This issue continues the Team America storyline, and it somehow even gets worse. Claremont throws out any sense of logic or plot: the team somehow takes on A.I.M. without anything approaching a weapon, and we never learn what the point of Viper's scheme is. Let's just get to through it, shall we?
Summary
The New Mutants bust into the apartment of Nguyen Ngoc Coy, Xi'an's uncle and a former general in South Vietnam's national police. He's currently a "prosperous multinational businessman" as well as the "self-styled crime czar of the Bay area." A robe-clad Nguyen orders his two sexy lady bodyguards to kill Xi'an and her friends, but Xi'an is able to possess both women as Rahne transforms into a wolf and tackles Nguyen. With the bodyguards unconscious, Xi'an demands her uncle provide the team with information on Viper. Despite Rahne growling at him, Nguyen sticks with the claim that he's a simple businessman. When Xi'an then threatens him, he asks what she plans to do if he refuses to squeal. She then possesses him and marches him onto the ledge of his penthouse. She informs him it's a 250-meter plunge onto California Street, but he calls her bluff. Despite betraying her parents and corrupting her brother, Nguyen knows Xi'an won't kill him. She admits defeat, but 'Berto leaps at him, informing him he has fewer scruples than Xi'an does. The team stops 'Berto before he succeeds in throwing Nguyen off the ledge, and Nguyen offers to help them if Xi'an agrees to work for him for a year. Xi'an is appalled at the idea of using her powers as her brother did, to help Nguyen expand his criminal empire. But, she agrees for Dani's sake.
In "Sonora Province, New Mexico," R.U. Reddy leads the team as Wolf tries to catch him. However, the mountains are more suited to Reddy's style of riding (motocross to Wolf's speed), and Wolf crashes. Reddy exults in Wolf's failure as the rest of the team arrives and tells Honcho he taught Wolf a much-needed lesson. Xavier projects himself into their minds, reminding them they still have a tough road in front of them and lambasting them for acting so childish. Wrench gets to work fixing Wolf's motorcycle as Honcho reminds everyone Dani is counting on them to survive. We learn Xavier and Lilandra are camped inside the Blackbird on the banks of the Colorado River, halfway between the New Mutants and Team America so Xavier can communicate with both teams. But, Xavier is exhausted, and Team America's constant squabbling is forcing him to spend all his energy focused on them.
In Viper's HQ in Big Sur, Dani experiments with her power, intending to distract the person watching the monitor focused on her room by projecting her spirit forms at a longer distance than she previously has. Harada watches from the room he shares with Viper, recognizing the determination on Dani's face and wondering if Xavier fully appreciates her strength. Harada recommends Viper kill Dani (given her determination), but Viper says she wants to learn more about Dani's powers. She asks Harada why he's been so distracted lately, and he says it's because his father, Shingen Yashida, has died. However, when Viper asks if he'll return to Japan to claim his inheritance, Harada informs her he has none: although his father pledged he would become lord of Clan Yashida, Shingen passed that honor onto his daughter Mariko, Wolverine's fiancée! Viper pledges to help Harada reclaim his inheritance after concluding the current scheme.
In Black Mesa, Team America arrives at its location, with Honcho complimenting Reddy and Wolf for blazing the trail. Wolf unexpectedly gives Reddy all the credit, and Reddy tells Wolf that means a lot to him. But, Reddy tells Wolf he needed Wolf pushing him forward, and they agree that Xavier might've had a point about teamwork. Cowboy arrives to check on the guys, and he's surprised to find them sleeping. Xavier appears to Cowboy, announcing he put them to sleep so their natural defenses could be weakened and he could "more easily hone their mutant abilities." Cowboy is suitably disturbed by that assertion, and he and Georgianna focus on the bikes. Meanwhile, Honcho and Wrench have invaded the fortress, and Xavier warns them guards are approaching. They knock said guards unconscious and steal their uniforms. Honcho explains the place is guarded by A.I.M., "a criminal think tank," and Professor X tells them he "scanned a layout of the complex" from the guards' minds before they knocked them unconscious. That said, he then says the research staff's minds have sophisticate psi-screens, so he doesn't quite know what they're going to encounter. He leads them to the vault, and Wrench tries to break through the lock's electronic coding. But, he trips an alarm, and the research staff opens fire. Wrench manages to open the vault and swipe the crystal, but, suddenly, the complex explodes. In the Blackbird, Xavier screams in agony as he explains to Lilandra he suffered a psychic attack from Black Mesa so powerful he couldn't repel it. Lilandra is also knocked unconscious given the mindlink they share.
In Big Sur, Sam comments how lurking outside Viper's fortress reminds him how the team first came together, Xi'an laments she can't raise Xavier to consult with him before they invade the fortress, and Bobby says he's likely just focused on his new favorite, Team America. Sam (somewhat bitchily) reminds Bobby Team America, particularly Wolf, used to be his heroes, but Bobby admits they no longer are now that he's met them. Xi'an decides to green light the attack despite Xavier's absence, but she also suffers a psionic attack, likely from the same mutant who attacked Xavier. Her scream raises the attention of the HYDRA guards, and the kids leap into action. Sam takes out a few guards by crashing into them, Bobby hurls a tanker into the generator to dim the lights, and Xi'an uses the cover of darkness to take control of two guards and turn them on their fellows. A hole suddenly opens in Dani's cell, and she uses her powers to distract two guards, giving her time to knock them unconscious. She finds a bleeding Rahne in the hallway, and the Silver Samurai -- fully suited -- is standing over her, energy sword at the ready.
At Black Mesa, Team America marvels that Honcho and Wrench survived the explosion, and Honcho wonders if it wasn't because of the MacGuffin...I mean, the crystal. They're an hour from the border, but A.I.M. hovercraft appear in pursuit. Cowboy goes on a suicide mission to distract the hovercraft while the others escape, but Wolf calls on the Black Rider to possess him so he can save his friend. Reddy asks Wolf if he's crazy, but he says Roberto's words struck too close to home, and he will use his powers with honor. Now the Black Rider, Wolf somehow uses the bike to leap from craft to craft to craft, disabling them in the process. He tells a stunned Cowboy he feels amazing, and Cowboy tells him to ready for round #2. Meanwhile, in Big Sur, Cannonball slams into the Silver Samurai before he can harm Dani. Harada tries to recover, but Bobby knocks him for a loop. He uses his teleportation ring to check on Viper, as she's locked in a battle to resist Karma's possession. He calls her name, distracting her. Xi'an then seizes her mind. She has Viper turn her gun on Harada, but he realizes it's Xi'an and not Viper, so he knocks out Viper, and, thus, Karma. He mentions how he could kill Karma's prone form, but he decides instead to escape with Viper.
At the Blackbird, Team America rouses Xavier, who informs them he doesn't sense the presence anymore. Someone hypothesizes the mutant died in the explosion, but Xavier says it felt more like he was born. Xavier wishes he knew what A.I.M. was doing, but he puts aside that matter, saying it's time to help the kids. Honcho tells him they left behind two members of the team, but Xavier points out the window. To everyone's shock, Wolf is carrying Reddy. In Big Sur, the New Mutants are reunited with Dani; Xi'an even teases her for her outfit, asking if it's the "latest in Wild West fashion." Rahne is sleeping near them, and, although they're concerned about her wound, they also know she heals quickly. Despite appearing unconscious pretty much all issue, Rahne apparently had time to tell Dani about Xi'an's deal with her uncle, and Dani tells her she won't allow Xi'an to do it. Xavier then psychically appears to the kids, chastising them for taking action against Viper without consulting him. Xi'an politely reminds him she tried but he didn't reply, and Xavier says, given their success, he retroactively approves. (Helpful, Xavier.) Xavier informs them they're on the way to collect them. However, to Xi'an, his image changes to show the mutant who attacked her earlier; he tells her he's coming for her, body and soul. She screams, and the New Mutants struggle to understand her as she's speaking in Vietnamese. Viper and Harada are seen leaving on a boat, and she orders him to destroy the headquarters, with the New Mutants still inside. He does, and a shocked Xavier tells Lilandra to hurry to California.
The Review
As I said in the lead into this review, Claremont really scrapes the bottom of the barrel here. As the following list shows, the issues suffers from a number of inconsistencies and mistakes that someone like Claremont rarely makes. It contributes to the feeling the editors forced the Team America plot forced on Claremont, so he simply threw some stuff on the page and called it a day.
Some of the more problematic developments are:
- I've currently read through issue #13, and I'm pretty sure we never learn what the point of the crystal was. Seriously, it was totally a MacGuffin. (Moreover, we also haven't seen Xi'an again.)
- Having finally just watched the movie “The Wolverine,” it’s interesting to see the story that forms the basis of its plot mentioned here, of Mariko taking over the company from Shingen. In the movie, her grandfather is the Silver Samurai, Shingen is her villainous father and Harada is her ex-boyfriend; here, Shingen is her benign (as far as we know) father and Harada is both her illegitimate half-brother and the Silver Samurai. It's almost unrecognizable.
- I don’t get how Reddy and Wolf “blazed the trail.” I mean, it’s not like they were literally cutting a path through a jungle. Everyone would’ve had to have ridden equally hard as they did to get where they were going.
- I love Xavier putting Reddy and Wolf asleep to weaken their “natural defenses” so he can “more easily hone their mutants abilities.” First, if you have to weaken someone’s natural defenses to accomplish your goal, you should probably question how worthwhile your goal is. Second, if Xavier can just hone someone’s mutant abilities while he's sleeping, why all the focus on training? Couldn't he just turn everyone into a seasoned X-Men with a few naps?
- I'm not really sure what Team America's plan was as they break into A.I.M. headquarters with no weapons. At one point, Honcho claims to be holding off the A.I.M. researchers firing on him, but he has no weapon to do so. Even if you buy they’re “unlimited class motorcyclists” who just happen to find trouble, shouldn’t they be a little more prepared for trouble, given they know they’re going to find it in this case? Given Xavier had the New Mutants submit an after-action report in issue #4, you'd think his focus on planning would've extended to asking Team America how they planned on stealing the crystal from A.I.M. with nary a gun.
- I don't get where the hole in Dani's cell came from. No one really attacked the fortress enough to rattle it like that. Are we supposed to believe it was from 'Berto throwing the tanker at the generator?
- Putting aside the idea everyone on Team America just so happened to find the other mutants in the world with the same power to create a projecting gestalt, only Wolf actually uses that power here. In fact, Reddy asks if he's crazy when he does so, which makes no sense. As we're lead to believe, they've just spent weeks training with Xavier in the use of their mutant power. Why wouldn't summoning the Black Rider be everyone's first option when confronted with the A.I.M. hovercraft?
- Last issue, Team America summoned the "Dark Rider," but here Wolf summoned the "Black Rider."
- As he did last issue with Bobby and Rahne, Harada tells us how he could easily kill Karma...but then just teleports. If he had actually done so, we'd be down to Dani and Sam at this point.
- Putting aside the idea everyone on Team America just so happened to find the other mutants in the world with the same power to create a projecting gestalt, only Wolf actually uses that power here. In fact, Reddy asks if he's crazy when he does so, which makes no sense. As we're lead to believe, they've just spent weeks training with Xavier in the use of their mutant power. Why wouldn't summoning the Black Rider be everyone's first option when confronted with the A.I.M. hovercraft?
- Last issue, Team America summoned the "Dark Rider," but here Wolf summoned the "Black Rider."
- As he did last issue with Bobby and Rahne, Harada tells us how he could easily kill Karma...but then just teleports. If he had actually done so, we'd be down to Dani and Sam at this point.
- Why is Wolf carrying Reddy? When last we left the team, Cowboy and Wolf were ready to go for a second round with A.I.M. What happened to Reddy? I guess we’re supposed to assume they fought A.I.M. off-panel?
In other words? Man, I'm glad this arc is over.
In other words? Man, I'm glad this arc is over.
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