BISHOP: XSE #3 - March 1998

Final Ploy

Credits: John Ostrander (writer), Steve Epting (penciler), Andrew Pepoy & Mark Prudeaux (inks), Comicraft (letters), Brad Vancata (colors)

Summary: Bishop convinces Malcolm to disobey orders and help him stop the Rook. At Rook’s HQ, the Fanatix plan to impersonate the XSE and assassinate the anti-mutant crusader, Trask. Malcolm springs Shard, as the Fanatix bring a captive Randall to a gathering of disaffected mutants. Soon, the reunited XSE rescue Randall and chase Rook back to his headquarters. There, they discover his true identity. Rook is Jimmy Knox, the adolescent son of philanthropist Jerome Knox. Using his possession powers, which also work on LMDs, he hoped to spark a human/mutant war. Knox is arrested and Bishop is cleared.

Continuity Notes: The Rook kills Fanatix members Pulsar and Shadowbox during the story. Pulsar is killed for siding with Randall and refusing to murder him, but Shadowbox is killed for no obvious reason.

“Huh?” Moment: Bishop punches Malcolm in the face to make his escape look convincing. Later, Malcolm tells Shard to look at his chin as proof. His chin is actually covered with that metal face gear he wears, so it’s fine. His cheek, on the other hand, is swollen.

Review: First, an apology. So far, I’ve neglected to mention that every male protagonist in this series has a beautifully coiffed mullet. Overlooking a mullet reference is clearly a violation of Blogger’s Terms of Service, so I regret waiting until the final issue to use such references as “Tennessee Top Hat,” “Neck Warmer,” “Canadian Passport,” “Camaro Cut,” and “Mississippi Mudflap.” (I can’t speak for Wordpress, but I imagine they have a similar statute.) If you’ll accept my apology, we can move on.

Bishop: XSE concludes with all of the pieces put back into place, which isn’t surprising since it’s a prequel story. The finale introduces two new characters, a generic member of the Trask family and the junior Knox, that end up playing major roles in the conclusion. Actually, the unnamed Trask doesn’t even make a real appearance, but he’s mentioned on the final page to illustrate the irony of the XSE’s mission enabling him to continue preaching mutant hatred. I don’t mind the sudden reveal of evil little Jimmy Knox, since it’s obvious Ostrander was setting up Annabella Knox as a red herring in the previous issues. It is a bit of cheat that the Rook’s identity belongs to a character we’re only seeing now, but this is only a three-issue miniseries, and not a “Who Is the Hobgoblin?” prolonged mystery. Revealing that Rook’s power is possession, and that the shapeshifting only belonged to the LMDs he controlled, is rather clever. Like the previous Bishop and XSE minis, some of the dialogue is clunky and there’s of course a sense that this was a slot on the schedule waiting for a story, but overall, this is the strongest of the Bishop solo minis.

BISHOP: XSE #2 - February 1998

Rook vs. Bishop

Credits: John Ostrander (writer), Steve Epting & Nick Napalitano (pencilers), Mark Prudeaux, Robert Jones, Andrew Pepoy, & Steve Moncuse (inkers), Comicraft (letters), Brad Vancata (colors)

Summary: Posing as Bishop, Rook leads the Fanatix in a strike against the new Statue of Liberty. The real Bishop is notified of Rook’s machinations by Anthony Shaw, while the XSE targets their apparently renegade teammate. Bishop sneaks into their headquarters and convinces Shard to send him information on Annabella Knox. From Shard, Bishop learns that Knox is going to the courthouse to finalize her inheritance. Bishop’s partner Malcolm arrests Shard for insubordination, then confronts Bishop outside of the courthouse.

Continuity Notes: The original Statue of Liberty was destroyed during the Summers Rebellion, when humans and mutants united against the Sentinels. “Morlocks” is revealed as the name of a bar populated by deformed mutants in this future. According to Shard’s research, Rook’s shapechanging abilities come from organic Life Model Decoy technology from the final days of SHIELD.

Review: Remember when people actually wanted to see more of Malcolm and Randall? I think those days were over by 1998, but Ostrander is still trying to make use of Bishop’s established supporting cast. Ostrander dutifully goes through with the assignment, staying true to what we know about Bishop’s timeline, rather than going off on a tangent and just writing his own futuristic, sci-fi setting and cramming Bishop into it. The story covers some well-worn territory, but Ostrander to his credit does establish that none of Bishop’s friends believe he’s guilty, they just have an obligation to enforce the law. Malcolm doesn’t have any major internal conflicts about what’s he doing, he just doesn’t like doing it, which seems to fit the way XSE officers have been portrayed in the past. Seeing Bishop on the run also works as an inversion of his usual role. His solo stories usually involve him tracking down a fugitive he’s either going to arrest or kill, so there’s a bit of twist this time. Steve Epting drops out of the art chores halfway through the issue, leaving Nick Napalitano to finish the rest. Napalitano seems to be mimicking the worst elements of Andy Kubert’s early X-work, and I’m sure having four inkers rush to finish the pages doesn’t do him any favors, either.

BISHOP: XSE #1 - January 1998

Rook Takes Pawn

Credits: John Ostrander (writer), Steve Epting (penciler), Mark Prudeaux (inker), Comicraft (letters), Brad Vancata (colors)

Summary: The XSE confront Fantix, a mutant terrorist group that’s targeted Jerome Knox, a businessman who wishes to unite humans and mutants. After Fantix is defeated, XSE member Randall suddenly kills Knox without explanation. He’s placed in prison, but is soon broken out by Fantix’s Shadowbox and Pulsar. At Fantix’s hideout, Randall begins to regain his true personality. He encounters the leader of Fantix, a shapechanger named the Rook.

Continuity Notes: A brief scene establishes the future Hellfire Club is led by a man named Anthony Shaw. As “Annabella Knox” (which might actually be his/her true identity), Rook is auditioning to join.

Review: There was a third Bishop miniseries? And Steve Epting drew it? Huh, who knew. Ostrander’s first Bishop mini had nice art and a thin story, while the second had more ideas but wretched artwork, so it’s not as if these limited series have a great track record behind them. Bringing in Steve Epting (who the ‘90s X-office didn’t seem to know what to do with, for some reason) gives me some confidence that the quality will be improving. There is more to the plot than “Bishop chases bad guy,” so the story’s already ahead of the first miniseries. I’m not sure if we need another story set in his future, especially when the character had been left on a cliffhanger in the current continuity at this point, but Ostrander is making an admirable attempt at world-building. The relationship between humans and mutants in Bishop’s time, following their united opposition against the Sentinels, hasn’t been explored in any of the flashback stories yet, so there’s room for Ostrander to explore. I wish Marvel itself showed some interest in the comic, though. Aside from its nonexistent promotion, the first issue also suffers from some flagrant typos any proofreader should’ve caught (the opening scene’s society dinner is apparently for a “good causel.”)

WOLVERINE ‘97 - November 1997

Heart of the Beast

Credits: John Ostrander & Joe Edkin (writers), Leonardo Manco (art), Comicraft (letters), Shannon Blanchard (colors)

Summary: In his past as a secret agent, Wolverine helped Russian scientist Dimitri Suhkarov and his daughter Viktoria escape the USSR. Although Wolverine escaped with Viktoria, Russian agent Volk intercepted the rescue mission and killed Dimitri. Today, Viktoria works for the Canadian Secret Service. She informs Wolverine that Volk has been sent to kill him, and that KGB experiments have given him the ability to morph into a wolf-creature. Soon, Volk has kidnapped Viktoria and goaded Wolverine into following him to Russia. During their fight, Volk is finally pushed into a true wolf form. Content as an animal, he abandons the fight and joins a wolf pack. Wolverine realizes that this is what Volk wanted all along, but Viktoria is still adamant about finding Volk and killing him.

Continuity Notes: Viktoria is listed as a member of Xavier’s Mutant Underground, although that doesn’t play a role in the story. Government agent Bowser, a character from this wondrous era of X-Factor, hires Volk to kill Wolverine in retaliation for his role in ending Operation: Zero Tolerance. However, Bowser’s Hound program and OZT were two separate entities (at least, that’s the impression I get when trying to decipher X-Factor)

Review: So, what do you do when you’re writing a one-off Wolverine story? Either you tell a story about his past as a secret agent, or you manipulate circumstances so that Wolverine is forced to fight his animal rage. If you’re doing a double-sized book, it’s possible to work them both in. There’s nothing new here, but the execution is competent, and Leonardo Manco, who’s perfectly suited for Wolverine, is drawing it. Volk’s clearly designed to be an evil doppelganger of Wolverine, and while I think he serves his role in the story, the creators have made the mistake of giving him blonde hair and facial features virtually identical to Sabretooth. On paper, Volk might be a wolf-man, but in the published comic, he just looks like Sabretooth in civilian clothes.

The twist at the end of the story reveals that Volk never really wanted to fight Wolverine; he just wanted an opponent good enough to push him over the edge so that he can finally become a wolf. Wolverine’s willing to let him go (even though he killed Dimitri Suhkarov, and a friend of Wolverine’s during another encounter) because he feels there’s no need to punish an animal. Viktoria refuses to forgive, though, and goes into the woods to (somehow) track down a wolf that used to be human. Viktoria’s obviously supposed to represent the darker side of human nature, as Wolverine muses that perhaps he’s misread his berserker rages all of these years. He says that an animal only kills for survival, while humans act out of anger and revenge. Yes, it’s his human nature he’s been fighting all along. I don’t necessarily buy the reasoning (animals only kill for survival, literally, every time?), but the closing monologue is well written, and the twist makes the story feel less generic.

XSE #1 - #4, November 1996 - February 1997

Time Lost

Credits: John Ostrander (writer), Chris Gardner (penciler), Terry Austin & Tom Palmer (inkers), Derek Bellman & Graphic Color Works (colors), Comicraft (letters)

The first Bishop miniseries was a deluxe format series on slick paper with high production values and Carlos Pacheco art. This is not. Aside from the awkward combination of computer colors and low-grade newsprint that marred many of Marvel’s titles during this era, the art comes from a not-ready-for-primetime Chris Gardner. At least Terry Austin and Tom Palmer are brought in to ink, and while some pages are almost reminiscent of Rick Leonardi (thanks to Austin’s inks), they’re not enough to save the comic. John Ostrander returns as writer, setting the story up as a flashback conversation between Bishop and Shard. Bishop wants Shard to join the X-Men, which somehow leads to a retelling of their life story. There’s actually a lot of Bishop continuity established here, and I have no idea if Marvel’s made any effort to keep it consistent over the years (based on Paul O’Brien’s review of the recent Bishop mini, I’m not sure if Marvel’s even consistent with his actual first appearances in Uncanny X-Men). In this issue…

- More about the Summers Rebellion, which briefly united humans and mutants against the Sentinels, is revealed (the XSE is later formed to police mutants in exchange for humans shutting down the mutant camps similar to the ones in “Days of Future Past”);

- We see Bishop’s grandmother, who may or not be Storm;

- The Exhumes, an anti-human mutant group, is introduced;

- We learn that Bishop met Fitzroy as a boy after he was recruited into the XSE;

- Several minor characters like Hecat’e (an XSE drill sergeant Shard admires) are introduced;

- And we learn the story behind the M on Bishop’s face (Bishop and Shard were two of the last mutants given the M in the mutant camps, the other members of the XSE earn them when they graduate).

Another one of the vague hints dropped by Lobdell in Uncanny X-Men is addressed, as Ostrander introduces the Emplates, a street gang with powers similar to Generation X villain Emplate. The story ends with the Emplates targeting young Bishop and Shard on an early XSE training session. That’s a lot for a first issue, and with the exception of the hint that Storm is Bishop’s grandmother (which is just wrong for numerous reasons), I can’t say that any of these are bad ideas. Unfortunately, it feels more like a checklist of continuity points than an actual story. The only real characterization comes from Shard, who resents living in Bishop’s shadow. That’s not particularly engaging, and it’s something the X-titles have already thoroughly explored with Cyclops and Havok.

Future Intense

Credits: John Ostrander (writer), Deodato Studios & Mozart Cuto (art), Derek Bellman & Graphic Color Works (colors), Comicraft (letters)

The final few pages of the previous issue had a sudden style shift, as the art suddenly turned into a generic ‘90s Jim Lee knock-off. I suspect Deodato Studios also did uncredited work on that issue, since they were the kings of that look circa 1996. This issue actually opens with a softer, Pacheco-style, but we get to the generic ‘90s look soon enough. The story picks up from the previous issue, revealing that young Bishop became the youngest cadet to become an XSE officer due to his performance in the Emplate attack. Bishop and Shard continue their conversation from the first issue, leading to a flashback featuring Malcolm and Randall, Bishop’s created-to-die partners from his early appearances. We learn that Randall was a lighthearted extrovert from a human/mutant commune, while Malcolm was a by-the-book rich kid desperate to prove himself. Bishop recounts the day the Exhumes massacred Randall’s commune, which cemented his bond with Malcolm. Like the art, this is all pretty generic, and Ostrander isn’t doing an awful lot to humanize the characters.

Future Betrayed

Credits: John Ostrander (writer), Deodato Studios & Mozart Cuto (art), Shannon Blanchard & Malibu (colors), Comicraft (letters)

And now we have a series of flashbacks that leads up to Shard’s death. Bishop previously claimed that he killed Shard, but it turns out he was really just a big drama queen. It’s revealed that Bishop and Shard’s relationship was often strained, mainly due to Shard’s jealousy. As a teenager, she even dates Trevor Fitzroy just to make Bishop jealous. Years later, after Fitzroy is apprehended, he gives Bishop info on an Exhume hideout. Bishop passes the report on to Shard, hoping that a large bust will give her another promotion and help her forgive him after a recent fight. Shard asks Bishop to stay behind, eager to prove herself. Instead of finding the Exhume terrorists, she’s blindsided by a group of Emplates. Fitzroy, by the way, has his backstory fleshed out. He’s the illegitimate son of Anthony Shaw, Black King of the Hellfire Club. Fitzroy kills his half-brother William but his father’s influence keeps him out of jail. He then forms a group of wealthy mutants called Hellions and causes chaos. So, over five years after Fitzroy’s introduced, and four years after he’s used on a regular basis, someone finally gets around to resolving a few of the vague comments he made in his first few appearances.

Conflagration

Credits: John Ostrander (writer), Deodato Studios & Mozart Cuto (art), Shannon Blanchard & GCW (colors), Comicraft (letters)

With Shard now transformed into an Emplate, Bishop must decide whether to follow XSE protocol and kill her. He of course can’t go through with it, and instead brings her unconscious body to the headquarters of Stark/Fujikawa. Apparently, the Witness (the mysterious old man who may or may not be Gambit) heads the corporation, and grants him permission to record Shard’s brainwaves and turn her into a hologram. Witness’ condition is that Bishop work for him for a year, which he agrees to. What exactly Bishop does during that year isn’t explained (Bishop “isn’t ready” to talk about it yet), but it conveniently brings us to the end of the miniseries. After his year with the Witness, Bishop rejoins the XSE and goes on the mission that sends him back to this timeline. Since the first Bishop mini was essentially a four-issue long fight scene, I am glad that Ostrander at least used this opportunity to fill in the gaps in Bishop’s history. Unfortunately, it came several years too late. Aside from being released in the middle of a glut of superfluous X-miniseries, it was also published years after most readers seemed to care about Bishop (I wonder how much of his early popularity was owed to fans who were just excited to have the first appearance of an X-Man). By the time you get to late 1996/early 1997, Scott Lobdell is already making references to how out of place Bishop is with the rest of the team in Uncanny X-Men, and setting up the storyline that writes him out of the series for several years. I can’t say this is a terrible book (well, some of the art is extremely weak), but I’m not entirely sure why it was published in the first place. I have a feeling I’ll be repeating that several times as I go through all of these limited series.

X-MEN VS. THE BROOD #2 - October 1996

Day of Wrath- Part Two

Credits: John Ostrander (writer), Bryan Hitch & Sal Velluto (pencilers), Paul Neary, Andy Lanning, & Harry Candelario (inkers), Joe Rosas & Malibu (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letterer)

Summary: Hannah Connover, sensing that more Brood assassins are coming, flees from the X-Men. Her followers find Hannah in the desert, and against her wishes, transform into Brood and attack the newly arrived Brood assassins. Meanwhile, more Brood assassins kidnap Hannah’s husband, William. When Hannah senses he’s in danger, she transforms into her Brood form and confronts the assassins. Hannah is injured in the fight and reverts to her human form. The X-Men arrive, distracting the Brood while Iceman places Hannah in a cryogenic freeze. The Brood lose mental contact with her and commit suicide, thinking their task completed. The X-Men say goodbye to William, who maintains hope that Hannah can be cured one day.

Review: The first issue seemed to be a nice fit for the forty-eight page format, but this one doesn’t work as well. There’s a lot of running around, as the X-Men are constantly trying to find Hannah, and the issue opens with a gratuitous “we’re fighting but we don’t really want to hurt you” fight between the X-Men and Hannah’s Brood followers. The art also isn’t as strong as the first chapter, as two additional inkers and a fill-in artist are brought in to finish the book. Some of the pages look like Bryan Hitch-Lite, which might be a case of Sal Velluto trying to mimic Hitch’s style, or perhaps the inking job is just rushed in a few places. The basic story still works, in part because Ostrander handles the character drama well. And while it’s nice that he’s avoiding the stereotypical portrayal of religious characters as hypocrites or psychopaths, I don’t think we needed two overblown narrative sequences describing the X-Men as angels. I like the internal conflict within the team, as Wolverine advocates killing Hannah while the X-Men want to find that good ol’ fashioned “better way.” Sure, the ending is a bit of a copout (I wonder if Bastion found Hannah’s body when he later raided the mansion), but I prefer it to a pessimistic conclusion like Hannah killing herself, or Wolverine finally killing her, which is probably how this story would end today.

X-MEN VS. THE BROOD #1 - September 1996

Day of Wrath- Part One

Credits: John Ostrander (writer), Bryan Hitch (penciler), Paul Neary (inker), Joe Rosas & Malibu (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letterer)

Summary: While vacationing with Cyclops at the Grand Canyon, Phoenix psychically overhears a message sent from the Brood Empress to Hannah Connover, a minister’s wife in a nearby town. The duo follows the psychic trail, leading Phoenix to realize that Hannah is actually a Brood Queen. After turning to her faith in God, Hannah fought against the Brood infection and has tried to maintain her humanity. The Brood Empress sends an army of Brood assassins to kill the defiant Hannah. Their attack leads the humans Hannah infected to become Brood and defend their queen. The fight is soon interrupted by the newly arrived X-Men. After defeating the assassins, Wolverine advocates killing Hannah before she fully becomes a Brood. Realizing that she’s created an army of Brood-humans, Hannah asks the X-Men to kill her.

Continuity Notes: This mini is a direct sequel to a Claremont/Silvestri storyline that began in Uncanny X-Men #232. Hannah Connover is the wife of William Connover, head of the Glory Day Ministry and the “first major religious figure to align himself with mutant rights.” A Brood-infected human named Josey Thomas cured Hannah’s arthritis and gave her “healing” powers that actually infected people with the Brood. Josey Thomas is jealous that Hannah is a Brood Queen, and points the Brood assassins towards her. The Brood kill Josey because she’s been tainted by contact with the rebellious queen.

Where exactly this fits in continuity is a bit unclear. An editorial note says that it takes place before the “Onslaught” crossover, which was recently completed when the mini was actually published. I place it right after Bishop got his haircut in the X-Babies storyline (X-Men #46-#47). It can’t take place much later than this, as Wolverine isn’t in his (sigh) feral dog-state.

Bishop wonders if Hannah might be the first of a new race of Brood. He claims that there are several factions of the Brood in the future, including benign ones.

Beast says this is his first encounter with the Brood, which ignores his role in the X-Men/Ghost Rider crossover, which had the Brood infecting Gambit’s family.

Review: I’m not sure what the genesis of the limited series is, outside of the fact that Marvel was pushing out X-related minis and one-shots like crazy during this era. The format is a little strange, as it’s two issues with forty-eight pages each and no ads. It seems like something that should’ve been in a bookshelf format, even though it isn’t. Maybe the collapse of the comics market made Marvel skittish about the more expensive format.

Regardless of its origins, this is a self-contained story that isn’t earth-shattering, but does use the characters well and picks up on a long-forgotten plotline from the later Claremont years. In some ways, it’s very reminiscent of an ‘80s Marvel comic, as all of the cast is introduced in tidy narrative captions, characters have long inner-monologues explaining their deep conflicts, and the threat of nasty aliens coming to Earth is treated as serious drama. Hitch’s art, along with Neary’s inks, is also reminiscent of something Marvel might’ve published ten years prior to the mini’s release. Thankfully, a feeble Image or manga clone wasn’t used, and this is Hitch before the photo-referencing days. Some of the dialogue is pretty stilted, and perhaps added later by editorial (Cannonball: “Shoot! Wasn’t all that long ago Ah didn’t know how t’land mahself, and here I am pilotin’ a big ol’ jet. Times are strange!”), but Ostrander handles most of the cast well enough. He also makes Hannah Connover and her husband sympathetic characters, and paces the story so that all of the necessary exposition is covered while the plot keeps rolling. I think Ostrander’s work for the X-office only consists of this and a few issues of X-Man, but it seems like his style would’ve worked out well on one of the main titles.

ONSLAUGHT Crossovers Part Five – September 1996

Punisher #11 (Ostrander/Lyle/Jones/Starkings/Comicraft/Kalisz/American Color) – Another tie-in that has nothing to do with Onslaught. SHIELD investigates the arrival of Sentinels in Manhattan, which leads to their helicarrier getting shot out of the sky. The Punisher witnesses the event and reluctantly dives into the river to rescue the survivors. He aids G. W. Bridge against a street gang that’s jumped on board to loot the helicarrier, and then agrees to take down a mutant terrorist group while SHIELD deals with the situation in Manhattan. This is a straightforward action story, and it’s executed rather well. The actual effect of Onslaught’s electromagnetic pulse attack hasn’t been portrayed very consistently throughout the tie-ins, or internally within this issue (SHIELD agents are forced to use hang gliders, yet the helicarrier can remain in the air, and the gangleader’s jetski still works), but that’s a relatively minor nitpick. I’m not sure what exactly Marvel was doing with the Punisher during this period, but I seem to recall this series opened with him working (presumably undercover) as a mob boss. With a ponytail. It never seemed that promising to me, but Ostrander does show a strong handle on the character with this issue (and his hair is back to normal). The Punisher’s narration is often humorous and the action moves at a steady pace. I wasn’t expecting much, but it’s an inoffensive action story.

Spider-Man #72 (Mackie/Romita, Jr./Williamson/Starkings/Comicraft/Tinsley/Malibu) – Well, it’s an entire issue of Romita, Jr. drawing Spider-Man fighting Sentinels, so it can’t be all bad. At this point in Spider-Man’s continuity, Peter Parker believed that he was a clone and that Ben Reilly was the true Spider-Man. Peter scientifically removed his spider-powers, in the hopes that he could retire and have a normal life with his pregnant wife. Behind the scenes, Marvel decided that the story had gone too far and that Ben Reilly couldn’t remain as Spider-Man. So, shortly after Peter’s powers were gone, they began to sporadically reappear (I’m basing this on my memories of the Life of Reilly serial). Now that his powers are gradually coming back, Peter's a target for the Sentinels, while Ben Reilly tries to protect his cloned “brother”. The two spend the entire issue fighting Sentinels with each other, contributing essentially nothing to the Onslaught story, or any of the storylines in the Spider-titles. Mackie’s script has its share of clunky dialogue and corny jokes, but the story manages to keep moving and rarely feels repetitive, even though the plot’s razor-thin.

X-MAN #15-#18, May 1996-August 1996

#15 (Ostrander/Kavanagh/Skroce/LaRosa/Hunter/Thomas/Graphic Colorworks/Comicraft) – The letters page in this issue prints three separate letters commenting on how irrational X-Man is, with one writer nailing the formulaic nature of the series as “Nate meets a character, Nate blows up at character, Nate leaves”. Perhaps someone realized that this wasn’t working, as it seems like this issue is more of an effort to make Nate a sympathetic character. The majority of the issue is spent on building up his relationship with Threnody, who helps him realize how foolish he’s been behaving. Threnody is given some character development, as she (reasonably) contemplates leaving Nate, but eventually decides that she needs him too much. Meanwhile, Onslaught recruits Holocaust and sends him after X-Man. Skroce produces some impressive images as Nate and Threnody spend time in each other’s minds, and I like his interpretation of Holocaust. There’s nothing that remarkable about this issue, but it is at least a change from the series’ already tired formula.

#16 (Kavanagh/Semeiks/LaRosa/Thomas/Graphic Colorworks/Comicraft) – X-Man and Holocaust fight for most of the issue, trading some groan-worthy dialogue with one another (“I will never allow you or your demon-sire to purge life on this planet…in more rivers of human blood!”). The dull fight scene alternates with scenes of Threnody dealing with the human casualties of Holocaust’s rampage. She begins to wonder if she’s some sort of vampire, as her mutant power gives her a rush when she’s around dying bodies. Meanwhile, Madelyne Pryor discovers a hidden room in Selene’s penthouse filled with dead bodies. This somehow leads Madelyne to believe that joining Selene as a partner is a good idea. The X-Man/Holocaust fight ends when Holocaust takes Threnody captive. Threnody, fearing what she’s become, tells X-Man to just let her die. He of course doesn’t, and agrees to join Holocaust and Onslaught to save her life. This is a generally weak issue, although the new development in Threnody’s power is potentially interesting.

#17 (Kavanagh/Skroce/LaRosa/Hunter/Thomas/Malibu/Comicraft) – X-Man, shockingly enough, quickly turns on Holocaust and telepathically unlocks Threnody’s power, which temporarily knocks him away. He comes back, and engages in another issue-long fight scene with X-Man. X-Man finally chases him away after cracking his armor. He then decides that one of the superteams not associated with Xavier could help him with his powers, and settles on the Avengers. Conveniently, he meets up with the team in Avengers #400, just in time for the Onslaught crossover. Meanwhile, Selene uses Madelyne Pryor to attract Trevor Fitzroy in London. She then kidnaps him as payback for torturing her in Uncanny X-Men #301. The main story here isn’t much different than the previous issue, except Steve Skroce returns to liven up the action scenes. And if there’s a point to the ongoing Madelyne/Selene subplot, I have no idea what it is.

#18 (Kavanagh/Skroce/LaRosa/Hunter/Thomas/Malibu/Comicraft) – Mr. Sinister learns that Apocalypse is back, which apparently inspires him to directly go after X-Man (I know that Sinister has always believed that the offspring of Cyclops and Phoenix has the power to defeat Apocalypse, but the story isn’t very clear on this point). In another ambiguous scene, he sends the Marauders after Threnody, who was left behind by X-Man (I assume this happened in Avengers #400, but it’s another plot point that’s left vague). She manages to defeat them, but Sinister greets her personally and asks for information on X-Man (if she willingly or unwillingly gives him the information is left -- you guessed it -- vague). Meanwhile, X-Man is being safeguarded from Onslaught by X-Force at Xavier’s mansion. They detect the presence of someone sneaking around the mansion and raid Cable’s armory for supplies. Mr. Sinister shows himself and attacks, which for some reason inspires X-Man to remember that Sinister’s “Age of Apocalypse” counterpart created him (apparently Kavanagh forgot that Sinister already told Nate that he created him in X-Man #4). Sinister then takes control of X-Man’s body and knocks him unconscious. This is really a mess of an issue that’s needlessly confusing and often feels barely coherent. At least one storyline is advanced, as this world’s Sinister finally meets X-Man, but the circumstances leading up to the climax are extremely weak.

X-MAN #14 – April 1996

Fallen From Grace
Credits: John Ostrander (plot), Terry Kavanagh (scripter), Steve Skroce (penciler), Bud LaRosa (inker), Mike Thomas & Graphic Color Works (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary: Cable awakens to see Exodus fighting X-Man. After X-Man is able to break free of Exodus’ energy-draining powers, Threnody encourages him to run. Blaquesmith finds Cable and tells him to ignore Exodus and focus on the “atrocity”, X-Man. Cable refuses. Exodus finds X-Man and Threnody and continues the fight. Cable takes one of the guns Threnody found in the snow and opens fire on Exodus. X-Man overhears Blaquesmith refer to Exodus as an agent of Apocalypse, and reads Exodus’ mind to confirm. Angered, X-Man overfeeds Exodus his power, knocking him unconscious. He then opens the earth and throws Exodus into a canyon, which he closes on top of him. X-Man then turns to Blaquesmith, Cable, and Threnody and accuses them of distrusting him. Meanwhile in Paris, Madelyne Pryor is fixing dinner when she accidentally cuts herself. She wonders why she didn’t feel pain, or why her hand didn’t start to bleed until she actually noticed the cut.

Continuity Notes: Blaquesmith claims that Exodus wears “the marks” of Apocalypse on his brow. This is the first time Exodus has been connected to Apocalypse. I think we’ve entered a period in the books where several characters end up with retconned connections to Apocalypse, which turned out to be a way to build up Apocalypse as a villain without actually using him that often.

Creative Differences: A very obviously re-lettered balloon given to Threnody emphasizes that the gun they’ve found came from Cable’s safehouse.

Production Note: Another nineteen-page comic.

Review: This is at least more enjoyable than the first chapter of the crossover, if only because X-Man actually has a reason to be fighting his opponent in this issue. It’s an all-fight issue, which is well suited for Skroce’s energetic, exaggerated style. Pitting Exodus against X-Man works, if only because they’re both defined by having indescribable psionic powers, so at least they’re a match for one another. Blaquesmith’s prodding of Cable to just kill X-Man adds a somewhat interesting conflict to the story. We all know Cable won’t go through with it, but Blaquesmith is a new and vague enough character to get away with that motivation. The end of the fight, which has X-Man creating a canyon and then trapping Exodus in-between it is at least a creative use of his powers. It’s certainly a welcome break from his powers just erupting and creating large explosions, which seems to happen in almost all of his other appearances. The ending, unfortunately, is just more of X-Man acting irrationally and lashing out at people who don’t mean him harm (well, Blaquesmith does). Actually, Cable trying to stop his mentor Blaquesmith from killing X-Man has potential as a story, but I can’t remember if that’s the direction the last chapter goes in.

X-MAN #10 - #13, December 1995- March 1996

Continuing the mini-reviews of X-Man, the spinoff I didn’t mind missing out on, even as a completist teenager.

#10 (Ostrander/Skroce/Duursema/Jones/LaRosa/Atkin/Hunter/Thomas/Webb/Malibu/Comicraft) – Good lord, look at those credits. This is Xavier’s first meeting with X-Man, a confrontation the series has been building up to for a few issues. It mainly consists of Xavier seeking out X-Man in his astral form, X-Man irrationally attacking him, and Xavier playing possum so that he can escape. I’m not sure what Marvel was thinking with this; establishing that a new, teenage character is a more powerful telepath than Professor Xavier. Isn’t Xavier a more valuable character if it’s firmly established that no one can top his mental expertise? Isn’t Xavier a more important commodity to Marvel than X-Man? Building up a new character by giving him such over the top powers feels cheap. The art in this issue is also a mess, as Skroce turns in a rush job and two other pencilers and multiple inkers have to come in and finish it off.

#11 (Ostrander/Skroce/LaRosa/Thomas/Brosseau) – X-Man, conveniently enough, runs into Rogue at the beach. Of course, he behaves irrationally and his powers explode, since there’s apparently some edict to have this happen in every issue. Rogue calms him down and the two become friendly. The X-Cutioner, blaming Rogue for the death of her first kiss Cody, appears and attacks her. Rogue and X-Man team up against him, and he teleports away soon enough. Skroce does energetic work on the fight scene, and the fight thankfully consists of more than just splash pages of X-Man’s powers exploding (although that happens too). The issue ends with Rogue suggesting X-Man seek out Moira MacTaggert, since he seems to distrust Xavier so much. This isn’t as awkward as the previous issues, but it does increase the sense of aimlessness the series has. It now seems as if the new direction is to have X-Man meet a different X-character from another book in each issue. This issue is filled with re-lettered word balloons, which makes me curious about what might’ve been happening behind the scenes.

#12 (Ostrander/Skroce/LaRosa/Thomas/Comicraft) – This issue opens with a gratuitous fight scene between X-Man and Excalibur. The idea that the team would automatically attack a stranger approaching the island is already dodgy, but having super-powerful characters like Colossus just punching the crap out of someone with no provocation is ridiculous. For all Colossus knows, he could’ve easily just killed X-Man. The fight thankfully gets brushed aside after the first few pages (because Moira just “forgot” to tell Excalibur that X-Man was coming). The next few pages aren’t bad, as Ostrander establishes that Moira is afraid of X-Man turning out like her son, the power-mad Proteus. That’s a smart use of past continuity, and Ostrander is able to get some decent emotions out of it. Wolfsbane develops a crush on X-Man and they spend a few pages together exploring the sea. This is probably the first creative use of X-Man’s powers we’ve seen so far, as X-Man uses telekinetics to part the water around a sunken ship like the Red Sea. The rest of the issue just goes back to X-Man acting irrational and having his powers explode, unfortunately. After meeting Excalibur’s prisoner Spoor, X-Man is slightly suspicious of Moira. When he reaches into her mind to verify Spoor’s claims, he sees that she’s been communicating with Professor Xavier (who he illogically distrusts because he still thinks that Magneto is the X-Men’s leader and Xavier’s a fraud). He also learns that his powers will cause his body to burn out before he turns twenty-one. Because he’s X-Man, this leads him to get angry and cause a giant explosion. This leads to a crossover with Excalibur, which I’m sure I’ll get to in a few days.

#13 (Ostrander/Ross/Hunter/Thomas/Comicraft) – Threnody, on the run from the Marauders after leaving Mr. Sinister, calls out to X-Man. He finds her in the sewers underneath Paris. The result is a pretty lengthy fight sequence, but this one at least has X-Man using his powers in creative ways. Using his telepathic powers to confuse the Marauders, and his telekinetic powers to sabotage their weapons, he ends up killing all of them but one. (The story doesn’t even treat this as a morally dubious action, perhaps because the narration goes out of its way to remind us that these are clones. I guess clones aren’t a part of Marvel’s culture of life). The remaining Marauder is given a psychic implant, which will force him to hide X-Man’s identity and Threnody’s location from Sinister. Just as a straightforward action story, this is better than the previous issues. Connecting X-Man to Threnody isn’t a bad idea, since it links X-Man back to his origin as a Sinister creation, and it gives Threnody something to do. The art is a major drawback, as it features a young Luke Ross trying to integrate Madureria’s manga style with the early Image look. It ain’t pretty. Like most of the issues preceding it, this issue is filled with obviously re-lettered word balloons. These are the hand-lettered corrections that are very obvious when compared to Comicraft’s computer font. Either Comicraft was making a ton of mistakes, or someone at Marvel felt an overwhelming desire to perform last-minute rewrites on every issue of this series.

BISHOP #1-#4, December 1994 – March 1995

Okay, simply because I was asked to, I’ll do capsule reviews of the Bishop miniseries from this era. Even though I was a hardcore completist, I didn’t purchase this mini when it was released because the $3 cover price was too high, and I was already having a hard time justifying buying all of the titles after most of the prices had increased fifty cents. Plus, there was also an over-priced Rogue miniseries being released around the same time, so I made the decision to save money for that one. This was the first time I was simply unable to afford every X-book being released in one month, which shows that Marvel was probably already losing touch with its younger readers.

#1 (Ostrander/Pacheco/Smith/Comicraft/Rosas) – This isn’t that bad of a start. Bishop hasn’t been given much of a personality or an internal conflict at this point, outside of his occasional struggle to adapt to the X-Men’s stricter code of ethics (i.e., they don’t want him to kill people). Ostrander revives the idea that Bishop might not be able to fit in by having Xavier question if Bishop is more X-Man or XSE. The fact that Forge and Jubilee are still hanging around the mansion makes me wonder when exactly Ostrander wrote this, or if he was only given Bishop’s first few appearances as reference. Bantam, the forgotten sidekick of Fitzroy, is brought back as a way to introduce another fugitive from Bishop’s timeline. Mountjoy, who can take over people’s bodies, secretly possessed

Bantam and traveled back to this time months ago. Bantam asks Bishop for help now that Mountjoy is trying to kill him, because he’s the only one who knows where Mountjoy is. Pacheco draws a pretty energetic fight scene between Bishop, Storm, and Mountjoy, which ends with Mountjoy poisoning Bishop. This is one of the few times a villain has actually tried to get around Bishop’s energy-absorption powers, so at least Ostrander has put some thought into the action elements.

#2 (Ostrander/Pacheco/Smith/Comicraft/Rosas) – The story opens with Bishop dreaming about the X-Men’s deaths while recovering from Mountjoy’s poison. He’s awakened by a hologram of his sister, Shard, which Forge has altered to become totally interactive. This actually has some impact on continuity, since the holographic Shard later joins the cast of X-Factor (in case you’re wondering if that was a terrible idea or not, I can assure you it was). Forge’s dialogue explaining how exactly Shard exists has clearly been re-lettered, so I guess there was some second-guessing going on about how to define what Shard is exactly. Ostrander continues to play up the idea that Bishop doesn’t fit in with the X-Men as he vows to “finish” Mountjoy, even if he has to resign from the team. Exploring the differences between Bishop’s paramilitary training and the X-Men’s goals is a decent starting place for a story, but this doesn’t exactly work. For one thing, we haven’t really seen Mountjoy behave any worse than your typical X-Men villain, so Bishop’s insistence that he has to die seems forced. Also, Wolverine certainly has a willingness to kill if he thinks the situation justifies it, and he remains on the team. The rest of the issue consists of another fight scene with Mountjoy, which ends in a car chase that Pacheco doesn’t exactly pull off. I really have no idea what’s supposed to be happening in the final panels of the scene. The end result is that Bishop has a car crash and wakes up in his own timeline. He begins to wonder if his time with the X-Men was just a dream, which is rather silly. This issue opened with one “so over the top you can’t buy it” dream sequence, and now it’s ending with another one. I’m not sure what Ostrander was thinking with this, but I wonder if he assumed that the X-books had a younger audience that was just naïve enough to fall such a blatant stunt.

#3 (Ostrander/Pacheco/Smith/Comicraft/Rosas) – And, for the third issue in a row, Bishop fights Mountjoy. Ostrander does at least try to break up the tediousness by having Bishop continually flash back to his past during the fight, but none of the glimpses of Bishop’s future are that interesting. This issue does resolve one of the mysteries introduced in Bishop’s earlier appearances by revealing what the Summers Rebellion actually was. An old man tells Bishop that it was the time humans and mutants united against the Sentinels, which lead to the creation of the XSE. This reminds me of how much we don’t know about Bishop’s future, since I only seem to recall one issue (UXM #287) that took place in his timeline. That’s a gap that could’ve been covered by a Bishop limited series, but instead it’s mostly skipped over in order to make more room for the Mountjoy fight.

#4 (Ostrander/Pacheco/Smith/Comicraft/Rosas) – Now the action moves to the X-Men’s mansion, where Bishop continues to fight Mountjoy, who’s absorbed the X-Men’s bodies. Bishop proves that he really is an X-Man in the end by refusing to kill Mountjoy, even though Shard encourages him to. Ostrander tries to add some weight to the ending by forcing Bishop to effectively kill Shard’s holographic persona during the fight, but there’s really only so much drama you can get out of a hologram. I’m not sure how much rewriting went on with this series, but it’s worth noting that Mountjoy lists Bantam as dead in this issue, even though the character just disappeared in-between panels in the first issue and never showed up again. There’s also no shortage of re-lettered and added word balloons throughout the entire run, including the very last caption of the miniseries. It seems pretty obvious that Marvel decided that Bishop was going to get his own limited series and just found someone to come up with a story, rather than a writer coming in with a strong idea for Bishop and creating a series around it. John Ostrander’s basic idea for the mini is fine, but the final result is an endless fight scene with a predictable ending that fails to make you care anything about the main character. The entire series is admirably drawn by Carlos Pacheco, though, so most of the action scenes are fun.

X-MAN #6- #9, August 1995 – November 1995

#6 (Loeb/Skroce/LaRosa/Thomas/Digitial Chamelon/Starkings/Comicraft) – Once again, we’re given a story about a powerful villain sending a flunky to find X-Man. This time, it’s Sugar Man sending Rex, instead of Apocalypse sending Domino. It ends predictably with more giant panels of X-Man’s powers erupting, while the villain survives to continue the hunt. The rest of the issue is spent on X-Man’s conversation with Madelyne Pryor, which mainly consists of the two of them acting confused and clueless, since Nate still thinks he’s in the AoA and Madelyne doesn’t know where she came from. Loeb does drop a few hints about Madelyne that have potential (she’s terrified of Sinister’s name, and X-Man accidentally creates a monster that looks like Havok when he enters her mind), but I don’t have a lot of faith in a satisfactory conclusion. Skroce’s art brings a lot of energy to the thin story, and he’s one of the few artists that can capture the freakiness of Sugar Man.

#7 (Loeb/Skroce/Hester/LaRosa/Ryan/Williams/Thomas/Digitial Chamelon/Starkings/Comicraft) – On the run from Rex, X-Man and Madelyne end up in Paris…as the story begins to disturbingly hint at a romance between the two. If you’re a new reader and know nothing about these characters, I guess this doesn’t stand out, since the story presents it as two desperate people drawing comfort from one another. But any long-time fan (and who else would care about the return of Madelyne Pryor?) knows that Madelyne’s a clone of Nate’s mother. So not only is Nate a teenage clone of an existing character, but he’s also got the hots for his mom? And the story doesn’t even hint at how freaky this is? What a way to launch a new character! Was Loeb actually going somewhere with this? The story’s main plot involves Selene discovering Madelyne in Paris and tempting her over to her side. It’s not much different from the plots of the previous issues, only now it’s Madelyne who’s the villain’s target. Selene is actually successful in this story and it’s not dragged out over several issues, so at least there’s some variation, I guess. Selene says that she knows Madelyne’s identity and the power she possesses, but I can’t think of any previous comics where the two met. Selene is a sorceress, so I guess it’s possible she learned through supernatural means, though.

#8 (Loeb/Rozum/Skroce/McDaniel/LaRosa/Miller/Russell/Pennington/Ryan/Thomas/Malibu’s Hues/Starkings/Comicraft) – And now we have an issue with a plotter, a scripter, two pencilers, five inkers, and an extra ghost letterer who’s replacing pages of scripted dialogue (also notice that Malibu’s Hues did color separations, so Marvel must’ve purchased Malibu Comics at this point). This issue’s plot involves X-Man taking a job on a luxury boat, as he tries to deal with Madelyne’s departure in the previous issue. He has wild mood swings and gets drunk for the first time, and then fights Rex for a few pages. The crazy mood swings come out of nowhere, leaving you with the impression that he’s truly mad and not just troubled. So now he’s an insane clone of an existing character who’s got a thing for his mother. Not only is the art rushed and unattractive, but the dialogue annoyingly switches between thought and word balloons, so Nate ends up spontaneously saying things like “I’ve spent too many hours thinking about my past” to a girl who just complimented him on his paint job. Dark Beast saves X-Man from Rex on the final page, which isn’t that bad of a cliffhanger, but it doesn’t compensate for such an aimless issue.

#9 (Loeb/Ostrander/Skroce/Haynes/LaRosa/Carani /Lowe/Hanna/Pennington/Thomas/Malibu’s Hues/Starkings/Comicraft) and (Ostrander/Weeks/Sienkiewicz/Becton/Malibu/Comicraft)– “Creative differences” surface as Jeph Loeb receives a “story idea” credit and is replaced by John Ostrander. Loeb said in a recent interview that he left the book because he disagreed with Bob Harras over the title’s direction, which shockingly implies that someone at Marvel thought that this title had a direction. Counting the backup story, this issue has a co-plotter, a writer, three pencilers, and six inkers. I’ll give it credit for not looking like a total mess like the previous issue. Rob Haynes draws most of this issue, turning in some nice-looking pages that remind me of Rick Leonardi’s work. The story consists of Dark Beast trying to draw X-Man over to his side (gasp!), X-Man getting angry at him and unleashing his powers in a two-page spread (shock!), and a few pages of Blaquesmith tailing X-Man. At the end of the story, Nate decides that he should go find the X-Men, which leads into this issue’s back-up story. The backup, featuring Blaquesmith “in his first solo adventure” has decent artwork by Lee Weeks and Bill Sienkiewicz, but a nonexistent plot. While on his way to warn Professor Xavier about X-Man’s arrival, Blaquesmith is attacked by a strange aircraft. Blaquesmith plays possum, gets one good shot in, and leaves. End of story. This title’s only nine issues old and it’s already forced to run pointless filler. Not exactly a positive sign of what’s to come.