From: albert@bcm.tmc.edu (Rick Jones)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics
Subject: The X-Men Files #5 (160-169)
Date: 17 Apr 1992 03:24:39 GMT
Organization: Baylor College of Medicine
Originator: albert@chain.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu


X-Men #160:  On Magneto's island, 7 year old Illyana Rasputin wanders off
from the X-men, and goes through a 'Stepping Disk' to Limbo, an evil nasty
dimension ruled by its demon lord Belasco.  The X-men bumble into a set
of SD's and follow.  Of course, time isn't quite the same in Limbo, and there's
another dimensional group of X-men there. Nightcrawler' is Belasco's servant,
Colossus' and Wolverine' are dead, and Storm' is a witch.  The X-men fight
their counterparts and a demon S'ym.  (S'ym, for the uninformed, is a 
parody of Cerebus, who parodied the X-men in the comic by Dave Sim, Cerebus.)
With the help of Storm', the X-men and Illyana are about to be sent home when
Belasco makes a grab for Illyana.  Kitty loses hold of Illyana for a second
with her on the other side of a closing stepping disc.  Suddenly, she grabs her
again, and pulls her out, 7 years older.  We are left with a close up 
of a medallion Belasco gave Illyana in Limbo.  It's a pentagram with three
of the points filled in with Bloodstones, and a sinister prophecy about
what will happen when all are filled.  
	[Apparantly, this was never entirely fulfilled.  Illyana, in the
Inferno crossovers, was turned back into a child.  Feh.  Illyana's adventures
in Limbo, featuring Storm', Nightcrawler', and Kitty' are chronicled in
the 4 issue mini-series _Magik_.  It's good.]

X-men #161:  The Professor is still in a coma.  He has a flashback to 20
years ago in Isreal.  He meets with Gabrielle Haller and "Magnus".  There's
a plot for Nazi gold and she is the key.  Magnus 'kills' Baron Strucker,
but he especially should know how hard it is to kill villains.  Mags 
and Charles part ways, saddened that their approaches to mutants' future
is so opposite.  Mags takes the gold, natch (so we learn how he can afford
all his neat stuff).  The Prof wakes up, and there's a party on 
Lilandra's yacht.  Deathbird crashes it, and makes off with her, Carol
Danvers and the X-men. 


X-men #162: Wolverine all by himself on Broodworld.  He escaped captivity,
and remembers what was done to him and all of the X-men.  The Brood 
Queen (aka Big Bad Mama from Aliens, I think she came before Aliens,
the comic was 1982, when was Aliens?) implanted eggs in all of the X-men.
We see Fang (one of Lil's Imperial Guard) transform into a Brood Warrior.
Instead of chestbursting like Aliens, they transform the host into a
Brood.  The X-men all have Queen eggs, since their genetic structure is
so nifty.  Wolverine's egg hatches, but thanks to his (all together now)
"healing factor and adamantium laced skelleton" he resists the change
(tho he does look kind of nasty).  He vows to either save the X-men,
or kill them if he can't.  

X-men #163:Wolverine sneaks back into Sleaziod (a term he coined for 
the Brood) Central.  He rescues Carol Danvers from nefarious experimentations
by Brood bio-engineers.  Cyclops and Storm break free of the hypnotic
conditioning that was keeping the X-men happy prisoners, and eventually
the X-men are reunited.  Wolverine almost kills the Brood Queen before
they are teleported back to Lilandra's ship (half the team was getting
the ship and the other half was making a diversion).

X-men #164: The yacht is pursued by Brood Sharkships.  Illyana and 
the Prof hang out.  It is revealed that Illyana's mind is closed to him.
Carol transforms into Binary, a cosmic power type.  Storm realizes why 
she's been feeling sick (the egg) and bolts.  Wolverine is forced 
to explain that all the X-men have sleaziods in them.  Binary takes
offense at this and flies out.  She makes her own door, and the X-men
are about to be sucked out into space.

X-men #165: The X-men, of course, don't get sucked out.  Charles receives
a letter from Reed Richards about Xian Coy Manh, aka Karma.  Even though
he is majorly depressed about the loss of the X-men, Moira convinces him
to admit her into the school (this thread is picked up in the New Mutants,
which I will leave someone else to annotate).  Storm starts to transform,
but is able to hold off the transformation long enough to destroy the
ship she left in.  The X-men agree to go back to the Broodworld and kill
the Queen (which for some, is a major step). Kitty and Peter talk about
doing "it," but Peter won't cuz he's too honorable for that sort of thing.
Storm returns in the form of a hologram.  An Acanti star-whale arrives
and swallows the yacht.

X-men #166: (Double Sized)  Storm had merged with the infant Acanti.  She
wants the X-men to recover the "Soul of the Prophet Singer" a mystical
thingamie that will help free the enslaved Acanti.  The X-men decide it's
better to die fighting for something than against.  To make a long story
short, the X-men get the Soul, and in return, the Prophet Singer cures
them all of the infection in the nick of time.  The Broodworld explodes
thanks to Binary, and the Starjammers arrive to ferry the X-men home. 
Cyclops proves he can add 2 and 2, and realizes that the Professor is
infected as well.  Lockheed meets Kitty for the first time.

X-men #167: The X-Men come home to find the New Mutants (the real NM:
Xian, Sam, Dani, Rahne, and Roberto).  They fight, and then they
all fight the Professor, who transforms into a BroodQueen.  They
manage to save him by cloning a body for him, and transferring his 
mind into the clone body.  Best of all, the clone can walk.  
[Now kids, why can't they do it again?  Beats me!]  Lastly, Kitty is
demoted into the New Mutants.

X-men #168:  Wolverine leaves for his first mini-series, and Kitty 
must find a way to show the Prof she's qualified to be an X-man. 
The Professor starts physical therapy to learn to walk again.  Scott
gets back with Lee Forrester, and Kurt has a date with Amanda Sefton.
Kitty finds a leftover Sidri hunter in the basement, and whups it.
She also finds Lockheed, who has yet to explain how he made it from
Broodworld to Earth.  The Prof is impressed enough with her performance
to let her back in the X-men.  However, all is not joyful, as Alex,
Scott, and Corsair go north to meet Scott's grandparents, and meet one
of their pilots, Maddy Pryor, who looks just like Jean Grey.
[You know, I really don't know which is worse, the explanation that
Maddy just happened to look just like Jean, or the whole clone 
bushwah.]

X-men #169:  Angel is kidnapped by the Morlocks.  Sebastian Shaw
finds the White Queen in a mysterious coma.  He suspects Charles
Xavier, or perhaps an unknown foe. Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler
and Kitty all go down into the sewers under NYC to find Angel.
They meet the principal Morlocks: Calisto, the leader, Sunder, 
Masque, and Plague.  Kitty escapes, but not before Plague infects
her with something icky.  Caliban finds her, and takes her home.  It
seems that Caliban also has something of a crush on our dear Ms. 
Pryde.  (For the uninformed, Caliban and Ariel [a name Kitty never
used that much, and was only named such outside of the X-men comic
in a graphic novel and Marvel Team Up] were characters in Shakespeare's
"The Tempest" [which according to rumor, was commissioned by Morpheus
but that's Elmo's job, not mine].  In "The Tempest" Caliban was an
evil monster, and Ariel an air sprite.)

-- 
Rick Jones				Systems Support Center
albert@bcm.tmc.edu			Baylor College of Medicine
Voice: 713-798-7352			standard disclaimers apply
GEEZ Mahn, I'm surrounded by amateurs!- Sebastian (the Little Mermaid)
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