STORY: "A Song of Mourning a Cry of Joy" (23 pages)  Infectia dies of the Legacy Virus.  Mr Sinister takes in Threnody, a mutant whose powers can help his research into the Legacy Virus.  The X-Men reluctantly let him do so.

What you need to know:
I assume the title is meant to be "A Song of Mourning, a Cry of Joy", but that's not what it actually says.

Threnody debuts.  She's a homeless mutant whose powers absorb the pain of people dying from the Legacy Virus - one of those dreadfully convenient plot device powers.  Eventually, she went on to be a regular supporting character in X-Man, and her real name was belatedly established as Melody Jacobs.  If you're wondering, a threnody is a song of lamentation.

Mr Sinister wants her because he can use her to track down Legacy Virus victims.  The X-Men reluctantly let him take her, on the grounds that they'd be too ethical to exploit her like that, while Sinister will at least do some good if he can cure the Legacy Virus.

Infectia becomes the latest victim of the Legacy Virus, as the writers continue to search for disposable characters.  She was an X-Factor villain who had appeared in one prominent storyline, but never went anywhere.  Nobody had used her in years.

Psylocke and Revanche keep their subplot ticking over.  Psylocke is irritated to find that the Legacy Virus doesn't seem to be imparing Revanche's performance.

Page 20 has some very obviously relettered dialogue, which doesn't fit the flow of the conversation at all.  Sinister ends up explaining twice why he wants to stop the Legacy Virus - the second time, in answer to a question that nobody asked him.  The same page also has some half-finished art fixing, where somebody seems to have got halfway through moving a panel border and then decided not to go through with it.

Comments:
Bit of a mixed bag.  On the plus side, Infectia gets a surprising decent death for such a minor character.  The Legacy Virus needed to kill off some actual characters in order to be made credible.  Since most of those characters would inevitably be trivial and dispensable, the writers had to make their deaths seem like they meant something, and Nicieza pulls it off here.

I'm not so sure about the X-Men's ethical dilemma over Threnody.  There's a reasonably interesting point being made that the greater good requires Threnody to be with Sinister because he's prepared to exploit her and (for his own reasons) stop the Legacy Virus.  The problem is with the X-Men's response.  If they're not prepared to torture Threnody themselves, why are they willing to let a homicidal lunatic do it for them...?

Richard Bennett provides fill-in art, and it's very much your early-nineties standard.  Competent enough, but the pneumatic females haven't aged very well.  The character design for Threnody is dreadful, as well - it's one of those awful ones where a downtrodden, homeless character still manages to dress like a backing dancer for Christina Aguilera.  To be fair to Bennett, as a fill-in artist, this might not be his fault.  But it doesn't fit the character, and it doesn't work.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
The Beast and Rogue (both last in Avengers vol 1 #369; both next in Uncanny X-Men #308, then in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #3)
Iceman (last in Avengers vol 1 #369; next in Uncanny X-Men #308, then in X-Men: The Wedding Album, then in Uncanny X-Men #310, then in pages 1-2 of What If? vol 2 #60, then in issue #30)
Psylocke (last in X-Men Annual vol 2 #2; next in Uncanny X-Men #308)

GUEST STARS
Threnody (Melody Jacobs; first appearance; last in flashback in X-Man #20; next in issue #34)
Infectia (last in X-Factor vol 1 #55; dies)

SUPPORTING CHARACTER
Revanche (last in Avengers vol 1 #369)

VILLAIN
Mr Sinister (last behind the scenes in X-Force vol 1 #30; next behind the scenes in issue #34)

Written: 7 October 2004

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