X-FORCE #18: Ghosts in the Machine (X-Cutioner's Song Finale!)

At long, long last: Stryfe vs. Cable!

Originally Published January 1993

To begin with... Time is Up.

And not a moment too soon if you ask me

Cable has somehow made it inside Stryfe's "Direct relatives of Stryfe ONLY" bubble -- it's unclear how, but I'm guessing it has to do with the fact that they are seemingly identical. Stryfe, cornered for the confrontation, refuses to give up his dedication to theatricality, and unveils his hostages, Scott Summers and Jean Grey, whom he continues to accuse of some kind of transgression against him in the past, or future or both.

Cable, much like the rest of us, has only a tenuous grasp on what is actually going on here.

Stryfe accuses Cable of being a scientific abomination, which are fighting words if I've ever heard them, so they fight.

Cable insults Stryfe's momma, and Stryfe is like "You know what, you're right."

While Scott wonders if they could help, if only they had some clue as to what made Stryfe so twisted and evil. Same, Scott, same.

While the Dark Riders escape in a shuttle, Wolverine lashes out about how the X-Men stories have become overloaded with convoluted and mysterious figures who are never easy to comprehend.

Same, Logan, same.

While they continue their knock-down drag-out fight, Stryfe continues to find the breath to taunt Cable at length, telling him he is clearly motivated by his own failures, which is why he became a rebel leader in the future and the commander of the renegade X-Force in this time. Cable, for his part, has had enough of Stryfe's voice and wants more fighting. Stryfe responds by cranking up the emo.

Back down on Earth, Charles wakes up long enough to tell us how serious and important the events transpiring are.

And elsewhere on the moon, Archangel finds Apocalypse, grievously injured from his battle with the Dark Riders (between pages) crawling off to die. Warren affirms that despite yearning to kill Apocalypse for the last several months over what he has become, inside, he is still his own man...

 ...and leaves Apocalypse to die an undignified, enfeebled death, rather than a glorious one in battle.

Inside the bubble, Jean and Scott determine that they can break free if Stryfe remains occupied long enough to lose focus. Luckily, help arrives in the form of Havok, who has also, somewhat mysteriously, been able to make it through the "Stryfe Fam Only" forcefield.

Free of their bonds, Cyclops and Jean offer to bring Stryfe to a group therapy session where they can all work through their issues in a nonviolent way.

Stryfe, however, remains suspicious of Scott and Jean's compassion. He really doesn't think they're good people.

What do you mean "Again??" Would you please just--?!

Instead, he lashes out telekinetically dismantling his base, which unleashes a huge torrent of electromagnetism that is another thing to threaten the heroes. With Havok and Cyclops safe inside of Jean Grey's telekinetic shield, Cable goes once more into the breach to stop Stryfe from whatever it is, spurred on by a newfound duty based on "what we learned today," which I honestly do not know what he could be referring to. He tosses a device to Cyclops which is basically a cable-self-destruct mechanism.

With the clock counting down, Cable's fleshy outer layer being peeled away to reveal the steely inner nougat, and a heady cocktail of electromagnetism and time flux energy swirling around wiggeldy-piggeldy, Scott sweats over whether to sacrifice Cable or let everyone blow up together.

Scott pushes the button and a massive vortex envelops Cable and Stryfe.

And that, I suppose, is the end of him/them.

Whatever it is that happened.

And with a spectacularly unearned denouement, the X-Cutioner's Song fades out at last.

Surveying the scene, Scott reveals that perhaps... just maybe.. it's possible.. this was not the first time he had to sacrifice Cable to save everyone.

But in a coda, we get a glimpse at the next shadowy villain who will be menacing the X-Men with incomprehensible plans.

Further Thoughts:

A lot of people might be under the impression that I hated X-Cutioner's Song based on the fact that I relentlessly jabbed at it and expressed my impatience with its length and perceived lack of content. But I think without an X-Cutioner's Song, there wouldn't be an Uncanny X-Cerpts. Oh sure -- X-Men comics would always have been worth talking about, reminiscing over and examining for the content and quality of the Claremont Run, but where would the X-Men be if they didn't spend the years 1992-1998 being involved in the most convoluted, drawn out, delayed-payoff soap operatic shenanigans ever foisted on comics?

This is the new world order of comics, baby: we're living in the world that Stryfe made.

I don't require the comics be good to create material for this site: I require them to be interesting. I need them to fire my neurons in a way that gives me something to chew on for a few minutes per week. The comics are frequently great, but just as often they fail in ways that show true character.

I have one major complaint about X-Cutioner's Song, which is that it was 12 issues of build and then at last a cacophonous payoff with no closure. The confrontation between Stryfe and the rest of the X-Men, and particularly Cable, is delayed, delayed, delayed, until finally we get here, an there's a brawl and Stryfe rambled on about his emo shtick, and then something explodes and the dust settles without us actually learning what was the deal. The big reveal about Stryfe, whatever it was, is kicked down the road to be addressed at another time -- which is the story of the X-Men in the 90's. 

We are given all the dots, between Cable, Stryfe, Apocalypse, Cyclops, Jean and Sinister, but not told exactly how to connect them. They could not be making it more obvious, except they never go that final step of confirming for us what we are thinking and making it truly matter in the story: Is Cable Cyclops' son Nathan, as Scott believes? If so, is Cable aware? Stryfe has the same face, so that makes him what, an evil clone? But he seems to be accusing Cable of being a clone, and it's clear from his actions in the previous several issues that he considers Scott and Jean to be his parents, and failures at that, which is part of his hilariously over-wrought reason for being who he is, childhood trauma explored in the most awkwardly literal way (he fed them milk and strained peas!) None of it is cleared up by the time Cable and Stryfe disappear into the time vortex, which we know is not the end, and none of it makes it to the point where it can actually be examined in-story. The teams behind the crossover seem a little gunshy about putting it all out there in exposition and maybe even a little wary of committing to one direction or the other, which will be a big trend in the upcoming X-Men comics.

Other than that, the X-Cutioner's Song is a study in delirious excess, mutants traipsing all over creation, battling their biggest foes and occasionally forming a reluctant alliance with them. It's all too much and yet not enough, which is the point. So it falls apart a little when you analyze it too closely -- so does a really good burger. Why not just dig in and enjoy the mess on your hands?

Comics of the 90's are not always the paragons of craft, and they don't have to be. Yes, it will continue to be the duty of this website to tweak them when they fall short on logic or execution, but they can cry themselves to sleep on a bed of the millions of dollars they made both from being the hot property of the zeitgeist and from the speculator boom that ultimately destroyed them. At least they're fun.