UNCANNY X-MEN #221: Death By Drowning!

The X-Men mount a mission to rescue Madelyne Pryor from the Marauders!

Originally Published September 1987

Why bury the lede? Here he is folks:

That's right, we waste no time in this issue as we are immediately brought nose-to-nose with the Marauders mysterious benefactor, the man who calls himself Mr. Sinister. Sinister is seething at his charges for their abject failure to do pretty much the easiest thing in the world: kill a powerless, helpless, regular-degular woman, specifically Madelyne Pryor.

Taking exception to Sinister's managerial style, Sabretooth lodges a complaint, which is duly noted.

We are not yet told why Sinister wants to kill Madelyne - that's one of Sinister's Secrets - or why he has deliberately set about obliterating any trace of Madelyne's existence, but he makes it clear that it's a bad thing if she's able to survive and contact either the X-Men or X-Factor (pssht, like anyone in X-Factor cares that Madelyne's alive.) Sinister makes it clear: Get this woman killed ASAP, or there will be repercussions.

Over to the X-Men's fabulous Danger Room, where Dazzler is having an intense workout comma therapy session against Rogue. 

Dazzler manages to unleash the full force of her Dazzle-Blast, burying her teammate and former enemy under a few tons of lighting and scaffolding to win the exercise.

It's an exhausting, hard-fought victory that leaves Dazzler drained but triumphant... until Rogue walks in and sees what Dazzler has been playing at. Seems that the "Rogue" of the workout was as falsified as the scenery, and the Lightengale was just using this as an opportunity to work out some of her long-held aggression against the woman who tried to kill her on more than one occasion.

Their face-off is interrupted when Wolverine (newly appointed Reluctant Leader) summons the team for a meeting. But before we get to that, we check with our former leader, Storm, who is on a field trip with Forge's mentor Nazé to the Grand Canyon of all places. Nazé explains that this is where "many months ago" (a cute way of saying "an issue of Doctor Strange from 1975") the wheels were set in motion for whatever-is-going-on with the Adversary that threatens to throw the Human World, and the entire Cosmos, into Chaos.

And Nazé seems to be pretty into that.

And while he recounts what makes Storm such a perfect target to be twisted - she is human, vulnerable, and too selfless to do what it takes to survive what he plans - he favors us with that toothy "A Bad Guy Is Me" grin. Storm reaffirms, to what she thinks is an ally, that since the whole danged world is in danger, she will gladly team up and rescue the man she despises. 

Over in San Francisco, Chris Claremont favors us with his knowledge of local geography while the X-Men congregate at SF Memorial Hospital, where Psylocke telepathically observes Madelyne Pryor frantic as she finds that all records of her existence have been erased -- she knows who she is but can't prove it. Havok, in his role of New Guy, demands to know why Wolverine has brought them here, apparently not capable of connecting the dots with the fact that his own Brother's Wife is in trouble.

Who invited this guy?

Their interpersonal conflict is interrupted when Psylocke senses the presence of the Marauders and the team springs into action.

Rogue manages to knock Sabretooth out of the hospital but fares worse against Scalphunter, who prepared for the fight a special Rogue-puncturing gun, I guess.

 

Madelyne struggles against Scalphunter until Dazzler is able to get the drop on him from the rooftop across the street, Psylocke's telepathy augmenting her vision and enabling them to Use Teamwork to snipe him. Unfortunately, Vertigo gets the drop on them. Longshot bails them out, relying on his luck to blindly save them.

Inside, Scrambler causes Havok's powers to go all blooey, and let me tell you, if there's one guy whose power you do not want to mess with, it's the guy who contains the force of an exploding sun.

The gambit takes out half the building, and the X-Men within it, but somewhat fortuitously, not Maddy, who, as an unspecial person, has no powers for Scrambler to mess with and to whom he is thus vulnerable if she happens to be wielding an Uzi.

With the Hospital in shambles, Arclight creates a shockwave that threatens to knock it down. Rogue swoops the Marauders' target away, but they're ensnared at a construction site by what appears to be living metal!

What in the -- who in the--?

Rather than explain why exactly she seems to have switched sides, "Lorna" (in actuality, the evil body-possessing Malevolent Necklace known as Malice) launches the structure into the Bay. Dazzler, the only X-Man whose powers could be of use right now, uses Longshot's luck to grapple on and ride that baby into the water.

Underwater, Dazzler frees Madelyne, but finds her glow fading -- she doesn't have enough juice left to free Rogue, too. Rogue gives Dazzler a look that says, "You go, don't worry about me."

In a somber, wordless moment, Dazzler swims back to the surface, clearly unsure if she's doing the right thing.

In the drink, Rogue uses her last moments to struggle against the girder, thinking to herself she really never thought the ride would end. But just when all seems lost, a laser hits the girder and begins to slice through the metal - Dazzler has returned!

Unfortunately, it seems Dazzler didn't quite get enough charging time, as her laser quits once again (guess there wasn't enough field mice hopping around at the surface of the water) but she manages to get it loosened enough to set Rogue free.

Topside, Dazzler and Rogue have a heart to heart about their growing bond, and letting bygones be bygones, and what it means to be a team and a hero and all that. It's lovely, except...

This fight must continue!

Further Thoughts:

Though not as momentous as the X-Men's first battle against the Marauders, this was a really strong action issue. We get a lot of showcases for the X-Men's and Marauders powers as the fight spills around the setting of the Hospital, and Madelyne gets a few good licks in of her own (as any Claremont woman would.) We are treated to a perhaps-overly strong throughline about the conflict between Dazzler and Rogue, which is very much in character with how the book has been lately - not at all interested in being subtle about underlining the difficulties this new team has in gelling, or its individual members in unpacking their baggage.

We are also treated to out first glimpse of the Marauder's master, Mr. Sinister. "Mr. Sinister" is a great name... if you happen to be opening for Quiet Riot in 1983. This guy is a fearsome fellow, with pale, vampiric skin, jet-black (and seemingly rock hard) hair, pupil-less red eyes, a mouth full of shark teeth, black lipstick and other demonic accoutrements, to go along with his black vinyl bodysuit, cape of fringe, and crotch-high boots. I don't want to insinuate that there's anything wrong with Mr. Sinister's lewk, but given that his design and concept seems to have been overcranked past "scary ultimate villain" into "camp bondage daddy" there's a reason why Sinister has been embraced as an icon of queer X-Fandom in recent years. It was either that, or go with the original plan of having him be an emotionally-stunted manchild's projection of what a "scary villain" would look like, which is......... a different way to go.