Friday, May 11, 2012

GENERATION X #54 - August 1999



Land of the Rising Sons Part Two
Credits: Jay Faerber (writer), Terry Dodson & Derec Aucoin (pencils), Rachel Dodson & Scott Elmer (inks), Kevin Tinsley (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: After evading the Rising Sons, the team joins Jubilee and Paladin on Noy’s train. Jubilee discovers that Adrienne’s sword is worthless; Noy simply enjoys keeping it because it annoys Adrienne. She takes the sword, and with Skin’s help, rescues Paladin from Dragonwing on top of the train. Upon returning home, Gen X learns from Emma that the sword killed Adrienne’s husband. She thinks Adrienne wants to use her psychometric powers to stay connected with her husband’s final hours. In reality, Adrienne ordered her husband’s murder and wants the sword as a keepsake.

Continuity Notes: Viper is shown video footage of Generation X in Madripoor by one of her subordinates. She comments that she should pay them a visit, but doesn’t appear in the rest of the issue.

Review: It’s another issue of Gen X fighting the Rising Sons, with barely a subplot in sight. Faerber avoids making the issue a simple-minded slugfest by throwing in a few twists to the story, such as the revelation that the sword is actually an old piece of junk. Noy is simply keeping it out of spite, Emma mistakenly believes Adrienne has an emotional connection to her husband through the sword, and finally Adrienne’s inner monologue reveals that she’s even more of a sadist than anyone suspected. The final page reveals more about Adrienne than any of the previous issues, so in terms of the ongoing continuity, there is still some significance to the storyline, even if the vast majority of the arc was spent setting up and executing fight scenes. Not that there’s anything wrong with the occasional action arc in Generation X, anyway. I’m still puzzled by the Viper subplot scene, though…

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