X-Men #109

Publisher
Marvel
Year
2001
Month
2
LastChanged
2/3/2024 7:57:54 AM
Ceremonies

Summary

  Note: this occurs after UXM 389.

  Neal, who grew up on the slopes of the Himalayas, gets the team to join a children's snowball fight on Lookout Knob, a hill in Salem Center. Bobby has an unnatural advantage; children gang up on Piotr; Kurt takes down Warren; Betsy tackles Neal; Warren gets jealous but says she's free to do as she pleases.

  Remy and Rogue pass by; Rogue tells Neal Betsy's interested but he should consider the consequences; he's mortified and insists it wasn't like that. The four of them go for cocoa. Rogue is having headaches, and seems to have Logan's claws permanently. In the wake of Kelly's death, Betsy says mutants will always be outcasts; Neal is a Hindu and believes in karma and progress toward transcendence. He is new to the team.

  Remy goes to the skating pond to confer with Ororo and Hank, in a crowd to inhibit telepathic eavesdropping. Hank has confirmed that Xavier has some of Destiny's diaries. Remy doesn't trust him with them, especially since Onslaught; Hank angrily defends him. Ororo decides that such knowledge is a power that can't be trusted to anyone.

  Kurt gets Piotr to join him and Cerise in a circus performance. Cerise tempts, but Kurt is determined to put his God first. Piotr sees a girl like Illyana in the crowd and enjoys causing enjoyment.

  Warren looks over his trashed penthouse: he is getting evicted as a hazard, from his own building. Betsy says he can move in with her, but he's jealous of her attraction to Neal, realizes they don't have what Scott and Jean had, and breaks up with her.

  At a fire station in Brooklyn, Bishop collects toys for tots. Bank robbers drive by; he stops their car with his fists. The firemen realize he's a mutant but congratulate him and invite him in for a drink.

  In Japan, Logan visits Mariko's grave and finds Viper there. She has a package for him: one of his bone claws. He knows it's from Kitty and means she's okay. Viper hopes someday their marriage will become a real one.

  Rogue and Remy come across kids fixing a crche made of mutants, which had been vandalized by bigots. When Rogue manifests Scott's power, she has to fly away, and the kids panic and scatter, not quite as pro mutant as they thought.

  That night, everyone is back in the mansion, and Rogue wears ruby quartz glasses. Ororo announces her intention to get all 13 diaries and keep it secret from Xavier. She takes Rogue, Hank, Neal, Betsy, and Bishop. Rogue refuses to let Remy come, in case she hurts him. Ororo wants Logan to stay at the mansion and be her contact there, since Xavier can't read his mind. She takes Tessa, now called Sage, who is a human computer, though her team has reservations.

  They open presents: Betsy gives Neal something naughty; Xavier gives him Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Ororo gets a new uniform. Xavier speaks to her; she says she has no regrets, but he is full of them. She tells him to look at his X-Men and know his dream lives.

  Note: following are reprints of Christmas issues: UXM 98, 143, and 341.