X-Men #43

X-Men #43
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Paul Smith

What Went Down: At the mansion, Bishop and Beast are observing Xavier straining to find Jean and Cyclops after they disappeared last issue. On Avalon, the Acolytes are attacking the two X-Men while Exodus and Holocaust continue to fight and tear apart the space station. Some of the Acolytes blame the X-Men for bringing Holocaust aboard, which makes absolutely no sense at all, but there you have it. Jean discovers that Skids is outside in space, protected only by her forcefield. Jean reads her mind to figure out what is going on, as well as fill in new readers on what the story is about. They also find out Rusty Collins is dead, which angers them because they used to take care of Rusty as members of X-Factor.

Jean tries to contact Exodus, and we learn that Exodus is a very powerful telepath as well. Holocaust kills another Acolyte, Javitz, and Exodus flips out on him. In another part of the station, Colossus gets the catatonic Magneto to an escape pod, but decides to go back to help Scott and Jean. Outside the X-Mansion, Amelia Voght is trying to get in, but Bishop won’t allow her to enter. Voght just teleports in instead, but the effort weakens her. She tells Xavier that he won’t find his X-Men anywhere on the planet because they’re on Avalon.

Cyclops convinces the Acolytes to stop fighting so they can all help each other escape. Jean leaves to go help Skids while Cyclops leads the other Acolytes to safety. Xavier contacts Jean, then Colossus, telling him to make his escape. The Acolytes find that all of the escape pods are gone, so Cyclops has the Acolyte Unuscione project her exoskeleton around the chunk of station they’re all in. Jean joins Skids on some space debris and helps boost Skids’ forcefield with her telekinesis.

How It Was: For an introduction to such a forgettable villain, this story really does stand on as feeling significant, even today. The stakes work because the Acolytes have been genuine presences in the X-Men books, yet it doesn’t feel like Nicieza is wasting perfectly good characters because the Acolytes have mostly been faceless dead weight in all of their appearances. The destruction of Avalon is an awesome sight, and the addition of Scott and Jean just adds to the chaos of the story. There’s plenty of action, but all of the action serves a greater purpose, and the reactions of the characters mostly seem natural for the given situation.

Xavier’s scenes searching for his students are a little slower; it feels like it takes Voght forever to cross the X-Men’s front yard from last issue. The art is once again really nice looking, and the only nitpick I have is that the artist depicts Scott’s blast going through his glasses instead of having him lift them up. It’s also nice to see Colossus still putting himself before others. Just a really exciting issue.

B+

X-Men #42

X-Men #42
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Paul Smith

What Went Down: The Acolytes have recovered the space debris from X-Men: Prime and brought it aboard their home base Avalon. Kooky old Exodus is convinced that this is some kind of fortuitous sign from God, and many of the other Acolytes start to catch on that Exodus might not be all together sane. Many, including Colossus, question the safety of bringing an unknown life form aboard. The Acolyte Milan is tasked with analyzing the mystery mutant; he is overwhelmed with images and memories of the Age of Apocalypse before being disintegrated and absorbed by the mutant, who turns out to be Holocaust.

In the mansion, Professor X is watching a news report about the battle with the Juggernaut in New Jersey. Storm comes in to announce the club murder plot points from Uncanny #322 for the Professor’s benefit, as well as voice her fears about Wolverine’s well being. Down in the basement, the Beast is analyzing Juggernaut after their fight; he is also taking care of Gambit and Sabretooth in the medical ward.

In Florida, a trenchcoated figure who looks a lot like Gambit charges a card to break into a house to steal a helmet. The figure is stopped by Iceman, and we learn that it’s Rogue, who is reliving memories from Gambit’s life.

Up on Avalon, Rusty and Skids are talking about possibly defecting with Colossus. Scanner calls and tells them that Exodus has ordered Rusty to check in on Milan. Skids worries that Exodus is aware that they were questioning his authority, but Rusty tells her not to worry. Rusty finds that Milan is missing and that the stranger looks stronger. Rusty is then killed, but not before Scanner calls and sees him die.

Holocaust emerges and is confronted by Exodus. Holocaust mistakes him for the Exodus in the Age of Apocalypse that was an X-Man; he also reveals Exodus’ real name, Paris. Exodus gets mad for being called an X-Man, and the two begin a fight that tears a hole in the space station.

Back on Earth, Scott and Jean are returning from Jean’s parents’ house after telling them that her sister Sara was dead in Uncanny #322. Coincidentally, Amelia Voght teleports directly in front of their car, which somehow causes them to go through the portal she opened. This results in Cyclops and Jean ending up on Avalon in the middle of all of the wackiness.

How It Was: The highlight of this issue is probably the characters on Avalon. While Exodus is still a one-dimensional loony toon, it’s nice to see that a lot of the Acolytes are starting to question the overt craziness of their leader, you know, like real people would. Even more surprising is that characters like Milan, Skids, and Rusty are shown with actual personalities, relationships, and flaws for the first time in a long time. Of course then two of them die, which is a shame for the Acolytes to be dissolved right as someone thought to characterize them a little. But I actually felt a little bad when Rusty died, and he hasn’t had any character development in ages.

I also really like Holocaust’s response to the whole situation as he mistakes Magneto and Exodus for X-Men trying to battle his father. And it’s nice to see Exodus get some comeuppance as the “sign” he foresaw turns out to be a character as crazy and powerful as he is.

It’s also nice to see the X-books making a bigger effort to connect with each other. This is done really well with the scenes of Beast analyzing the Juggernaut, and not so well when Storm shows up to info-dump a bunch of information from other X-Men books that the Professor should already be aware of. Even the fact that Cyclops and Jean get hijacked while returning from events in a different title is a neat detail for fans. The Rogue/Gambit stuff is a little bit of a misfire since Nicieza has her remember all this stuff about Gambit’s past only to forget about it in a couple of issues.

Paul Smith’s art is a little softer then Kubert’s. It’s really nice and the colorist does a great job with the issue, but there are a few details to pick at. Smith uses the Age of Apocalypse design of Iceman, which is never used again. Also, Holocaust outside of his suit turns out to equal Ghost Rider with beady eyes, which is a real disappointment. Plus Xavier’s mansion is drawn much smaller than it usually is.

This book is doing slightly better than Uncanny at this point in regards to quality. The story has bigger stakes, and it’s nice to see Nicieza take some blank slates and make them actually interesting, even if he does kill them off a couple of pages later. Once again, the narrow focus is working well for the book, and it’s great to see Colossus again.

B+

Amazing X-Men #1

Amazing X-Men #1
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: We start off with a prologue following a group of vagabond humans in Maine. They are traveling to a meeting where they are hoping to be transported to Eurasia, since Apocalypse has taken over the United States. A hooded figure is talking with a family about the trek. Afterwards, the stranger walks off into the woods and reveals herself to be the shapeshifter Vanessa Carlyle—Copycat in the standard universe. Vanessa informs other agents of Apocalypse—this universe’s version of the Brotherhood—about the humans’ hope to escape.

At the mansion in New York, Bishop watches while a team of X-Men performs a training exercise. This team includes leader Quicksilver, second in command Banshee, Dazzler, Iceman, Storm, and Exodus. The goal of the exercise is to get a control disk inside the Sentinel to reprogram it to recognize the X-Men as friends. The team completes the exercise, but Quicksilver’s time is a tenth of a second too slow. In actuality, the team is preparing for a real life mission where they will have to accomplish the same goal, using Dazzler’s hard-light holograms as a pseudo-Danger Room. Magneto shows up to caution his team about neglecting a fallen opponent; many members of the team show concern about the fact that Bishop is holding Magneto’s son, Charles.

Magneto takes the time to explain what is happening in all of the other AoA books, and tells the team that they need to leave. Iceman offers to invert their molecules through moisture, but there is concern that this will leave the X-Men weakened. Instead, Magneto tells Exodus to teleport the team to Maine, even though this is his first time using that power.

In the humans’ camp, the young boy and girl from the family earlier are chasing each other; the boy bumps into Quicksilver and apologizes. Out over the ocean, Storm flies through Apocalypse’s defense field to disable its sensors with electricity. Just when the tower is about to detect her, Sentinels burst through and destroy the tower. Fortunately Storm is cloaked with her electricity powers.

The next day as the group of people continues their journey, the young boy runs ahead, but he is captured by one of Apocalypse’s Horsemen named Abyss. The people reach the rendezvous point, and the Sentinels arrive to transport them to Europe. The X-Men install the disk in one of the Sentinels to reprogram all of them, but unfortunately the alternate version of Madison Jeffries has used his powers to reprogram the disk to target humans and X-Men as enemies. Iceman is blasted apart, but everyone notes that he will be able to pull himself together. A member of the Madri, Apocalypse’s cult-like soldiers, leads the AoA Brotherhood to attack the X-Men for the cliffhanger.

How It Was: All right, now we get to the adjective-less X-Men replacement. Actually, this issue follows the formula of Astonishing #1 pretty closely. Magneto shows up to explain the plot, the main players, the plots of the rest of the tie-in series, and the mission for the individual squad. Too bad this series isn’t quite as good as Astonishing, mostly due to the roster choice. Yes there are some interesting inclusions like Dazzler and Exodus, but nothing much is done with any of these characters. Exodus is still a zealot who will do anything Magneto wants, and the big twist on Dazzler’s character is that…um she smokes and acts cranky. Really that’s the only significant difference for most of the X-Men in this series; they’re the same characters, only angrier. As for the plotline of the series, the human exodus isn’t really that exciting, but that plot finishes up with issue two and then the really good action gets going.

Apocalypse’s Brotherhood also fails to inspire awe; who can say that they’d get really excited at the thought of a battle with Yeti, Copycat, Spyne, or Arclight? Nicieza is really scraping the bottom of the Marvel Universe Handbook with this book. Of course Abyss is the real antagonist, but whereas Holocaust wanted to murder hundreds of humans in Chicago, Abyss kidnaps a little boy to lure the X-Men into a trap. He’s not quite as menacing as most of the other villains in the AoA, which is a shame because to my knowledge he is one of the few original characters in this series.

There are a few good moments. I like how everyone mistrusts Bishop, and starts to question Magneto by association. Quicksilver is a much more likable character as a leader, and it’s neat to see Iceman demonstrate his full potential powers-wise. Regrettably, most of the characters don’t get a lot of room to develop, and a lot of ideas and plot points that get setup are pushed to the side or end up being forgotten about. Storm mentions that she is in love with Quicksilver, but nothing comes of it. The Sentinel redesigns look very cool, but they don’t get to do a lot either. The first half of this series does feel like a stall until we can get to the stuff with Apocalypse.

Well, the art is phenomenal with all of the redesigned costumes looking really great, except for Exodus’, which I always found kind of ordinary. Still, all the other costumes do a great job reflecting the characters' past selves while managing to maintain the darker tone. Kubert does some great work with what he’s given; the scenes with Storm and the Sentinels attacking the tower are particularly exciting. My only complaint is that Dazzler’s light blasts are rainbow-colored in this dimension, which always looked kind of silly to me. This is not a particularly gripping issue, but this book does improve over the course of the run.

C+

Uncanny X-Men #315

Uncanny X-Men #315
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Roger Cruz

What Went Down: We open up on an awesome, although incredibly different looking, splash of Avalon--the Acolytes’ space station base. Colossus is serving as the council for prisoner Neophyte, the Acolyte who turned on Fabian Cortez in Uncanny #300. The Acolytes want to sentence him to death for betraying them, but Colossus believes everyone should have the right to choose their destiny.

In another part of the base, Exodus is ranting to the comatose Magneto, showing that he is probably not all together there in the head. The Acolyte Scanner interrupts his rant, and Exodus threatens her for seeing the face of Magneto.

Amelia Voght is serving as the prosecutor for Neophyte’s trial. Even though she disagrees with the other Acolytes, she doesn’t trust that her decisions matter at all. Peter argues that Neophyte was really honoring Magneto in his own way, by stopping the torture of an innocent and exploring other ways of furthering mutantkind. Voght calls the boring Acolyte Milan to the stand. He uses his power to project thoughts visually (yawwnn) to show how the Acolytes first rescued Neophyte from an abandoned church before he joined the team. Some of the Acolytes start a fight when Xavier is mentioned, and Exodus uses his powers to separate them.

As the judge and jury of the trial, Exodus tells the Acolytes that he is going to discuss the evidence with Magneto. Once again, Magneto is sitting on a throne drooling, so Exodus is not exactly acting logical. Exodus returns and seems to be leaning towards executing Neophyte, but Colossus interrupts with a long diatribe. As Colossus’ words start to convince some of the Acolytes, including Voght, Exodus decides to just banish Neophyte as opposed to killing him. Exodus returns to Magneto’s room to rant some more to himself.

How It Was: This one comes straight out of left field, mostly because Lobdell doesn’t want to start a new story before two crossovers. It’s also an entire issue with no current X-Men members whatsoever. The narrow focus of just the Acolytes actually works in this issue’s favor. It is nice to see that Colossus is still the character we all know and love and joining the Acolytes hasn’t altered his personality greatly. This is a great issue for Peter; Voght and him really shine among a collection of one-dimensional Acolytes, including Neophyte. The idea that Colossus tries to incorporate Magneto’s philosophy into his own established worldview is a really interesting take on a hero turned villain. On the other hand, I feel like some of Peter’s observations about Magneto are somewhat skewed as he really gives the villain the benefit of the doubt in a lot of instances and exaggerates the villain’s tolerance for people and their intentions. There are also the beginnings of a political framework being introduced that unfortunately never really get expanded upon after this issue.

Exodus is just a really disappointing antagonist. The fact that his super villain team is just sitting around doing nothing in space shows how little there is to old crazy, powerful Exodus. He is even abusive to the other Acolytes, which creates an interesting tension where later the members feel trapped and want to rebel, but for now the Acolytes just look like morons for blindly following an even bigger moron.

In case you’re keeping track, Joe Mad is once again absent from his drawing duties, although to be fair, Kubert is also off this month to work on upcoming crossovers. Still, this is two months in a row, which isn’t a good sign.

This is actually a really interesting one-shot story that presents and analyzes the themes of the comic in an interesting way. Really it is an entire issue of characters just standing around and talking, but this issue has some great merits. This is the best-written Colossus that has appeared in a while; he’s not the broken and (rightfully) depressed sad sack. Here he is confident, righteous, and doing more than he has done in many, many issues. One to check out if you’re curious for something different than the usual.

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

X-Force #25

X-Force #25
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Greg Capullo

What Went Down: Part 2 of Fatal Attractions: A mysterious shadowed character is looking through files of various X-characters and mentions an interest in X-Force. It’s Magneto, in case you were wondering. At Camp Verde, home base of X-Force, a different shadowy figure holding a large gun is observing the team’s return from a mission. Feral smells an intruder, so Cannonball orders the team to break off into twos and search for him. Each group gets taken down in a non-lethal manner before the intruder is subdued by Cannonball. And surprise, surprise: the mysterious character is Cable, returning to the team for the first time since the X-Cutioner’s Song. In case you were wondering, Cable was off having his own adventures in the future in his solo title.

Most everybody is excited to see that Cable is still alive; Feral informs us that Cable’s scent is different, so she was not able to identify him earlier. On the other hand, Rictor and Sunspot are decidedly not happy to see Cable. That is until he informs them that they are both wrong about Cable being responsible for the deaths of their respective fathers; Stryfe killed Rictor’s father, and Gideon the External killed Sunpot’s dad. Cannonball and Cable share a hug over the burden of leadership.

While half of the team hangs outside, the other half fills Cable in on what has occurred in his absence. One new development is that X-Force has saved their brainwashed friends Rusty and Skids from the Mutant Liberation Front; however, the two mutants must be kept unconscious so that they don’t attack their friends. Cable also reveals his real name, Nathan Dayspring, and part of his history to the group as a sign of faith. Their conversation is interrupted by an intruder alert.

Outside, Exodus emerges and takes out three of the four X-Force members outside. The rest of the team arrives, but they are also defeated. Exodus requests the presence of the New Mutants on the Acolytes’ new spacestation base Avalon. Cannonball agrees as long as all of the New Mutants, plus Rusty and Skids, are allowed to come. While this initially appears to be a betrayal on his part, Cable reveals that Sam planted a tracking device so that the rest of the team could follow.

Up on Avalon, Exodus gives a tour, and it is revealed that part of the station is composed of Cable’s old ship Graymalkin, and from technology gleaned from his computer, the Professor. A mystery man in a purple robe appears. Since Exodus bows before him, it is safe to assume that it is Magneto. Magneto then proceeds to cure Rusty and Skids’ brainwashing, giving them back their freedom.

On the X-Force ship, Cable feels conflicted about Greymalkin being used, since it represents the only item Cable has left from his time. Magneto invites the rest of X-Force to join him, and the rest of the team lands on the station. Cable’s group has a fight with Exodus before teleporting to Sam’s team. Cable wants to blow up Avalon, but Rusty and Skids want to stay because they feel grateful to Magneto. Cannonball convinces Cable that everyone has a right to make their own decisions, just as they did when they left Xavier’s. Cable agrees with him, but then he teleports everybody back to the ship. He runs to the computers and extracts the Professor from them; happily, the Professor’s personality is more or less intact. Before Cable can arm the station’s self-destruct, Magneto finds him and they fight. The fight ends with Magneto disintegrating the parts of Cable’s body that are contaminated with the techno-organic virus. Cable teleports away, and Magneto talks with Exodus about how Cable is the true winner since he won the loyalty of X-Force.

How It Was: A nice step up from the previous issue of the crossover since Magneto actually appears in it. Actually, Nicieza has found a nice balance of series story threads versus crossover story threads with this one. Cable’s return is great to see, and it feels like a natural fit for this crossover issue since Cable’s disappearance occurred at the end of the last crossover. Also Magneto’s return doesn’t overshadow Cable’s reunion as Nicieza gives plenty of space to Cable as he tries to reconnect with his team and reveal some newly discovered facts about his past to X-Force and X-Men readers. Magneto’s plot actually ties in thematically to Cable’s return as this issue focuses on both characters vying for control over X-Force and the subtle similarities and differences between their respective philosophies. Instead of side stepping continuity, Niceza uses this opportunity to remind readers that Magneto used to be in charge of the New Mutants, and this is his first time seeing them since then. Cannonball especially gets some nice scenes where he gets to stand up to both leaders and show his progress as a character and leader. Unfortunately, Rusty and Skids deprogramming does get lost in all the action happening, and their whole purpose for being on Avalon rings a little close to nothing but plot convenience. After all, why would Cannonball bring two mutants brainwashed to kill him as back up in an unknown situation.

So from a character standpoint, this issue hits a home run. As for the action, well…most of it feels a little forced at times. The introduction of Exodus is rather lackluster—he’s just your traditional one-dimensional Acolyte who worships the ground Magneto walks on and can’t be bothered with a personality for himself. He beats up all of X-Force by himself, so he is definitely established as powerful, but his rationale for initially attacking the team seems rather forced. The scenes in the beginning foreshadowing Cable’s return are much better, even if the identity of Cable is rather obvious to just about every reader. As for the climactic battle between Cable and Magneto, it’s nicely drawn, but when somebody attacks Magneto with guns, is there any question about the outcome? Side note: if Magneto dissolves Cable’s limbs that are infected with the techno-organic virus, shouldn’t they be gone for good? I don’t know since I never read the next issue, but Cable does get better in time to appear in Excalibur #75, the final part of this crossover.

On the art front, this is Greg Capullo’s last issue. All told, it’s a pretty good issue to end on as part of a major crossover, and one that sold particularly well. Everything is big and bright as it should be, and as mentioned before, Cable vs. Magneto is pretty awesome looking for the three pages that it lasts. You could probably ignore the X-Factor issue and start reading the crossover from this issue with nothing lost. The reintroduction of Magneto succeeds at bringing back all of the complexity of emotion that the character is known for as well as demonstrates how fierce and unpredictable he can be.

B+

X-Factor #92

X-Factor #92
Writing: Scott Lobdell and J.M. De Matteis
Art: Joe Quesada

What Went Down: Part 1 of Fatal Attractions: This issue opens with a nurse being interviewed by members of X-Factor about the Acolytes’ attack at a hospice that she worked at. Basically the Acolytes slaughtered everybody just for being human. Shortly after completing the interview, the nurse’s heart stops beating; X-Factor leaves as doctors file into the room to save her.

Unbeknownst to X-Factor, the Acolyte Scanner is using her power of astral projection to monitor the team. She reports to Fabian Cortez, who is insistent that he will soon have X-Factor member Quicksilver. He also abuses the girl when she questions the necessity of attacking harmless dying humans.

The rest of X-Factor meets up in a secure location where the Acolyte Spoor has been captured. The team wants to make him pay for the murders he’s committed, but their liaison Val Cooper stops them. Spoor acts defiant until Quicksilver walks in, after which the villain acts like he is in the presence of a god, since Quicksilver is the son of Magneto. Val decides to take Quicksilver and Random with her in case the Acolytes attack Project Wideawake, assuming that Quicksilver will have the same effect on the other Acolytes. The rest of the team decides to follow in a stealth craft powered by Polaris’ magnetic powers.

Along the way to the base, X-Factor glimpses Exodus in the villain’s first appearance; this is little more than a cameo, and we won’t learn his true purpose until the next issue of the crossover. At the military base, armed guards draw weapons on Val and company, but Quicksilver steals all of their guns. Inside, Random and Quicksilver discover that Project Wideawake is the codename for a new Sentinel project. The rest of X-Factor arrives just in time to be angry with Val. Surprisingly, Pietro sides with the humans, saying that the Acolytes justify the humans’ fear and caution.

Before the debate can get very far, the Acolytes do attack, and a fight ensues. Highlights include Multiple Man being forced to kill the Acolyte Mellencamp by creating a double inside of the villain, and Wolfsbane rescuing Senator Kelly. Fabian Cortez tries to convince Quicksilver to join them, but he refuses. Amelia Voght teleports all of the Acolytes away, and it is revealed that Val was being mind controlled by some green gunk in her stomach, explaining why she brought Quicksilver into a trap. Unfortunately for her, X-Factor is still angry that she hid the Sentinels’ existence from them prior to being controlled.

How It Was: This issue marks the beginning of Fatal Attractions, a very odd crossover where the issues involved don’t make up parts of a story; they just share a common story theme or villain. Apparently this was in response to some fans complaining about how much crossovers like the X-Cutioner’s Song set them back money-wise. The idea is that every issue in the series can be enjoyed independently of each other while still telling a fraction of the story of Magneto’s resurrection and attempt at domination. Of course, this meant that some of the issues only loosely connected to the other ones. And since the crossover is made up of six issues priced at $3.50, most fans ended up spending more money for half as many issues as the previous crossover. Oh well, at least the covers are cardstock and each contains a cool hologram on them. Those holograms are really fun to look at.

As for the story, this issue has probably the loosest association to the rest of the crossover. All that happens is that Cortez has the Acolytes attack sick people at a hospice because he is a jerk, and then X-Factor fights the Acolytes because… well the only reason I can think of is so that the other X-teams don’t feel the necessity to fight them later, and they don’t. The dialogue is still quite good despite the absence of series visionary Peter David. The comedic tone and emotional beats of the heroes feel just like David might have written them. Unfortunately, the Acolytes don’t fair as well, when all of their members either act like homicidal maniacs or idiots too stupid to question the tactical advantage of fighting dying hospital patients.

Overall, this issue just doesn’t contribute that much to the overall narrative of the crossover. The only moments to really take away from it are the brief appearance by Exodus, which gets fleshed out in X-Force #25, and the fact that Cortez identifies Quicksilver as the son of Magneto, which comes into play in the Bloodties crossover that takes place right after Fatal Attractions. So we have a bunch of plot elements that get resolved in other books. Like I said it’s missable, but the writing and art make this an enjoyable issue nonetheless.

B-