UNCANNY X-MEN #339: Fight and Flight!

Cyclops and Havok duke it out!

Originally Published December 1996

We begin with the friendly neighborhood webslinger, way out of the neighborhood.

Spider-Man has made the trip all the way out to Westchester -- at 3 in the f$%^ing morning no less -- to see the X-Men, whom he recognizes as Beast, Cyclops, "sort-of" Wolverine and "Marvel Girl." (It would be impossible to read a Marvel Comic in 1996 and not be aware that the role of Spider-Man was being played by "Ben Reilly," a clone who really, really seemed like he was the original Peter Parker, and whose frame of reference for Marvel heroes only goes as far as the 1970's.)

The reason for this gratuitous appearance (on the X-Men's porch) is that Spidey wanted to let the X-Men know that J. Jonah Jameson has been sniffing around in Graydon Creed's past lately, and since he's the anti-mutant guy, that might, uh, be relevant to their interests. That's it, cameo over, bye.

Later in the morning, Mystique watches footage of Graydon Creed and identifies him as her son. She also identifies him as a future murder victim of hers -- offspring or not, attempting to assassinate anti-mutant presidential candidates is kind of her hobby.

It's too bad Destiny isn't here to absolutely not talk her out of it

She hides this from Forge, who is using his fantastical techno-powers to... fix a toaster with a fork.

What is it with these super-geniuses and toasters?

Mysty is also surprised to see Bobby Drake undercover in some of the Creed footage. She's suitably impressed by this shady maneuver.

At that very moment, Beast happens to be on a Concorde from New York to London. He thinks about how great it is that he has a high public profile as a former Avenger, so that he can have an excuse to be on this flight where he is tailing J. Jonah Jameson. Jameson, sitting in the row in front of him, turns around and says "So, you're tailing me, huh?"

Also on the flight, slightly more undercover, is Cyclops. Following behind in the cloaked Blackbird are Storm and Joseph, who make a little light chit-chat about X-Men lore.

This is the sort of thing people spend years sussing out

Over in foggy London town, Daily Bugle reporter Nick Bandouveris is waiting for his contact so he can reveal what he has learned: that not only is Graydon Creed's mother the dangerous mutant terrorist known as Mystique, his father is Victor Creed, the dangerous-er mutant killer also known as Sabretooth! (In case the name didn't give it away.) Why he had to go to England to learn about an American presidential candidate and his possibly German and maybe Canadian parents, I do not know.

Somewhere over the Atlantic -- presumably several hours into the flight -- Joseph has just about gotten the hang of the Summers Family Tree... at least the entry level version.

She's also kind of his adoptive grandma through time travel.

At that moment, the Concorde is commandeered by a beefy dude in gold stripper chaps.

People used to dress up for a flight

He's just there to spread the word ahead of the arrival of the head honcho of the Brotherhood of Mutants -- Alex Summers!

In case you can't hear on account of the wind whipping by at hundreds of miles per hour in an open airplane cabin, Havok is tired of playing nice and ready to get real, quitting X-Factor and joining/re-forming the Brotherhood. Their objective: to keep Jonah Jameson from interfering in mutant affairs. They'll take Creed down themselves.

Cyclops jumps into action against his little bro.

Now as we all know, Cyclops and Havok's powers can't hurt each other, but Scott can push his wayward brother out of a plane -- hell, he's done it before -- so that's what he does.

While Joseph works to keep the plane intact, the two have a completely impossible conversation as they plummet toward the ocean at terminal velocity. Alex makes it clear that he is not being mind-controlled for once -- specifically naming a few of the people who have puppeted him over the years -- this decision is all Alex.

Yeah -- free falling

If this is the kind of behavior Alex is signing his name to, maybe he should have his mind controlled.

Before the brothers can land on some pointy rocks, Alex teleports away, and Storm rescues Scott in the nick of time.

Joseph manages to land the plane at Heathrow. JJJ is in shock that he's just accepted a rescue from a famous evil mutant. Beast vouches for him, and Jonah points out that it's all well and good that he might be reformed, but it's still kind of a PR nightmare to have a well-known terrorist on your side.

Meanwhile -- apparently at that same moment except now it's a foggy night in London somehow -- Bandouveris is ready for his meeting with Jonah. Except he realizes -- shockingly late -- that the facial hair he's dealing with is not the famous toothbrush 'stache, but... a goatee!

Slightly less evil facial hair, slightly more evil guy

Bastion dis-alivens Bandouveris (sorry, I'm new to algorithm-speak) and does a little monologuing over his remains. Bastion out!

Further Thoughts:

The X-Men comics of late 1996 into '97 are almost pathologically determined not to have anything happen in them to move the story forward, but if you look a little closer we are inching along: the Creed investigation, the revelation of Alex as the new leader of the Brotherhood, it's not a lot to sink your teeth into, but it's something. Joseph getting his hero moment and being wowed by the scope of his own powers is particularly pertinent as we examine just who Joseph is in his true nature: his capacity for violence and good. 

Alex is undergoing the Scotty Lobs Special: He's been pushed to his emotional limit and now he's just acting out in crazy ways. But, we must stress, this is not the influence of any outside party, he's just had it and this is what he's doing about it. With everything he's been through and done, Alex is an interesting character but unfortunately he's whatever the story needs him to be, and in this case it's a wayward heavy. 

I liked it fine. Grading on the curve of post-Onslaught X-Men comics that seem to be all tease and no payoff, it had a strong action orientation with the airborne fistfight and the rescue mission, suitably well rendered by Kubert and Nocon. After all, what could be more X-Men than falling from a destroyed aircraft?