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+

X-Men #64

X-Men #64
Writing: Scott Lobdell and Ben Raab
Art: Carlos Pacheco

What Went Down: The Kingpin announces that the heroes have come a long way to die. Wolverine wants to attack, but Jean holds him back. Kingpin reveals that he has Cannonball hooked up to a machine that will inject him in the heart with the experimental cure, potentially killing him. In the docking bay, Sebastian Shaw kills two guards and enters Fujikawa.

Back in the upper levels, Jean wraps Sam in a telekinetic bubble to prevent the needles from going in. Kingpin releases Cannonball after threatening the X-Men. Kingpin then recaps his defeat by Daredevil, brings up Shang-Chi’s father again, and mentions that he is not interested in immortality. He knows the price people will pay for a drop of the fluid.

Back in America, in the base of Operation: Zero Tolerance, Jubilee is contemplating her fate as Bastion continues to try to convince her that he has defeated the X-Men. Bastion tells her that all she can do is pray.

Cyclops telepathically conferences with the X-Men; they conclude that the Kingpin will destroy the serum before giving it up. Shaw and an army of ninjas show up to escalate the situation. Just when the final battle is about to begin, Storm decides that they can’t have a battle without taking casualties, so she destroys all of the Elixir Vitae with her powers. Immediately after this, she regrets her decision. The X-Men leave and Shang-Chi announces that the X-Men will cure Legacy on their own terms.

On the plane home, Cannonball contemplates an aphorism Shang-Chi told him. The X-Men explain it to him, and he acts mystified. Storm feels sorry for herself for destroying a potential cure, but the forces of Operation Zero Tolerance attacking their plane interrupt her.

How It Was: After the endings of the Storm/Candra story and the Phalanx Space story in Uncanny, were you expecting an ending here that was climactic and satisfying? Because if you were, then you are pretty bad at identifying patterns. This issue features a lot of the same from the last two issues: more mentions of Shang Chi’s father, more speculation over the healing properties of the Elixir Vitae, and more discussion of the Legacy Virus. It’s a very slow build, but you think it’ll be worth it for the end battle, but then it never comes.

This wouldn’t be so bad if Lobdell, or maybe Raab, had properly set up the need for Storm to take matters into her own hands. Unfortunately the threat just isn’t there. Wolverine and Shang-Chi handled the ninjas by themselves in the first issue, the Kingpin’s traps are easily avoided with the X-Men’s powers, and the Kingpin himself isn’t a threat to any of them. He may work as a menacing Spider-Man or Daredevil villain, but all his threats come off as empty to heroes who can control the weather or shoot force blasts that can level mountains. Storm’s actions come off as completely unnecessary, all the more so when she chastises herself for doing it a panel later. It’s an unearned moment that is supposed to be powerful, but isn’t; it just doesn’t work. Plus, couldn’t the Kingpin just make more? Why would he have his only source of the formula in the same room with a handful of incredibly powerful mutants?

Once again Shang-Chi has literally nothing to do for the entire issue; it makes you wonder why the heck he was even in this story. No amount of meaningfully analytic thought bubbles can hide the fact that this guest star has no purpose. This feels a lot like it might have been an abandoned story idea for Shang-Chi by himself. Without the X-Men, the Kingpin would’ve been a suitable threat and the choice would’ve had more weight to it. Also it drives me crazy that Cannonball can’t understand a simple proverb from Shang-Chi and needs it explained; just because a character is young and from the South, it doesn’t mean they have to be dense! The most successful Rogue stories have been ones that treat her as intelligent, and the same goes with Cannonball.

This story had some promise, but it squandered it all by not wanting to commit or further any storylines. The art is nice, but unfortunately most of it is of people standing around and threatening each other. There just isn’t enough of a threat to the heroes for this story to be compelling whatsoever.

D

X-Men #63

X-Men #63
Writing: Scott Lobdell and Ben Raab
Art: Carlos Pacheco

What Went Down: In the middle of downtown Hong Kong, Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung-Fu, and the rest of the X-Men are attacked by a group of technologically enhanced ninjas. Each of the ninjas announces his or her name and power as they fight the heroes. Shang-Chi notes the attraction between Jean and Wolverine and the leadership of Cyclops; he even helps Cyclops out when the girl, Katana, attacks him. Storm deals with a ninja named Fist, and once all the ninjas are dealt with Sebastian Shaw shows up.

Jean overreacts to Shaw’s appearance by crushing him under a car; she realizes that this was a mistake and blames it on her feelings associated with Shaw’s manipulation of the Phoenix into Dark Phoenix. Of course, hitting Shaw with the car allows him to absorb the kinetic energy of the crash, charging him up. Storm and Shaw agree to move the discussion elsewhere, and Shang-Chi notes that Cannonball has disappeared. As for Sam, he has stowed away on a rickshaw, using his blasting power to keep him from weighing the vehicle down.

At the Hong Kong branch of the Hellfire Club, Cyclops comforts Jean, and she mentions something sinister on the horizon. Shaw tries to convince the X-Men that he is trying to close the deal for the Elixir Vitae for the benefit of human and mutant kind. Later in his lab, he receives a disk with data on all the characters who have contracted the Legacy Virus thus far, including Moira MacTaggert, Multiple Man, Illyana Rasputin, and others. The disk comes from Rory Cambell, an assistant of Moira’s who gives Shaw the data in the hope that Shaw can find a cure before Moira dies of the disease.

Shaw leads the X-Men to the Hong Kong branch of Fujikawa Enterprises, a weapons company that used to be merged with Tony Stark. At the same time, Cannonball has infiltrated the lab, but he is stopped by a mysterious bald man. The X-Men and Shang-Chi break into the offices only to find that the mastermind behind this plot is the Kingpin.

How It Was: This issue opens up with some great action. Although these villains are pretty one-dimensional, they have some great designs and Pacheco’s art demonstrates that their powers make them an impressive threat. The art just carries the action phenomenonally.

Poor Shang-Chi still has nothing to do in this story except admire the X-Men and listen to people like Shaw as they continue to bring up his father and the Elixir Vitae. Cannonball gets to go off on a mission, but then gets captured by a powerless super villain, further showing that the X-offices don’t know how to handle the character. And as for the reveal of the Kingpin, I can’t say it’s really that interesting. Sure you don’t see it coming, because at this point it could be anyone in the Marvel Universe, but he’s not really a character that anybody believes could be a threat to the X-Men, and he doesn’t really have anything to do with them.

Really, this issue should be taking more time to acknowledge Sebastian Shaw’s return, since he was supposed to be dead. I guess he made an appearance in X-Man earlier, but he’s a more significant bad guy to the X-Men, and the Kingpin seems redundant in a story with Shaw. After all, how many rich, manipulative villains with vast criminal networks do you need in one story?

The story does feel like it’s building its pace here, even if a lot of the exposition about the Elixir Vitae is repeated from last issue. The action in the beginning is well rendered and the story gets to where it needs to by the end. With all the mentioning of the Legacy Virus and its victims, it would’ve been nice if the subplot had picked up after this story. Instead, it gets forgotten for Operation Zero Tolerance, and it isn’t picked up again for years. Really though, that’s more of a problem with next issue.

B+

X-Men #62

X-Men #62
Writing: Scott Lobdell and Ben Raab
Art: Carlos Pacheco

What Went Down: We begin outside of the Scottish home of British Secret Service agent Clive Reston. Shang-Chi—The Master of Kung-Fu has been summoned by his former handler, but he doesn’t know what for. Outside the door, an army of ninjas belonging to the order of his deceased father attacks Shang-Chi. Shang holds his own until the ninjas pull out guns. Luckily for him, Wolverine shows up to lend a hand. Because this is a super hero comic book, Shang-Chi has to mistake Logan for an enemy and attack him, but Wolverine is pretty quick to put Shang in his place. Storm prevents him from going too far.

Later, after being introduced to the X-Men, Shang-Chi thinks about how interesting they are. He senses Jean and Cyclops observing him and flings a statue at them. Clive Reston shows up to deliver the exposition to Shang and the X-Men. The death of Shang-Chi’s father left a power vacuum in China that is being filled by the Hellfire Club. The club is seeking to recreate the Elixir Vitae, a potion Shang-Chi’s father tried to use to live forever. It is believed by Sebastian Shaw that the elixir might be used to cure the Legacy Virus, and in turn the Inner Circle would use that fact to exploit people and make billions.

In another part of Hong Kong, a mysterious villain contemplates how soon the British territorial claim will expire on the city. One of his minions tells him that the heroes are on their way. Downtown, the heroes are driving down the crowded streets in cars, or maybe they’re parked…I can’t really tell. Anyways, one of the cars the X-Men are using is attacked. Jean puts up a teke shield just in time for the team to confront a group of four cyborg ninjas (not to be confused with the Cyburai).

How It Was: Alright, X-Men finally has a regular penciller again. Carlos Pacheco comes on board, and even though this isn’t the most auspicious story to debut on, he really makes the most of it. His opening pages of a moonlit mansion on the water are just gorgeous and his action sequences featuring the ninjas are nicely posed and organized. My one complaint would be his version of Troll Wolverine, but then again I’ve never liked anyone’s version of Troll Wolverine; Pacheco’s pretty much looks like Sabretooth with Wolverine’s haircut and extra arm hair. It’s a very pretty looking story, though.

As for what’s actually going on, poor Scott Lobdell is being stretched really thin with writing duties for three X-books. Ben Raab is brought in to do dialogue, and while it’s adequate, it definitely doesn’t have that Lobdell touch. Most of it is unnecessary internal exposition from Shang-Chi as he shares his impressions on every single detail of the story. There is also a particularly wordy lecture from the shadowy villain about the history of Hong Kong and China that is fit into a single panel.

Looking past the dialog, this story is just odd. Some readers might’ve gotten excited by the idea that the Legacy plotline was about to be furthered… it’s not, so don’t get your hopes up. What’s really strange is the inclusion of Shang-Chi, a character that hasn’t had any real success since the seventies and early eighties. If Marvel’s idea was to test the waters to see if readers wanted a Shang-Chi solo title, surely they could’ve done better than this; the Master of Kung-Fu doesn’t even get to look that great since Wolverine drops him in two panels. Plus Shang-Chi just doesn’t have a lot to do here; he gets to gush internally about how awesome the X-Men are and then takes their presence as a threat and attacks them. His history is used as a vague justification for the story, but really Shang-Chi himself isn’t needed for this story, since Clive Reston could’ve just filled the X-Men in himself, being one of Wolverine’s numerous old war buddies. In case you’re wondering why Shang’s father isn’t mentioned by name, that’s because the character’s name was Fu Manchu (the Yellow Claw) and he was a vaguely racist Chinese stereotype from the seventies. Definitely not a character to bring up in the politically correct era of the 90s.

This is just all set up. It introduces us to one of the most random guest stars in any X-book, and ties some obscure twenty-year-old stories together as a potential plot thread to the Legacy Virus. Even most of the X-Men are basically standing around this issue, waiting for some action to happen. Still, it’s not blatantly bad, just a little slow and a bit out of left field.

B-