Punch Up: “To Me My ❌-Men”

Chapter Twenty-Six:

1984-1985

December, 1984, January & February, 1985 Uncanny X-Men 191-193 by Romita Jr, Green, Leialoha, Glynis, Orzechowksi, Claremont + Nocenti

Back Up: January, 1985 Power Pack No. 10 by Anderson, Wiacek, Glynis, Rosen, Louise + Potts & P. Blevins Mixtape tracks:

Mixtape tracks: What's Love Got to Do with It by Tina Turner: Self Contortion by Big Boys; Head Over Heels by Tears for Fears; & Beat It by Michael Jackson

Chapter 26 of “to me my ❌-Men,” matures from a boy’s nostalgia into a maturing pitch for the X-Men film the MCU audience deserves. Never before seen top shelf Marvel storytelling, with brief and lite as back up.

Previously on “to me my ❌-Men,” Sienkiewicz & the A-Team publish an average comic, only in their hands it is some of the best available as 1984 becomes 1985. While what begins and at times continues to be not our jam, or cutting room floor fluff, becomes at times critical elements, vibes, character moments, and perhaps we have the opening scene to a film worth watching. But that’s X-Babies, Canadian, etc… and we are talking X-Men, soooo, they had a meeting and there was a bunch of crying.

I skipped a couple issues, because I really don’t like the inking in No. 189. I don’t have an issue with the inker…or at least I didn’t think so, but Dan Green is a hero on that front. He apparently is saving John Romita Jr monthly.

AND

I don’t care for the arch and the narrative setting in 190. Which becomes silly when we are starting in the middle of that story, 191.

My recollection is I found 191 & 193 in a 25¢ bin in my birth town of Boulder, CO. I must have just turned 11, and had picked up 208 in May. I was so excited to pick up these, but in reality neither had done much for me. They are beat up, partly by previous owners and partly by me…I don’t recall cutting up 193. I don’t understand why I was cutting out the panels I did. But I have pictured the aftermath above. I’ll read a different copy when we get there, for clarity in reaction, but either as a kid or in college I clearly disrespected this period. I am less harsh right now going in. Maybe this will work for us here.

Vision v Colossus feels and looks iconic.

Speaking of icons.

Peter is chained up forming an X. As we have and will see folks be a few times.

We get our first “rue the day.”

Kulan Gath does nothing for me. Soooo I don’t actually feel it Nevel.

The additional cast in this page, because this is one of those comics…them crossovers…Sunder (I think), Dani, Sam, Roberto, Rahne, Wanda, Vision…more Morlocks.

Basically, time has been turned back to horse and buggy. An asguardian aesthetic. Chuck, the four New Mutants, Ororo, Rachel, Starfox, Wasp, Kurt, Cap, Colossal, Magic, Magma, Callisto, and Rogue…also there.

While useful in eliminating time waste, these recaps are sometimes terrible comics. Like this one.

I love have even in his thought balloons Peter is a smart arse.

I don’t relish a defeated Selene, but I do enjoy seeing her spite and presence. This silly arch has the upper hand and removes her mouth and then turns her arms into tentacles. Okay. I think we have moved beyond the comfort zone to the…

Oh right, Dani and Sunder are cast under his control.

Oh and Caliban and Professor X are one. Hmmmm

Awkward future I foresee.

A chaotic scene unfolds…partly due to the casting.

Ok…friend fights friend. Which sets up a context perfect for Selene. Which means Amara is actually Selene and she gets her magic trinket …shocking everyone. So Warlock and Ororo merge to then being absorbed by Selene results in Selene becoming inert. Which fixes Dr. Strange…wait what? I guess there was more to the story. He does so magic on Magik.

Ororo says to Steve’s face, X-Men again saving folks and nobody knows. Now it was broadcast on tv a few issues ago…but I guess Steve agrees.

This part, the X-Men’s contribution to heroism, being obscured and erased…I wouldn’t mind this angle in the MCU going forward. It was a thing…and can see it working as relevant.

But here is the thing…we get Nimrod’s first appearance as he interacts with Jamie on the last page after “the day is saved.” So we are saved from this tattered issue being useless.

I will note this the corner box floating heads pared down to Piotr, Ororo, Kurt, and Anna Marie (Rogue) on the cover of No. 189. Which is not a team that will make it to the end. It then expands to add in four New Mutants, Sam, Amara, Roberto, and Rahne. Which is to say, these are individuals who reside in a boarding school together. Here, on the cover of No. 192, we have returned to the previous corner box of Scott, Ororo, Logan, Kitty, Piotr, Kurt and Rogue. Floating heads are easy to cut and paste…with actual exatos and paste.

Inside, Piotr and Kurt are playing hide and seek, X-Men style. I am not sure how much we will see of game play, but that is a root part of their community building. Reminder, Piotr is only 20 here. My adult kid loves to go with their friends and play at their elementary school playground at night, I expect that to change by the time they are 20, but not fully. Kurt who is a kid at heart at 23, has absolutely no issues with this. Our youthful cognitive delays in processing end around 25.

They seek utilizing their powers, which is to say, Anna Marie comes flying out of nowhere to grab Kurt as he has just teleported Piotr into the water, after he created the world’s biggest divot. Kurt of course simply teleports on top of her and covers her eyes causing her to fly blind with an elf on her back.

Sending her into the drink. Kurt is overqualified for hide and seek.

They settle to discuss still recent events. Time is absolutely slow AF in the Marvel Universe and frankly the 80’s. It was blissful! Kitty and Logan are arriving back. Peter is still in his guilt feels. Anna Marie is of no help at 18 or I’m calling her 19, let’s be real (also Kitty grew a whole year in them three years to 14…or is she 15 now that we are stepping into 1985…she was still 14 this time last year…well December of 1983), but Carol Danvers was 29 when, 18 year old Anna Marie violated her. Point being, Anna Marie can access Carol’s wisdom and feeling on romance. Kurt, who is a romantic, shifts to another aspect…does Rogue possess Carol’s Precognitive 7th Sense.

Rogue: “in all these months…” it’s been three years.

Rogue wants to change the subject and Kurt tickles her. It’s so annoying she punches him as he is BAMFing about. He had a reason…to get her 7th sense to emerge. It works unfortunately for him.

He gets flirty as she flys him to rescue…so she droops him in the drink.

They are in Binghamton, NY. Almost 3 hours drive west of the eastern state line of NY/SW corner of Mass/NW corner of Conn. 1 hour south of Syracuse. So two and half hours drive North West from the school. There is a mansion on a hill above the cliffs and drink they have been playing in. Anna Marie head there, abandoning Kurt and Piotr…and now the page has gone white with inked lines. And something is about to befall them.

Peyo’s The Smurfs

“Meanwhile”

“150 miles down river” at the Kennedy Airport. Ororo looks hella nice and Chuck is dressed up too, as they wait for inbound from Japan.

Ororo: “What are you doing?”

OK…so in an undisclosed year, Kelly, our classmates, and I were dispatched by Mark Kneece to go down to the Savannah Mall and eves drop and record by hand the conversation around us. This is an exercise in developing the ability to accurately write dialogue.

Here we have Chuck eves dropping on people’s thoughts in a public space, and then transcribing them for a class at “Columbia.”

Now this is the moment Ororo more fully understands mutants and the fear of them have taken residency in people’s minds this widely. As she reads Chuck’s notations over his shoulder.

Ororo: “I had not realized people’s fear of us was this intense.”

We talk a lot (well the comics community) and debate the analogous metaphor of mutants to IRL bigotry contexts. The Magnetos as Malcom X and Chuck as MLK has a level of offensive built in that is like a cultural bomb. The coded queerness of multiple X-Men and their relationships on the page and between panels in the “gutter.” The ability to take on another identity and unpacking this as art is never dull. The cultural appropriations and their celebrations a paradox in a medium built on paradox. The intimacy of reading a comic is significantly different than other mediums. How it shows, tells, is paced, provides on and off ramps, how the audience has agency and immersion into the story. The experience and what we take from it is a spectrum. There is no single perspective on any aspect here. So the subject of fear is always bubbling in these pages. And so it bubbles in our heads as we read…they had no idea what the discussions would be like just a few decades later. Much like Calvin and Hobbes on climate change, this comic was relevant at the time…but has only grown with this regard.

Oh…the uptick according to Chuck is Dazzler’s new film (see Dazzler in Marvel Graphic Novel Vol 1 No. 12, July 1984…also we will get more Dazzler here…don’t you worry your purty lil’ head).

Tabloid media is taking the fear her public outing and the film success has catalyzed, and making bank. The world we live in now was unfolding early in my life. If you paid attention you could see everything unfolding. You didn’t need Precognition 7th Sense to see the culture headed towards tomorrow which is today, IRL. Here we have fiction serving as a reminder that you are not alone in seeing the truth. Read some fiction and you can find a lot of it.

Chuck is sensitive to the fact that Ororo is in conflict of her loss of power and her relationship with Forge in that context. He wishes he could help…PLEASE DON’T!

Illyana is out and about in an incredibly get up. Brown pants (material unsure), a read jacket (material unsure), a I’m calling that army green satchel, with cuddly Lookheed in it, and a sick Buckaroo Banzai trucker cap on. She is trying to keep things casual in the airport…but at least super snoops Chuck has perked ears.

Rachel all in green is in her interpretive funk. Staring at another window reflection of herself.

She is also eves dropping on random thoughts of hate and fear.

She is trying to tell herself these folks are fine, but her entire life experience tells her a different story.

Kitty (Kate) was the last…and here she is “15!” Hah vindication!

In Rachel’s reality, she was twice Rachel’s age, and like a surrogate Mom/BFF. I think we can start thinking about the Kitty and Rachel story. It’s another one we must track to the end.

All the sudden Rachel is dressed as a hound. So hounds are like ninjas, with SnM Punk spikes. They are the two major aesthetics of this comic in one. So she look amazing!

That said, I really don’t love the rendering or printing of these few pages. There are panels that work, but some don’t work well…it happens in every issue, but with Romita Jr, usually we are talking about forgettable moment…and Dan Green is not on it…oh maybe Leialoha inked some of these pages…yeah Steve is failing me right now…is a strong possibility.

I also think Chris is. I don’t mind this, and I really love the point, but it’s clumsy and confusing cartooning by Romita Jr and A-Team + special guest.

Basically (I think), Rachel finds herself as she is at Kennedy staring at window waiting for Kitty in another reality. She doesn’t think it is something she experienced. Maybe the timeline is shifting. Maybe she can see this timeline’s actual future as she is now in it. She and Kate should look sick as hell, but they kinda look like they are strait out of a bad GI Joe page.

They are now about to go on a critical mission into project Nimrod. Okay…I know enough about contemporary X-Men to understand Nimrod and Moria play central roles and some of those stories are tying into these origins. Also, I am a fan and friendly with some of the contemporary creators. We will see if I retrofit like every retcon happy person one day…but for now…I am looking at them as another timeline in Loki’s fist as he sits on his thrown. Which is to say, Rachel just now is experiencing the multiverse and somehow contributing to it by having crossed from one to the other, she may have just encounter and created in real time another. A concept we understand in 2025, but is not a thing in 1984. It’s hard not to be dismissive of this, because not this timeline.

We might think.

She is calling it a memory. Kitty has arrived and pulled her out of her own head. Kitty looks fly. Full on X-Men aesthetics.

OK…so first…Lockheed is flying in Kennedy. That’s great theater. Second Logan and Chuck shaking hands is dumb. Gosh they are old…oh like me. I think I saw that somewhere Chuck is supposed to be my age and of course Logan is like 100.

Ororo and Kitty hugging is perfect. Them too, been through a lot while away from each other. Can’t wait to see what unfolds with this duo.

My two favs.

Rachel and Kitty encounter properly for the first time…and besides having the same hair cut…it’s extra awkward because Kitty is like, I know you, and Rachel is like…not possible…only because of issues we didn’t read…Kitty in Days of Future’s Past (assuming) was helped by Rachel, but to Rachel it was the consciousness of the elder Kitty in another timeline (assuming…also wait which timeline). Either way, Kitty at 13 or 14 was in like a 40(?!) ish body of Kate and she and a version of Rachel at the age she is now did some thing together in a future. So yup.

They are also talking about the light they saw from the plane…originating of course in Binghamton.

“Meanwhile”

Kurt & Piotr are conscious and climbing through a field forest edge towards the mansion. Oops they trip.

They find a tree, clearly transformed by a Warlock (our kinda Warlock).

Anna Marie wakes at the feet of a Warlock.

I guessed right…NOT Warlock! Warlock’s Pops. Who has made some choices in life that cast him the label of villain.

Magus is his name. Rogue knows she can’t be touched by him…that could be really tricky to untangle.

Colossus and Kurt sneak attack, as they had been playing hide and seek. Which works for a bit.

But the inevitable happens and Rogue kisses Magus to resolve the moment in sacrifice of a potential future.

Magus does the villainy ‘you dumb arses…you puny…bla bla’

“Later”

Ororo in her proper outfit (the X-Men aesthetic design leader). Chuck sports the X still.

Oh crap…I forgot or didn’t note…Kurt is team leader…and dang is he uncomfortable with this label.

Note: Chuck is there. Ororo is there (in support as she is the actual leader). Logan is there (as Kurt tries to bestow the title on the elder, but the elder is wise and says, nah not my thing). Why would these three be doing the happy elf dirty like this? Because they have set up appropriate boundaries on this for once in their lives, and Kurt has not quite gotten there at 23.

Cop shows. Tells them all to skedaddle. They walk away. Leaving him to be dealt with by Magus and for Magus to be left with a patrol car to drive as he disguises himself as a white dude. Oh gosh…my facial blindness for white dudes…Warlock and I are toast.

And so…after Chuck’s lecture at Columbia…he is on the streets and passes a “Mutie Die!” tag.

Off panel (the best): “MUTIE LOVER!?!”

Pause:

A: We love graffiti and have been known to dabble here. I am actually liking the very basic aesthetic here.

B: Hate speech on walls is tricky because of this. Sometimes I can see the pull of the aesthetics into the propaganda aesthetic. I can also see like any Star Wars fan or person aware of human history the process unfold towards the dark side seduction.

C: This is not N—- or F—-, and this is not a swastika. This is not a get out of our country or a colonizers statement. This is strait fiction…but we can see our reality here. And it represents actual pain, actual suffering, struggle, fear, and hate…that results in actual horrors and death. This means something real to readers.

Chuck fights back with telepathy. But a brick is still flung just so. On the ground the crowed mentality “waste him.” They leave. And he is dragged by a strangers arm into the ally. Puddle of blood evidence and a card signed by his class with a sentimental message of what should be.

No. 193, the other 25¢ bin comic from Boulder (sentimental memories), has Jimmy Proudstar v Logan centered on the cover. Kitty v Jenny Starvos at bottom monotoned blue. Rogue v Firestar (we have official seen all of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends in “to me my ❌-Men” and so we can now contrast this with the episode that featured the X-Men and come to the conclusion…The Multiverse is good). Colossus, Kurt and Manny de la Roche doing their thing. Also robots?!

“Muir Island” Great start! In another Special Double-Sized Issue, Claremont’s 100th Uncanny/X-Men.

Sean Cassidy (Banshee) is getting it handed to him by Jimmy (Thunderbird) in a field. An iconic image in my brain.

Banshee was Interpol and an X-Men. And now he works out…but the Dad Bod comes for all men.

OK…I don’t mind at all this unfolding this way, as this is exactly how it was for me…and I was so confused because I had watched Spidy and Friends. Sean thinks Jimmy is Johnny and calls him a ghost. And so Jimmy says, yup..I am a ghost and tries to make Sean one too!

The next page is iconic. It unfolds as great comics do, with some minimalist visual effects to reveal that someone has been knocked the fuck out and revealing what they first see…which is to say Callisto’s perfect Morlock face.

And then next tier we pull out the and shift the camera lens to reveal an establishing shot of a perfectly styled Morlock room.

Chuck: “Where … am I?”

Callisto: “My place.”

This is the dialogue I want.

Chuck has been stripped and changed from his bloodied lecturing professors clothing to a punk SnM outfit that gives me hope for him yet. He doesn’t like it.

Now I had not read the issue before (192) in the 80’s. AND this was an early enough exposure to the character, that I have been absolutely underwhelmed since.

Chuck: “Good grief, WOMAN (did you ask their pronouns?!) what have you done to me?!?”

Callisto: “Saved your life for starters.”

You can understand to me Callisto is one to root for, and Chuck is an amazing bafoon. I am forever disappointed the more I dig into this.

The bottom tier makes it so this comic is already worth the 25¢.

Callisto: “…your new look’s a distinct improvement.”

Agreed!

Hush, Chuck, don’t you worry your cute lil bald head.

Next page is also top shelf Romita Jr and A-Team. Oh and an X-Men drinks coffee. Take a drink.

Chuck: “semblance”

As he is not fully healed. He was nearly dead. Healer…

…worked himself to the point of being out of commission for a month. And Chuck is not fully there.

Chuck: “I’m grateful.”

Callisto is basically…if you over do it mentally or physically you will die.

Chuck: “I didn’t know you cared Callisto.”

Callisto: “The Healer cares. I promised I’d give you a fair chance.

Callisto is the person I would follow on SM, would be come a mutual with, and then fear leaving social media, because I do not want to mess with them in anyway. Hah. I have a friend type.

Chuck: “How many Morlocks are there (to recruit for my mutant trafficked army for polite society)?”

Callisto: None of your (fucking) business.”

Also Chuck, who da boss? Callisto, not tripping, Storm. He tries to get into Ororo’s business, but unlike Chuck, Callisto has a code. Which they are constantly telling they have.

Callisto has Ororo’s back fully. Unlike Chuck.

They take a 1800’s train to get around down there. That’s amazing

Page 5, panel four is the moment where the rest of the story truly unfolds.

Off panel: “CALLISTO”

Callisto (about to board the train and expecting Chuck to follow, so he can be taken home…fate, Claremont, has other plans): SUNDER - - !?!”

Next Panel: Sunder and other Morlocks caring children’s bodies.

Sunder: “ANNALEE’S KIDS - - somebody SHOT ‘em. Cal - - MURDERED ‘em in COLD BLOOD!!

Next panel: Callisto head shot. Callisto: “See Xavier - - SEE!”

This is the catalyst for what is to come. The who will not be of question for long and how we feel will is already taking. However, how I feel about the who is actually quite complex. I don’t expect it to become a thing…but my hope is for others we let the story unfold and maybe we get to work through that as we go. Just a heads up of what I am thinking.

Now we have followed Jimmy to south of Colorado Springs from Muir Island Scotland

He is at the site of Johnny’s death (I think). He holds a shard of plane. The vehicle to his death, I gather. Chuck is to blame, per Jimmy…and am I with him on that? Hella!

Empath and Roulette have hiked up the winter trail to him. He doesn’t welcome their help and the mean girl vibes of the Hellions drips off every word the sputter.

Empath is a master manipulator and Roulette is his lucky charm. He plans to use humans to do the dirty work and has in his back pocket…Firestar.

This is of course to service Emma and the Hellfire Club.

He has seduced Angelica.

Ok we have reached the Reese’s not ET add and I have chopped pages out.

(Switched to digital…the 21st century does have its perks) We are back in the Danger Room. I think it’s Cypher, Rachel and Lockheed in the control room. Wolverine, Shadowcat, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Rogue surround Cannonball. Who is off like a literal rocket and then tumbles nocking his back into a wall. This is a game of tag and Peter blew it, cause he nocked Sam to the ground which is touching the one who is it. Kitty is in his face. Now he is on Sam’s side. To prove a point, Logan and Kitty play swipe and pull the chair on Pete who is now on the ground too. But their hubris doesn’t account for Sam incoming.

Only…actually it does if you turn the page. He runs into his team mate, Peter who is just getting back on his feet.

Rachel changes the room to make it even more of a challenge, only she selects that terrible alien from New Mutants Annual…so the scene kinda loses its pazaz.

(And I am back to good old smellin’ and feelin’ floppy).

Logan calls it a Furball…which only makes me wish it was a Wookie and I see absolutely no reason why it couldn’t be. Legally and in story.

Rogue saves him only to be taken by Sam midair from behind.

This secret door, which a believe is the actual door down to the Morlocks Tunnels opens in a wall in the Danger Room. This is as great to me as this:

Caliban and Chuck in his new digs…wait oh…yeah put on half a shirt. Still works. Are ending the session.

Callisto has to get back.

They give Chuck a hard time, and frankly two of them have worn the same kinda outfit and should be encouraging. He walks off in perhaps Charles Xavier’s best panel ever, with an “If you will excuse me…s i g h.”

I am a big fan of end of comics hahahaha (see my latest comic)…but the mid book and especially here is a missed opportunity.

We are now in the Atlantic a week away from “home” on a cruise ship. Ororo is returning presumably to Kenya, though it could be Cairo (not likely) and certainly not Wakanda (as I essentially don’t buy into that entire storyline…it’s fine if you do, just not my thing). Reminder, Storm is a New Yorker, by birth and adulthood.

She is thinking about that nonsense from 190-191.

And how it interrupted travel plans. For real!

Her mother’s ghost appears.

This is her second sighting apparently and she is taking this one seriously.

For whatever reason, Chuck totally wrecked in the bath and on the phone (land line people) works. A situation in the Danger Room. Never a dull moment.

In a scene strait out of the Hall of Justice on the Super Friends, the X-Men gather around a screen as the villain (ahem…hero) James Proudstar declares he will kill Sean Cassidy in 24 hours.

A reminder, we are out of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s…but in the 80’s we do not erase our roots.

Jimmy: “Hid him in the Cheyenne Mountains”

Logan is discussing tactical reality of Cheyenne and Air Force deployment making likely. Which frankly always comes off as contrived…like this entire plot. And then… Kitty: “Can’t we explain, ask for help?” Logan: “Take to long…” Every superhero story seems to fall apart in this space. This is what Erin was kvetching about after Wakanda Forever. And what I called Chuck out for here. Now Logan.

What unfolds is hard to focus on after this.

Highlights for me are Lockheed attempting to defend the X-plane against Empath…and Empath going head to head mentally with Chuck…I like being pissed at Empath more than I do Chuck.

Manny!

Ah…Luck just popped in. Thanks Jenny.

Rachel is not happy. Paradoxical emotions for me.

Shadowcat phases through something. So I am happy.

Rachel refuses to hunt down another mutant, as Kurt says that’s her role as back up telepath…because of her trauma as a hound in the future.

Shadowcat taking Logan phased through a building is probably what got me reading this junk. And we have some here, in a mountain bunker complex. Includes architectural rendering of split of mountains. I am in heaven!

Kurt is loosing his shit. Leadership is a real struggle for him. And frankly, this works as a plot point going forward. Let’s remember this!

Empath, Roulette and Firestar are in the Air Force war room, because Hellions have that level of access. Oh…I believe it. No question. And they are in their street cloaths…looking like preppy teens. That they are.

Roulette makes a simple visual gesture and the computers malfunction. Leading robot tool deployment in the bunker. Ah…they are kinda cool looking. Chaos in the war room. The Hellions love it. Firestar is taking advantage.

Logan and Kitty make it to Sean…which is of course when Jimmy attacks.

I cut out part of the fight…hmmm…still don’t know why. Kitty has Sean and phasing up through the ceiling and falls. Passed out. I think Sean made it.

Jimmy knocks out Logan too.

Drags them. Gave them gas masks. He thinks he is a coward for not killing them…the opposite is true.

Our team hide and seek battles robots…not terrible scene.

WHAMMO! panel is delicious.

Firestar appears and takes Peter up up up

And out of the mountain…looks cool busting out.

The Air Force officers are dealing with the other two. Oh and Rachel who is out, because of her own mind?!

Rogue is off to get Firestar and Peter. These panels of Rogue simply carrying two knocked the fuck our bodies by flight are always iconic and we fall in love with her every time.

That said, there is an art to it and Romita Jr and A-Team get that.

Jimmy is pissed at Empath for interference…as chaos has complicated his moment. An opportunity for kitty to grab Empath and drag him through the wall to Logan who goes SNIKT! and the kid faints. Logan: “Like if figured - - no guts.”

Kurt has Jenny and it BAMFing around the war room or whatever.

Jimmy is in the shadows calling this a disaster.

Kitty almost gets him like she did Empath.

Logan smokes em cause he got em.

And the airforce and bots get the jump on them.

Rachel awakens with Rogue and Peter being supportive. She is so wrapped up in what she becomes and fears them understanding she was a hound. It haunts her.

Once again a she can hear thought of mutants (this time teammates) and she lets them know…and once again she asked to track them…and she once again refuses…and this time it is Rogue asking…so Rogue once again says fuck it and says take my hand…”ah’ll do it” myself.

Kurt teleports in just in time. As Rachel knows Rogue will know her secrets.

Kurt suggest he teleport to them. Rachel says he will be going blind (he could die). So she goes with him…it’s a fuzzy ethical space…but I guess there is a distinction.

Rogue is off with Firestar to call Chuck.

BUT Jimmy has made it to passed out Chuck in the X-plane. And he is going to stab him as Chuck awakes.

Only in a dramatic internal torment. He can’t follow through and is comforted by his target. Rogue is there. As this last part unfolds.

“Later”

At school Lockheed and Kitty reunite again (weird) and they are all gathered for a mission accomplished end of comic moment. With Jimmy brooding. Firestar and him are welcomed, but are choosing their own paths. SMART!!!!

PS: I lost track of Sean. Last seen in the basement…dyslexia and life can cause me miss dialogue. Maybe he was lost there.

Epilogue is Nimrod’s guesthouse. Jaime is having a family/friends discussion about mutants…the families across America kitchen table scene. Jaime is empathic to mutants. Not everyone at the table shares that thinking and one is calling him out. Agro now, he is talking homework with his son, Tommy who he was just using as an example of hypothetical empathy…when Tommy is like, all good Nimrod did my homework. Not everyone is comfortable with their new houseguest. Ironically, he is trying to track Rachel Summers…so they are essentially on the same side of the topic of the day. Oh he wants to take out Juggernaut AND X-Men. Hah.

Star Comics add…1985 fuzzy feelings.

What started out as a rough chapter that had some fun cameos and some classically forgettable villainy has transitioned in a meaty story that knowing what I know feels like we are in it to the point of not simply being a wish for adaptation, but moments that build a story I want to see on the big screen.

If I am directing X-Men the first film in the MCU proper, it is the scene on page five of No. 193, with Sunder carrying Annalee’s kids, that I would open the film with and there is plenty for the cutting floor going forward, the bulk of the story I am reviewing here is the trilogy I have been looking for the past 40 years and have not actually seen on screen (with pieces cherry picked for general terrible film making and satisfying jokes).

Back Up Ish:

I am enjoying these odd issues, that serve as a pallet cleaner, a buffer, a shift in tone, a pace disrupter, a calm before storms. They are much like back up pages in a comic.

I am advocate for smaller in comics. If I was to be hired by Marvel, it would hopefully be to do back up pages. Which is not something they have much appetite for. But you never know. That’s probably the only thing on my “make comics bucket list.” I don’t expect it to happen. I did it for Image, so all good really. DC, Marvel, call me.

The kids are wrapping up their second NYC field mission and have blown their secret identities, are in the midst of figuring out some mystery, concerned about how society and themselves should think of their character having met Cloak & Dagger, and they are trying to be kids. So superhero stuff.

Oh look 🐟🐠🐡 DON’T TRUST FISH (read the book with the kids).

Apparently in story or in reality at the time the Statue of Liberty is being renovated.

So they are on an underwater adventure and have caught up with Marrina from Alpha Flight.

There is a giant sea cobra.

This leads them to a ship wreck.

Marrina helps them and they help her.

Alex has a cool page in this interacting with a ship and his powers.

And in the end Katie is all snuggled in bed. See…nice and lite.

Next: Mutants