Thursday, October 26, 2006

Uncanny X-Periment # 68: "Back to Normal"

. . . or "Fall of Avalon, Rise of Gene Nation"

X-Men: Prime, X-Man # 5, Uncanny X-Men # 322, X-Men # 42-44, X-Force # 44, Generation X # 5-6, Uncanny X-Men # 323-324, Wolverine # 93, Uncanny X-Men # 325, X-Men # 45

Flashback: 1995

My Dad turned to me after a trip to the local comic book shop. In my hands were the last issues of the "Age of Apocalypse." He smiles amusingly and says "So, what happens when this is all over? Everything just goes back to normal and they look around go 'What was that?' and go on their way?"

Yes, Dad, they do.

Yep, the AoA is over. And despite having been an alternate reality, the ramifications into the real world ripple out from the event. Bishop retains some memories of the AoA. Nathan Summers (now going as "Grey") smashes onto Earth, causing massive telepathic shockwaves that devestate the Astral Plane for all telepaths. Holocaust appears to Avalon in a large hunk o' ice. Dark Beast, as it turns out, has been hanging out the Morlock tunnels for twenty years. Likewise with Surgar Man and Genosha.

However, events are in motion that change the X-Men. The various creators take this post-AoA time to enject some shake-up to the Mutant populace. Trish Tibly, betraying Beast, reveals to the public that humans are able to be infected by the Legacy Virus. Arcade blows up X-Force's base, prompting them to head to the mansion at Xavier's request. Excalibur is doing some stuff in Genosha. Havok loses control of his powers. Gambit's in a coma due to Rogue's kiss and Rogue and Iceman have hit the road to escape their troubles. Wolverine is back at the mansion, but refuses to come in since Sabretooth is in there, hangin' out. Sabretooth, might I add, is pretty harmless Wolverine popped a claw into his brain right before the AoA started.

And a young Mutant is lynched and killed by mob while trying to make it to Xavier's. This is all in X-Men: Prime, by the way.

So yeah, Nate Grey has crashed landed on Earth 616 and is so totally dazed and confused. He eventually is helped by some Swidish guy and falls asleep on his couch. Not long afterwards, a woman walks in and wakes him up. Who is it? Holy crap! It's Madelyne Pryor!

Meanwhile, in Hoboken, NJ, Pyslocke, Beast, and Bishop are stunned when the Juggernaut slams into the ground. Juggernaut wakes up and starts jibber-jabbering about being hit all the way from Canada and remarks on how it can't be a coincidence that he landed near some X-Men. The trio subdue him, which is strange considering how strong he should be. Juggernaut falls and tells them that a being called Onslaught slugged him there. He then goes catatonic. As this is unfolding, Archangel and ex-girlfriend Charlottle Jones check out a mass murder caused by mysterious Mutants. It's so disturbing, even Archangel is stunned.

Up on board Avalon, the Acolytes make a massive mistake by listening to crazy ol' Exodus and awakening the frozen Holocaust (note to Exodus: if he's not wearing red, white, and blue OR Brenden Fraser, it ain't safe to unthaw a person -- if you get that reference, pat yourself on the back). Holocaust promptly wipes out most of the Acolytes (including poor Rusty), while Colossus snags Magneto and gets him to an escape pod. Vought heads to Earth and grabs Cyclops and Phoenix just as they are pulling into Xavier's driving. With Holocaust and Exodus tearing apart Avalon fighting each other, Cyclops grabs the remaining Acolytes (Unuscione, the Klienstocks, Cargill, and Scanner) and helps them to the surface. Jean, in the meantime, makes to the Earth with Skids. Holocaust and Exodus just kinda crash. Vought meets up Xavier, they rehash some feelings, and she heads off. Cyclops and the rest of the Acolytes end up in Australia and wander to the X-Men's old town base, and subsequently contact the X-Men and have 'em pick their asses up.

Back at the mansion, Xavier asks Cable to have X-Force live at the mansion for a while. They do so, get new uniforms, Richtor takes off, and Caliban joins. Cannonball then becomes a full-fledged member of the X-Men! W00t!

In New York, some of the Generation X kids encounter a Mutant terrorist group called Gene Nation. They escape with Leech and Artie, who were captured by Gene Nation. Not long afterwards, Storm, Wolverine, and Cannonball encounter more of Gene Nation, where it's revealed they were the ones that were responsible for the mass murder that shook Archangel.

Then Juggernaut wakes up and takes off for the mansion. He bumps into Wolverine and Cannonball at a local bar, but decides not to duke it out and instead just takes off . . . only to end up caught in a dimensional rift (which takes him over to the Ultraverse, though I'm not sure if we're allowed to talk about that).

The X-Men and Generation X then have a baseball game. This is interrupted by the arrival of Colossus and Calisto, as Calisto rescued Peter after his escape pod crash landed in Antartica (with no sign of Magneto). They rally some X-Men together, revealing that Mikhail teleported some of the Morlocks to an alternate dimension where time runs differently. A girl named Marrow (who power is to make her bones into her own personal weapons) leads this team of vengeful young Morlocks called Gene Nation. And today, on the anniversary of the Mutant Massacre, they have captured and plan to as many humans as Mutants were killed. The X-Men rush down to stop them and Storm comes face-to-face with Marrow. Marrow has placed a sensor on her heart - if she dies, the bombs on the humans won't go off. But if Storm doesn't kill her in time "BOOM!" Storm is then forced to kill Marrow, which is quite devastating.

Then, Gambit goes after Rogue, who is in Seattle (where Gambit did some shitty things, I guess). There's an emotional confrontation, where it's revealed that Rogue is scared of the fact that Gambit is scared of the secrets he has and Rogue might know. Rogue rejects Gambit's offer to learn the truth and rushes off, leaving the X-Men AND Gambit. Iceman flies back to mansion while Gambit is confronted by Sinister, who is cryptic.

My fingers hurt.

Now, I know that I've been pretty light-hearted with all this stuff above, but I'll be honest when I say it's pretty good. There's some nice characterization all around for various members of the Mutant team. Some of the art teams take a well-deserved break, allowing for Bryan Hitch and Pascul Ferry to pop by and do some spectacular work. When Joe Mad and Andy Kubert come back, they're at the top of their game again.

I'll admit that I don't care for the interlacing and weaving subplots. Too many of these issues depend on other books to pick up on the subplots. It works, but it's a cheap ploy that really comes off as a bit . . . cheap.

But overall, this is a pretty neat period of X-Men history. We see the beginnings of another Marvel crossover here (Onslaught), as well as new and developing storylines and character arcs.

~W~

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