The End of the Beginning
Credits: Rob Liefeld (plot, pencils, inks), Fabian Nicieza (script), Brad Vancata (colors), Joe Rosen (letters)
Summary:
The team tries to stop Shatterstar from destroying the practice robots
in the Danger Room, leading to a fight. Eventually, Cable knocks him
out. Later, Shatterstar explains that he’s traveled from a future
Mojoverse in search of the X-Men. Boom-Boom goes to the kitchen to find
food for Shatterstar, and discovers Feral. Feral explains that she
needs the team’s help against Masque. Simultaneously, Mojo V’s soldiers
materialize inside the complex. The team defeats them, but while
they’re distracted, Masque makes his move. Cable quickly kills his
lackey Brute, intimidating Masque into leaving. Cable explains that the
complex is no longer safe and that the team must begin the next phase
of its mission. Later, Strfye summons the MLF for an assignment. He
takes off his helmet in private, revealing he has Cable’s face.
Continuity Notes:
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Shatterstar explains that he’s a rebel from Mojoverse, one hundred years in the future. He claims Mojoverse is ruled by Mojo V and his executioner, Spiral.
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I believe this issue marks the first time Cable kills someone (on-panel).
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Cannonball comments that Cable’s remade the team into an “X-Force,” which of course sets up the new series.
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This issue is the first time Stryfe is unmasked. Not only does he have Cable’s face, but he also repeats a line of dialogue uttered by Cable in a previous issue. At one point, Liefeld considered revealing that Cable and Stryfe were the same person from different points in the timestream, and it’s obvious the creators want you to think that Cable has been Stryfe all along as the big cliffhanger.
I Love the '90s: Proudstar is wearing a belt literally made out of pouches.
We Get Letters: This issue prints the first letter from a fan irrationally obsessed with Deadpool.
Review: New Mutants
draws to an end, as Cable officially recruits James Proudstar, Feral,
and Shatterstar to join his mysterious friend Domino in X-Force. (Okay,
Cannonball and Boom-Boom can come, too.) And if you’re expecting any
heartfelt tributes to the long-running series in its one hundredth and
final issue, ha,
yeah right… Anyone intimately familiar with the history of this series
was surely seeing red, but as a kid who always dismissed this book as
dull, I was excited to see the start of something new. That “something
new” turned out to be quite a mess, but at this moment, X-Force
looks like it has promise. A team that’s willing to “fight for the
dream,” new characters, new mysteries, and more of Cable and his violent
shenanigans, which is what every twelve-year-old wants.
As
for this specific issue, I have the same predictable complaints about
the art (and I have to point out this is the issue with the infamous
double-page swipe from Ronin),
but the story does a credible job of inducting the new members into the
team and setting up the new direction. Nicieza’s dialogue helps a lot,
as Cable is still amusingly deadpan and not a generic Clint Eastwood
clone, and the rest of the cast show at least some semblance of a
personality. And that cliffhanger had to freak out any one of the
impressionable kids reading at the time (except for me, as I had no idea
who Stryfe was supposed to be.) Now, as I said earlier, all of this
leads into a book that’s genuinely awful for over a year after its
release, and it turns out that Cable’s promises to help Proudstar,
Shatterstar, and Feral are just as empty as his original pledge to
rescue Rusty and Skids. Knowing that the stories and art are only going
to get worse from here probably does lessen my opinion of the issue,
but I can’t deny that the story made me genuinely curious, at the time,
to find out what happens next. On that level, it’s a fair set-up for a
new beginning.
2 comments:
For all the faults this issue and the series following it had...you had to admit, there was a sense of something important happening. And the idea of any X-title at the time being canceled was shocking. And it being re-booted later? I remember as a kid being sad New Mutants was ending, as it really did feel like the end of an era. But...I was curious to see what was next. The team itself as the time was an interesting of new and old characters, the Stryfe reveal was interesting, and there was a certain energy propelling the title, as well as the rest of the X-office at the time. Who knew it was would all go down hill within a few months...
The team tries to stop Shatterstar from destroying the practice robots in the Danger Room
No, not the practice robots!
At one point, Liefeld considered revealing that Cable and Stryfe were the same person from different points in the timestream
I would have loved to see him (someone) go down that road. I was ridiculously fascinated with that kind of stuff as a kid (still am), to the point where the very first novel I ever wrote involved three characters who are ultimately revealed to be the same one from different timelines.
Proudstar is wearing a belt literally made out of pouches.
Which of course begs the question, what is Proudstar, the character whose schtick is that he punches people, carrying in all those pouches?
@wwk5d: For all the faults this issue and the series following it had...you had to admit, there was a sense of something important happening.
Definitely. Reading these issues from this era for the first time, they felt...momentous, like something big was really happening. It certainly helped that it was happening line-wide, so everyone was in on the action.
Of course, that feeling ultimately fizzled, especially after the Image Exodus put the final nail in the coffin of ever getting the original payoff intended to some of these storylines, but I still get that feeling even when re-reading this stuff today.
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