STORY: "Generation of Evil" (36 pages)  Colossus shows up at the mansion with a badly injured Callisto.  Callisto tells them that it is the anniversary of the day the Marauders massacred most of the Morlocks, and that Gene Nation intend to kill a human for every mutant that died in the massacre.  The X-Men track down Gene Nation, and Storm is forced to kill Marrow to stop a bomb from exploding.

What you need to know:
Several X-Men comment that Callisto doesn't seem to be telling them the entire truth.  A lot of what happens in this issue bears that out, but it's difficult to see what her motivations are.  The clearest example is that she tells the X-Men that Mikhail Rasputin died when the Morlocks left Earth.  She later contradicts herself, claiming that Gene Nation did something nasty to him instead.  Storm picks her up on this, and she simply backtracks.  She also claims that Gene Nation were "testing" the X-Men in their previous encounters, which seems implausible given that the X-Men just stumbled across them. And she claims that Gene Nation are "renegade Morlocks", which is shown to be untrue in the Storm miniseries, where they are shown as close allies of Mikhail Rasputin.  Evidently Callisto is up to something, but it's unclear what.

And how does Callisto know what Gene Nation are planning, anyway?  It's possible that she's actually on their side and is trying to lead the X-Men (and specifically Storm) into a trap.  Perhaps she shares their bitterness about Storm's failure to live up to her responsibilities as leader of the Morlocks, even though she doesn't agree with Gene Nation's attempt to kill innocent people.

Curiously, the picture of Gene Nation which Callisto shows to the X-Men contains one member who never appears in the actual fight scene.  He later crops up as a member of Havok's shortlived team the Brotherhood in X-Factor, calling himself Ever and not appearing to have any real connection with Gene Nation.  Why he's in this issue (his earliest appearance) is something of a mystery.

Hemingway's appearance takes Callisto by surprise.  It seems he's mutated since he last saw her, and she didn't think that was possible. This is never picked up on.

Marrow's death is reversed in Storm #4, which reveals that she survived the loss of one heart because she's actually got two. You'd have thought blood loss would be an issue here, and you'd also have thought the X-Men would have given her a proper burial instead of just dumping her corpse in the tunnels, but apparently not.

Rogue phones the mansion and tells Gambit that she's heading for Seattle.  He's horrified, but doesn't explain why.  Oddly, when he tries to take it up with her she hangs up on him, and again it's not clear why.

Gambit decides to head for Seattle himself, and a subplot shows us that Mr Sinister has been keeping an eye out waiting for this to happen.  I believe this is the earliest story that clearly ties Sinister into Gambit's history.

As well as being issue #325, this issue supposedly commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the relaunch of the X-Men in 1975.  Consequently, it's double the normal size, and it has a double gatefold cover that cleverly manages to avoid having the logo or the issue number anywhere that's clearly visible on the front cover.  Happy hunting, collectors!.

Comments:
Well, it's not great, is it?  Scott Lobdell has since revealed that he was ordered to write the story in such a way that Storm killed Marrow, and went through various drafts to try and find some way in which this would make some vague kind of sense.  What he ends up with is the "I've got a bomb connected to my heart" routine, which kind of gives Storm a rationale, but just begs the even bigger question "Why in the name of god would Marrow want to do something as stupid as connecting a bomb to her heart?"

It's also hard to avoid agreeing with Callisto's criticism that the X-Men seem to have forgotten about the Morlock Massacre.  For all their mumbling about how they got hurt in it too, they have chosen to mark the anniversary of the great day with an intervarsity baseball match and a party.  Oh dear.

Joe Madureira's artwork on this issue is patchy but has some pretty good moments.  His Marrow is perhaps excessively ugly even for the standards of this period, and there's a couple of rushed looking pages where the characters are very artificially posed, but for the most part his action sequences work well.  (Incidentally, there's a newspaper with the headline "Cruz Swipes Again" - a fairly obvious swipe at fill-in artist Roger Cruz.)

This is the last we hear of Gene Nation for quite a while, and it's no loss.  They're simply not a very interesting bunch, and the blunt directness of their plans - which amount to little more than "Let's kill some people" - doesn't make for interesting stories.  This is a fudged ending to a pretty dull storyline, and at least it gets it out of the way.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Archangel (last in X-Men '95; next in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #8, then in flashback in the second story in X-Men '95, then in X-Men/ ClanDestine #1-2, then in issue #328)
The Beast (last in Avengers: The Crossing)
Bishop (last behind the scenes in Generation X #6; next in Wolverine: Knight of Terra, then in Wolverine vol 2 #93, then in Uncanny X-Men '95)
Cannonball II (next in Wolverine vol 2 #93, then in Wolverine vol 2 #96, then in X-Men & ClanDestine #1, then in Uncanny X-Men '95)
Cyclops (last in X-Men '95; next in X-Factor vol 1 #115, then in X-Men & ClanDestine #1, then in Spider-Man Team-Up #1, then in issue #328)
Gambit and Iceman (both last behind the scenes in DC vs Marvel #4; both next in X-Men vol 2 #45)
Phoenix III (last in X-Men '95; next in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #8, then in Exiles vs X-Men #0, then in X-Men/ClanDestine #1, then in X-Men vol 2 #46-47, then in Spider-Man Team-Up #1, then in issue #328)
Psylocke (last in flashback in the second story in X-Men '95; next in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #9, then in Spider-Man Team-Up #1, then in issue #328)
Rogue (next in X-Men vol 2 #45, where she leaves the X-Men)
Storm (last in DC vs Marvel #4)
Wolverine (last in DC vs Marvel #4;next in Wolverine: Knight of Terra, then in Wolverine vol 2 #93-96, then in X-Men & ClanDestine #1-2, then in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #9, then in Uncanny X-Men '95)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Callisto (between X-Men vol 2 #44 and Storm #2)
Colossus (between X-Men vol 2 #44 and X-Men/ClanDestine #1)

VILLAINS
Mr Sinister (between X-Men '95 and X-Men vol 2 #45)
Threnody (between X-Men vol 2 #34 and X-Man #12)
Gene Nation: Marrow (does not die but appears next in Storm #4), Hemingway (next as Pain in Storm #3; both last in Generation X #6), Sack (next as Glass in Storm #3), Vessel (next as Snow in Storm #3) and Reverb (real name unrevealed; first appearance; dies)

GUEST APPEARANCES
The Banshee, Jubilee, M I and Skin (all between Generation X #9 and Wolverine vol 2 #94)

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