Uncanny X-Periment # 129: "Enemy of the State"

Wolverine # 20-32

The son of Mariko's cousin Ichiro is kidnapped by mobsters supposedly, leading Logan to step in and make the drop-off. However, Wolverine is attacked by the Hand, "killed" by the Mutant cult leader Gorgon, and brainwashed by Hydra into becoming a super-agent.

Wolverine then goes on a rampage, tearing through the Hellicarrier, busting through the Baxter Building and eventually faces off with Daredevil . . . leading to the capture of Elektra, who was tracking him. Eventually, Wolverine breaks into the heavily secured Xavier Insitute, grabs Marvel Girl and forces her to use Cerebra to kill the President. Rachel manages to disarm Wolverine and the X-Men, SHIELD, Iron Man, and Captain America chase him into the woods. Wolverine goes off to kill Kitty, but she phases and Northstar gets the kill. The rest of the group intercept him, with Captain America giving the final blow.

SHIELD cleans Wolverine out while Hydra/the Hand/Dawn of the White Light (Mutant cult) go after super-people. They bring down the Hellicarrier and afterwards, Wolverine promises Ichiro's family that he'll find their son's body. Wolverine confronts the now-ressurected and brainwashed Northstar, is captured, then rescued by Sentinels. He takes Northstar in, then goes after the Hand, where he finds out that Elektra was working deep undercover when she returned to the Hand. Eventually, Gorgon goes after Nick Fury, but Wolverine takes him. Gorgon accidently uses his own power on himself, gets turned into stone/sand/whathaveyou and is defeated. Wolverine then tracks down the body of the boy.

The summary I've just given is pretty poor when compared to the actual story. I've obviously read a a lot of Wolverine stories, but this one . . . is probably among the best, if not the best. Wolverine is perfect here - feral, honorable, funny. He's brillantly written, captured so perfectly. The internal dialogue is very well done, really showing the struggle he's going through.

The plot itself is rather simple, but I like it. Really, with so many super-people out there, why wouldn't the Hand and Hydra want to bring them over to their side?

In terms of pacing and action, it's all rather great.

John Romita Jr.'s art is pretty good, though at times, his background characters just don't look that great. For example, all of the students at Xavier's school look like they're preteens, when in fact, most of them are teenagers. It's distracting. However, Romita is spot on when it comes to catching the action and the suspense of the whole adventure.

Millar's a genius.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 120: "Planet X"

New X-Men # 134-154

Again, much like the last entry, we'll be doing various stories in one fell swoop. The reasoning is the same - these basically all form one large story.

Riot at Xavier's
The X-Men find that young Omega-level Mutant Quentin Quire is not only on the verge of a major mutation, but also that he's starting to revolt and completely question Xavier's practices and ideals. In due time and with use of the drug Kick, Quire forms his own following - the Omega Gang. On Open Day, when humans are invited to come to the school and check it out, the Omega Gang captures Professor X and launches a full-scale riot. Some die in the riot and the Stepford Cuckoo's end up stopping Quire, but at the cost of Sophie, one of their own. Quire then begins to mutate into energy while the rest of the gang are dealt with. At Prizegiving, which is the end of semiester, Professor X decides to step down after the gripping events. In addition to this, Angel is pregnant by Beak; and Emma and Scott once more begin their telepathic affair . . . only to have Jean find out.

Murder at the Mansion
After discovering the affair, Jean puts Emma through the emotional ringer by using her own memories against her. Jean eventually finds out that Scott and Emma didn't actually sleep together (neither recently nor in Hong Kong), but have been having a telepathic relationship. Scott then leaves the team and Jean storms off. Later, Emma is found shot and shattered in her diamond form. Bishop and Sage affair on the scene and begin a full investigation. As they close in on the shooter, Jean and Beast put Emma back together. Clues involving Angel's children, the supplier of the Kick drug, and Beak's "confession" eventually leads to the pair to incriminate Esme Stepford, who manages to slip and meet her "contact." However, the question remains - where is Scott Summers?

Assualt on Weapon Plus
Scott goes off to drown his sorrows at the Hellfire Club, which is a sort of neutral ground for Mutants with money. Wolverine tracks him down and the two bump into Shaw and Sabretooth while drinking and discussing why exactly Scott turned to Emma. Eventually, the pair team up with Fantomex and barge into the surreal living lab of the Weapon Plus Program, called the World, to stop both them and Weapon Fifteen. AIM gets in the way and it all goes to hell. The trio chase Weapon Fifteen to a Weapon Plus sattelite, where it's revealed that Fifteen was to be part of a public-loved, reality televised super-hero team that goes after Mutants. John Sublime is involved. As Wolverine opens files on himself and is confronted by what he finds AND Weapon Fifteen, he blows up the station.

Planet X
Professor X monitors the situation. Phoenix goes up to rescue Wolverine, only to have her ship blown up after she and Wolverine end up on an Asteroid M - which is being shot into the sun. Beast and Emma go off to save Scott and Fantomex as they crash to the surface in EVA, but crash as well. Professor X then discovers that - this whole time - Xorn has been Magneto. Magneto cripples Professor X again (as he had fused his spine using Nanosentinels) and ravages New York. He's on Kick, which is making him loopy, and Esme and the Special Class make up his new Brotherhood. As Magneto wrestles for control of the city and prepares to flip the electro-magnetic field upside down, Logan and Jean are stuck in space and headed for disaster. Logan, hoping to release the Phoenix, kills Jean. Beak finds Cyclops, Fantomex and various students in Mutant Town after being kicked out of the Brotherhood. Phoenix then emerges, rescues Hank and Emma and they join in on the attack against Magneto. Everyone questions Magneto/Xorn. In the end, he gives Jean a planetary-scale stroke, then demands to be killed so that his legacy will live on after his death. Logan gives Magneto this as Jean dies in Scott's arms.

Here Comes Tomorrow
150 years in the future, Beast is evil and is after the Phoenix Egg, which houses the slowly regenerating Jean Grey-Summers. The current X-Men (being EVA; Tom Skylar and his Sentinel named Rover; Tito, Beak's grandson; Wolverine; Cassandra Nova and Martha; and Three-in-One) go off to rescue her from him. Turns out Beast is really being possessed by John Sublime, a force of living extinction and wants to use Phoenix as a force of extermination. Jean eventually figures things out when Wolverine dies. Turns out that after she died, Scott lost all hope, rejected Emma's love, and went off on his own. Beast just couldn't carry on, gave in to Kick, and was taken over by John Sublime. To save everything, Jean gives Scott a push towards Emma, which will hopefully lead him to re-opening the school.

Whew.

Okay.

“Riot” is the best of the bunch and, really, the best of Morrison’s entire run. It’s smart and incredibly well-written. You can feel for Quire and understand all of his problems and issues. The arguments he brings up are exactly what a teenager would say. The characters are handled perfectly. There’s a fantastic amount of tension as it leads into the big event – the riot itself - and its aftermath is handled very nicely. The dialogue snaps, the pace is nice and suspenseful, and the whole story is just well-done. Combined with great art from Frank Quietly, and it’s a winner.

“Murder” is good, juts not as. It’s nicely complicated, but not overly so. It really concentrates on the character who isn’t there – the traitor, the man behind the Kick and meeting Esme. It’s almost tragic with Emma falling in love with Scott. The art is rather good here, too.

“Weapon Plus” is . . . not as good. The opening issue is fine, though. We start to understand what is wrong with Scott. After everything Apocalypse put him through, he just can’t talk to Jean about it because he feels like it would ruin her image of her. Plus, all these great things are happening and he just doesn’t want to hold her back. Hence, Emma Frost, who has no expectations and just accepts him for him. It’s sad and tragic, but there’s a great deal of realism there. Now, the whole thing afterwards with Weapon Plus is rather blah and nutty, but has some good points here and there. Bachelo’s art is, unfortunately, not one of them.

“Planet X” is pretty good. I found Logan/Jean “we’re about to die” parts better than the whole, as well as Jean’s death. My issue is Magneto. I know it’s been firmly established that this isn’t Magneto, but I want it to be. Kinda. Magneto is out-of-his-mind whacky on drugs and probably Post-Stress-Disorder. The problem is that Xorn was such a well-done character that even with all the various clues planted throughout Morrison’s run, Xorn just doesn’t seem like Magneto. Magneto seems like Magneto, just on drugs. But Xorn doesn’t. Does that make sense? Whatever the case maybe, the central idea of this story is not “Xorn is Magneto,” but that in death, ones legacy can do more than his entire life. In “Planet X,” Magneto’s cause falls apart when he reveals he’s alive. But when he was dead, it lived on nicely – even in the form of Quentin Quire.

In “Here Comes Tomorrow,” it’s Jean’s death that carries on a legacy. Alive, Scott was unhappy. Dead and with a push from Jean, Scott finds happiness in the end, and ultimately, renewal. Just like a Phoenix, huh?

“Here Comes Tomorrow” is not a great story from Morrison, but it’s far from bad. I would rather have had a story about the X-Men picking up the pieces than this, but I can live with it. The characters are hard to relate to, but I loved Tom and Rover. In the end, there’s a certain feeling of love – though it’s hard to describe. I really liked what Jean did to Scott to help him move on. It was so self-sacrificing, helping her husband live and move on. Granted, it helped save the world, but there’s a deep emotional impact behind it. It reminds me of the original “Dark Phoenix Saga,” when Jean sacrifices herself to save the world and it impacts Scott so deeply. It’s similar, but it’s the emotional impact from Jean’s telling Scott to move on that saves the world.

Oh, and Marc Silverstri still draws the best damn Sentinels.

In the end, we’re faced with the last from Morrison. I’m disappointed we didn’t see more from him. I’d have loved to see his tackle the Savage Land or take us back to the Age of Apocalypse. But, in the end, it’s perfectly all right. We got great stories that changed the X-Men, breaking them from a super-hero mold they’ve been stuck in since the early 1990s. The X-Men became teachers, the mansion became a school, and all hell broke loose with new villains and new ideas. Morrison had a great impact on the X-Men and his legacy still continues. It was great to have him on board.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 101: Origin

Origin # 1-6

A young woman by the name of Rose is brought to the Howelett estate to be (basically) a playmate for young James Howelett – the thin, sickly son of the rich John Howelett and the crazy Emily Howelett. They befriend the boy called “Dog,” how is the son of Thomas Logan, the groundskeeper. Logan is in love with Emily (who went crazy after her and John’s first child died). Eventually, trouble is a brewing and Thomas Logan and Dog get kicked out of the estate.

They return to the estate, kidnap Rose and make her take them to Emily, so as to take her with them. Once there, the commotion brings in both James and John. Logan kills John, and then James pops some claws from his hands, kills Logan and tears up Dog’s face. Rose is later blamed for the murders and she and James go on the run (with the help of James’ asshole grandpa).

They make their way to a small mining camp, where James begins to discover a wild, animal side to himself. His memory is all messed from the trauma. Rose calls him “Logan” to help protect them. So as Logan goes out and plays with wolves, then works in the mines and deals with a man named Cookie, Rose begins to fall for the leader of the camp, Smitty. There’s some rivalry between Logan and Smitty, but Logan eventually stands aside . . . and that’s when Dog shows up, now sporting blonde hair.

A fight breaks out between Dog and Logan, with Rose getting in the middle and getting stabbed. She dies, Dog runs off (I guess), and Logan just goes off into the wild.

I’m very mixed about this one, to be honest. On the one hand, it’s a well-told story and the first half is really quite good. On the other hand, it flakes out a little bit in the end.

The theme of the story is not so much “Hey! It’s young Wolverine!” as it is about this boy going through all this shit and growing into man – all the while dealing with this animal within himself that grew out of all the mess that his pretty young life covered up. It’s a very interesting and appropriate origin for Wolverine.

Unfortunately, while the theme holds it together, it suffers from being predictable in the end. You know from the moment that Rose shows up that she’s going to die. And while having James turn out to Logan is a surprise, having Dog turn out to Sabretooth (right?) is just a little too much; it was exactly what you’d expect. A show-down between Logan/James and Logan/Dog? Rose gets in the middle and James/Logan accidentally kills her? Yep. That was coming from a mile away. And just how does one die of a wound in the upper, right-side of the chest? Even in those days? It didn’t even look that deep.

Despite the predictability, there’s some fleshing out here. John Howelett (James not-real father), Dog (as a youngin’), Thomas Logan (James’ real father), Smitty, and Cookie all add so much to the story and really paint Wolverine’s early influences rather well. You can see a little bit of John’s honor in Logan in the modern day, just like you can see the gruffness of Thomas Logan (up-bringing versus heredity).

The art is phenomenal. Andy Kubert’s best work, hands down. Isanove also brings his A-Game. These two really bring to life almost every panel, breathing life into the story.

In spite of the predictability of the story as it neared it’s ending, “Origin” does offer a decent and somewhat insightful true origin of Wolverine.

~W~