Credits : Written by Peter David, pencilled by Jae Lee, inked by Al Milgrom and edited by Kelly Corvese.
Plot: Scott ‘Cyclops’ Summers and his lover Jean Grey are on the surface of the moon, They are found by Stryfe, who at this point in the story is at his most dramatic. Between Earth and the Moon on the space-station Graymalkin, Wolverine works out where they are, his logic being that he and Jean are close and he’s now physically the closet. Wolverine talks to Storm and the rest of the earthbound X-Men. Cable points out that he’s not going to Earth, because someone will get hurt. When Bishop asks who, Cable admits he’s the most likely to get hurt and that helps no one. Storm arranges a team to head to the moon and meet Cable, Bishop and Wolverine at the most likely place on the moon they’d be, Apocalypse’s old base there. Storm assigns Havok, Polaris, Psylocke, Archangel, Iceman and Cannonball.
On the moon, Stryfe is monologuing about how he’s been so wronged by Scott and Jean, who still have no idea who he is and dismiss him as a run of the mill megalomaniac. Stryfe feels he has the upper hand and smiles. At the mansion, Apocalypse waits in his cell as Havok, Storm, Beast, Val Cooper and an incensed Archangel walk him to the infirmary to make good on his promise of curing Charles Xavier. As he walks with them, Havok is pulled to one side by Multiple Man who informs him that the Genoshan refugees have escaped the hospital, since his duplicate there is no longer responding. We do see that dupe wake up. On Graymalkin Cable informs his guests that it will take time to calibrate the bodyslide to the moon, given the different mass and gravitational complications that causes. He points out that if he’s left alone, it’ll take 25 minutes, but if he has some help, it’ll be more like 90, so Bishop and Wolverine get a deck of cards and some booze.
Apocalypse observes Xavier for a few minutes then uses a device on his person to accelerate the techno-organic virus’ progress. Archangel holds everyone back as they fear the worst, but ultimately it works as the virus leaves Xavier as a metallic bug looking for a new host, but ultimately is killed, leaving Xavier free from the virus that was killing him. Storm thanks Apocalypse for his work, then asks for a lift to the moon. Apocalypse agrees, but by now the three on Graymalkin have got bored and have headed to the moon early, expecting to slip into the base, but find an army including the Dark Riders, waiting for them.
Notes: All the pieces move further into place for the finale and we get a resolution to the Charles being shot story ahead of this. By this point, most of the more attentive readers will have guessed what Stryfe’s issue is, but Scott and Jean are still completely oblivious. It does sort of highlight the absurdity of the whole plot, but not enough for it to put you off.
The three interconnecting plots are used well, the melodrama of Stryfe, the dramatic back and forth of the Apocalypse plot and the light comedy of the story on Graymalkin all have their part to play in the entertainment of this issue. All three preparing to converge as this cross-over heads to what I expect will be a big climax.
Verdict: Writing 5 out of 5 – Peter David has his run on X-Factor shanghaied by this story, but he does his best to add in the subplot with Multiple Man at the hospital and the undercurrent of humour. He also adds a sarcastic tinge to the dialogue with Cable’s blunt replies being a bit of a highlight. When he points out that in a fight it will be him who’s hurt actually made me laugh and the crack about it taking over three times as long with help was incredibly relatable, having been on both sides of that conversation before now. X-Factor has always been the best written chapters and it’s ended strong.
Art: 3 out of 5 : I’m still not sold on the whole by Jae Lee’s art, but here at least he’s doing something interesting. The inks and colours working to serve the pencils which gives many of the lighter pages an excellent stylistic look. The rest is the same dark and scratchy, but there is some gold in there and Lee’s run on this title comes to a great, if uneven end.
Overall: 8 out of 5 – This has been a better issue than many of the Age of Apocalypse issues, reminding me how good this cross-over was and it’s been a lovely nostalgic walk through that has produced some great comics and I still have a several issues to come.
Next Time: Cyber War continues…
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