Sinister seeks salacious secrets!
Originally Published May 1996
When we last left our mutant heroes, they were riding a runaway commuter train straight into the heart of New York City. Said train is full of people who have contracted a mutating disease created by Mr. Sinister, which will spread when the passengers reach their destination. The only only thing Gambit can think of to thwart it is to charge it with is trademark kinetic energy so that it basically becomes a giant bomb.
Gambit, however, seems to have a method to his madness. In a process that I'm absolutely certain will be attested to by science textbooks across the nation and Neil Degrasse Tyson himself, he has Bishop, the energy-absorbing mutant, climb down the front of the train and eat up all of the extra energy that Gambit just put into it.
Step two is to re-apply that force back on the train so that it comes to a harmless stop. And before you can say "Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock..."
They don't have long to celebrate their triumph, of course, because they encounter the guy who was responsible for this whole fiasco in the first place, and he's none too pleased to have been thwarted.
Down in Pine Bluff, South Carolina, Rogue rents a room, seemingly hoping to get a fresh start as an anonymous normie and not a superpowered mutant adventurer. However, when her new landlady offers to let Rogue hold her child she has a rather extreme response.
Can you imagine what Rogue could get up to if she had the combined powers of Ms. Marvel and a three-year-old boy?
Mrs. Watkins is a little offended that this woman she has only just met today didn't want to handle her small child, but what offends her more is the existence of mutants. She belatedly asks whether she has unknowingly rented to some mutie-lover and Rogue responds, f**k no, I hate mutants, they cause nothing but trouble.
Back at the trainwreck, the X-Men are nowhere to be found, leaving the cops on the scene free to exchange some casual anti-mutant dialogue.
Their notes are confiscated by the mysterious Bastion, who appears to be some kind of specially-designated anti-mutant guy. His whole vibe seems extremely welcoming and trustworthy.
Back at Sinister's secret base, he has his three captive X-Men strung up to the weird science machine to do weird science to them. He explains, helpfully, that yes, he created the mutant contagion, because after all he is doing research on the Legacy Virus and to do that he needs test subjects and there's only so many to go around, so why not make more? See, I feel like there is actually some kind of ethical reason why not but anyway. Sinister's main disappointment is that his mutant disease is temporary and only lasts a few hours, so really it's not that useful. Ho hum, all that work for nothing, back to the drawing board.
But every dark cloud has a silver lining, and in this case, it's that Sinister has finally got his hands on Bishop. You see, because Sinister is such a cool, smart, ultra-bad guy with so much going on, he has made it his business to know everything about every mutant: their whole family histories, what their potential is, who needs to f**k whom to make a supermutant.
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| Okay, but can he untangle the whole Psylocke-Revanche snarl? Actually, don't answer that |
Everything about everyone... except Bishop, who just, you know, kinda showed up one day, and no amount of googling or trawling Ancestry.com can provide any information on the subject.
I guess it never occurred to him to, you know, ask anybody.
But luckily, he's got his psychic scanning device at the ready.
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| Actually, he came back to stop Fitzroy -- which he hasn't done -- the traitor thing is just a side-quest that's gotten out of hand. |
At this, Beast -- who, you might recall, is actually the "Dark" version of Beast from the Age of Apocalypse universe -- gets antsy, as the longer Bishop is plugged into the mind-reading device the greater the risk of Sinister discovering not only the history of the alternative reality but the fact that Beast himself is a refugee from there.
And sure enough, he gets real close...
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| Concerning. Looking into it. |
Before Sinister can dig much deeper, Gambit begins to writhe vividly in pain. Sinister surmises that Gambit has contracted the mutant disease, which he is curious about -- what will happen when a born mutant contracts the virus?
Syke! We'll never know, the whole thing was a fake-out.
With a few well-thrown kinetically-charged cards, Gambit is able to destroy Sinister's entire lab and all of the data contained therein.
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| I've never seen a better argument for OneDrive |
Sinister is dismayed: in all their years of cavorting about together doing Dark Secret Things, he would never have thought Gambit would be capable of such treachery.
Before Sinister can enact any reprisal, Bishop zaps him with the power he's absorbed from the exploding lab.
Knowing when he's beaten, Sinister blips away, leaving the three X-Men to call for a ride home. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, Gambit notes, because they're about ten miles out of St. Louis.
D-Beast is intrigued... could Gambit and Sinister have some kind of shared past? Gee Hank, do you think??
Further Thoughts:
As I noted in my previous post, this two-parter is an interesting expression of the intertwined storylines between a small number of characters who started out only somewhat interrelated and now due to circumstances and the gathering shadow of a mysterious backstory are somewhat inextricably intertwined.
That's kind of the main quality of the X-Men at this time and why it makes for such a compelling read. It can't last forever, of course -- you can't have an unlimited number of secret backstories and hidden agendas to draw from before the audience gets restless, but while the juggling balls do stay in the air, it makes for some fun and intriguing diversion.
It's kind of funny that the exact literal thing that Dark Beast was afraid of only happened after he took his counterpart's place in the X-Men, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. I do wonder whether Bishop, who has been having trouble coping with the psychic echoes of his lost memories of the Age of Apocalypse (a universally relatable problem if there ever was one) will gain any clarity due to Sinister poking around in his head (providing something even Charles, for some reason, could not do.)
Beyond that, this was a major over-achievement for a "The X-Men stop a runaway train of creepy mutants and then get kidnapped by Sinister" even if the latter half was mostly exposition, largely of things we the audience already know (but certain characters didn't and others didn't want them to, etc etc) which provides forward momentum for the X-Men's metastory.
In the previous issue Pasqual Ferry did a handy job teeing things up, but Andy Kubert, Cam Smith, Marie Javins and Malibu make an incredible team, providing slick, glossy and exciting art for the 90's, whether it's stopping a runaway train or a potentially dry discussion scene livened up by crazy canted angles and storytelling framework.
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