they find Onslaught and appear to defeat him by having Bishop rechannel Sue’s invisible force fields as energy blasts. Xavier appears weakened, but it’s a trick and he takes out the two heroes.

Outside Four Freedoms Plaza, the Watcher and Apocalypse discuss the significance of Franklin and his powers to “rearrange the molecular structure of matter.” Apocalypse notes that this must be hard for Uatu because he actually cares about the Fantastic Four, but he is not allowed to help them.

Franklin is alone eating cookies when Charlie comes to take him. Iceman and Mr. Fantastic attack Onslaught, but the villain makes it so Franklin cannot see any of them. The other heroes recover, and they all attack Onslaught in unison. It looks like they’re going to prevail, but at the last second Onslaught lets loose an energy blast that knocks them all out. He takes Franklin away.

How It Was: Well Onslaught comes to capture Franklin as part of his master plan. What part of that plan? We’ll never know, but basically at this point he is just a plot device that lets the villain do anything and get away with it. Fantastic Four’s biggest problem is that it has too many extraneous characters that serve no other purpose in this entire crossover.  Poor Lyja, Nathaniel Richards, and Scott Lang are left just standing around until the next issue of FF shows up to finish off all their subplots right before the title reboots. I do like the central idea of attacking the team through Franklin, their most innocent and vulnerable member, but surely capturing Franklin has been done to death after four hundred issues; it just doesn’t feel very exciting or original.

There are some major problems with the story structure as well. What possible reason would Onslaught have for pretending to be Charles Xavier when he’s supposed to be so powerful? It’s obvious from the start his ploy isn’t going to work, so really he is just wasting everybody’s time. The gypsy circus also feels like a waste; sure, I guess it’s supposed to be a subtle hint about Magneto’s connection to Onslaught, but it hasn’t really been established that Magneto or Magda were gypsies, only that their children were raised by gypsies. Also, the Avengers lose half their members between calling FF headquarters and showing up there, which is a strange tactic for facing the greatest threat ever to the Marvel Universe. And right after the X-Men and Avengers show up, they decide to split up? It really doesn’t feel like they’re treating this threat seriously if they’re leaving members like Wasp and Giant-Man behind and breaking off into groups of two and three. The fights are okay, but really they all boil down to one of the FF using his or her powers to detect Onslaught, followed by all the heroes getting thrashed. The mislead with Xavier feels forced since they could’ve just tried to knock him out. Even the end is a little bit of a dud when the heroes rally and then they’re all defeated in one panel.

Carlos Pacheco’s art is great when it comes to the heroes and the fortress itself, but I have to say he draws the weakest looking Onslaught of just about everyone at Marvel. His Onslaught seems small, and he doesn’t draw the face right, going for a red face with white features as opposed to the cooler shadowed face under the helmet that most of the other Marvel artists give him. This issue gets the job done, but it’s not exactly a gripping read. This story just feels rushed and it has too much baggage in the form of characters and plots that have nothing to do with the Onslaught story.

C+

Avengers #401

Avengers #401
Writing: Mark Waid
Art: Mike Deodato and Tom Palmer

What Went Down: A group of Avengers, plus Gambit, are assigned to search for Magneto since he may be a key to stopping Onslaught (at least right now in the story). The Avengers also debut a new Quinjet that looks a lot like a paper airplane. After Iron Man almost leaves the door to the hanger shut, the team is on its way.

In case you’re wondering how they are going to find Magneto when he’s been missing for months, Cerebro has picked up some electromagnetic energy in South Carolina and Virginia… so there you go. Hank Pym also takes time to show off his team of Avengers and X-Men that are going to be appearing in Fantastic Four this month.

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver share flashbacks of having to work for Magneto; they resent the fact that Magneto was cruel and often abusive to his henchmen. A particular scene shows Magneto gripping Wanda with his magnetic powers to intimidate her. Quicksilver asserts that he will always protect his sister.

In Virginia, Rogue and Joseph are at a garage getting their car fixed. The mechanic complains that the lift is broken, so he can’t fix the car. Joseph uses his magnetic powers to make it work while Rogue distracts the mechanic. They go off to get lunch when the Quinjet lands right in front of them. Quicksilver hurries ahead of the rest of the Avengers and attacks Joseph, assuming that he is Magneto. Gambit and Quicksilver are both shocked to find Rogue accompanying him.

Quicksilver assumes that Joseph is controlling Rogue somehow, so he presses his attack. Rogue keeps trying to explain, but the Avengers keep interrupting her, so she just attacks the Vision instead. Iron Man tries to defuse the situation, but he shows that he might attack, so Joseph throws him through a cruise ship.

Gambit throws some charged cards to break up Vision, Thor, and Rogue, while Joseph fights the rest of the Avengers. When he grips Wanda with his powers, as he did in the flashback, she freaks out and breaks free with her powers. Joseph tries to apologize and help her up. Behind him, Quicksilver is charging with a giant wooden post to kill Joseph with. The Scarlet Witch contemplates letting her brother do it, but knocks both Quicksilver and Joseph away with her powers instead.

Wanda yells at her brother, telling him that she can take care of herself. Captain America finishes telling Rogue about Onslaught and everyone gets on the Quinjet to leave. Gambit demonstrates jealousy at the relationship Joseph and Rogue appear to share.

How It Was: First up, Mike Deodato’s artwork=sooo gooood. I’m a really big fan of his current work on Secret Avengers, and his stuff on Dark Avengers was great as well. His characters are gorgeous, and his fight scenes are so well posed. A highlight includes the page where Joseph takes on Captain America and the Maximoffs single handedly. My only complaint is the “new” Quinjet design. I can’t see what the point of this is because A: Avengers is being canceled in one more issue, so we’ll never see it again, and B: It is a really dumb looking design. Since Tom Palmer is credited with finishes, I get the feeling that deadlines may’ve become an issue, hence the simple looking Quinjet, but who knows?

As for the story, well the big question is why the heck is this taking place in the Avengers book? Since Joseph is a future X-Man, and Rogue has been missing from the book for months, wouldn’t it make more sense to put this in an X-Men book?

Besides the soliciting of the story, the real problem is that this story is a bunch of super heroes mistakenly attacking one and other, and we just had that in Uncanny #335. Waid does do a good job of setting up the precedent for Wanda and Pietro’s negative feelings toward Magneto, but it’s still absurd that it would take an entire issue to resolve this fight; much of the issue is padded with unnecessary sequences like Gambit arguing about using an elevator, or Iron Man not opening the door at the end of the plane ramp. One ridiculous sequence has Rogue trying to explain the situation, while the Vision keeps interrupting her by asking her to explain the situation. The Avengers just come off as really stupid this entire issue. Plus Gambit should theoretically have a bigger role in this story, since he knows Rogue better than anyone there, but all he gets to do is throw some cards to get some of the heroes’ attention.

The central theme of the story seems to be having the Scarlet Witch show her brother, and herself, that she can take care of herself. There’s nothing wrong with this other than the fact that it has been done to death in Avengers comics since the sixties. I can buy Quicksilver’s reaction to seeing his father, but at this point the Scarlet Witch has already been established as one of the most powerful Avengers. Also, any time you have a story with Wanda, you have writers trying to interpret her vague, plot convenient mutant power. While she’s basically supposed to create unlikely situations, I think it’s stretching the definition to have a pier spontaneously exploding and calling it highly improbable. If there is no chance of something ever happening at all, than she really shouldn’t be able to do it, otherwise there is nothing she can’t do. Of course Avengers’ writers eventually figured this out and Bendis shuffled her off in Avengers Disassembled.

Whoah, that was quite a tangent. Anyways, I think this issue would have worked a lot better without the big three tagging along. Captain America, Iron Man, Vision, and Thor really have nothing to do this issue, and their presence makes it even harder to understand why this fight takes so long. Focusing on the Maximoffs and Gambit definitely would’ve given this story a tighter center and allowed for more development of all the characters involved, as opposed to just hitting a note that’s been hit a dozen times before. Also, if finding Magneto was this easy, why have the X-Men waited this long? This is an unnecessary detour for the story that winds up having little effect on Onslaught. While Joseph does get some good character moments in the coming issues, the fact that he doesn’t actually do a lot raises questions as to why Onslaught’s resemblance to Magneto was even necessary to point out in the first place.

C-

Uncanny X-Men #335

Uncanny X-Men #335
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Joe Madureira

Note: See X-Men Unlimited #12 next
What Went Down: Ozymandias opens the issue walking under a sculpture of the Fantastic Four mourning the loss of Franklin. He is staring at his risen lord Apocalypse. Apocalypse knows that Onslaught is a threat to him, and this fact is reinforced by the appearance of Uatu, the Watcher. Uatu and Apocalypse apparently already know each other, and Apocalypse explains that he is here to observe the end of the Age of Wonders.

In an Avengers Quinjet, the Avengers fly over the ruins of Xavier’s mansion. Nate Grey senses that the X-Men are alive, when suddenly the plane is forced down and ripped open. The X-Men and the Avengers have a minor conflict while Jean Grey ensures that the Avengers are really who they say they are; the X-Men are paranoid after the betrayal of Xavier. Nate mistakes Jean for Madelyne Pryor, a clone of Jean that Nate resurrected after he came to the main Marvel Universe.

Frustrated, Nate uses his mental powers to take all the X-Men’s memories and show the Avengers what Onslaught really is. Cyclops blasts Nate to free his teammates. Nate claims that he knew Xavier was evil from the moment he came to this world, and Wolverine tries to pounce on him. The X-Men inform the Avengers that Xavier has somehow been influenced by Magneto, creating Onslaught, which causes Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch to feel guilty about the actions of their father.

On Muir Island, Moira MacTaggert is briefing Excalibur about Onslaught. Many of the former X-Men want to go to America to help, but Moira insists that they need to stay and unseal the Xavier Protocols.

Below the mansion, Bishop replays Jean’s urgent message, confirming that Xavier is indeed the X-Men traitor. Gambit walks in and Bishop sort of apologizes for accusing him of being the traitor.

In another room, the Avengers and X-Men explain that Onslaught is pure psionic energy. Jean guesses that the transformation was spurned by the shutting down of Magneto’s mind in X-Men #25. Storm brings up that all information about Onslaught at this point has been supplied by Onslaught, which really means that all the “hints” up until now should be ignored because the writers didn’t organize this story very well. X-Force shows up, and they are assigned to protect Nate Grey, since Onslaught’s research showed he had an interest in the young mutant. Part of the heroes break off to warn the Fantastic Four while Cyclops and Jean go off to Muir Island for the Xavier Protocols. Another group is tasked with searching for Magneto, since he is supposed to have some part in the creation of Onslaught. Storm says she is worried about Cable, so she goes off to meet him in his title.

Wolverine says he has a hunch about Onslaught, so he tells the Vision that he’s going off to follow up on it. Vision comments on the contradictory nature of Wolverine as he drives away. Iceman fills Warren and Betsy in on recent events. Bobby calls Psylocke out on seeming cold and detached, which of course is attributed to the Crimson Dawn. They are sent to meet Scott and Jean on Muir Island. In the sewer, Dark Beast excitedly takes Onslaught to his lab. He starts to explain to Onslaught that he did not actually create the Morlocks, he just experimented on them, but Onslaught attacks him because he already knows all this information. He asks McCoy about soldiers for his army, while inside Onslaught, Charles Xavier is shown to be floating alone in oblivion.

How It Was: Whereas the Onslaught: X-Men one-shot set up the main ideas of the story, Uncanny #355 briefly reiterates those ideas and sets up the various missions that will hopefully further the plot. The major flaw is that none of these missions actually affect the plot other than the oh so brief appearance in Excalibur to get the Xavier Protocols to build the plot device that helps the heroes fight Onslaught. Finding Magneto doesn’t affect the story, finding Cable doesn’t affect it, you can probably already guess what’s going to happen in Fantastic Four without reading it, and Wolverine’s spirit journey to find Onslaught’s origins doesn’t really impact how they fight him at all. This means that the majority of issues in “Phase 1” end up being the equivalent of filler.

Once again, these aren’t really problems with the issue, only the narrative structure of the event. As far as the issue itself… it’s dense—there’s a lot of exposition on top of an unnecessary “heroes’ misunderstanding” to generate some action. Apocalypse shows up, making you believe that he’s going to play an important role, but all he does is appear in an issue of Cable before disappearing. As usual, the Watcher is dragged out to make sure that the average Marvel reader understands how “significant” this story is. Plus, this issue was many readers’ first impression of Nate Grey, which shows him as an over-hyped, whiny teen who just irritates all the heroes.

This issue burns away a lot of the momentum that Onslaught: X-Men gave it. While it’s nice to see that all of the individual heroes have a role to play at this point, the fact that none of these threads really influence the overall plot at all really hurts this book. This issue consists of a bunch of facts we already know and some in-story advertisements for a bunch of other books to come out later. Plus Storm’s dialogue pretty much admits at the start how poorly planned out this thing was to begin with, what with none of the build up to this story really mattering. While the Bishop and Gambit scene is handled well, especially Gambit acknowledging just how shady he really is, the rest of the X-Men are already getting forced to the side in a storyline where they should be central to the events, since this involves their mentor. It’s disappointing to see so much potential that later just gets squandered.

C-

Onslaught: X-Men

Onslaught: X-Men
Writing: Scott Lobdell and Mark Waid
Art: Adam Kubert and Pascual Ferry 

What Went Down: Our prologue begins with a shocking revelation; the video of Jean from Bishop’s timeline, the one that started the whole X-Traitor storyline, is in reference to Professor X turning into Onslaught. Here we get the whole version with the missing sections.

Cutting back to earlier, the story begins with Xavier sitting in his den and throwing a picture of himself and Magneto into a fire. He laments about the failure of his dream before summoning the X-Men to the study. Jean Grey is the only one who knows that Xavier is really Onslaught, but she hasn’t had an opportunity to tell anyone. Dark Beast is still worrying about his infiltration being discovered. Jean recaps all the X-Men’s encounters with Onslaught while Xavier announces that his dream was a mistake.

Jean continues to worry as Charles talks, and she discovers the Cyttorak Gem on his desk; unknown to her, the Juggernaut has been trapped in the gem by Onslaught. Jean continues to probe the Professor’s mind, but Xavier covers her head with a “psychic muzzle.” While the X-Men rush to Jean’s side, Xavier transforms into Onslaught.

Onslaught offers the X-Men an opportunity to join him. When Cyclops brings up the similarities in his tone to Magneto’s, the villain demonstrates his psychic powers on some of the X-Men. Cyclops blasts him, but Onslaught uses his powers to freeze the X-Men in place before disappearing. Gambit frees the X-Men by charging the floor with energy, and Jean fills the team in on what she has learned. Gambit brings up how Bishop has been looking for a traitor in the X-Men, surprising him. The team splits up with one unit going after Cerebro, even though it’s still supposed to be broken, while the other team goes to the ready room.

At the Baxter Building, Franklin—the son of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, is talking to his imaginary friend Charley—who is really Onslaught, while the Fantastic Four eat breakfast. Charley gets mad at Franklin and shatters a glass. The FF think Franklin is responsible, and Mr. Fantastic asks his son to go down to the lab with him.

In the Ready Room, the X-Men discover that Xavier has been researching Franklin Richards as well as Nate Grey. Onslaught mentally controls Cannonball and attacks the rest of the team. At the Avengers Mansion, Nate Grey is trying to convince the Avengers that Xavier has turned evil. They are skeptical, but they agree to check out his claims. Onslaught taunts Bishop for failing to discover that he was the traitor before going off to Cerebro.

In the Cerebro Room, Cyclops is busy disconnecting the computer when Iceman detects Onslaught by measuring the body temperatures in the room. Onslaught turns Cyclops’ powers on Jean, Iceman, and himself. Then he reveals that he has known about the Dark Beast’s presence the entire time and has been helping to hide him from the other telepaths. Dark Beast agrees to join Onslaught; the villain has to siphon some of McCoy’s thoughts to maintain his control of Xavier for some reason.

Later, Onslaught has neutralized Jean’s powers and is attempting to steal the secret to the template of the Phoenix Force from her mind. He takes a break to tell Dark Beast to dispose of the X-Men’s bodies, and Jean takes the opportunity to run away. She escapes to a communications room where she records the message from the prologue.

During the part at the end of the message, the part where it looked like Jean died, it turns out that the flash of light was just the other X-Men coming to the rescue. All the X-Men attack together, seemingly killing Onslaught. Of course, it turns out that the body they killed was really an illusion. Onslaught prepares an energy blast to kill all the X-Men, but Bishop manages to intercept and absorb it. Onslaught and Dark Beast teleport away, leaving the X-Men to ponder what they are going to do. At a secret location, Onslaught manages to activate an army of Sentinels.

How It Was: Another year, another X-crossover. As we all know from the success of Age of Apocalypse, every good crossover needs a double-sized one-shot with no ads to start it off. And not only is this a crossover across the X-books, we’re going full-on Marvel Universe wide inter-company crossover with this one. As the first issue of the story, this is probably the most that’s going to happen plot-wise until the Onslaught: Marvel Universe one-shot that ends it. I’ll get more into why this whole crossover is a bit of a mess, but let’s look at this issue a little closer.

Well Onslaught finally shows off how powerful he is, and it’s a wonder why he didn’t attack sooner to get it over with. Flashbacks to X-Men #50 and Uncanny #322 and #333 try to make this feel like a resolution to a grander, cohesive story, but really this just starts out of nowhere. The “hints” earlier don’t really point to a particular plan, and as you’ll see later, Onslaught’s agenda is never addressed beyond wanting to destroy the world…because he’s evil. The issue does succeed in giving us the broad, general ideas: Onslaught is Xavier, he’s really powerful, he’s interested in Nate Grey and Franklin Richards because…some reason, and he’s somehow connected to Magneto. That’s not bad for a first issue, except that this is pretty much what every other writer goes off of for his next two issues without really adding all that much to the plot until the end.

This is about what you’d expect from a hero like Professor X turned evil story. Waid and Lobdell take their time going through the beats: the X-Men can’t believe it, Onslaught shows signs that he’s not totally in control, the X-Men come to terms with the fact that they might have to kill him. Nothing is exactly subtle—from the villain’s reaction to Magneto’s name to the way Gambit brings up the X-traitor plot thread that has been rehashed over the last couple of months to the X-Men’s discovery that Onslaught could kill them but chooses not to. Of course later in the story, Xavier and Magneto turn out to play absolutely no part in the resolution of the story, so you could call this a misdirect, but it feels more like improper story planning. With so many at Marvel wanting to recapture the Age of Apocalypse, but on a larger scale, this issue tries to create some structure that really hasn’t been built up to as well as it was in the previous event.

Because Onslaught spawns from Xavier’s mind, he has the power to manipulate his students’ minds, and this leads to some interesting results, like having Cannonball freak out or Cyclops turn his powers on his friends. However, Onslaught develops so many other powers including super strength, energy blasts, EMP blasts, etc. that it starts to make him feel less unique. The X-staff is going for a cosmic-level bad guy ala Dark Phoenix or Thanos, but Onslaught never feels thought out enough to resonate as much with the readers.

It’s good to see the Dark Beast finally get something to do other than complain about life with the X-Men in his head. The X-Men’s confusion is well handled, but this thread leads to one of the other problems with this crossover. In order to have just about every Marvel title “tie in” to the story, sometimes events happened in the completely wrong books. So the Dark Beast/Beast storyline that has been running for months in the X-Men titles gets resolved in X-Factor, the origin of Onslaught happens in Wolverine, and Magneto/Joseph—who has been set up as a future X-Man already in the X-Men titles—gets discovered in Avengers. Again, none of these stories ever really contribute to the overall main plot (which should be combating Onslaught) whatsoever.

Still, I can’t help but notice that most of my criticisms, while originating with this issue, have more to do with the overall structure of the story than the issue itself. I actually quite like this one. The video from Bishop’s future is a nice touch, and a lot of the action is really good. All the X-Men’s reactions feel well done, although Xavier/Onslaught tends to talk a little too much and Jean’s inner ranting about Onslaught goes on for far too long. And of course, I can’t really understand the plan in the middle of the issue to split up when they’re facing the supposedly most powerful enemy they’ve ever faced. The ending struggles a little to involve Bishop, since he really had nothing to do with the resolution of the Traitor storyline. It feels tacked on to make Bishop the hero of the issue since he also won’t do a lot in the fight against Onslaught.

While this issue feels significant to a point, it’s a shame that most of the storylines either shift to unrelated books or disappear completely from the story. Out of the dozens of issues that are going to crossover, only two or three are going to deal directly with fighting Onslaught, so he never really gets developed as a character. There’s an interesting idea here about him being a manifestation of Xavier’s repressed feelings and emotions, but it gets bogged down in connections with Magneto and plot devices that serve no purpose. The traitor thread does get resolved, but this also feels shoe horned in. This is an exciting enough issue that is a little too long for its own good; it does a good job of setting up the main ideas, but the story never really develops any themes or developments beyond these general ideas.

B

Avengers #369

Avengers #369
Writing: Bob Harras
Art: Steve Epting and Jan Duursema

What Went Down: Bloodties Part 5: This double-sized, shiny cardboard covered issue opens with the SHIELD helicarrier flying towards Genosha. Nick Fury and all of the Avengers from the UN want to join the fight in Genosha, but there is a forcefield around the island. So they all contribute nothing to the rest of the story, except for later discovering that the energy dome field is shrinking.

In the sewers, Exodus rants for a while, takes over Cortez’s body, forces him to hand over Luna Maximoff, and then kills Cortez (don’t worry, he’ll be back later, but then he will die again). Exodus then defeats Quicksilver, Crystal, Scarlet Witch, and Jean Grey in one panel.

On the surface, Trish Tilby is still reporting on how the X-Men are rescuing civilians when the other four Avengers show up. They offer their help, and both teams agree to team up to save Luna. Gambit also flirts with Sersi. The first part of the plan is for War Machine and Storm to fly up and recon the energy dome. Since War Machine’s sensors don’t detect any barrier, he decides that the best course of action is to fly right into it, which turns off his armor. Both teams assume that Exodus is responsible for the dome. Xavier contacts the X-Men and tells them that they are needed immediately.

On the other side of the city, U.S. Agent, Xavier, Beast, and a wealth of other minor characters have been cornered by the Genoshan soldiers. Everyone assumes that this is their final stand, and Renee Majcomb gets clipped by a laser. Luckily, the X-Men and the Avengers show up just in time and defeat the soldiers. Cue a big fight scene. After the fight is over, the heroes are helping the wounded, when suddenly Xavier yells a warning to Rogue, and Rogue falls out of the sky. It turns out that Exodus was using his psi-powers to kill Rogue because she has a loose connection to Magneto and betrayed him. But it’s okay, because Exodus does a bad job, so Rogue is just fine.

Exodus finally confronts the Avengers; he is using his powers to restrain Luna’s family and Jean as well as fight the X-Men. Exodus rants some more, and another battle starts, this time involving the mutant armies that Cortez was leading. Exodus has all of the heroes on the ropes as the field starts to destroy the highest buildings in the city.

As Exodus is about to sacrifice the child Luna for being a human, Xavier attacks Exodus with his powers, leaving him open for the Black Knight to use his sword on him, frying his nerves or something. Xavier then proceeds to chastise all the mutate soldiers for following a villain who would slaughter a child. Exodus recovers and flies off, but not before shooting Quicksilver with an energy blast. Black Knight performs CPR on Pietro, which is a big deal because they are both rivals for Crystal’s affection, and Quicksilver wakes up. Everyone is happy. In the epilogue, Captain America, Jen Ransome, and Professor X sit on a beach and talk about whether the country can be helped.

How It Was: Marvel gives us a forty-eight page finale to a tired, strung out five issue event. And great news, it’s written by an editor and has two different artists. Suffice to say, this issue suffers from a lot of problems. First the art: it’s perfectly good and both artists fit fairly well with the standard Marvel House style. The problem is the consistency of the subjects being portrayed. Because each artist is assigned different sections of the issue, characters appear and disappear at random. Archangel, Revanche, and Sersi’s jacket are non-existent for the first thirty-or-so pages, and then suddenly pop in like they’ve been there the whole time. And why is Revanche in this story and not Psylocke? You can also tell by the art that the artists had no idea what Revanche’s powers were since she is only depicted fighting hand to hand. Each artist also draws a completely different design for Nick Fury in two separate parts of the book.

But the writing is where this issue, and really the entire crossover, is let down. It’s not that the writers are untalented; it’s just that this whole story was poorly planned to begin with. It’s plainly obvious from the story that there is just not enough narrative here for four squads of super heroes. This leads to lame attempts on the part of Harras to widdle down the cast so that the ending makes sense, and the artists don’t have to draw a bazillion characters. So we get half the Avengers standing on the sidelines and contributing nothing. We get War Machine acting like he forgot his brain in his other suit and taking himself out. Rogue gets knocked out in a scene that is more of an afterthought, when Harras remembers that Rogue is also connected to Magneto, but it’s too late to have her join Quicksilver and the others. Why not have Rogue tag along with Quicksilver instead of Jean in the first place? It is really a shame to see such great characters go to waste because of poor planning.

The most head slapping moment is when Xavier finally contacts the X-Men to come and save his group. It begs the question, why didn’t he just contact the X-Men at the end of part three instead of waiting until the middle of part five? The answer of course is that then the Avengers and the X-Men wouldn’t be able to crossover. The same question holds true of Exodus, who could have just flown off three issues ago to kill Cortez instead of waiting until now. It is frustrating to realize how unnecessarily long this bad story is. Oh, and Exodus is kind of a boring villain in this issue. He has pages and pages of dialogue this issue, as well as the power to defeat a dozen heroes by just standing still.

There are a few bright spots. The fights with the soldiers are pretty well done and exciting, even if most of them look generic. And the scene where Exodus is finally defeated works really well as a big, epic conclusion, at least until he stands up again two pages later and just flies away. Character inconsistencies aside, the art is still pretty good from both pencilers.

The problem with Bloodties is that it didn’t start out as a story idea, it started as a gimmick. Celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of two comic properties is not enough to base six books worth of story on (five issues with one of them being double-sized). With a smaller, trimmed down cast and a three-issue length as opposed to five, this story could have been something better than it turned out to be.

D+

Uncanny X-Men #307

Uncanny X-Men #307
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: John Romita Jr.

What Went Down: Bloodties Part 4: We enter on a splash page of Professor X using his body as a shield to protect a wounded Genoshan refugee. Turning the page, we see a two page splash of Beast and U.S. Agent engaging the human soldiers to protect the mutant prisoners. We learn that most of the mutants are infected with the Legacy Virus, and Xavier uses his powers to help the heroes against the soldiers. This reveals that he is a mutant to some of the prisoners, but Charles just brushes them off.

Meanwhile, Exodus is getting knocked across town by Sersi, the Eternal Avenger. Exodus uses his bright energy powers on Sersi, and she identifies his powers as being psionic based. On the ground, War Machine—who is feeling a lot better after being beaten up by Exodus last issue—Captain America, and the Black Knight note that the city might not survive the battle. Black Knight also recognizes Exodus, which doesn’t get resolved for many years; his predecessor, the original Black Knight, fought Exodus during the time of the Crusades.

Back at the UN, the Black Widow tells off the UN and apologizes to the world for letting the UN place politics before the Avengers true mandate. Then they leave to go to Genosha. Back in Genosha, the X-Men break into a government building to liberate the employees there. Cyclops discovers some dead bodies and questions the point of their struggle. Iceman tries to remind him that they still saved a lot of people.

Black Knight and War Machine are now trying to break up Sersi and Exodus before they destroy the entire city. A huge explosion occurs, and War Machine protects himself and the Knight behind a forcefield. Exodus flies off, and Sersi emerges from the rubble very angry. Dane stops her from pursuing the villain.

Down in the city’s sewer, Jean Grey and Quicksilver are searching for Cortez and Luna. Jean detects a presence, but it turns out to be Crystal and the Scarlet Witch. The heroes fill each other in, until Cortez appears and threatens to use his powers on Luna. Cortez explains that he wants protection from Exodus, who suddenly appears for the last page cliffhanger. Cortez tells the heroes to protect him from Exodus or Luna will die.

How It Was: A hard issue to comment on since most of the same arguments for this issue being subpar apply to the previous two issues. Let’s start with the first thing to stand out: that cover is horrible. Exodus looks nothing like he is supposed to, and all of the heroes have the exact same face. As for the story, after a plot stalling fight with War Machine, Exodus engages in a plot stalling battle with Sersi. Yes, beating Sersi shows off that Exodus is very powerful, but the majority of the fight is panels of both combatants standing around bathed in yellow energy. So it’s not much of a fight, and it gets even worse when Exodus realizes how pointless the fight is and flies off to finally move the plot along. And then there is the fact that War Machine and Black Knight’s whole storyline this issue is trying to stop the pointless fight that just ends on its own, wasting the participation of two more characters.

The scene at the UN is also fairly boring, and I can’t understand why so many heroes are needed to stand around while Hawkeye and Black Widow make a speech. It is kind of nice to see the story acknowledging that politics can often complicate situations such as a war or civil conflict, and often get in the way of helping the people that they are meant to. Still, it isn’t very interesting. The X-Men discovering dead bodies does carry a sense of tragedy to it, but Cyclops’ melodramatic internal monologue isn’t exactly deep or hard hitting. It feels like a wasted opportunity to finally depict the conflict from the perspective of the civilians and flesh out the dispute a little better.

The scenes that do work somewhat are the conclusion, if for no other reason than it finally furthers the plot a little, and the opening scenes with Xavier and the Beast. Yes, I still dislike the concentration camp angle because it vilifies one side over the other, and it’s kind of inappropriate, but at the same time something is actually happening. There are prisoners in danger, overwhelming odds, and an actual attempt to squeeze some tension out of the plot. This whole issue is just kind of a mess and it doesn’t really know what it wants to say about the characters or the setting. Basically this whole story so far has been a tedious attempt to find something for the characters to do until the story finally ends.

D

West Coast Avengers #101

West Coast Avengers #101
Writing: Roy Thomas
Art: Dave Ross

What Went Down: Part 3 of Bloodties: The first page of this issue is the Avengers (both standard and West Coast) not in Genosha bursting angrily into the UN. Yes, prepare for a lecture on political responsibility…because you asked for it, nuff said. Hawkeye criticizes the UN for standing by while people in Genosha are dying, and the rest of the heroes debate Clint’s brash and blunt methods. The UN politicians notice that the Avengers’ chairman, Black Widow is oddly silent.

Over at Genosha, Exodus confronts the Avengers. After knocking Crystal back, War Machine attacks Exodus as the rest of the Avengers stand around Crystal and do nothing. Even as the fight goes on, another group of humans and mutants are about to riot… again. The Avengers’ methods of resolving this are somewhat questionable; the Scarlet Witch makes a gas main explode, which can’t be safe, and the Black Knight complains about trying to fight civilians with a lethal weapon, even though the last issue of this crossover demonstrated that his energy sword is non-lethal. Crystal ends the confrontation by summoning a wall of water to separate the two sides. Then Crystal and Wanda run off to look for Luna.

Elsewhere in Genosha, U.S. Agent, Beast, and Xavier are in a sewer; this contradicts last issue, where Xavier and Beast were trying to ditch Agent, and Agent was tracking them. Now they appear to just be on the same side. There is an odd, completely out of character scene where Beast complains about not needing the help of a non-mutant. Together, the group uncovers a hidden concentration camp for mutant prisoners. Before they can be freed, a group of soldiers called the Magistrate Elite ambush the heroes.

Jumping over to the X-Men, they are still fighting generic mutants, and Quicksilver’s costume has gotten darker. Jean Grey shows some out of character behavior when she freaks out and loses concentration because Cyclops gets winged. Anyways, the X-Men beat the soldiers, and the Fabian Cortez from last issue is revealed to be a shapeshifting mutant.

The fight between War Machine and Exodus continues as Exodus uses racist remarks to trick the Avenger into getting close to him. Once trapped, War Machine is turned into “a flesh-and-blood vegetable,” but next issue he is fine. The issue ends on a very unflattering drawing of Sersi challenging Exodus for the next fight.

How It Was: An odd example of a crossover issue. While normally this story would be used to try to boost sales of the flagging West Coast Avengers title, the fact was that the series was being canceled next issue, so there was no need to impress readers with any big events. Instead we get the majority of the West Coast team standing around and accusing the UN of not doing their jobs for this issue and next issue. It’s as exciting as it sounds, and that is not very exciting at all. I guess this is significant because it does set up the disbanding of the team in the next issue, but as a middle chapter in a major crossover between two powerhouse teams, it is just really bad.

The only West Coast Avenger to do anything this issue is War Machine, as he has a long pointless fight with Exodus. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an exciting, well-drawn fight, but it’s really just a stalling exercise to keep Exodus from just going off to find Cortez and further the plot. The rest of the Avengers spend the issue doing the same thing they did last issue: breaking up a riot—do you get why people call this crossover boring and unoriginal yet? And the scene with the Beast and U.S. Agent is just ruined for two reasons. First, there is no way that the Beast would need to be reminded by Professor X why it is wrong to criticize people for not being mutants. Second of all, while the revelation of a concentration camp does raise the stakes in the story a little, the fact is that it comes off as a little inappropriate. More importantly, it shifts the conflict so that both sides aren’t equally at fault anymore; now the humans are once again the clear villains in the conflict, even though the point of the story was that both sides are fighting because of the non-existent threat of Magneto and were equally at fault. This story could have easily served as an allegory for the senseless wars fought in the name of various figures and deities, but in the hands of so many creators, the story just turns into a mess. And how come U.S. Agent is helping Xavier, when Xavier was trying to ditch him last issue?

As for the X-Men, Revanche has disappeared and Archangel has shown up out of nowhere for the first time this story. The fact that the creators can’t keep track of which X-Men are in this story is not a good sign. The rest is just a generic fight with generic enemy soldiers. As for the art, I don’t know a lot about Dave Ross, but the last page of the issue really says it all for me. Sersi looks like a victim of third world hunger and her right knee is bent at an impossible angle. Even the cover of this issue isn’t trying hard to impress. Once again, nothing of interest or significance happens at all, except for the events at the UN that have some ramifications. The best way I can put this is that it took me over fifteen years to add this issue to my collection, and the plot of the story was perfectly understandable for the years before I ever owned it. For completists only.

D

X-Men #26

X-Men #26
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Part 2 of Bloodties: We enter on a very angry Quicksilver, raging about the fact that Fabian Cortez has abducted his daughter. The X-Men are on the Blackbird watching a newscast from Trish Tilby live in Genosha. Cortez is explaining his plan for mutant dominance in the war torn country, and he is using Luna Maximoff as a symbol, since she is the granddaughter of Magneto.

Up on Asteroid M, Colossus is caring for a comatose Magneto and pondering whether revealing Magneto’s condition might help ease tensions. Exodus, who has taken charge of the Acolytes, says he needs to be alone with Magneto to seek his counsel. Since Magneto can only drool on himself, Exodus comes off as pretty insane.

Back in the U.S., the Avengers are in a huge battle with SHIELD agents trying to prevent them from interfering in the Genoshan conflict, as per UN decree. Five Avengers escape, including Captain America, leaving the rest of the teams to mop up. After the fight, the remaining Avengers prepare to deal with the UN.

On the ground in Genosha, Xavier and his allies are ambushed. Fortunately, Xavier somehow guessed this would happen, so he pulls out masks for himself and the Beast. The attackers are led by obscure X-Men ally Renee Majcomb, who is leading a coalition of humans and mutants fighting for a united, integrated Genosha without any fighting. Hank brings up Trish Tilby, but the group is needed elsewhere. As the group drives off, U.S. Agent is seen stowing away under the car.

Meanwhile, the X-Men land and are attacked by some generic looking mutate soldiers. As the X-Men battle the group, Cortez is revealed to be nearby. The Avenger squad also lands on Genosha and breaks up a riot of mutants and humans trying to kill each other. Exodus shows up and kills all the humans in the crowd.

How It Was: Well both teams finally make it to Genosha, after half an issue of battling SHIELD and recapping the events of the previous issue. We also learn why more stories don’t take place in Genosha; the Ge- in Genosha must stand for generic because that’s the best description for every character there. Even supporting characters like Renee Majcomb are nothing but militant badasses ready for war, and everybody seems to be wearing brown. As for the war itself, there are no panels that depict this great conflict that is going on everywhere; for an epic battle, all the encounters the super hero teams have with civilians tend to resemble the standard boring mobs that the X-Men generally break up. The setting just lacks impact; there is nothing to make it stand out when it should be the central focus of the story.

As for the characters themselves, they’re not allowed to do anything really significant. If you look at the previous crossover, Fatal Attractions, there were character changing events happening left and right, from Cable’s return to Wolverine’s injuries. Like it or not, at least that story was trying new things with the characters. In Bloodties, everything is predictable and shallow. Quicksilver, Crystal, and Cortez are the only ones who seem affected by this story. All the other characters seem curiously unmoved; they just keep commenting on the horror of the war. The creators can’t even keep track of the characters in it, as Revanche appears in this issue, but not in the previous or next issues. Plus Exodus’ turn as power mad lunatic doesn’t do a lot for me, and the Xavier/Beast subplot is simply crawling along.

Still, the fight with SHIELD is pretty cool, and Colossus has a nice follow up scene from Fatal Attractions where the reality of his situation hits him. Kubert’s art looks good, and he finally has a reason to draw giant clouds of smoke during the scene with Xavier’s team being gassed. Also, the final page with Exodus makes for a pretty cool moment for the villain. This is a perfectly middling issue, where not a lot happens. The following issues feature a series of fights that maintain this plot stall until the final issue.

C

Avengers #368

Avengers #368
Writing: Bob Harras
Art: Steve Epting

What Went Down: Part 1 of Bloodties: Fabian Cortez starts off the crossover looking over the burning city of Hammer Bay in Genosha. He is holding Luna, the daughter of Quicksilver and the Inhuman/Avenger Crystal and talking to himself about events to come. In Washington, Val Cooper, Nick Fury, and Henry Peter Gyrich set up the plot for the crossover. Basically Magneto’s attack on the planet has inspired the humans of Genosha to break the peace they have with the mutates. Fearing the mutates might conquer them, the Genoshan army begins attacking any mutants in the country, and the mutates—former mutant slaves of the government—retaliate. Up in the SHIELD helicarrier, planes are being dispatched on an unknown mission.

In New York, Nick Fury assembles both the east and west coast teams of Avengers. Fury tells the Avengers that they are not to interfere in Genosha, since at this point they are answering directly to the United Nations. U.S. Agent gets assigned a special mission. While certain Avengers argue the fact, Fury explains that he received intelligence that the Genoshans might attack the Avengers. Crystal suddenly realizes that her daughter must be the target, and runs off to check on her. She finds her daughter with her nanny Marilla, but it turns out to be a shapeshifting mutate from Genosha instead. The mutate blames the Avengers for their inaction, and then proceeds to blow up the building.

At the X-Mansion, U.S. Agent and Gyrich are meeting with an unshaven Professor X, Philip Moreau, and Jen Ransome. Xavier is being asked to help broker peace between the two sides in the Genoshan conflict. He agrees to come, as long as he can bring the Beast with him. Beast teases his old Avengers liaison Gyrich, until Gyrich informs him that Trish Tilby is covering the conflict in Genosha.

The X-Men are in the middle of a Danger Room session; Quicksilver is still hanging out with the X-Men after Fatal Attractions, and he is debating visiting his estranged wife Crystal. Xavier telepathically informs the X-Men what is going on and tells them to meet him in Genosha.

Jumping back to the Avengers, Crystal used her powers to push the explosion up at the last minute, saving everyone. The Avengers decide that they are going to Genosha to save Luna, but Fury warns them that SHIELD is under orders to prevent them from leaving the country. SHIELD agents swarm in to tease the fight that takes place next issue. On the plane to Genosha, Xavier and the rest of the group watch a transmission on TV from Cortez. Cortez is using Luna, the granddaughter of Magneto as a symbol to rally the mutants behind. Xavier and Beast are shocked to discover that Luna is in the hands of Cortez.

How It Was: Bloodties is a five issue crossover between the X-Men and the Avengers. If you’re wondering why the Marvel offices found this necessary, since the X-Men just got done with a big crossover, let me explain. You see the X-Men and the Avengers both debuted in 1963, so in 1993 it was both titles’ thirtieth anniversaries. To commemorate this occasion, a crossover was commissioned by the powers that be. Also, it is important to remember that at this time the X-Men were Marvel’s best selling comics, while the Avengers weren’t doing great, so Marvel was banking on boosting sales for a couple of months and maybe getting some new readers. So Luna gets kidnapped in order to bring both teams into the picture, although it is really more of a premise for an Avengers/X-Factor crossover, given that Quicksilver isn’t actually an X-Man. Anyways, over the course of these five issues, we will find that there is too little plot and too many characters to distribute over the course of this story.

This issue is really nothing but set up. There are a couple of quick action scenes, including a Danger Room sequence—the go-to plot device for action sequences before a story has gotten to the conflict. The first thing you’ll note is that we are dealing with over two dozen characters, and the story hasn’t even gotten properly started yet. The poor West Coast Avengers really have no reason to be in this story, and this isn’t exactly the greatest Avengers roster ever; there’s no Iron Man or Thor, but we do get Sersi, Black Knight, Hercules, and Crystal? On the other hand, I do like the idea of the Avengers’ commitment to the UN conflicting with their desire to just go out and help people. It’s interesting to see the Avengers treated like criminals, especially when you look at the rest of the issues that have Trish Tilby describing the X-Men as heroes on the news.

Actually, this issue has some fun moments, like Beast’s interaction with Gyrich, and Iceman’s prank on Rogue. Looking past these moments however, the rest of this issue is just assigning which characters are going where, and what they are doing. It succeeds in that, but the reader doesn’t really get a feel for the threat of the story. The central conflict should be the war in Genosha, but we don’t see any of it, other than some burning buildings in the beginning and some generic pictures of soldiers on viewscreens in the background. A scene or two showing the humans and mutants at war with each other and the animosity between the two sides might have upped the tension a little bit. Instead, the only tension created is for the fate of Luna, but it’s hard to believe that four super hero squads wouldn’t be able to save her (although I guess if Illyana Rasputin could die, why not a different little girl?).

The art is pretty good, and it must have been a daunting task with so many characters to draw. Epting does a nice standard Marvel House Style; it complements Andy Kubert’s style very nicely. My one nitpick would be that he portrays a lot of characters with five o’clock shadows, but I can live with that. The real problem is that all characters are just standing around talking, and then there is one explosion. This issue serves as an okay set up, but it fails to really light a fire under the reader—the conflict of the story isn’t thrilling enough to really enliven, it just kind of rolls along at its own pace.

B-