STORY: "LegionQuest part 3: Auld Lang Syne" (23 pages)  Legion has taken four X-Men back to the past with him, but they have no memory of why they are there. Fortunately, the remaining X-Men in the present are able to send Cable's astral form back to the past to put their teammates on the right track. Meanwhile, Legion is taken in at the hospice where the young Charles Xavier and Magnus work and Gabrielle Haller is a patient..

What you need to know:
A fair chunk of this issue is dedicated to showing Xavier and Magnus's friendship. Evidently each hasn't told the other that he's a mutant, and both have already formed their respective philosophies, even though they seem rather less committed to them at this stage.

For absolutely no apparent reason, Legion poses as Xavier and seduces his own mother, in what is strongly implied to be a rape scene. This provoked enormous debate at the time, leading to the general conclusion that the writers must have been out of their heads to write something so stupid.

At this point, Uncanny X-Men was put on hold for four months, along with all the other X-books, so that the Age of Apocalypse storyline could appear. The substitute title in this period was Astonishing X-Men vol 1, which was the work of the regular creative team. To all intents and purposes, those four issues are a continuation of this series. However, I intend to index all the Age of Apocalypse stories together at a later date, so for the moment I'm just going to skip over them and move on.

Comments:
This is one of the strongest episodes of LegionQuest, if only because with Legion out of action for most of the story, there's time for the characters to do something interesting. Xavier and Magnus's relationship is well written, and the ethical problems of Xavier's romance with one of his patients are sensibly addressed. Equally, the amnesiac X-Men get some good scenes - rather than the cliched "who am I" material, instead they spend time grumbling about their inability to get on with the plot, which is far more interesting.

Unfortunately... well, it's got That Scene. Why in the name of god would Legion want to seduce his own mother? Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have anything against this scene if it had any bearing on the wider story or it shed some light on Legion's motivations. But other than to hammer home the point that he's completely round the twist, it doesn't seem to. It feels simply gratuitous, and it's a desperately unpleasant read, for all the wrong reasons.

Fill-in artwork this time (and yes, that's a fill-in artist for the fourth straight issue - even at this stage in his career, Joe Madureira treated getting out of bed as a distinctly optional part of his day) comes from Ron Garney, although it looks very little like the distinctive style that would later emerge in his work on Captain America. This may be simply because the X-books' regular inkers are trying to give him the house style, but for whatever reason it lacks a lot of the quality of his later work.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X (last in X-Men vol 2 #40; next in X-Men vol 2 #41, then in Cable #20, then in X-Men: Prime; his past self also appears, following the flashback in issue #309 and preceding X-Men vol 2 #41)
The Beast, Phoenix III (both last in X-Men vol 2 #40), Archangel and Cyclops (both last in X-Force #43; all next in X-Men vol 2 #41, then in Cable #20, then in X-Men: Prime, then Cyclops in flashback in Cable #46)
Bishop (last in X-Men vol 2 #40; next in X-Men vol 2 #41, then in X-Men: Alpha, then in Astonishing X-Men vol 1 #1, then in Generation Next #1, then in Amazing X-Men #1, then in Astonishing X-Men vol 1 #2-3, then in Amazing X-Men #3-4, then in X-Men: Omega, then in X-Men: Prime, then in X-Man #5)
Gambit (last in X-Men vol 2 #40; next in X-Men vol 2 #41, then in Cable #20, then in X-Men: Prime, then behind the scenes in X-Men vol 2 #42, then in issue #323)
Iceman (last in X-Men vol 2 #40; next in X-Men vol 2 #41, then in X-Men: Omega, then in X-Men: Prime, then in X-Men vol 2 #42, then in issue #323)
Psylocke (last in X-Men vol 2 #40; next in X-Men vol 2 #41, then in X-Men: Prime)
Rogue (last in X-Men vol 2 #40; next in X-Men vol 2 #41, then in Cable #20, then in X-Men: Prime, then in X-Men vol 2 #42, then in issue #323)
Storm (last in X-Men vol 2 #40; next in X-Men vol 2 #41, then in X-Men: Omega, then in X-Men: Prime)

GUEST STAR
Cable (between X-Force #43 and X-Men vol 2 #41)

SUPPORTING CHARACTER
Magnus (between X-Men vol 2 #40-41)

VILLAIN
Legion (between X-Men vol 2 #40-41)

GUEST APPEARANCE
Domino II (behind the scenes between X-Force #43 and X-Men vol 2 #41)

OTHER CHARACTERS
The Shi'ar (between X-Men vol 2 #40 and Cable #20)

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