Writing: John Francis Moore
Art: Steve Epting
What Went Down: We open on Iceman and Joseph as they are chased by a mob of humans. They desperately try to make it to their car, but the mob catches up to them. In a surprise twist, the mob doesn’t consist of angry anti-mutant bigots; instead, it’s a group of teenage girls obsessed with getting Bobby Drake’s autograph. Joseph is confused by this.
At the mansion, Gambit and Rogue are shown cooking gumbo and kissing each other; for some reason Rogue’s absorption powers are in control. Joseph can’t help but feel that something isn’t quite right. Other events that are too good to be true: Cannonball watches a news story about the government shutting down Bastion, the world doesn’t’ hate mutants, Cyclops can walk around without his visor, Beast discovers the cure for the Legacy Virus, and Wolverine is calm and at peace. When Joseph walks away from him, Logan demonstrates that he is trying to fight some sort of mind control.
As Joseph observes some photos in the mansion, he notices that Jean Grey’s existence has been erased from them. Even stranger, none of the X-Men remember Jean Grey at all. Joseph flies away when the team threatens to “help” him, but Gambit and Rogue catch up and try to understand what is going on. Using Cerebro, they discover a mutant that fits the description of Jean in a store in Salem Center.
On the astral plane, Jean is imprisoned in a fake bedroom. At the ‘Bullseye’ store (a parody of Target), Gambit, Rogue, and Joseph are assaulted by the employees. After subduing the sales associates, they find Jean hooked up to a machine in the back. Gambit and Rogue vaguely remember her.
Rogue is knocked unconscious by a mental attack from the manager, who turns out to be the Gamemaster. We also see a flashback of Jean Grey being pricked with a sedative in a grocery store so she could be abducted. Gamemaster explains that he is an omnipath, and the only way for him to stay sane and focused while being exposed to the world’s thoughts and feelings is for him to play these manipulative games. He mentions the abortive Upstarts storyline, and explains that he was curious to see what would come of the X-Men if they were given everything they ever wanted.
Gamemaster offers Joseph the opportunity to make the changes permanent by sacrificing Jean Grey. When Joseph refuses, Gamemaster offers him the same deal if he will sacrifice Gambit. Joseph appears to kill Gambit, but really he is faking so he can free Jean. Jean attacks Gamemaster and almost learns his identity, but the villain gets away. Jean catches a glimpse of where he might live, but when the X-Men go to the house, it is obvious that the villain isn’t there. The TV is on, and the report describes a hospital firebombing that occurred once the Gamemaster stopped influencing the town. Rogue tries to cheer everybody up by explaining how all of them are trying to be better people.
How It Was: Somewhat of a surprise, this issue. Namely the surprise is in how good it actually is. Moore has a lot of fun with the status quo of the time, which was depressing, depressing, and more depressing. Amidst all the Onslaughts and political assassinations and self-doubting mutants, it is so nice to see the X-Men gain some happiness, even if it’s only a temporary, fake happiness. All of the twists Moore picks out, from the Legacy cure to Cyclops’ eyes, are nice little nods to the wealth of ever-present obstacles to the X-Men that never get furthered at all. Of course the end winds up being even more of a downer, but the journey is still a good one. It’s great to see Joseph get to be the focus, even if it’s only because of the plot convenient notion that Gamemaster’s powers can’t work on Magneto. After having nothing to do with the resolution of the Onslaught storyline, Joseph really hasn’t had an opportunity to prove himself as a hero up to this point, and I dare say this is the best standout moment he ever gets before disappearing off the face of the Marvel Universe in a year or two.
More impressive is the job Moore does with rehabilitating the Gamemaster’s character, especially in so few panels. Instead of the generically evil for the sake of evil arbitrator he was during the entire Upstarts story, I like this take on him as someone who is trying to distract himself from being overwhelmed by the breadth of human emotion around him. Moore also seems to be going for this idea that Gamemaster has completely lost his empathy and objectivity because of his powers, which is a far more compelling take on the villain as opposed to an evil, powerful guy who is just really, really bored all the time. Unfortunately he disappears from the X-Men books after this annual, never to be seen in the main books again.
The issue is a little long, and the fight with the employees at Target feels superfluous, but all-in-all the story works really well. At its core it is a simple story about whether the ends justify the means, filtered through a well constructed X-Men character piece. This is a shining bright spot in the middle of late 90’s era X-Men. We finally get a story that deals with the core themes of the book, develops some of the characters and their relationships, and only has one loose end that is never followed up on again (which feels like some kind of record for this period). If you’re going to bother reading X-Men comics in 1997, you might as well seek this one out since it’s better than the vast majority.
B+
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