UNCANNY X-MEN ‘96 - September 1996

Destiny’s Child

Credits: Terry Kavanagh & Howard Mackie (writers), David Perrin & Nick Gnazzo (pencilers), Art Thibert & Harry Candelario (inkers), Kevin Somers & Malibu (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Preacher is targeted by government agents who want access to his precognitive powers. They discover one of his paintings of Shard and recognize her as the “ghost” in X-Factor’s headquarters. Preacher follows his visions to Las Vegas, where Bishop is meeting the current holographic incarnation of Shard. The government agents send the Hound to attack, abducting Shard and Preacher. Wild Child follows Hound’s scent to a secret facility where Shard is being dissected for her future technology and knowledge. Knowing that the true Shard would sacrifice her life for the mission, Bishop is prepared to annihilate her holographic form against Wild Child’s objections. Shard chooses to destroy her own projection gauntlet and end her life to keep the information out of the government’s hands. The agents escape and program the lab to explode. As Bishop exits, he realizes that the hologram really was Shard. Suddenly, Shard appears in the Blackbird, revealing that the lab’s experimentation apparently granted her life independent of the holographic projector. Meanwhile, Bastion keeps Preacher in isolation and studies his paintings.

Continuity Notes: The rogue government agents are the same ones who infiltrated X-Factor’s headquarters in X-Factor #123. Bishop’s birthplace is revealed as Las Vegas, and flashbacks show him living on the streets with Shard and another mutant named Hancock before being recruited into the XSE. Preacher first appeared in the previous year's annual.

I Love the ‘90s: “Destiny’s Child” can’t be a reference to the singing group since it hadn’t appeared yet. Bishop’s childhood takes place in the faraway future of 2013 (which didn’t even make sense in 1996, since it’s stated in this issue he’s born fifty years from the present).

Review: The basic idea for this issue isn’t bad, and it’s the type of story that is probably best suited for an annual. I’m not sure why exactly Shard was chosen as an X-Factor member, but since she’s Bishop’s “dead” sister, there should be a story that explores his feelings about her. Doing it in an annual instead of just running the typical filler is a smart move. It also allows the monthly titles to go along their way without having to address the issue.

Kavanagh and Mackie introduce a little conflict by having Bishop express the opinion that she’s just a hologram and not his sister at all. He actually doesn’t want anything to do with her, which is pretty cold but fitting with Bishop’s character. Of course, by the end of the story he’s seen the light predictably enough, but the scenes that show his willingness to kill Shard work fairly well. If the story actually ended with Bishop killing Shard, or Shard killing herself, maybe it would’ve had more of an impact. Instead, there’s a tacked on happy ending that reveals that Shard is now some sort of an “independent hologram” and everything’s okay. If this was supposed to make readers think of hologram-Shard as more of a “real” character, I don’t think it worked. Aside from the happy ending, I also have issues with the generic shadowy government conspiracy villains (who were already overdone in X-Factor), and the treatment of Preacher. The X-Men just forget about him getting kidnapped and go home at the end. I know Preacher’s a forgettable character who never amounts to anything, but the characters in the book shouldn’t be acting this way.

X-MEN UNLIMITED #10 – March 1996

Need To Know

Credits: Mark Waid (writer), Frank Toscano & Nick Gnazzo (pencilers), Art Thibert (inker), Matt Webb & Malibu (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary: The Dark Beast, using chemicals to alter his appearance, travels to the Beast’s hometown to learn about his past. He speaks to his elementary school principal, his high school girlfriend, and his priest. Throughout the course of the conversations, he learns about Hank McCoy’s childhood curiosity and the incident that gave him blue fur. After speaking to his acquaintances, the Dark Beast kills them and anyone else in the area. When Dark Beast later visits Hank McCoy’s parents on their farm, he finds that he can’t bring himself to kill them. Meanwhile, the Beast continues to alienate himself from his fellow X-Men while studying the Legacy Virus. He realizes that his computer system has been hacked, and traces the perpetrator to the abandoned headquarters of the Brand Corporation. The Beast enters and sees a holographic display of a virus matrix he was trying to unlock. He’s suddenly encased in a restraining device and greeted by the Dark Beast. Dark Beast explains that he’s going to hide from Mr. Sinister in plain sight by posing as the Beast. Beast breaks free and fights back. When he learns that the Dark Beast murdered his childhood acquaintances, he’s ready to kill him. Dark Beast taunts that if he kills him, he’ll never learn where he came from. Beast hesitates, which enables Dark Beast to break free. He knocks the Beast out and chains him up. He then lays bricks and creates a wall to conceal his prisoner.

Continuity Notes: Someone must’ve realized how ridiculous X-Men #49 was, because they’re now backtracking. Dark Beast’s inner monologue in this issue reads, “As a transplant to this timeline, I have long known that this world must boast its own Hank. Until now, I have been too consumed with other matters to give McCoy much thought.” This isn’t very consistent with the previous scene that showed that he was shocked to discover that he had a counterpart here, and his dialogue chastising himself for being an idiot.

Some rationale is given for Dark Beast’s fear of being discovered. He claims that he served a “rancorous subservience to Mr. Sinister” in the Age of Apocalypse reality and that he’s trying to avoid that here. Since Sinister left Apocalypse at the start of the AoA storyline, we didn’t see a lot of interaction between him and Dark Beast. It seems odd that a character as physically powerful and proudly evil as Dark Beast could be a stooge for anyone, but that’s the explanation they’re going with.

Iceman appears in this issue, easily able to switch between his human and ice forms. Since his injury in X-Men #50 plays a large role in Uncanny X-Men #331, the issue that explicitly takes place after this one, that means that the Beast in X-Men #50 was secretly the Dark Beast. I don’t think Lobdell had that in mind when writing that issue, but it’s the only way for the continuity to work.

The high school yearbook Dark Beast is using to investigate Hank McCoy has a cover date from the 1960s. Even in 1996, that would put the Beast in his mid-40s, so that has to be dismissed as a mistake. Later on, Beast’s high school girlfriend is described as a thirty-year-old female, which naturally puts Beast in the same age range. I’ll again point out how strange it is that Marvel seems okay with the original teenage X-Men growing up, but Spider-Man graduating high school was apparently the worst mistake ever made.

Review: I really liked this issue when it was first released, and it still holds up today if you’re willing to overlook some terrible artwork. This is a strong story that does tie into the ongoing storylines in the other titles, so it’s exactly what X-Men Unlimited was originally supposed to do. Waid uses the issue as a character study on the Beast, examining how his insatiable curiosity could be twisted in dark ways on another world. The dialogue is witty and sharp, and characters feel real in a way most of the other writers at this time can’t pull off. Dark Beast’s belief that someone always has to die is played for an appropriate dramatic effect, especially in the scene with Beast’s parents. The entire story has been building up to the Dark Beast killing them, and the way Waid keeps putting if off by giving him a giant log or an axe for props is pretty clever. Dark Beast’s inability to kill his parents, even on another world, is interesting and adds at least a little depth to a one-dimensionally evil character.

The scenes from Hank McCoy’s childhood are also fun, and it helps that they’re grounded in an everyday reality that the other X-books continue to move away from. I’m not sure if Frank Toscano or Nick Gnazzo drew the flashbacks, but they have a nice, cartoony charm to them that reminds me of Tom Grummett’s work. The majority of the issue is unfortunately drawn by a generic-looking Image clone. Like Luke Ross’ previous fill-ins, he’s trying to combine a little bit of manga with the early ‘90s look, and results are extremely unattractive. The figures are poorly constructed, the faces look bizarre, and there are a million little lines over everything. It drags down an otherwise fine comic.