STORY: "Dark Walk" (21 pages)  A group of mutants commit a spree killing in a New York nightclub.  Meanwhile, the Beast, Bishop and Psylocke are visiting Hoboken, New Jersey when the Juggernaut crashes into the town.  Once they calm him down, he tells them that he has been punched all the way from Canada by Onslaught.

What you need to know:
This issue sees the beginning of two major plots.  Firstly, the spree killing is the first activity we see from the mutant terrorist group Gene Nation, who dominate the next three issues.  I'll come back to them in a bit.

Secondly, Onslaught is introduced, at least insofar as the Juggernaut says he's been beaten up by him.  At this stage in the plot, it appears that the creators didn't actually have any clue who or what Onslaught was.  He was powerful to beat the Juggernaut - wasn't that enough to be getting on with?  As we'll see, the incoherent mess that this plot degenerated into is an object lesson in the things that can go wrong when you write in this way.

As the Juggernaut obligingly points out, this story makes no sense. There's no obvious reason for Onslaught to attack the Juggernaut in this manner and certainly no obvious reason why Onslaught would deliberately dump him in the same city where the X-Men just happen to be passing.  Needless to say, none of this has ever been explained.  We're now entering a decidedly dodgy period for this title, plagued by some downright hopeless plotting, and I think it's best to be upfront about that now.

There's a nice little scene with Storm that helpfully summarises major plot developments in other books that you might want to know about.  One, Gambit's now in a coma after having kissed Rogue.  Two, Wolverine's now living in the grounds after having speared Sabretooth through the head in a fit of rage, and is losing his grip on humanity.

Jean Grey belatedly gets around to telling her parents that her sister Sara seems to have been killed by the Phalanx.  Incidentally, her comment that Sara was absorbed "shortly after she disappeared" can't possibly be right.  The Phalanx didn't come to exist on Earth until after Warlock was supposedly killed, allowing his body to be used for the creation of the Phalanx.  That didn't happen until several years after Sara's disappearance in X-Factor vol 1 #2. It's also far from clear why Jean is accepting the Phalanx's version of events when they could so easily be lying, but there you go.

The mysterious telepathic aide (later named as Noah DuBois) who was helping Senator Kelly in issue #299 crops up again.  He's now intangible and invisible, and is monitoring Scott and Jean.  His motivations for this remain decidedly obscure, and no real plot ever emerges out of it.

Comments:
Well, after four months of the Age of Apocalypse it's certainly a relief to get back to some actual X-Men stories again.  Lobdell has two main ideas here - firstly, there's an anniversary issue just around the corner, and so in come Gene Nation in preparation for that.  All we see here is the aftermath of one of their killings, but it's effectively presented and it does give the impression of a real threat.

Then there's Onslaught.  Lobdell's big idea was that the X-Men hadn't had a real cosmic level threat to fight since Dark Phoenix over a decade before, so he created one.  Unfortunately, in typical style, the creators just assumed the plot would write itself as they went along, and didn't bother to come up with a coherent plan. Consequently this is just the first of many stories which drop enigmatic hints about Onslaught, very few of which are given any sort of satisfactory resolution.  Pretty much any story involving Onslaught has to be marked down as a result - there's a few good ones in there, but there's no getting away from the dismal failure of the overall plot.

Taken on its own, this is a pretty decent issue, introducing two new plot threads in an intriguing way. Unfortunately, the latent defects will be coming out shortly...

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Archangel (last in X-Men: Prime; next behind the scenes in X-Men vol 2 #42, then in Wolverine vol 2 #91)
The Beast (last in X-Men: Prime; next in X-Men vol 2 #42-43, then in Wolverine vol 2 #91, then in the first and second stories in Wolverine '95, then in X-Force vol 1 #45)
Bishop (last in X-Man #5; next in X-Men vol 2 #43-44, then in Wolverine vol 2 #91, then in Wolverine '95, then behind the scenes in Generation X #6, then in issue #325)
Cyclops (last in flashback in Cable #46; next in X-Men vol 2 #42-44, then in X-Force vol 1 #44, then in Wolverine vol 2 #91, then in DC vs Marvel #1-2, then behind the scenes in DC vs Marvel #3-4, then in X-Men '95, then in issue #325)
Phoenix III (last in X-Men: Prime; next in X-Men vol 2 #42-44, then in Cable #21, then in Wolverine vol 2 #91, then in DC vs Marvel #1, then behind the scenes in DC vs Marvel #2-4, then in X-Men '95, then in issue #325; also as Jean Grey in flashback following X-Men Forever #4 and preceding issue #1)
Psylocke (last in X-Men: Prime; next in X-Men vol 2 #44, then in Wolverine vol 2 #91, then in Wolverine '95, then behind the scenes in Generation X #6)
Storm (last in X-Men: Prime; next in X-Men vol 2 #42, then behind the scenes in Wolverine vol 2 #91, then behind the scenes in X-Force vol 1 #45)
Wolverine (last in X-Men: Prime; next in Wolverine vol 2 #91, then in the first and second stories in Wolverine '95, then in X-Force vol 1 #46, then in Generation X #6)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
John Grey (last in X-Men vol 2 #30; next in X-Men vs Brood #1)
Sara Grey (in flashback which is her chronologically earliest appearance, preceding the flashback in issue #22)
Charlotte Jones (last in issue #298; next behind the scenes in X-Men vol 2 #42)

VILLAINS
The Juggernaut (last in Deadpool vol 1 #4; next in X-Men vol 2 #42)
Onslaught (behind the scenes; first reference; chronologically last in a time-travel sequence in X-Men '98; next behind the scenes in X-Men vol 2 #46)

GUEST APPEARANCES
Siryn (last in X-Men: Prime; next behind the scenes in Cable #21)

OTHER CHARACTERS
Noah Dubois (last in issue #299)
Eve McGee (one of Gene Nation's victims; first appearance; deceased; named in Uncanny X-Men '97)

Last revised: 10 December 2004

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