WOLVERINE #106 – October 1996

Openings and Closures
Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Val Semeiks (penciler), Chad Hunt w/Al Milgrom (inkers), Comicraft (lettering), Derek Bellman & Malibu (colors)

Summary: Wolverine takes Elektra to Canada, where he makes his yearly visit to Silver Fox’s grave. Elektra responds by inviting Wolverine to visit her childhood home in Greece. Stavros the gardener tells Wolverine of a man he knew in the war, known only as “the Canadian”. The Canadian gave Stavros the dagger he used to avenge his mother’s murder by the Nazis. Stavros has held on to the blade for years. At dinner, Stavros tells Elektra that he’s located Sawyer, the surviving murderer of her father. Elektra tells Stavros that she’s not holding on to revenge, and asks him to spare Sawyer’s life. That night, Stavros goes to the wine cellar and frees Sawyer. He threatens to contact the authorities, but Wolverine intimidates him into keeping quiet. Later, while speaking to Elektra, Wolverine learns that Stavros is illiterate. Unbeknownst to Stavros, the name on his dagger reads “Cpl. Logan”.

Continuity Notes: According to this issue, Elektra’s father had six killers. Two were killed by the mob after turning state’s evidence, two died in prison, and one died of a heroin overdose after his parole. Sawyer is the lone survivor.

Review: We’re still in the “forced Elektra appearance” era of the title. Hama’s been able to make it work in previous issues, but it’s starting to wear thin. Judged on its own, this isn’t so bad, but the title’s gone six months at this point with only editorially mandated crossover and guest star stories. I like Hama’s treatment of Wolverine at Silver Fox’s grave, and revealing that Elektra doesn’t want to kill her father’s remaining murderer is a nice twist (I vaguely recall Bendis ignoring this story and just going the obvious revenge route in her later solo series). There’s barely anything else going on here. Revealing that Wolverine was “behind the scenes” of Stavros’ story in issue #102 doesn’t add anything to the original story, making it another case of Wolverine retroactively being involved in everything. It’s thankfully not a large part of the story, and I’m sure the gimmick hadn’t been done to death at the time, but it’s still slightly annoying.

WOLVERINE #105 – September 1996

Faces in the Fire
Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Val Semeiks (penciler), Chad Hunt w/Russell & Candelario (inkers), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Chris Lichtner & Joe Andreani and Malibu (colors)

Summary: As the other heroes deal with Onslaught, Wolverine joins the NYFD and saves civilians in burning buildings. While rescuing a boy named Sean, Wolverine runs into Elektra’s sensei, Stick. After saving Sean, he returns to rescue Stick. Stick refuses to be saved and instead spars with Wolverine with his bo staff. Stick tells Wolverine not to blame others for taking away his humanity, but to fight and regain it instead. He finally points the way for Wolverine to escape the burning building. Wolverine jumps through to safety, where he’s greeted by the Human Torch. The Torch tells him that the heroes are regrouping for another attack on Onslaught.

Continuity Notes: Wolverine’s appearance begins to change in this issue, appearing slightly more human. And his speech patterns are thankfully back to normal. Stick is described as “not alive”, but not a ghost either, by Wolverine. I have no idea if this connects in any way to Daredevil continuity.

I Love the '90s: The catchphrase "Not!" shows up twice in this issue; once in the letters page and once in the Human Torch's dialogue.

Review: This is one of those issues where we see the hero doing real-life heroic acts, as Wolverine spends several pages playing fireman. And, not surprisingly, Wolverine even tells the firefighters that they’re the real heroes, not him. There’s a cute bit where Wolverine’s rescuees can’t remember his name (Sean’s mother calls him “Valvoline” at the end), and I like the conversation between Wolverine and Stick, which mainly consists of Stick telling Wolverine not to feel sorry for himself. Semeiks’ art is solid for most of the issue, and he does a great job on the scene that has Wolverine’s skin burning off as he saves Sean. Other than that, this is really just time killer.

X-MAN #15-#18, May 1996-August 1996

#15 (Ostrander/Kavanagh/Skroce/LaRosa/Hunter/Thomas/Graphic Colorworks/Comicraft) – The letters page in this issue prints three separate letters commenting on how irrational X-Man is, with one writer nailing the formulaic nature of the series as “Nate meets a character, Nate blows up at character, Nate leaves”. Perhaps someone realized that this wasn’t working, as it seems like this issue is more of an effort to make Nate a sympathetic character. The majority of the issue is spent on building up his relationship with Threnody, who helps him realize how foolish he’s been behaving. Threnody is given some character development, as she (reasonably) contemplates leaving Nate, but eventually decides that she needs him too much. Meanwhile, Onslaught recruits Holocaust and sends him after X-Man. Skroce produces some impressive images as Nate and Threnody spend time in each other’s minds, and I like his interpretation of Holocaust. There’s nothing that remarkable about this issue, but it is at least a change from the series’ already tired formula.

#16 (Kavanagh/Semeiks/LaRosa/Thomas/Graphic Colorworks/Comicraft) – X-Man and Holocaust fight for most of the issue, trading some groan-worthy dialogue with one another (“I will never allow you or your demon-sire to purge life on this planet…in more rivers of human blood!”). The dull fight scene alternates with scenes of Threnody dealing with the human casualties of Holocaust’s rampage. She begins to wonder if she’s some sort of vampire, as her mutant power gives her a rush when she’s around dying bodies. Meanwhile, Madelyne Pryor discovers a hidden room in Selene’s penthouse filled with dead bodies. This somehow leads Madelyne to believe that joining Selene as a partner is a good idea. The X-Man/Holocaust fight ends when Holocaust takes Threnody captive. Threnody, fearing what she’s become, tells X-Man to just let her die. He of course doesn’t, and agrees to join Holocaust and Onslaught to save her life. This is a generally weak issue, although the new development in Threnody’s power is potentially interesting.

#17 (Kavanagh/Skroce/LaRosa/Hunter/Thomas/Malibu/Comicraft) – X-Man, shockingly enough, quickly turns on Holocaust and telepathically unlocks Threnody’s power, which temporarily knocks him away. He comes back, and engages in another issue-long fight scene with X-Man. X-Man finally chases him away after cracking his armor. He then decides that one of the superteams not associated with Xavier could help him with his powers, and settles on the Avengers. Conveniently, he meets up with the team in Avengers #400, just in time for the Onslaught crossover. Meanwhile, Selene uses Madelyne Pryor to attract Trevor Fitzroy in London. She then kidnaps him as payback for torturing her in Uncanny X-Men #301. The main story here isn’t much different than the previous issue, except Steve Skroce returns to liven up the action scenes. And if there’s a point to the ongoing Madelyne/Selene subplot, I have no idea what it is.

#18 (Kavanagh/Skroce/LaRosa/Hunter/Thomas/Malibu/Comicraft) – Mr. Sinister learns that Apocalypse is back, which apparently inspires him to directly go after X-Man (I know that Sinister has always believed that the offspring of Cyclops and Phoenix has the power to defeat Apocalypse, but the story isn’t very clear on this point). In another ambiguous scene, he sends the Marauders after Threnody, who was left behind by X-Man (I assume this happened in Avengers #400, but it’s another plot point that’s left vague). She manages to defeat them, but Sinister greets her personally and asks for information on X-Man (if she willingly or unwillingly gives him the information is left -- you guessed it -- vague). Meanwhile, X-Man is being safeguarded from Onslaught by X-Force at Xavier’s mansion. They detect the presence of someone sneaking around the mansion and raid Cable’s armory for supplies. Mr. Sinister shows himself and attacks, which for some reason inspires X-Man to remember that Sinister’s “Age of Apocalypse” counterpart created him (apparently Kavanagh forgot that Sinister already told Nate that he created him in X-Man #4). Sinister then takes control of X-Man’s body and knocks him unconscious. This is really a mess of an issue that’s needlessly confusing and often feels barely coherent. At least one storyline is advanced, as this world’s Sinister finally meets X-Man, but the circumstances leading up to the climax are extremely weak.

WOLVERINE #104 – August 1996

The Emperor of the Realm of Grief
Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Val Semeiks (penciler), Chad Hunt (inker), Joe Rosas & Malibu (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary: Wolverine travels to Xavier’s school in Massachusetts to see if Gateway has information on how to stop Onslaught. Gateway uses his mystic teleportation powers to take Wolverine back to the day his fiancée Mariko died. Elektra arrives and tries to speak to the mute Gateway, and he responds by sending her back to the day the Hand resurrected her dead body. Elektra speculates that Gateway is showing them their worst pains in order to prepare them for the answer. Gateway then sends them back to the day Magneto ripped the adamantium from Wolverine’s body and Xavier responded by mind-wiping him. They witness the events on the Astral Plane, and discover that Magneto’s dark ego reached out and entered Xavier during the incident. Wolverine claims that he’s partly responsible, since he lost control first, which lead to Xavier’s response to Magneto’s attack on him. He wonders if Xavier could ever be the same again, and if he can regain his own humanity.

Continuity Notes: The opening narrative captions have Wolverine complaining about being sent on this mission, even though Uncanny X-Men #335 said that this was “a hunch” he’s playing out.

Gateway recognizes the name of Elektra’s mentor, Stick. She wonders if they know each other.

Miscellaneous Note: The title of this issue is a reference to The Divine Comedy.

Commercial Break: An ad for the Onslaught crossover boasts about the website www.onslaught.com, which was created to promote the event. It seems like Marvel registered this site before putting up their official marvel.com. In case you're wondering, they don't maintain it.

Review: I assume this is the “origin of Onslaught” issue Larry Hama was assigned to write before anyone knew who Onslaught was supposed to be. Even though this issue doesn’t introduce the idea that Magneto had a part in Onslaught’s creation, since that had been implied since the Onslaught one-shot, it is the story that explicitly shows how it happened. Revealing that a dark part of Magneto entered Xavier’s consciousness and lead to the creation of Onslaught was presumably an attempt to alleviate Xavier of guilt for Onslaught’s actions. This seems unnecessary to me, since Mark Waid had already firmly established that Onslaught was being fed by Xavier’s repressed, darker emotions. It’s not as if Xavier could truly be blamed for the dark thoughts he repressed, and there had already been two stories years earlier that followed the same theme (the X-Men and the Micronauts mini, and an inventory story that ran in Uncanny X-Men #106, which was even adapted in the cartoon). Doing a story about Xavier's repressed desires at least relates to the human condition; revealing that Magneto was involved just turns it into a sequel to a previous storyline.

Hama tries to fulfill the editorial edict while also making the story about Wolverine and Elektra, but it’s a rough fit. Why exactly Wolverine would go to a mute man with no connection to Xavier to learn about Onslaught is never explained, and the opening narration even dismisses the premise. The dialogue is often stiff and awkward (Elektra: “What earthly purpose is there in searing my soul with images best left forgotten forever?”), which makes it hard to buy into the emotional anguish the characters are supposed to be experiencing. And if the purpose of connecting Magneto to Onslaught was to help preserve Xavier’s character, Wolverine’s final conversation with Elektra undermines it. Wolverine claims that it was the “dark inside” of Xavier that gave into anger and attacked Magneto, which opened him up to Magneto’s influence. How exactly is this better than Xavier’s repressed urges subconsciously manifesting as Onslaught?

WOLVERINE #103 – July 1996

Top of the World, Ma
Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Val Semeiks (penciler), Chad Hunt (inker), Joe Rosas & Malibu (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary: Wolverine climbs to the top of a skyscraper to meet Elektra. Elektra believes that if Wolverine is retrained in the martial arts, then he can begin to regain his humanity. She locks him inside a refrigeration chamber and challenges him to think. He breaks free, and remembers the missing ideogram from Elektra’s wall scroll. He finds her underneath a water tower with the missing “mountain” symbol painted on its side. She gives him a sword to duel with, which he quickly loses in the fight. He manipulates Elektra into kicking him back to where he lost the sword, enabling him to ambush her. Elektra is content that Wolverine is regaining his humanity, because she knows that it’s harder to sheathe a sword than draw it.

I Love the ‘90s: The skyscraper Wolverine climbs to the top of is one of the World Trade Center towers.

Review: Since it was decreed that Wolverine would essentially become an animal, and that Elektra would guest star for several months to promote her upcoming series, it’s not surprising that we ended up with a martial arts-themed issue that deals with the nature of man. There’s some decent character work here, but for the most part it reads like a time-killer until next month’s crossover. The martial arts philosophy doesn’t get particularly deep, but I like the fact that Hama emphasizes the idea that avoiding violence is often the greatest challenge for a man. He also uses the training sequences to reaffirm the idea that Wolverine is supposed to be as sneaky and crafty as he is vicious. There’s some attempt at treating Elektra as more than just a generic sensei character, as Hama recounts her origin and gives her a few first-person narrative captions. He handles her character competently, but it’s still pretty obvious that she’s being thrown into the title for commercial reasons. Val Semeiks’s fill-in art is capable enough, but his interpretation of the bestial Wolverine just emphasizes how incredibly ugly the design was in the first place. Rather than looking wild and feral, he often just looks like a Muppet with sharp teeth.

WOLVERINE #101 - May 1996

The Helix of an Age Foretold
Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Val Semeiks (penciler), Chad Hunt (inker), Joe Rosas & Malibu Hues (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary: Wolverine breaks free of Ozymandias’ grip and jumps down the chasm to save Cyclops. While falling down the chasm, Cyclops hits his head against a rock and falls unconscious. Wolverine manages to grab Cyclops and uses his claws to grab hold of the nearby spiral. He drags Cyclops to the top of the spiral, as the remaining X-Men continue their fight against Ozymandias’ stone replicas. Unbeknownst to the team, Elektra is secretly aiding them in their battle. Cyclops comes to and sees Phoenix buried under debris. He angrily blasts Ozymandias and breaks his body apart. Ozymandias responds by destroying the spiral with his engraved drawings. Realizing that he's defeated, he then forces his own body to fall apart. Iceman saves Cyclops and Wolverine from the collapsing spiral. As the team leaves, Cyclops wonders what Ozymandias’ engravings mean for the X-Men, and Wolverine senses Elektra’s nearby presence.

Continuity Notes: In the previous chapter of this mini-crossover, Phoenix was having the life choked out of her by the stone replica of Magneto (which was her excuse for not rescuing Cyclops). This issue opens with Phoenix standing a good ten feet away from the stone Magneto. Her excuse for not helping Cyclops in this chapter is that keeping the stone doppelgangers away is taking all of her telekinetic powers, and if she diverted any energy away to help Cyclops, Cannonball and Iceman might be killed.

When Cyclops hits his head against a rock, the narrative caption claims that it “wrecks a subtle change upon a section of cerebral cortex that was damaged once before.” This is a reference to the fact that Cyclops’ inability to control his optic blasts is due to the brain damage he suffered after his childhood plane crash. I have no idea why the story makes a big deal out of his head being hit in the same place again. I certainly don’t recall this going anywhere.

Phoenix sees Elektra’s silhouette in the shadows and comments that it’s “someone who is capable of shielding their thoughts from a psi-probe”. I have no idea if this has been kept consistent over the years, or if this Elektra was supposed to be a Skrull or not.

While climbing up Ozymandias’ spiral, Cyclops sees an engraved image of Xavier. Cyclops wonders why “the scribe of Apocalypse” would have rendered Xavier with such reverence. I’m not sure what exactly this is supposed to mean, unless it just signifies that Apocalypse respects his opponents. I suppose it could be more Onslaught foreshadowing, too.

According to the letter column, when Magneto removed Wolverine’s adamantium, it was broken down into its “component elements”. The editor claims that because of this, his original adamantium skeleton no longer exists. Of course, the editor also claims that Rose Wu is “convalescing in the Madripoor hospital”, which contradicts her on-panel death in issue #98.

Production Note: This is yet another issue with only nineteen pages.

Creative Differences: This issue is filled with third-person narrative captions, which Hama never used in his previous issues, and has claimed in interviews that he never wrote into his scripts.

Review: It’s an issue long fight scene, which really just covers the same ground as the last chapter in the story. Because Ozymandias first appeared in Uncanny X-Men’s installment of the storyline, I guess someone felt the need to firmly establish who he was in this issue, too. It makes this chapter seem extremely repetitive, especially if you happened to read both installments within a day of each other. The only aspects of the story that break up the monotony of the fight scenes are the cryptic hints of future storylines that I don’t think were ever resolved. Cyclops seems horrified that a servant of Apocalypse knows so much about the X-Men, but nothing comes of it. Cyclops getting hit on the head again is treated as an important event, and is then forgotten. Ozymandias’ reverent etching of Charles Xavier is portrayed as significant, but I’m pretty sure that goes nowhere, either. Aside from the rather uninteresting action sequences, there’s also the fact that the title character is literally acting like a dog (he even licks Cyclops’ face in one scene). In the previous issue, he was at least capable of speech, but here he’s limited to just grunts and growls. It’s a weak issue all around.

WOLVERINE #99 – March 1996

Of Mythic Metal Forged
Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Val Semeiks (penciler), Dan Green, Dan Panosian, & Chad Hunt (inkers), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Joe Rosas & Malibu’s Hues (colors)

Summary: Zoe Culloden takes Wolverine to Akkaba, the Egyptian village annihilated by Genesis. She tells him that he must face this threat against him, and then leaves to track Chimera. Genesis’ acolyte Jamil appears, offering to show Wolverine the way to the nearby citadel. Wolverine follows him, but refuses to enter the citadel through the door Jamil shows him. He overhears the Dark Riders torturing innocent people inside, and sneaks in through a side entrance. Soon, he’s confronted by Dirt Nap and Genesis, who blasts him with a giant weapon. The Dark Riders take him into custody, as Genesis brags that Wolverine will be brainwashed into becoming their new captain. He unveils a new adamantium skeleton for Wolverine, made out of the metal stolen from Cyber. Meanwhile, Cannonball travels to Madripoor to check on Wolverine. Tyger Tiger meets him and takes him to the Warp Chamber at Landau, Luckman, and Lake’s old office. He walks through it and arrives in Akkaba.

Continuity Note: Zoe Culloden says that the office boy Emmet from issue #97 is “more than he seems”. Don’t think this was ever resolved.

Production Note: Another nineteen-page issue.

Review: It’s the five hundredth issue leading up to #100, but this one does at least advance the plot a decent amount and places the characters where they need to be. Zoe Culloden abandons Wolverine pretty quickly, making me wonder why exactly L,L,&L has been so involved in this storyline in the first place. The scenes of Wolverine wandering through the desert are broken up by Cannonball’s adventures in Madripoor with Tyger Tiger. Their brief scenes, but they’re fun to read, as Tyger is revealed as a cougar with a thing for blonds. The rest of the issue mainly consists of Wolverine tracking down the generically evil Dark Riders, and a few pages of the dull Genesis ranting. Genesis, as far as I can remember, was never featured in a particularly good story, outside of his small role in the X-Men ’95 annual. He’s so dull, I always had a hard time remembering who he was even supposed to be when I was reading these issues as they were released. The big appeal of these issues is supposed to be the buildup to Wolverine regaining his adamantium, and knowing that this was just empty hype today makes this storyline much, much less interesting.

X-MEN UNLIMITED #9 – December 1995

Horse Latitudes

Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Val Semeiks (penciler), Bob McLeod (inker), Tom Vincent & Malibu Hues (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary

Lee Forrester rescues Paolo, a former member of her crew who had been missing for weeks. He’s running in fear from Bloodscream, who’s captured the rest of his shipmates. A week later, Psylocke, Beast, and Wolverine board Lee’s ship to investigate her claim that ships have been disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle. They sail into a fog and are confronted by Bloodscream and a crew of men he’s controlling. Bloodscream and his men manage to fight off the X-Men and sail away to their destination. The X-Men follow and soon realize their ship is somehow sailing in the sky. They follow Bloodscream’s path to Belasco’s island, which is magically floating over the ocean. The X-Men land on the island and investigate Belasco’s temple. Belasco captures the team and unveils the N’Garai cairn he’s discovered. He reveals his plan to use Bloodscream’s flotilla and his magic crystal to take over the N’Garai dimension. After he’s overpowered the N’Garai, he’ll use them to conquer this world. Belasco opens a portal to the N’Garai’s dimension as Bloodscream enters. The X-Men reveal to Bloodscream that Belasco was only using him, exploiting his desire to redeem his humanity by drafting him into a war with the N’Garai. Outside of the vortex, Lee Forrester targets Belasco’s crystal from her boat and shoots it. Bloodscream turns on Belasco, enabling the X-Men to escape the vortex. The X-Men drop into the ocean, as the vortex teleports Bloodscream and Belasco away. Eventually, the team is rescued by Lee Forrester.

Continuity Notes

This issue has repeated references to the first time Belasco fought the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #160.

Review

Larry Hama has said in a few interviews that the only writing jobs he ever got were the ones no one else wanted. He was probably exaggerating, but I think it gives you a good idea of how much of a priority X-Men Unlimited had become by this time. It’s another filler issue that basically just consists of a hero vs. villain fight. It doesn’t really tie into any of the ongoing storylines and I think the ending was just ignored by future writers. The story does feature a plethora of obscure characters (Bloodscream, Belasco, the N’Garai, their leader Kierrok, and Lee Forrester) which I guess is a nice nod to the longtime fans even if it doesn’t make the story inherently more interesting.

There are some ideas in here that would’ve looked cool if handled by an appropriate artist, such as Bloodscream’s zombie pirate flotilla, Belasco’s satanic temple, and the Belasco/N’Garai fight, but Semeiks’ art is pretty subdued for most of the issue. He can handle the facial expressions and most of the page layouts, but most of the issue isn’t visually exciting at all. I suspect that Hama was mostly relying on the extreme visuals to sell the story, but Semeiks can’t pull the images off the way J. H. Williams did in his Wolverine annual. Hama does introduce a character arc for Bloodscream, which reveals that he subconsciously wants to regain his humanity and has found redemption in Belasco’s war against the N’Garai. It’s nice that there’s some attempt to add a human element to this story, but Bloodscream is too nasty of a villain to be convincingly reformed, and his arc is really only a minor aspect of the issue. Hama also drops the ongoing subplot he established in Wolverine that had Bloodscream tricking Elsie Dee and Albert into helping him track Wolverine. If Hama was given an issue to kill in Unlimited, I’m not sure why he didn’t just resolve that storyline.

GENERATION X #8 - #11, October 1995- January 1996

I’ve mentioned earlier that none of my local stores carried Generation X when it was released (I wonder if they didn’t know that it was an X-book because the X was at the end of the title). Some nearby towns had comic shops, so I was able to pick up the first year’s worth of issues, but eventually I just gave up collecting it after missing so many issues. After purchasing many of the missing issues from the discount bins over the years, I now have a full run up to issue #25. I’ll do capsule reviews of the issues I bought as back issues, so that I can still give an overview of the entire line.

#8 (Lobdell/Cruz/Buckingham/Milgrom/Buccellato/Electric Crayon/Comicraft) – The Irish fantasy storyline begins, as the team investigates the disappearance of Banshee’s home, Cassidy Keep. The cast ends up separated in a fantasy world, which probably would’ve looked impressive under Bachalo’s pencils, but isn’t very remarkable as drawn by Cruz. Lobdell is obviously trying to do something whimsical and fun, but the art really gets in the way. I don’t know if it was in the plot or not, but a fight between some knights and Chamber and Synch ends with bloody decapitations, which doesn’t seem right. I’ll point out again that Cruz has his moments, but they’re undermined by mistakes like the drawing of a girl on page six who’s nine feet tall.

#9 (Lobdell/Grummett/Buckingham/Milgrom/Buccellato/Electric Crayon/Comicraft) – Tom Grummett debuts as fill-in artist, turning in a more consistent job. His work here is cartoonier than his normal look, but it still looks very traditional compared to the art in the earlier issues. This issue concludes the fantasy storyline, as Chamber uses his powers to energize the “Glamour Machine”, which somehow revives the fantasy world and returns Cassidy Keep to our dimension. There’s not a lot that stands out here, although Skin’s confrontation with a dragon is amusing. The dragon's response to Skin’s threats is to continually fall down laughing, which reminds me of something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. I think the art was supposed to carry a lot of this storyline, but the magical landscapes and mythical creatures are mostly lifeless.

#10 (Lobdell/Grummett/Buckingham/Milgrom/Buccellato/Pennington/Fern/Electric Crayon/Comicraft) –The mystery from Banshee’s dream in issue #7 begins to be resolved here, as Banshee is nearly killed in the present by an unknown foe. While Gen X tracks down his assailant, Emma Frost enters his mind to find answers. Lobdell introduces some strange continuity here, as it’s revealed that Magneto helped Banshee track down the mutant serial killer twenty years ago. Emma begins to wonder if Banshee had something to do with Eric Lehnsherr’s transformation into Magneto. I really have no idea why the X-books get so hung up on revealing that all of the established characters knew each other before their first appearances, but it’s always annoyed me. The end of the issue reveals that Omega Red was the attacker, which will tie another existing character to Banshee’s backstory. Like most of the previous issues, there’s not a lot of plot, but Lobdell does handle the characterization well by focusing on Jubilee’s concern for the now comatose Penance, and Emma’s newfound respect for Banshee.

#11 (Lobdell/Dezago/Semekis/Milgrom/Lanning/Buccellato/Electric Crayon/Comicraft) – Now, another fill-in artist shows up, while a second writer helps with the script. It really feels like the series is just marking time until Bachalo returns at this point. Emma continues to go through Banshee’s memories and returns to the moment he was dreaming about in issue #7. The shadowy serial killer is revealed to be Arkady, shortly before he was transformed into Omega Red. Oddly enough, Arkady’s taunt about Banshee killing him “again” is repeated in this issue, even though this is supposed to be their first meeting. This doesn’t do a lot to dispel the notion that Lobdell was making up his mysteries as he went along. The idea that Banshee knew Arkady "twenty years ago", before he became Omega Red, creates a continuity problem, since X-Men #7 refers to Wolverine's previous fight with Omega Red as happening thirty years ago (twice, even). I also have no idea what Emma was supposed to be doing inside Banshee’s mind in the first place, since she basically just observes some of his memories and then decides that he’s stable enough to return to his own body. Most of the action in this issue comes from Chamber facing down Omega Red, which doesn’t produce a very interesting fight scene. Like most of the issues of X-Man so far, the conflict in this issue ends when Chamber’s psionic powers explode and blast the bad guy away. It’s not much of a resolution for the mediocre storyline. It really seems like this series lost a lot of its momentum early on.

The Age of Apocalypse: The Chosen – April 1995

Untitled

Credits: Ian Churchill, Salvador Larroca, Steve Skroce, Val Semeiks, Tom Lyle, Tim Sale (pencilers), Scott Hanna, Sergio Melia, Bob Wiacek, Karl Kessel, Terry Austin, James Pascoe, Dan Panosian, Tim Sale (inkers), Ashley Underwood (colorist). NOTE: No writer or letterer is credited.

Summary

A Madri priest sneaks into Apocalypse’s private chambers and reviews his files in order to learn if the Madri are labeled “Chosen” or “Forgotten”. After reviewing several of Apocalypse’s files, he’s relieved to see the Madri listed as “Chosen”. Their designation suddenly changes to “Forgotten”, as Apocalypse enters. He kills the Madri priest for displeasing him.

Production Notes

According to the “X-Facts” hype page that later ran in the June issues, Howard Mackie is credited as the writer (which makes sense, as he’s the only writer to spell “Weapon X” with a hyphen, and that’s the way it’s spelled here). Why exactly the June hype page is promoting a book that was two months old is beyond me, though. The lettering on the framing sequence isn’t credited either, but it looks like Comicraft’s computer fonts.

Continuity Notes

According to Apocalypse’s files, Jean Grey was abandoned by the X-Men during a mission and taken into his custody. He claims that she was “well on the way to becoming one of the mutant ruling class” when Weapon X went against Magneto’s orders and rescued her. He speculates that she didn’t want to be saved, a thought that Weapon X also considers briefly in Weapon X #2.

Apocalypse claims that Sabretooth once served him, until he showed compassion for humans. “Bloody and broken”, he later asked Apocalypse for forgiveness (I assume these are references to X-Men Chronicles #1, although we didn’t see what happened to Sabretooth after Wolverine severed his spine in that issue). Apocalypse hypothesizes that his symbiotic connection to Wild Child dulls his bloodlust.

Review

This is a rather flagrant cashgrab, similar to the Stryfe one-shot that came out at the end of the “X-Cutioner’s Song” crossover. The cover price is bumped up over fifty cents, with no justification outside of a wraparound cover. That only eliminates the back cover ad, while the interiors have the same number of ads as any other monthly comic. I think Marvel began automatically charging higher prices for one-shots and miniseries regardless of content during this time, which always struck me as a brazen rip-off. The ‘90s sales boom had already peaked at this point, but I guess some people at Marvel still thought they could get away with this stuff. If this were an Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe style book with comprehensive profiles on a large selection of characters, I wouldn’t mind it at all. It’s obvious that the creators went through a lot of effort to create new backstories for dozens of characters, so I could understand publishing a comprehensive manual that details all of the changes. Instead, we get a pin-up book that just has a few lines of copy on the bottom of each page. With the exception of the two entries listed above, no new information is revealed, and the amount of story included is unquestionably nominal. I could charitably view this as an attempt to establish the new continuity in one place for readers who didn’t follow the entire X-line, but it doesn’t present enough material to do that well, either.