Reviewer: Jesse Baker
Story Title: Ends and Odds
Written by: Peter David
Penciled by: Kirk Jarvinen
Inked by: Joe Rubenstein
Colored by: Glynis Oliver and Steve Buccellato
Lettered by: Mike Heisler
Editor: Bob Harras
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Note: Cover By Mike Mignola
This issue is a big issue of sorts: the first issue of Peter David’s legendary X-Factor run, the “bridge” issue between Uncanny X-Men #280 and X-Men #1/Uncanny X-Men #281, and the last appearance of the original X-Factor line-up. Hyped as “The Muir Island Epilogue” and featuring a cover by a then unknown Mike Mignola, this issue marks the end of an era for the X-Men while kicking off a brand new era where Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, and Peter David would have control over the X-Men franchise…
The issue begins with Xavier screaming in a white void before running towards a phone. As Xavier hits zero, we learn that he is inside the mind of David Hall (AKA Legion). As the operator informs Xavier, Legion is braindead and not responding. We cut back to the real world as Storm, Jean Grey, Moria McTaggart, and Cyclops worry that Xavier is too weak from having his spine shattered (or is it his legs broken) to go into Legion’s mind as well as being in total denial that he’s been crippled again. Logan breaks the pity-party up by stating the obvious: that it doesn’t really matter to Professor X if he’s is crippled or not. Moria chews Logan out over this lack of pity and runs off a list of things Xavier can’t do now that he’s wheelchair-bound again. She then orders Logan to put out his cigar, which leads to the disgusting moment of this issue as Wolverine literally EATS his cigar. Jubilee arrives and leads Logan out so that he can talk to her about something while Jean and Scott bicker about Logan’s antics. Jean says he did to to freak Scott out which confuses Scott as to why Logan would do something like that.
As Archangel flies over the remains of Muir Island, we cut to Colossus screaming hello to Warren. Colossus mopes over how Warren was ignoring him as Beast starts spewing poetry while he and Forge ramble through the wreckage. After finding a framed autographed 8X10 of Xavier. Colossus asks why he’s singing poetry which leads to Beast hitting the readers over the head with the foreshadowing sledgehammer about how all of the X-Men teams need to unite as one in the coming months. Colossus then asks Forge why he hasn’t found some sort of device to clean up the rubble, which leads to one of the issue’s funniest moments as Peter is handed a broom and dustpan as Forge and Beast leave as they chuckle at Colossus.
Cut back to the astral plane, as Xavier finds a brick wall blocking some stares which has a huge opening in it so as to let people see what’s on the other side. Xavier steps around it as we cut back to the real world, where Jean and Cyclops reminisce about the old days. Jean calls Scott “Slim” and talks about how both helpless and intimidating Xavier was when Jean first met Xavier.
We cut back to the outside as Nick Fury, Mystique, Rogue, and Val Cooper give us exposition theater towards how Mystique survived being shot by Val in Uncanny X-Men #266 and ended up impersonating Val. Basically Val turned the gun on herself at the last minute and that Mystique called in SHIELD to get Val medical treatment while at the same time arranging for Mystique to be brainwashed into thinking she was Val so as to keep the Shadow King from knowing that Val had broken free from her thrall. Mystique then explains that she had Fury use “Rogue” as the password that restored her mind when it came time for her to stop the Shadow King. After an awkward moment of silence, Rogue rails against her foster mom for not telling her she was alive but Raven throws it back into Rogue’s face that she had no freaking clue Rogue was alive, which is true given that Rogue only returned from limbo AFTER Val “killed” Raven as well as the fact that she spent months in the Savage Land after being brought back shacking up with Magneto. Finally Mystique cuts through the bullsh*t and asks why they just can’t be glad that the other person is alive. Foster-Mother and Adopted Daughter hug as we fade out towards the most talked about moment in this issue. A moment that a lot of people wrote to Marvel about: Logan tells Jubilee that they are through as a team. Jubilee goes on a rampage, spouting out famous partners such as Jekyll and Hyde, Funk and Wagnall, and Bert and Ernie. OK…. we have a pair of gay puppets, two people who wrote an encyclopedia, and crazed doctor and his psychotic murderous alter-ego. Got comparisons Jubilee :) Despite being hated by readers and blasted as being a rip-off of Robin, Jubilee’s firing caused Marvel to get tons of letters asking if she was really gone. The absence of Jubilee from the first three months of the following X-Men revamp seemed as evidence of Jubilee’s removal from the book but by the time X-Men #4 came around Jubilee was back and acting like nothing had ever happened.
We now cut towards Lorna Dane and Guido, who is staring at Lorna’s butt while Lorna practices with her newly restored magnetic powers, As Lorna rambles on about how screwed up her life has been in recent years, Val Cooper shows up and offers them a chance to join Freedom Force. Lorna rejects Val’s proposal to join any team called “Freedom Force” (which explains away why Val will call her new team X-Factor) or work with Blob (who at this time was stuck in Iraq as a prisoner of war along with Pyro). Lorna then moans the fact that she’s outside and not by Xavier’s side as we cut back to the astral plane. Xavier is now inside a house talking about all of the changes his original students have gone through: Jean being alive, Cyclops losing his son and wife, and Angel’s metamorphous into Death. The house is empty except for a bunch of lamps and a picture of Legion as Jean taps onto the window. Xavier leaves the house to be with her but the stairs he took to the house are gone and Xavier falls in the void. Jean then reveals that everything he’s seen has been things his mind has created and that Legion is brain-dead to the point that his mind is a blank slate. As Xavier stops his fall and starts flying, the rest of X-Factor show up and tell Xavier that they need him more than his brain-dead bastard lovechild. Xavier then breaks up this bit of narcissistic rambling by asking Xavier why he hasn’t said anything about his paralysis. Xavier’s response is one of the most obvious answers given the nature of comics, as Xavier says that so long as Jean can come back to life and Warren can get a new set of wings, Xavier will one day regain his ability to walk.
Xavier and X-Factor are now back in the real world and Xavier proclaims that he is alright. This leads to Moria yelling “He’s alright!” to Storm, who yells it to Colossus, who tells Gambit, who tells Polaris, who tells Guido, who tells Maddrox, who tells several of his duplicates, who tells Rogue, who tells Jubilee, who tells Rogue to get bent. Logan tells Rogue to ignore Jubilee as Xavier says goodbye to his love child by way of closing Legion’s eyes. Xavier then piggy-backs onto Beast’s back as they go towards the window where get the last exchange of the book:
Xavier: My only question is… now what am I going to do with fourteen X-Men?
Beast: Bag them?
We then cut to a random shot of Forge, Rogue, Colossus, Guido, Gambit, Polaris, Jubilee, and Wolverine standing together like they were taking a team photo to close out this issue. This makes for no real sense given the line-ups of X-Factor, X-Men, and Uncanny X-Men after this issue but in the long run it’s not that big of a deal.
