X-Cutioner's Song Part 3: X-Men (1991) #14

 

What’s up nerds? We’re back after a short delay (Civ 5), and today we tackle the third verse of the X-Cutioner’s Song, X-Men (1991) #14. Written by Fabian Nicieza, with pencils by Andy Kubert, inks by Mark Pennington, letters by Lois Buhalis and colors by Marie Javins, the issue opens with Professor Xavier strapped into Shi’ar life support as his conditions worsens. The techno-organic virus infecting the Professor is slowly killing him and the combined intellectual efforts of Moira McTaggart, mutantdom’s foremost expert among humans and Hank McCoy are helpless to stop it as it mutates past every attempt to cure it. The remaining X-Men and X-Factor decide the best chance of saving Chuck is finding Cable but with Scott and Jean still missing, their original teammates split off to pursue them and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. We then cut to Panama where we find members of the Mutant Liberation Front, Reaper and Forearm waiting. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I have touched on these miscreants yet despite their relevance to our tale. The Mutant Liberation Front, hereafter referred to as the MLF, are a group of terrorists led by the mad man Stryfe dedicated to establishing mutant supremacy and taking revenge on humanity for their oppression of mutants. Introduced late into the original run of New Mutants, right before Rob Liefeld forced Louise Simonson off of the book, the MLF are essentially an edgier Brotherhood of Evil Mutants that rebranded as a terrorist group for the nineties. Here, Forearm (my boy!) and Reaper are waiting to rendezvous with a man quickly revealed as Mr. Sinister as part of a pre-arranged deal, Scott and Jean for a canister containing the genetic matrix that in his own words is “a piece of the future.” We cut to X-Force in the skies over Texas as their transport is in the process of crashing after their encounter with X-Factor that was detailed so lovingly in my last post. The most interesting part of the crash is Rictor using his vibrational powers to cushion their descent. We then cut to Egypt where we finally see the man behind his titular horsemen, Apocalypse awaken. However, it is too early in his regeneration cycle, and he is profoundly weakened. The Dark Riders (his nine mutant attendants) claim they woke him up early because of all the events previously described here. Apocalypses ire is drawn when he learns the kidnap of Jean and Scott was committed in his name but without his consent or knowledge. Smash cut back to the X-Men as they pursue X-Force, but they begin to suspect that X-Force might not have anything to do with Cable anymore. The ideological debates continue as Rahne and Gambit debate their interpretations of Xavier's dream. Smash cut to Graymalkin, Cable’s space base in orbit around Earth as we see him return home after time traveling for the first month, seemingly meaning that he can’t be the one who shot the Professor. As the stations in built AI, Professor brings him up to speed, he learns that he is apparently the assassin. We move back to the X-Mansion as we see Bishop remains on edge and on guard, as an alarm sounds, we see Mr. Sinister has shown up in the mansion taking Stevie Hunter and Val Cooper hostage so he gloat over Xavier’s death. Bishop is operating at peak nineties action star yelling “I do not have time to suffer the amenities of hallways.”  Back in Texas the X-Men land to search for X-Force but end up falling into an ambush by the youths, and the issue ends with X-Force having the upper hand.

This issue sets up a lot of dominoes, and not knocking them over. The MLF have arrived on to the scene and they will prove to be a key player to the rest of my story, and while not particularly deep characters I think they’re fun. The mystery with Apocalypse continues to deepen and the tension between Xavier’s more conciliatory and reactionary dream with X-Forces more aggressive ideology continues to build. Cable is also seemingly not our assassin, but I think even my mom who has never read an X-Men comic in her life could have figured that one out. Ultimately the art is fairly forgettable but does the job well enough, Kubert’s pencils definitely falls into the Liefeld school of art but less exaggerated. Nicieza’s dialogue lends a certain operatic heft to thin dialogue that is lifting a lot of these heroes fighting and re-tread ideological arguments. 7/10