STORY: "The Enemy of my Enemy..." (37 pages)  Gambit goes after Rogue, but can't persuade her to take him back.  She decides to leave the X-Men.

What you need to know:
This is a double-sized issue, happily billed as "Special X-Men Anniversary issue."  Specifically, it's meant to be commemorating the 20th anniversary of the debut of the new X-Men in Giant-Size X-Men #1, but they don't actually explain that anywhere on the issue.  It's also a double-gatefold cover, which bizarrely placed the logo on the inside gatefold.  What you see to the right is the front cover, as it appeared on the stands.  Crap, innit?

Rogue is still tormented by her inability to remember what the dreadful secret was that she picked up from Gambit.  She ends up going to an abandoned theatre where, apparently, something bad happened involving Gambit.  Gambit also works out that she's likely to have gone there.  The significance of the theatre was never made terribly clear, but (according to Fabian) the broken sign is meant to say "The Essex Theatre", implying a connection with Mr Sinister.  In any event, the big secret is certainly meant to be Gambit's involvement in the recruitment of the Morlocks.

Sinister pops up at the end of the issue to remind Gambit that "soon it will be time to play the hand [I] dealt you."  As the storyline eventually turned out, this is presumably just Sinister reminding Gambit that his secret's bound to come out sooner or later.

Graydon Creed, leader of the Friends of Humanity, is invited to stand for election in 1996.  This kicks off the storyline which ultimately led to Creed's assassination in X-Factor.

Comments:
This is Fabian Nicieza's final issue, ending a run that started with issue #12.  Things get a bit choppy from here on, as a series of writers take over and things kind of flail around a bit.

At the time, this was a rather unsatisfying issue.  It's all about Gambit refusing to explain what he and Rogue are so upset about.  Now that we actually know what Gambit's secret was, it actually reads much better (whether or not it was the same plan that Nicieza had in mind when he wrote the issue).  Gambit comes out of it quite badly - he still doesn't want to come clean, he just wants to try and put things back the way they were before, and hope the whole thing can be brushed under the carpet.  He's working on the assumption that if he tells the X-Men the truth, they'll kick him out, and he'll never get to redeem himself.  And he's probably right.

Originally, it was a bit too cryptic for its own good.  It also suffered from Kubert's art.  This is basically a talking heads issue, but he tries far too hard to liven it up, and the result is some histrionic overacting, particularly on Rogue's part.  There are some nice brooding pages with Sinister and Gambit, but overall the art just needs to calm the hell down and let the characters breathe.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Gambit (last in Uncanny X-Men #325; next in Uncanny X-Men #326, then in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #8, then in Exiles vs X-Men #0, then in Ghost Rider vol 3 #67-68)
Iceman (last in Uncanny X-Men #325; next behind the scenes in Uncanny X-Men #326, then in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #8, then in Exiles vs X-Men #0, then in X-Men/ClanDestine #1)
Rogue (last in Uncanny X-Men #325; leaves the X-Men; next in Exiles vs X-Men #0)

VILLAINS
Graydon Creed (last in flashback in Machine Man/Bastion '98; next in X-Factor vol 1 #123)
Mr Sinister (between Uncanny X-Men #325 and Cable #26)
Clay (first and only appearance)

Written: 10 December 2004

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