tripping the force magnetic pt. 2

continuing our look back at a '90s classic (if we can call it that).

Fatal Attractions
Uncanny X-Men #304 "For What I Have Done"
Scott Lobdell/John Romita Jr/Jae Lee/Chris Sprouse/Brandon Peterson/Paul Smith
and another 198 inkers including the great Dan Green

it must be a big boost to Magneto's ego, that all through the years fighting the X-Men, they always draw him alone against everyone. despite having a bunch of lackeys at some point or another, the most powerful images are the ones that depict Magneto standing tall and firm against Xavier's children. if you root for the underdog without having any background information, you'd side with the Magster. how many X-Men does it take to defeat Magneto? all of them, apparently. and they still never conclusively do so.

the Fatal Attractions crossover began with X-Factor and X-Force, where those teams ran afoul of the reborn Mags and his Acolytes led by his new lapdog, Exodus. the Acolytes, under lameduck leader Fabian Cortez, were unsuccessful in recruiting Quicksilver to the cause, and Cable got dismantled but not discombobulated in rescuing his charges from the influence of the magnetic field. Magneto now turns his attention to the real X-Men.

but before that, we have to check how Magneto's return from the dead affects said lameduck.

facing a mutiny, Cortez is helpless as his former charges almost beat him up and as they leave. he tries to take out his anger at the newcomer Exodus but he is hopelessly outclassed. i never really understood Cortez' mutant power (extending another's?). so he's a booster. that's really lame. and only Jean Grey gets the honor of not needing a code name, Fabian. you suck.

Wikipedia reports that Cortez has , after years of painful repetitive resurrections and betrayals (his modus operanda), finally bitten the dust. but i guess they took that from the official Marvel site. though i won't be surprised he's just really laying low and assumed this identity.

Magneto, meanwhile, does another one of his patented long-winded monologues. it doesn't matter what size the audience, be it hundreds or just himself. the audience believes him.

god, he must work out a lot. yeah, that's what supervillains do when they're sidelined as the world thinks they're "dead".

speaking of dead, something is dying inside Colossus as he mourns his sister Illyana (a.k.a. Magik) who recently died of the Legacy Virus (the Marvel equivalent of AIDS, cured a decade later through the efforts of Hank McCoy, the late Moira McTaggert, and ironically - pun intended - Colossus himself). he pushes away everything that matters to him, including his then ex- Kitty Pryde.

Illyana's funeral was a big thing to me then, but actually the real tear-jerker was Uncanny #303. yes, i am in touch with my feminine side. now get off my case before i slice and dice you.

speaking also of slicing and dicing, Warren Worthington III - a.k.a Angel - was still blue and metal-winged back then, capable of slicing and dicing just like Wolverine. here even his looks could cut someone to pieces.

the way he sounded, its as if the X-teams usually coordinated with each other. hyeahright. and he seems shocked and indignant that X-Force didn't call for help. hello, we can barely make sense of the rigmarole of who's on which team (did they put him on the Blue Team just because its easier that way?).

so be careful of what you wish for, Wings ...

over at the other end, Xavier's attempt to console Peter backfires badly.

i half-expected Peter to push Xavier out of his wheelchair. now that would've been a scene! Colossus has always been the good sheep of the X-Men; imagine him now as angry loose cannon.

which is just about the exact time Magneto drops by for an appearance. two things to note here:

1. the jerk doesn't even pay his respects to Illyana, once upon a time a favorite student
2. in the 5 minutes he was delivering this speech, the gathered X-teams could have kicked his ass back to outer space

first order of business: show 'em who's Boss. even if it means pulping one of your own soldiers (R.I.P. Senyaka. not.). Boss!!

Magneto drops the Big Reveal - he has a badass space station. Xavier counters: "I have a 1 TB Sh'iar iPod!". Magneto cries and stomps his feet.

anyway, the Acolytes now ascend to their new home (this religious theme is going too far). Magneto asks Xavier to join him. but really - cupping his chin? that's so ... Zac Efron.

'make love, not war', they said. so Rogue tries that tack, but kisses mean nothing to the Boss! he's the BOSS!!!

Magneto holds down everyone by sheer force of magnetic will (Fe in blood, so goes the popular explanation then) and preventing everyone from accessing his or her mutant power. but Bishop's power is a reactive one - he absorbs that same energy and uses it to free his pals, then everyone piles on Magneto. like we said earlier, it always takes everyone ...

then Scott Lobdell springs the not-so Big Reveal ... Colossus turns traitor. Bishop would go into traction for a month at least. this would all have been avoided had they taken down Magneto during his speech (that could be a YouTube parody).

Colossus gets beamed up to HMM Avalon, and Xavier is forced to remote control Magneto, and fling himself out into spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace. i'm not sure how the Bald One managed to be in one piece without burning up on re-entry into our atmosphere before being rescued by Warren. that being said, the events here already hint as to what's coming.

next: bring on more X-Men!

tripping the force magnetic pt. 1

back in the '90s, i latched back into comics even though i didn't have the cash to get really serious about it. i think it was because my college years were a kind of sabbatical, thus i missed a lot of stuff. (Robin died! or maybe not.) but i guess the itch came back, everyone's favorite merry band of mutants were on animated form, and the rest is history.

missing out on reformation/splitting of the X-teams (Jim Lee crafting his legend, Chris Claremont bidding adieu), i landed right in the middle of the Fabian Nicieza/Scott Lobdell run, and the return of Magneto. say what you will about '90s comics then, but the X-crossovers, convoluted as they may be (thank you, Bob Harras), were major events not to be missed. in fact, the rest of the year became filler or stage setups for next summer (which has been more or less rectified these days, no?).

after Magneto's much-hyped demise in the first story arc of the adjectiveless X-Men, we learn that he's not really dead (ho-hum) and is back with a bigger bunch of losers called the Acolytes. the biggest loser of them all, the tastefully-named Fabian Cortez (sorry, Mr. Easterbrook), actually had the cojones to usurp Magneto's position and cause, and its just a matter of time before he gets found out. but in the meantime, he goes about his business, acting all high and mighty, ordering the other Acolytes about, and generally making a nuisance of himself.

Fatal Attractions
X-Factor #92 "The Man Who Wasn't There"
Scott Lobdell/Joe Quesada/J.M. DeMatteis/Al Milgrom

boasting a superb wraparound cover by current Marvel EEK Joe Q, with the requisite gimmicky enhanced hologram, #92 ushered the end of the first Peter David era (awwwww), and the start of the DeMatteis run. Quesada's trademark flowing/suspended hair and tiptoe stance is in full force here. but you can't deny the man can draw. if only he did a lot more of that these days.

the story opens with a nurse narrating how the Acolytes hack and slashed their way through an ER (ummmm ... because they didn't treat a mutant?) and poignantly asking how could Magneto inspire such passionate murderers. Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff to you non-existent Transians) in his most serious good guy role in years (he's obviously back to being a jerk these days), has no answer himself. its obvious that he's torn with the burden of his pop's legacy on his shoulders and his own individual pursuits of power. but he doesn't shy away from being worshiped by his pop's followers.

the Acolytes have mostly a flair for the dramatic, which is obvious when they discuss things among themselves or burst through a wall ala Kool Aid guy. they probably have degrees from this prestigious institution and extensive training with this company. when it comes to brawling though, they're still in kindergarten.

Cortez wants to raise his profile, natch, which is why he wants to make a statement by randomly killing flatscans (that's "non-mutant humans" for you, human), and striking a blow for the mutant revolution. target: a seemingly-abandoned military base. but its just a setup so he can convince Pietro to join him.

X-Factor shouldn't even be there, if Havok didn't follow his instincts and trail their guvmint liaison Val Cooper and Pietro to Camp Hayden. and when they find out that the base harbors a bunch of Sentinels for the much-whispered Project: Wideawake (another black ops mandate to wipe out illegal immigration, but the text was changed to read "mutants"), and the Acolytes start their Kool Aid thing, all hell breaks loose. Despite Chris Claremont's departure from writing the X-books, his influence is so prevalent that profuse verbal jousting is second nature to two super-powered combatants exchanging punches and kicks.

but there are some good fight scenes here - despite the inclusion of annoying bounty hunter Random, he gives the team some badass presence (sorry, Guido, you're strong, but you're a strong clown). but speaking of badass, who would have thought resident jokester Jamie Madrox (the Multiple Man, leader of the team's 2007 incarnation), could fight dirty? classic.

the fight ends more in X-Factor's favor, as Pietro spurns Cortez's offer, and the Acolytes' Mellencamp bites the dust. rumor has it that this character was originally the American country /pop sensation, until he devolved into a lizard-like beast. hating the fact that he can't perform in public anymore, he joined the Acolytes. there is no explanation as to who is this doppelganger who assumed the mantle and created that annoying song for weekend football, shilling for Chevy.

more revelations are in order as the team learns their high and mighty connection to Uncle Sam, Val Cooper, has known about Project: Wideawake all along. but i'm more interested in their choice of hair products; look at Pietro's hair - it makes Superman's spit curl look so dated.

and thus they exit stage a la-Reservoir Dogs set to Kill Bill music. you know how that goes.


X-Force #25 "Back to Front"
Fabian Nicieza/Greg Capullo/and around 198 inkers

the New Mutants became a misnomer after issue #100, because you can't have almost the same cast of characters for that long and still be called "new". enter the craptacular 4 million-issue -selling force known as Rob Liefeld, and comics will never be the same again (actually, it did - remember his return a couple of years ago? you don't. i don't either.). X-Force became the poster kids for running away from home and doing it their way.

in the aftermath of Liefeld's acrimonious departure from Marvel, Fabian Nicieza took the reins and had a somewhat passable run. in their contribution to this crossover, a new Magneto disciple, Exodus (did they even have a character named Excrement? no? why not?), extends another invitation to Xavier's second generation to join Magneto in a place called Heaven. who is this crackhead and why are they even listening to him? wait ... wasn't Fabian (Cortez, not Nicieza) the salesman doing the rounds? what's going on? ahh, the magic of disjointed storytelling, which we will honor by explaining everything in the next post. if ever.

let's backtrack a bit. fleeing Xavier's coop, this particular generation of mutants had other teachers, notably the villain of this piece, and the gun-toting time traveler Cable (ah, but it turns out he's so much more). Cable appeared from the future to lead this ragtag group of tweenies and then disappeared from this era in pursuit of his clone Stryfe (ah yes, Marvel's stupid fascination with clones and dark halves), who attempted to assassinate Charley (to those who are familiar, that was the previous year's crossover). and now he's back in our timeline. that's why they shout for joy, sing his praises, lift their voice, unto the ... ok forget it.

i mean, look at how they express their happiness with Cable's return.


ah, families.

we also see genuine warmth from others who share Cable's vision of "shoot first, shoot again, shoot later".

but then, everybody brings out the tissues when Samuel Guthrie (a.k.a. like a "Cannonball"), de facto leader of the group (when the teacher isn't around), goes all weepy in having his nth foster father realize that there is so much more to them than soldiers waging war (i guess punching Cable brought him to his senses). this also means someone will be telling him stories at bedtime, instead of doing it for the other babies in this dysfunctional family.

of course, family reunions don't last too long, as this cunejo named Exodus shows up, ostensibly to hand out invitations in the name of Magnus ("harbinger of the magnetic storm" ... all of Magneto's salesmen have great language skills but just average selling skills).

among the few invitees are Sam and Roberto "Look at Me Wrong and I'll Kill You" DaCosta. as to how the hell Exodus transported them up there to 'Heaven', you tell me. before leaving though, Sam surreptitiously gives Cable a tracer to track him (Sam), an action with which his mentor is visibly pleased. wait, if you want somebody to track you, shouldn't they plant a tracer on you?

so Cable and the others follow, and Cable throws a hissy fit when he finds out that 'Heaven' is actually his space station (with an electronic butler/friend named "Professor", no less), appropriated by Magneto. this gives him more motivation to kick some doors down, and shoot first, shoot again, and shoot later.

of course, Sam the Centrist talks him down from the ledge. regardless, Cable activates his teleport tech ("bodyslide") and moves his students back to Earth. that done, it's ... CableTime!!

that pose above is the result of Magneto finally showing his purple- and red-clad musclebound 50 year old bod ... see how Cable gets excited?

of course, that excitement kind of dulls the intelligent brain cells, as he conveniently forgets that he, a partial cyborg, has no business going up against somebody who can control magnetic forces.


Magneto may be correct in pointing out later that Cable won the philosophical battle, depriving him of the chance to get Sam and the others on his side, but Cable surely lost the physical one, getting reduced to spare parts (rehab was gonna be a bitch).

next: bring on the real X-Men!

tripping the force magnetic pt. 3

continuing a look back at a '90s classic. if we can call it that.

Fatal Attractions
X-Men #25 "Dreams Fade"
Fabian Nicieza/Andy Kubert/Matt Ryan

following Magneto crashing Illyana's funeral and stealing Colossus as his newest Acolyte, the world prepares for the worst, by activating the Magneto Protocols - an electromagnetic shield around the planet designed to keep Magneto out. maybe.

Magneto retaliates by - let's just say he explodes an EMP on the shield (don't even ask me how he's able to float into space without as much as an oxygen supply or protective suit), and thus disrupting all electrical systems worldwide. how these humans managed to design an EM shield that can be used against them anyway, i scratch my head. no adequate protection, no nothing. maybe they do deserve the wrath of the Magster.

with the EMP blast shutting down the world's power supply (how this was not a catastrophic event with a much stronger impact across Marvel's titles at that time, i don't know again), only the X-Men with their spanking Shi'ar tech were able to watch the football game at that time. i bet some Westchester neighbors knocked on their doors and begged to allow them to watch too (they brought chips!).

following that VDP, Professor Xavier deems its his turn to deliver a rousing speech and implement a final plan to take down old BFF Magneto once and for all (it was the final plan, alright ... for 1993). he forms Task Force Magneto, just like Philippine cops like to form teams to do something specific, but fail in that task more often than not. we'll see how this one fares.

he leaves behind energy wielders (except Gambit) because close-quarter combat is expected, and leaders (like Cyclops) as a precaution, just in case they do fail. Charles' strike force are sooooo grim given their task, Andy Kubert drew them like they all got robbed of a million dollar lottery jackpot. we don't even see Jean kiss Scott goodbye.

the wondrous thing about alien technology is that we can use it anyway we want. for example, Jeff Goldblum manages to infect an alien ship with a virus without knowing a whit about the alien language. this X-team actually manages to teleport themselves right in Magneto's floating space station, Avalon. sure, they had some help getting by undetected, but going by that principle, they can actually go anywhere they want. any-freaking-where.

since the Internet then was never heard of (despite all that vaunted Sh'iar tech - hah!), this time to control the station, Quicksilver has to use a USB flash drive to - what, they didn't have that too?? ok, he used something called a "compact disc" ... soooo lame. did it have DRM?

the result is a reverse teleportation of all of Magneto's sidekicks to escape pods that get launched at a specific distance from Avalon, thus taking them off the board.


so, we have the inevitable confrontation between friends and family. sounds like most reunions.

Quicksilver, in particular, thinks that headbutting his dad will solve his family and self-esteem problems.

now, the most common error in fighting a single foe (as seen in movies and elsewhere) is throwing down one at a time. Kill Bill notwithstanding, you have pile on especially if you're fighting someone world-class, if you wanna win. the X-Men sort of fall into this trap - though Xavier and Jean try to warp his mind while everyone else gets their dibs.

Cyclops didn't want Wolverine to go toe-to-toe with Magneto for obvious reasons. overriding caution with ferocity, Logan is part of this team, and you know you can't stop him from trying his best to slice and dice.

and the inevitable result:

actually, the inevitable result is a more interesting Wolverine and record sales.

and this moment leads to more crossovers and events for years to come (we all worship at the altar of Bob Harras), whether good or bad.

Onslaught, Heroes Reborn, Heroes Return, Joseph, etc. ... the current Marvel braintrust took a page from this when they depowered mutants, sent the Hulk into space and started Civil War. one crossover should beget another.

now, the obvious suspect for letting the X-Men get into Avalon without clanging alarms would be their erstwhile teammate, Colossus. but shouldn't he be in one of those floating escape pods, remote teleported before the battle?

i know why. everyone that got teleported had IDs and magnetic strips identifying them as Acolytes - Peter still didn't even one or even an official uniform.

this crossover epitomized the darkening of the heroes we've come to love ... Xavier written in the '60s wouldn't cross that line, and since then his choices have been always questioned by his students. is it any wonder that these days, he's no longer in control of his school, and his first and best student, Cyclops, one-ups him at every turn?

next: the triumph of Larry Hama and more backstabbing

tripping the force magnetic pt. 4

continuing a look back at a '90s classic ... if you can call it that.

Fatal Attractions
Wolverine #75 "Nightmares Persist"
Larry Hama/Adam Kubert/Mark Farmer/Dan Green/Mark Pennington

Larry Hama is best known for his 12-year G.I. Joe run. but he also made a mark with a 7-year stint on Wolverine, where blood tend to spill and characters die, like what you would expect in a military-themed comic. sadly, G.I. Joe was geared toward kids so Cobras and Joes alike would always parachute safely to the ground even after their planes were blown up.

but enough about the Joes. this is a post about Logan, tying in to my reflections on Fatal Attractions, and how this event set him on a different direction, and Hama was there to steer the bike.

with Magneto ripping his adamantium out (wondering why no one thought of doing that prior to this), Logan is now put in a place he hasn't been through before - the loss of one of his two security blankets. the massive trauma he suffers necessitates that the X-Men bring him back to Earth for medical treatment.

i really wonder how his mask stayed on? painted, perhaps?

the hombre's tough, but this was one hell of a painful thing to go through. good thing he has Gambit (of all people) providing Cajun stereotype comedy relief (contrast that with the current state of affairs in X-Men, re Messiah CompleX, where Remy is on the other side and Logan throws down on him).

"piece de gâteau"? wouldn't that be 'morceau de gâteau'? merde!

if the X-Men's Blackbird wasn't space-worthy, how the hell did Bishop get it up there in the first place? Professor Xavier and Jean try to hold Logan and the aircraft together (with Quicksilver providing the speedy manual navigating), but Logan gets worse by the minute.

like i said, his mask was painted on his face

back on terra firma, the late Moira McTaggert and the rest of the X-crew try to guide the aircraft in, dispense medical advice, speculate and panic all at the same time. the only positive thing provided by a Blackbird entering earth orbit on fire is to give some poor kid the chance to make a wish.

"i wish i was a mutant!"

Xavier tries to pull Wolverine away from the light, so to speak, but the pull is too great. the Blackbird runs into nasty weather and is threatening to tear itself apart. only Jean makes the supreme sacrifice of using her telekinesis to hold the parts together at the cost of getting swept out of the hatch. and then in one of most improbable-yet-probable movie-like finishes, Logan wakes up and saves Jean.

we never actually see the Blackbird land on the Westchester grounds. huh.

back on safe soil, Logan starts the healing process. on his first attempt at machismo, he waves off all opinions on his medical health and participates in a solo Danger Room sequence, and is promptly smacked around.

getting hurt only fuels his anger, and when he gets mad, he usually pops his claws. and when he does ...

its finally revealed (and this part is semi-officially credited to noted writer Peter David) that Logan's claws were actually bone, not implants, and the adamantium bond made it the weapons they were. now Logan's healing factor - his other security blanket - has not returned to full efficiency and is struggling to keep up with the wounds, especially the holes opened (ugh) by 'tracting and retracting' (snort) his bone claws.

feeling he's no longer "the best at what he does", Logan embarks on a long strange trip away from his teammates to rediscover himself. at least he still had great penmanship despite the wounds on his wrists.

ol' Canucklehead won't regain his adamantium until 70 issues later (that's more than 5 years). the change actually made him a better character, not the cardboard cutout he was devolving into at that time, and made for some great storylines. like the time he went to bone to adamantium bone with Cyber, or that classic throwdown with Sabretooth in #90. he actually turned feral too, at some point during the next few years, which is a nod to his supposed (but not sanctioned) origin - an evolved wolverine created by the High Evolutionary, the god of all mad scientists.

Larry Hama, bless his wild Japanese heart, wrote some of the best Wolverine stories, and this is a salute.

final stop: backstabbing. kinda.

tripping the force magnetic pt. 5

a last look at a '90s classic ... if we can call it that.

Fatal Attractions
Excalibur #71 "Crossing Swords"
Scott Lobdell/Ken Lashley/Darick Robertson/Matt Ryan
Cam Smith/Randy Elliott/Randy Emberlin/Mark Nelson

the cover for the last chapter of Fatal Attractions is indicative of what the '90s comics were evolving into - exaggerated musculature and poses, and the bigger breasts, the better. man, these guys work out a lot! look at Colossus' abs! his waist must be like 24"! his legs are like sequoias!

one thing that bugged me was that V on the Acolytes' unis. what does it mean? victory? five? peace? shouldn't it say 'M' for Magneto? this harkens back to the Voltes V/Mazinger Z cartoons. why does Voltes V have an 'M' on his chest (which becomes the cross guard of his laser sword), while Mazinger Z had a 'V'? what the hell, man. as Bill Simmons would say, i need to know these things.

ok, back to the program.

the story so far is Magneto is back from the dead (that phrase will still be uttered even by the time my grandkids are like 12) and on a recruitment drive. despite only bagging Colossus (and a couple of young mutants, Rusty and Skids), he makes life miserable for our heroes, dismantling Cable, and sucking the adamantium out of Logan, not to mention all those people who died during his initial display of power with an EMP.

a few of Magneto's Acolytes, like Spoor (Spoor? what the hell is his mutant power? hair growth?) below have been imprisoned by the X-Men for rehab. the locks look faulty because here we are, seeing him locked in mortal combat with Nightcrawler, in the driving rain of Muir Isle.

yeah, you know he'd fart out loud in a full elevator.

my sarcastic question is answered: Spoor's power is to emit pheromones to enhance anyone's emotional state. that would go well during family reunions and domestic disturbances. he's usually questioned during murder cases in CSI and Law and Order.

apart from that cheery incident (Spoor escaped because Excalibur forgot to lock the door), everything else is cheery. that is, until a visit from the (real) X-Men sends everyone to the liquor cabinet.

Professor Xavier thinks Peter's decision to up and leave can be tied in to a previous head injury (sustained at the hands of that loser X-Cutioner) and with the death of his sister, made him lean towards the Magster. so they want to perform a lobotomy on him ... well, kinda. but they have to lure him back to Earth, and so what better bait than his ex-, Kitty "You Can't Touch This" Pryde, a.k.a. Shadowcat.

Kitty consents after some drama, and a fake message about wanting to join the cause is emailed to Avalon (what? of course its "themanager@avalon.com". there wasn't any email then? really?). by the way, be careful about sending fake emails; you could get into trouble. seriously, dude.

the jerk Exodus, who couldn't prevent his master from being mind-wiped, assumes control of Avalon and thus Colossus has to ask permission for him to bring Kitty back. hey, i wonder how Exodus' voice sounds like. he has this special dialogue balloons that seem to imply he talks in sinister, gravelly tones.

of course, somewhere over the Southwestern desert, the man/cyborg who was recently dismantled by Magneto intercepts that same message, and he thinks correctly that Colossus is being set up by Excalibur and Xavier. i wonder why he thinks though, that he needs to show up, if he has some scores to settle with the Acolytes. why not just go back up to Avalon and kick their butt, given that Magneto is no longer a threat (or doesn't he know that)?

oh what big teeth you have, Nathan

or its just an excuse to have a family reunion (at this stage, it still has not been confirmed that Cable is Cyclops' long-lost son).

speaking of which Jean confides to a daughter she instantly had, about wedding plans in the future (yes, that's the classic X-Men #30). she'd have more time to talk with Rachel about this, if only because of Professor X's proclivity of butting into people's conversations and lives at the wrong time. what if Scott and Jean were having sex? damn telepaths!

look, he's even vaguely smug.

Cable's attempt to inject himself unobtrusively totally fails, and he comes face to face with his (as yet unconfirmed) sister.

pointing guns at kin - yep, that's one happy family

Colossus teleports in (well, i guess someone repaired the systems in so short a time - that was probably a hell of a bill), and talks to Kitty, who in turn, tries her best to win the Oscar for 1993 ...

... just enough to provide her mates to collar Colossus, who of course sees it as another betrayal. what part of "no" do they not understand? i don't wanna be lobotomized! leave me the hell alone!


elsewhere, there's at least one who agrees with Peter, and wants to kick his ass as well. to do that, he's willing to kick his family members too. was Cable raised by white trash (a.k.a. Britney Spears)?

being also someone who's been time-tossed like Cable, Rachel manifests a Captain Britain persona and calls him Askani'son briefly, which stuns Cable into behaving a bit. that, and a psionic sucker punch. which means the mystery of these relationships will be addressed at a later date.

surgery commences for Colossus, courtesy of Cyclops' eye beams. i wonder why he doesn't do this more often - construction work, laser research, that kind of thing. oh that's right, those bastard evil mutants doesn't leave him a free day in his calendar. damn.

this issue would be too boring without some sort of mutant slugfest (fisticuffs between kin and friends included), so the other Acolytes make an appearance to ehm, retrieve Colossus, but with all the intention of slugging it out with anyone who even disagrees with them verbally. good thing Kurt knows a thing or two about verbal. ol' Nightcrawler is too much of a handful for Acolytes. without Magneto, these sheep are stuck in kindergarten, as i said.

even Scott lends an ... eye. very useful in peace or war. he's a hit with the chicks (yes, i'm talking to you, Emma).


and what of their newest sheep? ah well, he seems cured.


... but he's still leaving. not that he's ungrateful and all, but ...

this is generally the weakest of the issues in the crossover, though it provides an amount of closure to the "Angry Peter" period. we all know he wouldn't last long with those zealots. the best thing Fatal Attractions provided is a new direction for Wolverine, and that Magneto mindwipe stunt begat Onslaught - a huge, huge crossover event that involved the whole Marvel Universe, completely broke our trust in Xavier, and allowed Rob Leifeld to come back to Marvel (even if we knew he was gonna stink up the joint and wasn't gonna last long either).