#ol' gropey Joe

[disgruntledseagull]

Has Tumblr ever memory holed one of your text posts?

I made one a while ago about the danger of the former Vice-groper becoming the Groper-in Chief, and trying to legalize pedoshit and it's gone now.

[thebibliomancer]

100 Days of Comics! 080/100: Generation X #12 (1996)

Eighty percent done! 4/5s of the way through! And yet another X-book. There are so, so many X-books. Why.

Then again, this one has Jubilee and Emma Frost so that’s pretty cool.

So a cross between Immortan Joe and Kabal? returns from a trip through the gropey clawing hands dimension and his cab driver? gives him his cloak and respirator.

But this guy. He wants a very special meal. The sweetest he ever supped on and the one who survived the longest. So long that he came to wonder where his life ended and hers began. Which is an odd relationship to have with your food, even if it is a person.

A person called Penance.

And his cab driver has gathered some forces and they’re going to take her back and make those would stood in his way pay.

Speaking of those, the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. Most of the students of Generation X (not even sure if they’re called that in-universe but probably not) have found time in their rigorous academic schedule and unlisted extracurriculars to go for a weekend trip to Boston.

And they break off into groups to make the most out of their trip. Jubilee grabs Husk, Synch, and Mondo to go grab some food.

Headmaster Banshee and Monet St. Croix go off to have a talk in the park.

And Skin goes to drop off Chamber for a meeting with his ex-girlfriend. But before they go, Husk and Chamber mutually have a ‘if only I could tell him/her’ moment about each other.

But after Skin drops off Chamber at the restaurant and goes to park the car (at a No Parking Anytime sign), he comes down with a debilitating migraine which makes his skin go all droopy. And then someone punches him unconscious.

At the park, Banshee buys him and Monet hot dogs and asks her to open up to him about what has been bothering her recently. She’s been having episodes where she seems to tune out the rest of the world. Monet confesses it has something to do with her family but runs off when Banshee tries for more details.

And when Banshee chases her to a section of the park that is closed for repairs, a shadowy figure ambushes him.

Meanwhile, back at the Xavier school, no Boston trip for Emma Frost. She’s meditating on the lawn and trying to reach out to one of her students, in the Emma Frostiest way possible.

Penance has a wall around her thoughts as impenetrable as her thick skin. Her design also kind of reminds me of Ava from Ava’s Demon recent appearance. And she’s mute and skittish and animalistic so here’s how we do.

Emma has been sitting on the lawn unmoving for an hour to lure Penance in, letting her curiosity draw her close. And then BAM! Psionic blast and an unconscious Penance.

Now Emma is free to rummage around in her thoughts. For her own good of course. But the images that pour out of Penance’s mind leave Emma Frost shaken and vulnerable when Immortan Kabal pops up behind her.

Meanwhile Boston again. At Ye Ol’ Plate O’ Beans. Apparently Jubilee has not stopped talking the entire time. Just going on and on about the best chili you’ve ever tasted in your life while Sync sits besides her hoping that the food comes soon so Jubilee will have to shut up.

But when the chili arrives, it releases purple steam that causes the four mutants to pass out and the shadowy server calls them suckers.

Geez, the whole team is getting played for fool chumps.

When Chamber arrives at the restaurant, he finds it empty. And there’s a picture of him and Gail on his plate and he wonders what could have been if it hadn’t been for the accident that blew off his lower jaw and blew out his chest cavity when his mutant powers activated. Chamber has one of the worst mutations.

Anyway, when all that happened he just vanished from Gail’s life without a word of explanation. And when she shows up in a wheelchair he apologizes for never trying to contact her, saying he couldn’t find the words.

Oh and she has a mouth in her palm. That’s weird.

And she jams her hands into his chest cavity and drains all the psionic energies in that ‘chamber.’

Later we see that Monet has just flown back to the school. And is berating herself for bolting off from the person she trusted the most. But she could never tell him about... vague.

But when she arrives at the school, she notices lights on the back lawn and goes to investigate.

And discovers Immortan Kabal (apparently Emplate?), some weird looking goon squad, Penance crouching unconscious? by the fire that Monet saw, and all of Generation X, Banshee and Emma Frost standing still as statues.

And Emplate greets Monet as ‘little sister.’ DUN DUN DUNNNNNN!

This isn’t a good showing for Generation X. There’s a necessary trope in comics where you need to have the villain capture the whole team for plot reasons and the team gets taken out prettyyyyyyyy easily and it always makes them look pretty bad. At least the soporific chili steam was creative.

I also went and looked some stuff up about Generation X. What a weird sounding book.