X-Man #36 (March 1998)

As for the last X-centric Retro-Review on tap for tonight? Come on, you MUST know what I'd pick, right? For better or worse, I'll be finishing off the night with an issue of X-Man!

X-Man #36:

Summary: Some background information first... Nate Grey ended up preventing some terrorists from detonating bombs during a Knicks game at MSG(that would be Madison Square Garden to those of you with ZERO sports knowledge). Unfortunately though, the terrorists had bombs implanted into their skin and ended up detonating themselves at the police station, killing a mess of people. The people of New York figure Nate must have been in cahoots with the terrorists(for some reason...) and now hate and fear him. Now onto THIS issue. Nate finds himself wandering around Manhattan trying to avoid detection from the angry New Yorkers all around him, and trust me, we New Yorkers can get MIGHTY angry! Nate heads back to his loft but finds an angry crowd chanting anti-Nate Grey slogans(REALLY! They were!). Nate telepathically scans the building and finds that his band of misfits were hanging out there, waiting for word from either Nate or another one of their missing friends. Nate decides to search for his missing friend and locates her at the mercy of the Purple Man!!! Well, not really “at the mercy of”, she was just kind of hanging out with him, but the way I put it sounded way more threatening. Anyway, Nate angrily confronts the Purple Man and demands that he lets his friend go, but soon finds himself under the Purple Man's control. The Purple Man reveals that he had orchestrated Nate's public failure with the terrorists(although I still don't get what Nate did wrong... How was he supposed to know the terrorists had bombs UNDER their skin?!), all so he could get Nate to help him get back together with his family and... I don't know, conquer a country or something... The Purple Man is really rambling here. While the Purple Man tells Nate his life story, Nate manages to erect a telekinetic shield that prevents the Purple Man's pheromones from effecting him, at which time he prepares to batter the Purple Man for all of the trouble he put Nate through. Before he can paste the Purple Man, Nate realizes that his earlier failed attempts to attack the Purple Man caused him to destroy an abandoned building, at which time the Purple Man escapes while Nate is distracted. Instead of telepathically picking up the Purple Man's trail, Nate heads to the top of a bridge and contemplates erasing himself from everybody's mind.

Thoughts: You know what? This was probably one of Terry Kavanagh's better issues of X-Man. Now, that's not exactly saying all that much, but still, this comic WAS readable! Granted, I have NO idea what was up with Nate's supporting cast here(why the hell was he living with a kid who looked and acted like a chimney sweep from 1850's New York?!?), and don't get why Nate didn't bother tracking down and reaping a righteous vengeance on the Purple Man, but I learned long ago not to try to think too deeply about these old X-Man comic books because doing so WILL cause utter madness. Instead, I'll simply say that the art was quite good(I've always liked Chriscross's art), and the story pretty much made sense. The dialogue was pretty bad, but what can ya do? Trust me, I could have picked out WAY worse X-Man comics than this one, so I'll take this issue as a win.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.If you listen closely you can hear the people chanting his name...