X-Men #34

X-Men #34
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: In Nebraska, the Blue Team visits the orphanage where Scott Summers grew up. This same orphanage also turns out to be one of Mr. Sinister’s safehouses for his lab. Psylocke and Gambit sneak in while Rogue and Beast wait in the plane. The X-Men are investigating Sinister’s research into the Legacy Virus to make sure everything is kosher.

Using intelligence from Sabretooth, Gambit and Psylocke find the hidden door to the lab. Inside they discover the Marauder Riptide, which surprises everyone since he is supposed to be dead. After knocking him out, Gambit observes weird rashes on Riptide’s skin. Rogue bursts in and demonstrates worry for Gambit’s safety. After finding another hidden door, the X-Men discover Threnody strapped to a number of machines. It turns out that Sinister is out fighting X-Factor at the moment. She lets the blue team know that their presence has triggered security drones, but the Beast is able to disable them through a computer.

Everyone is relieved to see that Threnody is okay, given that she has been in the care of one of their most deadly enemies. Threnody is thankful because Sinister has helped her to control her powers and learn new things. The X-Men try to convince her that Sinister will want more from her, and that she is really a prisoner here. Upon learning that they fought Riptide, Threnody reveals that he was a clone and that his clone partner was probably also released.

The team is then attacked by an unfinished clone of Sabretooth. Rogue takes the opportunity to take her aggressions for the real Creed out on the clone and defeats it in one hit. After seeing this Threnody decides to destroy Sinister’s DNA bank so no one else would be hurt by it. Beast tries to convince her to come with them, but Threnody feels that she still needs to help stop Sinister from the inside.

How It Was: First I just want to say that clones are stupid and stories with clones as either the hero or villain are cheap and stupid. Really they only exist in this story to create some action sequences, and as a retcon for all of the various stories that contained accidental character appearances from Marauders after their deaths.

It is really nice to see the X-Men actually follow up on a storyline instead of just responding to emergencies, but I can’t say that I’m particularly excited to see Threnody again. She’s not really the most exciting supporting character ever, and she turns on Sinister rather quickly. First she is convinced he has mutantkind’s best interest at heart, then after seeing his clones she thinks that all of his painstaking work must be wiped out. Of course it doesn’t really matter because later stories reveal that Sinister just had another set of DNA samples lying around.  Also it doesn’t make sense as to why she would stick around after trashing Sinister’s lab; isn’t there a possibility that he might be mad?

Other than that, this issue is okay. There is also a needless scene where Beast foils Sinister’s security system with a computer that feels tacked on to push the story forward. After this issue, we’re not going to see a lot about the Legacy Virus, so this marks one of the last issues to focus solely on it for a really long time.

C

X-Men #27

X-Men #27
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Richard Bennett

What Went Down: A homeless mutant nicknamed Threnody is crying out in pain on a street in Los Angeles. Two cops find her and offer to help her, but Threnody loses control of her mutant power and accidentally incinerates them.

At Los Angeles General Hospital, Rogue, Iceman, and Beast are visiting onetime X-Factor villain Infectia, who has contracted the Legacy Virus. Rogue throws another tantrum about how unfair life is, and the group is interrupted by Dr. Nathan Milbury. The good doctor seems very amiable towards the mutants and takes a sample of Infectia’s blood. Milbury tells the X-Men that she was initially looking for Gordon Lefferts, a doctor looking for the cure and Mr. Sinister’s assistant who died of the Legacy Virus. After Milbury leaves, a nurse enters and lets them know that there is no Dr. Nathan Milbury working for the hospital.

Outside the mansion, Revanche is taking a jog when Psylocke decides it would be a good idea to jump out of a tree and attack her. The two women fight for a couple of panels, and Psylocke reveals that she wanted to see how Revanche was. Revanche realizes that Betsy is just testing her to see how much the Legacy Virus has affected her fighting abilities.

Beast modifies a device to find Lefferts’ old lab and the three X-Men track it down. Inside are a number of homeless people residing and looting; Threnody is also among them, but she runs off after Rogue tries to talk to her. Beast is fascinated by the advanced technology he finds and busies himself with it while Rogue searches for Threnody, who ends up running right into Mr. Sinister. Rogue attacks Sinister, but Threnody’s power acts up again, causing another huge explosion. It attracts the rest of the X-Men

The X-Men fight Sinister for a bit, but then he explains that he wants Threnody to aid in his research for a cure to the Legacy Virus. Her power is to absorb pain from anyone afflicted with the virus in question. Sinister wants to use her to find other sufferers of the disease; he also claims that Xavier would never allow the mutant to be used in that manner because it causes her pain, and that failure to sacrifice might come at the expense of the cure. Rogue asks why Threnody’s powers flared up when no one with the virus was around; Sinister claims he doesn’t know, but it is possible that he himself is infected since he was present at the canister’s opening. The X-Men leave Threnody with Sinister and go back to Infectia. Infectia is on her deathbed, and Beast offers to take her out of her room to see the sunrise, even though it risks his own health. She dies in his arms.

How It Was: The Legacy Virus continues to rack up casualties and make the virus seem more important. Unfortunately, this storyline is about to get pushed to the side for a bunch of issues to focus on Cyclops and Jean Grey’s wedding, followed by the Phalanx, Generation X, and the Age of Apocalypse; afterwards, the writers keep trying to get back to it, but the story never gets the same momentum going and drags on for years to come. Still, this issue does a good job of conveying the frustration and helplessness of characters that haven’t yet gotten to express their feelings about the virus. And Infectia, easily a C-list villain, gets a really great, emotional death scene.

Threnody is a neat idea for a character, but she doesn’t really work for me here. Maybe it’s because we never learn a great deal about her personality or background, or perhaps it is the fact that she is supposed to be homeless, but she looks and dresses like she is going out clubbing later.  Either way I’m just not a fan. Nevertheless, it is great to see Mr. Sinister back and there is once again great tension built by the ambiguous genuineness of the villain and the conflict over whether one person’s suffering is worth saving thousands or millions. Then again, I’m not sure about the X-Men’s decision to leave the girl with the villain because they are not willing to torture her themselves.

This isn’t the last issue to deal with the Legacy Virus, but it is the last one to feel like it was going anywhere. While the concept is revisited time and time again in the 90s, and many different characters get infected, it just never feels as central to the story as it did here. Also, we never learn if Sinister is infected or not, but many people consider it to be true.

B