X-FORCE #100 - March 2000

 

Dark Cathedral

Credits:  John Francis Moore (writer), Jim Cheung & Chris Renaud (pencilers), Mark Morales, John Czop, Scott Koblish, & Rich Perrotta (inkers), Marie Javins & Wilson Ramos (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

Summary:  X-Force is stunned to discover four iterations of Moonstar.  Meanwhile, Arcadia transforms into the Queen of the Star Swords.  The real Moonstar, bereft of powers, emerges from the crowd along with Proudstar and Risque.  The Queen takes the four Moonstars with her and creates a cathedral in the city.  Ulysses Dragonblood arrives that night and helps X-Force enter the cathedral, which they soon discover is a doorway into alternate realities.  Cannonball discerns that the four Moonstars emerged from four different Earths.  Eventually, Cable, Jennifer Kale, and Man-Thing arrive and help Moonstar defeat the Queen.  She then uses the power she absorbed to destroy the cathedral.

Continuity Notes:  

• The Sunspot and Siryn subplots continue, even though this is John Francis Moore’s final issue.  Sunspot spies on, and accidentally runs into, the girl whose body Julianna Sandoval now inhabits.  Siryn is possessed by her mystic necklace and flies out of her aunt’s house.
• After seeing a vision of an alternate reality X-Force that died under his leadership, Cable lets go of the team and encourages them to find their own identity.
• Moonstar emerges from the story without her cosmic powers, claiming that she’s back to mental projections and psychic arrows.
• Sunspot refers to the events of the New Mutants graphic novel (1982) as happening “five years ago.”

Review:  The final John Francis Moore/Jim Cheung issue, and I really wish I could say there was a  payoff to all of that Deviants/Eternals/Gatherers/Damocles Foundation stuff.  There isn’t.  The storyline ends with Arcadia going evil, revealing she’s from an alternate reality, and then retreating to that alternate reality off-panel after Moonstar kicks her butt with Cable’s psimitar.  Moore spent years setting up this storyline, occasionally to the point of tediousness, and I can’t imagine this is how he actually wanted to end it.  Regardless, it’s over, and while it doesn’t feel like much of a conclusion, there are still some nice anniversary issue moments.  The alternate reality scenes are a clever way to pay homage to the past of the book, going all the way back to the original New Mutants issues and extrapolating some strange worlds that could plausibly exist.  And not all of them are there just to play the dystopia card, as Moore treats one as a parody Ellis dimension in preparation for “Counter-X.”  It’s genuinely funny, and I’m glad Marvel allowed the scene to go through.  There’s also a cute exchange between Meltdown and Cable, mocking what a flop his “final” battle with Apocalypse turned out to be.

Trying to view this as a coherent story, though, it has numerous problems.  One major problem is Arcadia’s sudden turn into outright villainy; there’s some justification that plays off of previous stories about her fantasy life as a kid, but she remains a poorly defined villain.  And I’m still not sure what exactly Arcadia planned to do with the four alternate reality Moonstars, or why she chose those specific versions of Moonstar.  In addition, the issue already begins with too many characters to keep track of, but then keeps adding more as the story goes along.  Did Moonstar really need Ulysses Dragonblood, Cable, Jennifer Kale, and Man-Thing to defeat Arcadia?  What point do they truly serve?  Also, why was Risque brought back for this story?  She has a few lines of dialogue at the beginning and then drops out halfway through the issue.  And, bizarrely, Moore is continuing subplots he’ll never be able to finish.  Cutting away to Sunspot and Siryn during the already cramped main story serves no purpose, especially if these plots are never going to be resolved.  It’s also kind of annoying that Moore has to work in a quickie rationalization for Cable to once again distance himself from the team, just to set up that misguided “Counter-X” run.  

X-FORCE Annual ‘99 - November 1999

Loose Ends

Chapter One: Picking Up the Pieces

Credits:  Fabian Nicieza (writer), Chris Renaud (pencils), Rod Ramos/Scott Elmer/Rich Perrotta (inks), Kevin Somers (colors), Sharpefont (letters)

Summary:  Rictor and Shatterstar are recruited by Verschiagen Industries after a fight with Rictor’s gun-running family.  They arrive prepared to train against Verschiagen Industries’ test subject, V-2, or to rescue her if she’s being held against her will.  Suddenly, a young man named Hanransha enters.  While trying to stun V-2 long enough to free her, he accidentally kills her with his mutant powers.  Rictor and Shatterstar escape with Hanransha and discover that V-2 was his half-sister.  Hanransha is trying to find the rest of his siblings that were also bred in labs.  His next lead is Martin Strong in Colorado.

Continuity Notes:  This story resolves, of all things, the cryptic subplot from X-Force #43 that had a mystery man sneaking into a mystery lab.  According to Hanransha, this was his father, who was killed while trying to rescue him.

Review:  In response to overwhelming reader demand, or at least a letters page worth of requests in an issue of X-Force, Rictor and Shatterstar return, along with Fabian Nicieza.  Nicieza left quite a few dangling plotlines when he was forced off the book, and probably the most annoyingly cryptic of them was that subplot scene in X-Force #43.  Considering that Marvel annuals were firmly dismissed as filler by the late ‘90s, what better place to wrap up a five-year-old storyline that barely anyone remembered?  It’s possible that a few of the fans that really wanted to see Rictor and Shatterstar again also remembered this unresolved mystery, and most X-Force readers have fond memories of Nicieza’s run on the book, so this actually sounds like a decent use of the annual format.  As a lapsed X-completist, I was probably in the prime demographic for this issue, even though I skipped it at the time.  I didn’t have a lot of interest in Rictor or Shatterstar, wasn’t regularly buying X-Force, and didn’t care for the art.  I can’t say that I missed out on a great comic, but the lure of unresolved X-continuity might have drawn me back in had I known that an old mystery was being resolved.

Chapter Two: Strong Attractions

Credits:  Fabian Nicieza (writer), Guz Vazquez, Rod Ramos, and Rich Perrotta (art), Kevin Somers (colors), Sharpefont (letters)

Summary:  Rictor, Shatterstar, and Hanransha arrive at the StrongH.O.L.D. headquarters, where they face Martin Strong and Neurotap.  They’re shocked when X-Force enters and defends Neurotap.  They explain to their former teammates that Strong is providing for the medical care of Neurotap’s family.  Strong reveals that Hanransha’s powers will continue to go haywire while he’s separated from his mother, who is none other than Hanna Verschiagen.  Neurotap leaves with Rictor, Shatterstar, and Hanransha for Germany, where they’re soon abducted by Hanna Verschiagen.

Continuity Notes:  Rictor is given the new ability to use his vibratory field to fly, so long as he straddles a large piece of wood.  And, yes, Nicieza wrote this as an intentional joke, playing off the fan speculation that Rictor and Shatterstar were gay.

Review:  Everyone remembers Martin Strong and Neurotap from X-Force Annual #2, right?  Actually, I don’t even remember X-Force Annual #2, aside from the pulse-pounding debut of Adam-X, the X-Treme.  This issue reminds us that Martin Strong is a mutant fish-man that uses genetic research in order to gain a new body, and to find a way to eradicate mutantcy.  Neurotap is his reluctant assistant, who works for Strong because he pays for her family’s medical treatments, treatments they need because she nearly killed them when her powers first surfaced.  Presumably, this story is supposed to resolve her character arc and offer her some resolution, but in practice, it reads as yet another plot point jammed into an already packed comic.  Not helping the story at all this chapter is the art, which resembles a bad Humberto Ramos impression.

Chapter Three: X-P8

Credits:  Fabian Nicieza (writer), Ken Lashley and Rod Ramos (art), Kevin Somers (colors), Sharpefont (letters)

Summary:  X-Force arrives and rescues their teammates.  While fighting X-Force, Hanna Verschiagen continues to drain power from her children, unconcerned that she’s killing them.  Shatterstar listens to their pleas and cuts their conduit lines to Verschiagen.  The children, including Hanransha, die.  As he dies, Hanransha thanks Shatterstar for ending their mother’s evil.

Continuity Notes:  Neurotap decides to leave Martin Strong’s service at the end of the story.  Cannonball gives her Professor Xavier’s card, promising that he can help her family.  She promptly disappeared into obscurity, but luckily she escaped Frank Tieri’s routine mutant genocides in the pages of Weapon X.

Review:  The final page asks readers to write in if they want to see more of Shatterstar, Rictor, and Neurotap.  Specifically, they want people to write, “We want our Triple-X!”  Hopefully, in large print on the back of a post card that your local mail carrier can easily read.  

Nicieza was apparently serious about using this story to sell Neurotap as a character, which makes me wonder why so much of the story was spent on Hanransha, his siblings, and Hanna Verschiagen and her evil corporation.  I actually don’t have a problem with Neurotap; her core conflict automatically makes her a little sympathetic, and her powers are non-generic and interesting enough.  She’s also one of the few minority female mutants, so an editor looking for more diversity within the X-line (or a producer working on the X-Men movies seeking a part for, say, Rosario Dawson) might consider her worth a look.  But this specific story doesn’t center on her in any meaningful way, and the core story it does present is rather dull.  The plot also doesn’t really do an awful lot with Shatterstar and Rictor, even though they’re nominally the stars.  But, hey, that one page from X-Force #43 finally got resolved.

GENERATION X #57 - November 1999

A Night to Remember

Credits: Jay Faerber (writer), Terry Dodson & Chris Renaud (pencilers), Rachel Dodson, Scott Elmer, & John Czop (inkers), Kevin Tinsley (colors), Comicraft’s Saida Temofonte (letters)

Summary: A weakened Emplate stalks the team as they prepare for the school dance. Emplate makes his presence known during the dance, distracting Gen X from his real goal of abducting Penance, who’s targeted by Emplate’s followers in the dorms. Half of the team stops Emplate’s flunkies, only to discover that Emplate has converted the other half in their absence. Synch pushes Jubilee into breaking Emplate’s influence, which leads to her destroying the social hall. In the wreckage, the St. Croix twins are discovered yet again next to Penance’s body. As the twins recuperate, Penance regains consciousness and escapes the school.

Continuity Notes: Because this is very important, the following people pair up for the dance:

Husk pays off her debt to Tristan and takes him as her date, Jubilee and Synch go “as friends,” M goes with Skin, and Chamber is paired with a goth human student. When the team suggests Banshee take Emma, she recruits Iceman as her date during his training session with Gen X to avoid being asked.

I Love the '90s: Skin on his physical appearance before developing mutant powers: “I wasn’t no Ricky Martin, but I did okay.”

Approved By The Comics Code Authority: Chamber refers to Emplate’s follower Vincent as a “wanker.” Apparently, Jay Faerber knew “wanker” as a British insult, but didn’t realize that it’s not generally used in “all ages” material.

Review: A double-sized five-year anniversary issue? That’s unusual, especially just a few issues after a double-sized fiftieth issue. That fiftieth issue was partially squandered on an X-Man crossover, so I wonder if perhaps this was originally Faerber’s plan for the double-sized fiftieth issue. “The big dance” isn’t really a strong enough concept to justify a double-sized story, but adding the return of Emplate into the mix creates a packed issue that balances the character scenes and action quite well.

Unfortunately, the return of Emplate also means the return of the M/Penance/Emplate sibling fiasco, and yet another wrinkle is added to the mystery this issue. The first time the St. Croix twins spontaneously appeared after a giant explosion wasn’t exactly a highlight for the series, and I’m not enthused to see the idea resurrected. We’ve already had a conclusion to the M/Penance/St. Croix twins storyline; it was mostly nonsense, but the story did create a clear status quo for the characters moving forward. M has her own body back and the twins are magically combined into the form of Penance. Now, the twins are back in their own bodies, yet somehow Penance endures. Add this to Emplate’s unexplained illness, and we’re left with -- hooray -- more St. Croix family mysteries.

The character moments, as always, are the real highlight of the story. The drama leading up to the dance, as each character deals with the internal high school politics of who-asks-who to go, is executed masterfully. Husk uses this as an opportunity to finally go on that blackmail date with Tristan, only to discover that she likes the guy. Synch asks Jubilee to go as a friend, not realizing that she honestly has feelings for him. M is too pretty and intimidating for anyone to ask out, so she’s stuck going with Skin. He never considered asking her; she only asked him after Artie and Leech asked on his behalf (following his revelation to them that having a beautiful date would help his self-esteem). When Skin finds out he was her pity date, he’s annoyed, while she refuses to admit that she might be capable of feelings like “pity” in the first place. And Chamber is stuck with an anonymous goth girl. So, there’s still a lot of humor and genuine character work, even if the main story is potentially moving into a dodgy area.

X-FORCE #93 - August 1999

Temple of the Dying Sun

Credits: John Francis Moore (writer), Anthony Williams & Chris Renaud (pencilers), Hector Collazo & Scott Koblish (inker), Kevin Tinsley (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Astarte and Electryon of the Eternals dupe X-Force into traveling to an island overrun with quantum disruptions. As Moonstar uses her powers to combat the hostile landscape, Astarte and Electryon secretly siphon off her quantum energy. When Moonstar is trapped underground, she meets the alien Ry’lor. He explains that his spacecraft’s quantum drive is responsible for the island’s problems, and shows Moonstar how to make contact with the entirety of the quantum force. Moonstar uses her powers to free her teammates and defeat Astarte and Electryon. Ry’lor repairs his craft and returns to space. Meanwhile, Domino returns home as Sunspot packs his bags.

Continuity Notes:

· Astarte and Electryon are working for Odysseus Indigo, who wants to study the quantum energy wielded by Moonstar.

· Ry’lor claims to be an alien who arrived on Earth thousands of years ago. After being worshipped by primitive man, his followers turned on him when he shared his technology with them. He massacred his disciples in response and has lived in seclusion ever since.

· A mysterious package addressed to Cannonball arrives from Genosha while the team’s away.

I Love the '90s: Jesse Bedlam (perhaps the first time he uses that surname) brags that he can easily shut down the alien technology and be back home in time for Win Ben Stein’s Money.

Review: Unless you really wanted to see a showcase of Comicraft’s variety of fonts (I’d guess around five appear this issue), there isn’t much here. Reader sentiment had solidly turned against the Eternals/Deviants storyline by this point, and I can’t blame them. John Francis Moore is making some effort to connect this story to the actual cast, but the alleged deep conversation between Moonstar and alien sun god Ry’lor is lifeless. Apparently, they’ve both learned a great lesson about the importance of moving on, but the issue is packed so densely the scenes have no impact. The visuals might’ve saved the issue, since the artists are given an entire issue of crazy Kirby-esque images to draw, but this was clearly done as a rush job. Anthony Williams & Chris Renaud are odd choices if the creators were really going for a Kirby vibe, anyway. Was it really impossible to find one of the many artists who specialize in Kirby pastiche to fill in? I would love to see what Mike Manley could’ve done with this material.