Comics: X-Terminators #1

X-TERMINATORS #1
October 1988
"Invasion Of The Baby-Snatchers"
Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Jon Bogdanove
Inkers: Al Williamson & Al Milgrom
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: John Wellington
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco

The wards of X-Factor star in their own limited series and play a part in launching "Inferno." This doesn't seem that gratuitous, although it surely must have at the time. Just five years earlier only Uncanny X-Men existed. Then in 1988, X-Fans all of a sudden have New Mutants, X-Factor, Wolverine and Excalibur to get every month. And now there's this, another mini-series. X-Fans of 1988, get ready. It only gets worse.

After reading X-Factor I have to say that the kids steal the show in most cases. Simonson clearly has fun writing them and they're a relief from some of the more melodramatic elements of the title. So here they are, in their own limited series. This issue, which follows Artie and Leech to a special school for younger kids and the four teens to a boarding school, is both fun and juvenile. It's very much an all-ages book with lots of slapstick and sometimes "Archie" like art from Jon Bogdanove. It is odd to have a book have both goofy action sequences and baby-snatching demons, and X-Terminators barely pulls it off. It never swings too heavily in either direction and plays down the middle as both an all-ages romp and an installment in a very sinister linewide crossover.

Taki's power is somewhat over the top and he reacts pretty calmly to finding out he's a mutant. Plus I'm shocked that that random school employee knows so much about demon lore to identify that Artie and Leech have been captured due to the effigies left behind. Maybe that was common knowledge in the '80s?

I love Boom Boom and Rictor and have a soft spot for Artie and Leech, so that adds a lot to my enjoyment of this issue. It's fine. And as long as it doesn't get as out of hand crazy as Fallen Angels, this will be a fun mini.

MY SCORE: 8/10