X-Factor 34 - Inferno

Death/Angel has his showdown with Cameron Hodge.

X-Factor #34

Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Walt Simonson
Inker: Bob Wiacek
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Petra Scotese
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Death/Angel breaks into the Right's base in Chicago and smashes his way through both the Right's troopers and demons supplied by N'astirh. It transpires that Cameron Hodge has made a deal with the demon from Limbo to supply a list of mutant children. However the list is intercepted by Nanny, the strange egg creature, who goes to rescue the children first (and kill their parents in the process). This causes N'astirh to withdraw his demons to focus on the collection leaving Hodge to the mercy of Death/Angel. Hodge has captured Candy Southern and is slowly killing her when Warren smashes through and the two have their final showdown. Elsewhere Cyclops has deduced that his son may be held in the orphanage he grew up in in Nebraska so heads off there with Marvel Girl.

This is another issue the pointedly tears down part of the legacy of the beginning of this series. It's doubtful that Cameron Hodge was ever originally conceived as anything more than Angel's school contemporary turned publicity director but over the course of successive issues Louise Simonson built him up into a manipulating villain whose schemes could explain away a lot of the awkwardness about the whole mutant busters cover set-up. Hodge has also driven the destruction of Angel in so many ways, with Apocalypse providing the rebirth.

The issue gives us a strong insight into Hodge's motivation and some of it's tricky. The prep/public school educated snob who thinks himself superior by virtue of wealth and education is a recognisable character trope and his horror at the idea of actual "homo superior" is easy to understand. But his attitude to Warren is complex with hints of homosexual feelings for his school friend that turned to hatred of everything else that made Warren happy - the wings, the team and Candy - and a determination to bring them all down. There are also hints that his bigotry is also driven by an element of religious zeal. The problem is that this all adds up to some rather ugly stereotypes of the villain driven by a spurned gay crush combined with the bigoted religious zealot conservative homosexual. It's a relief when Warren loses control of his wings and they decapitate Hodge. However the effect is reduced by this not being Hodge's first seeming death.

Also conforming to an unfortunate stereotype is the fate of Candy Southern. She hasn't actually been seen on panel for a couple of years and here she is unconscious throughout with her mind already destroyed. It's one of the most casual dismissals of a female supporting character going. Worse still she's not some recent creation but someone who's been around since the Silver Age and was actually the leader of the New Defenders. She deserved so much better than die on the slab.

This is very much Warren's issue though both subplots of Nanny's child collection and Cyclops's search for his son seem to be advancing towards resolution soon. But otherwise we have a mostly action and philosophical issue that resolves his quest and prepares the character for redemption in truly spectacular fashion.