Wrong Parents
Part of the interesting nature of the X-Cutioner's Song crossover is the relative newness of many characters we now take for granted, especially Bishop and Cable. Cable had only been around for a couple of years, we still did not know if he was Cyclops's son taken into the future or if Strye was. Before the traitor of the X-Men turned out to be Xavier (and later Bishop himself), Bishop was a mysterious young man from the future, like Cable, who didn't yet fit in. With those mysteries going on, Archangel's unresolved anger over Apocalypse's transformation of him from the Angel adds to the tension of seeking out Apocalypse's help to rescue Xavier, the father of the X-Men as a whole. Stryfe's first encounter with Cyclops and Jean Grey in the previous installment of the crossover included him calling them his father and mother (in quotation marks), and now his revenge on them begins in earnest (though since his mother is Madelyne Pryor, not Jean Grey, his anger with her is misplaced) - all for the purpose of finding out why they treated him the way they did, sending him into the future (though it was actually Cable). Even before The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, the effects of that series shaped the direction of the X-Men for a time. Though Stryfe does not become a major villain in the future of the X-Men, his existence is important here and now. The issue is fairly strong, especially with all of its sub-plots. The one irritating aspect of it is that suddenly Wolverine and Bishop have gone off to Department K, though we never knew they were going there. Their unexpected run-in with Cable is a little forced, but the humor sprinkled in the issue, especially from Wolverine, helps alleviate the slightly jarring plot progression.
