STORY: "Anatomy of a Monster" (40 pages)  The X-Men defeat the demonic serial killer Pilgrimm, proving Maggott innocent.  Marrow and Maggott finally join the team.

What you need to know:
It's another double-sized issue, this time with a wraparound cover.

This is the pay-off to the Salem Center killings subplot which started back in issue #71, hinting that Eeny and Meany were responsible.  As we learn this month, they actually had nothing to do with it, and the real killer is a demon called Pilgrimm.  Pilgrimm claims to be one of the Ru'Tai, a race formerly enslaved by the N'Garai demons. He gets very offended when the X-Men mistake him for a N'Garai, and acts as if this is blasphemous talk.

The N'Garai used to invade Earth through a cairn on the X-Men's grounds, first seen in X-Men vol 1 #96.  Wolverine helpfully points out that the X-Men had surrounded the thing with all manner of security devices, but Bastion removed them all when he stripped the Mansion, leaving the way clear for Pilgrimm to come through.

The Ru'Tai are apparently rather cleverer than the N'Garai - they're able to open extra portals to Earth, and they're trying to learn about humans by vivisecting them.  That's why Pilgrimm, their assigned explorer, is killing people.  The N'Garai would have just killed everyone for the hell of it.  Pilgrimm rejects the idea that every human is special, assuring Cecilia that on the strength of his vivisections to date, human life is all pretty similar.

According to Pilgrimm, the Ru'Tai slaves continued to practice their own religion and then rose up in rebellion after their "prayers were answered" by somebody called Mai'Keth.  Pilgrimm talks about Mai'Keth as if he's a messiah figure.  In fact, Mai'Keth turns out to be Wolverine, who inspired the Ru'Tai with his mass-slaughtering skills.  It's a little unclear when this is supposed to have happened.  Wolverine gets separated from the X-Men during the story and shows up again wearing a necklace and facepaint.  He claims that time works differently in the Ru'Tai's world, so the suggestion seems to be that he somehow slipped back in time when entering their dimension, and inspired the revolution at that point.  Of course, this is a time travel paradox, but there you go.

Pilgrimm is defeated when the X-Men destroy a magical thingie which is keeping his headquarters together.  This rather comes out of the blue.  However, he escapes through to Earth, inexplicably disguised as a human.  He turns up again in the X-Men: Black Sun miniseries, but that's it.

Convinced that he's the murderer, Maggott tries to turn himself in to the police before the X-Men stop him.  For some reason, even though they're not the killers, Eeny and Meany seem to be drawn to Pilgrimm and perch happily on his shoulders until Maggott manages to retrieve them.

Marrow shows up back at the Mansion in time to fight the Ru'Tai, giving no particular reason for her return.  However, it's pretty obvious that she feels inspired by Warren.  After helping to defeat the Ru'Tai, she proudly declares herself to be a member of the X-Men (and apparently Maggott as well, though it's slightly less clear).

A minor Ru'Tai demon in Salem Center is swept away by Black Air, the corrupt government agency dealing with X-Files-type things.  Black Air were major characters from Warren Ellis' run on Excalibur, but aside from this cameo appearance, they haven't been used since.  This subplot was never picked up on.

Comments:
Hmm.  Bit of a mixed bag.  On the plus side, Marrow and Maggott's character arcs are nicely tied up, leading both of them to become plausible members of the X-Men and setting up an interesting team for future issues.  It doesn't stick together for very long, of course, because Marvel changed plans only a few months later.  But it reads like an interesting new start for the team.  Pilgrimm also comes across very well, combining religious zeal and a devoted urge to cut things up for further study, all of which make him a compelling villain even though he doesn't really have any evil schemes.

On the other hand, the storyline is needlessly confused, with Wolverine apparently having a time travel subplot shoved in out of nowhere, Pilgrimm inexplicably turning into a human at the end of the story, and the hoary old standby of the magical villain being defeated by smashing an artefact which hadn't previously seemed particularly important.  This doesn't kill the story by any means, but it certainly clutters it up.

With Pacheco gone, German Garcia is brought in at the last minute to draw the whole book, and does a remarkably good job of it.  He's much looser than Carlos Pacheco but still fun.  Although his art isn't as obviously pretty as Pacheco's, it has plenty of energy to it.  Garcia ends up doing another three fill-in issues before Adam Kubert finally takes over with issue #81.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Marrow (joins the X-Men; last in Excalibur vol 1 #120), Cannonball (last concurrently in Uncanny X-Men #355 and Alpha Flight vol 2 #9), Storm (last in issue #73), the Beast and Maggott (joins the X-Men)
Wolverine (next in flashback in the second story in Wolverine vol 2 #175, then in Wolverine vol 2 #123-130)
Cecilia Reyes (next in Excalibur vol 1 #121)
Rogue (last in issue #73; next in Wolverine vol 2 #125-126, then in Uncanny X-Men #356 and #359-360, then in issue #80)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Eeny and Meany

VILLAINS
Pilgrimm (first actual appearance; last behind the scenes in the previous issue; next in X-Men: Black Sun #2; also in flashback which is his chronologically earliest appearance, preceding issue #71)
The Ru'Tai (first appearance; next in X-Men: Black Sun #1)
Black Air (last in Excalibur vol 1 #114; no further appearances)

Written: 9 March 2006

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