Astra makes her big move!
Originally Published April 1999
We begin with the aftermath of the violent deaths of the X-Men, who have perished in a nuclear blast fired from a Russian ship toward Magneto's base.
Having covered their adventures for so many years and consequently wrapped so much of my life and identity up in these stories, I'm sad to see them go like that, but it's all for the best as the series will clearly continue with Joseph and Astra as its focus.
Aboard the nearby ship, the Acolytes -- who finally get a roll call, confirming Kamal is Kamal -- debate whether it's a good thing, a bad thing, or a neutral thing that the X-Men died, since they were merely supposed to keep them occupied, not kill them. Mellencamp makes the rather salient point that they in fact did not kill the X-Men, they simply didn't stop them from getting killed. Big difference.
Scanner, previously one of the more lenient Acolytes, suddenly finds herself strangely voicing the opinion that they need to leave the ship and go finish the job ... in the unlikely even the X-Men actually survived.
Meanwhile, Magnus continues to work away at the magnetic control tower thing. You've really got to wonder what kind of world domination plot this is if it requires him to stand stationary and exert every scrap of his power for long periods of time. How is he ever going to enjoy his position as ruler of Earth?
He's so consumed he doesn't take note of a ship bypassing his forcefield, beign magnetically shielded by its passenger Joseph. On board, Astra hectors Joe so more about his excessive conscience and his failure to kill Magneto.
When he protests that Astra is some kind of sicko, she reminds him that she doesn't respect him any more than she does a VCR, and that he is a Magneto-like Organism Designed Only For Killing.
Back in the tundra, the X-Men were just kidding about being dead. In fact they were shielded -- somehow -- by the Acolytes' ship, and are now preparing for the next phase of the plan.
The Acolytes rush out of the ship, keen to attack their not-dead foes, and it's fisticuffs.
At the U.N., the delegates observe the lack of effect that the Russian attack had on the X-Men and try to determine a next course of action. All options are on the table, including firing a sh**load more nukes at the Arctic.
At Magneto Tower, the star of the show, Astra, arrives, prepared to displace Magneto and take his role as would-be world ruler.
She mocks his whole scheme and general "deal" some more, calling it a "rerun." He fires back that she sucks and he could have killed Joseph if he wanted to and yadda yadda yadda, and eventually she makes her big move, destroying part of his machine.
As a result, Magneto become a conductor for electromagnetic energy of the entire planet, something even he can't handle. This may result in the destruction of the planet's entire atmosphere, which would be bad.
At the U.N., Dr. Huxley arrives to stop them from blowing up the North Pole -- also bad -- and offers a mysterious alternative.
 |
| Perhaps this represents the beginning of a brave new world |
In the snow, the X-Men continue to fight the Acolytes, with Colossus unleashing the power of static conductivity as was set up in the previous issue.
The Acolytes deduce -- far too late -- that they were being influenced by Xavier's telepathic powers to want to fight the X-Men, thus vacating the ship so that the X-Men could commandeer it.
Which is low by most standards, but kind of medium-unethical for Charles I guess. The scheme works and the Acolytes, who mostly didn't want to fight the X-Men, are left stranded.
At the base, Magneto fires back at Astra, not just with energy but also with hurtful words, taking her down for her tendency to rely on scavenged technology and never accepting blame for her own failures, which I'm sure would be a devastatingly accurate attack on her character, if she had ever appeared before the previous issue.
 |
| The moment we've been waiting entire weeks for! |
Magneto prepares to aim the entire force of the Earth's magnetic field at Astra, but that peacenik Joseph stops him, because after all, whatever Magneto's doing, it's not good, and as much as Astra sucks, she controls Joseph's fate for the time being.
And so they prepare to face off... next issue!
Further Thoughts:
Is anyone interested in Astra? She's a means to an end -- an explanation for how and why Joseph exists, but she herself is an obnoxious figure attacking a more established and credible villain in Magneto.
It brings to mind a previous excursion for Nicieza, a story I wish I never had cause to think about again, the Revanche Saga. In the name of explaining the twisted origins of Psylocke's Asian body, that one reeled in Spiral and all sorts of figures from the Japanese Underworld, but it forgot to actually involve the X-Men and become a story rather than a two-issue-long-exposition.
Here at least, the X-Men have something to do, even if it's underwhelming to see them tangle with the Acolytes for three straight issues. They have particular tactics to use, and a goal in mind -- to get to Magneto and get involved in the climax of the story, somehow. Did the Acolytes deserve to be punked out like that? Oh, whatever.
I may nitpick and gripe, but the X-Men of 1999 is still an improvement over 1998. This isn't the greatest X-Men run ever, to be sure: Astra is right that this Magneto scheme is a retread (hey, I do the sardonic meta-commentary here!) but it's a viable direction. As far as big things Magneto could be doing, it falls short of grandiosity, but I appreciate the effort.
No comments:
Post a Comment