STORY: "Operation: Zero Tolerance - Start Spreadin' the News..." (22 pages)  Operation: Zero Tolerance try to kill Cecilia Reyes.  Iceman rescues her, and she goes on the run.

What you need to know:
Cecilia uses her powers for the first time - basically, she has a force field, but she still feels pain from the impact.  The narrator helpfully tells us that it's called "a psioplasmic bio-field."

According to Cecilia, Xavier approached her to join the X-Men "about three years ago", and she turned him down.  Iceman has standing orders to protect her "in the event particular files were compromised", which suggests that Xavier thought she was fairly important for some reason.  Presumably Operation: Zero Tolerance are after her because she's in the X-Men's files, since if they're just randomly attacking mutants, it'd be a heck of a coincidence that they got here so quickly.

Cecilia also tells us, in a horrendously clunky speech, that she decided to become a doctor after her father died in her arms when she was six.  He bled to death on the sidewalk, which would imply that he was shot, but we never get any more context for this. 

There's a brief scene at the end of the issue where Bastion tells Professor X that he's captured the X-Men.  Their strand of the crossover continues into Wolverine vol 2 #115-118.

This is the first issue to feature recaps on the inside front gatefold cover, a shortlived feature which floundered when Marvel realised they could just sell the advertising space instead.

Comments:
We're now into X-Men's strand of the Operation: Zero Tolerance crossover.  This was Scott Lobdell's swansong storyline on the X-books, and it's not desperately good. 

It's an early example of the type of crossover structure that's become popular in recent years, with all the various books doing their own little storyline under the general umbrella.  The weird thing about Operation: Zero Tolerance is that none of the books seem to be doing the core plot - after a couple of token subplot scenes with Robert Kelly and Henry Gyrich worrying about civil liberties, OZT gets shut down by SHIELD, and the story ends.  It's not exactly a satisfying ending.

X-Men's strand follows Iceman, Cecilia Reyes and Marrow (who'll join the story next issue) as they run around trying not to die.  The aim is to introduce Cecilia and Marrow as new regular cast members.  Although she had a cameo in issue #65, this is the first time we've really seen Cecilia, and she makes a good debut.  The central idea is that she doesn't want to be a superhero and has been dragged away from the civilian life she wanted to lead.  She's also a bit dismissive about the X-Men's activism.  It's a solid concept, perfectly in key with the central X-Men themes, and Lobdell gets it over quite well.  She's a bit whiny at this point, but then she's got every reason to be.

Looking past the awful storyline of which it forms part, quite a good issue.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Cyclops, Storm, Cannonball, Phoenix III and Wolverine (all next in Wolverine vol 2 #115-118, then in Uncanny X-Men #350, then in issue #70)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Professor X, Iceman and Cecilia Reyes

VILLAINS
Bastion (between Uncanny X-Men #346 and Wolverine vol 2 #115) and Operation: Zero Tolerance (various agents, concurrently with other crossover stories)

OTHER CHARACTERS
Lilly and other hospital staff

Written: 28 December 2005

back | next