X-FACTOR #134 - #135, May - June 1997

The Child

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Eric Battle (penciler), Art Thibert (inker), Glynis Oliver & GCW (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Bowser loads a disc of what he believes to be Forge’s secrets into a government computer. The disc releases a virus that gives X-Factor access to all government databases. The team travels to Bowser’s home, where Mystique interrogates him over the whereabouts of Trevor Chase. Trevor emerges from a back room, releasing monsters created by his reality-warping powers. One of the monsters consumes Bowser and disappears. Meanwhile, Guido awakens from his coma. After causing a ruckus, he’s placed under arrest.

Review: Is it too much to ask for two issues in a row that actually make sense? Just one issue after a story mostly dedicated to the heroes faking their deaths, they reveal to the government that they’re actually alive. So, what was the point? Allowing the team to live as “ghosts” opens up a lot of possibilities and ties into the new “underground” direction of the book. Going out of your way to set the idea up and abandoning it the very next issue doesn’t make sense. Even if the team just had to invade Bowser’s home, Mystique could’ve easily impersonated anyone she wanted to and completed the mission. Aside from the squandered opportunities, the story is essentially the same as most of the issues of this run. There’s some alleged “humor” at the expense of Wild Child falling over himself on the team’s jet, the dialogue is clunky, and characters are often saying and doing things that make little sense (Shard repeatedly refers to her future as “alternate.” Technically, it is, since Onslaught killed the X-Men in her timeline. However, would she really think of her own timeline as “alternate”?). The fill-in art comes from Eric Battle, who has vastly improved from his previous issue, but is still turning in a subpar Matsuda impression.

A Virtual Reality

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Jeff Matsuda (penciler), Art Thibert (inker), Glynis Oliver & GCW (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Mystique drops Trevor Chase off at his parents’ home, but Trevor is upset that Mystique is leaving him to rejoin X-Factor. Meanwhile, X-Factor learns that Madrox is planning on retrieving Guido from government custody. Because Madrox is unaware that Guido still has a weak heart, Forge orders the team to stop him. Madrox does rescue Guido from the government agents, but Guido collapses with more chest pains. X-Factor saves Guido and gets him help, while a distressed Madrox disappears.

Continuity Notes: Mystique knew Trevor Chase’s grandmother, but says it’s too painful to talk about her. This might be a hint that Destiny is supposed to be the grandmother.

I Love the 90s: Trevor Chase has a Tom Cruise “Mission Impossible” poster, and a Nintendo 64.

Review: So, this issue, X-Factor is back to playing dead. I guess the disappearance of government agent Bowser in the last issue gives them cover, but it’s not as if they knew he was going to disappear when they revealed themselves at his home. Plus, shouldn’t they be concerned about finding this guy? Aside from that, how long does Forge expect X-Factor to stay “dead” when his computer virus sent out a message bragging that he was hacking into the government’s databanks? Why would he need to know this if he was dead? There’s not a lot to say about this one, as it’s typical X-Factor. The shadowy government agents in this issue appear to be working for Bastion, which I guess is a step up from keeping them in total obscurity. Wild Child and Madrox are treated as comedic relief, although neither has anything particularly amusing to say. Another forced romance subplot is introduced, as Forge begins to have feelings for Mystique again, apparently because she’s growing more compassionate. (I'll say it again...Marvel really had no idea what to do with this character in the ‘90s. She went from reformed villain, to “crazy,” to outright villain, to amoral government agent over the course of five years, and is now heading back to “reformed villain.”) Using Trevor Chase, a jealous kid with god-like powers, as a budding villain at least has potential, but he’s only a small part of a story that’s virtually identical to the previous issues.

X-FACTOR #130 – January 1997

A Mother’s Eyes – The Assassination of Graydon Creed
Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Eric Battle (penciler), Al Milgrom (inker), Comicraft (lettering), Glynis Oliver & GCW (colors)

Summary: On the eve of Election Day, X-Factor arrives in Atlanta to protect Graydon Creed from Mystique. Mystique uses her shapeshifting powers to get close enough to point a gun at Creed. Polaris stops her, and Mystique is placed in custody. As Val Cooper rides away with her, Mystique claims that she was actually trying to stop the assassination. The gun she was using was actually a forcefield generator that was going to protect Creed. Meanwhile, X-Factor apprehends Pyro, as Creed addresses his supporters. Suddenly, a blast of energy reduces Creed to literal ashes. X-Factor regroups in their van, where a message appears on the monitors. It claims that Creed was the first and Mystique is next.

Continuity Notes: Val Cooper apparently refers to Creed as “Senator”, which is a mistake. It’s possible that Creed’s running mate, who is a senator, was supposed to be in the scene, but the artist left him out.

Mystique is now able to impersonate Val Cooper, after spending months hacking into Forge’s programming and working on her inhibitor transplant. She also claims that she knows about the secret government conspiracy that’s manipulating X-Factor.

Review: And now we’ve come to the end of the latest “What was the point?” storyline, the assassination of Graydon Creed. The death of the character is spoiled in the actual title of the issue, so I’m assuming the creators themselves weren’t even that interested in building suspense over his fate. And killing him off in such a cartoonish way doesn’t exactly add to the drama. I half-expected to see Daffy Duck’s bill on top of the pile of ashes. It seems like the creators were waiting for a decent story to emerge from the subplot, but as the real life Election Day approached, they realized it had to come to some sort of a conclusion (judging by the dates in the Bullpen Bulletin, this issue already shipped over a week after the 1996 election). Aside from serving no discernable purpose for months, outside of indirectly leading to Iceman’s departure, the storyline ends with yet another vague mystery. “Who killed Graydon Creed?” was another mystery that stuck around in the background for a few months before disappearing (I recall reading online that the X-Men Forever mini eventually revealed that Mystique did kill him after all, but I don’t even want to think about the mechanics of that). I guess turning Graydon Creed into a martyr for anti-mutant forces was supposed to lead into Bastion’s rise in “Operation: Zero Tolerance”, but I don’t recall much of a connection between the two storylines.

The actual mechanics of this specific issue feel as poorly thought-out as the rest of the storyline. An inordinate amount of time is spent on selling the idea that Mystique is impersonating Val Cooper, but it doesn’t have any real impact on the story. Mystique impersonates Val for a few pages, and then morphs into a variety of different people before getting close to Creed. The plot twist that Mystique suddenly wants to save Creed’s life makes no sense, given that she’s been talking about killing him for the past two issues. Also, Mystique is now suddenly in on the numerous conspiracies surrounding X-Factor, even though nothing in the previous issues indicated this. And, really, the last thing this title needs is more shadowy government conspiracy stories. To make matters worse, the eye-searing artwork often fails to tell the story, and it looks like it was drawn with markers instead of a pencil. This is the conclusion to a storyline that began over a year earlier, and it’s handled by a subpar fill-in? This turned out to be my next to last issue of X-Factor, and I don’t think anyone could blame me for bailing.

CABLE #31 – May 1996

…There is a Reaction!
Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Ian Churchill (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Mike Thomas & Graphic Color Works (colors)

Summary: Blaquesmith charges up his walking stick and prepares to kill X-Man. X-Man responds to the blast with a force of psionic energy, which weakens him and causes Blaquesmith to disappear. During the fight, psi-sensitives around the world, such as Holocaust, Psylocke, Phoenix, and Xavier have violent reactions to X-Man’s release of energy. Cable tries to reason with X-Man, but he refuses to give up. When Cable pushes X-Man’s powers to their limit, he falls unconscious. Blaquesmith reappears from his time-shift and tries again to convince Cable to kill him. Cable refuses and draws upon his last reserves of power to talk to X-Man telepathically. X-Man finally trusts him and allows Cable to repair the mental damage he sustained in the battle. Blaquesmith takes Cable away, as his techno-organic virus begins to grow again. Cable, who deduced that Blaquesmith’s method to kill X-Man was also his failsafe to kill him if he ever grew too powerful, tells him that too many dark secrets have emerged. Meanwhile, Post receives telepathic orders from Onslaught to kill Cable.

Review: Well, it’s another issue that relies on X-Man behaving irrationally to work, but it does at least have some redeeming elements. Revealing that Blaquesmith was more than a mentor to Cable, he was also supposed to be his assassin if things went wrong, is interesting. Realistically, if these characters were as powerful as the stories claim, there likely would be a terminal failsafe in place. The conflict between Cable and Blaquesmith works pretty well, as Cable sees himself in X-Man and Blaquesmith just sees a dangerous time anomaly that must be stopped. This is actually a case where X-Man’s psychotic behavior can work in the story’s favor, as Blaquesmith does have a legitimate argument to make. X-Man is apparently unable to respond to reason, and he presents a threat to the entire planet, so killing him could be just as a defensible as killing a rabid dog. Unfortunately, Blaquesmith disappears for most of the issue, leaving us with more scenes of X-Man’s powers exploding while he pointlessly fights Cable, so the argument doesn’t get enough play. So if you didn’t get enough large panels and splash pages of Cable and X-Man fighting in the last two chapters, I guess you’re in luck.

Mapping the Mission
Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Eric Battle (penciler), Art Thibert (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary: Blaquesmith continues to recap Cable’s history, explaining his conflicts with Stryfe and Tyler. He concludes by detailing his fight with X-Man, which might’ve placed Cable’s life in jeopardy.

Continuity Notes: Blaquesmith now says that he knows who stole his data on Cable in issue #21. He also says that he has a “disturbing conclusion as to his machinations, which we have all fallen prey to”. It seems like the thief is being retconned into being Onslaught, even though issue #21 heavily implied it was the X-Cutioner. This raises the same question X-Men #50 did…why would Onslaught go through all of this trouble to get information he already has access to?

Review: This is the second part of the back-up origin story. Oddly enough, it spends as much time recapping the main story in this issue as it does anything else. It also segues into more vague hints about an upcoming menace, which means it’s easily dismissed as more Onslaught nonsense.

CABLE #30 – April 1996

For Every Action…
Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Ian Churchill (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Mike Thomas & Malibu’s Hues (colors)

Summary: Eight hundred years in the past, a time-displaced Dane Whitman (the Avengers’ Black Knight), takes a group of crusaders to a “wicked” tomb in the Swiss Alps. In the present, Exodus returns to the tomb to recuperate. Nearby, Cable flies overhead, searching for X-Man. He’s suddenly assaulted with X-Man’s memories. Below, X-Man and Threnody travel through the snowstorm. X-Man is suddenly overcome with memories of Cable’s childhood. Cable follows their trail, and discovers that Blaquesmith has been secretly following him. X-Man leads Threnody inside Cable’s Swiss cabin, claiming that he feels psychically drawn to it. Cable enters, and tries to explain to X-Man that coexisting so close together is hurting both of them. Suspicious, X-Man lashes out against him. He sees Cable’s face and realizes that they are the same person, but he refuses to stop his attack. Blaquesmith enters, and the presence of another telepath makes X-Man even angrier. When Cable tries to calm him down, X-Man’s powers explode, destroying the cabin. Later, as X-Man awakens in the snow, he’s greeted by Exodus.

Continuity Notes: Exodus is presumably recovering from his fight with Holocaust, from X-Men #42 and #43. According to the narration, the tomb is where “a portion of the power that created him remains.” I’ve heard some people claim before that placing the Black Knight eight hundred years ago is a continuity error, but I’m not familiar enough with his character to really know. Uncanny X-Men #307 revealed that Black Knight recognized Exodus from somewhere, so at least some of this story must’ve been worked out in advance.

Review: If X-Man hadn’t already reached the point of self-parody as a character, surely this issue would’ve put him over the top. Like every other X-Man story, we see him reacting irrationally and lashing out in anger at people who aren’t threatening him, as the story climaxes with his powers exploding. Didn’t anyone at Marvel notice that the same thing happens in every X-Man story? I guess this one is supposed to be a bigger deal since he’s meeting his counterpart from this reality, but that certainly doesn’t make the story less predictable. It’s almost as if Jeph Loeb had an X-Man drinking game worked out in his head, and he felt an obligation to make sure all of the standard X-Man plot elements made it into each story. Adding Exodus and Black Knight does at least create the potential for something interesting to happen later, but so far it’s all setup. The rest of the story consists of a lot of large images of Cable and X-Man wandering in the snow, which strangely enough limits the amount of space that’s used for the later fight scene between the pair. X-Man’s powers exploding just get a large panel, instead of the standard full splash page, which is surely a shame. This isn't very engaging on its own merits, but the knowledge that X-Man is behaving in exactly the same irrational manner he always does almost makes it comically bad.

Mapping the Mission

Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Eric Battle (penciler), Art Thibert (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary: Blaquesmith recaps Cable’s life, from the time of his birth to his childhood in the future, to his return to this timeline as a mercenary.

Review: This is just a partial recap of Cable’s origin (at three pages, it actually pushes this issue’s page count to twenty-three pages). The art’s atrocious, but I did appreciate this backup at the time since I had lost track of the various aspects of Cable’s heavily retconned past when this issue was released. It’s interesting that even a backup story that tries to piece together Cable’s past has no explanation for why exactly he was working as a mercenary before he mentored the New Mutants. The idea that Cable came to this time to train the new External, Cannonball, is also skipped over, which amuses me.