The students are on the run. Cable’s team has fallen apart. The mansion’s cleaned out. All things X are getting their asses kicked by the forces of Zero Tolerance. But the disjointed build-up and dubious tie-ins are all dispensed with. It’s time to actually see what the X-Men are up to and wrap up the principal action in the very blunt Operation: Zero Tolerance.
By now the 26 Years Later has turned into 27. But the retrospective continues with spoilers for Wolverine #116-118 and X-Men #67-69.
Don’t want to miss any of the Operation: Zero Tolerance retrospective?
On the Run
Bobby Drake and Cecilia Reyes need a place to lie low in X-Men #67 and that brings them to Warren’s empty apartment. Warren and Psylocke have been on various sabbaticals from the X-Men since she was nearly killed by Sabretooth. It’s not much of a respite for Bobby and Cecilia, though. A Prime Sentinel sleep agent attacks almost immediately. The pair are seemingly saved and put in protective custody by Detective Charlotte Jones, a friend of the X-Men. But in reality, she is turning them in because Zero Tolerance abducted her son.
Prime Sentinel sleeper agents take the first crack at Bobby and Cecilia when they’re in custody. The two mutants escape——in large part because Marrow, who is still looking for a way to save Calisto from the injuries she sustained in Uncanny X-Men #346——joins them.
At the same time Bobby and Cecilia are seeking refuge in X-Men #67, Sabra——a mutant agent of Mossad——is stealing secret computer files in Israel. Her concern is two-fold. Sabra feels a measure of loyalty for the X-Men. Despite having relatively little contact with them, she won’t stand by as Zero Tolerance launches a genetic war.
Sabra finds the X-Men (or what’s left of them in New York) just in time to help the motley trio of Bobby, Cecilia, and Marrow escape dozens of Prime Sentinels and soldiers. Sabra reveals that not only does she know where Charlotte Jones’ son is, but also where someone close to Bastion is. His achilles heel she calls it. Bobby, Cecilia, Marrow, and Sabra set off for Connecticut.
A country away, the X-Men captured by Bastion in X-Men #65 stumble through New Mexico until they come across a blind ex-pilot named Mustang. Mustang is one of several people with long standing injuries who are living in an almost shanty town of old trailers. All of the men are being treated by a Doctor Prospero who is apparently rehabilitating them. Indeed, Mustang will be getting his eyes replaced.
It takes no time at all for the X-Men to realize the people being treated by Doctor Prospero are Prime Sentinel sleeper agents. The X-Men fight back and are successful enough that Bastion activates an advanced Prime Sentinel sleeper: Mustang himself.
Final Confrontation
Senator Kelly, one-time hardline opponent of mutants, quietly opposed Operation: Zero Tolerance from the beginning. As Bastion grew his forces and finally launched his assault on mutants, Kelly did little more than wring his hands and opine on the growing injustice of it all. But with the situation spinning out of control, Kelly——motivated at least in part by guilt and the belief that he laid the groundwork for Zero Tolerance——finally takes action behind the scenes.
In Connecticut, Bobby, Cecilia, Marrow, and Sabra find the house where Charlotte Jones’ son is being held. The closest thing Bastion has to a mother is there as well. And so is Bastion. Bobby’s motley crew have fallen into a trap. A battle ensues, but it quickly morphs into an existential and almost philosophical debate between Bobby and Bastion. Unsurprisingly, Bobby can’t convince Bastion to stop hunting mutants.
But S.H.I.E.L.D. does. Deployed following Senator Kelly’s intervention, they apprehend Bastion and set about breaking Operation: Zero Tolerance.
Back in New Mexico, Mustang has led Zero Tolerance right to the X-Men. Prime Sentinels descend on the camp, and between them and Mustang’s enhanced abilities, the situation looks bleak.
But S.H.I.E.L.D. saves the day. They dispatch the Prime Sentinels in epic fashion, but not before one of them blasts Cyclops point blank in the chest, knocking him out of the fight. With Zero Tolerance’s forces on the run, the X-Men are left facing only Mustang.
Drawing on his own experiences, Wolverine is able to talk his way through Mustang’s programming and reach the humanity that’s still in him. It’s enough to stop Mustang just long enough for the X-Men to escape. The X-Men load Cyclops on to a jet, and the team flies off. Only then do they realize that there is a bomb in Cyclops’ chest.
Who Holds The Power
Criticism of Operation: Zero Tolerance’s ending is so common it’s nearly universal. The complaints aren’t without merit. X-Men #69 is almost the definition of an anti-climax. A high stakes action story ends with six pages of heavy dialogue and a rescue by completely unrelated characters.
Among the several decades of X-Men stories are many that feature the X-Men defeating human bad guys that are out to imprison/hurt/kill mutants. Often times the evil human is defeated while refusing to change their beliefs. Sometimes it turns into a “man who learned better” type of story and they make nice with the mutants. But in almost all of those cases, the educating of intolerant humans is left to the mutants who are being persecuted. And it usually comes after the requisite fight.
Operation: Zero Tolerance’s ending holds to the spirit of option two, but goes in a different direction. Lobdell largely dispenses with a fight sequence——he puts Bobby and Bastion in front of each other and writes a pair of speeches for both. Bastion hints at an origin and how it led to him understanding humanity.
Bobby pushes back. First he points out Bastion’s misguided notion that an entire nation would turn a blind eye to its fellow citizens——even though they’re mutants——being hunted, imprisoned and killed. He follows that up by pointing out that the X-Men only exist to protect mutants and humans from the likes of Apocalypse, Magneto, and Bastion.
Bastion’s response is fascinating. He bristles at being compared to Apocalypse and Magneto, telling Bobby that if he believed humans and mutants could coexist he would put all his power into fighting for that goal. But he sees mutants as an inevitable change that will eliminate humans——”For something new to be created, something old must be destroyed.”
Bobby’s final response boils down to the simple truth that every mutant Bastion kills will rob him of more and more of the humanity he claims to cherish.
Is it surprising that debate doesn’t win the day? No——though the conversation is more complex and introspective than most of those in the long history of mutant/human debates. Bastion is intransigent. Some people simply can not be changed by the power of ideas.
But some people can. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s intervention and apprehension of Bastion is a direct result of Senator Kelly’s evolution over the years. For once (though very belatedly), humans manage to police themselves.
From a purely entertainment point of view, the ending is a let down. Where’s the epic final battle? Where is the triumph of our heroes over evil? But the ending that Lobdell delivered transcends that because it says something very important. Ironically, in what is otherwise a very blunt and heavy handed story, the end is almost opaque.
In any society with a dynamic where one group has more power than another——whether intentional or merely a byproduct of history——the group in the best position to reform the system is the one with greater power. Maybe that involves some kind of broad groundswell. Maybe it involves a few people taking a stand and convincing or even shaming others to take action. In the case of Operation: Zero Tolerance it took Senator Kelly finally standing up for what he claimed to believe in going all the way back to Uncanny X-Men #299.
Maybe Operation: Zero Tolerance doesn’t have the most high octane ending. But it does have a meaningful one.
Deeply Human
The Wolverine storyline, culminating in Wolverine #118, offers the action packed ending. Though it is, unarguably, the less important storyline as compared to what’s going on in X-Men. But even this comes to a sudden end when S.H.I.E.L.D. arrives.
Mustang’s brief arc harkens back to what Ekatarina Gryaznova went through in X-Force and what Ginny Mahoney went through in X-Men Unlimited #16.
Ekatarina had been turned into a Prime Sentinel without her knowledge. She was able to escape the programming, lie to Bastion, and indulge in her own schemes when she went after Domino.
Ginny initially had no reservations about being a Prime Sentinel. But once she got to know Adam, she abandoned her mission and let him go.
Mustang has a harder time of it. Like Ekatarina and Ginny, he is able to connect to his humanity——even if only momentarily——and allow the X-Men to escape. This dichotomy of Prime Sentinel programming and underlying humanity cropped up in a few places in the larger story, but it was never explored in depth. That said, Mustang’s small arc is the most successful when it comes to this theme. Part of that is how much the reader has gotten to know the character (and it helps that, unlike Ekatarina, Mustang isn’t also a bad guy). Additionally, playing him off Wolverine makes him relatable. X-Men readers presumably have sympathy for that part of Wolverine’s past, and the similarities make it easier to sympathize with Mustang’s struggle.
Granted, Operation: Zero Tolerance is about the X teams and mutants at large rather than the Prime Sentinels. But in a storyline that concluded with Bobby Drake making an impassioned speech about how mutants are just as human as non-mutants and killing anyone robs the killer of their own humanity, it is a subject that was ripe for deep exploration. Fortunately there were writers who found ways to touch on it in different ways within the event’s larger structure.
Next Time…
It’s a brand new X-Men lineup as Operation: Zero Tolerance is left in the rearview. And it’s time for final thoughts.
<- Part 6: A Vanguard Of Truth
The history that informs this scene is significant. Political prisoners in oppressive regimes, religious minorities in theocratic countries, women and minorities working in behind the scenes jobs during times of less equality, homosexuals throughout history——there have always been people whose lives and livelihoods depended on secrecy. What is now referred to as McCarthyism came about from a time in this country when people were hauled before congress and “encouraged” to name names of communists or risk having their lives destroyed as a result. And those who were named fared no better.
Part 8: ->
Return to the Introduction here. Follow the companion issue-by-issue commentary on X.
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