KINGS OF PAIN, PT 4

I miss comic books’ summer annual events, where one large story would be told across multiple titles, but just in the span of a couple of weeks (as opposed to a few months multiple times a year like the current format). So I’m looking back at one of my favorites of these, 1991’s four part Kings Of Pain story. Check out Part 1 here and then Parts 2 and 3 at this spot so you’re all caught up. Long story short, various shadowy figures (literally, they’re always in the shadows) tried to resurrect Proteus, one of the most powerful mutants that ever lived who had the ability to remake reality. He was Moira MacTaggart’s son before the X-Men had to finally kill him—but now he has returned thanks to these machinations, fused with Piecemeal, a young mutant that can consume and store energy and who has lived a horrible life of abuse. This new amalgam looked at the combined might of X-Force, The New Warriors, the Muir Island mutants and chose violence. Big time.

I didn’t notice this last time, but what’s with Cannoball’s reaction?

Everything’s gone all green, Proteus is triumphant and about to remake the world as he sees fit. Some of the heroes are sad, some are shocked, some are angry…but Cannonball basically has a “Mondays, huh?” expression before reality as he knows it is about to end.

Sam Guthrie, you are one stone cold bastard and I love it.

Anyways, Scotland went boom! and now we present the thrilling conclusion to Kings Of Pain from X-Factor Annual 6…

X-Factor was always kind of a weird group (at least before the line-up changes that start happening pretty soon after this event) as it was just a reason for the older X-Men to hang around (and I guess keep Beast away from the Avengers?). The original concept, posing as hunters of Mutants in order to find and protect Mutants, was pretty clever (and basically a reverse Thunderbolts). But eventually that didn’t stick (for a large variety of reasons), and instead it was the first class of Xavier’s school who mostly just fucked around with Apocalypse and then got sucked into the latest crossover event in the X-books. Like now!

So X-Factor finds themselves speeding to Edinburgh after Proteus exploded.

Cyclops is the only active hero that’s on Earth (long story about the other X-Men at this moment) that fought him before.

And while it’s nice to see the superfolks communicating and coordinating—even if Red Guardian doesn’t *really* feel on par with Captain American and Captain Britain, but hey, we won the Cold War so it’s important to be inclusive victors—why…isn’t Captain Britain on the scene? Excalibur were in the U.K. and he can fly really fast. I don’t care how supersonic X-Factor’s jet is—maybe next time just pop in, eh, Cap? Take a looksy? It’s also funny to see the four main superhero leaders (Cap, Red Guardian, Brian Braddock, Cyclops) and recognize that they are basically slight deviations on a theme in terms of style/appearance. Lot of white dudes flapping their mouths—but sometimes you can’t see their eyes!

After some perilous moves by the “unknown entity”, the Blackbird explodes and our intrepid team of old mutant heroes finds themselves…in TRON.

Or ReBoot. Or one of those geometric covers for a Trapper Keeper. The point is, Edinburgh’s reality is being converted into something new. Apparently it’s meant to be an orderly geometric/mathematical plane—but that is super lumpy for what is purported to be a heavily structured new world. What’s up with those balloon animal-type things in the corner?

The digitized (sorry, “three-dimensional computer graphs”) versions of people has always stuck with me. Writer Fabian Nicieza, penciler Terry Shoemaker, inker Al Milgrom, and colorist Brad Vancata do a lot of great work in this issue—Shoemaker especially does an incredible job of create asymmetric paneling to contrast with the overly organized world Proteus is creating and lend more to the increasing emotional disarray that unfolds—but I wish there had been a few more panels spent with the graph people as that would be a really cool and fairly creepy visual. But that would pull focus from the peril of Proteus onto the wellbeing of the civilians.

These quips of Beast’s were solid as a kid, but reading it now I just think about dealing with a coworker who always has some damn line about a situation and it infuriates me.

“All of Scotland is essentially dead, Hank. Maybe pump the brakes on the math book jokes? Also, stop trying to have the same haircut as Wolverine. Everyone sees it and it’s weird. Stop it.”

Writer Nicieza should also be commended because there hasn’t been a bunch of exposition in the opening pages. In most comics, as X-Factor explores this geometric Hell, Cyclops would be talking about the last time they faced off with Moira’s son and all that. But here, they almost treat Proteus like Voldemort without saying his name and just working their way towards the big bad. And it’s also curious that while everything is this orderly mathematical design (as Proteus wants order and structure so no one is pushing people around or hurting others), the designs themselves seem to be zooming around and possibly hurting folks. Basically, it suggests that the appearance of order (the whole TRON motif) does nothing to cover up the anger and pain that both sides of Proteus still harbor from their traumas. Speaking of which…

In comics (and most genre material), there’s always been a threat of the Collective. Venom speaks in first person plural, so does Proteus; there’s the Phalanx, and the Outriders from INFINITY WAR (the space dogs that rip themselves apart for Thanos). Of course, the Borg and various Doctor Who villains. It’s curious that one of the biggest western inventions (superhero comic books) finds collectivism as a mainstay threat, or signifying a particular type of menace. I’m gonna chalk it up to Americans never trusting the “royal We”. But for all you college kids out there, enjoy writing up that thesis.

Anywho, Proteus is here to restructure reality and chew bubblegum…and he’s all out of bubblegum. While the other heroes went bye-bye at the end of The Uncanny X-Men Annual, he’s hung on to his mothers (Marvel writers loooooove Freudian archetypes, even if they don’t recognize it) and is now set to freak out X-Factor, most of whom never met the green menace before. Beast was probably on the Avengers at the time; Archangel and Iceman may have been on the Champions or just not doing anything; there’s like 50/50 shot that Jean was dead at the time. So it’s another bugnuts mutant supervillain to them, but he is more than that.

Proteus shreds Archangel’s metal wings (or turns them into floppy messes, it’s unclear). But that should be a clue that his issues with metal aren’t as powerful as before. He has Iceman melt into himself—a particularly creepy attack. He taunts Jean about all of her either/or statuses that don’t stay long, before showing her a world of total tranquility that Kevin found when “dead”.

That leaves Cyclops and Beast to try to mount an offensive.

McCoy straps on some metal gloves (Metal Fingers Beast - MF BEAST, all caps) but, as previously hinted, it does nothing. X-Factor has proven completely incapable of combating Proteus and are quickly disposed of by the new Mutant. They have lost and with that, he whisks them away to…

The rest of the story taking place Otherwhere. Presumably this is meant to be like a pocket reality that Proteus has created. They try to define it, but honestly it makes no sense. Also, who brought the bandages? Kudos to Madrox, Legion, Siryn, Cannonball, and Boom-Boom for half-assedly recreating THE BREAKFAST CLUB poster.

Marvel Boy provides X-Factor with some helpful exposition of the past two parts (it’s weird that Part 1 kind of…doesn’t factor into anything anymore). Also there’s cuts to A.I.M. here and then later again in the comic, but no one cares. It comes to nothing. It’s literally old men in a conference room looking at a PPT being like “maybe someday”. It’s an odd thing to set-up that I don’t believe ever paid off. While the chess match (we’ll get to it) pays off in multiple other comics’ storylines. As is usual with A.I.M. if it doesn’t involve MODOK or their island nation (yes, that’s a real thing and it’s brilliant), then I ain’t interested!

X-Factor knows everyone except The New Warriors, but Cyclops calls X-Force “Cable’s crew” and…I get it, Marvel. You want to build up X-Force as this new badass paramilitary group for ‘90s. Xtreme! So many pouches! Big weapons! Tiny feet! All the other Rob Liefeld stuff! But…he’s known Cannonball for decades at this point, and Boom Boom used to crash at X-Factor’s giant alien ship (long story). Again, I get that they’re setting up Cable to be the new badass face of Mutants in Marvel (and also starting a disparity that pits Cable against Cyclops because, spoiler alert, Cable is Cyclops’ son). But stop erasing The New Mutants, X-Terminators, and Fallen Angels, dammit. It happened! I watched it happen! I saw it happen! Don’t tell me it didn’t happen!

So our intrepid heroes are stuck in the nowheresville, which they think is Proteus’ mind. Except that Jean saw Proteus’ mind and it wasn’t a blank void but a tranquil ordered set up (probably more of a feeling). But, for some reason, she can’t articulate it and can’t show people (she lost her telepathic abilities at this point in her life…fuckin comics), so they have Legion tap into his telepathic personality, Jemali, so they can all go into Jean’s mind to see her memory of going into Proteus’ mind. (cue INCEPTION “Bwaaaaaam!”) Also Speedball makes a Jetsons reference, which all the kids love.

So, after seeing how peaceful Kevin (the OG Proteus) was when he was dead (or “dead”…sonovabitch comics…), Cyclops realizes the only possible solution to the problem that is apparent to ANYONE presented with such concerns and how they must proceed with this new Proteus, which is the manifestation of two heavily traumatized boys: convince Proteus to kill himself.

wait…WHAT?!!?

Luckily we take a breather from this heavy philosophical question about existence and agency to turn to…that amalgam of traumatized kids trying to find something good in the world, even in the world it’s creating, while dealing with mothers that never knew how to treat them.

This is supposed to be your summer blockbuster, Marvel! Remember? How all those assholes on Twitter talk about you’re just mindless stories with stupid fighting and all that. But now we’ve got suicide, and trauma, and disillusionment even when trying to literally create an escapist environment…IN the escapist environment of X-Factor Annual 6. You’re not following protocol!

After that depressing interlude where Proteus talks about how everyone made him feel awful and he wants his new world to be a place where everything has a purpose, not to be used but to fit in…we go back to the suicide squad squabble (already in progress).

This is something that would be impressive to see in the MCU, or really any story. Where everyone is debating the merits of encouraging an omniscient being to slip off this mortal coil. They each bring their own baggage and dispositions to the conversation, with lots of tough guy fronting, but also some real vulnerability from the youngest members of the group.

Also, I have no way of knowing, but I’m going to guess that Nicieza was well aware of Cable’s “true” identity, as the child born from Cyclops and Jean Grey’s clone/The Goblin Queen Madeline Pryor (comics…you’re crazy for this one…) grew up to be this future warrior that came back in time. This is why Cable is siding with Jean because she’s his pseudo-mom and because he recognizes that parental shit can have a real toll on a person. It’s keeping in narrative line without being necessary when Cable’s family tree will eventually be revealed. Nice work, Nicieza!

Plus seeing your dad saying that two traumatized boys should kill themselves doesn’t really sit right with anyone. This is why that tension exists between the two: does Cyclops just make a habit out of abandoning kids in need? Now Proteus, but first it was Cable. Though that’s a whole twisted thing involving a future version of Franklin Richards, son of Reed Richards and Sue Storm, kidnapping Cable as a baby and sending him into the future where he contracted the techno-organic virus and had to be cloned…it’s too much. It’s too much!

Proteus senses that the action-packed annual has turned into a simmer of discussion and needs to add a new beat of something happening, so he plucks the absent heroes from his Otherwhere and brings them back.

All with one of the best sound FX I’ve seen in comic books: SHFLYEENK. Comic creators deserve far more praise for their powers of onomatopoeia.

I also like that, despite it not taking place in front of cameras, the entire hero line-up is a straight line, like when sitcom characters all eat on only one side of the table because the cameras are on the other side. Y’all are super, all right; super awkward.

Before we get to the ending, because it rushes right along (also why is there like 10X more story in Part 4 than all of the other parts combined? They went to Niagara Falls and shit in the other ones!), let’s take a look at another element from Kings Of Pain that has stayed with me for years: the chess match.

Firstly, it makes no sense. There’s no way the players could know all of the developments. But it’s a great framing device and a very strong allegorical element to inject as it goes along. It reminds people that even if the heroes win, there were others far removed who were in charge of the situation all along.

Those others? The ones in shadows up until now? Toad and Gideon, the leader (of the then latest incarnation) of The Brotherhood for Evil Mutants and Gideon, an immortal Mutant (called X-ternals…yikes) that siphoned energy off other Mutants and has ties in to Deadpool and more. Both will show up in the pages of X-Force (and other X-titles) very soon after X-Factor Annual 6, so this is a nice way of establishing them as “credible” threats and essentially teasing readers to tune in later. Also Gideon looks like a swole version of The Dungeonmaster from the Dungeons & Dragons TV cartoon show.

It’s a nice intriguing capper that doesn’t mean much but gives a strong stylized vibe to the whole Kings Of Pain event.

Here begins the combined might of the heroes facing off against essentially a god driven mad by pain and neglect and alienation and abuse. One thing of note - not once do any of the superheroes try to take out Proteus when he isn’t looking, or sneakily stab him in the back, or some other covert move of “mercy”. Nicieza’s script provides Shoemaker with lots of stuff to draw and moments of action as the world comes undone, but this isn’t a physical fight between Proteus and X-Force, The New Warriors, the Muir Island misfits, and X-Factor. Even though they are all suited up with guns and eye-lasers and swords and Speedball’s weirdo whatsits, they spend their energy trying to talk to the “villain”. Trying to determine if Proteus can be happy in the world as it is or even a world he can create (preferably less-math focused), and pointing out how they all have pain but they are all paying attention and are there for Proteus now to help him with his.

But Proteus goes down the path that Cyclops laid out. He destroys himself and undoes the changes he made to the world. Shitty Harness doesn’t care about her son, because she’s shitty. But Moira is saddened to lose him again (though that may be dampened by the fact that The Shadow King is controlling her - a fact that definitely detracts from the emotional moment). Cyclops, ever the speechmaker, points out that hopefully in Proteus’ lack of existence, Kevin and Gilbert are able to finally be at peace.

Meanwhile, Cable thinks his old man’s kind of an asshole. And the audience is left with a lingering question about what happened. Was it Good? Was it the best of a bad situation? This wasn’t the smash’em-up that most other summer annual crossover events are…so are readers supposed to be happy that these tormented boys are gone?

Yep. The last image for this part of the story is the heroes loading up to leave on their vehicles…with a discarded child’s shoe left behind on the rocky shores. Y’know…for kids!

Credit where it’s due, I can’t remember many stories where the heroes have to convince the villain to kill itself. Like there’ve been those where heroes overwhelm robots with paradoxes or whatever so it’s mainframe explodes or stuff like that. But never basically neg a villain into taking its own life. It’s dark and fucked up. And that also speaks to why Kings Of Pain has stuck with me for 30 years. THIRTY. YEARS.

Part of it is that it features a bunch of characters I like (Speedball, Legion, Warpath, etc.) working together (always a huge sell for me). Then, they have to deal with a quasi-LAWNMOWER MAN-esque climactic set up which is this cool reality bending power obstacle. But ultimately it’s about pain. A bit obvious from the title, but Proteus has within him (them) the ability to wreak havoc on others. He drowned Iceman in Iceman!!! But, despite all of that rage and hurt and depression, he knew that it’s not fair to force his world on the others. It’s not right to spread his pain onto others so that others can be hurt too. That’s not equitable. Perhaps my proto depressed mind took this as a lesson or saw some value in it. In any case, this story (particularly Part 4) has never been far from mind since I read it in 1991.

I encourage folks to seek out the entire run. Each annual has fun back-up materials, including a serialized story of Freedom Force in Kuwait that both hasn’t aged well but is also a fairly good commentary on U.S. politics in the mideast at the time. And the Mystique back-up story (written by Peter David and drawn by Guang Yap) where she says goodbye to her lover, Destiny, is AMAZING. I may do a whole I’ve Got Issues devoted just to it.

Thanks for this long indulgence. I hope that superhero comics bring back the Summer Annuals Events. It’s better than a six month long crossover and it creates much more focus. If anyone from Marvel is reading, first of all - don’t sue me; secondly, thanks for reading; and thirdly, consider using Kings Of Pain as a template to return to this format. I think readers may be surprised and thoroughly engrossed.

You can purchase X-Factor Annual #6 as a digital issue from Marvel, digitally from Comixology, or in paper form from multiple online resellers like eBay.