Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men #323, Uncanny X-Men #324
Cover Date: Aug 95
Title: "A Nation Rising" / "Deadly Messengers"
Credits:
Scott Lobdell - Writer
Bryan Hitch / Roger Cruz - Penciler
Cam Smith / Tim Townsend, Vince Russell , & Al Milgrom - Inker
Ben Raab - Assistant Editor
Bob Harras - Editor

Review/plot:
Digital review warning.

In these issues the X-Men (and Charlotte Jones) have their first fight with Gene Nation, who are a group of Morlocks you never heard of who have been like, uh, time-accelerated by Mikhail Rasputin into barbarians or something. I absolutely do not care about these characters, and also these issues are structured in such a way that about a million subplots are all given equal priority to (what should be) the same story and i find the whole thing hard to read. So let this stub serve as your notice that these issues exist.

During the fight, one of the Gene Nation members, Vessel, refers to Beast as the "first one", which was meant to be lending credence to the idea that the Dark Beast created the Morlocks. Graydon Creed is hanging around the fight for some reason, and Beast has to rescue him. Also, Noah Dubois continues to hover around observing things. Maybe he's really a Watcher.

As for subplots, the most notable thing is that Cannonball has joined the X-Men. This actually happened in X-Force #44. Going forward, Cannonball will be treated as if he were promoted directly from the first year of the New Mutants as opposed to the fact that he was coming from being the leader of a paramilitary group that was jaded by the X-Men's more reactive ways. To make things extra goofy, we have Cannonball taking Sabretooth for a walk (after Sabretooth was injured by Wolverine).

Also, Gambit wakes up from his coma (after kissing Rogue) and acts all shady, apparently worried about what Rogue might have learned from him. Psylocke forcibly enters his mind to try to learns his secrets, but he's able to block her out.

Meanwhile, Rogue and Iceman are on a road-trip, and they wind up in Gambit's home town, possibly due to Rogue having absorbed some of Gambit's memories. Rogue tells a waitress "give my regards to Grey Crow", which is apparently something that won't get picked up on again until Gambit's solo series some four years from now. Iceman keeps having visions of Emma Frost, but when he tries to call her she evily won't pick up even though she's a good guy running Generation X's school nowadays.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first full Vessel and Sack

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place after X-Force #44. Wolverine is waiting for Guardian and Vindicator to arrive to test him, something that we'll see in Wolverine #95.

References:

• Wolverine mauled Sabretooth in Wolverine #90.
  
• See Wolverine #95 for the return of Guardian and Vindicator (actually, as is often the case around this time, a printing error causes the issue number in the footnote to not be visible. Slight possibility that this was meant to point to #91, where Guardian also appears).
  
• Beast yells at Trish Tilby for making the Legacy Virus public in X-Men Prime, and they effectively break up.
  
• Iceman's visions stem from when the White Queen took over his mind in Uncanny X-Men #314.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A