Let's get this thing over with already!
Originally Published January 1991
We begin with Rictor and his good pupper Wolfsbane racing through the halls of the Citadel. Ric reminds us that he fully intends to shake the place to rubble, but we've got 20 or 30 members of the New Mutants, X-Men and X-Factor present and we have to get them -- and maybe only them -- to safety before the destruction commences.
But they should know better than to walk down any hallway in the Citadel because it's only a matter of time before you run into this feller:
In case you've somehow forgotten or walked in late, that's the villain of the piece, Cameron Hodge. Hodge hates all mutants everywhere and has been working to somehow use the resources Genosha to destroy them (which is at odds with Genosha's usual modus operandi of merely enslaving them.) He has a human head on a robot scorpion body, which moves silently and has, in addition to a plethora of other weapons, the ability to phase through solid objects, which is how he is always, everywhere, all the time.
Rahne, who does not like this guy, attacks.
Her treatment at the hands of the Genegineer has made her aggressive and headstrong, but unlike a housecat getting ahold of a USB charging cable, her teeth are no match for technology.
Soon, Cable and Storm join the fight, climbing through an air shaft to get to the battle quicker.
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| Didn't one of you used to be claustrophobic? Ah well |
Cable radios for help. Cyclops sends Archangel with explicit instructions to target the hump of Hodge's back, which is believed to house his phasing mechanism. Cyclops also asks Jean to stay back from the battle because her powers may not protect her. Logan takes issue with this paternalism.
Jean interjects that Logan's right, she can handle herself, and then turns her ire on Logan for not letting her fight her own battles. This is perhaps the most I've ever liked or respected Jean's portrayal in these comics.
Meanwhile... Lasers.
Storm does the fandango with Hodge to keep him busy, eventually getting cornered in another air shaft, when Archangel comes through and wrecks Hodge's hump, hopefully trapping him.
Unfortunately, for Warren, Cameron is far from helpless, as he is still in possession of his cyborg strength, his laser beams, his knife, his corkscrew, his magnifying glass, his rope, his pipe, his candlestick, his leather suitcase, his garment bag, his tenor saxophone, his 12-pound bowling ball, and his lucky, lucky autographed glow-in-the-dark snorkel.
Yes, Cameron Hodge sure does possess a lot of weapons, perhaps most surprisingly...
That's right, you forgot about the tiny glue gun in his mouth!
Cameron has Warren immobilized and aims to use his saw attachment (sold separately) to cut Warren's head off. And why, just because Warren cut his head off once? Some people just need to move on with their lives and leave the past in the past.
Downstairs somewhere, Beast is struggling with various injured mutants. He needs help and politely requests some from the Mutates nearby, who ignore him. He realizes there's only one thing they'll respond to: verbal abuse.
I'm not sure what kind of message that is sending to the kids at home.
Elsewhere, a certain previously-brainwashed someone arrives just in time to save Warren's neck.
Cyclops, Jean, Havok and Wolverine arrive and dogpile on Cameron Hodge, but they can barely dent his chassis.
Beast and his Mutate slaves collects Cannonball, Boom Boom, Sunspot and Jubilee, only to run into some Magistrates on his way out. It looks like trouble, but...
That's right, it's an insurgency! An insurgency of common sense, that is.
Up top, Cyclops extracts Wolverine and Jean from Hodge and sends them to rendezvous with the others at a safepoint, while he and Havok finish Hodge personally. They unleash the maximum strength of the Summers Brothers.
Which causes a huge explosion of some kind...
Which the viewers down below expect must have been enough to destroy Hodge, but if so, they don't know Hodge.
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| He's got, like, a dodgeball cannon now? |
As they pour on the punishment and continue to obliterate his robot body, Hodge continues to cackle about he can't and won't be defeated, thanks largely to his deal with the demon N'astirh.
Even after being punted over the edge, Hodge still has the energy for yet another jump scare, grabbing Alex with his throat-tentacle.
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| Everyone always forgets about the throat tentacle. |
He pulls Alex and Scott down, boasting about how he'll survive on account of his super not-dying powers. However, Scott and Alex won't die either, as Jean is able to telekinetically lower them safely to the ground.
Cam plummets, giggling all the way because for him, it's all just a thrill ride, but he lands at the feet of Wolfsbane, who, despite knowing she can't actually kill him, sure gives it her best.
To punctuate the message, Wolfsbane has Rictor destroy the Citadel just he said he would, burying Hodge beneath it. It may be satisfying, but it seems short-sighted, as now the Genoshans have seen the mutants destroy their seat of Government for the second time and quite frankly, Hodge is probably too dangerous to leave beneath a bunch of rubble anyway. But whatever, I guess it's a feel-good ending for some people.
Afterward, Magistrate Anderson goes on Genosha TV and updates her people: The President went insane, we locked her away, she'll stand trial if and when she's mentally fit to do so, no further questions. Havok declares he will stay behind to make sure the Genoshans don't go back to their old ways, and Wolfsbane stays too, being that she's still technically a Mutate and she considers these to be her people. She bids her friends farewell and reminds them to scatter Warlock's ashes on Doug's grave.
They do, eulogizing their fallen friend in hopes that from his sacrifice, something good can come in this world.
The end.
Further Thoughts:
Woof. Who else is just exhausted?
We always try to pull out the thematic resonances in every big X-Men event, the ways they enhance and highlight our characters, but there's not much to this one, which felt increasingly like a shallow, frantic action movie the longer it went on. There's a lot of nuance and examination that can be done with Genosha -- about political intrigue and international diplomacy, about media manipulation and suppression of a segment of the population -- but it all flew out the window the minute insane, undefeatable cyborg Hodge popped up and sucked all the air out of the room. Then it became nine straight issues of simply trying to pulverize an impossible enemy and eventually mustering the strength to do it. There were enough twists and turns to at least try to maintain interest for nine chapters, but ironically everything happened so fast, like the Genegineer executing his long-teased turn on Hodge, that it didn't feel meaningful at all. It was the comic bookiest of events we have yet seen in the history of this series, all sizzle and no steak, and not that much sizzle either. The very definition of "just a bunch of stuff that happened."
At the very least, this event was the staging ground for a few impactful moments, mote because they had to happen than because of anything organic about this story: the X-Men ars more or less re-formed with Wolverine, Jubilee and Psylocke in the fold, and Storm restored to her adulthood and full power. The New Mutants are perhaps further radicalized by the loss of two of their own -- the death of Warlock and the Mutation of Wolfsbane. And X-Factor... remains startlingly unchanged despite their involvement. In fact, the potential for Scott and Jean's relationship to be disrupted following the emotional reunion of Jean and Logan seems to have come to nothing besides a minor pissing contest between Cyclops and Wolverine in this issue.
The victory over Hodge feels like the ultimate manifestation of "might makes right" and while we're predisposed to empathize with our heroes the X-Men, this victory had little to do with them being good and more to do with them being powerful, and the title characters of the book. (Well technically that's X-Factor, but it's the samd difference at this point.)
Will Hodge return to menace the X-Men again? It seems inevitable but I wouldn't look forward to it.
Thanks. I hate it.
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