Uncanny X-Men #301

Uncanny X-Men #301
Writer: Scott Lobdell
Art: John Romita Jr.

What Went Down: Selene, the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club is being held captive by Trevor Fitzroy. Her body is being shredded and reformed by technology Fitzroy brought from the future. Fitzroy is using Selene’s suffering to gain the attention of the Gamemaster. Selene reveals that she is the one who formed the Upstarts in an attempt to forge the next generation of mutant leaders.

Gamemaster sets up a telepathic meeting with all of the Upstarts and introduces Siena Blaze to all the other members. This meeting is to decide the next high priority target of the Upstarts; since Fitzroy called the meeting, he gets first chance to attack. Gamemaster chooses Forge because his actions are about to affect every mutant on the planet unless he dies.

At the mansion, Colossus has a big dent in his head from the X-Cutioner’s weapon in this year’s annual. Because of the injury, he cannot return to human form. Peter is in the middle of comforting his sister Illyana, who is still sick, while Professor X and Moira observe him on a viewscreen. Moira wants to tell Colossus that his sister is infected with the same disease that killed Mastermind, but Xavier wants to wait until there is more evidence.

All the way in Dallas, Texas, we find Forge looking out a window and questioning why he didn’t alert the X-Men to Magneto’s potential return. Mystique interrupts him asking if he wants to work out; he agrees because Mystique has kept her deal to hold a single form for three days because she is still having identity problems after the death of her friend Destiny. Meanwhile, Storm and Bishop are enroute to Forge’s base, Eagle’s Aerie, to ask Forge for help in curing Illyana’s illness.

As Forge and Mystique exercise, an alarm goes off and Fitzroy bursts in. Forge uses weapons and traps in his base to hold Fitzroy off.

Back at the mansion, Iceman’s girlfriend Opal Tanaka has stopped by for a surprise visit. They are about to take the opportunity to discuss their relationship, but Archangel interrupts and tells Iceman that they have to go to Texas to help fight Fitzroy. Opal tells him that it is okay for him to go, but secretly feels jealous that Iceman prioritizes the X-Men over herself.

In Texas, Forge thinks that he has defeated Fitzroy, until the villain kicks off Forge’s mechanical leg and crushes his mechanical hand. The explosion of the hand distracts Fitzroy long enough for him to get away. Bishop appears and engages Fitzroy, but it is really Mystique in disguise, and she is injured in the attempt. Storm approaches the tower from the outside, but the top of the building suddenly explodes.

How It Was: This is another Upstarts story, so the same complaints of the other ones apply to this one. Thankfully, this is the last of the Upstarts stories to appear in the X-Men titles. It’s pretty average as far as X-Men stories go, but it does offer some nice set pieces for Forge and Fitzroy; poor Forge hasn’t had anything interesting to do since X-Men #3. Here he gets some cool one-liners and some solid action sequences where he gets to give and take some damage. Even the scenes with Mystique and Forge prior to the fight are really good as they explore Mystique’s new status quo as well as the potential romance between Forge and Mystique.

The rest of the issue is nowhere near as strong. Iceman and Opal’s relationship is still circling the tube. Colossus is still concerned about his sister, rightfully so, and complaining about villains who take him away from her. Plus the scenes with the Upstarts are all unnecessary exposition recapping everything the reader should know up to this point. The information that Selene founded the Upstarts is interesting, but once again nothing ever comes from this revelation. Although I will admit that the conversation between Storm and Bishop is pretty interesting, and subtlely reveals Storm’s own still conflicted feelings about Forge… and potentially Bishop; I just love how Bishop was unsure whether he and Storm were dating or not.

John Romita Jr.’s art is very good. Once again, my only complaint is the four pages that you have to turn the book sideways to read. This issue is entertaining enough, but overall it isn’t that memorable. Definitely a few good character beats in it, though.

B-

Uncanny X-Men #282

Uncanny X-Men #282
Writing: Whilce Portacio and John Byrne
Art: Whilce Portacio

What Went Down: Forge and Xavier are playing the chess match they started in X-Men #5—even though it hasn’t come out yet in real time, it still occurs first in Marvel time. Forge uses a device to block Professor X’s powers so Xavier can’t cheat, but he still loses anyways. As they discuss a rematch, the Gold Squad shows up with Jean Grey’s body and a Sentinel head that Storm is somehow levitating with her powers—maybe it’s supposed to be wind, but it just looks like blue energy.

Storm is forced to explain that Fitzroy and the Sentinels escaped with the White Queen and the rest of the Hellions, even though nothing like that happened last issue. Xavier uses his powers and discovers that Jean is not dead because her psyche has survived.

Fitzroy surprises Shinobi in his bedroom with Donald Pierce’s head, but don’t worry, Pierce will be back. Fitzroy also shows him the unconscious Emma Frost, who now has Jean Grey’s mind inside of her. The time traveler wants Shinobi’s ring, and ends up cutting off his finger to get it, which seems kind of uncalled for.

Back at the mansion, the X-Men use the Sentinel head to find Fitzroy’s arctic base. Forge and the Professor both decide to accompany the Gold Squad as they rescue Jean/Emma.

Fitzroy’s sidekick Bantam appears for the first time. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t appear again in any of the main X-Men titles, but he does show up in some of the Bishop origin Minis that come up later.

The Blackbird arrives and Xavier comments that it was odd that he didn’t sense Emma Frost’s death. Of course, that’s because she’s not dead.

Strangely, the base contains more Hellion prisoners than actually existing Hellions; I guess Emma had recently expanded her school. Also strange, one of the Sentinels tells Fitzroy that he has detected the X-Men’s plane, and the moron basically ignores it. Instead, he kills Tarot(poor girl died twice in one story) and uses her energy to summon more henchmen from his home time. One of them decides he doesn’t want to be a lackey, so Fitzroy uses him as an example to demonstrate that any portals back to his home time are fatal to the traveler.

Jean attacks Fitzroy using Emma’s body; surprisingly, she has access to her own powers despite being in a different person’s body. The X-Men burst in, and a cool fight ensues. As all of Fitzroy’s henchmen and Sentinels are defeated, he absorbs and kills all of the remaining Hellions and uses their energy to bring even more evil mutants from his time. The Gold Squad is in danger of being overwhelmed until the arrival of Bishop…and of course his teammates Malcolm and Randall.

How It Was: Not outstanding, but next issue gets a lot better. This issue doesn’t start out very strongly, with Storm having to explain what should have happened at the end of last issue, except didn’t. Also, Xavier figures out that Jean is in Emma’s body really quickly, especially considering that later he brings up the fact that nothing like this has ever happened before.

Fitzroy’s also a problem as he is not a very spectacular villain. Having handed two mutant teams their behinds in the previous issue, this issue has him acting like a complete idiot. Despite having an army of the most sophisticated, futuristic Sentinels ever and an unlimited supply of henchmen, he still manages to be beaten really quickly. Why doesn’t he use the unstoppable suit of armor from the previous issue? You can also tell the Upstart concept hasn’t been that thought out yet since Shinobi and Fitzroy’s early hostile relationship bears no resemblance to their cold, professional one in later issues. Also, the significance of the ring is initially made out as the prize of the contest, even though it’s not and gets forgotten about after this story.

The art is pretty nice, except that there is a distinct deficit of background art, so it is difficult to get a sense of space for any of the settings. But the character designs for Fitzroy’s various henchmen are all varied and distinct, so the fight doesn’t get too boring, and I’ve always loved the Sentinels as villains—robots make for great fight scenes because the heroes can go all out on them without the censors getting angry.

Of course the big deal about this issue is the appearance of Bishop, who almost single handedly saves this title from mediocrity. Bishop’s a wonderful character; his appearance opens up a couple of interesting subplots. Plus, one of my favorite conventions of the super hero genre is the apocalyptic future where the heroes have lost, etc. Easily the most successful new X-character of the 90s, later writers struggled with making him relevant after his purpose was resolved, and his timeline was almost definitely averted. Still, in these early issues, he is an exciting contrast to the pacifist X-Men and their hopes and optimism.

C

Uncanny X-Men #281

Uncanny X-Men #281
Writing: Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, and John Byrne
Art: Whilce Portacio

What Went Down: Our story starts with the unsuspecting Reavers drinking and discussing how boring it is being cyborg villains located in the middle of the Australian Outback. Suddenly, a squad of Sentinels shows up to kill them all.

Over in New York, the White Queen, Emma Frost, has invited the Gold Squad to a party at the Hellfire Club. Traditionally, the Hellfire Club was a group of evil mutants who wanted to control the world, but after this story they go through several different concepts.

Jean Grey is uncomfortable since the last time she was at the HC, she was coerced into becoming the Dark Phoenix and almost destroyed the universe. Actually, these aren’t her memories; they are the Phoenix’s, but after the Inferno storyline Jean gained all of the memories that the Phoenix had when it was impersonating her.

Meanwhile the rest of the team is talking with members of the Hellions: a group of students taught by Emma Frost who used to fight the New Mutants a lot. Iceman is flirting with Hellion member Roulette, while Hellion member Beef gets in Colossus’s face. The Hellion Empath tells them to stop, but later stories decided he wasn’t there, even though he clearly is.

Emma Frost slams a female soldier through the door, claiming that the mystery soldier was trying to kill her. This is the reason why she asked the X-Men to come.

Next, the reader is introduced to Shinobi Shaw, son of former Hellfire leader Sebastian Shaw, and Trevor Fitzroy, a time traveler from the future. Shinobi is in a pool surrounded by beautiful men and women to demonstrate how spoiled he is. They are discussing the Upstarts: a team of people competing for a prize by killing mutants to score points. Fitzroy is trying to become a member of the Upstarts after killing the Reavers (even though they were cyborgs, not mutants); Shinobi is in the lead because he allegedly killed his father, although Sebastian gets better. Fitzroy threatens Shaw and then leaves to go to the Hellfire Club.

In the meantime, Emma is using her powers to torture the assassin when Storm demands that she stop. This starts a battle between the Gold Team and the Hellions. Jean gets angry and stops them all with her powers, insisting that they should be helping each other. Fitzroy appears and kills the Hellion Jetstream.

Back in Australia, Donald Pierce and Lady Deathstrike are still fighting Fitzroy’s Sentinels. These Sentinels demonstrate that they can repair themselves automatically. Deathstrike escapes when she realizes that they are only after Pierce.

Pierce goes to the mute teleporting mutant/plot device Gateway and asks to be teleported to whoever is responsible. Since Fitzroy is at the HC, that’s where he goes with Sentinels pursuing.

Back in New York, Fitzroy kills Beef, and the X-Men and Hellions attack him. Fitzroy’s armor protects him from telepathy and grants him super strength and invisibility. We learn later that his mutant power is to absorb people’s life force to power portals between time and space.

The X-Men have Fitzroy under control until Pierce and the Sentinels pop in. Pierce gets killed, but he also comes back later, and the White Queen apparently gets killed, although she is actually just in a coma. The Sentinels also apparently kill Tarot, but she shows up in the next issue to get killed again by Fitzroy. Finally Jean Grey also apparently gets killed, but we all know that isn’t going to stick.  Please note the emphasis on apparently in all of these cases.

The issue ends with Senator Kelly storming into the completely decimated club and demanding that the X-Men be held accountable for endangering people; they respond by showing Jean’s apparent corpse, but she isn’t really dead, I promise.

How It Was: Ah, finally an adventure starring the Gold Team. Although it features arguably the less interesting of the two squads, there are still a lot of major developments with this issue—namely the deaths of a whole lot of characters. Of course these are comic book deaths, so most of them are currently alive and kicking again, but at the time this felt pretty significant. Unfortunately, the concept of the Upstarts is pretty limited since their whole purpose is to kill mutants for points, and you can’t have major characters dying every other issue. It’s also difficult to get worked up about the Upstarts themselves, since the concept kind of fizzles after the introduction of the Legacy Virus, when creators just decided to end the concept over in X-Force and the New Warriors. So there is no closure to this storyline to be had in the pages of X-Men. Fitzroy might also be another question mark for present fans, but he was a major bad guy at the time and has a lot to do with Bishop’s origin.

The characterization is hit or miss. I really like Jean’s foreboding feelings about returning to the Hellfire Club since they act as a good connection to her history and also act as foreshadowing for her eventual “death” at the end of the issue. The rest of the team is kind of bland; the Gold Team never had the chemistry or humor that the Blue Squad did, although Iceman tries his darndest. Some of the dialogue is just out of place; why does Storm feel it is necessary to remark that Fitzroy’s powers are similar to the Super Skrull when there is absolutely no connection between the two characters? Plus once the Hellions start dropping, nobody acts concerned other than Emma; Iceman even cracks some inappropriate jokes which further deter the seriousness that should be present, but isn’t. These are characters that fans have known for a very long time, and one could argue that their deaths aren’t allowed enough impact. Also, the ending is horribly flubbed, but more on that next issue.

B-