X-Men # 157-164
(Side-Note: There's - again - a continunity problem here. So, therefore, I'm declaring that the adventures in this entry as well the next one both occur during the summer break. The students present at the rebuild Insitute are staying over the summer)
The X-Men are rebuilding after all the recent losses. The teams are reassigned and reorganized. Havok's team now consists of Polaris, Iceman, Juggernaut, Rogue, and Gambit. When trouble arises in China, the team heads over to see what the issue is. Turns out Xorn is there. Another Xorn. Xorn Jr. Or something. Anyways, he's killed a bunch of people with his black hole head. The X-Men try and retrieve him, only to be intercepted by a team called the Eight Immortals. A tussel follows, in which Gambit is blinded. Then, the whole gang is attacked by a Madrox-like group named the Collective. Well, in the end, the X-Men take Xorn Jr. back home.
Then, the X-Men fight with a new Brotherhood, this one consisting of Exodus, Sabretooth, Nocturne, Black Tom, Avalanche, and an elephant named Mammomax. With a fear of this new team attacking the mansion, Alex advises Annie that she should get somewhere safe. Annie, upset about something stupid, decides to just up and leave. Even a chat with Northstar doesn't stop her. Meanwhile, Sammy Pare discovers Juggernaut is working with the Brotherhood as their mole. Jugg's even proves this when he "attacks" Nocturne (though he really let's her get away). Sammy is pissed at Juggernaut, prompting Black Tom to kill squidboy. The X-Men and the Brotherhood then fight at the school. The battle ends with Xorn Jr. opening his mask and pulling Exodus, Avalanche, and Mammox into his black hole head - along with Juggernaut and Nocturne, who ended up helping the X-Men. Xorn Jr. then leaves and it turns out that Carter has an evil invisible friend.
Exit stage left, Mr. Austen.
Well, okay, I'll grant him this. These stories aren't too terrible. They're far from great, but they're spared the usual lack of Austen illogic, which helps. It's pretty much straight forward super-hero action.
Definetly didn't like the take on Rogue and Gambit. Rogue gets upset with Gambit because he's angsty? Yeah, it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Overall, Rogue is underused. I appreciate the parallel to Rogue being blinded back in the day by Strobe (post X-Cutioner's Song, remember?), but it doesn't quite work with Gambit. Hate the whole vision thing, too.
Polaris is characterized better, thank God. Iceman's a total jerk. Wolverine's fight with Sabretooth apparently happened all off panel. Mmmmmno. Havok and Annie were pretty much the same as always.
Juggernaut - which has been the shining light of Austen otherwise disasterous run - had a decent amount of characterization in the end, but I question why he was even a member of the Brotherhood at all. He's not a Mutant and never gave a rat's ass about Mutant rights and authority. Sorry, not buying it.
In the end, Austen took just about all of his toys with him when he left. Annie, Carter, Juggernaut, Sammy, Xorn Jr. and even Nocturne (which he dumped in 616 during his "Exiles" run) all left the series with Austen. Nocturne and Juggernaut would return later. Now, if he had only taken away the memories of Azazel and the Church of Humanity too . . .
Austen's run one of controversy. It's actually not bad in the beginning, gets a little worse, then gets really bad, then gets just stupid, then goes to an "above avegerage" status. He shook things up, that's for sure. Not all for the good. Definetly. But hey, Juggernaut had a lot of great moments. So . . . thanks for that.
~W~
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