ONSLAUGHT: EPILOGUE #1 – February 1997

Prisoner M-13
Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Randy Green (penciler), Jon Holdredge w/Hilary Barta (inkers), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Dana Moreshead & Digital Chameleon (colors)

Summary: Inside a secret military installation in Nevada, Henry Gyrich looks on as Bastion interrogates Professor Xavier. A psychiatrist named Dr. Ingrid Thysson arrives to evaluate Xavier. She’s accompanied by special operative Darryl Smith, who objects to Bastion’s treatment of Xavier. Bastion places Smith in custody for questioning him. Another prisoner inside the facility, Nina, uses her psychic powers to escape her cell and comfort Xavier. Nina has a child’s mind and is empathetic towards Xavier’s suffering. Xavier convinces her to use her strange powers and generate a phone. Soon, Bastion declares that Nina is too dangerous to live. When Bastion learns that Smith has a natural psi-shield, he decides that Smith should be freed and ordered to exterminate Nina. After Dr. Thysson meets Nina, she agrees to help Xavier free her. During their escape attempt, Darryl Smith knocks Thysson unconscious and brings the body of Nina to Bastion. The operatives who dispose of the body soon learn that her body bag is empty, but refuse to tell Bastion because they’ve been ordered to never ask questions. Hours later, the psychic telephone Nina created appears in front of Xavier. Renee Majcomb speaks to him, telling him that she’s followed his instructions and found Nina in the desert. Nina tells him that Darryl Smith taught her how to fake her death and escape. Xavier tells Nina that there may be others like her, and they need her help.

Production Note: This is a thirty-two page one shot with no ads. The cover price is $2.99.

Continuity Notes: The cover story for Xavier turning himself in to the government is that he’s volunteered to help the government research Onslaught. The story goes out of its way to reinforce the idea that the government doesn’t know Xavier is a mutant. Bastion clearly knows, but refuses to tell anyone. Valerie Cooper knows because of her relationship with the X-teams, but she hasn’t told anyone else that Xavier is a mutant and had a role in Onslaught’s creation. Xavier claims that Cooper doesn’t know that he’s been taken into Bastion’s custody and is being treated like a prisoner.

Darryl Smith is the government agent who was referenced in Wolverine #108 but not seen. An editorial footnote says that he first appeared in the Wolverine ’96 annual (which I’ve never read). It’s established that he has a natural psi-shield, but Bastion is adamant that he’s not a mutant (presumably because Bastion can detect mutants). It seems like Hama had plans for this character, but I don’t think anything came of them.

Nina appears for the first time. It’s established that she’s some sort of government experiment called a “Manite”. Xavier describes her as a “little person abrim with compassion, totally devoid of prevarication.” According to Nina, another prisoner named Tuesday was recently killed by Bastion. She also tells Xavier that his powers aren’t gone, they’ve just been “turned off”, and she could restore them if he wishes.

Review: This is one of those one-shots that would randomly appear with no discernable purpose. This could’ve easily been published in X-Men Unlimited, but Marvel apparently wanted to pump out even more X-product than normal during this era. Labeling this an epilogue to the Onslaught storyline is a bit of a stretch, especially since UXM and X-Men already dedicated a few issues to dealing with the aftermath of the crossover. Instead, the story mainly serves to continue Bastion’s buildup, and apparently to introduce Nina. Nina didn’t seem like the type of character that would’ve received a lot of attention, but she ended up playing a large role in several stories around 1999 or so. I don’t know if she was created by Hama just to give Xavier someone to interact with, or if editorial had a hand in her creation and always had plans for her. I don’t have a problem with her in the context of this story, but I’m not sure why she was featured so heavily in the late ‘90s.

The story is enjoyable enough, and Randy Green’s art has an attractive, cartoony style. Hama’s able to give Xavier an erudite speech pattern without making him seem too uptight, which is a problem you’d probably have to address when doing an Xavier solo story. Adorable little Nina could easily become insufferable, but she’s at least tolerable throughout this issue. The only real issue I have with the storytelling is the non-introduction of Renee Majcomb, who’s dropped into the story with the assumption that we should automatically know who she is. For the record, she’s an associate of Xavier’s from Genosha who had made a couple of appearances by this point. I’m pretty sure I owned all of her appearances at the time, and even then I had only the vaguest idea of who she’s supposed to be. Her only role in the story is to escort Nina away, so perhaps you could argue she gets all the introduction she needs, but it feels distracting to me. It also raises the question of why Xavier is calling this obscure character, and not any of his X-Men to tell them that he’s being held in a secret prison. Despite its flaws, it’s still a decent enough comic, even if you have to wonder why exactly it exists as a one-shot in the first place.

ONSLAUGHT: MARVEL UNIVERSE – October 1996

With Great Power…
Credits: Scott Lobdell & Mark Waid (plot), Mark Waid (script), Adam Kubert & Joe Bennett (pencilers), Dan Green w/Thibert, Townsend, Delperdang (inkers), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Steve Buccellato & Team Bucce! (colors)

Summary: The X-Men rescue Professor Xavier from Onslaught, as the Avengers and Fantastic Four arrive as backup. Onslaught uses Franklin Richards’ reality warping power to create a second sun in the atmosphere, which puts greater pressure on the heroes to finish the fight. Cable telepathically enters Joseph’s mind and uses his magnetism powers to temporarily remove the barriers Onslaught placed on Xavier’s telepathy. Phoenix, at the Hulk’s request, turns off the Bruce Banner portion of the Hulk’s brain, allowing him to attack Onslaught with no self-control. The Hulk destroys Onslaught’s armor, which creates a large explosion that somehow physically separates Bruce Banner and the Hulk. Onslaught reemerges as pure psionic energy, which can now spread out across the planet. Thor volunteers to contain Onslaught’s energy in his own body, but he’s not enough. Members of the Avengers and Fantastic Four unite and enter Onslaught’s energy field. Mr. Fantastic warns mutants not to join the other heroes, claiming that their genetic pattern could give Onslaught more strength. Iron Man forces Dr. Doom to join the rest of the heroes, while Bruce Banner leaves the unconscious Hulk behind and follows the others. Mr. Fantastic gives word to the X-Men to destroy the energy field when all of the heroes are gone, as the mental images of Xavier and Joseph rescue X-Man and Franklin Richards. Onslaught is destroyed, but Xavier predicts that mutants will be blamed for the damage.

I Love the ‘90s: Thing refers to Reed and Sue Richards as “Paul and Jaime”, a reference to ‘90s sitcom Mad about You.

“Huh?” Moment: While inside Onslaught, X-Man has a conversation with a floating word balloon that’s not attached to anyone. Later on, we see him speaking to Xavier and Joseph, who are colored with a special effect. I’m assuming that there was a production error that prevented the pair from showing up in the earlier scene.

Continuity Notes: Mr. Fantastic claims that the mutant Scarlet Witch can enter Onslaught because of her reality-warping hex power. Some fans complained about Falcon entering Onslaught, but as Kurt Busiek has often reminded fans, Falcon is not supposed to be a mutant, despite what a malfunctioning Sentinel once said. The heroes who enter Onslaught’s energy field go on to star in the “Heroes Reborn” titles. It’s later revealed that Franklin Richards created an alternate Earth when he came into contact with his mother as she passed through Onslaught. That world is represented by a blue ball, which suddenly appears next to Franklin after he’s rescued.

Which heroes actually entered Onslaught was never kept consistent, and the fact that Franklin’s world was populated by millions of people, and not just these specific characters, means that he could’ve recreated whomever he wanted to anyway. For the record, we see Human Torch, the Thing, Wasp, Giant Man, Falcon, Namor, Captain America, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Crystal, Iron Man, Dr. Doom, Bruce Banner, Mr. Fantastic, and Invisible Woman enter on-panel.

Remember the psionic armor that was brought up in several tie-in issues? The plot element that was used to justify Excalibur and Iron Man’s inclusion in the crossover? Would it shock you if I told you it plays no role in the final installment at all?

Just to be thorough, here’s a list of the hints that preceded the revelation of Onslaught’s identity:

X-Men Prime – A shadowy figure attacks Mystique, declaring, “It begins”. Forge speculates that whoever did this didn’t want to kill Mystique, but make a statement. This was originally supposed to be Onslaught, but someone changed their mind and the mystery villain became the X-Factor character Hound. Even in the context of later X-Factor issues, Hound’s actions don’t make a lot of sense, either.

UXM #322 – Juggernaut lands in New Jersey, and claims he was punched in Canada by Onslaught. It’s later revealed that Onslaught attacked him because of Xavier’s resentment of his abusive stepbrother, which is fair enough. However, Onslaught isn’t supposed to have a corporeal form at this point; that happens after X-Man makes Xavier’s astral form physical in X-Man #10.

Cable #21 – A shadowy figures steals data on Cable from Blaquesmith. Moira MacTaggert learns that someone (possibly the same person who leaked her Legacy Virus infection to the media) has been stealing her files on Cable, also.

X-Men #44 – A powerful force is interfering with the psionic plane. This is later revealed to be X-Man, but the emergence of Onslaught could’ve also caused the disturbance. The X-Men’s Australian base has been used by another mystery figure, who is never revealed. I’m sure this was supposed to be another Onslaught hint, but it’s hard to say given the number of mysteries dominating the titles at this point.

X-Force #46 – A mystery man kidnaps Mimic behind the scenes. It’s confirmed that Onslaught did abduct him, but Mimic drops out of the storyline very quickly with no explanation.

X-Force #47 – Cable accuses Xavier of hiding information from X-Force regarding a mission, which he denies. This could work as an Onslaught hint, especially since their mission involved Mimic. However, it’s not portrayed as a shocking revelation, and nothing in the story infers that Xavier is lying.

Wolverine #93 – Two Landau, Luckman, and Lake agents send Juggernaut to another dimension because he “knows too much”. This was probably meant as a reference to Onslaught, yet L, L, & L end up playing no role in the storyline.

X-Men #46 – Onslaught kidnaps fifteen scientists working on a Sentinel project. Since Onslaught does use Sentinels later on, this at least makes sense. It’s important to Senator Kelly that a scientist named Evan Donner is missing, but this goes nowhere.

X-Men #48 – Xavier begins to shut his feelings off after Sabretooth nearly kills Psylocke. Xavier’s disappointment over failing to help Sabretooth is later used to help justify Onslaught’s creation (which doesn’t explain why Onslaught was active before this happened).

X-Men #49 – Onslaught kidnaps Chamber, for still unknown reasons.

X-Men #50 – The strongest indication that Xavier wasn’t originally supposed to be Onslaught. Onslaught uses Gateway to kidnap four X-Men so that he can observe them. How much more information on the X-Men could Xavier possibly have? Other nonsense from this issue includes Gateway trying to abduct Xavier for Onslaught, the implication that a strange landscape is the source of Onslaught’s power, and Onslaught’s claim that he’s preparing the X-Men for “the coming”.

X-Force #52 – Blob, whose powers have been enhanced by Onslaught, is sent to steal Nimrod technology. This is another Sentinel connection, although Nimrod is supposed to be a highly advanced Sentinel, and he never shows up in the storyline (although Nimrod prototypes do attack Cable a few months later when he revisits this base). Blob and Mimic are soon forgotten as the crossover begins.

UXM #331 – Archangel questions if Xavier would use his powers in unethical ways, which looks like a hint that the creators were at least considering him as an Onslaught candidate at this point. Cyclops revisits the location Gateway took the X-Men to in X-Men #50. He’s shocked that there’s no debris, and the landscape doesn’t match its previous appearance. Never explained.

Cable #31 – It’s inferred that Onslaught is the one who stole Blaquesmith’s data on Cable in Cable #21 (originally, a silhouette of the X-Cutioner was shown to be the culprit). Whatever information Onslaught wanted is never revealed, and Xavier/Onslaught would presumably have all of the information he needs on Cable already.

UXM #332 – Xavier threatens Zoe Culloden in order to get information on the missing Wolverine. The story hints that Xavier’s beginning to break from the strain of recent months, which works as a clue.

UXM #333 – The creators have now firmly cast Xavier as Onslaught, as he begins to act irritable and snarky around the X-Men, which sets up next month’s revelation. The story also claims that Onslaught abducted thirty-one scientists, which more than doubles the number listed in X-Men #46. This issue has a June 1996 cover date, which means that as recently as May’s Cable #31, actions were ascribed to Onslaught that make no sense given his true identity.

Review: For what it’s worth, I really liked this comic when I was sixteen. It seemed like a respectable goodbye to the heroes, and Adam Kubert’s rendition of the Marvel Universe was great. I was upset that Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld were going to be rewriting the histories of the FF and Avengers, so the fact that this issue already paved the way for an in-continuity explanation for the new reality was a welcome relief. Looking back, it seems like the entire issue is a series of in-continuity justifications for real world business decisions. “Jim Lee wants to use Hulk in Iron Man? Well, split him and Banner up so we can have him, too. At least we get to keep the mutant characters. Oh yeah, Scarlet Witch is a mutant, isn’t she? Okay, I’m sure we can get around this somehow. Hey, are we keeping Quicksilver or not? Spider-Man? We can just say he didn’t make it to Central Park in time. Same thing for Daredevil. No one missed him in Secret Wars, anyway.”

As for the story itself, there are a few nice exchanges between the characters as they say goodbye, but the action scenes are disappointing. The heroes spend a lot of time ganging up on forcefields and bubbly energy patterns, but none of the characters are really able to use their powers in distinctive ways. Onslaught remains a generic “destroy everything” villain, who can do nonsense such as creating a new sun. This adds nothing to the story, and it seems like the heroes quickly forget about it as soon as it appears (I guess it’s supposed to be the source of the wind that constantly surrounds the characters, but it’s not clear). I assume the scene was used as foreshadowing, to show that Franklin’s powers can create planet-sized bodies. Marvel’s editors had already decided that Franklin would be the means of returning the characters to the Marvel Universe when “Heroes Reborn” was over, which was at least some level of future planning. Even so, in this issue it’s a strange plot development that goes nowhere.

As the conclusion to a storyline that had been building for over a year, this is undoubtedly a disappointment. Almost none of the clues leading up to the villain’s reveal match up, and characters who where supposed to be Onslaught’s faithful servants have disappeared by the time the event begins. At the very least, Mimic and Blob could’ve replaced the omnipresent Sentinels in any of the numerous tie-ins. The Punisher fighting the Blob could’ve been fun; instead we got an issue that barely used the Sentinels as the setup for an unrelated story.

There’s a sense of half-heartedness surrounding the entire event, which is the exact opposite feeling the Age of Apocalypse storyline evoked. AoA managed to create an entirely new world, keep a remarkable amount of consistency amongst the various titles, and actually have a point outside of shock value. Charles Xavier’s importance to the world was demonstrated by showing what would’ve happened without him, which is a legitimate premise for a long-term storyline involving a large cast of characters. Now, Xavier has been turned into a villain because of the events of an unrelated storyline published three years earlier. He becomes the most powerful threat the Marvel Universe has ever known, and then proceeds to do absolutely nothing over the course of a dozen titles. He’s never given a plan or a motive, until the very end of the storyline when he just decides to kill everybody. It doesn’t make anything resembling a statement about the character, and Onslaught never even becomes an interesting opponent for the heroes to fight. The initial tie-ins got some material out of the heroes’ response to the events, but after that the characters do nothing except fight Sentinels, chat with each other, and develop futile plans for stopping Onslaught. Like so many other crossovers, it just becomes a waste of time.

With Avengers, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and Captain America licensed outside of Marvel’s offices for over a year, a new status quo was created within the Marvel Universe. Marvel could’ve pretended that the Lee/Liefeld books were still in the Marvel Universe and just ignored any continuity problems, but I suspect this was unthinkable at the time. An entire storyline had to be created to explain where the heroes have gone (one which unfortunately cannibalized an existing X-subplot and made it even more nonsensical), and the characters Marvel still controlled had to react to the loss. This did create an interesting new scenario, where more obscure heroes had to take the place of the missing icons, as mutant heroes where blamed for the heroes’ deaths. I seem to recall Marvel getting some mileage out of this, although it’s clearly a case of making the best of a bad situation.

“Heroes Reborn” became a commercial success, as much as that could be judged in the post-boom period of comics sells. Critics hated most of the titles, but the stunt was successful in renewing interest in characters that Marvel has been neglecting for years. The story that went around at the time was that losing so many of their characters embarrassed Marvel’s employees, and inspired them to try harder when the rights reverted to them in 1997. This lead to some of the X-artists being assigned to more traditional titles like Fantastic Four and Captain America, while Silver Age revivalists such as Kurt Busiek and Mark Waid were hired to do new stories that also brought the characters back to their roots. Rather than making the Avengers more like the X-Men, the goal now was to make readers realize what made the Avengers cool in the first place.

In some ways, the post-“Heroes Reborn” era began the X-line’s descent as the industry’s dominant commercial force. The biggest artists weren’t automatically assigned to the X-books, which sent a message to readers that Thor could be just as important to Marvel as X-Men. Soon, second-string titles like Daredevil were getting high-profile relaunches (as part of a deal with Joe Quesada’s Event Comics, which resembled the “Heroes Reborn” deal but didn’t place the characters in another reality) and rivaling the X-titles in sales. The success of Quesada’s relaunches (and, allegedly, anger over editorial’s inability to capitalize on the success of the first X-Men movie) allowed him to replace Bob Harras as Editor in Chief in 2000. Joe Quesada once said that he couldn’t keep the various X-characters and their spandex outfits straight, a sign that he didn’t hold the numerous mutant characters in the same esteem Bob Harras (who had been editing various X-titles since the ‘80s) did. The X-franchise still holds weight, or else Marvel wouldn’t be publishing so many spinoffs, but the commercial appeal has obviously dwindled under Quesada. The majority of the titles are now mid-level books that turn a profit and have a fanbase, but don’t set the sales charts on fire. It’s common to see low-selling X-books cancelled these days, which would’ve been unthinkable during most of the ‘90s. Without the commercial success of “Heroes Reborn”, and the Onslaught storyline that preceded it, it’s conceivable that the comics landscape would look very different today.

X-MEN #56 – September 1996

Twilight of the Gods
Credits: Scott Lobdell (plot), Mark Waid (script), Andy Kubert (penciler), Art Thibert (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Joe Rosas & Malibu (colors)

Summary: Joseph tells Captain America the story of Dr. Doom’s arrival in New York. He asks why Doom is helping out, and Captain America responds that he’s making sure the Earth exists so that he can rule it one day. Meanwhile, Onslaught tries to absorb X-Man’s powers, but he manages to resist. Onslaught reads his mind, and is angered when he learns that the mutants who ruled X-Man’s world also destroyed it. He then absorbs X-Man into his body, forcing him inside with Franklin Richards. Xavier secretly leaves the rest of the heroes to personally confront Onslaught. Onslaught destroys his wheelchair, and tells him that neither humans nor mutants are fit to rule, so everyone must be destroyed.

Continuity Note: Onslaught claims that his minions, such as Holocaust, Post, and Havok, served their purpose and brought him X-Man. No, they didn’t. Onslaught captured him personally in X-Man #19.

Creative Differences: This is Mark Waid's final issue, scripting over a Scott Lobdell plot. When Waid's departure was announced, Scott Lobdell told Wizard, "I think I write the plot around the characters, whereas his tendency is to try and shoehorn characters into the plot". Waid and Lobdell continued to take public shots at one another for a few years, but Lobdell did eventually issue an open apology (which I can't find online, unfortunately). When asked in 2002 about why he left the book, Waid responded, "Creative differences. As in, I wanted to be creative". To throw more snark in, this is Mark Waid's response to Bob Harras' firing in 2000 (via Rich Johnston):

The only bad thing about this is that it happened after convention season was over. Otherwise, the entire freelance community would be drinking on me all summer long.

And that, my friend, has nothing to do with my own personal head-buttings with a man who's a weasel and a liar. It has everything to do with the fact that his legacy in this business will be as the man who always went the extra mile for ten years to keep the industry's highest-profile books COMPLETELY IMPENETRABLE TO A NON-FANATIC AUDIENCE--an ESPECIALLY grievous crime this summer of ALL summers--*AND* taught his lackeys to do the SAME. (The "X-Men Sampler" piece of shit in TV GUIDE is something I will use forevermore in my classes and teachings as an example of HOW NOT TO DO COMICS THAT CAN BE UNDERSTOOD BY NON-FANS.)

Review: It seems that quite a few of these tie-in issues mainly consist of the heroes talking to each other while they’re waiting for their next strike on Onslaught. Waid handles Joseph’s conversations with Captain America and Xavier well, but eventually you just want the heroes to stop standing around and do something. There is a fun scene that has Dr. Doom (incredibly rendered by Kubert) destroying a Sentinel with one blast, which serves as a reminder that the story at least had some potential, even if it’s just seeing the various Marvel characters united against a common foe.

The story of Onslaught himself is advanced here, and not for the better. X-Man’s ability to resist Onslaught is played up for the first few pages, but suddenly in-between pages, Onslaught is able to casually absorb him with no explanation. The knowledge he gains from X-Man shifts him from a “mutants must rule” motivation (which wasn’t even clear in his previous appearances), to a nihilistic “kill everything” goal. This is just boring judged on its own merits, but knowing that Lobdell had actually given him a far more coherent motivation (reprinted in the Road to Onslaught special) makes it seem even worse. The original idea, which exaggerated Xavier’s goals and had Onslaught forcing everyone into a peaceful Collective Intelligence, at least is a logical progression of Xavier’s way of thinking. Abandoning that idea, which never even made into any of the actual stories, and just turning the villain’s plot into “everything must die” is horribly misguided.

I have no idea what was happening behind the scenes during this era, but after Onslaught reveals himself, the stories aren’t given anywhere to go. Onslaught sends Sentinels to attack New York and the heroes respond, but this is just followed by issues of Onslaught in his citadel threatening Franklin Richards. He doesn’t do anything once he emerges, and none of the stories ever gets around to explaining why exactly he’s attacking New York. I know that the Onslaught storyline was hijacked in order to provide an in-continuity reason for the Fantastic Four and Avengers to disappear (as the characters had been outsourced to Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee), but I don’t see how that precluded anyone from writing a few lines of dialogue to clarify the villain’s motives. Now that the storyline is drawing to an end, it seems as if the creators have given up on any legitimate motivation for Onslaught, so now he just wants to kill everybody.

ONSLAUGHT Crossovers Part Five – September 1996

Punisher #11 (Ostrander/Lyle/Jones/Starkings/Comicraft/Kalisz/American Color) – Another tie-in that has nothing to do with Onslaught. SHIELD investigates the arrival of Sentinels in Manhattan, which leads to their helicarrier getting shot out of the sky. The Punisher witnesses the event and reluctantly dives into the river to rescue the survivors. He aids G. W. Bridge against a street gang that’s jumped on board to loot the helicarrier, and then agrees to take down a mutant terrorist group while SHIELD deals with the situation in Manhattan. This is a straightforward action story, and it’s executed rather well. The actual effect of Onslaught’s electromagnetic pulse attack hasn’t been portrayed very consistently throughout the tie-ins, or internally within this issue (SHIELD agents are forced to use hang gliders, yet the helicarrier can remain in the air, and the gangleader’s jetski still works), but that’s a relatively minor nitpick. I’m not sure what exactly Marvel was doing with the Punisher during this period, but I seem to recall this series opened with him working (presumably undercover) as a mob boss. With a ponytail. It never seemed that promising to me, but Ostrander does show a strong handle on the character with this issue (and his hair is back to normal). The Punisher’s narration is often humorous and the action moves at a steady pace. I wasn’t expecting much, but it’s an inoffensive action story.

Spider-Man #72 (Mackie/Romita, Jr./Williamson/Starkings/Comicraft/Tinsley/Malibu) – Well, it’s an entire issue of Romita, Jr. drawing Spider-Man fighting Sentinels, so it can’t be all bad. At this point in Spider-Man’s continuity, Peter Parker believed that he was a clone and that Ben Reilly was the true Spider-Man. Peter scientifically removed his spider-powers, in the hopes that he could retire and have a normal life with his pregnant wife. Behind the scenes, Marvel decided that the story had gone too far and that Ben Reilly couldn’t remain as Spider-Man. So, shortly after Peter’s powers were gone, they began to sporadically reappear (I’m basing this on my memories of the Life of Reilly serial). Now that his powers are gradually coming back, Peter's a target for the Sentinels, while Ben Reilly tries to protect his cloned “brother”. The two spend the entire issue fighting Sentinels with each other, contributing essentially nothing to the Onslaught story, or any of the storylines in the Spider-titles. Mackie’s script has its share of clunky dialogue and corny jokes, but the story manages to keep moving and rarely feels repetitive, even though the plot’s razor-thin.

GENERATION X #17-#19, July 1996 - September 1996

#17 (Lobdell/Lee/Bachalo/Buckingham/Comicraft/Buccelato/Malibu) – Chris Bachalo returns with this issue, as Scott Lobdell is inspired to insert Stan Lee as the issue’s narrator. Lee wrote his own dialogue for the issue, so he gets a co-writer credit. The idea of Stan Lee as a cartoony narrator will show up a year later in Marvel’s “Flashback Month” gimmick, which isn’t surprising since his appearance here is fun (and not what you would expect from a Marvel comic in this era). The story mainly focuses on Skin evading the X-Cutioner, who irrationally thinks that he killed Angelo Espinosa and took his identity (in fact, Skin is Angelo). X-Cutioner’s justifications for targeting “killer mutants” have been shaky in most of his appearances by this point, and Lobdell uses this as an actual plot point as Skin engages in psychological warfare against him (I wonder if this was always the plan, or if Lobdell just realized while writing the story that the premise was weak).

Bachalo returns with an altered art style, which seems to deviate from his previous look even more as the issue progress. Not only is the style cartoonier, but almost all of the figures are smaller, as they’re packed into layouts that often have a dozen or more panels per page. Bachalo was experimenting with smaller panels earlier in the series’ run, but he always managed to keep the pages attractive and neat. Now, several of the pages just look cluttered, and the storytelling is often unclear. Even Stan Lee jokingly reminds Bachalo that he isn’t paid by the panel in one scene. As the designs are becoming more simplified, the cast seems to be developing more generic faces, and a manga influence begins to creep in (Banshee suddenly looks 20 years younger and has a spiky hairdo). I certainly wouldn’t say that this is a bad-looking comic, but I prefer Bachalo’s earlier, less-cluttered work.

#18 (Lobdell/Bachalo/Buckingham/Comicraft/Buccelato/Malibu) – This is labeled an “Onslaught” tie-in on the cover, although that’s a stretch. Emma Frost senses “something…bad” that could harm the students (we’re only told in a footnote it’s Onslaught), so she conspires to hide them in Canada. Lobdell has Emma use her powers in creative ways, as she tricks Banshee into abandoning their plane, and easily fights the team when they realize she’s abducting them. She then puts them in a happy haze to keep them complacent. Lobdell keeps her motives a mystery until the end of the issue, playing up her criminal past and giving the cast legitimate concerns that she’s been duping them all along. Skin and Chamber’s storyline continues, as they sneak a ride with a trucker to New York. Chamber’s powers are acting strange since his brief encounter with Onslaught (which occurred off-panel in X-Men #49), which is awfully convenient since his crossover has officially begun in the other titles.

Two more subplots are introduced back at the team’s Massachusetts home. One has Mondo making cryptic comments to himself, and the other involves the new groundskeeper, Chevy. It’s hinted that he was in the mob that killed Dennis Hogan (in X-Men Prime), and has been sent by his father to hide out at the school. This requires Chevy’s father to know Banshee personally, but not know that he’s a mutant running an all-mutant school. All of these elements combined are a lot to swallow, but this is an interesting way to follow up the Dennis Hogan story. I seem to recall people listing this as a dropped storyline, though, which unfortunately wouldn't be surprising. There are quite a few things going on in this issue, which is something I always enjoy in team books. Bachalo’s art isn’t as chaotic as the previous issue, and Lobdell does a decent job handling the various plotlines.

#19 (Lobdell/Bachalo/Buckingham/Comicraft/Buccelato/Malibu) – I think this is the only comic with an “Onslaught” tag on the cover that goes for comedy. It’s revealed that Emma Frost is psionically affected by Onslaught’s existence, so she’s responding in a daze to her subconscious desire to protect the Gen X kids. This somehow leads to the team dressing in goofy outfits, which makes no sense and doesn’t contribute to the story in any way. Lobdell gets some humor out of Emma’s pathetic attempts at domestic life, while Toad emerges in the background as the issue’s villain. This is also played for laughs, as it’s later revealed that Emma let Toad stay at her home after he was laughed out of the Hellfire Club when he applied for membership. Toad plans on using another one of Emma’s houseguests, a vaguely defined mutant named Surgeon, to force the students into becoming his slaves. M subconsciously contacts Emma and breaks her out of her spell, allowing Emma to confront Toad and give him a stern lecture that forces him to retreat. Meanwhile, Banshee and Sasquatch team up to find Gen X, as the story makes numerous jokes at the expense of Alpha Flight (I guess not enough time had passed for ‘80s nostalgia to really kick in). This doesn’t really go anywhere, as they conveniently locate the team right after Emma returns to normal and chases off Toad. The story is obviously fluff, but I found myself enjoying it. Like many of the other titles, it’s killing time during the crossover, but it does so in an entertaining way.

EXCALIBUR #101 – September 1996

Quiet
Credits: Warren Ellis (writer), Casey Jones (penciler), Tom Simmons (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Ariane Lenshoek & Malibu (colors)

Summary: Excalibur returns from their mission in London and learns from Moira MacTaggert that Charles Xavier has gone mad. Onslaught’s EMP attack is keeping planes out of the air, preventing the team from flying to New York. Captain Britain suggests taking their medical craft to the outskirts of New York to provide medical care, but Nightcrawler tells him that it was damaged by Black Air. As the team reacts to Xavier’s transformation, Alistaire Stuart receives word that Black Air has been shut down. He’s been offered directorship of a new department that merges W.H.O., Black Air, and all paranormal research. He offers Rory Campbell the role of Mutant Liaison, which requires him to move off Muir Island. The team watches news reports about the blackout in New York, and tries to think of another way to help. Moira tells them that they are the last hope for Xavier’s dream, and demands that they stay away.

Continuity Notes: Captain Britain tells Peter Wisdom that his vision of the future that had Excalibur killed by Black Air couldn’t happen now, and it’s because Wisdom chose to join the team in this timeline. He also tells him that his visions of the future have stopped, inferring that all of them were visions of a reality where Wisdom never joined Excalibur. According to Captain Britain, Wisdom has to tell Kitty he loves her to make sure the future is altered.

Review: As the title implies, this is a “quiet” issue, which mainly exists to have the cast react to major events and finish up a few storylines. Black Air is dissolved off-panel, and Alistaire Stuart is returned to his previous status quo (although I’m sure Black Air has shown up again over the years). Rory Campbell gets a quickie resolution to his arc, as he’s suddenly given a job elsewhere that allows him to help mutants. This doesn’t work at all, since discovering and aiding new mutants gives Rory just as many opportunities to disdain them (and later become Ahab) as working at Muir Island would. The idea that Peter Wisdom’s presence on the team stops all of Brian Braddock’s visions of the future is also odd. The original idea had Braddock seeing visions from across the entire timestream. Claiming that just one character’s presence changes everything and cures Braddock of his visions elevates Wisdom to a ridiculously lofty position.

Ellis handles the team’s reaction to Onslaught well enough, although it seems like he’s stretching for a reason not to bring the Excalibur cast to New York. If the heroes really wanted to help out their friends, they would’ve found a way. The real reason why they aren’t helping is because Excalibur wasn’t scheduled to fully cross over with the other titles during the event. Why exactly I’m not sure, since the Demon in London story could’ve been shortened and the team brought to New York with everyone else, if that’s the way Marvel wanted to play it. Maybe someone still cared enough about quality to give Ellis room to finish his storyline comfortably and have it conclude with the anniversary issue. Even if the story has to find excuses to keep the team away from Onslaught, I am glad that this title didn’t have to waste an entire issue fighting Sentinels in New York, or crafting futile plots with the other heroes.

It’s interesting that Ellis explicitly states that half a million died in London during the demon’s attack, but the other X-writers refuse to acknowledge any casualties in New York during the Onslaught incident. In fact, one previous issue of the storyline even outright said that no one has died yet, thanks to the work of the heroes. This is of course absurd, as we’ve seen an electromagnetic pulse shutting down power across the city, Sentinels inciting panic in the streets (even if they’re only targeting superhumans), and numerous fires. It’s amusing that Ellis gives his storyline a massive body count, but his more traditional American counterparts won’t list any casualties. As we’ve seen over the years, Ellis’ darker, British sensibilities have prevailed in mainstream comics.

X-MEN UNLIMITED #12 – September 1996

The Once and Future Juggernaut
Credits: John Francis Moore (writer), Steve Epting & Ariel Olivetti (pencilers), Kevin Conrad & Ariel Olivetti (inkers), Marie Javins & Malibu (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary: Dr. Strange senses a mystical disturbance and arrives at the X-Men’s mansion. He uses the Eye of Agamotto to witness Onslaught’s recent imprisoning of Juggernaut inside the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak. Gomurr the Ancient arrives, telling Dr. Strange that they can’t leave the Crimson Gem unguarded. He asks Strange to protect the Gem while he goes inside it to rescue Juggernaut. Inside the Gem, Juggernaut is trapped in another dimension. The demon Spite, posing as Xavier, is taunting him. Gomurr arrives and forces Spite to reveal herself. She leaves, bragging that her master will soon claim Juggernaut’s soul. Gomurr tells Juggernaut that he can show him the way out of this dimension, but he must face his past first. Juggernaut is forced to revisit his childhood with his hated stepbrother, Charles Xavier. Gomurr tells Juggernaut to let go of his anger and be free of his curse. Spite reappears, offering Juggernaut a chance to embrace his power and escape the Gem. She convinces Juggernaut that Gomurr just wants the Crimson Gem’s power for himself, and takes him to met Cyttorak, the god of destruction. Juggernaut soon learns that Spite only intended to use him as a sacrifice to Cyttorak. Cyttorak swallows Spite and prepares to consume Juggernaut. The mystical Tar appears and joins forces with Gomurr. They infuse Juggernaut with the energy that bonded Cyttorak to the Gem, which gives him the power to destroy the god. Juggernaut escapes the collapsing dimension and reemerges in the real world. To Dr. Strange’s dismay, Juggernaut declares that he’s stronger than ever.

Continuity Notes: This is the first appearance of Spite, who is D’Spayre’s sister. Gomurr claims that D’Spayre trapped her inside the dimension with the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak.

An origin for the Gem is revealed (although the continuity surrounding Cyttorak seems to be confused). Centuries ago, “a group of heretic monks” sought to harness Cyttorak’s energy. They instead unleashed his destructive energies, which destroyed parts of Asia. Gomurr and Tar used their mystical powers to contain Cyttorak within a ruby. Disagreeing on who should keep the powerful gem, they buried it in a temple hidden in a cave and sealed the entrance with a mountain of rocks. Years later, earthquakes opened the entrance to the cave, allowing Cain Marko to discover the ruby and become Juggernaut.

Review: This is labeled as part of the Onslaught crossover, although it’s actually a follow-up to one of Onslaught’s actions and not a part of the real story. I’m sure every X-title had to tie in with Onslaught in some way, and this is how the oft-forgotten Unlimited got dragged into it. I’m not sure what the point of the story is supposed to be, outside of freeing Juggernaut up so he can be used again, and incorporating some of the newer characters into the Crimson Gem’s origin (personally, I think the Beast/Dark Beast story should’ve been resolved here, instead of X-Factor, where it arbitrarily ended up). Moore only briefly teases the idea that the Juggernaut might change his ways before he goes back to behaving like a giant thug. The ending, which essentially rewards Juggernaut for his bad behavior, is at least a small twist. Juggernaut has a chance to reflect on his mistakes and learn something, but decides he wants to be strong and nasty anyway. He’s adamant about not learning anything, and escapes any real repercussions for his stubbornness. It’s mildly amusing, although Moore doesn’t play it for laughs.

The Juggernaut can be a hard character to pull off, especially as a story’s protagonist, as his main motivation is that he irrationally hates his stepbrother. Moore does manage to make Juggernaut engaging enough to follow throughout the story, although it feels like it goes on for a little too long. Epting’s art is solid as usual, and he draws a convincingly powerful Juggernaut. Olivetti’s rougher style doesn’t blend well with Epting’s, but most of his pages appear as fantasy sequences, which works out pretty well. Incorporating Gomurr and Tar into the Gem’s origin feels surprisingly organic, even though they were very new characters at this point. I think it works because there aren’t many mystical characters in the X-Men’s corner of the Marvel Universe, so it doesn’t feel like a totally arbitrary connection (unlike, say, connecting Dark Beast to the Morlocks or Sugar Man to Genosha). The remaining ten pages of the issue consist of filler like a crossword puzzle, brief “interview” segments with various characters, quotes from previous issues, a “match the mutant” puzzle, and an extended letters column. In fairness to Marvel, the price has been dropped a dollar to make up for the downgraded paper quality, but it’s still obvious that this book serves no real purpose.

ONSLAUGHT Crossovers Part Four – September 1996

Green Goblin #12 (DeFalco/Hood/Fisher/Novak/Wright) – This is a very old-school superhero story starring Phil Urich, the short-lived “slacker” hero Goblin. Like many of the crossover issues, the Onslaught storyline is simply used as a setup for having the hero fight Sentinels. In this case, Green Goblin faces off against just one Sentinel, and spends several pages before the fight debating over whether or not to even get involved. The Goblin predictably overcomes his fears and defeats the Sentinel, but the story does acknowledge that his victory is ultimately futile, and the battle also damages the mask that gives him his powers. It’s capably written by DeFalco, although the hip, young dialogue is occasionally grating. The art is a goofy McFarlane/Madureria pastiche, which also dates the book badly.

Incredible Hulk #445 (David/Medina/Riggs/Starkings & Comicraft/Oliver) – The Hulk and a few of the Avengers launch a failed attack on Onslaught, in a story that could’ve come across as pointless time killer, but David manages to pull off. As Hulk and the Avengers approach Onslaught, he creates a mental illusion of a fight where Hulk defeats him, but only after his allies are killed. Onslaught connects everyone to the Hulk’s mind, revealing that Hulk’s concern for his partners’ lives is overshadowed by his joy in defeating Onslaught. It reinforces the Avengers’ belief that the Hulk really is a heartless monster, which is exactly what he was trying to disprove. David makes the futility of their mission an actual plot point, which is one creative way to deal with an intrusive crossover.

ONSLAUGHT Crossovers Part Three – September 1996

Fantastic Four #416 (DeFalco/Pacheco/Comicraft with numerous inkers & colorists) – The final issue of the original series, as it is relaunched by Jim Lee a few months later. DeFalco continues to wrap up the dangling plot threads from his run, while using the Onslaught storyline to provide villains for the team to fight. One of the subplots, a “real world issues” storyline involving Cassie Lang discovering that her friend is being abused, is resolved in just a few lines of dialogue. DeFalco knows his time is up, so he dedicates the majority of the double-sized issue to a giant fight scene with various FF villains. The setup is that Franklin Richards is sending a mental call for help to the team, and Onslaught is twisting his message and using it to create psionic projections of various villains. Some of the FF’s allies, including Namor and the Inhumans, show up to help. Dr. Doom even arrives, and agrees to join the fight against Onslaught. It’s a reasonable way to end a long-running series that has to dedicate its final issues to an outside crossover. There’s no way this could actually please dedicated FF fans, who didn’t want the continuity rebooted by Jim Lee and certainly didn’t want the last issue of this series to be a part of an X-crossover, but DeFalco does what he can. And it is nice to see Carlos Pacheco’s interpretation of the Fantastic Four’s entire rogues gallery.

Iron Man #332 (Kavanagh/Bennett/Dzon & McKenna/Felix/Kalisz) – And here’s the final issue of Iron Man’s first volume. While Fantastic Four’s final issue at least made some effort to acknowledge the title’s history, Iron Man is content to fight Sentinels with the Avengers for the entire issue. The nominal plot has Iron Man making his way to the Wakandan Consulate so that he can gain access to the Black Panther’s vibranium supply, which he’ll use to finish the anti-Onslaught psi-armor. This is the teenage version of Tony Stark, who replaced his older, adult self a few issues earlier. This was a last ditch effort on Marvel’s part to revive interest in the title, which backfired to the point of becoming an industry joke for years (Kurt Busiek didn’t even seem that interested in explaining how exactly Stark returned to normal when he eventually took over the title).

It’s amusing that Kavanagh is still trying to sell the storyline, even though he had to have known this was the last issue of the series. Teen Tony behaves like a stereotypical teenage comic character, hiding his insecurities behind a cocky attitude while saving the day. If only there was room to introduce a few love interests, so he could agonize over which one to take to the prom. Or maybe one of his friends could develop a drug problem, and he could help him work through it. And I’m sure someone at school needs advice on how to deal with an abusive father. The letters column, which is surprisingly non-sentimental for the final issue of a long-running series, does print one negative reaction to the new direction. The editor’s response is essentially, “maybe you’ll like what Jim Lee does instead”, which reads to me like, “Fine. You kids buy whatever crap you like. I’m probably getting laid off next week anyway.”

CABLE #35 – September 1996

It Is Always Darkest…
Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Ian Churchill (penciler), Scott Hanna & Art Thibert (inkers), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Mike Thomas & Malibu (colors)

Summary: Cable and the Invisible Woman combine their powers to protect the heroes from Onslaught’s psionic assault. Apocalypse suddenly appears, telling Cable that he can separate Franklin Richards from Onslaught if Cable grants him access to the Astral Plane. The Invisible Woman convinces Cable to go along with the plan. Cable and Apocalypse soon travel though the Astral Plane and arrive inside Onslaught’s citadel. Onslaught attacks them with psionic projections of Magneto, Hulk, and Post. While Cable fights them off, Apocalypse approaches Franklin Richards. He reveals that his plan to separate Franklin from Onslaught is to simply kill him. The Invisible Woman, who has been telepathically shielded by Cable, emerges and fights Apocalypse. Onslaught uses his powers to send the trio back to the streets, leaving Franklin in his custody. Apocalypse teleports away, as Cable comforts the Invisible Woman. Inside Onslaught, Franklin is inspired by the heroes’ actions and has his hope renewed.

Creative Differences: Some of Cable’s word balloons on page four have been poorly re-lettered. I don’t know if this was an actual dialogue change or some last minute typo correction, since his dialogue (about being the son of a hero like Franklin) fits in with the conversation he’s having on the rest of the page.

Review: It’s another issue of large panels and big action scenes that don’t really accomplish anything. I like Churchill’s interpretation of Apocalypse, and it seems like his art is improving overall during this run of issues, so at least it’s not bad to look at. The story doesn’t stand up to a lot of scrutiny, as it’s unclear which scenes are supposed to be in the Astral Plane, and which are supposed to be in reality. It’s possible that the entire fight with Onslaught takes place on the Astral Plane, but that seems unlikely as a transition caption clearly states that Onslaught is in the real world, one page before Cable and Apocalypse arrive. Plus, the word balloons drop the special effect used for telepathic communication once they enter Onslaught’s citadel. It’s possible that Loeb intended that Cable and Apocalypse used the Astral Plane to teleport from the streets to the inside of the citadel, but that would contradict every other appearance of the Astral Plane that I’m aware of. (When X-Man pulled Xavier’s physical body out of the Astral Plane, it was stated that only X-Man was powerful enough to do this. It was also treated as a huge deal, while this issue doesn’t portray their journey as anything special.) I finally realized what Loeb was probably trying to convey – that Onslaught sensed their mental presence and pulled them out of the Astral Plane into reality. If Onslaught is supposed to be as powerful as X-Man, that would at least work with past continuity, and it’s preferable to making the Astral Plane a quick teleportation gimmick for telepaths. Whichever is the case, the ambiguity is annoying.

Overlooking the shaky plot, Loeb does create a few decent character moments. Forcing Cable to team up with Apocalypse, his most hated enemy (now that Marvel’s forgotten about Stryfe) is an obvious way to go, but the interaction between the characters is fun. In one surprising scene, Apocalypse even offers to rid Cable of the techno-organic virus after Cable brags that it’s making him stronger. We also see Apocalypse’s reaction to Franklin Richards, which is something that would’ve happened years earlier, if the X-franchise hadn’t been so segregated from the rest of the Marvel Universe for so long. Apocalypse wants to kill him not only to depower Onslaught, but also to prevent him from disrupting his own plans. If Apocalypse was willing to infect Cable with a deadly virus as an infant, it makes sense that he would also view Franklin as a threat. I barely remember anything from most of the Onslaught crossover issues, but I do remember enjoying the reconnection of the Marvel Universe, even if it didn’t last.

X-MAN #19 – September 1996

Shades of Grey
Credits: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Steve Skroce (penciler), Bud LaRosa (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Mike Thomas & Malibu (colors)

Summary: X-Man awakens inside Sinister’s lair, while the Marauders’ Arclight and Scalphunter taunt the captive Threnody. Sinister explains that he was able to penetrate X-Man’s mind after he unlocked Threnody’s psi-restraints and entered her mind. Sinister shows X-Man images he scraped from Bishop’s mind of the Age of Apocalypse, and tells him that there is now a threat worse than Apocalypse. Meanwhile, Onslaught forces Franklin Richards to send a telepathic call for help to X-Man. When X-Man senses the message, Sinister tries to prevent him from leaving. X-Man breaks free of Sinister’s restraints, and sees a mental image of Franklin. He reaches out to Franklin, whose form suddenly shifts into Onslaught. Onslaught grabs X-Man and takes him away. Meanwhile, Threnody kills a rat and uses its "death energy" to escape her shackles. She’s confronted by Arclight and Scalphunter in the sewers. Suddenly, a large mystery figures appears behind them.

Continuity Notes: Sinister’s ability to shut off X-Man’s powers (in X-Force #57) is described as a “one-time trick”. X-Man claims that his brain has already rewired itself to prevent it from happening again.

Threnody is apparently aware of Gambit’s past with Sinister, telling Scalphunter that “the Cajun” might save her.

Review: This issue was referenced in quite a few of the Onslaught crossover chapters at the time, and I’ve always wondered what happened in this issue that was so important. Now I know -- Onslaught takes X-Man away from Sinister, all in the course of about four pages. Okay. The majority of the issue simply consists of X-Man yelling at Sinister, while Sinister keeps telling him what a great weapon he is. Actually, what exactly Sinister wants to do isn’t clear. If he wants X-Man to voluntarily join him in fighting Onslaught (even though last issue it was Apocalypse he was worried about), he’s not particularly charismatic. If he has some means of brainwashing him, there’s never any indication. The dialogue is never that interesting, but Skroce brings a lot of energy to the pages, which helps to liven things up. The alternating scenes with Threnody are less dull, and actually offer a small amount of characterization for Scalphunter and Arclight. Believing that Onslaught really is the end of everything, they decide to have an “out with a bang” fling. At first, it seems as if they’re going to have fun right in front of their prisoner Threnody, but things are brought back to a PG level when it’s revealed that they actually went into another room to finish. As strange as it sounds, it’s probably the closest thing to real human emotion the issue presents.

X-FORCE #58 – September 1996

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

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

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

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

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

X-FACTOR #126 – September 1996

The Beast Within
Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Herb Trime (layout artist), Stephano Raffaele (penciler), Al Milgrom (inker), Comicraft (lettering), Glynis Oliver & Malibu (colors)

Summary: Forge reinstates Mystique and Sabretooth’s restraining devices, and creates shackles for Random and Havok. Polaris and Shard are left to guard Random and Havok, while the rest of the team searches for the Beast. Forge and Sabretooth discover the Beast shackled underneath the abandoned Brand Corporation building, and are quickly attacked by Fatale. Wild Child arrives with Mystique (who has morphed wings to fly with), and knocks Fatale unconscious. When the Beast is freed, both Sabretooth and Wild Child are suspicious. Sabretooth breaks through a brick wall and discovers the real Beast, who is still shackled. The Beast is released and defeats his imposter, the Dark Beast. Meanwhile, Random and Havok use their enhanced powers to break out of their restraints. Random attacks Havok when he thinks that he’s luring Polaris into a trap. Havok blasts him, reverting his body into a gelatinous liquid. Havok then attacks Polaris, leaving her near-death. When the rest of X-Factor emerges with Dark Beast and Fatale as prisoners, Dark Beast boasts that he will save Polaris and force the team into his debt.

Continuity Notes: The Beast was previously seen in X-Men #54 where he managed to escape his shackles, only to be greeted by three mysterious figures. That’s contradicted by this issue, which tells a conflicting story of his escape. I assume that the three figures were always supposed to be Forge, Sabretooth, and Mystique (as they were the ones left to discover him at the end of the last issue), but absolutely none of the details match up.

Mystique continues to develop new powers, as she grows wings (based on the Angel’s original pair). Outside of Forge saying that he didn’t know she could do that, the story doesn’t treat it as a big deal at all.

Sabretooth had a past run-in with Fatale in Bangkok, and she now wants to kill him. This has no bearing on the story whatsoever, it’s just another vague line given to a mystery character to make them feel “connected” to the established characters.

Random tells Polaris that the Dark Beast has been helping him to control his powers for as long as he can remember. He also says that he helped him create the “Random” identity and that he’s the closest thing to a father he’s ever known. The move towards making Havok an actual villain begins, as Random claims that the Dark Beast “never makes you do anything you really don’t want to do”, and that he only “keyed into something that was already there” in Havok. Havok later tells Polaris that he can’t shake off Dark Beast’s influence because, “first you have to want to”.

Creative Differences: If you want to learn the circumstances that lead to Herb Trimpe working on this title, check out his memoirs that were published by the New York Times: “Old Superheroes Never Die, They Join the Real World”.

Review: Ugh, another awful issue. The preceding issues of this series had their fair share of arbitrary elements thrown in with the bland stories, but we’re now reaching the point where the run moves from “lame stories that the next writer can just ignore” to “lame stories that the next writer will have to retcon”. And, since Howard Mackie never seemed to leave any assignment he was given during this era, there never was another writer on this volume of X-Factor. Consequently, the “Havok secretly wanted to be a villain” nonsense remains an odd blemish in the character’s history (I believe Mackie contradicted himself later on in his run, when he tried to dismiss Havok’s actions as a part of a ruse, but that’s too little, too late). The demolition of Random’s character is also completed with this issue, as we learn that his entire persona was invented by another character that hadn’t even been created when he first appeared. Marvel had no idea what to do with Random after Peter David left (and they didn’t seem to grasp that he was actually a parody of the ‘90s bad boy heroes), but a quickie shock value death still would’ve been better than this.

Aside from the nonsensical story, the art also seems like a misguided attempt at imitating an early Image comic. Even with a veteran artist like Trimpe providing layouts, Raffaele’s storytelling remains either dull or confusing for much of the issue (one scene that has the Dark Beast doing acrobatics around his base is so horribly interpreted, he resembles a limp stick figure in one panel). The style itself is an improvement over last issue’s Jim Lee impression, but the final result is still overwhelmingly mediocre.

It’s hard to deduce what exactly Marvel was thinking during this time. Remaking this book into a grim and gritty, black ops team seems like a forced attempt to follow a trend that was already waning by the mid-90s. Apparently, the new hook for the series is that it’s a “mutant militia” (a phrase that shows up twice in this issue), which doesn’t summon up a very pleasant mental image, given the media hysteria over anti-government militias in rural America during the ‘90s. Was this intentional on Marvel’s part? Were we supposed to be afraid of X-Factor now? If that’s the case, why was a fairly generic superhero writer placed in charge of this series? If you want a dark reimagining of the X-Factor concept with a morally dubious cast, why not hire someone like Warren Ellis or John Ostrander (who wrote a book with a similar premise for DC for years)? Both of those writers were doing work for the X-office during this era, and could’ve done something with the concept.

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-FORCE #57 – August 1996

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.