WOLVERINE/GAMBIT: VICTIMS - September 1995 - December 1995

WOLVERINE/GAMBIT: VICTIMS #1 – September 1995

In Harm’s Way

Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Tim Sale (artist), Gregory Wright & Digital Chameleon (colors), Comicraft (lettering)

Summary

A female detective named Alexandra Davies is working undercover in London to stop a series of murders reminiscent of the Jack the Ripper killings. She becomes the fifth victim. Gambit flies to London to investigate her murder. He sneaks into the office of an Inspector Andrews to get information. When Andrews walks in, Gambit knocks him unconscious with one of his charged cards. Gambit travels to the home of Alexandra Davies’ parents, telling them that she was a friend of his, but he only succeeds in making them suspicious of him. At night, Gambit tries to stop another killing, but it turns out to be a police sting designed to catch him. Inspector Andrews and the London C.I.D. try to arrest him, as a woman screams nearby. Gambit races to the scene to protect the woman from a man in the shadows. The man turns out to be Wolverine. When Gambit asks him to explain the blood on his claws, he can’t.

Gimmicks

This is another installment in the “Marvel Select” series, so every issue has a cardstock cover with foil enhancements and costs $2.95.

“Huh?” Moment

Alexandra’s parents don’t seem to notice Gambit’s red, glowing eyes (he even takes his sunglasses off before speaking to them).

Review

This is the start of a prestige format miniseries, the last one in the overpriced “Marvel Select” format, I believe. The previous Bishop and Rogue minis were obvious cash grabs with stories that really didn’t justify the format, so I wasn’t thrilled to see another one come out. This doesn’t turn out to be an important story either, but it is at least successful in creating a mood and utilizing an art style that wasn’t seen in the normal monthly titles. I don’t think the world really needed a Gambit & Wolverine miniseries, but it is trying to do something different. Sale’s abstract art style and heavy shadows fit the story well, and Loeb is able to keep an issue that’s mostly setup pretty entertaining. Little moments, such as Gambit’s longing for a cigarette on his flight, are nice touches. Most of Sale’s art is very impressive throughout the issue, creating a stylized interpretation of Gambit that emphasizes his red eyes, sloppy hair, and flowing trenchcoat (although for some reason Sale draws his face almost like a corpse’s in a few scenes). The story is clearly meant to showcase the art, so the issue’s filled with several giant panels and splash pages. Sale makes good use of the large images, but they make the book feel like too much of a light read.

WOLVERINE/GAMBIT: VICTIMS #2 –October 1995

In Deep

Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Tim Sale (artist), Gregory Wright & Digital Chameleon (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary

The London C.I.D. set their sights on Wolverine and Gambit, who are rescued by a mysterious woman who takes them away in a sports car. She introduces herself to the duo as Martinique Jason. After evading the C.I.D. agents, she drives their car into a river. Gambit and Wolverine reappear in a mysterious location, with Martinique’s dead body lying on the floor. Gambit accuses Wolverine of killing her in one of his blind rages, but he denies it. After escaping through the sewers, they run through the tunnels and end up in the same room, only now Martinique’s body is gone. She appears behind Wolverine with a gun, claiming that she only saved Wolverine so that she could claim justice for his victims. He slashes her throat, revealing her to be a robot. Arcade and the real Martinique, the new Mastermind, watch the events from a series of monitors.

Continuity Notes

This is the first appearance of the new Mastermind, the daughter of the original Mastermind. Unlike her father, she can use telepathy to directly insert illusions into someone’s mind.

Martinique claims that Muir Island has been quarantined since Moira MacTaggert’s Legacy Virus infection was revealed. There’s a footnote that points you towards recent Excalibur issues for details, but this hasn’t come up at all in the series.

Review

If the first issue didn’t make it obvious that this mini was intended as a showcase for Sale’s art, this one certainly does. The plot is left literally going in circles, while Sale gets to show off his large, stylized figures on almost every page. I actually don’t mind it that much in this issue, since the story still feels energetic, even if it’s not going very far. This type of comic has become more common over the years, so maybe I’ve just become inured to it. The conflict that the story is trying to sell, Wolverine’s doubts about possibly killing the women, doesn’t really work since it’s so over-the-top you know it’ll be disproven. The story is still able to coast on energy and its stylish artwork at this point, though, so it’s not a major issue yet.

WOLVERINE/GAMBIT: VICTIMS #3 – November 1995

No Way Out

Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Tim Sale (artist), Gregory Wright & Malibu Hues (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary

Gambit flashes back to his first meeting with Alexandra Davies. She catches him stealing a painting, but he promises her that it was stolen by the Nazis during WWII and that he’s returning it to its rightful owner. He vows to give her a “bigger fish” if she lets him go. The next day, he’s true to his word and gives her information that allows her to arrest Yukio. Later, he offers to work as her partner, but she refuses. He gives her a final kiss before he leaves. His mental image of Alexandra dissolves, leading Gambit to declare vengeance against Wolverine. Wolverine dreams of his time in Japan with Mariko. He walks outside of their home and is attacked by Gambit. Wolverine retaliates and stabs him in the stomach.

Review

This issue resolves the mystery of how Gambit knew Alexandra, and it manages to do so in a capabale way. Gambit’s charm and light-hearted attitude are attributes of the character that most writers seemed to forget about in the ‘90s, so seeing him charm his way out of this situation and outsmart Yukio is a welcome relief. This interpretation of Gambit I have no problem with. The perpetually gloomy mystery man who’s constantly angsting over his unknown past gets old fast. Having Gambit get into a physical fight with Wolverine seems too obvious, since pairing heroes together and then watching them fight is one of the oldest superhero clichés around, but Sale does a decent job with the fight scene. The Wolverine segment again tries to sell the idea that he might have been responsible for the murders in London, which is a plot thread that just isn’t working. Wolverine’s story is really just an afterthought in this issue, as Gambit gets eleven pages on his own and Wolverine only gets two before their fight.

WOLVERINE/GAMBIT: VICTIMS #4 – December 1995

A Woman Scorned

Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Tim Sale (artist), Gregory Wright & Malibu Hues (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary

Mastermind catches a glimpse of Arcade’s subconscious with her telepathic powers. She tells him that she agreed to help him because he told her that Wolverine killed his former assistant, Ms. Locke, but now she’s beginning to doubt him. Wolverine wakes up and realizes that his fight with Gambit was a mental illusion. They escape their cell and fight an army of Wolverine robots while on their way to face Arcade. When they finally reach him, Wolverine wants to kill Arcade for reminding him of the things he’s lost, but Gambit talks him out of it. Arcade tries to escape, but Mastermind uses her mental powers to expose what happened to Ms. Locke. While playing one of their “games”, Arcade killed her after she slashed half of his face off. Unable to admit his guilt, he invented a game to hide his shame. He placed her body on the streets and framed Wolverine by using duplicate robots to commit more murders. Mastermind seemingly disappears, leaving Arcade behind. He’s sent to a mental institution, where he must live with Mastermind’s mental illusion that surrounds him with images of Ms. Locke.

Review

And, after three issues of sparse plots and giant panels, we get a rushed ending. Now that Arcade’s plan is revealed, Loeb also has to work in the fact that Arcade has always resented Wolverine for beating his games, and that he hates him enough to project one of his own murders onto him. It’s obviously a stretch, and the story really doesn’t do a lot to justify Arcade’s motivation. Mastermind is also suddenly revealed to be an extreme feminist, as her dialogue suggests that she only cares about the victims because they were female, even telling Wolverine and Gambit that as men they can’t understand her pain. She did tell Wolverine in the second issue that she wanted revenge, but that issue didn’t get into any gender politics, so it seems odd that it’s suddenly her motivation. Arcade’s redesign, which has half of his face severely scarred, is explained here in a rushed five-panel scene. I don’t mind the revelation that Ms. Locke was responsible, but I never liked this look for Arcade as it seemed to be a forced attempt at making him appear scary or creepy. Arcade’s whole gimmick is that he takes things that appear to be harmless and makes them deadly, so making him look like a monster himself seems to miss the point.

One thing that isn’t resolved is why Wolverine had blood on his claws in the first place, and why he couldn’t remember how it got there. The obvious explanation is that Mastermind manipulated his mind, but there should’ve been a confirmation for closure’s sake. There is a nice scene at the end at Alexandra’s grave, which tries to draw a parallel between Wolverine and Gambit’s reactions to loss with Arcade’s cowardly response. It’s a little cliché, but at least there’s some attempt to use the story to actually say something about the characters. Like the previous installments, most of the issue rests on Sale’s artwork, and he is able to get some cool images out of the plot. Overall, it’s hard not to view this mini as another exploitation of the brand, but the story has its moments and the art is strong for most of the series. This probably would’ve worked best as a one-shot, since the story is fairly thin and the absurd tease of Wolverine actually becoming a Jack the Ripper-style killer gets old after four straight installments.

CABLE #23 – September 1995

Family Secrets

Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Ian Churchill & Tim Sale (pencilers), Scott Hanna w/Mark Buckingham & Tim Sale (inkers), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Mike Thomas & Digital Chameleon (colors)

Summary

Unable to sleep, Cable tries an Askani meditation technique. Storm walks in to talk to him about Akkaba, the town his son, Genesis, slaughtered earlier. According to Storm, a darkness is approaching. Cable reveals to her that he recently received a mysterious postcard that might have been sent by Genesis. On Storm’s advice, he shows it to Professor Xavier. Due to a disturbance in the Astral Plane, Xavier is unable to psionically search for Genesis. Cable visits Blaquesmith for help, and he suggests searching Genesis’ former base since he’s monitored activity there. After he leaves, Blaquesmith meditates and speaks to Mother Askani, who tells him that Cable’s trials are only beginning. Meanwhile, Domino continues to search for the “bigfoot killer” in the Rockies. She enters a remote cabin and discovers several dead bodies in the attic. Her former teammate Grizzly approaches her from behind, saying that only one of them can survive. Cable returns to Genesis’ former headquarters, where he sees a female body lying out in the open. When he approaches her, he realizes that it’s his wife, Jenskot.

Continuity Notes

Loeb reveals some information during the various dialogue exchanges in this issue. Cable tells Storm that the Askani order is more of a philosophy or way of life than a religion. Xavier says that he still hasn’t heard from Rene Majcomb, who was supposed to contact him after the previous issue. Cable tells Blaquesmith, “Despite what happened in the past, I do trust you” and that he didn’t ask to be the “chosen one”. Blaquesmith knows that Tyler has changed his name to Genesis, although Cable isn’t sure how he could’ve known that. According to a narrative caption, Domino has few memories of her childhood and doesn’t know why.

Approved By The Comics Code Authority

Jenskot appears to be nude from a distance, but when Cable approaches her, her body’s colored green. Since the artist didn’t draw any lines indicating clothes, this is an obvious (and extreme) case of editorial swimwear.

Review

This issue mainly consists of conversation scenes, allowing Cable to interact with a few characters while slowly setting up a new Genesis storyline. Loeb has a decent enough grasp on the characterizations and is able to set up the new storyline gradually without making the issue feel too padded. He continues to move Cable further away from his initial characterization by having him do things like meditate and respectfully turn to other people for help. Loeb ties this in with the apprehension he has about his son (I’m assuming that’s why he can’t sleep, even if it’s not outright stated), which isn’t a bad angle to take. You could argue that Marvel’s taking the edge off the character and not really replacing it with anything, but I think Cable’s a more tolerable character at this point. The art alternates between Ian Churchill and Tim Sale, two artists with very different styles, but they’re at least given two separate story threads to draw. I liked Churchill’s work as a teen, and even if the ‘90s elements haven’t aged well, he does seem to be improving as an artist with this issue. Sale’s art is appropriate for the darker Domino story, and he certainly pulls of the eerie two-page spread of corpses in Grizzly’s attic. There’s not a lot in this issue to find fault with, even if this run still isn’t very memorable to me.

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.

EXCALIBUR #75 – March 1994

Hello, I Must Be Going

Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Ken Lashley (penciler), Randy Elliott (inker), Pat Brosseau (letterer), Garrahy & Matthys (colorists)

Summary

Excalibur returns from Scott and Jean’s wedding. Rachel Summers, Phoenix II, is excited because now that her parents are married in this timeline, she has a chance of actually being born here. She’s confronted by Meggan, who knows that Rachel has been preventing Captain Britain from coming back into this timeline. When Nightcrawler’s sorceress friend Amanda Sefton arrives to help retrieve Captain Britain, Rachel angrily storms away. Kitty Pryde talks to Rachel and the two mentally go back to her days as a Hound for Ahab. She shows Kitty the day she turned off her emotions and focused only on surviving. Kitty talks her into letting go of the past and asks her to help Captain Britain return. Sefton uses magic to connect Rachel to Meggan, who is acting as Captain Britain’s anchor to this time. While inside the timestream, Rachel realizes that she can’t just pull him back, she has to trade places with him. She asks Kitty to say hello to her when she’s born and trade places with Captain Britain. When the team returns home, they discover that Captain Britain’s personality has been radically altered and that he’s now calling himself “Britanic”.

Gimmicks

This issue has a cardstock, holographic cover.

Production Note

This is the first issue I’ve reviewed that has very obvious computer color separations. Almost every page has at least a few black lines knocked out and replaced with a color effect.

Continuity Notes

Amanda Sefton, Nightcrawler’s sometime girlfriend returns. She gives herself the name “Daytripper”, which lasts for a little while.

Rory sees his future self as Ahab while the team is inside the timestream.

Captain Britain appears as Britanic for the first time, claiming that he needs to apply what he’s learned if “this world is to survive”. Sefton speculates that being lost in the timestream could have driven him mad.

Review

There’s a lot of “what were they thinking?” in this issue. For some reason, Marvel felt the need to remove Rachel Summers from the titles at this time, a decision that lasts until the start of the next decade. I don’t really know why exactly they wanted her gone, but Marvel seemed dedicated to the idea. It’s an especially odd decision in light of Marvel’s attempts to make Excalibur more in line with the other X-books. Rachel was a former X-Man, and the current holder of the “Phoenix” title at the time. Her parents are Scott Summers and Jean Grey, who just got married. She actually has stronger ties to the main X-books than any other member of the team does. The only justification I can think of for abandoning the character is to give Jean Grey the “Phoenix” name back. This does happen just a month or so later when the Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix miniseries debuts. I can understand why Marvel wanted to give Jean Grey a more marketable name, but I don’t understand why an established character had to be tossed out just for the use of a name. The idea of Jean having the Phoenix title again was just ignored in the books for years, until Steven Seagal briefly tried to go somewhere with it.

The other strange decision in this issue is Captain Britain’s reintroduction as “Britanic”. Taking a human, relatable protagonist and turning him into an Old English speaking mystery man with a bad 1987 Bon Jovi perm is just unforgivable. Warren Ellis drops this storyline very quickly in a few months, and you can’t blame him.

Even though this issue is mostly remembered for the bad ideas it introduces, I was surprised to see how well Lobdell handles the execution. His portrayal of Rachel is very sympathetic, and her closing words to Kitty are moving. It’s not really the train wreck you might expect it to be (until Britanic shows up, that is). Ken Lashley debuts as artist, with a fairly generic ‘90s look. He’s less cartoonish than some of the other X-artists of the time, going for more of a Jim Lee “realistic” look. He’s the first artist since Davis to actually have a lengthy run on the book.

A Demon Went to Church on Tuesday

Credits: Jim Kreuger (writer), Tim Sale (artist), Richard Starkings (letterer), Greg Wright (colorist)

Summary

After a woman he saves from a burning building calls him a demon, Nightcrawler visits a church. He asks the priest for forgiveness for being born a mutant, and the priest asks forgiveness for just being human. He reminds Nightcrawler that everyone has a cross to bear, which seems to comfort him.

Review

It’s filler, but it looks nice. Having a mutant deal with prejudice certainly isn’t new, but I guess the cliché needs to be brought up once in a while to keep the idea alive. There’s barely any plot, but the creators only have eight pages to deal with so it’s understandable. It is nice to see a human character, particularly a religious one, not portrayed as a bigot for a change.