UNCANNY X-MEN #247: The Light that Failed

The X-Men unite to destroy the new Mastermold -- but at what cost??

Originally Published August 1989

When we last left off, Rogue was down for the count and targeted for a killing blow by the reconstituted Mastermold, which had joined in a kind of technological mashup collab with Nimrod. Let's watch:

Skzam is right! The X-Men have arrived in the nick of time! It pays to have a friend who can instantaneously teleport you anywhere in the world.

Mastermold is unable to get a fix on his opponents -- he's kinda-sorta able to see them, but not really, treating us to this delightful extremely low-res image of the X-Men.

 

It seems that his "host unit" Nimrod is resisting integration into the loving arms of Mastermold's core programming.

The X-Men for their part, are a little baffled -- as a robot, Mastermold shouldn't be able to see them at all, but it sure didn't have a hard time swatting Rogue down.

All the while, Senator Kelly cradles his wife's body, begging for help, but all Psylocke can do is ease her suffering as she passes. Kelly is........... displeased.

As Mastermold struggles to collect itself and maybe retreat until it can figure out just what is going on, the X-Men seize their tactical advantage and dismember the would-be megazord.

They do a pretty thorough job of it too, ultimately finishing it off with Storm's lightning. With the robot down for the count, the X-Men touch base. Rogue mentions that Mastermold was going on about some group of mutants enigmatically called "The Twelve," while Psylocke posits that the reason it could at least somewhat see the X-Men was that -- gasp -- there was a glimmer of organic consciousness within the machine. Seems like all that time spent with adorable moppets has turned Nimrod's steel heart to flesh and blood... or something.

Over in the corner, Longshot sulks. Seems his luck and his trademark throwing knives were not much good against a giant robot, so he's feeling useless. I personally agree and think he should quit, but Dazzler peps him up by saying that's why they're a team of individuals with diverse and differentiated skillsets, because some missions call for the ability to destroy a giant robot, and some call for the ability to be really good at darts.

Back in Australia, our favourite Orphan Mallrat has emerged from her hidey hole. Seems Jubilee has been living secretly at the X-Hostel under the X-Men's noses for some time (with all those cameras? And an actual psychic? Wow, she's good) but there's a problem... it's boring AF. 

She offers commentary on the decor, indicating her hosts must be super old -- in their twenties, at least! -- since Dazzler has posters with ancient artists like Lila Cheney. Big talk from an 80's teen to idolizes Little Richard to the point of copping his hairdo.

More like Lila Cheugey, right?

But she does an about-face when she finds Dazz's walk-in closet. As she mulls over whether the hosts might miss a dress or two, she realizes she's being watched -- Gateway seems to be staring directly at her from his hill. Suitably wigged out, Jubes cheeses it back to her crawlspace.

Back in New York, the X-Men watch Senator Kelly -- no friend to mutantkind in the past, that's for sure -- cradle his dying wife, murmuring about how helpless and unable to do anything they are.

There but for the grace of God we... don't go, since we could just call Healer up.

With her dying breath, Sharon has a startling warning -- Mastermold has not been destroyed! Very subtly, he pieces himself back together and initiates a well-timed sneak attack on the heroes that they could never see coming...

Or, he just stands up and goes "I'm back, bitches."

Masty Boy has successfully integrated Nimrod's consciousness into his own, which you can see above, now gives him a (slightly static-y) visual fix on his targets, which is bad news since his blindness was their chief advantage. Also bad news: he seems to have absorbed Nimrod's Super Nuh-Uh Powers.

The X-Men are in real hot water as Mastermold uses the construction materials at hand to add to his frame, like a ginormous Erector set, (or for my fellow Canadian Millennials, a classic Lois Walker Take Part craft. Next he'll be making puppets out of milk cartons!) Still, they give it their best.

Mastermold, for his part, is grappling with the continuity error at hand. He can tell these are the X-Men, but he knows the X-Men are dead. What in the how in the what--?! ?! ?!!!

Psylocke senses there is another consciousness -- a living one -- inside of Mastermold, which is how he can see the X-Men. She reaches out to Nimrod and he actually cheers them on to defeat his possessor.

With Colossus down for the count, Rogue absorbs his powers so she can rocket into the sky and come down hard on Mastermold like a meteor.

While Dazzler checks her pocket and realizes she's still carrying around the Siege Perilous. Her injury from earlier returns... could this be some kind of message?

Rogue hits the Swanton from the top of the cage...

But the X-Men can't pick up the 1-2-3 just yet as Mastermold fights off the resurgent Nimrod programming to reconstitute himself again!

Just how many girders are on a construction site anyway?

That's when Dazzler comes to the conclusion that the only way to defeat Mastermold once and for all is to send it packing, by way of a one-way ticket on the Siege Perilous. 

Unfortunately, it has steel Doctor Octopus tentacles that let it latch onto the ground so it won't go into the portal easily. Rogue rushes in to push him through, but gets ensnared.

At Rogue's insistence, Dazzler fires a beam to nudge Mastermold into the portal. That still doesn't get the job all the way done, but the voice of Nimrod pops up to have a philosophical debate with its would-be master: since they have merged, Mastermold has, in effect, mutated into something as much a living being as machine, and since its prime directive is to destroy mutants, doesn't that go for him as well?

Hell of a logic bomb there, Nim. Mastermold, defeated by philosophy, hurls himself through the portal.

Dazzler rushes in to grab her teammate, but the door closes as Rogue is sucked in.

She's gone.

Later, as the authorities clean up, the X-Men have gone without a trace. The only casuality of this escapade: young Sharon Kelly. Sebastian Shaw is there to comfort his friend, who has a simple request:

That's right -- Senator Kelly witnesses his wife being killed by an unstoppable monster robot, and decides the only solution is... more unstoppable monster robots. Even less stoppable and controllable ones than before! With better lasers and less morals! There's something very... American about all this. Clearly, the only way to stop a bad guy with a robot is a good guy with a robot.

From afar, Shaw and Kelly are being watched by an eerie consortium of technologically-enhanced baddies -- Lady Deathstrike, Bonebreaker of the Reavers, and the newly-liberated Donald Pierce, who may have something to say to his old running buddy (and, I suppose, captor?) Shaw.

But, from even afurther afar, this trio is being watched too! By who, you ask? Well, shouldn't it be obvious?

Well, I guess it's not that obvious since this is the first time we're seeing these characters, but they've popped up in X-Factor before. This is Nanny and Orphanmaker. We'll be hearing a bit more about them soon but their introduction here leads me to ask a few key questions:

How did she get a camera into Donald Pierce's office?

Why has she taken an interest in the X-Men?

And why is she a Danny DeVito-sized egg?

Quite frankly, these are questions that may never be answered, but we're going to leave that aside so we can move forward -- to be continued!

Further Thoughts:

I quite liked this. What was fixing to be a rather unheralded "X-Men versus Robot" story ends up having shocking ramifications for the team going forward, proving that the status quo is never safe in these comics. We don't know exactly what effect the Siege Perilous has -- Rogue isn't dead, but she's certainly not with us for the time being -- but it takes another stalwart X-Man out of the group, and leaves the feeling that there is more danger to come.

I've got to give big praise to Marc Silvestri, who makes an absolute meal out of this issue, executing great action and suspense at the climax, as well as wringing emotion out of the loss of Rogue, and of Sharon Kelly. I know I don't talk about art quality on this blog very much -- it's simply not a focal point of the remit here -- but the X-Men have been blessed with almost exclusively top tier art talent and Silvestri is right up there with all of them.

One particularly interesting touch was that it was Dazzler who was responsible for sending Rogue through the Siege. Early in her membership, they had friction (since Rogue was a villain who fought Dazzler) but they've mended their ways and grown close. Dazzler's action was at Rogue's behest, and she did everything she could to save her onetime enemy. On top of that, Nimrod's assertion that Mastermold, itself, was a mutant, echoes the famous resolution to 1969's Sentinel story where Cyclops convinced the Sentinels to fly into the sun as the source of mutation --  a conclusion that Chris Claremont himself was acknowledged as contributing as a young Marvel intern twenty years earlier.

Inferno was, in its way, the culmination of a decade worth of X-Men (and X-Factor) comics, but there's a need to move forward, and this two-parter sets the stage for the next -- and in its way, final -- act of Chris Claremont's X-Men story.