STORY: "Fight and Flight!" (24 pages)  When Spider-Man tells the X-Men about J Jonah Jameson's investigations into Graydon Creed, the X-Men decide to follow him, only to get caught up in a terrorist attack by Havok.

What you need to know:
Yuck.  Awful, awful issue.  But let's go through the motions.  This issue continues the going-nowhere subplot of Jameson's interest in Graydon Creed's campaign.

The X-Men are in full-on idiot mode in this story.  Aside from the fact that there's no clear reason why they'd want to tail J Jonah Jameson in the first place, they stupidly choose to use their single most visible member, the Beast, who's guaranteed to be recognised in thirty seconds.  And indeed he is.

Havok shows up here as a villain, because that's how he was being written in X-Factor at the time.  The creators of that title later decided that he was faking all along, making his homicidal actions in this issue rather hard to justify.  His colleague here, appearing for the first time, is later named as Ever.  He's the guy in the hologram of Gene Nation in issue #325 who never actually appeared in the story, but the significance of this - if any - has never been explained.  Ever goes on to make several appearances with Havok as this dreadful Brotherhood storyline continues in X-Factor.

Bastion kills a Daily Bugle journalist who discovers Creed's true parentage (he's the son of the supervillain mutants Sabretooth and Mystique).

More X-Factor plots (oh, goody) - Mystique is still planning to kill Graydon Creed but changes her plan when she sees the X-Men tailing him.  None of which has anything to do with this title at all.

Jean is having glitches with her telepathic powers, which is footnoted as being a reference to a plot in X-Man.  I don't recall there being any such plot, and I suspect this is the result of a late plot change in that title.

Spider-Man... ah yes, Spider-Man.  This story saw print during the universally panned clone storyline in the Spider-Man books. Consequently, the man in the Spider-Man costume in this issue isn't Spider-Man.  It's his clone Ben Reilly, the second Spider-Man. That's why there are vague and cryptic allusions to Peter Parker as Spider-Man's "friend" - Lobdell's obviously trying to avoid getting into the details of the storyline.  At this point, Reilly was supposed to actually be the original Spider-Man returning to the role after giving it up in the 1970s (long story), which is why he makes several anachronistic comments about the X-Men roster, such as calling Jean Grey by her 1970s codename.

Comments:
Basically a giant plug for the ongoing Brotherhood storyline in X-Factor, a storyline that saner minds would have kept rather quiet about instead of inflicting it on the flagship titles.  Lobdell has a brave stab at persuading us that we're looking at the real Havok (only to have his efforts undermined by the inept handling of the story in X-Factor), and does rather better than Howard Mackie, the main writer of the story, had been managing.  Nonetheless, the plot is just plain silly, as the X-Men continue to wander around to no great purpose, and Havok launches a downright idiotic attack on Jameson for no sensible reason.

The art is mixed - half the book is drawn by the excellent Adam Kubert, and looks great.  The rest is drawn by Cedric "Who?" Nocon, and is a rather poor affair all told.  On the whole, one to avoid.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
The Beast (next in X-Men vol 2 #59, then in X-Men '96, then in Beast #1-3, then in Silver Surfer vol 3 #123, then in X-Men '97, then in issue #341)
Bishop (last in the X-Men story in Marvel Holiday Special 1996; next in X-Men vol 2 #59, then in X-Men '96, then in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #13, then in Silver Surfer vol 3 #123, then in X-Men '97, then in issue #341)
Cyclops (last in the X-Men story in Marvel Holiday Special 1996; next in X-Men vol 2 #59, then in the Cyclops & Phoenix story in Marvel Valentine Special #1, then in DC/Marvel: All Access #2-4, then in X-Men '96, then in X-Men vol 2 #60-61, then in Incredible Hulk vol 2 #455, then in the second story in X-Force '96, then in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #13, then in Silver Surfer vol 3 #123, then in the second story in X-Man '96, then in X-Man #25, then in Uncanny X-Men '97)
Iceman (last in the X-Men story in Marvel Holiday Special 1996; next in X-Men vol 2 #59)
Joseph (last in X-Men vol 2 #58; next in X-Men vol 2 #59, then in X-Men '96, then in X-Men '97, then in issue #341)
Phoenix III (last in the X-Men story in Marvel Holiday Special 1996; next in X-Men vol 2 #59)
Storm (last in the X-Men story in Marvel Holiday Special 1996)
Wolverine (last in Venom: Tooth & Claw #3; next in X-Men vol 2 #59)

GUEST STAR
J Jonah Jameson (between X-Men vol 2#58 and Sensational Spider-Man #11)

VILLAINS
Bastion (between Onslaught: Epilogue and Venom: On Trial #1)
Graydon Creed (between X-Man #25 and X-Men vol 2 #59)
Ever (first actual appearance; next in X-Factor #139)
Havok (between X-Men vol 2 #58 and X-Man #28)

GUEST APPEARANCES
Forge (last in the second story in X-Factor #125; next in Marvel Fanfare vol 2 #6)
Mystique (last in the second story in X-Factor #125; next in Sabretooth & Mystique #1)
Spider-Man II and Peter Parker (in flashback; both between Sensational Spider-Man #10 and Spider-Man #73)

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