STORY: "Peers" (22 pages)  The Acolytes recapture Neophyte [who betrayed them to the X-Men in issue #300] and place him on trial for treason, with Voght prosecuting and Colossus defending. The trial turns into a debate about what the Acolytes should be learning from Magneto, and ultimately Neophyte is banished from the Acolytes' space station rather than being executed for his "crimes."

What you need to know:
Not much actually happens here, unless you care greatly about the fate of a throwaway character like Neophyte. There is, however, an awful lot revealed about political manouevring within the Acolytes.

Exodus has banned any of the other Acolytes from seeing the comatose Magneto. He claims this is to protect Magneto's dignity, although since Exodus has apparently propped the drooling comatose Magneto up in a throne, it seems likely that he's not seeing the world quite the way it is. He also appears to be motivated by a desire to avoid reminding the other Acolytes that Magneto can't express any of his opinions at the moment, and that consequently Exodus's claim to be carrying out Magneto's will is suspect at best.

Amelia Voght deliberately undermines the trial by allowing Colossus to turn it into a debate on the Acolytes' philosophy rather than the facts of Neophyte's actions. It appears that she's become disillusioned with the Acolytes. Colossus certainly has.

Exodus apparently isn't too dogmatic about following what he believes to be Magneto's wishes. When he realises that Colossus is winning over the Acolytes, he defuses the situation by exiling Neophyte instead of executing him - apparently not what he'd originally intended to do.

Comments:
This story sets up some potentially fascinating ideas about the Acolytes' internal politics, which unfortunately are never really pursued in future stories. After the unambiguously villainous Magneto who appeared in issue #304, this story is a pleasant reminder that Magneto was a far more complex character than that. As Colossus argues, his actions were open to several interpretations, and the Acolytes happen to have focused on only one. Voght also comes across as a much more interesting character in this story, suggesting that she had sympathy with the actions of Magneto himself but is rapidly losing patience with Exodus's attempt to turn the Acolytes into some kind of cult.

The visuals are a rather mixed bag. Joe Madureira was never an artist able to keep a regular schedule to save his life (as long-suffering readers of his series BattleChasers later found out), and for the second issue running we have a fill-in artist. This time round, it's Roger "The Chameleon" Cruz, an artist mainly noted for his wild shifts in artistic style throughout his career to try and keep up with the flavour of the month. In a couple of years he'll be aping Madureira, but for now he's a rather poor Jim Lee clone. Although the images of the Acolytes in their monastic costumes work pretty well, he never seems to get the full potential out of the story. For example, Exodus talking to a comatose man who he's dressed up in robes and propped up in a throne should be a disturbing and unsettling sight, but it just looks as if Magneto's having a nap.

On the whole, this is a decent enough story in itself, but it's a shame that the full potential is never really picked up.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
None

VILLAINS
Magneto (between X-Men vol 2 #26 and #41)
Colossus (last in X-Men vol 2 #26; next in flashback in issue #393)
Joanna Cargill (last in Cable #11; next in X-Men vol 2 #41; also in flashback following New Warriors Annual #1 and preceding issue #298)
Rusty Collins (last in Cable #11; next in X-Men: Prime)
Exodus (last in Avengers vol 1 #369; next behind the scenes in Avengers vol 1 #380)
Javitz (last in Cable #11; next in X-Men vol 2 #41)
Harlan Kleinstock (last in Cable #11; next in X-Men vol 2 #43)
Sven Kleinstock (last in Cable #11; next in X-Men vol 2 #43)
Milan (last in Cable #11; next in X-Men vol 2 #41; also in flashback ...)
Neophyte (last in issue #300; next in Avengers vol 1 #380; also in flashback which is his chronologically earliest appearance, preceding issue #300)
Scanner II (last in Cable #11; next in Avengers vol 1 #381)
Skids (last in Cable #11; next in X-Men vol 2 #42)
Carmella Unuscione (last in Cable #11; next in X-Men vol 2 #41)
Amelia Voght (last in Cable #11; next in X-Men: Prime)

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