Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1994-07-01 00:02:30 |
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X-Force #36
Issue(s): X-Force #36
Cover Date: Jul 94
Title: "Genocidal tendencies"
Credits:
Fabian Nicieza - Writer
Antonio Daniel - Penciler
Kevin Conrad, Josef Rubinstein, & Harry Candelario - Inker
Ben Raab - Assistant Editor
Bob Harras - Editor
Review/plot:
As a big fan of Nimrod from the Claremont era, when i heard they were making a Nimrod toy for the X-Force line, i was already halfway out the door with my wallet out (this story may be slightly exaggerated for effect). But when i got to the store, all they had was this blocky red thing. It turns out this story (which i picked up somewhere along the way but apparently never bothered to get the first part) explains the reason. Although this is the only appearance of this version of Nimrod, so making a toy of him while ignoring the original was pretty clearly a mistake.
X-Force face off against the robot that everyone has agreed to call Nimrod.
In part one of this story, i think Nimred hit Domino with a shrink ray that only affected her waist. Looks painful.
Cable uses his "slowly-increasing telekinetic power" during the fight.
Despite being robotic, Nimred seems to have a personality and an ego. He's doing the robot equivalent of "Pfft, that didn't even hurt!" after Shatterstar hits him.
Also note that depending on how you parse Nimred's words, he might be calling Shatterstar a mutant. On the other hand, he might be directing "mutant" at Domino while just calling Shatterstar a "genetic miscreant". Which would be accurate, but i would have liked to see Nimred react more overtly to the fact that Shatterstar is from Mojoworld and not a mutant in the sense that Sentinels should be programmed to care about.
The scientists at this facility are confused because their robot shouldn't be acting this way. So Cable uses his even more rarely used telepathic powers to go inside Nimred's mind.
What they find almost makes it sound like Nimred is imbued with a program from the real Nimrod.
The idea here might have been a revival of the real Nimrod. But i guess it got nixed (or was forgotten) when Marvel came up with Bastion. There could have been two Nimrods running around.
Instead, Cable convinces Nimred that if he went into action now, he'd instigate a major war that would lead to the deaths of many humans, in greater numbers than when the Days of Future Pasts happened in [our future/Nimrod's past]. So the Nimrod program in Nimred agrees to go back to sleep.
In the telepathy sequences above, note also how Cable's "T-O Infection" got out of control while he was busy interfacing with Nimrod.
The scientists give Nimrod's central neural net to X-Force, saying that they think humanity has a right to develop weapons to protect themselves from evil mutants, but that mutants have a right to "defend themselves against that fear gone mad".
Aside from my dislike of the fake Nimrod, this was actually a decent issue which had me questioning why i let my X-Force collection start to degrade at this point. But then i turned to the last page and saw this:
Ugh.
Quality Rating: C+
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
I had the same Nimrod toy, though at this point, I only would have known him from his brief-but-cool appearance in the X-Men cartoon.
Not sure if this is explained in the comic itself, but it confused me that Nimrod is described as not meant to be created for 60 years? The original DoFP was only set about 30 years in the future and I thought Rachel went back in time not long afterwards, followed by Nimrod.
You know what? The Nimrod figure is even Worse than the Century one...
Fnord, this issue is important because it finally confirms that Domino's mutant power is her ability to have things "fall into place for her"- it's not just ordinary luck. This was previously hinted at in New Warriors 46- Domino manages to get a telekinesis-dampener past Justice's shield, Cable wonders briefly how she did that and then remembers that things "fall into place" for Domino. But this is the issue that actually confirms it.
While it's disappointing that the Nimrod toy represents this version and not the classic one, it was still a remarkably hefty chunk of plastic for a single, regular priced action figure at the time. Nowadays, that sort of thing would get split into sixths and sold a piece at a time alongside another figure.
But the piece at a time alongside another figure all add up to what is essentially a FREE extra hefty chunk of plastic.
