Uncanny X-Men #300

Uncanny X-Men #300
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-

Uncanny X-Men #299

Uncanny X-Men #299
Writer: Scott Lobdell
Artist: Brandon Peterson

What Went Down: First it’s time to catch up with Forge. He’s out in Kuwait exploring the remains of Asteroid M for the U.S., specifically Henry Peter Gyrich. They come across an empty Magneto shaped shell inside the throne room, so Forge logically concludes that the Master of Magnetism is alive and well.

Down at the New York ABC News studio, Professor X is preparing to go on TV in an attempt to cool mutant/human tension after the Acolyte attack on the school last issue. Jean is with him for moral support. The Professor is appearing on TV with Senator Kelly, who is concerned about the threat posed by mutants, and in his first appearance ever, human supremacist Graydon Creed, the leader and face of the hate group known as the Friends of Humanity.

Over in an orphanage, Archangel is spending time with Teddy, the autistic potential mutant from last issue. He carries the sleeping boy to bed, and then meets an open-minded nun who complements him on his bravery and compassion.

During the debate, Xavier and Kelly find that they share similar views, while Creed pretty much embarrasses himself. In an unknown location, the Upstarts are watching the proceedings. Cortez reveals that Creed is a member of the group, and we get to meet the “leader” of the Upstarts’ game, the Gamemaster. The Gamemaster also reveals that he knows that Fitzroy has been grooming another member to join the group, which he allows.

At the X-mansion, Illyana has a bad dream and gives a Valentine to her brother, Colossus; it’s very sweet. Also she has a cough, which will turn out to be significant later.

The Beast is also invited to speak on TV and uses his time to blatantly insult Creed and call him out as a racist. The Gold Team and Charlotte Jones are watching the debate at Harry’s Hideaway. Bishop notices a waitress who looks familiar, which should be impossible since he’s from the future. The subplot gets resolved in three years time, within the other X-Men title, so don’t hold your breath on this one. Storm makes a toast that lets us know Sharon Freidlander died in the last issue. Sadsies.

After the broadcast, Kelly and Xavier exchange complements. One of Kelly’s aides reveals himself telepathically to Jean; the aide is Noah Dubois of Landau, Luckman, and Lake—a group that is central to the Deadpool series years later. Outside, Cyclops meets up with Xavier and Jean and informs them that they found the Acolytes hideout.

How It Was: Well, it’s the central theme of the series being debated for an issue, occasionally interrupted by subplots that are either being initiated or furthered. The debate is actually more interesting than it has any business of being. Xavier’s media canonization after the assassination attempt in X-Cutioner’s Song is an interesting development for the character. Kelly as a moderate with realistic concerns about mutant threats, as opposed to the traditional genocidal zealots, is fairly refreshing. And the appearance of the Beast adds some welcomed humor and breaks up the monotony of the scene. The only misstep is the introduction of Graydon Creed, who is built up as being a charismatic and compelling speaker, but in actuality is just an idiot who bats around unfounded accusations and is made a fool of by the Beast. His central argument always just boils down to “Kill all the mutants!” As far as threats go, Creed doesn’t rate anywhere near human X-opponents such as William Stryker or Bolivar Trask or even Robert Kelly.

There are quite a few additional scenes to cover in this issue. The Colossus and Illyana scene is nice enough, even if it only exists to fill readers in on what happened in X-Men #17-19; however, the setup for the Legacy Virus is nice and subtle. The Upstarts scene is completely forgettable, mostly because the entire Upstarts plotline is about to completely fall out of the X-books after another arc in X-Men and another arc in Uncanny. Even without that fact, the plot is clearly getting too convoluted as more characters are added to the ranks, and the group’s purpose in turn becomes vaguer. As for the Gold Team, their interactions are interesting, if mundane. The thread about Bishop and the waitress gets forgotten for so long, and the actual resolution comes out of nowhere, that it’s best to just forget it until we come back to it later.

Brandon Peterson has a weak day on art for this issue; he seems to struggle with drawing so many panels involving three white men in suits sitting and talking and making it interesting. A lot of the character positions look stiff and unnatural; in one panel it looks like Xavier is doing the robot in his seat. And the Gamemaster makes for a really awful character design before you take into consideration the redundancy of a villain in X-Men who is a bald telepath.

C

Uncanny X-Men #298

Uncanny X-Men #298
Writer: Scott Lobdell
Art: Brandon Peterson


What Went Down: Professor X has secluded himself in the War Room for the last seventy-two hours monitoring news reports on mutant/human relations. Bishop enters to resign from the X-Men due to his failure to protect Xavier, but the Professor refuses to accept his resignation.

At a private school, former New Mutants supporting character Sharon Friedlander is preparing for the school day. She mentions that she is working in this place as a favor to Xavier before being knocked out by the Acolytes.

In the Danger Room, Jean Grey and Archangel are running a test to help Bishop and Gambit learn to work together. This is a major obstacle because Bishop believes Gambit is the traitor who in the future is responsible for killing the X-Men, and Gambit doesn’t really appreciate that.

Over in Central Park, supporting character, and on again/off again Archangel girlfriend, Charlotte Jones is jogging and contemplating her recent decisions. She meets Storm and Professor X to give him a file. While they are talking, Xavier receives a mental cry for help from Sharon. He contacts the X-Men and tells them to leave right away.

Back at the school, Tom Corsi, another New Mutants supporting character, is driving the school bus full of students to the school. He notices that nobody seems to be around right before the school explodes revealing the Acolytes and the unconscious Sharon (who next issue we learn is dead). The new Acolytes are as follows: the Kleinstock Brothers, Unuscione—the daughter of 60’s era X-villain Unus the Unstoppable, and Cargill—former member of the Axis of Evil. They also identify that their leader is Fabian Cortez, the man responsible for betraying Magneto in X-Men #1-3. Their mission is to find a latent mutant to add to their ranks and kill all the rest of the humans.

Right off the bat, one of the Kleinstocks gets killed by a shotgun blast from Corsi, leaving two. Unuscione uses her “psionic exo-skeleton” to grab him. She is about to kill him when the X-Men show up.

The X-Men battle the Acolytes. Events of note include Archangel being engulfed by flames and surviving. Also Cargill apparently knows Gambit because they call each other by their first names, but nothing ever comes of this. Unuscione finds the potential mutant, but he has Down’s Syndrome, so the Acolytes don’t want him anymore. The Kleinstocks start a fire near the bus, and the X-Men get to work trying to save the children. The flames get close to the gas tank, but luckily Storm shows up and puts out the fire.

The issue ends with Senator Robert Kelly on TV denouncing mutants and warning the public about the threat mutants pose. Professor X turns off the TV and looks very concerned.

How It Was: Very enjoyable. It appears that the X-Men once again have a direction as well as some interesting avenues to explore. Everything about this issue feels well constructed. The expansion of Bishop and Gambit’s relationship is very welcome, as is the direction for Professor X as refocused due to his recent near death experience. The fight with the Acolytes is really well done, mostly owing to the fact that Lobdell keeps the numbers down and only introduces us to five of the members (and one of them dies right away, so we don’t have to worry about him). The fight is also well paced and has some clever moments to it, such as Gambit’s use of a tire swing or Jean’s surprise at the Kleinstocks’ powers. My one regret is that the Acolytes’ powers are introduced, but none of their personalities go beyond narrow-minded zealot. On the other hand, Lobdell does get some great moments out of C-list supporting characters like Sharon Freidlander and Tom Corsi.

Peterson’s art looks really nice this issue; just look at the details in the computer screens and newspapers in Xavier War Room towards the beginning of the issue. Also, the room full of Archangels looks rather nice as well. A really good issue.

A