From: albert@bcm.tmc.edu (Rick Jones)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics
Subject: The X-Men Files #7 (180-189)
Date: 17 Apr 1992 16:02:40 GMT
Organization: Baylor College of Medicine
Originator: albert@chain.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu


X-Men #180: Storm checks with the Prof to see if her recent behavior is
the result of a insanity.  He says it's not.  Kitty and Doug Ramsey (YAY)
tilt a video game in a local mall.  It seems that Doug was recently 
accepted into the Emma Frost's Mass. Academy.  Peter is _really_ jealous
because Doug's a brain, Kitty's a brain, and Peter isn't.  He's thinking
of breaking up with her.  Storm roughs up some muggers while visiting NYC.
The Prof reveals that Doug is a mutant with "the gift of languages."  He
wasn't recruited into either the X-men or New Mutants because he has a 
"quiet" power.  Kitty and Storm have a heart to heart.  Emma bwah-hah-hahs
when she meets Kitty, and the X-men leave for the Secret Wars.

X-men #181: The X-men get back, but arrive in Japan, not NYC with the 
rest of the heroes.  The small dragon Lockheed shacked up with grew to
enormous size on Earth, and the X-men (with the help of the Japanese
military and Sunfire) convince it to leave.  The Prof learns he's not
a combat leader, and Wolverine adopts a child whose mother was killed
in the chaos (he foists the kid on Mariko). Lastly, Senator Robert Kelly
introduces the Mutant Affairs Control Act.

X-men #182: Rogue flew home ahead of the X-men to check on Kitty.
[The New Mutants rescued her, btw.]  She hears a phone message from
Col. Michael Rossi, a former lover of Carol Danvers.  The exhaustion
of flying halfway around the world catches up with her, and Carol's
mind starts to take over.  Thanks to Carol's spy knowledge, she is
able to rescue Rossi from SHIELD, where he was framed by a Hellfire
Club plant.  She has a painful confrontation with Rossi, and almost
snaps.  Nick Fury orders SHIELD to catch Rogue and Rossi, and deadly
force is authorized.

X-men #183: Peter breaks up with Kitty, 'officially' because he fell in love
with an alien healer on the Secret Wars Battleworld.  The healer died,
but Peter is still officially carring a torch for her.  This, natch, tears
up Kitty pretty badly.  Wolverine is offended by this and, with Nightcrawler
in tow, takes him out to a bar to 'reason' with him.  Juggernaut happened 
to be at the same bar, and Wolverine provokes a fight between Peter 
and Jugs.  Wolverine keeps Nightcrawler out of it.  Jugs wins, and when
he wakes up, Peter demands to know why Wolverine let him down.  Wolverine
points out that Kitty almost sacrificed her life for Peter, and he dumped 
her.  Selene, a villain from New Mutants, shows up in NYC.  Kitty heads
off for the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine mini-series.  Sometime after the
end of the issue, Wolverine leaves after her.

X-men #184:  We see Forge's place in Dallas.  It's techno-heaven. 
He gives a power neutralizer to Val Cooper and Raven (Mystique) Darkholme.
Rachel (who's been appearing in New Mutants) appears, and can't understand
why Storm (who she sees on TV) is punk.   "She never looked like that."
Selene hunts Rachel down.  Fortuneately, the X-men arrive and save her.
Now Rachel is really confused, because the Professor never walked in her
history.  [Rachel came back from her future, the "Days of Future Past"
from X-men 141-142.  It's obvious that this is an alternate future.]

X-men #185: Henry Peter Gyrich takes the Power Neutralizer and is determined
to take down Rogue.  Mystique protests (since she doesn't want her foster
daughter hurt, but can't do much without blowing her cover).  Rachel sneaks
a look at the Professor's address book, and calls Scott's home in Alaska.
When she hears his voice, she breaks down crying and whispers "Daddy! Mom!"
(She doesn't know it's Maddy, not Jean.)  Forge is royally pissed about
Gyrich.  Storm catches up with the runaway Rogue, sunning herself on
the banks of the Big Muddy in Caldecot County.  Storm lets Rogue drain
her powers after a long conversation, and Gyrich picks that moment to
attack.  Rogue is stunned by the Neutralizer on a low setting, all
hell breaks loose with the weather.  Rogue breaks off the fight to save
some bystanders, and Storm heroically takes a hit from the Neutralizer
to save Rogue.  Forge shows up too late.  And lastly, the Dire Wraiths
(alien shapechangers from "ROM") decide to kill Forge since his gizmo
is so like Rom's. 

X-men #186: Forge tries to help Storm deal with the loss of her powers.
(This is the main point of the issue, but it's very interesting and
involved.  It also forshadows the Fall of the Mutants.)  Meanwhile
Rogue meets up with Val Cooper, who is five seconds from being Wraith-Chow.
Storm storms ;-) away from Forge, who she blames since he built the 
neutralizer. 

X-men #187: On her way out, Storm is attacked by Dire Wraiths.  Naze,
Forge's mentor and a Shaman, rescues her.  More Wraiths attack, and 
the X-men (including Rogue) come in time to same the day. However,
kill all you want, they make some more.

X-men #188: Naze, in a last ditch attempt to save their lives, tries to
invoke the Great Spirit.  He fails, and the Trickster/Adversary possesses
him.  Illyana and Amanda Sefton show up and help defeat the sorcerous
Wraiths.  This is the first time Peter is confronted with Illyana's 
magical and mutant powers. Lee Forester rescues Magneto from the 
ocean. Nightcrawler wants to disband the X-men, since now the US
government is after them.  When he mentions that Jean Grey died,
Rachel went berserk.  She tells them of her future, and the X-men are
reminded of what may happen if they don't keep fighting the good fight.
Jamie Rogriguez finds the necklace of Kulan Gath, an evil sorceror.

X-men #189: Amara (Magma of the New Mutants) and Rachel tour NYC,
while the X-men wish Storm a fond farewell on her ocean voyage to
Africa.  Rachel detects Selene, who appiles to the Inner Circle of 
the Hellfire Club as the new Black Queen. Rachel and Amara decide 
to fund Selene and kill her.  They do okay, considering the opposition,
but the X-men arrive and break up the fight.  Jamie was taking the 
evil necklace down to be destroyed in a furnace, when he gets mugged.
The mugger is consumed in the magic of the necklace, and Kulan Gath
is freed.  We learn that Rachel was a Hound for the Sentinels,
tracking down renegade mutants so Sentinels could kill them.

Next: Kulan Gath, the Magus, Thunderbird II, the Power Pack, and the Beyonder.
-- 
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)