11 Signs You Just Might Be a Brood Queen
Originally Published January 1983
So, the X-Men are on a space-ship, and there's a hole in it, courtesy of an overly-enthusiastic Carol ("Binary") Danvers, who bolted right through the hull of the vessel in her zeal to go blow up some Brood. And the X-Men are left behind to deal with that.
After a moment of chaos, the team is able to use Teamwork™ to seal the hole as Colossus blocks it with his steel body, Wolverine cuts loose some scrap metal, and Cyclops finishes it up by blasting it into place.
Once that's done and dusted, we quickly return to Earth to find the current occupants of the Xavier mansion - Moira MacTaggart, Stevie Hunter, and young (but not so young as she was a few weeks ago) Illyana Rasputin, lounging poolside. For the former two, the main topic of discussion is Professor X himself, who has taken to mourning for his X-Men, who are certainly dead in space at this very moment.
(The secondary topic of discussion is how Stevie feels dead inside because she can't dance professionally, but it never seems to be a good time to talk about that.)
When Moira goes to Xavier to inform him of a new mutant, the Vietnamese Xi'an Coy Manh, who may need his assistance, he suggests that maybe his home - which has admittedly become a magnet for alien invaders, killer robots, demons and Juggernauts of all sorts over the years, to say nothing of the life-threatening field work he actively sends the X-Men out to do - is too violent a place for a young person to live.
Perhaps they could live on an island somewhere, with someone else who is an expert in mutations?
Moira balks at the idea that she could be the one to educate young mutants in the use of their powers, and that if Charles doesn't step up, it's more likely someone like Magneto or Emma Frost who will guide the next generation of mutants.
Charles has a bit of a faux pas when he suggests that Moira has never had a tragedy like Charles has in seeing all of his charges potentially die at the hands of the Brood, and she reminds him that she had to basically put her own son to death - and you know what, that was all because nobody was there to teach him to be a good mutant.
Self-own.
Meanwhile, back up In Space, Storm, who has stolen a shuttle from Lolandra's yacht, is facing something of a crisis. She knows that the evil seed of Brood resides within her, and having sworn never to take a life - even that of the monstrous, world-enslaving Brood - she is at a loss how to proceed, despairing that she should end this way.
Just as her dilemma reaches its apex, she finds the transformation has begun...
The transformation is undone, or at least temporarily delayed, when Storm's ship interacts with the galactic core, a densely-packed area of space radiating with life energy that nourishes her (oh right, one of those.) Suddenly, she realizes the only sensible thing to do, and ejects from her ship and becomes one with the galaxy in order to destroy both the embryo... and herself.
I... think; it's a little hard to tell what is supposed to be happening here.
Back on the Imperial Yacht, Wolverine is finding it a little bit easier to get his teammates on board with the notion of going back to kill all the Brood now that they know the horrifying secret that each of them carries inside. Even though they are outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered and outplanned, even Cyclops starts to see the value in some good old fashioned revenge-killing.
Through the night, we see Nightcrawler praying for guidance while Wolverine interrogates why someone who looks like a blue demon might have any kind of friend in Jesus...
And elsewhere, Kitty awakens from a disturbing dream of her own death, into the comforting arms of Colossus. The Russian X-Man offers some reassuring words about how we are all fated to die someday, whether in our beds at the age of 90 or in space as a surrogate womb for a horrible lipless alien invader. They share a tender kiss that has Kitty wishing she were older -- and Piotr also wishing Kitty were older.
This takes us to kind of a weird place in their relationship, as Kitty has always had an obvious crush on Piotr, which he has never addressed except with bashfulness. Now he allows this moment of intimacy while also acknowledging what we in the audience know to be its inappropriateness (he's like 6 or 7 years older than the tween X-Kid.) I think it's only kind of okay, because Piotr means well and is one of the most virtuous X-Men (between himself, Kurt and Ororo, a virtuous lot to be sure.) We know that the things you would normally associate with an older man kissing a young girl - grooming, power dynamics, manipulation and abuse - are not present here... and they also expect to die soon.
That doesn't make it good, it just makes it less icky than it could be.
Well anyway, their moment is interrupted by, of all people, Storm, whom we just saw die in a fantastical burst of energy.
Storm appears in a glowing apparition in various forms to the other X-Men, but before she can explain what is happening, the team finds their ship being swallowed whole by one of the Brood's living space-whale starships, and are unable to escape.
Just as they begin to panic, Storm reappears to tell them all will be well, because the ship - called an Acanti - means them no harm. And how can she know that?
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| It Me, Acanti |
Further Thoughts:
For its own sake, I didn't love this issue the way I love many other issues. We have been dealing with the Brood and the associated storyline for months now, having first met them almost a year ago in terms of publishing time, and I'm drained. This instalment only kicks that story a little further toward its conclusion as the biggest event is whatever-it-is that's going on with Storm, and the brief character moments with the rest of the team, which to me aren't up to the usual standard.
It comes off like a conscious attempt to re-do that lengthy moment of contemplation before the final battle for the fate of the Phoenix - and while Claremont has shown restraint in not trying to hit that button too hard over the past year, the magic isn't quite there at this time
There are two big headlines though - one is that with Charles learning of the existence of Xi'an Coy Manh, the mutant code-named "Karma," we see that he is looking for some more fresh blood, which will have a profound effect on the direction of the X-Men as a franchise for reasons far beyond anything Xi'an herself ever does as a character.
The second is that this is the first issue drawn by Paul Smith. Smith spends a comparatively brief time drawing the X-Men, but to me he is one of the finest artists ever to work on the series. His stylish knack for layout, structure, pacing, and character work lends the series a great deal of gravity and humanity that it has missed, and in a way puts it up there with John Byrne and Neal Adams (and with all due respect for the splashy, bold work of Mr. Cockrum.) But the flip side of that is that he's not a perfect match for the material given here, with all the space monsters and "fix the ship before it's too late!" mini-crises, as his best input into this issue comes during the quieter, emotional scenes between Xavier and Moira. It will take some time before we see Smith doing the work that I most associate with him, but I've been excited to cover his run for some time.
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