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X-Treme X-Men # 006
"Paradise Lost!" |
Rating:
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Writer:
Chris Claremont
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Penciller:
Salvador Larroca
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Key Events
- First appearance of Heather and Davis Cameron
Questions Raised
- Is Heather a mutant?
- Is Hellfire behind the murders? If so, for what purpose, and why frame Gambit?
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Inker:
-
| Colours:
Liquid! |
Letterer:
Tom Orzechowski
| Editor:
Matt Hicks & Mark Powers |
EIC:
Joe Quesada
| Date:
December 2001 |
| Featuring:
Rogue, Storm, Bishop, Sage, Thunderbird III, Gambit, Heather Cameron, Davis Cameron |
| Versus:
Sebastian Shaw, Lady Mastermind, generic ninja guys |
Quick Synopsis:
Bishop continues to work with the police on the murder of Miles Warbeck, analyzing the body with Sage's long-distance help. Thunderbird and Storm have managed to track down Warbeck's children, Heather and Davis Cameron, on the Brisbane coast. Heather is a lifeguard and Davis is an avid surfer. When a shark attacks, the two X-Men lend a hand and save Davis. Sage is attacked by Lady Mastermind and Sebastian Shaw, who isn't too happy about Tessa's betrayal. Rogue and Gambit are being tortured in a rather unusual way by the Examiner, but escape and resume their search for the real killer.
Full Synopsis:
Bishop sits in on the medical examiner's report on Miles Warbeck's death. It turns out that Warbeck was killed by asphyxiation, but there's no logical explanation for how he suffocated. Sage confirms the ME's conclusion, analyzing the data she's receiving via Bishop's glasses. Unfortunately, she doesn't have an explanation either, but proposes a theory: given that Warbeck was unable to hit his assailant despite being an expert marksman, maybe he was attacked by a a master illusionist. Sage comments that the wine she's drinking is excellent, and we see that the "wine bottle" is really spring water.
Storm and Thunderbird are closing in on Warbeck's heirs, guided by Sage. They're in a community on the coast of Brisbane known as Surfer's Paradise. Meanwhile Bishop receives news that there was an attempted hit on a Russian mafia boss. Sage says that if they find out who stands to profit from a full-scale crime war, they'll find the killer. Her face markings have disappeared, and when she says that something feels wrong, she's wearing her old Hellfire Club outfit.
Neal and Ororo have arrived on the beach. They're still getting regular reports from Sage reporting that everything is fine. Neal finds the first Warbeck heir, a blonde lifeguard named Heather Cameron. He introduces himself and asks if she'd be interested in being his tour guide. Storm, meanwhile, has found the second heir, Heather's brother Davis. Before she can speak to him, an alarm sounds, indicating that a shark has been sighted. The crowd run out of the water, but Davis and the other surfers are attacked. Heather leaps into action. Storm is nearby, and sees that Davis' surfboard hit and stunned him -- even worse, he's cut his head and is bleeding. She dives to him, but is caught in an undertow and is having trouble. Back on the beach, Thunderbird links to Storm's glasses and locks on to the shark. He shoots a concentrated plasma burst, and drives the shark back. Storm is preparing to take flight with Davis, but she finds herself caught in another current, only this one is pushing her to shore and seems to be coming from Heather. Heather and Ororo bring Davis to shore, but he isn't breathing. Storm has Heather start the breathing while she takes chest compressions, and zaps him with a lightning bolt over his heart. It works and Davis wakes up, wondering why his heart hurts.
Back in Sydney, Sage is sitting in a chair, working on a laptop. Her surroundings change into her apartment at the Hellfire Club. She looks out the window and sees Manhatten in winter. She knows that something is wrong, but can't figure out what.
Rogue and Gambit finally wake up and find themselves shackled and apparently still powerless. They've been stripped to their underwear and both are covered with acupuncture needles. Red Lotus and the Examiner are standing nearby. Rogue again states their innocence and the Examiner says that his needles will reveal the truth. Rogue spits in his eye, and he's amused. Remy emphasizes that he simply found the bodies, and tries to convince the Examiner to let Rogue go. The Examiner is instead pleased that Gambit cares for her, and practices his art; he finds causing pain to be barbaric and prefers to use pleasure. He puts Rogue in "a state of transcendent ecstasy" and then takes it away. "I've never heard a scream like that," says Red Lotus. They still insist that they want to help, and Red Lotus begins to believe them. When he forbids the Examiner from ramping up the interrogation, he finds himself struck with several of the needles and knocked out. Meanwhile, Gambit has been working on accessing his powers to destroy the needles in his body. This doesn't go unnoticed for long by the Examiner, and with another well-placed needle, he cuts off Gambit's power completely. As the Examiner stands over Gambit and gloats, he ignores Rogue. She manages to turn her hand around in the shackle and pull out one of the needles in her spine, giving her access to her own powers again. The Examiner notices that Gambit is looking at Rogue and smiling, warning him too late that something's gone wrong. He throws a needle at Rogue, but she catches it between her teeth and spits it back at him, sending him flying across the room. The then makes it to Gambit and pulls out the needle that was blocking his powers, and he disintegrates the rest. Free, they get changed again, but the Examiner's disappeared. Rogue thanks Red Lotus for sticking up for them, but he says that he still doesn't necessarily believe that they're innocent and that if they aren't, he'll kill them himself. "Figured as much," Rogue says, and then knocks him out. She doesn't want to leave him behind -- not only do they need a witness, but he's probably at risk too.
Sage meanwhile seems fully wrapped up in the Hellfire illusion, but then she lashes out at seemingly nothing and hits Lady Mastermind. She delivers a savage kick and knocks Regan out, then focuses and is able to dispell the illusion around herself. She has considerably more difficulty in dispelling the illusions around the room, however, and meets up with Sebastian Shaw (his fist, anyway) as she tries to leave the room. He's looking forward to finding it out how and why she betrayed him.
Neal and Heather are talking at a nearby table while Davis paces nervously, waiting for Ororo. He wonders what he's going to say to her, but when she finally arrives he smoothly asks her to dance. While they get to know each other better, a small handful of operatives converge on the building. Neal and Heather are also getting along fairly well, and he talks about how much he misses Betsy. The operatives confirm that they've identified their targets. Ororo tells Neal that she's lost contact with both Sage and Rogue. She's worried, and wants to return to Sydney to check on things while Neal stays with the Camerons. He reassures her that everything's probably just fine when the operatives crash through the skylight.
| Review:
Here we have a pretty good, all-around issue. Action, development, storyline progession and new characters. It reads and feels very much like a classic X-Men issue to me, and even manages to get away from a lot of the capsuled dialogue ("I'm so-and-so, I do this-and-that"). Even some of the more, at first glance, "absurd" portions of the book are handled well enough that they come across as creative.
Storm shows off a new trick this issue by becoming a living crash cart and shocking Davis's heart back into action. Is this medically possible? Hell if I know, but in my media-laced world of ER and St. Elsewhere, I'll buy it. As I understand it, a defibrillator does essentially the same thing that Storm's doing, so I give her props for quick thinking. Davis is, of course, smitten, but that's hardly a new thing where Ororo's concerned. Will it lead anywhere? Who knows. The girl's been on her own for a loooong time now, so she's certainly entitled to a bit of fun, if nothing else,
Speaking of Davis, we first meet him and his sister Heather in this issue. They didn't really do enough for me to form much of an opinion about them, but I didn't instantly hate either of them, so that's a good start. Claremont slipped a little hint in there about Heather, so I'm guessing she's a mutant -- surprise surprise. I guess that means she'll be sticking around for a while, though, so we should get more of a chance to know her, and possibly Davis as well.
Hey, Neal did something in this issue! Let's hope that's the start of a new trend.
I love the Hellfire Club, so I'm really looking forward to seeing a confrontation between Shaw and Sage.
The other initially laughable part of the issue is the torture-by-pleasure bit. At first I saw there and wondered what the hell was up with that, but the more I considered it, the more I was okay with it. It's different, and I don't know that it's so outside the realm of possibility really. That leaves the bit where Rogue catches the needle with her teeth. Now that, I have a bit of trouble with. It's not specifically stated that by removing the needle she's gotten her powers back, but you have to pretty much infer it. I mean, there's no way she could send the Examiner flying across the room like that otherwise, and even with her powers, it's a little questionable. But again, I don't have anything specifically in-hand to refute it with, so I'll go along.
Overall, this issue served more to make me look forward to the next one than wrap me up in its own goodness, but I'm okay with that.
| Quotes:
- Davis: If this is Heaven, what did I do to deserve it? An' if it ain't...where have you been my whole life?
- Rogue: That's gotta hurt! Ah sure hope so.
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