UNCANNY X-MEN #203: Crossroads

The Phoenix takes one last swing at the Beyonder, and it's a big one.

Originally Published March 1986

The X-Men are in San Francisco, and for Rogue, that means reliving the biggest mistake of her life - the fight with Ms. Marvel that ended with her absorbing Carol Danvers' persona into her own psyche (along with her awesome superpowers.)

After some contemplation of her navel, Rogue returns to the home of Jessica Drew, the former Spider-Woman and Bay Area Resident, who has been kind enough to put the X-Men up despite the whole history with Rogue and Carol, who was Jessica's best friend.

Rogue finds Kitty kneeling in meditation. She has manifested the mystical armour normally worn by Illyana Rasputin, aka Magik, of the new Mutants, aka "Who?" to Rogue. It seems that the Beyonder has been a busy boy lately and went and erased the New Mutants from existence just for laffs, and only Kitty remembers it because of the special bond she shares with Illyana.

(So, Kitty is close enough to Illyana to remember her, but her own brother isn't. Got it. Nothing queer about that.) 

Kitty expresses her concern that the Beyonder is clearly intent on taking out the X-Men next, and Rachel arrives to say it doesn't have to be this way. That by juicing her newly-increased powers with some of the life-essences of her teammates and friends, she has a plan to wreck the Beyonder once and for all.

That plan: to go into the M'kraan Crystal and destroy the entire universe before the Beyonder has a chance to do any more harm. Couldn't be more simple.

Not everyone is on board, of course, as Storm protests that destroying the entire universe is actually counter-productive to the X-Men's stated goals, but Rachel does nothing to note this dissent and proceeds.

And so the Phoenix rises again and begins her journey to the nameless world that houses the M'Kraan Crystal. Like all significant cosmic moments, this event is witnessed by Uatu the Watcher, from his observatory on the Moon.

(For this issue only, the role of Uatu is being played by character actor Vincent D'Onofrio.)

Pointedly not taking no for an answer when she passes Xavier, Lilandra and the Starjammers out in space, Rachel arrives at the Crystal and slips past Jahf, the funny little robot fellow who guards it.

Storm takes one last pass at her "Destroying the Universe is bad, actually" argument, which Rachel again rejects as she sets to work telepathically undoing the work her mother a cosmic being using her mother's body as a template for its physical manifestation did a few years earlier.

In the course of doing so, she becomes one with every being everywhere in a sprawling gallery view of the great Zoom call of life.

Just an absolute f l e x of a spread from John Romita Jr.

Within Rachel a war rages as the piece she absorbed from Ororo reminds her of the sanctity of life - that she is not killing "a universe," but every beautiful, blessed individual within it.

This would seem to have been obvious, but I guess Rachel was getting a bit of tunnel vision in her "Beyonder-killing" plan.

With that, the X-Men find themselves back on Earth, mulling about the sanctity of life, when who should appear by The Beyonder. He reveals this whole scheme was to see if the X-Men could be motivated enough to kill themselves and everyone else. Since they failed, he tries to goad them into a fight with him, wherein they will die. The reason being that the Beyonder, who comes from a different space where he was everything, has come to our universe and seen the multiplicity and confusion of it all, and he does not care for it.

Rachel realizes that the only thing to do is to "return the Beyonder's Power" to him, by way of imparting everything she experienced when she tapped into the majestic tapestry of existence.

This, evidently, is not something the Beyonder had thought to do, and the experience of recognizing the beautiful diversity of life overwhelms him.

Storm and Wolverine impart some human wisdom about how wonderful it is that every human has their own path to walk in this life, knowing they exist in the shadow of death.

That's good enough for the Beyonder, and he takes his leave.

The X-Men watch the sun rise and call it a night.

Further Thoughts:

Someone with a much bigger mind than mine might be able to attach some meaning to these proceedings. I'm not a total idiot but to me it feels like there's truly no "there" there in this issue and I found myself, as a reader looking for enjoyment, shifting uncomfortably in my seat as the creative team strove to attach some profound meaning to the Beyonder's existence and some epic statement to be made via the X-Men's part in it.

It's just supposed to be a comic book, guys - lighten up.

That's not to say that comics can't deal in weighty, existential issues. They can, sure. But in literalizing them with walking Gods, they get away from the grounded humanity that is supposed to animate them. I like my philosophy better when it's contextualized within a story I am already going to enjoy and where the philosophy feels wholly conceived and worthy of contemplation.

So yes, I struggle with this. I can process the profound magic of existence to some degree but that's not why I primarily read comics or the deploy the tools I have to elucidate my enjoyment of them. If you got something out of this Secret War - which was neither secret, not a war - bless ya. And maybe if you were 12 years old in 1986 this comic would truly blow your mind rather than seeming a ponderous slog. For me, it's so long Beyonda, see ya in North Tonawanda.