X-Cutioner's Song: Final Thoughts

             X-Cutioner’s Song is a bad event comic. I don’t think there is any getting around that fact, but it still managed to get its claws into me in away few comics before or since have. It is a strangely important work for its multitude of flaws, and it arrives at a crucial moment for Marvel. To fully understand the moment X-Cutioner’s Song emerges into, we must go back to 1989 and perhaps one of the most consequential hires that Marvel has ever made, when Rob Liefeld joined Louise Simonson on New Mutants as the penciler. Now what happens from there is a tale that depends on who you are talking to but the two things that are undeniable is that first: Rob’s art proved popular enough that he turned New Mutants from one of the worst selling books at Marvel to one of the best and this gave him enough clout to allow for the second point: he  was able to force Louise Simonson off of the book and take full control over both plot and story which would eventually lead to New Mutants ending and becoming the militant X-Force. The launch of X-Force is key to understanding this moment because of Liefeld’s art and plotting, and the movement of similar up and coming young artists and writers at Marvel, the book sold five million copies making it to this day, the second bestselling comic book ever. Around the same time in 1991 Chris Claremont, the man who to this day is effectively the X-God, was facing similar problems as he increasingly butted heads with Marvel Editor in Chief at the time Bob Harras, seen in drastic changes to the Muir Island Saga. After helping launch the second X-Men title known simply as X-Men he was, depending on who you ask, fired, or quit. During the first five issues of X-Men, he also butted heads with his co-writer and artist Jim Lee, very similar figure to Rob Liefeld. X-Men, New Mutants, and X-Force were all massive financial successes and as a result Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld gained massive amounts of influence within the company. But in 1992 at the height of their creative influence in the company, Lee, Liefeld and several other artists and writers decided to free themselves from the editorial constraints of Marvel, both real and perceived and formed Image Comics. This move left a massive hole of star power at Marvel, and it is here in 1992 we arrive at X-Cutioner’s Song.

                The event was conceived to keep attention on the X-Men with the departure of many of their most popular creatives. And it is from the very moment of the events genesis, that the issues begin to crop up. The event was handled by the writers we have come to know over the course of this retrospective, Fabian Nicieza (the good), Scott Lobdell (the bad), and Peter David (also bad). It is common for crossover events to be written by several different individuals, but it is rare that the writers are of such wildly varying qualities. Fabian is the writer who I think understands this event the best. He is the writer on the X-Force and X-Men issues of the event and as a result is handling the meat of the event, writing seven of the thirteen issues. He writes his issues with a sense of self awareness that is lacking at the time, for example when he has Boom-Boom call out Psylocke’s ridiculous posing as the X-Men raid the MLF base in X-Men #15. But where he excels is imbuing even the thinnest and most ridiculous of characters with a fully realized sense of self and a unique voice. Stryfe was birthed out of the barren and plastic wastes of Liefeld’s imagination as a gruff one-dimensional pastiche of a dozen villains more creative than him. But under Nicieza Stryfe is written like a real person, a camp villain who never operates at less than 110% granted, but still one noticeably motivated by a very real and relatable pain. And the same goes for all the other characters that inhabit this world, few of them get the same care and attention as Stryfe but despite being moralistic pastiches, every hero and villain feels like a real person. The same cannot be said about the writing of Nicieza’s two collaborators.

 Lobdell is the writer I have the least to say about and let that be the damning by faint praise that it is. His dialogue and plots are perfectly cromulent, but they never move past that. They are workmanly, getting the point across but never arising above flat and empty prose. Peter David is a writer I have an admittedly complicated relationship with. I don’t think he is a bad writer yet, that comes later (see any of X-Factor Investigations or his opinions on Romani people), but here he has a style of writing tailored to get under my skin and irritate me. It is difficult for me to put into words exactly what about his prose irritates me so much in a way that fully elucidates the sensation but let me attempt to. Peter David writes like he thinks he is the cleverest person in the room. Every single character is written to be incredibly quippy and acerbic and it all just feels like David is telling the reader “Look at me aren’t I the cleverest writer you’ve ever seen?”. For example, there is a moment where Havok catches Strong Guy and Rahne eavesdropping at the door and then just turns to the reader in the most 1980’s sitcom shrug I have ever seen. I read his issues, and I am constantly reminded that I am reading a comic book and not in a good way. So, these are the three writers that Marvel are positioning as their next creative stars coming into 1992, the good, the bad, and the really annoying.

                The event itself can be split rather neatly into two portions; the first five issues of the event are focused on the sort of crossover event comic that I don’t like where the heroes spend most of the time fighting each other due to some sort of misunderstanding. The second portion of the event, once they reach the Moon, is where things get interesting as we examine the relationships between Stryfe, Cable, Scott, and Jean and where most of the emotional and character work is dealt with. The first portion of the event is not terrible, I quite like the scenes set at the park leading up to the Professor getting shot. The speech that Charles is delivering on stage is like the perfect synthesis of the Xavier political thesis and helps introduce the reader into those ideas so cleanly I am amazed it hadn’t been written before. The initial conflict of the assassin appearing to be an ally of the X-Men is a great hook. But all this falls apart when we have to spent five issues with the X-Men with Polaris and Havok hunting down X-Force. Its just dull, we can see the twist, that the assassin was not actually Cable coming from a mile away, and this renders any of the tension from those first five issues kind of moot as the story devolves into the writers smashing action figures together for not a ton of gain.

                Once we move past that, we get to Apocalypse’s portion of the event. It’s not really a bad storyline, but it feels a little out of place within the rest of the event. Warrens angst stemming from his forced transformation into Archangel at the hands of Apocalypse and the ensuing trauma first seen in X-Factor #18-25 is fascinating, but here we are sixty issues later still churning through the same emotional baggage. But this conflict is relatively well handled, Warren having to sacrifice his vengeance to save his father figure is a compelling character beat and doubly so when Warren chooses to leave Apocalypse to die on his own as a broken and weak man. Apocalypse’s involvement also makes an amount of sense is he is so deeply tied to both Stryfe and Cables convoluted back stories as he was the one to infect the baby we would come to know to as Cable with the Techno-Organic virus that plagues him through his whole life (I know we didn’t cover this in the review proper but honestly, I forgot because Cable is a fucking confusing character). Cable was infected as a child before being sent to the future on a one-way trip to be cured of the virus by a character that will turn out to be an elderly version of his sister from an alternate reality. But neither Warren nor Apocalypse are really given the emotional real estate to develop these ideas and conflicts as they are largely relegated to bit players in the B plot. And that’s really the story for most of the plots not involving Cable, Stryfe and Jean and Scott, they are largely intriguing pieces of character work but don’t get the time to fully explore the emotions they are trying to, they get maybe two panels before we move on to something else.

                But now the meat and potatoes of the event, Stryfe. I have a lot of love for the big knife-y boy but woof there is a lot of baggage to unpack here. First things first is his look, cause by gawd it’s a hell of a thing. Stryfe was originally introduced in New Mutants #86, a creation of Louise Simonson and, who else, Rob Liefeld. And as a result of this Stryfe has a very hypermasculine, aesthetics before content design that many of Liefeld’s characters do. He is an incredibly extra character before he even says a word, fitting for the first major villain of an era defined by aesthetics over story. The first issue I have with Stryfe is his relationship with the Mutant Liberation Front. The X-Men have a long and complicated relationship with their role as a metaphor for various different minority groups over the years, and the MLF feel like one of the first times that a coherent politic has been presented in contrast to Xavier’s assimilation ideals, giving them an interesting role within the Marvel Universe. But when Stryfe reveals that the MLF is simply a means to an end to bring chaos and get him closer to his ultimate revenge against his parents it feels like a waste of the MLF and needlessly Summers-centric. It reminds me a bit of when in the James Bond film Spectre, the titular evil organization was revealed as being connected to every single Daniel Craig Bond film in a bizarre revenge plot from his stepbrother.

The actual revenge storyline is well done, Stryfe feels like he was abandoned in the future by his parents and is seeking to exact revenge on them for the trauma he suffered as a result of that. He views Cable as a cowbird who forced his way into the nest and forced Stryfe out. The torture he inflicts on his parents is a bit oedipal for my tastes but it’s a compelling emotional tableau, and his conviction is shaken as his parents don’t act like he expected, and that is all great. Stryfe feels that as he is the child of Scott and Jean/Madelyn he is owed a certain level of care as their child, but he wasn’t given it and suffered and as a result they must pay a compelling and nuanced hook for a villain. But the fundamental flaw of this event is it doesn’t tell us this. There is only a tiny implication that Cable is the child Cyclops sent into the future and nothing about Stryfe’s backstory. Stryfe is cloned by future Rachel Summers in case she was not able to cure Baby Cable before being kidnapped by Apocalypse. The idea of there being two Cables, one the original and one the clone with neither knowing who is the original, is a very compelling plot hook. It’s a great reference to the struggle that their mother Madelyne Pryor, the clone of Jean Grey created by Mr. Sinister who had her own crisis of identity leading into the Inferno event. The fact that Stryfe is the one who was rejected by our heroes only to fall into villainy is a great character beat. But the fact we had none of this information at the end of the event is insane. Jean and Scott are doing great hero work as they continually strive to stand by their morals, for example with the fake baby Cable, even as it causes Stryfe to unravel further and further. But as Stryfe becomes more and more uncertain about his revenge he becomes angrier and angrier before lashing out like a child throwing a tantrum removing his mystique and making his pain all the more real. And with the final showdown and the button that Scott needs to press to open the time vortex, there is a final parallel where Scott has to choose to send the two brothers to die in the future like he sent baby Cable to the future to be cured of the Techno-Organic virus in the first place. It’s by his hand the song began and by his hand it must end.

                All in all, X-Cutioner’s Song is a fascinating thing to look at. It is a massive swing with the departure of the Image boys in 1992 and while it’s not a grand slam it’s a solid double. There is plenty of fascinating character work but almost none of it is given time to operate at the level it should. The art vacillates wildly as does the quality of the writing, but the characters manage to stand above it all and deliver a story that has managed to stick with me for a long time after I read it. Now before I wrap this up completely, the next event I want to take a look at is Fatal Attractions, as nineties X-Men continues to crystalize into the form we remember them as and become the cultural juggernaut that would dominate comics for years to come. I have some different ideas I want to try out so I will take some time off to read up and restructure my reviews, so the blog will probably be pretty quiet until the end of the month. Until then, I hope y’all’s enjoyed this look back at the first proper crossover event of the ninety’s biggest superhero franchise, X-Cutioner’s Song, a bad event but a great time. 7/10