X-Men #3

X-Men #3
Writer: Chris Claremont
Artist: Jim Lee

What Went Down: The X-Men’s Gold Team, plus Forge and Banshee, sneak aboard Asteroid M with the help of a transparent X-plane and the powers of Storm and Jean Grey. Fury and Dr. Val Cooper are still at the UN, trying to convince the Russian ambassador not to fire the giant laser at Magneto’s base. Magneto is busy taking his aggression out on Moira MacTaggert. Afterwards Cortez uses his power to recharge Magneto, and Moira notices that Magneto is growing more and more dependent on this.

Elsewhere, the X-Men and the Acolytes are bonding by the Asteroid M swimming pool; apparently before they defected, the X-Men remembered to pack their bathing suits. Gambit begins flirting with Rogue—he is convinced  that her touch won’t hurt him. We find out later that this assumption is wrong. Anyway, this starts the couple’s decades long roller coaster romance.

The Gold Team rescues the Professor, but the Blue Team and the Acolytes ambush them. Of particular note, Gambit shows off his skill with his staff by breaking Banshee’s jaw and deflecting Forge’s bullets back at him. Or are they lasers? In any case, Beast and Rogue snap out of the mind control first, followed by the rest of their teammates. Magneto shows up to turn the tide again; however, this time his powers give out in the middle of the fight, due to his dependency on Cortez’s powers. Wolverine frees Moira in time for her to give a load of clunky exposition about how the mind control doesn’t work because every time a mutant uses his powers, his mind comes closer to returning to its “natural state.” Also, she explains Cortez’s deceit to Magneto just as the traitor is ejecting in an escape pod.

Cortez uses a remote to fire the Russian laser at Asteroid M; he is a member of the Upstarts, but we won’t learn this for a while. Magneto uses his powers to disable the nukes he had acquired and keep his base together long enough for the X-Men to escape; the rest of the Acolytes choose to stay with him. Everyone reassures Moira that it wasn’t her fault, and the X-Men fly home from yet another adventure. Thus ends Chris Claremont’s fifteen year run on the X-Men, but he’ll be back in about a decade.

How It Was: The first half of the book is a little slow, with tons of dialogue weighing it down. The Gold Team has to recap everything up to this point in the story and explain their elaborate infiltration method, which involves Wonder Woman’s jet. Also, Magneto’s rant at Moira pretty much reiterates everything he said in the previous issue about his feelings towards her, but it does offer up another scene of foreshadowing Cortez’s sudden and inevitable betrayal. At least Magneto has the decency to seal Moira’s mouth shut with the metal suit she is wearing so that she stops moaning and crying about her guilt. Also, there’s an art/continuity mistake where Cortez is with Magneto one moment, and then down at the pool with the X-Men at “roughly that moment elsewhere,” (the comic’s choice of words, not mine).

The weakest aspect is probably Moira’s explanations near the end, which are drawn out and kind of silly. She claims that mutants have such “indomitable wills” because of the way their minds structure themselves around their powers. This runs contradictory to the fact that the X-Men get brainwashed on a pretty consistent basis in certain stories, and this idea has never been brought up again.

On the brighter side, the humble beginning of Rogue and Gambit’s relationship is nice and subtle, and the fight between the X-Men is flashy, if brief. On the positive end, Cyclops gets a nice jab at Jean about her flirtation with Wolverine before blasting her away. On the down side, I’m not sure Gambit should be able to deflect bullets with a stick. Dodge, yes; deflect, no.

But the true shining gem of this issue is once again the portrayal of Magneto. This issue really hits the nail on the head as far as his philosophy, his fears, and the effects his long, tragic history has had on him. While long, the monologue by Magneto reads like a last testament for the character, even though we all knew at the time that he would eventually return like he always does. I especially enjoy the part where he basically tells Xavier to capitalize on the time without his foe, and that he wishes the Professor’s dream could succeed, but he just cannot risk the consequences if it does not. It is the speech of a person who desires to be an idealist, but has just seen too much to have any hope. Great writing, and one of the best monologues by a super villain, adds up to a pretty solid end to Claremont’s career.

B+

Wow, my first story arc read and reviewed. It seems like only yesterday that I started this blog instead of a week ago. Anyway, tune in next week for X-men #4-7, followed by Uncanny X-Men #281-283.