FIRST STORY: "Legacies" (48 pages) Fabian Cortez has his Acolytes capture Moira MacTaggert. He hopes to learn the technique she used to brainwash the X-Men [in X-Men vol 2 #1-3] and use it to recruit new Acolytes. The X-Men and Nightcrawler rescue her. One of the Acolytes has a crisis of faith and runs away; another turns out to be an old acquaintance of Professor X.

What you need to know:
An awful lot of new Acolytes appear, most of them crap. In particular, there's Neophyte (yes, I know it sounds like his job title but it later turns out to be his real name), who's a teleporter; Katu, a one-armed human satellite dish (no, really) whose origin story is later dealt with in Cable; Spoor (who makes people angry); Milan (who can turn images from people's minds into TV pictures - I told you they were crap); Senyaka (who has "psionic whips"); Scanner (who does astral projection and is one of the few characters here who eventually develops a proper personality); Javitz (big, strong, dull, dull, dull); and Seamus Melloncamp (turns into a big monster). Rarely can one issue have introduced quite so many boring characters at once.

Much more important is the debut of Amelia Voght, a kind of reluctant Acolyte who is shown here as a former acquaintance of Xavier. Interestingly, it's obvious that Lobdell hadn't quite thought the character through at this stage. She calls him "sir", suggesting a relationship entirely different to the one eventually revealed in issue #309.

There's a flashback sequence which takes place during issue #1, revealing that Xavier had the "new" X-Men recruited in 1975 in mind from the start. Quite what this is supposed to add to anything has always baffled me.

This is a double-sized issue with one of those annoying gimmick covers the comics industry was so keen on in 1993.
 

Comments:
This is a slightly unusual anniversary issue in that not a great deal of importance happens. It basically wheels out the Acolytes for a big fight and lets them get down to it. This is the first sight we get of the Acolytes' new incarnation, and there's a bit of a problem with it. The problem is, there's bloody tons of them, and they're all supposed to be individual characters. In practice, since most of them are just raving zealots, there's not much to distinguish most of them.

The story would have worked rather better if the Acolytes had been played as a group of almost generic characters, with the individual characters being drawn out in future stories if the plot called for it. As it is, the story is clogged up with a lot of introductions of minor characters. This is a story about Cortez, Neophyte and Voght. Why clutter it up by having eleven other characters running around when a load of thugs would have served as well? Another rather curious aspect of this story is the guest starring role of Nightcrawler, which doesn't seem to serve any purpose at all. Reunions of former team members are a staple of anniversary issues, but bringing back just the one seems rather superfluous.

Despite all this, it's not such a bad story. The plot is pretty simple, but the disillusioned Neophyte gets some decent scenes and Cortez is still coming across as a credible villain. This issue also marks the return of John Romita, Jr to the title (he previously drew the series in the late 1980s). Although some of his later issues in this run aren't his best work, this issue looks great.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X (next in the second story; also in flashback between pages of issue #1)
Colossus (next in the second story)
Storm and Jean Grey (both next in X-Men vol 2 #20-21, then in Uncanny X-Men Annual #17)
Archangel, Iceman and Bishop (all next in Uncanny X-Men Annual #17)
Cyclops (next in X-Men vol 2 #20-23, then in X-Men Unlimited #1, then in the Infinity Crusade crossover, then in flashback in Generation X #27, then in X-Factor vol 1 #93, then in X-Men vol 2 #24, then in issue #304)
Wolverine (next in X-Men vol 2 #20-21, then in Wolverine vol 2 #69-71, then in X-Men vol 2 #23, then in the Infinity Crusade crossover, then in X-Factor vol 1 #93, then in X-Men vol 2 #24, then in Wolverine vol 2 #72-74, then in issue #304)

GUEST STAR
Nightcrawler (between Excalibur vol 1 #...)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Forge
Moira MacTaggert (last in X-Factor vol 1 #86; next in the second story in issue #300; also in flashback following the flashback in issue #273 and preceding Classic X-Men #2)
Stevie Hunter (between X-Force vol 1 #16 and X-Men vol 2 #30)

VILLAINS
The Gamesmaster (next in the second story)
The Acolytes: Fabian Cortez, Amelia Voght (chronologically last in flashback in issue #309; both next in the second story), Neophyte (chronologically last in flashback in issue #315; next in issue #315), Katu (last in flashback in Cable #10; next in X-Men vol 2 #25), Spoor (next in ...), Milan, Senyaka, Scanner, Javitz, Seamus Melloncamp (first appearance for the latter nine), Carmella Unuscione, Sven Kleinstock, Harlan Kleinstock and Joanna Cargill (the latter four last in issue #298; the latter nine next in X-Factor #92)
Magneto (behind the scenes in flashback between X-Men vol 2 #-1 and issue #1)

SECOND STORY: "Epilog" (8 pages)  Fabian Cortez is rescued from hospital by Amelia Voght, while Illyana Rasputin is dying of the Legacy Virus.

What you need to know:
It's confirmed that Illyana Rasputin has the Legacy Virus.

More interestingly, Amelia Voght strongly suggests that she knows Cortez is a fraudster taking advantage of the Acolytes.

Comments: A bit of subplot advancement and not much more.  Nothing special.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
The X-Men:
Professor X (last in the first story; next in X-Men vol 2 #20-21, then in X-Men vol 2 #23, then in X-Men Unlimited #1)
Colossus (last in the first story; next in X-Men vol 2 #20, then in Uncanny X-Men Annual #17)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Moira MacTaggert (last in the first story; next in issue #301)
Illyana Rasputin (last in issue #299; next in X-Men vol 2 #20)

VILLAINS
Fabian Cortez and Amelia Voght (both last in the first story; both next in X-Factor vol 1 #92)
The Gamesmaster (last in the first story; next behind the scenes in X-Men vol 2 #21)

Last revised: 7 September 2004

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