Uncanny X-Men #290

Uncanny X-Men #290
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Whilce Portacio

What Went Down: Storm’s on the cover standing in the rain; that means a happy ending for her subplot, right? At any rate, the book opens on Iceman’s girlfriend Opal and his parents hiding behind an ice wall. Iceman’s father, an incredible racist, hates Opal because she is Asian (although it’s the 90’s, so it’s still considered politically correct to say Oriental). He also blames her for the appearance of the Cyburai. In case you haven’t guessed it, the Cyburai are samurai warriors who have cybernetic enhancements to their bodies.

On the other side of the wall, Iceman is fighting the four Cyburai with the assistance of Hiro, Opal’s former boyfriend/cousin.

Back in Westchester, Colossus and his brother, Mikhail, are outside a travel agency. Peter is going to get tickets so that they can both go to Russia, and Mikhail can be reunited with their family. You might be asking why they don’t just take one of the X-Men’s jets. All I have to say is that is a very good question. After Peter goes inside, Mikhail has a flashback to when he killed all of the people in the void with his powers. As this is happening, a pizza boy bumps into him, and Mikhail turns him into a tree. Yes, he has very vague powers that seem to change to fit the occasion. Colossus doesn’t see what happens, and both men go home.

At the same time Storm is flying around and considering Forge’s proposal. At the mansion, Forge and Jean Grey are discussing the proposal. Forge is bitter that Storm had to think about the proposal when he loves her more than anything. He asks Jean if the stray thoughts she picks up off Storm indicate whether or not she reciprocates that love as much as he does. Strangely, Jean’s answer seems to indicate that Storm does not.

Back at the restaurant, the fight is still going on. When asked why they want to kill Bobby’s parents, the Cyburai just mutter a bunch of generic stuff about honor. During the fight, Hiro says some impressive things about Opal that impress her a lot. Hiro realizes that he and Iceman are outmatched, so he tells Iceman to get Opal to safety because he has a plan.

Outside the mansion, Bishop is meditating in the rain. Mystique comes out to taunt him by turning into Randall to make him feel guilty. Right as Bishop is about to shoot her, Forge comes out to stop him.

As Iceman and Opal make their getaway, Hiro blows himself up, taking out the Cyburai with him. Iceman thinks he teleported away, but Opal claims she can feel that he is still there. She is devastated and resents Bobby for this.

Finally, Storm returns to talk to Forge, but before she can say anything, Forge tells her he’s leaving with Mystique because she actually needs him. After he leaves, Storm reveals that she was going to say yes.

How It Was: Pretty much the same as what I said about the last issue. The stuff with Storm is great; the stuff with Iceman…not so much. The real problem is that the Cyburai are just really crappy villains. None of them have names or personalities, and they just come off as so generic. If you play any kung-fu fighting game, you’ll probably see the same designs for the Cyburai as you will for the game’s enemies: the fat, bald guy, the long haired guy with a goatee, the shorthaired, skinny guy. Hiro is no better, and all anybody can do is talk about honor or reiterate plot points from the X-Factor story where they first appeared. Absolutely horrible.

The plot with Storm is much, much better as it is not predictable, and it explores the complexities of their personalities. Forge comes to believe that Storm has developed a façade as a tough, emotionless leader and that she is afraid to allow herself to be viewed in any other light. That’s not a bad assessment, since while the character of Storm has always been established as the tough but wise leader who gets the job done, the stress of maintaining that presence would start to wear on a normal person. The dialogue here is subtle and very well done. As for the parts with Mystique, she jumps in and out of lucidity at pretty convenient times, although this might be intentional to show that she is faking it. Otherwise, it’s just annoying.

Quick note—what’s up with Mikhail’s powers? First he can control portals, and then he can turn people into trees. In the next arc he gains even more powers, and it’s a little frustrating.

This is Portacio’s last issue of Uncanny, and it’s a pretty good one to go out on as far as the work on Storm goes. And even though it’s a dreadful storyline, the Cyburai parts still look good.

This issue ends a quaint little story about why it sucks to date superheroes—whether they have issues of their own or they are always getting attacked by villains. I’d still recommend it, but only for the Storm/Forge material.

B

Uncanny X-Men #289

Uncanny X-Men #289
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Whilce Portacio

What Went Down: We begin with Storm and Bishop together in the mansion. They are looking at portraits of the X-Men over the years, and Storm is reiterating how the X-Men strive for peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants. Poor Bishop continues to insist that he understands, but he hasn’t had an opportunity to prove it yet.

Several floors below, Iceman is getting ready for a date with Opal Tanaka and needs help with his bow tie. He asks for help from Forge, who also has no idea. Bobby asks Forge if he wants to talk about his relationship with Storm, but he declines.

Outside Jean Grey and Professor X are having a tender father/daughter type moment where they discuss the reasons they do what they do and the sacrifices that they all have made. Jean Grey tries to bring up the Professor’s paralysis, but he also declines.

Over in Long Island the Drakes, Iceman’s parents, are getting ready to go to dinner and meet Bobby’s girlfriend Opal; Mr. Drake is an incredible racist, and it boggles the mind why Bobby or his mother would agree to this dinner. Hiro, Opal’s cousin/ex-boyfriend I think, is observing the Drakes when a police officer surprises him. The cop tries to arrest Hiro, but Hiro knocks him out instead.

Bobby finally gets help with his tie from Archangel, who is also depressed because he feels that he isn’t good enough to date anybody, what with having blue skin and all. After Bobby leaves, Archangel is surprised by a version of himself from before he was transformed by Apocalypse. After beating up the imposter, the false Angel turns out to be Mystique, who is staying with the X-Men since Wolverine #52. Mystique is suffering from some kind of dementia due to the death of her good friend Destiny and as a result from her constant shape changing.

Mystique claims she was only trying to help Warren by having him confront his depression; Warren flies away angry as Storm chews out Mystique for meddling. Forge comes to Mystique’s defense, although it is unclear whether he actually agrees with her or if he is just doing it because he is mad at Storm. Storm senses that Forge is projecting his emotions about their relationship, and he storms off.

Storm and Forge finally acknowledge their relationship for the first time since the relaunch. Forge accuses Storm of being too afraid to live any role other than that of X-Man, and that she refuses to have a life of her own. Then he asks her to marry him.

At the restaurant, Bobby introduces Opal to his folks; his mother is warm and friendly, while his father is a complete jerk. Right as Bobby is about to confront his father about his behavior, Hiro shows up in the restaurant saying that his family is about to die. Bobby mistakes this as a threat against his family, so Hiro informs him that he is not the one who wants them dead. Just then the Cyburai burst in, pronouncing that Robert Drake’s parents must die.

How It Was: This is somewhat of a landmark issue as far as the creative team goes. It marks the beginning of Whilce Portacio’s last story arc before abandoning Marvel to cofound Image Comics, and it marks the beginning of Scott Lobdell’s run on the book. While not quite as long as Claremont’s, Lobdell wrote Uncanny from this issue to issue #349, as well as X-Men on and off throughout that period. So get used to him because I’m going to be writing a lot about his work for the next couple of months.

As for the issue itself, it is a textbook example of your average Scott Lobdell work; the quiet character scenes at the mansion are very good, and the action scenes are kind of dull and boring. Lobdell does his best work when he’s having characters express feelings and emotion, but when they go to fight actual villains... well I think the use of the Cyburai says it all. More on them next post.

The highlight of the book is Storm and Forge’s relationship. At this point the two characters hadn’t had very many opportunities to interact in any of the books. Rather than just forgetting about the relationship, Lobdell capitalizes on the fact by having Forge question why Storm hasn’t made an attempt to make their relationship a priority. Some people might say that Forge goes a little overboard on her, but I think he’s perfectly in the right. When she answers her duties as an X-Man, it gives him all the justification to lay into her about how she views herself and others. It’s really nice to see a super hero relationship struggle for such a common, normal reason, as opposed to having ex-wives pop up or one of the characters die.

The stuff with Archangel struggling with his identity is also quite good, and Lobdell makes good use of having to be stuck with Mystique in the mansion. The scenes with Iceman and his parents are slightly harder to get through. His father is just so blatantly over the top, I just can’t believe any member of his family would think this was a good idea. I’m not saying it’s completely awful, since most prejudices are narrow-minded, unjustified, and illogical; it’s just that every reader knows that the only place for Bobby’s father to go as a character is to have him realize what a fool he’s been and become more enlightened. And he does…it just takes about six years until it happens.

The arts fine—Storm’s eyes are back to normal…thank goodness. You know the words, so sing along—Portacio draws some beautiful characters, but the majority of his backgrounds are just solid colors. Oh and somebody forgot to color in Storm’s face on a page. This issue’s not bad, just nothing special.

B

Uncanny X-Men #288

Uncanny X-Men #288
Writing: Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Scott Lobdell, John Byrne
Art: Andy Kubert, Bill Sienkiewicz

What Went Down: The issue opens with Colossus, Archangel, and Iceman of the Gold Team hiding in the shadows of a hall in the mansion. They’ve decided that the X-Men need more fun in their lives, and their best idea of fun for people who fight for their lives on a daily basis is to jump out of the shadows and tackle them. And that is exactly what they do to Cyclops and Beast. After Cyclops scolds everyone, and everyone tells Cyclops to lighten up, Cyclops and Beast go off to debrief the Professor on the Omega Red story (X-Men #4-7).

Meanwhile in the Danger Room, the Professor is testing Bishop with some kind of training sequence. I say some kind because we see Bishop firing his gun at something, but we never see what he is firing at. Cyclops and Beast walk in, and since they already seem to know Bishop then this issue must take place after X-Men #8-9. The Professor tells Bishop to learn as much as he can from Storm, so Bishop asks Storm to take him to New York to learn about the present.

Cut to New Jersey where Opal Tanaka is reading a letter in Japanese. For those of you saying “Who the #@$% is Opal Tanaka?” Opal is Iceman’s girlfriend who appeared as a supporting character in X-Factor. Anyway, Iceman surprises her with flowers, and they leave to go catch up. The letter turns out to be from her cousin, Hiro, and this leads to a plotline in the next issue.

Back at the mansion, Archangel is listening to a message from Charlotte Jones, another X-girlfriend/former X-Factor supporting member. She makes a reference about Warren being her archangel which makes him really angry, so he decides to go outside and fly around while naked.

Meanwhile… again (Hey, if this comic can use it as a transition, why can’t I?), most of the Gold Team, plus Jubilee, Opal, and Forge, are walking around downtown New York. They just happen to run into a mutant named Styglut, who just happens to be the very last of the fugitives from the future that Bishop hasn’t killed yet.

A very large fight ensues between the two, with lots of collateral damage along the way. Storm tries to get Bishop to stop, saying that killing is not the only way. Bishop disagrees, and kills Styglut.

As he’s being restrained by Colossus, Bishop sees the rest of the X-Men helping the bystanders caught in the wake of his battle. Storm drops a lot of guilt on him and tells him that all X-Men must put the lives of civilians before their own. He feels remorse, and swears that he will dedicate himself to the X-Men’s ideals from now on.

Later Bishop spends some more time in the Danger Room shooting at something we again don’t get to see. Then he goes to Storm’s room and gives her his command insignia as a symbol that he still has much to learn.

How It Was: Andy Kubert guest pencils, and he is pretty hit or miss; he later went on to be the regular penciler on X-Men, where his style improved greatly. The scenes with Bishop in the Danger Room are just perplexing since I can’t understand why the artist wouldn’t show us what the character is doing. Also, all the scenes where characters have shadows over them have the shadows depicted as criss-crossing lines, like a checker board, that look just awful. And Storm’s eyes are way too wide and narrow, as are her eye brows. She looks strange the entire issue.

The scene at the beginning with the two teams exists for no other reason except to fill space. I think it’s meant to be silly and heartwarming, but it definitely isn’t. There is an allusion to the Betsy seducing Scott plotline that Jean Grey picks up on, but other than that it’s just plain weird.

As for the good, well the fight between Styglut and Bishop is very entertaining, and has some good writing behind it. Although Storm is meant to be in the right by stressing that killing is wrong, Bishop makes a compelling argument that Styglut is from the future, and as the representative law enforcement from that time, it is his responsibility to hold the bad guy accountable to the rules of that period. It’s no different than a criminal getting extradited to his home country, except that option isn’t available here.

As for Styglut himself, he is totally one dimensional and doesn’t do much to define his personality outside of killing two women. And apparently all criminals in the future are stupid because once again we have an issue of Uncanny where the bad guy shoots Bishop with energy, even though he knows him and his powers. He claims to be trying to overload Bishop, but that seems like a pretty crappy plan.

Unfortunately, the issue ends on a pretty predictable note. Bishop figures out that “Gee, the present sure is different from the time I grew up in.” But I guess it is something that had to be addressed, and this is a convenient means to get it out of the way. A good issue for Bishop, though there is not much for anybody else.

B

Uncanny X-Men #285

Uncanny X-Men #285
Writing: Whilce Portacio, Jim Lee, and John Byrne
Art: Whilce Portacio, Art Thibert, and Al Milgrom

Note: The price goes up twenty-five cents this issue. Stupid inflation.

What Went Down: Colossus, Jean Grey, and the rebel leader Primate fall out of the other side of the portal into some fantasy world. They notice that the rest of the X-Men are nowhere to be seen, and then they are attacked by a group of rebels who think that they killed the Primate. Jean and Colossus are both defeated, but the rebels surrender when they see Peter unarmored and mistake him for some kind of savior.

Meanwhile, Storm is dying in a desert. This is odd because normally the weather doesn’t affect her, but since she is in a different dimension she gets to feel the full effect. A stranger rescues her and takes her back to his house. He feeds Storm and asks how she found herself in a desert alone. When she brings up the portal, the stranger freaks out

Archangel stumbles upon a group of rebels fighting against the forces of the established government, which we later learn is called the Triumvirate. In a daze, Warren kills all of the rebels, and when he wakes up he is proclaimed a hero even though he has no idea what happened. This is an ongoing subplot from X-Factor where Archangel’s wings would control him and cause him to slip into rages because they were created by Apocalypse.

And finally we find Iceman and Sunfire in a bar after having fallen through a hole in the roof. When the bartender and his patrons show justifiable anger at having their property vandalized, the two mutants beat them all up and leave.

Back in the desert, Storm and the stranger are getting ready to ride giant lizards to the location of the portal, so they can stop it from destroying both worlds. Storm is pretty sure the X-Men will fix the problem, as should be the reader by this point.

Colossus and Jean are being lead back to the rebels’ base and trying to fit in with the group as best they can.

Iceman and Sunfire walk away from the bar, which is completely destroyed in background. Sunfire takes the time to backhandedly apologize to Iceman for attacking the X-Men during his first appearance. Since it happened almost thirty years (in real time) before this issue, Iceman isn’t too concerned. The pair hear about a steel warrior and go off to find their teammate.

Archangel meets the leader, known as the Avatar, of the Triumvirate; her name is Sha-Har-A-Zath, and she makes Warren a Lord Protector in her army.

Back at the rebel base, Jean and Primate are discussing the prophecy that Colossus is meant to fulfill. Jean finds him in a room with a harem of women, at which point he starts acting embarrassed and bashful. Storm and the stranger show up at the exact same time, and the stranger reveals himself as Mikhail Rasputin, Peter’s brother who was supposed to have died.

Back in the real world, the police are investigating the bodies of more mutants that Bishop and his team have killed. Witnesses have mistaken the XSE officers for the X-Men because of the black Xs on their uniforms, and Trish Tilby is doing a report on possible mutant gang warfare. Bishop again ends an issue with a vow—this time that his past will never come to be.

How It Was: On the plus side, all of the X-Men get their own individual plot lines in this story, so some of the characters finally get some room to breathe and let their personalities show a little. Archangel’s subplot is at the same time the best and the worst. On the one hand it deals with the internal darkness he’s been struggling against since his transformation, and the fact that he might be finally losing control is rather intriguing indeed. On the other hand, his plot deals with the monarchy of this dimension, and I get bored just writing Sha-Har-A-Zath and Posse Comitatus, let alone reading about them.

As for the other character beats, they’re okay. Storm’s plot at least has the mysterious stranger’s identity to keep readers invested, although the reveal that he is Colossus’s brother makes for a hell of a coincidence. Colossus and Jean’s arc has the mystery of the prophecy, but it’s never really resolved completely and comes off a little contrived in the end. Iceman and Sunfire’s journey is completely unnecessary, and the question of why Sunfire is even in this story is still a very pertinent one.

Above all else, the world is just really boring and not fleshed out at all. The only things the reader really learns about the culture are that there is a monarchy, some of the people don’t want a monarchy, and the people say “by the mother and son” a lot. It’s about as interesting as it sounds.

The Bishop plot continues and it seems like there may be serious ramifications for the rest of the X-Men. There aren’t, and the fact that a bunch of civilians think they saw the X-Men gun down other mutants in the middle of a club gets quietly forgotten. Oh well.

C-

Uncanny X-Men #284

Uncanny X-Men #284
Writing: Whilce Portacio and John Byrne
Art: Whilce Portacio

What Went Down: Sunfire, the Japanese fire wielder, receives a new costume. He’s out with a team of Japanese and Russian scientists exploring a mysterious portal on the Sakhalin Islands. The team tells Sunfire to use his powers on it, at which point something in the void attacks Sunfire.

As for the Gold Team, they are still on the Blackbird returning from the previous story arc. Colossus has broken his nose, and everyone wants to know how Jean stuck her mind in Emma Frost’s body. Jean has no idea. Jean and the Professor attempt to scan the White Queen’s mind when Forge interrupts them with an emergency alert from Sunfire’s science team.

Back on the island, Sunfire’s new armor isn’t doing much, as the attackers are immune to his powers. Just as they are about to finish him off, the X-Men appear to save the day. Jean notes that the attackers’ minds are very alien, even though they are all speaking perfect English.

During the fight, Forge launches some missiles from the Blackbird; he claims that they are only concussion missiles and will only give the attackers a bad headache. The invaders fire on the missiles, which explode and appear to do a lot more damage than just a headache. One of the soldier’s costumes is damaged and causes a huge explosion, revealing the leader of the group is a young woman in armor.

The girl, named Primate because it is some sort of military rank, says that they were actually trying to protect the Earth from the void, not invade it. The explosion opens the void and sucks all of the X-Men, Sunfire, and Primate into it. Xavier and Forge notice that the vortex continues to expand, even after the X-Men disappear.

Over in North America somewhere, Bishop and his assistants, Malcolm and Randall, are busy tracking escaped criminals from the future. They find three who have butchered some local women, and the XSE officers proceed to kill the bad guys. After finding the dead women, Bishop vows to save humanity from these villains.

How It Was: Well this is the beginning of a pretty inconsequential, and kind of boring, three issue arc. Basically the X-Men get sent to a fantasy world that they will never see again, and it’s not a very dynamic or original one at that. Still, that doesn’t happen until next issue, so I can’t really judge this issue on those merits.

It’s nice to see Sunfire again, although his new costume is really generic looking and he contributes absolutely nothing to the overall plot. This issue he gets completely beaten and then he acts like a jerk to Colossus, and in the next two issues he acts like a jerk to Iceman, and that is all he does for the whole story. Why is he here? I couldn’t tell you.

Also, the X-Men spend a lot of time going over what happened in the last story. This isn’t a bad idea in principle, since there are a lot of unanswered questions about Bishop, Fitzroy, and Jean’s powers that need to be explored, but nothing new is learned after three pages of discussion. The X-Men just get sidetracked and never bring up this quirk with Jean’s powers again.

As for the unnamed bad guys, they do have a very cool design and look awesome, but they aren’t really that interesting. One of them is called Primate for crying out loud. And the reveal that they were actually trying to protect the people of Earth doesn’t really work since the narration before made it pretty clear that the bad guys killed all of the innocent scientists. The Bishop subplot is okay; it’s nice to see he wasn’t forgotten.

The art is par for Portacio; some great characters and action scenes with most panels lacking any background art. For some reason the island Sunfire and his team are on has a blue ground with blue mountains and green water in the background; it is a very odd choice. Plus, some of Storm’s facial expressions during the issue can only be described as awkward—just check out the bottom of page 17.

D

Uncanny X-Men #283

Uncanny X-Men #283
Writing: Whilce Portacio and John Byrne
Art: Whilce Portacio

What Went Down: Bishop and his team show up with guns blazing. Initially they make the attempt to collar the enemy mutants to send them back to their home time. However, once Fitzroy demonstrates that none of them can go back to the future without dying, they decide that the only solution is for them to kill every criminal.

In an attempt to save their master, some of the criminals use holographic image inducers to mimic Fitzroy’s appearance in hopes of confusing Bishop and his XSE soldiers. One of the mutants mentions that they are from the future causing Storm to wonder if they are from the Days of the Future Past storyline, which they are not.

Bishop first demonstrates his power to absorb energy and redirect it by actually using the power in the same way as the mutant he absorbed it from, in this case through his eyes. Later issues have him just absorb the energy and shoot it from his hands.

Colossus moves in to stop Bishop and tells him that the X-Men do not stand by while people get killed. This inspires conflicting feelings in Bishop since in his time the X-Men are revered legends.

During the commotion, Shinobi Shaw’s guards capture Fitzroy and take him to see their leader.

Bishop decides that the X-Men are too pacifist to be the same ones that he grew up worshiping. Interestingly, he also claims that Archangel isn’t supposed to look blue with metal wings; you could say that this was foreshadowing for developments in the 2000s with X-titles, but I really, really doubt it.

Bishop uses a bracelet on Colossus to take his powers, and views it as further proof since the real Colossus couldn’t possibly be beaten so easily. A large fight ensues, but ends when Storm gets a hold of Bishop’s gun and points it at his chest point blank.

Overhead in the Blackbird, Professor X is trying to put Jean’s mind back in her body while Forge pilots. Xavier expresses how amazing it is that Jean was able to do this. During the process, Charles notes that another presence was observing them; this is the Gamemaster, the being in charge of the Upstart competition. Other than that the process works fine, and Jean is back in her body.

Cut to Shinobi Shaw’s jet, where Shinobi is informing Fitzroy that his Sentinels were able to reattach his finger. Fitzroy claims that he took the ring fairly, but a screen informs him that the Gamemaster is in favor of Shaw, since Fitzroy failed to kill Emma Frost and Jean Grey. Shinobi holds a toast with a group of other people who he claims are fellow Upstarts. Since the Upstarts team that is revealed later is completely different, you can pretty much ignore anyone you see here.

Shinobi’s soldiers also planted explosives on Fitzroy’s base. While Bishop and Storm argue, the explosives are triggered. Storm uses a…errr “pressure dome” to protect the Gold Team, while Bishop and his team just run away.

The team rejoins the Professor and Forge on the Blackbird. Colossus gets medical treatment while Storm wonders why Bishop’s uniform was so similar to the X-Men’s, and whether or not he is from the future.

The final scene is the Gamemaster, who looks like Lobot from Empire Strikes Back (look it up on Wikipedia) talking with Selene, the Black Queen, who is sitting on a throne. They discuss how nobody understands the true purpose of the Upstart competition.

How It Was: Wonderful issue. Bishop and his pragmatic XSE troops make an exciting debut, open up a number of potential questions to be solved later, and act as good foils for the X-Men. The fact that the X-Men can’t even prove their own identities to Bishop also makes for a great twist, as well as Storm’s confusion over how Xavier’s dream could possibly be turned into a group of paramilitary extremists. Fantastic.

Of less interest is everything involving the Upstarts. Not that it’s poorly done; it’s just that it really is a false start. Everything about the team up until this point gets ignored the next time we see the team in Uncanny, except for their goal of killing mutants. Also, for only having four members, the dialogue for Gold Squad is pretty weak. Colossus lectures the whole time on why killing is wrong, Iceman demonstrates backhanded resentment towards Storm’s leadership for some reason, and Archangel doesn’t really say anything worth noting. Things improve a little bit once Scott Lobdell takes over in a couple of months. Plus, nobody shows any emotion over the fact that the Hellions just died. Sure they were villains, but most of them were also teenagers; you’d think it might affect the X-Men a little.

As for art, it’s pretty much the same as last issue. The characters are wonderfully detailed, but there is almost no background art, just solid colors behind the characters. And oddly in some of the scenes with Xavier on the Blackbird, he is colored in lime green tints; the effect feels like it’s meant to evoke some kind of horror tone, but since it’s all but a given that Jean is going to be okay, it’s hard not to feel like the tension is wasted or completely inappropriate. Still, overall very, very good.

A

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