Issue(s): X-Factor #85
Cover Date: Dec 92
Title: "Snikts and bones"
Credits:
Peter David - Writer
Jae Lee - Penciler
Al Milgrom - Inker
Kelly Corvese - Editor

Review/plot:
This is the prime exhibit of how Peter David's X-Factor got derailed by crossovers. At least some actual members of X-Factor do appear in this issue (but not Polaris, Wolfsbane, or Strong Guy), and we do get our one page allotment of subplot...

...but as you can tell from the cover, this issue's focus is the fight between Marvel's biggest, baddest X-Characters.

I should say that, at the time, Jae Lee's art just screamed 90s! to me. But the truth is that Lee is more in the lines of a Bill Sienkiewicz or even Larry Stroman than, say, Jim Lee or Rob Liefeld.

Cable eventually convinces Wolverine and Bishop to at least give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't kill Professor X.

Meanwhile, Apocalypse locates one of Cable's safehouses and discovers that Cable's technology is derived from him and his work.

We did see in X-Force that Cable was also getting weapons from AIM, but i assume they were the only organization that could have replaced things that Cable brought back from the future when they got damaged.

Cannonball leads a team of X-people to the MLF.

Kamikaze, who ironically does not like sneak attacks, tries to sneak up on Archangel and gets decapitated without Angel even realizing it.

Yeah, apparently Boom Boom was let out of the Danger Room prison too.

The issue ends in the middle of the MLF fight, with Reaper about to kill Quicksilver and Gambit.

Peter David does really well writing all these characters. I could see the focus on Boom Boom's reaction to Kamikaze's death as feeling too flippant, but it works for her, and we will see Iceman trying to talk to Angel about the accidental killing in the next chapter; it's part of the character arc for Angel dealing with his desire for vengeance on Apocalypse.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is part six of X-Cutioner's Song. Part seven is in X-Men #15.

References:

• Cannonball says that he has a score to settle with Dragoness and she reminds him how attractive she finds him. Those are references to New Mutants #94.

Crossover: X-Cutioner's Song

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

It would have made a lot of sense to have this be the first issue of Cable's ongoing. Or the 3rd issue, if 'Blood & Metal' had been 1 & 2. I guess I see why they wanted to keep the crossover as the 4 team books, though. And I suppose the Apocalypse/Archangel stuff is at least based on things that happened in previous issues of X-Factor.

Fnord, Jae Lee may be reminiscent of Sienkiewicz here, but he's still Image-bad when it comes to classical storytelling. You guys all complain about lack of backgrounds etc. in Jim Lee's art - well, *Jae* Lee has almost no backgrounds here. It's all pictures of posed people and surreal faces...

I wonder if Scott Lobdell read this one and said "I just had Jean explain to Warren that he controls the wings! You can't have his wings then just kill someone without him knowing it!"

I have to agree with you fnord that PAD did a good job with these issues. I complained about how the jokes were like a steamroller in his first few issues, but here I think he does an excellent job of restraining himself when the tone calls for seriousness. Boom-Boom's comment sounds like something she would say, and Warren's response is exactly how he would react to it.

I don't much care for Lee's art style here though. The lack of backgrounds is one thing (I guess you could say that it draws more of your attention to the characters), but I hate the way he draws faces. People look angry when they aren't, or, occasionally, weirdly lopsided. That shot of Gambit standing with Psylocke has me wondering why Gambit, who is supposed to be attractive, suddenly looks like a boxer who has been punched in the face a few too many times and gotten a dislocated jaw.