X-MEN #54 – July 1996

Inquiring Minds
Credits: Mark Waid (writer), Andy Kubert (penciler), Dan Panosian (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Joe Rosas & Malibu (colors)

Summary: The X-Men search the grounds for Juggernaut, while he secretly meets with Phoenix in a psi-shielded chamber underneath the mansion. When Phoenix closes the door, Cyclops’ mental connection to her is gone. He visits the Professor and asks him to search for her. He also informs him that Phoenix didn’t tell him about her encounter with Onslaught because of his recent erratic behavior. Cyclops leaves, as Xavier broods. When he watches television footage of one of Dennis Hogan’s killers bragging that there are a million more like him, he erupts in anger. Meanwhile, Phoenix unlocks the secret of Onslaught’s identity inside Juggernaut’s mind. She tells Juggernaut to run away, and once he senses Onslaught inside his mind, he runs to Xavier’s office. Inside, he finds Onslaught, who rips the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak out of his chest. Xavier, whose mental image is entwined with Onslaught, calls the X-Men to his side. Elsewhere, the Beast escapes from his prison, but is confronted by three mysterious figures.

Continuity Notes: This story continues directly from Uncanny X-Men #334, but the continuity doesn’t exactly work. Cyclops’ meeting with Xavier’s mental projection is totally ignored, so he now has two contradictory meetings with Xavier that foreshadow the Onslaught revelation. In the last chapter, Cannonball was disturbed by Xavier’s outburst against him because he knew it was a sign that something was wrong with him. Here, Cannonball is taking the insult personally and seeking advice from Cyclops (in the last chapter, he told Storm directly that something was wrong with Xavier). Phoenix is also wearing the same outfit she wore in the previous issue, even though she changed clothes twice in Uncanny X-Men #334. The editor’s footnote acknowledges this and makes a joke about it.

Dennis Hogan was the young mutant killed by a mob in X-Men Prime while searching for the X-Men.

The psi-shielded chamber Phoenix takes Juggernaut to is the one Xavier used to hide in while preparing a defense against the Z’nox way back in Uncanny X-Men #65. Phoenix claims that she’s still the only X-Man who knows about it. Juggernaut implies that Xavier might've had ulterior motives in only telling her that he was faking his death, which bothers her.

Looking at old Usenet discussions, I notice some fans pointing out that Juggernaut actually threw the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak into space in the final issue of Marvel Team-Up. The idea that the gem somehow lives inside of him seems to be Waid's invention in this issue.

I Love the ‘90s: The narration jokingly says that Cannonball will have the nerve to confront Professor Xavier on Thanksgiving 2005.

Review: Well, it’s another issue set at the mansion that’s building up to the Onslaught revelation. Xavier is finally revealed to be Onslaught, even if the official revelation was a little vague for me at the time (I wondered if perhaps Onslaught was some outside entity that had possessed Xavier). Since this month’s issue of UXM already covers most of the same ground, it’s hard not to view this one as pretty redundant. The continuity screw-ups are also annoying, since both UXM and this title have the same editor and are supposed to be sister titles. Scott Lobdell briefly addressed some of these complaints on Usenet at the time; essentially chalking them up to the increased workload of Marvel’s remaining staff after the layoffs, and Marvel’s desire to keep the X-titles on schedule. This script could’ve definitely benefiting from a rewrite or two, even if you’re willing to forgive the continuity mistakes. Why exactly Phoenix tells Juggernaut to physically run away while they’re protected inside a psi-shielded vault makes no sense. The fact that she doesn’t even tell him who Onslaught is, which just leads to the Juggernaut running straight to him anyway, is outright silly (I realize that Onslaught’s identity was being withheld for the end for dramatic reasons, but logically there’s no reason for Phoenix to keep the info from Juggernaut). And why on earth didn’t the Juggernaut put his helmet (which protects him from telepathic attacks) back on while he was running away?

It’s also amusing to me that during a montage of all of the traumas that Xavier has undergone in recent months, the death of his son is ignored. Actually, I can’t think of single reference to Legion’s death after X-Men Omega, which is strange. If all of Xavier’s pain and frustrations were supposed to lead to Onslaught’s creation, certainly Legion’s death would’ve been a legitimate area to explore. I wonder if the nonsensical nature of Legion’s death scene lead to Marvel’s decision to just ignore it. There are still a few nice moments, such as Phoenix’s interaction with Juggernaut, and Kubert’s dramatic interpretation of Onslaught emasculating Juggernaut. It really is a happy accident that Juggernaut was chosen to be Onslaught’s first victim before anyone at Marvel had decided that he would turn out to be his stepbrother. The idea that Xavier subconsciously waited his entire life to become stronger than Juggernaut and get payback for his childhood bullying is a clever angle for Waid to take.

After several strong issues in a row, the art is a little disappointing. I’m assuming that this can be chalked up to Dan Panosian’s inks, which lack the earlier energy of Matt Ryan’s and the polished look of Cam Smith’s. Many of the lines now look sketchy and half-finished, which doesn’t suit Kubert’s style. It’s still a nice-looking comic, overall, it just lacks the visual impact of the preceding issues. The cheaper paper stock doesn’t do the title’s look any favors, either, as we’re back to the days when black shadows aren’t very dark, and none of the colors are particularly vibrant, even with computer enhancement.

UNCANNY X-MEN #334 – July 1996

Dark Horizon
Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Joe Madureira (penciler), Tim Townsend (inker), Steve Buccellato & Team Bucce! (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary: Juggernaut arrives at the X-Men’s mansion, hoping that Phoenix will unlock the secret of Onslaught inside his head. Inside, Phoenix tells Cyclops about her encounter with Onslaught. Cyclops says that she needs to speak to Professor Xavier, but she refuses, even though she’s not sure why. Meanwhile, as Archangel and Psylocke try desperately to contact the X-Men in Colorado, Cannonball tries to talk to Professor Xavier about his feelings of inadequacy, but is coldly rebuffed. Later, Cyclops tries to speak to Xavier inside the War Room, but is instead greeted by a telepathic projection that shifts between insulting him and asking for help. Bishop and Gambit encounter the Juggernaut outside and are knocked unconscious. Juggernaut finally reaches Phoenix and asks for help. She takes him to a psi-shielded chamber in the underground tunnels beneath the mansion. She says that they will learn Onslaught’s identity here. Elsewhere, Bastion chastises Graydon Creed for his conspicuous attempt at killing Senator Kelly.

Continuity Notes: When Bishop is working on Cerebro, he wonders why technology has barely advanced in his time. I have no idea what the significance of this is supposed to be. I know that it will soon be revealed that Onslaught killed the X-Men in his timeline, but were they implying that Onslaught’s victory also lead to technology being stunted for decades?

The telepathic projection of Xavier watches footage of X-Man and comments on the time he pulled his body from the Astral Plane. He says that “what I’m about to do…I couldn’t have done without you.” Allegedly, this allowed Onslaught to be born, even though he had been operating in the background for months before that issue.

Production Note: As I mentioned earlier, this is the month Marvel dropped the slick paper in the X-titles. I remember Marvel first announced that they would make up for the lessened paper quality by adding extra pages. Then, it became apparent that these extra pages would be hype pages for other Marvel books. It seemed like these would at least be fanzine-type articles and interviews, which I wouldn’t have minded. Instead, it became obvious that most of these pages were poorly put together ads, and the same extra pages ran in all of the titles each month. The added pages in this month’s titles are clips of previous Onslaught clues, which really just emphasize how haphazard this entire storyline has been. I remember feeling incredibly cheated by this at the time.

Review: This is a nice example of an issue that touches base on various subplots while building up a main story. Unfortunately, most of the subplots end up fizzling out over the next few months, but there was still some promise at this stage. The dark tone in the issue is successful in setting the stage for the Onslaught revelation, and I seem to recall being fairly excited when I read this for the first time. The clues regarding Onslaught’s identity aren’t even getting close to subtle now, as Xavier suddenly has a drastic change in personality. The previous issue had him acting a little snarky with his students, but now he’s behaving like a totally different character. Lobdell gets some humor out of the “evil” Xavier’s conversation with Cannonball, which basically has him calling Cannonball out as a total incompetent (which is unfortunately what the character had turned into at this point). The brief scene that has the Dark Beast offering a meta-commentary on all of the various fields of knowledge the Beast is supposed to be an expert on is also amusing. Madureira’s art remains a highlight, as he turns in one of the strongest renditions of the Juggernaut ever. He’s also able to keep the rest of the issue, which mainly consists of conversation scenes, visually interesting.

CABLE #33 – July 1996

Never Is a Very Short Time
Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Ian Churchill (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Mike Thomas & Malibu (colors)

Summary: Cable visits Beast regarding his inability to control his techno-organic virus, but he can’t give him any immediate answers. He talks to Storm, who wants him to telepathically search her mind for any information regarding her encounter with Onslaught’s herald, Post. Cable can’t pick up any specific memories, but feels a familiar “telepathic echo” in her memories. Domino interrupts, telling Cable about the explosion of Blaquesmith’s frigate. Cable travels to Maryland to investigate. While searching the ship, he feels the same presence from Storm’s memory is nearby. He flashes back to his past as a mercenary, when he teamed up with G. W. Bridge to rescue his friend, Tremain, from one of the Mandarin’s experiments. With Tremain near death, Cable was forced to give him a blood transfusion, not knowing how his techno-organic virus would affect him. In the present, Cable is suddenly attacked by Post, who he now knows is Tremain. During the course of the fight, Cable begins to deduce Onslaught’s identity. Post can’t bring himself to finish Cable, but he leaves him to die.

Production Notes: Rick Leonardi is also credited as an artist, but all of the pages look like Ian Churchill to me (the GCD lists this as a mistake). This is also the month that the paper quality is reduced across the X-line (even though most of the X-titles’ newsstand editions dropped the slick paper a year earlier) and the Bullpen Bulletins returns to replace the mutant-specific X-Facts page.

Continuity Notes: Mandarin, or at least a hologram of him, is experimenting on Tremain so that he can learn the secrets behind the mutant X-gene. As far as I can tell, this is Tremain’s first appearance. For some reason, I seemed to recall that this issue established that Post was actually one of Cable’s fellow future soldiers, Tetherblood, and not an entirely new character, but I was wrong.

This story takes place explicitly after the Storm miniseries, yet she still has her old hairstyle and uniform. This isn’t the only time that happens during this era.

Cable deduces Onslaught's identity by thinking of who would put him in a weakened condition, remove Blaquesmith from the picture, and know about Tremain. Cable never outright says who Onslaught is, though, as that revelation is being saved for this month's X-Men.

The Dark Beast, who is still impersonating the Beast, is thrilled to have a copy of Cable’s DNA and a techno-organic virus sample. I don’t think this went anywhere.

During the flashback, Cable uses his telepathic powers to talk to Tremain. Since this takes place years before X-Force was formed, this seems to contradict the ending of the “Child’s Play” crossover (New Warriors #46), which had Cable shocked to learn that he could use telepathy. I assume that by this point Marvel had decided that Cable always had his telepathy. One No-Prize solution to the New Warriors issue could be that Cable was just shocked to learn that he could still use telepathy, considering that most of his telekinesis had to be used to keep his techno-organic virus in check. However, that doesn’t exactly work, since Cable would’ve still had the virus in the flashback, and his telepathic skills clearly aren’t being inhibited.

Review: This is another issue dedicated to building up Onslaught, so there’s not an awful lot I can say that the previous reviews haven’t covered. Like many of the other stories leading in to the crossover, it’s not particularly enjoyable in its own right, and without a big payoff during the Onslaught event, it seems even weaker upon reflection. The big revelation in this issue is that the mysterious Post is actually Tremain, who is yet another undefined character from Cable’s past. Loeb effectively gets the idea across that we’re supposed to care because Cable does, but revealing that one mystery character is actually a new mystery character we knew nothing about just feels cheap. The flashback’s characterization of Cable as an idealist who thinks one man can make a difference seems at odds with the cold-blooded Cable from the earlier issues of X-Force and the other flashbacks to his mercenary days. Instead of making a statement about Cable’s character, it feels like something out of an ‘80s action movie. Churchill’s art manages to handle the big fight scenes pretty well, so at least there’s some energy brought into the rather bland issue. The final splash page of a broken Cable, who’s realized Onslaught’s identity but is unable to warn the X-Men, does help to build up tension for the upcoming storyline, even if the rest of the issue is a weak promo for the crossover.

X-MEN #53 – June 1996

False Fronts
Credits: Mark Waid (writer), Andy Kubert (penciler), Cam Smith w/John Dell (inks), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Joe Rosas & Malibu (colors)

Summary: Jean Grey goes shopping in Salem Center. When she enters the store’s changing room, she’s physically taken to the Astral Plane and greeted by Onslaught. He takes her on a journey to expose human hypocrisy. They travel to Graydon Creed’s campaign headquarters, which amuses Jean since she feels that these humans are very open about their beliefs. Onslaught exposes the thoughts of Creed’s campaign manager, who is only interested in gaining political power and doesn’t care about Creed’s anti-mutant crusade. Jean responds that she knows about hypocrisy and surrounds herself with people she can trust. Onslaught takes her to the X-Men’s mansion, where he plans on exposing Professor Xavier. Jean, confident in her relationship with Xavier, leads Onslaught into his mind to prove his innocence. Onslaught unlocks a hidden memory of Xavier’s, which has him declaring his love for a teenage Jean Grey. Onslaught reveals to a shocked Jean that this is one of many emotions Xavier has locked away over the years. They return to the Astral Plane, where Onslaught offers Jean the power she once felt with the Phoenix Force. Jean rejects him, and demands to know who he is and why he’s playing games with her. He tells Jean that she already knows, and then sends her back to reality. She reemerges inside the changing room. When she passes by the nearby mirror, she sees the name “Onslaught” telepathically burned into her forehead. Meanwhile, Joseph makes his way to South Carolina, Beast discovers draining water flowing into a trap door in his cell, and Juggernaut emerges from the shadows at Archangel and Psylocke’s cabin. A mental block prevents him from revealing a secret in his mind, so he heads to the X-Men’s mansion for help.

Continuity Notes: This is the first actual appearance of Onslaught. The continuity is already a little fuzzy, as Jean doesn’t recognize him at all, even though she recognized his mental projection in Uncanny X-Men #333 as the same one she saw in X-Men #50.

The flashback scene that has Xavier declaring his love for Jean comes from Uncanny X-Men #3. Andy Kubert even faithfully recreates the odd clothing Jack Kirby thought teenagers wore in the ‘60s.

Juggernaut’s emergence from the shadows is vaguely tied in to Psylocke’s new powers (which haven’t been revealed yet). Psylocke claims that “something drew him here” and that there’s a connection between the two. I don’t think this was ever resolved. Really, Psylocke’s “shadow teleportation” power is just being used to justify Juggernaut’s return from the Malibu Universe.

Review: This is one of those issues that gave me false hope that Onslaught might turn out as a decent crossover. It certainly shows that Mark Waid was bringing a different approach to the series, as he tries to realistically convey what life would be like for a telepath. The drama in most of the titles at this point involves mysterious threats growing in the background, potential traitors on the team, deadly viruses, or some soap opera-style relationship entanglements. Focusing on what a telepath feels just walking down the street wasn’t exactly the type of story the X-office was putting out during this time. Waid opens the issue by showing what Jean Grey senses if she lets her guard down around people. Predictably, a polite man is having dirty thoughts about her, an overweight woman is jealous, and a teenager is curious about the weirdos at the Xavier school. It’s only a one-page scene, but it’s very memorable and it helps to set up the point Onslaught is trying to convey to Jean. Onslaught himself receives a vague portrayal, as he’s given no motivation outside of exposing hypocrisy because there’s “no room” for it in his new world order. There is an implication that Onslaught is more than just a physical opponent, but one who can tempt the X-Men with their darkest desires, which sounds a lot more interesting than what he turned out to be.

Aside from revealing Onslaught for the first time, the most significant aspect of this issue is the acknowledgment that Xavier was once in love with Jean. Claremont briefly referenced this early on in his run, but it remained forgotten until this issue. It’s important to note how carefully Waid treats the subject. Onslaught is quick to say that “it’s not a torch he’s been carrying…he locked it away long ago...forgot about it”. Even though Marvel is a month or so away from(sort of) making Xavier the villain in the summer’s big crossover, there’s still an effort being made to protect his character. In fact, Onslaught says that Xavier has spent his entire life “repressing every fear, every rage…every black thought he’s ever experienced”. In contrast to his recent portrayal, Xavier is still presented here as an upright moralist, who won’t even allow himself to entertain dark thoughts. Now, we’re supposed to believe that he’s been enslaving a sentient being and covering up the deaths of his students for years. To put it mildly, it’s hard to reconcile the two characterizations. I’m not trying to defend the Onslaught storyline, which was certainly gimmicky and poorly conceived, but at least there was enough foresight to know that Xavier should still maintain a level of integrity throughout the story.

I have mixed feelings about bringing up the “Xavier secretly loved Jean” issue. I can see why Waid used it, since it’s an established part of continuity that shows that Xavier has human desires like everyone else. However, that scene was written very early on in the series’ history, before it was firmly established that Xavier was a middle-aged man who had known Jean since her childhood. As some readers have pointed out, the implication in the early issues of the series was that Xavier wasn’t much older than his students. He claimed that his parents worked on the first A-bomb project in UXM #1, which could’ve made Xavier as young as twenty-something in 1963. I believe it was Kurt Busiek who also defended the scene by saying that a girl in her late teens marrying a thirty-something wasn’t uncommon in the early ‘60s, either. So, something that originally seemed innocuous is now made tawdry thanks to the passing of time (and added continuity). Even ignoring the age issue, I suppose you could argue that as a teacher Xavier had no business looking at Jean in that way, but I still think it’s safe to assume that Stan Lee wasn’t trying to make Xavier a pervert in the original issue. He also dropped the subplot after that brief panel, which means that it was never something used to define Xavier’s character anyway. Reading the dialogue, which has Xavier declaring that he can’t help but to worry about Jean but can never tell her his feelings, I’m reminded that these are the exact thoughts Cyclops often had about Jean in the early issues. I wonder if it’s even possible that Stan mixed up which character was supposed to be secretly in love with Jean for a panel.

Looking at the overall context of the scene, I wonder if it’s something worth ever mentioning again, even if it does work with the story Waid’s telling. Just for shock value’s sake, though, I know the scene works because my friends and I were floored when we read this. One of my friends even dug up a reprint Marvel did a few years earlier of UXM #3 to confirm that the scene was real. This is one of the few comics from this era that had any real impact on me, not just for the “shocking” revelation, but for Waid’s clever interpretation of Jean and the potential Onslaught displayed. It’s too bad things start to go downhill so quickly.

CABLE #32 – June 1996

Venting
Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Ian Churchill (breakdowns), Scott Hanna (finishes), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Mike Thomas & Graphic Color Works (colors)

Summary: After leaving Tyler’s funeral in Kentucky, Cable and Domino return to Camp Hayden to investigate the Sentinel research facility that was penetrated by Onslaught. They encounter hundreds of Nimrod prototypes while Domino tries to talk to Cable about his son’s death. She wonders if Wolverine had no choice but to kill Tyler (a.k.a. Genesis), just as she was forced to kill Grizzly. Cable, who has resorted to using armory after his battle with X-Man drained his powers, refuses to discuss his feelings. They find a computer chip from the surveillance videos that they hope will reveal when Onslaught infiltrated the base, but it’s been magnetized. Cable finally gives in to his anger and begins shooting up the base, declaring that he’ll stop Onslaught before he can harm any innocents like Tyler. They leave the base, as Post watches. Elsewhere, a voice tells Blaquesmith that he can’t allow him to help Cable in the coming days. Blaquesmith’s ship suddenly explodes.

Continuity Notes: According to the narrative captions, Cannonball offered Cable a burial place for Tyler near his home in Kentucky (Wolverine killed him in issue #100 of his series). Cable refers to Tyler as an “innocent” because he was brainwashed by Stryfe and never recovered. Whether or not Tyler is Cable’s biological son is still vague. Domino questions why Cable won’t talk about his death, “even though you promised his mother -- Jenskot -- you’d look after the boy?” I don't think this is the first time it’s been hinted that Tyler was his stepson, or adopted son.

It’s inferred again that Onslaught was the one who broke into Blaquesmith’s home and stole his files on Cable. And I’ll again point out that this makes no sense given the later revelation of Onslaught’s identity, and that the culprit was heavily implied to be the X-Cutioner at the time.

Review: I guess if Cable’s son was going to be killed off in Wolverine, it should’ve been brought up in Cable, too. Instead of devoting a quiet issue to mourning Tyler’s loss, Loeb creates an issue-long fight scene that basically gives Cable and Domino something to do as Cable acts gruff and distant. That’s probably a more appropriate route to take, as Tyler has always been nothing more than a ranting lunatic, so giving him a memorial issue would’ve been a hard sell. Loeb does a capable job with Cable and Domino’s characterizations, even if he’s already done this type of story with the characters before. Connecting Wolverine’s slaying of Tyler to Domino’s forced execution of Grizzly isn’t a bad idea, and it makes the inclusion of a Wolverine storyline feel more organic. Cable’s catharsis at the end of the issue is very predictable and doesn’t exactly convey the emotions it’s supposed to (partly because the art doesn’t even show what he’s supposed to be shooting at). The weak ending emphasizes how much of a time-killer the issue really is. I like the fact that there’s an attempt to show the impact of Tyler’s death on Cable, but there’s really nothing else going on in the issue. It’s another case of the Onslaught storyline becoming an excuse for vaguely defined missions that end quickly and don’t actually answer any questions. The art is presumably a rush job, as Scott Hanna moves from inker to finisher. Rather than going for a sketchy, unfinished look, he buries the entire issue in black. Since Cable and Domino are supposed to be breaking into a secret government facility at night, it’s at least appropriate for the story, and it seems to mesh pretty well with Churchill’s artwork.

UNCANNY X-MEN #333 – June 1996

The Other Shoe…
Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Pascual Ferry (penciler), Townsend/Hunter/Morales/Hunt (inkers), Team Bucce (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary: Cyclops responds to Senator Kelly’s request for a meeting at his home in Virginia. Kelly explains to him that a new international organization called Operation: Zero Tolerance has emerged with a dangerous agenda. Graydon Creed, who is spying from a van outside, gives the order to silence him. Senator Kelly’s living room explodes, as Cyclops covers his body. Meanwhile, Gambit and Phoenix infiltrate the Pentagon as Professor Xavier and the X-Men observe in the Blackbird. Disguised as military officers, they sneak into a meeting lead by Zero Tolerance’s founder, Bastion. Bastion gives a presentation on the activities of the mysterious Onslaught. He then identifies Gambit and Phoenix as mutants and pulls a gun on them. The duo runs from the armed guards, but the soldiers suddenly fall asleep after the X-Men escape Bastion. A mental image of Onslaught appears to Phoenix, telling her that this was a gift. Meanwhile, Archangel and Psylocke are sparring in the woods when a shadowy figure suddenly appears.

Production Note: Another issue with only nineteen pages.

Continuity Notes: Psylocke’s facial tattoo appears for the first time, even though the story doesn’t draw any attention to it.

Bastion makes his first real appearance. Phoenix claims that Bastion is a “psionic blank slate”. He’s also immune to her telekinetic powers. These are all clues towards his real identity, as it’s eventually revealed that he’s an amalgam of Nimrod and Master Mold.

Senator Kelly says that he first became aware of Zero Tolerance after he investigated the disappearance of scientists at a Sentinel research facility (which happened in X-Men #46). Later on, Bastion says that there were thirty-one scientists who mysteriously re-emerged with no memories of the six months they spent working on the project.

Some more hints linking Professor Xavier to Onslaught show up. Gambit wonders why the Professor knew nothing about all of the known Onslaught activity Bastion lists. Xavier himself is portrayed as snarky and secretive with the team in this issue. When Phoenix speaks to Onslaught at the story’s end, she recognizes him as the mental projection who appeared at the end of X-Men #50. Although it’s nice to have this confirmed, it makes his dialogue in X-Men #50 even more confusing. In that story, he wanted to know if the X-Men can “hold the last line of defense against the coming”, whatever that means.

Review: This is another issue that probably seems worse than it is in retrospect. Since most people don’t seem to have fond memories of either the Onslaught or Zero Tolerance storylines, an issue dedicated to setting up both of them isn’t going to be too fondly remembered. Judged on its own merits, this issue is at least successful in building up suspense for the future stories, and it offers a rare glimpse of the X-Men going undercover and actually doing something remotely proactive about a rising threat. The nineteen-page format does cheat the story of any action, as the opponents just fall asleep as the issue ends its page count, but the story still works pretty well without a fight scene. A lot of this has to do with Ferry’s impressive fill-in art, which has an obvious Madureria influence but still comes across as more than a swipe job. I remember being disappointed that Ferry didn’t do more work in the X-office, and it’s surprising to me now that he wasn’t assigned as a regular fill-in artist for Madureria and Kubert on the main books.

The story is mainly an attempt to build Bastion up as a legitimate threat, as Senator Kelly, the previous authority-figure threat to mutants, is supplanted by the new guy. This could’ve been a sad attempt at making a new villain seem more powerful at the expense of an established foe (i. e., Juggernaut getting punched hundreds of miles by Onslaught), but it feels more genuine here. Kelly’s paranoid response to Zero Tolerance is a little much, but Lobdell’s able to give him a legitimate defense of his previous actions that presents him in a sympathetic light. The idea that Senator Kelly is someone with a real concern about the destructive capacity of mutants, rather than a mindless bigot or a demagogue exploiting people’s fears, adds another layer to the mutant/human conflict. This was a direction Claremont seemed to be headed in towards the end of his run, and I’m glad Lobdell followed suit (although it’s odd that Senator Kelly received a more nuanced portrayal in the ‘90s than Magneto or Mystique did). The fact that Cyclops still treats Kelly with disdain is also a nice touch. The Gambit/Phoenix storyline feels truncated, but it does a decent enough job of just establishing who Bastion is. Referencing the extremely vague subplot scene about the kidnapped scientists working on a Sentinel project actually connects Kelly to Bastion in a fairly logical way, even if Onslaught’s role in the kidnapping remains unexplained. Pairing Gambit and Phoenix together isn’t a bad move, if only because they’ve been X-Men together for five years and have rarely had a scene together. We should’ve seen more of these pairings over the years.

UNCANNY X-MEN #332 – May 1996

The Road to Casablanca
Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Joe Madureira (penciler), Tim Townsend (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Team Bucce (colors)

Summary: Professor Xavier meets with Zoe Culloden in her Moroccan office. He wants to know about Wolverine’s altered condition, but she refuses to speak to him because of Landau, Luckman, & Lake’s privacy policy. He allows her to mentally carry out a scenario where she kills him in order to protect L,L,&L’s secrets. She’s shocked to learn that the events were in her head, and that Xavier is using his power to prevent her from moving. He demands that she tell him what happened to Wolverine. Outside the office, Phoenix telepathically locates Wolverine. She leaves with Cyclops, Iceman, and Cannonball to find him. In the desert, Wolverine finds a castle. He steps on a trap door and falls a mile underground. There, he’s greeted by Ozymandias. Ozymandias has spent centuries alone, creating stone representations of his visions. He’s shocked to see Wolverine’s appearance, and wonders what mankind has evolved into. The X-Men arrive and attack Ozymandias when they overhear him threatening to “tear the answers” from Wolverine’s skull. Ozymandias creates animated stone statues and sends them after the team. While riding on the back of Iceman’s ice-slide, Cyclops is knocked off and falls down a deep chasm. Ozymandias grabs Wolverine, as a stone recreation of Magneto chokes Phoenix.

Continuity Notes: This is the first appearance of Ozymandias, who is yet another mysterious character with ties to Apocalypse. He’s named after the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which contains the famous line comic writers love, “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair”. Ozymandias makes a number of cryptic statements in this issue alone. He claims that he was a king before Apocalypse imprisoned him. He now “sets his blind eyes…his stone hands” to fending off madness by creating statues. Phoenix wonders if he’s an early mutant and Apocalypse didn’t want the competition, or if he’s a re-engineered human like Mr. Sinister (the Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix miniseries that gave him an origin was about to be released). In this issue, he’s presented as a victim of Apocalypse who fears his eventual resurrection, but I think he’s later portrayed as Apocalypse’s faithful biographer.

All of the statues created by Ozymandias resemble established X-characters, although Phoenix claims that she doesn’t recognize one of them. The statue is a male with an average build and medium-length hair parted in the middle. The art isn’t very clear, but it eventually occurred to me that this is supposed to be X-Man.

Xavier reveals to Zoe that he's aware of Landau, Luckman, and Lake's operations, which shocks her. According to him, L,L,&L have twenty-six offices.

Production Note: More nineteen page fun.

“Huh?” Moment: Ozymandias refers to etchings he’s made to represent recent events, like Avalon falling to Earth and Xavier’s fight with X-Man, but the drawings he’s referring to look like random lines that barely form any type of coherent image. I wonder if there was supposed to be some sort of computer effect in their place that wasn’t properly pulled off. The idea that X-Man pulled Xavier from the Astral Plane into reality is now presented as something of a big deal, but it certainly didn’t come across that way in the actual story.

Review: Well, the X-Men track down Roverine while another new mysterious villain is introduced. This isn’t exactly a highpoint of the era. Rereading it, this isn’t as bad as I remembered, since it actually tells a decent amount of story in nineteen pages, works in some action, and has Madureira’s typically strong artwork. It’s the connection to the inane “Wolverine as a dog” storyline, and the knowledge that Ozymandias turns out to be a dud, that makes the issue initially seem to be worse than it really is. Ozymandias’ design and powers actually don’t bother me; it’s the unimaginative origin and lack of personality that kills him. As the months go on, he just becomes that stone guy who hangs around Apocalypse occasionally. Apocalypse is already surrounded by dozens of characters with no personality, so I’m not sure what the point of Ozymandias was supposed to be.

The Xavier scenes seem to be setting up the upcoming Onslaught reveal, as Lobdell shows him willing to cross the ethical lines he’s made for himself in order to help Wolverine. The justification given is that after losing Sabretooth, he refuses to lose Wolverine. This, charitably, could come across as coherent long-term plotting, as one storyline leads to another, and Xavier’s character arc continues to take a darker turn with each event. However, reading all of these issues in a short amount of time just emphasizes the aspects that don’t work. Not only was Sabretooth’s reversion totally out of left field, but Onslaught was already making behind-the-scenes appearances before that even happened. Lobdell is trying to make something work and the pieces just don’t fit. On top of that, Xavier’s actions don’t make a lot of sense anyway. With his mental powers (and Phoenix’s), they could easily locate Wolverine, so he doesn’t need Zoe for that. As for his physical condition, the advanced Shi’ar technology the X-Men have at their mansion would likely tell him more than what Zoe can (granted, this is assuming that Xavier thinks the X-Men can bring him home). I understand that he would want information from someone involved in the case, but the idea that she’s his last resort and he has to cross these boundaries seems forced.

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.

GENERATION X #12 -#16, February 1996 - June 1996

#12 (Lobdell/Dezago/Grummett/Buckingham/Sellers/Morales/Milgrom/Rubinstein/Buccellato/Starkings) – This is the start of the Return of Emplate arc, which has the team captured piecemeal by Emplate’s slaves. There’s some decent character work here, as Chamber is reunited with Gayle, the girl he accidentally paralyzed when his powers first erupted. She’s been drawn into Emplate’s service, which gives Chamber the best kidnapping scene. There’s very little else in this issue, aside from vague clues about M and Penance that I’m sure weren’t resolved satisfactorily. Grummett’s art is competent, managing to survive five inkers pretty well, but it still feels strange to see mainstream superhero artwork on this title.

#13 (Lobdell/Grummett/Buckingham/Starkings/Comicraft/Team Bucce/Electric Crayon) – This isn’t that bad as an action-heavy middle chapter. One of the mysteries from the earlier issues is paid off here, as it’s confirmed that Emplate is M’s brother. There’s more vague dialogue about Emplate blaming himself for something that happened to their mother, but Lobdell continues the X-tradition of never fully resolving anything by not providing any details. There’s also a confusing scene between Chamber and Gayle, which has the two of them somehow buried in the ground in-between pages. Chamber claims that their encounter last issue proved that she was never paralyzed, which forced me to go back and see what he’s talking about. In the final panel of their scene together last issue, you do see the bottom of Gayle’s legs standing up. It’s not treated as a dramatic reveal, so it’s easy to miss. Gayle still claims in this issue that she’s crippled and Chamber is responsible for it, but I’m not sure where Lobdell’s going with this. Bishop shows up on the final page to rescue the team from Emplate, which is surprisingly one of the few times one of the X-Men showed up in this series.

#14 (Lobdell/Ferry/Buckingham/Starkings/Comicraft/Buccellato) – Lobdell resolves a few more mysteries, confirming that Penance is M’s sister, and elaborating on Bishop’s earlier claim that “Emplates” roam the streets in his future (he reveals that Emplate created “countless hordes” of zombie-like followers). There’s also an absurd scene that has a disoriented Bishop confusing M for his mother, which was hopefully done only as a red herring. Pascal Ferry shows up as the guest artist, turning in a nice job that’s reminiscent of Bachalo’s earlier work. His more abstract style would’ve been a better fit than the previous fill-ins, who stuck out like sore thumbs compared to the Bachalo issues. The story ends with Emplate somehow phasing out of reality, another ill-defined aspect of the character that still hasn’t been resolved. If more of the mysteries surrounding Emplate, M, and Penance had been answered, this would’ve felt like a more substantial storyline. It is an improvement over the preceding post-Bachalo issues, but without any significant answers, it still feels like the book’s killing time.

#15 (Lobdell/Dezago/Grummett/Milgrom/Starkings/Comicraft/Scheele/Malibu) - The previous issue’s ending revealed that Emplate has turned Synch into one of his pawns and sent him home to either recruit or kill his family. This leads directly into the next two issues, which sends the team to St. Louis to find him. I like the introduction of Synch’s family, who are portrayed as a normal, middle class couple with foster children. This is the first time Synch’s received a lot of attention in this series, and it’s nice to see that Lobdell didn’t treat him as a stereotypical minority character. The story ends with a cliffhanger, which has the possessed Synch gaining the powers of M, Jubilee, and Husk. It’s an okay issue, which manages to reveal information on Synch’s character while moving the action story forward.

#16 (Lobdell/Dezago/Grummett/Milgrom/Starkings/Comicraft/Team Bucce/Malibu) – The Synch storyline ends with something of a copout. M provokes Synch into synchronizing with the true source of her mutant power, claiming that the abilities she’s exhibited so far are just an “after affect”. This somehow frees him of Emplate’s possession, as he learns “the truth”. Just like the resolution to #14, it’s an extremely vague ending that doesn’t make a lot of sense (I know about the upcoming revelation that M is autistic, but I don’t see how that could harm Synch in such a way…if that’s what Lobdell had in mind in the first place). The rest of the issue is dedicated to Chamber reacting to his brief abduction by Onslaught. Onslaught blocked the memory of his face from Chamber, and this is somehow causing him great mental strain. Skin takes him to see Professor Xavier, saying, “if you can’t count on Charles Xavier to help you – who can you count on?” The specific phrasing leads me to believe that Onslaught’s identity might’ve been worked out by this point, but it’s also possible that he was one of many suspects the X-office was considering. The issue ends with Skin and Chamber being ambushed by X-Cutioner, who blames Skin for the murder of Angelo Espinosa (his real name). That’s a nice cliffhanger, but the rest of the issue is fairly dull.

UNCANNY X-MEN #331 – April 1996

The Splinter of Our Discontent
Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Bryan Hitch (penciler), Paul Neary (inker), Steve Buccellato (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary: X-Force rescues the Dark Beast, in disguise as the X-Men’s Beast, from a lab explosion. Warpath and Shatterstar are slightly suspicious of his behavior. Meanwhile in Colorado, Archangel takes a leave of absence to help Psylocke recover from her wounds. In New York, Iceman confronts Emma Frost about her previous possession of his body. Most of his chest was shattered during his fight with Post, and he wants her to help him turn back to his human form. She tries to antagonize him with visions of his father and his ex-girlfriend, but he refuses to back down. She tells him to trust in himself and change back to his human form. He reluctantly does, and realizes that his body is fine. Frost explains to Iceman that she provoked him because she was angry that he squandered his potential and always survived, while her highly trained Hellions died in battle.

Production Note: This is yet another nineteen-page issue, the third one in a row for this series. Just like all of the other shortened comics from this time, the extra pages aren’t made up by outside ads, but an extended letters column and X-Facts hype pages.

Continuity Notes: Archangel and Psylocke move to Colorado in this issue, where I think they’ll stay until the Onslaught crossover. This puts the Archangel one-shot in a nebulous continuity position, since it takes place after Sabretooth’s attack while they were still living in the mansion and Psylocke appears to be fully recovered. In this issue, they move to Colorado while she’s still recovering. I decided to file Archangel before this story, rationalizing that even if the story made no reference to Psylocke’s wounds and she seemed fine, it’s possible she wasn’t fully healed yet.

In a brief subplot scene, Cyclops takes Phoenix to the location of his fight with Post. Cyclops wonders why the scenery is untouched, claiming that it should be covered in debris. The landscape is drawn like a mesa, and doesn’t look anything like landscape of X-Men #50 (which was drawn inconsistently even within that issue.) I have no idea if this was supposed to be intentional or not.

Meltdown is still referred to as Boomer, and wearing Boomer’s costume, even though she changed her name and look in X-Force #51, which took place right after Uncanny X-Men #328. See what happens when you read all of these X-comics in such a short amount of time?

In one scene, an agitated Archangel implies that Xavier might mentally coerce him into rejoining the X-Men. Xavier is offended, and Archangel defends his statement by citing the times Xavier erased people’s memories of the X-Men in their early appearances. This might’ve been an attempt to foreshadow the “dark side” of Xavier becoming Onslaught.

An offhand comment by Emma Frost lead to some speculation at the time that Iceman was gay. She comments that he’s used his mutant ability to pursue his first love, “interior decorating”. Some fans took this to mean that she learned he was gay while inside his mind. Those fans apparently chose to ignore the gigantic ice sculptures that Iceman has filled her office with, which is obviously what she’s referring to. Fabian Nicieza has confirmed that no one working on the titles intended for Iceman to be gay, but just imagine if Jeph Loeb followed Scott Lobdell on this book.

Review: This is an easily forgettable one, which mainly touches base on various subplots and gives Iceman a little bit of attention. Many of the pages are just spent referencing things that happened outside of Uncanny X-Men, such as the fight with Post and Dark Beast infiltrating the mansion (the fact that he’s hiding out amongst at least two telepaths isn’t brought up here, but I think it is acknowledged later). Iceman’s anxiety over his wound isn’t sold very convincingly, and it looks like an attempt to make the fight with Post seem more important than it really was. The subplot about Iceman seeing visions of Emma Frost is resolved pretty halfheartedly, as Iceman just bluntly tells her that he doesn’t know why she was doing it, he just wants her to stop. The justification that Emma taunts Iceman because she resents him for surviving while her Hellions died seems like a stretch, but Lobdell does have the characters play off each other pretty well.

The scene between Archangel and Xavier is a little strange, as Archangel just casually claims that Xavier might brainwash him into doing what he wants, and then dismisses his allegations by admitting that he’s in a bad mood. The idea that Xavier must have this sinister dark side based on his actions in early Silver Age comics has never worked for me. He erased the memories of people who learned where the X-Men lived or who came too close to finding them out. Since he wasn’t erasing years of their lives, just a few minutes, or altering their personalities, I don’t really see why it’s that big of a deal. Superheroes have been erasing people’s memories of their secret IDs for decades and I’ve never considered it to be that morally dubious. That idea that Xavier would brainwash one of his students just because he previously used his powers to protect their secrets is a huge leap in logic (and it seems as if Marvel’s using it again to justify the inane decisions they’ve made with his character in recent years). I have no idea if we’re supposed to be sympathetic to Archangel’s charges or not, since he quickly backtracks and claims that he’s just tired. There are a few nice character beats in this scene, though, as Gambit implies to Bishop that he might not be trustworthy at all and isn't worth apologizing to, and Xavier admits to himself that he hardly knows the newer X-Men. They’re very brief moments, but I find them more interesting than most of the rest of the comic.

X-FORCE #52 – March 1996

Bad Girls
Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Adam Pollina (penciler), Bud LaRosa (inker), Marie Javins & Electric Crayon (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary: Domino, Siryn, and Meltdown (Boomer’s new codename) travel to Camp Hayden to verify that its Nimrod research facility has been shut down. They discover a newly-enhanced Blob inside, who has been sent by Onslaught to steal the remaining Nimrod technology. Blob uses his new mass shifting power to deflect Domino’s ammo against the team. Meltdown jumps on Blob’s back and shoves a timebomb down his throat. Even after he surrenders, she refuses to stop the bomb. Domino finally asks her to turn off the bomb and she relents. Mimic suddenly arrives and rescues Blob from the team. Meanwhile, Sunspot and Caliban respond to Gideon’s call for help. Outside of his skyscraper, they discover his dead body.

Continuity Notes: Both Blob and Meltdown exhibit new powers in this issue. Meltdown is able to draw her timebomb out of Blob’s mouth back into her hands. Blob, who is now even larger, is able to shift his mass, which somehow enables him to deflect an armor-piercing shell. He also appears to be able to extend his arm like Mr. Fantastic in one scene. He implies that Onslaught enhanced his powers.

Production Note: This is another X-comic with only nineteen pages. Like most of the other shortened comics, the missing pages are replaced with an expanded letters column and hype pages.

We Get Letters: A letter writer asks if Shatterstar is gay, and the editor’s reply is that “as far as we can see it, there aren’t any sexual undertones” to his relationship with Rictor. This seems to go against Mark Powers’ claim that Loeb just never got around to outing the characters, and that editorial wasn’t standing in his way (although Mark Powers isn’t credited as editor yet, so who knows).

Review: We’re now entering the phase where Onslaught goes from vague clues to vague rationalizations for entire stories. Judged on its own, this is a run of the mill action story with inconsistent art, which actually makes it better than most of the later Onslaught tie-ins. Pollina draws some dynamic action scenes, and his Blob redesign is appropriately gross, but his anatomy and faces look rough for much of the issue. Aside from its attempts to build up the Onslaught mystery, the story mainly serves to showcase Boomer’s new attitude as Meltdown. The story’s somewhat successful in presenting her new outlook and providing a legitimate motivation (basically that she’s sick of being a victim), but her new personality is just reminiscent of the typical ‘90s anti-hero. When I first read this issue, I thought the idea of a character radically changing their personality overnight seemed forced, but Loeb puts more effort into selling the conversion than I remembered. What drags this down more than anything is the knowledge of where all of these Onslaught clues are going, plus I seem to recall the upcoming Externals storyline is something of a mess.

X-MEN #50 – March 1996

Full Court Press
Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Andy Kubert (penciler), Cam Smith (inker), Joe Rosas & Electric Crayon (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary

Cyclops, Storm, Iceman, and Wolverine wake up in a desolate landscape. Cyclops’ ruby quartz visor is gone, and Iceman has a hole inside his chest. Meanwhile, Gateway appears in front of Professor Xavier’s bed, apparently attempting to teleport him away. Bishop and Phoenix enter and easily knock him unconscious. The X-Men try to deduce where their kidnapped teammates have gone, as a being of psionic energy suddenly appears. Inside the mystery location, Wolverine’s senses are able to locate their opponent, Post. He claims to be a “faithful extension” of Onslaught, who is transmitting the results of the test to him. The four X-Men try a variety of different techniques against Post, who’s already familiar with the team. During their fight, Storm senses that the environment is disrupted. The ground begins to shake, leading Storm to develop a plan to destroy the environment, thinking that Post reacts to it as it reacts to Post. Iceman freezes the ground beneath Post, as Wolverine rips open a part of Post’s protective covering. Cyclops blasts the exposed area, and soon the four X-Men are returned home. The psionic entity leaves, telling the X-Men that the Onslaught is coming.

Gimmicks

This issue has a foil wraparound cover. I have the newsstand copy, which doesn’t have a gimmick cover and costs $2.95.

Continuity Notes

This is the first appearance of Post, who is described as “the lowest of Onslaught’s emissaries”. For some reason he has blue skin, and is covered in a series of “computerized plates” which can transfer data and shoot off energy blasts. He’s shown up a few times over the years, usually as a generic goon used to fill up the ranks of some villain group.

Banshee, via video screen, tells the X-Men that Gateway teleported Chamber away, but he dumped him back in their front yard as quickly as he left. The previous issue seemed to imply that Gateway had no control over what was going on, either. Later, Beast theorizes that Onslaught sent Chamber back because he didn’t want any telepaths learning his secrets. This doesn’t explain why Gateway is trying to abduct Xavier at the start of the issue.

Beast wonders why Onslaught is teleporting X-Men away, since he’s allegedly powerful enough to storm the mansion and physically take them. Bishop theorizes that Onslaught “took them to a place that has something to do with the source of his power”, and Beast agrees. I’m pretty sure that when Onslaught is revealed, most of this will make no sense.

Bishop speculates that Gateway wanted to be stopped, explaining how easily he was knocked out. Later, Onslaught (who’s supposed to be the psionic being that appeared at the mansion...maybe?) chastises Gateway, saying, “You assured me these creatures were ready. That they could hold the last line of defense against the coming”. Again, pretty sure most of this is nonsense.

“Huh?” Moment

One of the sound effects used when the environment around Post freaks out is “SPROUTS”. What?

Review

I can remember liking this issue when it was released, even though reading it today is more frustrating than anything. When the Onslaught storyline was still just a series of vague hints, I was able to read this issue and simply enjoy it as an action-heavy story that was planting seeds for the next crossover. I had been burned by enough crossovers to be skeptical about the upcoming event, but the foundation at this point seemed to have promise, and introducing new villains as heralds of larger, more dangerous foes is an old comic tradition. Reading this today, all you really see is a collection of nonsensical clues scattered around a lengthy fight scene. The action is competently handled by Kubert, who fills the comic with large, dynamic figures and a lot of energy. Some of the poses and anatomy don’t exactly work, but for the most part the visuals in this issue are great. The opening page, which has a battered Cyclops covered in shadow as his body is hung up in twisted tree branches, is a strong way to start the issue. It’s one of the few times Lobdell started a story in the middle of the action, which is one reason why this comic stuck out to me at fifteen. The drawn out fight scene starts to get a little old after a while, but Post still comes across as a capable opponent for most of the battle.

Everything past the fight scene is total mess, though. Aside from the clues that weren’t satisfactorily resolved after the Onslaught reveal, there are elements within the issue itself that don’t make sense. If Onslaught were afraid of telepathic powers, why would Gateway send back Chamber, and then go after the more powerful Xavier? If Onslaught can manifest himself as “pure psionic energy”, why would he even be worried about a novice telepathic like Chamber learning his secrets? How exactly is Onslaught drawing power from the mysterious landscape? What exactly is going on between Post and the environment? Why is the landscape drawn differently in different parts of the comic? In the first few pages, the ground is hilly and rocky and the trees look like something out of a Tim Burton cartoon. A few pages later, the trees are lush and green, and the ground is covered with grass and plant life. The sky also goes from gloomy and dark to blue and pretty. What happened?

The future revelation that Onslaught was actually Xavier (spoiler alert!) just makes the entire issue even more nonsensical. Why would Onslaught send Gateway to kidnap himself? I guess you could argue that he was trying to throw the X-Men off, but it’s not as if they were suspecting him in the first place. And if Onslaught has Xavier’s memories and intellect, he wouldn’t have to “test” any of the X-Men of course. He already knows more about them than anyone else. Why is he relying on Gateway for information? There’s also an implication that Onslaught is testing the team to ensure that they can defend against “the coming”. What was that supposed to mean? Or is the psionic entity not supposed to be Onslaught? If not, who was he supposed to be? I don’t seem to recall Onslaught needing to be powered by a special environment either, so all of the mystery surrounding the landscape in this issue probably amounts to nothing, too. Judged as a mindless fight issue, this isn’t so bad, but as a chapter in an extended storyline, it’s dreadful.

X-MEN #49 - February 1996

Eyes of a New York Woman

Credits: Scott Lobdell (plot), Mark Waid (script), Jeff Matsuda (penciler), Dan Panosian (inker), Kevin Somers & Malibu Hues (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary

Bishop, who is growing increasingly unhinged, confronts waitress Pamela Greenwood. Beast, disguised by an image inducer, tries to stop him from tearing the restaurant down. Bishop slams him into a mirror and knocks him unconscious. When Bishop almost collapses, Pamela takes him home with her as the police arrive. When Bishop wakes up on her couch, he repeats his claim that she’s a spy. Dark Beast watches the events through the eyes of Pamela, who is secretly Fatale. He decides that allowing Bishop to live is too risky because he might regain his memories of the Age of Apocalypse. Fatale responds to Dark Beast’s order and knocks Bishop out of her window. Meanwhile, Beast turns off his image inducer in order to intimidate the police into letting him escape. He catches Bishop after he flies out of the window, and is quickly attacked by Fatale. She ruptures a gas line and escapes. Dark Beast watches in amazement on his monitors as he realizes that he has a counterpart in this reality. Elsewhere, both Gateway and Chamber disappear from Xavier’s school in Massachusetts. M tells Banshee that she only sensed the word “Onslaught” on Gateway’s mind before he disappeared.

Continuity Notes

As I’ve mentioned before, the waitress in this issue is supposed to be the woman Bishop recognized at Harry’s Hideaway in UXM #299. She looked familiar to him because Dark Beast “scraped” his mind and came up with Bishop’s image of the ideal woman. He claims that he wasn’t able to figure out Bishop’s “chronal blisters” (i.e., his memories of the AoA) the same way.

Miscellaneous Note

According to the Statement of Ownership, average sales for the year were 332,889 with the most recent issue selling 394,189 copies.

Review

This issue is infamously dumb, and it’s just as weak as I remembered. It’s impossible to ignore just how ridiculous the Fatale retcon is, but I’ll try for a few seconds to talk about other aspects of this issue. Jeff Matsuda provides the fill-in art, and while it’s shaky on a few pages, it is an improvement over his unsightly X-Factor issue from this era. I’ve always thought that the splash page that digitally places Dark Beast’s face over his monitor’s image of the original Beast was nicely done, even if it is illustrating one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read in a comic. The plot of this issue, even ignoring the retcon, doesn’t exactly work, since we’re supposed to believe that Bishop has suddenly gone from “troubled” to “outright insane” (although I guess this is closer to the way he was portrayed in X-Men Prime). The plot is mainly an excuse to get Bishop and Fatale alone together for a few pages, so that the Dark Beast reveal can be pulled off. Knowing that, I have to wonder why they bothered to move the action to “Pam”’s apartment, since there’s really no reason for Dark Beast to wait that long to give Fatale the execution order. The Onslaught subplot in this issue is pretty strange, since it involves the cast of an entirely different title. These two pages couldn’t have been done as an epilogue in Generation X?

Moving on to the notorious retcon, I’m not even sure where to begin. As many others have mentioned over the years, Beast is a celebrity in the Marvel Universe due to his past membership in the Avengers (plus, X-Factor was also a popular superhero team during his stint). The idea that Dark Beast has been on Earth for twenty years and has never seen him on TV before strains credibility pretty far. I guess you could argue that this is just continuity anal-retentiveness, since Beast’s role as a celebrity hadn’t been mentioned in a few years at this time. Even if you buy that, this still doesn’t work. Beast is also a world-renowned research scientist, who has appeared on television several times in that capacity. In fact, the plot of UXM #299 involved the X-Men watching him debate Graydon Creed on television at Harry’s Hideaway. And what else happened in that issue? That’s right, the “mysterious waitress” subplot began. Fatale only now notices Beast and brings him to Dark Beast’s attention, even though he was on television while she was serving Bishop drinks in her first appearance? Aside from the continuity points, there’s also the common sense mangling you have to go through to get this to work. Dark Beast is supposed to be one of the smartest men alive, but it never occurred to him in twenty years that he had a counterpart in this reality? Even though virtually everyone he knew clearly did? Really?

The plan for Fatale is also nonsensical. She was supposed to disguise herself as a waitress, rent an apartment, and…do what exactly? I guess she was supposed to get close to Bishop over the ensuing months, so that Dark Beast could find out how much he knew about the AoA. If so, why didn’t she? Why didn’t she make an actual effort to get close to him? They went through all of this effort to set up a new identity for her, one that includes a job, an apartment, and even a cat, all in an effort to make her seem normal, and then she doesn’t actually bother to talk to Bishop? This is beyond stupid. Plus, it opens up another plot hole – if Dark Beast knew enough about the X-Men to send someone to spy on Bishop in the first place, why is he only now learning about Beast? Really, no aspect of this waitress subplot worked. Even if you were just relieved to get a resolution (like I was as a teen), you couldn’t possibly view her three appearances as a coherent story. She showed up once in 1992 and had a panel devoted to introducing a potential mystery about her. She’s never mentioned again for three years, and conveniently shows up again as Bishop is dealing with memories of the AoA (a storyline that hadn’t even been conceived when she first appeared). The next issue after that, she’s revealed to be a spy, apparently living a complete double life while simultaneously appearing as an assassin in a separate X-title. There were no clues, no foreshadowing, nothing at all to connect the resolution to anything presented in the preceding issues. This goes beyond bad writing, it’s outright appalling.

X-MEN #48 – January 1996

Five Card Studs

Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Luke Ross (penciler), Andy Lanning (inker), Steve Buccellato & Electric Crayon (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary

Cannonball joins the X-Men for a poker match, while Bishop tries to explain his memories of the Age of Apocalypse timeline to Cyclops and Phoenix. His waitress at the restaurant is Pam, the same woman Bishop recognized months earlier. The Dark Beast watches their conversation in his secret headquarters. Sugar Man enters, demanding that the Dark Beast honor his agreement and share the information he has on Bishop. The Dark Beast says that he’s confirming that this reality’s Bishop is the same mutant who convinced the X-Men to alter the time stream in their world. They’re afraid that Sinister might gain access to Bishop’s memories. Meanwhile, it becomes obvious to the X-Men that Cannonball suckered them by pretending to be a poker novice. Gambit warns him against showing all of his cards at once. When Gambit puts his cards down, he holds the last one and charges it up to destroy the poker table. Cannonball accuses him of cheating, but Storm picks up the remains of his final card and sees that it was an Ace.

Continuity Notes

The Dark Beast is now being referred to as McCoy. Marvel was serious about this becoming his official name, since they even asked readers in a letters page to start calling him McCoy. It didn’t stick around, since I’m pretty sure he’s referred to as Dark Beast whenever he’s used today.

This issue establishes that Sugar Man and Dark Beast are afraid of Mr. Sinister, although I’m not sure why. It’s interesting that Cable #26 implied that Sinister was afraid of Sugar Man. Dark Beast reveals that he’s created some creature out of brain tissue that can filter “every thought, every image from all my constructs” and transmit the thought waves into digital data. I’m not sure why it’s brought up in this issue, but it might’ve been done to explain how Dark Beast would’ve been able to disguise Fatale as a woman Bishop recognizes (which is revealed next issue).

Dark Beast attempts to explain how the Bishop of this timeline remembers the Age of Apocalypse. Because he was already temporally displaced, he has no counterpart in this reality. He re-accessed his original body when the timeline was fixed because “technically, nothing actually happened to him in the first place”. This still makes no sense to me. I’ll buy that Bishop is surrounded by “chronal energy” that allowed him to stick around as reality rewrote itself. However, the Bishop that lived through the AoA faded away once Legion was killed. “Our” Bishop never lived through the AoA, so why would he have memories of it? Why exactly would the consciousness of the Bishop who faded away end up inside the Bishop who didn’t live through the AoA?

When Gambit tells Cannonball that the ability to distract can be more important than bluffing in poker, Beast has a revelation about the Legacy Virus. He declares that he’s not going to approach the problem the way Stryfe expected him to. This is treated as if it’s a major event, but of course nothing comes of it.

A recuperating Psylocke tries to comfort Xavier in a brief scene. The narration says that Xavier can’t feel anything, presumably because he’s so deeply hurt by his failure with Sabretooth. This could be considered an Onslaught hint, but I’m not sure if Marvel had determined his identity yet. Xavier speculates that Sabretooth didn't kill Psylocke because he wanted to send a message. If this was meant to be a clue towards an upcoming storyline, nothing came of it either.

Review

This is another no-action downtime issue, although this one is slightly more concerned with touching base on various subplots than on character interaction. None of it is particularly interesting, since it mainly consists of characters reiterating things we already know. The only new info here is the revelation that Dark Beast and Sugar Man have been sharing data with each other, and they’re afraid that Sinister might learn about the Age of Apocalypse. Aside from the fact that we don’t know why they care so much about keeping the AoA a secret from Sinister, watching the characters discuss how they’ve been able to hide behind-the-scenes for two decades until now is just annoying. The poker match has a few decent character moments, as Cannonball finally does something besides screw up (although the ignorant bumpkin act Lobdell has him put on in the opening pages is ridiculous). Lobdell uses the game to make a statement about Gambit’s character, although I’m not quite sure what it’s supposed to be. It’s obvious that Gambit’s refusal to show all of his cards at once parallels his mysterious nature, but his decision to just end the game even though he had a winning hand doesn’t make any sense. What point does that make? It seems like Lobdell just wanted a big finish for the poker story, and having Gambit charge a card and blow things up was the most obvious way to go. The fill-in art in this issue is handled by Luke Ross, who’s trying to draw in the big-eyed manga style, but with a ton of pointless, thin lines scribbled over everything. Some of the faces are so ugly, it’s distracting. At this point, he definitely wasn’t the best choice for an issue that mainly consists of conversation scenes.