STORY: "X-Cutioner's Song, part 7 of 12: The Camel's Back" (22 pages)   The X-Men and their allies defeat the Mutant Liberation Front.  Cable takes Bishop and Wolverine to his orbiting HQ.  Stryfe confronts the weakened Apocalypse.

What you need to know:
More X-Cutioner's Song, continuing from X-Factor vol 1 #85.  After this story, it continues into X-Force vol 1 #17, Uncanny X-Men #296 and X-Factor vol 1 #86 before leading into the next issue.

The Mutant Liberation Front, already abandoned by Stryfe, are dismantled by the X-Men and co.  This marks an end to the first incarnation of the team.  The second incarnation, led by Reignfire, will turn up in X-Force vol 1 #26.

Dragoness's wings turn out to be artificial - her energy blasts are her only actual mutant power.

The guy running around in the MLF headquarters with his sister is Slab, a minor X-Factor villain who happened to be with them at the time.  He's there to acknowledge a storyline from that title.

There's a thoroughly bizarre scene with Stryfe, in full costume, trying to forcefeed warm milk and baby food to Cyclops and Jean Grey.  Basically, the idea was that Stryfe was Nathan Summers, the longlost son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor (Jean's clone, so close enough).  He felt that they'd abandoned him, and he was out for revenge.  Shortly after this storyline, that idea was revised - Nathan turns out to be Cable, and Stryfe is Cable's clone.  However, at this point he still believes himself to be the real Nathan Summers, hence this oddball sequence.

Stryfe's rant to Apocalypse at the end of the first issue establishes for the first time that Stryfe fell into Apocalypse's care as a baby.  Stryfe makes it fairly clear that he doesn't think much of Apocalypse's parenting skills.

That little yellow star on the cover, believe it or not, says "Beyond video - the new Dragon Quest game!  (Announcements inside.)"  The announcement turns out to be six pages of uninformative adverts.  Hopefully nobody actually bought the comic for that...

The trading card with this issue covers the Mutant Liberation Front.  Basically, Stryfe admits that the whole group was a sham and he never really cared about their supposed cause.  He feels a twinge of guilt for sending them off to get killed on his behalf, but at the end of the day, he's not all that bothered.

Comments:
Most of the issue is given over to a great big fight scene as the X-Men beat up... well, a load of henchmen, when you get down to it.  That was the thing about henchmen - if your plot was flagging in the middle, you could get some heroes to beat them up for a few pages. 

Of course, there was a genuine need to get rid of the Mutant Liberation Front at some point.  One of the aims of X-Cutioner's Song was to provide some kind of wrap-up to the various plotlines which Rob Liefeld had kicked off in X-Force before decamping to Image.  With Cable and Stryfe gone after the end of the storyline, there was no longer a need for Stryfe's henchmen - so this issue kicks them neatly into touch.

The rest of the issue is more conspiring, hint-dropping, and general ranting from Stryfe.  It's so far over the top that you've got to love it.  Andy Kubert seems to be enjoying his action sequences, although he's already showing a worrying tendency towards putting Psylocke into awkward pin-up poses - it's so obvious in this story that even the dialogue comments on it.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Archangel, Bishop, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Wolverine (all last in X-Factor vol 1 #85), Professor X and the Beast (both last in Uncanny X-Men #295; all next in X-Force vol 1 #17, then in Uncanny X-Men #296, then in X-Factor vol 1 #86)
Gambit and Rogue (both last in X-Factor vol 1 #85; both next in X-Force vol 1 #17, then in Uncanny X-Men #297, then in issue #17)
Iceman and Psylocke (both between X-Factor vol 1 #85-86)
Colossus (last in Uncanny X-Men #295; next in X-Factor vol 1 #86, then in X-Force vol 1 #18, then in Wolverine vol 2 #66-68, then in issue #17)

GUEST STARS
Cable (between X-Factor vol 1 #85 and X-Force vol 1 #17)
X-Factor II: Havok, Polaris, Quicksilver (all last in X-Factor vol 1 #85) and Strong Guy (last in Uncanny X-Men #295; all next in X-Force vol 1 #17)
Cannonball and Boomer (both between X-Factor vol 1 #85 and X-Force vol 1 #17)

SUPPORTING CHARACTER
Moira MacTaggert (between Uncanny X-Men #295 and X-Force vol 1 #17)

VILLAINS
Stryfe and Apocalypse (both between X-Factor vol 1 #85 and X-Force vol 1 #17)
The Dark Riders: Barrage, Foxbat, Gauntlet, Harddrive, Psynapse and Tusk (all next in X-Force vol 1 #17)
The Mutant Liberation Front I: Rusty Collins, Skids (both last in issue #13; both next in ...), Forearm (next in X-Force Annual #3), Reaper (next in All-New Exiles Infinity), Dragoness (next behind the scenes in X-Force vol 2 #4; the latter three all last in X-Factor vol 1 #85), Thumbelina (last in X-Factor vol 1 #77; next in X-Force vol 2 #4) and Strobe (last in X-Factor vol 1 #78; no further appearances)
Slab (between X-Factor vol 1 #78 and #104)
Zero (between X-Force vol 1 #16 and Uncanny X-Men #296)

GUEST APPEARANCES
The Professor (between Uncanny X-Men #295 and X-Force vol 1 #16)

Updated 11 March 2005

back | next