UXP # 41: "Cleaning out the X-House # 3: Crossroads"

Uncanny X-Men # 273-277

The X-Men are whisked off to the Shi'ar galaxy while Rogue and Magneto content with the Savage Land.

As Claremont continues to wrap up his old plotlines, the X-Men are teleported into the Shi'ar Empire - which, as you may recall - is in the thores of a civil war. Deathbird, having claimed the throne a good long while ago (over 100 issues ago, to the be precise), gathers the X-Men to kill Xavier. The X-Men are confused, but eventually join up with the Starjammers and Lilandra. Deathbird is taken of, the X-Men are reunited with Professor X, and Lilandra is running the show again. All is good, right? Wrong.

Turns out Xavier is a Warskrull. What is a Warskrull? I dunno. A bigger Skrull, it seems. The X-Men eventually defeat the Warskrulls, meet up with the real Xavier, and then hightail it back to Earth. And Lilandra is in charge again.

But that's only half the story . . .

Magneto, Rogue, Nick Fury, and Ka-Zar are all involved in a massive campagin against Zaladane and Magneto's old Mutates. While it's a high-adventure type story, the center spine of the tale is Magneto. Claremont brings Magneto front and center, giving us an understanding of the character that is vast and insightful. Magneto mulls over his past: from a holocaust victim to a super-villian to a terrorist to an X-Man, the reader is immersed in Magneto's memories and his feelings towards this current struggle.

I don't think I've seen such a great interpretation of Magneto as I did here. And while the Shi'ar story is pretty good, the Mangeto character arc is better.

In the end, Magneto is done with the X-Men, the Hellfire Club, and the Savage Land. He's breaking out on his own, out to save Mutantkind from tearing itself apart and being threatened from forces within itself. By killing Zaladane, Magneto is back as a bad guy.

At the same time, Storm questions her decision - even her place as a leader - to have the X-Men go into hiding. There's some nice interaction between Storm, Cable, Cyclops, and Jean regarding that.

Jim Lee continues to impress me with his amazing art. As good as he's gotten, this early X-Men work is just astounding.

This is probably the highlight of Claremont's later work. While he'll always be remembered for what he and Bryne did, he and Jim Lee did just as well.

~W~