What's Covered?
UXM 210 - 214, X-Factor # 9 - 11, NM # 46, Thor # 373 - 374, Power Pack # 27, Daredevil # 238
Roster Watch
Mutant Massacre Synopsis
UXM210: Hear the drum beat?
Writer - Chris Claremont
Pencils - John Romita Jr.
This is another one of those issues where I immediately assume that I must have missed a tie in issue, but from what I understand, there is nothing I'm missing because these are two new characters we are thrown into here. Tommy is a young Morlock girl who had a relationship with a Hellfire goon. We see here that they are under attack and the Hellfire guy sacrifices himself so Tommy can get away.
She runs away and assumes that she made it away safe, but she was wrong.
It turns out that the Marauders let her get away so they could follow her to the Morlock tunnels. And so it begins...
X-Factor # 9: Wrapping up the Freedom Force story
Writer - Louise Simonson
Pencils - Terry Shoemaker
Issue #9 picks up where Issue #8 left off. Freedom Force is attempting to arrest Rusty Collins on behalf of the government and has cornered him and the Morlock Skids who was trying to help him.
A crowd of anti-mutant humans shows up and begins assaulting Freedom Force, giving Rusty and Skids a chance to escape. She decides to take him to the Morlock tunnels to protect him.
Artie knows that Rusty has gone to the sewers and recognizes the danger they are in, so he tries to warn Cameron Hodge. For some reason, he doesn't seem overly interested in helping.
Artie makes a drawing of the three of them in the sewers so X-Factor knows where to find them.
X-Factor, in their dumb X-terminator setting, race into the tunnels to help Rusty and Artie.
The first face-off of the day goes to X-Factor. Freedom Force put up a strong fight, but Destiny could see that they were going to lose so Mystique orders a full retreat.
Freedom Force Story
The Freedom Force storyline plays out over several issues, but I'll keep it all nice and tidy here for you to see.
Val is disappointed that Mystique and the gang were unable to capture Rusty.
Mystique lost the battle, but she plans on winning the war. She has fought the X-Men plenty of times, so she's not tricked by their identities. She lost with hard power, she decides to play some soft politics. She is going to leak that Warren is the benefactor of X-Factor, knowing that will draw them into some serious heat.
And here we see that Mystique's plan is executed.
Checking in on Angel
Angel really hits rock bottom during the Mutant Massacre. While his story plays out throughout this entire arc, let's focus in on him for a bit here:
Candy Southern, Angel's boo, is serving as VP of his companies and leaves an important meeting to go figure out with Warren what's going on.
With news going public of him being the benefactor of X-Factor, he starts really beating himself up. He realizes the X-Factor concept was ill conceived and he's almost relieved for it to all come crashing down.
As Angel is being sad boy, he pours one out to Jean and apologizes for everything.
He has a tender moment with Jean, right when Candy walks in. Did you not think this would catch up with you!?
Candy spits some venom at Jean and does a good job of kicking Angel when he's down (not saying he doesn't deserve it).
I'm skipping a bit ahead, but later he has to make a choice between going after Candy or sticking with Jean to help his team-mates. He chooses Jean.
Sprinkle in a little Apocalypse
There is another mini plot-line that's unfolding throughout these stories, involving Apocalypse. While this story doesn't feature Apocalypse, this is clearly setting up the next big story line (that I can't wait to read!).
Apocalypse swoops in and saves a Morlock named Plague (the one who poisoned Kitty in my favorite X-Men issue ever where Storm almost kills Callisto). He claims that Plague will become Pestilence, the first of his Four Horseman.
The second mutant, one I have never heard of, is taken and will become War, the second of the Four Horseman. I wonder who the last two will be!?
X-Factor # 10: The Massacre Begins
Writer - Louise Simonson
Pencils - Walter Simonson
This also kicks off Marvel's 25th anniversary, so you'll see a lot of Issue covers with this fancy getup. Alright, now it's time for...
Let's meet our combatants!
Arclight and Harpoon
Per the Marvel Database, Arclight (the girl on the left) can direct a wave of focused energy by striking a victim with her hands or feet. This typically creates a massive shockwave, damaging and/or disorientating all within her line-of-fire, shattering objects, and creating shock waves. Her hands give off a bright light upon impact.
Harpoon is a mutant with the superhuman power to transform longitudinal objects into various forms of bio-energy. He can imbue any such object with this energy, but the amount of energy varies with the size of the object. Harpoon must then throw the object in order to transform it into energy. He could also charge the object with energy without actually transforming it to energy. Depending on the form of energy with which he imbues them, Harpoon's weapons can stun, shock, paralyze, kill, explode, or disintegrate a living victim or inanimate target.
Yikes, not looking great for the Morlocks. Arclight and Harpoon are knocking them off left and right.
X-Factor catch up with Rusty and Skids. Jean and Angel decide to take an injured Rusty and his new friend Skids back to the X-Factor complex. Cyclops, Iceman, and Beast decide to press on and try to find Artie. This sets up their first run in with the Marauders. Who are our new combatants!?
Vertigo
Vertigo joins up with Arclight and Harpoon to take on the 3 remaining members of X-Factor. Vertigo is a mutant who has the ability to disorient her enemies and make them sick. She literally gives them Vertigo, it doesn't get more on the nose than this. She's like the character you would take in an RPG in a support role, but you better have a tank with you.
Harpoon gets in a nasty hit on Beast, breaking ribs and opening up a nasty cut.
Vertigo impacted Iceman by making him sick and practically taking him out of the picture. The Marauders got the upper hand in the battle, but the good guys did manage to keep a few Morlocks alive. This is the group of Morlocks that we saw in the X-Men/Power Pack crossover where Annalee kidnapped the kids. Tar Baby, Erg, Ape, etc.
Prism
Per the Marvel Database, Prism is able to refract most forms of energy directed at him, including ambient light. He is also capable of storing light within his body, using it to light-up dark rooms or project and amplify it at his enemies.
Scrambler
Scrambler is able to disrupt the powers of surrounding mutants.
Arclight rallies with Prism and Scrambler to take on X-Factor, who has now been re-joined by Jean and Warren for this battle.
Ouch! Prism is the first Marauder to bite the dust as Jean throws him into the wall and he explodes. Lol his weaknesses on the Marvel database says "His body can be shattered by heavy blows or collisions." Yea, I'd say!
The team decides to have Jean levitate an injured Scott and Hank back to the complex, along with a sick Iceman who creates a solid wall of ice. This leaves Angel alone to hold off the team and keep looking for Artie. Angel just had Candy leave him, he's in legal trouble thanks to Mystique, and he blew it with Jean. He is definitely not in the right mindset to be fighting the Marauders alone. It doesn't go well for him.
Will they finish him? Keep reading to find out.
Thor # 373 - 374: Oh snap, who butt dialed the God?
Harpoon, Vertigo, and Blockbuster were the three Marauders who pinned Angel up against the wall. Let's officially meet Blockbuster!
Blockbuster
He's basically a big, dumb animal.
Thor puts Angel at his back and decides to protect him.
Thor # 373 ends with the Marauders overpowering Thor.
As the Marauders are closing in on Thor, Angel uses the last of his energy to jump on Blockbuster and help Thor regain his composure. It works.
Oof, and Blockbuster bites the dust. We barely knew him. He shall not be missed.
Scott and Jean came back for Warren and they are able to find him (AND ARTIE) to bring them back to the surface.
Thor decides to give the Morlocks a clean burial by setting the entire sewer system on fire. He makes a passing comment about how he confirms that everyone else is out, however we see in almost every other issue that heroes just narrowly avoid being set on fire when he does this.
Also, I need to point out that this isn't the best event from a chronological perspective. Some events that took place with the X-Men take place at the same time (or a little before) this. Just go with it.
UXM # 211: X-Men vs. the Marauders
Writer - Chris Claremont
Pencils - John Romita Jr & Bret Blevins
X-Factor wasn't the only super team down in the sewers. In another part of the Subway system, the X-Men were having their own battles.
Here we learn that the Marauders appear to be led by a guy named Scalphunter. Let's meet him.
Scalphunter
Per the Marvel Database, Scalphunter has Technoformation: The mutant power to manipulate mechanical components, assembling them into a variety of different configurations by modifying their shape and construction. He typically wears a costume that gives him easy access to a wide variety of components to manipulate. He regularly assembles a wide variety of firearms and projectile weapons from his vest.
Riptide
Scalphunter is joined by another Marauder who messes up the X-Men. He basically spins really fast and chucks throwing stars at his enemies.
One of the Morlocks burrowed his way to the mansion to ask for help from the X-Men.
Now the X-Men know that the Marauders are under attack. With Storm being their leader as well, it's game on.
Nightcrawler, who was still recovering from his scary battle with Nimrod, picks up Vertigo and teleports her a bunch of times until she gets vertigo herself and passes out. Unfortunately, this exerted too much energy and it leaves him vulnerable to Riptide, which Wolverine sees too late.
This fells Kurt who will be out of commission for a LONG time (I think until he joins Excalibur in 1988).
Storm asks Magik to teleport Kurt and the other Morlocks they save (Callisto and those usually close to her) to the mansion. Storm makes it clear that the New Mutants should not come down here.
Scalphunter kills Annalee and the kids she is protecting. We also learn that he was the one who killed her real kids (prompting her to lose her mind and kidnap the Power Pack in X-Men #195).
While the X-Men are fighting, they see a random optic blast. Both Wolverine and Storm recognize that as belonging to Cyclops, but this isn't the issue where they become aware of each other. Wolverine also gets a whiff of Jean and gets thrown off, but assumes it must be a mistake.
In the battle, Colossus acts as a human shield and takes a number of throwing stars in the chest, in addition to at least one energy spear.
Kitty dives in front of a spear meant for Rogue and her phasing ability gets messed up.
Yup, he dead. Colossus takes out the third Marauder.
Storm reflects on how "Peter was made for gentler things," but here he got so angry he murdered Riptide in cold blood. As mentioned, Kitty is unable to unphase. This leaves the team down 3 fighters:
Power Pack # 27: Sabretooth!
Wait, whaaaaaaaat? Sabretooth!? First of all, there's more Marauders??? Second, Sabretooth is a Marauder!? Third, this is actually the first time we are seeing Sabretooth in the X-Men Universe. It feels immediately like he's been around forever, but this really is his grand entrance. How awesome that I was complaining not that long ago about how I can't wait to see Apocalypse, Sabretooth, and Mr. Sinister. Well, we haven't technically seen Mr. Sinister yet, but he was name dropped as the leader of the Marauders so he's gotta be coming soon.
The "Pack" fights Sabretooth and hold their own but quickly realize he's out of their league.
Well, well, well. What do you know. Wolverine shows up. The rest of the X-Men went back up to the surface to bring the injured back, but Storm left Wolverine below with one mission: bring one Marauder back for interrogation. I love how this is an incredibly violent and dangerous situation, but Wolverine can be sent out alone without a second thought and everyone knows he'll be fine.
New Mutants # 46: Triage
Writer - Chris Claremont
Pencils - Jackson Guice
Dani sees a badass vision of death over the mansion.
Illyana goes and plucks Moira right out of the shower to bring her to the mansion.
The X-Men arrive with Nightcrawler out cold, Kitty unable to unphase, and Colossus beat up. The Callisto group of Morlocks are with them as well.
Sunder finds out that he needs to lose his leg in order to save him and he begins freaking out. (I swear we see him in a later issue with two legs).
While all this is going on, Warlock is outside freaking out a bit conducting some intense sensor readings. He may be looking for the Marauders, but perhaps there is more afoot...
Shan and Illyana go to the apartment shared by Karma and her two siblings. The twins are missing and they trigger an explosion! The two of them end up being ok, but this starts an ongoing storyline where Shan continues to look for them. (I am a few issues ahead and still unsure where is heading). Let's keep reading to find out!
Ah, so that's what Warlock was looking for. He sensed his dad nearby and the New Mutants are ambushed by him. This starts a 4 issue arc which I'll be covering separately.
UXM # 212: Wolvie vs. Sabretooth Round 1 (Ding Ding Ding)
Writer - Chris Claremont
Pencils - Rick Leonardi
Betsy, who is new to the X-Men world and still hasn't found out which team she'll join, introduces her to Wolverine for a status update. (I'm pretty sure they've met a few times, so this introduction is probably more for readers than the characters).
Wolvie and Sabretooth meet for the first time in the Uncanny X-Men run. You would feel like this relationship has been showing up since the 60's, but it's really a new thing. You don't get a lot of backstory, except to figure out quickly that they know each other well. While Wolverine is itching for a fight, he recognizes that Sabretooth has Healer. He really wants to fight him, but he knows that saving Healer and getting him to the mansion could be crucial for his friends.
The fight a bit. The main fight will take place in the next issue.
Wolverine brings down some rocks to separate the two of them.
Wolverine carries Healer back to the mansion.
Checking in with Storm
Storm freaks out a bit. All of the death and senseless violence gets to her. All the responsibilities of being leader of both X-Men and the Morlocks becomes a bit too much. I actually love this. It's nice to slow down and think, how would these events impact different people. Oh wait, Storm is the leader of both of these groups, it would almost be harder to believe that she handles all this well.
Callisto runs after her and is actually the one to get her to calm down. I've never really had strong feelings about Callisto, but I like this relationship that the two of them have. Callisto wants nothing more than to be the leader of the Morlocks again (those who are left), but she has a deep respect for Storm.
Daredevil # 238: Sabretooth vs. a blind guy
