UNCANNY X-MEN #365: Ghost of X-Mas Past!

A Ghost Story? At Christmas? Well now I've heard everything!

Originally Published February 1999

We begin in most Dickensian fashion...

Oof. Wasn't it just New Year's Eve? If so, that sucks for Beast, who had a resolution to cure the Legacy Virus this year. Oh well, there's always next year.

Flagrant disregard for Marvel Time aside, we see Colossus awakened from a long winter's nap at his drawing board by a mysterious voice pleading with him to "Remember me." To add to the delirium, he briefly finds himself in the music video for A-Ha's "Take On Me."

Colossus tries to explain the phenomenon to Storm, who is uncommonly skeptical for someone who has been to space, been to limbo, been to the Savage Land, been to the Astral Plane, been turned halfway into a Brood, been one with the Acanti Space Whale, been in the thrall of Dracula, been de-aged, died and been resurrected by the Omniversal Majestrix Roma, been to a simulacrum of Hell created by Margali Szardos, been to Voidworld, been to the Mojoverse, been to Asgard, been turned into a living statue, been to the past, and been de-aged again.

She suggests that perhaps Colossus has just been having too much caffeine.

It's that He Espresso

Colossus is unconvinced that the answer is that simple. After all, he had been compelled to draw a mysterious faceless woman, and now that sketch has vanished. What could possibly explain that?

He goes back to his drawing board but is interrupted by a strange noise outside. Going to investigate, he finds Wolverine, who has moved to a cabin in the woods after giving Piotr his room. Wolvie is hosting a gathering of Shady Swarthy dudes with Gambit and old pal Puck from Alpha Flight. Despite lacking body hair, Colossus is welcome to join.

Colossus tells the trio about his ghostly vision of a beautiful icy maiden. Gambit asks, "Wait, is she made of green mist?" and Colossus is like "Uh, I don't think so" and Gambit is like "Okay, different ghost chick, then."

No, really, they've got two different members being menaced by two different invisible women

Next, the voice leads him back to his room where he discovers his drawing has been returned -- but someone has pulled a Stan Lee and written a story on top of it!

No doubt expecting to be credited first 

Pete is confused, but is inspired to add a new page, possibly depicting more of the story -- I'm sure it's all building up to the 13-part Dark Cricket Saga.

Pete is distracted by another noise -- not seeing his artwork being mysteriously swiped again when he goes to investigate. This time it's Kitty, who is bizarrely standing in the middle of a re-arranged living room in the dark of night.

Of course there's a reason all the furniture has been moved around...

Yes, it's that bizarre thing in fiction where characters do not acquire or decorate a Christmas Tree until Christmas Eve!

Colossus is confused -- but Kitty, you're Jewish! -- and sure, she may not believe that Jesus Christ is her savior but she likes tinsel, so sue her.

We've met literal cosmic deities, what difference does it make?

Colossus explains his situation again, once more managing to sound like a raving lunatic who is accused of being over-caffeinated (time to get a new line, guys.)

Too Much Coffee Comrade

Next Piotr stops by the Professor's study, where he, too, is confronting ghosts -- specifically his Christmas Eve tradition of memorializing those who have fallen in service to his dream. This includes Thunderbird, Changeling (who was deathly ill before they ever worked together) and Rusty (who as best I can figure never met the man.) Surely this makeshift offrenda fluctuates from year to year, depending on who has died and come back in the interim.

"Hey, that reminds me, do we know what happened to Bishop? Is he dead? Should I be sad about it?" 

Notably missing is anyone who has died of the Legacy Virus, particularly any little girls who Charles may have taken under his wing at one point.

Pete takes a banana for the road, then returns to his drawing, where he finds the latest chapter of the Ice Princess.

The voice returns, and it suddenly dawns on Colossus that there's only one person who could possibly be calling out to him from beyond...

After going through one of Illyana's leftover stepping discs, her apparition explains that she needs Colossus to do something for her but she can only use one word as a clue and that's "Remember."

Back on solid ground, Colossus realizes he's got a picture of her in storage that he has neglected to put up. Wow, it really is like Coco here.

Satisfied, Illyana bids her brother farewell as she heads to the peace of the netherworld, but before she goes she clarifies that she was not the one scrawling all over his drawings. Who, then, was telling the Ice Princess' tale? We find out on Christmas morning...

It was Marrow! Sarah was keen to do a collab ever since she found out what a good artist Pete was. I didn't even know she could spell.

Further Thoughts:

And so ends the Seagle (and Kelly) run, on an interesting note. I get the feeling that this is the kind of story Steve Seagle wanted to do more of -- or at least do some of -- before departing Uncanny after the tumultuous year. Something small and character-focused, something a little spooky and a lot sweet.

I'd be remiss if I didn't note that it's not quite as good as the last time Piotr and Illyana communicated across the barrier of life and death in some kind of fairy tale mashup, but that doesn't take anything away from this effort.

It's different, and the good news is that different is often good. This is a charming issue, a nice change of pace, and probably one of the best efforts Seagle managed to put in, right at the finish line.

The bad news is that it still displays certain issues that I've been having with the series of late. There's a clunkiness that remains. By way of nitpicking, it is of course absurd that the X-Men aren't willing to credit any of Peter's ghost story, but you've got to have Pete going it alone for there to be a story. Likewise, it seems unlikely that Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin would forget he had a dead sister (his little Snowflake!) who would be the most likely ghost to contact him. So the entire premise of the story is borked from the jump, but at the very least I've got to give it credit for being a nice little piece of writing, if you can buy into it. 

I wish there had been more in the end than "Just put up a picture" but we spent a lot of the issue just watching Colossus go from room to room having the same conversation that there wasn't much time for anything else. However, I especially liked Marrow showing hidden depths. I've grown so weary of her one-note character of being a Hard Case Who Doesn't Play Well With Others that seeing her be interested in doing something was a huge plus.