Writer: Judd Winick
Artist: Jim Calafiore
Publisher: Marvel Comics
The Story:
The conclusion to “Legacy” finds the Exiles, a team of reality-hopping X-Men, plotting with the Avengers to destroy the Earth. In a world plagued by a rampant, sentient strain of the Legacy Virus, a techno-organic disease that transformed the infected into malicious cybernetic vampires, dubbed Vi-Locks. Now only a few outposts of humanity remain, fearful to venture into the day for fear of meeting Spider-man, Captain America, or the countless other super-beings who have been turned and now rule with fear. The Avengers, led by Hank Pym, may yet develop an antidote if they could examine Cypher, the progenitor of the mutant strain of the virus. Last issue, the Exiles attempted to extradite Cypher from the Vi-Lock compound, only to see him destroyed by the former X-Man, Forge. Before they could escape, Blink too was infected with the Legacy Virus.
Now, Pym and the Beast struggle to save Blink, but the Tallus, the computer guide to Exile missions, has given the team a new task: blow up the planet. With the mission failed, there is no cure, and the Vi-Locks will soon expand their dominion of Earth to cover all other worlds, and even this Earth’s Avengers are convinced that sacrifice is the only solution. But while one founding Exile prepares a suicide mission, Morph conspires with Rachel Summers to summon this world’s final hope. Even if they can save the Earth, at least one of the original Exiles will not make the jump to the next reality.
The Reaction:
The exciting thing about this book is that anything can happen. Since there are no other writers or editors vying for these characters’ continuity, everybody’s expendable and, more importantly, everybody’s able to develop, sometimes in unexpected ways. In the last few months, writer Judd Winick has brought incredible depth to Morph, who, like Plastic Man, had been generally regarded as simple comic relief. He gave Nocturne, the daughter of Nightcrawler, a pregnancy and, soon after, an abortion. In addition, since all of the stories take place in “alternate realities,” the characters in these worlds can do or be anything, as well. Jean Grey scorched the Earth as the Phoenix, Wolverine has been killed once or twice, and Professor X really gets nasty.
That said, “Legacy” was not the strongest story arc. Possibly because, with the recent Lizard story, the “world overrun by fill-in-the-blank” theme is wearing a trifle thin. Also, the first couple of “twists” in this issue are so predictable as to be insulting, as Winick resorts to a series of action-movie plot devices, an unusual and unfortunate turn for him. The best moment of “Legacy” comes after the resolution, with the team preparing for the next reality. The event has been anticipated since the beginning of the series, but it will be very interesting to see where Judd takes the book from here.
Calafiore’s art has the feel of well-done animation, with his characters looking as though they were pulled from the early ‘90s X-Men cartoon. The Vi-Locks, while not visually inspiring, and certainly creepy enough when one considers what it might feel like to be turned into a computer. Really, most of your energy would be spent running Windows, and nobody really wants to live like that.
It should be noted, if for no other reason than it ought not to be ignored, that some may find offense in the Exiles’ proposed method of eliminating the Vi-Locks. The issue includes a member of the team flying a plane laden with nuclear cargo to crash into the tower headquarters of the computer tyrants. No doubt many readers will become vaguely, or even acutely, uncomfortable at the depiction. Some earnest scholar may even compose an essay exploring the implications, tying the Vi-Locks to American extravagance and the Exiles and Avengers to certain other organizations, and how dare that nasty writer be so un-American. Such arguments could easily be made, but this does not mean they should be taken seriously. First, because one really ought to discriminate between popular entertainment and real life. Sometimes a comic is just a comic. If it isn’t, which is actually more likely in the case of a writer like Winick, than we may have to accept some of the precepts of the imagined essay. If this is the case, one would do well to look at how the story ends before jumping to conclusions. There is, in fact, a cure for what ails. It might be interesting to see, however, what solutions Winick could devise for the Vi-Locks to live more peacefully with their neighbors.
The Conclusion:
This one felt a bit like a futuristic space adventure film, which can be good but is not everybody’s cup of tea. Like these space dramas, it contains (or may contain) roughly obscured social commentary and, like these odysseys, can only be resolved by a rather coarse deus ex machina. The nature of the series is that it has something for everyone, and different stories will strike chords with different readers. For those who read and enjoyed X-Men at the height of the Legacy Virus scare, perhaps this would be a more intriguing tale. Those with only spotty knowledge of X-Men lore won’t be lost, as the pertinent details are nicely presented, but it will inevitably carry less weight. The introduction of a new member at the end of the issue offers excellent opportunity for a new team dynamic, and should restore some momentum to this excellent book.
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