STORY: "The Elements Within Us" (23 pages)  Sabra tries to kill Joseph, but when Maggott reveals that Joseph isn't Magneto after all, Joseph leaves the team to explore his past with Sabra.  Meanwhile, the other X-Men make New Year's resolutions.

What you need to know:
Joseph leaves the team after learning, definitively, that he isn't Magneto.  Maggott explains that he also thought Joseph was Magneto at first, but realised the truth when the real one showed up in Uncanny X-Men #350.  He considers himself "honour-bound" not to reveal this because Magneto swore him to secrecy, and he owes Magneto a favour (for reasons we'll get to in issue #76).  But he relents when Sabra is about to kill Joseph.  Maggott insists that he is not working for Magneto in any other respects.  Oddly, Joseph simply leaves with Sabra without saying goodbye to the rest of the team.

The X-Men have finally started redecorating.  They're doing it themselves because they've run out of money to pay a decorator, which would seem to suggest that they still don't have access to Xavier's fortune.  That storyline gets quietly dropped soon after.

Professor X sends the team a letter of encouragement.  Most of the group realise that it's obviously been heavily censored by the prison authorities and aren't particularly cheered by it, although Joseph tries to put a positive spin on it.

Eeny and Meany are starting to disobey orders and showing an interest in Salem Center.  Again, this is supposed to build up the idea that they're responsible for Pilgrimm's murders, leading to the story in issue #75.  On the other hand, the local coroner reveals that one of the corpses has bite marks, but "just to throw us off the trail"; another appears to have been autopsied by the killer.

Marrow returns to the Mansion and steals Cecilia Reyes' medical kit, in order to treat Callisto.  (Evidently she doesn't trust Reyes enough to simply ask her for help.)

Cecilia discovers that she can use her force field offensively to push people away.

Wolverine claims that he allowed Marrow to stab him last issue, to teach her a lesson by letting her cross a line.  However, he immediately admits that he might just be trying to rationalise it.

Sabra is apparently having a very good day, as she can beat up Maggott and Joseph without breaking a sweat.  For some reason, never explained, she knows Maggott's real name.

Senator Kelly tries to free Professor X, as Gabrielle Haller requested last issue.  But it turns out that he's simply disappeared from Operation: Zero Tolerance's prison.  As we find out during the "Hunt for Xavier" arc, he's been rescued by the new Brotherhood of Mutants.

The package for Storm has made it to Germany, and African tribal warriors commanded by the Shadow King show up to ensure that it reaches Storm - a change of attitude from issue #71, when he was trying to stop the package.  (The postmaster was going to return the package because of insufficient postage.  Quite why a parcel sent from Cairo and addressed to New York has ended up in Hamburg isn't entirely clear, but in issue #71 it was simply thrown onto an aircraft before it flew off, so perhaps that's where the plane was going.)

Sebastian Shaw is still brooding about his visitor from issue #71, and accepts the visitor's mysterious offer.  After this issue, the whole subplot is simply dropped and never referred to again.

If you really care, here's the X-Men's new year resolutions.  Beast promises to eat fewer twinkies, read more 15th century literature, and cure the Legacy Virus.  Cecilia wants to complete her residency and return to her normal life.  Wolverine wants to "be the best there is at what I do, soon as I figure out just what that is."  Ororo wants to "find the wisdom in my leadership", learn from my friends, and re-establish her connection with the earth.  Maggott wants "to do right by new friends", become an X-Man and be free.

Iceman, Cannonball and Rogue don't sign the resolution notice at all.  Cannonball and Iceman might simply be away from the Mansion, but Rogue's definitely upstairs and apparently refuses to participate.

Minor but baffling continuity error: Sabra says that Georg Odekirk was killed last issue in Prague, Czech Republic.  In fact, the scene was expressly set in Sibu, Romania.

Thanks to the several readers who wrote to identify the cover artist (whose signature is cropped off) as Jason Pearson.

Comments:
Boy, there's a lot going on in these issues.  And most of it is character work, as Kelly continues the thankless task of defining the cast and forcing them into some sort of group dynamic.  This, admittedly, is one of his less persuasive issues, since it largely revolves around Joseph and Sabra doing things that don't altogether make sense.  Sabra is surprisingly keen to just kill Joseph when she thinks he's Magneto, which makes it all the  more strange that she simply accepts Maggott's word on the subject and changes her position immediately.  As for Joseph, I've never understood why he feels the need to fly off with Sabra straight away instead of saying goodbye to his colleagues.  There's also a lot of Maggott in this story, and he wasn't one of Kelly's biggest successes.

Still, there's a lot of other strong ideas in the subplots, and Kelly continues his slow burn for some interesting storylines (some of which, admittedly, never actually appeared).  And even when he's not really at his best, Kelly's still good.  Guest art comes from Jeff Johnson, which is typically clear and attractive, and sells the character moments strongly.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Joseph (last in Uncanny X-Men #354; leaves the X-Men and appears next in X-Men: Magneto War #1)
Wolverine (last concurrently in Uncanny X-Men #355 and Alpha Flight vol 2 #9), the Beast (last in Avengers vol 3 #4) and Cecilia Reyes
Storm (last concurrently in Uncanny X-Men #355 and Alpha Flight vol 2 #9) and Rogue (last in Gambit #½; both next in issue #75)
Psylocke (last in Uncanny X-Men #353; next in Wolverine vol 2 #125-126, then in issue #77)

GUEST STAR
Sabra (next in Excalibur vol 1 #120)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Maggott, Eeny and Meany (all last in Uncanny X-Men #355)
Marrow (last in Uncanny X-Men #354)
Archangel (last in Uncanny X-Men #353)
Robert Kelly (between issues #69 and #102)
Professor X (behind the scenes; last in flashback in issue #83; next in Uncanny X-Men #362)

VILLAINS
Sebastian Shaw (last in issue #71; next in Peter Parker, Spider-Man vol 1 #94)
Trevor Fitzroy (last in flashback in Cable #51; next in Bishop: The Last X-Man #1)
Pilgrimm (behind the scenes)
The Shadow King (behind the scenes; last behind the scenes in issue #71; next behind the scenes in issue #76)

GUEST APPEARANCE
Iron Man (between Avengers vol 3 #4 and Marvel Team-Up vol 2 #11)

OTHER CHARACTERS
Myra Armstrong (first appearance; the Salem Center coroner)
Ainet (behind the scenes; last behind the scenes in issue #71; next behind the scenes in issue #76)

Written: 9 March 2006

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