Issue(s): New Mutants #47
Cover Date: Jan 87
Title: "My heart for the Highlands"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Butch Guice - Penciler
Kyle Baker - Inker
Terry Kavanagh - Assistant Editor
Ann Nocenti - Editor

Review/plot:
Last issue the New Mutants were attacked by Warlock's father, Magus, in the Morlock tunnels. Magik tried to teleport the team home, but we see this issue that they only made it as far as Limbo before everyone passed out.

Sunspot is the first to awaken, and he watches while a group of demons take Illyana away. Away from the Earth's sun, he's powerless to stop them, but following the example of his hero Magnum PI, he follows anyway...

...and it turns out they are only reviving their master, not hurting her.

Then Magus somehow shows up in Limbo.

The New Mutants attempt to fight him...

...but are overpowered, so Magik teleports away.

It's worth noting that Magik has been described in the past as being the absolute master of her domain, but Magus is more powerful than her even in Limbo.

This time the Mutants wind up in Medieval Scotland with Robert the Bruce. They help him fight off some English knights. During the fight, Magik tries banishing some of the knights to Limbo and finds that she's delivering them to the techno-organic tentacles.

The New Mutants then head back to Robert the Bruce's castle. Rahne is smitten with Robert.

Warlock, meanwhile, has been a pile of disheveled circuitry, unable to fight his father or do much of anything. But when the Mutants realize they are endangering history and also risking that Magus follow them to this time period, he bucks up and volunteers to go back to Limbo to see if his father is still there. Illyana cynically says it would be best for everyone if he was and Magus killed Warlock and got it over with. But it turns out that he isn't there.

So they head back to try to get home again, with Rahne leaving Robert her X-belt.

While talking about the odds of them beating Magus, Dani Moonstar notes that her people were Cheyenne, used to fighting hopeless battles. And Cannonball gets in on it, stating that his people were the same way because they fought in the Confederacy. Not sure you want to be bragging about that, Sam.

(I originally had something here about Sam being from West Virginia, which isn't accurate; Sam is from Kentucky. I mention this because some of the Comments still refer to my original moot point.)

Back on Earth, Moira despairs over the missing children, but Magneto notes that Dani's horse Brightwind is still sticking around, and since the two share a psychic bond, it must mean that the Mutants are still alive.

I'm never a big fan of time-travel stories, and the inclusion of Robert the Bruce seems odd (i guess the idea is to show someone else willing to fight against hopeless odds), but there's some cool stuff here. Magik's Limbo and Warlock/Magus are concepts that could use more development, and Claremont is combining these seemingly disparate things in interesting ways, and of course Magus' presence there triggers events that have implications for the Inferno event a few years from now.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Beginning with the end of last issue, the New Mutants are on a dimensional-hopping trip through issue #51 and shouldn't appear elsewhere.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Actually, West Virginia, like Missouri and Kentucky, was bitterly divided during the Civil War. All three states had thousands of volunteers for the Union and thousands of volunteers for the Confederacy and were the site of fierce guerilla warfare. This article does a good job of summing up the situation in West Virginia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_in_the_American_Civil_War

Thanks, Michael. Shows what i know.

First, fnord, while the situation is more nuanced than you indicated, you were in fact correct of how West Virginia became a state, so that does show what you know.

Second, I have thought of this issue every time I have been forced to endure Braveheart, and screaming "Stop shortchanging Robert the Bruce!"

So how did Magus get into Limbo in the first place?

I always assumed that tentacles of Magus's were cut off by Magik's portals at the end of 46, but checking back, I guess the art doesn't support that.

How many Morlocks died because Sam, Doug, Shan, Illyana, Amara, Dani, Bobby, Warlock and Rhane ran off without telling anybody? Magneto, Moira, Tom, Sharon, Ororo, Logan, Betsy, Rogue, Peter before he collapsed and (maybe) Longshot were the only ones at the X-Mansion working to save the wounded before they died. Sure, you can add Callisto, the Healer (after he recovered) and other miscellaneous Morlocks, but as far as healthy bodies who can contribute to problem-solving, the X-babies just cut the mansion's strength in half and didn't even tell anybody they were leaving. How childish.

Instead Moira's dead on her feet and Magneto's walking around floating silverware and talking about how the world hates him. He's not calling the Avengers or Fantastic Four for help, he's not warning his children about the mutie-killers running loose. They just somehow get by with over half of their numbers completely missing.

And it's never brought up again. Magneto might have said something in "New Mutants" #75, Rhane cries to Storm about Doug's death in "X-Men" #271. Storm should have flattened Sam, Rhane, Warlock and Bobby with hurricane-level winds and screamed at them about running away. I think Cable would agree with Storm, 'don't you ever pull that stunt on me.'

At this point, I think the biggest weakness in Claremont's mutant titles is that no one ever passed along relevant information - maybe as a retcon - and the plots and characters had to be twisted to accommodate that.