X-Force #19

X-Force #19
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Greg Capullo


I know I usually only do books directly affecting the X-Men, but I just came upon this little gem at a moving sale, and it ties in pretty well to the X-Cutioner’s Song events. Plus I figure I owe my readers for taking a month break.

What Went Down: Boomer starts off by utilizing the X-Men’s advanced Shiar technology to make a new costume. Her broken jaw (that she received during the X-Cutioner’s Song) seems to have pretty much healed since she spends the scene talking to herself in the mirror. Lila Cheney takes the opportunity to confront her and explain that she no longer has feelings for Cannonball, and Boomer is free to ask him out.

Sunspot and Stevie Hunter have a talk outside about Roberto’s frustrations over his recent behavior and new powers. This doesn’t really matter unless you’re reading X-Force regularly.

Feral, Rictor, and Shatterstar spend the evening in the Danger Room while discussing the death of their leader, Cable, and their potential arrest. Feral is insistent that she’s not going to prison, no matter what. Beast observes them and comments on their savagery and lack of ethics.

Warpath and Siryn sneak into the X-Men’s war room and copy a lot of files, but Xavier is monitoring them the whole time.

Cannonball confronts Xavier about letting X-Force go. This is followed by a one-page subplot about supporting character Copycat being ill.

Cut to the SHIELD helicarrier where G.W. Bridge resigns to Henry Gyrich over X-Force’s involvement in a theft (probably in recent issues).

Back at the mansion, Boomer makes new costumes for the rest of the team. Siryn and Xavier have a heart to heart outside while Cannonball talks with Sunspot and searches through some leaves.

Sam once again confronts the Professor. This time, utilizing both a field mouse he found in the leaves and a metaphor about an open hand and a closed fist, Sam convinces Xavier to let them leave. Outside, Feral kills the mouse Sam used to prove his point and eats it.

Lila Cheney makes a teleportation portal to send X-Force back to their base. Before Cannonball leaves, Xavier reveals the war room theft to Cannonball and wishes him good luck.

How It Was: Presenting X-Force, minus Cable. Yeah, it doesn’t sound too promising to me either, but Nicieza gives a go at presenting the team without their driving force. This issue is a pretty mixed bag; it offers some interesting character moments and some potentially interesting subplots, but there are a lot of dull moments as well. The scenes with Sunspot are particularly boring as I can only assume he is using Stevie to remind readers of everything that happened to him prior to X-Cutioner’s Song. Also, what’s up with the X-Men having a machine that designs clothing? If they own such a machine, why do they shop at all? While Tabitha’s crush on Cannonball and her animosity towards Lila get resolved a little, it seems like a waste just to have her make new clothes for everybody. And some of the costumes are horribly dated: I’m looking at you Warpath—not only do you dress like an Indian, you want to add fringe to that look?

What works in this issue is Cannonball. This is a real coming of age issue for him. Not only does he stand up to Xavier, but he also calls him out for leaving the New Mutants under the charge of Magneto. It’s wonderful to see Cable’s influence rub off on Sam, and Nicieza sets him up really well as a potential successor to Cable’s leadership. It’s issues like this that make Cannonball’s recruitment by the X-Men years later all the harder to swallow as later he is portrayed as an awkward, intimidated wuss. If those creators had read this issue before writing those stories, I can only imagine how much better they would have turned out. I also like how Sam is being set up as the good intentioned leader of a group that he may not be able to trust because they are morally and ethically compromised.

Capullo’s art is really nice, although his Danger Room doesn’t show enough of the room to let the reader really know what is going on. And of course, I guess he deserves some of the blame for those costumes. A mediocre issue brought up by a strong portrayal of Cannonball.

B-

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 #17

X-Men #17
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Our story opens on a shady government mole observing the Rasputin family on the Ust-Ordynski Collective. The youngest Rasputin, Illyana, is excited that her brother is coming for a visit.

In another Russian town, Neftelensk, Winter Guard members Darkstar and Alexi Garnoff are investigating why the entire town appears to be in a catatonic state. Darkstar’s father, the super villain the Presence, appears to her, but it is only an illusion meant to attack her mind. Garnoff is similarly attacked, and it is implied that he is reliving some abuse that his own father brought upon him.

Over in Moscow, obscure supporting character Alexi Vazhin (think the Russian Nick Fury) is debriefing two members of the Russian military over the catatonic people epidemic. Vazhin mentions that Omega Red will become available to assist in the situation.

Three days later, most of the X-Men’s Blue Team, plus Iceman and Colossus, are on their way to visit the Rasputins after picking up Wolverine over in his series. Psylocke is still coming on way too strong to Cyclops while Colossus is pondering what he is going to tell his parents about his brother Mikhail, who recently committed suicide and took all of the Morlocks with him. The reunion is suitably touching, and the government agent observing them is revealed to be known as a Flagwatch.

Back in the U.S., Rogue is still dealing with her blindness, and Gambit is trying to get her over it by almost letting her fall into the pool. Xavier observes them and wishes that Gambit would just get over himself and commit to her.

Beast asks if Xavier has a second to talk, but they get interrupted by Storm and X-Force. This subplot drags on for a couple of issues and basically turns out to be the Beast feeling old and having something of a mid-life crisis. Cannonball and Warpath want permission to go and tell the other old New Mutants and Firestar about the death of the Hellions. This leads to New Warriors #31, before X-Force finally leaves the mansion in X-Force #19.

A brief two page subplot introduces a purple clad woman beating up some gangsters in Tokyo. After beating them all up, she unmasks and states that she is ready for revenge on the X-Men. This purple haired woman later turns out to be Revanche, the woman in Psylocke’s old body.

Back in Russia, Colossus is chopping wood, Wolverine is smoking a cigar, and Cyclops is walking in on Psylocke in the shower after having a nightmare about Cable and Stryfe. In the kitchen, Iceman and Jubilee discuss how Illyana used to be a teenager and the hero Magik—a plot point that proves crucial to understanding this story. In the Moscow office, Vazhin is trying to convince his superior that Illyana is not necessary to stop the looming threat. Alexei plans on using the X-Men instead.

How It Was: This is an odd storyline that introduces a one-off villain who we will never see again. The truly perplexing detail is that this story takes place in X-Men even though it focuses on a character that regularly stars in Uncanny X-Men. And no, there is no explanation as to why Peter goes with the Blue Team instead of his regular team. At the same time, it is nice to see that the fallout from Mikhail’s death isn’t being brushed to the side as just a phone call. Unfortunately the rest of the issue is more of the same thing that has been going on for months. Psylocke is still being inappropriate towards Cyclops, Cyclops is still a stammering idiot around her, and Rogue and Gambit are still getting closer…but not too close. Nothing terrible, it’s just nothing to write home about. The Revanche subplot does offer a little bit of action, although that whole subplot does not turn out well in the end.

On the art side of things, Andy Kubert is doing some great character models. However, he is still a little over indulgent with depicting dust and smoke. The panel where X-Force walks into Xavier’s office looks like they are walking inside from a Western. And the final page has the general’s cigar filling half the room with smoke to the point that we can only see the top half of Vazhin. Other than that, the art is really awesome.

C-

Uncanny X-Men #297

Uncanny X-Men #297
Writer: Scott Lobdell
Art: Brandon Peterson

Now back to where we left off in our exploration of the X-World.

What Went Down: Archangel and Beast take it upon themselves to rebuild Harry’s Hideaway after it was destroyed in Uncanny #294. They’re doing it in the middle of the night to avoid attention.

Over on the roof of the mansion, Rogue is contemplating the loss of her vision. Gambit tries to comfort her, but Rogue tells him to go away.

On the ground, Jubilee is spending the clear night roller blading when she discovers Professor X walking around barefoot in the grass. Since he is usually in a wheelchair, this is quite shocking, but it is all explained away as a temporary side effect of Stryfe’s techno-organic virus. Jubilee convinces him to go blading with her.

Back on the roof, Rogue is still overwhelmed by the unfairness of life.

Meanwhile, Jubilee leads the Professor into the swimming pool.

Beast and Archangel take time to reflect on the days of the original X-Men and reminisce. A cop stumbles in on them, but their image inducers activate automatically, so the cop is not frightened.

As the sun starts to rise, Gambit brings Rogue a blanket and tells her that everything is going to be all right. Awwwww.

Jubilee and the Professor dry off and discuss how enjoyable the night was. Xavier leaves to return to his chair before his legs stop working again. As his ability to walk fades, Jubilee runs up to help him back to his chair. Awwww.

How It Was: Since this is the epilogue to a major crossover, everyone gets to take a breather from all of the action. These are the types of issues that Lobdell excels at; he is wonderful at exploring human emotion through the warped sensibilities of three different pairs of characters and their relationships. We get the best friends’ perspective, the romantics’ perspective, and the surrogate father/daughter perspective, and all of them complement each other very well.

The Jubilee/Xavier thread is easily the best since it explores a relationship that has really been underdeveloped up until this point and does so brilliantly. Sure it is kind of random that Stryfe’s disease would cure paralysis for a day, but if you can suspend your disbelief, you’re in for a good issue. There is some resolution to the months of Jean complaining about Xavier not dealing with his paralysis as Xavier finally gets an opportunity to acknowledge how much he has missed his legs. And the part where Jubilee helps him to his chair at the end is very touching indeed.

Beast and Archangel offer a little bit of humor, as well as some meditation on how much the series has changed up to this point. Once again, it’s a little hard to believe that they rebuild an entire bar in one night, but it’s still well written so you can’t fault it too much. The Rogue/Gambit scenes are easily the weakest; how many times have we seen Rogue complain about life and Gambit try to make her feel better? Still they do the job of conveying the slowly blossoming relationship.

Peterson’s art is great; his expressions and backgrounds really bring the story to life and help the reader connect emotionally. Even though there isn’t a second of action, this is still some of the best characterization you can read in a comic book from the 90’s. Even though that isn’t really saying much, you should still check it out.

A

X-Factor Annual #7

X-Factor Annual #7
Writing: Fabian Nicieza and Peter David
Art: Joe Quesada, Derrick Roberson, and Joe Madurieira

Update: Click Here for Part 4 of Shattershot.

What Went Down: The first six pages are dedicated to Mojo angrily recapping the story thus far and taking out his anger on his second in command, Major Domo. Note that the art is backwards, depicting the events of Uncanny when describing the X-Men issue and vice versa. It appears that even though the Death Sponsors failed in their task last issue, everyone assumed it was Mojo, so he has continued to lose favor with the people. He decides to contact Spiral and have her deal with Arize.

Since X-Factor doesn’t have a Danger Room, they don’t start the issue in the middle of a training session. Instead, we are given an overwrought scene where the team is preparing lunch, and none of the characters can open a jar of mayonnaise, including Strong Guy, who should have super strength, shouldn’t he? Anyway, the whole scene devolves into the team making a mess, and it’s all meant to be very funny, but it isn’t really. Val Cooper pops in to tell the team that they have a mission: they are going to hunt down Spiral because she has been spotted making trouble. Val feels responsible because Spiral was a member of Freedom Force, a government sponsored group of villains that Cooper was in charge of prior to the nationalization of X-Factor.

In case you were wondering what Arize was up to, he has been working out a plan to broadcast all of Earth’s television to the inhabitants of Mojoworld as an alternative to Mojo’s rule. At the same time, Spiral is threatening a group of villagers in order to discover Arize’s location. By the time X-Factor arrives, Spiral has set fire to the whole town.

Spiral teleports to Arize’s cabin and cuts the connection he was using. The whole time she blames him for some unspeakable evil. She attacks Arize, but Val interrupts and tries to talk Spiral down; she ends up shooting at Spiral. The rest of X-Factor joins the fight. After injuring Polaris, Havok flips out and blasts Spiral with a heck of an energy blast. Spiral is then given the chance to explain herself, so she tells her origin.

Spiral was once an Earth stuntwoman named Ricochet Rita. She fell in love with Longshot, followed him to his world, and learned that Longshot was known as the Fallen Messiah—meaning he was destined to perpetually fail over and over again. Mojo had Arize turn her into Spiral (in Arize’s future, but Spiral’s past), and then had her travel through time to push her past self towards Longshot, perpetuating the cycle, and driving Spiral insane. Arize expresses remorse and offers to help her finally put an end to Mojo’s rule. The future savior of that dimension is said to be Shatterstar, so Spiral and Arize travel to the future of Mojoworld together. X-Factor wonders if they should do anything, but decide that there is nothing they can do. Havok feels sorry that his former teammate is destined to always fail at his goal, but Val thinks that everybody can learn from his or her mistakes.

What Else Went Down: Val Cooper is overrun with paperwork, but she decides to put it off until the next day because she has tickets to a Salute to Motown concert. However she decides to stay and do her work after Multiple Man calls Val and impersonates President Bush. Val reluctantly gives the tickets to him and Wolfsbane and goes through all of the papers. After she finishes, a dragon made of papers attacks her. It chases her all over the office until she manages to get it into a paper shredder. Unfortunately, after she shreds it, the shreddings make up another monster that attacks her.

Jamie wakes up Val and tells her that he feels guilty about tricking her, revealing that Val was dreaming about the paper monsters. Val rewards his honesty by chasing him with scissors and a letter opener.

What Else Also Went Down: A young boy named Cal, who is obviously modeled after Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes, is being bullied at school. He decides to go to Strong Guy’s house and hire him to be his bodyguard. After telling him his story, Cal convinces Guido to go intimidate the bullies for him. After giving the kids a good scare, Guido leaves.

A couple of weeks later, Strong Guy decides to check in on Cal, but he is shocked to discover that Cal is now the bully, threatening to sick Guido on anybody that doesn’t listen to him. Guido shakes him down and tells Cal that he doesn’t want to ever see him bullying again.

How It Was: Well… it’s something. I’ll start with the good. Joe Quesada’s art is very good; all of the panels have a nice sense of motion and action, so it’s a solid effort from Marvel’s future editor-in-chief. Also, the origin of Spiral is surprisingly gripping. At first it seems that she’s just out for revenge because Arize helped turn her into a freak of nature, but the fact that she is forced to relive her own downfall over and over again is actually a really interesting take on a character that controls time and space.

Now for the bad. As I stated before, the first two opening sequences are absolutely pointless and contribute very little to the overall story. But the major fault of this story is the boring fight that takes up most of the issue. I know before I complained about villains being one dimensional, and Spiral definitely isn’t. The main problem is that Spiral is outnumbered by six, and the fight is completely one sided. There’s just not a lot she can do against characters like Strong Guy, Quicksilver, and Havok. Furthermore, Arize’s plan to free people of Mojo’s signal seemed pretty dumb since Earth TV is just as monotonous and insubstantial as anything that Mojo could show.

Unlike the other issues, the back-up strips are actually better than the main story. Peter David’s humor is always what made X-Factor work, whether it’s with Madrox impersonating George Bush or Cal’s great line at the end of his story, David has a lot of fun with these quick, silly tales. They are by no means his greatest work, but they are a lot better to read than any part of Shattershot or any of the other mini stories thus far.

C-

Uncanny X-Men Annual #16

Uncanny X-Men Annual #16
Writing: Fabian Nicieza, Chris Cooper, and Skip Dietz
Art: Jae Lee and Herb Trimpe

What Went Down: We are introduced to the Death Sponsors in their one and only appearance, as far as I know. They are a group fighting for a pirate channel that is seeking to usurp viewers from Mojo’s channel, thus placing them in charge because in that world whoever has the highest ratings controls the world. The team consists of Sweepzweak, Deadair, Lead-In, Cancellator, and Timeslot. Are you laughing yet? Their shadowy boss is Mojo II, and he sends them to Earth to complete one of three tasks in order to gain higher ratings; either find Spiral, Arize, or Longshot. Since Arize is the focus of the crossover, he is their target for this issue.

Cut to the mansion where—surprise, surprise—the Gold Team is in the Danger Room running a simulation; this one involves rescuing innocents from a burning building. Can you tell Nicieza was having trouble filling up pages? At any rate, Colossus is stuck holding up the building while Storm, Iceman, and Archangel are looking for people. This leaves new recruit Bishop to be blindsided by Apocalypse. Rather than allow Colossus to decide between saving him and holding up the building, Bishop brandishes a gun and threatens to kill himself rather than be used as a bargaining chip. Professor X ends the session, and everyone comments on how unpredictable Bishop is.

Meanwhile Jean is sifting through Arize’s memories, trying to help him remember who he is. Essentially he is responsible for creating any humanoids that are in Mojoworld, and he feels bad that they are all slaves. He also created Longshot, and gave him self-determination. Arize worries that he is responsible for many deaths even though he can’t remember how; the Professor and Jean console him.

For some reason, the Death Sponsors appear in Japan. Shortly after that, they detect Arize and teleport to the mansion. What’s the point? Why to fill up three pages.

Back at the mansion, Bishop questions the Professor about why they are bothering with Arize. The answer is basically: because that’s what heroes do, although Jean makes a weak attempt to frame Arize as a mutant in his world because he is different and an outcast. The alarm goes off and the Gold Team fights the Death Sponsors. The X-Men hold their own until one of the Sponsors activates a power disruptor that turns off all of their powers. Bishop draws his rifle while one of the Death Sponsor’s restores Arize’s memory. As they teleport away with Arize, Bishop shoots the teleporter, which causes them to teleport without Arize because they are all mind linked, for some reason. Bishop even throws in a groan inducing “Hasta la vista, baby.”

After regaining his memory, Arize decides to leave the X-Men to try to help save his world from Mojo. The rest of the Gold Team comment on Bishop and his unpredictability again; they wonder whether or not they can trust him.

What Else Went Down: Archangel is fighting Mandroids at a laboratory of some kind. While rescuing a scientist, he gets shot. As he lays dying, a blue woman named Amalgam appears and talks about how this is the second time she has met Warren.

A flashback occurs to the Morlock tunnels during the Morlock Massacre, after Angel was stabbed in the wings. She offers Warren the chance to give her his powers and memories so that his death will not be in vain. Then she turns into Cyclops and Beast to try to convince him. Warren finally agrees, but as she absorbs his powers, she uses Destiny’s powers to see that he is needed in the future.

Warren then wakes up as Archangel in the present in the infirmary of the mansion. All of the X-Men comment on how happy they are that he survived.

What Else Went Down: Bishop is outside brooding, and Storm decides to make an attempt to get him to open up. Basically Bishop is homesick and feels guilty about letting his companions Malcolm and Randall die. He also brings up a tree that survived in his time as the only remaining marker of the school. The original class of X-Men allegedly planted it, but in the present it doesn’t exist. Storm leaves Bishop to his brooding, and he falls asleep outside. When he wakes up, it is raining and Storm has planted a tree in the spot, giving Bishop hope for the future.

How It Was: A minor, oh so minor improvement over the first part of Shattershot. On the one hand, the Death Sponsors are a lot cooler looking and more imposing than Mojo’s assorted henchmen from the first part. But unfortunately they are stuck with the gimmicky names and barely half a personality to share between the entire group. But the fight is far more entertaining then the previous one, and Nicieza manages to get some tension going towards the end, although he has to have a contrived power neutralizer to get the rest of the team out of the way. And Bishop gets a legitimately cool and redeeming moment, and then ruins it by quoting the Terminator.

But the same problems also crop up in this issue. Once again Nicieza starts with an unnecessary Danger Room sequence for lack of a better idea. Once again there are scenes with the villains that add nothing to the story, such as having them appear in Japan, realize they are in the wrong spot, and leave Japan. And there is Arize, whose origin is given a little more detail, but most of it was easily pieced together from the hints last issue. Plus, if you’ll remember my X-Cutioner’s Song reviews, Jae Lee’s art continues to not impress me. Although I will go as far as to say that the Death Sponsors' designs really benefit from his style, and the fight scenes and dream scenes he draws are pretty dynamic. However, the scenes where everybody is talking just look odd when matched up with the art. Probably the best chapter of Shattershot, but that isn’t saying a lot.

As for the back up stories, neither one really affects the overall narrative of the X-Men or makes a huge impression. The Archangel/Amalgam story is just weird and feels like a part of a bigger story that never got started. Also, if her thing is to take dead people’s powers and memories, why does she use Cyclops and Beast as examples? If she can travel throughout time, why doesn’t she go to Warren’s actual final death? It just doesn’t feel like it was that thought out. As for the Bishop story, it’s kind of mushy and doesn’t really matter at all. Both back up stories are pretty bad for this chapter.

C