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-

Uncanny X-Men #304

Uncanny X-Men #304
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: John Romita Jr. 

What Went Down: Part 3 of Fatal Attraction: The Acolytes begin the issue by trying to kill their defacto leader Fabian Cortez. The reason for this is that Exodus has come down from Avalon to tell the Acolytes that Magneto is alive and Cortez tried to kill him. Amelia Voght is about to suffocate him, but Exodus spares Cortez’s life and teleports the team away. As he leaves, Exodus mentions that Cortez will be the victim of someone else’s legacy; this seems like a pretty obvious foreshadow of Cortez getting the Legacy Virus, but he never does.

Over at X-Men HQ, it’s the day of Illyana Rasputin’s funeral and Xavier is depressed that he couldn’t saver her. His girlfriend Lilandra beams a holographic message to him saying that she shares his pain and that it wasn’t his fault. Xavier wheels himself to his study and brings up a screen that says “The Magneto Protocols.”

Up on Avalon, Magneto gives a monologue about how he wishes that he could save every human, but now admits that the world is doomed. He flashes back to the death of his first daughter Anya. When humans attacked him and caused him to drop his daughter’s body, Magneto went crazy and killed them all.

Meanwhile Kitty Pryde is scouring the kitchen for something to eat. When Kitty questions the purpose of being a mutant, Storm flies her into the sky to cheer her up. Unfortunately they find Colossus burning all of his paintings as he grieves. Kitty tries to comfort him, but he is still emotionless.

Apparently there is a chapel on Xavier’s property, so Bishop and Banshee are setting up for the funeral there. Bishop doesn’t understand the purpose of a memorial service, and Banshee comments that he must come from a very horrible future indeed. Bishop drops an allusion that Banshee was said to lead the next generation—an obvious foreshadowing of the upcoming series, Generation X.

All of the X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force, and Excalibur attend the funeral, making this the only real part where all of the teams crossover. After the service, Colossus confronts Professor X and blames his dream for failing him and his sister. Before the discussion can continue, Magneto and the Acolytes show up. Using his powers, Magneto is able to prevent every hero from moving as he offers the X-teams salvation on his base Avalon.

Quicksilver brings up the massacre of innocent humans in X-Factor #92. To set an example, Magneto kills the Acolyte Senyaka, even though he claims that he would have sanctioned the attack if he had been available. Magneto then proceeds to bring Avalon down over New York and right above the mansion; Xavier notes that the base contains Shi’ar weaponry that Magneto took while he was headmaster.

The whole time Magneto has been talking, Bishop’s powers have been passively absorbing his magnetic energy. Bishop lets it go, staggering Magneto and destroying the chapel. Cyclops and the other energy-wielding mutants decide to charge up Bishop with as much energy as possible, while Rogue tries to absorb Magneto’s powers. Bishop attacks with all of his stored energy, backed up by the rest of the X-Men. As Magneto takes damage, his base tries to break up, since he is apparently holding it together by his will; Jean struggles to hold it up.

Colossus prevents Bishop from finishing Magneto and offers to join the Acolytes. Magneto accepts, much to the shock of everybody else. Xavier takes control of Magneto and uses his powers to push Avalon back into space. The result leaves him exhausted and hanging onto Magneto in space. Xavier begins to fall, but Archangel eventually catches him.

How It Was: Finally, the X-Teams actually crossover during the crossover. And for the most part, I think Lobdell makes this issue work pretty well. We are treated to some nice character moments from Professor X, Kitty, Colossus, and Bishop that explore each X-Man’s reaction to Illyana’s death. While there is a little bit of flowery narration, it still manages to fit the tone of the issue and doesn’t stand out too much. Unfortunately, with so many characters in one issue, a lot of them feel needlessly forced into the action; most characters have one line or fewer. Plus, with the inclusion of so many characters, it makes the absence of other characters readily apparent; for instance, how come Rachel Summers, Psylocke, and Moira MacTaggert don’t appear at all?

Although the funeral is important to the plot of this issue, the central focus is once again the appearance of Magneto. This is a very controversial take on the villain that tends to split fans. Many see Magneto as acting crazy in this issue by crashing a funeral, bringing his Acolytes with him, and killing one of them in front of everybody. It doesn’t lend much credibility to his followers that they don’t think twice after seeing Senyaka gutted. But I think what Lobdell and Nicieza are trying so hard to convey is Magneto’s frustration with the whole back and forth with the X-Men. For years he’s tried to conquer the world in an attempt to bring safety to mutants, but finally he’s fed up and realizes that he can’t save everyone. At the same time Cortez has betrayed him and he needs to make a statement of strength for all of those who do follow him. Why didn’t he use Cortez instead? Errr… well Cortez is needed for the Avengers/X-Men crossover Bloodties that takes place after Fatal Attractions.

The whole basis of Magneto’s character is that he believes he has to subvert humanity before they subvert mutants—by any means necessary, and this issue marks his realization that he can’t save all mutants (tying in quite well thematically to X-Force’s rejection of him in X-Force #25). As for Colossus’ decision to join Magneto, I think it has been set up very well for the last couple of months. Some people read Peter joining Magneto after seeing Senyaka murdered as stupid, but if you look at the dark place the character is in at this point, he really doesn’t have a lot to live for. He’s looking to lash out at the world, and he really doesn’t care about what happens to himself. So while many will argue with the directions certain characters take in this issue, I think that their actions are perfectly justified on the part of the writers.

On the other hand, I am less than impressed with the fight this issue. The Acolytes are wheeled out to give the impression of a potential battle royale, but then Magneto just shoves them back on Avalon. Even with all of his power, I find it hard to believe that Magneto can single handedly beat all four X-Teams by himself, and the fact that the heroes’ whole strategy relies on supercharging Bishop feels kind of gimmicky, especially when you take into consideration that Magneto is holding Avalon in the air while holding back the X-Men.

I think this issue does a great job with Magneto; people argue that the characterization isn’t true to Magneto, but what Lobdell set out to do was portray a Magneto on the brink, finally willing to begin his war on humanity after so many battles with the X-Men. The back and forth between Xavier and Magneto at the end of the issue shows that these are still the same characters, they are just more committed to their opposing philosophies than ever before. It may be a stretch for some readers, but you have to take into consideration that in the last Magneto story he was basically ready to retire, but he got pulled back into the conflict and it almost cost him his life. That’s enough to make anyone up the stakes. Plus the Magneto flashback sets up the fact that Magneto is both dangerously unstable and that he is tortured by the fact that he cannot control his fate and the fates of those he cares about. The end result is a more dangerous, more unpredictable Magneto, and that has to lead to nothing but good things for readers.

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-

Uncanny X-Men #300

Uncanny X-Men #300
Writer: Scott Lobdell
Art: John Romita Jr. and Brandon Peterson

What Went Down: Surprisingly, we begin with a one page splash of Nightcrawler teleporting in. Even though at this point he is the leader of Excalibur, Professor X urgently contacts him to meet the team in France, presumably because he is a fan favorite character.

Right off the bat, Nightcrawler is attacked by Forge, but easily dodges the attack, proving to Forge that Kurt is who he says he is. Forge is paranoid since the bad guys have the ability to block Cerebro, so he gives Nightcrawler a device the X-Men will need to find them. Forge then leaves in a huff, mostly because he is angry at the other X-Men, mostly Storm.

Across town, the Gold Team, plus Cyclops and Wolverine, are searching the flaming MacTaggart estate to confirm that Moira is not in it. A mob of people show up, angry about an incident that occurred in Uncanny X-Men #200, but Xavier makes the mob think they left with his powers. This makes members of the team uneasy.

There’s a brief flashback depicting Charles showing Moira the prospective candidates for his first and second classes of X-Men during a picnic. This turns out to be an effect of the Acolyte Milan, who has the power to project people’s memories onto TV screens. Thrilling. Amelia Voght is introduced, who can teleport, and is questioning Cortez’s reasoning for keeping Moira alive after abducting her. Cortez wants Moira interrogated so he can attain the mind control serum that Magneto used on the X-Men in X-Men #1-3. Unfortunately for him, Moira also knows that Cortez is responsible for Magneto’s death, which could make things difficult for the current Acolyte leader. A young Acolyte named Neophyte shows compassion to Moira by bringing her food. The X-Men meet up with Nightcrawler.

In the Blackbird, after talking to Stevie Hunter, Colossus is whining about not being able to be with his sister. When Iceman tries to empathize, Peter rejects his feelings, pissing Bobby off.

Meanwhile, Moira tells Neophyte that Cortez killed Magneto as Bishop leads the X-Men to the Acolyte hideout. While Cortez talks to the Gamemaster about the Upstarts game, Neophyte “morphs” into the room (later his power is just referred to as phasing, like Kitty Pryde) and discovers the truth about Cortez. After being attacked by Cortez, a human woman tries to help Neophyte, but she is killed by more Acolytes.

The X-Men save Neophyte, then burst in to save Moira. A large fight ensues. The X-Men win, and Xavier discovers Amelia worshiping Magneto’s helmet. Their conversation also reveals that they have a history together, and she blames humans for the deaths of her loved ones.

Bishop catches up with Cortez, who uses his power to overwhelm Bishop with energy. Before Cortez can kill Bishop, Neophyte intervenes to save the X-Man. Wolverine stabs Cortez, and Neophyte rejects an offer to join the X-Men.

What Else Went Down: During the epilogue that takes place weeks later, Amelia teleports the injured Cortez to a new hideout. She seems unconcerned with Cortez’s attitude, causing him to worry whether she has discovered the truth about Magneto or not. The Gamemaster calls to let Cortez know that he lost all of his points. The reason, we later find out, is that Magneto is not dead at all.

At the mansion, Moira and Xavier are analyzing the virus Moira encountered in X-Factor. This is the beginning of the Legacy Virus storyline, which is about a virus that kills mutants, has no cure, and was set loose by Stryfe. As the two scientists discuss the severity of this virus, Colossus is tucking his sick sister Illyana into bed, implying to the reader that she has been infected with the fatal virus.

How It Was: Well it’s issue 300, so we get a double sized story and a shiny cardboard cover. Whoopee. Double-sized means a whole lot more space to fill, and fill it they do. Where to start? First off, this comic is overflowing with characters. We have the gold team, Wolverine, Cyclops, for absolutely no reason Nightcrawler, Forge for a second, plus about a dozen Acolytes. Of the Acolytes, two have distinctive personalities, and one of those is an idiot who can’t understand how humans can be nice. The rest of the poor Acolytes don’t have a single personality to share between themselves.

Nightcrawler’s inclusion should be exciting, but his purpose in the story is to literally stand around and wait for the X-Men to get there and give them something to further the story. As for the rest, Forge is acting crazy, Storm is complaining about Cyclops leading her team, and Iceman takes Colossus’ distraught attitude over his sister personally. None of it is really deep or interesting, and the heroes take far too long to find the bad guys. Stupid double pages.

Also there are a couple of inconsistencies. There is a brief mention of Milan destroying Moira’s memories by destroying the console, but nothing comes of it. Why does Cortez want the formula to Moira’s mind control serum when it doesn’t work very well, as seen in X-Men #1-3? And why is Stevie Hunter taking care of Illyana; what possible purpose does she have to still be hanging out with the X-Men?

Things pick up towards the end as the fighting is suitably flashy and has its moments (Jean throwing an Acolyte into the next time zone, Iceman crushing an Acolyte right behind Wolverine with a huge block of ice). I also like Cortez’s character and his attempts to manipulate his followers while being terrified that they might find out the truth. He’s a great weasel. Plus, there are some major revelations at the end of the issue that will drive this title for months to come.

The art is fantastic. John Romita Jr. joins the X-office and draws an impressive issue. Even the pages where the X-Men are looking through an empty flaming building are impressive to look at. My only regret with Romita is that he has a tendency to draw pages sideways so that you have to tilt the comic to read the panels; it annoys me to no end. This is an issue that could be cut in half and not suffer one bit. There is so much that is unnecessary that it really takes away from the better parts of this issue.

B-