UNCANNY X-MEN #290: Frayed

Will Storm and Forge get hitched? Frayed knot!

Originally Published July 1992

We begin at one of the nicer eateries on Long Island where Bobby Drake's parents are being attacked by Cyburai, looking to settle the score with Iceman and reclaim Opal Tanaka.

The Cyburai, as the name implies, are cybernetically-enhanced Japanese warrior dudes, and seem a lot like if your kid badly wanted a Ninja Turtle but all you had nearby was the Dollar Store and it was between that and a dinosaur with a jetpack, and honestly I think you chose wrong. 

Their presence will surely do nothing to alleviate Bobby's father's deeply-held racist beliefs that all Asian people are unruly cybernetic ninjas who are not to be trusted.

And the Cyburai don't do themselves any favors by explaining merely that their attack is about "Vengeance... and honor... and death!" They might as well have simply said it was for "The Glory of Nippon" for all the embarrassing cultural cliches on display.

Fighting by Bobby's side is Opal's cousin and Iceman's erstwhile enemy Hiro, who declines to offer any further insight.

Elsewhere, Piotr and Mikhail prepare a trip to Russia to reunite with the family, including the recently-de-aged Illyana (which explains that joke in a previous issue about her age "depend[ing] on on who you ask.) When Mikhail is left alone for a few moment he is prone to a traumatic flashback to the time he obliterated his own followers...

Which causes him to lash out and turn a hapless passerby into a tree like he was something out of a Greek myth.

Meanerwhile, on a single full-page splash, Storm soars on the winds, grinning happily because Forge has proposed marriage and she is finally feeling ready to cast off the distant Goddess role and settle down and maybe even retire from X-Manning.

But deep below, Forge is having misgivings about the fact that Storm is taking so long to answer. He wonders if there will every truly be room in her heart for him, given that the only time they were ever truly together was in an Edenic alternate reality where they were the only two people on Earth. Can their relationship survive......... reality? He asks Jean for some truth, and Jean gives a... discomfortingly ambiguous answer.

Forge takes that as a "no."

Back at the restaurant, the Mutant Hero and the Japanese Hiro continue to duke it out with the Cyburai, who can't stop, won't stop until the Drake family is destroyed in recompense for what Iceman did to the family of the Cyburai's master, Tatsuo. And I'm thinking... maybe we let them?

Iceman escorts Opal out of the line of fire as Hiro activates his self-destruct mechanism to defeat the Cyburai in one fell swoop.

But before that, let's leaf back a page or two to where Bishop is meditating moodily in the rain as he contemplates what may happen: Storm has been the X-Person who has been most welcoming to him, but if she goes off an marries Forge, he'll be more alone than ever. Methinks our timecop is developing a little bit of a crush.

Mystique arrives to poke the bear a little bit -- when Bishop points out that Raven has been acting a little erratically since the death of her very good friend and employee Destiny, she retorts by transforming into Bishop's deceased compatriot Randall.

Forge breaks up the confrontation before Bishop can activate his blasty fist powers, noting that Mystique is obviously not well and needs some serious help.

Soon after, Storm touches down ready to Say Yes to to the Maker, but Forge already has his bags packed. He's decided that this is not the place for him and that Mystique needs help and he aims to get her to it, as per Destiny's last prophecy.

When Storm questions this, Forge gives a truly ruthless White Fanging, taking her to task for her over-cranked dedication to her role as leader of the X-Men, and insinuating that she is emotionally an adolescent still buried under rubble and basically incapable of love and relationships.

Some of which may or may not be true, but is definitely all hurtful.

Forge turns his back on her and rescinds his proposal, leaving Storm to her tears, crying for what might have been.

Further Thoughts:

You know what's wild? The Iceman Story just kind of... ends. Presumably Bobby's parents are still out there being racist, having not fully absorbed the fact that they were saved by a Japanese man, but we only saw him save Opal, so for all we know they died in the blast. Some writers would take this opportunity to do some character growth or any kind of resolution, but not ole Scotty Lobs, who is happy to dust his hands and move on, having filled the page count for the month.

Credit where credit is due, I have always felt that the X-Men could use a little bit more romantic drama. Think about it: as soap-operatic as the series is, there's usually only one or two relationships of concern in these pages, which usually only provide color as the X-Men fight their way through the Hellfire Club or the Imperial Guard or the Hordes of Limbo or what have you. The romance, such as it is, rarely drives the characters. I know that there are some people who will disagree and argue there is sufficient romantic content, but it's really just at the level of "action hero love interest." Only a few moments in X-history have pitched themselves quite at this level, such as the iconic breakup between Piotr and Kitty, and I like to see it, even if I feel like maybe Lobdell and Portacio were a little clunky in reviving and then closing the longstanding Storm-Forge ship. 

You can see it all over the franchise right now with characters coupling up and flirting and having emotional affairs, where the series is becoming more interested in this sort of drama and I approve.

I'm also not totally into the "Mystique as wacky loon" turn as it seems a little too easy and broad, but it does not appear that story is going to play out in the pages of Uncanny X-Men anyway, so it is of minimal concern.

As to the Cyburai, it's absolutely impossible to care about that plotline, which is only partly due to the fact that it's a holdover from an X-Factor story that we didn't read. Increasingly in comics during the 90s, stories would pay off something that had been built elsewhere, which is a sound enough sales and storytelling strategy but sometimes you simply don't get the backstory. In 2023, it would be easy enough to dip back into Marvel Unlimited and read those issues of X-Factor but... why should I? Let's imagine in 1992 I simply missed those issues and had no way to get them. What we are left with is an exceedingly minor-seeming clash with undefined stakes that does not inspire further curiosity in me, the reader of X-Men. And that's all before we get into the tacky cultural insensitivity at work in the creation of the Cyburai.

It's like the Wolverine mini-series played out by fourth-graders

I will note that Iceman appears to be a favorite of Lobdell and Portacio, perhaps independently, the former because the scripter (and now plotter!) makes sure to use him as an outlet for all his best stand-up comic quips, and the latter because, frankly, he does draw the hell out of Iceman, I will give you that. But until the final moments, this issue is pretty much just spinning its wheels.