Art by Chris Bachalo
- Name: Carl Denti
- Code Names: The X-Cutioner
- First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men Annual #17 (Nov ’93)
- Powers: Sh’iar Armor and Power Lance
- Teams Affiliation: FBI
About
Frank Miller and Alan Moore killed the superhero, at least for a time. The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen ushered in a new age for comics, creators wanted to copy the dark, gritty, atmosphere and morally gray characters. This was often done without the criticism that Miller and Moore applied to these protagonists, and the age of the anti-hero was born. With the charge led by Rob Liefeld and Todd MacFarlane, these gun totting, roid raging heroes would become the symbol of the 90’s. The X-Men line was far from immune from these trends and characters like Cable and Bishop would become mainstays. Others like the X-Cutioner were dead on arrival.
The X-Cutioner first appeared in the 1993 Uncanny X-Men Annual by Scott Lobdell and Jason Pearson. Marvel had all their annuals that year introduce a brand new character (Adam-X the X-Treme was the most famous one to come out of this) and the X-Cutioner felt very much like something that could come out of such a mandate. That character doesn’t sound like something that would come together organically, he sounds a lot like a character put together by a committee to perform well. He is such a smashed together idea it is shocking how much of it actually works to get a semi-usable character.
Art by Jason Pearson
Carl Denti was an FBI agent who recently lost his partner, Fred Duncan. While reviewing Fred’s files, Carl discovered that his partner had been working with Charles Xavier for years. Fred had been tipping the X-Men off to potential mutant issues and storing dangerous weapons from the various alien races the X-Men had encountered over the years. Carl was appalled at this revelation and the betrayal of trust and needed something to lash out at. After seeing all the mutant race had done, how they acted unchecked, and how conventional law enforcement couldn’t contain them, Carl decided he needed to take the law into his own hands. Armed with detailed information on mutants and their history, equipped with advanced alien weaponry, and apparently unaware of the title of the recent crossover, Carl took up the name of the X-Cutioner and vowed to bring killer mutants to justice.
Art by Jason Pearson
His first X-Cution (because I assume you just have to spell it like that when talking about the X-Cutioner) was the former Alliance of Evil member Tower. Killing this Z-List mutant would be his most successful mission ever. He next targeted Mastermind on Muir Island, as he teleported in, the X-Men were alerted to his presence and Colossus and Archangel went to investigate. The X-Cutioner was able to make quick work of the two highly trained mutants, but when backup arrived in the form of Storm, Carl realized he was wildly outmatched and teleported away.
He tried to X-Cute the comatose Emma Frost at the Xavier Institute on the night of Cyclops bachelor party. Luckily Scott and his son Cable were dealing with their unresolved daddy issues and were able to team up and deter the assassin. He tried killing Nate Grey, advertised as the most powerful mutant ever, the results were what you would expect. He tried taking out Rogue, she and Gambit didn’t let that happen. He tried to assassinate the teenage Generation X member Skin, a mutant who’s only ability is having six feet of extra skin. He couldn’t even do that. For a guy named the X-Cutioner, he only X-Cuted one named mutant. He also showed up in a weird Punisher storyline where he protected a pro-mutant preacher from a hate group alongside Frank Castle in what I can only assume was a last ditch attempt at turning him into an anti-hero. He has gotten referenced in one comic ever since the 90’s ended.
Art by Tom Lyle
Must Read
Nothing. There is absolutely nothing you have to read to understand this garbage character. In every single one of his appearances, he could have been replaced with a Sentinel and it would have had more personality. In spite of him, Uncanny X-Men #310 is a fantastic issue written by Scott Lobdell and drawn by John Romita Jr. Taking place before the wedding of Scott and Jean, this issue wraps up the emotional loose ends from X-Factor and X-Cutioner’s Song (which I must again stress, is totally unrelated to this character) and allows Scott to forgive himself for the choice he made with his son. Cyclops and Cable don’t end this issue as best friends but they do end it with a better understanding of each other, and for an estranged father and son, that’s enough. This issue is available on Marvel Unlimited and in the collection The Wedding of Cyclops and Phoenix.
Art by John Romita Jr.
Ranking
I kinda hate this guy. I hate his stupid name, I hate his generic personality, and I hate his dumb costume that Chris Bachalo couldn’t even make look cool. He seems like he was designed to appeal to ten-year-old boys in the 90’s and is the most obvious case of a character who was made just to sell action figures ever. I totally think he is worse than Avalanche (who I like and just hasn’t been treated well by the comics) and that brings us to Unus at the bottom of the list. Both of these guys are bad characters, and I think the X-Cutioner is actually worse as a whole, but he has just stopped mattering while Unus keeps showing up and keeps getting suffocated by his own force field. At least with the X-Cutioner we can assume he realized he was bad at this whole killing mutants thing and just went back to being an FBI agent, and because of that, he is going to rank above Unus as the new number 10 in the Xavier Files.
X-Cutioner was requested by /u/1RedOne on reddit. Thanks for the request, sorry that I spent that last thousand words ragging on the guy. If YOU have a character you want me to do, send me a message on my Ask Box and I’ll get it added to the list. Follow me on twitter here! It’s where I get my casual thoughts about X-Men out and my immediate reaction to the books every week. Thanks for reading!
Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
