X-MEN #14: Fingers on the Trigger (X-Cutioner's Song Part 3)

The X-Men and X-Factor seek out X-Force and Apocalypse -- but are they chasing their own tails?

Originally Published November 1992

It sure looks like Charles Xavier is going to die -- he's been shot with an injection of techno-organic virus from the future that modern technology -- or rather, Shi'ar Technology that the X-Men get to hoard away from the rest of humankind because of Charles' special relationship with Lilandra -- can't solve. Beast, the mad scientist in residence for the X-Men, waves off suggestions that he reach out to Reed Richards or Hank Pym for assistance, on account of this is a mutants-only crossover, no time to get the Avengers or Fantastic Four involved.

It's a puzzle all right, but had it had been me who wanted to kill Charles, I probably would have shot him with a bullet instead, but I'm unimaginative like that.

The assembled mutant teams split up -- The X-Men Gold plus Beast and Quicksilver (who may be able to help because Apocalypse once lived on the moon and so do his in-laws -- an extremely valid line of thinking) go to seek out Apocalypse, who may have kidnapped Jean and Scott. Most of the rest are out hunting for Cable, while Bishop and Jubilee, the heaviest hitters on the team, stay behind the protect Charles.

Bishop is pretty miffed given he comes from the future and he totally knew someone was going to kill Xavier and he totally botched it. Honestly, if I was him, I'd be pretty embarrassed too. 

In Bocas del Toro, Panama, Sinister is working on his tan while waiting for members of the MLF (Mutants I'd Like to Front), reaper and Forearm. Since he's the one who actually kidnapped Jean and Scott, he passes them over to the MLF'ers in exchange for some of the future technology they have in their possession.

In Egypt, some Apocalypse-worshippers called the Dark Riders awaken the big blue guy, who has been resting peacefully while he recharges his body with special ancient-alien tech. He's a little miffed about it, and even moreso when he hears what they have to say: his Horsemen are out there doing stuff in his name, possibly because someone is pretending to be him!

Aboard the Blackbird, the X-Men have tracked X-Force's IPAC (an aircraft, not a means of inducing vomiting) to the border of Texas and New Mexico, where it has crash landed. While they have some time, they engage in a little free-form discussion about whether X-Force is culpable for any of their actions, whether it's all on Cable for making them into his soldiers, or if X-Force is exactly what the so-called Dream of Xavier needs in these hard times.

It might go on to be something of a cliche, if it's not already, but you've got to admit it's a feature pretty unique to X-Men as they ruminate on the different shades of morality at play here. At the end of the day we know they're out there "protecting a world that hates and fears them" and a lot of that is simply trying to survive in it, which may call for drastic measures. Is X-Force any different just because they yell and shoot guns a lot? Who's to say?

In orbit, Cable's personal space station Graymalkin, the big man returns from a day trip to the future, where I guess he's from?

 His personal computer butlertron "Professor" informs him that while he was away, he apparently shot Charles Xavier.

Professor, unpack that for me a little bit, would you?

Back in Westchester, Bishop and Jubilee share a cup of coffee, but their fiver is interrupted by the intrusion of Mr. Sinister.

And in West Texas, the X-Men and X-Factor touch down for the latest round with the child soldiers in X-Force!

   

Further Thoughts:

What was initially the relatively straightforward story about Cable mysteriously deciding to assassinate Charles Xavier and leaving X-Force to take the fall has ballooned quite abruptly into a tangle of factions and motivations, between not only the three hero-teams, but also Sinister, Apocalypse, and the MLF, whose leader is a guy called Stryfe. We don't know much about what any of these people want or can do, which is a trifle problematic, but for now it's not important as the heroes are stuck in this early chaotic stage where they're still fighting each other.

Is it a little drawn-out? Perhaps, but we're only three parts into a twelve-part mega-crossover. There's plenty of time to succumb to exhaustion later. For now, what we're seeing is reasonably intriguing.

Welcome to the X-Men of 1993: an intractable tangle of mysterious forces with inscrutable goals, with links to the far-flung past and distant future, a crowded fever-dream of competing mini-mythologies that swells and intensifies with every writer who gets to play in the sandbox. Some love it, some hate it, some are irresistibly drawn to it either way.

Don't lick that, you don't know what germs they have in the future!