Mutants have taken hostages, and X-Factor is taking the blame. But before judgment is rendered for Polaris, Havok, Wolfsbane, Strong Guy, Quicksilver and Multiple Man, Val Cooper and X-Factor will take the stand! But who’s telling the truth, and what really went down at the Latverian embassy? Find out in X-Men Legends #5, written by two-time GLAAD award winner Peter Allan David, drawn by Todd Nauck, colored by Rachelle Rosenberg and lettered by Joe Caramagna.
How do you do, fellow kids; I’m a 41-year-old man. Like many others my age, I look back wistfully on a time in my life when I was young and the world felt new. Thankfully, Marvel understands my needs and those of others like me and has given us X-Men Legends, an anthology series where old creators tell new X-Men stories set in the past, so we can all dance between the raindrops till we catch pneumonia, which we are more susceptible to because of our advanced age.
In the latest arc, Peter David, whose whole current schtick at Marvel seems to be nostalgia trips (See also Maestro, Symbiote Spider-Man), revisits his original X-Factor run to tell a story about the time the team botched a job at the Latverian embassy.
Hey, you remember that time David went off on a tear about Romani people during a convention panel and then doubled down on it when confronted? Did you know Latverian ruler Doctor Doom is of Romani heritage?
Anyway, the embassy is taken over by four mutants named after the four Gaelic witch’s sabbaths — Imbolc, Samhain, Beltane and Lughnasa.
Now, these are Latverian mutants seeking to overthrow their dictator. Why would they name themselves after pagan seasonal holidays with roots in Ireland? Is David treating Europe like most writers treat Africa? Because it’s the ’90s, is he trying to give Latveria its own version of Northern Ireland’s “The Troubles,” but he just didn’t bother to file off the serial numbers?
Not every writer ages well. Some, like Fabian Nicieza, Louise Simonson and Larry Hama, we welcome back with open arms and the benefit of the doubt, not because they were perfect but because they never found a way to let us down as people during their long careers. Others, like David — for whom the internet is riddled with stories about, say, his feelings on the Romani people, or the time he asked for money to pay back taxes owed as a result of his divorce, or the time he challenged a shirtless Todd McFarlane to a debate about the state of the industry — find their work inescapably colored by knowledge of their personal lives.
But also, comics famously offers no health insurance, no retirement plan. It doesn’t pay creators to go away, just to create the next book that hopefully will sell on nostalgia. Crowdfunding and the Hero Initiative will take care of the rest.
Anyway, I’m getting dark. This comic is fine. It spins half a story about the sticky political interplay between Latveria and mutantkind. Wolfsbane is imperiled after being attacked by a vision of Rev. Craig, the abusive Scottish priest who raised her. This feels boring given Rahne had her big final showdown with Craig a quarter-century ago, but unfortunately authentic to the story’s place in continuity. It’s like when a comic plays up Storm’s claustrophobia. Sure, it was a plot point decades ago, when creators were first figuring out the character, but after all these years, to see it again, it just feels like, “Really? We’re doing this?”
On the other hand, it was refreshing to see Strong Guy in a prominent role again. He may be a David pet, but he’s still one of my favorite mutants. I know he lost the X-Men election, but there’s got to be a job for him somewhere. Can’t Nightcrawler stumble onto him testing the three laws of Krakoa in Way of X? Or maybe he can replace Rogue in Excalibur and help the team do mutant magic by … being big. Or they can get the band back together and have him join his buddy Madrox in X-Corp as head of security. That book needs help.
Actually, y’know what, here’s a question: If this is supposed to be a true vacation in “the good old days” of X-Factor, where the heck is Larry Stroman? Todd Nauck is a perfectly serviceable artist who works well in books with a light or humorous bent, but Stroman is a big part of what gave early second-wave X-Factor its personality, with his deformed bodies, big hair and wide faces. We were blessed with Walt Simonson on the previous arc of Legends, but it feels like there should be a more concerted effort to bring in the artists of the gilded age to which Marvel is paying homage. Be a hell of a lot more endearing than paying Brett Booth.
But maybe that’s part of the bit. Marvel didn’t give its top artists their due in 1991, so they went off and formed Image Comics, leading to a mad scramble for replacements and an era of storytelling that, while closely connected to the peak of the collector market, took a minute to find its feet creatively. So maybe what we’re saying when we old folks say we miss the good old days, is we miss inconsistent art, stories about Rahne Sinclair being the weakest member of her team and shirtless Todd McFarlane yelling.
No. No, we don’t miss that. That’s dumb.
I do miss Strong Guy, though.
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts WMQ&A: The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
