UNCANNY X-MEN #276: Double Death

Wolverine kills Xavier -- I'm sure he has his reasons

Originally Published May 1991

When we last left off, our heroes -- Jubilee and Gambit -- had just stumbled upon much-beloved X-Men founder Professor Charles "Warlord" Xavier doing some kind of shady villain things, compelling Gladiator into murdering Deathbird with his bare hands, as is basically not the X-Men way.

Talk about a Bizarre Love Triangle

Seeing this, Gambit can't stands no more and bursts out of his hiding spot, blowing some stuff up with his blowing stuff up powers, which Gladiator keenly observes has the effect of causing things to blow up. Gambit and Deathbird briefly get the better of Gladiator, but Jubilee gets hit with a mind whammy from Warlord Xavier and can't raise Psylocke to call for help. 

The literal oldest trick in the book

Glady throws Deathbird through a brick wall where we see Lila Cheney, the mutant teleporter-in-residence. The rocker is chained up so she can't use her powers (I guess her powers aren't what you'd call "hands-free") but once liberated, she teleports only herself and Deathbird away, which is exactly the kind of shifty business you expect from someone who once tried to sell the Earth into slavery.

Left to their own devices, Gambit and Jubilee try a combo attack where Gambit blows up Jubilee's glow-ups, causing an explosion to explode and draw the attention of the nearby X-Men.

The rest of the X-Men and Starjammers arrive in the aftermath of the battle, and the official story they get is that Deathbird escaped with Lila. Storm asks about Gambit and Jubilee, to which Xavier shrugs "haven't seen 'em."

Wolverine, however, sees something that makes him think otherwise.

And, well... you saw the cover.

Let's right, Wolverine kills unalives the man who founded the -Men.

Everyone is really confused because as we all know Xavier is a good guy and not somebody who should be murdered in cold blood. Psylocke rises to the defense of her longtime mentor who she just met that afternoon, sticking Wolverine with her psychic knife, the focused totality of her telepathic power, which renders him goofy.

Before the Starjammers can seize the X-Men, Lila and Deathbird re-appear in a blinding flash of light, wielding ginormous guns. 

They teleport all the X-Men except for Psylocke away.

In the aftermath, the Lord Chamberlain -- the pale guy who's always hanging around Lilandra -- has a lot to say, requesting that Psylocke slip her a psychic roofie so as to blur her memory of this moment for her own good. He then promises, ominously, that the fallen Xavier will be avenged.

And that was juat one of the many occasions on which Charles met his death disbirthment

Deathbird, Lila and the X-Men arrive at a planet called Epsilon Seikosha IX, a planet named in curious fashion with a Greek letter, a Japanese company name, and a Roman numeral, populated formerly by beings who were none of those things.

Yes, you may recall this was the world of the P!ndyr, those funky dragon aliens that are now sometimes spotted hanging blurrily in the background of battles with Lilandra's peeps. The planet has been razed, its people slaughtered, all Xavier's doing. Apparently Charles committed this and other atrocities to rile people up against Deathbird by blaming it on her -- because I guess when you literally name yourself Deathbird people will believe you're capable of any old thing. 

Forge, a Vietnam vet who arguably has committed one or two atrocities in his time, needs to take A Moment to process this, especially when he notices slain children who, much like the human children of Earth, played with dolls.

When Deathbird re-iterates that Xavier is a bloodthirsty psycho, some of the X-Men are unsure whether to believe her (as a bloodthirsty psycho herself,) but Storm is willing to give her the benefit of the doubt -- Xavier and Gladiator denied Jubilee and Gambit had been present, but Wolverine, as it turns out, had discovered one of Jubilee's signature earrings in the rubble, which explains why he lashed out. 

Pretty compelling stuff.

The Starjammers arrive, but the X-Men are ready to meet them with specially-designed space suits and rocket sleds that Forge has whipped up with the materials at hand. They have a plan to counter the imperial fleet that relies on strategy -- so of course, Deathbird and Lila teleport away, when Deathbird gets some kind of psychic alert, leaving Forge to attack the Starjammer all by his lonesome.

Back on the Imperial ship, Jubilee and Wolverine are to be fed to some life-force sucking vines by Psylocke and the Lord Chamberlain.

"Psylocke" questions the wisdom of using Jubilee -- their group, the Cadre, doesn't have unlimited resources and her powers are, you know, kinda meh. I suppose they like her youthful, sassy energy.

As it turns out, this is the work of a detachment of Skrulls -- shapeshifting aliens, you know -- who are using machinery to imbue themselves with the powers of the mutants they are imitating, such as Professor X. 

So when their Professor Xavier was killed, the simple answer is to whip up an understudy, ie their leader Prime, aka the "Lord Chamberlain" (who had not originally been cast in the role of Xavier because of his genetics not being a close enough match or something.)

Of course it hurts, but beauty is pain

From their places strung to the wall, Wolverine, Jubilee and the real Psylocke can only watch helplessly, but one of the X-Men sure is undaunted.

Further Thoughts:

As the first group outing of the New-New-New X-Men (I don't count X-Tinction Agenda and neither should you) there are a lot of fun new dynamics to play with in these characters -- Forge and Storm sharing space for the first time since their brief sojourn to the paradise world where they were almost Adam and Eve, effortlessly suave Gambit and perennially out-of-her-depth Jubilee, Banshee and-- okay, well, maybe people don't care about Banshee, but still, this group is very new and very loose-knit. Just the fact that they seem to have drifted together from various directions rather than answering the call of one man gives them an interesting group dynamic -- witness the moment in the previous issue where Jubilee doesn't even know to follow Storm's directions because as far as she's concerned, Wolverine is her direct manager.

This may not be a giant massive crossover, but it's a fun space adventure with a nifty conspiracy plot twist, probing that even after 16 years behind the wheel, there's still gas left in Chris Claremont's tank, even if plot duties seem to have been relocated to Jim Lee. I think the two are starting to gel and am looking forward to several more years of a productive partnership.