UNCANNY X-MEN #279: Bad to the Bone

Will Colossus kill Xavier at the behest of the Shadow King?

Originally Published August 1991

So, Professor X has returned to the mansion that also serves as the campus of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, or at least did up until being destroyed sometime ago during a fight with Sinister. Only he's being attacked by his former student Peter Rasputin, aka Colossus, who, like everyone else, has been in the thrall of Xavier's hated enemy the Shadow King.

The Professor and Stevie Hunter -- who is another person being targeted by the Shadow King (because she has knowledge of the mansion's defenses, but I guess that's sort of redundant now that Xavier's here) -- duck into the hatch that leads into the mansion's underground facilities (previously seen at the beginning of X-Tinction Agenda. - ed. [Don't make me go back at read that! - Scotto]) 

Of course Colossus, being a big stronk metal boi, is not stopped by the hatch. Xavier activates the self-defense protocol but they're not enough to hold off Colossus -- which represents a stunning lack of foresight given how much of an X-Man's life is spent being brainwashed.

Xavier leads Colossus into the Danger Room, which is set up with a holographic representation of the first meeting between Charles and the Shadow King -- then Amahl Farouk -- which the King reflects on as being a complacent time in his life, which is what led to his defeat. Sure bud, tell yourself that.

Shadow King has Colossus attack, only to realize that the Xavier present is just a hologram, because I suppose the Shadow King is, at heart, just a big dumb idiot. 

With Colossus cornering Stevie in the control room, Xavier makes one final bid, jumping on his back to restrain him as he plunges into Colossus' mind. There he finds the alternative persona of Peter Nicholas, artist.

The only way to free Colossus from the Shadow King's grip is to unlock the true Piotr Rasputin from within, which means the end of the Peter Nicholas dream (which I would say is probably pretty much over with now anyway.)

Back in Washington, DC, the Shadow King -- in the body of Jacob Reisz -- is feeling the effects of the battle. As physician/sexually liberated human slave Dr. Lian Shen explains, it's taking a lot of his resources to keep Reisz's dead body Weeknd-at-Bernied up, which means that when he gets into a battle with Xavier on the psychic plane, it takes way too big of a toll on the body and the King may find himself bounced out.

King goes on to explain that not only does he want to plunge the world into darkness so that he has an unending smorgasbord of hate to feast upon for eternity, he aspires to conquer the stars as well. Which would sound unrealistic, if Xavier hadn't just gotten back from deep space where he is nominally the consort to the Majestrix of a galaxy-spanning empire.

Back on Earth, on Muir Island, Gambit, Jubilee and Wolverine appear to be creeping around, looking for trouble. They bicker and snipe at one another in a way that connotes they are not feeling especially benevolent at this time.

Apparently, the X-Men and other assorted Muir Islanders have arranged themselves into Hunting Parties, although it's not clear whether they're hunting each other, or something else.

Wolverine, for his part, seems to be resisting the urge to just go along with what the Shadow King is commanding them to do, but not quite strong enough to act out against him.

I'm struggling to understand what Gambit is even talking about here, and it's not just because of the patois

Wolverine storms off, but is attacked by Forge, who manages to slap a specially-invented anti-Shadow King patch on him.

Forge is also able to fend off a bloodlust-driven Rogue, with his special anti-Rogue gun.

Back in New York, Charles, Stevie and a recuperating Piotr stumble across a racist mob looking to kill a small black child without even, it would seem, a basic cover reason for doing so.

As the King briefly appears to cackle at his victory and show Xavier what has become of the team he sent to Muir Isle -- seemingly fallen in the line of duty -- Xavier knows what he must do. He's going to call... X-Factor!

Further Thoughts:

Is it me, or is there something ominous about the presence of a co-writer next to Chris Claremont's name in the credits? And hey, I like Fabian Nicieza, but it's 1991 and X-Men comics are supposed to be written by Chris Claremont. Add to that the shoutout to Jim Lee for the plot and it starts to feel, just by a few degrees, a little off-brand.

There isn't even quite enough substance to complain about with this issue. The Prof is on the run from Colossus. It happens. The early panels are bathed in luxurious first-person narrative captions. That rings true, and the chase is all the more exciting for how much time it is given. But things get a little clunky in the closing pages of the story. I don't know whether that's Jim Lee's plot pacing it out weirdly, or Andy Kubert as a young artist not quite executing the beats, but it seems a little traffic jammed at the end.

The slice of story we get at the end isn't quite enough detail. We don't know what the X-Men are even doing to each other besides "hunting" and that the Shadow King has awakened the bloodlust in them. We don't know the exact degree to which each of them is being controlled -- Wolverine is seemingly fighting it, Gambit is seemingly under control but seems to recognize that Wolverine isn't, and kind of has a problem with that but not enough to make a big thing of it. Forge has escaped scot-free and is working to free his compatriots. Okay. It's just not very narratively clear or satisfying. I'm not even going to complain that we're already doing "X-Men fighting X-Men" again after just doing it with the skrulls, because that's a huge part of what the X-Men do. 

for clarity's sake, we needed less of those sprawling spreads of Colossus hunting down Xavier, and more minute dialogue written from the perspective of, you know, someone who can explain that the hell is going on in this comic.

If the Shadow King is weakened by going into battle with Xavier, how does he have the strength to maintain control of an entire small army of people on Muir Island? I think it has something to do with Legion, but that guy is shrouded in mystery as far as these comics are concerned.

For what it's worth, I think Andy Kubert shows himself to be an exciting young artist here, with his renderings every bit as exciting as Jim Lee's, but they need to be harnessed with a clearer story structure. No matter who is responsible, this issue is clunky, a noticeable step down in quality over whether the X-Men once were. Perhaps it would be hard to notice as a monthly reader in 1991, but it's clear to someone who has spent as much mental energy as we have on the X-Men over the last several years: something not-good is going on behind the scenes and I think we haven't yet seen the full extent of its effect on the X-Men as a franchise.