ADVENTURES OF THE X-MEN #6 - September 1996

Back in the USSR Part 2: Clear and Present Danger

Credits:  Ralph Macchio (writer), Ben Herrera & Roberto Flores (pencilers), Gary Martin & Ralph Cabera (inks), Matt Webb (colors), Michael Higgins (letters)

Summary:  The X-Men and Brotherhood call a truce when Magneto announces that he’ll combine his powers with the Scarlet Witch’s to stop the missiles from hitting America.  Apocalypse suddenly appears outside and engages Magneto and the X-Men in battle.  Gambit contacts Xavier, who then conveys Magneto’s plan to Nick Fury.  Against the urging of the Joint Chiefs, Fury convinces the president not to retaliate against Russia.  Apocalypse abandons the fight when the Russian military arrives, and Magneto is eventually able to gain control of the final missile.  He directs it to Apocalypse’s underground stronghold in the Nevada desert.  Apocalypse teleports away from the blast, but is unable to save years of research.

Continuity Notes:  Magneto has been secretly studying Apocalypse for years, just as he suspects Apocalypse has studied him.

How Did This Get Published?:  Storm’s response to Magneto releasing his magnetic wall and freeing the X-Men is excruciating, even by animated Storm standards:  “The barrier he imprisoned us behind -- he is dissolving it!  Now we may strike back at this man whose actions will bring death to millions.”

Review:  How does Magneto go from raving lunatic last issue back to the noble anti-hero this issue?  Most of the drama of this chapter hinges on Xavier and Fury’s efforts to convince the US government to trust Magneto, even though the previous issue showed us a Magneto more than willing to destroy the United States!  Perhaps someone realized in-between issues that Magneto was out of character, in regards to his animated appearances, but it’s hard to imagine why anyone thought radically altering his personality for the second chapter was a legitimate solution.  If you’re going with bug-eyed crazy Magneto, at least be consistent for the duration of a two-part storyline.  Suddenly dropping in the Claremont interpretation of Magneto makes the overall story feel utterly incoherent.

Speaking of incoherent, we have the dreaded artist jam this issue.  Only two pencilers and two inkers, yes, but the dissimilarity in styles is so jarring that even the youngest of readers is going to be taken out of the story.  Both Ben Herrera and Roberto Flores have styles that could vaguely be called “manga influenced,” but that doesn’t mean their art is in any way compatible.  Herrera’s work is angular, open, and occasionally too simplified for its own good.  Flores has a curvy, detail-heavy style that looks like Humberto Ramos if he drew skinnier, even more distorted figures.  Flores would’ve fit in at the later days of Extreme Studios, while Herrera did back-up work on Savage Dragon, if you get what I’m saying.  They’re both “cartoony,” but that doesn’t mean they’re well-matched.  And neither artist is on the level of Andy Kuhn, who produced some fantastic covers for the Adventures books in the mid-90s, although I’ve yet to see one featuring his interiors.

ADVENTURES OF THE X-MEN #5 - August 1996

Back in the USSR Part 1: Armageddon in Red

Credits:  Ralph Macchio (writer), Ben Herrera (penciler), Gary Martin (inks), Matt Webb w/Malibu (colors), Ul Higgins (letters)

Summary:  Inside Asteroid M, Magneto prepares his recruits, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Toad, for war.  Their base is suddenly attacked, sending it crashing to the ground.  They land near Moscow and are quickly confronted by the Russian army.  Magneto and his followers dismantle the troops and head for a nearby nuclear missile base.  Nick Fury covertly contacts the X-Men and asks for their help.  The X-Men soon arrive in Russia, but are unable to stop Magneto from launching the missiles at America.  Magneto is confident he’s provoked a war between the two nations.  After the missiles launch, Apocalypse appears on the monitors, boasting that Magneto has fallen for his scheme.

Continuity Notes:  

• With the exceptions of Beast and Rogue, all of the standard X-Men from the cartoon appear this issue.  Jubilee isn’t allowed to go on the mission, however.
• Magneto calls his followers the “Brotherhood of Mutants,” leaving the “Evil” out.  No reference is made to Magneto being Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch’s father.
• Magneto doesn’t outright reference the Holocaust, following the example of the cartoon, but does state that he was imprisoned for being “different” and that Russian soldiers “were the liberators of my prison camp.”

“Um, Actually…”:  The story of Magneto and Asteroid M has already been told in the show’s “Sanctuary” two-parter.  And the “Family Ties” episode presents a contradictory view of Magneto’s first encounter with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.  Also, isn’t Mystique already leading a Brotherhood team in the show’s continuity?

Production Note:  This issue comes with a bound Dunston Checks In poster, which has coloring pages and puzzles printed on the back.  Clearly someone somewhere thought actual kids were buying these 99-cent books.

Review:  I’m willing to cut Ralph Macchio some slack in regards to continuity, considering that the show’s schedule was erratic by this point, and I doubt he was given access to scripts that weren’t being adapted for X-Men Adventures.  It’s not as if the show itself had perfect continuity, it couldn’t even keep the original team of X-Men straight, so I’m not going to judge the book too harshly for contradicting the later episodes of the series.  I will judge a story for reading like something straight out of the Silver Age, however, which is exactly what happens this issue.  For pity’s sake, Magneto’s so deeply ingrained in the Silver Age he even uses the term “Soviet” in 1996.  I’m half-convinced that this plot was sitting around the Marvel offices for years before getting dusted off for this issue; how else do you explain Magneto using his powers to brainwash the Russian Soviet scientists that are manning the missile base?  It’s crackpot loon Magneto, an interpretation that the cartoon thankfully ignored, behaving like a maniac and trying to provoke America and Russia into a nuclear war.  (Again, how Silver Age is this?!)  Had this been released as a retro project with Steve Rude pencils…well, the story would still be a joke, but at least it would’ve looked pretty.  

How did this end up as a tie-in to the ‘90s cartoon show?  How did Macchio totally miss Magneto’s previous characterization after adapting the first three seasons of the show?  The nuanced portrayal of Magneto as a reluctant villain is a hallmark of the series; an early indicator that this wasn’t going to be a dumbed down toy commercial for little kids.  The only redeeming aspect of the issue is the surprise appearance of Apocalypse at the end, which at least teases the potential of something interesting happening next issue.  Honestly, I’m not expecting much, but maybe we’ll move on past the Cold War.

ADVENTURES OF THE X-MEN #3 - June 1996

Child’s Play

Credits:  Ralph Macchio (writer), Ben Herrera (penciler), Mike Miller (inks), Matt Webb (colors), Michael Higgins (letters)

Summary:  Gambit and Beast travel to an orphanage being protested by the Friends of Humanity.  One of the children, Adam, is a known mutant.  When Adam falls out of a window, he’s rescued by Spider-Man.  Gambit and Beast try to convince Spider-Man to turn Adam over to them, but he refuses.  Spider-Man’s solution is for all of them to visit his friend Dr. Curt Connors and let him examine Adam.  A disguised Mr. Sinister overhears their conversation and reaches out to Connors in his Dr. Essex identity.  Gambit visits the X-Men’s contact at the orphanage while Connors tests the limits of Adam’s pyrokinesis at his lab.  Beast is unnerved by the presence of Essex, who soon reveals himself as Mr. Sinister.  Sinister is able to easily defeat Beast and Spider-Man.  Suspecting Spider-Man is a mutant, he takes him captive with Adam.

Continuity Notes:  

• This story is continued in Adventures of Spider-Man.  Don’t ask which issue number, since no one bothered to include it in this chapter. (Okay, it's in issue #3. It's probably your only opportunity to ever see Alex Saviuk draw the Nasty Boys.)
• Philip, the X-Men’s contact at the orphanage, says he’s a member of Xavier’s Underground.  I’m sure Macchio meant the Mutant Underground, a concept from the mainstream universe that had ordinary humans secretly aiding Xavier’s cause.

“Um, Actually…”:  Spider-Man acts as if he’s never heard of the X-Men before, even though they guest starred in two episodes of his animated series.

Review:  Even the “reader-friendly” Adventures books had crossovers?  A crossover that’s not mentioned on the cover, and with no specific issue number given inside the comic for the next chapter?  That’s, as the kids would say in the ‘90s, lame.  I will say that the duo of Herrera and Miller have a nice handle on Spider-Man.  Not every panel is great, and the eyes are slightly too large, but overall he looks appropriately spidery.  The rest of the art is hit or miss; some pages simply look half-finished and those ultra-deformed kids in the opening are sure to turn off many readers.  I’ll also mention that colorist Matt Webb has vastly upgraded the color palette of this title, for the first few pages at least.  For some reason, the issue reverts to the boring pastels often seen in Marvel’s Adventures books as it progresses, even though the opening pages have a darker, more complex palette.

The story follows a broad pattern I’ve already noticed in Macchio’s work.  The plot hinges on a coincidence that’s just barely forgivable (maybe Sinister was outside of the orphanage because he already knew about Adam), the pace is brisk, and the dialogue is a good forty percent exposition.  All of the basics of a story are here, but it’s hard to find a reason to care about anything that happens.  And I’m not accepting the “it’s a kids comic” excuse, either.  DC produced hundreds of all-ages superhero stories for over a decade in their Adventures format, and the quality was consistently outstanding.  The X-Men, and Spider-Man, deserve no less.

ADVENTURES OF THE X-MEN #1 - April 1996

Bring Us a Leader - The Green Revolution Part 1

Credits:  Ralph Macchio (writer), Ben Herrera (penciler), Mike Christian (inks), Adam Wallenta (colors), Ul Higgins (letters)

Summary:  Wolverine goes camping in the Rockies, but his vacation ends when the Hulk suddenly appears.  Wolverine provokes him into a fight, which is interrupted by the arrival of X-Factor.  X-Factor takes Hulk and Wolverine captive and transports them to the Hulkbuster base.  Wolverine soon breaks free of captivity and sends a message to Storm.  He then searches for the Hulk.  When he discovers the Hulk is being experimented on by a group of scientists, an incensed Wolverine attempts to free him.  Suddenly, the Leader bursts through the wall, announcing he’s come for the Hulk.

Continuity Notes:  

• Adventures of the X-Men is not set in official Marvel continuity, but in the continuity of the ‘90s animated series.  
• Wolverine accuses X-Factor of being mutant hunters, which is a bizarre claim.  The very first incarnation of X-Factor pretended to be mutant hunters, but that’s the “original X-Men in disguise” team, not the government-sponsored superhero team.  And that gimmick only lasted for the first few issues of the X-Factor series, an era that ended almost ten years before this issue was written.
• General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross and Major Glenn Talbot appear this issue.  According to the Leader, General Ross is under his hypnotic control.
• Wolverine mentions that he’s previously “tangoed” with the Hulk.  A footnote says this event has yet to be shown in X-Men Adventures continuity.

“Um, Actually…”:  X-Factor consists of Havok, Polaris, and Wild Child.  Their government liaison is Val Cooper.  Wild Child never appeared with X-Factor in the cartoon, and their liaison was Forge during their one real appearance on the show.  Val Cooper ceased to be X-Factor’s government representative years earlier in the comics.  More importantly, Havok knows that Cyclops is his brother, information that neither character learned over the course of the TV series.

How Did This Get Published?:  Over half of Havok’s dialogue is simple exposition.  “I’m Havok, leader of the government-sanctioned organization called X-Factor.  We’ve come to the Rockies in search of that public menace standing next to you, Wolverine.  And we’re empowered by Congressional authority -- to take Hulk into custody.  Any interference will be deemed unlawful, and that perpetrator will be taken in as well.”  

I Love the ‘90s:  The computer-rendered logo created for this series hasn’t particularly aged well.

Review:  Having a network animated series based on one of your properties was still something of a big deal in 1992, which is why both Marvel and DC launched companion titles for X-Men and Batman: The Animated Series.  While DC immediately created new stories for its Batman Adventures tie-in, Marvel was content to leave X-Men Adventures as a straightforward adaptation of X-Men.  Attempting to do a full episode of X-Men in a twenty-two page monthly story was always problematic, however.  The plot of the average X-Men episode was often too dense to be crammed into the standard twenty-two page format, causing the comic to devote numerous issues to one episode of the series.  And that led to the comic falling months, often several months, behind the show’s continuity.  I purchased the first few issues of X-Men Adventures to get an idea of what the cartoon was going to be like, but after the series began airing, I quickly dropped it.  If you’ve already seen the episodes, I have no idea what the appeal of X-Men Adventures was supposed to be.

By early 1996, Marvel was experimenting with 99-cent comics, in an effort to pursue a younger and/or more casual readership.  X-Men Adventures amazingly still sold well enough to exist, but someone eventually realized that the format just wasn’t working.  Following the lead of Batman Adventures, Marvel commissioned new stories set in the animated universe’s continuity.  Marvel was desperate for X-material for the 99-cent line, so it isn’t too hard to see why someone thought a Marvel-ized version of Batman Adventures could be an easy sell to a more general audience.  

Batman Adventures was a critically acclaimed hit, however.  A book that followed the unique visual style of the animated series, and under artists like Mike Parobeck, produced work that even surpassed many episodes of the series.  X-Men was always designed to just look like the comics, an aesthetic that X-Men Adventures loyally followed.  Someone realized that the relaunch of the title as Adventures of the X-Men was an opportunity to update the look, which explains why Ben Herrera was hired as the initial artist.  I’m sure the editors wanted to go in a cartoonier style, but Herrera is “cartoony” in a way the show never was (except for those last six episodes, of course).  He leans more towards anime than Bruce Timm or Disney, so it’s hard to reconcile this comic with the standard action cartoon of the time.  While not every page is a beauty, Herrera is a welcome break from the early Image style that’s normally associated with the series.  Someone should’ve told whoever was in charge of the covers about the new look, however.  If Marvel was serious about a friendlier, cartoonier style that could attract a mainstream audience, hiring Dwayne Turner probably wasn’t the best way to go.

From the first issue, X-Men Adventures was scripted by Marvel editor Ralph Macchio, which I suppose was the genesis of Macchio becoming the routine last-minute fill-in guy for the main X-books in the ‘90s.  (At the very least, he had to know the characters’ names, right?)  Given his history with the animated universe, he would seem to be a natural choice to pen new adventures in the show’s continuity.  Which is why it’s a shame that he’s already getting so many facts wrong.  Perhaps it isn’t fair to judge a story based on the continuity it screws up, but if you’re going to go through the effort to debut a new series set in an alternate continuity, shouldn’t you get the details straight?  This is the first issue and already Macchio seems unaware of X-Factor’s place in the show’s reality.  He also seems to have transferred some very old continuity from the comics into the animated universe.  In fairness, the concept of X-Factor as government-sponsored mutant hunters could be a specific springboard for a plot point, but it reads as an outright screw-up this issue.  

I will say that the basic idea behind the story is fine, though.  For the most part, the plot does read as something that could’ve been an episode of the TV series.  Wolverine’s random run-in with the Hulk is of course an outrageous coincidence, but it feels excusable within the overall context of the story.  I think fans of the cartoon genuinely wanted a Wolverine/Hulk confrontation and if the show couldn’t deliver it, then doing the story here is a logical move.  (I believe either FOX or UPN wouldn’t allow the Hulk’s 1996 cartoon to cross over with X-Men.)  Macchio could’ve wasted the entire issue on their fight scene, but instead it serves as a catalyst for a much larger story.  X-Factor makes sense as the group assigned to take on the Hulk (let’s ignore that this is a streamlined version of the Howard Mackie X-Factor), which immediately puts them into conflict with Wolverine, who doesn’t want to see Hulk harassed even if he personally enjoys his own fights with the beast.  Introducing the Leader as the story’s villain on the final page is also a decent surprise, giving the audience a villain they haven’t seen a thousand times in the X-Men series, TV or comics.  And there are a few character moments that indicate Macchio has put some thought into selecting his cast.  Wolverine is driven over the edge when he sees the Hulk being experimented on, due to his own past, and Havok is facing an interpersonal crisis over X-Factor’s activities, in addition to his own insecurities over what his brother would think of him.  At times, the issue actually does manage to evoke some of the better elements of the cartoon.  The comic format also allows the story to be more violent than the series could ever be.  There’s nothing graphic, but it’s clear that no BS&P department is here cutting down the action scenes or dictating that no one make a closed fist.  The real failing, aside from the continuity problems, is Macchio’s dialogue.  Macchio’s tendency for cut-and-paste exposition is maddening, and it’s a shame because he seems to have a handle on the cast when they’re not spontaneously spelling out plot details or reciting their origin.  The wooden dialogue, and ‘90s style imitation manga, make the issue easy to dismiss, but I am curious enough to progress to the next issue.

X-MAN #61 & #62, March-April 2000

 

Falling Forward

Credits:  Terry Kavanagh (writer), Mike Miller (penciler), Bud LaRosa (inker), Mike Thomas (colors), Comicraft’s Troy Peteri (letters)

Oh, no.  There really are two more issues of this run.  With a few months to kill, Terry Kavanagh has apparently decided to go high concept and just drop the reader into a story that has X-Man as the prisoner of a group of unnamed aliens.  Even though much of the issue is annoyingly vague, I have to acknowledge that this is more readable than the average issue of X-Man.  Mike Miller’s art is clean and attractive throughout the issue, and Kavanagh thankfully allows X-Man to be more than a brat this time.  Giving him amnesia, a haircut, and an entirely new environment helps.  The specific plot elements don’t add up to anything yet (the aliens apparently want slaves to dig holes for the sake of digging holes, X-Man’s telekinetic powers are now restricted to only direct physical contact, an alien baby is somehow important, a floating entity named Fuzz is helping him escape…), but as the opening chapter of the storyline, that’s forgivable.  

The Dark Side of the Sun

Credits:  Terry Kavanagh (writer), Ben Herrera (penciler), Bud LaRosa (inker), Mike Thomas (colors), Comicraft’s Troy Peteri (letters)

So, the baby rescued last issue turns out to be the sister of Urch, the alien that seems to control Fuzz and is helping X-Man escape.  (And Urch turns out to be a guh-guh-guh-girl.)  X-Man helps return the baby to Urch’s father, who is a thief kept in another chamber of the prison colony.  Eventually, Urch and X-Man make it to the surface, where X-Man realizes he’s on the Shi’ar homeworld.  This recalls issue #55, which had Shi’ar agents targeting X-Man because of his ties to the M’Kraan Crystal.  (X-Man’s connection to the M’Kraan Crystal goes all the way back to X-Men Omega, in case you’re wondering, although I don’t recall the specifics making a lot of sense.)  

Lilandra appears, eager to throw everyone back into the gulag, until X-Man uses his powers for more than just explosions and mentally shows her the pain the prison colony is inflicting on its inhabitants.  Lilandra has an abrupt change of heart, and X-Man and Urch are set free.  It’s possible the ending was meant to tie in with the “six months later” premise of the “Counter-X” revamp, as X-Man is sent on a tiny rocket ship home, a journey that just might take six months.  Of course, the opening of all of the “Counter-X” books assumed that a lot happened in the six month gap, so that makes X-Man’s time spent becoming a “mutant shaman” even more compressed if you think about just how long his ride home to Earth took.  Therefore, just assume he passed through one of those wormholes the Shi’ar are always using to get here quickly.

For connoisseurs of bad comics, Kavanagh’s final arc is a bit of a disappointment.  Yes, it does feature his trademark introduction of new characters that are poorly fleshed out (such as the mysterious Fuzz, and an alien ally that looks like Sleepwalker referred to as “a Darkle” that we’re supposed to believe will be important later), and there is some dubious plotting, like Lilandra instantly forgetting that X-Man is supposed to represent a severe threat to the entire universe.  Yet, the dialogue is actually tolerable, and the plot moves along at a steady pace.  Heck, even the basic premise of the arc isn’t so bad, and ultimately revealing the Shi’ar as the alien villains is a decent use of past continuity.  And, most surprising of all, X-Man remains a…well, not a good protagonist, but a noticeably-less-annoying one during the arc.  Where’s this guy been for the past five years?  A part of me wanted Kavanagh to go out with his wildest, sloppiest issues yet, but to his credit, he’s actually delivered two of the strongest issues of his run.

X-MAN #60 - February 2000

Out of the Loop
Credits:  Terry Kavanagh (writer), Ben Herrera (penciler), Scott Koblish and Rod Ramos (inkers), Matt Hicks (colors), Comicraft’s Jason Levine (letters)

Summary:  X-Man finds himself in an alternate world, one in which he never existed.  He sees foes he’s defeated, such as Morbius and the New Brotherhood, killing innocent civilians and various superheroes.  After using his telekinetic powers to save Kitty Pryde, X-Man realizes that he must be dreaming.  He wakes, and realizes that Caliban has been working for Apocalypse all along.  As X-Man is chained to a machine, Apocalypse gloats about his master plan.

Continuity Notes:  This story is concluded in X-Men #97.

“Huh?” Moment:  X-Man remarks that Scott and Jean aren’t with the X-Men in this world…one panel after we clearly see Jean fighting with the team.

Review:  Wow, is this really Terry Kavanagh’s last issue?  Where has the time gone, am I right?  I could’ve easily read four more years of this insightful, understated piece of classic heroic fiction.  C’mon, Marvel…why ditch the guy just when things were starting to warm up?

I considered compiling a list of every Terry Kavanagh storyline that was never resolved, or never made much sense in the first place, and all of the brave new directions that went nowhere, but why bother?  This stuff is awful.  Kavanagh never found a legitimate course to follow while writing this book for years, and to add insult to injury, his final issue is a half-hearted It’s A Wonderful Life reflection on all the good X-Man’s done over the years.  (Specifically, the issues Kavanagh has written.  I guess if Terry Kavanagh won’t pay tribute to Terry Kavanagh, no one else will.)  Goodness, without X-Man, Morbius would’ve turned Spider-Man into a vampire, the deadly Coldsnap-9 would’ve killed thousands of innocent people, and the X-Men would’ve been murdered by the New Brotherhood.  

In other words, X-Man is absolutely delusional.  And an egomaniac, since this is his dream.  What other superhero would have an extended dream sequence dedicated to how horrible life would be without his immaculate presence?  There’s not even a Clarence the Angel to guide him through this journey – this is simply how X-Man views himself in his dreams.  

What a way to say goodbye, Terry Kavanagh.  Reminding us just how unlikable you’ve made this brat over the years.

CABLE #27 – January 1996

Rebels

Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Ian Churchill & Ben Herrera (pencilers), Scott Hanna & Al Milgrom (inkers), Comicraft (lettering), Mike Thomas (colors)

Summary

Cable and the Genoshan rebels fight back against the Magistrates. Realizing that they’re being overpowered, Pipeline teleports the other Magistrates away. Before Pipeline can go, Cable knocks him out. When he comes to, Cable uses his telepathic powers to force Pipeline over to the rebels’ side. Using information given to them by Essex, Philip Moreau and Jenny Ransome travel with Cable, Domino, and Pipeline to the Ridgeback Mountains. While exploring the mountains, they find the entrance to a man-made passage. They’re shocked to discover a technologically advanced Mutate processing station. Pipeline claims that something like this should’ve been monitored by the Magistrates, but this area was off-limits to them. Nearby, the Sugar Man watches, ready for a fight.

Miscellaneous Note

According to the Statement of Ownership, average sales for the year were 161,714 copies with the most recent issue selling 179,815. Looks like actually having a consistent creative team helped sales.

Review

Not a lot happens in this issue, since it mainly just resolves the previous issue’s cliffhanger and moves the characters to the next location. It’s the middle chapter of a storyline, so this type of thing isn’t that unusual. Parts of it certainly feel padded, though, as Sugar Man gets one page with giant panels boasting about how evil he is in the middle of the issue, and then gets two more pages to do the exact same thing at the end. The fight scene is also filled with a lot of giant panels and posing, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for any actual action. Churchill, to his credit, is still growing as an artist and is able to do the flashy ‘90s style without a lot of the sheer ugliness that usually accompanied it. Like I’ve said before, it hasn’t aged that well but I can understand why I liked it at the time.

Loeb does have Cable do something the other X-telepaths rarely do, which is take over someone’s mind. The fact that Cable is still willing to cross lines that other characters probably wouldn’t is a nice avenue to explore, but it’s treated almost like an afterthought here. In fact, as small as it is, it’s one of the very few things in the story that makes Cable stand out from any other hero. There’s also a very brief reference to Cable’s past as a soldier, which should tie in to a story about a civil war, but it doesn’t go anywhere either. Like a lot of the earlier issues of this series, it’s starting to feel as if Cable’s been plunked into a story that wouldn’t be any different if any other X-character was the hero.

X-MEN PRIME – July 1995

Racing the Night

Credits: Scott Lobdell & Fabian Nicieza (writers), Bryan Hitch, Jeff Matsuda, Gary Frank, Mike McKone, Terry Dodson, Ben Herrera, & Paul Pelletier (pencilers), Milgom/Russell/Smith/Farmer/McKenna/Palmer/Townsend/Collazo (inkers), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Steve Buccellato & Electric Crayon (colors)

Summary

Jean Grey tries to speak to Wolverine in the woods outside the mansion, but he refuses to go inside until Sabretooth is gone. Xavier attempts to counsel Bishop, who still has flashes of memories of the Age of Apocalypse. Later, while Cyclops and Beast are preparing food for the comatose Gambit, a disoriented Bishop briefly attacks them before coming to his senses. Meanwhile, reporter Trish Tilby goes on air and reveals the existence of the Legacy Virus to the public. She also reveals that the virus has spread to at least one human. While watching the broadcast, Xavier and Psylocke suddenly feel a rush of psychic energy, indicating X-Man’s arrival in this reality. Elsewhere, a young mutant looking for the X-Men named Dennis Hogan stops at a bar while on his way to Salem Center. When news of the Legacy Virus comes on the television screen, he runs away in a panic. The suspicious bar patrons follow him.

In Wyoming, X-Factor and Val Cooper chase down Mystique. She’s attacked by a shadowy figure, which helps the team apprehend her. Forge speculates that whoever attacked Mystique wasn’t trying to kill her, but make a statement instead. Suddenly, Havok’s powers go haywire and explode, destroying the nearby dam. In Genosha, Excalibur tries to get information from the first Mutate, but he abruptly explodes. The Sugar Man watches the events on a monitor and declares that no one will learn the secrets of Genosha. Inside X-Force’s new headquarters, a holographic image of Arcade appears. He chastises the team for taking his home and sets a timer to blow it up. Warpath risks his life to save Sunspot from the explosion, surprising Siryn, who still doesn’t trust him. Cyclops appears with a message for Cable.

In Florida, Iceman and Rogue are partying at a bar when news of the Legacy Virus appears on the television. Inside the Morlock Tunnels, a homeless man is murdered by Marrow. She performs the Morlock’s Ceremony of Light, and to her surprise the Dark Beast appears. She tells him that there are more of his children who are tired of hiding. In England, Emplate visits a young woman in a wheelchair named Gayle Edgerton. He tells her that they have a mutual friend, Chamber. Outside of Avalon, the Acolytes discover a giant chunk of ice with a body inside.

As the bar patrons chase down Dennis, he loses his concentration and lets his mutant reptilian form show. Disgusted by his appearance, and fearful that he’s spreading the Legacy Virus, they begin to beat him mercilessly. Xavier senses his pain, and has Storm fly him to the location as the X-Men follow. Xavier sends his mind out of his body to connect with Dennis, feeling every blow he receives. As Dennis dies, he realizes that he’s too late. Dennis’ attackers flee from the scene, and the X-Men arrive a few minutes later to find his body. A despondent Xavier tells the team that they have to fight for a better future.

Gimmicks

This issue has a wraparound foil acetate cover, and is 48 pages without any interior ads (there are in-house ads on the inside covers, though). The overlay cover resembles the gimmick used for the painted Marvels series, bringing the price up to a whopping $4.95. This format is almost identical to the Alpha and Omega specials, which cost a dollar less.

Continuity Notes

This story picks up two weeks after the events of the “Legion Quest” storyline. Gambit has been in a coma ever since kissing Rogue, which seems excessive since she used to kiss villains all the time in order to steal their powers, and they never ended up in comas.

The shadowy figure who attacks Mystique is supposed to be Onslaught, making his first of many meaningless cameos. I vaguely remember that the figure was retconned into being someone else (after Marvel figured out who Onslaught actually was), but it was supposed to be him at this point.

Future Cable supporting cast member Blaquesmith makes a brief cameo for the first time, witnessing X-Man’s arrival through a video screen. Marrow (in her original ugly balding look) makes her first full appearance, after making a cameo as a child in Cable #15. According to the narrative captions, over twenty years have passed for her since then. This is the first issue to hint at the idea that the Dark Beast created the Morlocks, which doesn’t seem to fit with their initial appearances. Later on in the issue, Douglock refers to a Mutate as a Morlock, which is a mistake (how dare Marvel mix up their subcategories of mutants?!?).

How exactly Bishop still has memories of the AoA doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Since the older Bishop stopped Legion from killing Xavier, the AoA never happened. That means that the Bishop who lived through the AoA should’ve disappeared with everything else. “Our” Bishop never actually experienced that timeline.

Review

This is a five-dollar comic book. That blows my mind to this day. Marvel charged five dollars for this thing. Considering the fact that Marvel was still only charging $1.50 for its regular line of titles less than a year before this comic was released, it’s even more astounding. I was still in my early teens, struggling financially to keep up with the expanding X-line when this issue came out. I refused to pay the full cover price for it, and rationalized my purchase by combining my order for this book with over a dozen titles in order to get an overall discount from East Coast Comics. I would occasionally do this when I knew there were too many books coming out for me to afford, even though I knew I ran the risk of ECC running out of stock (I missed out on that Alan Moore Spawn miniseries that way; a hole in my collection that honestly used to bother me). The only real story in this issue is the death of Dennis Hogan, as the rest of the issue consists of brief set-ups for upcoming storylines in the various titles. This reinforces the “family” feel amongst the titles, an illusion that became harder and harder to maintain as the line continued to bloat. Marvel could’ve used this as an opportunity to promote the entire line and bring in any curious new readers by releasing this issue as a low-price special, but why bother? The X-books were already on top of the food chain, and if the fans were willing to pay $5 to see the return of the “real” X-Men, why not take their money from them? It’s not hard to see how this type of thinking lead the already declining comics industry to eventually bust.

Most of the previews for the upcoming storylines are so brief they can’t generate any real interest. A two-page subplot scene in the middle of a normal issue is a nice way to build suspense for an upcoming storyline, but a myriad of them pasted together with conflicting art styles just feels like a mess. Ben Herrera’s art should not be bumping up against Gary Frank’s under any reasonable circumstance. Probably the most significant of the cutaway scenes is the X-Force section, which casually reintroduces Sunspot to the team and destroys their new headquarters. Not only is it rushed and suspense-less, but it undermines the work Nicieza was setting up in the previous issues of that series. The editorial staff is in such a hurry to get X-Force out of their headquarters, they just go for the quickest, most obvious thing they could do, even if it doesn’t make a lot of sense (surely the team checked to see if the psychopath Arcade left any explosives lying around before taking over his headquarters). The abrupt shift in direction is annoying, and it’s the type of thing that eventually drove me away from X-completism.

The strongest part of the issue is the X-Men section drawn by Bryan Hitch. It introduces a suitable amount of mystery about what happened to some of the characters since we last saw them without going overboard (unfortunately, the more we learn about the mysteries, the lamer they become). The story of Dennis Hogan grounds the book in a grim reality, as the heroes arrive too late to save the innocent mutant. He’s not murdered by supervillains or giant robots, or even a mob with pitchforks and torches. It’s a group of people his own age, using their own fists and a baseball bat to beat him until he can’t move. It was pretty disturbing to me when I first read it, and it’s made even more unsettling given real life events that have happened since this comic was published. Allowing Xavier to feel every broken bone Dennis receives heightens the impact, and Lobdell’s narration helps to convey the gruesomeness of the attack. Unfortunately, he goes overboard with Xavier’s response, which has him give a blindingly obvious speech about hatred and the fear of those who are different killing the boy. The scene is already dramatic enough; it needs subtlety more than a theatrical speech.

If I’m going to nitpick this story, I’ll also point out that the premise is a little shoddy. Why is this kid following rumors and searching out the X-Men in the first place? Isn’t it actually the X-Men’s job to search out and find mutants? Doesn’t Xavier have an elaborate computer system he uses to find mutants? The story brings up one of the flaws in the X-Men’s premise that’s usually glossed over. Shouldn’t Xavier be using Cerebro on a regular basis to find new mutants? Unless there’s something wrong with it, the X-Men should theoretically never be surprised when the latest mystery mutant comes on the scene. Even after the teenage cast of Generation X was introduced, the idea of the X-Men searching out new mutants continued to be ignored. Not only did the X-Men fail to rescue Dennis, they didn’t even fulfill their basic mission statement and search him out when his powers surfaced. It’s a flaw that the story could’ve easily covered with a few lines of dialogue, too. Xavier could’ve offered him a place in the school earlier, and now Dennis is traveling to Salem Center to take him up on the offer. (The idea that there are rumors that the X-Men live around Salem Center also bothered me when I first read this, but thinking about it now I can see it working. Considering the number of mutants that have passed through the school over the years, it does make sense that word would’ve spread outside of their immediate family and friends.) Despite my gripes, this section of the issue hits the right emotional notes and at least works as an X-Men story. The rest of the comic is choppy and inconsistent, and even adjusting for inflation, there’s still no way it’s worth five dollars.