This is the ultimate victory of style over substance. When I say that, that doesn't mean that there is no substance present. It just means that whatever substance is present has been relentlessly curbstomped until it is lying limp in a corner, carefully hidden behind the eye-blinding excess of style and attitude, dude. And it could be argued that I am not in the best mindset to analyze what is going on here, dealing with an illness, and also with the medication to treat the illness, but I have also been reading Marvel comics since I was five years old, and used to memorize the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. I have a literal encyclopedic understanding of Marvel comics, but I did not know anything about what was going on here.
This was not written or drawn by Rob Liefeld, despite having seven guns and twenty one pouches on the double cover. As well as several bandoleers. It was written and drawn by Fabian Nicieza, who was perhaps more Liefeld than Liefeld himself. I knew that this was somehow involving the X-Men, only with time travel and alternative dimensions, only the X-Men already have those things, so even more so. This takes place in the far future. The grim, far cyberpunk future, which we know because they use credits for money. And there is a boardroom with men in suits. Sinister men. And people don't get killed, they get flatlined, and in one case "downloaded into fleshsoup". And some type of rebellion underground? And a woman who talks like Prince:
"Dat's d'way 2B, historee! Fight like u want 2 live!"
Because nothing says "grim cyberpunk future" like a woman in a lime and mustard green lyotard with 11 pouches and open
cleavage jump kicking an android while talking like Prince.
I am not even sure if the protagonist character we are following is Cable. There is a good chance that it is not? I really could not tell.
Okay, to be fair, to be fair, I can't say that someone wasn't trying. Going from the expected settings of a comic book universe to trying to create a unique, science-fiction flavored universe with its own slang, costumes, and backstory means someone was trying. To create something new and different. So congratulations. It is just that if someone who has been reading comics for several decades can't keep up with you for twenty pages, you were perhaps trying too hard. Which seems to be the case, because this First Issue Collector's Item did not become a hot investment property, but instead came to me in a box of 180 used comic books for a price of forty cents.
I apologize if my shtick of mercillessly reviewing grim and gritty 90's comics is getting old, but each one I read, I feel it necessary to communicate, as well as I can, the ineffable mess that this period produced, even when done by people who were talented enough to put some effort into what they were doing.