X-Force #29-34, more or less
GIP - Ain't they cute? The Stingers cuddle so well.
Okay, so this isn't really a GIP. It has content unrelated to the icon. But I wanted to point the icon out.
I picked up a few back-issues of X-Force and felt like pointing out some interesting bits of dialogue, along with my snarky commentary. It's under the cut, because while these haven't been spoilers since 1994, those of you who don't care can skip this faster if it's a short li'l post on your flist, right? Right.
X-Force #29 -- Oh, good god what hideous art. Matt Broome was the guest penciler for this ish, and he did a very terrible job. Jawbones don't work like that, buddy. But I bought this for the Shatterstar (and Rictor) stuff, so, onward to that!
On the very opening page, Arcade is sitting before a huge bank of screens, each showing an image of Shatterstar. He describes him thusly: "He is a cute one, isn't he? Red hair and freckles and a sword! I mean, a regular Opie the Hun!" ...So it's possible 'Star has freckles. Then again, this is Arcade. He's insane. And very freckly. Also spying on Shatterstar and Rictor parking in Arizona.
Okay, okay, so really, Rictor is dropping him off in the city. And trying to talk him out of it. (The art is crap, but a very sexy lean against the car is inferred.)
Arcade: Give me audio, would you please? He and the team's seismic mover-and-shaker are engrossed in conversation... and I love to eavesdrop.
Rictor: --sure you'll be okay?
'Star: I will be fine, Rictor.
Aw, Ric's all concerned. ;3 He makes sure Shatterstar knows when he's picking him up, and that he can read that on the watch, and Shatterstar... I guess he cracks a joke. It's... really not all that funny.
Rictor: I think I liked you better when you didn't have a sense of humor. See you later... and be careful, O.K.? I mean, we're all nervous enough as it is letting you out alone... after everything that's happened.
Awwww. Okay, so Rictor goes off to do his supply run thing, and 'Star encounters a family. Their little boy (in a very weird pose -- to see 'Star's face, I guess, since he towers over the parents) asks him if he's a rock star.
'Star: Once, I was a star... But not anymore...
Arcade: Oooh, where's my little violin when I need it?!
Well, Arcade kidnaps them -- 'Star and the family. We cut to the rest of the team doing stuff, which is fairly uninteresting set up for future storylines, and we find out that Rictor's been playing video games with the Ship's A.I. "again", which means it slips into Spanish a bit. Anyway, back to 'Star in Murderworld. 'Star makes another weird joke and he and Arcade talk about his sense of humour, which is just bizarre if you know anything about Arcade.
Arcade: *to minion* --and don't call me chief!
'Star: Then would you prefer if I simply call you a hearse?
Arcade: Oh, he's a comedian, is he? Since when did you develop a sense of humor?
'Star: *beats up minion and takes his gun* Since I have been able to find so much on this world which amuses me. Starting, quite obviously, with you.
Arcade: I amuse you? You stare death in the eye and laugh?
'Star: No. Usually I smirk.
So Arcade explains why he kidnapped him (since... 'Star asked) and 'Star takes off his shirt for no apparent reason. Then there's some fighting sods working for Mojo; the leader's dialogue is painfully "fanboy crushed by his idol's perceived betrayal" while 'Star saves the hostages and bitches that kids on Earth aren't taught how to follow orders or dodge weapons-fire. He also kills the Mojoworlders. Oh, and makes this brilliant pronouncement:
'Star: I fight for a cause I can believe in! And once I discover it, I will tell you what that cause is.
XD Uh, yeah. Okay. So then Arcade says the family can go, and 'Star's like "What makes you think I'm not leaving with them?" so Arcade gives him some clothes that look like his old uniform. Surprisingly, this works. 'Star strips off while the hostages are still leaving (and, by the way, obviously looking) and puts the uniform on, and Arcade reveals that 'Star's next opponent is The X-Treme. Dorky name, yes. But 'Star has a huge mancrush on him from the first time they met. 'Star utters a teeny little "No..." of distress as Adam starts in with the attempting to kill. Poor guy.
X-Force #30 starts with the narration that "This is all either of these two young men has ever wanted." at the top left corner of a big splash page of Shatterstar and The X-Treme fighting. This time the art is by Tony Daniel, which is an enormous improvement, let me tell you. But still not that good. The little orange narrative boxes give us bios of the fighters and a summary of why they're fighting.
Strangely the first thing on page two is "It is not what either of them wants." The writer needs to get his story straight.
"When they first met, weeks ago, both looked into the eyes of the other and sensed a kindred spirit. And perhaps it is because of their similarities that they ferociously press their attack against the other -- even as they try to apologize for their actions!"
Ah, little boxes. Way to spoil the next 6 pages. I gotta say, they're damned wordy. I've noticed that Shatterstar runs between two extremes: terse to a fault, or running at the mouth like he's got an encyclopedia on his tongue he has to spit out.
And, uh. Well, shit.
*cough* Arcade is, of course, holding someone prisoner to be killed if Adam fails to kill 'Star. It's a girl. Thankfully, it's not that girl from before (who Ric and 'Star almost got saddled with in Germany *shudder*) but rather--
'Star: WINDSONG?! But, how--?!
Adam X: What?! You know that girl--?
'Star: I should hope so, Adam X... B| ...She is my wife.
And she has really ridiculous pigtails. (And... kinda looks like Rictor. That might be just me.) There's a few pages with Cable, the return of Domino, and some relationship progress with Terry and Jimmy -- and then we get back to Murderworld, where Arcade is beyond delighted, since he had no idea 'Star even knew the girl. Adam's reaction is great.
Adam X: She's your WHAT?!
So 'Star explains, for which I am glad, because I'd been wondering for a while now.
'Star: Wife. On my world, I should warn you that the connotation is quite different than it is here. Windsong was predetermined to be my genetic bond mate. When the time for reproduction came, out genetic material would have been used to perpetuate the arena game warrior stock.
Adam X: How romantic.
'Star (in, seriously, the prettiest panel in the whole book): Romance was never the intent. Improving the games was. I fail to see where emotions were needed.
So Adam's all "well, then I have to kill you or she dies, what do we do?" and 'Star's all "she'd rather die free than live a prisoner." Oh, and the Windsong they saw was a hologram. Arcade doesn't have her -- Major Domo sent him the images. The boys rampage around and kill minions, looking for her.
Arcade: Contact Major Domo, tell him he can take his "I assure you Arcade, Shatterstar will not place his wife in jeopardy" and stick it up his--
I'd like to know when Major Domo said any such thing, given he hadn't mentioned her being 'Star's wife at all. *clucks tongue at this apparent continuity error*
Faced with the ultimatum of "Kill Adam or Windsong dies" -- delivered by a hologram of Windsong herself, imploring him to free her so that they can be together again -- 'Star stabs himself through the chest with his own sword. Adam goes berserk because, unlike me, he didn't read the issue where 'Star showed up in the first place and did that exact thing to stab someone who was behind him. This time, while Arcade thinks he's dead and turns his focus on Adam X, 'Star sneaks up and kills him -- but, as usual, it's a robot instead of the real Arcade.
An hour later, Adam and 'Star are back in town, talking. Oh, and 'Star is wearing Adam's clothes, carrying a big dufflebag. I don't know if he looted Murderworld or just went shopping. They discuss why they aren't telling the cops what happened, talk about where Adam's going next, and Adam asks him about stabbing himself, and Windsong.
Adam X: How did you know-- I mean, not just surviving the gutting, but about Windsong being a fake?
'Star: As for the suicide ruse, I know what my body's restorative abilities are capable of. I missed all my vital organs by quite a ways. As for their desperate ploy regarding Windsong... it was rather easy to see it for the lie it was... considering that I have never had the opportunity to meet my wife...
Adam X: Nice marriage. Goodbye, Shatterstar. Be good.
'Star: And you, Adam X.
So much for "we can be together again, my love!" Arcade really needs to do more research about these things. I love the "Be good". :3 They shake hands and part, and at this point, it's 6pm -- Rictor pulls up to pick up 'Star. Rictor in this issue is played by an ugly, long-haired Gambit. Seriously, the art fails massively here.
Rictor: Perfect timing. I got all the supplies I needed. So, how was your day?
'Star: Uneventful.
Rictor: Oh. Lots to talk about, huh? Gonna be a long ride home, I take it?
'Star: Actually, Rictor... it was rather interesting... If I may tell you about it... And also, tell you about... my wife.
That's the last two panels.
X-Force #31 doesn't show us what reaction to that revelation Ric might have had. Instead, it takes place in Ireland, and draws some rather interesting parallels between Theresa's drinking problem and Black Tom's various problems. Jimmy and Cain Marko parallel as big guys who care deeply for self-destructive Irish people. This is an issue for Juggernaut/Black Tom 'shippers and Terry/Jimmy 'shippers in equal measure. It's got a lot of backstory on Terry, and character insight on Jimmy. If you like either those two characters, I recommend it.
The next two issues are parts of a crossover. I haven't got the other books for it, and there's a lot going on in what I do have, including familiar faces from past and present teams, and some very interesting interactions with members of the Guthrie family. I'm going to examine these in more detail another time. So, skipping ahead--
X-Force #34. Now, I make no bones about feeling that Rictor's origins -- being from Mexico, having a gunrunning family, father murdered before his eyes, hell, even his name -- are all retcons added in during X-Force. But, since all I know from before is a comment he made when questioned about how he knew how to use machine guns (he stated that kids in Central America join the Army young, and I admit that can be interpreted as him evading the question) and a TV reporter in one book saying that he was American (which could be because he was given a set of papers when X-Factor enrolled him in a school)... Well, they can be fit into this. Everything but the name Julio Richter comes from this issue.
I'm mostly ignoring the fallout from the crossover for now, but Dani Moonstar makes this observation about Ric:
"Rictor--you've been hiding behind the tough-guy act for so long that you've buried your insecurities and doubts so deep they're like a festering cancer now."
I gotta agree with her on the "tough-guy act" thing. He started doing that in earnest when he was affected by Inferno, and having Cable pick him up into X-Force only made it worse. He used to be such a sweetie. *sigh*
Okay, to be completely shallow for a moment -- the art in this is a bit weird and a bit crap, but holy god Rictor's hair is down to midback. I'm kind of annoyed by the eyes, though. I think that the whole "the whites of his eyes are black' think is interesting, sure, but I don't know when or why it started, and I don't like that he's shown that way in the flashbacks to his childhood. It's a minor retcon, sure, but he had such pretty brown eyes in X-Factor and X-Terminators.
'Star shows Ric a recording from a Mexican news channel showing that his uncle Gonzalo Richter and cousin Omar Domingo are both in hospital and under police arrest. (By the way, Gonzalo is Omar's father, although they have different surnames.) Ric and 'Star talk about family... How much they know about their teammates... And Rictor refuses to look at Shatterstar when the topic of Windsong comes up.
Rictor: Mi primo... My cousin, Omar. He was hurt, too? Can't say as how I'm surprised he got into the family business.
'Star: An that being the business of...?
Rictor: Selling death. Selling guns.
'Star: Are they the only members of you family still alive?
Rictor: Huh--? Oh, geez, no... I got enough cousins, aunts an' uncles to clog up El Palabero Futbol Stadium. My Mom's still livin' in 'Jara, too, I guess... Been a few years since I left home.
'Star: Your maternal biological unit is still alive? I merely assumed-- since we knew your father was dead, she too was deceased.
Rictor: She's my step-mother, if you want to get technical, 'Star. But hey, how much do any of us really know about each other? I don't know jack about your mother or father-- You only just told me a couple weeks ago that you had a "wife" waiting for you back on Mojoworld!
'Star: I have no parents, save for a fertilization chamber, Rictor. All you had to do was ask. And maybe, it is the facts regarding my birth which cause me not to judge, I assure you, but to wonder -- how I would react at a time like this if I were you? Is what happened between you and your family so awful that you can be so callously dismissive of the turmoil they are enduring?
Rictor: In a word, 'Star? Yeah... maybe it was...* It was that bad. I mean... if you were a little kid and all... I don't want to go back home, 'Star... But I know I have to...
* = Insert flashback here. Rictor's dad is one ugly SOB. Kid!Rictor is filthy and sad. And in jail in Costa Rica. For days. Coming back to the present, he looks so scared -- the vulnerability rising to the surface before getting pushed down under bitterness.
(On the same page, Amara and Manuel break up. People who didn't follow the New Mutants and Hellions might have no idea what that means, but hey -- it was important to me.)
Fourteen hours later, Cable and Domino are completely failing to pass for tourists in sunny Guadalajara, Mexico. Rictor is wearing his hair back in a ponytail, really hideous sunglasses, a pale green T-shirt and pants that change from black to blue jeans to black again depending on the panel. He looks about 40. I'm going to be generous and say this is deliberate on the artist's fault, to try to reflect how wearing on him going home is.
From here on out, the narration boxes get important, describing how Rictor feels, although they do this thing where they keep slipping between 3rd and 2rd person when talking about Rictor. He also makes a few significant little speeches -- oh, and Cable describes his own family life as "...complicated". What a massive understatement. Additionally, Rictor looks more like his step-mother than he does his father.
"He pauses, drawing in a quick breath.
He's nervous.
He's always tried to be so cocky-- tried so hard to hide all the things that he was so insecure about.
He hears the sound of his knuckles rapping on the door like the rumble of... a distant earthquake."
The narration establishes that it's been three years since he last saw his family. Marvel Time, that's all I'll say, but I guess it could work.
Rictor: ...It's just -- I ran away because I couldn't be a part of what this family does-- Lord knows, I don't want to see any of you hurt, but--
I can't help but think that it's stupid of his family to all be in the one place. I mean, sure, they have two men in the hospital, and are being emotionally supportive -- but at the same time, they are a criminal organization and they have two men in the hospital under police custody. Men who could conceivably babble while on painkillers. I'd be dispersing and making myself difficult to arrest.
Now, Rictor's dad was killed by Cable's clone, Stryfe. Rictor saw it when he was a kid and it scarred him. Most of his family saw it, in fact. This is why Cable sitting on a car outside the Richter house is dumb. He's not even using his telepathy to keep people from noticing him. Really stupid. Seriously. So of course, the Richter family attempt to kill him. We get another flashback here, to when Stryfe killed Louis Richter.
"All the men were on the front yard, shooting away, maybe too stupid to be a frightened as you were.
But you were learning, as you got older, that there was as little a shortage of stupidity in the family, as there were guns..."
Rictor's cousin Omar calls him "Hooly". It's is cute when they're kids, I guess, but horrifying when they're adults. Meanwhile, Rictor's dad was a dickhead. A lying, conniving, cowardly, back-stabbing dickhead. Oh, and he's not selling guns to revolutionaries or anything. He's selling them to frikkin' Hydra, an international terrorist organization bent on world domination. Maybe you've heard of them? He was a supplier mook! What a loser.
"...And now, the years melt away, and you see it happening all over again.
Stupid, pathetic people, willing to risk their own lives -- over what? Misguided vengeance? Or worse still, a twisted, warped sense of family honor?
Honor among thieves? Gun dealers -- whose every ring of the cash register means something, man or animal, may die. Their guns -- steel and oil, hot, sweaty fingers squeezing smooth metal triggers -- held out so arrogantly; wielding badges of fake courage...
...They don't have a clue.
They don't know what a weapon really is. They only saw him flare-up once-- before he ran away -- three blocks of the city's streets were leveled. People said it was probably due to a ground collapse.
But it wasn't. It was because of him. His power. His weapon, which he has always held out with such cockiness... hands held tight, fingers pointed... like a gun... squeezing a trigger inside his conflicted soul --
The ground moves, rippling like a pool of water which has had a lead weight dropped into it. The weight which came off Julio Esteban Richter's shoulders. The weight of anger, of guilt, of knowing-- of admitting-- who he is, and where he comes from."
...Okay, so there was a lot wrong with that bit of exposition. Aside from switching persons. Again we get the reference to him having run away; fair enough, he could have been kidnapped by The Right right off the street. However, there's a little retconning in there: Rictor hasn't "always" made a gun with his hands to use his power. Before X-Force, he usually laid his hands flat on whatever he wanted to shake. There's a scene in X-Terminators #3 where a Hell's Angel has pulled both his arms behind him to hold him while another biker punches him. He gets his legs up around the puncher, and he shakes them both. When he attacked without bodily contact, he generally spread his hands parallel to whatever he wanted to shake. This hands-like-gun-and-green-energy thing started with X-Force. So, I object to the use of the word "always".
Cable: Ric--?
Domino: Are you okay?
Rictor: I will be... soon as I get away from here.
Rictor's step-mom: Pero, Julio -- somos familia!
Rictor: (in Spanish) I know we're family, Mommasita. But I hate everything that you all stand for. I hate Poppa for doing what he did, and maybe -- maybe I hate you even more for following in his footsteps! But more than any of that, I hate what you did to your own son. Because look at me... I sold my soul to become everything I didn't want to become.
Cable: Ric...?
Rictor: (not in Spanish) Did you know that when I was a kid... all I did was wanna read books an' escape from this life I led. I used to remake my father into one of the heroes I read about... because I wanted him to be better than he was, 'cuz that would mean maybe I was better, too. But look at me now... In the end, am I really all that different from him?
Cable: More than you know, Rictor. More than you know.
Rictor: Maybe, Cable. I hope so. Before we head home, I'd like to make one last stop...
They go to see his uncle and cousin in the hospital. His cousin asks him to smuggle him in some guns so he can try to shoot his way out, but Rictor says he belongs in prison. Omar calls him a traitor and asks if he thinks he's too good for his family, and he says he's trying to be.
"Trying to be. But how does he do that?
How does a young man whose very thought could do more damage than every gun his family has ever sold combined, do that?
He can't leave X-Force. They're his family now. Which is pretty sad, he knows. And he can't really change the way they operate, either. They're fighting a war. And to win any way, you need weapons.
But can't he choose which kind of weapon he's going to be?"
And then he grabs a kid playing at shooting and tells him to use his brain instead of guns, which is a nifty enough message but kinda blergh, considering that thing about thought = weapon, more damage, every gun combined, blah blah just above. The kid has a skateboard, wears a peace symbol pendant, and has the hair style Rictor had back in the day.
All in all, not a worse issue than the others I'd picked up. It's strange enough for an anti-gun message to turn up in a book that features Cable, so I guess it's no surprise they didn't do it all that great. But it's not a total failure, either, slackass editing for pov aside. Just... a bit strange.
Okay, so this isn't really a GIP. It has content unrelated to the icon. But I wanted to point the icon out.
I picked up a few back-issues of X-Force and felt like pointing out some interesting bits of dialogue, along with my snarky commentary. It's under the cut, because while these haven't been spoilers since 1994, those of you who don't care can skip this faster if it's a short li'l post on your flist, right? Right.
X-Force #29 -- Oh, good god what hideous art. Matt Broome was the guest penciler for this ish, and he did a very terrible job. Jawbones don't work like that, buddy. But I bought this for the Shatterstar (and Rictor) stuff, so, onward to that!
On the very opening page, Arcade is sitting before a huge bank of screens, each showing an image of Shatterstar. He describes him thusly: "He is a cute one, isn't he? Red hair and freckles and a sword! I mean, a regular Opie the Hun!" ...So it's possible 'Star has freckles. Then again, this is Arcade. He's insane. And very freckly. Also spying on Shatterstar and Rictor parking in Arizona.
Okay, okay, so really, Rictor is dropping him off in the city. And trying to talk him out of it. (The art is crap, but a very sexy lean against the car is inferred.)
Arcade: Give me audio, would you please? He and the team's seismic mover-and-shaker are engrossed in conversation... and I love to eavesdrop.
Rictor: --sure you'll be okay?
'Star: I will be fine, Rictor.
Aw, Ric's all concerned. ;3 He makes sure Shatterstar knows when he's picking him up, and that he can read that on the watch, and Shatterstar... I guess he cracks a joke. It's... really not all that funny.
Rictor: I think I liked you better when you didn't have a sense of humor. See you later... and be careful, O.K.? I mean, we're all nervous enough as it is letting you out alone... after everything that's happened.
Awwww. Okay, so Rictor goes off to do his supply run thing, and 'Star encounters a family. Their little boy (in a very weird pose -- to see 'Star's face, I guess, since he towers over the parents) asks him if he's a rock star.
'Star: Once, I was a star... But not anymore...
Arcade: Oooh, where's my little violin when I need it?!
Well, Arcade kidnaps them -- 'Star and the family. We cut to the rest of the team doing stuff, which is fairly uninteresting set up for future storylines, and we find out that Rictor's been playing video games with the Ship's A.I. "again", which means it slips into Spanish a bit. Anyway, back to 'Star in Murderworld. 'Star makes another weird joke and he and Arcade talk about his sense of humour, which is just bizarre if you know anything about Arcade.
Arcade: *to minion* --and don't call me chief!
'Star: Then would you prefer if I simply call you a hearse?
Arcade: Oh, he's a comedian, is he? Since when did you develop a sense of humor?
'Star: *beats up minion and takes his gun* Since I have been able to find so much on this world which amuses me. Starting, quite obviously, with you.
Arcade: I amuse you? You stare death in the eye and laugh?
'Star: No. Usually I smirk.
So Arcade explains why he kidnapped him (since... 'Star asked) and 'Star takes off his shirt for no apparent reason. Then there's some fighting sods working for Mojo; the leader's dialogue is painfully "fanboy crushed by his idol's perceived betrayal" while 'Star saves the hostages and bitches that kids on Earth aren't taught how to follow orders or dodge weapons-fire. He also kills the Mojoworlders. Oh, and makes this brilliant pronouncement:
'Star: I fight for a cause I can believe in! And once I discover it, I will tell you what that cause is.
XD Uh, yeah. Okay. So then Arcade says the family can go, and 'Star's like "What makes you think I'm not leaving with them?" so Arcade gives him some clothes that look like his old uniform. Surprisingly, this works. 'Star strips off while the hostages are still leaving (and, by the way, obviously looking) and puts the uniform on, and Arcade reveals that 'Star's next opponent is The X-Treme. Dorky name, yes. But 'Star has a huge mancrush on him from the first time they met. 'Star utters a teeny little "No..." of distress as Adam starts in with the attempting to kill. Poor guy.
X-Force #30 starts with the narration that "This is all either of these two young men has ever wanted." at the top left corner of a big splash page of Shatterstar and The X-Treme fighting. This time the art is by Tony Daniel, which is an enormous improvement, let me tell you. But still not that good. The little orange narrative boxes give us bios of the fighters and a summary of why they're fighting.
Strangely the first thing on page two is "It is not what either of them wants." The writer needs to get his story straight.
"When they first met, weeks ago, both looked into the eyes of the other and sensed a kindred spirit. And perhaps it is because of their similarities that they ferociously press their attack against the other -- even as they try to apologize for their actions!"
Ah, little boxes. Way to spoil the next 6 pages. I gotta say, they're damned wordy. I've noticed that Shatterstar runs between two extremes: terse to a fault, or running at the mouth like he's got an encyclopedia on his tongue he has to spit out.
And, uh. Well, shit.
*cough* Arcade is, of course, holding someone prisoner to be killed if Adam fails to kill 'Star. It's a girl. Thankfully, it's not that girl from before (who Ric and 'Star almost got saddled with in Germany *shudder*) but rather--
'Star: WINDSONG?! But, how--?!
Adam X: What?! You know that girl--?
'Star: I should hope so, Adam X... B| ...She is my wife.
And she has really ridiculous pigtails. (And... kinda looks like Rictor. That might be just me.) There's a few pages with Cable, the return of Domino, and some relationship progress with Terry and Jimmy -- and then we get back to Murderworld, where Arcade is beyond delighted, since he had no idea 'Star even knew the girl. Adam's reaction is great.
Adam X: She's your WHAT?!
So 'Star explains, for which I am glad, because I'd been wondering for a while now.
'Star: Wife. On my world, I should warn you that the connotation is quite different than it is here. Windsong was predetermined to be my genetic bond mate. When the time for reproduction came, out genetic material would have been used to perpetuate the arena game warrior stock.
Adam X: How romantic.
'Star (in, seriously, the prettiest panel in the whole book): Romance was never the intent. Improving the games was. I fail to see where emotions were needed.
So Adam's all "well, then I have to kill you or she dies, what do we do?" and 'Star's all "she'd rather die free than live a prisoner." Oh, and the Windsong they saw was a hologram. Arcade doesn't have her -- Major Domo sent him the images. The boys rampage around and kill minions, looking for her.
Arcade: Contact Major Domo, tell him he can take his "I assure you Arcade, Shatterstar will not place his wife in jeopardy" and stick it up his--
I'd like to know when Major Domo said any such thing, given he hadn't mentioned her being 'Star's wife at all. *clucks tongue at this apparent continuity error*
Faced with the ultimatum of "Kill Adam or Windsong dies" -- delivered by a hologram of Windsong herself, imploring him to free her so that they can be together again -- 'Star stabs himself through the chest with his own sword. Adam goes berserk because, unlike me, he didn't read the issue where 'Star showed up in the first place and did that exact thing to stab someone who was behind him. This time, while Arcade thinks he's dead and turns his focus on Adam X, 'Star sneaks up and kills him -- but, as usual, it's a robot instead of the real Arcade.
An hour later, Adam and 'Star are back in town, talking. Oh, and 'Star is wearing Adam's clothes, carrying a big dufflebag. I don't know if he looted Murderworld or just went shopping. They discuss why they aren't telling the cops what happened, talk about where Adam's going next, and Adam asks him about stabbing himself, and Windsong.
Adam X: How did you know-- I mean, not just surviving the gutting, but about Windsong being a fake?
'Star: As for the suicide ruse, I know what my body's restorative abilities are capable of. I missed all my vital organs by quite a ways. As for their desperate ploy regarding Windsong... it was rather easy to see it for the lie it was... considering that I have never had the opportunity to meet my wife...
Adam X: Nice marriage. Goodbye, Shatterstar. Be good.
'Star: And you, Adam X.
So much for "we can be together again, my love!" Arcade really needs to do more research about these things. I love the "Be good". :3 They shake hands and part, and at this point, it's 6pm -- Rictor pulls up to pick up 'Star. Rictor in this issue is played by an ugly, long-haired Gambit. Seriously, the art fails massively here.
Rictor: Perfect timing. I got all the supplies I needed. So, how was your day?
'Star: Uneventful.
Rictor: Oh. Lots to talk about, huh? Gonna be a long ride home, I take it?
'Star: Actually, Rictor... it was rather interesting... If I may tell you about it... And also, tell you about... my wife.
That's the last two panels.
X-Force #31 doesn't show us what reaction to that revelation Ric might have had. Instead, it takes place in Ireland, and draws some rather interesting parallels between Theresa's drinking problem and Black Tom's various problems. Jimmy and Cain Marko parallel as big guys who care deeply for self-destructive Irish people. This is an issue for Juggernaut/Black Tom 'shippers and Terry/Jimmy 'shippers in equal measure. It's got a lot of backstory on Terry, and character insight on Jimmy. If you like either those two characters, I recommend it.
The next two issues are parts of a crossover. I haven't got the other books for it, and there's a lot going on in what I do have, including familiar faces from past and present teams, and some very interesting interactions with members of the Guthrie family. I'm going to examine these in more detail another time. So, skipping ahead--
X-Force #34. Now, I make no bones about feeling that Rictor's origins -- being from Mexico, having a gunrunning family, father murdered before his eyes, hell, even his name -- are all retcons added in during X-Force. But, since all I know from before is a comment he made when questioned about how he knew how to use machine guns (he stated that kids in Central America join the Army young, and I admit that can be interpreted as him evading the question) and a TV reporter in one book saying that he was American (which could be because he was given a set of papers when X-Factor enrolled him in a school)... Well, they can be fit into this. Everything but the name Julio Richter comes from this issue.
I'm mostly ignoring the fallout from the crossover for now, but Dani Moonstar makes this observation about Ric:
"Rictor--you've been hiding behind the tough-guy act for so long that you've buried your insecurities and doubts so deep they're like a festering cancer now."
I gotta agree with her on the "tough-guy act" thing. He started doing that in earnest when he was affected by Inferno, and having Cable pick him up into X-Force only made it worse. He used to be such a sweetie. *sigh*
Okay, to be completely shallow for a moment -- the art in this is a bit weird and a bit crap, but holy god Rictor's hair is down to midback. I'm kind of annoyed by the eyes, though. I think that the whole "the whites of his eyes are black' think is interesting, sure, but I don't know when or why it started, and I don't like that he's shown that way in the flashbacks to his childhood. It's a minor retcon, sure, but he had such pretty brown eyes in X-Factor and X-Terminators.
'Star shows Ric a recording from a Mexican news channel showing that his uncle Gonzalo Richter and cousin Omar Domingo are both in hospital and under police arrest. (By the way, Gonzalo is Omar's father, although they have different surnames.) Ric and 'Star talk about family... How much they know about their teammates... And Rictor refuses to look at Shatterstar when the topic of Windsong comes up.
Rictor: Mi primo... My cousin, Omar. He was hurt, too? Can't say as how I'm surprised he got into the family business.
'Star: An that being the business of...?
Rictor: Selling death. Selling guns.
'Star: Are they the only members of you family still alive?
Rictor: Huh--? Oh, geez, no... I got enough cousins, aunts an' uncles to clog up El Palabero Futbol Stadium. My Mom's still livin' in 'Jara, too, I guess... Been a few years since I left home.
'Star: Your maternal biological unit is still alive? I merely assumed-- since we knew your father was dead, she too was deceased.
Rictor: She's my step-mother, if you want to get technical, 'Star. But hey, how much do any of us really know about each other? I don't know jack about your mother or father-- You only just told me a couple weeks ago that you had a "wife" waiting for you back on Mojoworld!
'Star: I have no parents, save for a fertilization chamber, Rictor. All you had to do was ask. And maybe, it is the facts regarding my birth which cause me not to judge, I assure you, but to wonder -- how I would react at a time like this if I were you? Is what happened between you and your family so awful that you can be so callously dismissive of the turmoil they are enduring?
Rictor: In a word, 'Star? Yeah... maybe it was...* It was that bad. I mean... if you were a little kid and all... I don't want to go back home, 'Star... But I know I have to...
* = Insert flashback here. Rictor's dad is one ugly SOB. Kid!Rictor is filthy and sad. And in jail in Costa Rica. For days. Coming back to the present, he looks so scared -- the vulnerability rising to the surface before getting pushed down under bitterness.
(On the same page, Amara and Manuel break up. People who didn't follow the New Mutants and Hellions might have no idea what that means, but hey -- it was important to me.)
Fourteen hours later, Cable and Domino are completely failing to pass for tourists in sunny Guadalajara, Mexico. Rictor is wearing his hair back in a ponytail, really hideous sunglasses, a pale green T-shirt and pants that change from black to blue jeans to black again depending on the panel. He looks about 40. I'm going to be generous and say this is deliberate on the artist's fault, to try to reflect how wearing on him going home is.
From here on out, the narration boxes get important, describing how Rictor feels, although they do this thing where they keep slipping between 3rd and 2rd person when talking about Rictor. He also makes a few significant little speeches -- oh, and Cable describes his own family life as "...complicated". What a massive understatement. Additionally, Rictor looks more like his step-mother than he does his father.
"He pauses, drawing in a quick breath.
He's nervous.
He's always tried to be so cocky-- tried so hard to hide all the things that he was so insecure about.
He hears the sound of his knuckles rapping on the door like the rumble of... a distant earthquake."
The narration establishes that it's been three years since he last saw his family. Marvel Time, that's all I'll say, but I guess it could work.
Rictor: ...It's just -- I ran away because I couldn't be a part of what this family does-- Lord knows, I don't want to see any of you hurt, but--
I can't help but think that it's stupid of his family to all be in the one place. I mean, sure, they have two men in the hospital, and are being emotionally supportive -- but at the same time, they are a criminal organization and they have two men in the hospital under police custody. Men who could conceivably babble while on painkillers. I'd be dispersing and making myself difficult to arrest.
Now, Rictor's dad was killed by Cable's clone, Stryfe. Rictor saw it when he was a kid and it scarred him. Most of his family saw it, in fact. This is why Cable sitting on a car outside the Richter house is dumb. He's not even using his telepathy to keep people from noticing him. Really stupid. Seriously. So of course, the Richter family attempt to kill him. We get another flashback here, to when Stryfe killed Louis Richter.
"All the men were on the front yard, shooting away, maybe too stupid to be a frightened as you were.
But you were learning, as you got older, that there was as little a shortage of stupidity in the family, as there were guns..."
Rictor's cousin Omar calls him "Hooly". It's is cute when they're kids, I guess, but horrifying when they're adults. Meanwhile, Rictor's dad was a dickhead. A lying, conniving, cowardly, back-stabbing dickhead. Oh, and he's not selling guns to revolutionaries or anything. He's selling them to frikkin' Hydra, an international terrorist organization bent on world domination. Maybe you've heard of them? He was a supplier mook! What a loser.
"...And now, the years melt away, and you see it happening all over again.
Stupid, pathetic people, willing to risk their own lives -- over what? Misguided vengeance? Or worse still, a twisted, warped sense of family honor?
Honor among thieves? Gun dealers -- whose every ring of the cash register means something, man or animal, may die. Their guns -- steel and oil, hot, sweaty fingers squeezing smooth metal triggers -- held out so arrogantly; wielding badges of fake courage...
...They don't have a clue.
They don't know what a weapon really is. They only saw him flare-up once-- before he ran away -- three blocks of the city's streets were leveled. People said it was probably due to a ground collapse.
But it wasn't. It was because of him. His power. His weapon, which he has always held out with such cockiness... hands held tight, fingers pointed... like a gun... squeezing a trigger inside his conflicted soul --
The ground moves, rippling like a pool of water which has had a lead weight dropped into it. The weight which came off Julio Esteban Richter's shoulders. The weight of anger, of guilt, of knowing-- of admitting-- who he is, and where he comes from."
...Okay, so there was a lot wrong with that bit of exposition. Aside from switching persons. Again we get the reference to him having run away; fair enough, he could have been kidnapped by The Right right off the street. However, there's a little retconning in there: Rictor hasn't "always" made a gun with his hands to use his power. Before X-Force, he usually laid his hands flat on whatever he wanted to shake. There's a scene in X-Terminators #3 where a Hell's Angel has pulled both his arms behind him to hold him while another biker punches him. He gets his legs up around the puncher, and he shakes them both. When he attacked without bodily contact, he generally spread his hands parallel to whatever he wanted to shake. This hands-like-gun-and-green-energy thing started with X-Force. So, I object to the use of the word "always".
Cable: Ric--?
Domino: Are you okay?
Rictor: I will be... soon as I get away from here.
Rictor's step-mom: Pero, Julio -- somos familia!
Rictor: (in Spanish) I know we're family, Mommasita. But I hate everything that you all stand for. I hate Poppa for doing what he did, and maybe -- maybe I hate you even more for following in his footsteps! But more than any of that, I hate what you did to your own son. Because look at me... I sold my soul to become everything I didn't want to become.
Cable: Ric...?
Rictor: (not in Spanish) Did you know that when I was a kid... all I did was wanna read books an' escape from this life I led. I used to remake my father into one of the heroes I read about... because I wanted him to be better than he was, 'cuz that would mean maybe I was better, too. But look at me now... In the end, am I really all that different from him?
Cable: More than you know, Rictor. More than you know.
Rictor: Maybe, Cable. I hope so. Before we head home, I'd like to make one last stop...
They go to see his uncle and cousin in the hospital. His cousin asks him to smuggle him in some guns so he can try to shoot his way out, but Rictor says he belongs in prison. Omar calls him a traitor and asks if he thinks he's too good for his family, and he says he's trying to be.
"Trying to be. But how does he do that?
How does a young man whose very thought could do more damage than every gun his family has ever sold combined, do that?
He can't leave X-Force. They're his family now. Which is pretty sad, he knows. And he can't really change the way they operate, either. They're fighting a war. And to win any way, you need weapons.
But can't he choose which kind of weapon he's going to be?"
And then he grabs a kid playing at shooting and tells him to use his brain instead of guns, which is a nifty enough message but kinda blergh, considering that thing about thought = weapon, more damage, every gun combined, blah blah just above. The kid has a skateboard, wears a peace symbol pendant, and has the hair style Rictor had back in the day.
All in all, not a worse issue than the others I'd picked up. It's strange enough for an anti-gun message to turn up in a book that features Cable, so I guess it's no surprise they didn't do it all that great. But it's not a total failure, either, slackass editing for pov aside. Just... a bit strange.