From: [p--b] at [festival.ed.ac.uk] (Paul O'Brien)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks
Subject: X-Men Danglers FAQ - Part 3
Date: 27 Dec 1995 17:02:36 GMT
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The X-Men Danglers FAQ, Part 3: Uncanny X-Men
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Latest update: 27 December 1995
Issues covered: #281-#327
Closed Danglers
---------------
1. #281, p.9: Who are the Upstarts?
This has been answered in the pages of both X-Men books. They
were rich or influential people, mostly mutants, playing a game
organised by the Gamesmaster. Since half of them are now dead,
it's a bit of a moot point.
2. #281, p.22: Did Beef survive Trevor Fitzroy's attack?
No. Confirmed in issue #314.
3. #283, p.15: Bobby's discontentment with Storm as leader.
Quietly forgotten about. Evidently he just came round to the
idea.
4. #283, p.22: Who is the Gamesmaster? What are the rules? What
is he doing with Selene?
Mainly dealt with along with the Upstarts plot.
5. #287: Who is Bishop?
For the most part, resolved in a plethora of origin flashbacks.
6. #288, p.4: Psylocke is attempting to seduce Scott.
Yes, well noticed. This plot was belatedly resolved when it
was explained that Psylocke's behaviour was due to the presence
of Kwannon's mind within her. See X-Men Vol. 2 #31 for the full
details on the whole Kwannon mess.
7. #288, p.14: Archangel's relationship with Charlotte Jones.
Would appear to be a thing of the past, although it was never
properly resolved. Since Warren is now going out with Psylocke,
we can take it as read that he and Charlotte have split up.
8. #289, p.13: Archangel's neverending grief over his uncontrollable
wings.
This was intended to be resolved when Jean Grey told Warren
that it was all in his subconscious and that he should get a
grip. Although this explanation is inconsistent with previous
stories (which showed Warren to have a subordinate personality
resembling Apocalypse and which showed the wings fighting while
Warren was unconscious), the plot has never been referred to
again, and we can take it that it has been retconned away.
9. #291, p.15: Who is the man rescued from the mental asylum in
Arlington, Virginia?
This is a rare example of Lobdell deliberately setting up a
plot and then ignoring it for over a year. X-Factor #106
finally confirmed that the man is in fact Steven Lang, and this
subplot is intended to be foreshadowing for the Phalanx storyline.
10. #299, p.15. What is the significance of Graydon Creed and
Sabretooth sharing the same surname?
Sabretooth is Graydon Creed's father. For further details
see Sabretooth #3-4 and, if you can stomach it, X-Men Unltd. #4.
11. #304, p.19. Why is Magneto now partially immune to Rogue's
absorption power?
The most likely explanation is that he came up with the same
idea that his counterpart in the Age of Apocalypse did, namely
generating an electromagnetic field around himself that inhibits
her powers from affecting him.
12. #311, p.12. Why will Iceman regret swapping minds with Emma
Frost for the rest of his life?
Because it will force him to confront his failure to use his
powers fully and thereby create unending angst. A bit lame,
but that seems to be the answer.
Danglers
--------
1. #281, p.9: Why does Trevor Fitzroy hate the White Queen so much?
2. #283, p.20: Professor X worries about Jean having transferred her
mind into the body of Emma Frost, given that she had never been able
to do it before.
Well, she managed and nothing happened. Since our attention
was specifically drawn to this, however, presumably some plot
was intended.
3. #283, p.21: Did another telepath interfere with the mind transfer
between Jean and Emma? Xavier's dialogue implies that there was.
The consensus is that they're detecting Emma Frost's mind,
but strictly speaking this remains unresolved.
4. #287, p.16: Who is Trevor Fitzroy's father?
Well, he was mentioned so many times that he must have some
significance.
5. #287, pp.18-19: Who betrayed the X-Men in Bishop's timeline?
How were their powers negated? In short, who is the X-traitor?
Several correspondents suggest that it was Mountjoy in the
Bishop limited series. Unfortunately, he doesn't meet the
criteria - he never neutralised anybody's powers.
6. #287, p.24: Does the Witness (a counterpart of Gambit) know
who killed the X-Men? Was it him? What is the Witness's status
in Bishop's time? How does he finish Bishop's sentences? Can he
read Bishop's mind? Does this mean that Gambit has extra psychic
powers?
Regarding the status of the Witness, one plausible theory is
that he is the ancestral head of the Thieves Guild. This is
supported by Shackle's dialogue, "There is no such thing. Or
we would have stolen it by now."
7. #287: How long has Trevor Fitzroy been hopping between the two
times?
8. #290, p.14: When Forge asks Jean Grey about Storm, why does Jean
give such a negative impression of Storm's feelings?
The most likely explanation is that the human mind is such a
complex thing that neither Jean nor Storm were entirely sure
what the true answer was. Given this, though, is it possible
that Jean was trying to break them up?
9. Annual #16, back-up: Whatever happened to Amalgam? She was
given this big build-up and then totally forgotten about.
10. #292, p.28: What happened to Brain Cell, the little Morlock
kid? Surely Xavier didn't really just abandon him in the tunnels?
11. #294, p.20: As he attempts to kill Xavier, Stryfe says "The
world will know me as the man who saved tomorrow." Why does he think
that killing Xavier will change the future?
Addison Godel suggests that he's playing up to the role, but
I suspect there ought to be more. What I'm getting at here is,
what exactly was Stryfe trying to achieve with the whole
X-Cutioner's Song scheme - aside from vengeance on Scott and
Jean?
12. #298: What is Carmella Unuscione's connection to the original Unus?
13. #298, p.21: How does Gambit know Joanna Cargill?
14. #299: Some background information on the Gamesmaster would be
nice. This is a man whose mutant power puts him in touch with
every mind in the world simultaneously. How did he survive his
power manifesting itself for the first time? How did he get involved
with Selene? And so on.
15. #299, p.28: Bishop recognises a waitress in Salem Center. Who
is she?
As we go to press, word comes in that it's Fatale, carrying
out a surveillance operation on behalf of the dark Beast.
Why Bishop recognises her is a bit obscure, but she suggests
that her appearance was modelled on his ideal woman. So perhaps
Bishop recognises her from his... well, draw your own inferences.
16. #299, p.29: We almost see a friendship flowering between Senator
Kelly and the Professor. Obviously Xavier would want to develop
this.
17. #299, p.30: Does Senator Kelly's aide talk telepathically to
Jean? What of him, then? Is he another major character, or just
a friendly mutant?
His name's Noah and he has some sort of connection with Landau,
Luckman & Lake, as seen in recent issues of Wolverine. But
as to what he's trying to achieve...
18. #301, p.10: The Legacy Virus. When will the X-Men finally get
around to curing it?
19. #302, p.6: Bishop refers to Genesis and the Summers Rebellion.
Details?
Genesis is, of course, Forge. But that's all we know about him.
I want more detail, dammit! How did Forge become Genesis and
what was/will be the Summers Rebellion?
20. #304, p.3: Who is Exodus?
Several correspondents have argued that this is resolved in
Amazing X-Men. I disagree. While that series has established
that Exodus's real name is (probably) Paris Bennet, we have no
way of knowing that his mainstream history is anything similar.
21. #304, p.34: Why did Magneto crash Illyana Rasputin's funeral?
It's highly out of character.
The most likely explanation is that Magneto was at the time
very, very powerful and consequently completely mad. However,
we're still missing a plausible explanation of what Magneto
hoped to achieve by this.
22. #307, p.19: Where does Dane Whitman know Exodus from?
23. #308, p.7: Bishop says that he spent his childhood in constant
flight from the Emplates. What, there's more than one of him?
Bishop mentions them again (in the plural) in issue #311, so it's
unlikely to be just a coincidence.
Recent issues of Generation X make reference to Emplate being
some sort of extradimensional entity, if that's any help.
24. #309, p.13: Moira MacTaggert's letter to Xavier says "I've met
someone like me." Who?
Her husband, Joseph MacTaggert, would seem the obvious choice,
but it remains unconfirmed.
25. #312, p.22: Yukio talks about being on the opposite side of a
contract from Gambit, in Singapore. Details?
26. #314, p.14: Bishop claims that he killed Shard (or, in certain
other stories, that he was responsible for her death). What are
the details?
With Shard wandering around in X-Factor, there might be some
hope of her telling us. Okay, so it's a hologram, but it appears
to have Shard's mind.
27. #315: Colossus and Amelia Voght appear to be having their
doubts about the Acolytes, and Magneto is waking up.
28. #316, p.1: What happened to "the twins and [M's] brother?" Why
hasn't M spoken for three months?
Some very, very oblique hints can be found in M's diary in
Generation X '95.
29. #317, p.21: Skin asks M why she didn't help them to escape from
the Phalanx earlier. M replies that she can think of two very good
reasons. They aren't obvious to me, or apparently to the rest of
Generation X - so what were they?
30. #321, p.17: Why did Legion assault Gabrielle Haller?
Opinion on the net is divided as to whether this was or was
not a rape scene. I believe that it was, but have opted for
the lesser offence in deference to the minority view.
31. #322, p.21: Who is Onslaught? What did he do to the Juggernaut?
And if Cain really was coming to warn the X-Men about Onslaught
anyway, why did he land right at their feet? (Even Cain comments on
the improbability of all this.)
32. #324, p.3: How did Gambit elude Psylocke's telepathy? She says
he shouldn't be able to. In issue #325, he refers to psionic
defences, but that's not really very helpful.
33. #324, p.22: Who are Clare DeLuc and Grey Crow, and how do they
know Gambit?
34. #324, p.23: Why doesn't Emma Frost answer Bobby's phone call?
For that matter, how does she know it's him phoning? Isn't
the effective range of telepathy supposed to be only a couple
of hundred miles after Magneto mucked about with the magnetic
fields?
35. #325, p.21: Callisto says that Hemingway has mutated further,
and seems to imply that that shouldn't be possible.
36. #325, p.23: What did Gene Nation do to Mikhail Rasputin, and
why is Callisto's story inconsistent?
37. #326, p.8: Meggan notes that the Legacy Virus acts like a
Designer Gene. Moira MacTaggert seems to regard this as significant.
38. #327: An amnesiac Magneto sets off in search of the X-Men.
39. Uncanny X-Men '95, p.24: The leader of Humanity's Last Stand is
called Trask. What, another one?
There have been two previous Trasks of significance. Bolivar
Trask was the creator of the first Sentinels. Unfortunately,
he's dead. His son Larry Trask, if I remember correctly, is
a vegetable following events in an Incredible Hulk Annual. So
who's the new guy?
40. '95, general: Who is Preacher and how does he know about the
Age of Apocalypse timeline?
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