The X-Men get serious about hunting for Xavier!
Uncanny X-Men #362, X-Men #82, Uncanny X-Men #363 -- Originally Published December 1998-January 1999
We begin in the heartland of America, which is on fire!! Ahhhghhghgh!!
Turns out it's Pyro, and he's acting all ca-razy and out of control again thanks to the Legacy Virus, which has him rambling about wanting to see Xavier. Luckily, the real heroes in SHIELD are on the scene to deal with the second mutant terrorist event in as many weeks, but Nick Fury has graciously called in the X-Men for backup, which was very polite of him given that it is their book.
Considering the X-Men have someone who can literally create a seemingly unlimited supply of rainwater at a moment's notice, members who can't be touched or contained, and members who are in full or part indestructible metal this shouldn't take long, but for whatever reason they send in the guy who throws playing cards, who was on their shitlist until last week, and who is currently distracted by a secret invisible gas lady.
The other X-Men set about rescuing innocents who are trapped by the fire, which for the record is good, an exciting way to eat up pages even if it's clear to any reader that they are not taking the most direct approach to quelling the flames.
All the while, Marrow is inquiring with everyone about what makes this Xavier guy so great (since even Pyro won't shut up about him) and is given various answers ranging from Colossus saying he's wise, to Storm saying he was a great mentor, to Gambit saying he's honestly just some guy I sometimes worked for.
Speaking of Xavier, we seem to get our first glimpse of the man himself in many months, initially in what appears to be a dream where he is told by his old pal Magneto that there are "two of him" -- Magneto's a fine one to talk.
Xavier is seemingly being shuttled around by some captors. Bear in mind, we were assured by Jean Grey after a very thorough search that Xavier was "nowhere on Earth" -- or don't bear it in mind since everything in the last year of comics seems to have been stuffed down into a memory hole, to be forgotten and ignored now that we've seemingly finally, finally figured out what direction this ftanchise is taking after Operation: Zero Tolerance. In a way, 1998 is something of a "lost year" for our mutant heroes that might as well have never happened at all -- which makes it beguiling that the cover boasts of a win at that year's Wizard Fan Awards.
Speaking of fan-favourites, Cecilia Reyes is here to remind us that she is being inconvenienced by having to be part of this story, with some of the X-Men's mail being forwarded to her medical practice in town.
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| One way to avert Porch Pirates |
By and by, Pyro is defeated, but not before the mysterious appearance of what we know to be either the evil Cerebro, or an offshoot of some kind.
Pyro reveals that Xavier actually sent him, which has everyone going "Uh, wut?" But before he can answer, he passes out and gets taken into custody by the valiant forces of SHIELD.
Back at the Mansion, Kitty explain that the big delivery was Moira MacTaggert's spare Cerebro, which she won't be needing since Excalibur has ended. Despite not a one of this crew having telepathic powers, they can use this to succeed where Jean failed and track down Xavier. They are surprised to find two Xaviers, necessitating the team split into two squads -- one bound for San Francisco and one for the former Soviet Republic of Tajikistan. Dibs on San Fran!
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| Tajikistan has been its own country since 1992, but OK sure, it's "Russia." |
We pick up with the Tajikistan-bound crew, (or as the narration calls it, "Tajikinistan") who quite literally fall into where they are supposed to be due to some uncharacteristic horseplay by Gambit.
They find an underground mountain snow temple, which at the very least is a cool setting. Unfortunately, all the monks within have been slaughtered, which is not cool.
Speaking of low temperatures, Gambit is still acting a little cool to Rogue, keeping her at arm's length due to the mysterious cloud-woman only he can see.
They find a mysterious mirror portal, and it's like "Wellp, I guess we gotta go in here," and, well...
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| What in the Bill Sienkiewicz? |
That's right, things get trippy and disorienting and it's very radical and different. Up is sideways, cats are dogs, words are orange rain, you know, all that.
It's all crazy and kooky but the X-Men soon discern that in a world where logic no longer holds, emotion is the key, so giving into that helps them re-establish themselves.
So they take a moment to think about the things they love and care about, and before you know it they're back on solid ground.
Once through to the other side, they find not Charles, but a little mutant girl named Nina and her parent or guardian Renee. The girl has sort of a psychic bond with Xavier, whose essence may or may not be her imaginary friend and confidante, it's hard to get a straight answer out of a mysterious 6-year-old after all.
Anyway, the portal was supposed to protect them from what else but Bad Cerebro.
But later for that as we re-begin San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square, where some locals are debating various forms of chocolate, while presumably enjoying some Ghirardelli squares. They're interrupted when a Bad Robot Cerebro Guy splashes down.
Not far away at Alcatraz -- former home of the X-Men, not that anyone mentions it -- we finally see the really for real actual true Xavier, being cared for by Toad, who for whatever reason is acting all weird and rhymey.
The X-Men, meanwhile -- Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Marrow and Shadowcat -- have arrived in 'Frisco as well, by way of their stolen U.S. military jet, which has now also been outfitted with invisibility mode because sure why not.
Not far away, one of those CereBros shows up and starts blastin'.
Specifically at a young latent mutant named Maria, who is tragically de-alived.
At the Berkeley Campus, the X-Men regroup and steal some disguises because otherwise everyone will notice their gaudy primary-colored workout clothes. Why they didn't just... fuckin'... I dunno... bring their own clothes... on the jet they came on... who can say.
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| Some questions were simply not meant to be answered |
Nightcrawler uses some of the money he finds in his pocket to buy Kitty a Star of David necklace she had been interested in, which is such a random event that I just have to believe it will become relevant, somehow, later.
Less random is a cutaway to one of the Cerebrites sneaking into "Area 52" (an in-universe nickname), a Utah facility where some of Bastion's nanotech is being stored.
Next on the X-Men's tour of San Francisco is Chinatown, where they drop in on Wolverine's old friend Black Crane, a supposedly Chinese mystic who bears a striking resemblance to Jerry Seinfeld's bookie, Mike. He tells the team that the Peof is at Alcatraz.
So they go, and it's closed, so they have to break into this little sweet shop on the edge of town only to find it's guarded by a bloody great big Bengal tiger and there they find an iteration of the Brotherhood of "Evil" Mutants comprised of Toad, Blob, Mimic and Post.
Kitty's surprised to see Mimic because he was literally just palling around with her in Excalibur.
And everyone's surprised to see Post, because why wouldn't you be surprised to see Post? Who invited Post?
They fight a while, and Kitty is surprised that the baddies seem to have an upper hand. She deduces that they could only have been trained by one man -- the man who trained them!
Charles claims that this is really more of a Brotherhood of Friendly Mutants, that this quartet busted him out of the Hulkbuster Base and that we're all on the same side against a common foe. That being...
To be continued!
Further Thoughts:
Contrary to what this blog often suggests, including perhaps this very post, I always want to enjoy comics. There is a pretty solid formula that, when all else fails, you can rely on: good guys, bad guys, powers, battles, suspense, twists, rinse and repeat.
The first half of the Hunt for Xavier is about as enjoyable as the X-Men have been in the years since Onslaught. Considering we just did a Bad Xavier story (of which this is more or less a continuation) I wouldn't have bothered with the fakeout that Charles has broken bad with the Brotherhood, but at long last it feels like the book is on a solid foundation with a deliberate and committed direction. The resolution to the mystery of Charles' location proved to be weirdly simple, but the twist that there seems to be two Charleses, leading the team to split up into separate adventures, makes for strong storytelling grist. It's what the series should have been doing for a lot of this time, focusing on separate squads of X-Men on loosely-interconnected adventures, instead of essentially being one scattershot narrative that changes lanes arbitrarily. I'm especially pleased when we get an opportunity for the creators to flex as in the reality-bending sequence.
The only problem I would register is that while I'm glad we have a bad guy to focus on in the rogue Cerebro entity, I don't think there's a strong handle on just what Cerebro is trying to do and how. Attacking Nina because of the connection to Xavier? Ok. Killing Maria, randomly? I don't get it, or how it folds into this "cataloging" deal.
Still, even an imperfectly-executed idea is better than no idea at all. Whether it came from the writers or the notoriously domineering editors around this time, this story is so far quite a refreshing turn, and much-appreciated.
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