Christmas Cheer Fear - Part Two
Credits: Jay Faerber (writer), Kevin Sharpe (penciler), Russell/Ramos/Czop (inkers), Kevin Tinsley (colors), Comicraft (letters)
Summary:
Black Tom subdues the team and reveals the true origin of Mondo. He
explains to the team that he rescued Mondo from the Hellfire Club,
following Cordelia’s betrayal. Later, a Mondo clone was sent to
infiltrate Generation X. Now, Black Tom is helping Mondo get revenge on
Cordelia. Suddenly, Penance enters from the woods and cuts
Juggernaut’s helmet off. Emma uses her telepathic powers to
incapacitate him, leading Black Tom to order Mondo to escape.
Meanwhile, M meets her new headmaster De La Corte and discovers he’s a
vampire. She’s bitten in the neck during their struggle.
Continuity Notes: Black Tom flashes back to the team’s first encounter with Mondo in Generation X Annual ’95. He reveals that he
was Barrington, the mystery figure in charge of a platoon of armed
soldiers. I’m not sure if Jay Faerber knew this, but Barrington
actually became an established supporting cast member in the Maverick
solo series (after appearing as a shadowy figure for years in X-stories
featuring Maverick.) This still works in continuity however, since
it’s entirely plausible that Black Tom could’ve impersonated Barrington on that one occasion.
This also explains why exactly Maverick’s boss was so interested in
Mondo, anyway.
Review:
I think Scott Lobdell briefly toyed with the idea of making Black Tom
the team’s main villain, and it would seem Jay Faerber was thinking
along those lines when writing these issues. I can see it working; Tom
obviously has a connection to Banshee, and given his past with Siryn,
there’s a precedent for his interest in young mutants. He’s a much
better choice than Emplate, at least.
Black
Tom’s latest protégé is Mondo, the “real” one, who’s given more lines
this issue than ever before. Faerber’s decided to ditch Mondo’s
previous characterization as a lazy beach bum and just write him as an
angry villain out for revenge. I can’t imagine this went over well with
the people who clung to those early cameo appearances, but I suppose
it’s justified within the context of the story. Connecting Black Tom to
the events of Generation X Annual ’95
is a strange move, but I think it’s actually a clever way to work
within continuity and insert Black Tom into Mondo’s past without too
many headaches. (Although the specifics of how Black Tom pulled off the
Barrington impersonation, especially while he was morphing into a
living tree, should probably be elaborated on.)
Faerber’s
run isn’t exactly known for the action scenes, but the team’s first
fight with Juggernaut is actually pretty exciting. Chamber gets to have
a classic “I’ve exhausted my powers, but he just won’t stop!” moment,
as he uses his powers for the first time in what feels like ages.
Penance also gets her moment, and for perhaps the first time her
diamond-hard claws play a real role in the story when she rips
Juggernaut’s helmet off. Juggernaut also looks great when drawn by
Kevin Sharpe, who’s the rare fill-in artist that’s actually compatible
with Terry Dodson’s style. As for that vampire subplot, I have a
feeling it’s going to be a needless distraction in an issue that should
really be devoted to Faerber’s various subplots, but I guess I’ll find
out soon enough.
Family Business
Credits:
Jay Faerber (writer), Pete Woods, Kevin Sharpe, & Yancey Labat
(pencilers), Wong/Czop/Ramos/Koblish (inks), Kevin Tinsley (colors),
Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)
Summary:
Jubilee notices her parents standing next to Gen X villain Hunter
Brawn in an old photograph. She investigates, and discovers a
connection between Brawn and the bank where her father served as
president. She confronts the bank’s vice president Elliott Lu, who
confesses that her parents were killed in a staged car accident after
her father discovered Brawn’s money laundering scheme. Jubilee travels
to Brawn’s home, unaware that Synch has broken his promise and told
Banshee about her plan. Banshee sends the team to aid Jubilee against Legault, but allows her to face Brawn. She refuses to kill him, and
allows Brawn to be taken into custody following Lu’s confession. Later,
M says goodbye to the team and leaves with her father.
Continuity Notes:
-
Generation X faced Hunter Brawn and his flunky Legault back in Generation X #51. Husk’s potential boyfriend Tristan is Brawn’s grandson.
-
According to Jubilee, the specific date of her parents’ death is October 15th. I’m sure this will come up often in future stories, so let's all make a note of it.
-
The major continuity concern with this issue is the portrayal of the Lees’ deaths. As established in Wolverine #72, Jubilee’s parents were killed in a staged car crash by hitmen Reno & Molokai. Their death was a mistake, as Reno & Molokai were
paid to kill a different pair of Lees who lived next door.
I Love the '90s:
Jubilee uses a pay phone to call Synch, even though it’s established
just a few pages earlier that she has a cell phone with her (she plugs
it into her laptop to go online).
Review:
I’m assuming Jay Faerber came across Jubilee’s first entry in the
Handbook (the 1989 update miniseries), read the portion about her
parents dying in a car accident on Mulholland Drive, and assumed no one
had ever done a story addressing this. He’s wrong, of course, but
that’s what editors are for. Apparently, they never read
those stories, either. But even if they missed the
story arc in Wolverine #72-74, you would think Marvel’s editor-in-chief, Bob Harras, would’ve caught this. He was the editor of Wolverine at the time, and the editor of Uncanny X-Men
during Jubilee’s first appearances. This is the kind of stuff that was
beginning to slip through during the final days of Bob Harras’ stint as
editor-in-chief, and it’s a shame that Marvel’s continuity hasn’t
recovered to this day.
Now, technically, it’s possible to make both stories work. You just have to believe that both
Lee families on this street in Beverly Hills had hits placed on them on
the same day. If Reno & Molokai made a mistake and grabbed the
wrong Lees, it didn’t really matter since they were on someone else’s
hit list anyway. This also requires you to believe the first massive
coincidence that a pair of goons Wolverine faced earlier in his solo
series turned out to be the Lees’ killers, and the second coincidence that the person who ordered the hit would later become an enemy of Jubilee’s team, Generation X.
Looking back, Wolverine
#72-74 was far from a highlight of Hama’s run, but I still prefer his
interpretation of the Lees’ murder. Hama had a habit of inserting
tragic consequences based on simple misunderstandings in his work;
perhaps most famously in G. I. Joe
when several established characters are killed after Tomax and Xamot
misunderstand Cobra Commander’s orders to “get rid of them.” Revealing
that Jubilee’s parents died because they happened to share the same last
name with the wrong family just feels more poignant than a simple story
about money laundering. What’s worse is that both stories have the
same ending – Jubilee confronting the person (or persons) responsible
for her parents’ deaths and finding the strength not to kill them. And,
both times, Wolverine plays a role in her decision, even if he isn’t
physically in this issue.
Ignoring
all of the continuity complaints, I do have some admiration for Faerber
for at least trying to tell a real story in an annual. Annuals were an
absolute dead zone by 1999. No one even bothered to arrange quickie
crossovers in them anymore. Faerber’s created a story that not only
adds to one character’s established past (admittedly, in a clumsy way),
but also impacts the lineup of the team.
Throughout
the issue, M is dealing with her father’s decision to withdraw her from
the school, a choice she isn’t necessarily opposed to. Banshee tries
to convince her father to give M the space she needs to grow up and make
her own decisions, which Faerber later parallels with Jubilee’s solo
mission against Hunter Brawn. Banshee gives Jubilee the freedom to
confront Brawn on her own, confident she’ll make the right choice.
(Somewhat confident, since he sends Synch and Husk to keep an eye on
her.) Later, M says goodbye to the team, acknowledging that no one
really liked her, and maybe it’s best this way. Faerber also advances
the Tristan Brawn/Husk subplot, as Tristan definitively turns away from
his grandfather and becomes a more legitimate love interest for Husk.
So, yes, things happen and the story is much more than filler.
Unfortunately, it’s built on shaky continuity, and most of the
emotional beats of the story were already covered years earlier.