Uncanny X-Men #291-293
Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men #291, Uncanny X-Men #292, Uncanny X-Men #293
Cover Date: Aug-Oct 92
Title: ”Underbelly” / ”...The Morlocks take Manhattan!” / ”The last Morlock story!”
Credits: 
Scott Lobdell - Writer
Tom Raney / Tom Raney & Rurik Tyler - Penciler
Hilary Barta / Josef Rubinstein & Al Milgrom / Josef Rubinstein - Inker
Lisa Patrick - Assistant Editor
Bob Harras - Editor
Review/plot:
Rurik Tyler is credited with layouts or breakdowns on #292-293. Tom Raney is credited with pencils on all three.
Three issues to get rid of the Morlocks (again) and to get rid of Colossus’ brother Mikhail as well. The former is unfortunately necessary. After the Mutant Massacre, there was still scattered Morlocks popping up, which is fine, but they quickly somehow got turned into a horde of random evil monsters. This story explains that the Morlocks were deformed by Masque (which makes sense) and that they have all been driven insane thanks to what he did to them. And it turns out that there are tons of them, which means the Marauders weren’t nearly as thorough as they seemed. In any event, this story plays off of Masque’s recent death and has them go on a rampage. It also brings back Callisto after the weird things that were done to her towards the end of Chris Claremont’s run, and it restores her to her original form (the Morlock Healer ”cures” her) while making her pretty much a straight up bad guy. She’s basically unrecognizable as the character i knew from the mid 80s, both before and after her ”cure”. Not that it matters since she’s gotten rid of along with everyone else.
As for Mikhail, i suspect that now that Whilce Portacio and Jim Lee are gone, no one really knew what to do with him or why they brought him back in the first place, so it makes sense to get rid of him as well. Unfortunately, Scott Lobdell will later change his mind again and bring all these characters back. But for now it seems like the idea was really to get rid of them all.
So basically there is a ton of running around fighting random Morlocks.

Terrible Roy Thomas style scripting. Instead of just writing in Bishop’s character, it’s one of those ”as someone else would say” lines. Bishop should never find a way to work ”wacked” into a sentence.

The breakout Morlock star is MeMe, although Jean Grey has to shut his mind down.



It’s said that Masque’s death made the riot possible, but the immediate cause is a particular Morlock with powers similar to the Moloid from X-Factor annual #3.

Eventually Mikhail gathers all the Morlocks to him and causes the sewers to flood, seemingly killing himself and all of them. The X-Men try to stay and save them, but the increasingly insane Mikhail floats them home.

A few character developments and other notes: Using his ambiguous powers, Mikhail demonstrates to Iceman that he can become solid ice instead of just coating himself.

And going to the place where he lost his original wings makes Angel feel sorry for himself. But Jean tells him that his wings have never been evil like he’s been saying. He’s been in control all along.

There are also some well deserved recriminations pointed Storm’s way, for being a terrible ruler of the Morlocks. And, as if to highlight that, these issues end with Storm lamenting that Callisto destroyed her plants while looking for the jacket that Storm once took from her. Crying over plants after the entire horde of people you were nominally the leader of have died.

They can’t even be the same plants that she’s always had, right? I don’t think Storm had brought the plants to Australia with her, and Mr. Sinister blew up the whole mansion.
Crawling through the Morlock tunnels, Professor X gets his leg caught on something, but thinks it’s just his pants that are caught, so he yanks hard on it. *shudder*

I’ve never been too sure about Callisto’s powers, but i’m pretty sure that getting punched out by an injured Professor X is a low for her.

Beyond that, the only subplot in these issues is this:

Over a year from now, we’ll find out that that’s Steven Lang.
Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - power upgrade for Iceman
Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP list a number of Morlocks as behind-the-scenes in this issue because, while they don’t actually appear on panel, they’re known to have been among the Morlocks teleported away by Mikhail. The most notable of these is Marrow. I’ve listed them too, but don’t go looking for them in these issues. Colossus talks to Illyana on the phone at the end of this issue, so she’s listed too. As Michael notes in the comments, the man coming for Steven Lang might be Graydon Creed, but that’s not confirmed and it could just be a generic Friends of Humanity operative so i haven’t listed him.
References:
• The X-Men found Mikhail in Uncanny X-Men #284-286.
• Masque was killed in X-Force #9.
• Angel lost the use of his wings in X-Factor #10. The wings were later amputated in X-Factor #15.
• Xavier was re-crippled in Uncanny X-Men #280.
• The X-Men have known about the Morlocks since Uncanny X-Men #169. Storm took control of the Morlocks in that same arc.
• While the X-Men are fighting a massive horde of rampaging monsters in Manhattan, some police try to stop Bishop to arrest him for the murders he committed in Uncanny X-Men #287.

Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
Inbound References (10): show
Characters Appearing: Angel, Bishop, Callisto, Charm (Morlock), Colossus, D’Gard, Healer, Iceman, Illyana Rasputin (Alt-Limbo version), Jean Grey, Loss, Marilou, Marrow, Mikhail Rasputin, Pain (Morlock), Professor X, Reverb, Sack, Steven Lang, Storm, Vessel

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Iron Man #284-286
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1992 / Box 35 / EiC: Tom DeFalco
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Spider-Man #29-31

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Aug 1992

Marvel

009281024613

291

August

1992

Direct

United States

$1.25

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Modern Age

English

Magazine

Uncanny X-Men

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2024-06-27

2018-07-02 23:05:26