UXM #42: "If I Should Die..."

("Except it's a hoax, obviously.")

Comments

Hmph.  This is frustrating.  After several issues putting together what we might term a "plausible deniability" scenario regarding Xavier's death, they make it abundantly clear in this issue that the man who dies in Angel's arms is very much the real deal.  His thought bubbles make it clear he has access to psychic powers, which he then uses later on against Grotesk.

I suppose you could just about forge a twisted argument that says Changeling is deliberately thinking like Xavier in case Grotesk has psychic powers, and that the real Xavier is monitoring the situation and using his own powers when called upon, that would rather defeat the point of Xavier building his psi-proof chamber to sit in whilst Clarence pretended to be him.

It's a real shame, because it would have worked perfectly with a little tweaking (most obviously a vaguer internal monologue from Xavier, and an alternative to trying to mind-punch Grotesk).  It would also have made the idea of "Xavier" wearing the latex mask to get into the lab pretty cool: Clarence having to wear a normal disguise to disguise the fact he's a master of disguise.  That's a brilliant little multi-layered idea.

Alas, it was not to be. 

Cyclops seems to be getting more creative with his powers.  Using it as a retro-rocket is a really nice idea, as is fractionally opening his visor to use his blasts to slow objects in motion.  The fact that he successfully does this with Angel, who was so badly hurt the last time he made contact with Cyclop's force beam he claimed Cyclops tried to kill him, is quite fitting, even if I suspect it's coincidental.

Clues

This issue follows on directly from the previous one.  The strange mix of bare and full-canopied trees is still in evidence. Maybe there's a blight going round.

Date

Sunday 13^th April, 1980.

X-Date

X+744.

Compression Constant

1 Marvel year = 2.21 standard years.

(Iceman is 37 years old.)

"Just call me a cock-eyed optimist, ugly!"

Contemporary Events

The last day on Earth dawns in which you cannot acquire an Iron Maiden album. How had civilisation survived so long?

Standout Line

"[I] shall teach you the meaning of fear, masked one... with this massive apparatus!"  Maybe that radiation surge helped Grotesk out a little bit more than we thought, if you get my meaning?

(His cock is big, is my point).