STORY: "Touched" (22 pages)  Scott and Jean go to the cinema.  Quicksilver, still in mourning, sulks around the Mansion until Hercules turns up to recruit him for more adventures.

What you need to know:
Quicksilver tries to confront Joseph about "his" past, but doesn't really achieve a great deal.  He makes Joseph feel rather guilty, but the results don't much seem to bother him.

Graydon Creed is talking to somebody in his office, who we don't get to see.  He's very secretive about it.  This is obviously a set-up for a subplot, but it goes nowhere.

William Drake has been arrested after the last issue, and is refusing to give his name.

Iceman asks Creed's aide Carly Alvarez whether she thinks he can win the election, and she replies "I think -- what is... is."  Although Iceman doesn't get the reference, "What is, is" is the motto of the Askani order from Cable's timeline.  The obviously implication is that Carly is some sort of time traveller, given that she's quoting the motto of an organisation who won't even exist for thousands of years.  Needless to say, this whole plot is never mentioned again.

Scott and Jean spend the issue seeing Frank Capra's Mr Smith Goes To Washington (1939), in which an idealistic boy scout leader is sent to Washington to replace a dead senator, and faces down corruption in inspirationally melodramatic fashion.  Unusually, rather than simply re-draw scenes from the film, the creators have actually reproduced stills from it (one of which fills most of a double page spread), making this the only X-Men story to feature James Stewart in a speaking part.

Comments:
Really, it's just filling an issue with overflow from stories in other titles.  The Graydon Creed storyline is kept ticking over.  Quicksilver and Hercules get to react to the "Onslaught" storyline (since they don't have a book of their own any more).  Joseph is reminded about his past again.  And since there's still more space to fill, Scott and Jean spend eight pages watching a black and white film and generally cheering one another up.

In theory there ought to be plenty of interesting material for Scott, since with Professor X gone, he's been dumped with the job of leading the X-Men.  But nothing desperately exciting ever comes to the foreground.  Quicksilver's scenes are the best, but on the whole, it's a scattered issue which doesn't add up to much.

Oddly enough, this very low key story is Andy Kubert's final issue, ending a run which started back in issue #14.  The quality of his work improves a lot over that time, and although there are still some awkwardly staged moments, overall he's now doing a decent job with these conversation-based stories.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
The Beast, Bishop and Joseph (all between Uncanny X-Men #339 and X-Men '96)
Cannonball and Iceman (last in Uncanny X-Men #339; both next in Uncanny X-Men #340, where Iceman leaves the team, then in DC/Marvel: All Acess #3-4, then in X-Men '96)
Cyclops and Phoenix III (both last in Uncanny X-Men #339; Phoenix next in Uncanny X-Men #340, then both in the Cyclops & Phoenix story in Marvel Valentine Special #1, then Cyclops in DC/Marvel: All Access #2, then both in DC/Marvel: All Access #3-4, then in X-Men '96)
Wolverine (last in Uncanny X-Men #339; next in Uncanny X-Men #340, then in DC/Marvel: All Access #2, then in X-Men '96)

GUEST STARS
Hercules (last in flashback in Avengers '99; next in Hulk: Hercules Unleashed)
Quicksilver (last in Uncanny X-Men #338; next in flashback in Quicksilver #7)

SUPPORTING CHARACTER
William Drake (behind the scenes; next in Uncanny X-Men #340)

VILLAINS
Graydon Creed (between Uncanny X-Men #339-340)
Carly Alvarez (next in flashback in Uncanny X-Men #340)

Written: 21 July 2005

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