UNCANNY X-MEN #273 - February 1991

Too Many Mutants! (Or Whose House IS This, Anyway?)
Credits:  Chris Claremont (writer), Whilce Portacio, Klaus Janson, John Byrne, Rick Leonardi, Marc Silvestri, Michael Golden, Larry Stroman, & Jim Lee (pencilers), Scott Williams (inker), Tom Orzechowski (letters), Joe Rosas (colors)

Summary:  Following the Genoshan battle, the united X-teams regroup in the underground complex beneath Xavier’s mansion.  Storm, Cyclops, and Marvel Girl debate what to do next, while Cable makes his case for leading the united teams.  Later, Marvel Girl uses Cerebro to locate the missing X-Men.  She’s ambushed by the Shadow King and narrowly rescued by Psylocke.  Eventually, the X-Men emerge in new uniforms, ready to follow Storm.  Shortly after Cyclops and Marvel Girl say goodbye, Lila Cheney arrives and teleports the team away, claiming Xavier needs their help.

Continuity Notes: 

• Gambit “officially” joins the X-Men this issue, in the sense that Storm refuses to leave with him, so he decides to stick around.  At the end of the story, he’s wearing an X-uniform with the rest of the team.  Gambit’s casual decision to stay probably ties in to Claremont’s rumored original plan to reveal Gambit's a spy for Mr. Sinister.
• This is the issue that ignited the long-running fan speculation that Gambit was a reincarnated Longshot.  While Wolverine and Gambit are sparring in the Danger Room, Wolverine remarks that his moves are similar to Longshot’s.  On the next panel, a hologram of Lady Deathstrike emerges and attacks Wolverine.  In an altered word balloon, Jubilee questions who turned that sequence on.   The scene then cuts to Gambit smiling with his left eye glowing, much like Longshot’s.
• Wolverine is barely able to keep up with Gambit during their duel, which continues Claremont’s subplot regarding Wolverine’s slow recovery after the Reavers’ attack in Uncanny X-Men #251.
• Marvel Girl, yes still “Marvel Girl” at this point, only has telekinetic powers and must rely on Psylocke to rescue her from Shadow King.  Her telepathy will return a few months later in X-Factor.
• Wolfsbane and Havok are still in Genosha following “X-Tinction Agenda.”  Forge is working on a way to reverse the “Mutate transmodation” Wolfsbane’s endured.  He speculates that the longer she’s a Mutate, the harder it will be to cure her.
• Psylocke says the Hand used “magic as well as science” to physically alter her into their assassin.  The readers will receive a much, much more complicated explanation years later.

Creative Differences:  With eight pencilers, it’s not surprising to learn this issue had deadline problems.  John Byrne had this to say on his website years ago:
"Bob Harras, then the X-Editor, called and asked if I could do six pages for this issue. I was up to my eyeballs in work, so I declined. So he asked if I could do three. I agreed, and they sent me a plot. I drew the three pages
and sent them in. Then Bob called and said 'You drew three pages! That plot was for one page!'

Woulda bin a real time saver if they'd updated me on that before they sent me the plot! "

Approved By The Comics Code Authority:  When Marvel Girl takes a shower (right in front of Psylocke), Joe Rosas colors in the steam to match the contours of her body.  This is the first time I ever saw a colorist attempt to make comic art racier than originally intended.  Within five years, colorist-added nipple pokes will be all the rage.

Review:  Is this the first “quiet” post-crossover X-comic?  I believe it is.  Just think of all of the variations of this issue the X-office published in the ‘90s following Claremont’s departure.  Everyone knows that the numerous subplots and mysteries were inspired by Claremont’s work, but it’s easy to forget that even the downtime issue that followed almost every crossover has its genesis in Claremont’s initial run.  I can’t imagine Claremont thought he was starting a trend; he was probably just looking at the cast following “X-Tinction Agenda” and asking the same question the characters ask this issue -- what to do with all of these mutants?

I thought it would be interesting to look back at the era post-“X-Tinction Agenda,” as it paves the way for the 1991 revamps of the titles (the revamps that nudged me towards X-completism).  What stands out about this issue is Claremont’s ability to write the characters as rational adults, people capable of having a thoughtful conversation about how they’ve reached this point and how to go forward.  Storm acknowledges that faking the X-Men’s death was likely a mistake.  Cyclops is bothered that no one’s truly replaced Xavier and mentored the third generation of mutants.  Marvel Girl is concerned that Magneto has apparently reverted to villainy (not that she ever bought his conversion.)  Cable’s annoyed that the others can’t see that they’re in the middle of a war, and throws his hat in for leadership of all of the X-teams.  And as absurd as this might sound in a recap, Claremont handles the scene remarkably well.  Claremont writes Cable as more of a grouch than Louise Simonson has so far, but he's still rational, falling in more with Claremont’s “noble warriors” than the cheap Punisher clone he’ll soon turn into.  Cable’s position doesn’t come across as unreasonable at all, and even Storm questions if he’s right.

When the story isn’t focused on the main philosophical debate, Claremont has some fun with the rest of the cast.  Iceman and Boom-Boom get into a prank war, Archangel and Cannonball introduce the Danger Room to anyone not around since issue #225 or so, Gambit gets to outmaneuver Wolverine (something that almost never happened in these days), and a few of the ongoing subplots get touched upon.  As much as this issue might be remembered as “downtime,” there are three action sequences and a cliffhanger ending.  Two of those action scenes even advance ongoing subplots, which is a reminder of just how tight a plotter Claremont can be.  And even the pages that don’t tie in with the dozen or so subplots Claremont’s juggling are entertaining in their own right, as he’s clearly having fun writing characters he hasn’t touched in years.

Regarding the artist jam, the pages do have some level of consistency, since Scott Williams was somehow able to ink the entire issue.  I definitely thought this was a strange looking issue as a kid, but I never thought it looked rushed or shoddy.  The oddest pages to me were Michael Golden’s Gambit/Wolverine fight, although today they’re my favorite.  It’s also cool to see Scott Williams giving Rick Leonardi and Marc Silvestri highly polished inks, considering how rarely they’re inked in that style.  Compare this comic to some of the jam issues the ‘90s will later bring us and it’s practically art.  This is an issue that could’ve easily been a mess, but I enjoyed it a lot as a kid and I think it holds up very well.

EXCALIBUR #90 – October 1995

Dream Nails 3 – Blood Eagle

Credits: Warren Ellis (writer), Ken Lashley, David Williams, Carlos Pacheco, & Larry Stroman (pencilers), Tom Wegrzyn, Mike Miller, Cam Smith, & Larry Stroman (inkers), Joe Rosas & Ariane Lenshoek and Malibu (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary

Peter Wisdom is locked in a room with Black Air agent Shrine. Shrine is a psychic who’s been assigned to test an alien-derived virus on Wisdom. The virus reacts to stress and destroys human flesh when it senses agitation. Shrine forces Wisdom to relive painful memories, including his previous missions and his mother’s murder by a spree killer. Wisdom pushes his memory of one mission to the front of his mind. Shrine observes Wisdom heartlessly killing every terrorist in an arctic base. Shrine can’t take the horror and collapses, as Wisdom breaks out of the room.

On Muir Island, Wolfsbane arrives to spend time with her adopted mother, Moira MacTaggert. Amanda Sefton checks on Rory Campbell, fearful that his treatment of Spoor might push him closer to becoming Ahab. Rory promises her that his knowledge of a possible future forces him to stay in control. During his session with Spoor, the mutant notices that Rory has run out of mood stabilizers. Spoor uses his mutant power to alter people’s moods to make Rory more angry and aggressive. After Spoor mocks his feelings for Amanda, Rory assaults him. The laser pen senses violence and attacks Rory, severing his leg.

Shadowcat searches the Black Air base for Wisdom. Hiding from the guards, she stumbles across a room filled with samples of aliens. The Uncreated, a group of captive aliens who have escaped during the confusion, target Shadowcat. They want to know if she has a God. When she says yes, they explain that they found their creator in space and proved their superiority by killing it. They want recognition for their accomplishment, and will kill anyone who still worships God. Shadowcat phases through the Uncreated and runs into Wisdom. Wisdom uses his hot knives to blow up the base’s generators, covering their escape. While on their way home, Shadowcat sets their aircraft on autopilot and kisses Wisdom for the first time.

Continuity Notes

Black Air has a sample of the Phalanx labeled “Phalanx using Skrull form as template. Recovered June 1982”. Kitty points out that Black Air has known about the Phalanx years before they did, but this doesn't work. The Phalanx were given an origin in X-Factor #106, which said that they were created by a group of scientists working with Warlock's remains. Black Air couldn't have known about the Phalanx for thirteen years at this point since they didn't exist until after a story published in 1990. Ellis probably meant the Technarcy, which is the alien race Warlock belonged to. Black Air also has a sample Brood drone donated by the Hellfire Club.

Review

This is the rare double-sized issue that’s not tied to an anniversary. They weren’t totally uncommon in the ‘80s, especially during Claremont’s UXM run, but I think they had mostly died out by the ‘90s. The extra pages do make this issue feel more important, which is fitting since the title’s continuity does advance with the story. Wisdom officially quits Black Air and joins the team, Wolfsbane arrives, and Rory Campbell takes a giant step towards becoming Ahab. Since this series can’t seem to have a regular-sized issue without multiple artists, it’s not surprising that this is also a jam issue. The shifts between artists are jarring, but thankfully the artists are given specific scenes to draw instead of just random pages. Carlos Pacheco does a great job with the Uncreated, but those are really the only pages that stand out visually.

The scenes between Rory Campbell and Spoor have their moments, but having Rory forgetfully run out of his mood stabilizers is too convenient for me, especially after he gives a speech to Amanda about how important it is for him to stay in control. If the idea is that he subconsciously forgot the pills on purpose because he wanted an excuse to attack Spoor, that’s not a bad twist but there’s nothing in the comic to support that theory. Lashley’s storytelling also disappoints on the most important page, since it’s not clear what exactly happens to him. It’s not hard to see that Rory’s leg has been severed, but there’s another panel where it looks like the lasers might’ve hit his eye. Since he’s given absolutely no facial expression and he’s drawn in profile, it’s also possible that the panel is supposed to show that he’s just spotted the lasers becoming active. The outline of his right eye doesn’t match his left eye in the final panel, so I guess that’s supposed to confirm that his eye was damaged also, but it’s hard to say. Since this is the culmination of a storyline that had been building for around two years, it deserves better than this. I do like the fact that something actually happens to Rory, since I wasn’t expecting any major events that would obviously push him closer to becoming Ahab to happen so soon. I remember being excited when I first read this scene, and really being surprised that Ellis was willing to take things that far. I think the Rory/Ahab story has become another dropped storyline over the years (I vaguely remember it briefly coming up during the 1999 Apocalypse crossover and not going anywhere), but at the time this did feel exciting.

The Uncreated get a considerable introduction, taking up most of Shadowcat’s scenes, leading me to believe that Ellis intended them to become more important villains than they turned out to be (I think they were only used again in his Starjammers miniseries). I do like their bizarre origin and motivation, but they don’t prove to be a real threat to Kitty since she’s able to just phase through them (off-panel, at that). Peter Wisdom receives most of the attention here, as a number of pages are dedicated to flashbacks from his past. Ellis does a capable job on these scenes, but after a while they start to feel like the conventional dark material that most British writers bring to mainstream comics. The idea that Shrine just can’t take all of the nasty stuff in Wisdom’s past is a little silly, especially when he’s responding to Wisdom killing terrorists and not babies or anything. Did Black Air pick the wimpiest guy they could find to interrogate him? Revealing that Black Air has been designing weapons and viruses from the aliens is a cool concept, though, and I think Ellis gets some more mileage out of it as his run progresses. I liked this issue when it was first released, and I enjoyed rereading it today, even if the conclusions don’t exactly work. All of the setups are promising, but in the end, Kitty just phases past the aliens, Wisdom’s interrogator wimps out, and Rory Campbell’s fate is poorly conveyed by the art. It’s not bad at all, but it doesn’t feel like it has much of a payoff.

EXCALIBUR #88 – August 1995

Dream Nails

Credits: Warren Ellis (writer), Larry Stroman w/Darrick Gross, Ken Lashley, & Jeff Moy (pencilers), Cam Smith w/Darrick Gross, Tom Wegrzyn, Phil Moy, Don Hudson, & Jimmy Palmiotti (inkers), Joe Rosas and Digital Chameleon (colors), Comicraft (lettering)

Summary

Peter Wisdom receives a request for help from his friend, a fellow Black Air operative named Cully. Shadowcat volunteers to take Wisdom to London in the team’s Midnight Runner plane, mainly to keep an eye on him. They arrive in London and investigate one of Cully’s hideouts. He’s missing, but the words “I’m losing my body” are written on the wall. His apartment is littered with papers with odd designs drawn all over them. On Muir Island, Moira discusses with Professor Xavier how a hacker could’ve broken into Muir Island’s database and leaked information about her Legacy Virus infection. She then explains to the rest of Excalibur how the Legacy Virus mutated and infected her. Meanwhile, Britanic devises a laser pen that will be used to house the mutant killer Spoor during his sessions with Rory Campbell. At a spy hangout, Wisdom learns that Cully has died. They soon view his body at the morgue, where the coroner reveals that he died of a mysterious disease. The coroner tells Wisdom that Scicluna, his boss at Black Air, is trying to cover up the death. As Wisdom and Shadowcat leave the morgue, they’re attacked by two armed men. After they’re subdued, Wisdom pulls Black Air IDs out of their wallets.

Review

This is the start of a three-part storyline, which serves to flesh out Peter Wisdom as a character and introduce his romance with Kitty Pryde. This issue is mainly setting up the mystery of what happened to Cully while giving Wisdom and Shadowcat some room to play off of each other. Ellis is good at giving the characters personality, so even if the plot moves pretty leisurely, the story isn’t dull. The rest of the issue is dedicated to acknowledging some of the ongoing storylines that involve Muir Island. Ellis spends quite a bit of time justifying how Muir Island was hacked and how Moira was infected, leading me to believe that someone somewhere thought that these storylines were actually going somewhere. Some obscure continuity is dredged up, as Ellis revives the idea that Muir Island was created as a rehabilitation center for rogue mutants, an idea that I think had been ignored after its first appearance. This leads into a storyline involving Spoor, one of the multitude of Acolytes who hadn’t been developed yet. I like the way Ellis is using what already exists in the X-universe while adding some new elements, so it doesn’t feel as if the book is totally divorced from its roots. Larry Stroman draws the majority of the issue, although the pages are randomly divided amongst three other artists, so you end up with a three-page fight scene with two pencilers. None of the styles blend at all, which is distracting (although it’s hard to think of any artist that can fit in easily with Stroman’s unique look). I think this was Stroman’s return to Marvel after his attempts at a creator-owned series didn’t go very far. His art is even more exaggerated than his X-Factor run, which leaves many of the characters virtually unrecognizable. It’s still an interesting style, but he’s starting to border on self-parody on a few pages.

STRYFE’S STRIKE FILE #1 – January 1993

Credits: Fabian Nicieza, Scott Lobdell (writers), Larry Stroman (artist, new pages), Jimmy Palmiotti, Al Milgrom, Mark Farmer (inkers, new pages), Kevin Tinsley (colorist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer)

Summary

Xavier reviews a disc that Bishop found on Stryfe’s moon base. It contains Stryfe’s profiles on the X-Men, their allies, and their enemies. Xavier decides not to burden the X-Men with this information and purges the disc.

Gimmicks

This issue has a metallic ink cover.

Continuity Notes

A lot of continuity points are established in this one-shot. Holocaust, Threnody, Sienna Blaze, and Graydon Creed all appear for the first time as profiles in Stryfe’s records. All of these characters will soon appear in actual stories in the next few issues, except for Holocaust. He’ll appear with a totally different design years later during the Age of Apocalypse storyline. Graydon Creed and Sienna Blaze are revealed to be members of the Upstarts, while Threnody is hinted to be a player in the Legacy Virus storyline. Graydon Creed is Sabretooth’s son with Mystique. His connection to Sabretooth is established pretty firmly with his profile, but there’s no mention of Mystique yet.

Fabian Cortez of the Acolytes is referred to as a “closet Upstart”. Stryfe also hints at a “voluntary induction” of an X-Man into the Acolytes; this will be Colossus, who will join them in the next crossover.

Gamemaster is given an origin for the first time. He’s described as an omnipath, someone with the ability to read every mind on the planet simultaneously. He oversees the Upstarts competition as a distraction from his overbearing powers. None of the actual stories involving the Upstarts has bothered to reveal any of this so far.

There are excerpts of a Henry Peter Gyrich file on inside back cover, leading me to believe that the X-office had plans for him at this time, but nothing really came of it.

Cannonball’s entry still lists him as an immortal External, and hints at his important role in the history of the mutant race.

Miscellaneous Note

“Collectible” is misspelled on the cover

Review

This isn’t a story but a collection of profiles used as springboards for upcoming plotlines. The two storylines that get pushed in almost every entry are the Legacy Virus and the Upstarts competition. Both of these storylines were flops, with the Legacy Virus being ignored for years until being cured during a fill-in issue in 2001, while the Upstarts storyline was just forgotten about within a year. It’s filled with Stryfe’s over-the-top narration, which gets really old over the course of thirty pages. I still can’t figure out if Stryfe’s melodramatic speech patterns are supposed to be amusing or not. Many of the entries are just reprints of the X-Cutioner’s Song trading cards that were packaged with the crossover issues. They have maybe a third of the text of the other entries and stand out like a sore thumb. I remember liking this one-shot, and waiting in anticipation for all of these new characters to actually show up in the actual stories. The X-books were really good at teasing at future stories and building up anticipation for the next event. The actual execution and follow-through never seemed to work, though.

X-FACTOR #81 – August 1992

Belles of the Ball

Credits: Peter David (writer), Larry Stroman (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Kevin Tinsley (colors), Richard Starkings (letters)

Summary

Madrox discovers that Rhapsody did accidentally kill Sharp and leaves her in jail. He returns to Washington with Quicksilver. Guido takes an antidote to Cyber’s poison and the team has a rematch against Cyber and the Hell’s Belles, leading to a conclusive victory for X-Factor.

I Love the ‘90s

Guido jokes about the Dan Quayle/Murphy Brown and “I didn't inhale” stories from the 1992 presidential campaign.

Creative Differences

On page 20, two word balloons obviously not lettered by Starkings explain that Quicksilver and Madrox will be acting as back-up. This wouldn’t be so bad if Madrox’s later appearance wasn’t treated as a surprise.

Review

The Hell’s Belles story concludes, ushering the characters away to obscurity. This has been the most traditional story arc in the book so far, and Guido even comments on the fact that they actually have a clear victory for once. It’s not a bad story, but it’s not nearly as interesting as the earlier Madrox and MLF storylines. Stroman’s art isn’t up to his usual standards, but most of it still works. When the Image exodus first happened, Stroman was announced as Marc Silvestri’s replacement on Wolverine, but that never happened. He left for Image not long after the other artists, did a few issues of Tribe, and then disappeared from comics (until recently, that is).

Guido isn’t very heroic in this issue, but not in the creepy X-Force “shoot the villain in the back” way. He’s more than willing to trade Shrew back to the Hell’s Belles in exchange for the antidote, rationalizing that they can just save her later and that her testifying against drug lords won’t change things anyway. Rather than making Guido unlikable, David actually makes Guido more human and uses it as an opportunity to expand his characterization. There’s also a great scene with Havok on the last page.

X-FACTOR #80 – July 1992

Belles & Whistles

Credits: Peter David (writer), Larry Stroman (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Michael Heisler (letters), Glynis Oliver (colors)

Summary

With Polaris in the hospital, Havok, Wolfsbane, and Strong Guy guard Shrew, a former member of the Hell’s Belles. The Hell’s Belles (Flambé, Vague, Briquette, and Tremolo) are revealed to be working for Cyber, who hospitalized Polaris last issue. X-Factor tries to prevent them from capturing Shrew. While fighting Briquette, Strong Guy is scratched with Cyber’s poisoned claw.

I Love the ‘90s

Rahne has a dream that she’s the host of a TV show called “Rahne’s World”. Party time, x-cellent, this will never get old.

Review

This issue introduces the Hell’s Belles, an all-female group of mutants. To put it mildly, these characters never caught on (although I was surprised to find out that they apparently showed up in New Avengers). A lot of people complain that there aren’t enough villains in the x-canon, so I’m not sure why Hell’s Belles and the Nasty Boys just disappeared after their initial appearances. Just like the Nasty Boys, I wonder if Hell’s Belles were considered not “serious” enough to be believable villains. I like their designs and think their powers would make them a credible challenge for any of the X-teams. It would have been interesting to see someone like Chris Bachalo’s interpretation of the characters. This is the middle part of a storyline so there’s not a lot to say about this specific issue. Another well-written, well-drawn issue of X-Factor.

X-FACTOR #78 – May 1992

Playing With Fire!

Credits: Peter David (writer), Larry Stroman and Brandon Peterson (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Dave Sharpe (letters), Mike Thomas (colors)

Summary

Tempo of the Mutant Liberation Front warns Dr. Tucker about the MLF’s upcoming attack. X-Factor is called in to protect Dr. Tucker, but Quicksilver and Wolfsbane object. The remaining members of X-Factor fight the MLF in Dr. Tucker’s clinic. The MLF mortally wounds Dr. Tucker, but are chased away before they can locate his research. Wolfsbane destroys Dr. Tucker’s research before the information can be saved on disc.

I Love the ‘90s

Guido brags about dating Sean Young.

Commercial Break

“Dissing fellow pros in print” is at the bottom of the Bullpen Bulletins Coolometer. I wonder if this is a reference to Erik Larsen’s notorious “Name Withheld” letter in CBG.
In the Stan's Soapbox column, Stan Lee announces the X-Men cartoon. He lists James Cameron as one of the producers, but that never happened.

Review

I’ve always remembered this as a great issue, and it holds up very well. The idea of detecting mutation in fetuses is a smart use of the mutant concept, and it’s the type of thinking that the other X-books weren’t doing at this time. Peter David is able to give the characters strong points of view while remaining true to their established personalities. Wolfsbane isn’t arbitrarily chosen to present the opposing viewpoint; her stance is consistent with what we already know about her. Quicksilver’s opposition displays his evolution as a character. His monologue on the last page is really touching, and it ties together his past continuity with the current plot in a clever way.

You can begin to see this storyline’s editorial intervention with this issue. The story now says that Dr. Tucker can find the gene that creates mutation and remove it. This wasn’t stated at all in the previous issue. In the last issue, Tucker could only determine the possibility of a mutant birth. The implied conflict was that Tucker’s research could lead to the abortion of suspected mutants. If Tucker can actually remove the gene for mutation before birth, that creates a different conflict. One parallels issues relating to birth defects and abortion. The other involves genetic engineering. Both are interesting, but having the story switch midstream is awkward. It definitely reads as if editorial had last minute problems with the story. The abortion parallels are still evident in this issue, though. There’s a lot of talk about a mutant’s right to live, making decisions, and standing in the way of people’s choices.

I’ve never read any of the MLF appearances in New Mutants, so I don’t know if Tempo had been given any type of a personality before this issue. She’s revealed to be a former patient of Dr. Tucker and betrays the team by warning him of their attack. I always liked Tempo during the ‘90s, even though I don’t remember seeing her that often outside of this story and a few X-Force appearances. The idea of her reforming was brought up in almost all of her appearances, but I don’t know if Marvel went through with it. I’m actually surprised Fabian Nicieza never used her in Thunderbolts.

Brandon Peterson draws a lot of the later pages in this issue. His style doesn’t really blend in with Storman’s, but it’s not bad. Peterson would later pencil Uncanny X-Men after the Image exodus, before leaving for Image himself. Joe Quesada does this issue’s cover, but I don’t know if he had been named as the new artist at this point. I should point out that in spite of the cover, Sinister only appears on one page of this issue.

X-FACTOR #77 – April 1992

Great X-Pectations

Credits: Peter David (writer), Larry Stroman (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Michael Heisler (letters), Glynis Oliver (colors)

Summary

The Mutant Liberation Front battles X-Factor and breaks Slab and Hairbag out of prison. Cannonball arrives and tries to talk Wolfsbane into joining X-Force. Havok attempts to arrest him, but Polaris allows him to escape as a favor to Wolfsbane. Meanwhile, the MLF selects their new target, a doctor who has developed a test for determining mutantcy in fetuses.

Commercial Break

Entertainment This Month runs a small ad for Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood. I'll post more about this later.

Review

This isn’t a direct crossover with X-Force, but it does feature the team’s major villains and guest stars one of its members. Peter David keeps it from feeling forced by focusing on Cannonball and Wolfsbane’s shared history, and the political motives of the MLF. I’m actually surprised the MLF didn’t have much staying power. Yes, most of the outfits are ridiculous, but it would’ve been easy to just re-design them. They also have political motives that can make for interesting storylines, as seen in this arc. They’re basically The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, with three times as many members. Considering the lack of credible X-villains and the abundance of mutant spin-offs, it seems like these characters would’ve made more appearances past 1995.

Stroman’s art becomes more stylized with this issue. I wonder if he felt the need to exaggerate his figures to fit in with the early ‘90s ethic, or maybe he was altering his style to fit the Liefeld designs of many of these characters. Maybe he was just naturally evolving into this look. For the most part it works, but some of the figures are starting to look unattractive.

I seem to recall Peter David commenting that this storyline was censored, but there don’t seem to be any obvious re-writes in this issue. The idea that a test could determine if a fetus is a mutant is very interesting, and the inference that this could lead to an abortion is here, but the “A” word is never used. This issue also introduces Vicki Wang, a lawyer fighting for the civil rights of supervilliains. I don’t remember if this went anywhere but it’s an interesting concept. David also puts the X-Force characters to good use. The scene between Wolfsbane and Cannonball is a nice payoff for New Mutants fans, and there’s a great sequence with Quicksilver going up against Tempo’s time-altering power.

X-FACTOR #76- March 1992

X-Communication

Credits: Peter David (script), Tom Raney & Kevin West (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Michael Heisler (letters), Glynis Oliver (colors)

Summary

Quicksilver searches for Wolfsbane while X-Factor battles the Pantheon in the Middle-Eastern country of Trans-Sabal. A young religious man and his sister kidnap Wolfsbane. The sister aides Wolfsbane in her escape and is killed by her brother. Wolfsbane, in a rage, responds by apparently killing the man.

Miscellaneous Notes

Pages two, seventeen and nineteen look like Larry Stroman drew them. They definitely don’t look like Tom Raney’s work. Kevin West is the other credited artist and these might be his pages, perhaps trying to match Stroman's style.

The Statement of Ownership in the letters page says the average number of copies sold during preceding 12 months is 265,252 and the actual number of copies single issue sold nearest to filing date is 392,000. This title gained over 100,000 readers in one year. I was one of those new readers, and I think this is a testament to commercial success of the 1991 relaunch of the X-titles.

Review

This issue could have turned into “a very special episode of X-Factor”, but it’s able to deal with serious issues without being tacky or preachy. I don’t know if a mainstream comic today would be able to do a story with a Middle Eastern antagonist and not cause controversy. Wolfbane’s growing inability to control her animal impulses had been a small subplot leading up to this issue, so having it suddenly become a major element of this story is a nice twist. Comparing Wolfsbane’s guilt over her actions to Feral’s psychotic glee in X-Force sums up the differences between the titles very nicely.

X-FACTOR #74 – January 1992

Politically Incorrect

Credits:

Peter David (Script), Larry Stroman (Pencils), Allen Milgrom (Inks), Glynis Oliver (Colors), Michael Heisler (Letters).

Summary

Slab threatens to destroy the Washington Monument if Strong Guy doesn’t agree to fight him. During the course of their brawl, Strong Guy is the one who accidentally destroys the Monument. The entire fight is revealed as a set up by Mr. Sinister and the mysterious Senator Shaffran to discredit X-Factor. Meanwhile, a lie detector test reveals that the Madrox who joined X-Factor is a duplicate.

Continuity Notes
Slab is incorrectly colored as green on the cover. The mistake is repeated on the next cover, so maybe he was originally intended to be that color.

Review

Almost half of this issue is a fight scene, but it doesn’t get in the way of the ongoing subplots and character dramas. The two mystery figures from the previous issues are revealed to be Mr. Sinister and a new character, Senator Shaffran. X-Factor is still standing out as the best X-title. The mysteries don’t seem to be dragging out forever, and the fight scenes actually serve the ongoing storyline instead of getting in the way of it.

X-FACTOR #73

Crowd Control

Credits:
Peter David (Script), Larry Stroman (Pencils), Allen Milgrom (Inks), Glynis Oliver (Colors), Michael Heisler (Letters).

Summary

Madrox and the man claiming to be the real Madrox fight, each one creating twenty duplicates and causing chaos around the city. X-Factor knock out all of the duplicates, hoping that the duplicates will disappear if the original Madrox is unconscious. In the end, the doubles disappear, except for the two Madroxs that started the fight.

I Love the ‘90s
Weird Al parodies TMBG's "Particle Man" as "Multiple Man".

Flavor Flav has a cameo, along with Kid and Play apparently. There are also quite a few Malcom X baseball hats.

A spectator filming Madrox’s fight comments that the tape’s going straight to Bob Saget.

Jaime Madrox is mistaken by a bystander as The Rocketeer. Did Stroman base his version of Madrox on the actor in the movie?

“Pewee Herman” and “Marvel Stock” are the top two items in the Bullpen Bulletins “Cool-O-Meter”.

Continuity Notes

Guido coins the term “Genetically Challenged” or “GeeCees” to replace the word “mutant” in this issue. This becomes a running joke throughout David’s run.

Havok doesn’t have any problem using his powers non-lethally, which previously had not been the case.

Commercial Break

American Comics & Entertainment lists a “Marvel Investor Kit” in its ad. It includes “a grading guide, a price guide, a storage box, plastic bags, 5 valuable Marvel comics & more!” The list price is $20, and their sale price is $14.95. Was this an officially licensed Marvel product?

Review

It’s the third issue of the relaunched X-Factor and it’s the first fight scene. Compare this to X-Force, which had a fight scene by the second page of the first issue. As a kid, I wasn’t bothered by the lack of action in X-Factor. I liked the characters and it seemed like the story was headed in an interesting direction. Maybe I also tolerated the lack of combat in X-Factor because I knew that X-Force was going to offer plenty of punches, laser blasts, and explosions. I wonder if Marvel made a conscious effort to produce at least one X-book that was more highbrow than the violence-driven books of the time. Reading X-Force and X-Factor simultaneously, it’s odd to know that the books were being released at the same time and overseen by the same editor.

Most of this issue is a fight scene involving dozens of Madrox dupes, but it never feels dull or too long. The idea that the Madrox who joined the team might be a duplicate is handled well. He’s such a minor character at this point that any revelation about him could be plausible, so David is able to create some genuine tension. Stroman does a good job with the fight scene, combining his stylization with solid drawing. The image of Madrox in the final panel of page eight is just as dynamic and exciting as anything else going on in the X-books at this time.

X-FACTOR #72 – November 1991

Multiple Homicide

Credits:
Peter David (Script), Larry Stroman (Pencils), Allen Milgrom (Inks), Glynis Oliver (Colors), Michael Heisler (Letters).

Summary

X-Factor investigates the apparent murder of Madrox, The Multiple Man. Not surprisingly, the dead body belongs to one of his duplicates. Madrox is shocked to discover that he cannot re-absorb his duplicate’s dead body. Later, the team has a press conference announcing themselves to the public. Another Madrox duplicate appears in the audience, calling the X-Factor member an imposter.

Commercial Break

The back cover has an ad for a Wolverine NES game. The box art comes from a Wolverine Jim Lee cover. I think the X-Men arcade game (which featured very nice work by Art Adams on the cabinet) also came out in 1991. A few years before this, the infamously bad X-Men NES game was released. The X-Men were still years away from getting their own TV show or movie, but apparently they did have enough popularity to be merchandised as video game characters.

There’s an ad for the Marvel Swimsuit Special , so I guess T&A has already become common in mainstream comics at this point. It’s priced at $3.95, almost four times the price of Marvel’s regular titles at the time, so maybe they were aiming it at older readers.

The Bullpen Bulletins page mentions Rob Liefeld’s Spike Lee-directed Levi’s 501 commercial. I tried finding this on Youtube but didn’t have any luck. It also mentions a print ad for Dewar’s Whisky that featured artist Denys Cowan. Why exactly Cowan is appearing in hard liquor ads is beyond me.

I Love the ‘90s

A mystery figure quotes “Don’t have a cow, man.”

Review

The Peter David/Larry Stroman run continues and remains solid. It’s not surprising that the current X-Factor series started out as the Madrox mini-series, and that he remains the major focus of the book. Peter David’s first X-Factor story also heavily revolves around Madrox, so I’m assuming he has a lot of affection for the character. Madrox’s ability to duplicate himself instantaneously offers a lot of story potential, so it’s surprising that the character stayed in the background for so many years. I’m pretty sure the characterization of Madrox as a flippant prankster originated in this run. Even though he was created in the late 1970s, I don’t think there had been much of an effort to really give him a personality at this point.

There is almost no action in this issue, just a brief scene with Havok and Polaris saving civilians from an apartment fire. Most of the focus is on characterization, like Polaris and Havok discussing their relationship, Madrox’s angst over the death of his duplicate, and Wolfsbane’s crush on Havok. The original phonetically spelled out “New Yawk” accent that Chris Claremont gave Guido has been toned down, which is probably for the best. Larry Stroman is able to pull off the bizarre proportions Bill Sienkiewicz gave the character.

The pacing of the book is a little odd. Page eight has eleven panels and page twenty-nine has fifteen panels, yet some pages have only three or four panels. This could’ve been divided out more evenly. But even Stroman’s cramped pages look pretty good. This is the second issue in a row without a lot of action, but he’s still keeping things visually interesting.