STORY: "Putting The Cat Out" (23 pages)
Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), John Romita, Jr (penciller), Dan Green, Al Vey (inkers), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Steve Buccellato, Marie Javins (colourists), Bob Harras (editor), Tom DeFalco (editor-in-chief)

Sabretooth escapes his cell when the electronic security devices fail in a blackout. Bishop and Jubilee capture him again. Meanwhile, Iceman tries to protect Emma Frost when the X-Men's medical equipment switches off, but gets caught in a burst of feedback and is left in a coma.

What you need to know:

• Well, Sabretooth escapes... but gets captured again. Gripping stuff, huh?
• Something very unusual about this story is that it contains an explicit, unambiguous statement that Sabretooth kills because of mental illness, and not innate evil. It's on page 8 if you want to check for yourself.
• Another side effect of the blackout is that Iceman (who's guarding Emma Frost at the time) is left in a coma after some of the X-Men's Shi'ar technology goes horribly wrong. This is a set-up for issue #314.
• Jubilee has a panic attack while fighting Sabretooth. Bishop attributes this to Wolverine's departure from the team (in Wolverine #75). He claims that she hasn't been in a fight since then, which can't actually be right, since the story in Annual #18 must have taken place by now. But the creators of this story weren't to know that.
• Storm meets with Yukio in a club, and they get attacked by the Phalanx, in a subplot leading into the next issue.

Contrary to popular opinion:

• Or at least, to the script's opinion... Despite what the Beast implies on the first page, his mutant powers didn't emerge at puberty. They were there from birth.
• This issue also contains a bemusing piece of pseudo-science for Bishop. According to the script, Bishop can charge up by sitting out there in the snow, and absorbing the energy released by each snowflake as it melts on his skin. Now, the obvious problem with this is that snowflakes melt because they're heating up, which means they're absorbing energy, not releasing it.

Comments: Well, yes, we've seen this one before, haven't we? Nasty villain escapes, heroes run around in the dark, all turns out well in the end. A bit ho-hum, and plagued by several examples of ludicrous science. As well as the example above, Bishop also seems somehow to be able to charge himself up by tearing holes in the mansion walls, sticking his hands into them, and running down the hall leaving a big gash behind him - since when did the Mansion have paper walls? Actually, aside from the dreadful science, it's not such a bad story, but nothing to write home about.

This is John Romita Jr's final issue as regular penciller, and he does a pretty good job. His Phalanx look wonderful, far more menacing than they would under the more cartoony style of his successor Joe Madureira. At the time, many fans considered Romita's art to be pretty shaky, but although it's far from his best work, it's still aged pretty impressively.

Feature characters: The Beast (last in X-Men Vol 2 #32); Jubilee, Iceman, Bishop (all last in X-Men Vol 2 #30); Storm (last in X-Factor #102)

Supporting character: Yukio (last in Wolverine #60)

Villains: Sabretooth (last in X-Men Vol 2 #31); the Phalanx (last in issue #306); Emma Frost

STORY: "Romp" (22 pages)
Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Joe Madureira (penciller), Dan Green, Harry Candelario (inkers), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Steve Buccellato (colourist), Bob Harras (editor; not Kevin Somers as credited), Tom DeFalco (editor-in-chief)

Storm, Gambit and Yukio have a big fight in New York with the Phalanx, Part I.

What you need to know:

• This is the first full-scale appearance of the Phalanx, who are now established as having a collective mind and techno-organic bodies similar to Warlock's. The precise relationship of the Phalanx to Warlock is a notoriously complex area of continuity and doesn't really concern us here. Oddly, the Phalanx are pretty relaxed about absorbing unwilling humans into their collective as well. A footnote in this story confirms that the events of issues #305-306 featured early manifestations of the Phalanx.
• Yukio reveals that she is a member of the Mutant Underground. In the way of these things, we hadn't heard of the Mutant Underground for years, but now that the writers have come up with the idea, members are crawling out of the woodwork.
• Yukio and Gambit were on opposite sides of a contract at some point in the past. (They disagree over whether this was in Milan or Singapore.) Yukio doesn't trust Gambit and doesn't like him.

Comments: Issues #312-313 are a two-part story introducing the Phalanx through the medium of a very big fight. They certainly come across pretty impressively here, but one of the problems is already apparent. Because the Phalanx adapt so quickly to their powers, the X-Men are reduced to pretty bizarre uses of their powers in order to win. In trying to pitch them as a seriously credible villain, the story overshoots the mark and leaves future creators struggling to find a way the X-Men can credibly defeat them. Also rather bizarre is a series of dialogue exchanges in which characters muse about whether the Phalanx have a right to life in the same way as anybody else. I'm not convinced that this is anywhere near as big a dilemma as the characters seem to think - yes, they're allowed to exist, but they're not allowed to kill people, and the latter takes priority. What's wrong with that?

This is the debut of the new regular penciller Joe Madureira, whose work is already cartooning at this stage and becomes even more stylised as his run goes on, as he works in more and more of his beloved manga influence. His first storyline is actually a pretty good performance, but he just doesn't bring the same imagination to the Phalanx that Romita did. Like so many artists before him, Madureira struggles manfully but without success to evoke the qualities of Bill Sienkiewicz's original techno-organic character designs, but can't really translate the sheer weirdness of the original into his style.

Feature characters: Professor X, Gambit (both last in X-Men Vol 2 #32), Storm, the Beast, Iceman, Jubilee, Bishop

Supporting character: Yukio

Villains: The Phalanx, Sabretooth, Emma Frost

STORY: "Hands Across The Water" (23 pages)
Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Joe Madureira (penciller), Dan Green (inker), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Steve Buccellato, Kevin Somers (colourists), Bob Harras (editor), Tom DeFalco (editor-in-chief)

Storm, Gambit and Yukio have a big fight in New York with the Phalanx, Part II.

What you need to know:

• Steven Lang is revealed to have been assimilated as a leading member of the Phalanx. A footnote confirms that he was the lunatic seen in issue #291 (yes, a subplot from almost two years previously which hadn't been referenced since).
• This story features the first appearance of the character later known as Douglock, although Lang addresses him as "Ramsey." Lang claims that Douglock is a "program" based on the late Douglas Ramsey (Cypher of the New Mutants) and Warlock. Being an amalgam of two heroes, Douglock is resisting orders.
• It's revealed that in issue #311, Iceman and Emma Frost swapped bodies. Emma wakes up in Iceman's body at the end of the issue.
• Jubilee and the Banshee both have little scenes which are pretty blatant foreshadowing for their upcoming move to Generation X.

Comments: See Comments for issue #312. It's also worth noting that this issue picks up after a gap during which some moderate important plot mechanics go on (big explosion, people thrown into the water, etc, etc). A footnote cheerily assures us that this is because they had so much to fit in this issue. It is, nonetheless, annoying.

Feature characters: Professor X, Storm, Jubilee, Iceman, Bishop; Gambit (next in X-Men Vol 2 #33-34, then in Daredevil #330, then in Cable #16, then in issue #318); the Beast (next in X-Men Vol 2 #33-34, then in Cable #16, then in issue #318)

Supporting characters: Yukio (next in Wolverine #82); the Banshee (last in X-Men Vol 2 #32)

Villains: The Phalanx (next in issue #316); Cameron Hodge (last in issue #306; next in X-Men Vol 2 #36); Steven Lang (last in f/b in X-Factor #106; next in X-Men Vol 2 #36); Douglock (first appearance; next in Excalibur #77); Sabretooth, Emma Frost

STORY: "Early Frost" (22 pages)
Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Lee Weeks (penciller), Bill Sienkiewicz (inker), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Steve Buccellato (colourist), Bob Harras (editor), Tom DeFalco (editor-in-chief)

Emma refuses to believe the X-Men when they tell her that the Hellions are dead, and she flees to the New York headquarters of Frost Enterprises, only to learn that the X-Men are telling the truth. She collapses in despair, and is taken in again by the X-Men.

What you need to know:

• Emma is stuck in Bobby's body throughout this story, and for some reason she is much better at using his superhuman powers than he has ever been. This flies in the face of the general convention in such stories (in fact, the X-Men comment on it too), and suggests that Bobby has been seriously underperforming all this time.
• This story establishes Emma's sense of duty and responsibility towards the Hellions far more clearly than had been shown before. Earlier stories had hovered between this line and the suggestion that she was manipulating the team for her own benefit (although of course they aren't mutually exclusive). The point of this, of course, is to soften the character sufficiently to allow her to serve as one of the mentors of Generation X. The prominent and appearance of the Banshee is obviously another part of the set-up for the new title.
• Bishop's sister Shard appears for the first time in this story (although we'd seen her before in a dream scene). Bishop claims that he killed her. This is finally resolved in XSE #4, which shows that Bishop didn't actually kill her at all, but simply feels responsible for her death at the hands of Emplates. He had her mind downloaded onto disc before she died. It can be inferred from subsequent stories that he carried the disc with him at all times (the only logical reason why he would have had it with him when he came back to the present) and that he has now used the Danger Room technology to bring her back to "life" as a hologram. Dialogue in this story, however, very strongly suggests that Shard is a duplicate programmed by Bishop. Evidently there has been a continuity rewrite here.
• Shard confirms that Jubilee is known as "the last X-Man" in her time, but also says that nobody knows why.

Comments: The main purpose of this story is to re-establish Emma Frost as a credible mentor for Generation X (as well as developing Lobdell's ongoing subplot about Iceman not using his powers properly), and it certainly succeeds as far as that's concerned. Emma's grief at finally learning of the Hellions' deaths, months after the fact, is well played, and the fact that her beloved students died when Xavier's New Mutants survived makes her wholesale ditching of many of her beliefs reasonably credible. The generally grim tone of the story is helped no end by the unusual fill-in art of Lee Weeks and Bill Sienkiewicz. It's hard to see this one playing as well with Madureira drawing it.

Flaws... well, some of the set-up for Generation X is rather obvious, with the Banshee playing a prominent role for no apparent reason other than that he's going to be in the new series as well. Bishop's bare statement that he killed his sister, without any further explanation, is melodramatic in the extreme. I also have grave reservations about Xavier's closing speech, in which he swears that no innocent blood will be spilt in the X-Men's battles again - a plainly ridiculous promise, since nobody can possibly believe it's within his powers to achieve that. Overall, though, a pretty good story.

It's also the last conventional X-Men story for several months, as everything goes on hold for the Generation X launch. But first, there's a month to kill...

Feature characters: Professor X (next in X-Men Unlimited #5, then in Excalibur #78-81, then in X-Factor #106, then in X-Force #38, then in Excalibur #82, then in Excalibur #83 (b/s), then in Excalibur #84-85, then in issue #318); Storm (next in X-Men Unlimited #5, then in Cable #16, then in issue #318); Jubilee (next in X-Men Unlimited #5, then in X-Men Vol 2 #33, then in Annual #18/2); Archangel (last in X-Men Vol 2 #32; next in Cable #16, then in Excalibur #83 b/s, then in issue #318); Bishop (next in Annual #18/2); Iceman (b/s; next in Cable #16, then in issue #318)

Supporting character: The Banshee (next in X-Force #35)

Guest appearance: Shard (first appearance; last in flashback in XSE #4; next in Bishop #1)

STORY: "Peers" (22 pages)
Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Roger Cruz (penciller), Dan Green, Josef Rubinstein, Greg LaRosa, Hilary Barta (inkers), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Steve Buccellato, Marie Javins (colourists), Bob Harras (editor), Tom DeFalco (editor-in-chief)

The Acolytes recapture Neophyte [who betrayed them to the X-Men in issue #300] and place him on trial for treason, with Voght prosecuting and Colossus defending. The trial turns into a debate about what the Acolytes should be learning from Magneto, and ultimately Neophyte is banished from the Acolytes' space station rather than being executed for his "crimes."

What you need to know:

• Not much actually happens here, unless you care greatly about the fate of a throwaway character like Neophyte. There is, however, an awful lot revealed about political manouevring within the Acolytes.
• Exodus has banned any of the other Acolytes from seeing the comatose Magneto. He claims this is to protect Magneto's dignity, although since Exodus has apparently propped the drooling comatose Magneto up in a throne, it seems likely that he's not seeing the world quite the way it is. He also appears to be motivated by a desire to avoid reminding the other Acolytes that Magneto can't express any of his opinions at the moment, and that consequently Exodus's claim to be carrying out Magneto's will is suspect at best.
• Amelia Voght deliberately undermines the trial by allowing Colossus to turn it into a debate on the Acolytes' philosophy rather than the facts of Neophyte's actions. It appears that she's become disillusioned with the Acolytes. Colossus certainly has.
• Exodus apparently isn't too dogmatic about following what he believes to be Magneto's wishes. When he realises that Colossus is winning over the Acolytes, he defuses the situation by exiling Neophyte instead of executing him - apparently not what he'd originally intended to do.

Comments: This story sets up some potentially fascinating ideas about the Acolytes' internal politics, which unfortunately are never really pursued in future stories. After the unambiguously villainous Magneto who appeared in issue #304, this story is a pleasant reminder that Magneto was a far more complex character than that. As Colossus argues, his actions were open to several interpretations, and the Acolytes happen to have focused on only one. Voght also comes across as a much more interesting character in this story, suggesting that she had sympathy with the actions of Magneto himself but is rapidly losing patience with Exodus's attempt to turn the Acolytes into some kind of cult.

The visuals are a rather mixed bag. Joe Madureira was never an artist able to keep a regular schedule to save his life (as long-suffering readers of his series BattleChasers are presently finding out), and for the second issue running we have a fill-in artist. This time round, it's Roger "The Chameleon" Cruz, an artist mainly noted for his wild shifts in artistic style throughout his career to try and keep up with the flavour of the month. In a couple of years he'll be aping Madureira, but for now he's a rather poor Jim Lee clone. Although the images of the Acolytes in their monastic costumes work pretty well, he never seems to get the full potential out of the story. For example, Exodus talking to a comatose man who he's dressed up in robes and propped up in a throne should be a disturbing and unsettling sight, but it just looks as if Magneto's having a nap.

On the whole, this is a decent enough story in itself, but it's a shame that the full potential is never really picked up.

Feature characters: None

Villains: Colossus (between issue #393 f/b and X-Men Prime); Neophyte (between issue #300 and Avengers Vol 1 #380); Magneto (between issue #393 f/b and X-Men Vol 2 #41); Exodus (last in Avengers Vol 1 #369), Scanner (both next in Avengers Vol 1 #381), Javitz (next in X-Men Vol 2 #41), Amelia Voght, Harlan Kleinstock, Sven Kleinstock, Rusty Collins (the latter four next in X-Men Prime), Skids (next in X-Men Vol 2 #42), Milan (also in f/b preceding issue #300), Joanna Cargill, Carmella Unuscione (the latter nine last in Cable #11; the latter three next in X-Men Vol 2 #41; the latter two also in f/b preceding issue #298, in which Cargill appears following New Warriors Annual #1)