"Angel Underground"
Writer: Devin Grayson
Artwork by: Udon Studios
Month Published: June 2002
Takes Place: After "Shadow Dance", but before "Day of Reckoning, Part 1"
Synopsis/Review: As you can probably
guess, this comic guest-stars Angel. Well, sort of. He's brain-dead for
three quarters of the comic, but we'll get to that later.
The comic starts out
with the main X-Men members attending one of Jean's soccer games. Amanda
and Kurt are there, too, which definitely puts this comic after "Shadow
Dance". Anyway, Jean has a psychic flash, and, being the classic D.I.D.
that she is in the comics, she crumples to the ground in the middle of
the game. Scott runs up to her, and she says, "Oh, Scott!" (Well, okay,
that isn't what she said, but she might as well have.) "I saw a vision
of an angel! Hold me!"
Cut to the Mansion after
the soccer game, where Jean tells the Prof about her vision, and Scott
and Rogue tell her about their brief encounter with the guy last Christmas.
Professor X probes Jean's mind to find out where the vision came from,
and strangely, it's coming from New York... in the sewers.
So, the X-Men suit up
and head off to the lovely sewers to find why Angel sent out a psychic
distress signal (although how he would have known that Jean or the Professor
would intercept it is beyond me... how could they detect something like
that from miles and miles away?). Storm is heading the team, which is really
stupid, because she's claustrophobic and basically a liability in the sewers.
Anyway, the X-Men eventually
come across none other than the Morlocks, led by Callisto, of course. It
should be noted that these Morlocks are NOT the same as the television
versions, given that this comic came out months before "X-Treme
Measures" debuted. Callisto looks quite a bit different (her scars
are larger, she has blue hair), and she's more cynical and "evil", too.
The Morlock ranks are also different, too- they include a guy that's sticky,
another guy that can fire an optic blast out of ONE of his eyes, the stereotype
big dumb strong guy, a psychic girl with just one cycloptic eye, a guy
who can control animals, and another guy who can turn morph his limbs into
any shape he desires. Anyways, these Morlocks have kidnapped Angel (although
the comic never says WHY or HOW), and the psychic one-eyed Morlock has
scattered his thoughts so that he's basically nothing more than a drooling
dunce. The Morlocks won't give him up without a fight, so of course the
X-Men give them one. The problem I have with the fight scenes are that
they never actually show the two sides FIGHTING. Just them getting ready
to fight. We just automatically assume the X-Men win, I suppose.
Meanwhile, Jean helps
Angel get his thoughts back together, now that the other Morlocks are distracted.
Angel then confronts Callisto about kidnapping him, and they both think
the other is a coward for hiding (Callisto in the sewers, Angel under his
big overcoat), and the Morlocks reluctantly let him go- seeing as how they're
beat up and all.
Back at the mansion,
the X-Men say their good-byes to Angel, who decides to return to his life
in New York. (Speaking of which, they mention Angel as being a senior in
High School- interesting, I always pictured him as at being in his early-to-mid
20's.) Angel expresses an interest in taking Jean out, however, and, Jean
being the two-timing $&#@ that she tends to be, accepts, much to Scott's
obvious dismay. Oh, and there's a brief bit at the end with Beast talking
through IM to the guy who sent him an e-mail in #7. You know, the one that
said he was willing to fund all of Beast's projects in research. Beast,
of course, declined, since the mysterious e-mailer wanted to meet in person,
but the comic ends with another reply saying that he already knows Beast
is a Mutant. Duh duh DUUUUN! Unfortunately, we never get to find out what
HAPPENS in this storyarc, since #9 is a standalone comic and the comic
series gets canceled after that. Bleh.
Art Comments: The art in this comic
was, again, generally sloppy in far-off shots, but the artists finally
seem to be getting a hang on how to draw Rogue- she's looking a lot better.
The actual cover art is decent, but no
different in quality from an average panel in the comic book. It's a picture
of Storm and Angel flying.
But there's this really goofy part where
Shadowcat and Nightcrawler ("You brought a flashlight?!" "You DIDN'T?"
Teehee.) phase through a sewer wall, only to be encountered by a hungry
sewer-slurpin' alligator. This wouldn't be bad if it wasn't for the fact
that their eyes pop out of their heads and they look waaaay too cartoony
for that one panel. Ick, X-M:E isn't supposed to be a "cartoony" cartoon.
Don't EVER let that happen again, artists.
Last Words: This story really had great potential- introducing the Morlocks into the whole scheme of things and all- but it was definitely rushed to be able to fit all in one comic. Several plot points were never explained or were just not even there at all. As such, I have to give this comic a rating of only:
Overall Rating: 6/10 Above Average