X-Man # 75, Generation X # 71-72, 74-75, X-Force # 114-115, Bishop & Gambit: Sons of the Atom # 0-16
Our next installment sees the end of a number of various series – X-Man, Generation X, X-Force (sorta), Bishop: The Last X-Man, and Gambit. It’s a bit of a mass slaughter of books, but each comic finds it own way to an appropriate (for the most part) ending.
In X-Man # 75, Nate Grey encounters an alien that has supposedly infested all of humanity for the sake of converting them all into energy. The alien – named the Harvester – messes around with a town that he’s made his home and taken control of. A Mutant named Michael defies him and reaches out. Nate arrives, has a showdown with Harvester, unleashes his self-destructive energy upon the Harvester. The world is saved, Nate dies, Harvester is defeated, and Michael becomes a new Mutant Shaman.
Generation X is next up. We first take a look at one day in the lives of the Generation X members (save Banshee and Skin, but we read their story already [link]). Chamber meets a deaf girl, but is too afraid to get close to her because he’s a Mutie. M and Jubilee hang out in NYC, deal with the loss of
X-Force continues to do spook business by blowing up buildings where they experiment on Mutant babies or something. The team then track down something called the World Engine, which uses genetic material from regular humans to create a new breed of technology. X-Force blows it up, supposedly dying in the process, though Domino survives and (apparently) Pete Wisdom is alive and believes that X-Force is still alive.
Then we go to Gambit/Bishop. Bishop, it turns out, has an alien symbiote (no, not Venom) called Le Bette Noir living under his skin. They figure out that Stryfe is after it and head on down to New Orleans to speak with the Witness to figure out how in the world to deal with this. Stryfe followed them down and they learn that Cable is going to kill them. After eating at a diner, Cable tracks ‘em down and we have a battle in the nexus of realities – aka Witness’s home. The Le Bette Noir manifests itself and Stryfe (feeling guilty about his life) sacrifices himself to save the world by taking the Le Bette Noir into his body and then blowing up (hey! Just like Nate Grey!). Cable heads out and Gambit and Bishop leave.
From the bottom up, we’ll start with Gambit/Bishop. This story has a nice nostalgic feel to it, with Stryfe and playing off the Gambit/Bishop dynamic. But that being said, there’s not a whole lot to like about this. The art is sufficient, but nothing amazing. The story is lame. Stryfe? He’s only in there because some writer brought him back and didn’t get rid of him.
To be completely honest, if we were going to get a big Stryfe/Cable story, why even have Gambit and Bishop involved? If I were there, I would have combined it when “Search for Cyclops,” brought in Nate Grey, and had a big ol’ Summers/Askani jamboree! Oh well . . . Stryfe’s death is workable, I guess. I preferred his being all blown up on the moon, but whatever.
X-Force was just too much. It was too muddled, it was too much explaining (over-explaining, really), and the ending was just too anti-climatic. I like that they went out doing what they do best – the extreme of fighting for Xavier’s dream.
Generation X is the best of the group. I really liked their finale. It was logical, emotional, and to the point. Despite the lack of fanfare that brought them together, the break-up of Generation X was very well done and really ended on a positive note (which is really depressing, considering what happens to some of them from here).
X-Man is a little flat, as most of the character plotlines were tied up by the end. My only real problem with the issue is that we don’t see any sort of response to his death from anyone else. But it’s a fitting end, I guess.
Overall, not a terrible bunch, but not incredible.
~W~
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