Uncanny X-Men #324

Uncanny X-Men #324
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Roger Cruz

What Went Down: Psylocke is taking the time to invade Gambit’s mind while he’s unconscious to find out what he is so afraid of. The landscape of Gambit’s mind is a black and white noir version of Bourbon Street. Gambit discovers Betsy’s intrusion, even though he shouldn’t be able to. Gambit wakes up and asks what Psylocke was doing. She makes up an excuse about being worried about him and leaves.

In New York City, three of the X-Men and Charlotte Jones are getting ready to throw down with two members of Gene Nation with the unfortunate names of Sack and Vessel. Storm worries about Wolverine losing control of his feral nature, and we find out that bullets can’t hurt Sack. Sack also brings up that their forefathers were the Morlocks, which alarms Storm. We also find out that Vessel’s powers involve absorbing the life essence of people, explaining the dead people with no physical markings. Storm interprets this to mean that Vessel is stealing people’s souls, and Wolverine seems to buy this explanation as well.

Rogue and Iceman find a small town to call for a tow truck. Inside that bar, Bobby once again sees Emma Frost, this time as the waitress of the bar. In the air, Sack is in the process of absorbing Cannonball, while down below, Vessel attacks the Graydon Creed rally. Beast shows up in time to save Creed from being crushed by debris and rubs it in that a mutant saved the life of an anti-mutant bigot.

Wolverine attacks Vessel, who starts to leak energy. An energy blast knocks Wolverine away, but he figures out that they have to destroy Vessel to release the people’s souls. Cannonball flies into a building to defeat Sack. Storm overloads Vessel with lightning, causing lights to pour out of him, releasing the “souls.” Both Sack and Vessel’s remains seep into the ground, hinting that they will return.

At the bar, Rogue pays for the bill and tells the waitress to give her regards to Grey Crow. Rogue doesn’t know why she said this because it is a residual memory from Gambit, and the waitress turns out to be an old friend of Gambit’s. Outside, Bobby is trying to call the Massachusetts Academy. Emma Frost is standing next to the ringing phone, saying that there is no one to take Drake’s call.

How It Was: It’s hard to know how to judge this story since it’s mostly set up for future stories. Should it be measured on how intriguing the set ups are, or on how good the payoffs turned out to be? For example, the scenes hinting at Gambit’s past really felt significant at the time, but we won’t get any real resolution until #350 in about two years time. The Iceman scenes do go somewhere, but the territory of Iceman not utilizing his powers to their fullest has already been explored in past Uncanny issues.

This leaves us with the fight with Sack and Vessel that is woefully unexciting. Unlike the Holocaust fight going on in X-Men at the same time, this battle features uninteresting characters and has no real stakes for the reader to be concerned about. Lobdell tries to up the tension by having Storm bring up the fate of people’s souls, but it really feels like a random conclusion that she’s jumped to. Vessel absorbs energy, he’s an energy vampire. Storm seems to be overreacting; after all, she doesn’t say that Rogue is stealing people’s souls when she absorbs people’s energy. The outcome of the story is so hollow; it’s meant to feel significant when the energy returns to the victims’ bodies, but they’re still dead so it doesn’t really matter.

Other than some fun scenes between Beast and Graydon Creed, and some intriguing Gambit mysteries that take a long time to pay off, there is not a whole lot to recommend in this issue.

C-

Uncanny X-Men #323

Uncanny X-Men #323
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Bryan Hitch

What Went Down: Rogue and Iceman are still on their road trip around the country, but their car has broken down. Rogue insists that neither one of them use their powers, so they begin walking to the nearest town.

Archangel and Psylocke are spending the afternoon in the Danger Room, since Sabretooth is no longer living in it due to his injuries from Wolverine. Psylocke senses that something is wrong with Warren. It turns out he is still shaken from seeing massacre at the disco from last issue. The couple is interrupted by Gambit, who asks about Rogue’s whereabouts before he passes out again; he is concerned that Rogue has absorbed his memories and may’ve discovered some secrets.

Outside, Sabretooth is running around like a puppy dog because the claw Wolverine shoved through his skull seems to have caused some brain damage. Attached to Creed’s collar is a leash being held by the newest X-Man Cannonball, formerly of X-Force. Sam struggles to take Creed on his walk, but Creed hesitates when they come across a very angry Wolverine. Wolverine threatens Sabretooth and scares Cannonball a little when the youth comes to his prisoner’s defense. Storm interrupts with a mission, and Wolverine says he can squeeze it in before meeting with James and Heather Hudson of Alpha Flight over in his own book.

At Trish Tilby’s news building, the Beast visits her and accuses her of selling out mutants for a scoop. Tilby argues that it’s a public health concern that people have a right to know about. Beast brings up the death of Dennis from X-Men: Prime, but Trish says the death is as much Hank’s fault for failing to save the man.

Graydon Creed is making an impassioned speech outside of City Hall. Noah Dubois pops up again, observing that Creed is reminiscent of Hitler. A block away, Wolverine, Cannonball, and Storm meet up with Charlotte Jones because she has something to show them. Rogue and Iceman are taking a break when Bobby decides to ask Rogue what is bothering her. Rogue can’t seem to remember, and Bobby starts seeing hallucinations of the White Queen, Emma Frost, taunting him.

At the city morgue, the coroner shows the X-Men images of the dead club patrons; it is revealed that they just stopped moving, and there was no physical evidence for why they died. Wolverine realizes that the doctor smells wrong and attacks him. His friends think he might be losing it, but it turns out that the doctor is being possessed by a new villain named… (sigh) Sack. Yes, his name is Sack. Then Sack’s partner Vessel appears and announces that they are members of a group named Gene Nation, and of course they are going to try to kill the X-Men.

How It Was: The “new” direction for the X-Men continues with Cannonball joining the X-Men for some reason…I didn’t collect X-Force, so I don’t really know why. Unfortunately, the writers decided to portray him as a young, naïve, in-over-his-head neophyte as opposed to the seasoned veteran and leader that he is supposed to be. The X-staff’s comments on this period were that Cannonball would be intimidated by joining the main, core X-team, but that explanation doesn’t really fly with past events. Sam has fought with and against the X-Men many times, and he shouldn’t be scared of being one of them. X-Force and X-Men fans around the country were both quite bothered by this, but Sam remains a member of the X-Men for about three years before going back to X-Force.

As for the rest of the story, not all of it works. Sabretooth’s lobotomy is kind of interesting, especially given the events in Age of Apocalypse, and it comes off as a genuine attempt to reform the villain. Wolverine’s regression to a more feral nature doesn’t work as well since all he does is stop wearing his mask and act slightly angrier then usual. In all of the action sequences, he acts perfectly normal, so his deterioration can’t be that severe.

The reveal that all of the club customers died from stopping is also a letdown since earlier it is set up as the most horrific thing that Archangel has ever seen. Gambit’s outburst is intriguing, although it is going to be a long while before we get a definitive answer as to the specifics of what he is afraid of. And Noah Dubois continues to pop up in Uncanny, misleading you into thinking that this is leading to something significant.

Worst of all is the return of the Morlocks in the form of Vessel and Sack. They both have cool designs, horrible codenames, and zero personality. Worst of all, they tie into Gene Nation, a group that somehow manages to convolute the Morlocks even more than when Dark Beast was made their founder.

There’s a lot going on in this issue, but unfortunately most of it doesn’t really go anywhere interesting. Iceman’s visions of Emma, the Noah Dubois appearances, Sabretooth and Wolverine’s changes in attitude, and the Gene Nation all end up either getting dropped or leading to some really disappointing stories. Graydon Creed’s political campaign does begin here, affecting the titles for the foreseeable future, and the conflict between Beast and Trish is really well done, presenting balanced arguments for both sides. And of course Cannonball needs some work.

C+

X-Men #44

X-Men #44
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: A mysterious armored person is standing over the unconscious body of Colossus in Antarctica. Colossus mistakes the stranger for an attacker and wonders what has become of Magneto. The mystery person blasts Peter unconscious again and hints at a former romantic connection to him.

In space, we see Xavier’s astral form breaking apart as he strains to make contact with his X-Men; this is due to an “unknown force” which I think is supposed to be the emergence of Nate Grey. Amelia Voght questions why Charles is going to all this effort, and Xavier has to explain that he is committed to the safety of his students. In case you were wondering, Cerebro is still out of commission from when Banshee destroyed it during the Phalanx story.

Bishop calls in to let Xavier know that Jean Grey and Skids have survived their reentry into Earth, but Jean’s rapport with Scott is gone. Cyclops and the rest of the Acolytes have landed in the middle of the Australian outback. The Kleinstock Brothers keep finding things to complain about, while Unuscione and Cargil are actually grateful to Cyclops for saving them. Cyclops blasts a hole in the ground to get water for them to drink. Then they begin their trek.

Later the group comes across Scanner, who has exhausted herself trying to search for signs of life; Cyclops carries her until they break for camp. Scott reassures the Acolytes that they are going to make it through this.

In Antarctica, the mystery person is dragging Colossus to Magneto’s abandoned citadel. At Xavier’s, Jean has plugged herself into Cerebro, despite Charles having claimed it was broken earlier in this issue. Charles comes up with a plan where he can use Amelia to channel his powers somehow since his physical body is what is holding him back. He also mentions that Amelia’s mist state has become her natural form, and she has to concentrate to remain solid, creating fear that she might lose her humanity. Amelia reluctantly agrees to the plan.

Back in the Outback, Scanner returns from recon, claiming to have found civilization. Cyclops blasts a hole through the mountain in front of them, and the group finds the X-Men’s old home base from when they lived in Australia. Xavier and Amelia try their physical/psionic link, but it fails. Luckily, Scott contacts them from Australia, letting them know he is all right. Scott also mentions that someone else has recently used this base, but I don’t think that this is ever brought up again.

Amelia gets angry since they risked their lives for nothing, but Xavier explains how important it is to have a cause to believe in. Amelia realizes she isn’t strong enough to sacrifice for Xavier or Magnus, so she teleports away. In Magneto’s citadel, the mystery person has placed Colossus in a healing machine of some kind. Peter wakes up and demands to know who is under the mask, and it turns out to be Calisto—the former leader of the Morlocks, asking if Peter wants to save the world.

How It Was: Andy Kubert’s back after taking a couple months off to recuperate from all of the work he had to do to help create Age of Apocalypse. The art is fine, although it’s a sharp departure from Paul Smith. Plus, there are a lot of art errors that contradict the previous issues. Colossus and Amelia are both shown wearing the wrong costumes, and it looks as if Kubert has drawn Jean Grey in Cerebro, even though it’s supposed to be broken. On the plus side, look at the cover. It’s a fantastic depiction of the best, or at least my favorite X-Man, Cyclops.

And this issue really does justice to the first X-Man as Nicieza demonstrates exactly how to make Cyclops work. He’s the man with the plan and even though he’s stuck with a team that he neither likes nor trusts, he still knows exactly how to lead them. Nicieza understands that Scott doesn’t need to be cracking jokes or barking orders; he needs to be calm, stoic, and collected. And while the others argue about their petty complaints, Cyclops gets it done. Very awesome. The rest of the Acolytes aren’t as fleshed out; the Kleinstocks come off as particularly annoying, making me wish Holocaust had killed them too.

Speaking of annoying, Amelia sure is whiny this issue. She comes off as an apathetic teenager, complaining to Xavier every time he does something because apparently caring about people is stupid. I guess it does fit in with her character, but she could tone it down a little. Plus Colossus comes off as a little hostile and jumpy.

Well, Magneto’s body has disappeared, creating a bit of mystery for a couple months, and Calisto is back in town. Even though Lobdell wrote the Last Morlock Story years ago, they are coming back again. So the X-Staff destroyed one awful group of mutants only to resurrect another. However, I like that Xavier risks his life unnecessarily to try to save one of his students, even if Lobdell has already had him do this once in X-Men Unlimited #1. This issue features fantastic characterization for Xavier and Cyclops, and legitimately feels like the end of a significant story with the destruction of the Acolytes, even though they’ll be back much later.

B+

X-Men #43

X-Men #43
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Paul Smith

What Went Down: At the mansion, Bishop and Beast are observing Xavier straining to find Jean and Cyclops after they disappeared last issue. On Avalon, the Acolytes are attacking the two X-Men while Exodus and Holocaust continue to fight and tear apart the space station. Some of the Acolytes blame the X-Men for bringing Holocaust aboard, which makes absolutely no sense at all, but there you have it. Jean discovers that Skids is outside in space, protected only by her forcefield. Jean reads her mind to figure out what is going on, as well as fill in new readers on what the story is about. They also find out Rusty Collins is dead, which angers them because they used to take care of Rusty as members of X-Factor.

Jean tries to contact Exodus, and we learn that Exodus is a very powerful telepath as well. Holocaust kills another Acolyte, Javitz, and Exodus flips out on him. In another part of the station, Colossus gets the catatonic Magneto to an escape pod, but decides to go back to help Scott and Jean. Outside the X-Mansion, Amelia Voght is trying to get in, but Bishop won’t allow her to enter. Voght just teleports in instead, but the effort weakens her. She tells Xavier that he won’t find his X-Men anywhere on the planet because they’re on Avalon.

Cyclops convinces the Acolytes to stop fighting so they can all help each other escape. Jean leaves to go help Skids while Cyclops leads the other Acolytes to safety. Xavier contacts Jean, then Colossus, telling him to make his escape. The Acolytes find that all of the escape pods are gone, so Cyclops has the Acolyte Unuscione project her exoskeleton around the chunk of station they’re all in. Jean joins Skids on some space debris and helps boost Skids’ forcefield with her telekinesis.

How It Was: For an introduction to such a forgettable villain, this story really does stand on as feeling significant, even today. The stakes work because the Acolytes have been genuine presences in the X-Men books, yet it doesn’t feel like Nicieza is wasting perfectly good characters because the Acolytes have mostly been faceless dead weight in all of their appearances. The destruction of Avalon is an awesome sight, and the addition of Scott and Jean just adds to the chaos of the story. There’s plenty of action, but all of the action serves a greater purpose, and the reactions of the characters mostly seem natural for the given situation.

Xavier’s scenes searching for his students are a little slower; it feels like it takes Voght forever to cross the X-Men’s front yard from last issue. The art is once again really nice looking, and the only nitpick I have is that the artist depicts Scott’s blast going through his glasses instead of having him lift them up. It’s also nice to see Colossus still putting himself before others. Just a really exciting issue.

B+

X-Men #42

X-Men #42
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Paul Smith

What Went Down: The Acolytes have recovered the space debris from X-Men: Prime and brought it aboard their home base Avalon. Kooky old Exodus is convinced that this is some kind of fortuitous sign from God, and many of the other Acolytes start to catch on that Exodus might not be all together sane. Many, including Colossus, question the safety of bringing an unknown life form aboard. The Acolyte Milan is tasked with analyzing the mystery mutant; he is overwhelmed with images and memories of the Age of Apocalypse before being disintegrated and absorbed by the mutant, who turns out to be Holocaust.

In the mansion, Professor X is watching a news report about the battle with the Juggernaut in New Jersey. Storm comes in to announce the club murder plot points from Uncanny #322 for the Professor’s benefit, as well as voice her fears about Wolverine’s well being. Down in the basement, the Beast is analyzing Juggernaut after their fight; he is also taking care of Gambit and Sabretooth in the medical ward.

In Florida, a trenchcoated figure who looks a lot like Gambit charges a card to break into a house to steal a helmet. The figure is stopped by Iceman, and we learn that it’s Rogue, who is reliving memories from Gambit’s life.

Up on Avalon, Rusty and Skids are talking about possibly defecting with Colossus. Scanner calls and tells them that Exodus has ordered Rusty to check in on Milan. Skids worries that Exodus is aware that they were questioning his authority, but Rusty tells her not to worry. Rusty finds that Milan is missing and that the stranger looks stronger. Rusty is then killed, but not before Scanner calls and sees him die.

Holocaust emerges and is confronted by Exodus. Holocaust mistakes him for the Exodus in the Age of Apocalypse that was an X-Man; he also reveals Exodus’ real name, Paris. Exodus gets mad for being called an X-Man, and the two begin a fight that tears a hole in the space station.

Back on Earth, Scott and Jean are returning from Jean’s parents’ house after telling them that her sister Sara was dead in Uncanny #322. Coincidentally, Amelia Voght teleports directly in front of their car, which somehow causes them to go through the portal she opened. This results in Cyclops and Jean ending up on Avalon in the middle of all of the wackiness.

How It Was: The highlight of this issue is probably the characters on Avalon. While Exodus is still a one-dimensional loony toon, it’s nice to see that a lot of the Acolytes are starting to question the overt craziness of their leader, you know, like real people would. Even more surprising is that characters like Milan, Skids, and Rusty are shown with actual personalities, relationships, and flaws for the first time in a long time. Of course then two of them die, which is a shame for the Acolytes to be dissolved right as someone thought to characterize them a little. But I actually felt a little bad when Rusty died, and he hasn’t had any character development in ages.

I also really like Holocaust’s response to the whole situation as he mistakes Magneto and Exodus for X-Men trying to battle his father. And it’s nice to see Exodus get some comeuppance as the “sign” he foresaw turns out to be a character as crazy and powerful as he is.

It’s also nice to see the X-books making a bigger effort to connect with each other. This is done really well with the scenes of Beast analyzing the Juggernaut, and not so well when Storm shows up to info-dump a bunch of information from other X-Men books that the Professor should already be aware of. Even the fact that Cyclops and Jean get hijacked while returning from events in a different title is a neat detail for fans. The Rogue/Gambit stuff is a little bit of a misfire since Nicieza has her remember all this stuff about Gambit’s past only to forget about it in a couple of issues.

Paul Smith’s art is a little softer then Kubert’s. It’s really nice and the colorist does a great job with the issue, but there are a few details to pick at. Smith uses the Age of Apocalypse design of Iceman, which is never used again. Also, Holocaust outside of his suit turns out to equal Ghost Rider with beady eyes, which is a real disappointment. Plus Xavier’s mansion is drawn much smaller than it usually is.

This book is doing slightly better than Uncanny at this point in regards to quality. The story has bigger stakes, and it’s nice to see Nicieza take some blank slates and make them actually interesting, even if he does kill them off a couple of pages later. Once again, the narrow focus is working well for the book, and it’s great to see Colossus again.

B+

Uncanny X-Men #322

Uncanny X-Men #322
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Tom Grummett

What Went Down: Archangel receives a call from his ex-girlfriend, Detective Charlotte Jones. Warren tries to apologize for not calling her in months, but she brushes him off. Charlotte has called Warren in to get his opinion on a mutant specific case, and to warn him about possible backlash from the media. One of Charlotte’s subordinates decides that Archangel is dangerous and attacks him, but Warren deflects the energy weapon and temporarily paralyzes the cop with a wing dart. Charlotte chastises the men, and then leads Warren into the crime scene. It’s a nightclub full of dead bodies; Archangel is told that there is something he can see better from above, but we’re never told what this is referring to after he flies up.

Outside the mansion, Storm is reflecting on her friendship with Gambit as she worries about him in his coma. Wolverine shows up to talk for a bit, but then disappears when Siryn of X-Force comes by to ask for help.

Beast has decided to take Bishop to New Jersey to see a movie in hopes of helping him relax and get over his nightmares/visions about the Age of Apocalypse. In case you’re wondering, they go to see Pulp Fiction, which had just won a bunch of Academy Awards at the time. Beast tries to get Bishop to open up, but they are interrupted by something falling out of the sky, smashing through buildings and cars. That something turns out to be the Juggernaut, and he’s been beaten up pretty badly.

Jean and Cyclops are visiting Jean’s parents to tell them that they learned her sister was assimilated by the Phalanx during the Phalanx Covenant. This wraps up a story from the eighties that dates all the way back to X-Factor #2. Jean and her father talk, and Jean has a flashback about her sister because, according to her, telepaths’ brains never forget anything. Scott and Jean drive away, but an invisible, intangible Noah Dubois of Landau, Luckman, and Lake is observing them.

Beast examines the Juggernaut and determines that he has no pulse. Psylocke shows up just because, and the Juggernaut wakes up scared out of his mind. Everybody fights; Betsy stabs Juggernaut with her psychic knife and senses his overwhelming fear. Bishop covers himself with power lines to finish off Juggernaut, but not before the villain explains that he was knocked to New Jersey from Canada. Bishop subdues Juggernaut, but only because the bad guy was already weakened, and Juggernaut tells the X-Men that he was beaten up by someone named Onslaught.

How It Was: First of all, it’s important to note that the Blue/Gold Team split is pretty much dead starting with this issue; all the X-Men are free to come and go in any X-Men title and fight with whomever they want. This leads to a lot of stories that emphasize smaller groups of X-Men, which is nice because it gives the writers an opportunity explore a lot of different groupings, personalities, and relationships, although the inclusion of X-Force at the mansion serves as little more than a distraction to the main events. It’s also really nice that the main titles have more impact on each other.

Also starting this month, some moron at Marvel thought that a great way to improve their comics would be to take the issue numbers off of the covers to make collecting an even bigger pain in the butt. If you’re wondering, you can still find the issue number in tiny print inside the barcode, but this is still really inconvenient. Don’t worry; Marvel was bombarded with fan complaints, so this trend only lasted about a year.

Now as for the story—it’s a nice, slow set-up issue that brings up a couple of plot points that are sure to be explored in the next couple of issues, as well as farther down the line. There’s nothing really wrong with this except for the fact that X-Men Prime was already supposed to have done this. Future issues notwithstanding, the awkward interactions between Archangel and Charlotte are well handled, and Beast is pitch-perfect as always under Scott Lobdell.

The parts that stick out the worst are the scenes with Jean exploring the death of her sister. This “mystery” had been set up almost a decade before, and even the resolution to her sister’s whereabouts occurred ten months before this issue came out. It’s nice that Lobdell follows up on the point, but it’s too little, too late for anybody to actually care about this character that never really had any significance to the X-Men franchise. Plus Cyclops’ “what if we weren’t X-Men?” discussion is really cliché and has nothing to do with the situation. It appears that Scott Lobdell was setting up a storyline involving Noah Dubois, who appeared two years ago and appears in a couple of future stories, but nothing ever comes from these cameos.

The Juggernaut fight is well handled, even if it’s a blatant example of cutting down a strong character to make a new threat look more menacing. The impact is pretty much lost due to the fact that Juggernaut hasn't appeared in either of the main X-Men books since the eighties.  My one nerdy nitpick would be that Psylocke shouldn’t be able to use her powers on Juggernaut when he has his helmet on, and for that matter, why is she even there? And of course, this is the first we hear about the enigmatic Onslaught. Fair warning, the X-Books are going to be setting this one up for over a year, and a lot of the clues go absolutely nowhere. But this initial story actually works really well once we figure out who Onslaught is (SPOILER: IT’S PROFESSOR X). An inauspicious start, but it is nice to see that the writers are mixing it up a little bit with the presentation and structure of the books. Plus fill-in artist Tom Grummett draws a pretty awesome Juggernaut.

B-

X-Men '95 Annual

X-Men ’95 (Annual)
Writing: J.M. Dematteis, Ralph Macchio, Scott Lobdell, and Matt Idelson
Art: Terry Dodson, John Paul Leon, and Ramon Bernardo

What Went Down: Starting with 1995, all Marvel Comics annuals discard their old numbering systems and are solely distinguished by the year…for a while at least. It’s hard to say when exactly this one takes place; it’s sometime after X-Men Prime, but before X-Men #45, which is still a really large time frame.

The issue starts off in a convalescents’ home where an old woman disappears from her room. We cut to the Beast running through the woods and diving off a cliff into a river for fun. Jean Grey is at the bottom, and the teammates joke with each other and reflect on recent events. Beast has invited the original X-Men to a cabin to reconnect, and Jean empathizes with his need to immerse himself in the comfortable and familiar.

Back at the nursing home Nathaniel Essex, who is really Mr. Sinister, is visiting the old woman from earlier, Faye Livingstone. A nurse leads Essex into her room, but the only person in the room is Genesis. For those who don’t know, Genesis is Cable’s stepson that was abducted in the future by Apocalypse and brainwashed. Genesis kills the nurse, and tells Sinister that he has observed Sinister visiting this woman every year. Thinking that he has discovered Sinister’s weakness, Genesis has abducted Faye and used genetic engineering to temporarily de-age her. Also, Genesis has gained the leadership of the Dark Riders.

After Genesis and the Dark Riders teleport away, Sinister has a flashback to when he first met Faye. Posing as Nathaniel Essex, Sinister lived in a large mansion in Hollywood during the 1930s. Essex throws a party and Faye Livingstone, a radio comedienne of the time, gets to dance with the host. Faye finds Essex very attractive and ends up staying over. In the middle of the night, Faye finds Sinister in his lab with his normal white skin.

Back at the cabin, Beast eats popcorn with his feet, and Jean goes to bed. Beast stays up and contemplates his bachelor status. The Dark Riders teleport in and tell Beast that they are going to kidnap Jean Grey. A fight ensues, and Jean is captured, but she is able to leave a psychic trail for Beast to follow in the Blackbird.

Genesis, Sinister, and Faye are located at Sinister’s old lab in Hollywood. Jean is suspended above them in a power cage, but she breaks out after a page. Genesis hides behind Faye, and Sinister asks Jean to stay back.

The flashback continues with Sinister holding Faye in his mansion for weeks while he conducts experiments on her. Her DNA has the potential to have a powerful mutant offspring. After weeks of her being terrified and imprisoned, Sinister sets her free without a word.

Beast arrives at the mansion and is attacked by goblin creatures engineered by Sinister. The scene ends with Beast appearing to be overwhelmed, but later he shows up and is fine. Inside, Genesis wants Jean to mind-link Sinister and Faye to force Sinister to reveal his feelings. Jean refuses, and Beast shows up to rescue her. Jean tries to lift Faye out of there, but Sinister begs her to let it play out; Beast tells Jean to listen to him after seeing distress on Sinister’s face.

In the mind-link, Faye and Sinister dance. Faye tells Sinister that she knows he loved her and he couldn’t find a way to express it. Faye then turns old again and dies. Sinister claims that her final thoughts were delusions and he shows no emotion at all. Genesis admits he was wrong and teleports away. Sinister tells the X-Men to leave. Beast puts an arm on Sinister’s shoulder, showing that he empathizes with his pain.

After the X-Men leave, the mansion bursts into flames. Sinister stares off in the distance silently. Genesis talks with one of the Dark Riders about his next plan, which deals with Wolverine and occurs in Wolverine #99-101. The next day, Cyclops and Archangel show up at the cabin. Cyclops wants to clean up after the battle with the Dark Riders, but Jean tells him there is nothing wrong and they kiss.

What Else Went Down: In the back-up story, Captain Britain—aka Brian Braddock is at a post office while the postmaster searches for a letter from Brian’s sister Psylocke. Brian then reads Psylocke’s letter about her new relationship with Archangel.

With the letter serving as Psylocke’s narration, we get a scene of Warren and Betsy at a carnival and discussing their relationship. They get cotton candy from a vendor who has a crush on Warren. Then the couple talks about their relationship some more, and they go off to ride the Ferris Wheel. The ride jams, they talk about their relationship some more, and Archangel flies off carrying Psylocke. While flying, they talk some more and determine that they really care about each other. After reading the letter, Brian feels inspired and flies off, leaving his boat behind for some reason.

How It Was: This is a pretty big character piece for the Beast and Mr. Sinister; Jean’s around but she doesn’t get as much characterization to work with. Beast is presented with all of his personality and humor intact, and it’s nice to see him get the spotlight since over in the main titles he hasn’t had a lot to do other than work on the Legacy Virus.

The real surprise of the issue is the attempt to turn Sinister into a sympathetic character. It’s a decent attempt, but it’s hard to empathize with a guy that locks a woman in a room, experiments and degrades her for weeks, sets her free, and calls it love. It works if you look at it as exploring Sinister’s inability to express love and emotion, but Faye’s admission of love really makes her look weak and pathetic; sure it could be written off as Stockholm Syndrome, but Faye would have come off as a stronger character if she stood up to her abuser instead. And it’s really difficult to believe that the Beast would put his hand on Sinister’s shoulder as a sign of understanding, given all of the ways that Sinister has manipulated and threatened his friends over the years.

The other anomaly to this story is the presence of Genesis, Cable’s son. The reasoning behind his attack is pretty faulty, and the story seems to present Sinister as more powerful than him, so I can’t understand why Sinister doesn’t just kill him at the end. The end is silly with Genesis essentially apologizing for wasting everyone’s time and teleporting away. Plus Genesis brings the Dark Riders with him, one of the worst super villain groups ever; so bad in fact that they disappear midway through the story so that the Beast can fight some generic, but visually interesting monsters instead.

The art is really the star here. Leon’s dark, almost scratchy style works incredibly well for the gothic interiors and horror movie tone of the flashbacks, while Dodson’s smooth, clean style works fantastic with the scenes of Jean and Beast having fun and the flashy super hero battles.

If you couldn’t tell from my synopsis of the back-up story, it’s terrible…truly terrible…possibly the worst thing that Scott Lobdell has ever written. It’s good that Lobdell is keeping up with his vow to play the couple completely straight and realistic, but this is a little too realistic in that it is as boring as listening to two people talk about their relationship in real life. Plus there are so many pointless moments that serve to slow that story down even more, like the cotton candy girl with a crush on Warren or the postmaster who loses Brian’s letter. Worst of all is probably the portrayal of Brian Braddock as an apathetic loser, who basically has lost the will to live until he reads a letter about the boring, mundane happenings of his sister and her relationship. It’s hard to see what he finds so invigorating about this story whatsoever. So, this leaves us with an average main story and a terribly below average back-up all in one.

C+