Artie and Leech’s Day Off!
Credits: Jay Faerber (writer), Terry Dodson (penciler), Rachel Dodson (inker), Kevin Tinsley (colors), Comicraft (letters)
Summary: Artie and Leech sneak out while Gen X visits a museum in New York. The team searches for the duo, as Artie and Leech aid Spider-Man against Sandman. Emma pairs with Tom Corsi, who explains his reluctance to join the school considering his past with Emma. Chamber futilely tries to talk to Husk about her new attitude, while Skin and Synch run into She-Hulk and ask for an autograph. Finally, Artie and Leech are caught by the Avengers after impersonating Thor and Captain America. When the team arrives to pick them up, Emma makes peace with Firestar.
Continuity Notes:
· Banshee and Jubilee aren’t with the team, because they’ve traveled to the X-mansion following the “death” of Wolverine. The footnote points to Uncanny X-Men #375.
· Tom Corsi reminds Emma of the time she had Empath force him and Sharon Friedlander to, well, mate like animals in New Mutants #39. Later, Emma has to apologize again for manipulating Firestar in the past, and sending the Hellions to retrieve her in an early New Warriors story.
I Love the '90s: Artie and Leech impersonate two of the Backstreet Boys (the blonde one and the “bad boy”…I’m not going to look up their names), and cause a riot.
Approved By The Comics Code Authority: Chamber uses “wanker” again, this time to describe Artie and Leech.
Review: I think the only two X-titles not directly involved with some aspect of the big Apocalypse crossover are Generation X and X-Force. And while X-Force is embroiled in John Francis Moore’s extensive Deviants storyline, Generation X isn’t caught up in anything so dramatic. Even the major storylines at the time, Emma’s sister becoming the new White Queen and the acceptance of humans into the school, aren’t so important that they must be addressed in every issue. So, they kill an issue in New York, and it makes for a decent story, although it clearly looks diminutive when compared to the rest of the line.
Mixed in with the comedic scenes and character moments, Faerber’s used the opportunity to address some continuity issues surrounding Emma’s role as a hero. It’s clear the character was not created with the goal of one day being reformed, so her blatantly evil actions from the past must be addressed. And Faerber handles the past continuity well, allowing Emma to say the only thing she can say -- “sorry.” This could come across as lazy or insincere, but the scenes do feel genuine and Faerber is able to make Emma as sympathetic as she’s been since this book was launched.
While it’s easy to dismiss this issue as filler, maybe there is a lasting significance to the story. Is this the first time Terry Dodson was asked to draw Marvel heroes outside of the X-universe? Faerber’s given him quite a list of heroes to handle throughout the story, and to be honest, the results are mixed. The cover is a good example…some of these characters look amazing, others just look wrong. In fairness to Dodson, he was still new to any of the “mainstream” Marvel figures, and it’s obvious he got a lot better as the years went on.
5 comments:
I always thought it was just Empath who messed with Tom and Sharon. The issue where the New Mutants got their revenge on him was one of the first NM issues I owned.
@wwk5d: I always thought it was just Empath who messed with Tom and Sharon.
I was going to say the same thing - my recollection is that Empath mucked around with Tom and Sharon of his own accord.
Granted, I don't think Emma did much more than scold him for it, but I don't remember her ordering him to do it.
Empath was the person who brainwashed them, but I guess Emma is viewed as ultimately responsible since it was a part of her plan.
Actually, Empath's mission was to manipulate Magneto's emotions so he'd end up transferring the New Mutants to Emma's academy. Empath was just supposed to do that; he only messed with Tom and Sharon because they caught him spying on the X-mansion.
Of course, as Teebore mentioned, Emma didn't really punish him all that much for it (as opposed to when Empath manipulated Firestar...Emma took away his powers for a while as punishment then).
Emma didn't look sympathetic to me. Only boring and off-character.
This issue seemed mostly like a filler. It had some funny moment, though. I like Everet's meeting with She-Hulk.
I love the 90's:
At the museum Artie is wearing a shirt with the Pokemon Marill.
When they go first to the street, Leech is wearing a shirt with Lina Inverse from Slayers (only with blond hair) on it.
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