X-MEN #46: They're Baaack...

Gambit and Bishop hit the town!

Originally Published November 1995

We begin at a back alley speakeasy in New York, the kind of underground gin joint that had often been frequented by Gambit in his shady, checkered, dark-secret-harboring past. 

At Ororo's suggestion, Bishop, who lately has been plagued by strange memories of a life he never lived (*The Age of Apocalypse -- Bob) [[Get outta here Bob, you don't work here! -- Scott]], is taking a little down time. And who better to show Bishop a good time than his prime suspect in the possible future murder of all the X-Men, and current main character of the book, Gambit?

 

Half a city away, Jean and Bobby hit the book store to look for some gifts for Jean's niece and nephew -- it's never outright stated but I suppose these would be the children of her sister Sarah, who was recently killed by the Phalanx. A copy of Goodnight Moon seems like the smallest gesture you could make.

Bobby is hoping for a little one-on-one time with his old bestie to discuss some of his recent issues. He's having a little trouble spitting it out but is hoping Jean, with her telepathy, has already keened into what's going on.

You hear that, folks? Jean would never, ever read someone's mind without their permission, especially not Bobby Drake's!

 

Unbeknownst to them, however, they are being watched by some strangely bickering figures.

Meanwhile, at a nondescript farmhouse in the heartland of America, Senator Kelly has donned his finest Halo powersuit to investigate a power outage -- possibly a targeted attack -- at a secret Sentinel facility. Luckily, the attacker was courteous enough to sign his work.

While nekkid chixx shake it all around them, Gambit and Bishop are strangely pensive, and the Cajun mutant wonders if maybe he's outgrown the strip club scene. It's clear both men have a lot on their minds, and the subject returns to Bishop's ongoing suspicion that Gambit is the one who ultimately betrays the X-Men.

He clarifies that while he still has his suspicions, he has seen a lot of crazy ish since returning to the past (beginning, one might suppose, with time travel) and has been encouraged to keep an open mind about things. He offers to Gambit the fact that he is still alive as proof that Bishop isn't 100% convinced of his hunch.

While all this is going on, a feller named Augie seems to be having a hell of a time at craps, only to discover that someone is hiding out under the table...

That's right, the universally-beloved and not-at-all cringey X-Babies are here to add some levity to the proceedings!

With the conflict escalating due to anti-mutant (or possibly anti-baby) hysteria -- despite being patted down at the entrance seemingly everyone in the joint has a weapon -- Bish and Gamb leap into the fray.

Back at the pep talk, Bobby comes out and asks Jean to check whether Emma Frost really is still in his head. Jean says she could, but is dismissive of the idea, thinking he's just projecting his own insecurities about the fact that Emma showed a ton of potential to Iceman's powers while he's out here still just making sno-cones for everyone. Jean tries to frame this as a virtue, because if you get too big too fast, you might become a Phoenix. It's kind of a weird talk, but in-universe there's some merit to it I suppose.

Now I kind of want the Dark Iceman Saga

Oh, and Baby Storm and Iceman come tumbling out of the stacks.

Back at the club, Gambit and Bishop have me short work of the normies and ask the X-Babies, normally denizens of the Mojoverse, what brings them to this dimension. Naturally, they're here for the X-Men's help... they're about to get the ax.

I've heard of cancel culture, but... you get the idea

Further Thoughts:

This seemingly nondescript, borderline missable issue of the X-Men's secondary flagship series is actually a monumental event in X-Men history, with one quality that sets it apart from every single other issue ever published in the X-Men's franchise, past, present and future.

This was my first X-Men comic. 

In fact, after an issue of Ren & Stimpy that I picked up at the corner store, it was my second ever comic of any kind. In fall 1995, at the age of 8 and after being a devotee of the Fox Kids iteration of the X-Men for years, it was finally determined that I could go into a comic store and pick up the adventures of the X-Men off the shelf. Conveniently, the very kid-friendly and frivolous X-Babies were gracing the cover that month.

Did I understand anything that was being said about "Rogue, the kiss, [Gambit's] injuries, her leaving?" let alone the Age of Apocalypse or Emma Frost being in Iceman's head? Of course not. Was this a weirdly cerebral and action-light issue of the X-Men, featuring very few of my recognizable faves, to begin with? Absolutely. But now we're 29 years later and I've given you half a million words about the X-Men, so something must have worked.

I could go on all day, but for the sake of sanity I'll have to take off the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia. Luckily, this is a very strong issue, whether you like the X-Babies or not. Gambit and Bishop make an effective mismatched-buddy cop team, their tense banter is loaded with underlying tension. And despite, or perhaps because of the fact that this is not a wild, action-centric issue, Andy Kubert kills it. being so contemplative and grounded (until the cartoon babies show up,) this is perhaps the issue that Paul Smith should have drawn instead of the crazy Avalon two-parter. It relies on slow-burning conversations and contrasting Gambit and Bishop's moods against the atmosphere, things that I would associate more with X-Men comics of Smitty's vintage and Kubert's. But Kubert knocks it out of the part, restraining his wild, splashy tendencies until they are called for, giving us great character moments between the two lead mutants of the story (as well as Iceman and Jean in the subplot) that are allowed to breathe.

Reading the book in context with full awareness of the previous several-many years of X-Men stories, I do now thing it's a strange diversion, with so many other things going on, to take a little side-trip into Mojoworld. There are any number of stories you could be telling, especially with Gambit who has risen in prominence in the X-Men over the last several months. But it's not against the law to shift gears every now and again.

As for the X-Babies themselves... listen. To me, they are best deployed as a satirical jab at over-commercialization of creative properties and not to be played straight. Our heroes seem to inhabit a somewhat realistic-looking world until they stumble onto some cartoon baby replicas of themselves, and it's weird to have their plight taken seriously and not used to illustrate an allegorical point. But like it or not, at this point the Mojoverse is part of the established cosmology of the X-Men as much as Limbo or Genosha or the Shi'ar Homeworld or Scotland, so we have to roll with it. Obviously it worked for 8-year-old Scotto so I can't hate.