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STORY: "Hazardous Territory" (22
pages) Carter Ryking takes Professor X to
Almagordo and rants about their parents' secrets. The
X-Men subdue him.
What you need to know:
More vague and general hints about the Almagordo project
being involved in all-purpose nastiness. At the end of
the issue the X-Men decide not to search the compound, since
it's obviously abandoned. Seems an odd decision, given
that there are papers flying all over the place, but perhaps
Xavier's still meant to be in denial.
The final panel shows one of those papers -
a document entitled "Shiva Scenario Committee Evaluation
Report", and credited to Kurt Marko, Alexander Ryking and
Brian Xavier. The Shiva Scenario was a Weapon X failsafe
program, and the subject of a running subplot in Wolverine
at around this time. Again, the implication is that
Xavier's father was somehow involved in Wolverine's origin.
In a teaser scene for the X-Cutioner's Song
crossover, the Mutant Liberation Front steal a tapestry about
Apocalypse from a museum in Istanbul. Stryfe takes the
opportunity to tell us how nasty Apocalypse is, and we
establish that he wants revenge on Apocalypse for something.
Eventually, when all the dust settled, the explanation for all
this was that Stryfe was raised in the far future by
Apocalypse, but Apocalypse eventually turned on him.
It's all desperately convoluted - mid-nineties X-continuity at
its worst - and there's no need to go into the details here.
Cannonball tries to get in touch with the
X-Men to re-establish contact on behalf of X-Force, but
they're not in.
Oddly, Xavier says that his father was
"murdered" by Kurt Marko. That's not strictly true,
although it's only a slight exaggeration. (The usual
story is that Kurt didn't set out to kill Brian Xavier, but
didn't do anything to save him when he had the chance.)
Comments:
This is a bit of a mess, to be honest. It's
painfully obvious in this issue that Carter isn't really
revealing anything new and is just dragging matters out a bit.
Xavier spends the entire issue patiently pointing out that
there's nothing to find at Almagordo and, aside from the last
panel teaser about the Shiva Scenario, he's right.
Thibert's art seems a bit confused about what the script's
asking for, as well - the supposedly long-abandoned secret
base is still full of fully furnished offices covered in
cobwebs, and there's a thoroughly odd panel where he's drawn a
stairwell that clearly doesn't go in the direction required by
the plot.
It's also got some pretty
dreadful dialogue ("Have you come to help your teacher solve
his problems, or to perpetuate his curriculum of denial?"),
and Carter's powers aren't all that clear. All a bit
confused - though to be fair, the chaotic circumstances of the
Image exodus means that there probably was a lot of genuine
chaos at around this time.
FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X (next in Uncanny X-Men #294, then in
X-Factor vol 1 #84; also in flashback following the
flashback in the previous issue and preceding the flashback in
Gambit vol 3 #4)
The Beast, Wolverine, Cyclops, Gambit and Rogue
(all next in Excalibur vol 1 #57-58, then the latter
three in Uncanny X-Men #294, then all in X-Factor
vol 1 #84)
SUPPORTING CHARACTER
Jubilee (next in Excalibur vol 1 #57)
VILLAINS
Carter Ryking (next in issue #38; also in flashback which
is his chronologically earliest appearance, preceding the
flashback in Gambit vol 3 #4)
The Mutant Liberation Front I: Stryfe (next in
Uncanny X-Men #294), Rusty Collins, Skids (the
latter two both next in issue #15; all three last in Cable:
Blood & Metal #2) and Zero (last in X-Factor
vol 1 #78)
GUEST APPEARANCE
Cannonball (between pages of X-Force vol 1 #15)
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