UNCANNY X-MEN #193: Warhunt 2

Thunderbird returns, Warhuntier than ever!

Originally Published May 1985

We begin with Banshee on an evening stroll on Muir Isle, where--

That's right, just as Chris Claremont was getting his commentary warmed up, Banshee is straight-up accosted by none other than Thunderbird, the man he let kill himself on Count Nefaria's rocket 100 issues ago this very night!

Bird and Banshee have a brief chat about whether or not Thunderbird is in fact a ghost, as Proudstar continues to pummel the retired X-Men, forcing him to do whatever he says.

Speaking of victims of unprovoked attacks, we go now to Professor X.

After being bloodied and left for dead, Charles was brought to the Morlock tunnels where their resident healer (known to fans of this blog as Dave Stevenson) brought him back to life, and where the underground mutants outfitted him with leather kink gear. However, Callisto cautions, it was a big job, and not fully complete: Chuck is going to have to take it easy for a spell.

The bondage look is fitting. Ever since Chris Claremont has been writing X-Men the heroes have subtly engaged with bondage and kink tropes in a very coded way as an undercurrent of their regular superhero adventures. (Not a new innovation, read up on Wonder Woman sometime.) But appropriating parts of that subculture reflects and informs the X-Men's pre-existing status as outsiders. Now, with the Morlocks, you can see the writer here taking it a little bit further and into the forefront as if to say "This is ridiculous, isn't it? Unless you don't think it is..."

Callisto gives Xavier the half-a-nickel tour of the Morlock Alley, expounding about how unwelcome her kind are among the surface dwellers and even pointing out that normally - under non-life-threatening circumstances - Xavier himself would not be welcome here. But before she can give him a lift home, Sunder arrives with two bodies in his arms - those of two Morlock children. 

Yes, some person or persons unknown has been using the Morlock tunnels as a hunting ground, leaving a trail of dead mutants in their wake. That certainly explains why Healer - aka Dave Stevenson, the most powerful mutant on Earth with command of the forces of life and death - has been so taxed lately.

Charles, upon hearing about this rash of racially-motivated killings, has only one thought: get me home so I can get rid of this outfit.

Really then? Not a word about the murdered children?

And you wonder why the Morlocks don't eff with surface-dwellers. SMH.

Soon after, the X-Men get word of Banshee's kidnapping. They identify the supposed "Thunderbird" as John Proudstar's younger brother James, who looks much like his big bro, and has the exact same power set, and dug his old costume out from the mothballs to align with Emma Frost's Hellions. He has kidnapped Banshee and - having a flare for the dramatic - hidden him somewhere in the Cheyenne Mountain NORAD Base, exactly where his brother was killed - KILLED! - by Banshee, Charles Xavier, and the rest of the X-Men, and definitely not his own negligence and arrogance.

Wolverine correctly surmises that the situation is a lose-lose. If they do nothing, their innocent comrade dies. If they break into Cheyenne Mountain, they're outlaws twice over (the X-Men have a pretty bad record when it comes to infiltrating government institutions.) And they've spent up all their goodwill so there's no hope of getting in there in any official capacity. But that's not enough to keep them from doing what's right.

Before long, Nightcrawler is teleporting the whole team into Cheyenne Mountain one at a time, including newly made official X-Man Rachel (Codename: Rachel) leaving Xavier behind to take care of himself. He assures the new team leader of the X-Men that he will be fine - yes, maybe he hasn't put in much time in the Danger Room since regaining his mobility (certainly spent enough time on the basketball courts) but he still has his army training and his powers... right?

Only he's hiding the fact that he has been feeling a little iffy in his telepathic parts since his attack.

This doesn't exactly help when Professor X is attacked by two of Proudstar's Hellion cohorts despite James specifically declaring this was his owner personal private business: Empath - who has How To Win Friends an Influence People Powers, and Roulette, who has How To Beat the Odds Powers. Together, they are able to overwhelm the founder of the X-Men. So, you're welcome, Jim. 

Without Xavier psychically overseeing the mission, the X-Men are at a disadvantage. Nightcrawler takes it personally.

But luckily they have another psychic up their sleeve, so it's just a matter of getting Rachel to use her abilities to sniff out Banshee's whereabouts.

Oh, right, there's this whole tragic backstory Rachel is carrying around where she was drugged and put to use as a Hound in her dystopic future home time where it was her job to use her powers to seek out the whereabouts of mutants for the benefit of the oppressive regime. Yeah, she really doesn't like doing stuff like that anymore. She just hasn't gotten around to surfacing that with her teammates.

There's not time to worry about the mental wellbeing of their new member though so Kitty and Wolverine execute plan C: Wolvie has caught Banshee's scent so Kitty phases him through the building. But while that is happening, Empath, Roulette, and Firestar - nominally a heroine who is currently in Empath's thrall due to his super sexual assault powers - incognito as innocent tourists, whip up a frenzy in the main control room that causes the security team to dispatch their Battle Droids.

And you wonder why people want to defund the military.

Whole Nightcrawler teleports Rogue outside to check on Xavier (and permits his emotional breakdown to continue) Wolverine and Kitty locate Banshee, with Logan taking point on beating the tar out of Thunderbird and Kitty focusses on freeing the prisoner. 

Unfortunately, the room is filling with a deadly neurotoxin, so when Kitty returns to check on Wolverine, she falls prey, and he is easily picked off in the distraction.

On the very cusp of victory - at least the first few parts of it since he wants to kill all the X-Men and make Xavier suffer before killing him - he is plagued by second thoughts, wondering if these two people who were nowhere near the scene when John died, one of whom was not even close to being an X-Man yet - might actually even deserve to live.

James does drag the two X-Men out into the fresh air to save their lives, but elsewhere their teammates are attacked by the Secbots. (who, contrary to popular belief, are not robots, but flesh and blood human beings in powersuits.)  The heroes perform capably, despite Rachel's incapacity and Nightcrawler getting captured...

Until the arrival of the brainwashed-by-endorphins Firestar, supported in the background by Empath and Roulette, who do their best to bring about defeat for the X-Men without revealing themselves and, you know, incur the wrath of trigger-happy anti-mutant government types currently on the scene. Firestar and Colossus duke it out in the sky while Empath causes Nightcrawler to go berzerk on the government types (but only after they, you know, threaten to extra-judicially kill him just for being a mutant.)

Unfortunately, the jig is up when James realizes that Empath and Roulette are there, after he specifically told them not to help. But before he can cuss him out, Kitty phases Empath through the floor so that Wolverine can have words with him.

The X-Men organize their retreat, with Rachel still unwilling to use her telepathy to locate Wolverine and Kitty, and unable to bring herself to say why. Rogue offers to take on Rachel's powers to do it herself (possibly by force if necessary) but Kurt instead volunteers to teleport blindly to them (which as everyone knows could result in death if he teleports into a wall or something) aided only by a mental image in Rachel's head. Rachel takes the risk along with him, and they manage to locate their teammates.

Meanwhile, James Proudstar has located Xavier on the Blackbird. Cornered and without his psi-powers to protect himself, Xavier's only defense is an eloquent speech about the original Thunderbird's dignity, indomitable spirit, and the free will that caused him to bring about his own demise in the most ignominious way a hero has ever died.

Yes, if I were James, I too would be reluctant to believe my brother died trying to open an airplane cockpit with my bare hands. But the truth hurts.

James falls to his knees. He's troubled, because this is, like, the only thing he's ever wanted to do and now he feels like too much of a coward to get the job done. But Xavier reassures him that not being able to commit cold blooded murder for specious reasoning is a good thing, actually.

In the end, the X-Men's reputation as outlaws is cemented. James is permitted return to the Hellions, where he still feels like he belong somehow, as does Firestar -- which will likely be awkward since her boyfriend was emotionally manipulating her and all.

Xavier sends James off by advising him to learn from his mistakes, and to be a Thunderbird worthy of the name.

Further Thoughts:

In an epilogue, we drop in on the Rodriguez household, where Nimrod - you know, the friendly terminator robot guy that followed Rachel back from the future - has taken up as a houseguest with Jaime from the fish market, using his son's primitive computer (hey don't knock it, he has a modem in 1985!) to research the timeline, which, as we know from Rachel's story, is different from his own. Being that he is programmed to protect humans, he decides to make it his mission to take out not only the X-Men, but their scofflaw enemies like the Juggernaut, who is seemingly still in New York after dropping an entire pub on Colossus a few weeks back.

Plus he has synthesized himself a killer widow's peak.

It's interesting, because we see Jaime and his brother Luis debating the mutant issue, with Jaime taking a decidedly pro-mutant stance, likening their oppression to the stereotyping they receive as Latinos. I hope Jaime and Nimrod don't have a falling out over this!

We also, in this issue, check in with Storm, who is finally on her way to Africa. From the boat, she sees visions of her ancestral homeland and her mother.

On the surface, "193" is an esoteric milestone (They had 175 not that long ago and have 200 coming right up) but as the 100th issue since the beginning of the "All New All Different" era, an epochal change if comics ever saw one, it was fitting. And so it was only right to mark the occasion by revisiting one of the earliest adventures of the new X-Men, in the death of Thunderbird.

Taint a milestone without Thunderbird

What I really like about it was that it was so additive - it was not merely a retread or a sequel with John's badguy brother in his old pajamas, touring the greatest hits. James Proudstar is aligned with the Hellions, the regular foes of the New Mutants under the tutelage of longtime enemy Emma Frost, so it is rooted in current events as far as the X-Men are concerned. James is an interesting character because he has every right to be angry, to want his revenge, from his perspective, even if we know it went down differently from reading these comics for so many years. For some reason it makes sense that he's mad at Xavier and not, say, the supervillain with the exploding jet. 

Hey, what ever happened to Count Nefaria, anyway?

It is also pointedly a first excursion for this new configuration of the team - Nightcrawler as leader and very uncomfortable in the role, Kitty and Wolverine back in the fold from Japan (with the former having experienced some growth), new member Rachel (grappling with her trauma) and still somewhat new to active duty Xavier (also recovering from a trauma!) The book does somewhat forget about Banshee, who is kidnapped and disappears the second Kitty collects him, but it's not really about him - even though he's one of the ones James specifically wants dead.

The attack on Xavier last issue was not the flashpoint it initially seemed - he recovered and got on his merry way very quickly - but it does provide one more brick for the wall of anti-mutant sentiment that keeps growing and growing throughout the series and not only does the after-effect takes its toll during this fight, it's sure to inform some of what's to come. Note also what is going on with the Morlocks - despite Xavier's somewhat callous disregard for it, the fate of the Morlocks will end up coming a key point in the not so distant future. It feels like the X-Men are going to have to face someone a lot tougher than some rowdy college students.

Lastly, in a subtle point that grabbed me, at the end of the story there's considerable talk about the law and justice. Quoting Xavier when they agree to let the Hellions all just go home without punishment, Nightcrawler says that if (mutants) are to be a law unto themselves, that law will be tempered with mercy. It's the beginning of seeds of conceiving mutants as a society of their own, and examining the X-Men's roles as justice within that society, as it so requires, not merely to enforce what we humans know to the law to be, but to reconceive of it as the situation demands. It's a fascinating, forward-thinking moment that resonates strongly in this era where defunding and abolishing traditional police forces is an idea that is gaining currency.

Some portions of the above post have been revised since posting.