X-Force #78 [VF]

Grade: VF

Note: Stock Image

Issue Number: 78
Release Date: 1998-06-01
Writer:
Artist:

The home of DaCosta International CEO Getulio Villa-Lobos in Sao Paolo, Brazil, is invaded by Reignfire and Locus. After Locus sends the businessman’s bodyguards through her teleportaion portals, Reignfire terrorizes Villa-Lobos. Those familiar with Reignfire believe him to be Roberto (Bobby) DaCosta, aka Sunspot of X-Force, but the villain states that while he, in truth, in not Roberto, he is determined to take all that belongs to Roberto, including the company.Elsewhere, Tabitha Smith (Meltdown) has a dream in which she is on a TV talk show defending her relationship with Bobby, while dealing with the fact she betrayed Sam Guthrie, her previous boyfriend. She wakes from the nightmare in the Boulder, Colorado apartment of Sally Blevins, whom Tab has known since they were both members of the New Mutants. Currently, Sally is a college student who no longer wants to be involved in super-heroics, and has rejected her former codename ‘Skids’. She does, however, allow Tab and her X-Force teammates Bobby, Theresa Rourke (Siryn) and James Proudstar (Warpath) to spend a few nights at her home during her friends’ cross-country road trip.Tab and Sally, who has just returned from a Chemistry class exam, discuss their past, Sally explaining she no longer wants to risk her life at the whim of any mutant mentor, and that she desperately misses her friend, Rusty Collins, who was killed by Holocaust.Bobby wakes up and heads to the bathroom where someone is showering. Thinking it’s Tab, he pulls open the curtain to surprise her, but instead finds a startled and angry Theresa. The group then meet Sally’s roommate, Desmond Hatori, who’s there to check out the commotion. Theresa feels an immediate attraction to Des, but in embarassment, remembers she’swearing only a towel.The remaining member of X-Force, Danielle Moonstar, has opted to visit her family’s Colorado ranch. While helping her father with chores, she is attacked and abducted by Reignfire.Later, Bobby and Tab roam the college campus. They part after a brief spat, and Bobby comes across an informal soccer game, which he’s invited to join in on. At the same time, Theresa and James enjoy drinks at a nearby hangout, where they are joined by Des. Their chat, however, is interrupted when Locus snatches Theresa through her portal. Before it fully closes, James leaps through it after them.At the soccer game, a student Bobby is playing alongside suddenly bursts into flame and dies, a victim of Reignfire, who has come to abduct Sunspot.Sally finds Tabitha, who is brooding about the spat, when their attention is caught by flame erupting on the quad where Bobby was playing. They rush toward the scene, and, despite Sally’s protests, Tab attacks Reignfire. She succumbs to the villain’s heat, then is rescued by Sally, who is upset about being forced to use her power in public. Then, Locus appears, knocks out Sally and Tab, and draws them back through her portal. Locus then returns to teleport Reignfire and Bobby to Las Vegas.There, within an unfinished, abandoned hotel/casino, they have X-Force bound and suspended by their feet, except Bobby, whom they strap to an alter. As Reignfire boasts about being the cause of Bobby’s recent troubles (primarily, the lawsuit that froze Bobby’s assets), James, his presence unknown to the two villains, hides in the shadows, planning the rescue of his team.