Writer: Scott Lobdell
Art: John Romita Jr. and Brandon Peterson
What Went Down: Surprisingly, we begin with a one page splash of Nightcrawler teleporting in. Even though at this point he is the leader of Excalibur, Professor X urgently contacts him to meet the team in France, presumably because he is a fan favorite character.
Right off the bat, Nightcrawler is attacked by Forge, but easily dodges the attack, proving to Forge that Kurt is who he says he is. Forge is paranoid since the bad guys have the ability to block Cerebro, so he gives Nightcrawler a device the X-Men will need to find them. Forge then leaves in a huff, mostly because he is angry at the other X-Men, mostly Storm.
Across town, the Gold Team, plus Cyclops and Wolverine, are searching the flaming MacTaggart estate to confirm that Moira is not in it. A mob of people show up, angry about an incident that occurred in Uncanny X-Men #200, but Xavier makes the mob think they left with his powers. This makes members of the team uneasy.
There’s a brief flashback depicting Charles showing Moira the prospective candidates for his first and second classes of X-Men during a picnic. This turns out to be an effect of the Acolyte Milan, who has the power to project people’s memories onto TV screens. Thrilling. Amelia Voght is introduced, who can teleport, and is questioning Cortez’s reasoning for keeping Moira alive after abducting her. Cortez wants Moira interrogated so he can attain the mind control serum that Magneto used on the X-Men in X-Men #1-3. Unfortunately for him, Moira also knows that Cortez is responsible for Magneto’s death, which could make things difficult for the current Acolyte leader. A young Acolyte named Neophyte shows compassion to Moira by bringing her food. The X-Men meet up with Nightcrawler.
In the Blackbird, after talking to Stevie Hunter, Colossus is whining about not being able to be with his sister. When Iceman tries to empathize, Peter rejects his feelings, pissing Bobby off.
Meanwhile, Moira tells Neophyte that Cortez killed Magneto as Bishop leads the X-Men to the Acolyte hideout. While Cortez talks to the Gamemaster about the Upstarts game, Neophyte “morphs” into the room (later his power is just referred to as phasing, like Kitty Pryde) and discovers the truth about Cortez. After being attacked by Cortez, a human woman tries to help Neophyte, but she is killed by more Acolytes.
The X-Men save Neophyte, then burst in to save Moira. A large fight ensues. The X-Men win, and Xavier discovers Amelia worshiping Magneto’s helmet. Their conversation also reveals that they have a history together, and she blames humans for the deaths of her loved ones.
Bishop catches up with Cortez, who uses his power to overwhelm Bishop with energy. Before Cortez can kill Bishop, Neophyte intervenes to save the X-Man. Wolverine stabs Cortez, and Neophyte rejects an offer to join the X-Men.
What Else Went Down: During the epilogue that takes place weeks later, Amelia teleports the injured Cortez to a new hideout. She seems unconcerned with Cortez’s attitude, causing him to worry whether she has discovered the truth about Magneto or not. The Gamemaster calls to let Cortez know that he lost all of his points. The reason, we later find out, is that Magneto is not dead at all.
At the mansion, Moira and Xavier are analyzing the virus Moira encountered in X-Factor. This is the beginning of the Legacy Virus storyline, which is about a virus that kills mutants, has no cure, and was set loose by Stryfe. As the two scientists discuss the severity of this virus, Colossus is tucking his sick sister Illyana into bed, implying to the reader that she has been infected with the fatal virus.
How It Was: Well it’s issue 300, so we get a double sized story and a shiny cardboard cover. Whoopee. Double-sized means a whole lot more space to fill, and fill it they do. Where to start? First off, this comic is overflowing with characters. We have the gold team, Wolverine, Cyclops, for absolutely no reason Nightcrawler, Forge for a second, plus about a dozen Acolytes. Of the Acolytes, two have distinctive personalities, and one of those is an idiot who can’t understand how humans can be nice. The rest of the poor Acolytes don’t have a single personality to share between themselves.
Nightcrawler’s inclusion should be exciting, but his purpose in the story is to literally stand around and wait for the X-Men to get there and give them something to further the story. As for the rest, Forge is acting crazy, Storm is complaining about Cyclops leading her team, and Iceman takes Colossus’ distraught attitude over his sister personally. None of it is really deep or interesting, and the heroes take far too long to find the bad guys. Stupid double pages.
Also there are a couple of inconsistencies. There is a brief mention of Milan destroying Moira’s memories by destroying the console, but nothing comes of it. Why does Cortez want the formula to Moira’s mind control serum when it doesn’t work very well, as seen in X-Men #1-3? And why is Stevie Hunter taking care of Illyana; what possible purpose does she have to still be hanging out with the X-Men?
Things pick up towards the end as the fighting is suitably flashy and has its moments (Jean throwing an Acolyte into the next time zone, Iceman crushing an Acolyte right behind Wolverine with a huge block of ice). I also like Cortez’s character and his attempts to manipulate his followers while being terrified that they might find out the truth. He’s a great weasel. Plus, there are some major revelations at the end of the issue that will drive this title for months to come.
The art is fantastic. John Romita Jr. joins the X-office and draws an impressive issue. Even the pages where the X-Men are looking through an empty flaming building are impressive to look at. My only regret with Romita is that he has a tendency to draw pages sideways so that you have to tilt the comic to read the panels; it annoys me to no end. This is an issue that could be cut in half and not suffer one bit. There is so much that is unnecessary that it really takes away from the better parts of this issue.
B-
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