UNCANNY X-MEN #263: The Lower Depths

Forge, Banshee and Jean face off -- so to speak -- against Masque and the Morlocks!

Originally Published July 1990

In the Morlock Tunnels, Forge is tinkering with some inventions. He's come in pursuit of some horrifically-mutated faux X-Men who have been lurking underneath the X-Mansion. They've already left their mark...

...leaving Jean a mess of tentacles instead of arms, and Banshee without a mouth to scream with.

Forge and Jean consider the lot of mutants, seemingly forever locked in battle for their lives, first against the Marauders who cleared out the Morlock tunnels, now against the Reavers. She also laments her current physical characteristics, which take a lot of focus to control and seemingly takes a toll on her ability to use her telepathic or telekinetic abilities.

Elsewhere in the tunnels, Peter and Callisto have been brought face to face with their captor, the leader of this Monster Party, Masque.

Masque begins to toy with Peter by giving him bug eyes, but when Callisto objects she's put down by Bliss, the freaky-bitey Morlock. As he mocks Peter's knight in shining armor tendancies, he realizes that this captive is a near dead ringer for the departed X-Man Colossus. So, in a twisted humour, he proceeds to make him so...

In appearance, but not in powers. Yes, his flesh looks like steel, but he's still soft and squishy, and if cut he will bleed.

Masque forces Callisto and Peter into a game: get to the surface and you're home free. They even get an hour's headstart.

Forge and Jean, watching via Forge's "Eye Spies," note this as a miscalculation -- Callisto knows the tunnels better than anyone, but Forge counters that Masque seems to have been affecting the very structure... somehow.

We break, momentarily, to visit Washington DC, where Deputy National Security Adviser Val Cooper is taking a meeting in a most unexpected place -- a night club called "Wannabee's."

Her host: Col. Vashin of the KGB, who is growing concerned about the superhuman activity on Earth. Not only are there numerous new factions of mutants with their own goals -- the Mutant Liberation Front, Apocalypse, Mister Sinister and another player yet to be named (I suppose this means the Shadow King, but who knows) -- but the usual supervillains are really starting to test the boundaries of fair play by switching up their means and modus. Have you heard about this Acts of Vengeance thing, it was crazy!

And then there's Genosha -- Magneto's worst nightmare -- which is set to be a powder keg of its own. Humans may be looking at their own demise.

As Forge stalks the tunnels, he reflects on his time in Vietnam, and his final fateful mission there. He and his little squad are to play the role of the "300 Spartans," holding off a much larger contingent of the NVA while waiting for air support.

His reminiscences are interrupted when the sensors show Callisto and Peter are headed their way, and the trio spring into action.

Elsewhere, Peter notices that Callisto is starting to change -- Masque's spell is starting to wear off and she's becoming... un-hot again.

She expresses some complicated feelings about all of this, declaring that the beauty is false to who she is inside, but also a mockery, a taunt with a life she once had but can never again.

At this time, Masque, Bliss and others attack, taking down Callisto and stabbing Peter.

But the cavalry arrives in the nick of time. As Jean and Forge fend off some MorloX-Men, Peter composes himself. He's never been stabbed before, but oddly, there's no sign of a wound...

Seeing Callisto down, Peter goes on a rampage, and Forge observes, it's not the "painted flesh" the Morlocks are up against, but the true steel of Colossus.

As he reflects on the "Arclight" fiasco -- which saw his entire troop obliterated by friendly fire, prompting him to summon demons using his forbidden knowledge in a moment that haunts him to this day -- Forge tries to lead his group out, but they run into Masque.

Forge fends off Bliss, but Masque boasts that Forge's bionic hand won't save the Maker from Masque's touch. Luckily, he's not alone...

Masque tries to bargain for his life. Only he can undo Banshee's mutation and save his life (so he can, you know, eat again) and the same goes for Jean's tentacles. Their only choice is to make their home with the Morlocks -- under Masque's rule.

They decline. Masque then offers them freedom for his life, but they declare themselves already free.

So, Masque hits the panic button and has his teleporter -- Bouncer -- zap them away.

Back at the Soho loft, Jean and Banshee are looking a little better.

Forge had a scheme to get them transformed back all along, having the foresight to know they might get caught up in some body-modifying shenanigans.

As for Peter -- yes, he has regained the powers of Colossus, seemingly spurred by the trauma of the stabbing, but still with no memory. Banshee wonders if it's not a bad thing, letting Peter have his rest and remove himself from the neverending struggle of the mutant cause.

Up on the roof, Forge reflects on the day's events, proud that this time, he did things right.

Further Thoughts:

For the most part, this issue is "merely" a satisfying conclusion to the previous few installments, resolving the matter of Masque's Morlock X-Men as well as giving us a resting place for Peter and Callisto's subplot. That sounds like a putdown, but you can't knock an issue that satisfyingly concludes a story.

Where the issue manages to stand out is in its invocation of Forge's backstory. We kind of take these things for granted, but it's a great touch that keeps the story on track and gives us some sense of who Forge is and what he feels about what he's doing. The Vietnam War has never yet left the American psyche, and while you don't see many movies about it anymore, it has crept into the backstories of characters in TV series like Stranger Things and This Is Us as a particular American trauma.

I've always had great affection for the Morlocks. There's a difference between being a bad person with power, like a Sebastian Shaw or a Mister Sinister, and having society twist you into that role. I'm not saying I'm sympathetic toward Masque -- he has been hardened beyond redemption and leads his people with a cultlike command, seeing other people as toys. But Callisto remains a point of fascination for the way she always tried to create a better society not just for herself but for her people.

I like the idea -- which the comic can't seem to commit to -- that she doesn't want to be beautiful. That the advantages and trappings of conventional beauty are a shackle that keeps her from being herself. I like Callisto's subversion of those norms and in a way I root for her. The comic, however, backpedals a little bit on her by indicating that she hates the beauty because it's something she can't have, as if she yearns for it. I wouldn't discredit this either, because lots of people have a complicated relationship with their body, conventional beauty standards (and ableism) and have a hard time navigating that, and they are free to embody contradictions about it. I just think it would be cool to pick that specific lane and stick with it, as it goes against a lot of people's storytelling instincts. We can't get away from the idea that beauty is goodness and desirable to all, but I like the idea that Callisto would be above that, embracing her "true self" and not resenting it for its lack of "beauty." It would be beneficial to comics to have that kind of representation.

In a way, it's kind of implied that the beauty Masque has bestowed is kind of a drug -- it may not be "real" but it makes her feel a certain way, and she has become addicted, in spite of feeling like she has become empty because of it, convinced that if she's beautiful, then that's all she is. Again, that may not be how I prefer to see it, but this message complex and interesting in its own right.