Kind of a cool concept until you realize it only exists because Stan Lee was tired of explaining himself about where everyone got super powers from.
Nevertheless, it is impossible to deny the influence that the X-Men have both within the Marvel universe and on comic books in general. At the time of their inception, I don't think even Stan Lee and Jack Kirby would have any inkling that that group of five teenagers with attitude and their wise mentor would spawn a mythos that rivals the entire rest of the Marvel universe itself. Because of this, the question I often ask is...why aren't they? But enough about the X-Men and how they and mutants in general really don't fit in Marvel, let's get on with the newest version of an old property...twice over, in fact. This is X-Men '92 #1.
The 90s cartoon series is probably the most commonly known version of the team, which would definitely make this a good jumping on point for anyone who watched the show and has an overload of nostalgia on it...like yours truly. We are introduced in a quick series of panels to the seven of the eight main members of the X-Men team from the show: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Jubilee, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, and Wolverine, partaking in the most 90s activity there ever was - laser tag!
The "fight" is only three pages long and - to the shock of all - Jubilee is the winner. We get some post-combat banter among the team, such as Wolverine mocking Gambit's outfit, as well as some exposition being dropped about Battleworld, Senator Kelly (apparently now Baron Kelly of Westchester), and the enigmatic Bureau of Super-Powers. However, the information faucet gets turned off as Wolverine and Cyclops get into a pissing match as they are oft known to do and the short, hairy Canuck decides to bail....and then the laser tag is attacked by Sentinels!
Of course, this is a team that knows how to handle its Sentinels and start inquiring about what just happened. Baron Kelly arrives on the scene, explaining that at the end of the "Westchester Wars", several Free-Ranger Sentiels did not receive a shutdown order that was broadcast to bring them all in, though he hopes the "Age of the Sentinel" will be ended soon thanks to the team dismantling one of them. Here, unlike in the main 616 comics continuity or in many other versions, the X-Men apparently have a good working relationship with the authorities and even peacefully co-exist. Who would have thunk it?
Kelly also drops some exposition about a place called "Clear Mountain", as he explains to the team that after a massive battle between Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants and all of humanity - in which the X-Men fought - there were many mutants who had been recruited by the now-deceased Magneto that knew nothing but the violence of the Westchester Wars. So the Bureau of Super-Powers created Clear Mountain as a rehabilitation center.
Back at the Xavier Mansion, the team meets with Professor X and Beast to debate the validity of the program, The team is largely skeptical, deciding to check it out, except for Cyclops who thinks it might be legitimate...and suddenly I understand why everyone is a Wolverine fan. He's beginning to doubt whether Westchester needs the X-Men and if Westchester doesn't need the X-Men...then the X-Men won't need him. After this mission to check out Clear Mountain, he is going to be leaving the team.
The next morning, they journey by Blackbird to the Clear Mountain Facility and meet with the director - Cassandra Nova. While the comic book affeciandos quietly freak out, I'll explain why. Cassandra Nova - to grossly oversimplify things - is a dark spirit that is a gender swapped shadowy reflection of Professor X. If you couldn't tell that by her incredibly not at all like Professor X design, of course.
She shows hits on Beast and offers to show the ream around. explaining their therapy techniques in handling former evil mutants. The first stage is mentoring, done in the courtyard of the facility. It's a judgment-free zone where role models help the former evil mutants learn to be human first and mutant second, which they say is essential for building trust and breaking down fear. We also get a bit where Jean suffers a psychic blackout and Cassandra explains the facility uses a psionic suppressor to keep telepaths from getting ahead in their treatment, apologizing for its usage.
Cassandra is displaying the second phase - in the form of a basketball court where former evil mutants engage in one on one play to accept loss - when Wolvie picks up a familiar scent...Sabertooth! However, from the look of it, Sabertooth has been effectively neutered. He only resists Logan's attacks in a defensive manner and insists that he's reformed, Cassandra's treatments have helped him get right of all that rage and hatred in him. The team looks on all shocked as he actually even goes so far as hugging Wolverine...skeeving him and everyone else out to no end.
Professor X, meanwhile, decides to put Cerebro to use to check on the team. To his dismay, he finds only darkness as if someone were casting a psychic shadow over Clear Mountain. Trying to figure it out, Charles hops onto the Astral Plane (trippy as usually) and discovers...a presence. Cassandra Nova. She claims to now be in control of the dimension, calling it the "Mind Field". They engage in mental combat while the team is shown the third phase of treatment: integration. Applying what they've learned in the first two stages and accepting that violence is never the answer.
As for the fight, Professor X puts up his A-Game, but it isn't enough as Cassandra basically walks through him before revealing her backstory via a psychic projection. In this version, Cassandra is a clone of the Professor (gender-swapped, of course) created by Apocalypse and possessed by the spirit of the Shadow King...now calling herself the Shadow Queen. Once more, Charles tries to win, but Cassandra curbstomps him and leaves him a broken shell of a man before turning her attention on the rest of the team.
Back at Clear Mountain, Cassandra introduces the team to the fourth and final phase - the Mind Field, a device used to identify antisocial behaviors caused by the X-Gene and quiet them. The team takes a moment to talk it over, and they're all very skeptical of it and think there's something not quite right in paradise. Of course, they eventually come to the conclusion that if this does help mutantkind, there's really no way they can say no to it. Jean mentions that it might help Wolverine if it helped Sabertooth, which irks him and makes him blab about being first in line for it.
Jubilee, however, cannot go - the Mind Field is not set up for an undeveloped mind. She is taken away while the rest of the team head in to find a bunch of salon hair-drying chairs that they get in...and are immediately secured down to. It's a trap! Or as Cassandra puts it, therapy...leaving us on a cliffhanger as she activates the Mind Field...
I gotta say, I love this comic. It brings back a team I know and love without the dozens of storylines and arcs worth of backstory, has the (mostly) faithful return of the designs based on Jim Lee's work from the early 90s on the X-Men, as well as doing something that is divorced from most of the stuff going on in the big company-wide crossover that is Secret Wars (III) without having to bringing itself all the way in and confuse the living hell out of anyone jumping on, like the ongoing Spiderverse series has been doing.
I also enjoy the plot, though it's admittedly been done to death in fiction - A facility for rehabilitation having an astounding success rate...and having a dark and sinister secret behind it? How incredibly original! - but to its credit it is done well, so hush my mouth I guess. But even if the plot is a little overdone, the pacing is pretty good and feels fairly consistent. The artwork is also pretty good, as I said before, with faithful recreations of the 90s characters that were so beloved in the cartoon, with a few updates here and there (Sabertooth has a bit more of a "human" look in the face and such). All things considered, a good number one and first effort from the series.
I look forward to seeing more of it, which is more than I can say for almost anything else X-Men related these days...
X-Men '92 #1 is now available from Marvel Comics wherever fine comic books are sold.
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