Uncanny X-Men #246-#247: Bastion of Insanity

Uncanny X-Men #246-#247 features two pairs of interlinked minds. Rogue and Carol, and Master Mold and Nimrod. We touched on this a bit in the Genosha entry, but it appears now that Carol Danvers is a persona within Rogue's head that she can switch to at-will and is quite functional as. This is sudden enough that I went to the trouble of looking up her chronology to see whether there was some story I missed where that had this as a consequence - no. It's just shifted gears.

Another thing I looked up on the Chronology Project was Sebastian Shaw's timeline. Yes, he appears here in the Hellfire Club after he was purged from the Inner Circle in #75 by the new Grey King, Magneto. He was all "you do realise this means war" in that, but they didn't even bar him from the building or anything. Huh. Shaw is proposing a new Sentinel project (the reason he became unfeasable as an ally of the X-Men), and plans a new more adaptable Sentinel that can might be able to deal with more complex threats like two different mutants at once.

By an amazing coincidence, Senator Kelly encounters a confluence of two Sentinels on his way home. Nimrod and Master Mold kind of merge. Kelly's wife is fridged, which provides him the motivation needed to overcome his reservations about authorisiation precisely the sort of next-generation sentinel that has resulted in the death of his wife...1 Rogue/Carol isn't able to prevent this, but the rest of the X-Men soon 'porting in from 'Straya, fighting the merged Sentinel, and then sending it through the Siege Perilous, to re-appear seven years later. It was babbling about The Twelve, says Rogue/Rogue, whoever they are.

Meanwhile, back at the X-Men's headquarters, Jubilee is growing bored and sneaks in and takes a look at their stuff. Jubes youth and innocence is emphasised by her not having heard of the X-Men or Dazzler, and considering Lila Cheney to be "old fogies" music, strictly for the over-20s.

This is evidently supposed to amp up the threat level, but I don't see the need for that given that the consequences of mutant registration have hardly been looked at, the X-Men are still trying to keep rumours of their death from being understated, which provides constraints enough. Still, I'll keep reading, obv.

1. these guys can't cure cancer, so he's gonna fund research into new forms of cancer, is what he seems to be saying.

Uncanny X-Men #207-#209: Party in the Park

Uncanny X-Men #207 starts with the X-Men staying with the Morlocks. They're using the services of Healer, on Wolverine, who was pretty beaten up after #205. Rachel goes off to kill someone. She does that. Possibly she should get it looked at. In this case, the target is Selene, who she still has a grudge against and reckons she ought to be able to beat up with her shiny new Phoenix power level. She's tracked by Wolverine, who she's been bringing into her dreams, and knows exactly what he's going to have to do. You'll have to kill me, to stop me killing her, says Rachel. Snikt, says Wolverine. Wolverine goes downstairs to debrief. The X-Men are, well, not exactly keen on what he did, but agree to search for Rachel, to help her if necessary.

Meanwhile, Selene goes to her Hellfire Club buddies, who soon agree that it should be the policy of that club that this action should be regarded as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet UnionPhoenix.

The X-Men, with the help of Caliban, trace Rachel to Central Park, where she's been able to use her TK to keep the bleeding in check, but is in a bad way. This is of course the best possible time for the Hellfire Club to find her. A general fight emerges, only ceasing when Nimrod arrives, who wants to kill all mutants, which after a bit of three-way causes a truce between the two factions of mutants.

During all this, Rachel has slipped away quietly, to Spiral's "Body Shoppe" (now actually spelt like that), in hope of healing. This is a rather different and more mystical Body Shoppe to the cyberpunk one which we saw in #205, and I think I needed to have read the Longshot miniseries for this to have made any sense. Oh well.

After the battle's done Tessa offers the X-Men sanctuary at the Hellfire Club for a brief while. I think this (or rather, her battle analysis earlier in the arc) is the first clear indication we get that Tessa is actually important. First appearance: Sage?

Uncanny X-Men #194: Nimrod vs Juggernaut

Uncanny X-Men #194 features the X-Men in one of those days where they probably just should have stayed in bed. The news is reporting the re-appearance of Juggernaut in New York City, and our team of mutants grudgingly realise they should probably do something about that.

Last time they met him in the pages of Uncanny, he was keeping to himself and the X-Men made a fight happen that wouldn't have any way. So this time they take the smart approach of not going in all powers flaring, and instead just sending Kitty and Rachel to spy on him. (Xavier might have been helpful, but he's off in Scotland dealing with Legion).

Nimrod has no such compunction. (Nimrod, by the way, is a sentinel from Rachel's future that's been dragged to the present by her timestorm. It rescued a guy in #190 and has become his lodger. The Terminator came out in 1984, by the way.) Nimrod attacks Juggernaut, and the X-Men, and there is an unfortunate battle in which it seems the X-Men and the Juggernaut are on the same side - an impression only emphasises by their decision to let him escape, under truce, at the end. They probably wouldn't have done that if they'd seen the cameras, but too late. After #193 they were wanted fugitives, and this does them no favours at all. By the end of the issue, even the Russians have found out about Nimrod (I don't know how his name got out - did Nimrod start giving press conferences or something?)

Maybe just going into hiding wouldn't be such a bad idea...