This week Luke and Andrew try to get through X-men Noir: Mark of Cain and Weapon X Noir, or die trying. They also talk about happier things and Dragonball.
We are almost done now.

Universes and Comics Covered:

• Earth-90214 – X-men Noir: Mark of Cain #1-4, Weapon X Noir

You can find Andrew here on Twitter.

Check after the jump for the image gallery and notes!

X-men Noir: Mark of Cain

Earth-90214

Writer: Fred Van Lente, Art Dennis Calero, Letters: VC’s Clayton Cowles

 

Genosha Bay is essentially Guantanamo but for the international super sociopaths who nobody even wants to deal with.

Meanwhile Charles Xavier was released since nobody could testify against him was around, he has sworn revenge on Angel for killing Magnus and also has Wanda with him.

Tommy Holloway and Captain Logan are in the woods, found the temple of Cyttorak using a map they obtained from Cain Marko, who helped to raise Tommy.

They get surrounded by indigenous people who start attacking, luckily Cyclops is in the trees taking them out and Judd aka Puck has stolen the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak.

The quartet go to Madripoor where they run into Cain and Tommy hands the bag off to him only for Cain to warn him to stay away before running off and they realize they got had as the bag contains only newspaper. Cyclops starts firing as the guards go after Tommy, wanting the crimson gem. Tommy escapes by jumping off the top of a building and flying.

Two weeks pass with the team being stuck without money and wanted by the police. They get the newspaper where they found that Cain Marko has turned up dead, crushed, on Genosha Bay. Judd worries that it was the Juggernaut and since he stole it he is going to be killed for it. Tommy wants to find out what happened to Cain even though he was betrayed and they decide to break in to see what happens. The police led by Kenucihio Harada burst in looking for The Angel and is sent to the Genosha Bay prison, controlled by Warden Emma Frost, currently home to Charles Xavier and his new students.

Holloway is branded with an M over his eye because he is a maximum risk and he is placed into solitary and he tells Warden Frost he plans to get out. That night he gets into Emma’s room and asks what happened to Cain who she claims to not know. She mentions a connected military facility and he ties her up which she is into before he escapes only to be attacked by the new students.

Back on the boat Judd is lost for what to do and Logan is drunk.

Tommy wakes up confronted by Xavier, Wanda, and the X-Men, Herr Wagner the former circus star slash burglar, Rasputin the forger and Ororo the thief.

Xavier wants Tommy to work with him and will use project: Wideawake to convince him which is a torture technique. He’s kept up 72 hours and starts to go mad and after Xavier checks in, Tommy’s dead brother Robert shows up.

Time passes and Xavier relates how Cain was his brother and he ended up crippling Xavier, until they ran away for a bit and found sanctuary. He claims he wants to help Tommy but Tommy refuses. Shortly after Wanda comes in – she had released him from the cell earlier and frees him again. He calls Judd on the ship and they start preparing the next step, and it turns out that Tommy is actually Robert – somehow and they reach to the boat.

Meanwhile Cyclops had gone to the sanctuary Xavier mentioned – a lighthouse owned by Moira MacTaggart. She was bribed by the boys to let her hide when they were younger and still wanted money. They regroup as the ship they are looking for – The Blackbird comes into town  – but Judd and Logan noted Tommy has been acting different while Robert has been fixing his M mark with the help of Doctor Cornelius.

Robert and Wanda plan to steal the gem so he asks her to get some friends involved.

That night when the Blackbird comes in, Logan’s group runs into the X-men who are also after the gem and it devolves into a battle. Ultimately Logan’s men take out the X-men only for Cyclops to turn out to be a double crosser, working for Xavier.

Meanwhile on the dock, Wanda and Kitty wait to backstab Tommy only for a weird helicopter to show up. The men all board it and Cyclops reveals he was always loyal to Xavier and they fly to a giant warship held up by dirigibles – the dirigi-carrier.

Xavier and Robert Kelly, a defender of Genosha Bay greet them there, as Kelly was also interested in the gem. Xavier explains they’ve been working for ONE – the Office of National Emergency. Cain was sent to get the gem for them but he didn’t trust Marko so they captured him and he tried to run away and fell off the dirigi-carrier and died.

Xavier had been hired to train super soldiers and needed the Gem so the Prince of Madripoor can use it for control over the local tribes so they can move the secret prison to Madripoor instead.

That’s when Robert reveals the gem cyclops has was fake and jumps off the side and Xavier reveals that Tommy thinks he is Robert. He bursts into Wanda’s apartment  and she says the gem they had Kitty steal was fake too because it had a crack. Robert attacks her, Kitty attacks him and ultimately she is brought down. Robert reveals the real gem is actually just glass which the professor – who is also there – knew. The professor really only cared about working with Tommy and studying his heroic tendencies – his heropathy. Xavier baited a trap to see how Tommy would react and he was only pretending to be Robert – and he also had the room filled with FBI members who heard Xavier’s confession of his crimes.

Back on Genosha, Wolverine and Judd are being moved into prison as Tommy is flying in to save him.

 

http://marvel.com/comics/issue/29619/weapon_x_noir_2010_1

Weapon X Noir

Dennis Calero – story, art, letters – Clayton Cowles

The circus is in Transia, and Jimaine Szardos the Red Rose and Kurt Wagner the Demon are preparing to perform for prince Wyn’Garde and his family. WynGarde is attracted to her. During the show he takes the Ringmaster’s horn and gives a speech where he talks down on them. The show resumes and they pull out the Rose’s Embrace a trick that even Houdini wouldn’t do. Kurt goes into it, meanwhile the prince is worried about someone tied to Weapon X. The prince is shot during the trick and Kurt is blamed, An American man pulls off his face, seeing that Kurt is innocent and decides he wants to solve the mystery of Weapon X.

Kurt is kept in a tower where he is tortured under the orders of Fenris until the mysterious man from before comes in, gets into a fight – but saved Kurt. The man is Rankin, an American spy and Kurt reveals he as already untied but didn’t think he could take out the guards and the two of them escape out. The two of them steal a carriage, we see Rankin’s face is messed up and Fenris goes after them in a car but the bridge is collapsed.

They ride off and Rankin explains he was following the circus because every four years a political figure is killed by an assassin believed to be Weapon X. He believes it is Jimaine Szardos also known as Amanda Sefton. Kurt doesn’t believe it and Fenris reappears as they get closer to the carriage. Everyone stops and Fenris accuses Rankin of being the traitor, he gets shot, but then Kurt betrays him – I don’t know the art here is really bad.

Basically the torture was staged, Kurt actually did kill the prince, and this was all a trap to draw out Rankin who is Weapon X. The circus surrounds Rankin but Jimaine is disgusted by Kurt, but she shoves a torch in his face disfiguring it, he shoots her and he’s left disfigured.