STORY: "Leaning Towards Oneself" (22 pages)   While the X-Men follow the trail to Matsuo and Shinobi, Mr Sinister tells Cyclops about the Legacy Virus.

What you need to know:
This issue contains the notorious "third Summers brother" subplot, in which Sinister blithely refers to "you and your brothers."  Scott picks him up on it, and Sinister corrects himself.  Fan speculation as to the identity of the third brother went on for years, with Gambit being a leading contender at one point (after all, he was found as an abandoned child, and he's got glowing red eyes).  The rather more obscure X-Treme was also in the running at one point. 

In the end, the whole thing was quietly forgotten about in the late nineties, only to be unexpectedly exhumed by Chris Claremont in 2005's X-Men: The End vol 2 #5.  According to that issue, the third Summers brother is Gambit.  The idea is that Sinister achieves his immortality by cloning new bodies for himself every so often.  Gambit was an attempt to combine his own DNA with Scott Summers' DNA and give himself a more powerful body; Apocalypse stole the child and gave him to the Thieves Guild.  So Gambit's not literally a Summers brother, but he's kind of close.

Of course, this begs the question of whether you believe anything that appears in X-Men: The End, a story set in an alternate future.  Since it's meant to be a possible future, logically any revelations about the past ought to hold true for the mainstream Marvel Universe as well.  But then, you could have said that about Earth X in the early days, and everyone just ended up ignoring its bizarre attempts to rewrite continuity.  Nonetheless, there seems to be little doubt that The End vol 2 #5 was intended to be the official resolution to this story.

Anyway, back to this issue.  Sinister turns out to be immune to Scott's optic beam this time round.  This is odd, because the last time Scott hit him with the beam, during Inferno, Sinister was apparently destroyed.  Sinister dismisses this as "merely a ruse."  But it's unclear what he was up to.  Sinister says that he "was not ready to face your brood then", which rather skirts round the fact that he was the one waiting in the X-Men Mansion to fight them. 

Sinister also claims, bizarrely, that at the time of Inferno, he was allied with Stryfe.  Since Stryfe hadn't even been created at the time, that certainly can't have been the original plan.  This was never followed up.

However, Sinister does give us a semi-coherent explanation of his agenda, which is broadly consistent with other stories.  According to Sinister, he is interested in Cyclops' DNA because he believes it will determine "the balance of power for mutants on this planet."  He wanted Stryfe's DNA for that reason - although Sinister clarifies that he doesn't know for certain whether Stryfe really is a Summers descendent or not.

Sinister tells Cyclops that Stryfe gave him the Legacy Virus canister instead.  According to Sinister, the Virus is a plague on mutants, intended as revenge on Scott and Jean, and a destruction of Xavier's dream.  Sinister doesn't want to see the plague succeed, so he's warning the X-Men through Scott.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an early nineties comic where two characters have been having a civilised conversation for four pages must be in need of a fight scene.  So the Dark Riders turn up, apparently by sheer coincidence, and issue a challenge to Sinister and Cyclops at the same time.  Sinister overpowers the Dark Riders without much difficulty, tells them that they aren't to kill Cyclops, and then teleports off.

Taking Sinister literally, the Dark Riders have a go at crippling Cyclops instead.  He holds them off for a few minutes, and they declare that he's passed the test.  Scott tries to talk sense into them by arguing that they're bringing about the very apocalypse they're supposed to be preparing people for.  The Dark Riders politely explain that since they're apocalyptic religious nuts, that's kind of the point.

Back with the Psylocke/Revanche storyline, the X-Men beat up Nyoirin and the Silver Samurai.  Nyoirin points them to Matsuo and Shinobi.  He also tells the X-Men about the Upstarts.

The Beast and Gambit drop by to Shinobi's apartment to let him know that the X-Men know about the Upstarts.  Meanwhile, the Psylocke Twins head off to confront Matsuo, who was involved in Psylocke's transformation in the first place.  Matsuo confirms that Psylocke and Revanche are each mixtures of both Betsy and Kwannon.  They beat him up.

Subplots: Wolverine, Rogue and Jubilee return to the Mansion after visiting the Savage Land in Wolverine vol 2 #69-71, and report that they've found evidence that Magneto is still alive.  Everyone duly regards this as ominous.

Comments:
In an odd shift of emphasis, most of this issue is based around Sinister talking to Scott, which suddenly leaps forward from the subplots to dominate the issue.  The issue does some good for Sinister's character, which had been bogged down in enigma for years.  While the full details don't get revealed for years to come, this issue at least establishes Sinister has having some kind of vaguely comprehensible goal, and shows that he doesn't want mutants wiped out.  It's not much, but it's a step up from "mystery man who does arbitrary things every few years."

Psylocke and Revanche's side of the story was presumably meant to draw a line under their status quo, validate them both as legitimate Psylockes (of a sort), and allow the characters to move forward from there.  Of course, it all ends up being unpicked in a few months time.  That whole side of the plot feels like a bit of an afterthought in this issue.  It's as if, having delivered his big flashback explaining how Psylocke and Revanche are related, Nicieza wasn't quite sure what the characters ought to do next, so they just menaced a couple of villains and went home.

The art is noticeably improved this issue, as Kubert starts to find his feet.  There's a lovely panel of Sinister calmly ignoring a bloody great hole blasted in his midsection by Cyclops, and for the first time, you could honestly say that bits of this issue are understated.  Most of the insanity is saved for the Dark Riders' fight scene, where it belongs.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X (last in issue #21; next in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #1, then in Uncanny X-Men #301-302, then in X-Force vol 1 #24, then in Uncanny X-Men #303, then in X-Factor vol 1 #93)
Cyclops (next in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #1, then in the Infinity Crusade crossover, then in flashback in Generation X #27, then in X-Factor vol 1 #93)
Wolverine (last in Wolverine vol 2 #71; next in the Infinity Crusade crossover, then in X-Factor vol 1 #93)
The Beast (next in the Infinity Crusade crossover)
Rogue (last in Wolverine vol 2 #71)
Gambit and Psylocke

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Jubilee (last in Wolverine vol 2 #71; next in Uncanny X-Men #302)
Revanche

VILLAINS
Lord Nyoirin (next, deceased, in issue #32)
The Silver Samurai (next in Wolverine vol 2 #82)
Shinobi Shaw (next in Uncanny X-Men #301)
Matsuo Tsurayaba (next in issue #31)
Mr Sinister (next behind the scenes in X-Force vol 1 #29)
The Dark Riders: Barrage, Foxbat, Gauntlet, Hardrive and Tusk (all last in issue #21 except Hardrive, who appeared last in issue #16; all next in Cable #17 except Tusk, who appears next in Cable #18)

Written: 18 July 2005

back | next