X-Men #2

X-Men #2
Writer: Chris Claremont
Artist: Jim Lee

What Went Down: This issue starts off with Magneto telling the X-Men to back off and allow him to deal with his Acolytes personally. You can probably guess how that goes. Psylocke learns the hard way that she shouldn’t attack people up close when Fabian Cortez hands her a beat down; this is pretty impressive since Betsy is a trained ninja. We also learn Cortez’s power, which is to amplify a mutant’s power, and he uses it to give the telepathic Psylocke a really big headache.

While all this is occurring, Nick Fury and Val Cooper are meeting at the U.N. with a bunch of world leaders, debating whether to take preemptive measures against Magneto. A Genoshan soldier calls them and tells them to get off their duffs and do something.

An angry mob of humans attacks Psylocke, but the Beast saves her. If you continue to read this blog, you will note that the X-Men have a very long tradition of being attacked by angry mobs of people—probably more so than any other super hero team. Wolverine and Cyclops manage to get captured by Magneto off panel, and when the rest of the team tries to save them, the Acolyte Chrome freezes them in metal. Later Cortez tells Magneto that an anomaly was found in his DNA.

Over at the mansion, Xavier follows the hysterical Moira MacTaggert to the boathouse, outside of the secure facility. As Charles attempts to comfort her, Magneto shows up and lifts the boathouse into space. He then forces Moira to explain how she tried to cure an instability in his nervous system, that may be the reason he is evil, during the period of time he was transformed into a child by Alpha in Defenders #16. Magneto sees it for what it was, manipulation of his free will, and demands Moira use the procedure on the X-Men or he will kill them all.

On to Russia, where Matsuo Tsurayaba (owner of the worst name in super villain history) and a group of Russian Soldiers are taking advantage of the power outage over Russia to steal a coffin. This is foreshadowing for the next arc.

The Blue Team tells Professor X that they are joining Magneto of their own free will (even though they’re not).

And finally, the Gold Team is back at the Mansion running simulations in the Danger Room and trying to figure out how they are going to defeat the Blue Team, the Acolytes, and Magneto all at the same time. Nick Fury calls to tell them that Russia has enacted the Magneto Protocols, which consist of firing a nuclear laser into space and using it to shoot down Asteroid M.

How It Was: Well, the art is still wonderful, but there is less to praise this time around; parts of it feel very rushed and uneven. The fight at the beginning particularly suffers when, out of the blue, Cyclops and Wolverine are already restrained by Magneto. Then, when the others go to save them, one of the Acolytes abruptly ends the battle with his powers. Uhmm… why didn’t he just do that last issue? Also, there is now a second unknown female Acolyte appearing in the background of Asteroid M. Plus there is a strange sequence where a helicopter attacks Magneto, and he just uses his powers on the rockets it shoots at him—despite the fact that at the same time he announces that the weapons are made of plastics, so that he can’t use his powers on them.

I’m of two minds about the Magneto mind control plot. On the one hand, it is nice to see the heroes making questionable decisions, and it gives Magneto’s perspective about not being able to trust people more validity. And while Magneto is right to feel taken advantage of as a child, you can still see Moira’s justification in trying to prevent the boy from becoming a crazy murderer when he grows up.

On the other hand, we’re dealing with plot lines from the seventies; well over a decade and a half prior to this issue being written. It’s hard to imagine fans being familiar with that material at the time, let alone if they were to read these stories today. And it does feel like another attempt to undercut Magneto’s heroic deeds. Furthermore, the issue ends with mind controlled X-Men, which is a reoccurring theme in Claremont penned books; the previous story arc in Uncanny dealt with the Shadow King who had taken control of certain members of the team to fight the rest. Still, the art is fantastic, the cover is fantastic, and Magneto is still being written particularly well by Claremont for this story.

B-

Additional Random Note: Just take a look at that cover price. One Dollar… it is hard to believe I ever lived in such a glorious time.