Writing: Steve Seagle
Art: Joe Madureira and Andy Smith
Elsewhere, Beast is cobbling together a transport for the
group to go after Gambit with. Joseph
explains that he has used his powers to reconfigure some of the robots’ clothes
from the last story, but this might just be an excuse to cover up for the
artist drawing the wrong costumes.
In Manhattan, Psylocke has knocked Maggott out and is
examining him while Angel fights his two slugs.
Betsy begins to do her shadow teleport because part of Maggott is
“missing” and something in him “attracts” her.
Warren and the slugs hurry into the portal to follow her.
In his cell, a mysterious voice chastises Gambit for his
crimes. Gambit assumes it is
Sinister. Meanwhile, the X-Men have
pieced together a working transport. The
team pulls over when Joseph starts to feel ill.
Outside, Rogue finds one of Gambit’s playing cards, and Joseph raises a
giant citadel from the snow.
After a one page interlude where Xavier has a nightmare
about different teams of X-Men asking where he is, the X-Men journey into the
castle. They split up to look for
Gambit, even though Joseph is about to fall over from illness.
Coincidentally, Psylocke has also managed to teleport to the
very same citadel; for some reason Angel and Maggott appear in different parts
of the building. Warren discovers a
noose, and Maggott runs into Joseph.
Joseph recognizes Maggott, although he doesn’t know from where. Then Joseph is knocked out by a mystery
person, whom Maggott recognizes. Beast,
Trish, Psylocke, and Angel are all captured by the mystery person as well.
Rogue finds Gambit in a cell. She tries to convince him to leave, but he
refuses. A person dressed like Erik the
Red appears with Spat and Grovel, and they take down Rogue.
On a plane over Pennsylvania, the other team of X-Men is
returning home from New Mexico after surviving Operation Zero Tolerance. Jean is trying to help Cyclops, who has a
bomb in his stomach. Cannonball contemplates
how out of place he feels among such close friends, and Jubilee warns him about
thinking too hard.
Erik the Red and his robot assistant Ferris stand before the
captured X-Men. Angel is announced to be
Gambit’s defender while the rest of the X-Men make up the jury. Warren notes that Erik the Red isn’t a
person, but a disguise that different characters have used over the years, like
Cyclops and a Shi’ar agent. Some the
other X-Men wonder if it might be Joseph, but Erik drags the badly beaten
Joseph out for them all to see.
Gambit tells the first part of his story; he admits to
working for Sinister and not telling the team.
Naturally the team is less than thrilled by this. All of a sudden Psylocke recalls some
memories of Gambit’s that she had gleamed from his mind waaaayy back in Uncanny
X-Men #324, but conveniently forgotten about until this very moment. She tells the X-Men that Gambit assembled Mr.
Sinister’s Marauders right before the Morlock Massacre. Archangel is angered by this because he lost
his wings during that event.
Then Erik commands Rogue to kiss Gambit and reveal the rest
of his secrets. Rogue doesn’t want to, but
she is forced. Gambit showed the
Marauders the way to the Morlock tunnels, not realizing that they were going to
kill all the Morlocks. Once he figured
out their goal, Gambit tried to stop them, but he was wounded by Sabretooth. Injured, he managed to save one Morlock
child, who later turns out to be Marrow.
After kissing Gambit, Rogue absorbs his powers and is able
to free herself and the other X-Men.
They beat on Erik the Red until he retreats, collapsing the hideout in
the process. Rogue grabs Gambit while
the other X-Men escape through Psylocke’s teleportation. Gambit thinks that Rogue has decided to forgive
him, but instead she is disgusted by what she has learned. She decides to leave him stranded in
Antarctica because she can’t stand to be around him.
In an escape craft, the robot Ferris attends to Erik the
Red. Erik removes his disguise,
revealing himself to be Magneto, the Master of Magnetism.
How It Was: Finally, we come to it. Gambit’s big secret revealed. Was it worth the wait? Well, that’s hard to say, but at least it’s over
and done. There are quite a few
surprises in this book, such as the real Magneto, but the execution leaves a
little to be desired.
The fact is that there are some wonky plot mechanics going
on here. Psylocke’s weird teleporting
power ends up sending her, Maggott, and Archangel to the citadel for absolutely
no reason other than plot convenience.
Yes he was looking for Magneto, but he hadn’t found him yet. Psylocke’s interest in Maggott is completely
forgotten after this issue, so it reads especially strange here. Psylocke sticks out again when testifying
against Gambit. How could she forget all
of this information until this issue, twenth-six issues from the original mind
scan? It’s just such a convoluted way of
getting to the point, and there had to have been a simpler way to tell this
story, although Steve Seagle did okay with what he inherited.
On top of Psylocke’s strange plot contrived moments, the
rest of the X-Men serve no purpose here.
This story could’ve easily been Joseph, Rogue, and Gambit and probably
been a lot better for it. Also,
Magneto’s purpose here never plays into any larger stories at all; later he
just makes a throwaway comment about how he was trying to sew dissention among
the X-Men. At least Spat and Grovel make
their last appearance (as far as I know).
This issue still has some moments. I like Erik the Red’s grandiose entrance, and
I chuckled every time he repeated for the group to be silent. Plus Magneto’s
robot is named Ferris (Get it, ferrous.
Ha!). The flashback with Gambit trying to stop the Marauders is a nice
little moment, especially since Gambit’s been so moody for the last year or so
of issues.
The big moment of the issue, what will make or break it for
the reader, is your reaction to Gambit being left behind in Antarctica. I’m conflicted. On the one hand it works so well thematically
with Rogue doing everything to convince Remy she can forgive him and ultimately
not being able to. Yes it’s a little
contradictory since Rogue was a villain before and ruined her fair share of
lives, but it’s easy to see why Rogue is upset and why she would feel utterly
betrayed, given the circumstances of their recent bit of intimacy. But then there is the fact that she just
leaves him alone, shirtless even, in the middle of Antarctica, where he would
surely die. That’s a really steep punishment,
especially coming from an X-Man because they don’t even kill their
enemies. I tend to lean more toward the
camp that enjoys the scene. It’s
melodrama, but it builds on the (very few) good parts that have been in
previous issues, and it opens up some interesting story potential for
Rogue. Yes, it’s strange that she tries
to kill him by stranding him, but that gets written away later, you’ll see.
Joe Mad turns in his last regular art duties, and
unfortunately he was unable to finish the whole book. Yes, it is a double page anniversary issue,
but it’s still disappointing. Paul
Smith’s filler is perfectly fine, but it doesn’t match Madureira’s style
whatsoever. Plus, for a double-sized
issue, not a lot happens until the very end.
There’s almost no action, and most of the exposition is recapping all
the events up until now for potential new readers. Yes this story is drawn out, and most of the
threads are never picked up again, but I once again find myself enjoying the
Gambit and Rogue emotional roller coaster.
It’s just too bad more didn’t come from the events of this issue.
C+
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