X-Men #25

X-Men #25
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Part 4 of Fatal Attractions: The U.N. votes to enact the Magneto Protocols, which involves using a series of satellites to surround the Earth in an energy field that prevents Magneto from using his powers within it. Magneto treats this act as a provocation and decides to teach the humans a lesson. Unfortunately for planet Earth, the satellites used in the field are made of metal, so Magneto is able to not only wreck them all with his powers, but he also uses them to create an EM blast that effectively turns off all of the electricity in the entire world. Nick Fury, Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, Sunfire, Nightcrawler, and Captain Britain (who is supposed to be trapped in Limbo) all appear in cameos to give a sense of gravity and show how this story is affecting the entire Marvel Universe.

Of course, the only place to not be stuck in permanent blackout is Xavier’s mansion, since they have Shi’ar technology integrated into their regular technology. Cyclops briefs the team on the situation and explains the worldwide blackout and the fact that millions of people are probably dead because of it. Xavier has taken the position that they are fighting for survival and must finish Magneto once and for all.

Later in the War Room, Beast, Jean, and Cyclops discuss whether the original non-lethal practices of the X-Men are outdated. Xavier walks in on them, sporting an exoskeleton that allows him to walk by using his mental powers. Xavier explains that the plan is to teleport a small team to Avalon and take out Magneto. Because he thinks it may be a suicide mission, Xavier refrains from bringing more of his original students with him. In the changing room, Rogue wonders whose side she will be on, but Gambit reassures her that she will make the right choice.

Xavier gives a rousing speech about the dream, and then the team proceeds to use a Shi’ar teleporter to teleport onto Avalon. It just so happens that Colossus is on security watch for the Acolytes, so he chooses not to alert the rest of the team to the presence of the X-Men.

As the team creeps through the station, they encounter Rusty and Skids. While Jean tries to reason with them, Xavier announces that they don’t have time and uses his powers to make them fall asleep. Then Quicksilver is given the task of uploading a disc into one of the base’s terminals, which tells the base’s computer to teleport the Acolytes off of the base. This leaves Magneto alone for them to deal with. Magneto discovers them and attacks first.

The plan goes that Jean and Xavier are to attack Magneto’s mind while the rest of the squad beats the crap out of him. The telepaths make him relive the horrors and failures of his life: his time in a Nazi concentration camp, the death of Douglas Ramsey, his wife and children abandoning him, and the betrayal of Fabian Cortez. Magneto decides he cannot allow his son to betray him, and is about to kill Quicksilver, when Wolverine jumps in. Unfortunately Jean breaks the connection because she cannot bear to torture Magneto. Wolverine injures Magneto, so in turn Magneto uses his powers to pull the adamantium from Wolverine’s bones. In a fit of rage, Professor X attacks Magneto and uses his powers to wipe the villain’s mind completely. Colossus appears and tells the X-Men that the teleporter is down, but he has sent word for Bishop to come in the Blackbird. Colossus decides to remain on Avalon and take care of Magneto while he is in his catatonic state because he feels guilty for allowing the X-Men to act unhindered. Jean does her best to stabilize Logan, and the squad leaves Peter to his charge.

How It Was: At the time, this was the issue everyone was talking about. Two unthinkable events in one issue: Wolverine loses his adamantium and Professor X uses his powers to destroy Magneto’s mind. The real question is, how has this comic aged?

Well let’s get the negative out of the way. The biggest criticism of this issue, as well as the most valid, is that the entire story is dependent on these deus ex machina style inventions that come out of nowhere. Apparently the X-Men happen to have a Star Trek teleportation device and a suit that can let Professor X walk just lying around, and these devices have never been used before or after this story. It would probably have made more sense if Forge had invented them and let the X-Men use them, or maybe if Nick Fury had let the team borrow them from a SHIELD armory. While it doesn’t ruin the issue, it is a fact that is difficult to reconcile with what we know about the X-Men. And while we’re on the subject of technology, whose idea was it to make a Magneto negating field out of metal satellites? Also, Captain Britain’s appearance is a continuity error; where was the editor on that one?

But the comic does have a lot going for it. There is a palpable sense of tension as Magneto leaves the entire world vulnerable to attack, and kills potentially millions in the process. This is a Magneto who is ready to end the conflict between man and mutant as quickly as possible, and it looks like he might have the upper hand. Also, the team Xavier picks to attack Avalon is pretty awesome. You have Jean and Xavier to attack him mentally, Rogue and Quicksilver because of their relationship towards him to throw him off guard, and Wolverine and Gambit because…well, because they are really popular characters. Honestly, I can’t think of why any great tactician would bring Wolverine to confront Magneto; we’ll call it a senior moment from Xavier. The final confrontation between Xavier and Magneto works really well and feels like a true culmination of all the encounters these two characters have had. It makes logical and emotional sense that Xavier would feel guilt for all of the people Magneto has killed since he has failed to stop Magneto time and time again. Magneto’s final words about underestimating his opponent punctuate the scene perfectly.

As for the loss of adamantium… well, it did happen. While it definitely felt like a stunt to make the crossover feel more epic, Marvel at least stuck to its guns and kept this as the status quo for a number of years. Still, it’s hard to get excited about this issue now, knowing that both Magneto and Wolverine’s adamantium eventually return, and this story has little to no impact on today’s X-Men. You just have to remind yourself that this did open up a number of legitimately good story ideas, and a couple of bad ones, for a character who was already pretty well defined (I’ll get more into my opinions of adamantium vs non-adamantium in the next review). Plus, the fight with Magneto is really good and it’s interesting to see Xavier attacking the villain’s insecurities while the rest of the team combats him with their powers; it’s just unfortunate that once again the Acolytes get pushed to the side so the writers don’t have to deal with them. Overall, this issue feels like a success since it does make long lasting, but not permanent, changes to the status quo and puts a decent cap on the Xavier/Magneto relationship, at least for the time.

B

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-Men #22

X-Men #22
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Previously in X-Men: when we last left our heroes they were about to engage in combat with the Silver Samurai. In this issue, they do indeed fight the Silver Samurai…for about five pages before beating him. Also, Beast is better now after being cut across the back with a katana blade charged with energy. During the fight, the Samurai stabs the picture of Kwannon, and afterwards Gambit discovers that the picture is actually hiding Nyorin’s diary.

In Tokyo, Shinobi Shaw meets with Matsuo, Nyorin, and the apparent leader of the Japanese underworld Lord Tatsuo. Tatsuo knocks Shinobi on his bottom for being arrogant and overconfident.

Across the pond in Alaska, Cyclops has just finished telling his grandparents about the death of Madelyne Pryor, and how he was forced to send his son Nathan to the future to save him. The grandparents are appropriately dismayed and confused. Scott is in the middle of telling them about Cable when they are interrupted by the Summers’ neighbor Mike Milbury asking to borrow a chainsaw. Super X-Men fans will note that Milbury is an alias often used by X-villain Mr. Sinister; other x-fans will just note the depiction with the red diamond on Mike’s forehead.

Even though she claims to be the original Betsy Braddock, Revanche is the only one capable of reading the Japanese diary of Nyorin. Rather than read the diary out loud, she decides to stab Psylocke with her psychic sword, allowing her to learn the story in the scroll. This version states that Kwannon was supposed to be on a mission when she discovered Betsy Braddock’s unconscious body. When she touched the body, Kwannon and Betsy’s minds merged for a bit. Kwannon than ran off to Matsuo while Betsy was found by Nyorin and aided so that she could bring back the woman he loves, Kwannon. Revanche is still sticking to the story that Psylocke is an impersonator.

The Gamemaster appears to Shinobi and Matsuo to basically explain that he is letting Matsuo kill Psylocke because he feels like it. The two Psylockes prepare to fight each other again, but Lord Nyorin and Silver Samurai interrupt them. Nyorin claims that both women are who they claim to be. Back in Alaska, Mr. Sinister confronts Cyclops outside in an ominous fashion.

How It Was: What a long story this turned out to be. Everything is basically the same as last issue. The two Betsys are threatening to beat each other up, Gambit and Beast somewhat humorously interject, and Cyclops is sad while with his grandparents. The fight between Silver Samurai and the X-Men is a nice distraction for a couple of pages, but ultimately just serves as a distraction to string out the plot. There is no real tension since he is outnumbered and dispatched fairly quickly.

But the major flaw with this story is Nyorin’s diary. First of all it reveals a brief, boring story with no twists that Nyorin couldn’t possibly know anyway; second, in about ten issues this story gets retconned and the diary is written off as a red herring left by Nyorin to confuse the girls. Add to that some meaningless scenes with Shinobi Shaw and the criminals of Tokyo, and you get one dull issue. At least the introduction of Sinister promises something potentially interesting, which it delivers.

Also, what really bothers me is all the characters getting summarily defeated, then showing up later in the same scene perfectly healthy. This happens to both Silver Samurai and Beast, who should both be out of commission for the rest of the story if Nicieza didn’t just have them waking up when they’re needed. Granted Nicieza had a difficult mandate for this story, but that doesn’t excuse this.

D+

X-Men #21

X-Men #21
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Brandon Peterson

What Went Down: We open on an awesome page spread of Wolverine’s claws pinning Psylocke’s head to the wall. She is asked whether she is really a spy for Lord Nyorin, an accusation that she refuses to acknowledge. Surprisingly, most of the X-Men believe that Revanche might be telling the truth, despite her having no proof other than her body. Psylocke doesn’t help her case by refusing to be scanned telepathically, although she claims that is because she is tired of being violated after her experiences with Mojo and Slayback; this is also meant to explain her more aggressive attitude in the X-books. Wolverine tells Xavier that neither of the Betsys is lying or telling the whole truth; since Revanche knows Ninja moves that only Psylocke/Kwannon should know, there is reason to doubt her story as well. Xavier decides that the team needs to go to Japan.

Up north in Alaska, Cyclops’ plane arrives at the airport, and his grandparents Phillip and Deborah Summers arrive to pick him up. After arriving at the cabin, Scott announces that he is going to tell his grandparents the truth about the deaths of his wife and child.

Slightly less north, in Seattle, Mesmero is being chased by the Dark Riders. Mesmero is able to hypnotize one of the riders, Psynapse, but he is killed by another member (actually years later he turns up alive, claiming that he hypnotized the Dark Riders to make them think he was dead). The remaining Dark Riders kill Psynapse, believing he is unfit because he is sick. Actually, he is supposed to be another mutant infected with the Legacy Virus.

Jumping around the globe again, this time to Tokyo, Lord Nyorin visits a drunken Shinobi Shaw. Shaw makes a deal that he will petition to reinstate Clan Yashida (the clan formerly run by Wolverine’s deceased girlfriend Mariko) if he receives help killing the X-Men.

Outside the Nyorin Estate, Gambit, Beast, and the two Betsys are sneaking in—Wolverine decided not to go because the memory of Mariko Yashida’s death is too fresh, so he goes off to the Savage Land with Rogue and Jubilee in Wolverine #70-71. The group in Japan is attacked by ninjas, which they easily defeat. Afterwards they discover a painting depicting Psylocke with two swords called “Kwannon in Repose.” Back at Shaw’s Tokyo estate, Shaw learns that Matsuo Tsuryaba has petitioned the Gamemaster to have Psylocke spared. Shaw is angry but agrees there is nothing he can do.

Back at Nyorin’s, Psylocke is getting ready to attack Revanche again when the Silver Samurai sneaks up on the Beast and slashes him in the back. He reveals that he must kill the X-Men for the sake of Clan Yashida.

How It Was: More Betsy Braddock battling. Alliteration aside, this story is amounting to be less than spectacular. Psylocke is really angry, understandably, because none of her friends are taking her side. At the same time, the rest of the X-Men have nothing better to do except for question who is telling the truth and yelling at the two to stop fighting. Even Gambit and Beast seem fed up with this storyline, focused more on getting the job done than uncovering the truth.

The other subplots don’t fair well either. The Cyclops thread is completely standard as all he does is go on to do what he said he was going to last issue. The Dark Riders subplot is actually really interesting, revolving around the Riders testing characters to see if they are worthy and killing the ones who are not. Unfortunately this entire subplot gets dropped after the next four issues and is never brought up again, so the “death” of Mesmero really happens for no reason. Matsuo’s machinations really make no sense in this initial version of the origin of Psylocke/Revanche; the later version clears up this inconsistency, but it is hard to rectify it at this point.

Peterson is filling in on art and it looks decent for the most part. The ninja fighting scenes, as well as the Mesmero chase scene, are all very nicely organized and depicted. However, his Revanche doesn’t look as good as Andy Kubert’s, and once again some of his characters look stiff and robot-like, particularly the panels with the drunken Shinobi Shaw. And there is definitely a problem when Shinobi Shaw is trying to kill Matsuo, and it is impossible to tell one character from the other.

This story continues to chug along at an all right pace. Because most of this story is retconned later, and it was never really that exciting to begin with, it’s hard to recommend this book to anybody other than X-completists.

D+

X-Men #20

X-Men #20
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Professor X is in his war room watching a reenactment of the events of the last three issues. Jubilee is with him, and he asks how she feels about the deaths of Colossus’ parents. She gives a cynical response and flees to check on Illyana before Xavier can follow up. Xavier checks in with Colossus; at this point everybody thinks Illyana might have strep throat, but really she has been infected with the Legacy Virus. Jubilee once again leaves before her feelings can overwhelm her and bumps into Psylocke who is dressed seductively and looking for Cyclops.

As it happens, Cyclops is down in the garage working on the Blackbird. Psylocke surprises him, and he clumsily slips and stumbles into her, knocking them both to the ground. As he stammers an apology, Psylocke licks some motor oil off of Scott and then kisses him. Cyclops pushes her away just in time to avoid being seen by his girlfriend Jean Grey. Scott leaves in a hurry, making Jean even more suspicious of Betsy.

Outside, Jubilee finds Wolverine chopping up trees; he is thinking about all the losses that the X-Men have suffered in the past couple of months. His meditation is interrupted by a strange scent, but he brushes it off as just being Psylocke.

Jean watches Beast and Gambit in the Danger Room and wonders if Beast feels that he has outgrown being an X-Man. Jean then checks on Rogue, who is having her vision tested by Storm; Rogue is now able to see again, but she is sensitive to light.

Cyclops packs a suitcase and decides to visit his grandparents in Alaska to tell them about his former wife Madelyne and his son Nathan, both of whom are dead. Storm cautions Cyclops not to run away from his relationship problems like she did with Forge. Jean watches him leave, then asks the computer to detect Psylocke; the computer has two locations, but Jean ignores the second.

In the Danger Room, Jean asks Psylocke whether she is having an affair with Cyclops. Psylocke answers by stabbing Jean with her psychic knife. According to the narration, this act showed Jean the reason Betsy was behaving this way, and then made her forget it; as ridiculous as this sounds, this point does come back up in later issues.

The former body of Betsy Braddock, Revanche, confronts Psylocke; Psylocke thinks it is a Danger Room program at first, until it calls her Kwannon and attacks her. The rest of the X-Men burst in, and Revanche accuses Psylocke of being an imposter.

How It Was: Well finally we are getting to the bottom of a couple of these mysteries, and finally subplots that have been going on for far too long are being resolved. Rogue gets her sight back, which is welcome indeed, and the Psylocke trying to sleep with Cyclops thread is finally getting put to an end. Unfortunately, we are also getting to the period of X-continuity with Revanche in it, and there are a lot of reasons to be unhappy with that.

During Claremont’s run, Psylocke’s originally British body was switched with a Japanese one after she went through the Siege Perilous, an annoying plot device that randomly manipulates characters for the sake of new story directions; this isn’t the last time the Siege Perilous screws with Psylocke either, but that is another story. Anyways, this is the story that explains what happened to Psylocke, except that in about nine or so issues it gets revised and completely changed around. Psylocke herself is really not interesting from a character standpoint; from the perspective of the artist, she is a lot more interesting. Not only does she not have a fully developed personality like the other members of the group, her powers are redundant on a team that already has two really powerful telepaths. So for nine issues we get stuck with two Psylockes on the X-Men, but the second one, Revanche, doesn’t really have a lot of personality to her, either.

There are, however, quite a few nice character moments. Professor X and Jubilee build on their father/daughter relationship set up in Uncanny #297 as she tries to act mature and hide from her feelings. Jean also has some great moments of confusion and frustration as she finally confronts Psylocke. The stuff with Beast and Cyclops is slightly less compelling. It is also unfortunate that the deaths of Colossus’ parents have been glossed over.

Art is good; the opening flashback to the previous story arc is nice and somber, while the details on the computers are very intricate. Also Revanche’s armor looks really nice and the scenes in the Danger Room with ninjas and robots have a nice sense of motion and action to them. Still, there are those phantom dust clouds as Jubilee roller blades on the metal floor, as well as when Revanche confronts Psylocke in the Danger Room. Either the X-Men need to hire a housekeeper or 1990s Kubert needs to observe what actually happens when people walk in a room. This is a necessary issue, but I can’t really enjoy it knowing that it is the start of one of my least favorite stories.

C+

X-Force #19

X-Force #19
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Greg Capullo


I know I usually only do books directly affecting the X-Men, but I just came upon this little gem at a moving sale, and it ties in pretty well to the X-Cutioner’s Song events. Plus I figure I owe my readers for taking a month break.

What Went Down: Boomer starts off by utilizing the X-Men’s advanced Shiar technology to make a new costume. Her broken jaw (that she received during the X-Cutioner’s Song) seems to have pretty much healed since she spends the scene talking to herself in the mirror. Lila Cheney takes the opportunity to confront her and explain that she no longer has feelings for Cannonball, and Boomer is free to ask him out.

Sunspot and Stevie Hunter have a talk outside about Roberto’s frustrations over his recent behavior and new powers. This doesn’t really matter unless you’re reading X-Force regularly.

Feral, Rictor, and Shatterstar spend the evening in the Danger Room while discussing the death of their leader, Cable, and their potential arrest. Feral is insistent that she’s not going to prison, no matter what. Beast observes them and comments on their savagery and lack of ethics.

Warpath and Siryn sneak into the X-Men’s war room and copy a lot of files, but Xavier is monitoring them the whole time.

Cannonball confronts Xavier about letting X-Force go. This is followed by a one-page subplot about supporting character Copycat being ill.

Cut to the SHIELD helicarrier where G.W. Bridge resigns to Henry Gyrich over X-Force’s involvement in a theft (probably in recent issues).

Back at the mansion, Boomer makes new costumes for the rest of the team. Siryn and Xavier have a heart to heart outside while Cannonball talks with Sunspot and searches through some leaves.

Sam once again confronts the Professor. This time, utilizing both a field mouse he found in the leaves and a metaphor about an open hand and a closed fist, Sam convinces Xavier to let them leave. Outside, Feral kills the mouse Sam used to prove his point and eats it.

Lila Cheney makes a teleportation portal to send X-Force back to their base. Before Cannonball leaves, Xavier reveals the war room theft to Cannonball and wishes him good luck.

How It Was: Presenting X-Force, minus Cable. Yeah, it doesn’t sound too promising to me either, but Nicieza gives a go at presenting the team without their driving force. This issue is a pretty mixed bag; it offers some interesting character moments and some potentially interesting subplots, but there are a lot of dull moments as well. The scenes with Sunspot are particularly boring as I can only assume he is using Stevie to remind readers of everything that happened to him prior to X-Cutioner’s Song. Also, what’s up with the X-Men having a machine that designs clothing? If they own such a machine, why do they shop at all? While Tabitha’s crush on Cannonball and her animosity towards Lila get resolved a little, it seems like a waste just to have her make new clothes for everybody. And some of the costumes are horribly dated: I’m looking at you Warpath—not only do you dress like an Indian, you want to add fringe to that look?

What works in this issue is Cannonball. This is a real coming of age issue for him. Not only does he stand up to Xavier, but he also calls him out for leaving the New Mutants under the charge of Magneto. It’s wonderful to see Cable’s influence rub off on Sam, and Nicieza sets him up really well as a potential successor to Cable’s leadership. It’s issues like this that make Cannonball’s recruitment by the X-Men years later all the harder to swallow as later he is portrayed as an awkward, intimidated wuss. If those creators had read this issue before writing those stories, I can only imagine how much better they would have turned out. I also like how Sam is being set up as the good intentioned leader of a group that he may not be able to trust because they are morally and ethically compromised.

Capullo’s art is really nice, although his Danger Room doesn’t show enough of the room to let the reader really know what is going on. And of course, I guess he deserves some of the blame for those costumes. A mediocre issue brought up by a strong portrayal of Cannonball.

B-

X-Men #19

X-Men #19
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: The issue starts with a really cool two page spread looking into the dreams and nightmares of the captive X-Men; it’s so cool that I don’t mind that it’s drawn sideways. The X-Men’s dark dreams are as follows: Psylocke is tortured by her feelings of attraction for Cyclops, Cyclops feels guilt over Jean and Madelyne Pryor and his son Nathan, Wolverine is being torn apart by his dead girlfriend Mariko Yashida, Iceman is being melted by his girlfriend Opal, and Jubilee sees her dead parents.

The Soul Skinner relates to Cyclops’ loss of a child and explains his own origin. He had a daughter, Oksana, who was very sick. He tried to use his powers to ease her pain, but was unable to do even that. After Oksana died, the Skinner learned that his wife, and Oksana’s mother, had been a Flagwatch—a mole hired by the government to monitor potential threats. Blaming her for not using her resources to help their daughter, the Skinner turned his powers on his wife, and now he cannot stop.

Colossus and Vazhin are still in the cabin with the captive children trying to figure out why they are immune to the Soul Skinner’s powers. Vazhin detects the entrance of a government craft, and figures that it contains Colossus’s sister on it. Alexei tries to stop Colossus from attacking the soldiers, but Peter plows through them. During the fight, the Soul Skinner reveals to Colossus that his parents were just killed by these same soldiers; Colossus doesn’t take it well.

Back at the X-Mansion Rogue is still blind, but she has decided that she wants to do some flying, so Gambit gets to act as her eyes. Jean Grey approaches Beast about how down he has been; Beast is sad because he is turning thirty and feels old, so Jean agrees to share a coffee and talk with him.

Colossus attacks Vazhin while he pleads that he was not responsible for the death of the Rasputins. As Peter calms down, the Soul Skinner attacks them both. Illyana pleads with the Skinner to let him go, but instead he activates the age accelerator so that she will stop him. The other X-Men and the Winter Guard wake up and assist in the fight against the Soul Skinner. Cyclops and Garnoff try to free Illyana while Colossus comes up with a plan to stop the Skinner; he has Psylocke stab one of the children with her psychic knife and then stabs the Skinner, overwhelming him with the children’s innocence. Vazhin then shoots the Skinner in the head, killing him. Colossus frees Illyana, Wolverine tells everyone that Omega Red got away, and Jubilee makes a throwaway line at the end.

How It Was: Mehh. A mix of good and bad, so let’s go with the good first. The Soul Skinner’s origin is actually really interesting in a tragic kind of way. The idea that he isn’t evil, but just can’t deal with his own guilt works really well for the story. Plus, it connects really well with the issues that Cyclops is going through at this time. And, well I guess Colossus’s reaction to his parents’ death gets some good dramatic mileage out of the character.

What’s problematic about this issue is that the ending isn’t very satisfying. First we have Psylocke overwhelming the bad guy with children’s innocence, which is really lame. And then you have everyone standing around, looking for a note to end on. The right way to end the story would be to have everybody react to the death of Peter’s parents and possibly go after those responsible. Instead, all the characters just stand around and remark about how twisted and tragic the Soul Skinner was. Also, the plotline about Beast feeling old at thirty is really boring, and nobody cares. While some important events happen for Colossus, the rest of the story is easily skippable.

C

X-Men #18

X-Men #18
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: The first page begins in the middle of a fight between Omega Red and the Soul Skinner, our main villain for the story. They fight for a couple of pages until the Soul Skinner defeats Red with his powers; he uses the fears and regrets people have to shut down their minds.

In the Blackbird, Vazhin has already recruited the X-Men and is briefing them on the mission; he also has a spiffy set of battle armor to wear. He and Wolverine explain that a Flagwatch is basically a long term mole planted to observe potential threats. Iceman shows concern for Darkstar and Garnoff because he used to know them through the Champions, a super hero team he was on in the 80s, while Colossus seems very upset that Vazhin interrupted the visit with his family. The X-Men search for life, but only find townspeople standing still. Omega Red comes out of nowhere and attacks.

Safe in Moscow, the general is talking with some scientists and Matsuo Tsuryaba, presumably because he is still working with Omega Red. In Tokyo, the woman in purple has killed all of the bodyguards of a man named Nyorin. He calls her Kwannon, which is the name of the woman whose body Betsy Braddock now inhabits as Psylocke, but we don’t know that yet. The woman announces that she killed the guards to prove her place and that the X-Man Psylocke must die.

It turns out that Omega Red is being controlled by the Soul Skinner, although you wouldn’t be able to tell since he talks and acts normally. His encounter with the Soul Skinner has also left him immune to Psylocke’s psychic knife. After beating on the X-Men for a bit, Omega releases his death spores, which cause most of the team to fall unconscious. The Soul Skinner takes down Cyclops by making him feel the pain of losing his brother in childhood, and the pain that his child might have grown up to become Stryfe. The Soul Skinner even comments that Scott lives with so much guilt that it hurt him.

While the rest of the X-Men are getting beat, Colossus and Vazhin make their escape. They discover a bunch of children being held hostage, and ascertain that children are immune to the Skinner’s abilities. This worries Alexei because it means that the Red Flag, Illyana, will also not be affected.

During the night at the Ust-Ordynski Collective, soldiers break in to the Rasputins’, kill Colossus’s parents, and kidnap his sister. Vazhin reveals that the plan is to age Illyana using genetic acceleration so that she can use her powers to stop the Skinner, leaving many to assume that this story was going to lead to the return of Magik.

How It Was: A lot of fighting this issue, which is always exciting. Omega Red is back, and he usually makes for colorful fights, at least until he activates his death spore and characters end up just passing out. For all of the pages of fighting, it does feel a little rushed at times as characters like Iceman and Wolverine are defeated off panel. Nicieza could definitely have spent fewer pages exploring the motionless people of the village since that idea was already fairly well established last issue. And why does Cyclops fall down when everyone else under the Skinner’s power just stands in place? The sequence where the Rasputins are gunned down by soldiers is very abrupt and effective, as is the sequence inside Scott’s mind. Art once again is fantastic; my only complaint is that Psylocke looks absurd in her costume with a teeny, tiny jacket on in the middle of the snow of Russia.

C+

X-Factor Annual #7

X-Factor Annual #7
Writing: Fabian Nicieza and Peter David
Art: Joe Quesada, Derrick Roberson, and Joe Madurieira

Update: Click Here for Part 4 of Shattershot.

What Went Down: The first six pages are dedicated to Mojo angrily recapping the story thus far and taking out his anger on his second in command, Major Domo. Note that the art is backwards, depicting the events of Uncanny when describing the X-Men issue and vice versa. It appears that even though the Death Sponsors failed in their task last issue, everyone assumed it was Mojo, so he has continued to lose favor with the people. He decides to contact Spiral and have her deal with Arize.

Since X-Factor doesn’t have a Danger Room, they don’t start the issue in the middle of a training session. Instead, we are given an overwrought scene where the team is preparing lunch, and none of the characters can open a jar of mayonnaise, including Strong Guy, who should have super strength, shouldn’t he? Anyway, the whole scene devolves into the team making a mess, and it’s all meant to be very funny, but it isn’t really. Val Cooper pops in to tell the team that they have a mission: they are going to hunt down Spiral because she has been spotted making trouble. Val feels responsible because Spiral was a member of Freedom Force, a government sponsored group of villains that Cooper was in charge of prior to the nationalization of X-Factor.

In case you were wondering what Arize was up to, he has been working out a plan to broadcast all of Earth’s television to the inhabitants of Mojoworld as an alternative to Mojo’s rule. At the same time, Spiral is threatening a group of villagers in order to discover Arize’s location. By the time X-Factor arrives, Spiral has set fire to the whole town.

Spiral teleports to Arize’s cabin and cuts the connection he was using. The whole time she blames him for some unspeakable evil. She attacks Arize, but Val interrupts and tries to talk Spiral down; she ends up shooting at Spiral. The rest of X-Factor joins the fight. After injuring Polaris, Havok flips out and blasts Spiral with a heck of an energy blast. Spiral is then given the chance to explain herself, so she tells her origin.

Spiral was once an Earth stuntwoman named Ricochet Rita. She fell in love with Longshot, followed him to his world, and learned that Longshot was known as the Fallen Messiah—meaning he was destined to perpetually fail over and over again. Mojo had Arize turn her into Spiral (in Arize’s future, but Spiral’s past), and then had her travel through time to push her past self towards Longshot, perpetuating the cycle, and driving Spiral insane. Arize expresses remorse and offers to help her finally put an end to Mojo’s rule. The future savior of that dimension is said to be Shatterstar, so Spiral and Arize travel to the future of Mojoworld together. X-Factor wonders if they should do anything, but decide that there is nothing they can do. Havok feels sorry that his former teammate is destined to always fail at his goal, but Val thinks that everybody can learn from his or her mistakes.

What Else Went Down: Val Cooper is overrun with paperwork, but she decides to put it off until the next day because she has tickets to a Salute to Motown concert. However she decides to stay and do her work after Multiple Man calls Val and impersonates President Bush. Val reluctantly gives the tickets to him and Wolfsbane and goes through all of the papers. After she finishes, a dragon made of papers attacks her. It chases her all over the office until she manages to get it into a paper shredder. Unfortunately, after she shreds it, the shreddings make up another monster that attacks her.

Jamie wakes up Val and tells her that he feels guilty about tricking her, revealing that Val was dreaming about the paper monsters. Val rewards his honesty by chasing him with scissors and a letter opener.

What Else Also Went Down: A young boy named Cal, who is obviously modeled after Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes, is being bullied at school. He decides to go to Strong Guy’s house and hire him to be his bodyguard. After telling him his story, Cal convinces Guido to go intimidate the bullies for him. After giving the kids a good scare, Guido leaves.

A couple of weeks later, Strong Guy decides to check in on Cal, but he is shocked to discover that Cal is now the bully, threatening to sick Guido on anybody that doesn’t listen to him. Guido shakes him down and tells Cal that he doesn’t want to ever see him bullying again.

How It Was: Well… it’s something. I’ll start with the good. Joe Quesada’s art is very good; all of the panels have a nice sense of motion and action, so it’s a solid effort from Marvel’s future editor-in-chief. Also, the origin of Spiral is surprisingly gripping. At first it seems that she’s just out for revenge because Arize helped turn her into a freak of nature, but the fact that she is forced to relive her own downfall over and over again is actually a really interesting take on a character that controls time and space.

Now for the bad. As I stated before, the first two opening sequences are absolutely pointless and contribute very little to the overall story. But the major fault of this story is the boring fight that takes up most of the issue. I know before I complained about villains being one dimensional, and Spiral definitely isn’t. The main problem is that Spiral is outnumbered by six, and the fight is completely one sided. There’s just not a lot she can do against characters like Strong Guy, Quicksilver, and Havok. Furthermore, Arize’s plan to free people of Mojo’s signal seemed pretty dumb since Earth TV is just as monotonous and insubstantial as anything that Mojo could show.

Unlike the other issues, the back-up strips are actually better than the main story. Peter David’s humor is always what made X-Factor work, whether it’s with Madrox impersonating George Bush or Cal’s great line at the end of his story, David has a lot of fun with these quick, silly tales. They are by no means his greatest work, but they are a lot better to read than any part of Shattershot or any of the other mini stories thus far.

C-

Uncanny X-Men Annual #16

Uncanny X-Men Annual #16
Writing: Fabian Nicieza, Chris Cooper, and Skip Dietz
Art: Jae Lee and Herb Trimpe

What Went Down: We are introduced to the Death Sponsors in their one and only appearance, as far as I know. They are a group fighting for a pirate channel that is seeking to usurp viewers from Mojo’s channel, thus placing them in charge because in that world whoever has the highest ratings controls the world. The team consists of Sweepzweak, Deadair, Lead-In, Cancellator, and Timeslot. Are you laughing yet? Their shadowy boss is Mojo II, and he sends them to Earth to complete one of three tasks in order to gain higher ratings; either find Spiral, Arize, or Longshot. Since Arize is the focus of the crossover, he is their target for this issue.

Cut to the mansion where—surprise, surprise—the Gold Team is in the Danger Room running a simulation; this one involves rescuing innocents from a burning building. Can you tell Nicieza was having trouble filling up pages? At any rate, Colossus is stuck holding up the building while Storm, Iceman, and Archangel are looking for people. This leaves new recruit Bishop to be blindsided by Apocalypse. Rather than allow Colossus to decide between saving him and holding up the building, Bishop brandishes a gun and threatens to kill himself rather than be used as a bargaining chip. Professor X ends the session, and everyone comments on how unpredictable Bishop is.

Meanwhile Jean is sifting through Arize’s memories, trying to help him remember who he is. Essentially he is responsible for creating any humanoids that are in Mojoworld, and he feels bad that they are all slaves. He also created Longshot, and gave him self-determination. Arize worries that he is responsible for many deaths even though he can’t remember how; the Professor and Jean console him.

For some reason, the Death Sponsors appear in Japan. Shortly after that, they detect Arize and teleport to the mansion. What’s the point? Why to fill up three pages.

Back at the mansion, Bishop questions the Professor about why they are bothering with Arize. The answer is basically: because that’s what heroes do, although Jean makes a weak attempt to frame Arize as a mutant in his world because he is different and an outcast. The alarm goes off and the Gold Team fights the Death Sponsors. The X-Men hold their own until one of the Sponsors activates a power disruptor that turns off all of their powers. Bishop draws his rifle while one of the Death Sponsor’s restores Arize’s memory. As they teleport away with Arize, Bishop shoots the teleporter, which causes them to teleport without Arize because they are all mind linked, for some reason. Bishop even throws in a groan inducing “Hasta la vista, baby.”

After regaining his memory, Arize decides to leave the X-Men to try to help save his world from Mojo. The rest of the Gold Team comment on Bishop and his unpredictability again; they wonder whether or not they can trust him.

What Else Went Down: Archangel is fighting Mandroids at a laboratory of some kind. While rescuing a scientist, he gets shot. As he lays dying, a blue woman named Amalgam appears and talks about how this is the second time she has met Warren.

A flashback occurs to the Morlock tunnels during the Morlock Massacre, after Angel was stabbed in the wings. She offers Warren the chance to give her his powers and memories so that his death will not be in vain. Then she turns into Cyclops and Beast to try to convince him. Warren finally agrees, but as she absorbs his powers, she uses Destiny’s powers to see that he is needed in the future.

Warren then wakes up as Archangel in the present in the infirmary of the mansion. All of the X-Men comment on how happy they are that he survived.

What Else Went Down: Bishop is outside brooding, and Storm decides to make an attempt to get him to open up. Basically Bishop is homesick and feels guilty about letting his companions Malcolm and Randall die. He also brings up a tree that survived in his time as the only remaining marker of the school. The original class of X-Men allegedly planted it, but in the present it doesn’t exist. Storm leaves Bishop to his brooding, and he falls asleep outside. When he wakes up, it is raining and Storm has planted a tree in the spot, giving Bishop hope for the future.

How It Was: A minor, oh so minor improvement over the first part of Shattershot. On the one hand, the Death Sponsors are a lot cooler looking and more imposing than Mojo’s assorted henchmen from the first part. But unfortunately they are stuck with the gimmicky names and barely half a personality to share between the entire group. But the fight is far more entertaining then the previous one, and Nicieza manages to get some tension going towards the end, although he has to have a contrived power neutralizer to get the rest of the team out of the way. And Bishop gets a legitimately cool and redeeming moment, and then ruins it by quoting the Terminator.

But the same problems also crop up in this issue. Once again Nicieza starts with an unnecessary Danger Room sequence for lack of a better idea. Once again there are scenes with the villains that add nothing to the story, such as having them appear in Japan, realize they are in the wrong spot, and leave Japan. And there is Arize, whose origin is given a little more detail, but most of it was easily pieced together from the hints last issue. Plus, if you’ll remember my X-Cutioner’s Song reviews, Jae Lee’s art continues to not impress me. Although I will go as far as to say that the Death Sponsors' designs really benefit from his style, and the fight scenes and dream scenes he draws are pretty dynamic. However, the scenes where everybody is talking just look odd when matched up with the art. Probably the best chapter of Shattershot, but that isn’t saying a lot.

As for the back up stories, neither one really affects the overall narrative of the X-Men or makes a huge impression. The Archangel/Amalgam story is just weird and feels like a part of a bigger story that never got started. Also, if her thing is to take dead people’s powers and memories, why does she use Cyclops and Beast as examples? If she can travel throughout time, why doesn’t she go to Warren’s actual final death? It just doesn’t feel like it was that thought out. As for the Bishop story, it’s kind of mushy and doesn’t really matter at all. Both back up stories are pretty bad for this chapter.

C

X-Men Annual #1

X-Men Annual # 1
Writer: Fabian Nicieza and Dan Slott
Art: Way Too Many to List and Karl Altstaetter

Sorry it has been so long, real life and all that. Let's try this again. It’s a retroactive review since I didn’t have these issues at the time. I’ll be putting them in the appropriate order later down the line. The Shattershot story takes place before Uncanny #289 because Forge is still around, but after X-Men #9 because Bishop is around and an established member of the team. Also, each issue is 64 pages long, so these are gonna be some loooong posts.

What Went Down: This story takes place before the Mojo story in X-Men #10-11.
The story starts off in Mojoworld where a rebellion of bipeds has formed to fight Mojo’s tyranny. Most of them get slaughtered and the rebel leader Quark, a goat man with an eye patch…seriously, gets captured for brainwashing. Also getting captured is Arize, the star of this crossover, but he manages to teleport to earth. Mojo mentions that without the time dancer Spiral, Arize will surely be driven insane.

In the Danger Room, Psylocke and Beast are competing with Gambit and Rogue to reach a button. Psylocke wins, and is rewarded by having Wolverine try to gut her. Cyclops explains that the mission isn’t over until everyone gets home. Fortunately Professor X interrupts the rest of his lecture.

Forge and the Professor explain that Cerebro has picked up a non-human signature in Afghanistan. So the blue team goes off to investigate.

Mojo and his lackey Major Domo discuss plans to retrieve Arize. After once again establishing that Spiral is necessary to teleport people between dimensions, Mojo decides to televise the hunt, as if the reader couldn’t have called that twist from a million miles away.

As the X-Men approach the Afghani camp, they are attacked by the militants there. Because this is the 90’s, and pre-9/11, the X-Men actually take a sympathetic stance towards the rebels; if you know your world history of the time, Afghanistan had helped fight the Soviets and were actually able to keep a Soviet dictatorship out of their country, due to the U.S. backing them with weapons and supplies, but afterwards it left a power vacuum where the rightful government and infrastructure of the country should be. Regardless, the X-Men beat up the soldiers until Beast explains their true purpose to the leader of the camp; apparently the Beast speaks fluent Pushti.

Arize is discovered under the care of the Afghani people with no memory of who he is or where he came from. At the same time, Mojo’s soldiers arrive on Earth, notably without Spiral. Semi-important characters include the brainwashed Quark, who we met at the beginning of the issue, and the father/son team of Gog and Magog, who believe it or not do appear in later X-Men stories. Psylocke scans Arize’s mind and discovers some vague hints about the rebellion and a fallen messiah who is not named, but is obviously Longshot. Suddenly she senses another presence, which happens to be the bad guys.

The X-Men fight off the bad guys. During the battle, the bad guys express the fact that they have no choice but to obey Mojo, otherwise their lives and families would be forfeit; the X-Men are completely unsympathetic and explain that everybody has free choice. The bad guys mention Longshot before escaping through a portal—please note that once again, they are without Spiral. Cyclops prevents Wolverine and Rogue from following, even though Longshot was their friend and teammate back in the late 80s.

Back in Mojoworld, we learn that the ratings for the battle with the X-Men were huge, but they were detrimental to Mojo because they made him appear incompetent. A mysterious individual oversees Mojo on a monitor. This shadowed character turns out to be Mojo II from X-Men #10-11.

What Else Went Down: In the back up story, Jubilee decides to prove herself by programming all of the X-Men’s greatest enemies into the Danger Room. Wolverine stops her, and then as a quick educational experience, goes through the top ten X-Men villains. In order from ten to one they are: Mojo, the Reavers, Sentinels, the Brood, the Upstarts, Omega Red, Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, Magneto, and the number one enemy is…hatred and intolerance. Nitpicks of note: Wolverine is wearing his brown costume even though this story has to take place after the introduction of Omega Red, where he started wearing his yellow outfit again. Also, most of the Upstarts are completely wrong except for Fitzroy and Cortez, but Cortez is supposed to be a secret at this point.

How It Was: Shattershot is a pretty weak story all together. It deals a lot with Mojoworld, which has never been too central to the X-Men, and it deals with a lot of really awful villains, except for Spiral. While there are some attempts to expand on the origin of Longshot, you can pretty much guess that Arize is his creator from the start.

This issue starts the mediocrity off. A lot of space is padded with exposition, such as the discussion about the necessity of having Spiral, even though she never shows up in this issue. And the Danger Room sequence at the beginning could also be labeled as completely unnecessary. Plus Arize isn’t really interesting at all; he’s mainly a plot device to be passed from X-team to X-team to continue the story. His arc consists of going from amnesiac to guilt ridden, tortured genius to crusader working towards redemption. It’s not bad; it’s just that none of it is particularly compelling or stands out in any way; the bad guys in this issue don’t help as you’re never convinced that they have a chance of defeating the X-Men.

I will admit that considering the number of artists on this issue (seven pencilers and six inkers) it doesn’t really look too bad. Also, there is a really funny speech from Beast when he tries to describe the differences between all of the X-groups. But all told this issue, and the story in general, is for completists only, and you can easily ignore it and not miss out on too much, unless you’re a huge Longshot or Mojo fan for some reason.

As for the back up strip, it isn’t anything to write home about. It is early Dan Slott, who recently finished up a really great arc on Mighty Avengers, so there is that. But outside of that, it isn’t even really a story, and the ending is so cheesy your eyes just might roll so hard as to get stuck.

D+

X-Force #17

X-Force #17
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Greg Capullo

What Went Down: Because the X-Office thought it would be cool: Stryfe versus Apocalypse. While Stryfe’s motivation remains unknown at this point, most readers assumed he was ticked off at Apocalypse for giving Nathan Summers the virus; later stories would also establish that Stryfe was raised and betrayed by Apocalypse as well. Anyway, the fight is totally one sided since Apocalypse hasn’t finished recharging after being let out too early, so Stryfe stabs him with a knife, but Apocalypse manages to teleport away. The Dark Riders agree to follow Stryfe, since their whole gimmick is that they always follow the strongest.

In his space station, Cable uses his sentient computer named The Professor to explain to Bishop and Wolverine how Cable knows Stryfe and that Stryfe looks exactly like him. Nobody knows why.

At the mansion Stevie Hunter is taking care of injured X-characters from the MLF fight. Havok asks Cannonball to talk to his team, and it is established that Beast is attempting to surgically remove Stryfe’s bullet from Professor X’s head to try to stop the virus from spreading. X-Force appears in their own book for two whole pages where they basically complain about being held prisoner. Siryn and Multiple Man do have a fun scene where they discuss her relationship with one of his multiples; this subplot does actually pop up in later stories, most recently the relaunch of X-Factor.

Cyclops and Jean break out of their cell after Stryfe leaves; apparently Stryfe himself was responsible for keeping their powers in check, not the cell.

Apocalypse’s teleport destination is revealed. It turns out he was heading for the mansion. Archangel attacks, but Apocalypse reveals that he is there to cure Professor X and work with the X-Men.

How It Was: Well Stryfe is really being pushed as a badass at this point. After defeating the Dark Riders single handedly last issue, Stryfe proceeds to beat the tar out of Apocalypse, one of the most powerful X-villains ever. Of course, Apocalypse isn’t at full strength, so conceivably fans would want to see some type of rematch later. In fact, it does eventually happen, much later, in 2009 during the Messiah War crossover, over ten years after the initial story.

So once again we have another totally one-sided fight, making it hard to get excited about. Even harder to get excited about are the five pages of exposition that follow as Cable explains everything about Stryfe to Wolverine and Bishop. It’s definitely a necessary scene since Stryfe hadn’t really existed outside of the New Mutants and X-Force up until this point, yet it’s still really clunky and dull. The only real plot advancement in this issue is the escape of Cyclops and Jean Grey and the arrival of Apocalypse at the mansion.

I’m sure the X-Force staff also endeared their readers by having the eponymous team appear in their own book for a whole two pages. After this issue, Cable and Cannonball are the only two members to participate in the crossover, even the final issue that also happens to be an issue of X-Force. Oh well.

The art is once again very good and fits in perfectly with the styles of all the other X-books, sans X-Factor.

B-

X-Men #15

X-Men #15
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Andy Kubert

What Went Down:  Part 7 of the X-Cutioner’s Song. This issue starts off right where last issue ended: Reaper standing over the fallen Quicksilver and Gambit, about to deliver the killing blow. Fortunately for them, Psylocke and Havok show up and save them. Storm, Polaris, and Rogue are once again chasing Dragoness (even though they took her out in the last issue). Once again, they defeat her. Also, the fight is now taking place indoors, even though the fight was outside in X-Factor.

Cannonball and Boomer chase down brainwashed allies Rusty and Skids to capture. Before being apprehended, Skids breaks Boomer’s jaw, and a humorous scene proceeds with Boomer still talking despite the fact that nobody can understand her.

While fighting the army of MLF henchmen (now wearing armor suits, even though they weren’t last issue), Rogue is blinded by villain Strobe. This takes Rogue out of the crossover, and her blindness persists for a couple of months after the crossover ends. Iceman confronts Archangel about killing Kamikaze, but Warren just brushes it off as an accident. They agree to talk about it later, but to the best of my knowledge they never do.

Over in Canada, Bishop, Cable, and Wolverine are running from Department K airships. After they’re surrounded, Cable teleports them to his space station, Greymalkin.

Outside the mansion, Colossus is feeling sorry about the death of his brother, Mikhail. X-Factor’s Strong Guy brings him some coffee with whisky in it. Inside, the Beast and Moira are still stumped by the disease that Charles is infected with.

Stryfe is overseeing everyone from monitors in his base. Then he goes into Cyclops and Jean Grey’s cell and forces them to eat some brown goop that is supposed to be warm milk supplement. He drops some more hints about raising children, which indicate that he may be Nathan Summers, Cyclops’ lost son from the future.

After this, Stryfe decides that he needs to kill Apocalypse because he has a grudge against him, too; this also lends credence to the Nathan Summers theory since Apocalypse is the one who infected Nathan with the virus that made it necessary for Cyclops to send his son to the future. Stryfe easily defeats the Dark Riders and then breaks into Apocalypse’s chamber. Apocalypse has no idea who Stryfe is, but it is clear that both of them are about to fight before the issue ends.

How It Was: I’ll admit that this issue holds a special place in my heart since it was the first X-Men comic I ever got; special thanks to my mother for purchasing it at the A-Plus gas station back when I was eight years old. This comic is the one responsible for starting me off on a hobby that continues to consume what little money I have. Quite frankly, I still love this comic.

Trying to look objectively at the issue, outside of my own nostalgia, it isn’t particularly significant. It contains fights with not one, but two obscure C-list nineties super villain teams that are both defeated incredibly easily by their opponents. All that really happens is that the MLF are defeated and a couple of X-characters are knocked out of commission for the duration of the story. The pages spent on Cable’s team are a waste; it’s just two pages of filler before Cable decides to Easy Button the team to his base.

The only real tension in this issue comes from the Stryfe sections, and the fact that Professor X is still “dying,” although that hardly counts since everyone knew he was going to make it. Stryfe has a cool design, and I’ve always found him interesting even though most people probably see him as just whiny. I think he’s perfectly justified in feeling betrayed for being sent to a post-apocalyptic future to be raised in hardship, and I like the idea that Cyclops made the wrong call and turned his son into a petty, twisted super villain. Maybe it doesn’t come off as well in this story, but I always thought it had loads of story potential. Of course this was all before the X-offices decided to make Cable the true son of Cyclops, completely negating the purpose of Stryfe and forcing him into triviality.

The continuity between issues of the crossover could have used another editorial once over since many environment and character designs, as well as events, don’t match up with the previous issue. It’s nothing severe; it’s just annoying. Andy Kubert’s art looks really nice, especially his Iceman, Colossus, and Stryfe portrayals. Unfortunately, his penchant for drawing weird giant clouds of dust behind characters is also present: on the first page no less.

It’s really just an okay issue, but I like to think of it as an above average middle chapter. And it was obviously good enough to convince an eight year old kid to spend the next sixteen years of his life buying comics, so bonus points for that.

A-

X-Force #16

X-Force #16
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Greg Capullo

What Went Down: Part 4 of the X-Cutioner's Song.  X-Force, X-Factor, and the X-Men’s Blue Team start off by having a nice calm conversation about their differences…that lasts for an entire page. Then the big fight begins. X-Force gets the upper hand because they initialize the attack. Siryn also reveals that she had a relationship with Multiple Man (probably when they were both on Muir Island), although he doesn’t seem to remember. Eventually Wolverine stabs Shatterstar, and the rest of X-Force retreats.

Meanwhile the Gold Team, the Beast, and Quicksilver make their way to what they believe to be Apocalypse’s base by tracking Caliban through Cerebro. They are ambushed by two of the Horsemen, Famine and Caliban. Poor Beast gets hit by Famine and turns very skinny. The X-Men dispatch the Horsemen and discover a hologram of Mr. Sinister; the hologram tells them that he did kidnap Cyclops and Jean Grey and that Apocalypse is also involved in the plot.

At the mansion, Bishop blows a hole in Sinister’s head Terminator 2 style. Sinister overpowers him and Jubilee, then drops a piece of paper in front of Val with the identity of someone on it.

Cable is gathering a laughably large arsenal in his base so he can go after the person who assumed his identity.

In an unknown location, Cyclops and Jean are being dragged by the mutant with four arms named Forearm. The two X-Men wonder how they got in their uniforms, and then the main villain of the crossover reveals himself—it’s the Cable villain Stryfe.

Back in Texas, X-Force is running for their lives when Wolverine catches up with them. He delays them long enough for the rest of the X-Men to catch up. Then X-Force surrenders. The issue ends with Havok asking an important question, “What do we do now?”

How It Was: If you like X-Force fighting other mutant teams, than this is the crossover for you. The majority of the issue is given to a fight where X-Force is severely outnumbered. I guess from the perspective of the regular X-Force reader, this is a really interesting story because it’s the team you like against the odds. But if you’re normally just an X-Men reader like I am, than it’s just the X-Men overpowering a weaker force.

The other two plots keep the story moving. The problem is that the X-Men don’t do anything to further the plot; Sinister just tells them what they need to know for the story to continue. The Gold Team finds a hologram telling them what to do next, and then Sinister leaves a clue right in the mansion for everyone to see.

Also, besides the Bishop fight, we’ve already seen both of these fights before; there’s already been an X-Force fight and a Horsemen fight in this story, so that’s kind of disappointing. And the reveal of Stryfe is kind of ruined if you read X-Men #13 prior to this, although I’m not sure how much X-Force readers already knew about Stryfe.

This series is probably my only encounter with Greg Capullo’s art. The characters are nice and vibrant, but some of the expressions are pretty odd looking, such as Wolverine when he’s stabbing Shatterstar. Still, it’s a fast paced issue and once again the creative team does a good job of differentiating the characters and making sure they each have their moment to shine.

B

X-Men #14

X-Men #14
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Part 3 of the X-Cutioner’s Song. The Beast is running a series of tests on the Professor while Moira MacTaggert joins in via video conference; nobody brings up the inexplicable fit she had when she left in X-Men #4, so it’s pretty much forgotten. Since it’s early in the story, Beast and Moira are obviously stumped.

X-Factor and both X-Men teams meet to discuss strategy. It is decided that the Gold Team and Beast will look for Apocalypse while everybody else goes after X-Force. Bishop decides to stay behind to protect the Professor.

All the way in Panama Forearm and Reaper, two members of Stryfe’s Mutant Liberation Front or MLF, are waiting around for Mr. Sinister. Sinister shows up and trades them Cyclops and Jean for a mystery canister that Sinister says holds a piece of the future.

Over Texas, X-Force’s ship is going down due to the damage Havok caused last issue; how they managed to get from New York to Texas in a damaged ship is beyond me. They crash land and then begin the trek back to X-Force’s base.

All the way in Egypt, the Dark Riders are overseeing the reanimation of Apocalypse from his healing chamber. Too bad for him, they take him out too soon, as he’s not quite back to full power yet. The Dark Riders explain that his Horsemen have been acting under the control of another person.

The Blue Team and X-Factor are flying in the Blackbird, and they take the time to debate the philosophies of their respective teams and X-Force.

Up in space, Cable teleports to his spaceship Greymalkin after having time travelled somewhere. His computer, called the Professor, alerts him to the events of the story that have transpired.

Back at the mansion, Bishop is standing guard outside, and Jubilee brings him some food and coffee. He thanks her and then the alarm goes off. Bishop enters the mansion to find Mr. Sinister holding Val Cooper and Stevie Hunter hostage.

And finally X-Factor and the Blue Team disembark the plane only to be ambushed by X-Force for the issue long fight next issue.

How It Was: Andy Kubert started his tenure as regular artist on X-Men with this issue, and there was much rejoicing. Kubert was a pretty decent artist already at this point in his career, but he definitely improved over the next few years. Two nitpicks about him would be that his large group shots aren’t as sharp or detailed as they should be, and he has a tendency to draw huge clouds of smoke or dust in the background of his characters. In some spots it is appropriate, like after Cable transports in from his time machine; conversely, Bishop should not have a huge dust cloud following him when he is standing on the front lawn of the mansion.

This is pretty much an issue to setup where characters are supposed to go. Everyone gets assignments, but nothing really happens until later issues. That’s not necessarily a bad thing…since it’s a crossover; the story effectively comes out weekly, so it doesn’t have to move along as much as a monthly story would. On the other hand, since the X-Office was forcing you to buy four issues a month, it would’ve been nice if something important would happen every issue.

Random question that bothers me: Why is Stevie Hunter there? I know that she was Kitty Pryde’s dance instructor during the seventies and eighties, but I have no idea what she’s doing hanging around the mansion now. Surely it would make more sense to use a character like Charlotte Jones instead because she is more relevant to the current X-Men, and she’s a cop so she has a reason to be there.

It’s not a bad issue; it’s just that it’s only setting up more interesting stories.

C