GENERATION X #43 - October 1998

An Eye for an Eye

Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Terry Dodson (penciler), Rachel Dodson (inker), Felix Serrano (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Following the psionic pulse, Banshee trains the team in hand-to-hand combat. Soon, the pizzas Jubilee ordered arrive, delivered by Dorian and Weasel. Bianca LaNiege’s spacecraft crashes on top of their car. Bianca’s dwarves attack Generation X, while Emma leads Bianca into the kitchen. The dwarves surrender after witnessing Chamber’s power, as Emma knocks Bianca unconscious with a watermelon.

Continuity Notes: Bianca reveals that her company, LaNiege Industrial Concepts, was acquired by Emma in a hostile takeover. Hoping to discover new technology that would drive Emma into bankruptcy, Bianca used one of her inventions to travel to another world. Instead, she was “trapped in a hellish dimension” where she “endured unspeakable torments” but somehow gained psionic powers.

Review: A lot of action, much of it slapstick, in this one. Since Hama’s well versed in martial arts, the rules of fighting Banshee and Emma teach certainly sound plausible, and he’s able to connect the training sequence to the actual fight scene in a clever way. It’s obvious this isn’t meant to be taken too seriously, which probably didn’t make the people who already hated this run feel any better, but I personally found it amusing. I like the occasional kidney-punch in my comics, especially when it’s Emma beating Banshee up during a training session. While the Danger Room rarely feels dangerous, Hama’s going with the idea that these training sessions are actual fights with real consequences, so the Banshee/Emma match is surprisingly brutal. And, even if Terry Dodson is more famous for pretty drawings than gritty fights, he still handles the action capably. I don’t know if the inclusion of mayonnaise and watermelon in the Emma/Bianca fight is a sly commentary on his cheesecake proclivities, but it’s hard not to laugh.