Uncanny X-Men #447

Publisher
Marvel
Year
2004
Month
10
LastChanged
1/27/2024 8:16:31 AM
The End of History

Hell Hath No Fury
The end of Tomorrow
Summary

  Two Claremont books this week, starting with Uncanny X-Men #447.

  On paper, this is the final part of his first storyline - which, by the way, seems to have changed its title from "The End of History" to "The End of Tomorrow" since last issue. Odd. Unfortunately, the penny is dropping that this is another of those titles, like Weapon X, where the "part 4 of 4" bit really indicates nothing more than a convenient break point for the trade paperback. The first four issues don't constitute a complete story, and in fairness, nor do they really pretend to - save by being labelled as a four-parter.

  If you stop to think about what's actually happened in the last four issues, it's kind of all over the place. Part 1: A baseball game at the Mansion, the XSE fight a bunch of villains called the Weaponeers who never turn up again, and Nightcrawler and Wolverine go to help a mutant boy. Part 2: The rescue mission goes wrong because of police bigotry, a plot thread that then disappears entirely. Half of the team visit Braddock Manor and are immediately attacked by the Fury as the issue ends. Parts 3 and 4: The X-Men fight the Fury. It's a two-issue fight scene tagged onto two issues which... well, I guess they're setting up plot ideas for down the line, but they certainly don't seem to have anything to do with the Fury.

  The other problem is, as I've said before, that the Fury is a character of very limited interest unless you use him properly. Point one, he needs to be unstoppable. Point two, he's got no personality, so he needs to be a weapon for a more interesting villain - as the villain in his own right, he's just a runaway steamroller. In fairness, the letters page promises an explanation of the Fury in upcoming issues. Fine, but it means we've spent two months on Mr No Personality. And for those of us who've read the original Fury stories, it's painfully obvious how badly this version has been watered down.

  Claremont is trying to do the old story where the heroes struggle against the villain individually, but defeat him at the end because they come together as a Team. It's an old standard and it usually works. The problem, though, is that Claremont isn't even willing to make the X-Men look all that vulnerable even in the first half of the story. It seems these days as though the only people who pose a really credible threat to Claremont's X-Men are mind-controlled X-Men. The Fury really ought to be doing a lot more damage than breaking Cannonball's leg - the most marginal member of the team. And he certainly shouldn't be coming off on the worse end of a fistfight with frigging Sage, no matter what the mitigating circumstances. That's just stupid. If you need somebody to cut a bit of tech out of the Fury's body, have Sage point out where it is and then get Wolverine to go and get it. This is not the time or the place to put Sage over as a physical combat superwoman.

  As for the "coming together as a team" bit, the mechanics border on incomprehensible. There's something about a little box that appears from nowhere, but god only knows what it's meant to do. For some reason, the X-Men seem to think it's a good idea to strap Wolverine and Nightcrawler back to back and make them fight the Fury like that. It's at points like this that I expect the Stupidity Police to break down the door and seal the comic in a biohazard container. Seriously, what in the blue hell was the point of that bit? How on earth does that do anything other than cripple their effectiveness?

  It's beautifully drawn, of course - Alan Davis' art goes a long way towards carrying the book, and Frank D'Armata's colouring also deserves credit. But it's an incoherent affair which badly misuses the Fury, and as a consummate storyteller, Davis is not the sort of artist to produce visuals that overpower the plot. Admirable, but it also means that his art is never going to really transcend the limitations of an awkward plot.

  Rating: C

Summary

  The Fury survived the propane tank explosion and tries various attacks: focused plasma beams, meson cutters, conic-pulse cannons, rounds of depleted neutronium, but Sam survives. If the Fury had emotions, it would be annoyed. But even mutants have limits, and the Fury does not; "in the end, he will perish. Like all before him."

  Ororo pilots the Blackbird from Xavier's, on an orbital flight path to England. She, Logan, Sage, and Kurt are on their own: everyone in the mansion is out cold, and Sage doesn't dare try telepathy. She has some leftover memories from the Fury, which may help them.

  There's a sudden surge of energy in the Irish Sea: Rachel erupts from the water (reminiscent of iss. 101), but she quickly peters out, and Kurt has to port over and grab her. She's never been hit that hard and takes a moment to think: the X-Men take survival for granted. She looks at her holempathic crystal necklace, and Jean Grey appears in miniature; she says she'll always be with her and thanks her for taking her codename and uniform. Logan tells her Jean made that crystal just before she died, like she knew it was coming; he hugs Rachel, saying she has a fresh start to live the life that should have been hers.

  They approach Braddock Manor; Logan wants to go in claws up, but Sage says the Fury would just fillet him with a monofilament spider web. She has a better idea.

  Sam continues to evade the Fury's killing blow, and Lucas recovers and blasts it. The Fury grabs Sam by the neck; Lucas throws a tank of liquid nitrogen, freezing them to near absolute zero. The Fury's arm shatters, and Sam, protected by his blast field, breaks free.

  Ororo's team arrives; she ionizes the atmosphere to blind the Fury and degrade its systems. Sage goes in, unarmed, and refuses to take Lucas as backup. She knows the Fury will ignore her as a non-threat, a "mere woman"; she suddenly strikes, ripping its CPU from its torso. Kurt gets Sage out of the way, and Ororo shoots missiles from the Blackbird, cluster bombs of pulse generators that continue to explode, disintegrating the Fury. Lucas is impressed; Sage found them in the X-Men arsenal, and to ensure the Fury doesn't adapt, she smashes the CPU. Limited to its basic functions, the Fury begins to reincorporate, flailing around and building a new CPU.

  Next up, Logan and Kurt strap themselves back-to-back; Rachel hands Lucas a grappling hook gun and says he'll have a split-second to pull them free, since the Fury will expect Kurt to teleport. Kurt ports them in; Logan slashes through to the main mass; Kurt inserts a module; Lucas pulls them free. The Fury's instinct is to expel the foreign module, but Rachel uses TK, able to anchor on the module in the midst of the Fury's quicksilver form. She squeezes it down to a "micro-singularity," a black hole. The Fury adapts, creating "localized tachyon shunts to bleed off the cosmic suction," and Rachel is strained beyond her limits, so the X-Men back her up. Ororo summons the raw power of nature; Lucas amplifies it; Sage channels it into Rachel, drawing on Logan's healing factor to keep herself alive. Kurt and Sam look on, worried: what good is defeating the Fury if they also destroy the world?

  The Fury keeps growing despite the energies swirling around it; Rachel sees an impossible image: Jamie Braddock, Brian's crazy brother, egging her on. Sage warns her to stay focused; the Fury marks its targets, having defeated them all before and unsure why it can't this time. Rachel senses its confusion and knows they're transcending their individual potentials; she carefully piles on the atoms, shifting the Fury into its own continuum.

  She wakes, having passed out with the effort; she hugs Kurt, who tells her they won. Braddock Manor is a smoking crater, and they're not sure what happened to Brian. Now, they need to get Sam to a hospital. Logan congratulates Rachel; Kurt tells the team to savor their success