What’s Covered?
Uncanny X-Men # 394 - 398, Rogue Volume 2, Iceman Volume 2, X-Men Unlimited # 32 - 34, Cable # 105 - 107.
Roster Watch
Synopsis
Uncanny X-Men # 394 (Setup)
Writer - Joe Casey
Pencils - Ian Churchill
*This issue isn't really part of the last story, but also isn't officially part of the Uncanny re-launch, however it does set up a few new dynamics.
Jean and Scott arguing as Scott is being pessimistic
The biggest thing that this issue sets up (for New X-Men) is Scott and Jean arguing and Scott being less optimistic.
Some new villain weirdly teleports Jean and W (plus some soldiers) somewhere else (in his unconscious)
Cyke and Warren come to help
As he thinks they are dying, W kisses Jean
This is another new theme. This won't be the last time Wolverine kisses Jean in the near future.
Warren gets them out. The villain kills himself.
Uncanny X-Men # 395 - 398 (Poptopia)
Writer - Joe Casey
Pencils - Ian Churchill (395 - 396), Sean Philips (397, 398), Mel Rubi (397), Ashley Wood (398)
Sugar Kane
This main story arc starts with Chamber saving a pop star named Sugar Kane from an angry mob.
Jon (Chamber) and Sugar Kane hit it off and they are clearly banging.
Iceman and Nightcrawler show up and scold Chamber, telling him that he doesn't belong in the normal world.
You know what...this is kind of bullshit. Since when is Nightcrawler such a debbie downer. He's dated numerous normal people. This is so out of character for him and now good that I'm irked with Joe Casey right from the start.
Wolverine stops by Chamber later and also gives him a mini scolding. He's not quite as big of a prick as Nightcrawler was.
Later, tabloids start saying that Sugar Kane is pregnant with Chamber's baby. She starts complaining that her record sales are plummeting. Shortly after this, Sugar Kane is "kidnapped" and taken away. Chamber finds her and turns out that she orchestrated the kidnapping and was using Chamber all along for publicity. What a bitch!
London Morlocks
The team finds a group of belligerent mutant freaks below London. A "mutant cleanser" named Mr. Clean shows up and burns many of them alive.
Iceman, Archangel, and Nightcrawler (the discarded X-Men) fight the flamethrower guy but lose, with Archangel even getting stabbed in the back with two knives.
What..the fuck..is this art!? I seriously want to know. What is this? I honestly think my 6 year old daughter can do better. Look at that guy in the bottom right. He wasn't even drawn in. They didn't even try to draw the bottom half of people. I mean, I'm sure someone out there is going to be like "This art is so unique, i love it." Not me. I just look at this and I'm taken out of the comic.
Later, Mr. Clean tries to kill the remaining Morlocks but Iceman traps him...until Wolverine shows up. Mr. Clean tries to burn him, but that doesn't work. Eventually Wolverine turns things around and burns him, which does the trick.
OMG, this fucking art. Once again, my 6 year old daughter can definitely do this.
Rogue Volume 2
Writer - Fiona Avery
Pencils - Aaron Lopresti
Rogue vol. 2 #1  8/22/2001  Fiona Avery  Aaron Lopresti
Rogue goes back to mansion
Everyone skeptical of her
X teaching her how to erect walls to keep absorbed ppl out of her head.Â
Rogue accidentally drains Xavier as she practices how to control her power
She storms offs
Rogue vol. 2 #2  9/19/2001  Fiona Avery  Aaron Lopresti
Rogue stops a trucker from killing a shepherd
Rogue kisses the shepherd but weakens him. Runs away again.Â
Rogue vol. 2 #3  10/17/2001  Fiona Avery  Aaron Lopresti
Cyclops is sent to bring Rogue home from Seattle
A terrorist puts a bomb on a ferry
Rogue absorbs the memories of a dying cop to disarm the bomb
Rogue agrees to go home.Â
Rogue vol. 2 #4  11/14/2001  Fiona Avery  Aaron Lopresti
After returning to the mansion, a young mutant accidentally sets it on fire
Once again, Rogue uses her power to put it out
All is well with Rogue
This is a small little Rogue story. One one hand, this is another argument about why these short Limited Series are so skip worthy. Very little happens. On the other hand, you could make an argument that this little story shows how Rogue has come more at peace with her powers, however she's struggling during X-Treme X-Men so this series doesn't really move the needle.
Iceman Volume 2
Writer - Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning
Pencils - Karl Kerschi
What else is new?
Iceman vol. 2 #3  1/4/2002  Dan Abnett  Scott Young
Weismann is trying to use Iceman to help him graft mutant limbs to humans…or something
Iceman vol. 2 #4  2/13/2002  Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning  Karl Kerschi
Iceman solves the problems
He decides to quit and stay with Opal but she ditches him and says the baby isn’t his
This is obviously interesting as we know now that Iceman is gay. It's clear that A) His sexuality is mostly a retcon, but also B) it's pretty common for gay men to fake (or try) being straight, and that could explain his time with Opal. Regardless, the baby isn't his and Opal doesn't want to stay with him, so ultimately I could have easily skipped this Limited Series altogether.
X-Men Unlimited # 32 - 34 (Short Stories)
XMU 32
Will Pfeifer, James Pruett, John Ostrander
Jill Thompson, Mike Deodato Jr., Ian Gibson
Dazzler story
Hulk wants to watch Dazzler story
Recap of all her stories
NC
While confessing his sins to a priest, he has to save an altar boy, who are being attacked by three thugs
Starjammers
SJ asked to rescue a princess but nothing is as it seems
XMU 33
Steven Grant, Will Pfeifer, John Ostrander, Buddy Scalera
Sean Phillips, Walter Taborda, Estaban Maroto, Quique Alcatena, Mike Collins
Blob story
The blob tries to enjoy a rodeo, but gets in a competition with a young boy, who challenges him to a contest to touch blobs feet. He can’t do it, and loses.Â
Sentinel
Two boys are using an off-line Sentinel as a carnival attraction until the sentinel wakes up and kills the two boys because they have dormant mutant genes
Emma and Selene
Back in the Day of the hellfire club, Emma and Seline were trying to win the favor of a buff henchman. They took turns trying to impress him, and eventually Emma killed him to help her win the bet
Mastermind
A mastermind story where Jean as the Black Queen cursed him, and then he ran around town thinking he was interacting with powerful people when really, it was just random people, and he ended up in jail, not even knowing it. A victim of his own illusions.
A lucky man wins a lottery, but then runs into Sabretooth
X-Men Unlimited vol. 1 #34  4/3/2002  Ken Siu-Chong, Karl Kesel, Steven Grant  Christina Chen, James Fry, Trevor von Eeden
Jubilee story
Jubilee and Skin are living together in Los Angeles.
Jubilee is trying her hand at being an actress.
Jubilee’s agent treats her bad and Skin comforts her
Emma
Emma keeps having a re-occurring dream of the night Synch died and she killed her sister Adrienne
Sunfire
Sunfire gets caught up in local crime shit
Cable #105 - 107 (Poor Storytelling)
Writer - Darko Macan
Pencils - Ron Zimmerman, Igor Kordey, Mike Huddleston
Cable vol. 1 #105  2001  Darko Macan, Ron Zimmerman  Igor Kordey
Cable is in Rio De Janiero
Cable comes across some mutant sewer, fighting to the death for money
Cable’s tries to stop one nasty girl name Juliana from ever using her powers again but accidentally wipes her mind clean as well as everyone else in the club as his powers are out of control
Cable vol. 1 #106  2001  Darko Macan  Mike Huddleston
Cable travels to Kazakhstan
He gets involved with some thugs in a nuclear arms deal, eventually blowing up entire facility and killing a lot of people
Cable vol. 1 #107  2001  Darko Macan  Igor Kordey
Cable ends up, running into a crime, Lord name, Mr. Singapore
After cable turns down a recruitment offer, he flies off of the helicopter into a storm, trying to kill himself, but he subconsciously creates a telekinetic bubble, and saves himself.
This Cable series is not convincing me to keep reading...
My Connections and Creators
I'm mostly going to focus on the Joe Casey Poptopia story. I really don't know what to say. I'm not sure if it was bad, or just incredibly uninspiring when compared to New X-Men. I've seen Joe Casey before. He was ok. Not terrible, not great. This continues the theme of moving away from the comics code as there is swearing, gore, and Chamber clearly sleeping with Sugar Kane.
There's only 5 characters on the team and 2 of them (Iceman and Archangel) are characters I've complained about throughout the life of this blog as being incredibly boring. Nightrawler has had some good moments, but he seems very lame in this series. Wolverine is barely in it. Chamber is pretty interesting to me though, so there's hope.
My plan right now (and that could change) is to have 3 ongoing blogs. X-Treme X-Men and New X-Men will get dedicated blogs and then there will be this which is the hodgepodge of Uncanny, Limited Series', and the occasionally coverage of Cable, Wolverine, Generation X, and X-Men Unlimited.
I was very into Cable but these last 3 issues were painful. I'm not sure what's happening with the series as it appears it's about to transition into "Soldier X." I guess that spares me from needing to make the choice of whether to give up or not. Hooray, I guess I made it to the end of the run!
Characters
Nightcrawler
Leader of the team.
Still a priest but still a superhero?
Acting like a square with the way he's scolding Chamber
Wolverine
Barely in it. Next to no characterizations.
Archangel
He definitely has an outsized role. I don't hate it but I don't like it.
The team seems to be stationed out of Worthington Industries.
Iceman
You could probably go through these issues and remove Iceman and all of his lines and it would have zero impact on the story.
Chamber
I am intrigued by Chamber. His story with Sugar Cane was interesting to me. I like when we get to see other sides to the mutant world and non traditional super heroing.