Uncanny X-Men #193 (May 85): Warhunt 2

Creative Team: Chris Claremont, writer; John Romita, Jr. & Dan Green, artists; Tom Orzechowski, letterer; Glynis Wein, colorist; Ann Nocenti, editor; Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief

Starting Line Up: Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Shadowcat, Rogue, Rachel Summers

Guest Stars: Storm, Banshee, Cannonball

In New Mutants #27: Professor X, Cypher, Mirage, Wolfsbane, Gabrielle, and Moira take an astral-plane tour of David's war-torn mind; the Prof learns that he is David's father; they meet Jack Wayne and Cyndi, two of David's personalities, who are at war with a third.

Synopsis: On Muir Island, Banshee is out for a jog and is attacked by the new Thunderbird, brother of the long dead X-Man Thunderbird and one of the Hellions. In the Morlock tunnels, Xavier wakes from his mugging and near death to find himself saved. Callisto had the Morlock prevent Xavier's death, then dressed him up in leather bondage gear. Callisto shows Xavier around. Sunder and some other Morlocks come to her with the bodies of Annalee's children, murdered in cold blood for being mutants. Callisto vows she will follow Storm's orders to live peacefully with humans, but they drew first blood and she will not back down from a race war. In the Colorado rockies, Thunderbird firds a remnant of the plane his brother died on. Two other Hellions, Empath and Roulette, find him. Thunderbird tells them to stay out his business and to let him handle the X-Men alone. T-Bird leaves, but they are joined by another Hellion, Firestar, who Empath is using his empathic powers to love him. Back at the mansion, the X-Men and Cannonball are having a Danger Room session. Colossus keeps getting outsmarted. The session is interrupted by the return of Xavier with Callisto. The team laughs at his attire. In the middle of the Atlantic ocean, Storm is on her ship taking her to Africa. She spots mountains in the distance and it striggers a ghostly hallucination of her mother. Back the the school, Xavier finds he has not fully recovered from his attack and can barely use his telepathic powers. He gets called to a team meeting. Thunderbird has sent them a message saying they have 24 hours to rescue Banshee or he'll kill him. Banshee is being held inside the Norad complex in Cheyenne Mountain. The team realises the moment they sneak inside, they'll be branded as criminals, but they feel they have no other choice. At the Norad base, Xavier needs Rachel's help to stay in contact with the X-Men. Nightcrawler teleports all the X-Men inside, except Xavier who stays behind in the Blackbird with Lockheed. Roulette finds the Blackbird. She attaches a device to short circuit all of its systems. Empath sneaks aboard and uses his power to make Lockheed so afraid he flies off. Empath then tries to use his power on Xavier, but Xavier fights back with what little he has. He does well until Roulette gasses him, knocking him out. Rachel senses Xavier's trouble, so Shadowcat runs back to check on him. Shadowcat finds him unconscious, but alone. Nightcrawler is already worried about his leadership. He asks Rachel to use her psi powers to locate Banshee. She starts flashing back to her hound days and freaks out, crumpling into a ball anc crying. Shadowcat and Wolverine combine their powers to slip through the complex and sniff out Banshee. Rogue is sent back to protect Xavier. Nightcrawler bitches to Colossus about his bad leadership. In the Norad War Room, Empath, Roulette, and Firestar are on a guided tour. Roulette uses her power to have the X-Men's cloacking fields fail, then Empath makes Norad officials react out of irrational fear. They order secbots to kill the X-Men. Wolverine and Shadowcat find Banshee, but are attacked by Thunderbird. Wolverine fights him with Cat frees Banshee. The room is filled with gas as a result of the X-Men being detected. Thunderbird gets away, but realises he doesn't want them to die, so he goes back to save them. Nightcrawler and Colossus are attacked by the secbots. Nightcrawler brings Rogue back to help, but Rachel is still having a panic attack. Colossus manages to trash the bots, but they are attacked by Firestar. She takes Colossus off on a flight, but he's saved by Rogue. Nightcrawler is capture by the bots and taken to the War Room. The general orders his death, but Empath uses his power to make Nightcrawler react in rage. Thunderbird shows up and is pissed at Empath for getting involved in his personal revenage plan. Shadowcat pulls Empath out of the room and Wolverine scares him into fainting. Everyone in the war room gets their heads back, but Nightcrawler is still in danger and escapes with Roulette. Wolverine and Shadowcat are found by more secbots. Rachel finally snaps out of her daze and applogizes. Rogue is upset Rachel won't confind in them. She wants to absorb Rachel's memories, but Nightrcrawler returns. He and Rachel go looking for Wolverine and Shadowcat. Back on the Blackbird, Thunderbird finally corners Xavier, the man he blames for his brother's dead. Thunderbird comes in for the kill, but Xavier explains his brother joined the X-Men and died of his own free will. Thunderbird can't bring himself to kill Xavier. Everyone leaves, taking T-Bird and Firestar with them, and returns to the mansion. Thunderbird and Firestar are offered a place with the X-Men, but they both decide to return to the Hellions where they feel they belong. Xavier lets them go. Elsewhere, Jaime Rodriguez defends mutants from his brother while Nimrod discovers he's in the wrong past, just as Rachel is. He decides to continue to defend humanity by killing the recently spotted Juggernaut and the X-Men.

Yeah, but is it good? Oh yeah. This is the kind of the story that's been needed after a lot of crap recently. Being a double sized issue, there was plenty of time to let the story unfold. A simple search and rescue mission turns into a disaster, and it's almost fun to watch the plan fall apart at every turn and poor Nightcrawler trying to salvage the whole thing. It all works out in the ends, but it wasn't pretty. Thunderbird had a good motivation, although his resources are a little suspect. How did he get into Norad so easily? But anyway... Banshee, who watched the orignal T-Bird die, is the chosen bait. Norad, the scene of the death, is the chosen battle ground. And Xavier, the one who "forced" T-Bird into the X-Men, is the chosen victim for revenge. But is the new Thunderbird evil? He couldn't let Shadowcat die since she wasn't on the team then. And he couldn't let Wolverine die since he wasn't really resposible. And he couldn't kill Xavier because... well... he saw the light. Sort of. Same goes for Firestar. She finds out Empath was just using her, but she can't bring herself to leave the Hellions either. Despite their understanding with the X-Men, they still don't see the Hellions, White Queen, or Inner Circle as evil. There's some great interaction early on between Xavier and Callisto, and Cal really drives home the point that a race war is brewing. And nothing can be funnier than Xavier in bondage gear. This issue marked the 100th appearance of the new X-Men (not couting guest appearances and annuals), so this would also mark my 100th review... plus annuals... plus some of the original X-Men... so I'm at like 130 or something. Anyway, damn good issue.

Signicata: Xavier's mental powers are severly weakened from his attack. Annalee's kids are killed. Nightcrawler doubts his ability to lead. The X-Men become wanted criminals for breaking into Norad. Thunderbird and Firestar come to terms with the X-Men, but remain with the Hellions. Nimrod reveals to be from Rachel's timeline and plans to kill the X-Men. Double sized issue soled for $1.25.
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