Friend or Foe?

X-Men: Gamma Quest Trilogy #3

by Greg Cox

The X-Men face their greatest challenge when a super-genius brainwashes Rogue, Wolverine, and the Scarlet Witch, luring them to his evil cause. Original.

Genres: Science Fiction, Comics, X Men, Marvel, Superheroes, Fantasy, Adventure

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 2000

Reviews

[Jim C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating is 3.5 stars.

This is the third book of a trilogy where it must be read in order. In this one, the Avengers and X-Men now know that they have a common enemy and they are finally ready to confront that enemy. This is your basic superhero team up story to defeat an enemy.

This final book was definitely a step up from the previous book. This was a pretty straight forward book as each superhero team is ready for battle and we get that huge battle. Once again the author nails down the voices of each character especially Hulk's voice. I loved the portrayals of Captain America, Iceman, and each hero and villain. When reading a book of this caliber especially the final book one expects the huge confrontation and we get that. I really would like to see this battle on a screen one day. It satisfies fans of each respective hero as the author balances each hero as we get to see each one display and use their powers.

This book delivers what one would expect from this book. A superhero adventure with the climatic battle. The highlight is the portrayals of the characters. This was a nice adventure that was set within the Marvel universe that fans will enjoy.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Gamma Quest trilogy succeeds quite well in everything it attempts to accomplish, which is to provide an extended prose version of a mighty Marvel team-up adventure. The first thing the Marvel heroes have to do when they meet is have a big fight, then figure out there's a super villain behind the problem that they'd be better off fighting, then split into small groups for separate quests within the frame-work of a big team quest, assign team leaders (one of whom should be Cap), flirt with one another, fight some more, have hair-raising adventures and nick-of-time escapes, rescue their comrades, shake hands and promise to stay in touch, prepare to repeat next month. The X-Men and Avengers are the two biggest (in both senses of the word) teams in comics, and Cox set them up and carried them through quite well. I thought he captured the personalities and voices of almost all of the characters quite convincingly, and though I wasn't ever really surprised, neither was I disappointed. I don't see it as a trilogy so much as one long story that happened to be printed in three volumes; there are no good break or entry points, and I don't think anyone reading them out of sequence would get much from them. Altogether, lots of fun Marvel mayhem, lots of fun interaction between characters that don't normally spend much time together, and a good time is had by all. Excelsior!

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun book to read and a fitting end to the trilogy. For the most part, it moves at a fast pace; there are a couple of moments where it seems to slow down briefly before ramping back up. The characters were spot-on; I felt the author did a good (great) job writing them and keeping them in character. I felt the ending was a little weak, but it still worked. There were some editing errors; they did not take away from the overall story, but one of them was a bit funny (as it contradicts what happened in the second book).

I liked the “character development” that occurred between Rogue and Wanda; that was probably the best “character development” over the course of the three books, in my opinion. There is animosity between the two of them in the first book (more on Wanda’s part as Wanda still holds a grudge against Rogue for what she did to Carol Danvers back in Avengers vol. 1 Annual 10), but over the course of the story (three books) the two women come to a sort of understanding of each other, as it were, and even feel compassion for each other (on Rogue’s part, it is partly because she is forced to absorb Wanda’s powers which also gives Rogue access to Wanda’s memories/experiences; I don’t remember the “turning point” for Wanda regarding Rogue). At the end of the third book, Wanda actually apologizes for how she treated Rogue, initially, and offers her hand in friendship, which Rogue gladly accepts. So it was interesting how their captivity gave the three heroes (Wolverine being a part of their “group”) a sense of friendship and identity and belonging because of their shared experiences.

I could see Tony Stark asking Storm out after the story was all over. I don’t know that it would work, though, as Storm seemed enamored, a bit, with “the bodyguard” while Tony was “just being himself” while interacting with Storm. Granted, Rogue did touch Tony after breaking through his armor and absorbed his humanity; I find myself wondering if she could remember Tony’s human identity or not, or, if because she was enthralled by the Leader’s mind control, she would not remember any of the time she was being held his captive.

Some of the “editing errors” that come to mind: in the first book, Hank McCoy is wishing he had retained his Avengers status prior to breaking into the police station as he muses about how easy it would be with said membership. He could have walked in without any issues, flashed his ID card, and gotten the help he needed instead of having to break in like he did. In the beginning of this book, prior to the Gamma Sentinel Hulk’s attack at Avengers mansion, he is musing about how happy he is he had retained his status as a Reserve Avenger and how he was a member of both teams of heroes. There is a bit of a disjoint, there, and I do not know how the author would explain it (or how an editor could have missed it).

Another “more glaring error” that should have been caught is how, after the Super Skrull reveals himself, Captain America recalls “his team’s battle” at Freehold and thinks about how easily Wolverine defeated Rock because Wolverine was actually the Super-Skrull, K’lrt. It was actually Cyclops who defeated Rock (with Cap’s help) as “Wolverine” had joined the team that flew to Scotland to face off against the Gamma Sentinels attacking Muir Island.

Some other “typos” I came across in this book primarily occur after the two teams reach the moon. One of them (and the most noticeable for me) occurs shortly after the two teams enter the Leader’s Moon Base and an oxygen tank is damaged. The damaged tank leaks pure oxygen into the chamber. However, Iceman is told to “plug the oxygen links” and not “oxygen leaks,” so it made for a humorous moment in the book as it took me a second to realize what was meant versus what was said. The other typos were either missing words (such as nouns or pronouns) in sentences or punctuation errors.

When the heroes were captured by the Leader, why was Iron Man left inside his suit of armor? Why would the Leader not have removed the armor from his body and merely encased the helpless Tony Stark inside his holding chamber? Even as confident as the Leader might be in terms of his technology and how rarely it fails, he has been shown to be scrupulous in his plans and tries to have various back-up contingencies in place; he also tends to err on the side of caution, which would preclude keeping Iron Man inside his armor inside a statis chamber. Otherwise, he should have had no problem holding the Hulk in stasis; instead, he held Bruce Banner in stasis instead of the Hulk. Logically, he should have held Tony Stark in statis and not Iron Man.

This last “blurb” is not really an error as much as a bunch of questions: how does the Quinjet fly in space? How do the engines work? Are they “rocket-powered” or jet-propelled? How are all of the (different versions/models of) Avengers’ aircraft modified to be able to function in both Earth’s atmosphere and the vacuum of space? Furthermore, where do they keep their fuel? Also, how many passengers can a ‘jet carry? They generally are drawn as being short, fat, stubby things, despite their proclaimed avionics, speed, and ability to fly. However, the aircraft can vary in size in the comics; they range from being able to house 4-5 individuals at a time to being able to house up to maybe 10 at a time. It seems to depend on who is writing, who is the artist, and the needs of the story. In this book, the ‘jet leaving the moon holds . . . 11 passengers (the X-Men [Logan, Cyclops, Storm, Iceman, Beast, and Rogue], the Avengers [Iron Man, Cap, Wanda, and Vision], and Bruce Banner). EVERBODY is able to strap into their own individual seats, to boot! So, the vessel used to fly to the moon had to be a pretty good-sized vehicle to be able to fit everybody onboard like it did. Which brings up “something else”: before they left, Iron Man asks Hulk to revert to Bruce Banner so that there will be “enough room” onboard the Quinjet. On the return trip, the Hulk remains the Hulk and there is still room for Wanda and Rogue to fit as well. It just made me wonder the real reason as to why Tony wanted the Hulk to revert (assuming there was a “real, hidden” reason behind his request).

Another thing I thought was “an error” was the Beast’s misadventure at the police station was never addressed. Unless, of course, the X-Men could claim it was a Skrull who impersonated the Beast, which means they are liars on top of being criminals and “mutant terrorists” and would be justly hated and feared as a result. That should have made the news and been addressed, I think, by Cap before or after they went to the moon (or even before they went on their separate missions in book 2). Also, if the T-shirts were supposedly Skrulls in disguise, why would any of the Skrulls remained in police custody as T-shirts? I did not get the impression that using the Leader’s transmat device caused those who use it to emit gamma radiation, so something else had to be going on with the T-shirts, as far as I am concerned, yet nothing is ever mentioned about them again, as well. I guess the heroes merely assumed the T-shirts were Skrulls in disguise, but what about the ones that were in police custody? Why would the Leader not have transported all of the Skrulls out instead of leaving any behind?

I realize the books are told in a “non-linear fashion,” but I kind-of wished the author had included maybe some “time stamps” to give an idea how much time elapses throughout each book as well as “between each book.” The three captured heroes escape the Leader’s clutches and base only to pass out on the moon’s surface (I’m surprised Wanda did not suffer the worst from the sudden shock of a zero-vacuum environment) early on in book two. Yet it is not until book three when the Leader transports them back into his base, thus saving their lives. We are not told how much time elapses between their escape, passing out, and being recaptured. So it is hard to determine the amount of time that takes place on the moon versus the “two missions” that take place simultaneously on Earth (save Muir Island and investigate Freehold). The mission to Freehold would(should) have taken longer (because of how Cap and Cyke had to travel across the ice sheet covering Freehold, using a borrowed RCMP vehicle). I realize the entire story probably takes place over a day or so, though; some references might have been nice to keep things in perspective (for me, anyway, hahahah!).

Some other random thoughts. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Wolverine being able to resist the Leader’s mind-control like he did. It did not feel natural at all to me. Personally, I think the moment his blades would have touched Bruce’s throat would have caused an instantaneous reaction/change and Logan would have discovered he could not kill Bruce Banner, anyway, but that is my opinion. I could be wrong about that. In any case, I did not believe Logan could have overcome the Leader’s mind-control, but it was still amusing to read how Rogue was able to take on the Leader’s “super-intelligence” like she did, even if for a short time. Rogue subconsciously reacting like she did to catch the Leader as Wolverine through him at her made perfect sense and was a “normal, defensive action,” and I thought was one of the better moments in the book. I thought it would have made more sense for her to either free her comrades, immediately, or head to the Leader’s control booth; she could have used the tech to transport K’lrt out of the base and far, far away, thus allowing her and her comrades to figure out how to defeat him at their leisure. She also would have found out that his powers would only last twenty-four hours, so they would have had time to get the resources necessary to defeat him.

I thought it was funny how K’lrt tried to double-cross the Leader and then promptly started accusing the Leader of being “deceptive and untrustworthy” after learning the Leader had protective contingency plans in place in case K’lrt double-crossed him (as expected and anticipated by the Leader). Not only that, but K’lrt refuses to take any responsibility for his failures or previous defeats. He blames everybody else for his downfall from grace in the Skrull Empire. The heroes (especially the Beast) even mock him for his attitude, how being a villain who purloined their powers and abilities, he has no room to accuse others of malfeasance or skullduggery.

I did found myself almost wishing that the Fantastic Four had been involved in the story as well (mainly because they do have vehicles designed specifically for space travel, and it would have been interesting to see them battling the “Ultimate Skrull” as well), but that would probably have been too many characters at that point.

I also found myself wondering if the Leader had transferred all the data he acquired to a different location, or if he kept it all in his gamma-enhanced cranium. Did he ever keep anything in back-up storage? Plus, if he has the genetic sequences he needs to be able to duplicate powers in an individual like he did, could he remake a being from scratch (as it were) based on the genetic coding and whatnot that he acquired while the heroes were in his thrall? Things to ponder that were never followed up on after this series. He is not angry about losing his base or equipment, so he clearly is not worried about losing the information he acquired. Sad that those “old first editions” of books he had in his library were destroyed. Maybe he teleported them out after the heroes left the base but before they were destroyed? Hahahah!

I wondered how the Skrulls were able to mimic the powers of the mutants they looked like when attacking the SHIELD helicarrier? I do not remember seeing where it said the Leader enhanced their abilities, or that those mutants had been captured so that their powers could be used by the Skrulls during their attack. I suppose technology could have mimicked enough of their talents and abilities to throw Nick Fury off the scent, and further technology could have been used to hide or mask that their abilities were not natural?

I was surprised that K'lrt was not as brutal or vicious as he could be when using his powers against the Terrans. In his miniseries during the Annihilation Wave, we get an idea of what he is capable of if he were truly using his powers to their fullest extent. He can use the force field in an offensive manner, using them to slice apart his opponents. He does not hesitate to burn his opponents to a crisp using his version of the Human Torch's powers. Yet, when he faces off against the Terrans, he refuses to employ his most lethal powers offensively, preferring to use the force field defensively only. Not that I want to see any Marvel heroes killed, mortally wounded, or severely injured, but K'lrt and his powers are not used to the fullest advantage possible in his battle against the X-Men and Avengers.

Having Bobby Drake join the mission expanded the presence of the X-Men AND gave the team some additional power. The author references how Bobby's powers have been "expanded" because of how the White Queen took over his body, which was a nice tie-in to the comics. I felt he was a strong addition to the group (especially when he froze the blood flowing into the Leader's brain, a la Magneto stopping the flow of blood because of iron in the bloodstream). That was another "great moment" in the book for me; I loved it! Bobby's been downplayed for so long despite having such elemental powers it was good to see him stepping up his game like he did and playing a more integral part of the team and in battle.

I did find myself wishing another Avenger or two had joined the mission, to be honest, so that the four heroes were not so 'outnumbered.' I guess that is why the series references the X-Men first, followed by the Avengers, in the title (that, and the X-Men and their offshoots were extremely popular around this time; so much so, that the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Captain America, and Iron Man had been "leased out" to other writers, other companies, to write and produce, for a short time, because of the lack of money they were bringing in). I don't know who I would have had join the mission, though (other than maybe Photon, Captain Marvel and/or Thor, to be honest), as the X-Men on the team packed a pretty solid amount of power and abilities in themselves.

It was a fun book to read. Overall, I felt it was a strong ending for the trilogy, and it ended on "decent" note. I am glad that I revisited this trilogy.

[Tim Deforest · Rating 4 out of 5]

About two-thirds of this book is an extended fight scene inside a large base on the Moon. And that's fine, because it's a wonderfully entertaining fight scene and an appropriate way to bring the Gamma Quest trilogy to an end.

Greg Cox understands both the personalities and the powers of the various characters involved in the battle. Each of the participants, good guys, bad guys, minions and mind-controlled heroes, all get their moments and all use their powers in tactically sensible ways. Within the confines of Comic Book Logic, the fight makes sense as it flows along in an exciting manner.

It's impressive that Cox can juggle so many characters in a wild free-for-all battle and keep track of everything so nicely. There is never a moment where the reader might become confused or lose track of what's going on.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good finale. The interactions between the X-Men and Avengers were even better by the end of this book and the action was great. I also thought this book especially was a breath of fresh air because I don't know that much about the Avengers outside of the movies and these books made them seem even more like people.

[Zach Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

The finale of the trilogy is definitely the least entertaining of the three. The twist at the end that leads to the final fight is flimsy at best and just bad plot development at worst. The Wolverine death was weird because the reader already knew he wasn’t real, so I’m not sure what the intent was there. The dialogue also takes a real tonal dip into some weird depths.

[Lori S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best of the three book series with the teams actually working together to overcome The Leader, a bloated-head villain in need of deflation. Really, he comes across more like a spoiled brat with sadistic tendencies than an adult with a better than average intellect. Even his gloating is over the top. The Super-Skrull KI'rt is also annoying though a little more interesting.

[Ferginator88 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun trilogy. Though it runs a bit into the typical comic book tropes of one off villains, no real consequences, no real character development, etc. Everyone comes out the other side more or less who they were going into it. But in a way, that sameness is what gives comics and these books a comfy feeling. Like serial television, you know what you’re gonna get going into it.

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fun finish to the trilogy. I had such a good experience with this series that I am going to go look up other comic book novelization's and see how well they did.

If you like Marvel movies, you'll probably like these books too.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 3 out of 5]

340 - 2020

[Derrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uh.

[Hyann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the better book of the trilogy.
No weak plot or stupid thinking just an old classic heroes vs Villains where the heroes got trashed and made the miraculous come back at the end.

But combat could be better. Mind-Controlled Scarlet Witch nearly beat down every heroes by herself with it's hex power... Too much emphasis on the regenerative healing power of the Hulk, Cox use this for each battle, more than his brutal strengh. For two teams, lot of individual fighting.
And the fact that X-men failed a Danger Room exercise in the first book and not they are in the same situation few days after didn't make the dramatic ending the author wanted for is story.

So not great, just a good old school superheroes action adventure.

[Edward Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

The conclusion to the trilogy is much shorter and something of a letdown when it comes to an impressive climax. It isn't terrible, and fans of The X-Men and Teh Avengers will enjoy it, but it isn't brilliantly written.