An Hour of Last Things
Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Ian Churchill (penciler), Larosa/Barta/Carani (inkers), Starkings/Comicraft (lettering), Mike Thomas (colorist)
Summary
Cable’s consciousness returns from his journey to the past. Gambit’s angry that Cable’s message to the other X-Men hasn’t changed anything. Lilandra sends a warning that the M’Kraan Crystal is consuming galaxies and is heading towards Earth within an hour. Knowing their time together will soon end, the X-Men comfort one another. Cable reveals his feelings for Domino, who initially dismisses them as a joke, but eventually kisses him. Cyclops and Phoenix decide to tell Cable that they raised him in the future as Slym and Redd, but he already knows. Professor Xavier tells the X-Men that he’s proud of all of them, as the Crystallization Wave consumes the Earth.
Continuity Note
This issue doesn’t reference Cable’s time travel ability. Instead, the Shi’ar technology is given credit for sending Cable’s consciousness to the past (whether or not Cable’s body or just his consciousness was sent back in time wasn’t clear in the last chapter).
Review
Somehow, one of the quiet, talkative issues of X-Men ended up in Cable. Considering the structure of the crossover, there was really nothing for Cable’s title to do this month. Cable’s already visited the past in the last part of the crossover, and since the mandated ending of all of the X-books this month had the Crystallization Wave consuming everything, there’s really no room for Cable to do anything. This could’ve been a nice opportunity for Cable to interact with his parents, but hardly anything comes from their brief scene together. Most of the interactions in the issue seem shallow and overly sentimental. The characterizations just don’t feel real, and the issue is made redundant anyway by the “end of the world” scenes in this month’s X-Men. This issue marks Ian Churchill’s debut as artist, a role he’ll keep for the next few years on the title. All of the exaggerated poses and countless scratchy lines haven’t aged well, but I liked it a lot at the time.
Not a favourite. X-Men#41 does it much better - there's a sense of urgency and excitement to all of it there. This one is just a bunch of characters standing around a desert. I agree that Cable's title was in an odd position. But instead of wringing some real emotional material out of people that learn they only have an hour to live with the extra pages(which X-Men#41 doesn't have enough space to do, as it has other parts of the story to tell), all of the scenes here are overly angsty or just plain boring. Xavier's speech at the end is nice, and I'm sure regular readers (which I wasn't) liked the Cable/Domino kiss. But a dud, otherwise.
ReplyDeleteThis is the only issue drawn by Ian Churchill I like... it makes me really sad to see Skroce moved to X-Man, where his abilities would've really suited staying with Cable.
ReplyDelete