Monday, March 26, 2007

UXP # 97: "Changing of the X-Guard # 2: Dream's End"

Uncanny X-Men # 388, Cable # 87, Bishop # 16, X-Men # 108, Generation X # 73, Uncanny X-Men # 389, X-Men # 109, Uncanny X-Men # 390, X-Men # 110

Mystique is up to no good. She’s manipulated a strand of the Legacy Virus and is ready to strike out at Presidential candidate Senator Kelly. Thus, the X-Men split into two teams. Cable, Gambit, Beast, and Colossus go off to handle the protection of Senator Kelly. Rogue, Bishop, and Wolverine head to Muir Island to find out why Moira can’t be reached. The rest of the team just, I don’t know, hangs out at home.

The Brotherhood – consisting of Avalanche, Blob, Post, and Lady Mastermind – attack Senator Kelly. Cable’s team intervenes, but even as they’re close to achieving victory, Cable figures out that it was all an illusion. Post stands ready to kill Kelly. Luckily, a dying Pyro steps out of the shadows and lights Post up. Post is killed, but Pyro is slowly dying. Senator Kelly, moved by Pyro’s sacrifice, decides to change some of his opinions about Mutants.

Meanwhile, Rogue carries Bishop and Wolverine to Muir Island. Once there, they find Wolfsbane being hunted down by Sabretooth. Bishop dispatches Sabretooth while Rogue handles Mystique. Wolfsbane runs across Rogue and gets shot by Mystique, who acquired a second anti-Mutant gun (Forge used it on Storm years ago, remember?). Mystique stabs Rogue. Bishop and Wolverine rescue Moira, who has just about unlocked the key to the Legacy Virus cure. Rogue then stabs Mystique.

Unfortunately, Moira is dying. The ride home is chaotic and during it, Professor X manages to mind-link with Moira, desperate to keep her alive and retrieve whatever information she has in regards to the cure. She gets the information along, but dies in the end. Sad.

Back with Senator Kelly, the candidate makes his “I love Mutants” feelings known, but is gunned down by a random American.

Sean Cassidy receives the news of Moira’s death . . . and then, while hanging out with Skin, gets captured by terrorists or something. Skin rescues him and Banshee is sad.

In the aftermath of all this, the X-Men continue to reel from all these terrible events. Reyes struggles with her rehab, Professor X reflects on his relationship with Moira in the past, and Storm, Rogue, Wolverine, and Gambit stumble across more evidence of trouble regarding Destiny’s diaries. Archangel and Psylocke break it off, Archangel claiming that he wants more to their relationship than what they’ve got.

Holding onto as much as hope as they can when Christmas comes, Storm, Bishop, Psylocke, Thunderbird, Rogue, and Tessa (aka Sage, aka former Hellfire Club associate) all decide to find the other long-lost diaries of Destiny. But, Beast sticks around.

And cures the Legacy Virus.

Finally. Woohoo!

Oh wait! It requires a sacrifice to do so. As when it was released by the use of someone’s power, as it must be cured. Colossus steps up, having lost his sister to the virus. He takes the cure and it is immediately sent into the atmosphere. Kitty Pryde then returns to scatter his ashes over his farm, then tells Professor X she wants her own life now.

And that is that.

This is definitely a “tying up loose threads” story. Though it’s not the best. In fact, despite the victory over the Legacy Virus – which is well done – this is probably the most depressing X-Men story ever. Just like with “Apocalypse: The Twelve,” there’s an unintentional theme here and that’s sacrifice. Every victory comes at the cost of something else – usually a life.

To save Senator Kelly, Pyro sacrificed his life. The Legacy Virus was cured at the cost of Moira and Colossus’ lives. Senator Kelly changed his views about Mutants, but it killed him in the end. Mystique was stopped, but it destroyed her relationship with Rogue to do so. See what I mean? And after a point, it just gets redundant. Each death and sacrifice loses just a bit of its impact as one after another hits us.

While the Legacy Virus was well handled, the rest of the story barely holds together. Why were only some of the X-Men dispatched to Senator Kelly and Muir Island? The X-Men left behind Phoenix, Iceman, Psylocke, Archangel, Storm, and Thunderbird. These are all heavy hitters. Why leave them behind? This is a big deal! Moira dying? Senator Kelly targeted by the Brotherhood? Come on!

Plus, why in the hell did Rogue carry Wolverine and Bishop to Muir Island? It didn’t make any sense. They have Blackbirds that can go super-fast. But nope. Let’s have Rogue carry these two X-Men into the upper atmosphere, then bring down to fight two very powerful foes. Geez. Also, the Claremont issues suffer from long-winded and unrealistic dialogue.

Now, there are some good points here. I liked the way the Warren/Betsy relationship ended. It was quite realistic and well handled. Kitty’s story is actually nicely written, as is Beast’s reaction to curing the Legacy Virus. After all these years, it’s great to see that.

Artwise, there’s not really anything good here except for the work of Salvador Larroca. Yu’s art is particularly bad, while everything else is either mundane or barely spectacular.

Marvel did the right thing bringing Lobdell back to wrap up his danglers. The Legacy Virus was his doing, so it just makes sense to have him come back and handle it.

Claremont just didn’t seem to have it under control on this tenure on “X-Men.” Plus, we see the beginnings of setting up his own storyline that takes his best characters out of the X-Men – a storyline that is far better than anything he produced on this run of “X-Men.”

Honestly? The best part of “Dream’s End” is the very end. Magneto comes back, wipes out the Neo, and demands that Domina follow him. The rest, while highlighted with some nice moments, is too depressing an affair to enjoy.

~W~

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