X-FACTOR #60: Brotherhood (The X-Tinction Agenda Part 3)

Cyclops leads the team to Genosha, where he discovers an undercover brother!

Originally Published November 1990

We begin with a press conference from Genosha's President, Rhonda Reegan Madam Reneau, about the recent capture of mutant terrorists, who are scheduled to be executed for their crimes against the state, and one of whom (Warlock -- not technically a mutant) has already died. After her announcement airs, Madame President confers with her new ally Cameron Hodge, thge mutant-hating former head of The Right, who assures her that the death of Warlock is a show of strength that will cause other nations to take Genosha seriously.

Hodge is already seeming even more unhinged and maniacal than before, wearing a cardboard cutout of a man's body in a suit around his neck to distract from his giant mechanical spider body. It's funny, but maybe not... "ha-ha funny."

The Genegineer bursts in to voice his objections, pointing out that their captives have already escaped, and that we shouldn't be sharing national secrets with foreigner Hodge, but the Prez shuts him down saying they'll be recaptured soon enough and it's not his job to have opinions, only to make mutate slaves. 

While they discuss, Hodge reflects on his own agenda -- to provoke the mutants into a public assault on a sovereign state that the United States will be forced to disavow and will turn public opinion against mutants once and for all, resulting in their ultimate extermination.

It's a pretty insane and ambitious plan, but nobody's accusing Hodge of being any less than a total lunatic at this point.

Meanwhile, soaring through the air in a jet en route to D.C., Cable is flummoxed. The grizzled military veteran simply can't understand why Storm would lock the hatch, preventing a badly-disorganized, weakened and squabbling force from rushing hastily into battle against the might of an attacking army of unknown origin with the power to kidnap them and summarily remove their powers. There's simply no logic to it at all!

I guess in Cable's world, if there's a fight, you go do that fight, whether you have any chance of winning or not. Jean tries to console him like she's, I dunno, his mom or something. Jean knows something of the horrors of Genosha, given that after Inferno, she had absorbed the memories of her clone, Madelyne Pryor, who was tortured there despite not being a mutant. 

Elsewhere on the ride, the mutants wonder "why now" in regard to Genosha's actions, as if there hasn't been a pattern of it lately, and think maybe there's some missing ingredient they don't know about (there is.)

That's just kooky-talk.

Back in New York, Cannonball and Sunspot of the New Mutants, and Gambit and Banshee of the "X-Men?", prepare a jet for Genosha. When Sunspot suggests to a grieving Cannonball that Warlock may actually not be dead and it's just a ruse from a lying administration, Cannonball predictably breaks down in tears because his good buddy Doug did not get his free return from death (yet.)

In Washington, Val Cooper -- special assistant to the President and recent Shadow King sockpuppet account -- briefs the New Men-Factor group about the current state of diplomatic relations with Genosha, and says they are sending the mutants there under, essentially, Ghost Protocol, to go wreck some shit. Like everyone else, Cooper is sure to note that there's some known unknown about Genosha, as to why this, why now (despite giving various press conferences and statements as to why.)

Val sends them away with a big early-90s binder on Everything You Need To Know To Invade Genosha.

Back at the ship, the Factor X-Mutants prepare to take off, with Cyclops saying a quick goodbye to his toddler son before putting his life on the line, leaving the child in the care of Iceman's girlfriend, Opal Tanaka.

Don't worry Scott, I'm sure Baby Nathan will be there... in spirit.

The group arrives at Genosha, lugging a Mrs. Howell-level amount of luggage (timely reference from me) when they are met by the Press Gang. Jean konks out Wipeout before he can flip off their powers, and Cyclops takes a direct shot to the back from the Magistrates' latest commander...

But Cyke is surprised to find that despite incinerating half his uniform (should have donned one of Forge's impervious X-thongs) this very familiar-looking hit feels more like a warm, rejuvenating bath than a killer energy beam. Likewise, his optic blasts don't seem to affect his foe.

What could this mean??!

That's right, that darned Siege Perilous delivered Alex into the hands of the Genoshans as their latest Magistrate, and for once it's not Scott who his impenetrably dense about it. The two come to blows as Cyclops tries to knock some sense into his wayward brother (by concussing him on a rock.)

Admittedly, I know from experience that this is how brothers communicate.

Confused and agitated, Magistrate Alex has Pipeline beam him out (why not, he's already basically naked.)

Meanwhile, as Rahne rots in a cell, Boom Boom escapes through an air duct, Rictor through a sewer, and Storm in the laundry.

While the X-Newfactor prepare a frontal assault on the Citadel, they are watched from afar from a glowing Hodge, who is pickled tink that everything is actually proceeding according to his plan.

Further Thoughts:

The X-Tinction Agenda is, much like Inferno and Fall of the Mutants before it, an interesting convergence of many long-running storylines, as X-Factor's longtime foe Hodge resurfaces to join with the X-Men's enemies in Genosha, while the New Mutants rejoin their elders and reckon with the fallout from their recent adventures. Unlike those events, it's fairly chaotic and abruptly assembled as numerous planes of action are juggled, and some of the plot developments are handled clunkily -- not that there's a lack of detail but if anything there's a bit too much emphasis on reminding us that nobody knows Hodge is involved yet, that the Genoshans and the United States have a fraught political alliance, and the New Mutants bemoaning both Doug's death and Storm's (completely correct) decision about the hatch.

It's not the most elegantly-written crossover event we've yet seen, but it is what it is and is sure to stoke interest in the next part, especially since the blurb at the end of this issue promises Wolverine will be showing up soon so please keep buying.