STORY: "Dominion" (22 pages) The Gamesmaster nominates Forge as the next target for the Upstarts, and Fitzroy goes to Dallas to kill him. Meanwhile, Illyana Rasputin is dying of the Legacy Virus, and Professor X dispatches Storm and Bishop to get Forge's help to save her. They arrive in time to see Forge's penthouse explode.

What you need to know:
Trevor Fitzroy has somehow captured Selene and imprisoned her in a torture device.

Forge has been trying, without any success, to cure Mystique's insanity. He's also been trying to stay away from Storm at all costs, which is why he hasn't told the X-Men about Magneto's return.

According to Fitzroy, his father enjoyed humiliating him. Fitzroy also claims that his mother was murdered by Shard, and that Bishop was a witness.

Comments:
Issues #301-302 are a two-part Upstarts story, and by this point the limitations of the concept are becoming painfully apparent. Fitzroy is only trying to kill Forge in order to get points in the competition, and that's just not a very exciting motivation. To be sure, Lobdell tries to jazz it up a bit by playing off Forge's role in Fitzroy and Bishop's future, but it all seems a rather contrived attempt to liven up a story which isn't much to speak of.

There's also a fundamental plot problem with the whole thing, which is why Storm and Bishop go to visit Forge in person at all. Why don't they just give him a phone call? Isn't this supposed to be an urgent mission? Trekking across the USA seems an awfully convenient way of getting them to arrive in time for the fight. What if he wasn't in? On top of that, the Gamesmaster claims that Forge was going to do something vitally important in the next twenty-four hours if he wasn't killed. He doesn't.

On the bright side, this story does have some frequently excellent artwork from John Romita Jr, and there's a pretty good scene with Storm in total denial about why she split up with Forge ("My feelings for him were never in doubt", she says, lying through her teeth). Some of the subplot scenes with Illyana at the mansion are pretty good as well. Generally, though, one to miss.

 

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X, Storm and Bishop (all last in X-Men Unlimited #1)
Archangel, Colossus and Iceman (all last in Uncanny X-Men Annual #17)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Forge
Illyana Rasputin (last in X-Men vol 2 #20)
Moira MacTaggert (last in the second story in issue #300; next in issue #303)
Opal Tanaka (between issues #290 and #305)

VILLAINS
The Black Queen II (last in issue #283; next in Excalibur Annual #2)
Bantam I (last in the second story in Uncanny X-Men Annual #17; next in Bishop #1)
The Gamesmaster (last in X-Men vol 2 #22; next in X-Force vol 1 #32)
The Upstarts: Trevor Fitzroy (last in issue #299), Siena Blaze (last in X-Men Unlimited #1; next in All New Exiles Infinity), Shinobi Shaw (last in X-Men vol 2 #23), Graydon Creed (last in issue #299; the latter two both next in X-Force #32) and Fabian Cortez (last in the second story in issue #300; next in X-Factor #92)
Mystique (last in issue #290)

Last revised: 7 September 2004

back | next