Uncanny X-Men #361
Writing: Steve
Seagle
Art: Steve Skroce
What Went Down: We open on a fight between Storm and an army
of Korean monk warriors, with Kitty
Pryde as back up. After dispatching the
bad guys, Storm’s contact shows up—X-villain Black Tom Cassidy. Black Tom swears the warriors weren’t allied
with him, and claims he needs the X-Men’s help.
Back at the mansion, Wolverine discovers Rogue returning
from a trip to Antarctica searching for Gambit.
Rogue explains that the only reason she left him there was because
Gambit’s memories and personality were subconsciously telling her to. Outside the room, Colossus and Nightcrawler
are chasing Marrow, who has stolen Peter’s sketch pad. After getting the pad, Kurt is attacked by
Marrow, who in turn is stopped by Rogue.
Marrow is chastised, but explains that she just wanted to look at the
pad because it was pretty. Then she
storms off. Wolverine announces that he
is moving outside the mansion to return to nature and such.
Back in Seoul, Black Tom explains that the Juggernaut is
dying. He was led into a trap based on
false information about a second Cytoraak Gem.
The gem in question instead sucked the power from the villain. When they arrive at the hideout, Juggernaut
has left and smashed through a wall.
Storm and Kitty accuse Tom of lying, but go out to search for Cain
anyways. There’s also someone in the
shadows watching.
Enraged by his situation, Juggernaut has decided to go on
a rampage, even without his full power.
As Storm tries to contain the damage, Gambit shows up on a motorcycle
and puts down the bad guy. Storm then
yells at him for not contacting his loved ones in all this time and for
attacking the dying villain. Fortunately
the X-Men find a map in Juggernaut’s pants that leads them to a temple where
the crystal is being held.
Colossus draws a picture for Marrow and accidently walks
in on her making a magazine collage, which embarrasses her. Over at the temple, Kitty, Gambit, and Storm
fight off more of the mystical warriors, as well as various temple traps. Kitty reaches the gem first, but leaves it
with Gambit to go check on Storm.
Finding that Gambit has vanished, the two X-Women decide to return to
Black Tom. They are surprised to find
Gambit already there, and the Juggernaut returned to full health. Cain begrudgenly thanks them, and Storm
invites Gambit to return to the X-Men.
When asked how he got out of the Arctic, Gambit says he walked, and we
see a flashback of two sets of footprints in the snow.
How It Was: Ah now this is a fun one. This is the return of Gambit, gone for eleven
issues since his trial. It’s also a
preview for his new ongoing series drawn by Steve Skroce.
There’s a lot of action in this book; we get an opening fight,
a battle with Juggernaut, and the finale with more ninjas and temple
traps. All of it is rendered with
Skroce’s keen eye for choreography and framing.
The Juggernaut fight, which is relatively brief, becomes one of the
moments of the issue thanks to a gorgeous sequence of Gambit doing a flip on a
motorcycle while showering exploding cards onto the villain. The warriors and their temple have some
really awesome designs as well, and there are loads of them in every fight
panel. Skroce’s style really emphasizes
action and movement well, like when Gambit uses some spears to cross a moat, or
the aforementioned motorcycle sequence.
While this issue could’ve gotten by on its action, there
is a lot going on in the character department as well. We have Storm torn between her principles as
a hero and distrust of Black Tom. Kitty
is torn between her respect for Storm and her knowledge that the villains will
screw them. There’s a humbled though in
denial Juggernaut which is a refreshing take.
And then everyone gets even more emotionally conflicted and tense when
Gambit pops up out of nowhere. What
started off as a story about ambiguous trust gains a whole new layer at just
the right moment. The dialogue works
really well, especially Gambit’s equips and attempts to pretend like nothing
happened.
It’s not perfect; the stuff with Marrow feels a little
off. Marrow was originally this jaded
teen that has seen more in her short, traumatic life than any of the
X-Men. Here she’s played off as kind of
bratty. I do like that she’s embarrassed
of her appreciation of beauty, but I feel like there are better ways than the
teen girl collage, such as her previous crushes on teammates. The idea is great; I’m just not thrilled with
the execution.
This is a fun one and a great jumping on point for the
time. This may be Seagle’s best script
as he finds a great mix of action, humor, and emotional tension that opens up
character directions for months to come.
A welcome return for Gambit.
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