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Back with the regular books, Uncanny
X-Men gives us the second half of its Mojo two-parter.
Mojo turns up in the Danger Room, and turns
everyone into the X-Babies. Cue much running around
while the X-Babies fight Mojo's henchmen, a bunch of lawyers
based on the Exiles. In the middle of all this, there's
an attempt to tie up the storyline of Juggernaut feeling bad
about Sammy's death.
If you're thinking that this sounds a
little familiar, that's because Chris Claremont already did
the "turn the heroes into babies" bit in Uncanny X-Men
Annual #10. Mind you, that was 19 years ago, so the
statute of limitations on reusing the idea has probably
expired. We've also had a whole bunch of stories about
Mojo's miniature X-Baby robot thingies, but fortunately
they've got nothing to do with this issue. (I say
"fortunately" because the joke wore thin several one-shots
ago.)
Obviously, it's a matter of taste whether
you like Claremont's occasional forays into madcap comedy.
Somewhat against my better judgment, I rather liked this
issue. Tom Raney isn't the best artist for this sort of
thing - the kids don't look young or cute enough - but the
X-books need some light relief from time to time, and one
issue of the X-babies gag every two decades seems fair enough
to me.
I'm not sold on the Juggernaut subplot, for
two reasons. Firstly, it's completely out of place in a
comedy book. Secondly, it doesn't really make sense.
Juggernaut seems to think that if he stays as a kid he'll have
his slate wiped clean and won't have to worry about things
he's done in the past. But he is a kid, and he
is worrying about things he's done in the past, so what
does he expect to change? It's not like his memory has
been wiped.
Otherwise, this seems to be Claremont
having some fun while he shuffles his pieces into place.
He needs Nocturne and Juggernaut back, in part so that
Juggernaut will be available for New Excalibur.
He needs to draw a line under Juggernaut's outstanding
storylines, presumably for the same reason. And he needs
to kill a couple of issues, because next up is a House of M
crossover which can't start until July for scheduling reasons.
And he's entertaining himself while he does it.
Of course, if you're the sort of reader who
wants to throttle the X-Babies on sight - not that I'd blame
you - then you'll probably want to give it a miss. But
it's a joke that's still fun every few years.
Rating: B+
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