I remember this being the first really big story arc that I found interesting growing up, and it was convenient for me to get them all seeing how I had a subscription to every “X” book that was being published at the time. Like most comic readers at that time, I was a huge collector of the X-titles during the early 90s, especially this run. Each issue came in a polymer bag that contained no only the book but a trading card as well. The card was meant to resemble a dossier written by this story arc’s main antagonist, Stryfe, expressing his personal views on the characters involved.
Mutant hate has always been a chunk of the core that is the Marvel Universe. In an attempt to alleviate this issue, pop star (and mutant herself) Lila Cheney throws a concert to benefit mutant & human relations. Naturally, Professor X must be in attendance and while making a public speech he is shot with a techno-organic virus* bullet. The X-Men are led to believe that the shooter is Cable, but in reality it’s his clone, Stryfe.
*The techno-organic virus is a fictional disease that consumes its host, transforming organic material (including living flesh) into “techno-organic” material—a fusion of machinery and living tissue.
Meanwhile, The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse attack Colossus and Iceman which proves to be the perfect distraction for Morlocks’ member, Caliban, to kidnap Cyclops and Jean Grey. This all builds up to a short-lived alliance between Mr. Sinister, posing as Apocalypse and commanding the Horsemen, and Stryfe. In exchange for Cyclops and Jean, Stryfe offers Sinister a mysterious canister containing Summers family DNA (Cyclops’ real name is Scott Summers… if you didn’t know this already). Elsewhere the real Apocalypse awakens from his “regenerative sleep” to discover the deception. He’s not happy about it.
The X-Men and X-Factor are, at this point, out for Cable’s head and come head-to-fist with Cable’s X-Force. X-Force finally goes down and is held captive in the Danger Room, but to everyone’s dismay no one has seen Cable since S.H.I.E.L.D raided the X-Force compound some time earlier. Suddenly, Sinister appears to reveal that he was actually disguised as Apocalypse and that Stryfe is, in fact, Xavier’s real shooter. The X-Men who weren’t out chasing down Cable set out to find Stryfe and are able to find and defeat his team, The Mutant Liberation Front. The battle, however, comes at the cost of Rouge’s ability to see and she becomes temporarily blinded for the rest of the arc for sometime thereafter.
Bishop and Wolverine split off from the rest of the X-Me in an effort to try an recover Cable, not knowing Stryfe has been revealed. The two end up in a battle with Cable and are able to capture him but, after talking things out, they all decide to team up and take down Stryfe. Speaking of whom, our antagonist has come to a realization that Apocalypse is a viable threat to his plans. As such, Stryfe seeks him out and pretty much destroys Apocalypse with a darn near fatal stabbing. Stryfe takes control of Apocalypse’s current henchmen, the Dark Riders, as well as his Moon base. There, the villains begins torturing the ever living whatchamacallit out of Cyclops and Jean. There’s a brief window that allows Jean, using her psychic powers, to send a message to the team on Earth.
Apocalypse’s knack for survival kicks in and he barely escapes by teleporting away. Meanwhile, another set of X-Men have decided to seek Apocalypse’s help to develop a cure for the Techno-Organic virus. Upon finding him, the extremely weak Apocalypse convinces his would-be captors to make a deal: sanctuary in exchange for a cure. Once Professor X is in the clear, the available X-Men, along with an Apocalypse, head off to the Moon. It doesn’t take long for the weakened Apocalypse to get his rear handed to him by The Dark Riders and, as he lays suffering he asks Archangel for a mercy kill. Angel decides he isn’t worthy of that and leaves him to suffer.
In the midst of all this wonderful action Stryfe manages to capture Cyclops and Jean (again) and drag them to a time portal he’s constructed. In an attempt to coax Cable into a one on one battle, Stryfe throws up a force field through which only someone with Summers DNA can pass. A battle between Cable and Stryfe ensues, with Cable being bested by his evil twin. During the fray Cyclops and Jean manage to get some help from Havok and Stryfe realizes it’s time for desperate measures…
He attempts to initiate a self destruct sequence but Cable manages to grab him and pulls both of them into the previously mentioned time portal. Cyclops’ reluctantly closes the portal and the two are supposedly thought to be dead. At the end, Cyclops and Jean come to the realization that either Stryfe or Cable are they’re child from the future that they must have sent off in time for hopes of a cure of the Techno Organic virus that the child was infected with. In one last twist, Sinister opens the canister he received from Stryfe to reveal it’s (empty) contents. It’s later revealed that the canister actually contained the Legacy virus, an even more devastating plague which kills and mutates both humans and mutants alike.
The series received some criticism upon release for forcing a complicated explanation of Cable’s origin and, to an extent, it was a little complex. However, my 11 year old self loved the heck out of it. If you were into the X-Men during the 90s and missed out on this one I recommend seeking out the individual books or, if you prefer, finding the graphic novel. It isn’t “Age of Apocalypse” awesome but the “X-Cutioner’s Song” story arc was still tons of fun.
