Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
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Uncanny X-Men #271
Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men #271
Cover Date: Dec 90
Title: "Flashpoint!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Jim Lee - Penciler
Scott Williams - Inker
Suzanne Gaffney - Assistant Editor
Bob Harras - Editor
Review/plot:
So far we've had two contingents of X-Mutants in the X-Tinction Agenda: the group that was initially captured by the Genoshans (Storm and several of the New Mutants) and the ones that came to rescue them : X-Factor, Cable and the rest of the New Mutants, and the "X-Men". But the "X-Men" were really Storm (captured), Gambit (brand new; is he even officially part of the team yet?), and Banshee and Forge. The real X-Men are still scattered thanks to the Siege Perilous. But in this issue, another main contingent of X-Men joins the fight against Genosha: Wolverine, Jubilee, and Psylocke.
But Wolverine is still not in top shape.
Good thing for Psylocke and the focused totality of her telepathic powers.
But Wolverine is definitely not doing so good.
However, the three X-Men do manage to rescue Rictor and Boom Boom from the Magistrates. I love this scene with the intimidating Psylocke as Wolverine suggests a mind scan to bring everyone up to speed.
The rivalry between Jubilee and Boom Boom won't make either character look better.
Jubilee is told to remain behind and get the two New Mutants to safety while Wolverine and Psylocke go to rescue Storm and Rahne. Psylocke is able to detect the fact that the other X-Teams are on the island, but they don't connect in this issue.
Meanwhile, the Genegeneer, Philip Moreau is participating in a televised debate with Moira MacTaggert. Moreau loses the debate on a technicality: the incorrect use of the phrase "begs the question".
After the debate is over, Moreau notes that something is odd about Moira. Her ferocity and the clothes she was wearing.
One thing that will be pivotal to the resolution to this story line is a change of heart from Moreau and Chief Magistrate Anderson, who have been shown to be reluctant to go along with Cameron Hodge and the president. It's important to note that this isn't because their views of mutate Apartheid are evolving, or at least not yet. It's because they fear that Hodge's hatred of mutants is putting their country in danger.
After Moreau leaves Anderson, Storm shows up, implying that she's going to kill him ("Whatever happens to me, Moreau, at least Genosha's Genegineer will no longer create any more mutates."). Moreau tries to convince her that he's the lesser of two evils, but before he can get into the specifics, Hodge shows up.
I'm sad that Hodge has given up on his cardboard suit. I also think it's very polite of the president to raise her finger like that to indicate that she'd like to speak. She didn't want to just interrupt.
Moreau manages to convince the president to put Storm into the genepool instead of just killing her. That will again be pivotal to the plot resolution.
Psylocke detects the agony that Storm is feeling as Moreau does his work, and she and Wolverine manage to infiltrate his citadel. But they spot Havok and are surprised.
Psylocke manages to disable Havok, but they are then attacked by Hodge.
Psylocke tries to fight him, but her insistence on thinking about "the focused totality of her telepathic powers" every damn time she uses her psi-knife slows her down and Hodge is able to defeat her.
Meanwhile, Moreau has finished turning Storm into a mutate.
Jim Lee's art is looking more the way i expect it to than last issue, and it's quite good. This is an action oriented middle part of the story, and it's a lot of fun.
Quality Rating: B
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: This is part four of the X-Tinction Agenda. New Mutants #96 is next. The MCP lists all of the other X-Men, New Mutants, and X-Factor members as being behind the scenes since Psylocke is able to detect that they're in Genosha, but i've decided to not muddle things up by including them since they don't actually appear.
References:
- The Magistrates were looking forward to a rematch with Wolverine since Uncanny X-Men #235-238.
- David Moreau and Chief Magistrate Anderson worry about the possibility of retaliation from mutants after seizing the New Mutants and Storm. They bring up the fact that Magneto once destroyed an entire city by creating a volcano in Uncanny X-Men #150.
- Given that he's now a Genoshan Magistrate, Psylocke wonders if she should have just killed Havok instead of sending him through the Siege Perilous in Uncanny X-Men #251.
Crossover: X-Tinction Agenda
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
Apart from the growing tendency towards 'exploitation' of female characters, most evident here in the form of Psylocke, I have to say, not having read these comics in real time, that Jim Lee is, at least, a fairly good artist. Certainly miles better than the other new kids like Rob Liefeld and Todd McFarlane, at least in my opinion, and, ironically given Claremont will be forced off the book in favour of Lee, a good visual match for Claremont's writing style. In a parallel 90s, maybe that partnership continued on and Claremont was left to wrap up the story he wanted to tell, and then someone more sympathetic to his vision could have taken the series over. If only...
Yeah, Liefeld and Lee might be tied together because of both being hot in the 90s and having founded Image together, but the truth is that they aren't comparable at all. I don't like Lee's style, but he *is* a talented artist, miles ahead of Liefeld...
Hodge has that annoying "taunt voice" that Claremont's villains were plagued with in his later years on the book, and constantly refers to the heroes as "dears, "pretties," "sweeties," and so forth, while talking to them like they're fighting on a playground.
Pretty much every bad guy except Magneto started speaking that way at some point in the 200s
"In a parallel 90s, maybe that partnership continued on and Claremont was left to wrap up the story he wanted to tell, and then someone more sympathetic to his vision could have taken the series over."
In a parallel world where Claremont is left to "wrap up the story he wanted to tell", he's probably STILL writing the X-books...
... and we get a fetish story each month :)
Jim Lee and Ron Lim are two of my favourite artists. Lee's art stands out so much in X-tinction agenda that it hurts to read the issues he does not draw.
Marvel's free preview periodical, the Requirer, advertised this issue as featuring the Sentinels: http://www.bulletholestudios.com/chrisclaremontchecklist/uncanny-x-men-271.html
I've seen others speculate that these would have been "bio-Sentinels," which seems like an idea Harras would revisit with the Phalanx and Operation Zero Tolerance.
@Walter: Marvel Age #94 referred to the X-Men specifically facing off against "Living Sentinels" in this issue. But whether it was intended that Warlock was responsible, or his father the Magus since you'll recall the Genoshans already had their "TRANSMODation process" for mutate slaves. Interestingly, the Genoshan creches we saw in Uncanny X-Men #238 seemed similar to the creches Technarch offspring were shown to be raised in (shown in New Mutants #21). Had Magus been transported from Limbo to an earlier period in Genosha after New Mutants #50?
".. and we get a fetish story each month :)"
And if we're going to get a fetish story, there's no one better to draw them than Jim Lee.
I didn't read this in real-time, but Lee's art is so much than the other two artists on this that it's jarring. It's not like X-Cutioner's Song, where there will be three artists who look more similar, then the X-Factor issues which look like they were drawn in a parallel universe.
