X-amining X-Men 2099 #4

"The Darkroom"
January 1994

In a Nutshell
The X-Men are targeted by the Theater of Pain

Writer: John Francis Moore
Penciler: Ron Lim
Inkers: Sanders III & Jimmy Palmiotti
Letterer: Ken Lopez
Colorist: Tom Smith
Editor: Joey Cavalieri
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Plot
In the New Mexican desert, Bloodhawk is attacked & captured by La Lunatica. At Nuevo Sol, the X-Men are salvaging what equipment they can when Meanstreak receives a message from his friend Jordan Boone indicating he's in some kind of trouble. When Xi'an refuses to let Meanstreak go to New York to help him, Meandstreak leaves anyway, prompting Xi'an to send Krystalin & Fitz after him. Elsewhere, Bloodhawk wakes up inside the Theater of Pain, where Lunatica uses her mutant power to trigger painful memories, which Controller Thirteen records for the benefit of their patrons. Having been tasked by Brimstone Love with capturing the mutants who attacked Las Vegas, the Controller sends Lunatica after Bloodhawk's allies. She tracks them down at a truck stop where Krystalin & Fitz catch up to Meanstreak, and captures all three. However, when Lunatica trigger's Fitz's memory of the death of his girlfriend, his power activates, destroying the Controller's equipment, including the inhibitor collar controlling Lunatica. Freed after ten years of service, she attacks the Controller, while the freed X-Men continue on their way to New York in search of Boone.

Firsts and Other Notables
This issue marks the first full appearance of La Lunatica, a mutant with the ability to trigger emotionally painful memories with her teach, then channel that pain to increase her own strength & invulnerability. She has spent the last ten years as an unwilling agent of the Theater of Pain, but thanks to the X-Men, breaks free this issue. She will return, and eventually join the X-Men.

This is also the first full appearance of the Theater of Pain (teased last issue), an organization which turns pain & suffering into art for its patrons. It is fronted by Brimstone Love (mentioned here but not shown), and this iteration is led by the Thirteenth Controller, whom Lunatica swears vengeance on at the end. Brimstone Love & the Theater of Pain will become recurring antagonists in the series.

Tim effectively joins the X-Men this issue, receiving clothes made of unstable molecules that become his default look (sans the kabuki paint he sported on the cover of the first issue) going forward. He’s all referred to as “Fitz”, which is how I’ll refer to him most often as well.

Meanstreak’s old roommate Jordan Boone, the future Halloween Jack, appears for the first time via video message. He also references Spider-Man (Miguel O’Hara), and Alchemax’s Valhalla project, which is setup for the “Fall of the Hammer” crossover that will take over the series next issue.

The final page teases that crossover, which involves the return of the Norse gods to the Marvel Universe of the future. 

A Work in Progress
Bloodhawk’s thick reptilian skin makes him somewhat immune to radiation.

The X-Men salvage what they can from Nuevo Sol, then set out on the road, with Xi’an saying it’s time to start “the Search”.

Jordan Boone & Meanstreak were “videogoths” in their younger day, and Boone helped Meanstreak break his Alchemax contract, but Xi’an pulls rank when Meanstreak asks to help him; Meanstreak tells him he’s not Xavier and Meanstreak isn’t his student, meaning that part of the X-Men mythos made it into the future.

Meanstreak can run fast over short distances, but isn’t capable of doing a cross-country trip at speed.

Via his encounter with Lunatica, it’s revealed that Fitz killed his girlfriend when his power manifested.

In the Year 2099
Meanstreak has a fondness for greasy spoon diners, which still exist, and pre-corporate America. Also, truckers of the future deal with "white line fever" and "mega-caf iVs".

Austin's Analysis
With the series still lacking a clear sense of why this particular group of characters has come together and declared themselves X-Men, and what their overall mission statement is, Moore nevertheless divides the team this issue, sending a smaller subgroup off on a quasi-personal mission. It's not clear how much that choice is one he made on his own, and how much it is the result of him having to contort his narrative plans to accommodate the impending 2099-line crossover, but it has the unfortunate effect of further delaying the coalescing of any sort of thematic identity for the book.

That said, this issue does manage to tell a decent done-in-one story, something that even in 1993 was becoming increasingly rare. It isn't entirely self-contained (it picks up where the previous issue left off, and is all about moving a group of characters along to the events of the next issue), but does manage to tell a complete & satisfying story in the first encounter between the X-Men and the Theater of Pain, with the X-Men being captured, fighting back, and leaving with the Theater (seemingly) defeated all in the space of just one issue, which is no mean feat. 

Next Issue
"Fall of the Hammer" arrives in X-Men 2099 #5. Not even the future is free of crossover!

Like what you read? Then support us on Patreon!