X-MEN LEGENDS - June 2000 (Part One)

Every Time a Bell Rings

Written by Brian K. Vaughan

Summary:  Fifteen-year-old Warren Worthington III secretly attempts to fly.  After a disastrous training session, Warren learns from his roommate and best friend Benny Yorkes that a classmate has died.  Later, after hearing screams in the night, Warren discovers a monster has killed the groundskeeper, Hallahan.  He successfully flies for the first time escaping the beast.  Warren seeks counsel from young teacher Father Tim, who’s sympathetic towards mutants, unlike the headmaster, Father White.  Later, after Warren hears the screams of the school’s bully Chadwick in the night, he discovers that Benny is the monster.  Benny grabs on to Warren as he flies away, but as his true personality returns, Benny realizes he can’t live as a monster.  He slashes Warren’s wing and willingly drops to his death.  The night before Benny’s funeral, Warren appears as the Avenging Angel to Father White and convinces him that mutants are also God’s children.

Continuity Notes:  

• According to the Continuity Guide in the back of the novel, this story takes place “about a year prior” to the back-up story in X-Men Vol. 1 #54 (March 1969).
• For those keeping score, the name of Warren’s prep school is St. Ignatius in the story, while at some point in the comics continuity, the name was established as St. Joe’s Preparatory School.  

Review:  Before X-Men Legends was a video game, it was the title of one of the final Marvel prose novels released by Penguin Putnam.  Much like The Ultimate Spider-Man and Untold Tales of Spider-Man, the novel is an anthology collection of various stories from the X-Men’s past.  Brian K. Vaughan was still relatively unknown when this novel was released, although he was beginning to build a name for himself in comics.  Vaughan’s decision to chronicle Warren Worthington’s life in prep school as a young mutant predates the Marvel Knights’ Angel miniseries, which followed a very similar premise, by several years.

Assuming you’re willing to accept the wild coincidence that two mutants have ended up as roommates in this prep school (which is acknowledged within the story), there’s a lot to enjoy here.  The starting place of the story, Warren studying books on aviation and physics to learn how exactly to use his wings, is clever.  Since humans aren’t meant to fly, Warren has no real clue how to use his wings, assuming they even work in the first place.  After a few pages of introducing the cast, Vaughan evolves the piece into a murder mystery, with two black hat and two white hat potential suspects.  Naturally, one of the white hats turns out to be the culprit, but I have to confess I assumed Father Tim would be the killer, not Warren’s pal Benny.  While the concept of a monster on campus does initially seem ridiculous, Vaughan sells the drama fairly well, and Warren’s confrontations with the beast do work as suitable motivations for Warren to fully develop his powers.  The debut of the Avenging Angel at the end is a cute play on Warren’s identity as an “angel,” as well.  I’ll also give Vaughan credit for not giving into standard prequel-itis, with only one reference in the piece to a character Warren will meet in the future, and it’s a totally defensible one given the context of the story.

Diary of a False Man

Written by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Summary:  Following the death of the Changeling, who was impersonating Charles Xavier, Jean Grey discovers his diary.  She learns that the Changeling was an orphan with no name, who developed mutant powers at puberty and left his old life behind.  After years as a thief, he was recruited into the Factor Three, where he inadvertently played a part in an alien’s plans to destroy Earth.  Months later, after being diagnosed with cancer, the Changeling sought out Xavier to make amends.  Xavier amplified the Changeling’s latent telepathic powers and asked him to assume his identity while he prepared for an invasion by the alien Z’Nox.  Jean Grey was the only X-Man to know of the deception, and now that the Changeling has died in battle, she isn’t sure if she should tell her teammates.  Ultimately, Jean realizes that the Changeling was content knowing he did the right thing, even with no recognition.

Continuity Notes:  

• This story is set concurrently with X-Men Vol. 1 #43 (April 1968).  The Continuity Guide also claims that the final portion of the story takes place after X-Men Vol. 1 #66 (March 1970), when Xavier is revealed as alive, but there is no jump to the future at the end of the published version.
• The Changeling’s diary claims that the name given to him by the nuns at his orphanage was Charles Sage.  Morph, an alternate reality version of the Changeling, has the real name of Kevin Sydney.
• The Changeling grew up in Central City, CA, which is where Fantastic Four #1 was set.  At the age of 30, he personally witnessed the Human Torch flying in the sky shortly after the FF’s famous rocket flight.
• I believe this is a retcon -- the Changeling claims that he used the Mutant Master’s advanced technology on Banshee in order to "put him under our control."  This is presumably an explanation for Banshee’s earliest appearances as a villain, which I think remain unexplained in the comics.

Review:  As I’ve said many times, the retcon that revealed an imposter Xavier died while the genuine article was in the basement preparing for an alien invasion is one of the dumbest X-Men stories ever written.  It’s also, somehow, become the entire basis of Charles Xavier’s characterization over the years.  I was dreading this story, but to my relief, Keith R.A. DeCandido doesn’t use it as another excuse to portray Xavier as a lying, scheming, deceptive creep.  Instead, the story is a character piece on the Changeling, a mutant the novel’s back cover tells us was the “forgotten X-Man.”  Thanks to the ‘90s cartoon and the Exiles series, the Changeling has new life today as Morph, even though that character is a million miles away from DeCandido’s interpretation.  The Changeling of the mainstream Marvel Universe doesn’t have a backstory that lends itself towards wacky comedic relief, so instead DeCandido pens a story focusing on alienation, boredom, and ultimately, redemption.  The Changeling grows up with no family and no identity, and upon discovering that he can adopt any identity he wants, squanders his talents for years running petty schemes.  In his final days, he wants to make amends, even though he has a difficult time accepting that when he dies he’ll remain anonymous.  

As ridiculous as the Xavier/Changeling swap premise is, DeCandido does evoke a hint of tragedy with the story.  When Jean reflects that even after the Changeling died doing the right thing, someone else’s name will be on his tombstone, I could almost forget how absurd this concept actually is.  DeCandido does try his best to work through some of the continuity issues and logic problems present in the original comics, but there’s only so much anyone could do.  The best moments of the story are the ones that transform the Changeling from a plot device into a believable character; the rest is an attempt to justify a lame comic from the late Silver Age that I would rather forget.  For anyone curious, you can read an excerpt from this story on DeCandido's old web page.

X-MEN UNLIMITED #22 - March 1999

Cat & Mouse

Credits: Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Patrick Gleason (penciler), Tom Nguyen (inker), Matt Webb (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: The X-Men learn from Marrow that Flag-Smasher and ULTIMATUM are planning an attack in the sewers. They investigate and discover ULTIMATUM planting a bomb under the UN. The team attempts to defuse it, but a suspicious Marrow leaves to find the real bomb. Shadowcat follows and learns she’s right --Flag-Smasher is planting a bomb under Wall Street. Convinced that Flag-Smasher won’t deactivate the bomb, Shadowcat prepares to risk her life and bury it underground. Marrow knocks her unconscious and forces Flag-Smasher alone with the bomb. Her gamble pays off as Flag-Smasher chooses survival over ideology and defuses the bomb.

Production Note: The indicia list this as the January 1999 issue while the cover date is March 1999.

I Love the '90s: Colossus (or perhaps Gambit, the lettering is unclear) has never seen a Metrocard before and wonders what happened to subway tokens.

Review: From “Children of the Atom” to “Magneto War,” the main X-titles took a noticeable dip in quality as the creators struggled with the editorially mandated new/old cast and forced crossovers. Joe Kelly spent a lot of time selling Marrow as an X-Man in the early days of his run, but she didn’t seem to fit the dynamic of the ‘80s retro-team. Actually, it’s hard to say what the dynamic was supposed to be, since the books were something of a mess until Alan Davis hit his stride after “Magneto War.” In the midst of the chaos, this story quietly sneaked through in X-Men Unlimited, giving us an idea of how Marrow could be incorporated into the retro team, and reviving memories of why so many people enjoyed Joe Kelly’s take on the character.

The story opens with Marrow dropping a dead rat on Shadowcat’s bed. Marrow says she’s noticed her “trying to fatten up for winter” and was just helping out. Ouch. The story’s narrated by Marrow, allowing the reader insight into her largely negative opinions of her teammates, and reaffirming just how much she still hates humans. Marrow’s so nasty in this story it could be read as Vaughn backpedaling Kelly’s gradual development of the character, but since she never fully reformed during his run, I think it’s a legitimate interpretation. The basic plot is rather thin, but Vaughn uses it as a means to split the characters up and give Marrow and Shadowcat plenty of scenes together. They work off of each other well, as Shadowcat refuses to believe that Marrow’s as heartless as she lets on, and Marrow maintains her stance that Shadowcat is just too pretty to understand her life as a Morlock.

The climax hinges on their disparate views of human nature, as Shadowcat declares that humans can care enough about a cause to die for it, while Marrow asserts that humans are too selfish to give up their lives for anything. Marrow wins the argument, although from her perspective she really had nothing to lose; she’d prevented her fellow mutant from risking her life and didn’t care if the human killed his own kind or not. It’s a memorably dark ending, but it’s so dark it again raises the question of why exactly Marrow is an X-Man. I also wonder why Vaughn has Shadowcat pass out in the end (after she’s recovered from Marrow’s sock to the head). Maybe it’s there to add some cheap drama as the train races towards them, or to give Marrow an opportunity to show some concern for Shadowcat, but either way the scene is needlessly confusing. Regardless, this is one of the strongest stories to feature this particular cast of X-Men, and it’s too bad it had to be published long after Unlimited had been dismissed as filler.

TALES FROM THE AGE OF APOCALYPSE - December 1997

Sinister Bloodlines

Credits: John Francis Moore (plot), Brian K. Vaughan (script), Steve Epting & Nick Napolitano (pencilers), Al Milgrom (inker), Comicraft (letters), Kevin Tinsley (colors)

Summary: Five years ago, Apocalypse’s men shot down an alien craft over Manhattan. Today, Christopher Summers escapes from Sinister’s custody and runs into the city. Sinister sends the Prelates to find him, but intentionally excludes Cyclops and Havok. When the Prelates fail, Cyclops and Havok search for Christopher. Christopher recognizes them as his children, and tells them the story of his alien abduction and eventual return to Earth. After facing a group of scavengers, the trio takes refuge during a storm. Later, infected humans attack their shelter. They’re rescued by Sinister, who explains that he hid Christopher from Cyclops and Havok because he was infected with alien DNA. Christopher suddenly mutates into a Brood Queen, and with his remaining humanity, begs Cyclops to kill him. As they dispose of his body, Havok declares he’ll never forgive Cyclops.

Continuity Notes: In the opening sequence, set five years ago, Beast is still human and Havok and Cyclops are training to become Prelates. Emplate and “the Monets” are Prelates in the present day, although Christopher Summers apparently kills Emplate. While on the run from Sinister, Christopher is aided by the AoA version of Joe Robertson. While under the Brood’s influence, Christopher kills him. He also infects Colleen Wing, who kills Misty Knight. During Christopher’s tale of his alien abduction, we see that the Brood have overtaken the Shi’ar in this timeline.

Production Note: This is a$5.99 prestige format book with no ads.

Review: Factor X was probably the most consistent of the AoA titles, so I’m glad Marvel revived these characters instead of presenting another underwhelming prequel story about the X-Men. Factor X’s John Francis Moore and Steve Epting return, aided by Brian K. Vaughn and Nick Napolitano. I know that Vaughn was a new writer Marvel was trying out in these days, but I’ve never heard of Napolitano. I can’t really tell where his art begins and Epting’s ends, which does at least give the book a consistent look.

The story is well-structured, taking advantage of the forty-eight page format. The opening “five years ago” scene is really only there to establish the arrival of Corsair (only called Christopher Summers in the story), but Moore also uses the space to establish the cast and set up the conflicts between Cyclops and Havok. The other cast members of Factor X aren’t the focus of the story, but they are at least given enough room to make more than cameos. Introducing the AoA version of Corsair is more significant than, say, the AoA Inhumans, which makes the one-shot feel like a legitimate story that’s perhaps deserving of the format.

I like the revelation that Corsair is actually a Brood Queen (for a second, I wondered if he would turn into the AoA version of Man-Wolf), although I have my continuity quibbles about the idea. The AoA diverged twenty years ago with Xavier’s death in Israel. Corsair was abducted by the Shi’ar a few years later, and as this story shows, they’re already Brood-infected by this point. How did Xavier’s death, years before he would’ve had contact with Lilandra and the Shi’ar, lead to the Brood taking over the Shi’ar? I realize this is kind of pedantic, but it goes against the basic premise of the Age of Apocalypse. The AoA isn’t just another alternate reality; it diverged from ours at a specific point. Xavier’s death would’ve had a large chain reaction on mutants on Earth, but it wouldn’t have impacted one alien race taking over another (especially if they’re doing it years before the X-Men had any contact with them). The inconsistency doesn’t hinder my enjoyment of the book, though. Besides, I’ve already come up with my own No-Prize explanation.

CABLE #42 - #44, April - June 1997

Tolerance

Credits: Todd Dezago (writer), Randy Green (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Mike Thomas & GCW (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Following a tip from Thornn, Cable and Storm investigate a possible terrorist attack by Callisto and Marrow at a Lila Cheney concert. Cable and Storm fight the terrorists, and with the help of Thornn, locate the bomb. Lila teleports it far away into space, while Callisto and Marrow escape in the confusion. Meanwhile, an agent of the Askani hides out in a monastery. Sanctity chastises him for not completing his mission to find Cable.

Continuity Notes: The Askani disciple refers to Cable as the “Gatherer of the Twelve,” which is an idea the series plays with until the end of Joe Casey’s run in 1999. It’s ignored during the actual “Twelve” crossover. Marrow appears for the first time since her resurrection in the Storm miniseries (which only happened because the artist was given the wrong reference). She’s still using her original, Yoda-esque, speech patterns.

Review: This is Todd Dezago’s third issue, and it still feels like he’s writing one-shot inventory stories. There is a brief subplot scene about the Askani searching for Cable, but the rest of the story could’ve easily run as a fill-in or an annual. Dezago’s choice of characters does have potential, since Storm has a history with Callisto and Marrow, Thornn is a forgotten Morlock who could’ve used an appearance, and Cable and Storm have that “potential love interest” thing going on at this time. Unfortunately, no one’s given much of a personality, plus Callisto is acting extremely out of character. This is at least acknowledged in the dialogue, so maybe Dezago was going somewhere with this, but as the story stands, she’s suddenly a bloodthirsty terrorist with no explanation. I also wonder how any opponents could just “slip away” if Cable’s supposed to be such an all-powerful telepath. I do like Randy Green’s art, though. It’s stylized enough for the ‘90s, but he never makes the characters look ugly or goes too far with the exaggerations.

Broken Soldiers

Credits: Todd Dezago w/ Brian Vaughan (writers), Randy Green & Chap Yaep (pencilers), Scott Hanna (inker), Mike Thomas (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: In a monastery in the Alps, the Askani disciple speaks to his recruits. He tells the story of Cable, two thousand years in the future, fighting Apocalypse’s forces shortly after the death of his wife. He rescues a young soldier from Apocalypse’s men, then convinces the recruit not to kill his incapacitated enemies. In the present, Cable rescues a young mutant from a mob. The mutant uses his powers to flood his attackers’ minds with nightmares. Cable encourages the boy not to give in to hate. Meanwhile, Phoenix ponders the resurrection of Madelyne Pryor.

Review: Doesn’t this feel familiar? Todd Dezago’s first issue ended with Cable convincing Abyss not to kill his attackers, and now, the same story is repeated twice in one issue. Granted, it’s an intentional parallel this time, but it’s still glaring that Dezago is using an old chestnut so often after only a few issues. Setting one of these stories in Cable’s past doesn’t exactly work anyway, since it contradicts the original “kill ‘em before they kill you” personality he exhibited during his early appearances. It’s Cable’s relationship with X-Force and the X-Men that softened him; he’s not supposed to have his current personality during flashbacks. I’m not sure what happened behind-the-scenes, but this marks Dezago’s final issue (I don’t know how Vaughan participated, but I’m guessing he scripted a few pages). Just as Jeph Loeb’s closing issue ended with a setup for a new storyline, we have a one-page scene setting up the next issue with Madelyne Pryor. I don’t know if Dezago wrote this page and was still planning on staying with the book, or if it was another last-minute addition by editorial designed to smooth out the transition.

Temptation in the Wilderness

Credits: James Robinson (writer), Randy Green & Allen Im (pencilers), Scott Hanna w/Scott Koblish (inkers), Mike Thomas (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: While in a telepathic trance, Cable is contacted by his biological mother, Madelyne Pryor. She mentally escorts him through Mr. Sinister’s original lab in London, Cyclops’ childhood orphanage, the Alaskan home she shared with Cyclops, and the site of her death. She asks Cable to give her life meaning and help her destroy mutantkind. Cable responds that Jean Grey is his true mother. Before breaking out of his trance, he tells Madelyne that her former home in Alaska could be a neutral meeting place. Meanwhile, the Askani monk has an epiphany and contacts Sebastian Shaw.

Continuity Notes: This takes place shortly after Cyclops and Phoenix encountered Madelyne Pryor in X-Man #25. She was resurrected months earlier as some sort of psychic projection by X-Man.

Review: James Robinson’s brief run begins here, resolving one of the lingering implications of Madelyne Pryor’s resurrection. If Madelyne Pryor really is going to be walking around in the X-Universe, there’s got to be some acknowledgment in her son’s title. Robinson takes the position that Madelyne wants revenge on all mutantkind because she’s still angry with Cyclops, which doesn’t exactly fit with her appearances in X-Man. (In that series, she was a virtual blank slate who was attracted by the power offered to her by the Hellfire Club.) At any rate, Robinson actually handles her irrational personality fairly well, and he manages to keep her conversation with Cable interesting throughout the issue. Todd Dezago dropped hints that Cable would have to pursue his mission against Apocalypse soon, which is a thread Robinson adopts and even works into his conversation with Madelyne. She questions why Cable hasn’t killed Apocalypse even though he’s been in this timeline for years, a question Cable can’t answer. Of course, the real reason is because this is Cable’s retconned motivation (his original arch-nemesis from the future was supposed to be Stryfe), but Robinson at least tries to make it a story point. This is another issue with a standalone main plot and only brief hints of an ongoing storyline, but it doesn’t feel as aimless. A plot thread from another title that needed to be acknowledged is addressed, and Robinson does a little character work with Cable along the way. Not bad.

WOLVERINE #131 – November 1998

Wolverine #131

It Fell to Earth

Credits: Todd Dezago (plot), Brian K. Vaughn (script), Cary Nord (penciler), Scott Hanna w/Rob Hunter (inkers), Kevin Tinsley (colorist), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Viper tells Wolverine that Madripoor is threatened by the outbreak of a new virus. Wolverine searches the Himalayas for the missing Hydra agents she allegedly ordered to find a virus sample for an antidote. Wolverine finds one surviving Hydra agent, who tells him that Viper staged the outbreak in Madripoor in order to trick him into searching for this particular virus. The “virus” turns out to be an alien spider, which Wolverine eventually kills. He destroys the spider’s remains and tells the Hydra agent to go into hiding.

Miscellaneous Note: According to the Statement of Ownership, average sales for the year were 184,335 copies, with the most recent issue selling 170,500.

Production Note: This is the infamous “kike” issue. The story goes that Vaughn’s script described Sabretooth as an “assassin” in a flashback scene, which a hand-written editorial note changed to “killer”. The Comicraft employee who lettered this issue saw the correction and misread it as “kike”, unaware that it was a slur against Jews. Marvel asked retailers to return copies in exchange for a corrected version, which many comic shops didn’t bother doing, making it a brief collector’s item on eBay.

Review: More filler. I suppose this issue has the distinction of being an early job by Brian K. Vaughn, whose script is competent enough, but nothing here really stands out. The plot is tolerable as far as time-killers go, but I’m not sure why exactly Viper is now commanding Hydra agents again (they just kidnapped and tried to brainwash her a few issues ago). Cary Nord’s art helps to give the story a unique look, which is always appreciated in a fill-in. I probably would’ve enjoyed this more if it hadn’t followed such a long series of filler.