This Decimation Event series is told from the perspective of Sally Floyd, a reporter who is writing a story about mutants who lost their powers after M Day. She visits Chamber in the hospital to find that losing his powers did not cure his facial disfigurement.
This disturbing image is just the beginning. At the end of the issue she finds an envelope taped to her door labeled “Not Enough Died.” Inside are pictures of murdered de-powered mutants.
It seems a serial killer is stalking the mutants cured after M Day.
It’s a great idea. From here, each issue has her on the trail of a different cured mutant (Jubilee, Blob, Angel and Moonstar), getting deeper into the story. Eventually she learns that the killer is himself a mutant who calls himself “The Ghoul,” and he begins stalking Sally to get her to tell his story. Sally is sympathetic to mutants–not the Ghoul.
A nice touch: There is a support group for cured mutants called FOOM (Fomer Order Of Mutants).
As many of you probably know, FOOM was also the name of the real-life official Marvel fan club in the ’70s and ’80s. It stood for Friends Of Ol’ Marvel, and eventually its newsletter became a full color magazine.
While meeting Angel (where we the readers learn for the first time that one of the original X-Men has been depowered), we learn that Sally is herself an alcoholic who started drinking over the death of her daughter who was a mutant killed when her powers started aging her backwards until she died.
That’s when this series ends. While telling her story to Warren Worthington, Ghoul busts in and attacks Sally–believing she betrayed him by not telling his story. The X-Men are ready for him, Angel actually does have his wings, and the whole thing was a trap.
This is also where the series lost me. I really enjoyed it up until the end. I think it would have been great if it had gone on longer and the catching of the killer had been more challenging than a simple bait-and-switch.
I can’t count this as a second point of detraction for this book, but I’m mad that Chamber’s story was so tragic. I really love that character. (I know he’s since been “re-powered”.)
Still, overall very inventive and well-written, as I’ve come to expect from Paul Jenkins.