Fall of the Uncanny X-Men (#225-#227)

DALLAS, TEXAS -- The mutant militant group known as the "X-Men" perished tonight after a pitched battle.

Around 3am CDT a "crack" appeared in the sky above Dallas, showing daylight. The downtown area of the city was soon attacked by people and creatures from elsewhere, and Freedom Force, who had been sent to arrest the X-Men, were forced to intervene.

Speaking after the battle, Mystique, of the government-sponsored Freedom Force paid tribute to the X-Men, declaring that although they were fugitives under the recently-passed Mutant Special Powers Registration Act, they had given their lives - even their souls - for Dallas, and possibly the world.

Confirmed deaths were the X-Men Wolverine, Storm, Havok, Colossus, Rogue, Dazzler, Psylocke, and Longshot, along with a non-powered woman using the alias Madelyne Pryor. It is thought that other members of the X-Men may still be at large.

The X-Men were founded around 8 years ago, and were originally mostly sighted in the New York metropolitan area. Government mutant expert Henry Gyrich said "We believe they have schismed into two factions. The old guard have stayed in New York, taken the name 'X-Terminators', and campaign against X-Factor, Warren Worthington's mutant self-help organisation. Another set have moved to San Francisco. This group recently fled to Dallas after a mutant gang war with 'Marauders', that destroyed much of the area around Emperor Norton Memorial Hospital. We cannot continue tolerating these special rights for mutants, and frankly I find making tributes to them - even in death - highly distasteful."

This is the first incident of its kind to take place in Dallas this year. It is hoped by local authorities that this does not presage a larger "mutant creep", and that most near-apocalyptic superhuman activity can be safely confined to New York, home of the popular groups the Avengers and Fantastic Four.

They got better, obviously. And Gyrich's statement became rapidly outdated, as we'll see in the next post.

Uncanny X-Men #206: FRDM

After a couple of guest artists, Uncanny X-Men has John Romita Jr back on pencils.

Storm is looking for trouble in San Francisco's Chinatown. She quickly finds it, and defeats a gang beating up some civilians. She then makes the acquaintance of Bree Morrel, SFPD Lieutenant (and semi-regular in Claremont's Spider-Woman run), who says the X-Men are fine by her and that she hopes they stay. (They missed a trick by not having her be Head of Police or something after Manifest Destiny).

They're hanging out at Jessica Drew (that is, Spider-Woman)'s house, where they get a postcard from Alaska, from Scott. "Is all well with his family, Rogue?" asks Colossus, pointedly. "Seems so, Pete." replies Rogue. Given they're in CA already, might they pop over to AK for a visit? Rachel thinks this isn't a very good idea, for entirely incorrect reasons.

Kitty has gone to a Lila Cheney gig - in fishnets (I suppose she's finally got over Storm's change in look and is now emulating her), and on her way back she and David Ishima - Jessica Drew's landlord and love interest - are attacked by the ironically named Freedom Force, which now consists of Avalanche, Spiral, Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter), Pyro, and Blob but minus Mystique. They are there on official business, supposedly, to arrest the X-Men, but they've been very badly briefed, as they are not aware that Storm has lost her powers.

With the X-Men beaten, Lieutenant Morrel arrives, and you can already see where this is going. Where the X-Men failed in combat, she defeats Freedom Force with her power of bureaucratic stonewalling.

Meanwhile, Madelyne Pryor winds up in a San Francisco hospital with multiple gunshot wounds. Given the earlier postcard, this is surely another swipe by Claremont at what Layton is doing with Scott. It's fascinating to see comic books argue with each other like this. In a way, I almost regret that things will soon be smoothed over, as it might have otherwise reached epic levels.