X1C (v2) #12: "Fly Away"

(Birdman of Alcantara)

Comments

Oh, for God's sake.  Just how many secret prehistoric lands is the Southern hemisphere bogarting, anyway?  C'mon, under-siders!  Swing a few glyptodons our way!

Seriously, those things are cute!

Basically, it's a sloth inside a Tunnock's teacake

Fascinating presumed-extinct mammals aside, this is something of a family reunion for Warren.  First of all, his parents visit the mansion.  Warren's father is certainly interesting, a man with the kind of social ill grace that only the very rich can get away with.  His nominal acceptance of his son's mutation certainly doesn't stretch to him being comfortable with the wings being out on display, and his reaction to Scott's polite welcome is to talk as though he wasn't there: "Except for sporting sunglasses indoors, I like this one."

They in turn tell him his aunt Mimi - last mentioned giving the team the address of a talking gorilla - has disappeared, causing him to head for Brazil.  Turns out she's been living behind a waterfall in the mammary-gland equivalent of Jurassic Park (Paleogenic Park?) and dressing up like Lara Croft.  She's also been grooming a local girl with tales of Warren's awesomeness, which isn't at all creepy and disturbing.

(Mind you, it's a miracle she got here at all, given that the legendary land she was searching for was apparently behind a waterfall in either South America or Africa.  What the hell kind of legend isn't specific about which side of the Atlantic you're on?)

Of course, if we're talking about family reunions, we should probably mention the flock of birds that starts following Warren as he flies over Brazil, thinking that he must be in charge.  This is probably one of my favourite character beats since I started this blog, as Warren admits that he feels guilty when birds flock to him, since he doesn't really have anywhere to lead them.  It's a small window into his basic confusion as to who he is, what he wants, and where he fits in the world, and it makes his decision to stay in the Land of the Mists at the close of the issue all the more understandable, beyond the place being "full of half-naked hotties".

Oh, and just for the sake of pedantry, there's a small continuity glitch in this issue: Scott tells Warren's parents how nice it is to meet them, despite having met them already in UXM #18.  Attempts to fit this story in before that issue run into the now standard problem of how the students are aware of Cerebro.

Clues

I'd initially assumed that this issue was supposed to run concurrently with issue #11, in which Angel was missing, but apparently not, given there's no mention of the team's battle with Mysterio.  I suppose it's possible that said throwdown happened after Jean and Angel end their cross-continental phone-call, but that wouldn't explain why Cyclops suddenly disappears.

I guess we'll have to assume that either Cyclops' or Angel's absence during the "Continui-Teens" episode will remain a mystery for now.  We might as well leave the timeline as is for now, then, and put the visit of Angel's parents as being the day after Mysterio is defeated.

It's not really clear how quickly the other X-Men arrive to find Warren, but it's clearly at least the next day.  Given the last contact Jean had with him was when he decided to fly full speed at a cliff wall, I'd expect a fairly swift response time, so let's assume that's what happened.  They then spend the night there, and return to the school the next day, meaning the whole story from the arrival of Warren's parents takes place over four days.

Date

Monday 17^th to Thursday 20^th April, 1979.

X-Date

X+Y+16 to X+Y+19.

Contemporary Events

Jimmy Carter is attacked by a swamp rabbit, in a scene that presumably wasn't anything like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but I choose to imagine it as such in any case (if only my desktop wasn't at the shop, I'm sure this would have lead to a hi-larious Photoshop picture).
Standout Line

(Bobby waves at the Worthingtons through the window, hoping for an introduction.)

"Who's that?"
"Oh, he's not a student.  He's... the pool boy."
"I didn't think the school had a pool."
"Yeah, he shouldn't even be here."