X-Men #73

X-Men #73
Writing: Joe Kelly

Art: Jeff Johnson

What Went Down:  It’s New Year’s Eve and Joseph is contemplating his place on the team.  His meditation is interrupted by a pillow to the head as Rogue yells at him for watching her sleep.  Downstairs the X-Men are wallpapering the mansion with terrible-looking green and red striped paper.  Beast jumps down and reads a letter written from Professor X in prison, but it depresses Wolverine because in reality Charles is a prisoner for being who he is.  Joseph speaks of Charles’ tenacity and spirit, but Wolverine storms off anyway. 

In the Zero Tolerance Hulkbuster base, Senator Kelly is being led by an assistant to go and free Charles Xavier.  In Rio de Janeiro, Sebastian Shaw is ignoring his assistant who is organizing the Hellfire Club’s New Year’s Ball.  Back at the mansion, Maggott is talking to his slugs about how nice it is to have new friends when Joseph appears and asks him to explain how he knows Magneto.  Outside, a mystery person observes them.

In an autopsy room, a cop and a forensics specialist go over another victim of the mystery murderer in Salem.  While the victim looks to be mauled by an animal, marks on his body resemble internal examinations.  At Xavier’s, Marrow knocks over Cecilia while stealing her bag and medical books.  Cecilia chases after Marrow, knocking Beast away with her force field.  Although Marrow gets away, Beast is impressed that she used her powers offensively. 

Beast also shows her a morale boosting exercise.  He has pinned a sheet of paper on the wall for X-Men to post New Year’s resolutions on.  One of Beast’s goals is to cure the Legacy Virus, so Cecilia bets him that he can’t do it in a year.  Beast accepts the bet, and invites her to record her own goal.

Up in the air, Joseph recaps how Maggott called him friend in Antarctica.  Maggott’s internal monologue explains that the real Magneto has sworn him to secrecy.  Joseph is attacked by energy blasts, causing him to drop Maggott.  The attacker is Sabra, and she is there to apprehend Joseph, thinking he is Magneto.

At Shaw’s party, we get cameos from Norman Osborn, Warren Worthington, Betsy Braddock, and Tony Stark.  Fitzroy interrupts Shaw for official inner circle business, but Shaw is depressed that the Inner Circle has failed so often, and that by next year there probably won’t even be one.

Storm and Wolverine both fill out Beast’s sheet, and Storm tries to apologize to Logan for pushing him to solve her problem with Marrow.  Wolverine brushes it off, saying he knew what he was getting into, and that he still showed Marrow that she wasn’t invincible. 

In Germany the parcel addressed to Storm from Africa is about to be sent back for insufficient postage.  Some African tribal warriors appear and threaten the postmaster.

Sabra easily defeats Maggott.  She is about to kill Joseph when Maggott explains that he isn’t really Magneto.  In the OZT base, Senator Kelly discovers that Charles Xavier’s cell is empty.  At the Hellfire Club party, Shaw tells a mystery person called Wraith that he accepts, and the picture of the gold idol bursts into flames.  Sabra wakes Joseph up, and Maggott tells him that he isn’t the real Magneto.  Sabra offers him a chance to find out who he really is, but he must leave with her now without saying goodbye to his friends, since he may be part of a plot of some kind.  As the two leave, Sabra reveals that she knows Maggott’s real name is Japheth.

Finally, Beast watches the ball drop at midnight by himself.  He is depressed that no one else joined him, until he finds that four of the X-Men have added their own resolutions to his.

How It Was:  This is a fun one, and I have to say that most of this is due to Joe Kelly’s awesome writing of the Beast.  The jolly genius is the heart of this issue, trying to look devil may care, but also showing distress at the state of the team currently.  His New Year’s resolutions are fun and hopeful, and I enjoy the playful nature of his relationship with Cecilia Reyes.  Some might take this as being unfaithful to Trish Tilby, but Trish is so boring and generic anyways.  Bottom line: every panel with Beast in it is delightful.

As for the story depicted on the cover, this turns out to be more of Maggott’s story than Joseph’s.  I’ve always liked Maggott; he’s got a unique power and his dialogue is usually pretty funny (I love how he hopes Storm is showering outside again).  However after rereading this issue, I am starting to see why he was never a runaway hit with the fans.  Namely, he gets his butt kicked a lot.  I never realized it before, but he gets trounced by Psylocke, Juggernaut, Sauron, and now royally by Sabra.  It’s a shame that he never puts up much of a fight because I feel like he’s an unconventional and likable character.

As for Joseph…poor Joseph.  For a while he was the exciting new direction of the X-Men—the good Magneto, trying to redeem himself without falling to the same fate of his past life.  But over time he just got pushed further and further to the background.  Now with the new recruits coming, nobody really has time for him, so Joseph has to go.  I understand where the creators were coming from with an already overabundant cast of characters, but I always felt that Joseph should’ve had a better exit.  At the very least he deserved a goodbye to the other characters.  Here Joseph just gets told a bunch of stuff the reader already knew from Uncanny #350 and X-Men #72, then he’s shipped off with Maggott’s real name thrown in as a sign of good will.  Pretty disappointing for such a noble character.

Outside of the weak fight with Sabra, and her seemingly out of nowhere fixation with Magneto, the rest of the book is solid.  Along with Beast’s goofiness, the scene where Wolverine and Storm talk about Marrow is excellent.  It shows their relationship and personalities off to the tee.  Johnson’s pencils aren’t as sharp as Pacheco’s, but they’re still bright and clear.  Kelly continues to excel at bringing these characters out and making their relationships and conflicts readable and fun.

B+

Wolverine #116

Wolverine #116
Writing: Larry Hama
Art: Lenil Francis Yu

What Went Down:  In the middle of the desert, a blind nomad is approached by the tired and ragged X­-Men who are on the run from Operation Zero Tolerance.  The blind man invites them to his fire and explains that his name is Mustang and he’s a pilot that was gravely injured preventing a plane from crashing into an airshow crowd.  He is in the desert taking part in a study that might repair his eyes, kidneys, and legs, all conducted by a Dr. Prospero.  The surrounding trailers are full of people with similar injuries that just want a chance to have their handicaps fixed.  Mustang is also able to deduce that the group is made up of mutants.  After everyone goes to sleep, Wolverine sneaks off to check out the clinic where these treatments are occurring.

In the morning, the X-Men confront Mustang about the true purpose of the clinic.  Using her powers, Jean lets Mustang “see” what Wolverine saw the previous night: a lab full of Sentinel parts.  Jean explains that the Prime Sentinels are sleeper agents activated when they come in contact with mutants and all the people in the camp are being turned into them. 

All of a sudden an aircraft appears in the distance.  The X-Men know it is from OZT scanning for mutants, but Mustang is able to hide them in an underground compartment originally designed for smuggling immigrants.  Mustang then wanders off to tell the rest of the community what he has just learned. At the same time Bastion tells one of his members to activate the Sentinels.  And randomly, we end on a scene of Robert Kelly talking to his wife at her grave. He wonders aloud if he should stand up to Zero Tolerance, then resolves that it’s the right thing to do.  Kelly tells Gyrich to get in touch with G.W. Bridge of SHIELD.

How It Was:  After two issues of barely surviving the Prime Sentinels, the X-Men get a little bit of a breather to actually learn something about the storyline.  Sure the reveal of Prime Sentinels as unwilling cyborgs isn’t a huge revelation, but at least it’s an answer; Bastion has been appearing in X-Men comics since before Onslaught and we never learn who or what he is in this story.  Probably the best moment occurs during the first-person scenes of Wolverine uncovering the lab; seeing Wolverine tear up a wall from his perspective is a neat visual.

The story really centers on Mustang, who isn’t anything to write home about.  He’s a one-dimensional nice guy whose only purpose is to instill sympathy in the reader by putting a face to the victims of Operation Zero Tolerance, although you could argue that particular role should be held by the mutants being persecuted by OZT.  He’s background is so cliché, and it’s hard to believe he can figure out the X-Men’s identities when he didn’t even realize the government was turning him into a killer robot.  You can tell from the first page that you’ll never see him again in another Marvel comic, but he’s inoffensive in a dull, one-note sort of way.

The Robert Kelly scene at the end comes a little out of nowhere; I want to say that this plotline belonged in X-Men, but really it was only tertiary in that book as well.  It is redundant considering all the other conversations Gyrich and Kelly have had in other X-books, but readers of just Wolverine would have needed this to make heads or tails out of the ending.

This book is set up for the end of the story, which is fine enough.  What should’ve happened is that the Wolverine book would be responsible for stopping the Sentinels and the X-Men book would stop Bastion, but that doesn’t quite happen.  Everything in OZT just lacks focus and direction; there doesn’t really seem to be an end game for the team in the Wolverine book.  Still, this is definitely more coherent and less formulaic than the rest of the issues in Operation Zero Tolerance, so I’m not hating it.

C+

X-Men #68

X-Men #68
Writing: Scott Lobdell and Steve Seagle
Art: Pascual Ferry

What Went Down:  Two cops walk down to the basement of the police station, looking for the cause of the power outage.  Marrow attacks them both and knocks them out.  Upstairs, Charlotte Jones decides that she can’t leave her friends to die, even if it means risking her son’s life.  In the interrogation room, Iceman detects the Sentinels on the other side of the glass.  They attack, but Cecilia’s forcefield once again holds them off.  The human police officers barge in, weapons drawn, and the battle escalates.

At the White House, Senator Kelly is feeling guilty about paving the way for Operation Zero Tolerance.  He comes to the conclusion that genocide is not a solution after debating with Henry Peter Gyrich.  He decides that he needs to talk to the President to resolve this. 

In New York, the real police exchange gunfire with the Sentinels.  Iceman breaks a wall and provides an ice slide for escape, afterwards bringing the ceiling down on the robots.  Downstairs, Marrow prevents the prisoners from escaping by scaring them. 

Back upstairs, one Sentinel survives and shoots at Iceman.  Charlotte Jones jumps in between, severely wounding herself.  She explains that her son was kidnapped and asks them to rescue him.  At a dock in New York, Sabra prevents two criminals from stealing some cargo.

Marrow shows up to offer help and make fun of Cecilia’s problems.  The two women almost get into a fight, but Iceman intercedes.  After stabilizing Charlotte, they leave.  Walking down the street, the three mutants are ambushed by an army of soldiers and Prime Sentinels.  The issue closes on Charlotte’s son Timmy being watched by an old woman who tells the boy that his mother is undercover.

How It Was:  With this issue, the Operation Zero Tolerance plot starts to take some missteps.  The threats still haven’t gone beyond Sentinel ambushes for Cecilia to hold back (hell, it’s even the cliffhanger for the issue), and the renewed emphasis on Senator Kelly is not a good sign of where the story is going toward its resolution.  I can’t nail down what Gyrich’s purpose is in this story.  He seems firmly committed to the idea of mutants as a threat that need stopped by any means necessary, but he is sympathetic to the Senator for some unknown reason.  Plus, Gyrich was attacked by Sentinels in Uncanny #346, so he should probably feel a little more strongly about OZT.  It’s good that the story is drawing parallels between racial profiling, unsubstantiated fears, and the Nazis, but shouldn’t Senator Kelly have thought of all this beforehand?  On top of that, the entire purpose of Iceman’s team has suddenly switched from protecting mutants and stopping Bastion to saving the son of a third-tier character that hasn’t been seen in this book in years. 

What makes up for all this is the addition of Marrow to the team.  Now I’m the first to balk at the idea of a villain becoming a hero, and it’s obvious that the X-staff has changed her quite a bit in trying to pull this off (even going so far as to change her appearance to something more aesthetically pleasing).  She was a homicidal maniac willing to blow up a subway full of humans, so this new take on her is a bit of a stretch.  Still, she adds a lot of humor to this story and offers a new contrast for Cecilia.  The story up until now has focused on Cecilia’s problems, but compared to Marrow, Reyes has had it easy.  Marrow lived in a sewer, never saw the sun, and had to hunt and fight for survival.  And Cecilia might be able to see that if Marrow wasn’t so crass and confrontational.  Suffice to say, Marrow adds a new voice and a wholly unique perspective to the other two that adds to the story.

Whereas the characters are spot-on and compelling, the narration is a little overwrought.  There are sequences that are just too full of unnecessary information, like the description of the making of the two-way mirror in one scene, or the entire career history of the two cops in the opening three pages (surprisingly, they do appear in a later issue).  Also there are some sequences that just pull you right out of the story: a tattooed elderly gentleman worried about dying in the precinct and the friends talking outside about breaking into the police station serve no purpose.

But now I’m nitpicking.  I do like this issue for the humor, the animosity and tension between the characters, and at the time I was wondering how this was all going to end.  This is still one of the better portrayals of Iceman you’ll get for a long time, and both Marrow and Cecilia are shaping into interesting characters.

B

Uncanny X-Men #333

Uncanny X-Men #333
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Pascual Ferry

What Went Down: In his Virginia mansion, Senator Robert Kelly acts super edgy and waves around a gun, looking for someone. He finds Cyclops, who the Senator had called earlier. Kelly reveals that he is aware of members of Xavier’s Mutant Underground, but Cyclops doesn’t really care. Then Kelly begs for Cyclops’ help.

Above the Pentagon, the X-Men are hovering in the cloaked Blackbird while Jean Grey and Gambit infiltrate the building to learn about Operation Zero Tolerance. Cannonball compares the stunt to something he would’ve committed in X-Force, which honors Storm, while Dark Beast tries to maintain his identity in front of Iceman and Professor X.

In an underground sub-basement of the Pentagon, Jean is using her telepathy to disguise herself and Gambit. Also, in case you’re wondering, all of the mutant detecting technology in the Pentagon was created by Forge, who told the X-Men how to block it.

In Colorado, Archangel is still recovering from the injury Sabretooth gave him. Psylocke is also recovering, and she is easily able to sneak up on Warren outside. Betsy wonders about the changes the Crimson Dawn has done to her body and mind. Something appears behind Psylocke, asking for help. For some reason this causes Betsy to faint, and when Warren flies down to help her, the pain from his wing causes him to fall unconscious as well.

Back at the Pentagon, Jean marvels at the various politicians and officials assembled. The group is greeted by Bastion, who we are meeting for the first time. He describes Zero Tolerance as a survival task force, and tells the officials that there is a mysterious threat looming known as Onslaught. Also, Jean can’t scan his mind.

In Kelly’s mansion, Kelly is telling Cyclops that he found something after getting involved in Project: Widawake; something to do with the extinction of mutants. They are ambushed by an explosive from the Friends of Humanity. Oh and Graydon Creed is stupid enough to sit in a van outside the attempted assassination of a senator during his presidential campaign.

Over in the Blackbird, Xavier tries to listen to the presentation telepathically; Storm reminds him that he said he was unable to do this, but Xavier brushes her off. In the middle of his presentation on Onslaught, Bastion reveals that he can detect Jean and Remy, so he attacks them. The X-Men are surprised, so they proceed to run away. Gambit blows a hole in the wall, and he and Jean find that all the soldiers outside are sleeping. Onslaught appears to Jean, takes credit for knocking out the soldiers, and tells her that it was a gift.

Finally, Archangel and Psylocke wake up to find a Juggernaut-shaped shadow looming over them.

How It Was: After filling in for Andy Kubert two months previous, Pascual Ferry takes a shot filling in on Uncanny and does a pretty awesome job. While not a whole lot happens this issue, he manages to make Gambit and Jean’s escape look more frantic and action-packed than it actually is; he also sets a great mood with the shadowing in the Cyclops/Kelly sequences, definitely capturing the conspiracy mystery vibe. It’s too bad that there’s never any real payoff from this setup; it seems like Kelly is afraid Operation Zero Tolerance is going to kill him, but later it’s made clear that OZT doesn’t care about him at all, even releasing him after capturing Cyclops.

Really, this issue is setting up the main threat for after the Onslaught crossover, and frankly it’s a nice change of pace to see the X-Office planning these things so far in advance. While Bastion’s presentation only exists to regurgitate plot points from past X-Men issues so they’ll be fresh on people’s minds, the fact that he identifies Gambit and Jean, along with his appearance, adds some mystique to him. The fact that the head of this anti-mutant program is being run by an obvious non-human is very intriguing indeed. Jean and Gambit’s escape also makes for a brief, but well-executed action set piece.

The Archangel/Psylocke thread is a misfire. While it’s nice to check in on them after their injuries, all they do is recap what’s happened to them thus far and pass out. Psylocke is sensing psionic screams because of her exposure to the Crimson Dawn? What does that even mean? And it is very unclear whether Archangel passes out from the pain or crashes into the ground. Either way, neither character comes out of this looking particularly good. In fact, the falling unconscious serves no purpose except to create some anti-climactic tension, since they pick up right where they left off after they wake up. It’s a cheap plot device to postpone the scene for the cliffhanger, and it doesn’t work at all.

There are some nice, but insignificant moments in the Blackbird. It’s becoming clear at this point that the Dark Beast plot has some holes in it; namely, that he’s somehow hiding on a team with three of the world’s most powerful telepaths on it. And while this gets explained by Onslaught later, it still doesn’t answer why the Dark Beast thought this was a good plan in the first place, ignorant of Onslaught as he was. He really had no plan for this? And why is he still on the team after already being captured by Sinister once? Also, it’s about this point that the X-writers start to abandon subtlety as far as the hints that Xavier is Onslaught are concerned. The mystery doesn’t work at all because we’re only presented with one potential suspect who keeps acting more and more disturbed.

This issue crosses over with X-Force #55 for no particular reason; it’s a weak attempt to boost readership of the other X-books. Later we’ll see that many X-titles started having events happen in the completely wrong titles, but more on that later. While the Archangel/Psylocke sequences are panel padding nonsense, the introduction of Bastion goes off really well and succeeds in creating some intrigue in the events to follow Onslaught. Sure, the “hints” at Onslaught’s motivations never make sense in the long run, but as I said before, the focus is mostly on Zero Tolerance for next year.

B+

Uncanny X-Men #298

Uncanny X-Men #298
Writer: Scott Lobdell
Art: Brandon Peterson


What Went Down: Professor X has secluded himself in the War Room for the last seventy-two hours monitoring news reports on mutant/human relations. Bishop enters to resign from the X-Men due to his failure to protect Xavier, but the Professor refuses to accept his resignation.

At a private school, former New Mutants supporting character Sharon Friedlander is preparing for the school day. She mentions that she is working in this place as a favor to Xavier before being knocked out by the Acolytes.

In the Danger Room, Jean Grey and Archangel are running a test to help Bishop and Gambit learn to work together. This is a major obstacle because Bishop believes Gambit is the traitor who in the future is responsible for killing the X-Men, and Gambit doesn’t really appreciate that.

Over in Central Park, supporting character, and on again/off again Archangel girlfriend, Charlotte Jones is jogging and contemplating her recent decisions. She meets Storm and Professor X to give him a file. While they are talking, Xavier receives a mental cry for help from Sharon. He contacts the X-Men and tells them to leave right away.

Back at the school, Tom Corsi, another New Mutants supporting character, is driving the school bus full of students to the school. He notices that nobody seems to be around right before the school explodes revealing the Acolytes and the unconscious Sharon (who next issue we learn is dead). The new Acolytes are as follows: the Kleinstock Brothers, Unuscione—the daughter of 60’s era X-villain Unus the Unstoppable, and Cargill—former member of the Axis of Evil. They also identify that their leader is Fabian Cortez, the man responsible for betraying Magneto in X-Men #1-3. Their mission is to find a latent mutant to add to their ranks and kill all the rest of the humans.

Right off the bat, one of the Kleinstocks gets killed by a shotgun blast from Corsi, leaving two. Unuscione uses her “psionic exo-skeleton” to grab him. She is about to kill him when the X-Men show up.

The X-Men battle the Acolytes. Events of note include Archangel being engulfed by flames and surviving. Also Cargill apparently knows Gambit because they call each other by their first names, but nothing ever comes of this. Unuscione finds the potential mutant, but he has Down’s Syndrome, so the Acolytes don’t want him anymore. The Kleinstocks start a fire near the bus, and the X-Men get to work trying to save the children. The flames get close to the gas tank, but luckily Storm shows up and puts out the fire.

The issue ends with Senator Robert Kelly on TV denouncing mutants and warning the public about the threat mutants pose. Professor X turns off the TV and looks very concerned.

How It Was: Very enjoyable. It appears that the X-Men once again have a direction as well as some interesting avenues to explore. Everything about this issue feels well constructed. The expansion of Bishop and Gambit’s relationship is very welcome, as is the direction for Professor X as refocused due to his recent near death experience. The fight with the Acolytes is really well done, mostly owing to the fact that Lobdell keeps the numbers down and only introduces us to five of the members (and one of them dies right away, so we don’t have to worry about him). The fight is also well paced and has some clever moments to it, such as Gambit’s use of a tire swing or Jean’s surprise at the Kleinstocks’ powers. My one regret is that the Acolytes’ powers are introduced, but none of their personalities go beyond narrow-minded zealot. On the other hand, Lobdell does get some great moments out of C-list supporting characters like Sharon Freidlander and Tom Corsi.

Peterson’s art looks really nice this issue; just look at the details in the computer screens and newspapers in Xavier War Room towards the beginning of the issue. Also, the room full of Archangels looks rather nice as well. A really good issue.

A