FIRST STORY: "The Gift Goodbye" (44 pages) The X-Men visit the dying Mastermind on Muir Isle. Jean, Iceman and Bishop are drawn in to his mental illusions as he tries to make amends for his crimes before he dies. Meanwhile, the other X-Men prevent the vigilante X-Cutioner from killing Mastermind, and Colossus is injured in the fight.

What you need to know:
Quite a lot of developments in the world of minor villains, starting with the death of Mastermind. Who was actually a pretty major villain in his day. He's another character sacrificed in the name of building up the Legacy Virus, of course.

The X-Cutioner makes his first appearance. He's an FBI agent who worked with the X-Men's original government liaison, Fred Duncan, now missing presumed dead. He's kitted himself out with a load of equipment nicked from sixties X-Men villains and he's now going out to execute mutant murderers. The 1993 annuals had a running theme of introducing new characters; in this one, it's him.

And just to round things off, Tower dies. You know, Tower. Fought X-Factor once along with the Alliance of Evil. The Alliance of Evil. Come on, somebody out there must remember the Alliance of Evil... Anyhow, he gets X-cuted.

Colossus gets a head injury which is apparently part of the explanation for his rather erratic actions in future issues.

Also rather important is that Bishop's hallucinations include a debut appearance (of sorts) by his sister Shard. She's just a hallucination, but she's there.

Comments:
This one's fun. Okay, so it's got the X-Cutioner, who's not (at this stage) a great character. And he's got a terrible, terrible name. On top of that, the story uses the rather cliched plot where our heroes have a series of hallucinations which not-very-subtly point up key character points. But for all that, it's fun. There's some wonderfully silly images in the hallucination sequences (an eight-year-old Cable with a full-size Liefeld firearm is a classic), and the sequences involving the usually bland Iceman are less obvious than you might expect. On top of that, Mastermind comes across as a pathetic but quite sympathetic character.

This story also has very stylised art from Jason Johnson. It won't be to everyone's taste, and there's a couple of slightly dodgy panels, but on the whole it really works.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Jean Grey (last in X-Men vol 2 #21; next in the Infinity Crusade crossover, then in Uncanny X-Men #302)
Storm and Bishop (both last in Uncanny X-Men #300; both next in X-Men Unlimited #1, then in issue #301)
Colossus (last in the second story in Uncanny X-Men #300; next in Uncanny X-Men #301)
Archangel and Iceman (between Uncanny X-Men #300-301)

VILLAINS
The X-Cutioner (Carl Denti; first appearance; last in flashback in Gambit #5; next in issue #310)
Mastermind I (last in Excalibur #26; dies)
Tower (last in New Mutants Annual #7; dies)

SECOND STORY: "Of Kings and Queens and Promises" (8 pages)  Trevor Fitzroy recruits wild child Siena Blaze into the Upstarts by showing her an alternate future where she ends up as a prisoner of the Sentinels

What you need to know:
This is the first appearance of Siena Blaze, the final member of the Upstarts.  Awful, awful character.

Comments: This story is a short trailer for X-Men Unlimited #1, in which Siena tries to kill Professor X, Cyclops and Storm.  On that level, it gets the job done, I suppose.  Unfortunately, Siena Blaze turned out to be a dreadfully misconceived character.  The idea was that every time she used her powers she could inadvertantly destroy the planet, and she didn't really care.  Obviously this creates big difficulties, since we all know the planet can never be destroyed, and so the more she came back and it didn't happen, the less seriously anyone could take her.  Ultimately, Siena was one of the unwanted characters dumped in the Malibu Ultraverse in the dodgy (and possibly no longer canon) All-New Exiles.  I have heard it said that the X-office were offered the character back when All-New Exiles was cancelled, and they politely declined.  The right decision.

FEATURE CHARACTER
Trevor Fitzroy (between Uncanny X-Men #283 and #299)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Bantam I (between Uncanny X-Men #282 and #301)
Siena Blaze (first appearance; next in X-Men Unlimited #1)

OTHER CHARACTERS
Wallace Benton (Siena's boyfriend; first appearance; killed by Fitzroy)
Siena Blaze (of a Days of Futures Past timeline; first and only appearance)

Last revised: 7 September 2004

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