X-FORCE #92 - July 1999

Strange Interlude

Credits: John Francis Moore (writer), Mike Miller (penciler), Holdredge/Mei/Candelario/Collazo/Palmiotti (inks), Marie Javins (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Domino finds herself trapped inside Halloween Jack’s citadel. After enduring his mind games, Domino finally learns that Jack’s escaped the flooding of the polar ice caps by traveling back in time one hundred years. While examining this era, he’s fallen in love with Domino, and is now offering her a chance to live with him and avoid being killed in a future X-Force mission. She refuses and intimidates him into returning her home. Meanwhile in San Francisco, Sunspot faces deportation and a mystery figure seeks Moonstar for help.

Continuity Notes:

· Halloween Jack is a character created by John Francis Moore during his run on X-Men 2099.

· Domino is initially led to believe she is in Firenze, Italy. An inner monologue reveals that she first met Cable there while tracking an international arms dealer.

· Halloween Jack lists the names of people inadvertently hurt by having Domino in their lives: “Your sister. Your ex-husband Miles. Grizzly. Victor Lomenzo.” The stories behind her ex-husband and Grizzly have already been told. Her sister and Victor Lomenzo are new mysteries. The story ends with Domino attempting to “make amends” by calling Victor.

Review: I followed X-Men 2099 for most of its run, but only have vague recollections of any specific storylines. I tried to reread the series a few years ago but for some reason it couldn’t hold my interest after the first few issues. I do remember Halloween Jack as a Joker-style “embrace chaos” mad scientist who was friends with one of the X-Men in his previous life, which somehow gave Moore license to insert him into numerous issues of the series. Like I said, nothing in X-Men 2099 made much of an impact on me, so I can’t say I’m thrilled to see an issue of X-Force dedicated to an obscure villain from a mostly forgotten ‘90s imprint. (He was a villain, right?)

Moore tries to justify the insertion of his old creation by making this a Domino solo adventure, which of course means more vague hints about her shadowy past will be dropped. And, naturally, since Halloween Jack is from the future, he knows how Domino is going to die and it just so happens to tie in with the large Deviants story Moore’s been building for years. I don’t mind this so much, but the rationalization that Halloween Jack just happened to come across Domino’s photo while studying this era and is now madly obsessed with her is…well, I guess it’s elegant in its simplicity, but it doesn’t feel like much of a motivation. Unfortunately, at no point during the story did I ever get a sense for why Moore likes Halloween Jack so much, which is a problem. Obviously rushed fill-in art by Mike Miller and five inkers doesn’t help matters either, making this the weakest X-Force issue in a while.