Random Happenstance

Last week, I picked up Ballistic #5, but had somehow missed #4 and I think #3 as well. (The comic shop wasn't sure how that happened, if they were shorted on their order or forgot, but they had received multiples of the first two.) So, since I got this at the comicon, we'll take a quick look at an older Darick Robertson book: from 1994, New Warriors #50, "Till Death Do Us Part: Time and Time Again part eight" Written by Fabian Nicieza, pencils by Darick Robertson, inks by Larry Mahlstedt.

The conclusion of an eight-parter, this issue had a glow-in-the-dark cover version, that's also textured to have the feel of the sand in the hourglass crushing the heroes. The team had been scattered in time by old Nova villain the Sphinx, who was rocking the immortal Egyptian thing years before the X-Men's Apocalypse. The Sphinx's goals, however, were never all that clear, and really aren't here either. Aside from maybe, "kill Nova," but he waffles on that one all the time, too. Nova even points out that despite his seeming omnipotence, the Sphinx always seems to want to get beat.

In the end, Speedball wonders what the team was going to do with fourteen New Warriors, a callback to the end of Giant-Size X-Men #1. Even though there were at least four Avengers in that fourteen, and Dagger but not Cloak, there were also a couple even I barely recognized like Bandit and Hindsight Lad.