STORY: "Reunion" (22 pages)
Credits: Steve Seagle (writer), Chris Bachalo (penciller), Tim Townsend (inker), Richard Starkings, Albert Deschesne (letterers), Steve Buccellato (colourist), Mark Powers (editor), Bob Harras (editor-in-chief)

Hank, Bobby and Warren go to visit Scott and Jean in Alaska. The founding X-Men talk about their lives, while a flock of crows gathers.

What you need to know:

• It's another thrilling mid-#350s issue of slow build for ultimately aborted subplots, oh joy. To the extent there's a main plot here, it's the gathering of the mysterious birds in Ptarmigan Creek, Alaska. Next issue gives several conflicting explanations of what's going on. The robot crow mentioned next issue is visible in a couple of panels here.
• As the story ends, Scott tells the other founding X-Men that "it's time we reconsidered [Xavier's] dream, and maybe replaced it with our own." Needless to say, this never goes anywhere.
• Warren is wondering whether to split up with Psylocke. This never goes anywhere either.
• The snow outside Scott and Jean's house has been cleared in the shape of a Phoenix emblem again. Scott and Hank spend a couple of pages talking about this, in what seems laying the groundwork for a reversal of the "Jean wasn't Phoenix" retcon of the 1980s.
• Rogue has reverted to her green costume, from around the time she first joined the X-Men. Wolverine's dialogue suggests that the costume change is meant to symbolise a return to "darker days" for Rogue.
• Rogue trails Dr Agee to the offices of a company called Mutopia. Agee subsequently tells her that Mutopia "claim they want to create the perfect world for all races." He says that he declined an offer to join.
• Sauron is handed over to SHIELD, disposing of that subplot.

Comments: Yes, well... it's difficult to get very excited about anything in this period, because so much of it is tentative first steps on a long-term plan that never went anywhere at all. Knowing in retrospect that there's simply no pay-off to 90% of this material, it's hard to reach any conclusion other than "who cares"?

Other than the long-term material, this issue is also the first part of a hopelessly weird two-parter about crows which, again, might possibly have made some sense if it was intended as the set-up for something else. If it's meant to be self-contained then god alone knows what the point is - perhaps to fill the issue with birds in order to play off the Phoenix imagery, but that still begs the question of why.

We're deep, deep into completist territory in this period. Despite the talent working on the books, there's very little point in reading (or even re-reading) this stuff unless you desperately want to see the entire history of the series, no matter how irrelevant or pointless.

Feature characters: The Beast (last in Excalibur #121), Iceman (last in issue #354), Archangel (last in X-Men Vol 2 #74); Rogue (last in X-Men Vol 2 #75; next in issue #359); Wolverine (last in X-Men Vol 2 #76; next in X-Men Vol 2 #77-78, then in issue #359)

Supporting characters: Cyclops (last in Cable/Machine Man '98); Phoenix III (last in Wolverine #126); Chris Miller, Staci Murphy Miller (both last in issue #352); Melissa Murphy (first appearance)

Villains: Chulyen the Crow God, Moon Wolf (first appearance of both); Sauron (next in Weapon X: The Draft - Agent Zero); Aubrey Agee; the Mutopia consortium (first appearance; next in issue #359)

Guest appearance: SHIELD (continuity unknown)

Other character: Connie (a waitress; first appearance)

STORY: "The Sky Is Falling" (22 pages)
Credits: Steve Seagle (writer), Dan Norton (penciller), Dexter Vines, Scott Hanna (inkers), Richard Starkings, "DL" (letterers), Steve Buccellato (colourist), Mark Powers (editor), Bob Harras (editor-in-chief)

In Ptarmigan Creek, Alaska, the founding X-Men defeat a mysterious flock of crows, but none of them are quite sure how they managed it.

What you need to know:

• For what it's worth, the various possible reasons given for the crows are:- supernatural intervention from Chulyen the Native American Crow God; a mechanical crow from an unknown source, which Jean destroys; a chemical leak poisoning the birds' water source and causing "accute environmental poisoning evidencing as manic psychosis in the birds" (sic); and the X-Men's own arrival in town.
• Scott and Jean's neighbour Melissa learns who they really are, which is probably a set-up for a plot that went nowhere.
• A subplot scene shows Dr Agee working on a cure for Rogue, and shows us his deformed sister Rebecca for the first time - the point being that Agee unfathomably thinks he's cured Rebecca and is revealed as a lunatic. Oddly, this contradicts issue #359, where Agee is well aware that he failed to cure his sister.
• Bishop reveals that he knows Deathbird was "feigning his paralysis" in order to hold on to her, but persuades her to release him so that he can stop their craft crashing into a sun. (Because, of course, Bishop knows so much more about flying Shi'ar spacecraft than Deathbird.) He claims to love her, which reads like a lie.

Comments: This is a thoroughly weird story. I can only assume it was another set-up for a future plot, because it makes absolutely no sense on its own. There's this bunch of crows, a whole load of competing explanations for why, and they all get beaten at once, so nothing is revealed.

Regular readers may be beginning to see why it's taken me so long to update this section of the site - with hindsight, this issue is either an unfathomable set-up for a plot that never happened, or an utterly cryptic mess. Once again, it's hard to think of any reason to hunt this issue down unless you're an absolute completist.

Feature characters: Iceman, the Beast, Archangel

Supporting characters: Cyclops (next in X-Factor #149); Phoenix III; Chris Murphy, Staci Miller, Melissa Murphy (no further appearances for all); Bishop (last in issue #353)

Villains: Moon Wolf, Chulyen the Crow God (no further appearances for either); Aubrey Agee (next in issue #359); Deathbird (last in issue #353)

Other characters: Connie (no further appearances); Rebecca Agee (first appearance; last in issue #359 f/b; no further appearances)

STORY: "Lost In Space" (22 pages)
Credits: Steve Seagle (plotter), Joseph Harris (scripter), Chris Bachalo (penciller), Tim Townsend (inker), Richard Starkings, Albert Deschesne (letterers), Steve Buccellato (colourist), Mark Powers (editor), Bob Harras (editor-in-chief)

Having crashed on an alien world, Bishop and Deathbird help a freedom fighter to return to his world, but are left stranded themselves.

What you need to know:

• The main theme here is Bishop and Deathbird's relationship, as she starts off determined to drag him back to the Shi'ar Throneworld as her consort or slave (she doesn't seem too bothered which). By the end, they're teasing romantic interest. This subplot turns up again in the long-forgotten Team X 2000 one-shot before being quietly dumped.
• Scott and Jean plan to return to the X-Men - and no, they never get around to explaining what Scott was going to tell everyone in issue #356. However, they're stuck in Ptarmigan Creek after the buyer of their house falls through. (When on earth did they put the house on the market? The other X-Men are still there from the previous story.) Apparently everyone now knows that Scott and Jean are mutants, and kids are throwing bricks through the windows.
• Jean is hit by a psi-blast and left catatonic. This is a tie-in with the Psi-War storyline in X-Men vol 2 #77, where the psionic plane is seriously disrupted - something which seemed at the time like it was going to be a major plot but, as with everything else of this period, was just quietly ignored instead.

Comments: This one's actually not too bad, since the Bishop and Deathbird relationship is moderately interesting in its own right, even if it doesn't lead anywhere. The story does read a little oddly in 2002, since readers are invited to sympathise wholeheartedly with Karel, a lone freedom fighter who intends to use a devastating anti-metal weapon to drive invaders off his world. One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist, as they say.

According to subsequent interviews, backstage relations between the creators and editors were pretty bad by this stage. The issue is scripted, perfectly well, by Joe Harris, who later went on to write Bishop's shortlived solo series, Bishop: the Last X-Man. Allegedly the editors rearranged the order of the pages before sending it to Harris for scripting - though the story reads quite naturally to me.

Chris Bachalo is back on the art in this issue, and does some of his better work. The story isn't great, but does have its moments - this is one of the brighter moments of this fairly grim period.

Feature characters: Iceman (leaves the X-Men after this story and appears next in X-Force/Champions '98); Archangel (leaves the X-Men after this story and appears next in Excalibur #125); the Beast (next in Annual '98)

Supporting characters: Bishop (next in Team X 2000); Cyclops (last in X-Factor #149), Phoenix III

Villains: Deathbird (next in Team X 2000); the Chnitt (last in issue #353; no further appearances); the Ursaa, Tu (first and only appearance for both)

Other character: Karel (first and only appearance)

STORY: "Power Play" (23 pages)
Credits: Joe Kelly, Steve Seagle (writers), Chris Bachalo, Ryan Benjamin (pencillers), Tim Townsend, Scott Hanna, Jon Holdredge (inkers), Richard Starkings, Comicraft (letterers), Shannon Blanchard (colourist), Mark Powers (editor), Bob Harras (editor-in-chief)

When Rogue goes to Dr Agee to have her powers removed, Mystique intervenes to stop her. On learning that Agee has a working power-removal machine, Rogue destroys it.

What you need to know:

• Rogue is still dreaming about Gambit, which is partly a set-up for his imminent return.
• The US government was funding Agee's research into removing mutant powers. According to Mystique, he was given "technology created by Forge" - presumably one of the neutralisers that was used on Storm in issue #185 - and told to reverse engineer it. (Mystique's explanation has an accompanying footnote which reads "Whatever you want to say", presumably a placeholder line which Comicraft gamely typed in anyway.)
• Mystique is impersonating Mallory Brickman in this issue, which is part of an ongoing storyline in X-Factor. Mallory Brickman is the wife of Senator Miles Brickman, formerly a Machine Man villain and now very obscure indeed. But he provides her with some kind of rationale to turn up at Agee's offices.
• Mystique and Rogue have a lengthy argument about Agee's machine, in which Mystique makes the semi-reasonable argument that removing mutant powers in order to achieve world peace is like turning black people white to remove racism. (Except, of course, mutants actually ARE different from humans, which is where the metaphor breaks down.) Rogue's convinced, anyway.
• Wolverine knew that Rogue was going to have her powers removed and decided to let her get on with it. Apparently he was confident that she wouldn't go through it.
• Strangely, in this issue, Agee is well aware that he failed to cure his sister Rebecca. This is totally inconsistent with his scene in issue #357.
• In a subplot, Jean is fine after last issue's psi-blast, except that her powers have gone. Again, this is a tie-in to Psi-War, and it doesn't stick.
• Rogue has a flashback summarising the recent events which have led her to submit to Agee's machine. The gist is that recent bodily contact has led her to crave more. What's interesting about this sequence is that Rogue and Gambit's night in Antarctica is described as "But having kissed the love of her life while her powers waned in Antarctica..." This seems pretty convincing evidence that - at least by this point - it had been decided that Rogue and Gambit did not have sex in issue #349, whatever some sections of fandom like to think.

Comments: A rare sighting for this period - a Steve Seagle storyline is resolved.

This issue has a lot going for it. Rogue and Mystique have a fairly interesting discussion about the whole idea of getting rid of mutants, and a lot of Rogue's characterisation makes good sense - although her 180 degree change of heart seems a little forced. There's a nice subplot scene as well, with Jean feeling cut off from Scott because her telepathic powers aren't working.

On the minus side, the issue hinges on a glaring coincidence where Mystique just happens to turn up at Agee's institute on the day he's working on Rogue. And the art is very inconsistent, with Chris Bachalo and Ryan Benjamin drawing different pages, including some art changes within scenes. They don't look very similar at all, and quite honestly, Benjamin isn't a particularly good artist, although he tells the story adequately.

This issue effectively marks the end of the Seagle era proper, and what a false start it was. After this, if Seagle and Kelly's later interviews are to be believed, they're really just transcribing plots forced on them by the editors.

Feature characters: Rogue (last in issue #356); Wolverine (last in X-Men Vol 2 #78; next in Annual '98)

Supporting characters: Cyclops (next in issue #368); Phoenix III (next in X-Man #46)

Villains: Aubrey Agee (no further appearances); Henry Peter Gyrich (continuity unknown); Miles Brickman (last in Cable/Machine Man '98; next in X-51 #1); Mystique (last in X-Factor #144; next in X-Men Vol 2 #93 f/b); Mutopia (last in issue #356; no further appearances)

Guest appearance: Shaman (between Alpha Flight Vol 2 #... and #15)

Other character: Rebecca Agee (in flashback preceding issue #357)

STORY: "Thresholds" (39 pages)
Credits: Joe Casey (writer), Paul Pelletier, Leo Fernandez (pencillers), Andrew Pepoy, Keith Champagne, Rob Leigh, Ray McCarthy (inkers), Richard Starkings, Comicraft (letterers), Felix Serrano, ... Ramos, ... Soto, ... Smith, ... Schiegel (colourists), Frank Pittarese (editor), Bob Harras (editor-in-chief)

Mad scientist Bradley Beynon, believing that Mr Fantastic has plagiarised his work, attacks the Fantastic Four and the X-Men using a stolen Psycho-Man costume, only to be defeated by the real Psycho-Man.

What you need to know:

• Nothing whatsoever.

Comments: In 1998, all of the Marvel annuals were team-up stories, and this issue covers both Uncanny X-Men and Fantastic Four. Actually, Fantastic Four also got its own separate annual, a team-up with a parallel universe version of themselves which was solemnly published as Fantastic Four / Fantastic Four '98. Nonetheless, this is just a throwaway Fantastic Four story with a couple of the X-Men putting in an appearance.

It has minor - very minor - historical interest as the first X-Men story written by Joe Casey, later the regular writer on Uncanny X-Men in 2001 and 2002. But it's not a real X-Men story, so who cares?

Feature characters: Wolverine (between issues #359-360) Storm (next in X-Men Vol 2 #79, then in issue #360), Ceclia Reyes, Cannonball II (the latter three last in X-Men Vol 2 #78), the Beast (last in issue #358; the latter three next in X-Men Vol 2 #79, then all leave the X-Men; all five as the X-Men); Mr Fantastic, the Thing, the Human Torch, the Invisible Woman (as the Fantastic Four; all between Fantastic Four Vol 3 #9-10)

Supporting character: Franklin Richards (last in Fantastic Four Vol 3 #9)

Villains: Bradley Beynon, Hadley (first and only appearance of both); the Psycho-Man (last in Cable #39; next in Warlock Vol 4 #5)

STORY: "Children Of The Atom" (36 pages)
Credits: Steve Seagle (writer), Chris Bachalo (penciller), Tim Townsend (inker), Jordi Ensign, Aaron Sowd, Jonothan Sibal, Peter Palmiotti (assistant inkers), Richard Starkings (letterers), Shannon Blanchard, Mike Rockwitz (colourists), Mark Powers (editor), Bob Harras (editor-in-chief)

Following the dissolution of Excalibur, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler and Colossus are on a cruise when a completely new team of "X-Men" attacks, kidnaps Shadowcat, and takes her back to their strangely inhuman version of "Professor X." The "X-Men" make Shadowcat cure a computer virus which was attacking "Xavier", but once he is restored he has his X-Men put her in "storage." They also abduct Peter Corbeau, who was working on the mysterious Benassi Rocket project. Valerie Cooper calls in the remaining real X-Men to investigate Corbeau's disappearance, only for them to come under attack from the impostors as well.

What you need to know:

• This is the official 35th anniversary celebration of the X-Men. Quite how that works out, bearing in mind that this is the October 1998 issue and the first issue was dated September 1963 (with Marvel shifting their dating policy around in the interim to throw things even further off) is a little difficult to work out. Presumably it got the nod because it's a round number, although just how meaningful that is when you take into account the book's varying publication schedule and periods of cancellation is highly questionable.
• Obvious references back to issue #1: The Benassi Rocket is being launched from Cape Citadel in Florida, which is where the X-Men fought Magneto in issue #1. We're told it's the anniversary of that attack, which is really sledgehammering the point. The opening line is "Thanks, Jack and Stan", referring to the series creators Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. (Note the order of the names, for what it's worth.) More obscurely, the reporter in the opening and closing sequences is named Paula Reinman, referring to Paul Reinman, who inked issue #1.
• The premise of the new X-Men is that their "Professor X" is the Cerebro machine which Bastion stole back during Operation: Zero Tolerance, altered as a result of a botched attempt to access its data. Cerebro has somehow or other created its X-Men based on the data files which it holds on other characters. Which is why all of the new X-Men are crosses between other characters. The "recruitment" scenes in this story simply depict the false memories which each of the "X-Men" has, which is why they all start with a caption reading "Program implement: Memory chip."
• The Gray King is Jean Grey/Phoenix crossed with Sebastian Shaw. (He also has a "psionic dampening" power which might have been drawn from Chance II of the Fallen Angels.) Chaos is the name and powers of Havok crossed with the autism of Legion. Mercury is apparently meant to be a cross between Quicksilver and Wolverine. Rapture is the Angel crossed with Mystique, although with religious overtones above either of them (possibly drawn from Wolfsbane). Crux is particularly difficult to make sense of and would seem to be a cross between Jubilee and ultra-obscure Spider-Man villain Equinox, The Thermodynamic Man, although that does seem very unlikely to be the intention. Earthquake is the Blob and Sabretooth.
• Since the last issue, the X-Men roster has been pared down to consist solely of Storm, Wolverine, Rogue and Marrow. Why did everyone else leave? Well, that was never explained. Look, this is Uncanny X-Men of 1998 - if you want interesting and competently structured stories which haven't been reduced to a quivering, bleeding pulp by inane editing, you'll have to look elsewhere. The exception is Cecilia Reyes, who has set up as a GP in Salem Center. Which is at least consistent with her character.
• Valerie Cooper has finally learned about the real Xavier's disappearance and conveys that information to the X-Men. (This is necessary in order to preserve the mystery of whether Cerebro might be the real Professor.)
• The X-Men have apparently got their Mansion "more or less to speed" again, so there's another storyline completely dropped with no payoff because it ceased to be convenient. You see why I hate this period so much?

Comments: Yeesh. Another incoherent direction change, three former Excalibur cast members plugged back into the regular cast for no particular reason - and none of them get anything approaching a plot for months, confirming that nobody had any real reason for bringing them back.

The new X-Men are a somewhat interesting idea but, you guessed it, it all heads nowhere. Apparently they were originally going to be real characters, but they end up as glorified robots and are dropped very quickly.

As I said repeatedly at the time: The reason why this whole period fails so badly is that there's no reason why the readers should care about the stories when it's so blatantly obvious that the creators (or editors) can't even be bothered to finish them. However many interesting ideas there might have been to start with, who can really get worked up about the shapeless nonsense which saw print?

Feature characters: Storm, Marrow (both last in X-Men #79), Wolverine (last in Annual '98), Rogue (all next in X-Men Vol 2 #80)

Supporting characters: Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Colossus (all between Excalibur #125 and X-Men Vol 2 #80); Cecilia Reyes (between X-Men Vol 2 #79 and issue #362); Robert Kelly (last in X-Men Vol 2 #73; no further appearances); Peter Corbeau (last in ...; b/s; next in X-Men Vol 2 #80)

Villains: Cerebro (first appearance as a character), the Grey King II, Chaos, Mercury III, Rapture, Crux, Landslide (all as the X-Men II), Marco Benassi, Eric Koppisch (first appearance for all; all next in X-Men Vol 2 #80)

Guest appearance: Valerie Cooper (between X-Factor #148 and Fantastic Four Vol 3 #1)

Other character: Paula Reinman (first appearance; next in X-Men Vol 2 #80)