Uncanny X-Men #238/X-Factor #35: Before Combustion

Uncanny X-Men #239 and X-Factor #35 are both issues on the periphery of Inferno. Let's start with Uncanny #239 first: in New York, weird happenings occur: the chief and most noticeable of these being the growth of the Empire State Building.

Meanwhile, in Australia, the X-Men are going about their business. Danger room, singing, etc. Storm is fiddling around with the Reavers' computers, doing a vanity search, and finds reference to X-Factor coming out as mutants and sees a woman who looks awfully like Jean Grey. She grabs Wolverine, who sheepishly admits that he knew all along. Or at least, he'd caught her scent a couple of times. Is this the reason why this bunch of X-Men was put in Australia, as much to sequester them from the X-Factor news, as to avoid word leaking out about their survival? And, Maddy and Alex are added to the Chart after the end of page 26.

Sinister still thinks the X-Men are dead, and is eulogising them one-by-one, not dissimilar to his obituary for the team in #544. We learn a little about Sinister. He says that he knew Havok had "potential", "from the first", "in those longago days before you ever heard the word 'mutant'". And he calls Madelyne is his "pride [and] joy". And he is interested in Baby X: which he here calls "Nathan Christopher Charles Summers". A screen shows he's in a tube somewhere. Since Rachel already knew that he was called Nathan, I think it's fair to assume that this is in fact the name of the baby as registered, rather than Sinister's invention.

We learn a bit more about Maddy's plans, too. She wants the baby back, has made a deal with N'Astirh, where she'll be told the location of the Marauders so she can find Baby X and take revenge.

Meanwhile, over in X-Factor #35, Scott and Jean have gone to Scott's old orphanage in Nebraska, which Destiny's clue interpreted by Ship has pointed at. Some hints are dropped here: expansions of what we know about Scott's backstory. A mysterious kid called Nathan is mentioned, who Scott had always saw as a simple bully, but we can see he knows Scott will get his optic blasts (he might have seen an accidental use of them when Scott was first brought in), and is trying to goad him into using them.

Downstairs they find a collection of babies. Young Baby X, (Christopher), is among them. Jean and Scott resolve to save them all. Unfortunately, demons have been sent, looking for children (see tomorrow's X-Terminators post), and another new villain, Nanny is seeking to take custody of them, too. The demons get Christopher, Nanny gets the others: including Sara Grey's children who are also here. Well, that's two steps forwards, three steps back...