WOLVERINE & GAMBIT: VICTIMS

"PART ONE: IN HARM'S WAY" | "PART TWO: IN DEEP"
"PART THREE: NO WAY OUT" | "PART FOUR: A WOMAN SCORNED"
Words and Pictures: Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale
Lettering: Richard Starking and Comicraft | Colors: Gregory Wright
Separations: Digital Chameleon (issues 1 & 2) & Malibu's Hues (issues 3 & 4)
Editor: Mark Powers | Editor-in-Chief: Bob Harras

Come with me now to the nineties, a decade extremely near to my comic book reading heart but one which I've covered very little (if at all?) since beginning this blog. In 1995, the X-Men were in a state of flux. The post-Chris Claremont era's status quo had changed somewhat following the "Age of Apocalypse" crossover, and it was an exciting time to be an X-fan. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters had moved to Massachusetts under the stewardship of Banshee and the reformed Emma Frost. The name "Onslaught" (Who was he? What was he?) was on everyone's lips. And Wolverine was devolving by the day into a feral shadow of his former self.

Which brings us to VICTIMS, by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. At the time Loeb was the regular writer of both X-MAN and CABLE. Over at DC, he had teamed with artist Sale on a handful of projects including three well-regarded BATMAN: HAUNTED KNIGHT Halloween one-shots, but, aside from a short annual backup story starring Bishop (more on that below), this was the duo's first work for Marvel.

Loeb and Sale use Wolverine's deteriorating humanity as the springboard for their story, as Gambit learns that an old friend in the London police is the latest victim in a string of modern day "Jack the Ripper" murders. Gambit heads to England to investigate and runs afoul of the law, as well as Wolverine, who is apparently the killer.

The ensuing story, all set over one night, finds the X-Men rescued from the authorities by a mysterious young SHIELD agent named Martinique. But Wolverine kills her as well, revealing her as a robot. It turns out Martinique is the daughter of the X-Men's late foe, Mastermind, and possesses the power to create telepathic illusions in her enemies' minds. She's teamed up with Arcade to get revenge on the X-Men, beginning with Wolverine and Gambit, but when she learns that Arcade is actually behind the murders (she wasn't in on Arcade's frame-job), she betrays him and escapes.

Sale's artwork is easily the main draw of VICTIMS. He presents stylized versions of Wolverine and Gambit, applying his pseudo-cartoony approach to the overly detailed Jim Lee costume designs. The result is surprisingly impressive. With the majority of the story set at night, Sale also gets to exercise the muscles that make him such a great Batman artist, with plenty of dark shadows encroaching on the action.

Some of Sale's choices, however, seem questionable. There are spots where he draws only a few panels on a page, leaving the majority of the space blank for no discernible reason. Such a choice can work artistically if it makes sense, but here it just looks awkward and, dare I say, lazy. But these moments are few and far between, and mostly VICTIMS a is a beautifully illustrated series.

Jeph Loeb is a writer who I rarely enjoy, but somehow his collaborations with Sale all tend to be very good. VICTIMS, while not up to the high standard of some of the duo's other work together, is well-written, notwithstanding a questionable psychotic break for Arcade at the story's conclusion. But Loeb has a handle on the Wolverine and Gambit of the nineties, presenting characterization for both consistent with the X-books of the era (though the X-office at the time was notorious for editorial rewrites, so some of Loeb's consistency may be owed to editor Mark Powers).

I particularly like Mastermind's daughter, here in her first appearance. Loeb and Sale plant some intriguing character bits for her which will get lost as subsequent writers muck about with her -- though, considering that she's later revealed to have a sister with the same powers thanks to editorial incompetence during the Joe Quesada years, I'm not exactly sure which Lady Mastermind is which these days.

But in any case, the Martinique see here bears a striking resemblance to Talia al Ghul of BATMAN fame (giving a hint as to what that character might have looked like, had she appeared in any of the Loeb/Sale collaborations at DC), and is downright disgusted to learn that Arcade was behind the serial murders. She abandons him to the X-Men at the story's end, informing Gambit that she now must atone for her indirect role in these killings.

Curiously, as she departs, her back to Wolverine and Gambit, it appears that her face changes, the beautiful visage we'd seen throughout the story an illusion hiding an ugly/older face, much as her father did during the "Dark Phoenix Saga". To my knowledge, neither this "mask" nor her regard for innocent life were ever touched on again, which is a shame. Martinique might've made a decent X-Man someday, but I believe instead her evil sister joined the team for a while before being revealed as an agent of Mr. Sinister.

VICTIMS takes me back to high school and the year between "Age of Apocalypse" and "Onslaught", one of my favorite points in X-Men history. As a teenager I was disappointed that the series' events were never referenced in the ongoing X-books, since I liked it so much. But other than its genesis in the then-current "devolving Wolverine" sub-plot, the series is very continuity-light, dropping a few Easter eggs for fans, but otherwise functioning as a standalone story. It's not the best Marvel work from Loeb and Sale, but considering it appeared in an era when Marvel was publishing X-Men mini-series after X-Men mini-series, most of dubious quality, it stands out as an above-average effort.

Bonus: UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL #18, published a year earlier in 1994, features a ten-page story by Loeb and Sale titled "And Nothing Will Ever Be the Same" (lettered by Joe Rosen and colored by Gregory Wright), which I believe is their first collaboration at Marvel. In it, time-displaced X-Man Bishop uses the danger room to replay a mission with his deceased subordinates, Malcolm and Randall, then makes friends with Jubilee after leaving the room.

I'll admit it: I was a Bishop fanboy in the nineties. I thought he was just the coolest. I still really like that iteration of the character, particularly when written by Scott Lobdell. He made a great straight man, especially for Gambit, with whom he developed a fun "Odd Couple" relationship over the years, and had neat powers. But the stories where he flashed back to his original timeline or moped about his past never appealed to me. I simply liked him because he looked and acted really cool, not because he was from the future or he was a fish out of water or anything else.

So this tale didn't do much for me at the time. But reading it now, heavy handed as it is -- Malcolm's hologram tells Bishop it knows he'll never let them down as it fades away in a symbolic recreation of the actual Malcolm's death -- it's a nice little character piece about the then-newest X-Man letting go of his past mistakes to embrace his new future. I like it. And even in the confines of this ten-pager, Sale finds room for some full-page splashes and even a spectacular double-page spread, so it's a great looking little story, too.

UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL #18 is available as part of THE WEDDING OF CYCLOPS AND PHOENIX trade paperback.