X-Cutioner's Song Part 11: X-Men #16

             What is up nerds? And welcome back to the eleventh chapter of the X-Cutioner’s Song, X-Men #16. This issue maintains the adjective-less creative team of writer Fabian Nicieza, penciler Andy Kubert, inker Mark Pennington, letterer Chris Eliopoulos and colorist Joe Rosas. We come back to the action right as the proverbial shit is about to hit the fan as Cable, Bishop and Wolverine are confronted by the Dark Riders. Of course, battle ensues and there isn’t a ton we need to focus on here, the actions good and Fabian has a far more natural grasp on the characters quips during combat than most of the other writers of the era. Bishop and Cable worry they are being out matched by their foes far superior numbers. And right as our three hard as nail heroes are about to be overwhelmed by the sheer size of the opposing forces, their salvation arrives in the form of the other X-Men team we covered last time. We cut away from the battle to see Stryfe observing the proceedings via hologram. He muses, in a monologue I’d transcribe here if not for fear of losing its elegance, that his plan has begun falling to pieces, but he is adapting on the fly to suit his plans. Stryfe also reveals that he has perpetuated his own time paradox by orchestrating these events that will make up his own past. So, we now know that Stryfe is from the future and has some connection to Scott and Jean. What is interesting is that Stryfe is presenting himself as some sort of inevitability, presenting himself as some sort of unbeatable force as he is their tomorrow, when the X-Men quite regularly deal with and change their own future. Its kind of a big gap in his planning when Rachel Summers is an incredibly prominent X-Man and they have dealt with events like Days of Future Past. It does flesh him out as incredibly self-confident in his actions and gives him a certain gravitas as he stays calm as his plans fall apart despite the incredibly personal nature of his torture of Scott and Jean. We follow Stryfe as he retrieves Scott and Jean from their holding cell, calling them “mistress of the future storm” and “father misery” forcing them to follow him with his immense telekinetic power as he marches on to the surface of the Moon. It is interesting to me how heavy they are laying on familial language with Stryfe and Scott and Jean, going pretty much as far as you can to imply a familial link between the three without explicitly saying they are family. As Stryfe walks out to the Moon dragging Scott and Jean behind them, Jean asks where he is taking to them, to which he responds simply, “why to the end, Miss Grey. To the bitter end.”

Back at the X-Mansion we see Hank McCoy monitoring the recovering Professor X. While physically, Charles is recovering well from his shooting and the techno-organic virus he is deep in a telepathic stupor observing the events on the Moon. Back on the dark side of the Moon the X-Men split up to pursue the remnants of the Stryfe’s forces and Archangel takes the opportunity to reiterate his distrust and hostility of Apocalypse. Wolverine, Psylocke and Storm follow Scott and Jeans trail to an airlock leading to the surface of the Moon. Cannonball attempts to speak with Cable as this is the first time they’ve met since Cable left X-Force, but the old man brushes him off furthering their tension. Moving elsewhere within Stryfe’s base we see that Apocalypse is far weaker than he has let on as he stumbles into a confrontation with the Dark Riders who so recently abandoned him. Despite his weakened state, and previous loss of his minions Apocalypse seeks to reassert himself as the fittest among mutant kind and launches into a battle to the death with the Dark Riders. Cut to their spaceship and we see the X-Men have left Stryfe’s base and found a strange tower on the lunar surface where Jean and Scott seem to have been taken. Back at the X-Mansion, the Professor awakens from his coma and reveals the virus showed him that Scott, Jean, Cable, and Apocalypse are linked by blood. Back on the lunar surface we see Cable, Havok, Polaris and Cannonball making an approach to the mysterious tower, but the structure is surrounded by a dome of mysterious energy that knocks out Polaris and Cannonball and injures Havok despite letting him through. Cable and Havok stumble forward and are confronted by Stryfe. With Scott and Jean bound in front of him Stryfe says to Cable “let us have a chat, you and I, my failed brother. Let us talk of time lost and time gained. Of twisted futures and lost pasts. Let us talk, Nathan, of Life and Death!” And it is on this tableau the issue comes to a close.

Hot diggity dog, now we are really getting places. Most of the action is unimportant in this issue, all of our players are in place, and we are burning down to the end of the event. Let’s start with Apocalypse, it is interesting that despite being a broken husk of what he once was he is still so intent to assert himself as the fittest mutant. It is, was and always will be part of his character but there is a certain desperation here that is interesting. Archangel has always hated Apocalypse and is now in a place where he doesn’t need to ignore that to save the Professor so we will see where that goes next time. Now the meat of the issue is Stryfe’s relationship with Cable, Scott, and Jean. We have finally gotten the reveal that Stryfe is Cable’s brother of some sort, which explains his weird torture of Scott and Jean earlier. And while it would not be fully until December of 1993, eleven months after this issue in Cable #6, Cable is the son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor (a clone of Jean Grey, who is great, but I don’t have time to do justice here) and Stryfe is his clone. I wanted to wait until later to talk about that, but it is an important piece of context for the next few issues despite not being fully discussed here for whatever reason. Stryfe feels like he was abandoned by Scott and Jean because of them having what he perceives as a parent child connection with Cable. Stryfe and Cable are a fascinating dyad with Cable being very gruff but ultimately a good guy who is on the relatively straight and narrow while Stryfe is over the top, grandiloquent and evil through and through. We will cover his motivations in more depth next time. These two are also interesting when taken in the context of Jean Grey who is genetically their mother, rather famously she had a genocidal villain arc during the Dark Phoenix Saga and has spent most of her publication history grappling with it and that dichotomy is shown in its most literal terms in her genetic offspring. The art is solid, the dialogue is great, especially Stryfe’s, and it is an all-around very interesting issue of comics. 9/10.