STORY: "Reunion" (22 pages)  Hank, Bobby and Warren go to visit Scott and Jean in Alaska. The founding X-Men talk about their lives, while a flock of crows gathers.

What you need to know:
It's another thrilling mid-#350s issue of slow build for ultimately aborted subplots, oh joy.  To the extent there's a main plot here, it's the gathering of the mysterious birds in Ptarmigan Creek, Alaska.  Next issue gives several conflicting explanations of what's going on.  The robot crow mentioned next issue is visible in a couple of panels here.

As the story ends, Scott tells the other founding X-Men that "it's time we reconsidered [Xavier's] dream, and maybe replaced it with our own."  Needless to say, this never goes anywhere.

Warren is wondering whether to split up with Psylocke.  This never goes anywhere either.

The snow outside Scott and Jean's house has been cleared in the shape of a Phoenix emblem again.  Scott and Hank spend a couple of pages talking about this, in what seems laying the groundwork for a reversal of the "Jean wasn't Phoenix" retcon of the 1980s.

Rogue has reverted to her green costume, from around the time she first joined the X-Men.  Wolverine's dialogue suggests that the costume change is meant to symbolise a return to "darker days" for Rogue.

Rogue trails Dr Agee to the offices of a company called Mutopia. Agee subsequently tells her that Mutopia "claim they want to create the perfect world for all races."  He says that he declined an offer to join.

Sauron is handed over to SHIELD, disposing of that subplot.

Comments:
Yes, well... it's difficult to get very excited about anything in this period, because so much of it is tentative first steps on a long-term plan that never went anywhere at all.  Knowing in retrospect that there's simply no pay-off to 90% of this material, it's hard to reach any conclusion other than "who cares"?

Other than the long-term material, this issue is also the first part of a hopelessly weird two-parter about crows which, again, might possibly have made some sense if it was intended as the set-up for something else.  If it's meant to be self-contained then god alone knows what the point is - perhaps to fill the issue with birds in order to play off the Phoenix imagery, but that still begs the question of why.

We're deep, deep into completist territory in this period.  Despite the talent working on the books, there's very little point in reading (or even re-reading) this stuff unless you desperately want to see the entire history of the series, no matter how irrelevant or pointless.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
The Beast (last in Excalibur #121; also in flashback between X-Men vol 2 #76 and Excalibur #121)
Iceman (last in issue #354; also in flashback immediately preceding this story)
Rogue (last in Wolverine vol 2 #126; next in issue #359)
Wolverine (last in X-Men vol 2 #76; next in X-Men vol 2 #77-78, then in issue #359; also in flashback immediately preceding this story)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Cyclops
Phoenix III (last in Wolverine vol 2 #126)
Archangel (last in X-Men vol 2 #74)
Chris Miller (last in issue #352)
Staci Miller (no further appearances)
Melissa Murphy (first appearance; Staci's sister)

VILLAINS
Moon Wolf (first appearance)
Sauron (next in Deadpool #57)
Aubrey Agee
The Mutopia Consortium (first appearance; next in issue #359)

GUEST APPEARANCE
SHIELD (continuity unknown)

OTHER CHARACTER
Connie (a waitress; first appearance)

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