The Gambit Guild - View topic - X-men 195 *SPOILERIFIC REVIEW* - Home of the Gambit Guild - Free Message Board Hosting by FreePowerBoards.com

Well, carrying on a tradition of mine from my previous X-board, every time one of the core three books comes out, I write a review, and here we go, but since this is my first time here and its mid-arc, lets do a recap:

X-men #194 PRIMARY INFECTION 1 of 3

So basically, Rogue, Mystique, Iceman, Karima and Lady M are off hunting down names recovered from one of the computers taken from the hospital where M and Karima were found waaaay back in X-men 188. So Rouge and company track this guy who worked as a scientist for Pan, rough him up, and its hinted at that Pan is preparing a sort of 'Pan-demic' (pun likely intended). Meanwhile Cannonball and Cable are working on patching up the old carrier that the children came from in 'Supernovas'. Its being retrofitted into a new base for Rogue's team and Cyclops is being a cranky little bastard about it, Cannonball explains that the x-mansion has become an oppressive place for many of them, holding bad memories of people they have lost for their cause. Beast meanwhile is looking into the man who collapsed at the gates of the X-mansion but had been dead for several days at the time of his arrival. So, make it long story short, Rogue and co. Follow a lead to a small harbor storage facility, they go in, Mystique brutally takes care of the guards, which Lady M proceeds to beat while theyre down. Rogue scolds her for this and says that since she is on the team now she will behave as an X-man or Rogue will personally rip her uniform off and send her home naked (I am very dissappointed at Mike Carey for not following through on this *nosebleeds* XD). So, they find this small lab inside one of the buildings, and as sure as Admiral Ackbar said it:

ITS A TRAP!

Crazy wierd genetically engineered demon things come through the portal, rip through everyone and takes Rogue back through the portal. Rogue winds up at the feet of the massive Pan who says in laymans terms: You gonna die.

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So, onto the main course:

So, this issue picks up just minutes after the last one ended, Karima, Iceman, Mystique, and Lady M are thoroughly busted up (quite literally with everyones favorite Omega sentinel). Cable is panicking as he struggles with his uplink to Karima. The first thing I notice is that this time around Ramos' art looks cleanly drawn instead of well....like the crap it looked like last issue. However, it still pales in comparison to Bachalo's work on Supernovas.

So, in spite of the fact that Karima was ripped to shreds and bleeding all over the floor a page ago, her nanites went to work quickly and shes as good as new with seemingly no consequence >>. She at one of the computers in the lab bent over and typing away. I am reminded of Ramos' tendency for drawing extremely....shapely women (I wonder if all Omega Sentinel models are quite so......'badonkadonk'). So, naturally, our villain was smart enough to wipe the coordinates from their computers after they got Rogue through the portal, and theyre throwing together a little mumbo-jumbo techy plan to de-encrypt it. She finds a way to get the portal to send them close enough to where Rogue is, however, its not quite as successful as they would all hope.

Lady M materialises quite a few miles into the air, Iceman winds up jammed into a wall, but with his new found Carey invincibility to sutch things, he rather painfully reforms and goes up to catch Lady M, while Mystique seems to be flickering in and out of existence before mysteriously disappearing. Karima then quickly follows and winds up fine XD. Turns out Rogue is being kept somewhere in the city of Calcutta, and they have to find her, and then- HELLLO! For one frame, Ramos decides to just go all out and magnify Lady M's....assets.....to absolutely ridiculous proportions. Which then begs the question: How the heck does that outfit manage to stay on....seriously...its been a few years since phyisics but unless that outfit is made out of metal, which it clearly is not, then it should really not be holding itself like that. *ahem* Moving on. Lady M conjurs up and illusion and her, Karima, and Iceman are dressed in colored robes and appear to be ordinary women. When Iceman complains about why he couldnt just be a man, M makes the best joke of the issue: "If God couldnt do it, Drake, How'd you expect me to?"

We cut back to the Helicarrier and finally get to meet back up with Sabertooth, who theyre currently shoving into the hold of the ship, where they can keep him restrained, needless to say, Sabetooth is his regular sarcastic self about it. Cable however is eager to catch up with the others and takes the carrier off to Calcutta.

Back with the others, theyve tracked Rogue and Pan to an ordinary looking apartment complex. However, Lady M smells something fishy and realizes that somebody is using illusion powers just like hers, she suppresses it and the entire complex turns into a great looming tower. The group busts their way in and starts making short work of all those poor. poor, nameless faceless guards. However, just as they clear the room, Pan himself decides to make an apperance.

Okay, i'm just gonna say it, the man looks half metal half Klingon, seriously, hes got the head ridges and everything. So, he turns Lady M's own powers against her and effectively badly burns her without really badly burning her, so M is down. So now he turns to Iceman and begins explaining what he does and who he is, he has the ability to absorb the abilities from mutants, he touches them and gains their abilities, sounds like someone we know? He says that Rogue made it all possible for him, she was the seed from which he was born. So hes kicking the shit out of Iceman, and then iceman decides to destroy all the vials in Pan's lab where theyre fighting. Pan lets out an almost comical: "GAAAAAAH! MY LIFE!" And then heads after Iceman with great ferocity.

Meanwhile Cable and Cannonball are racing there, Cable is concerned because he cant teleport there.

Iceman is down for the count, and now Karima is throwing everything at him, and he promptly rips her to shreds as he lists names of people he has taken powers from, Thomas Jones (Fan-created mutant 'Alchemy' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy_(comics) ), Shiro Yashida (Sunfire), Paige Guthrie (Husk), and even Jean Grey herself.

The helecarrier is reaching calcutta when all of a sudden it runs right into a forcefield, turning violently and sending it spinning out of control, the main controls are frozen, Cable sees that the other team is going down. and Cable insists they need to send something to help them. Cannonball complains that O*N*E* made them strip the entire ship of weapons, but Cable shakes his head and says he managed to hold onto one.

He presses a button and the cargo bay opens, sending Sabertooth falling and screaming towards Calcutta.
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Overall another sold issue from Carey with a very humorous cliffhanger. I've never been much of a fan of 3 issue arcs, well, the middle issue at least, the first issue really sets things up and has an heir of mystery about it, the third one is all action and resolves the story, but the middle issue is really mostly the answers that lead to the conclusion, so I tend to get bored with them easily. However, Carey is doing a remarkable job and he presents his solid offerings once again. Pan is becoming a very interesting character, I just hope they dont make him overpowered, and i'm concerned about what the pandemic he is brining will be, also the lack of Rogue is very unnerving.

I am not too pleased with Ramos but it was passible this time around, in spite of some rather...eye-popping images.

Score: 4/5
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I always thought that Rogue and Gambit should adopt that Leech kid from X3.
"Alright son, you can sleep on dis here futon next to our bed! put on deese earmuffs, an' dis blindfold, and if you hear screamin' ignore it!"