STORY: "Fresh (Up)Start" (23 pages)
Credits: Jim Lee (co-plotter), Whilce Portacio (co-plotter, penciller), John Byrne (scripter), Art Thibert (inker), Tom Orzechowski (letterer), Joe Rosas (colourist), Bob Harras (editor), Tom DeFalco (editor-in-chief)

Trevor Fitzroy, a mutant criminal from the future, is taking part in the Upstarts' competition, which involves killing people for points. He slaughters the Reavers, and then attacks the Hellfire Club. Despite the X-Men's efforts, he leaves the White Queen in a coma and abducts her along with the Hellions.

What you need to know:

• The new Gold Team - Storm, Iceman, Archangel, Colossus and Jean Grey - make their debut appearance in the title, although they first appeared in X-Men Vol 2 #1 a couple of weeks earlier.
• The Upstarts, a group of mutants killing other people for points in a competition, are mentioned for the first time, though only Trevor Fitzroy and Shinobi Shaw are revealed as members.
• Trevor Fitzroy makes his first appearance. I can tell you're all thrilled. But he was a major villain at the time, and more to the point he's the first character we meet from Bishop's home time.
• The Reavers all get killed, aside from Lady Deathstrike and Cylla Markham, who escape, and Donald Pierce. Actually, Pierce is supposedly killed here but showed up alive and well in the Domino miniseries a few years later, so perhaps the other Reavers are healthier than you'd think. Fitzroy's attack on the Reavers is somewhat inconsistent with other stories in which the Upstarts are said to only kill mutants. They're cyborgs.
• Two of the Hellions, Beef and Jetstream, die. Ah well. Empath doesn't, on the other hand - despite his having a speaking part, it was later decreed that he wasn't in the story after all.
• Emma Frost goes into a coma which she doesn't emerge from until issue #310. This is effectively her last appearance as the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, since Shinobi instals his own Inner Circle shortly after this story. Not that that stopped writers calling her the White Queen anyway.

Contrary to popular belief:

• This isn't the first post-Claremont issue of the title. That was issue #280. But that issue tied up one of his plots, so this is the first one that really counts.
• Empath's appearance in this story isn't a continuity error. There's no reason why he couldn't have made it back from Nova Roma (where he was last seen) in time to join his teammates in suicidal battle against Fitzroy. It's just a normal error, not a continuity error.

Comments: Whilce Portacio's run as writer on the X-Men was pretty short, since he got lured away to Image early on. An unfortunate side effect of this is that a lot of his plots never really got resolved very well, and prime among those is the Upstarts, who wandered around the X-books looking impressive in 1991 and 1992, before being quietly shoved under the carpet. Eventually the plot was kicked into touch when an X-Force storyline contrived to incapacitate most of the relevant characters.

Another problem with the Upstarts was that they could never have been made to work as recurring villains. Since there just aren't that many characters available to be killed, they're doomed to lose mostly of their fights, and ultimately they end up looking rather stupid. The Dark Riders had the same problem. To be fair, they get off to a reasonably good start here as Fitzroy puts in a genuinely impressive performance - there's no denying he's a credible opponent for the team. It's a shame it had to be at the expense of the Reavers and the Hellions, who were well developed characters that deserved better.

The other major problem with this issue is that (apparently because of enormous backstage confusion among the creators) they botched the ending. Consequently, issue #282 opens with a cringe-inducing speech from Storm in which she explains what really happened.

For all that, though, it's not quite as bad a story as it's often made out to be. If the Upstarts plot had ever gone anywhere interesting, we might be looking back on this as an exciting introduction to the new villains. But as it turned out, this is an introduction that never went anywhere, and you can pretty much live without it.

Feature characters: Storm, Iceman, Archangel, Jean Grey, Colossus (all last in X-Men Vol 2 #5)

Supporting characters: Gateway (between Wolverine #36 and #52); Robert Kelly (between issues #246 and #299)

Villains: Trevor Fitzroy (first appearance; last in flashback in issue #287; Donald Pierce, Bonebreaker, Murray Reese (all last in Wolverine #39), Pretty Boy (last in Wolverine #35), Wade Cole, Angelo Macon (both last in issue #269; the latter five die), Lady Deathstrike (between Wolverine #46 and #76), Cylla Markham (between issue #269 and Wolverine #55; all eight as the Reavers; disbanded); the White Queen II (last in X-Men Unlimited #33/3); Shinobi Shaw (last in X-Factor #67/2); Roulette II, Catseye, Bevatron, Tarot, Beef, Jetstream (as the Hellions; the latter two die; all last in New Warriors #10); the Hellfire Club (between Marvel Comics Presents #89 and X-Men Vol 2 #29)

STORY: "Payback" (22 pages)
Credits: Whilce Portacio (plotter, penciller), John Byrne (scripter), Art Thibert (inker), Tom Orzechowski (letterer), Dana Moreshead (colourist), Bob Harras (editor), Tom DeFalco (editor-in-chief)

Fitzroy uses his mutant powers to kill the Hellions and use their "life energy" to open portals to his own time. He brings an army of friendly superhuman criminals to the present, but unfortunately for him, he accidentally brings back his archenemy Bishop as well.

What you need to know:

• It's the first appearance of Bishop, not to mention his hapless and doomed sidekicks Malcolm and Randall. Mind you, they're only on the last page.
• The Hellions all get killed, though Tarot comes back from the dead later on. Oddly, the art shows far more Hellions than ever depicted before - almost certainly a mistake.
• If anybody cares, this is also the first appearance of Fitzroy's sidekick Bantam, who keeps cropping up in origin flashbacks of Bishop and his sister Shard. He's not very interesting, though.

Contrary to popular belief:

• Bishop doesn't come from the same timeline as Rachel Summers. Although both their timelines involve the Sentinels taking over America for a while and then being overthrown, in Bishop's timeline the overthrow was the Summers Rebellion, led by Forge. In Rachel's timeline, the Sentinels were defeated by the time-travelling Excalibur and a rather motley selection of Marvel UK heroes. Mind you, this didn't become apparent for a while.

Comments: The Hellions bite the dust in another gratuitous slaughter, and the story really starts to degenerate into chaos towards the end. A pretty missable episode of a pretty missable storyline, let's face it, but it does have the first appearance of Bishop. I've always had a soft spot for Bishop's original costume, which combined the classic X-Men "school uniform" costume with both paramilitary and religious overtones to sum up the original conception of the character as a disturbingly violent zealot. And his appearance at the end of this story is certainly an image that sticks with you.

Feature characters: Professor X, Forge (both last in X-Men Vol 2 #5), Storm, Iceman, Archangel, Jean Grey, Colossus

Supporting characters: Bishop, Malcolm, Randall (first appearance of all; all last in issue #287 f/b

Villains: Shinobi Shaw, Trevor Fitzroy, the White Queen II; Donald Pierce (next in Domino #1); Bantam I (first appearance; Fitzroy's assistant; not to be confused with the Puerto Rican hero of the same name; last in issue #287 f/b; next in Annual #17/2); Tarot (next in X-Force #87), Bevatron, Roulette II, Catseye (as the Hellions; the latter three b/s; all die); Kroeger (dies), Styglut, Eye-Beam (both b/s), Burke, Stylles, Mountjoy (all five last in issue #287 f/b, where the latter four are b/s; first appearance of all)

STORY: "Bishop's Crossing" (22 pages)
Credits: Whilce Portacio (plotter, penciller), John Byrne (scripter), Art Thibert (inker), Tom Orzechowski, Lois Buhalis (letterers), Joe Rosas (colourist), Bob Harras (editor), Tom DeFalco (editor-in-chief)

Bishop and his men idolise the X-Men as heroes, and when the real heroes do not match up, they assume that they are imposters. There is an enormous three-way fight. Fitzroy flees and is captured by Shinobi Shaw's agents, who blow up Fitzroy's base. Bishop and his men, along with many of the criminals, escape in the confusion.

What you need to know:

• It's the first full story with Bishop in it, and he's decidedly violent.
• The Gamesmaster makes his first appearance. He's later revealed to be a telepath in permanent involuntary mental contact with every mind on the planet. He and the Black Queen are revealed to be behind the Upstarts. There's a suggestion that they're misleading the competitors about the nature of their prize, never subsequently picked up on.

Comments: Basically an enormous fight scene, and again Bishop is the only thing that really sticks in the mind. Portacio's original concept was that Bishop would be a character who would generate extreme reactions from the other X-Men, since on the one hand he represented their dream stretching into the future, but on the other he seemed to be a thuggishly violent perversion of the dream. Bishop's early appearances walk a tightrope between showing him as an efficient leader and self-sacrificing hero, acting well within the standards of his own time, and showing him as a brutally violent paramilitary willing to go far beyond anything the X-Men would ever consider. It's a fascinating idea, and unfortunately one that's been heavily toned down, even in later stories set in his own time. Nonetheless, this is a strong idea marooned in a very weak story, probably a sign of Portacio's inexperience as a writer.

Feature characters: Professor X, Storm, Iceman, Archangel, Jean Grey, Colossus, Forge

Supporting characters: Bishop, Malcolm, Randall

Villains: Trevor Fitzroy (next in Annual #17/2); the White Queen II; Shinobi Shaw (next in issue #299); the Gamesmaster (first appearance; next in issue #299); the Black Queen II (last in X-Men Unlimited #33/3; next in issue #301); Styglut (next in issue #287), Burke, Stylles, (no further appearances), Mountjoy (next in Bishop #1; all b/s); Eye-Beam (first and only appearance)

STORY: "Into The Void" (22 pages)
Credits: Whilce Portacio (plotter, penciller), John Byrne (scripter), Art Thibert, Scott Williams, Karl Alstaetter (inkers), Michael Heisler (letterer), Glynis Oliver, Joe Rosas (colourists), Bob Harras (editor), Tom DeFalco (editor-in-chief)

A portal to another dimension appears on the Sakhalin Islands. Sunfire and the X-Men, who happen to be passing, investigate and get into a fight with some armoured warriors. They all inadvertantly get sucked through to the other dimension. Meanwhile, Bishop and his men start to hunt down and execute the escaped criminals.

What you need to know:

• Erm... Sunfire gets a new costume. That's about as important as it gets in this issue, to be honest.
• It's also the first appearance of the Posse Comitatus, who only appear in this storyline.

Comments: Issues #284-286 are a three part story in which the X-Men visit an alternate dimension, get tied up in a civil war, and go home again. Cynics might observe that many of the same team members appeared in a very similar, and much better, storyline in X-Factor, Judgement Day, only a couple of years before. That wouldn't be entirely fair, though, as Portacio is obviously trying to create a whole fantasy world here. Unfortunately, it just isn't a terribly interesting one. This storyline is a strong contender for least important X-Men story of the nineties, since its only legacy to continuity was the reintroduction of Mikhail Rasputin (who went on to appear in some generally mediocre stories). It's not a bad story, just a thoroughly average one.

Feature characters: Professor X, Forge (both next in issue #286); Storm, Iceman, Archangel, Jean Grey, Colossus

Supporting characters: Sunfire (last in Avengers West Coast #74; gets a new costume); Bishop, Malcolm, Randall

Villains: The White Queen II (next in issue #310); Primate, Adjunct, the Posse Comitatus (first appearance of all)

Other characters: Mr Kobiashi (a technician), Hideko (his assistant), Mr Tanaka (a Japanese government scientist), Mr Rosmenkov (a Russian government scientist; first appearance of all; all die)

STORY: "Down The Rabbit Hole" (22 pages)
Credits: Jim Lee (co-plotter), While Portacio (co-plotter, penciller), John Byrne (scripter), Art Thibert, Al Milgrom (inkers), Tom Orzechowski (letterer), Joe Rosas (colourist), Bob Harras (editor), Tom DeFalco (editor-in-chief)

The X-Men and Sunfire are split up and appear in another dimension, where there is a war between the rebel Posse Comitatus and the Triumvirate led by the evil Queen Sha-Har-A-Zath. Everyone picks sides and Jean, Colossus and Storm meet Colossus's long lost brother Mikhail Rasputin.

What you need to know:

• Colossus's brother Mikhail Rasputin makes his first appearance. Previously we'd been told that he was dead.

Comments: See my comments for the previous issue, really. Again, we're in rather average territory here. The plot also begins to hinge on an astonishingly unlikely series of coincidences. It's one thing for Colossus's long lost brother to show up alive and well after all these years, but to accidentally stumble into the same alternate dimension and happen to blunder across him?

The issue does flesh out the Posse Comitatus (who are the goodies) and the Triumvirate (who are the baddies) a bit, though. Incidentally, "Posse Comitatus" is a Latin term for the people who enforce government decisions. I'm told it has certain other connotations in the USA which are to do with some nineteenth century statutes about the use of the army, but the relevance of the term is a bit of a mystery here. Perhaps some American readers can e-mail me to explain. Presumably Portacio wasn't thinking of the present day Posse Comitatus organisation, an anti-semitic hate group.

Feature characters: Storm, Iceman, Archangel, Jean Grey, Colossus

Supporting characters: Sunfire, Bishop, Malcolm, Randall; Colonel Mikhail "Misha" Rasputin (first appearance; last in issue #286 f/b; revealed to have survived the shuttle explosion previously said to have killed him); Trish Tilby (between X-Factor #65 and issue #294)

Villains: Queen Sha-Har-A-Zath, the Triumvirate (first appearance for all)

Other characters: Primate, Adjunct, the Posse Comitatus; Captain J Walker Kyle (first and only appearance; a New York police officer)