STORY: "Bishop's Crossing" (22 pages)
Bishop and his men idolise the X-Men as heroes, and when the real heroes do not match up, they assume that they are imposters. There is an enormous three-way fight. Fitzroy flees and is captured by Shinobi Shaw's agents, who blow up Fitzroy's base. Bishop and his men, along with many of the criminals, escape in the confusion.

What you need to know:
It's the first full story with Bishop in it, and he's decidedly violent.

The Gamesmaster makes his first appearance. He's later revealed to be a telepath in permanent involuntary mental contact with every mind on the planet. He and the Black Queen are revealed to be behind the Upstarts. There's a suggestion that they're misleading the competitors about the nature of their prize, never subsequently picked up on.

Comments:
Basically an enormous fight scene, and again Bishop is the only thing that really sticks in the mind. Portacio's original concept was that Bishop would be a character who would generate extreme reactions from the other X-Men, since on the one hand he represented their dream stretching into the future, but on the other he seemed to be a thuggishly violent perversion of the dream. Bishop's early appearances walk a tightrope between showing him as an efficient leader and self-sacrificing hero, acting well within the standards of his own time, and showing him as a brutally violent paramilitary willing to go far beyond anything the X-Men would ever consider. It's a fascinating idea, and unfortunately one that's been heavily toned down, even in later stories set in his own time. Nonetheless, this is a strong idea marooned in a very weak story, probably a sign of Portacio's inexperience as a writer.
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FEATURE CHARACTERS
The X-Men: Professor X, Forge (both last in X-Men vol 2 #5), Archangel, Colossus, Jean Grey, Iceman and Storm

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Bishop, Malcolm and Randall
The White Queen II (comatose)

VILLAINS
The Upstarts: Shinobi Shaw (next in issue #299) and Trevor Fitzroy (next in the second story in Uncanny X-Men Annual #17)
The Black Queen II (last in the third story in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #33; next in issue #301)
The Gamesmaster (real name unrevealed; a mutant telepath with the power to read the minds of everyone on the planet; affiliated with the Upstarts; first appearance; next in issue #299)
The Hellions I: Tarot (she is somehow revived from her apparent death in this story and appears next, as a member of the Hellions II, in X-Force vol 1 #87), Bevatron, Catseye and Roulette II (all die)
Eye-Beam (first actual appearance), Burke, Stylles (no further appearances for all), Styglut (next in issue #287) and Mountjoy (next in Bishop vol 1 #1; the latter four behind the scenes)

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