X-Men Annual #3

 This review probably should have been before the Phalanx Covenant, but I forgot about it until now.  Oh well.

X-Men Annual #3
Writing: Ian Edington and Jim Krueger
Art: Gene Ha and Steve Yeowell

What Went Down: So…many…pages. ACK!

We open on a scene of a woman named Benazir playing chess with Shinobi Shaw. Coincidentally, the floor of the room they’re playing in has the same pattern as the chessboard. Of course, any time you have villains playing chess, it’s meant to symbolize how cunning they are and how strategically intricate their plan is.

Storm is taking time for a recreational flight over the mansion. When she returns, she watches a news report on a civil war in a war-torn country, most probably located in Africa. Archangel delivers some roses to her, which we find out were sent by Shinobi Shaw; he wants Storm to meet with him. She cuts herself on the thorns and goes upstairs to get a bandage; along the way, she can’t help thinking about a young boy shown on the news. Storm also starts to act short with the others, starting with Jubilee.

Storm reappears in her old leather outfit; at least she hasn’t given herself a mohawk again. Everyone is quite surprised by the change of wardrobe, and Storm gets in an argument with Professor X over whether or not it is safe for her to go to the Hellfire Club. Storm accuses him of thinking of her as an obedient daughter and “storms” out. Get it? Outside, Gambit gives her a ride on his motorcycle to the Hellfire Club.

At the club, Shinobi pulls out all of the stops to impress Storm with dinner and champagne. In the indoor rose garden, he invites Storm to join the Hellfire Club, claiming that he has reformed and his ultimate goal is now to help the world rather than rule it. He brings up the point that the X-Men, for all their battles, have failed to significantly impact the world, causing Storm to flip out and turn her powers on him. Storm agrees to consider the proposal and leaves. Candra comes out of hiding afterwards, and Shinobi reveals that the roses and dinner were laced with a drug that messes with her brain chemistry. This explains her erratic behavior, new outfit, and hostility towards the X-Men.

Professor X worries a lot in his study and considers reading Storm’s mind, but he decides against it. Storm has a surreal dream with doctors cutting open her brain to take her powers because she has wasted them by just fighting super villains. The powers are going to the boy on the news. When she awakens, Storm freaks out, busts through the wall in her room, and files to the Hellfire Club. The X-Men are all awakened by this.

After arriving, Storm shares her dream with Shinobi. Rather than prey on her sympathies, the villain reveals that he’s been drugging her instead. Conveniently, the drugs also mellow her powers. He then introduces her to the all-new Hellfire Club. Benedict, who can affect people’s nervous systems, subdues her.

The X-Men are flying around trying to detect Storm. Shinobi is about to give her a super dose of the drug to eradicate her personality. Xavier is able to use his powers to restore Storm’s. Storm attacks the group, and Gambit and Bishop show up to back her up.

During the big climactic fight, we are introduced to the other members of the new Hellfire Club. There is Benazir, from earlier in the issue, who can give people tumors…no, seriously. There’s also Reeva Payge who can distort people’s senses. Storm corners Shaw and threatens to kill him, even if she dies with him. The end features Storm and Xavier having a tearful reconciliation.

What Else What Down: The backup stars Banshee. It starts with Banshee bursting into the modern day Interpol headquarters; in case you didn’t know, before he was an X-Man, Sean was an agent of Interpol. Banshee is angry that the Interpol head has intel about an important person. Elsewhere, an old man named Patrick Lipton is on his deathbed.

We then flashback to an early mission of Banshee’s where he was assigned to protect Lipton from Hydra because he is a genius scientist. Hydra invades the train that the two men are on, but they escape. Instead of running, Banshee decides to push the tree blocking the rails out of the way, which leads to him getting shot.

Back in the present, Banshee invades the castle Lipton is dying in, which also happens to be a Hydra base. After beating up all of the Hydra agents, we flashback to Lipton using a grenade on the enemy soldiers. Rather than let the reinforcements kill Banshee, Lipton is inspired by his sacrifice, so he decides to give himself up to save Cassidy. Banshee comforts the man, right before Lipton dies.

How It Was: This turns out to be a fabulously written issue, by a writer I’m fairly unfamiliar with, that deals with a number of characters that we will never see again. Where this issue excels is in its exploration of Storm’s character, her role in the X-Men, and her history in that role. Storm is forced to confront the purpose of the X-Men itself, both its goals and actual accomplishments. Much like other peacekeeping organizations, the fact that there is still suffering in the world casts doubt on the idea that there is any justice, and Storm’s struggling with this idea is very intriguing. We also get a return of the uninhibited wild Storm from Claremont’s 80s run, which I would normally groan at, but it is actually used pretty effectively as a symbol for Storm’s crisis of conscience and her struggle for meaning and identity. Shinobi Shaw also gets an opportunity to come off as a worthy successor to his father’s legacy as a master manipulator for the first time ever, until he abruptly foils his own plot by explaining it to the person he is trying to manipulate. The script does a great job of placing real life conflicts and issues into the story, and reflecting on the helplessness that can result through the context of the heroes. Oh, and Storm’s nightmare sequence is very well done.

The issue does have its faults which revolve around Shaw’s actual goal and his new Hellfire Club. Really, Edington is tying his story to a premise that Fabian Nicieza started with Shaw asking Archangel and Psylocke to join the Hellfire Club in X-Men #29, but even that really never made all that much sense. It’s hard to tell if Shaw was serious with these invitations, which would make him an idiot, or if he had a grander scheme, which never got revealed. As far as I can remember, this is Shinobi’s last appearance in the X-Men books, and he floats around the Marvel Universe for a while before getting killed by his father Sebastian Shaw, who was supposed to have been killed by Shinobi himself.

The other real problem with this story is that the new Hellfire Club is really lame. There is a guy who attacks nervous systems and a girl who can give you tumors; I’ll give credit to the writer for trying to create some new powers, but these are dumb. This is the only appearance of Shinobi’s new club, to the best of my knowledge, so you don’t have to bother remembering any of them, unless you are into obscure X-Villain trivia. Also, Candra shows up for no apparent reason at all in the middle of the story, and then she just disappears.

Gene Ha’s art is superb—there is no better way of putting it. Some of the colors do come off as a bit muddy, but it works with the tone of this story. It’s not quite as amazing as his work on The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, but it still works surprisingly well given the difference in tone of the settings of both stories.

As for the backup, once again it is nothing to write home about. Jim Krueger, who would later go on to write a number of things for Marvel—including the Earth X series, tries really hard to stick this story into Banshee’s past in order to give it a sense of meaning to Banshee and his development. Ultimately it fails because nobody really cares about the scientist; there isn’t enough room to make him that sympathetic. And other than that, it’s a bunch of panels of Banshee beating up generic Hydra agents. Still, the main story is actually fairly compelling and worth checking out, despite the mediocre villains.

B+

X-Men #29

X-Men #29
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Sabretooth and Psylocke are having a rematch in the Danger Room. Professor X and the Beast are hesitant about this, but feel it is necessary to allow Creed to get some exercise and test his new manacles. Betsy gets Creed at swordpoint, vindicating herself after her embarrassment last issue. Psylocke’s behavior borders on flirting with Sabretooth, causing Archangel, Beast, and the Professor to wonder about her. Beast asks Warren about his on again/off again relationship with Charlotte Jones…apparently it is off again. Warren spends a couple of pages brooding about how alone he is, until Jubilee brings by the mail and gives Warren an invitation to the Hellfire Club.

Psylocke walks in, and the two discuss their families’ histories with the Hellfire Club, as well as the Inner Circle’s battles with the X-Men. Warren and Betsy decide that they should go to the party to see what the Circle is up to.

At the Hellfire Club, Betsy and Warren mingle with all of the rich people, and the couple bumps into Dwayne Taylor—Night Thrasher of the New Warriors. He’s hanging out at the Club because he’s about to take part in the Child’s Play crossover that ends the Upstarts storyline. They also run into Ronald Parvenue, a character who claims to be a friend of Warren’s father who then disappears. The two X-Men are next approached by Tessa—Shinobi Shaw’s assistant who later turns out to be a spy working for Professor Xavier. She leads them to a hall away from the party, and then she knocks them both unconscious.

Both characters wake up in a basement room wearing even fancier clothes. Shinobi Shaw is sitting on a chair near them; surprise, he wants them to join the new Inner Circle. After Shaw attacks Psylocke, Archangel flips out and a big fight ensues. Both characters get in a stalemate where if Shaw solidifies his body, both characters will die. While they’re fighting, Psylocke wakes up, sneaks up on the villain, and uses her psyblade on him, causing him to have multiple flashbacks about being abused by his father Sebastian, but loved and comforted by his warm mother. Archangel tells him that he’s empty inside, and the issue closes on Shinobi Shaw sitting alone looking sad.

How It Was: This issue is an experiment in trying to shine the spotlight on two of the less popular X-Men, and unfortunately it fails for the most part. At this point the X-offices have realized that the Psylocke/Revanche stuff isn’t working too well, so the idea here is to shift the focus to another aspect of Betsy’s character, namely her wealth and affluence. And who has that in common with her? And thus begins the infamous Archangel/Psylocke relationship. A relationship that no one would question in real life (two pretty, rich people getting together seems common sense), but within the context of a monthly narrative, there wasn’t really anywhere for the relationship to go. It doesn’t have the conflict of the Gambit/Rogue relationship or the familiarity of the Scott/Jean relationship; there just isn’t a lot here for the writers’ to explore and this starts to show in future issues.

But enough with that tangent, the actual issue is what I’m here to talk about. The first half is standard, by-the-book continuance of already established plot lines. Both Sabretooth living at the mansion and the Cyclops/Jean Grey wedding get mentioned so readers don’t forget about them. There is some gratuitous brooding by Warren over his appearance and his inability to stay in a relationship. Then the issue takes a weird turn with Shinobi Shaw’s big plan of the day—asking Psylocke and Warren to join him. It just feels like Nicieza was struggling to create a conflict for this issue, and Shinobi’s actions don’t even make sense. If he wants the X-Men to join him, why attack them and then ask them? Having the resolution involve the revelation of Shinobi as a spoiled brat with daddy issues is pretty anti-climactic and reveals what a boring character he is. Sebastian Shaw was a master manipulator who carried a level of stoicism and sophistication, and it is obvious that his whiney son can’t hold a candle to him.

The art is very good, but I will mention that in an issue that is trying to build up Psylocke as a character, it is hard to take her seriously when her boobs are always gratuitously on display. One scene in particular where she and Warren are reading mail in the living room, and both her shirt and the tiny jacket she is wearing are wide open at the top, feels particularly uncalled for. This issue does tie in to an annual coming up where Shaw asks Storm to join the Inner Circle, but after that Shinobi will thankfully disappear from the pages of X-Men. This issue is just another false start for a story that never happens. Between the lame villain and the lack of any real developments, this issue is definitely for hardcore fans only. At the very least I respect it for trying to develop two characters who had been out of the spotlight for a long time, but I can’t say that it succeeded in inspiring any interest in them.

C-

X-Men #23

Chronologically I have the Gambit mini-series after this.  So read this, then go here.

X-Men #23
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Cyclops starts off the issue by blasting a hole in Mr. Sinister’s midsection; however, Sinister is actually immune to Scott’s optic blasts, and his death after the Inferno Saga was just a ruse to allow him to lie low. But Sinister isn’t here to fight. He wants to tell Cyclops about the Legacy Virus that Stryfe created and Sinister accidentally unleashed at the end of the X-Cutioner’s Song. We also learn that Sinister’s head geneticist died of the virus. When asked why he is telling Cyclops this, Sinister slips that he wants to protect Cyclops and his “brothers,” before correcting himself, since at the time Cyclops only had one brother, Havok of X-Factor. Some people also speculate that Sinister himself was infected, but this is never confirmed. This is the beginning of the “third Summers brother” subplot that goes on and on until it is answered in a little over a decade in X-Men: Deadly Genesis. As they talk, the Dark Riders ambush the pair to test them.

At Nyorin’s residence, the X-Men have Nyorin and Silver Samurai restrained and are interrogating them. Nyorin reveals that both women are Betsy Braddock, in that they are both a mixture of Betsy and Kwannon’s attributes that somehow fused after they touched. Nyorin also tells the X-Men about the Upstarts and Shinobi Shaw.

Back in the states, Wolverine and Rogue are telling Xavier that they found evidence that Magneto is still alive in the Savage Land during Wolverine #70-71. Xavier doesn’t want to believe it. Wolverine gets angry—you can tell because he is drawn with his angry red eyes.

For the first, and only, time ever, Sinister and Cyclops team up to beat the Dark Riders. After they are beaten, Sinister tells them not to kill Scott Summers before teleporting away. The Dark Riders take this command literally by trying to cripple Cyclops instead.

Gambit and Beast surprise Shinobi Shaw while he is taking a bath with many beautiful women. They tell Shinobi that they know about the Upstarts and make a couple of jokes about his nudity. Outside, Matsuo attacks Psylocke and Revanche, but is soundly beaten within two pages.

Poor Cyclops has to take on the entire Dark Riders team by himself. After losing his glasses, Tusk hits him and then the team returns his glasses claiming that the test is complete. The Dark Rider Hardrive announces that Cyclops has passed and that he is worthy to face the coming storm. This is a lead into the Ascension of the High Lord—a battle between Apocalypse and Stryfe…that never happens and gets forgotten about after the next issue. The Dark Riders teleport away, leaving Cyclops all alone.

How It Was: My, this issue is more of a mixed bag than a bag of delicious Chex mix. Ouch, that was painful to read, but not as painful as the double Psylocke storyline. Nyorin fills in a couple of blanks that the readers have already guessed, Silver Samurai contributes absolutely nothing, and then Nicieza remembers that Matsuo has something to do with this story, so he has the villain appear in a weak two page attempt to kill the Psylocke twins. The part where Gambit and Beast barge in to intimidate Shinobi Shaw is pretty entertaining, but since the Upstarts story is about to completely disappear from the X-Men books, now it reads as completely worthless material.

On the other hand, the scenes with Sinister and Cyclops are really good. These scenes manage to maintain some tension since Sinister is obviously a threat, but Scott knows that if what he is saying is true about the Legacy Virus, all of mutantkind could be threatened. The Legacy Virus is a solid storyline that dragged on way too long for its own good before becoming an on again, off again focus of the X-books for the rest of the decade. The fight with the Dark Riders also works really well; those poor losers just can’t win one. However, once again these scenes just serve as set up for plot threads that get forgotten about. In fact, I think this may be the last time we see the Dark Riders anywhere in the X-Men titles. Oh well, at least the X-office did set up one storyline with this issue that actually gets resolved—the Magneto thread that obviously leads into the Fatal Attractions crossover—coming soon to Illegitimate Children of the Atom. So we have three plot lines that go somewhere and two that go nowhere, which is really not a great way to run a comic book.

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+