Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men #326
Cover Date: Nov 95
Title: "The nature of evil"
Credits:
Scott Lobdell - Writer
Joe Madureira - Penciler
Tim Townsend - Inker
Ben Raab - Assistant Editor
Bob Harras - Editor

Review/plot:
Digital review warning.

We continue to be in a period where the two X-books might as well be a single bi-weekly book, which makes my decision to quickly cover the Uncanny issues a bit dumb in retrospect. There was a whole Blue Team/Gold Team at one point, right? Anyway, last issue we saw Gambit rushing off to stop Rogue from going to Seattle and it seems X-Men #45 covered him failing to do that, so he's now back at the X-Mansion and sulking about how his joining the X-Men has not absolved him of his "crime". And just to pour salt in his wound, Storm shows up and tries to absolve herself of killing Marrow last issue by saying "some things -- like the true nature of a person -- cannot be changed".

Because of this, Gambit goes to Sabretooth and tries to jog his memory, showing him holograms of the people he's killed and stuff like that. The idea is that it's really about Gambit, not Sabretooth.

Storm shows up to make Gambit stop torturing Sabretooth and put him in his tiny cage instead.

Meanwhile, the Beast is giving a lecture about the Legacy Virus at the World Health Organization (i almost just wrote WHO but realized that could be confused with the Weird Happenings Organization seen in Excalibur) when he is (seemingly) surprised by Professor X showing up to contradict him.

This turns out to be a ruse that the two are playing together to try to get panic about the virus under control.

Watching the conference on TV at home, Excalibur hit on the idea that the virus might really be a "designer gene" created to cause mass panic.

The Morally Ambiguous X-Men, people. Professor X i guess we expect to be manipulative, although staging a big charade on TV feels like a whole new level. The Beast is even more surprising; i get real Colin Powell waving a prop vial of anthrax vibe from him. Then we have Storm telling herself it was ok to kill Marrow, not because there was an immediate bomb concern but because Marrow could never have been redeemed anyway. And Gambit who we are learning had an evil past (but we will have to wait until issue #350, more than 2 years from now, to find out what it was) and is taking his guilt out on Sabretooth. In fact, ALL of the X-Men should have to answer for their treatment of Sabretooth. Either treat him like a patient or like a proper prisoner, and in the latter case he still deserves an actual prison cell, not a literal dog cage. (The X-Men will in fact come to this conclusion in two issues.)

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: X-Men #45 takes place between last issue and this one.

References:

• Gambit met Storm when she was trapped in a child's body in Uncanny X-Men #266.
  
• Renee Majcomb coming from war-torn Genosha to be at the WHO conference is given a footnote to Cable #23.
  
• One of the people Sabretooth killed was from X-Men Unlimited #3. Another is Birdy, who died in Sabretooth #4.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A