Credits: Written by Jeph Loeb, pencils by Steve Skroce, inks by Bud LaRosa with Mike Sellers and edited by Lisa Patrick.
Cast: Nate Grey, Forge, Mortimer ‘Toad’ Toynbee, Jason ‘Mastermind’Wyngarde, Theresa ‘Sonique’ Rourke, Essex/Sinister, Brute, Grizzly, Caliban and Neena ‘Domino; Thurman.
Plot: Domino, Grizzly and Caliban have caught up with our intrepid theatre troupe, looking for the rogue telepath. They are being all supervillain-ey, Essex recognises them, but keeps quiet with hopes to ride this out. Forge telepathically warns Nate, who does exactly the opposite of what Forge wanted and heads back to camp to face this trio of assassins.
He battles with Domino, who has already killed Mastermind, who failed to convince her that Apocalypse was there. Caliban and Grizzly go after the rest, but Nate takes on the better trained and calmer Domino. After some back and forth, Nate unleashes his power upon her, drowning her mind in all the evil she has perpetrated, she doesn’t survive that. Forge kills Grizzly after Toad kills Caliban, leaving only Essex, who lies to Forge over Brute’s death last issue. Forge confronts him and ready to make his move, Essex kills Forge bringing him face to face with a greiving Nate. A confrontation seems due.
Notes: This is the action issue. That’s very much the vibe I got from this chapter of Nate Grey’s story. The poorly hidden troupe is found by Domino and her crew and it goes as well as you would expect. Here the creative team put all of Domino’s femme fatale nature on display without her caring side to balance it out and it works, as does the redesigns of Caliban and Grizzly and it succeeds in raising the level of threat.
Forge is fridged to add some emotional content to the inevitable confrontation with Sinister. The previous issue or two was building to the reveal of Sinister and it does feel like it should be more shocking than it really is, we all knew who he was and we all knew that by the start of issue 4, he’d stand revealed. So there’s a lot of by the numbers that comes with this.
However, I am focused on the positives, there are many things that I liked, Leob writes a very melodramatic and moody Nate (having a teenage son myself, I found this most relatable) and his wildly foolish decisions do track. Everyone has their voices down and there’s a great sense of these stories sort of writing themselves based on the characters. That is a sign of good writing, once again showing Leob at his best. Skroce’s art continues to impress, his visual choices in character design and displays of power make this title stand out and the action sequences are an excellent example of the era at it’s best. Ultimately it feels like a set up for the third act, because it is and it’s all been leading to the inevitable betrayal and confrontation between this mutant Pinocchio and his Geppetto.
Verdict: Writing 3 out of 5. A solid, if uninspired issue that had some of the thankless task of getting Nate into position for the final act of the Age of Apocalypse, it may have been a little predictable, but it was not boring.
Art: 4 out of 5 As always Skroce does the job well, excellent action, cool imagery and well met action beats that pull you into the story with and ease that you don’t have getting out.
Overall: 7out of 10 . After the last couple of issues feeling a bit ‘this meeting could have been an e-mail’ that was X-Calibre, this felt like a story that was moving forward, action and intrigue and it reminded me how strongly that the Age of Apocalypse ended and because of this, I’m aware that the best is yet to come.
Next Time: Back to (shudder) Maximum Cloneage
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