X-FACTOR #85: Snikts & Bones (X-Cutioner's Song Part 6)

Wolverine and Bishop battle Cable and the others go in search of Stryfe!

Originally Published December 1992

Business is picking up at Department K where Wolverine and Bishop, in their search for records, have run into a "familiar face" who is also in search of some information.

You may recognize this glowing eye attached to a big beefy boy as Cable, the man who, as far as anybody knows, recently attempted to assassinate Professor Xavier. Bishop is prepared to handle this situation diplomatically.

Oh you think YOU'RE a maniac from the future with a big gun?

Wolverine takes the opportunity for some tough guy talk.

This catchphrase never quite took off

Elsewhere, in "Dust Bowl, Arkansas," a combined group of X-Men, X-Factor, Cannonball and Boomer, are hunting for info on Stryfe's Mutant Liberation Front. Using a direct approach of literally just asking "Hey, are you guys MLF around here or what?" they provoke a response.

Had it been me in charge of guarding a secret villain base, I might have simply answered "no," but I'm different.

The goodguys make short work of the jabronis and proceed into the underground base.

Elsewhere, Apocalypse has shown up at one of Cable's safe houses and found some of his own trademark technology there. This perturbs him: very few people know how this technology works (including, according to a recent issue of Uncanny X-Men, Apocalypse himself.) This leads him to produce some wild theories about exactly who Cable is.

Back at Department K, Cable is still having it out with Wolverine and Bishop.

As beautiful as this cornucopia is, however, Cable makes the mistake of blasting Bish with an energy weapon, thus charging up his famous mutant blasty-hand powers.

Ya know, if bullets existed in the Marvel Universe, things would be very different for this guy

Back in Arkansas, the X-team battle with the MLF's mutant powered henchmen, including Dragoness, who aims to find out where the "nigh" is in Cannonball's "nigh-invulnerable when ah'm blastin'" Being a Kentucky gentleman who was raised right by Momma Guthrie, Cannonball has a hard time fighting back against his stalker-with-a-crush, but the nearby X-lady contingent of Rogue, Storm and Polaris don't.

And MLF'er Tempo uses her time-distortion powers to put Quicksilver into slow-mo... er, reg-mo, I guess. But Gambit and Psylocke are able to provide relief in the nick of time.

Back in Stryfe's secret "elsewhere" hideout, Cyclops, stranded alone in the dark, lets loose with his optic blasts like the complete psycho he has been for the past 7 years.

Unfortunately, he realizes too late that he has used his powers on some child soldiers in Strife's employ, along with, apparently, Jean, a fact that Stryfe taunts him with after rendering him unconscious with a head-taser.

Stryfe seems to have some kind of personal vendetta against Cyclops, and man, the latter is not making a strong case for himself with the way he is responding to these psychological tests.

In "Dust Bowl," Archangel flaps around with Forearm while the MLF member Kamikaze, preparing a sneak attack, lives up to his unfortunate and problematic name.

Good joke. Everybody laugh

In Canada, Cable, Wolverine and Bishop have a moment to talk, and Cable maintains that, despite what Wolverine may have thought he saw, he did not in fact try to kill Xavier. Wolverine is willing to entertain the idea, but Bishop...

Wolverine stops Bishop from firing and agrees to hear Cable out.

Back in New York, the regular ongoing plot of X-Factor attempts to continue, which is frankly adorable.

And in Arkansas, MLF member Reaper gets the upper hand on Gambit and Quicksilver...

But we're out of time, so their x-cution will have to wait until the next interminable part of this Song.

Further Thoughts:

While I did praise the previous issue of X-Factor for being a standout in the early 90's and in th econtext of a major crossover -- it had a strong level of focus and buoyant writing and focussed on the members of X-Factor and their part in this -- this one is a little weighed down by what it has to do. Obviously at this point, despite a few pages here and there, we're not really telling "X-Factor" stories, and the members of the titular team like Havok, Polaris, and Madrox, only get marginally more screen time than the guests (and less than Wolverine, Bishop and Cable) while Strong Guy and Wolfsbane are nowhere to be found.

So it goes. It's the demands of the market, editorial, and the times, and you can't really fight it. David and Lee make the most of their part in this whole saga, and that's the best you can hope for.