Writing: Steven Seagle
Art: Chris Bachalo
What Went Down:
In the snowy north of Alaska, Archangel, Iceman, and Beast are in a cab
on their way to visit Cyclops and Jean.
They’ve traveled all this way after listening to a concerned message
from Scott. The cab they’re in gets hit
by a bird and crashes into a moose. This
allows the X-Men to meet secondary character Sheriff Chris Miller—Scott and
Jean’s neighbor. Iceman sees a local crazy man and considers that he might be
responsible.
Back at the mansion, Wolverine is waiting in the yard for
SHIELD with the captive Karl Lykos, the alter ego of Sauron. Wolverine has recaptured him off-panel after
the end of #355. Rogue shows up in her
original costume and tells him she’s going to the city. After Rogue flies away, there’s a big flash
and Lykos is gone, presumably taken by GW Bridge.
In Alaska, the original X-Men are reunited and introduced to
Chris’s wife and sister-in-law. Inside,
the X-Men ask Scott why he summoned them.
Scott is hesitant, because he doesn’t want to talk about Jean in front
of her, so he talks about wanting to discuss a new direction for the
X-Men. Upstairs Cyclops explains to
Beast that he is concerned about Jean’s powers and her wearing of the Phoenix
costume. He mentions that last time he
saw Jean wear the costume he was silent while it took her over, but now he
wants to stay on top of it.
Downstairs the X-Men reminisce about the events of Uncanny
X-Men #1 and discuss recent events in the comics. They also discuss trying to find the
Professor, although Jean says she’s been looking with her powers. The room fills with smoke, and Warren flies
up to find a dead bird clogging the chimney.
Staci’s sister sees Warren on the roof.
In Manhattan, Rogue observes Dr. Agee to see if she can
trust him. After seeing him leave a
research facility called Mutopia, she confronts him. He claims that Mutopia wanted him to join
their consortium, but he declined. During
this conversation, Rogue slips into Gambit’s speech patterns for a moment.
Scott and Jean take the rest of the X-Men out to a
restaurant. They’re forced to park far
away due to a protest of the local Inuits over land rights. Iceman sees the crazy shaman again, and
Cyclops sits down with the X-Men to discuss his bold new direction from
Xavier’s dream as a large flock of crows flies over the restaurant.
How It Was:
This is a random one, but it’s full of nostalgia and faithful
characterization. Seagle’s story is
reminiscent of the quieter, more character-centric issues of X-Men that Scott
Lobdell used to write after a big crossover.
The main difference is that this isn’t after a big crossover; it seems
to be setting up a future Phoenix story or a new direction for the team, but it
never really gets around to doing either.
All that really happens is an original X-Men reunion with some offbeat
Twin Peaks-esque supernatural occurrences happening around it.
In spite of weird tone of the plot, the reunion is actually
really nice to see. Even though the
majority of these characters have been in circulation for over thirty years by
this point, most of them had been more or less overshadowed at the time by
newer, more popular characters like Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, and Gambit. Seagle nails the relationship of the group
perfectly—the playfulness, the desire to help each other, the comfort these
characters have around each other, and the way being around each other makes
them feel younger. The scene between
Beast and Scott over Jean works really well; the concern Scott expresses feels
authentic and it’s a strong use of continuity that reinforces the story, rather
than convoluting it. Seagle also has
some fun trying to hide the Beast’s appearance, but the joke might go on for a
little too long.
As far as weaknesses…well, Chris and Staci are still
one-dimensional as ever, and so is their new sister Melissa. And the bird storyline is just an odd
direction to go; it really feels like a forced reason just to get the team into
costume next issue. There was a focusing
on birds in #352 as well, so I do wonder if the cosmic entity in that story was
meant to be the reason for Jean’s sudden interest in the Phoenix. Ah, we’ll never know. Bachalo makes the most of the imagery, and
his designs for the characters are all vibrant (even if he gives Iceman a goofy
soul patch).
Also worth noting, the Rogue/Agee subplot has a lot of setup
this issue that never plays off. The
Agee scenes especially are positioning him as a crazy villain, but all this
gets forgotten soon enough. As for Rogue
being possessed by Gambit, this doesn’t pay off, except for maybe some
throwaway lines from Rogue later.
Seagle’s character work is top notch this issue, even if his plot feels
forced. I like that the spotlight is
being directed on characters that haven’t had it on them in a while. It’s just really a shame that a lot of what
is here gets dropped later on.
B-
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