X-FORCE #64 – March 1997

The Haunting of Castle Doom!
Credits: John Francis Moore (writer), Anthony Castrillo & Mark Pajarillo (pencilers), Jon Holdredge & Marlo Alquiza (inkers), Comicraft (lettering), Marie Javins (colors)

Summary: After the Time Platform malfunctions, X-Force is transported with Doom’s castle to 1941. Because the castle already existed in 1941, the castle and everyone inside exist as ghost-like apparitions. Dimitri Fortunov overhears Baron von Strucker making plans to kill his grandfather, who objects to an experimental machine Strucker is building. X-Force agrees to help Dimitri stop Strucker’s men, even though they’re not sure if they’re damaging the timeline. After X-Force destroys Strucker’s “storm-catcher” machine, Nathaniel Richards manages to repair the Time Platform and return everyone to the present day. Cable destroys the Time Platform, and talks G. W. Bridge out of arresting him. Nathaniel Richards says goodbye, while mentally declaring that he won’t be on Cable’s side for long.

Review: I wonder if Moore wrote these issues as fill-ins, not knowing that he would be taking over the title. It’s unusual to see a new writer not introducing any new plot threads or touching on any ongoing story arcs during his first two issues. Jeph Loeb managed to move the location of the series and alter the cast within a few pages during his first issue. Moore has simply plugged the team into a generic story that probably could’ve starred any other superhero team. The plot itself is mostly unobjectionable, although I do have to wonder about the decision to make the team “ghosts” during the time travel sequence. The story keeps reminding us that they’re intangible, yet they’re able to physically assault Strucker’s men, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. The art is a combination of Castrillo’s blatant Byrne imitation (which is odd, since he backed off of the aping in the previous issue), and Pajarillo’s blatant “Image circa 1993” impression. Neither one is particularly good, and both help to reinforce the idea that this storyline was thrown together at the last minute to kill time.

X-FORCE #63 – February 1997

Wish You Were Here
Credits: John Francis Moore (writer), Anthony Castrillo (penciler), Mark Morales w/Chad Hunt (inkers), Comicraft (lettering), Lee Ann Clark & Graphic Color Works (colors)

Summary: Meltdown wakes up in Liddleville, and soon discovers Dimitri Fortunov. She flashes back to the events that lead her inside Dr. Doom’s castle. Cable lead X-Force on a mission to ensure that Doom’s Time Platform doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Nathaniel Richards joined the team and helped them break into the castle. After facing a group of Doom’s robots, Meltdown was abducted and her consciousness was placed inside Liddleville. Fortunov explains that Doom’s castle once belonged to his family, and that he broke into the castle to arm himself while fighting to unite Latveria. Soon, X-Force manages to free Meltdown and Fortunov and return them to their proper bodies. The group locates Doom’s Time Platform, as G. W. Bridge and two SHIELD agents arrive. Bridge claims that the UN has jurisdiction over everything in Doom’s castle. Fortunov declares that no one outside of Latveria has the right to the technology, and throws a grenade. A SHIELD agent blasts Fortunov into the control panel, activating the Time Platform. Meanwhile, Sunspot, Warpath, and Caliban act as backup and hide amongst the gypsies. One gypsy touches Warpath’s hand and has a horrific vision of the future. Seconds later, the gypsies receive word that Doom’s castle has disappeared.

Continuity Notes: Dr. Doom is believed dead at this time, after the events of Onslaught: Marvel Universe. Liddleville is the miniature town Dr. Doom created with the Puppet Master to imprison the Fantastic Four in FF #236. The gimmick is that a person stays in a dream state as his thoughts are animated by the tiny synthetic doppelganger in the town. Fortunov has a companion, Sergei, who was apparently killed when his mind was placed into his Liddleville doppelganger. Who exactly was making tiny replicas of Meltdown and the others isn’t explained.

We Get Letters: Actual editorial responses to reader comments on the recent “Origin of Shatterstar” debacle: “We hope you enjoyed the solution, even if it was a tad bit complicated.” “Star’s life has certainly changed, and it’s been way too complicated for Star or his fans to follow.” “Needless to say, evidence regarding the truth about our man Star does appear to contradict itself, doesn’t it?” And finally, “We have to admit that the final explanation for Shatterstar’s origin ended up being a wee bit complicated and pretty confusing. Although we may tell you more somewhere down the road, we will make sure that whatever we add will only clarify what has become somewhat of a temporally challenged origin story”. I wonder if Jason Liebig, the assistant editor, wrote these responses. In one interview, he claimed that he told Bob Harras during his job interview that he considered the buildup to Onslaught to be bad storytelling, so this sounds like something he might’ve written.

Review: This is John Francis Moore’s debut on X-Force, although it still feels like the series is in fill-in mode. This is a plot-heavy issue that isn’t outright terrible, but manages to be extremely dull. I’m not sure why so much of the issue is dedicated to Liddleville, since it doesn’t appear to add anything to the story and forces many other plot details to get cramped into too few pages. It seems like Moore assumes we’re already familiar with the town’s first appearance in an early ‘80s FF issue and the gimmick is amusing enough to justify such a lengthy digression. It isn’t. The rest of the issue consists of getting the characters where they’re supposed to be and setting the Time Platform up for whatever Moore wants to use it for in the next issue. Again, it’s not necessarily a bad setup for a story, but it all feels pretty generic and dull.

X-FORCE #60 – November 1996

I Know YOU Are But What Am I?
Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Anthony Castrillo (penciler), Bud LaRosa (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Marie Javins & Malibu (colors)

Summary: As Mojo watches on, Gog and Magog brainwash Shatterstar and Cable. Mojo displays holograms, filmed a hundred years in the future, that show Shatterstar killing him. Cable breaks free from his restraints, but is soon struck down by Spiral. After meeting with Dr. Strange in New York, Longshot finds a way to travel to Mojoworld with X-Force. They’re greeted by Dazzler and a group of resistance fighters. X-Force joins them and invades Mojo’s fortress. Inside, they only find a blank television screen. Domino turns it on, and a cartoon show starring Cable and Shatterstar appears. On Earth, the cartoon airs on television and hypnotizes viewers. Mojo brags that he’ll have all the audience he needs on Earth. Meanwhile, Mimic and Blob follow the orders of a mystery man and kidnap Risque.

Continuity Notes: According to Longshot, Mojo has a time traveler working for him, which explains how he’s getting footage of the future. Longshot also believes that this is the start of “the Hundred Year War” which ends in the deaths of both Mojo and Shatterstar.

Why exactly Shatterstar is fighting the original Mojo in the future isn’t explained. His descendent, Mojo V, has always been portrayed as Shatterstar’s rival. Also, Spiral is shown serving Mojo again with no explanation.

Dr. Strange claims that he no longer has the power to send Longshot home, which I assume is a reference to something that happened in his own title before it was cancelled. How exactly the team travels to Mojoworld isn’t explained; Longshot just asks Strange to point them in the right direction, and they arrive a few pages later.

Blob and Mimic tell Risque that they rescued her from Mr. Sinister in X-Force #58. Risque has also been working for their mysterious employer.

Miscellaneous Note: The Statement of Ownership lists average sales of 233,665 with the most recent issue selling 213,123 copies.

Review: Rather than continuing the story of Shatterstar’s confusing origin, the narrative shifts to a confusing Mojo story instead. The last time the Mojoworld characters appeared was less than a year earlier in X-Men #47, which reestablished that Mojo was dead and that Dazzler and Longshot were working towards creating a new democracy. Now, Mojo is back to life without explanation, and Longshot and Dazzler are freedom fighters again. This isn’t the only jarring element, as Longshot’s appearance in the previous issue is unresolved. How and why he ended up on Earth isn’t explained, and what exactly he does to return to Mojoworld in this issue is also unclear. The story spends fives pages on having the team meet Dr. Strange, only to have him reveal that he can’t take them where they need to go. How exactly they get to where they need to go just happens in-between pages with no explanation. Maybe a few of those five pages could’ve been spent on something relevant to the plot?

The rest of the issue mainly consists of X-Force running around while Cable and Shatterstar are brainwashed. None of it’s particularly entertaining, and it feels like the same story could’ve easily been told in half the number of pages. Anthony Castrillo returns as the fill-in artist, fusing his Byrne influence with the emerging manga superhero style. A few pages look nice, but large sections of the issue seem rushed. He also has an annoying habit of not drawing pupils for several of the characters in random panels, which was a ‘90s fad that was already dated by this point.

X-FORCE #59 – October 1996

Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?
Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Anthony Castrillo (penciler), Bud Larosa (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Marie Javins & Malibu (colors)

Summary: Cable interrogates Shatterstar, hoping to learn if he really is a human named Benjamin Russell. Rictor enters, offering to help Shatterstar deal with his identity crisis. The team flies to the Weisman Institute to investigate the facility where Benjamin Russell once lived. The building is empty, and their investigation reveals nothing. While flying to Boston, Benjamin Russell’s hometown, their aircraft is suddenly attacked by Gog and Magog. They abduct Shatterstar, but Cable follows them through their teleportation portal. X-Force’s ship almost crashes, but it miraculously lands safely. The team is stunned to see Longshot sitting in the cockpit.

Continuity Notes: X-Force is now staying in an underground bunker in upstate New York, as it’s inferred that Cable distrusts the X-Men after the Onslaught disaster. Cable asks Detective Charlotte Jones for the police file on Benjamin Russell, but all files relating to X-Force are missing. Cable blames Operation: Zero Tolerance, but Domino wonders if the Gamesmaster is responsible.

Review: This is the beginning of everyone’s favorite X-Force story. At this point, Loeb is mostly reiterating clues from the previous issues, while bringing in Mojoworld characters like Gog, Magog, and Longshot. Shatterstar was given a very rushed origin story in his early appearances that tied him to the future of Mojoworld, but it was quickly ignored so that he could cut up people and grimace in X-Force. In his first appearance, he traveled to this era looking for the X-Men’s help so that he could overthrow the future Mojo. Shatterstar was recruited by Cable and apparently forgot his initial motivation, even when he actually got to meet the X-Men. (In the earlier issues of X-Force, when Cable was more of a jerk, he admitted to himself that he had no real interest in helping Shatterstar’s mission).

Fleshing out Shatterstar’s origin story, and actually resolving his original conflict, is a perfectly reasonable idea. The character had been around for five years at this point, and this was one of many dropped storylines that deserved attention. However, for reasons still unknown, this storyline turned into an attempt to establish Shatterstar as a teenager from Earth, and not an alien warrior from the future. That’s one way to play with the audience’s expectations, but there still has to be an explanation for his initial appearances (and the storyline that had Mojo V hiring Arcade to kill Shatterstar, or the times his physiology has been described as alien). When it’s all over, the Benjamin Russell connection remains unexplained and no one knows who Shatterstar really is. “Pointless” is the nicest way to describe the final result. As for this issue specifically, it’s still mostly setup. Nothing really stands out as good or bad, but it’s hard to be charitable knowing how the storyline turns out.

X-MEN ’96 – November 1996

One Day at the Mansion
Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Roberto Flores & Anthony Castrillo (pencilers), Nathan Massengill & Al Milgrom (inkers), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Paul Becton & Malibu (colors)

Summary: X-Force, Generation X, and the X-Men gather for an afternoon at the mansion. Their baseball game is interrupted by the arrival of a malfunctioning Sentinel. The teams unite and attack it, forcing the robot to fall on a series of power lines. The Sentinel screams in pain, which stuns the mutants. The dying Sentinel explains that it was created as an intelligence gatherer, and not a hunter/killer. When it was awakened by Onslaught, its super-computer began to develop a consciousness. After learning of Xavier’s surrender to the authorities, it came to warn the X-Men of the future it’s predicted. As the Sentinel dies, the assorted teams debate the merits of shooting it down. Caliban’s naive words calm everyone down, and they continue their party. That night, Cable and Phoenix unite their powers to give everyone a superficial mind-meld that bonds the teams.

I Love the ‘90s: The Bullpen Bulletins page is bragging about Marvel going online for the first time. Their official site is actually www.onslaught.com, and exclusive content is also available through AOL with the keyword “Marvel”. Remember the days when having your own section of AOL was the equivalent of having an official site?

Review: Combine a quiet post-crossover issue with typical annual filler, and this is what you get. The X-Men have fun, get bummed out by a Sentinel, then have some more fun. To close things out, they hold hands and feel good next to each other. The extremely cartoony art livens things up a bit, but nothing can disguise the dullness of the story. I have no idea what the point of the Sentinel’s appearance is supposed to be, since the X-Men forget about it very quickly and go back to their party. I reread the Sentinel’s dialogue several times, trying to decipher what exactly it’s supposed to be warning the X-Men about, but it’s too cryptic to tell. Apparently, it’s extrapolated that something horrible will happen now that Xavier’s in custody, but that’s a fairly generous reading on my part. The rest of the issue just touches base on some of the various character relationships of the time, without actually doing anything with them. Gambit is resentful of Joseph. Joseph flirts with Rogue. M acts snotty towards everyone. Everyone goofs on Cannonball. All of the scenes feel shallow, except for the brief scene that has Wolverine apologizing to Cable about his son’s death. Everything else in this issue is pretty bland.

X-FORCE #58 – September 1996

…Before the Dawn
Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Anthony Castrillo (penciler), Bud LaRosa (inker), Comicraft (lettering), Marie Javins & Malibu (colors)

Summary: Sunspot fantasizes about a past where his mutant powers never emerged. A boy in the shadows tells Sunspot that he can make this reality, but he needs him to convince the rest of X-Force to follow him. Meanwhile, Siryn awakens in the rubble of Xavier’s mansion, and realizes that she’s the only conscious member of X-Force. She tries to revive the team as each member mentally lives out a fantasy. Meltdown is killing Sabretooth, Caliban is reenacting the early life of Superman, Warpath is on the reservation with his brother, Shatterstar is resting peacefully in the forest, and Domino is living in quiet darkness. Sunspot recruits each member to join the mysterious boy. Before fully giving in, the team realizes that the boy is actually Onslaught. The team stands against him and regains consciousness. Another mental image of a young boy appears, telling them that he represents the goodness of a young Charles Xavier. In his final moments, he protected Siryn from Onslaught because he views her as the team’s inspiration. He tells X-Force that their victory over Onslaught’s temptation has freed him.

Continuity Note: Risque has disappeared between issues. Siryn tells Warpath that she wasn’t there when she regained consciousness.

Review: This is the standard “every character has a fantasy” issue. Like a lot of Loeb’s work from this era, it’s nothing to get excited over but it has a basic level of competence, even if the setup of the story doesn’t exactly work if you think about it too much. If Siryn is supposed to represent the best of X-Force, why did Xavier keep her away from Onslaught’s temptations? Wouldn’t it have been smarter to keep a more susceptible member awake? I’m not sure why Siryn is labeled the team’s inspiration either, since none of the team members even think about her while Onslaught is trying to lure them to his side. At any rate, the story is just an excuse to give each member a fantasy scene, so the mechanics aren’t worth over-analyzing.

Now that X-Force has fulfilled its part in the crossover (which was apparently “blow up the mansion”, which happens in every other X-crossover), Loeb was stuck without anywhere to go. X-Force wasn’t going to be contributing any further to the plot, yet the crossover was still going on. With an issue to kill, he tries to do a character study of each cast member, which is an admirable goal. The only new revelation comes in Shatterstar’s segment, which reveals that his fantasy is a peaceful, non-violent one. This would seem more promising if it wasn’t tied into the incomprehensible storyline the character is about to endure. Loeb is able to give the characters just enough personality to make them individuals and seem likable enough, but all of the characterizations feel at least a little shallow. Caliban is the dumb puppy, Sunspot misses his old life, Warpath misses his brother, Meltdown’s still angry…most of these ideas are reasonable (I’ve discussed my dislike of Loeb’s Caliban before), the execution just feels superficial. I’m glad there is a focus on the characters, I just wish more was done with them.

X-FORCE #57 – August 1996

In the Company of Strangers
Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Anthony Castrillo (penciler), Mark Morales (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Marie Javins & Malibu (colors)

Summary: After Mr. Sinister’s assault on X-Man and X-Force, only Domino and Caliban are left standing. Caliban, whose strength is suddenly enhanced, violently attacks Sinister. Domino enacts the armory’s self-destruct sequence, destroying part of the mansion, and leads the team away from Sinister. Caliban and Meltdown are separated from the others in the tunnels beneath the mansion. Meltdown comforts Caliban, who is distraught over his sudden bloodlust. Meanwhile, X-Man reveals to Domino that Sinister shut his powers off. He uses what’s left of his powers to enter Sunspot’s mind, hoping that the Askani teaching he absorbed from Cable can undo Sinister’s damage. A mental image of Blaquesmith suddenly appears, and the duo is knocked unconscious. Sinister soon attacks the rest of the team, as Warpath and Risque arrive to help. X-Man regains consciousness and attacks Sinister. Sinister convinces him to enter his mind and see that his motives for stopping Apocalypse are legitimate. X-Man falls for the trap, and Sinister refocuses his telepathy to attack the team. With X-Force defeated, Sinister leaves with X-Man.

Continuity Notes: This issue continues directly from X-Man #18.

Sinister speculates that Caliban’s suddenly enhanced strength is due to a failsafe implanted in him by Apocalypse. Apocalypse genetically altered Caliban back in the early issues of X-Factor.

How exactly Sinister shut off X-Man’s powers is left vague. Sunspot assumes that Sinister hasn’t done this to Cable because of his techno-organic virus (which is a strange explanation), while Domino claims that Cable’s Askani teachings protect him.

Risque mentally refers to Sinister as one of the “legendary ones”, and says that she didn’t expect to meet any of them so soon. Sinister doesn’t recognize her and is surprised that there is a mutant he’s never heard of. I don’t know if any backstory was ever given on Risque, but it almost seems as if Loeb was setting her up to be another time-travelling character.

Review: After an entire issue of fight scenes and explosions, the story’s exactly where it was at the end of the previous chapter. Loeb, to his credit, is able to throw enough things into the mix to prevent the issue from feeling like a total waste of time, but it’s hard not to notice that the story’s going in circles. Revealing that Apocalypse implanted an anti-Sinister failsafe in Caliban years earlier is a smart use of past continuity, connecting Apocalypse’s earliest appearances (before Sinister was even created, let alone retconned into being one of his fiercest enemies) with the more recent revelations about the character. Loeb also uses the scene to create a character moment between Caliban and Meltdown, who is beginning to drop her rough facade. It feels a little forced, but it is nice that some of the ongoing character arcs haven’t been forgotten during the crossover. The fill-in art comes from Anthony Castrillo, who spends much of the issue doing a pretty blatant John Byrne imitation. Some of the pages look like average, acceptable superhero art, while others are just cramped and awkward. It looks like Castrillo is trying to combine Byrne with the manga style that was getting popular at the time, and the results are inconsistent at best.