What’s Covered?
X-Men V2 # 103 - 106
Roster Watch
Synopsis
XMV2 # 103 - 105: One offs
Writer - Chris Claremont
Pencils - Tom Raney (103), Leinel Francis Yu (104 - 105)
XMv2 #103
Psylocke is struggling with fine motor control
I don't know why, but I'm never super interested to see mutants struggle with their powers. Iceman not tapping into his potential? Boring! Storm loses her powers? Get them back already! Cyclops being paranoid about hurting someone? Ok, that was actually kind of interesting. Anywho...Psylocke is learning to use her telekenisis and she has the power to slam trucks around, but can't pick up a penny.
Rogue gives Tessa a hard time, but then she throws it back in Rogue's face
This was pretty nice. What better way to convince us that Sage is ok then to have Rogue be the one to question her, only to be reminded that Rogue was once a baddie too.
Robert Kelly, running for president on an anti-mutant platform
Creed 2.0
W tests Rogue and declares her leader
This is an obvious callback to when Cyclops challenged Storm for leadership and then after being beaten, was forced to spend time with his pregnant wife.
Goth capture Col and taunt TB, AA, and Psy
Sanguine
Beldame
Wanderer
The Goth teleport everyone away
104
XM attack Hong Kong Hellfire Club to help Gambit’s team and find the Goth
This is a tie in to the story featured in my last blog (193: UXM # 381 - 386 (Claremont appoints Gambit leader), but I didn't feel like it added much so I just left it with this blog.
XMv2 #105
5 Twisted Sisters attack Archangel and Psylocke
Actually after Psylocke
This was the filleryiest of filler issues. And not even a fun filler. I was skimming 10 pages in (I'm such a bad X-Men blogger).
Cable infiltrates Robert Kelly’s campaign
Mystique in Muir Island
X-Men # 106
Writer - Chris Claremont
Pencils - Leinel Francis Yu
Backstory
The Neo
Lived apart from humanity
When the High Evolutionary took powers, many Neo died
Domina’s parents dies along with her child who drowned after losing the ability to breath underwater
She led the Neo out to get revenge
Cecilia murdered Domina’s husband, Jaeger
Ok, ok, ok. I like this backstory. It's weird that this backstory wasn't shared back in X-Men 100 when they were first introduced (192: XMV2 # 100 - 102 (X-Men Revolution - The Six-Month Gap). We get a whole bunch of random one offs and then finally finish off this story.
Anyway, this is pretty good. Cliche, but still pretty good. Seems like Domina's been having a rough month.
Domina is the chieftain of the Neo war clan
This is to clarify that there are different Neo groups. I believe the Goth and Shockwave Riders are two other groups.
Domino is trying to kill Cecilia and Charlotte
Cici is addicted to the rave drug, helping her stay awake and keep her shield up.
NC teleports him and W inside the shield to save Cici
Rufus Delgado gets merged with Charlotte Jones in a bat form…they attack W and NC
I feel like this whole Rufus Delgado/Charlotte Jones story could be removed entirely from the comic and absolutely nothing would change. Kind of like Will Poulter's version of Adam Warlock from Guardians of the Galaxy 3.
Intermission
Val Cooper and Sharon Carter (Interim Director of Shield), warn Robert Kelly that Mystique is coming to kill him.
NC and W capture a Neo named Elysia
Brotherhood
Blob, Avalanche, Toad, Sabre
Led by Mystique
I'm down for a little Brotherhood of Evil Mutants revival. They don't do anything here, but I'm intrigued.
Anteus and Salvo Vs Col, Psy, Rogue
Col kisses Rogue to give her his powers
She sees that he has feelings for him but notes she’s spoken for
Elysia convinces Domina to stop. Charlotte reverts back. Everything is fine.
My Connections and Creators
I've been tracking here how even though Claremont claims not to have read previous X-Men arcs, he seems to have no problem building off of old storylines (as he should). I like how the High Evolutionary's "No Powers" story actually set this up. In fact...I wonder if that was one of the secret Claremont issues and THAT'S the reason why that seemingly large arc was so short. Perhaps it happened solely to set up the Neo Storyline. Interesting...
#106 was pretty good seeing the Neo (and particularly Domina's) origin story, but the surrounding issues are so lackluster that I can help but be disappointed.
Characters
Rogue
She goes through a rite of passage and gets the seal of approval from Wolverine.
Wolverine
Other than challenging Rogue, I can't think of anything else he did in this arc. That's disappointing because I liked seeing how Claremont was writing him early on.
Nightcrawler
He officially re-joins the team (I think)
Thunderbird
I had to look to make sure he was actually in this arc.
Archangel
Is he on the team or just hanging out for a few issues? Tune in to find out!
Psylocke
Other than having trouble with her TK power, she hasn't really brought much to the team dynamic.
Colossus
He has a crush on Rogue now. This guys falls for everyone! If he's not hitting on 13 year olds, be careful because he's coming after your girlfriend while you're away!
Kitty
Claremont...you love Kitty. Why aren't you featuring her!? Come on, brah.