X-Force (1st series) #124

Issue Date: 
March 2002
Story Title: 
Edie And Guy Finally Do It
Staff: 

Peter Milligan (writer), Darwyn Cooke (artist), Laura Allred (colorist), Mike Allred & Blambot (letters), John Miesegaes (assistant editor), Axel Alonso (editor), Joe Queseda (editor in chief), Bill Jemas (president)

Brief Description: 

X-Force return from a mission, but U-Go Girl’s teleportation screws up and they find themselves drowing in the ocean and next in a jungle. They have to signal a plane to pick them up. The team sets Edie a deadline, she has one week to get her powers right or she’ll be kicked out. Later Edie and Guy talk in private, and think her power is screwed up because of her emotional problems. They agree to finnally do IT, and drive to a motel. However they start talking and Guy brings up the little girl they saw when they accidentally arrived at the Sawyer house recently. Edie admits that she is not her sister, but her daughter, whom she birthed when she was fifteen. Right afterwards her power fully kicked in and she teleported away to Hollywood, not being able to stand the sight of her daughter, who then was raised by her parents as their own. Edie and Guy visit the Sawyers and Edie makes up with her mother. She wants to tell little Katie the truth, but her mother reminds her that in X-Force’s business Edie could die any time and the child should be spared to see her dead mother live on TV. Edie agress and welcomes Katie as sister. With her power working again, she takes Katie on a trip around the world. Later Guy and Edie return home, and she admits that team owner Spike Freeman gave her a new medicament to help concentrating. Her returned of control has nothing to do with psychology. Anyway they go back to the motel and finally do IT.

Full Summary: 

X-Force are returning from a mission. U-Go Girl teleports the team and they all get dumped into the ocean. Vivisector shouts that he can’t swin and Edie apologizes, she doesn’t know why her teleport misfired. She tries again and this time they emerge in a jungle, again not at their headquarters. U-Go Girl tries to play the incident down, stating that she might be more tired than she thought. She wants to use her medicine to help her concentrate, but the Orphan denies it. Maybe she has overused the drug. As a plane is flying above the jungle, the Orphan tells the Anarchist to signal them. The Spike offers to do it, but the Orphan says that he asked Tike. A little bit later X-Force get picked up and fly back to L.A.
Soon the team is discussing what happened. U-Go Girl says that they all have their off days, but the Orphan says that this explanation is not good enough. While reading “Faith in Fakes“ by Umberto Eco, Vivisector comments that not only has she missed her targets, but the rides have been getting bumpier, leaving him nauseous after some ‘ports. The Spike’s opinion is that Edie is only still with the team because of her reputation, but there are dozens of other teleporters they could choose from. Naturally the Anarchist has some arguement against the Spike, but the Orphan ends the discussion by setting a deadline. U-Go Girl has one week to get her teleporting right, otherwise she gets kicked out of the team.
Later Guy is in his room and senses that Edie is standing outside, unsure wether to enter or not. He tells her to come in, and offers her to help find out what the problem is. Edie says that it’s obviously the emotional ambiguity between them, the insecurities regarding their relationship. Maybe they should finally do IT and get it out of the way. They drive to a motel down at route 66, and while having dinner they start talking. Guy asks about the little girl they saw when Edie accidentally teleported the team to the farm. (X-Force #119) Edie admits that Katie is her daughter, but she wants to start the story at the beginning :
(flashback)

In her early teens, Edie Constance Sawyer often found herself waking up in the fields, on the roof, etc and people thought she was sleepwalking. Her mother was worried, but the doctor thought she would grow out of it. It was a very quiet house, the father not liking music or TV, and Edie often found him standing behind her, strangly observing little Edie as if she was a stranger.
(present)

Edie and Guy are now outside the motel, enjoying the night sky. Edie says that she bought herself a little TV and practised talking like the pweople she saw. Like any other teenager she wanted to be living a different life, and felt like she did not belong. Edie laughs at millions of self-pitying little punks, all thinking they are uniwque, but Guy touches her hand and says they are, each of them.
(flashback)

At the age of fifteen, Edie had sex with a seventeen year old boy from San Francisco, who was passing through. She got pregnant and when she couldn’t hide it any longer, she feared her parents would kick her out. The parents argued and from the discussion Edie learned that history had actually repeated. Her mother too had sex with a stranger passing through town, and that way Edie was conceived. The man she knew as her father actually could not have kids. For the next months Edie was pulled out of school and kept hidden, while her mother pretended to be pregnant, with a pillow stuffed under her dress. Finally Edie was giving birth. At first it felt like it was happening to somebody else, but when she looked at her baby daughter and heard her scream, Edie had to get away. She teleported and found herself in Hollywood; this time it could not be played down as sleepwalking. Edie never returned to the Sawyer farm until recently by accident.
(present)

Guy and Edie are in their motel rooms, that happen to be next to each other. The walls are really thin and they can talk. Guy even senses her heart rate and can hear her breathing. Edie doesn’t want to go back to the farm the next day, but Guy thinks it’s very important.
The next day they drive to the farm, and Guy ssenses that Edie’s mother is at home, alone. They knock and Mrs. Sawyer is quite suprised to see Edie. While mother and daughter are chatting and getting to know each other again, Guy takes a look around at the hous, and he finds photos of Edie as a child and he takes in the many sensation like the many sensation, like the smell of the dust and sweat of the people living at the house, the meals, etc.
Finally little Katie is about to return from the town with the man whom she believes to be her father, but is in fact her step-grandfather. Edie tells her mom that she wants Katie to know who her real mother is. There have been too many lies in the family, and she doesn’t want to deny the truth any longer, Mrs. Sawyer says that the choice is Edie’s, but reminds her of the consequences it would have for Katie to see the image of her famous mother’s death broacsted on TV, and in X-Force’s business that could happen any time.
Katie comes running in, asking whose car in in front of the house. Edie welcomes her and hesitates before introducing herself as her big sister. All are happy, but later that day, Katie asks Edie to take her teleporting and she is unsure if she is up to it. Guy cheers her up. Of course she can do it, after all she is Edie Sawyer, U-Go Girl ! Edie and Guy take Katie on a wild trip around the world : Egypt, London, Paris, New York, Easter Island and asia. At night it’s time for good bye. Katie asks Edie to visit again, but she never knows what’s on her schedule. Katie is concerned that Edie might die like the other team members, but U-Go Girl plays it down. Guy stands a little bit apart when Edie and her mother share a final hug. He is touched by the events.
On the way back, Guy says that Edie manifested her powers as an unconscious attempt to flee from her old life and old self. But when she reached a stage in her life when she did not need to run from the past anymore, she inderactly started teleporting back home. U-Go Girl prooves him wrong. Right before they departed, she picked up a new concontion from team owner Spike Freeman, and it’s doing wonders for her concentration. With her power working properly Guy asks her to teleport them to the motel once more. This time they share a room and have some champagne. Guy is concerened with the thin walls, other guests might hear then when they do IT, but Edie doesn’t care if the whole wide world witnesses and teleports them outside in the star filled night.

Characters Involved: 

Anarchist, Doop, Orphan, Phat, Spike, U-Go Girl, Vivisector (all X-Force)

Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer

Katie Sawyer
In flashbacks :

Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer

Edie Sawyer

Katie Sawyer

Story Notes: 
Issue Information: 
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