New X-Men #116

Grant Morrison // Frank Quitely
September 2001
*****

This arc’s villain, Cassandra Nova, is the next wave, a hyper-species all her own, helping to drive evolution (personal & biological) by forcing change. And so our heroes mutate! Emma Frost gets diamond-hard skin; Prof X unclosets himself; even Cyclops is different, unhappy in his “perfect” X-marriage.

continued in New X-Men Annual 2001
last issue: New X-Men #115
next issue: New X-Men #117

also indexed for Sept. ’01
Avengers #44
Avengers Annual 2001
New X-Men Annual 2001

New X-Men #115

Grant Morrison // Frank Quitely
August 2001
*****

A hyper-brilliant megalomaniac (a drag doppelganger of Xavier, note) sends her magpie Sentinels to demolish the mutant utopia of Genosha. Published just after the terrorist attacks of 2001, this issue cuts close to the bone. Yet NXM gains currency from the tension btw its dayglo style & genocide.

last issue: New X-Men #114
next issue: New X-Men #116

also indexed for Aug. ’01
Avengers #43

New X-Men #114

Grant Morrison // Frank Quitely
July 2001
*****

A sinister geneticist psi-attacks Professor X in his sanctum sanctorum, part of her plan to commit mutant genocide. Themes of evolution & survival intertwine like DNA; futuristic tech & hip new unis add a fashion-forward cool; an idle Sentinel factory looms over a jungle like an abandoned Mayan god.

last issue: X-Men #113
next issue: New X-Men #115

also indexed for Jul. ’01
Avengers #42

Captain America #454

Mark Waid // Ron Garney
August 1996
***
Last issue for the too-brief run & the mag—or this volume anyhow. Waid rescued Agent 13 from comics limbo; now he fills in her backstory, which incl. a POW stint in a stand-in for Burma. Now she returns to free her fellow captives. Unfortch, she’s been Garney’s weak spot, w/ a horrific J. Lee-style build.
[continued in The Avengers #401]
[last issue: Captain America #453]

Captain America #453

Mark Waid // Ron Garney & Pico Rinaldi
July 1996
****
How can Our Hero reach Camp David from the Balkans quickly so he can stop a cyborg from stealing nuke codes out of Clinton’s hand? He asks a favor from Doom—his second alliance w/ a despot in Waid’s run! Garney does his best work on the series, tho’ it’s undercut by a mediocre associate.
[last issue: Captain America #452]
[next issue: Captain America #454]

Captain America #452

Mark Waid // Ron Garney
June 1996
****
I’ve been won over by Waid & Garney’s run, w/ its action inflating into comedic absurdity (think True Lies). This ish, for example, begins w/ Cap skydiving to Agent 13’s rescue! It ends w/ a gee-whiz cliffhanger: a cyborg infiltrates Camp David while the SHIELD helicarrier plummets into Mt. Hood!
[last issue: Captain America #451]
[next issue: Captain America #453]

 

Captain America #451

Mark Waid // Ron Garney
May 1996
***
Waid’s approach to Cap prefigures Brubaker’s: Ludlum spy-fi action-adventure rather than Gruen’s superheroics. And a touch of Hitchcock, as Cap & Agent 13 take trains across Europe’s borders to find Machinesmith, the AI who may’ve stolen top-secret data from Cap’s mind while he lay near death.
[last issue: Captain America #450]
[next issue: Captain America #452]