X-FACTOR #145 - May 1998

Phantoms

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Duncan Rouleau & Trevor Scott (pencilers), Jaime Mendoza & Scott Hanna (inkers), Comicraft (letters), Glynis Oliver (colors)

Summary: Greystone learns of the kidnapping of a boy, Micah Leash, whom he believes will grow up to become the overseer of a mutant death camp. The XUE reluctantly goes along with his search for Micah, which leads to them rescuing the boy from a cult. Fixx declares that saving Micah from the cult will change his path, which sates Greystone’s bloodlust. Meanwhile, Forge gives Havok access to a secret base on the condition they never speak again.

Continuity Notes: The future Micah is described as a “betrayer to mutant and human alike…a Hound who wore no collar and no mark.” Half of his face is scarred, presumably by the cult that kidnapped him as a child. Greystone’s mother was killed by Micah, just as Greystone’s powers emerged while receiving his “M” mutant brand. Coincidentally, all of this happened at the exact moment the Summers Rebellion began, which freed the mutant camps.

Now, in the present, we learn that most XUE members have retained their host body’s memories (Fixx appears to be in the body of an amnesiac). Archer inhabits the body of international terrorist Jude Black. Desperate for some kind of family, he calls a woman named Rachel. She wants nothing to do with Jude and hangs up.

I Love the ‘90s: The cult that kidnaps Micah is a new millennium doomsday cult.

We Get Letters: A fan remarks that he hopes the series isn’t cancelled, which is responded with “The rumors are totally false, Mike. By issue #150 the core team will be decided and man, are you going to be happy!” In response to another letter that criticizes the book’s lack of direction, the editors assure the reader, “Don’t worry, though, we have a direction! It will all come to a head in issue #150 so stay with us.” Could you ask for a better demonstration for the mess this book has become?

Review: I wonder if the creative team honestly thought people cared about the XUE characters, or if this was a final, desperate shot in the dark. They’ve become the stars of the book too fast for the move to be a reaction to reader response, so it seems obvious that they were created specifically to be the new leads. Were they created as the saviors of this flagging title? They’re x-treme, they’re from the future, and they all have wacky manga haircuts. Had this been published earlier in the ‘90s, the scheme might’ve worked. By the late’90s, all of this had been done to death, especially in the X-books, and the kind of audience that elevated Cable and Bishop to superstar status wasn’t really around anymore. This issue, they’re given the token “Would you kill baby Hitler?” plot that virtually every time-traveler is assigned, and not surprisingly, Howard Mackie doesn’t bring a lot of originality or emotional resonance to the concept. The inexplicable idea that their time traveling is tied into “host bodies” is also revived, so now we’re expected to care about the XUE and the random identities they’ve assumed. What part of this is X-Factor? I’m sure most readers were relieved that the existing cast wasn’t being subjected to the horrible writing anymore, but did Marvel really think the audience wanted a soft reboot by the same creative team?

X-FACTOR #144 - April 1998

Points of View

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Duncan Rouleau (penciler), Jaime Mendoza w/Allen Martinez (inks), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters), Glynis Oliver (colors)

Summary: Shard and Havok unite to free Dark Beast’s human captives, until Fixx telepathically reveals the XUE’s mission to Shard. When Ever regains consciousness, he explains that the humans can’t be freed, as Dark Beast has infected them with the strain of the Legacy Virus that targets humans. Meanwhile, Random emerges to free Mary Stewart, a human he reluctantly kidnapped for Dark Beast. Random turns against Dark Beast and aids Havok, yet the villain still escapes. Ever volunteers to look after Mary and the infected humans in the underground lab.

Continuity Notes: According to the XUE, Havok freed the human subjects in their reality, inadvertently causing the deaths of millions of humans. This allegedly led to “a whole chain reaction of anti-mutant sentiments, Sentinels…” etc. Wasn’t it already revealed that Onslaught’s victory in Bishop’s reality lead to the anti-mutant furor, or did I imagine that?

We Get Letters: More denials the series is getting cancelled, as the editor states, “We’re just getting geared up for our 150^th issue and man, do we have surprises!” Getting cancelled at issue #149 was probably the biggest surprise.

I Love the ‘90s: Havok lets out an emphatic “Not!” while fighting Mystique. I still contend that people weren’t actually using this slang in the late ‘90s.

Review: To Howard Mackie’s credit, this does resolve at least a few of the mysteries from the previous issue, which has to be a new record for this book. We now know that the XUE wants to stop Havok from freeing the humans because they’re carrying a plague, which works fairly well as a plot twist. Except, we have no idea why Mystique absolutely had to be a part of this mission, as she does nothing in this issue. And even though the XUE’s urgent mission from the future last issue was to stop Havok, they’re now asking for his help at the story’s end, as this was just one dangling thread and “time hasn’t been completely repaired yet.” Plus, this might’ve been an intentional misdirection, but the implication last issue was that Havok had to be killed, not just prevented from opening some cages. And, if humans infected with the Legacy Virus are a horrible threat to society, why has Moira MacTaggert been allowed to run free since 1994? Yes, she’s recently quarantined herself, but this was her choice, and it took her years to reach this decision. Overlooking the disappointing payoff, Random is (sigh) randomly inserted into the chaotic fight scene for no apparent reason, along with Fatale, who shows up for all of one page before getting blasted into apparent oblivion. Too many characters, too many vague plot points, and horribly distorted artwork. The book has reached lower points, but this is still atrocious.

X-FACTOR #142-#143, February-March 1998

Give Me Shelter

Credits: Bill Rosemann (writer), Leo Fernandez (penciler), Dan Green (inker), Comicraft (letters), Ian Laughlin (colors)

Summary: Wild Child locates Val Cooper, who is spending Christmas with her ex-husband Edmond Atkinson. Val reveals to Edmond her first meeting with Wild Child as a young bureaucrat. She was assigned to look over Wild Child, not knowing her superiors were actually agents of the Secret Empire, a group looking to develop remorseless killers. Sabretooth abruptly enters, revealing that Val covered up for the Secret Empire in order to protect her career. After government agents chase Wild Child and Sabretooth away, Val reads the note Wild Child left her. He forgives her for not revealing the conspiracy, because he knows she’s used her government career to help mutants. Wild Child escapes into the night, as his feral mutation continues.

Continuity Notes: According to Val, Wild Child left Alpha Flight after the mutant Wyre went on a killing spree at Department H. I know Wyre was a character created towards the end of Alpha Flight’s run, but I don’t know if this event ever occurred on-panel.

Review: This is a fill-in issue, which apparently exists to explain away some of the mysteries that surrounded Wild Child joining the team, and to write him out of the book. Rosemann doesn’t have Mackie’s tin ear for dialogue, and the demands of a one-issue story require him to actually resolve the ideas he introduces, so we actually get a tolerable issue of X-Factor. I don’t like the idea that Val has been involved in a government cover-up (to the point that she witnessed a drugged out Wild Child killing a homeless person), but Rosemann does try his best to humanize Val and keep her motives sympathetic. How exactly Sabretooth knows this information isn’t clear, but I guess we’re supposed to assume he knows about these kinds of things due to his long life and various connections to numerous characters in the Marvel Universe. The art comes from Leo Fernandez, who decides to avoid following Matsuda and Rouleau’s example and instead draws the issue in an Andy Kubert style. It’s a little lifeless in places, but for the most part he’s able to tell the story, and I like his interpretation of Sabretooth.

The Fall of the Brotherhood

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Duncan Rouleau (penciler), Art Thibert (inker), Comicraft’s Kaff Schoil (letters), Glynis Oliver (colors)

Summary: Fixx, Archer, and Greystone assume the bodies of three bus crash victims. Following orders from their mysterious leader, they arrange to meet with Mystique. When she agrees to hear them out, they claim they have to stop Havok. Meanwhile, Shard is heading for the city when she senses the arrival of the XUE officers, as Havok and an injured Ever protect citizens from Dark Beast’s experiments. Havok tells Aurora to leave the Brotherhood’s hideout, before he finally confronts Dark Beast. Suddenly, Mystique enters with the XUE officers, as Shard arrives to protect Havok.

Continuity Notes: Mystique is willing to hear the XUE officers out when they deliver a message from their leader, telling her that this is the time Destiny foretold. Dark Beast claims that Fatale was “created by me, over and over again,” indicating she’s another one of his genetic experiments. The XUE characters are able to resume their true forms, even after possessing bodies in the present.

We Get Letters: Editorial response from a fan disgruntled by Wizard’s announcement that X-Factor will now focus on individual characters, rather than a team: “You can’t believe everything you read…after all, Wizard said X-Factor was going to be cancelled, and look at us now!”

Review: It seems as if X-Factor is starting to resolve its numerous dangling storylines, even though no one at Marvel seems to know they’re getting cancelled yet. Havok is fully in his “I was just fakin’!” phase, retroactively declaring that he was still under Dark Beast’s influence when he nearly killed Polaris months earlier. Never mind all of those narrative captions and inner monologues that proclaimed that we’re finally seeing the real Havok, of course. While I’m glad the grievous mistake of turning Havok evil has been rectified, we still have a lot of nonsense with Shard, Mystique, and the XUE. I have no idea what the point of the XUE is even supposed to be, but they’re apparently the new stars of the series. After damaging established characters like Havok, Polaris, Mystique, and Sabretooth for years, why not invent totally new characters to portray illogically and inconsistently? They want Havok “taken down” for mysterious reasons, they need Mystique to do it for mysterious reasons, and their leader in the future has to stay in the dark for mysterious reasons. Par for the course for this book. I’m sure they’ll be shown the same care as the mysteries surrounding the Hound Program, Bowser, Graydon Creed’s killer, and Trevor Chase.

X-FACTOR #140-#141, December 1997-January 1998

Going Home

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Duncan Rouleau (penciler), Jamie Mendoza & Hackshack Studios (inks), Comicraft’s Albert Deschesne (letters), Glynis Oliver & Matt Webb (colors)

Summary: Following her apparent death at Sabretooth’s hands, Shard is lost in time. She relives her first meeting with renegade XSE officers Fixx, Greystone, and Archer. Shard is invited to join them as a member of Xavier’s Underground Enforcers. With her help, they abduct Bantam from custody, in the hopes that his connection to Trevor Fitzroy will allow them to travel through time and correct a past mistake.

Continuity Notes: Fixx can create tiny psychic “fairies” that allow her to read minds. Greystone morphs into some sort of monster (that appears to be what Duncan Rouleau is drawing, at least). Archer can apparently cover his body with some kind of metal, and for some reason bears a strong resemblance to Cable. Shard first meets the XUE members while fighting the Exhumes, which are an undead group of mutants from her future. Based on her dialogue, Alaska is apparently as hot as a desert in her time, which I guess is a global warming reference, even though the New York of her era has never been portrayed as particularly warm. The XUE have a mysterious leader in the shadows (naturally), who declares that Xavier’s dream has failed and the X-Men are responsible.

Miscellaneous Note: The Statement of Ownership lists average yearly sales at 143,508 copies with the most recent issue selling 123,227.

Review: A solo story dedicated to Shard, the hologram-you’re-not-supposed-to-call-a-hologram who joined the team for no apparent reason months earlier. How lucky we are. I have no idea why this character was ever brought into this title, other than as a love interest for Wild Child, another cast member introduced for dubious reasons. Wild Child at least had a tenuous connection to the popular “Age of Apocalypse” event; Shard just has Bishop as a brother, and Bishop wasn’t really setting the world on fire by the mid-’90s. Shard and Bishop’s future is still underexplored by this point, so if you’re going to do a Shard solo story, it’s a reasonable enough place to start. The XUE are treated as a big deal, but the characters have little personality and the entire concept just feels like pandering. The XSE are already supposed to be the extreme future X-Men. Now we have the double-extreme splinter group of the XSE that takes orders from a mystery man in the shadows, who has some vague information on the X-Men that of course isn’t revealed yet. I’ll go out on a limb and guess that their mysterious leader is Forge (Rouleau partially reveals his face on the last page, but I can’t tell if this is supposed to be a character we already recognize). None of this is original, but a story that connects Shard’s future to X-Factor’s current status quo has potential. This, however, is X-Factor. The book hasn’t had a coherent direction or logically followed through with a storyline for years by this point. I’m not optimistic.

Dreams of Tomorrow

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Duncan Rouleau (penciler), Jamie Mendoza (inks), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters), Glynis Oliver (colors)

Summary: With Bantam’s reluctant cooperation, the XUE locate Fitzroy. After abducting him, Shard explains their need of his time travel powers, and hints that their romance could be rekindled. Greystone walks in as Shard releases Fitzroy and tries to stop her. Fitzroy absorbs Greystone’s life force and creates a time portal, but Shard prevents his escape. Fixx reveals that with her psychic powers, they don’t need Fitzroy’s willful cooperation anyway. Shard begins to question changing the past and breaks away from the XUE. She’s later killed in battle with Exhumes, and brought to life in the past as a hologram. Shard suddenly awakens inside Polaris’ body. Realizing that the XUE have now traveled to the past, Shard leaves X-Factor to find them.

Continuity Notes: Shard describes Archer as a straight “by the book” officer and wonders why he joined the XUE. Last issue, she grouped Archer in with the “XSE rogues…rejected and feared by the rest of the corps…good, but mavericks…regular Logans” during their first encounter. As for Sabretooth’s attack, Shard survived it by phasing through Polaris as Sabretooth “killed” her. She’s been inside Polaris’ body ever since the attack. Fitzroy is shown creating a portal after draining Greystone, but Greystone apparently survives. I seem to recall Fitzroy needing all of someone’s life energy in order to create time portals, but it’s possible he was always taking more than he needed because he’s sadistic.

We Get Letters: The editorial response to rumors that X-Factor is getting cancelled is “X-Factor being canceled? NOT!” They go on to promise a great new direction for issue #150, an issue that was never published (and was supposed to reveal the identity of Graydon Creed’s assassin, according to the ads Marvel ran). The X-Factor letter column has now been renamed “Factor Reactor” which I think we can all agree is terrible.

Review: Yeah, what a surprise. X-Factor can’t do time travel stories, either. For some reason, Mackie feels the need to overly complicate the way Fitzroy’s time travel works, even though we’ve already seen the way Fitzroy creates time portals and it’s not that difficult to grasp. He absorbs someone’s life energy and makes a portal. Other people can go through it. The end. Whilce Portacio didn’t even screw that one up. Now, Mackie gives the XUE the odd plan to only send one member back in time. He or she will serve as a psionic anchor for the others, and “should, in theory, be able to pull the others through.” What does this mean? Why don’t all of them just walk though the stupid portal?

On top of that, the ending reveals that the XUE actually need “the bodies of people alive in this time to travel back to it.” Where did that come from? I can’t make any sense of this, but because Shard was inhabiting Polaris, the XUE can now travel back to this era, which leads to the issue’s cliffhanger. It’s really hard to believe how dumb this book gets from month to month.

X-FACTOR #138-#139, October-November 1997

Fear Walks amongst Us

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Mel Rubi (penciler), Rob Hunter, Steve Moncuse, & Allen Martinez, Hack Shack Studios (inkers), Comicraft (letters), Glynis Oliver (colors)

Summary: Sabretooth kills a mutant fortune teller the Hound program sent him to recruit. Stone, a fellow Hound, warns Sabretooth to obey orders, but Sabretooth ignores him. Later, he’s confronted by Omega Red. Omega Red wants to bargain Sabretooth for the Carbonadium Synthesizer, but Sabretooth fights him off. Soon, Sabretooth visits Stone and warns him that he now works alone. Meanwhile, Mystique disguises herself as the missing wife of Senator Brickman. She’s “rescued” and brought into the Brickman home.

Continuity Notes: Omega Red claims he’s made a deal with Elana Ivanova to trade Sabretooth for the Carbonadium Synthesizer. This is continued in the Maverick series. Mystique previously impersonated Mallory Brickman in Uncanny X-Men #359. I believe this is the first indication that Mrs. Brickman has actually been missing during all of this time. During a brief subplot scene, Dark Beast asks Havok why he trusts him. Havok mentally declares that he’s just using Dark Beast so that he can get close enough to him to stop his genetic experiments.

Review: So, apparently, the government’s Hound program, which appears to be run by rabid anti-mutant zealots, recruits mutants for unclear purposes. Sabretooth declares that he’ll “show them who’s really in charge of this operation” by killing the mutants he’s supposed to recruit. The response of his fellow Hound is essentially, “Aw, gee, cut that out.” Why is Sabretooth going along with the illusion that he’s a part of their team in the first place? If these mutants are so important to the Hound program, why aren’t they stopping him from killing them? Why doesn’t the Hound program keep Sabretooth on a leash, and use something like the collar he wore while in X-Factor? What did the Hound program get out of placing Sabretooth in X-Factor for so long, and why did they think he’d be a good recruit in the first place?

Ignoring this nonsense, there is at least an effort to retcon Havok’s move to villainy. Now, we’re supposed to believe that Havok was only bringing Dark Beast close to him in order to stop his experiments. I don’t believe for a second this was the plan all along, since they teamed up a year ago by this point and this is the first indication Havok has problems working with Dark Beast. Aside from that, Havok’s heel turn was supposed be confirmed when he nearly killed the love of his life with a plasma blast, shortly before he tried to kill everyone on that commercial airliner. At any rate, it does look like one of the many mistakes of this era is being corrected.

The Enemy Within

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Duncan Rouleau (penciler), Art Thibert, Whitney McFarland, & Hack Shack Studios (inkers), Comicraft (letters), Glynis Oliver (colors)

Summary: Federal agent Vargas investigates the return of Mallory Brickman. Mystique, as Brickman, claims that Sabretooth kept her prisoner for months. When Vargas asks too many questions, Mystique uses her influence to have him stationed in the Arctic Circle. The doctor who removes her inhibitor implant also dies in a mysterious car crash. Elsewhere, Val Cooper and Major Atkinson investigate the disappearance of Sabretooth and Mystique, as X-Factor recovers at the Brotherhood’s base, and Havok and Ever probe the Dark Beast’s experiments.

Continuity Notes: Mystique is sending federal agents after Sabertooth as punishment for…something he’s done to Trevor Chase (apparently Trevor is missing, but it was Sabretooth’s superiors in the Hound program that wanted him; Sabretooth shouldn’t have him). X-Factor is still recuperating after Sabretooth’s attack. Polaris collapses when she tries to use her powers. Ever, the character that only appeared once before with the Brotherhood, returns. He claims that he’s “escaped the yoke of McCoy’s mind control.” Ever originally showed up in group shots of Gene Nation, even though he never actually appeared with them in a story. Mackie might be trying to reconcile his two allegiances, since Gene Nation had ties to Dark Beast.

Review: Perhaps someone made a conscious decision to make X-Factor more coherent, since this is the second issue in a row that focuses mainly on one character and downplays the ongoing conspiracies. The book still doesn’t make a lot of sense, though. Apparently, Mystique is a good enough mimic to fool Mallory Brickman’s husband, but her precocious eight-year-old daughter is just clever enough to ask the right questions and make Mystique uncomfortable. Seeing Mystique lie her way out of trouble and work around the investigation adds some intrigue, but the execution is a bit off. We’re also supposed to believe that Mystique has casually killed the doctor that removed the government’s inhibitor chip (she claims now that Sabretooth implanted it as a tracking device) to cover her tracks. Is this the same Mystique that appeared to be going straight again a few issues ago? Are we supposed to buy into a budding romance between Forge and Mystique if she’s still killing people? Duncan Rouleau debuts as penciler. He’s much more subdued here than in the Juggernaut one-shot, but he’s still doing over-the-top cartooning. While some of his figures work as an odd Marc Silvestri/Jeff Matsuda blend, much of this is just too distorted for my tastes.

UNCANNY X-MEN ‘97 - October 1997

Rifts

Credits: Jorge Gonzalez (writer), Duncan Rouleau (penciler), Troy Hubbs (inker), Comicraft (letters), Glynis Oliver (colors)

Summary: In Africa, the X-Men defend Gene Nation from Humanity’s Last Stand. After fighting them off, Havok arrives with the Brotherhood, warning of another attack. Reluctantly, the X-Men and Gene Nation team with the Brotherhood to stop HLS. After a battle that leaves many Gene Nationals dead, Dark Beast devises a way to freeze HLS’s hi-tech Razor armor. Some Gene Nationals advocate executing their human captives, despite the X-Men’s objections. Dark Beast and Fatale stage a mock execution, secretly teleporting the men away without Havok’s knowledge. Two Gene Nationals, Boost and Tether, leave with the Brotherhood, while Storm names the honorable D’Gard as Gene Nation’s new leader.

Continuity Notes: Gene Nation has been in Africa since the Storm limited series. New Gene Nation members Boost, Tether, and D’Gard are introduced. Boost can enter a mutant’s body and amplify their powers, Tether is a reptile-human with a Cobra Commander speech pattern, and D’Gard is the judicious older member (he has a cane and wears a dashiki, so he must be the wise and noble one). He apparently has "empathic" powers. Unbeknownst to everyone, Dark Beast is teleporting the men away so that they can be used as “human chattel” in his secret experiments.

Review: It’s hard to believe this story showed up in an annual. While the X-books were supposed to be leading up to Bastion’s ruthless anti-mutant crusade in “Operation: Zero Tolerance,” Uncanny had the team rescue the Shi’ar Empire again, then get lost in space (and Antarctica), while X-Men wasted everyone’s time with another origin story for Storm’s ruby and a potential Legacy Virus cure that went nowhere. A story that follows up on Gene Nation (originally intended as a major threat in Uncanny), has Cyclops facing Havok again, and pits the team against an anti-mutant militia? We can’t have that in any of the main books! That space has already been allotted for the X-Men’s long-awaited team-up with Shang-Chi, Master of Kung-Fu.

Although the dialogue gets a bit rough, Gonzalez has many solid ideas here. Gene Nation was introduced as a coldblooded terrorist group with no qualms against killing innocents, so it makes sense that HLS would target them (even though this is apparently a new generation of Gene Nationals). One of the HLS members is related to a girl killed during Gene Nation’s initial terrorist attack at a New York nightclub, which puts a human face on what should’ve been a legitimate tragedy within the Marvel Universe, even if it was quickly forgotten. HLS isn’t fleshed out beyond this point, but at least they’re starting with a decent motivation.

Dark Beast has his own connection to Gene Nation, since he views himself as a “father” to their Morlock ancestors. He’s supposed to hate Storm for removing Gene Nation’s backbone, a plot thread Gonzalez briefly acknowledges. He seems to have put more thought into Dark Beast’s character and motivations than Howard Mackie did in X-Factor, as Dark Beast is still involved with human experimentation and scheming behind Havok’s back. Cyclops asks Havok how could he be dumb enough to trust Dark Beast, a question Gonzalez can’t allow him to answer since Mackie hasn’t bothered to explain it in X-Factor. The Havok-era Brotherhood will always be a dumb idea, but the story uses them in a valid way, and it’s nice to see that Cyclops’ relationship with Havok wasn’t totally forgotten during this period. If only this story could’ve been switched with one of the main titles in 1997. Let Duncan Rouleau draw that Shang-Chi team-up in an annual while Carlos Pacheco pencils a story that actually connects to the ongoing storylines.

X-MEN UNLIMITED #15 - June 1997

Second Contact

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Duncan Rouleau (penciler), Rob Hunter (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters), Shannon Blanchard (colors)

Summary: Iceman learns from Chris Bradley’s mother that their home has been firebombed by anti-mutant zealots. Iceman visits Chris, who is angry with the X-Men for ignoring his phone calls. Chris turns to Maverick, a fellow mutant suffering from the Legacy Virus, for support. They’re targeted by more anti-mutant zealots and go on the run. Iceman calls Maverick’s old friend, Wolverine, for help. They find Chris and Maverick and help them fight off the zealots. Chris refuses Iceman’s offer of help, and Maverick convinces Wolverine to let him aid Chris. Maverick uses his contacts to set Chris’ family up with a new identity.

Continuity Notes: Chris Bradley first appeared in Unlimited #8. A flashback reveals that Maverick met Chris at a clinic treating Legacy Virus victims. He saved Chris’ family from (of course) anti-mutant zealots, and gave Chris his contact information, not expecting to hear from him again. Maverick tells Chris he lost his mutant powers years ago (he had “energy absorption” powers in Wolverine#87, which apparently reemerged briefly because of Legacy Virus side effects). Another flashback from Wolverine reveals that Maverick killed his East German brother during a Cold War mission with Team X.

I Love the ‘90s: One of the anti-mutant thugs wants to be home in time for Xena, Warrior Princess.

Review: The short-lived Maverick ongoing is a few months away, which is presumably what this issue is setting up. Pairing Maverick and Chris as an odd couple fighting the same disease has potential, even if this specific story doesn’t get a lot of mileage out of the idea. Maverick’s character arc goes from grumpy to paternal over the course of a few pages, even though there’s nothing in the story to really evoke this change. Chris’ hatred of the X-Men also feels a little off. He claims that the X-Men have been ignoring his calls for weeks, and the only justification in the story is that they were too busy dealing with Onslaught. I guess this could work as an excuse, but it doesn’t seem to me that the Onslaught storyline lasted for an extended period of time, and the issues after the crossover mainly consisted of the X-Men hanging around their mansion or going to the movies. They couldn’t find the time to return the kid’s phone calls? If the idea is that the messages were lost when part of the mansion was destroyed, that’s not made clear at all.

The villains in this issue are obviously not a threat, but since the main goal of the story is to pair Chris with Maverick, it’s not much of an issue. I do think the last two issues of this series have effectively shown the new climate in America following Graydon Creed’s assassination. Unlimited did a better job than the main titles even, since UXM went into an extended outer space arc and X-Men mostly ran filler during these months. The country’s paranoid mood was supposed to be a natural segue into the Zero Tolerance crossover, but the increased anti-mutant sentiment fizzled out before the year was over. So, this isn’t great, but Unlimited has seen worse.

JUGGERNAUT #1 - April 1997

A Night in Spite…

Credits: Joe Kelly (writer), Duncan Rouleau (penciler), Steve Moncuse (inker), Chris Eliopoulos & Visual Calligraphy (letters)

Summary: In a New Mexico bar, Juggernaut meets a wild woman named Alex. After he joins her crime spree, Black Tom suddenly appears and reveals that Alex is actually Spite, the demon Juggernaut previously faced inside the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak. After Black Tom goads Juggernaut into striking him, he reveals himself as D’Spayre in disguise. Spite has been manipulating Juggernaut into fighting her brother D’Spayre, while D’Spayre wants to drain the Cyttorak energy within Juggernaut. Juggernaut calls upon his inner rage to defeat D’Spayre, and Spite rewards him by restoring the powers D’Spayre drained from him. The locals throw a festival in honor of Juggernaut for saving their town.

I Love the ‘90s: Juggernaut is listening to the country song “Blue” on the jukebox, which was recently covered by Leann Rimes at the time. Tawny Kitain is cited as an example of an attractive female. The local sheriff is upset he’s missing Walker, Texas Ranger, and doesn’t want to deal with Feds like “Agent Scullery.”

Review: If the Imperial Guard can get a miniseries, I guess Juggernaut can get a one-shot. I wonder if this was originally an X-Men Unlimited issue that was released as a one-shot after Marvel made the decision to radically increase the amount of X-specials in late 1996. It does have the same editor, and the story is essentially a sequel to Unlimited #12. This is an early Joe Kelly story, and it does demonstrate that he had a pretty good idea of what he was doing from the beginning (I haven’t read anything he’s written in years, but apparently he’s now lumped in the “Worst Writers” category). Kelly plays off Juggernaut’s irrational jealousy of his brother, as he’s drawn into D’Spayre and Spite’s sibling rivalry. He also doesn’t make Juggernaut too sympathetic, as his main motivation in helping Spite is so that he can personally kill her later. Kelly shapes the story around Juggernaut’s own personality and existing motivations, which prevents it from feeling like a gratuitous one-shot that’s just there to eat up the competition’s shelf space. My main issue is the art, which is so warped and unsightly it’s a major distraction. I like Duncan Rouleau’s later artwork, but his early stuff is just too hard on the eyes. It resembles a lot of the early Image artwork; not even the stuff put out by the original founders, but the really egregious material pumped out by the second or third-tier imitators. Aside from the unattractive figures, the page layouts are often confusing, and it’s hard to tell which order to read the word balloons. Kelly writes some clever dialogue throughout the issue, but it often takes a few seconds to process what exactly the characters are talking about because the page is such a mess.

X-MEN UNLIMITED #13 - December 1996

Previously…in X-Men Unlimited: Nothing happened. It’s X-Men Unlimited, so the stories are usually filler.

Fugitive from Space!

Credits: George Perez (plot), Jorge Gonzalez (script), Duncan Rouleau, Jim Calafiore, & Andrew Robinson (pencilers), Hunter, McKenna, & Milgrom (inkers), Tom Smith & Malibu (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: The X-Men arrive with Binary at the UN Starcore space station, hoping to resuscitate its energy core. Suddenly, Shi’ar commander K’illace arrives to arrest Binary, claiming that her powers make her a threat to the universe. A blast of energy teleports everyone to the Shi’ar Empire, where they discover Binary’s powers are out of control and K’illace is injured. As Binary struggles to drain energy from a defective white star she created months earlier, the X-Men petition Deathbird to spare her life. Lilandra sends a message, warning of another threat, the Silver Surfer. She claims that Silver Surfer recently destroyed his home planet of Zenn-La and is heading into Shi’ar territory. The X-Men meet Silver Surfer in space and travel to the remains of Zenn-La, where he proclaims his innocence. A bio-technic force called the Inciters is now occupying Zenn-La’s remains. Beast deduces that the Inciters were behind framing Silver Surfer, manipulating Binary’s powers, and the disruption of the white star. Silver Surfer uses his cosmic surfboard to defeat the Inciters. The Shi’ar send the heroes home, although Lilandra refuses to reveal the existence of the Inciters to her people.

Continuity Notes: This was published about a year before Binary’s powers were downgraded and she renamed herself Warbird (and later Ms. Marvel again). I’m assuming Zenn-La was destroyed during George Perez’s run on Silver Surfer.

Review: I remember reading a friend’s copy of this issue when it was released. We spent our lunch period mocking the atrocious artwork and often impenetrable plot. A few months later, that friend stopped buying comics. Hmmm…. George Perez was writing a few titles for Marvel during this era, and I guess he was in the right place at the right time to be the warm body chosen to fill in for this specific issue of Unlimited. Jorge Gonzalez is a name I’m not very familiar with, but you’ll see that he shows up in a lot of the peripheral X-books of this time, particularly on the ones edited by Kelly Corvese. His scripts tend to be boilerplate superhero material that isn’t particularly good or bad. I doubt there was much he could do with this plot, since it’s horribly cramped and moves so quickly there’s never enough time to process anything that’s going on. I will give Gonzalez credit for remembering that the Silver Surfer only located uninhabited planets for Galactus as his herald, which is a continuity point that’s often forgotten. (It doesn’t make this specific story any better; I’m just glad someone remembered.) The art actually isn’t as bad as I remembered, although one of the three artists turns in the occasional page that’s just horrific. Do you really want an example? How about this…

Junction

Credits: Jorge Gonzalez (writer), Greg Land (penciler), Mark McKenna (inker), Brad Vancata (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letterer)

Summary: Juggernaut returns to his hometown of Junction, New York on the night of its Halloween festival. After encountering pranksters that remind him of the bullies he endured growing up, he goes on a rampage. Gomurr the Ancient suddenly appears, revealing to Juggernaut that Marie Cavendish, the one person who defended him as a child, was injured during his riot. He takes her to the hospital, but is jeered by the locals. Juggernaut leaves town, ignoring Gomurr’s warning that he can’t escape his powers’ curse.

Review: I don’t think there were any plans to rehabilitate Juggernaut at this time, but you would see the occasional story that tried to humanize the character. This follows up on an idea from the previous issue, that Juggernaut can never change what he is and is actually cursed by his powers. That idea is expressed well enough, although this is all pretty cliché. It’s nice to see Greg Land art that predates his discovery of Cinemax, but he’s really just serving the story and doing little else.

WOLVERINE #91 - July 1995

Path of Stones, Wood of Thorns

Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Duncan Rouleau (penciler), Joe Rubinstein (inker), Pat Brosseau (letterer), Marie Javins & Digital Chameleon (colorists)

Summary

While Wolverine continues to live in the woods outside of the mansion, the other X-Men discuss his condition. Storm is appalled that Wolverine nearly killed Sabretooth while he was in their custody. Beast theorizes that Wolverine is living in the woods because he feels guilty about the attack and is exorcising his demons. Storm wonders if he’s staying outside because he’s afraid he might hurt one of the X-Men. Psylocke catches a glimpse of his consciousness and compares it to an animal’s “rolling redness”. As Wolverine howls at the night, Xavier takes Beast and Storm to his lab. Xavier theorizes that the presence of Wolverine’s adamantium impeded his natural evolution for years, and that without it, he’s mutating again. James Hudson of Alpha Flight, via video screen, confirms Xavier’s suspicions. Nearby, Wolverine stalks one of the X-Men’s neighbors. He watches the drunken man confront his wife, as the X-Men approach Wolverine and try to talk to him. As the man prepares to beat his wife again, she runs out of the house in horror. Wolverine grabs the man and unsheathes his claws. Beast pulls him away, and the woman punches Wolverine for attacking her husband. Wolverine warns the team that if the man kills her it’s on their conscious, just as he will be if his condition isn’t dealt with soon.

Continuity Notes

The idea that losing the adamantium could harm Wolverine has been hinted at in previous issues, but this is the first time it’s outright stated. It becomes another dropped storyline over the next couple of years, as Wolverine continues to exist just fine without the adamantium until he gets it back in 1999.

Miscellaneous Notes

The Statement of Ownership has average sales at 380,383 with the most recent issue selling 351,400 copies. Considering the fact that the ‘90s boom had peaked, that’s very consistent.

The title of this issue is a reference to a poem by William Butler Yeats, which actually does have a strong thematic connection to this story (Hama has got to have the record for inserting the most references to poetry in Wolverine comics).

Review

This is a beginning of an era in Wolverine that everyone seemed to agree was a bad idea. I’m trying to look at each chapter objectively, and not let my knowledge of where this is going affect my opinion of the individual issues. Hama tries to make this an organic transition from the previous issues, but it’s not hard to see the heavy hand of editorial in this. Even though Wolverine’s going through a rather arbitrary change, Hama at least gives the supporting cast realistic reactions to what’s going on. There’s still an emphasis on characterization, which helps to make some of the events a little easier to swallow. The idea that stabbing Sabretooth somehow pushed Wolverine over the edge is just too hard to buy, though. The story tries to emphasize the fact that Sabretooth was a prisoner at the time and Wolverine’s physical assault was unethical, but that ignores the fact that Sabretooth had escaped his cage and was bragging about the people he was about to kill unless Wolverine stopped him. I don’t think anyone reading this really thinks he has a lot to feel guilty about. The idea that losing his adamantium skeleton has driven Wolverine over the edge also seems strained, since he seemed perfectly sane in the immediate issues leading up to this one (in fact, he was lucid enough to complete a character arc and return to the team after months on the road). Right after issue #75, there were a few hints that Wolverine was losing his grip, but it hadn’t been brought up in over a year at this point. Coming back from the AoA to see Wolverine living like an animal outside comes across as ridiculous shock value, and it’s something I never bought into even in my early teens.

Wolverine, like a lot of the titles, returns with a fill-in artist. This is rough early work from Duncan Rouleau, whose characters tend to look spindly and awkward here. A lot of the faces also look strange, which doesn’t help an issue that mostly consists of conversation scenes. Later on, he would develop a manga-influenced style that suits him a lot better. Hama does a decent job of selling the story, but it’s held back by the art. The later chapters of this storyline, before “Scooby Wolverine” debuts, I have fonder memories of, and I think Adam Kubert’s art has a lot to do with that.