X-MEN #104 (September 2000)

Painted Ladies

Credits: Chris Claremont (writer), Lenil Francis Yu (penciler), Mark Morales (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters), Liquid! Graphics (colors)

Summary:  In Hong Kong, the remaining X-Men invade a Hellfire Club party. Phoenix telepathically locates the waitress who’s been spying on behalf of the slavers. Wolverine stalks the waitress, while the X-Men return to the home loaned to them by Wolverine’s friend. Elsewhere, Gambit’s team of X-Men escape the Goth’s custody. Even after discovering the breadth of the Goth’s kidnapping and slavery operation, Gambit offers them a deal for the team’s freedom. Back in Hong Kong, the Crimson Pirates track the X-Men to their hideout. Unbeknownst to them, only Rogue remains. Using powers borrowed from Phoenix, Rogue creates psychic illusions to generate a "fight" with the X-Men, while the rest of her team joins Wolverine and defeats the slavers’ back-up forces. Rogue escapes the Pirates, but not before briefly touching the skin of their Hound and discovering her true identity as Kymri. Rogue reunites with her team, as they depart for their final battle with the slavers. Meanwhile, Mystique disguises herself as Val Cooper and engages Senator Kelly at a Hollywood fundraiser. Holding a diary left by Destiny, she declares Kelly must die.

Continuity Notes:

• Kymri is the blue-skinned pirate woman Nightcrawler romanced in Excalibur #16-17. Claremont’s referenced her a few times during his returns to the X-books, hinting that he always had more in mind for the character.
• Since the last issue, the two teams of X-Men have united, while the captured members from Uncanny have joined Psylocke, Thunderbird, Archangel, and Colossus as prisoners of the Goth.
• The friend of Wolverine’s who loaned the X-Men his or her home remains unidentified.
• Alexei Vazhin, last seen as a prisoner of the Crimson Pirates, isn’t mentioned. Neither is Deb Levin, shown in the previous chapter as escaping with Phoenix and Beast. Presumably, the missing citizens of Salem Center from #103 are intended to be the tiny background figures in the Goth’s honeycomb prison net.
• A massive Goth who resembles an ancient Chinese warrior (as opposed to the blue leather kinks seen last issue) declares “I am the Goth!” So, it’s another use of Claremont’s “I am…” trope, and, I guess, an indication the Goth are like the Neo, using titles instead of names.
• There’s no indication Cable remains under Voge’s mind control, as seen in the last Uncanny chapter. No reference to his techno-organic virus being cured, either.
• Also no reference to the mystery figure who stunned Phoenix in the Astral Plane during the last Uncanny chapter.
• Not only can Rogue block bullets, but this issue she’s grabbing machine gun fire and blasting the bullets back at her attackers with the same velocity.
• We’re told the Hellfire Club is being used as a front for the slavers, just like the Russian mob in the concurrent Uncanny arc.
• Senator Kelly’s comments at his fundraiser again emphasize the danger of mutants (so a later twist in the storyline makes no sense). And Mystique’s interpretation of “Val Cooper” is apparently influenced by Vivid Video.
• The concept of Destiny’s Diaries has already appeared in the preceding Alan Davis issues, and will inspire Claremont’s new direction for his stories. (Shuffled off to the side in X-Treme X-Men after Joe Quesada and Bill Jemas revamp the line…and soon just forgotten when editorial instructs Claremont to drop the idea.)

Production Notes: Numerous coloring mistakes this issue. Bedlame of the Goth is colored as Storm in one panel. Gambit is colored as one of the Goth in another panel. Rogue is colored as Shadowcat for a few pages.

“Huh?” Moment: I guess the idea is that Rogue is slowing the Crimson Pirates down while the rest of the X-Men take out their back-up and explore the Pirates’ base. I can see the logic in that, although the story itself isn’t entirely clear on this.

Now a Major Motion Picture! : This was the first issue of X-Men released after the film’s opening. And, as reported at the time, new Marvel president Bill Jemas was not happy about this. I’m quoting from memory, but Jemas cited the “wonderful but difficult content” of Claremont’s stories as an issue he had to address when revamping the line for (allegedly) a broader audience.

We also have Bedlame whispering “Scream for me, Storm.” A nearly identical line is in the X-Men movie (during the scene with Sabretooth attacking Storm at the train station.) It’s possible this was a coincidence, though.

Review: I remember people citing this issue as the one that cost Claremont his job on the main X-books. That it was impenetrable gobbledygook, only comprehensible to the most hardcore of X-fanboys—surely a deterrent to anyone introduced to the concept by that sexy, Matrix-inspired film that surpassed all expectations at the box office.

It’s actually one of the more coherent Claremont/Yu issues. Which doesn’t mean it lacks storytelling hiccups, but it’s far from incomprehensible. In many ways, it would do Jim Shooter proud, with its detailed introductions to the main cast and careful explanation of the core concept. (We also have Claremont essentially providing a book report on Hong Kong, indicating he has personal experience with the island, or at least a genuine interest. I’ve always assumed he based Madripoor on Hong Kong, given its reputation as an “anything goes” island that’s also far wealthier than most of its neighbors. Truthfully, Claremont’s indulgence in detailing geography has never bothered me; it always made the books feel very “adult” to me as a kid.)

Of course, spelling out the story of the X-Men means you have captions explaining the importance of Charles Xavier to these characters…even as Xavier is literally off in the space and has no bearing on the plot. It’s also chapter—what?—nine of a chaotic story arc that’s featured two distinct teams of X-Men on separate continents and seemingly dozens of new foes. Foes that seem to be shifting their motivation midstream—we’ve gone from the Neo inexplicably blaming the X-Men for the actions of High Evolutionary in a previous arc, to villains who might be Neo working for a cartoonish slaver who’s only previously appeared in some forgotten Excalibur issues. Even those aforementioned hardcore X-fanboys weren’t fully sure what was supposed to be happening.

Again, if we’re to judge this specific issue, the immediate points are pretty clear. The X-Men are looking for their kidnapped members, a waitress can point them to the slavers, so they track the girl while Rogue (utilizing her unusual approach to leadership) tricks their opponents and sets the team up for the next chapter’s big finale. There are some storytelling glitches—like the captured X-Men somehow knowing the exterior of their prison resembles an ancient Chinese structure (which is also somehow inside a cave), the hi-tech honeycomb device that allegedly houses dozens of slaves, yet is barely rendered by Yu, and the decision not to identify the mansion in the opening as the Hong Kong chapter of Hellfire Club until pages after the scene is over—but this is still far more comprehensible than previous issues.

And I’ve got to acknowledge there are some cool ideas here. The sequence that has Phoenix telepathically “erasing” the room until she finds the slaver’s mole is great. A fantastic use of her powers, and one of Yu’s best sequences, as he draws upon a sketchier Jae Lee influence. (But notice how he loses interest in rendering Wolverine with each panel.)

There’s also a clear dramatization of how Rogue’s leadership changes the team, from the opening that calls into question the X-Men’s vow not to kill (whether or not Wolverine is killing the Hellfire guard is unclear; it’s possible Yu isn’t rendering what Claremont envisioned...or perhaps he wanted this vague) to Rogue’s clever exploitation of her powers, and willingness to trick rather than engage the enemy, in the closing scenes. Gambit, meanwhile, is more reckless when leading his crew; feeling things out rather than planning ahead, and possibly committing a morally dubious act in order to gain his team’s freedom.

But, yes, if you’re a casual reader, or heaven forbid, someone foreign to all of this, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. And if you’re an ego-driven executive desperate for mainstream respectability, who has a hit movie with “your” characters that doesn’t resemble these floppy things the publishing division’s pumping out…well, there will be issues.

This entry exists thanks to those who posted Amazon reviews of my new novel, Black Hat Blues. I’ll continue posting installments in this series—one for every review the book receives. So if you want this series to continue, please, leave a review!