X-Men: Liberators #4

X-Men: Liberators #4

Writing: Joe Harris

Art: Phil Jimenez

What Went Down:  No flashback for the opening.  Instead Omega Red bursts into Province 13 and threatens General Sergei.  Sergei says their transaction is complete, but Red wants to know why the X-Men are involved.  Nightcrawler is busy digging up graves in the cold wilderness, searching for Wolverine.  Colossus surprises him, and they are both set upon by a naked Wolverine asking for his clothes. 

At Province 13 the guards are on high alert, and the students are being evacuated.  Ariana is being used as bait to draw out Nikolas.  Nanya and her friend return to the classroom and meet Nightcrawler, while Omega Red confronts Wolverine.  As Kurt talks to the two young girls, the Wolverine/Omega Red fight spills through a window.  Omega threatens the young girls, while Colossus goes to rescue Ariana. 

Sergei sets fire to his office, while we see signs that Nikolas has accepted the bait.  Kurt and Logan rescue the girls just in time for Nikolas to appear.  Nikolas fights the villain, with Red fleeing as his body starts to shut down.  Ariana confronts her son, and sets him free from his hard existence with a shard of broken glass.  At the same time, Colossus takes Nanya from General Sergei just before he kills himself.  In the epilogue, we see that Ariana has adopted Nanya and is taking care of her. 

The issue ends with a continuation of the flashback from issue #1; Colossus holds a pneumatic press up while his friends are rescued.  The story ends with the three X-Men being greeted by the rest of the team in the present.

How It Was:  The issue opens with a compelling sequence of Nightcrawler desperately digging through snowy graves to find Wolverine; it would’ve been rather engaging if we didn’t see Wolverine dig himself out last issue. 

So after three issues revolving around the fate of Nikolas, the last issue tries to squeeze some tension out of putting the little girls in danger that we hardly know or care about.  Moreover, Omega Red is the one that threatens them, and for no other reason than because he’s a huge jerk.  His purpose in the story is so non-existent that after a one panel confrontation with Nikolas, Omega Red realizes there’s no reason for him to be there and leaves.

There’s weak attempt to humanize General Sergei at the end that doesn’t quite work, but I will admit that Harris does squeeze some tragedy out of Ariana and Nikolas’ reunion.  Having both characters agonize over not being with each other for two issues, only to have Nikolas killed by the only being that can touch him… well it’s pretty sad.  Colossus learns to be happier by appreciating what he has, which is a fine enough way to end his journey after the grimness he’s been through.

The art is fantastic, only flawed by some pretty major coloring mistakes on the final page for most of the X-Men.  Even though all the fights consist of nothing but Omega Red grabbing and throwing people, it still looks really great.  I can’t really understand the aversion to fighting in this series; the few fights we do see feel very dull and hurried.  The final, climactic battle between Nikolas and Omega Red consists of them staring angrily at each other before Omega runs off complaining about pain.

This is a pretty disappointing series all told.  I’m not so much bothered by how generic the plot and villains are; it’s just that the entire execution feels rushed, although competent.  All the X-Men are in character, but they don’t feel like they have much to do or say in this story.  It takes Colossus all of one page to deal with his family’s death, and although Nightcrawler and Wolverine are there for moral support, they have absolutely nothing to add.  Nikolas unfortunately has no voice or personality, so although we can feel bad for him as readers, we can’t connect with him or find anything redeemable in his presence.  Everyone else just serves as mouth pieces to push the story around, with Omega Red in the middle to make the story authentically Russian, I guess.  I don’t think you’d miss a thing if you avoided this series because it is never mentioned ever again.

For Completists

X-Men: Liberators #3

X-Men: Liberators #3

Writing: Joe Harris

Art: Phil Jimenez

What Went Down:  This issue opens with a flashback of a Hide and Seek game played on the mansion grounds around the eighties era.  Colossus manages to sneak up on Wolverine.  At Provence 13 in the present, Wolverine is “dying” from his exposure to the mutant Nikolas as scientists are examining him. On a mountain, Colossus has found a cave where he and the old woman are hiding.  He brings firewood for the woman, whose name is Ariana.  She explains how she is Nikolas’ mother and how he was taken away from her as a baby because his touch killed everyone except her.  Nikolas was taken by Sergei, and Ariana resents the Rasputins because they were normal looking mutants able to hide from the government. 

At night Nightcrawler sneaks onto the base after following the soldiers.  He discovers the children taken from their families by the government.  Sergei’s superior Alexei explains that the government is shutting down Sergei’s base. 

Nightcrawler tries to speak with the children, but he doesn’t know Russian.  He is able to communicate telepathically with the girl Nanya, who can translate for her friends.  Nightcrawler vows to rescue the children.  In the woods, Omega Red is hunting Nikolas, and comes across a wrecked cabin with two dead adults and an abandoned child.

Omega Red manages to find the cave with Ariana in it, so he and Colossus battle.  Their fight is interrupted by Nikolas, Ariana’s son.  Omega Red throws a rock, and both Colossus and Nikolas go over the cliff.

Wolverine “dies” and is left alone by the scientists.  Nightcrawler finds him dead, and takes his uniform with him.  Colossus unburies himself and sees that Nikolas has fled.  Nightcrawler escapes, but we see that Wolverine’s body has been buried, and he has healed enough to rise. 

How It Was:  We finally get to see where Colossus’ arc is going this series; he is given Ariana’s tragic story to compare with his own tragedies to realize how much worse his life could’ve been.  That’s as good a conclusion as any for Colossus to come to after a decade of having family death after family death; he learns to appreciate time he did have with his family. 

Meanwhile, Wolverine sits on a slab for a whole issue, and Nightcrawler has nothing to do except wander around Province 13 and meet some kids.  The art is great as he sneaks around and teleports stealthily, but it doesn’t hide the fact that he has nothing to do; he’s searching for Wolverine, but after Kurt finds him, Wolverine just gets dumped outside again by the soldiers making for a total waste of an issue.

Then there’s the glaring fact that Omega Red has no purpose in this story.  The narration claims that he’s working for the government after being freed from exile, but there’s no motivation for him to be hunting Nikolas.  He’s here because the X-Men are in Russia, and heaven forbid they fight any other super villain in Russia other than Omega Red. 

Besides the interplay between Colossus and Ariana, there is really nothing here to catch your attention.  There’s a three page fight that ends abruptly, and that’s about it.  The art is really nice and gives Colossus and Nightcrawler a nice range of emotion and movement, but that still doesn’t change the fact that they’re not saying or doing anything memorable.

Completists Only

X-Men: Liberators #2

X-Men: Liberators #2

Writing: Joe Harris

Art: Phil Jimenez + Aiken, Leigh, & Pepoy

What Went Down:  Again we begin with a flashback, this one occurring around Giant-Sized X-Men #1.  Wolverine attacks Colossus to see what he’s really made of.  In present day Russia, Colossus visits the graves of his parents.  Over at Province 13, General Sergei observes two children being tested for psychic capabilities.  The General swears one of the girls, Nanya, is looking in his mind.

Peter encounters an elderly woman in the graveyard’s chapel.  After identifying himself as Piotr Rasputin, the woman spits on the ground and curses his family, so Peter leaves.  In the woods nearby, Kurt and Logan wait patiently for Colossus.  They discover oddly warped trees and dead animals.  Assuming it’s hunters, Wolverine decides to go and teach a lesson about killing animals for sport and leaving them there. 

Back at the church, a military helicopter lands and soldiers flood out to surround the old woman.  Colossus bursts in and fights off the soldiers.  He escapes with the woman.  After confronting the hunters, Logan and Kurt observe them getting attacked by the mutant monster Nikolas.  Wolverine fights it off, but he soon gets sick and passes out.  The soldiers carry Wolverine away, and Nightcrawler is forced flee. 

Sergei receives a call that one of his superiors from Moscow will be visiting him.  We end on some Russian soldiers discovering Omega Red in the Savage Land and offering to bring him home.

How It Was:  Another low-key issue as the plot keeps chugging along.  There isn’t really that much to tell.  The purpose of the X-Men’s visit gets fulfilled as Peter starts the issue at his parents’ graves and dwells on it for a whole two sentences of internal monologue.  For a series that is billing itself on the group’s history by starting each issue with a flashback, there is surprisingly no reflection on how Peter’s parents died, the deaths of his other siblings, or his time with the Acolytes.  They could’ve easily tied this into the main series by mentioning Colossus’ Christmas visitation from Illyana, but alas he’s just there.  Peter’s just going through the motions of the plot, and the cemetery visit ends up being nothing more than a plot convenient way for Colossus to meet Nikolas’ mother who just happens to be at the same church.

With this issue the X-Men actually become embroiled in the plot.  Although Wolverine and Nightcrawler are supposed to be there to support Colossus, they take the time to deal with some hunters because it bothers Wolverine.  And while the plot affords the opportunity for some action, neither the writer nor the artists really seem interested in dwelling on it.  We get two panels of Colossus getting shot at before beating up all the soldiers off-panel, followed by Wolverine fighting Nikolas for all of one page which amounts to one dodge and one claw swipe.  It’s disappointing to see a super hero comic so uninterested in showing any type of action or excitement. 

As for the rest of the issue, the shady Russian soldiers and their general still aren’t very interesting, and Omega Red shows up for no purpose other than because this is a Russian-set X-story.  There is some mystery to be had in how the X-Men are going to fight Nikolas if he can take Wolverine so easily, but other than that this is just a story just plodding along with nothing impressive.  The closest bit to a standout moment is General Sergei’s observations of the telepathic Nanya staring through him behind the wall, but minor details can’t salvage how uneventful this is.

For Completists

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-Men #7

X-Men #7
Writing: Jim Lee and Scott Lobdell
Art: Jim Lee and Art Thibert

What Went Down: The finale of the Omega Red Saga… sounds more epic than it actually is. In any case, Wolverine is once again strapped to the memory-restoring device.

Sabretooth is acting weird; he can’t stop repeating his last line of dialogue from issue #6. The Hand ninjas with him notice this, but choose to ignore it because Creed is just so intimidating.

Andrea of Fenris is pressuring Dr. Cornelius to turn up the juice on his machine even though it might kill Logan. Although hesitant, he still does, and we learn that Logan had “one more assignment” for Janice as she was dying.

Matsuo figures out where the c-synthesizer is and orders Cornelius to finish off Wolverine, but before he can, Psylocke attacks. She states that Wolverine’s near death last issue freed her from Matsuo’s control, which is weird since that occurred before she was under his thrall in the first place.

At the same time, Maverick breaks free, attacks the Hand guards, and finds the location of the X-Men. It is revealed that Sabretooth is actually under Psylocke’s control (in case you didn’t see that coming).

As Maverick arrives to free the X-Men, Psylocke gets knocked out, and Creed regains his freedom. Beast and Jubilee free themselves and take him out.

Wolverine breaks free and attacks Omega, and the rest of the Blue Team show up and a big fight proceeds. During the fight, some stored chemicals ignite, so the X-Men have to make a big dramatic escape before the building blows up, which they do.

Over in Mojoworld, Longshot’s rebellion didn’t go so well since most of his forces are dead in the street, and Mojo is holding Longshot’s beaten body. Dazzler thinks to herself that she needs to summon more X-Men.

Back in Germany, Wolverine tells the rest of the team he has one more job to do. Cyclops tells him if he needs help, he can always ask. It’s very touching.

Later, Matsuo has some of the Hand digging up Janice Hollenbeck’s grave to get the carbonadium synthesizer. Unfortunately for him, Wolverine has already dug up the body, hidden in its casket, and reburied himself somehow. He bursts out, kills the ninjas, and chops off Matsuo’s hand. Dr. Cornelius threatens Wolverine with a gun to his head, but Maverick shows up and pops the good doctor in the head instead. Wolverine gives the synthesizer to Maverick because he senses it belongs to him. The End.

How It Was: This story always feels longer than it actually is; it could easily lose an issue and not lose much. The main problem with this story is that a lot of the twists don’t feel like they were thought out ahead of time; they just don’t fit with the continuity of the story and feel added in at the last minute. When the book claims Psylocke overcame her conditioning when Wolverine almost died last issue, the reader knows it doesn’t make sense because Matsuo didn’t take control of her until after Wolverine almost died. As for the villains, Psylocke manages to take down half of Fenris and Omega Red by herself, which makes it all the more perplexing how the whole team had so much trouble with them. Also, Sabretooth doesn’t contribute a whole heck of a lot this issue except for getting controlled and beat up, and his sidekick Birdy has completely vanished.

On the other hand, the ending sequence at the graveyard is excellently done and provides great atmosphere with the rain and dark shading. Even though it’s only two pages it is a very effective, gritty, fast paced scene, which is helped a lot by the panel layout. As for the Mojoverse scene, it’s very disappointing that we don’t get to see the doomed assault on Mojo. Yes, we all knew it was going to fail so the X-Men could show up and fix it, but it still would have been nice to watch them try.

As I’ve stated before, it’s hard to get excited about this story because most of it gets forgotten after Jim Lee leaves in a few issues. Fenris disappear, Omega Red goes on to appear as a reoccurring villain just about any time the X-Men go to Russia (like in issue #18), and Matsuo forgets about the Upstarts and moves onto the Psylocke/Revanche storyline in issue 21. Even the carbondadium synthesizer gets completely forgotten about for almost 15 years, until Daniel Way brings it up again in Wolverine Origins #6-10, so don’t hold your breath waiting for the significance of that maguffin to show up in this blog.

C+

Next Week: Uncanny #281-283

X-Men #6

X-Men #6
Writing: Jim Lee and Scott Lobdell
Art: Jim Lee and Art Thibert

What Went Down: Hey, Scott Lobdell is writing the dialogue! Remember that name because in a couple of issues, he starts writing the X-books for a really, really long time.

On to the issue. Cyclops and Beast take out a number of Hand ninjas, even though they don’t look like ninjas right now, with flashy powers and one-liners. They are looking for Wolverine with Jubilee, when they are all attacked and captured by, you guessed it, Omega Red.

Over in another part of the building, Maverick is trying to resuscitate Wolverine who has inconveniently decided to try to die. Three things to point out: 1. Maverick is now speaking German, even though last issue he spoke only in English. Actually, he is speaking in English translated from German, but this is still important in telling us who he is working for. 2. It turns out that Wolverine did hit the ground after he jumped out of that window last issue, even though the art showed him just disappearing, with no splatter marks on the ground. 3. Maverick explains that the mystery canister from last issue was actually full of healing cells extracted from Wolverine’s body, but it broke when he did or did not hit the ground—hence the dying.

Back in another urine tinted flashback, the team gets cornered by Omega Red, who is colored yellow and red as opposed to yellow and black. Creed/future Sabretooth panics, kills Janice=the agent they were supposed to protect, and pushes everyone out the window where they fall a number of stories. Creed than figures out that they are all mutants since none of them died.

Cut to the Mojoverse, where Lila has unhelpfully teleported Longshot, The Dazzler, and herself right to Mojo’s base and can no longer teleport away. The heroes fight Mojo’s guards, run away, and are saved by a member of Longshot’s resistance. Later, Longshot and Dazzler spend a tender moment outside under the stars.

Back on Earth proper, Rogue, Gambit, and Psylocke are fighting more guys in red trench coats… I mean ninjas. Fenris shows up to take out Gambit with an energy blast, and Matsuo triggers a post-hypnotic suggestion in Psylocke that causes her to take down Rogue.

Psylocke’s attack on Rogue causes Wolverine to wake up—at this point in continuity, Psylocke and Wolverine share a psychic link similar to Cyclops and Jean Grey’s. I’m unfamiliar with the story this happens in, it was before my time as they say, but it doesn’t matter a whole lot because this psychic link is completely ignored after this story.

Anyways, Wolverine attacks Maverick, and Maverick realizes that Wolverine doesn’t remember who he is. Another flashback shows Wolverine flipping out on Creed and walking away from the group. In the present, Sabretooth, dressed like a pimp for some reason, and his assistant Birdy show up at the villains’ base and jam the cameras.

Once inside, Sabretooth taunts all of the shackled X-Men. Most importantly, Creed reveals that he already knows Gambit and alludes to having injured him before.

Maverick and Wolverine go down to the sewers where they are ambushed by Sabretooth, now dressed in his normal costume, and the hypnotically controlled Psylocke; the fight isn't shown, but the end result is both heroes being carried away unconscious.

Fenris and Matsuo toast the success of Sabretooth—Matsuo explains that until they find the location of the c-synthesizer, Omega Red still needs the life force of others to sustain him. He suggests killing one of the X-Men. DUN-DUH-DUNNN!

How It Was: It’s the standard “all the heroes get captured in the third act before escaping and defeating the villains in the fourth act” set up. The main plot thread is not exactly innovative, but the stuff in Mojoworld is a little more fun. The recurring gag of everybody calling Mojo a fat blob like he’s not there, as well as a well placed Terminator parody, show that Lee and Lobdell at least get the humor and absurdity that are necessary for a decent Mojo story.

As for the main thread, it starts to drag at this point. The introduction of Sabretooth adds yet another villain to the already crowded plot; he basically gets brought in because you can’t have a token “Wolverine’s past” story without him. At least he doesn’t constantly complain about the synthesizer like every other villain in this story. As for the stuff with Psylocke being controlled, it’s pretty iffy and gets even more questionable after next issue’s explanation. And Maverick’s recollections of the events of the previous issue bear little resemblance to what actually occurred, which is kind of disconcerting.

The art is as always good, but with a few questionable choices. The dull looking yellow filtered flashbacks return, but then the final flashback is dark blue and black and works a lot better. Also all of the villains have weird colored dust clouds following them: Omega Red has a green one, although it might just be his “death factor,” and Sabretooth has a brown cloud trailing him when he shows up in the sewer with Psylocke. Hmmm… a brown cloud in the sewer, what could that be? Actually, now that I mention it, the cover also has the weird cloud on it as well. Oh, and Matsuo’s face isn’t colored in on the second to last page. Way to drop the ball!

C

X-Men #5

X-Men #5
Writers: Jim Lee and John Byrne
Art: Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Art Thibert, Bob Wiacek, and Joe Rubinstein

What Went Down: Cerebro alerts Forge that the majority of the Blue squad has been captured. Forge complains that the computer’s voice is too emotionless, but that doesn’t really matter to the reader because this is a book. Cyclops enlists Colossus and Psylocke to help in the rescue. Betsy was in the pool, so she is wearing a bikini that is even more shameless than her normal costume. In fact, it’s made even more laughable by the fact that she tries to put a tiny jacket on to cover up.

Everyone, besides Wolverine, who was captured last issue is in the back of a fake ambulance. Gambit manages to get hold of a card and free everyone, but than the truck in front of them explodes. Colossus finds Wolverine’s mask which leads Cyclops to ponder if Wolverine even had his uniform with him (which he did last issue, but he wasn’t wearing his mask).

Cut to Omega Red beating the tar out of Wolverine outdoors in snowy Berlin while being observed by Matsuo, Fenris, and Dr. Cornelius from the Weapon X story. After being knocked out, Wolverine is strapped to a machine and flashes back to his covert operations days with Sabretooth and an unknown agent—back in the present, our villains reveal that they are after a maguffin called the carbonadium synthesizer, which Wolverine is supposed to know about. It's supposed to help Omega Red control his powers better or something.

All the X-Men meet to discuss the plan of action; the Gold Team is dressed up because they are about to go to the Hellfire Club in Uncanny #281, even though that comic came out four months prior. Psylocke vouches for Jubilee to go with the Blue Team, Banshee leaves to go after Moira, Xavier is seen looking at a file labeled Project Xavier which is foreshadowing a much later subplot, and Forge and the Professor begin the chess game that they are seen playing in Uncanny #282.

Maverick shows up in his first appearance; he is also looking for the c-synthesizer, and he is that other agent in the flashbacks. He stages a distraction allowing Wolverine to escape. Logan is seen running from Omega with a non-descript canister—the dialogue makes you think it is the c-synthesizer, but it’s not… honest. Wolvie escapes out a window and disappears; at the same time he is having more flashbacks of his team trying to extract an undercover agent named Janice.

The X-Men track Wolverine and infiltrate the building he was being held in. Meanwhile, Maverick takes Wolverine to a room in the building with a computer. He explains that the X-Men are probably going to die, and then Wolverine passes out.

The issue ends, oddly, with a scene in the Mojoverse. Dazzler has lost her memory and Lila Cheney is trying to help her remember the X-Men. Longshot bursts in and kisses Dazzler, Spiral bursts in and threatens everyone, and Lila teleports everyone away. This is set up for the upcoming story in X-Men #10-11.

How It Was: Lots for you if you are a fan of Wolverine. There is more on the connection between Omega Red and Wolverine, some flashbacks with everyone wearing weird visors on their heads, and the introduction of Maverick, who proves to be a very enduring character with his own ties to the Weapon X program. The scenes where Wolverine is conscious are easily the most interesting of the issue. The only problem is the canister that magically appears in Wolverines hands as he escapes, then disappears after Maverick rescues him, only to be conveniently explained away next issue.

As for the rest…well it’s all pretty much like I said last issue. All of the villains are boring, except Omega Red, and it’s hard to get excited since after this arc most of them just disappear or show up in different capacities which completely ignore this story. They all seem to be alluding to the Upstarts storyline in Uncanny, but none of them ever become a part of that team. Plus, all they’re really after is a standard maguffin to help Omega Red control his powers better, but he seems just fine in later stories without it.

As for the rest of the X-Men, there is some struggling to find something to do with them. The sequence with Cyclops and crew in the beginning is pretty unnecessary since the captured X-Men rescue themselves, and the writing struggles to either find something to do with all of these characters or fill up space. Forge complains about the computer’s voice, the X-Men sit down and explain how they are going to rescue Wolverine instead of just doing it; a lot of this comes off as space filler rather than necessary to the plot.

The art is great, except for the flashbacks. Jim Lee’s pencils are fine, but the costume designs for Team X are a mix between standard black ops soldiers and Robocop, and the art department decided that the flashbacks should be colored in what can only be described as urine yellow and black.

C+

X-Men #4

Real quick: this arc begins before the Upstarts story in Uncanny #281-283 and runs concurrently through it starting with the next issue, so I will be reviewing this story first. Also, Chris Claremont is out, so Jim Lee is doing the art and the plotting while John Byrne is responsible for the script. This leads to some discrepancies later.

X-Men #4
Writers: Jim Lee and John Byrne
Art: Jim Lee

What Went Down: The book opens with a weird cult ritual/medical experiment that ends in the deaths of a lot of Russians. The result is the birth of Omega Red. This is Omega’s first appearance and he is probably one of the most successful villains created in the 90s as far as not fading into obscurity by being absolutely horrible. Matsuo Tsuryaba greets him and offers him revenge on Wolverine.

The X-Men are playing basketball at the mansion; traditionally they would’ve been playing baseball, but starting with this issue basketball becomes the standby for a couple of years. Rogue accuses Gambit of cheating because they’re not using powers and his powers include, “natural agility.” This results in a fight.

Elsewhere at the mansion, Moira is having nightmares about her son, Proteus, and Magneto as a result of the previous issues. Oddly, Dr. MacTaggert is asleep during the middle of the day. At any rate, Professor X, Banshee, and Cyclops burst into her room because Xavier sensed her psychic distress, even though he wasn’t trying. Honest. Everyone once again reassures Moira that what happened in the last story arc wasn’t her fault, although Xavier has to help Banshee with his mental powers because Sean’s jaw is still broken from last issue.

Moira appears to be calming down until Rogue bursts in through the wall after being hit by an energy-charged basketball courtesy of Gambit. Moira runs off hysterically. Strangely, neither Cyclops nor Professor X are angry with the other X-Men for destroying a room in the mansion or traumatizing Moira.

In Berlin, Matsuo is shown meeting C-list villains Andrea and Andreas von Strucker, collectively known as Fenris; they are the children of Captain America villain and nazi scientist Baron von Strucker. The meeting is about Fenris’ desire to use Omega Red and their money to obtain immortality somehow.

Gambit once again tries to kiss Rogue and is rewarded by getting socked; he is still convinced Rogue’s power won’t hurt him. Sean is still trying to comfort Moira, but it is not going so well. She eventually decides to leave the mansion because… well, she just insists that she can’t stay.

Gambit and Rogue get ready to go on their first date, but Beast, Wolverine, and Jubilee decide that they are going with the couple to make sure Gambit behaves. Gambit tries to lose his chaperons, but all the X-Men are soon attacked and captured by the Hand and Omega Red. I don't know why, but the ninjas of the Hand are now wearing sunglasses and trench coats, and Wolverine is back in his old yellow and blue uniform. Moira’s taxi passes by, but she is too distraught to look out the window and notice her friends being hauled off.

How It Was: Well, for the first time in three decades Chris Claremont is completely unattached to a single X-Men project. Jim Lee had been credited as co-plotter for the previous arc and his first crack at solo plotter is pretty solid. Despite coming off as a mostly stereotypical evil communist Russian, Omega Red has managed to become a fairly popular villain since his first appearance; it’s hard to tell whether this is due to his eerie, corpse-like design, or the fact that his origin is tied to Wolverine’s. Visually, he has a lot going for him, although his “death factor” is a very contrived attempt to provide an evil equivalent to Wolverine’s healing factor. Having heroes get sick and fall over around him is kind of a lame way for them to get defeated, and later writers would usually ignore this power and have Red suck the life out of them with his tentacles.

The scenes with the X-Men playing ball are really solid. Jubilee provides some humorous moments; Gambit and Rogue demonstrate their dysfunctional/flirtatious relationship; and Wolverine gets to act grouchy and potentially violent. Unfortunately, the scenes with everyone else attempting to calm down Moira are a pretty painful attempt to get her out of the mansion on the part of the creators. The whole time she just cries and overreacts to everything Banshee and Xavier tell her. Plus, Moira justified why she wasn’t responsible for Magneto’s return to evil in the last issue, so the whole point should be moot. It’s even more difficult to get excited about this plot line because it will be completely dropped and forgotten in a couple of months when Moira returns to help treat the Legacy Virus. The scenes with Matsuo and Fenris are okay, but these ultimately lead nowhere also, as Fenris disappears after this arc.

The art is great. All of the X-Men look great in their sports and evening wear, the end battle with ninjas is dutifully flashy and action packed, and the opening sequences with Omega Red are suitably disturbing. And even though the poses during the basketball game are a little exaggerated, they still give off a nice sense of speed and movement. A great issue held back by plots that will go nowhere and a perplexing direction for Moira.

B+