Uncanny X-Men #259-#260: Whatever Happened to the Children of the Atom?

Uncanny X-Men #259-#260 sets aside Wolverine and Jubilee, Storm and the Muir Island set to look mostly at a couple of other X-Men: Dazzler and Colossus. They are opposite sides of the North American mainland, in familiar surrounds (LA and NY respectively), but without their specific memories.

Both of them have enormous luck: Dazzler that she's ended up at Lila Cheney's LA house, where Guido (making his second appearance) is able to tell her basic informationa about who she is. And someone digs up footage for Dazzler: The Movie and releases it. Not showing up on cameras makes a publicity tour rather difficult, though. In New York, Peter Nicholas finds himself in a loft apartment with a bunch of friends, acting as handyman for the building.

Of course, both plots have some action: Eric Beale is trying to assassinate Dazzler; while Colossus's friends are mutant refugees from Genosha being persued by a Press Gang. That, of course, has some diplomatic implications that are more readily apparent when your illegal paramilitary group are operating in the urban United States than in the Australian outback.

Both our X-Men retain their essential qualities of selflessness and heroicity after passing through the Siege Perilous.

We have the briefest of scenes to do with the Muir Island gang: Legion is now trusted enough to be hooked up to a Cerebro. And Moira is definitely acting weird, it's just not the penciller: Banshee and Forge have gone on a Special Mission to avoid her and try and find the rest of the X-Men, as per Lorna's intel. This is I take it the first hint of the Muir Island Saga?

This is the last daily post in the current run. Posts will resume at a more measured rate (like I'd originally warned would be happening back in November!)

New Mutants #71-#73: Inferno

New Mutants #71-#73 shows us Inferno from the perspective of the New Mutants and their new buddies the X-Terminators.

First issue we spend mostly in Limbo, and Magik gives us a tour of her backstory for those of you who had followed my colleague SpaceSquid's advice and stayed well away. Specifically: the bit about the dead X-Men littering Limbo (to your left is a bit of Nightcrawler's foot; on your right you can see Kitty Pryde's skull). I'll reply to some of SpaceSquid's points here (he hasn't done the thing for #4). So, SpaceSquid reads this as a morality play about ends vs. means, and he regards the idea (expressed by Storm and Magik) that using imperfect means - such as dark magic - to save - can possibly be described.

But it's not just a morality play. It's about actual demons and actual souls and actual dark magic. If you accept that logic of that using dark magic - even if for a beneficient end - can corrupt and deprave - then the rest follows. The soulsword is not a metaphor for the atomic bomb, and Magik is not President Truman. She is someone who is literally losing her humanity, her ability to empathise with others, and afraid to show herself to her friends, because of the acts of self-abuse she is committing. Whether or not it her actions are morally acceptable in their own right is besides the point. They come with a cost: can she live with it?

The answer here, of course, is no. She, the blonde girl imbued with magical powers and who has been fighting a very powerful figure who wishes to open a rift between dimensions so that demons might invade Earth, must commit one final action, of self-sacrifice, to close the portal, in the culmination of a long-running storyline. Her devoted sibling makes one last-ditch effort to talk her out of it, but fails. Oh, and the issue in question is called "The Gift". I've mentioned how Buffy-ish New Mutants is getting at this point, but this is uncanny.

Buffy died, but Illyana didn't take quite such an extreme measure. Instead, she survives, as if she'd never been to Limbo, had never spent those years there. ("The Gift" of the title, I think, rather than the Gift of death that the Buffy episode is referring to.) With that done, the portal closes and all is saved? But there's a back-up plan, shenanigans involving Baby X (Chris/Nathan/whatever) and Maddy Pryor.

Inferno the first proper complicated inter-title crossover that the X-franchise has really had: the massacre prelude was fairly minor; the Massacre didn't have any substantial shared scenes (you can't sensibly trace the comings and goings of the Marauders between series - I tried); and the Fall of the Mutants was just a parallel of unfortunate events (with oblig watching events elsewhere on telly). The meeting with their contemporaries from X-Factor plays out completely differently to the version in X-Terminators - and not just in the dialog and timing but different things happen. And this despite Louise Simonson writing both issues! I daresay this is due to the Marvel method: Blevins and Bogdanove must have gone different ways from Simonson's plot.

It would be an intersting exercise to steal panels from the four or five main titles here (changing dialogue where necessary) and see if you could put together a coherent Infero miniseries, to which the others are merely tie-ins. Artistically it would be an abomination, of course, but it'd have made my life easier, and that's really what counts, isn't it?

Classic X-Men #20/#23: Peter and Kurt Go Large

I never did really believe that the X-Men spent 6 weeks on a boat without incident. Their lives simply don't work like that. Classic X-Men #23's backup story proves me right, providing a solo adventure for Nightcrawler and a member of crew on the boat, Eiko Shimura.

Eiko goes overboard for some reason, and Nightcrawler 'ports out to rescue her. This doesn't work out very well, and they awake on a deserted island, where Nightcrawler can rescue her again (this time from a cult intent on sacrificing them, but it's all OK and compatible with the agenda of the story, because they're not human in some indefinable way, so that's all right then. We end with them on the island, with Eiko wishing she could find some way to repay Nightcrawler. He can think of a way, he says. Again, sigh. At least I suppose the subsequent search (not depicted) explains why the X-Men would tolerate spending so much time at sea?

Classic X-Men #230 does a similar thing, where Colossus saves two young women - Fahe and Nereel, and then apparently has a threesome with them. And that's a confirmed one for the chart, and Young Peter will show up in Uncanny X-Men Annual #11.

Uncanny X-Men #231: Reunion of the Rasputins

Uncanny X-Men #231 is cover-dated July 1988, and picks up a thread from New Mutants. A footnote helpfully clarifies it picks up from #66. Which was cover-dated August. It looks like that fill-in issue over in Mutants screwed up a tight crossover. Let's do these in publication order, though, and see how comprehensible this is.

Colossus is moping. He's got good reason to: he's stuck in his armoured form, and has become incredibly hot to touch (he accidentally burns a picture of Illyana). Gateway summons him - possibly the most demonstrative that Gateway has been yet - and teleports him to Limbo.

In Limbo, Illyana is now back to fighting a full-fledged demonic rebellion, and is doing the appropriate spell to bring Piotr back to life. Well, to undeath. She didn't count on getting the real deal, and assumes Piotr is hers to command. She explains the plot to him, anyway, and gives what I take to be a summary of #65 and #66: that Baba Yaga (a figure from Russian folklore) had abducted the New Mutants. He succesfully rescues them, and during his mission finds himself able to transform to flesh again.

After this he delivers some homilies to Magik. She still is of the opinion that she is inherently evil, and any altruism is simply an act. But, as Colossus points out, thinking it is worthwhile putting on that act is what makes one good. Our Piotr wouldn't be so cynical as to think of the possibility that she's a very manipulative psychopath playing a long game. They part with Magik still believing that Colossus has perished, but having accepted it a little.

But why did Baba Yaga attack the mutants in the first place? Magik doesn't think to ask that. She should have: it's another front being by S'ym opened in the war in Limbo. Oh dear...

Uncanny X-Men #183: Colossus vs. Juggernaut

Another weird thing about having Secret Wars run alongside its aftermath, is that we see consquences before events. This is different to the modern event experience, where books that aren't tying in will typically be set just before the Big Crossover, or just be careful to be ambiguously placed.

Here, we find out that Colossus fell in love with a young healer, who then died for him, before it happened. This would be Zsaji, who isn't even introduced until issue #4 (August 1984), a couple of months after Uncanny X-Men #183 (June 1984), which deals with the aftermath of her death in as loose and non-specific a way as possible - without even naming her. And they say the publication schedules are wacky these days.

Because of this trauma - and thinking that if he fell in love with [REDACTED], then Kitty couldn't have been The One - Colossus - who we get confirmation is 19 - breaks up with Kitty, who is still 14 (although I'd expect her to be turning 15 very soon now). She mopes, as well she might, and decides to go and visit her father. She's been overdue for a visit, anyway. Colossus, Nightcrawler and Wolverine go to a bar and hit the liquor (another first). That Colossus is allowed to do that, while Kitty isn't even allowed to drive yet, sort of demonstrates the creepiness of this. But hey, this happens. And Colossus, despite his physical statute, has never been portrayed as mature. Shouldn't art imitate life? Wolverine upbraids Colossus for only thinking about his feelings, and not considering what Kitty's reaction might be. Sensible chap, that Wolverine. Could go far.

Accidentally bumping into an off-duty Juggernaut in the bar provides our quota of fighting for the issue. Colossus takes his anger out on the Juggernaut. Rather strangely, he doesn't recognise him, despite them having met in Banshee's castle in Ireland. I guess Colossus just hadn't seen the unpowered Cain Marko form, then? But why then does Wolverine recognise him?

A little cutway, with Cooper and Mystique (still undercover using the "Raven Darkhölme" identity, a forename we've seen Destiny call her by in private), shows that the government have Plans, and they involve someone called Forge. And our epilogue is Selene returning, having survived the New Mutants experience.

Uncanny X-Men #179: Bratty and the Beast

Kitty Pryde has been taken away by the Morlocks.

Kitty Pryde is on a slab in the morgue.

Reconciling these two observations is easier than it might otherwise be, given the spelling "Masque" on page 3 of Uncanny X-Men #178 (another dead Kitty mystery set up immediately but deflated soon afterwards...) That's quite unscrupulous of them, taking a dead body and reshaping its features. Who even was that? No such answers here, although Storm will express her disgust at Callisto.

Masque can't reshape smells, and Wolverine notices the problem. Storm knows exactly what's happened, and their arrival in the underground tunnels of New York is delayed only by some faffing around involving Xavier. During this time, Kitty runs away from the Morlocks, starts to feel guilty about having left Caliban in the first place, and then returns back voluntarily, deciding to keep her promise.

Masque offers to reshape her face into a variety of exciting patterns. He declares, in broken yet strangely intellectual-sounding English: "We outcasts - outlaws! This symbolizes rejection by you of life you led, world you knew... people you loved".

Just as the wedding is about to begin, Storm turns up, with Wolverine and Rogue (Nightcrawler having been left behind to try to deal with Colossus, who has yet to recover from his solidification). Can you believe that they and Callisto get in a fight?

Leech, who suppresses the powers of nearby mutants, evens the score a bit. He knocks out Storm's weather powers, but she's got a bit of attitude since Callisto last met her, and Callisto is in for a surprise. Wolverine, of course, still has his claws, because "these claws are mechanical - they've got nothin' to do with [his] powers".

Kitty saves the day by protesting: she's there voluntarily. For the second issue in a row, a truce is proposed. The Morlocks' healer is able to help Colossus, and Kitty agrees to live underground. It's odd that they're willing to sell her into slavery like that, but the matter is soon rendered moot by Caliban releasing Kitty from her obligation.

And so we have the moral lesson: stealing people is bad, and don't trust people who live in sewers and are disfigured. I feel enlightened already.

X-Men #122: AT&TvX

X-Men #122 finally has the X-Men back at the mansion (which is near Salem Center, finally being named here), for the first time in what seems like ages (since #110 - over a publication year ago). They've been missing in-story for two months or more. You might expect their homecoming to be a matter of drama, that something is lurking there for them, but that cliché is skipped, and instead they are straight in with a session in the Danger Room.

Colleen and Misty are lurking around, and Scott goes on a date with Colleen, still seemingly unaware that Jean is alive and well and living in Muir Isle with his brother. Seriously, guys, TAT-7 has just been laid down. 4,000 channels. Would it kill you to use it? And you, Colleen and Misty, what on Earth are you thinking? You don't even know she's supposed to be dead, and would quickly contradict Scott if you found out. But no, Scott has to get the lines reinstalled at the mansion first (Professor Xavier cancelled the phone when he want into space), and since this was in the bad old days of AT&T that could take a while.

Meanwhile in Space, Lilandra is made Empress, and her and her consort are getting bored; and in Stornoway, Jean Grey literally bumps into a chap named Jason Wyngarde. He's up to no good, as we can tell from his thoughtbubble where he plans to make her fall in love with him and have her be owned by the "Hellfire Club", whatever that is. Logan (we can call him that now) has randomly spotted Mariko in New York. And Storm takes a trip through Harlem and is shocked to find a crack house and fails to deal with confrontation properly, before being rescued by Power Man (Luke Cage) and Misty Knight, in a fairly non-subtle Public Service Announcement (permissible under the revised CCA revision of 1971).

Oh, and we get Colossus's proper name for the first time - Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin. So, "Piotr" is a perfectly reasonable - if not preferred these days - transliteration of Пётр. Nikolaievitch would be "Николаевич", which is a patronymic name, meaning he is the "son of "Nikolai". We don't meet his father properly for ages, by which time the writers have figured out what that name implies and he is properly called Nikolai. Curiously (alongside Распутин and Романовы, which I've already complained about), Николаевич is another famous name, being the patronymic borne by the son of the last Tsar, and the first President.

X-Men #99: Space Oddities

X-Men #99 has our X-Men: Storm, Cyclops, Colossus, and Nightcrawler along with Dr. Corbeau, be able to quickly get access to a space shuttle to go to the U.N.'s space station Starcore One.

So far the X-Men have only been in space once, but it's been a common feature of the Marvel universe ever since Fantastic Four #1. It seems to be a more routine thing than in the real world - apart from Starcore One, there's Project: Armageddon's secret space station, which is a disused SHIELD base. But still, a short-notice launch is notable enough to get reported in the news.

This is the issue where Colossus's brother, Mikhael is first mentioned. He was one of "Russia's first cosmonauts", which is a bit of a coincidence, but no worse than usual. He died in a rocket explosion, which is making Colossus nervous (Colossus therefore gets himself added to the list of X-Men who have had relatives die in aviation incidents, alongside Alex, Scott and Lorna). Corbaeu can understand - he lost friends in the Apollo I fire.

The shuttle they're in (in 1976) is fairly similar to the actual ones that were being built (OV-101 was rolled out for testing only the next year). It's multi-stage to orbit. But there's another form of space travel in this arc. The sentinels themselves, which appear to be single-stage-to-orbit and are evidently capable of taking people up there as witnessed by them successfully kidnapping various mutants. Furthermore, the Sentinels can be built by one mad scientist, and it only took a billion dollars of black budget to do it (that figure, while it would certainly buy you a lot of comics and ramen, is chickenfeed by the standards of space programs). So why still have space shuttles? I suppose they must be much cheaper too? But more generally, why is Sentinel technology confined only to mutant eradication?

A clue comes in (and I'm skipping ahead here, but I don't care) #100. Trask's notes were essential for this project. That's the six years that was mentioned before - between 1969 and X-Men #57-#59 and 1975. Trask was a solo genius scientist who made an achievement that cannot be replicated properly by people acting from first principles... or perhaps the Sentinels are some kind of alien technology that they're finding it really hard to adapt? So maybe the Master-Mold is not something that was built by Bolivar Trask, but an artefact he found and has been trying to use.

Incidentally, I believe this issue has the first usage of the "Greymalkin Lane" address for the mansion.