X-Men # 31-32, Uncanny X-Men # 311-314, X-Men # 33-34, Excalibur # 78-80, Uncanny X-Men # 315, Cable # 15
I think "Developments " describes this peroid in X-Men history very well.
Things get started with Revanche going after her former lover and assassin for the Hand, Matsuo. We learn that Matsu had thought that she was dead after Pyslocke appeared to her after coming through the Seige Perilous. As it turned out, there was a telepathic surge and both Pyslocke and Revanche got all mucked up in their heads. When Matsuo found Revanche's body (now co-opted by Psylocke), he thought he could re-shape her into his love. But it back-fired. And now, Revanche (dying of the Legacy Virus and trapped in Psylocke's old body) has gone after Matsuo. Revanche then decides its over and dies. Psylocke, after an encounter with Spiral, heads over to Japan to deal with the loss of Revanche. Matsuo then takes away of all Revenache's memories from Psylocke's mind.
Meanwhile, back at the mansion, something happens to the power core and Sabretooth is freed. Bishop tracks him down, and the confrontation forces him to realize that he is literally living in the past and should therefore stop reflecting so much on his past/future. After the power core is restored, there's a energy surge that goes through Emma Frost's comatose body whilst Iceman is checking on her. Iceman then collapse. As Beast, Jubilee, and Professor X work on helping Bobby, Gambit and Storm meet up with Yukio in New York. Yukio fears someone is stalking her, hence the visit. Turns out she's right as techno-organic creatures calling themselves the Phalanx battle it out with the trio. Eventually, they're destroyed. Shortly afterward, Emma Frost wakes up . . . in Iceman's body. Turns out that the energy surge kicked her out of the coma and tossed her into his body. She then runs off, trying to figure out just what happened to her Hellions, as well as using Bobby's powers in ways he had never thought possible. The X-Men reveal the truth to her and restore both and she and Bobby proper.
Then, after hearing a story about Gambit and Sabretooth, Rogue and Gambit's relationship is shaken quite heavily. She finds she can't trust Remy. However, Beast gets some information from Sabretooth regarding the location of Mr. Sinister. Gambit, Beast, Rogue, and Psylocke (the remains of the Blue Team) head off to Scott's old and abandoned orphanage to retrieve information regarding the Legacy Virus. It's there they encounter Threnody again and after finding some shit-ass clones, Threnody sets the self-destruction sequence, and continues to help the X-Men from inside of Sinister's operation.
Meanwhile, some kind of Doug Ramsey/Warlock/Phalanx being calling itself Douglock breaks free from the Phalanx and meets up Stryfe's old right-hand robot, Zero. Zero, as it turns out, has information regarding the Legacy Virus, but is being hunted by Stryfe's robots as per an order to eliminate all of evidence of himself if killed. Zero, with a budding personality, heads off with Douglock, Excalibur and some cheese-whiz family as they search for what Legacy Virus info Zero has. This pretty much goes nowhere fast and Zero downloads any info he can into Douglock before 'spolding.
Back up in Avalon, the Acolyte known as Neophite is put on trail for helping the X-Men back a few issues. Colossus serves as his defense and some loud philosphying about Magneto and Xavier follows. In the end, none of the Acolytes trust Colossus anymore and Neophite is sent back to Earth in exile.
Then, Cable and Domino go on date and encounter the Morlock, Thornn. They then learn that there is the possibility that Mikhail didn't kill all of the Morlocks and had actually sent some of them into another dimension - including one named Sarah.
Overall, an interesting time for the X-Men. We're moving back into a crossover, with all sorts of subplots heading into one unified direction - with the Phalanx in the lead. In some ways, it's very Claremontian. Setting up sub-plots early on, developing just here and there, then having them manifest further down the line. However, Lobdell and Nicieza aren't as good with this as Claremont was. I don't think it's plum necessary to have so many subplots going on at the same time and in many ways, the fault lies on lack of coordination between the two.
Moving on, the art is great. Andy Kubert and Joe Mad take the cake as far as great and dynamic scenes go. Both are able to maintain both energy and intimacy in their artwork. Kubert has grown quite a bit from when he first started.
We get some nice moments with the X-Men, too. Betsy and Warren growing closer. Emma's complete distress. Jubilee bumming around, still dealing with Wolverine's running off. Bishop's angst. Storm's friendship with Yukio. Even Moira gets a shining, if not tragic moment, as it's revealed that she has the Legacy Virus.
Far from the best, far from the worst - it's definetly a middle of the road kind of time for the X-Men.
~W~
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