Reviewer: Jesse Baker
Story Title: “… For What I Have Done”
Written by: Scott Lobdell
Penciled by: John Romita Jr, Jae Lee, Chris Spouse, Brandon Peterson, Paul Smith
Inked by: Dan Green, Dan Panosian, Terry Austin, Tom Palmer, Keith Williams
Colored by: Mike Thomas
Lettered by: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Bob Harras
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Intro
Uncanny X-Men #304 was the 30th anniversary issue of the landmark Marvel series that had captivated comic fans and helped make Marvel the powerful juggernaut that it is today. For the franchise’s 30th anniversary, Marvel promised and slowly built up the return of the X-Men’s original enemy, the Master of Magnetism Magneto and a great betrayal of one of the members of the X-Men.
The Review
The issue begins in progress, as the Acolytes are lynching their leader Fabian Cortez after meeting Magneto’s new flunky Exodus. Exodus is one of the many, many, many “All-Powerful Villains Who Gets Hyped As the Next Big Thing Only to Never Live Up to Their Hype and Disappear Off The Face of the Earth” introduced in the 1990s and who now dwells in the same corner of Comic-Limbo as The Evil Robot Cerebro, Onslaught, and the Neo. Sure the character was cool looking, but having him be the dude who claims to talk for a coma patient isn’t exactly interesting. Especially since more people would rather see the coma talk for himself.
Anyway, Fabian’s plot to kill Magneto is exposed and Exodus announces that it’s time to gather Magneto’s flunkies for their reunion with the object of their pagan worship. As the Acolytes leave, Exodus announces that Magneto has decided to spare Cortez’s life and leave him to “suffer slowly, a victim of someone else’s legacy”. This is a clear reference to the Legacy Virus, a storyline that had just started up but wouldn’t lead to anything as Exodus would kill Fabian dead several issues later during the Bloodties crossover and render the entire foreshadowing pointless.
We now cut to Xavier, who is shaving and moping over his inability to Illyana Rasputain from the Legacy Virus. The narration sets the story on the day of her funeral and Xavier is less than thrilled at having to bury one of his own. He is soon joined by a holographic communication image of his common-law wife Empress Lilandra, who tries to cheer Xavier up by telling him he didn’t fail her even though Magik is dead and rotting in the funeral parlor as they speak.
Xavier leaves the bathroom and goes to his computer room, calling up two phrases onto his computer screen. “The Underground” and “The Magneto Protocols” were two new storyline concepts introduced into the X-Books around this time that were never developed beyond vague references made every six to eight month. For the record, “The Underground” was supposed to be Xavier’s community of human contacts who helped the X-Men out in secret while the Magneto Protocols were files the US Government had on how to defeat Magneto, which come into play in X-Men #25 before being dropped.
We soon cut to an overhead shot of the mansion which leads us to Magneto’s refuge of the damned: Avalon. We get a monologue from Magneto explain that Avalon is his refuge for mutants from the horrors of Earth as we segue to Magneto picking up his helmet. As this goes on, we FINALLY find out how Magneto survived his apparent death at the end of X-Men #3: the Acolyte Chrome turned him to metal so he would survive the crash of his asteroid base. The narration moves into explaining how Magneto, despite turning good and joining the X-Men in the mid-1980s, HAD NOT CHANGED ONE BIT AND IS STILL EVIL.
Sidenote 1: Even though it made him a better and more well-rounded character, Magneto’s transformation into a good guy during the mid-80s was a bad thing in that it didn’t lead to any decent stories involving the character. Perhaps it was do to the circumstances (Magneto replacing Xavier at the school at the same time that Claremont severed ties between the X-Men and the School) but overall it was never fully explored given that he spent the bulk of his days ranting and raving at the New Mutants over how dangerous the world was and hanging out with the Hellfire Club in a subplot that never went anywhere.
This segues to a flashback sequence set after the death of his daughter (who is shown not having been burned into a crisp, as that was her cause of death). The narrative officially gives us another brainfart of the 1990s, as Marvel decided to give Magneto a real name of Eric Magnus Lehnsherr as part of their mucking up of Magneto’s backstory. Magneto, who’s suicidal and not wanting to live now that his wife has left him and his daughter is dead, is being hunted by Soviet soldiers. They launch a surprise ambush on Eric and are quickly destroyed as the narration goes into ultra-melodramatic mode. We learn that on that day, Eric Lehnsherr died and that Magneto was born. We cut back to Magneto in full costume declaring that for the sake of those mutants who have died, the world needs a Magneto.
Back at the mansion, we find Kitty Pryde (on loan from Excalibur) finding zero food in the mansion’s fridge. She complains to Storm about this and Storm explains to that the X-Men are too busy to buy food with all of the adventuring and lounging and angsting by the pool. Kitty responds and describes grocery shopping as a “normal” thing people do and soon goes off on a tangent about what everyone would be doing if they still would be living “normal” lives: Kitty would keeping her parent’s loveless marriage together, Storm would be in Kenya, and Illyana would be alive. Illyana’s name makes Kitty break down in grief over her best friend’s death, so Storm decides to blow open a window and take Kitty flying and explain that it’s all the will of the Pagan Goddess that Illyanna died.
Before we can see Kitty and Storm get into a Pagan/Jew theological debate about why God kills, they see Colossus burning various paintings of his in a trashcan. Kitty tries to stop Peter, grabbing a portrait of Illyana from him and ask him what he is feeling to make him do something so drastic. “Nothing” is Colossus’s response as Kitty hugs Peter to try and get a response. Sadly none comes, so she runs off with the painting of her best friend.
We cut to the forest as Bishop and Banshee are setting up for the memorial service in a sequence that is mainly there to start the foreshadowing for the Generation X ongoing series that Marvel would launch in the fall of 1994. Basically Banshee teases Bishop about being from the future and how Illyana’s death didn’t bother him because he knows about all of the X-Men deaths. Bishop responses by telling Banshee his future: that he will be the “last hope and custodian” of the next generation of mutants. Banshee cuts him off midway through the word “generation” as he tells Bishop that he doesn’t believe in such nonsense as fate and destiny. Yet he does cut Bishop off midway throw his revealing Banshee’s fate.
We now go directly to the funeral, as Storm gives a touchy-feely speech about Illyana still being in everyone’s hearts when Magneto’s new satellite HQ starts descending upon the funeral. Funeral attendees include the entire roster of X-Force (save for Cable, who’s still nursing the massive injuries he suffered at the hands of Magneto in X-Force #25), X-Factor, the Gold and Blue X-Men teams, and Excalibur’s Nightcrawler and Shadowcat. As the funeral ends Cable’s absence is discussed and Xavier decides to confront Colossus. What follows is a brilliant character moment as Colossus explodes at Xavier, denouncing his “dream” as a fraud which has failed him and Ilyanna. He brings up the often quoted speech Xavier gave when he recruited Peter in Giant Size X-Men #1 and brings up how Xavier has done jackshit to help the world. Xavier tries to counter these harsh truths via reverse psychology only to be interrupted by sudden arrival of Magneto. His arrival is met by one of the most “well duh!” lines in comic history as Cyclops cries out “Then what we feared was true- You’re alive!”.
Magneto gives a rundown on his survival and states that while he was sidelined, he saw how the mutant leaders in his absence did absolutely nothing to help mutantkind and just squabbled amongst themselves with petty bickering. Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, Stryfe, the Upstarts, the Dark Riders, and the Toad-lead Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are namechecked by Magneto as he explains how no one was doing anything to help mutantkind out.
Sidenote 2: When Magneto appears, Iceman blasts Magneto for crashing Illyana’s funeral. Except that Illyana was Magneto’s favorite student out of the entire New Mutant team and that he helped her with her demonic enemies from Limbo came after her despite the risk to his own well-being. Plus they had a rather adversarial relationship based on mutual respect despite their differences, so having Magneto show when he did does make sense in terms of being respectful.
Magneto nukes the various cars the Children of the Atom came in and teleports Exodus and the Acolyte to the parking lot as he makes his pitch: come with him to Avalon and let the Earth and the Legacy Virus destroy the planet. As the X-Men stand and listen, we get the explanation as towards why no one has charged Magneto yet: Magneto is freezing everyone via the iron in their body and keeping them from consciously summoning their powers. Bishop notes that his powers aren’t consciously controlled as Magneto kicks around Wolverine and Xavier before killing one of his Acolyte, the whip-wielding Senyaka for taking part in the massacre of a hospital for the terminally ill without Magneto’s permission in X-Factor #92. While Jubilee desperately tries to hold back her vomit, Kut comments on Magneto’s suddenly developed “Messiah Complex” as Colossus marvels in Magneto’s words and attempts to rationalize his actions.
Magneto then unveils Avalon to the X-Men as a narration box pops up declaring the station’s presence is a sign for humanity that Magneto was back. Xavier bitches at the fact that Magneto must have stole Shi’ar technology to build the station as Magneto uses his power to help the Acolytes “ascend” to their new home. Magneto wisely plays the guilt card as he reminds Xavier that he tried things his way and that it’s only fair Xavier does the same thing as well. Xavier’s response is the “You’ve turned into a Nazi” card on Magneto while we get yet another ominous panel of Colossus as Bishop, glowing in the dark now, announces to Storm that he’s absorbing Magneto’s powers.
Bishop proceeds to shut Magneto up with an energy blast. Cyclops, in a moment of idiotic leadership orders the X-Men to stand down while Jubilee rants to Xavier about the odds of them surviving a battle with Magneto. Magneto gets up and announces his disappointment as he proclaims his second reason for showing up: to use Avalon’s technology to nuke Westchester County off the face of the Earth as a way of balancing the scales for those mutants killed by the Legacy Virus so far. Meanwhile Cyclops orders all of the energy blasters to start shooting at Bishop so he can absorb their energies and use them against Magneto while Rogue flies up to Magneto and begs him to stop. When Magneto refuses, Rogue kisses him but finds that Magneto no-selling her absorbing powers and tosses her to Gambit. Magneto then entangles the physical fighters in metal restraints created by the cemetery gates before getting blasted by Bishop and the rest of the energy blasters.
Meanwhile Avalon starts to crumble, as Jean states that Magneto is keeping the station together with his powers and gets Storm and Cannonball to help keep debris from falling from the sky.
Finally we get the money shot for this issue as Colossus sneaks up behind Bishop and hits him in the back. HARD. Bishop goes to the ground, picks Magneto up, and asks to join him. The reaction shots to Colossus turning evil:
Kitty Pryde: Dear God Peter…. NO!!!!!!!!!!!
Wolverine: Tell me somebody’s controlling his mind!
Colossus’s response to his teammate’s shock: “For the first time in months Logan, I feel I am in control…..”
Magneto gloats as Xavier attempts to mindblast Magneto and tells Magneto that he lacks courage to rise above his hate and rage. Xavier then slowly drags himself off the ground and climbs up onto his feet while clinging to Magneto’s costume. Xavier goes completely off on Magneto, accusing Magneto of being worthless because he won’t play ball Xavier’s way and that he’s tired of standing back and being self-righteous.
Magneto starts to fly back off into space against his will as Xavier continues to cling onto his costume, as Xavier sends Magneto and Avalon back into outer space. But that in doing so, he falls off of Magneto and falls back to Earth to a certain doom.
Finally in the final page Xavier is falling from the sky and in one brief moment, Xavier welcomes his impending splattering onto the pavement. But Archangel catches him and tells Xavier that he’s there for him. Xavier’s response is pretty cliched: “Of course you are Warren, I’d expect nothing less from any of my X-Men” as we see a final and really small panel of the various X-Men and X-Men related characters standing in the shadows as Archangel lands.
Vivisection
A decent issue that brings Magneto back into the fold and has a surprise ending with Colossus joining Magneto’s forces. It’s a shame though that no one at Marvel had the balls to go through with Colossus’s “heel turn” since after this issue they automatically began whitewashing Colossus and his decision until finally he jumped ship and rejoined the X-Family via joining Excalibur.
Artwise, Marvel opted for a “Jam-Session” of various artists drawing the issue as around five different artist pencilled this issue. Most notable of these guest artists are former X-Men artist Paul Smith (who draws the kitchen encounter between Storm and Shadowcat) and Jae Lee, who draws the Magneto flashback sequence.
Historical Sidenote
In the letter page, there is a small two column introduction by Stan Lee who takes the time out to discuss the success of the X-Men franchise and how in 1993, the X-Men were growing into a huge cultural phenomena. He mentions the X-Men cartoon on Fox and the Sega Genesis X-Men game as examples of the franchise’s popularity and then makes what would eventually be a HUGE announcement in retrospect. Stan Lee announces that Marvel has wrapped up a deal to bring the X-Men to the big screens in their first major motion picture film. And though it would take seven years before it would reach the scene, the X-Men film would go on to live up to Stan’s hyperbole as being one of the biggest action blockbusters of all time.
