From: albert@chain.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu (Rick Jones)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics
Subject: The Annotated X-men Vol #2 (130-139)
Date: 8 Apr 1992 01:58:12 GMT
Organization: Baylor College of Medicine


X-men #130 - Nightcrawler, Cyclops and Phoenix go to a New York disco
to find their next 'neo-mutant', who turns out to be Dazzler.  While
at the disco, Jean has another timeslip back to the Rev. War, and starts
dancing with Jason Wyngarde, both in the present and the past.  They kiss
passionatly on the dance floor, much to Scott's dismay.  Professor X
was captured off panel by the Hellfire Club.  Kitty tries to free Storm, 
who is drugged.  She does manage to get the X-men's phone number, and 
escapes the Hellfire goons by diving through the floor.  Kitty calls Kurt,
but theit conversation is interrupted by Hellfire goons attacking Nightcrawler's
group.  With Dazzler's help, they defeat the goons.  They pass Jason
Wyngarde on the way out, and fail to notice his shadow is different from
his profile.

X-men #131: Cyclop's group rescues Kitty, and then the rest of the X_men 
from the Hellfire Club.  Phoenix beats the stuffings out of the White Queen
in a psi duel, and Kitty is returned to her parents.  In an uncharacteristic
move, Phoenix mind controls the Pryde's so that they forget that their daughter
was missing for a few days.  Phoenix was also more savage with Hellfire thugs
than necessary.

X-men #132: The X-men fly, not back to Westchester, but to Angel's New Mexico
estate.  Cyclops is convinced that the mansion isn't safe, so he took them
there to plot the next move against the Hellfire Club.  Scott and Jean spend 
a passionate night alone on a butte in NM, and then the X-men (sans Angel
and Professor X) go to the Hellfire Club undercover, as Angel's 'guests.'
Phoenix has another timeslip and leaves upstairs with Wyngarde.  As
Cyclops tries to stop them, Wyngarge reveals he's Mastermind, the illusion
caster, and the battle is joined between the Inner Circle of the Hellfire
Club (Sebastian Shaw, Harry Leland, and Pierce) and the X-men, who lose
thanks to suprise, and Phoenix, now the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club.
Wolverine escaped, however.

X-men #133: Wolverine fights his way up to the captured X-men.  Meanwhile,
Moria analyzes the data she took on Phoenix, and realizes that her power
levels are going off the scale.  As the Black Queen, Phoenix is living
out a fantasy life in the Revolutionary War, where the X-men are 
rebels against the King, and the Hellfire Club are British loyalists.
Cyclops uses the mind link between him and Phoenix to try to free Jean's
mind.  However, Mastermind is there, and 'kills' Scott on the astral plane.

X-Men #134: Wolverine bursts in as Cyclops tries to regain his feet.
Fortunately, the shock of seening Scott 'die' was enough to shock Jean
back to her senses.  The X-men break free and fight their way out of the
Hellfire Club.  Jean uses the chaos to open Mastermind's mind to the 
universe, and he's left drooling in a corner.  The X-men escape, but
the Hellfire Club calls the cops and Avengers, claiming the mutants
are rioting.  Beast (the Avenger on call) purges the tape and goes to help
the X-men.  Flying away, Phoenix loses control of her power and 
becomes 'Dark Phoenix' and destroyes their aircraft.

X-men #135: Phoenix beats up on the X-men, then goes into outer space
for more fun.  She causes the sun of the planet D'Bari to go nova, and
a zillion little asparagus people die screaming.  She also nukes as 
Shi'ar battle cruiser, but not before they send images home to Lilandra.
Beast finds the battered X-men and take them home to the mansion to recover.
Cyclops announces that Dark Phoenix is coming back, "and she's hungry."

X-men #136: Dark Phoenix comes back to Earth.  She arrives at her parent's
house, and is overwhelmed by their thoughts (on the surface, they're 
caring, but in their subconscious, their afraid of her).  The X-me arrive
and try to stop her.  Thanks to teamwork and some of Beast's gizmo's, they
hold their own for a while, but she eventually wins.  Cyclops tries to
talk her down, but Professor X shows up and fights a psi-duel with her.
Thanks to Jean's subsconscious helping him, he wins, and her power is 
locked back to her old 'Marvel Girl' levels.

X-men #137: Lilandra arrives and demands justice for D'Bari.  Professor 
X challenges the Imperial Guard to a duel for Jean's life.  She accepts,
and the X-men fight the Imperial Guard on the Blue Area of the moon.
(This is before the Inhumans moved in.)  The X-men fight valiantly,
but eventually, it's down to Cyclops and Marvel Girl against the Impies.
Cyclops is cut down, and Jean goes nuts.  She becomes first Phoenix 
and then Dark Phoenix.  The X-men try to stop her, but they can't. 
In the end, Jean comes to her senses, and realizes she cannot control
her own power, so she allows a Kree weapon buried on the moon to kill her.

[No matter what was done later to ivalidate this arc, it's one of the most
powerful comics stories printed.]

X-men #138: At Jean's funeral, Scott remembers his days with the X-men, 
old and new.  He leaves the X-men, to be alone for a while.  Kitty
shows up at Xavier's to join the school.

X-men #139: Storm is put in charge of the X-men, and Angel rejoins 
officially.  Kitty signs up for dance classes at Stevie Hunter's 
dance school.  Wolverine and Nightcrawler head north to settle 
things with Alpha Flight.  Alpha Flight is busy tracking the Wendigo,
a monster that Wolverine and the Hulk fought in Wolverine's first
appearance.  The Wendigo attacks.  Wolverine's brown costume appears
and he is named Logan for the first time.  (You'd think we'd get a last
name after 12 years.)


	More to come later.

w
-- 
Rick Jones				Systems Support Center
albert@bcm.tmc.edu			Baylor College of Medicine
Voice: 713-798-7352			standard disclaimers apply
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