X-MEN #1: RUBICON

It's a new day for mutants everywhere as the newly unified X-Men clash with Magneto and his new fanclub!

Yep, that's me. How did I get into this mess? Well, it's a long story...

Originally Published October 1991

We begin in space -- low orbit to be exact, as a cadre of space-suited individuals (whose helmets, inconveniently, do not let us see their faces -- like they were real astronauts or somethin') flee through the atmosphere in a stolen spaceship, pursued by SHIELD forces.

Eventually the fight winds up in the front yard of this guy...

Yes, yes, yes. The last time we saw Magneto, he was very much over it as far as Earth was concerned -- he's not necessarily going to be a bug-eyed evil villain again but he's definitely not into making nicey-nice with the humans. Hence, he has decided to re-establish Asteroid M, the only place on Earth -- figuratively speaking since it's in space -- where Magneto can just do Magneto.

As it turns out, the escapers are all about this -- they're mutants, come seeking refuge from Earth! (And honestly, who wouldn't?)

Because the battle took place over Soviet airspace, the Russians are the first to be aware. Yes, some American ships were destroyed, but it's pretty clear that the power belongs to Magneto, who is no friend to the Russians. They believe -- and not without reason, truth be told -- that he is re-establishing Asteroid M, and now poses a risk to all of us little antlike humans on the planetary surface. The Russians initiate what is to be called the Magneto Protocols.

Back in Washington D.C., American President Borge Gush admits that that is the prudent move to make, but as far as joining in on the retaliation, he's nah gah dah. Instead, Nick Fury offers an alternative...

Nick, did you put that suit on the ultra high temp dry cycle?

Specifically, six or seven brightly-clad mutant heroes who will protect a world that hates and fears them.

Woah, that's too many! Better narrow it down.

And when I say X-Men, boy howdy do we have X-Men to spare. Following the events of the Muir Island Saga, the five original X-Men, who up until recently had been operating as X-Factor, have rolled back in with the expansive roster of the current X-Men. What's more, many of them have treated themselves to new costumes, colors, belts, buckles, pouches, headsocks, straps, tights, hairstyles, and in some cases physical bodies courtesy of Mr. Jim Lee. There's nothing even sort of resembling a unified theme here, but are you gonna tell Gambit he can't wear a magenta breastplate with metal knee-highs?

Today, the X-Men are running one of their trademark training exercises. The mission: tag Professor X, who is sitting inside the (freshly rebuilt for the second time) mansion with nobody but little ole Jean Grey to watch over him, while Cyclops throws obstacles at the team and Beast watches the monitors.

First up to the plate is Colossus, who comes in like a wrecking ball...

...to no avail.

Next are Wolverine, Gambit and Psylocke, a trio known for their sneakiness and martial prowess. They come slithering through the sewers. Cyclops throws some tin soldiers at them...

But Gambit sneaks away and manages to find his quarry. The rascally rake forces a kiss on Jean and gets blown--

--up. It was a decoy, you see. Dans le jeu, il est tué.

From the control room, flesh-and-blood Jean teases Cyclops about how hawt Gambit is, and he demonstrates his recent mastery of humor. Of course, you have to admit, there's some truth to his kidding -- Scott and Jean have been through so much in their relationship, so for one of them to suddenly have their head turned by one of these sexy newcomers? Why, that would be the height of impropriety.

Oh, I seem to have lost track of Psylocke, let's see if we can locate her.

While these three banter, of course, they're too distracted to see that Wolverine has fought his way up from the muck.

Cyclops takes exception to Wolverine's unsheathing of his razor-sharp adamantium claws -- one slip and the Professor would have been a kabab! But of course, Wolverine doesn't slip, and as usual he takes exception to Cyclops treating him like a kid. He's a serious man who runs around in tawny leggings.

Later, (after Wolverine has done his errands) the team fields a call from Col. Nick Fury, here to update us on the situation. Russia is mad at Magneto, and while they're not going to start anything, they're sure looking for an excuse. 

Rogue, who has some recent connection to Magneto due to their time together in the Savage Land, advocates for him: as far as anyone can tell, a fight landed on his doorstep and he put a stop to it without being responsible for killing anybody. So why is he a bad guy?

Cyclops argues that Magneto's the bad guy because he's a bad guy. Wolverine adds that they've all sort of been bad guys to somebody at one point or another.

Xavier ultimately comes down on the side of "both sides have a point." Their mission: get in the mix, hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

Speaking of the worst, back up on Asteroid M, the mutant refugees and the SHIELD forces continue to slapfight. A power inhibitor field prevents the mutants from using their powers, but the SHIELDies have weapons systems in their armor. Magneto, however, is having none of it.

Refugee Anne-Marie pleads her case to Magneto -- they have come to join his cause, whatever it may be, but as she rushes to his side, she is struck down by the weapons of overzealous, hotheaded SHIELD agent Deke.

As comeuppance, Magneto seizes control of Deke's armor and breaks his arm. SHIELD Commander Harry Delgado objects -- they're law officers in pursuit of criminals -- but Magneto has to explain to him what jurisdiction is, and how they don't have it here.

Maybe things would be different if we were on Asteroid Harry, but we're not.

As Magneto cradles the dying Anne-Marie, the refugee leader Fabian Cortez approaches and explains his concept: see, down below on Earth, those people are haters, and the haters are gonna hate. So why not give them something to hate, and let us help you?

Fabs also introduces Magneto to the term "flatscans", meaning non-mutant humans.

With Cerebro detecting Magneto's energy signature entering Earth's atmosphere, the X-Men have no time to waste, scrambling the "Blue Team" of Psylocke, Rogue, Gambit, Beast, Wolverine and Cyclops.

Magneto, for his part, has arrived on some very familiar turf...

That's right, we are still talking about the Submarine Leningrad!

Rogue takes point, trying to appeal to Magneto's humanity and reflect on the good times they shared.

But Magneto is resolute -- he's taking the nuclear missiles from aboard the Leningrad, and he'll be using them as his insurance policy that no Earth governments are going to mess with him and his.

Things devolve into a fracas -- a real bru-ha-ha.

Magneto, for his part, doesn't even know why the X-Men are fighting him. The in-story answer is probably to keep him from getting away with nuclear weapons. The realistic answer is that it's been several many pages now without any action.

Cyclops blasts Magneto through the wall of the submarine and the master of magnetism is confronted by the skeletons of his past, quite literally.

Magneto flies away, but Rogue gives chase, still trying to appeal to his better nature. Unfortunately, her pretty speech about redemption is interrupted by overzealous, hotheaded Soviet aircraft that fires on her, giving Magneto his usual reminder that humanity is bastards and it's better for them to fear mutants.

He responds to the Russians' attack by exploding a nuke in mid-air. 

Rogue's fate is unknown.

Back on the Asteroid, Magneto slinks back to his sitting room to tend to his wounds. When Cortez approaches, Magneto reflects on Wolverine's attack: that part hurt the most, he thought they were cool!

And why, just because I stole some nukes and gut-punched his friends?

Fabian sweet-talks his new leader, saying they can just kill any mutants who aren't on board with his new regime. He's also a healer -- having recently healed his comrade/sister Anne-Marie, and can definitely do the job on Magneto too.

Back on Earth, Rogue awakens in possibly the worst possible place: Genosha!

It's actually lucky for the Genoshans, as they've been facing some random super-powered attacks lately, and could use some mutant help. Rogue is a little dubious, since the last few times she was here it wasn't super-good for mutants in general or her specifically, but regardless, she's willing to hear Magistrate Anderson out.

As it turns out, the two cases are linked:

That's right, it's Magneto's new Acolytes! Fabian, Anne-Marie, and... the rest!

The Blue Team arrives, and the fight is on.

One of the Acolytes is named Delgado, but nobody is sure if it's actually Harry Delgado, switching sides, or if he was always a sleeper, or if is just a coincidence and it's a second, different, unrelated Delgado. (Marvel Fandom's official position is that it's a different Delgado, but not without controversy and that the whole thing doesn't matter in the end -- spoiler alert.)

As the X-Men get the Acolytes pinned down, Magneto appears and clears things up: Yes, these are his people, but no, he didn't order them to attack Genosha, but yes, he is vouching for them and protecting them and no he doesn't care about the Magistrates he killed, but yes, all mutants, even the X-Men, are welcome on Asteroid M, but no, they don't have any gluten-free options on the menu.

Simultaneously, Moira, watching from afar back in New York, realizes that something is up with Magneto...  and she may be responsible for it!

TBC!

Further Thoughts:

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. As the 1990's dawned, Marvel Editorial looked at the X-Men franchise, and how it may have gotten slightly off track, and decided it was time to consolidate. The New Mutants were revitalized as X-Force, the action-oriented guerilla warriors under Cable. The Original Five X-Men were done capering around as "X-Factor" and re-absorbed back into the Proper X-Men team, giving them a large enough roster to fill two books -- Uncanny, and this new, adjective-less title, in the mold of the previous year's "Spider-Man." Professor X is back, the mansion is back, the Danger Room, Magneto as a bad guy, we have Marie Kondo'd out all of the weird baggage the X-Men have accumulated over the course of the last fifteen years. Almost as if it didn't happen.

Which is not to say they're acting like it didn't happen. If it comes up, it's still very much part of the story: whether it's Magneto's bond with Rogue or the sinking of the Leningrad or anything else, it's all part of the story, but the main thing here is to move forward, and commit to simplicity and first principles.

And I realize, using the phrase "simplicity" when it comes to X-Men comics of the 1990's is a very loaded notion, but hear me out: we are getting back to more easily identifiable dynamics, clearer-cut heroes and villains, more purposeful enemies, fewer loose ends and a more archetypical depiction of each of our main characters. Which is not to say they've lost all of their dimensionality, only that they have about as much depth as an action hero needs.

As a commentator, I would love to get on my high horse and declare this as a betrayal of everything the X-Men are and were, a bastardization of the characters and concepts for filthy lucre, but it's not really that, not yet. This particular issue does exactly what it needs to do: it's exciting, interesting, refreshing, and does tie back into the main themes of the X-Men. This is a solid and sturdy comic book, a great re-introduction to the new old X-Men. It fills its 36 pages well, although by the time we get to Genosha it does start to feel like we're in overtime.

Of course, in this transition, something has been lost: as they are reformatted back to hot, sexy action heroes, some of the X-Men's uniqueness and outsider appeal has been forfeited. They were often the top-selling comic book of the 80's despite being frequently weird and not matching the conventional iconic idea of what top superhero comics are, but the longer they pursued that route, the less secure was their crown. Now with much hype and ballyhoo, they are exactly what The People want them to be, and their return to form, such as it is, was met with sales in excess of 8 million copies -- helped, of course, by five versions of the cover released individually, and the promise that "#1" somehow means a healthy investment (although how you can bank on the scarcity of an item that has sold 8 million units, you'll have to tell me -- even in 1991 I feel like that logic was specious.)

Taint much of a kick, but it helps

Much like the Beatles, who recorded most of their final release, 1970's Let It Be, before heading into the studio for 1969's Abbey Road, the end of Chris Claremont's X-Men is slightly offset. He left Uncanny in a huff as Editorial pressures closed in and straitjacketed him, feeling (probably not wrongly) that he wasn't being given due deference as the man who had stood at the center of the X-Men for 16 years and guided them from misfit also-rans to sales juggernaut, a combo of Best and Most Popular rarely seen in any medium since the Fab Four. And yet, the world was turning and leaving Claremont standing alone: Bob Harras favored Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio as artist-plotters on X-Men and Uncanny, offering Claremont the lesser role as scripter. The situation would prove difficult to negotiate, not just blow to the ego caused by the reduction of responsibilities down to "putting words in characters' mouths" but also because of timelines and production issues. It was one thing for Editor-Writer Stan Lee to put dialogue over consummate pro Jack Kirby's pencils. This was different.

X-Men #1 so begins the "lame duck" period. Chris Claremont is no longer the writer of the X-Men, although his name is on the books, for three issues of the new X-MEN series -- a severance of sorts, given Marvel had an incentive "don't call it a royalty" program in place and monolithic sales were guaranteed. The dialogue does have snappy, lively zing to it, and is a lot more economical than people give it credit for. With the character of Magneto and everything else that has happened, there is still a bridge backwards but we are absolutely looking forward, and soon Mr. Claremont as a creator will be in the rearview mirror, along with more than a decade of blood, sweat, tears and inspiration spent on the X-Men.

He said the thing!