Coming off getting a DC Universe subscription a few months back, I now have a Marvel unlimited subscription, so what does the Marvel Universe have to offer. Well, let’s take a look at this annual issue. Full disclosure, my knowledge of the X-men is limited. I’ve seen Wolverine and the X-men, and the movies. Yes, I haven’t actually seen the 90s show, sacrilege I know, but I was always more of a DC fan. I’m going into this more blind than I ever have before, lets see if this comic really does follow Stan Lee’s mantra ‘every comic is someone’s first’
We open with Charles’ Xavier’s massive head and oh my god,
this is very 90s artwork, isn’t it? I see the Liefeld influence here. Anyway,
it’s not him that’s narrating and our pink narrator muses how Xavier struggles
to sleep hearing the sounds of many inward screams. She talks about how he’s
dedicated his life to seeking a peace between man and mutant and that this
narrator may admire him greatly, and is saddened that Xavier blames her for the
death of an X-Factor member named Jamie Madrox. Even so he truly seems to want
to understand her and has been reaching out to trap her mind, our narrator,
Haven has managed to trap Xavier instead. And Xavier, who naturally has his
shirt off, is looking jacked for someone who lacks the use of his legs.
Meanwhile, in Washington DC in a place called the Roosevelt
Foundation, a S.H.I.E.LD. research centre, X-factor consisting of Forge and… I
have no idea who the others are. They’ve been called out in the middle of the
night to help escort a canister of classified contents whilst it’s transported
to an airfield to be shipped off to Utah.
Leading the op is Agent Daniels who’s less than happy about
mutants, specifically bounty hunters, being involved in the operation at all.
They get to work loading the canister onto the truck and we out one of the
members is Wolfsbane. Daniels asks why Forge is even here, to which he
demonstrates his use, having constructed a device to levitate the canister onto
the truck.
They’re introduced to the driver, Chuck Rose, who’s a little
nicer to them than Daniels is, Daniels is a mutant-hater, and very obviously a
racist allegory, interesting that they gave her dark skin. I guess it gives her
some contrast to everyone else in the group. En-route Chuck is incapacitated
by… something, it’s not really clear what. They manage to stop the car and find
their attacker
Back to Xavier we reveal that Haven is not intending to
attack him, but is asking for his forgiveness over Madrox’s death. He was dying
of something called the legacy virus, she tried to cure him but her cure ended
up proving worse than the disease and led his eventual death. Charles is remarkably
cold about it. She insists they have the same goals and she does not belong in
the camp of Magneto and Sinister.
Xavier asks that she opens her mind to him, something some
absolutely refuses, but decides to share her backstory and aid in Xavier’s
understanding of her. She was born in India, her father was a diplomat and her
mother a teacher so she knew a degree of privilege growing up, but she saw the
helplessness and hopeless of the people around her, especially given her
telepathic abilities. Through her own meditation her mindset was altered, seeing
that the beggar is as much the king and she dedicated her life to alleviating
suffering.
Xavier asks when that changed, calling her a murderer which
angers her, but Xavier is very strong in the psychic plane and dismisses her
threats.
Back in Washington DC, the guy who according to the cover is
named Power and I can only find that hilarious, punches back a member of
X-Factor named Guido, but his mutation is that absorbs kinetic energy, so
Power’s punches are actually making him stronger and able to punch him back,
Power is then destroyed by a ‘SHKOM’ sound effect by… I don’t know who this is,
or maybe not as Power soon has him in a headlock before he’s stunned by the
Forge and knocked out.
Daniels is pissy since she wanted Power in retreat so she
can trace them back, good of you to let them in on the plan. Wolfsbane queries
whether Power’s attack could’ve been a diversion whilst someone else went after
the canister. Turns out, no, Power was actually was the contents of the
canister, or at least his body was, his mind had been in the mindscape for some
time. Turns out his name is Professor Power, which just makes it funnier.
Apparently, he’d been introduced in a Spider-man story.
As X-factor make another attack, Professor Power monologues
about how Charles Xavier killed his son Matthew and now he’s planning to kill
all of Xavier’s X-men before killing Xavier himself. Still, the X-factor get
some re-enforcements from Polaris, who had been following as secondary line of
defence under Forge’s instruction.
Haven continues her tale, she used her connections and
wealth to rebuild a children’s hospital in Calcutta, renaming it Haven, for
which the locals assigned her the same name. But in comes the true evil of this
story, a man. Yeah, he was a manipulative arse she fell head over heals for, to
the detriment of everything else, when he took her for all she was worth and
dumped her, she heard the voice within. Telling her the Mahapralaya,
destruction of ¾ of the world was coming, and a new humanity would emerge. Mutants
were not a separate species but an evolutionary leap all would eventually
follow.
She began to share the message with the world and gathered
followers. Xavier tries to probe further, only provoking further anger, and
Xavier screaming whilst talking in a relatively calm manner, enjoy a panel of
Xavier’s mouth. He decries her as a threat, her actions killed Maddox and
thousands more, and he hopes to trust God to bring the era of peace between
humanity and mutants without her. She’s saddened that he doesn’t understand and
forces him out of her mind as he tries to probe for something she’s hiding.
Professor Power quickly knocks down Lorna, and moves to
Guido, Guido’s body absorbs kinetic energy but he does have to release it
eventually, so if he keeps pounding him, preventing him from releasing it,
Guido’s in serious trouble. Still, the others aren’t gonna let that happen, the
mutant Random manages to annoy him enough to throw Guido away.
But it’s not all going Professor’s Power’s way, after
everything going on, it’s becoming too much for his body to handle and he needs
to retreat. Forge attempts to stop him with a cellular destructor, but his body
isn’t a living one, so it’s useless. Lorna is back on the field and holds
Professor Power down. And we find out here, the guy’s using his son’s body to
do this.
They’re about to tear him apart but here’s the comic’s
twist. Chuck Rose was a double-agent the whole time, and holds Agent Daniels at
gunpoint, against her objection, Forge orders X-Factor to back off, she refuses
but Wolfsbane gets in between them and manages to separate them. However,
Professor Power manages to overwhelm the magnetic field holding with the last
of his alpha energies. Daniels orders them after him but he’s already long gone
and Daniels gets a taste of Forge’s anti-gravity thing for her constant
mutant-hating
But the story isn’t done with twists yet, there’s a bit more
to the Haven story, see before Xavier was kicked out of her mind, he got the
bit of information Haven was hiding. See, her brief relationship bore fruit,
she’s pregnant with his child, making matters weirder is that the child inside
her is the mutant, not her. Her son will never be born, and they share a
symbiotic relationship.
Xavier tries to reach out and does so briefly, but the
connection is cut off, as they can’t allow him to track them back to their
temple in India. She really has the upmost respect for Charles and wanted his
support and help but since he’s made it clear he opposes them after the Maddox
incident, she believes they have to die. To that end, she unleashed Professor
Power again.
There’s a second story called cleaning house. Guido is
house-cleaning, Rahne offers to help him but he says he wants to do this alone.
Cleaning out Jamie’s room, Jamie Madrox who was the person Xavier was pissed
about in the previous story. Through the cleaning, we get treated to Guido’s
perspective on it, how he feels he should have done more to help, Jamie kept
his condition a secret till near the end, was brought in by Haven’s promise of
a cure but ultimately died. He ends up destroying most of the room in enraged
guilt.
Rahne goes to see him after hearing the commotion and the
two talk each other through and begin cleaning up, Guido in captions saying
he’ll never let something like this happen to his family again.
So that was X-Factor Annual #9
It’s okay. The story is fine, nothing too much to complain
about but this story feels like an epilogue to a story I haven’t read and
that’s the thing that hurts it most when it comes to being new reader friendly.
A recap page, as it common in Marvel’s modern comics and possibly a who’s who
guide of who the mutants involved are would’ve been welcomed.
It sets up the next phase in the Haven arc which may or may
not be interesting to read. Still, despite some attempt at character banter,
the only character that stood out was Agent Daniels, the allegorical racist.
Professor Power is goofy as hell name for a villain but was certainly powerful.
The art is typical 90's, big stock characters with minimal
emphasis on backgrounds, people with muscles bigger than their heads, or large
boobs depending on the gender; also draw feet as little as possible. It wasn’t
so bad it took me out of the story but I didn’t love it either
The second story is short but got its message across quickly and
is honestly my favourite of the two, though it would’ve been nice to have every
character’s perspective.
Rating 2.5/5 stars.
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