Writing: Joe Kelly
Art: Brandon Peterson
What Went Down: Kitty
starts off the issue making her escape while the evil X-Men pursue her. She manages to make it down to the sewers
where she finds the captive Peter Corbeau.
Elsewhere in the Florida swamplands, Colossus and Wolverine
tear themselves out of the crashed Blackbird.
Wolverine acts abrasive towards Peter, angry about his time as one of
Magneto’s Acolytes. Storm appears to
remind him that it is not worse than his marriage to Viper. Rogue wakes up powerless and is saved from a
hungry alligator by Marrow.
There is more exposition from the blond news reporter,
followed by a scene where a scientist and a general discuss the rockets true
purpose…to hunt down and kill mutants.
Back in the sewers, Corbeau warns Kitty that she has to stop the rocket
from launching. Kitty escapes, forced to
leave Corbeau behind.
With Storm and Rogue powerless and Nightcrawler badly
injured, the X-Men are forced to hike through the swamp. Colossus helps Marrow remove some of her
broken bone shards so new ones will grow.
Marrow mentions that Peter’s brother used to do the same thing for
him. With the team’s spirits down, Storm
gives an impassioned speech that inspires them to continue on. Kitty appears at a copy shop and sends a fax
to SHIELD that is intercepted by Xavier.
The X-Men make it to Cape Citadel, just in time for
Nightcrawler to feel better and Rogue and Storm to get their powers back. Kitty also shows up at the control tower,
just in time for it to be attacked by the alternate X-Men. Fortunately the real X-Men show up to save
her. The Grey King is tinkering with the
rocket when the true X-Men attack. A
fight ensues and the control team tries to launch the rocket. In the middle of the fight, Xavier confronts
our heroes and demands that they stop interfering with his goals. The X-Men question his behavior, but Xavier
explains that the Benassi Rocket contains hardware to complete a network that
can identify and kill mutants with satellite lasers at will. The X-Men are conflicted about what to do
until Wolverine smells him and realizes that this Xavier isn’t even human. After being attacked, the false Xavier turns
into a being of blue energy.
The Grey King removes the satellite from the rocket to help
Xavier catalogue mutants. The rocket is
triggered with the X-Men right where the engines are, but Kitty is able to
phase the team to prevent them from being disintegrated. The rocket has to be stopped because it
contains a nuclear payload, so Rogue absorbs Nightcrawler and Colossus’ powers
as well as Wolverine’s military knowledge to stop it. The X-Men stop the other “X-Men” and destroy
the satellite while Rogue disarms the rocket.
The blue energy Xavier is appalled that the X-Men stopped him and vows vengeance,
and the X-Men steal their enemies’ jet to get home. The final two pages show the scientific,
military, and government officials being grilled about attempting to wipe out
mutants through the Benassi rocket. The
last page reveals that the false X-Men are just hard-light programs, and the
false Xavier is really Cerebro, the X-Men’s mutant detecting computer, brought
to life.
How It Was:
I’ve always liked Joe Kelly’s issues just a little more than Steve
Seagle’s, and reading them side by side with the exact same cast and plot makes
this preference even more apparent to me.
Both writers have a great handle on the characters, but Kelly just adds
more small touches, more humor, and more of an emotional impact altogether. The scene that exemplifies this the most is
Marrow saving Rogue from the gator.
Whereas Seagle’s Marrow is more of an angry kid who rubs everybody the
wrong way and doesn’t always realize what she’s saying, Kelly’s Marrow is a
jaded, battle hardened youth who points out the weaknesses that others take for
granted. When she stands up to Storm
about their odds against the evil X-Men, she’s being realistic, not
condescending, and even Rogue and Strom agree with her a little. Plus the scene of her killing the gator just
makes me laugh. Other stand out moments
include Storm’s pep talk and some of the characters’ reflections on Xavier’s
meaning to them.
Of course there are some nitpicks. The worst offense is Rogue being drawn with
her pink outfit from Uncanny #342-350 instead of her original green costume that
she was wearing last issue. This always,
always bothers me every time I read this story.
Wolverine’s behavior towards Colossus feels a little hypocritical,
considering how conflicted Wolverine has always been about straddling the line
between hero and killer. It still kind
of works as Wolverine reacting to missing his friend in the only manner he can
while maintaining his gruff persona, but it feels a little forced. Also, there are some issues with the order of
events in the story. Xavier tells the X-Men
to process Kitty towards the end of Uncanny #360, then the bad X-Men take out
the real ones, then the next issue opens with them trying to capture Kitty,
which they should’ve done before attacking the real X-Men. Oh, and Peter Corbeau serves absolutely no
purpose in this story; yeah he warns Kitty about the rocket, but fake Xavier is
the one who explains to the X-Men why it’s important. Corbeau doesn’t even show up in the end;
there’s just a brief mention about the officials under investigation because of
his testimony.
As for the villains of the story…they’re okay I guess. They’re not funny, they’re not scary, they’re
not really noble…they just kind of do whatever the plot requires of them. As for the reveal at the end, I like the
design of the living Cerebro, even if the concept is a little silly. Plus the reveal confuses the origins of the
all-new X-Men; my understanding of it is although they think they’re real
mutants, they’re just programs constructed from Cerebro, made up of file
combinations from all the mutants Cerebro knows. So Rapture is a combination of Angel and
Mystique; Landslide is a combination of Sabretooth and Blob; etc. I can’t remember if this is from future
issues, or if I just read this theory somewhere online. I guess we’ll see.
There is a nice conflict here, not between the two teams,
but with the idea of the X-Men’s identities being robbed from them, both by
these new villains and the unfortunate circumstances that have left them down
and out. Kelly manages to make it feel significant
that the X-Men are reclaiming their agency and their purpose. Again, all the X-Men just feel perfectly
characterized, and although their villains here are forgettable, the stakes of
being supplanted or made obsolete feels very real. It’s nowhere near as good a starting point as
X-Men #70 was, but this is admittedly a likeable cast, and both writers have a
strong handle on them.
B+
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