Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men #219
Cover Date: Jul 87
Title: "Where duty lies"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Bret Blevins - Penciler
Dan Green - Inker
Ann Nocenti - Editor

Review/plot:
I have a reprint of this issue, so i don't have the original cover, which continues the "hope you survive" theme previously seen on issues #139 and #171.

Another weird issue, although at least we are back on the subject of the Marauders. The issue is largely told from Havok's point of view.

We learn that he has recently visited the X-Men but learned "the X-Men were fine". But he's since been having dreams of the X-Men attacking him, and he realizes that his memory is wrong. So he goes back to try to find them again. He's unable to; the Mansion is empty. He does find Magneto at the Hellfire Club, but he's still distrustful of him (especially since he's at the Hellfire Club!) and they don't get off on the right foot. He considers trying the Avengers but their Mansion has been destroyed. And he calls Muir Island and gets Callisto, who hangs up when he asks if he could at least get the location of his brother (as a bus with an X-Factor ad passes by).

He then follows Magneto into the subway and to the Morlock tunnels where he overhears Storm saying that the X-Men must die.

And he learns that the X-Men previously mind-wiped him "for your own protection". They then seemingly seriously consider killing him to keep him quiet.

But instead they tell him about the Marauders and Malice and allow him to join them (a decision that Storm defers to Magneto).

It's very difficult to understand what the mind-wipe was meant to accomplish. Surely the Marauders would continue to attack the friends and family of the X-Men regardless of whether they knew about the X-Men (indeed, see below). (I also have to think that it was the mind-wipe that prevented Havok from telling the X-Men about the Brood invasion that he discovered last issue.)

Sending Havok home with knowledge of the Marauders might have helped prevent the fact that while Havok is back in New York, the Marauders are attacking Polaris.

She manages to hold her own against them...

...but then it turns out that she's already been possessed by Malice, and their fight was just a test or training exercise.

Brett Blevin's art does a good job depicting the dark and paranoid idea of X-Men so confused and on the run that they are making really bad decisions. It would have been amazingly cool if Claremont had really been able to embrace this, with the X-Men becoming paranoid revolutionaries so shaken by the Mutant Massacre and the Marauders and the rise of X-Factor that they didn't know who to trust and acted in ways that seemed irrational, attacking or rejecting friends, running afoul of the Avengers, and really becoming outlaw heroes with even "heroes" being potentially questionable. And Claremont is sort-of going in that direction, but not strongly enough where it's clear. I think we're really supposed to accept the idea that the X-Men mind-wiped Havok for his own good and that they (even Havok, in the end) still think it was the right thing to do. And that's weird.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - Havok rejoins the X-Men, Polaris possessed by Malice

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• After failing to make inroads with Magneto, Alex considers going to the Avengers for help, but finds that their mansion was destroyed in the Masters of Evil attack that ran from Avengers #273 through Avengers #277.
  
• In the Morlock tunnels, Havok notices burn marks from Thor's flame in Thor #374.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Sabretooth Classic #13

The X-Men's behavior was horrible in this issue. The nightmares caused by the mind-wiping caused Alex to lose control of his powers and almost kill Lorna. If he'd fallen asleep on a plane or a bus, dozens of innocent people could have died. The problem with the Dark Age of Comics was that heroes were allowed to do awful things without consequences.
Several readers felt a sexist double-standard was at play here. If some male heroes wiped the mind of a female hero, causing her to almost kill her boyfriend, and then threatened to kill her, they'd have become permanent villains. But since Storm and Betsy are women, and Alex is male, they get a free pass.

I liked the issue. Claremont will use Havok to very good effect. Good decision to bring him back on the team.

However, this issues permanently poisoned my on Psylocke, a character I really didn't like to begin with. Butt hat dislike was simply out of a feeling she wasn't interesting, somewhat useless baggage, and yet another Claremontian heroine with undeserved prestige. Her cavalier suggestion of killing Havok just seemed so out of the blue, I can't imagine any sane person coming to that decision. So now she's a character I just want to die.

If I were Havok, I would have disintegrated her on the spot.

I'm guessing they treated Havok the way they did because they're uncertain of his alliance to his brother Cyclops, who they believe is in the "evil" X-Factor organization. Psylocke's mind scan should have determined that he wasn't.

The reason given that they haven't actually tried to contact Cyclops & Co. in the X-Men & New Mutants books is because they assume he's now a member of an evil mutant hunting organization. Did they not see the news about the "X-terminators" (which even Power Pack saw the news broadcast of) which showed him fighting for mutant rights against "X-Factor" and wondered what the heck that was all about? The other side of this divide is X-Factor believes Magneto has taken over the X-Men and they've allied themselves with the evil Hellfire Club. Which, if you didn't know what was really going on, looks just as bad.

Also interesting to note, did the X-Men not hear of Angel's widely broadcast death and funeral? Is that ever mentioned in any of these issues? And if not, why? They saw Sarah's house firebombed in the news and went to investigate... You'd think they'd try and find out what the heck is actually going on with Cyclops & the others by that point.

I'm guessing this issue has to take place after Mephisto vs.... #3 (and 4?) because Havok isn't part of the team there?

There's weird characterization forced on the X-Men at times that make no sense.
I'm not sure how often this occurs with other superheroes. It seems to stand out most with X-Men.
When I say that, I mean that writers seem to have an interesting idea in mind, but the follow through ends up so bad that it doesn't resemble rational behaviour at all.
I'm thinking also about the sudden change in Scott Summers that took place post-Morrison. It was so obvious that Scott was being mind-controlled...except he wasn't. His entire persona changed dramatically, really overnight. He acted like a villain, but he was treated as still a hero.
Well, I guess you could say the same with Scott's characterization around this point with X-Factor.
I mean, paranoid is one thing...but to think about killing Alex?
This characterization certainly doesn't fit with Betsy's previous characterization. Well, I guess we'll see this side again during the Uncanny X-Force period.
The point, I'm sure, is that the X-Men are becoming revolutionaries rather than superheroes, but the characterization is pretty random. They get to this point fairly quickly, where it looks totally unstable, rather than believable.

Not pertinent to this entry, but thinking about it, Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne have also had this type if questionable writing.
I'm still not sure how Iron Man is taken seriously as a hero again after Civil War, but that debacle was just quietly swept under the rug.

While I quite enjoyed the original X-Factor from start to finish, and especially after Simonson took over as writer (funny how I like her X-Factor yet largely dislike the changes she brought to New Mutants, but I digress), it's hard to escape the feeling that Claremont resented having that title foist upon his plans. I dare say he wouldn't have gone down the road of making Maddie a full-blown villain were there not the little matter of having to somehow rescue Cyclops' reputation after he left his wife and baby son to run around with the real Jean Grey (not the Phoenix) and his old buddies, and the contrivances necessary on both Claremont and Simonson's parts to make sure the X-Men never contact X-Factor, or vice versa, to find out the truth did sometimes stretch the imagination somewhat.
That said, the long game Claremont is going for here certainly was fascinating. Only a short time ago in Marvel time (weeks?), we had the X-Men based at the Xavier mansion, with Professor X still around, and still acting like typical heroes. Oh, sure, there were a few niggling little details, a few questionable allies such that there could be some suspicion shown by other heroes: this dates back at least to the first Secret Wars, with the X-Men forming a seperate faction and allying themselves with Magneto. Arguably, too, this could have started slightly earlier, when Rogue reformed and joined the team: I can imagine the Avengers being a little wary of her.
Since then, however, the alliegance with Magneto has been revived, due to the whole Secret Wars II deal, but was cemented following his trial and subsequent debt of honour to the departed Charles Xavier to teach the New Mutants and give Xavier's way a chance as an X-Man. Interestingly, in the first few comics after Magneto joins the team, the team is still very much a 'traditional' X-Men team, and Magneto must adapt: that fight against the time-displaced Sentinels in San Francisco in UXM #201 is a classic example. The events of the Mutant Massacre change all this, and make the X-Men suddenly more edgy and shaken. Ironically, while the presence of Magneto would logically be seen as the root cause by any outsiders looking in (X-Factor, Havok prior to his joining the team in this issue, the Avengers (as we'll get to in the X-Men versus Avengers mini later in 1987)), it was more a series of external factors that really caused the paradigm shift.
I'd also argue that, being charitable, any bad suggestions made around this time, such as Wolverine's suggestion, seriously considered by Psylocke, to kill Havok are due to frayed nerves, fear and raw adrenaline. Too many of the X-Men were presumably burning the candle at both ends here, mulling over the massacre, concerned at whether or not their wounded comrades on Muir Island would ever recover, wondering whether the original X-Men would really betray their kind by hunting them down. And, in fairness, Storm refuses to countenance the idea of killing Havok, so the team haven't lost their basic moral centre even in the midst of ongoing chaos. While the team will become more mysterious from here on in, with shades of grey, they will ease a little away from this outright state of paranoia.

Claremont never properly addressed the issue of X-Factor. Even assuming they knew of the connection between the original team and X-Factor (probably because of Magneto spotting them outside the Hellfire Club), it makes zero sense that their first reaction would be that ALL the members of the original team were now evil mutant hunters. There is certainly more than enough evidence pointing out this is some kind of scam. At worst, it might mean mind control. The idea that they had now "betrayed" their own kind should be way down on the list. Claremont has everyone acting stupid.

If nothing else, it would be so easy to have someone they trusted who was not a mutant, like Dr MacTaggert, call X-Factor and ask to speak to Scott or Warren or Hank, and she'd likely find the truth very quickly.

By the time this issue takes place, half of the surviving Morlocks were rescued by X-Factor. Wolverine knows the team was down there fighting someone, and it was most likely the Marauders. It would be very easy for the two teams to meet at this point and clear up any misunderstandings. [Incidentally, this would have been very good to establish the philosophical differences between the original and new X-Men].

But hey, plot needs characters to be dumb, so they're dumb.

Certainly the resurrection of Jean Grey threw Claremont's plans for a loop, but he brought it on himself to an extent. Making Cyclop's next love interest an identical copy of Jean was dumb. Thinking he could take one of the most iconic X-Men (Cyclops) and retire him to "characters we never hear about again" land with a baby to care for was dumb. He set up a bizarre situation and then left the toys alone for someone else to pick up and play with.

I think it was also a bit of hubris on his part to think he could get away with doing that and not have any ramifications arise from it .

I agree that events end up getting really interesting in X-Men coming out of this, but the writing and plotting to get there is flawed.
This change comes out of nowhere and Claremont just rushes to it rather than set it up properly.

1. Claremont and his disdain for X-Factor led to Marvel editorial basically declaring X-Factor/X-Men never meeting and the move to have the two teams never meeting in the Mutant Massacre and the screwy nature of "Fall of The Mutants" being a fake X-Over. It wasn't until Bob Harras came along as editor of the X-Books that Claremont and Simonson were forced to have the team meet at long last in the Inferno storyline. Also, UXM #221 also established that Havok hadn't heard from Scott in ages, so he's in the same boat as the X-Men as not knowing anything about the original X-Men reuniting/Jean's return.

2. Mindwiping Havok was probably done because the X-Men knew Havok never wanted to be a hero and didn't want him around/keep him oblivious of what was going on. Also, only Betsy really is serious about the X-Men killing Alex and it's a major turning point for Betsy's entire character: up until that point, Betsy's never shown herself being cold blooded. Even during the Sabretooth fight, she was more or less behaving like a normal person, not a bloodthirsty psycho.

3. This story was originally supposed to have been the first appearance of the Marauders, under Claremont's original proposal for Fall of the Mutants/Mutant Massacre. But when Alan Moore decided to be a **** towards Marvel/Alan Davis out of petty spite and Claremont was banned from using the Fury or Jasper James (who Moore didn't create but arrogantly felt he owned), he moved up the Marauders first appearance to the Mutant Massacre.

4. I wonder if Claremont had plans to restore Magneto as Polaris's dad given how he constantly implied that Sinister had Polaris possessed by Malice for reasons beyond the nightmare fuel of showing how killing you was not the worse thing Sinister could do to the X-Men and their loved ones.

Wait, so the Marauders aren't neccesarily bound to Mutant Massacre? Refresh my memory then who was supposed to kill them? Nimrod?

Claremont planned on a Fury vs Nimrod fight: Fury rebuilds itself but is weak as hell, and decides to try and kill Nimrod to get the necessary parts to restore itself to 100%. But Nimrod curbstomps the Fury and absorbs the Fury instead, gaining all of the Fury's power plus a brain upgrade.

Nimrod eventually makes his way to the sewers and starts slaughtering Morlocks and in the original version of the Mutant Massacre, only Shadowcat gets hurt, as she tries to screw with Nimrod's circuits via phasing only for Nimrod to bombard her with internal defenses that trap her in a permanent harmless phased state.

Nimrod and Jasper were supposed to form an alliance (Nimmrod learns about Jasper from the Fury's memories and cuts a deal with him, unlocking his power in exchange for him bringing about the DOFP timeline) and the Marauders/Sinister were supposed to be introduced as a rogue third party, adding to the nightmare fuel at the time with the Marauders enslaving mutants like Polaris and turning them into murderers via the Malice collar (the idea was that the longer Malice possesses you, the more evil you become until you are rendered irreversibly evil when Malice leaves you for her next host and that most of the Marauders would turn out to be normal mutants who Sinister kidnapped via Malice and corrupted into killers, trained by Sabretooth, the only Marauder who served Sinister of his own free will).

The Marauders and Nimrod/Jasper would have created a situation where mutants were desperately seeking sanctuary and lead to a Hellfire Club/X-Men union that was the whole reason for why Magneto joined the Hellfire Club to begin with, since he would have convinced the Club to permanently align with the X-Men for their own survival.

Also, the mutant massacre was supposed to be an X-Men only storyline when it was first pitched. When Alan Moore screwed things up and the storyline was rewritten and scheduled to take place during Marvel's big 25th Anniversary month, Louis Simonson convinced Claremont to make it a proper X-Over so she could use it to boost X-Factor's sales and more to the point, use the Massacre as a plot device to kickstart a good number of storylines she had planned (including turning Angel to Archangel, Apocalypse recruiting Plague to become Pestilence as his first Horseman, and turning Cameron Hodge evil).

JesseBaker, thanks for that information. I never knew that. Based on that, it seems it would have been very easy to do the story Claremont wanted except not include Fury and Jasper. Nimrod killing the Morlocks would have been a better story IMHO. No need to merge him with Fury or involve Jasper as another character would have worked fine.

The weird thing is that it seems almost willfully self-destructive on the X-Men's part. To protect Alex and Lorna from the Marauders, they keep all information from them, and even mind-wipe Alex so that there's no chance he'll tell Lorna anything. The Marauders won't be dissuaded by Alex and Lorna's ignorance, Psylocke warns that Xavier gave them all great psionic defenses, and I like the point made above about 'what if Alex fell asleep on a bus or a plane?'

So instead of letting Alex make an informed decision ("I owe a lot to Xavier's school and the team. Let me call Lorna and tell her to fly out. I think it's time we stopped sitting on the sidelines. If you'll have us.") or letting him leave with the awareness of the increased casualties to come, they tamper with his mind, do a bad job of it, leading him to return to find out what happened. Because they kept him ignorant and tampered with his mind, there's no chance he's going to bring Lorna with him, even though the X-Men know the Marauders might attack without warning.

Or the Brood. Or Eric the Red. Or anybody. I don't see how they could have done a worse job of handling this.

I really like Claremont a lot, but this issue has some very bad writing. And by bad writing, I mean specifically, writing that has people act completely out of character simply to further the plot. The plot goal was to get Alex back on the team, and I like Alex, so I like that, but not at the expense of logic or thought. Surprisingly, most of my problems with this issue haven't really been addressed in the comments, so here goes.

1 - Even the mindwipe can't explain why he doesn't warn them about the Brood. He knows why he went there. Yet, we have to wait a year before we deal with the Brood.

2 - We still have to wait all the way until Inferno to deal with the X-Factor mess. Can Alex really not know his grandparents sold their company and that Maddie has disappeared along with the baby and that Warren is dead? It's just too ridiculous to ask us to believe.

3 - Alex will go to the team and then to Scotland and Latveria before going back to New York and apparently never try to get in touch with Lorna again because he'll next see her in SF.

4 - We're asked to believe that the team might really kill Alex. Let's be serious. Alex has enough power to actually kill the whole team, easily. Faced with death, would he really not do that? As Michael points out, Alex is immensely powerful (more on that below) and that mindwipe could have killed lots of people.

5 - We're supposed to assume that Rogue, Ali, Betsy and Longshot come back to New York after the events of the previous issue. Then, after Alex joins, they all go to Muir Island again. And that fisherman is sitting out there the whole time, because Alex has to be on the team, on Muir Island, for the start of X-Men vs FF, which was set up with the fisherman two issues back (by this time the actual X-Men vs FF series was long over so they had to get everything set up for it to actually begin, continuity-wise).

6 - Alex is just going to give up because Callisto gave him grief when he called? For that matter, "Professor X was associated with a lady scientist in Scotland." Did Claremont forget that Alex used to live on that island, with that scientist? Pretty casual way of referring to Moira. He doesn't call back again to try and get Moira or Jamie Madrox?

7 - In fact, where are Jamie and Siryn during all of this? Just evidence that the Fallen Angels series getting pushed back so far really messed with logical continuity.

As I said, I really like Alex - he's one of my favorite characters and if Scott wasn't on the team, I was glad to have Alex on the team. And I loved him on the team. But this was just a terrible way of getting him on team.

It doesn't help that I don't like the art at all either (although I like it far better than what Blevens would do in New Mutants). That said, he did do one amazing panel which fnord doesn't include, that really shows you how powerful Alex is, when he unleashes his power at night in the desert and fuses the ground to solid glass. That was awesome.

Ironically enough, after her stints in X-Force, Betsy's actions might not be so "out-of-character" after all (although she still acts like a cold-blooded idiot here. And the narration does state that Storm takes the consideration seriously, so SHE'S not off the hook, either.)

Does anyone see these issues as if there were an axe to grind against anyone who'd DARE want to live a "normal life" and not instantly and willing join the X-Men like they're (apparently) suppose to. Think about Dazzler's treatment the last couple of issues. Now look at Havok's treatment here. And if we look at subsequent issues, they almost come across as a distaff/spear counterpart of each other: Both were reluctant inductees into the X-books. Both are usually portrayed as "weak" and "inexperienced" and even "whiny" (Callisto scolding Dazzler in #217. Wolverine lamenting that Havok can't "handle" Vertigo's power in #221.) Despite being "powerful" they are the ones that seem to have the biggest problem utilizing their power effectively. Both are shown to engage in "pity parties" where they ponder what was lost (with very little sympathy displayed toward them, imho), instead of "toughening up" and getting over it like "REAL" X-Men. And of course, during Inferno, they were the easy to corrupt. It's like Claremont have some vendetta against these characters.

I don't see an axe to grind against characters who want to live a normal life. I see decent-to-good characterization about characters who want a normal life and for whatever reason, have been sucked into the X-Men. They're the FNGs on the team, which is made up of "grizzled veterans" at this point. Rogue is in no danger of being a weak link, Betsy gets to be a Claremont woman, Longshot is just an oddity. Wolverine and Storm are Wolverine and Storm.

I like your point about the similarities between Alex and Ali regarding how powerful they are and what happened to them in "Inferno," but they're just coincidences. Alex was very much a reserve member of the team. He helped out against Proteus because he was in Scotland at the time, and joined in on that one three-parter against Arcade and Dr. Doom, but otherwise the vast majority of his appearances were simply as Scott's brother and part of the extended X-Family. Ali was associated with the X-Men against her will, and arguably Claremont's.

It seems like a vendetta against them because the characters are treated roughly, although (except in issues like this) I don't think they're really ever out of character. The previous issues established that Ali still wants to sing and play wherever she gets the chance, which she would continue to do. But the point is that now they have to live in the X-Men's world, and in true superhero fashion, they'll overcome their problems.

Their addition to the team was Claremont making use of his extended universe to drop or shuffle characters and bring others to the forefront. He could have promoted some New Mutants, added other bit characters [Lila Cheney, Jamie Madrox, Boom-Boom, etc.] or created new characters [Jubilee, Gambit.]

Erik, I can't do any more than nitpick about your points and even that would be more work than it's worth. This issue was not handled well.

Yes, Claremont's treatment of Havok is disturbing. Even in this issue, when Alex nearly kills Dazzler, it's treated like a personal failing on Alex's part, instead of the X-Men's fault for tampering with his mind the last time they grabbed him. And Alex was at first treated as a lesser version of Scott by the other X-Men. But starting with his saving Maddie from the ledge, he started to become the moral center of the team. However, starting with Inferno, once Maddie got thrown under the bus, so did Alex. In the end, it's creepy- the X-Men treat Maddie and Alex as inferior versions of Jean and Scott, Storm nearly drowns Maddie and seriously considers killing Alex, but it's justified since they go bad in Inferno.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Storm only drowned Maddie back in the Mastermind two-parter before the wedding, which had more to do with Ororo becoming the mohawk-wearing leather-girl than anything else. And it was a convenient end to the story. Villain says he's won, Storm says "yeah right" and turns on her powers. Move to epilogue.

The reason Alex nearly killing Ali is treated as a failing is because he nearly did kill her, and it provided a convenient example of saving her. I'm too lazy to look it up, but I assume Longshot saved her, and thereby established three characters' powers and personalities in accordance with Jim Shooter's dictates. It also made the point that the remaining X-Men are grizzled veterans at this point, and Alex is taking a major step up by volunteering. According to Annual #11, his dream/fear is to become a star, which he is capable of doing. [Lol, just like Ali.] Unlike Cyclops, he can't set his powers on 'stun.'

I'm not saying he was handled well. Assuming that someone is capable of handling bad situations the way his brother was capable of handling bad situations is the worst kind of tribalism, which Xavier should have been teaching his students from the outset. And Wolverine of all people makes that mistake? If anything, the X-Men should have pushed Alex away because he wasn't the man his brother was. But that would have interfered with the point where Alex steps up to the challenge.

The worst thing I have to say about PAD's initial "X-Factor" run is 'when did Alex and Lorna decide they were going to be in charge of a superhero team?' There isn't a good answer. It's why I think Alex became a Genoshan magistrate instead of a freedom fighter. The latter might make a good story, but the former ties him to Scott in a 'brother vs. brother' conflict. Madelyne made a convenient 'my brother's wife' conflict.

In the end, I think Maddie has to be written off as a loss. She only worked as a normal girl/Claremont woman, who happened to be an exact replacement for Jean. Once Jean came back, she was headed for disaster, and not because of anything she said, did or wanted. The only temporary solution was to make her part of "Inferno." Even there, if we accept the retcon that she was always the reborn Dark Phoenix, why wouldn't she go after Peter, the only decent X-Man and beloved brother of Limbo's ruler? Or Longshot, which would give her access to Mojoworld?

I like your point about Maddie and Alex being inferior versions of Scott and Jean. It's depressing, but I can't refute it. There are problems with this story, there are problems with the way Alex, Maddie and Ali are handled, there's something creepy about all of it, I just think that the parts I find creepy are different from the parts you find creepy.

Once again, if Claremont isn't disturbing you on a personal level, he hasn't done his job.

And I like the pacing of Alex trying to contact the X-Men. He knows about Moira, but on the phone he reaches Callisto [prominent gap between her legs] who tells him to try Magneto, whom he would meet later in the issue. He asks about his brother Scott and is told to try the yellow pages.

It's a good page which alienates the main character from his previously-established world [living and loving with Lorna in the Southwest.] It gets even better when he's talking to someone introduced a decade earlier who tells him to call the team's worst enemy if he wants to talk. And she's never heard of his brother.

Then a bus with an "X-Factor" ad passes by.

As a comics sequence on its own, it's very well done. It's even better when you add in the established continuity. Not to mention the way Lorna is turned evil by newly-introduced X-Men villains against the main story.

I completely agree that there are so many things wrong with this issue that you run out of fingers and toes to count on, but as an individual comic book on its own, it's not bad.

"It seems like a vendetta against them because the characters are treated roughly, although (except in issues like this) I don't think they're really ever out of character"

But I think the problem is that this is one gets the feeling that this is suppose to be seen as perfectly "normal" behavior for Super-heroes "on the real" as they say. So when the X-Men wipe Havok's mind and float a suggesting that he be killed, it's presented as if this were logical pragmatism from super-powered "realist" and Havok is just acting "weak" for not initially hopping on the beat (as it is he seems to conclude at the end that their actions were perfectly justified.)

Likewise in the previous issues, it feels like we're suppose to take Callisto's criticism of Dazzler a good dose of unadulterated "real talk" that Dazzler is too "soft" to be able to handle this blunt piece of "reality." (even though Fnord pointed out in those reviews how Callisto's assessment is a bit of a strawman.) In both cases the team members joined semi-reluctantly and are therefore made to look like "The load" dragging their teammates down and who need the "tougher" x-members to whip their you-know-whats into shape. Furthermore they are made to look "irresponsible" for having to be convinced to join, as if this darker, harsher X-Men team is something that all mutants with a sense of duty should be willing and eager to join. Even if they insult you and mindwipe you. ("Like geez get over it, crybaby!") There are a few later issues that continue with that type of tone.

Again, as Fnord suggested above, I think it's more the way these issues presenting the X-Men's actions as the harsh but pragmatically dark "correct" order of things, instead of the actions of a bunch of overly paranoid people.

Part of it might be that Claremont that it was mostly Betsy, Rogue and Storm that were cruel to Havok- Claremont sometimes lets his women get away with stuff that wouldn't fly if the genders were reversed. The most glaring example is X-Men 148, where Lee abandons a blinded Scott because he refused to have sex with her. If this was, for example, Kurt abandoning a blinded Amanda because she refused to have sex with him, everyone would be up in arms.

Jon, you're right in that this wasn't remotely normal for any of the X-Men. Even Wolverine would not take a casual 'kill him' approach, especially to a long-standing member of the team/family. Wolverine will kill the enemy without hesitation, and this story does treat Alex as *the enemy* while showing the X-Men have taken Wolverine's approach to heart. And the sensible response to ask WTF the X-Men are treating Havok of all people like he was a random guard in the Savage Land. Especially considering the last half-dozen issues where they should have been on the phone with him daily screaming "There are people called the Marauders who are coming to kill you! And Scott, Maddie and the baby! And Lorna too!"

I get your complaints about the tone, but this is where I think it works. The X-Men have fought their way through miserable situations and have a clue how bad things will get. And this was before the Adversary, "Inferno" and Rob Liefeld. They simply don't have time or energy to spare on part-time superheroes like Alex or Ali. It's a military approach, "you either meet this standard or you fail, end of discussion."

It isn't done well, but this was Claremont's point that the X-Men have ended up in a paranoid military situation. Even Betsy, who was in English Intelligence back in the day, could theoretically have learned that "kill him" is the correct response. Ali and Alex are the FNGs on the team and need to be brought up to standard sooner rather than later, whether or not it hurts their feelings. Until they improve themselves, they are "the load," a dead weight dragging down the rest of the team.

Getting back to the idea of Nimrod being the one massacring the Morlocks, was there any reason why Claremont couldn't just use him only, why did he have to involve the Fury and Jim Jaspers?

Depends, are you looking for a good reason that makes sense, or something that comes down to 'Claremont's gotta Claremont'?

I knew nothing about the Fury storyline when I first heard about the original plan for the Morlocks, and I thought it was a great idea, and exactly the sort of thing Nimrod would do.

OK, so I just read this for the first time last night, and man, did I not like this issue. I hate the art, I hate the colossally bad decisions made by basically every character, really the only thing I don't hate is that Havok rejoins the X-Men. On the whole, I did not enjoy. On to the two vs. series for me...