Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1991-02-01 02:04:30 |
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Uncanny X-Men annual #15
Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men annual #15
Cover Date: 1991
Title: "Queens of sacrifice"
Credits:
Fabian Nicieza - Writer
Tom Raney - Penciler
Josef Rubinstein and Co. (inc. Art Nichols) - Inker
Suzanne Gaffney - Assistant Editor
Bob Harras - Editor
Review/plot:
The inker credits say "Josef Rubinstein and Co.". Per the UHBMCC, a later X-Men Index will add Art Nichols. The "Co." may mean that it was more than just Rubinstein and Nichols on inks, or it may just be that by the time the credits were lettered they knew that the inks would need help but not by who.
This is part three of Kings of Pain, and following the format from last issue, we start with a Misunderstanding Fight. This time it's X-Force and the New Warriors against the "X-Men" if you accept the fact that the group living on Muir Island count as X-Men (otherwise, there are no actual X-Men in this story, despite where it appears). What's funny about this is that the Muir Island team is currently under control of the Shadow King, but he's like, "Oh all right, i'll let you have free will for this dumb story".
You might think that would therefore avoid the Misunderstanding Fight, but no such luck.
You'd think grabbing Madrox with telekinesis would be one of the better ways to handle him, but, again, no such luck.
Anyway, after the fight, Cable and company explain what's going on to Moira, who has no interest in seeing her insane son resurrected. So this huge group of characters go to Edinburgh to stop Harness and Piecemeal from absorbing the final bits of Proteus' energy.
And they try to help poor Piecemeal, who throughout this story has been an unwilling participant.
The plan to help him involves one of those bizarre combination of power tricks (Speedball calls it "half-baked") that always seem to work out.
Except this time it doesn't.
Meanwhile, this is where we learn that Harness is a woman, and Piecemeal's mother.
So that's where we leave things for the final part. It's worth noting that almost nothing happened in this part, except that we've piled a large number of additional characters into our cast. And only Moira is important to the story. A better structured story that didn't have to be conscious of having specific characters in each annual could have simply had Moira in the story from the start. And Piecemeal could have finished absorbing Proteus' energy last issue. The story is unnecessarily dragged out because of the format.
Quality Rating: D+
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: This is part three of Kings of Pain. Part four is in X-Factor annual 6.
The back-ups from this issue are covered in separate entries.
References:
- The real X-Men are off planet in Uncanny X-Men #274-277 during this story.
- Moira says that she had an opportunity to reconstruct her son in the back-up from Classic X-Men #36 and opted not to do it then, so she's certainly not in favor of someone else doing it now.
- Proteus was killed in Uncanny X-Men #125-128.
- Part of the power trick involved in trying to save Piecemeal includes something similar to what Marvel Boy did to Speedball in New Warriors #1.
Crossover: Kings of Pain
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
Note that Lorna is unable to be controlled by the Shadow King in the Muir Island Saga- he's using her as his nexus but he has to physically restrain her. Here, though, she's just under his control.
I was really surprised by how much of Lorna's butt her costume showed in this story- not even Psylocke's thong showed as much skin. I couldn't believe they would allow it in a code book.
Note that Speedball is able to be mindlinked to in this story and the X-Factor Annual. However, in later issues, the Gamesmaster in Child's Play and some evil telepaths in Ellis's Thunderbolts are unable to read Speedball's mind. Maybe the way it works is nobody can read Robbie's mind without his consent.
Ugly art, and a story every bit as dull as the 2000 drek books Nicieza was pumping out at the time.
And here Shatterstar describes his power as a concussive force blast in the panel you scanned.
@Bob: Hey, Cable & Deadpool was pretty awesone
One questions i have is why just these people? According the Muir Island Saga, Guido and Amanda Sefton should be there as well. (I'll give this creative team the benefit of the doubt and assume that this takes place sometime during Uncanny #274-275, to explain Rogue's abscence) And even with the Shadow King "loosening his hold" (rolleyes), why is Polaris there? Isn't she supposed to be locked up at this point as the "Nexus of focal poiint of hatred" or some such rubbish? As "recent" as Uncanny #269 she was shown to be locked up. It's all very confusing.
I WOULD complain about Lorna thong-tacular costume if I wasn't aware of the existence of X-Factor #87.
Considering that Tom Raney is the penciller, it's amazing how awful the art is.
And, in the misunderstanding fight, is there any mention of previous alliances? Like how Sam has known Moira for years? Or how Tabitha was in the Fallen Angels with Jamie and Siryn?
This whole storyline is just one big stupid mess.
Was this Fabian's first time writing the X-Men ... er, the characters appearing in X-Men? Maybe he was just thrown in since Claremont was in the middle of three storylines at once in the monthly (Shi'ar/Skrull, Savage Land, and Muir Island) AND prepping the new book? I'm guessing he didn't do his research and his editors didn't help because the attitude in that era was "who cares about annuals?"
I'm thinking the Shadow King relaxed his grip on these guys because he may have been interested in the powers of Proteus and Piecemeal, to add to his own. Or not.
Or he did it simply to make sure that no one was wondering what was going on with the "Islanders" until his plan was ready to go into motion. If everyone thought they were ok, they wouldn't be on guard against them.
That's a good reason!
