The X-Men go to WAR
Originally Published January 1991
When last we left off, Storm, who had been imbued by the Genegineer woth the power to re-empower the mutants affected by Wipeout's disempowering powers, had restored Cyclops' optic blast, which he immediately used on Cameron Hodge. Hodge, for his part, is more surprised and inconvenienced than anything, noting that okay suckers, you've taken your best shot -- now it's my (Hodge's) turn!
Storm is only able to un-disempower Jean before joining the battle front against the advancing Hodge, which in this moment seems like the less important use of her particular abilities, given that it means that Cable, Cannonball, Sunspot, Psylocke, Gambit, and all the others are basically left to stand around doing nothing at all, which seems tactically iffy to me. I mean, if I thought it might help even a little bit to throw some exploding playing cards at my enemy, I'd make sure Gambit was good and ready to do that. Same goes for whatever it is Cable does. Nevertheless, we are treated to some very exciting pointing by Jean and Storm.
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| Somewhere Jim Shooter is salivating over this classic "Can't-Must" moment. |
Suddenly, an explosion rocks the citadel, covering Hodge in debris.
You might think this would trap him, but -- surprise of surprises -- Hodge has the ability to phase, and has ducked through the floor! I guess this late-in-the-game revelation explains how Hodge is able to be basically anywhere he needs to be to stand in the heroes' way with absolutely no warning. There goes my favourite runner.
The explosion was the doing of a "robot auto-bomb" Forge had set up and kept in a secret location known only to him, which is why he remained unconscious so that Hodge's mind probes could not learn its location. I'm pretty sure mind probes work on the unconscious (as they would still have a mind at that time) but hey, who's writing this stuff, me or Louise Simonson? She should know.
Downstairs moments earlier, Jubilee and her charges, the New Mutants Rictor and Boom Boom, watch from a safe and stealthy distance (she knows a thing or two about not being detected, this Jubilee) as the Genegineer tunnels into the Citadel by dint of one Mutate 360.
Just then, the very blast that rocked the heroes upstairs occurs, killing Mutate 360 (RIP to them I guess) but leaving the Genegineer unconscious but mostly unscathed. The kidlets find themselves in Hodge's media lab, dragging Dr. Moreau in with them, only to find they're not alone.
Hodge surveys the damage and determines the bomb failed -- I mean yes, it blew up, but it didn't blow up enough. Hodge's mainframe (you know, the computer thingy... it's 1991, most of us don't know what these words mean) is still operational. With it, Hodge will plot the destruction of every mutant on Genosha, and then every mutant in the world, nyah, ha, ha, ha.
As Hodge leaves, Boom Boom discovers the cremated remains of Warlock and sheds some tears for her fallen friend, while Rictor demands that the Genegineer take them to Wipeout so he can restore their powers and shake this island to the ground. Bad news on that front, Ric...
Elsewhere, Forge awakens to see a surprising, familiar face...
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| And by "developments" she means... |
Now that Storm is back to age of majority, she shares a kiss with her onetime love Forge, while Gambit, who met Storm as a literal child, watches on creepily, having the creepy thoughts of a total creep.
Magistrate Anderson confirms that the Genegineer is working against Hodge, given that Hodge decidedly does not have Genosha's best interests at heart. Cannonball, a wholesome Kentucky kid who was never one for book-learnin', is uncertain what, if anything, the enemy of his enemy is supposed to be to him.
As the lot of them regroup, they run down the questions of what to do about Scott's seemingly-still-brainwashed brother Alex, (that's Magistrate Summers to you) who may prove to be a hinderance in this project. Logically speaking, he should be on the same side as them, siding with the Genegineer against Hodge, but Cyclops notes that if he does get in the way, we're going to have to deal with it.
Of course, as we know, Alex is free of the mental conditioning that saw him working as a high ranking baddie, and is in fact disentangling himself from the power-controlling collar that keeps him, I guess, from using his powers too-too-too much. Like Rictor, he vows to destroy Hodge.
Back in the lab, the New Mutants and Jubilee are attacked by their former friend and now-Mutate Wolfsbane, who is brought to heel by a command from Moreau. He then shows them the murdered body of Wipeout, which theoretically makes it impossible for them to get their powers back, but as Jubilee starts on making threats, Storm and some of the other New Mutants -- Cannonball, Sunspot and Cable -- arrive. Storm un-deactivates Rictor, Boom Boom, and even Wolfsbane. In her wolf-girl form, Wolfsbane's mutate conditioning is overridden and she is free to think and act as she pleases, and is also treated to a design upgrade. She also vows to destroy Hodge.
Yes, the once-sweet, timid girl has really been re-shaped by a lifetime of war for her very survival. Who knew?
In another part of the complex, Hodge gets the drop on some of the heroes -- literally, by phasing through the ceiling.
The good guys throw everything they can at Hodge, but he has super-duper bad guy defenses and you can never defeat him, nyah, ha, ha.
Back in the lab, the New Mutants throw a fit over Hodge's murder of their comrade Warlock, and begin to destroy all the computer equipment. Given that Hodge is basically running off those servers, this draws his attention and he scuttles away to deal with them.
The New Mutants, Storm and Jubilee throw everything they've got at Hodge but, again, super-duper bad guy defenses and all.
As Hodge targets Storm, who should intercede but the Genegineer, brandishing a huge weapon and revealing, surprise of surprises, that he was working against Hodge this entire time.
The shoulder-cannon is not quite enough to put Hodge down for good, but definitely gets his attention. He declares that he will kill Moreau, nyah, ha, ha, ha.
He does, indeed, kill the Genegineer, snapping the scientist's neck, then beats a retreat phasing through the floor, boasting about his super-duper bad guy ability to heal himself.
In the aftermath of the battle, Storm muses how odd it is that such an honorable man as Moreau should serve so wicked a cause as the Genoshan slave-state. Personally, I think that's backwards, and it's odd that such a wicked man as Moreau should be able to stand up for what's right once in his life, but even then it's purely out of self-interest in preserving his life's work (the aforementioned slave state.) So really, it's not odd or inspiring at all. He's just a bad person.
The New Mutants who were injured in the fight hang back -- the battle is over for them, and Wolfsbane asks Boom Boom to scatter Warlock's ashes on Doug Ramsey's grave.
As for the rest of the heroes, they run headlong to finish the fight, and finally conclude this beast of a crossover, in next week's issue of X-Factor!
Further Thoughts:
In case it wasn't already discussed at length enough, there are logistical issues in producing a story this long: sometimes your artists can't handle the pace. I hope nobody bought this issue hoping to get some of that scintillating Rob Liefeld art, as he's replaced for the final New Mutants episode in the story by Guang Yap, who provides serviceable, un-stylized work. Sorry gang, Rob needed the extra time to fine-tune the design of his latest Spider-Man ripoff character for next month's issue. Like there's any future in this "Deadpool" guy.
I've already talked about how padded the story is, and while this is masked by some moment of importance happening in every part, the fact remains that there is simply not enough substance to sustain the story at this size. I think it would have made a fine three or four-part story, or six if you needed two parts in each of the constituent series, but nine, nine is too many.
The reason for this is that the main thread is flimsy. Hodge falls prey to the cheapest depictions of comic book supervillainy. He is the bad guy, he does bad guy things, and he can't be defeated until the story is over. He doesn't even seem to have a master plan, only that he wants to destroy the X-Men, and later all the mutants, somehow. There's no nuance to it, no sophistication, no over-arching action that could have sustained such a lengthy project. The story is therefore a series of interrelated skirmishes with the X-Men against Magistrates, and then Hodge, against whom all of their offense is nothing.
Let's compare and contrast with Inferno, a similarly long and drawn-out story. By the time Inferno happened, we were already well invested in Maddie's character, and her transformation into Goblin Queen. While it was largely a series of battles involving the X-Men, X-Factor, the forces of Limbo, and later Sinister, there was a real sense of context to the action, and weight. It was clear what every party hoped to accomplish and how. Most would agree that story was successful at sustaining itself for eight whopping parts (if one includes Uncanny #239, "Vanities.") By the eighth part of X-tinction Agenda I'm metaphorically checking my watch, wondering "They gonna get this guy or what?"
The story is not totally without virtue. There's some intriguing angles in the sense of the Genegineer's loyalty to Genosha causing him to team up with the mutants against Hodge, after several issues of more politically/ideologically-centered clashes with Hodge. I liked that thread, but I don't think the story as designed was strong enough to really examine what it means, and all socio-polticial aspects of the failed Genosha-Hodge alliance is out the window. All that work put into examining Genosha's place in the world and the media coverage being given to the events here amounts to little more than window dressing for fights, fights, fights. At least we avoided this being another case of the big bad being undone by disloyal underlings and allies -- the Genegineer gives his life but still doesn't stop Hodge, but his scheme to reactivate the mutants' powers will surely help them strike the killing blow in the end.
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| Everybody wants a piece |
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