AVENGERS #369 – December 1993

Bloodties The Finale – Of Kith and Kin

Credits: Bob Harras (writer), Steve Epting and Jan Duursema (pencilers), Tom Palmer (inker), Bill Oakley (letterer), Mike Rockwitz (colorist)

Summary

Exodus creates a psionic shield over Genosha, preventing anyone else from entering the country. He takes Luna from Fabian Cortez and apparently kills him. The Avengers and X-Men meet and respond to Professor Xavier’s call for help. They arrive and assist Xavier, Beast, and US Agent against the Magistrates’ backup. Exodus faces the combined teams, inciting the Mutates into violence and threatening to kill Luna for the sin of being born human. Xavier and the Black Knight defeat Exodus, after Jean Grey telepathically sends information on his weaknesses. Exodus leaves, but not before injuring Quicksilver. Xavier appeals to the Genoshans to stop the violence, asking them not to follow the example of a man willing to kill a child.

Gimmicks

This issue has a cardstock, foil embossed cover.

Review

And, in the final part of this storyline, the X-Men and Avengers fight the same villains they’ve been fighting for the past three chapters, only now they do it together. This structure could actually work if the villains were remotely interesting, but generic Mutates and generic guys in body armor get old fast. Almost two full issues of this crossover were dedicated to selling Exodus as a major villain, but in the end he’s defeated in a two page sequence after Xavier mind-blasts him and Black Knight slices him with his sword. All of the effort spent on building him up seems wasted. Cortez’s apparent death is really the only aspect of the crossover that impacts continuity, and it’s treated pretty casually. Taken on its own, though, it’s actually not that bad of an issue. Harras seems to be invested in the story, and Epting does a good job on the X-Men/Avengers team-up scenes. As the finale to a five-part crossover though, you get the feeling that a lot of the previous chapters have just been filler.

UNCANNY X-MEN #307 – December 1993

Night and Fog

Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), John Romita, Jr. (penciler), Dan Green (inker), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Bucccellato/Somers (colorists)

Summary

The Black Widow tells the UN that the Avengers will no longer deal with politics. In Genosha, Xavier stops the human soldiers holding sickly Mutates in a concentration camp. Sersi continues to fight Exodus, until Black Knight convinces her to stop before she causes more collateral damage. The X-Men find a group of humans slaughtered by the Mutates. Quicksilver and Jean Grey discover the Scarlet Witch and Crystal while searching for Fabian Cortez. Cortez appears, holding Luna hostage. When Exodus enters, a frightened Cortez tells Quicksilver and Crystal to kill Exodus if they want their baby to live.

Continuity Notes

Black Knight recognizes Exodus, but doesn’t remember from where.

Review

This issue is essentially the same as the previous two chapters, except now John Romita, Jr. is drawing it. Most of this issue is dedicated to Sersi fighting Exodus, a fight that doesn’t advance the story and just ends in a draw. Exodus was a new villain at this point and Marvel really wanted to push the idea that he’s extremely powerful, but spending so many pages on a fight with just one Avenger is a strange way to go about it. Sersi, as far as I can tell, had never appeared in an X-comic before. There’s no explanation of her powers, what an “Eternal” is, or why her fight with Exodus can cause so much damage. I think I had read maybe one or two Avengers issues with Sersi before this crossover, and I just remember her throwing parties and acting ditzy. Her costume also looked like a one-piece bikini with fur trim on it, which is always an indication of how supremely powerful a character is.

As a kid, I remember being confused by this storyline, specifically this issue. I think I didn’t fully understand the Avengers’ relationship with the UN, and maybe the “civil war” aspect of the story wasn’t properly explained, because I couldn’t figure out which side the X-Men were on. There are still some aspects that just don’t make a lot of sense, like Fabian Cortez’s role in the civil war. The explanation given in this issue is that Cortez incited the violence in Genosha in order to hide out from Magneto. He provoked a civil war between humans and mutants, kidnapped Magneto’s granddaughter, and bragged about it on international television…to hide from Magneto? We’re supposed to take this blithering idiot seriously as a villain?

AVENGERS WEST COAST #101 – December 1993

Genosha, Mon Amour

Credits: Roy Thomas (writer), Dave Ross (penciler), Tim Dzon (inker), Steve Dutro (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist)

Summary

Hawkeye and the Avengers left in America protest the UN’s decision not to get involved in the Genoshan civil war. In Genosha, Scarlet Witch and Crystal search for Luna while the remaining Avengers fight Exodus. Professor Xavier, Beast, and US Agent discover a tunnel with hundreds of Mutates living in inhumane conditions, overseen by the Magistrate Elite soldiers. The other X-Men continue to fight Cortez’s mutant guards, and learn that Cortez was only speaking through a shapeshifter earlier.

Continuity Notes

Revanche was with the X-Men in the previous chapter but has disappeared. US Agent was shown secretly following Professor Xavier on a dirt road in the previous chapter, and now he’s openly joined him in the tunnels beneath Genosha.

The Genoshan Magistrate Elite soldiers claim to be working for Fabian Cortez, which can't be reconciled with the other chapters in the crossover. Human soldiers working for Cortez kind of goes against the whole "mutant/human civil war" idea.

Review

I can only imagine what a regular Avengers West Coast reader thought of this issue. Of course, the title was being cancelled with the next issue and relaunched as Force Works, so I guess they had lots of wonderful memories ahead of them. This is the weakest chapter of the crossover so far, as the story moves incrementally and the heroes just fight the same villains they fought in the last chapter. Roy Thomas, considered by many to be one of the best Silver Age X-Men writers, doesn’t seem comfortable with the characters for some reason. Beast is shown making a condescending remark about “non-mutants” that requires a scolding from Xavier. Of all the X-Men, Beast would be the least likely to say something like this, especially in the middle of a human/mutant civil war. It’s followed a few pages later with Rogue and Gambit talking about how proudly Southern they are. Uh, okay. It’s a weak comic, but I guess Marvel succeeded in their goal of getting me to buy a series I didn’t normally collect.

X-MEN #26 – November 1993

Civil Disobedience!

Credits: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Andy Kubert (penciler), Matt Ryan (inker), Bill Oakley (letterer), Joe Rosas (colorist)

Summary

The Avengers defeat the SHIELD agents and fly to Genosha to save Crystal’s daughter. Hawkeye says that the Avengers left behind will face the politicians at the UN. Xavier and Beast break away from their UN convoy in Genosha to meet the “Bipartisan Rebel Batallion”, a group of humans and Mutates determined to stop the civil war. The US Agent secretly follows them. Quicksilver and a group of X-Men arrive in Genosha where they face a group of Cortez’s men. Cortez overhears Quicksilver’s speech against his father and learns that Magneto is now comatose. The Avengers arrive in Genosha and try to stop a skirmish between human soldiers and Mutates. Exodus arrives, killing the humans, proclaiming that the Mutates must be saved.

Review

After the first chapter set up the crossover's premise, the second installment mainly exists to recap the story and move the characters to where they need to be. I like Andy Kubert’s interpretation of the Avengers, and his art brings a little excitement to a middling story. I should point out that X-Men has devoted two issues in a row to two separate crossovers. Nicieza had ended most of his ongoing storylines a few issues earlier, so it doesn’t feel as if anything important is being skipped, but it still gives the title an odd pacing. I wonder if Marvel gave any thought to fans that only purchased one X-title a month, or if they assumed that most of X-Men’s readers followed the entire line.

AVENGERS #368 – November 1993

Bloodties Part One – Family Legacy

Credits: Bob Harras (writer), Steve Epting (penciler), Tom Palmer (inker/colorist), Bill Oakley (letterer)

Summary

Magneto’s EM pulse wave has inadvertently created a civil war in Genosha. Fearing that Magneto would inspire the Mutates to rebel, human Genoshans are exterminating them. The Mutates are using their powers to fight back. The government wants Nick Fury and SHIELD to prevent the Avengers from getting involved, fearing their presence would escalate the violence and affect human politics. When pressed, Fury admits to the Avengers that intelligence reports hint that they might be attacked to make a statement against the world’s indifference towards Genosha. Crystal assumes that Luna, her daughter and Magneto’s grandchild, would be a target. The Avengers discover that Luna has been replaced with a Mutate shapeshifter. The Mutate blows herself up to make a statement. The Avengers attempt to go to Genosha, but are blocked by SHIELD agents. Meanwhile, Government agent Henry Gyrich and Avenger US Agent are sent to recruit Professor Xavier, hoping that he can ease tensions in Genosha. Fabian Cortez makes a statement to the world, holding Luna and claiming that he is the leader of the Mutate rebellion. He says that now all humans will be exterminated in Genosha.

Review

This is the start of Bloodties, a crossover between the X-Men and Avengers franchises intended to celebrate their thirtieth anniversaries. I can maybe understand a special issue to celebrate an anniversary, but doing a crossover between two franchises because they started in the same year seems like a stretch. It’s not a bad issue, as Harras is able to make the setup for the storyline pretty interesting. The characters at least have an emotional stake in the story, which sets it above a lot of the crossovers from this era. Steve Epting’s art certainly isn’t at his current level of quality, but it’s decent enough.

There are some natural connections between the Avengers and X-Men, and the first part of the storyline exploits a few of them. Former Avenger Beast is paired again with Henry Gyrich, calling back to the late 70s/early 80s era of Avengers. Crystal is the mother of Magneto’s grandchild, so it’s logical that she would be drawn into the human/mutant conflict. Even though the first part of the story is in an Avengers issue, the crossover already feels more heavily balanced towards the X-universe. Genosha is firmly an X-book concept, and the impetus for the civil war is directly related to the recent X-crossover. The main villain, Fabian Cortez, is also firmly grounded in the X-universe. I’m not too familiar with this era in Avengers history, but it seems like the title is undergoing an X-makeover anyway. The leather jackets, headgear, bad haircuts, headbands, and odd costume designs all look like attempts to mimic the look of the X-titles. Characters with more traditional costumes, like Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch, look extremely out of place. One of the letters on the letters pages praises the book for having “attitude” now. Marvel’s promotional material for this event definitely hasn’t aged well, with even Captain America featured in a leather jacket and chunky headgear.

With Apartheid coming to an end, Marvel apparently decided to look for other global atrocities to find a new direction for Genosha. It looks like they decided on the civil war in Yugoslavia. Fury and SHIELD are introduced into the story solely to indicate the UN’s reluctance to get involved. I have a mental image of a dry erase board in Marvel’s conference room, with names like “North Korea”, “Bosnia-Herzegovina”, “Sudan”, “Afghanistan”, “East Timor”, and “Tibet” written all over it. “Okay, guys…I think we’re on to something…” If Marvel published this story today, I can just imagine Joe Quesada all over cable television, bragging about how smart and relevant this story is. I’m starting to miss the days when the media just ignored us.