X-MEN #102: The Cruelest Cut

The X-Men make their stand against the Neo

Originally Published July 2000

We begin by going back to school.

Complete with trendy canvas backpack

Well, not school per se, but to Sinister's hideout under the orphanage in Nebraska, where Wolverine is investigating things. Seems someone has been pursuing Sinister relentlessly, to the point of killing him seventeen times. How do you kill a man seventeen times over? Well, that's the Sinister Secret.

Along for the ride is Dani Moonstar, in her capacity as a telepathic-projecting mutant and death-sensitive Valkyrie. She uses her powers to show Wolverine the final moments of the battle that happened here.

This gives them their first glimpse of Domina, the one-woman army who is just so ultra powerful she's able to dispose of Sinister and his bodyguard Sabretooth, now also dead, 100% for sure, whilst breaking nary a sweat.

Back in Brooklyn, Dr. Cecila Reyes has her force-field-covered hands full with another member of the Neo, Anteus.

Luckily, Ceci has a little helper in the form of the designer drug Rave, which enhances her powers and keeps her hopped up on adrenaline. She's going to need it too, since once she's dispatched Anteus, she's got to deal with the anime-haired Salvo, the living gun.

The X-Men, in the form of Colossus, Psylocke and Rogue, arrive, briefly pose, and then make short work of the two Neo.

In Boston, Senator Kelly stands at the grave of his late wife Sharon, who was killed in conflict between the X-Men and Mastermold (guess who was responsible and guess who got the blame) way-ay-ay back in some old issue idk it's not like it's important enough for the editor to put a footnote in. He has a brief chat with Sharon's former colleague Tessa. You remember Tessa, right? She was always kind of lingering in the background of stories set at the Hellfire Club.

Kelly is ready to resume his ongoing professional vendetta against mutants, especially with Magneto having recently assumed control of Genosha. Tessa also notes that she's no longer working with Shaw, and returning to "an earlier affiliation."

Back in the Neo HQ, Rogue's powers randomly go wild -- rogue, you might say -- as she begins firing with Salvo's guns haphazardly, and even absorbing Colossus' powers without touching him. How we got from "She can't absorb is powers when in armored mode" to "she can absorb his powers without even making contact" is given the expected explanation (none.)

Cecilia uses her forcefield to try to calm her down, but when Anteus wakes up and starts fighting again, Warren "Sometimes Arch, Always Angel" Worthington III shows up to join the fray.

The X-Men rally. Psylocke finds that the Neo can adapt to their powers, but adjusts by removing the floor beneath him. 

Rogue calls on Nightcrawler -- still basically half-dead -- to give her "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" to wear her down and weaken her haywire powers.

But now it's time for the main event as Domina joins the fray. She reveals she has all the powers of her Neo friends, because of course she does!

But this isn't the X-Men's first time at the rodeo, so they fight back as best they can.

Nevertheless, thanks to her power-neutralization powers (because of course she can do that -- literally the thing she was mad other people did in the first place!) Domina is able to corner Cecilia, to make her pay for the unforgivable crime of killing a Neo in self-defense.

Luckily, in the snikt of time, Wolverine arrives at batters the everloving sh*t out of Domina with his bare hands.

Well, he's wearing gloves, but you get the idea.

Domina orders the building sealed, which of course it can be to an almost mystical degree, but the X-Men are able to effect an evacuation of themselves and the Morlocks that are present. Hey, did you know there were Morlocks here? How did they get here and what were they doing and why didn't they get involved? These are questions for a later time. Or never.

Unfortunately, one person not present and accounted for is Detective Jones. Cecilia, very graciously concerned about the woman who, again, once delivered her to fascist robots, offers to stay behind to rescue her.

I mean sure, Det. Jones hasn't even appeared in this issue, and the Doc has enough patients to triage with Nightcrawler and the other present X-Men, but sometimes you've got to be a hero. Maybe it's the drugs.

Either way, the building is held open long enough to expel Wolverine...

Leaving the X-Men on the outside trying to figure out if they can get back in -- and whether they're prepared for the fight waiting for them when they do so.

Further Thoughts:

In case I haven't made it very clear, I haven't been the biggest supporter of having the X-Men fight the Neo for five issues and counting. Based on feedback I've received from the good readers of this here weblog, many of you feel similarly. So I don't need to flog this horse any further into hamburg by pointing out that continuing this struggle against an unstoppable, obscure enemy has limited upside. But for the record, very that.

The Neo remain a slippery premise to get ahold of. There's a whole gang of them of course, but Domina -- the world's greatest killer btw -- has all of their powers anyway. There's a few we know, a few we're not sure about, and the new Jaeger, who is off to the side plotting to usurp Domina anyway. Meanwhile in the other series, the Neo feel like an entirely different entity.

But if it weren't for the lack of caring about any of it, or the disorientation caused by not being sure where the fight is taking place and who the participants are and what they can do and what happens if they win and what they're trying to do, this would actually be a very classic Claremont action issue, with the X-Men having to think outside the box to contend with the villain's Super Nuh-Uh powers. It's not so unlike battles against Nimrod from back in the 80's, or the Marauders or the Genoshan Press Gang. These aren't the most reader-friendly Claremont tropes, but it's not unheard of at all.

But there's one note I've got to play in this familiar refrain, and that's that holy moly, there's a lot of Cecilia Reyes in this, for someone who is not currently, and not likely to become in the future, an actual official X-Man. The good news is that this is exactly what Cecilia should have been from the beginning: a reluctant participant in the X-Men's adventures but a participant. She's out here throwing down when it counts and not wishing she could go back to the E.R. where the "real" life-saving is done. She can have all the mixed feelings about it that she wants -- so much the better -- but she is in this comic for a reason. As I mentioned before, it makes sense that Claremont would gravitate toward using this character and he proves that he is eminently capable of bringing out what is compelling about her and what works without breaking the story. 

It's also potentially very interesting to see her using this Rave drug to enhance her powers and have conflicting feelings about that (physician heal thyself!). It's not-not an anti-drug story but instead a strangely nuanced look at why people do drugs and what happens to them (sort of, re-contextualized as a mutant adventure.) It deserves credit for being an interesting idea that hasn't been fully watered down to make it a lot safer of a statement to make, but also still doesn't quite get there in execution.

That said, all of this spotlight on Dr. Reyes comes at the expense of, well, the X-Men. They are, admittedly, more of participants here than they were in the previous issue, but considering we've just been introduced to a new status quo and a new member we know nothing about (other than he is from India and has fire powers) there's too little examination of them. This series needs to get its priorities straight -- we don't even know where Kitty is, and now we've got Tessa coming into the mix.