STORY: "Because, I Said So" (22 pages)  Gambit, Rogue and Joseph are held prisoner in Antarctica, with their powers neutered. Rogue hallucinates about the Morlock Massacre, and Rogue and Gambit spend the night together.  Yes, THAT one.

What you need to know:
Nanny gives away a plot point from issue #350 straight off the bat by openly telling us on page three that they're in "the lair of Magneto."  Hey, maybe they really did plan this stuff out after all.

Magneto's lair has cyborg bats flying around.  Which is never explained.  Hey, maybe I was right the first time round.  The bat gets screen time suggesting that it was going to be a plot point, but it's never referenced again.

With her powers turned off, Rogue begins to be taken over by memories she's absorbed in the past, and re-enacting them for us all to enjoy.  There's some precedent for this (Carol Danvers' personality re-emerged when her powers were cancelled in Genosha back in the late eighties, for example), but it's basically something pulled out of the ether so that she can foreshadow the big revelation in issue #350 about Gambit's involvement in the Morlock Massacre.

Specifically, Rogue re-enacts one of Gambit's memories, by impersonating Sabretooth, which is rather bizarre.  Of some slight interest is that Sabretooth refers to Mr Sinister under his real name, implying (a) that he knows what it is, and (b) that Gambit knows what it is too, since Sabretooth said it to him.

Rogue's other fit has her re-enacting Gambit rescuing Marrow from the Morlock Massacre, which we get to see in a flashback next issue.

The Beast spends a page drawing our attention to the impossibility of the plot, which is normally a sign that the writer has an explanation, but it's risky to make that kind of judgment with stories like this.  The Beast points out (a) that the complex they're in was supposedly destroyed in a volcanic eruption, and (b) that it's absurdly coincidental that they should have crashlanded at Magneto's base.  Oddly, the Beast talks as if Magneto's out there somewhere, even though he's meant to think that Joseph is Magneto.

Oh, and because they don't have their powers, Gambit and Rogue take the opportunity to have sex.  At least, that's pretty heavily implied in this issue, more or less confirmed in the next (which uses the euphemism "fully express their love").  However, Marvel subsequently backed off from that idea - in issue #359, this scene is described as "But having kissed the love of her life while her powers waned in Antarctica..."  That would seem to be the current official line.

Over on the other side of the galaxy, Deathbird is holding Bishop in a supposed medical treatment machine, telling him that he has been "crippled" in trying to save all the other X-Men, and that only the two of them survived.  Deathbird claims that Bishop belongs with her and that together, "the two of us will rule an empire." Bishop seems less than convinced.

Psylocke and Archangel arrive back from the not-awfully-good Psylocke & Archangel: Crimson Dawn miniseries to find their apartment smashed up.  That happened in X-Men #67, elsewhere in the OZT crossover, where Iceman tried to use it for a safehouse and got attacked there.  Psylocke is missing her facial tattoo in this scene for some reason.  Anyhow, she teleports away for no reason.

Comments:
One of the most annoying things about comics' obsession with having big events coming in multiples of 25 is issues like this - stories that drop a few hints but basically don't advance the plot and amount to little more than padding so that the big climax can come in issue #350.

With not much else going on, Lobdell takes the opportunity to end the issue on Rogue and Gambit heading off to take advantage of having their powers cancelled in order to go off and have sex.  I have never understood the logic of this story.  Rogue is a character who has serious issues about touching other people, to put it mildly.  So they're chained up, they're being monitored by a supervillain, and they've never even kissed before, and Rogue decides that now is the time to get her kit off?  Give me a break.

Madureira is on reasonably good form here, cranking up the melodrama to ridiculous heights as Gambit watches Rogue re-enacting the Morlock Massacre.  He manages to get a fairly silly scene to look more or less touching, which is better than nothing.

Not much else to be said about this one.  Filler material as we wait for the anniversary.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
The Beast, Gambit, Joseph and Rogue
Psylocke and Archangel (both last in Psylocke & Archangel: Crimson Dawn #4)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Bishop (between issues #345 and #353)
Trish Tilby
Maggott, Eeny and Meany (all behind the scenes)

VILLAINS
Spat and Grovel
Magneto and Landscape (both behind the scenes)
Deathbird (between issues #345 and #353)

GUEST APPEARANCE
Moira MacTaggert (between Excalibur #114 and Generation X #32)

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