From: [p--b] at [festival.ed.ac.uk] (Paul O'Brien) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks Subject: X-Men Danglers FAQ - Part 2 Date: 27 Dec 1995 17:01:08 GMT ================================================= The X-Men Danglers FAQ, Part 2: The Claremont era ================================================= Last updated: 21 December 1995 Issues covered: Giant-Size X-Men #1 to Uncanny X-Men #280 Closed Danglers --------------- These are the plotlines that have been answered to the satisfaction of the net. 1. General. Hints of romantic attraction between Storm and the Black Panther? Pretty much resolved when they met up. This mainly relates to a back-up story in Marvel Team-Up #100 2. General. Does the USSR know about Peter? Yes. See Classic X-Men #29. 3. General. Can Nightcrawler stick to walls? Yes. See Uncanny X-Men #130 and #137, Excalibur #63 and his entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (the Trade Paperback edition). Of course, whether he'll remember it in any given story is another matter. 4. General. Did Kitty Pryde's parents know why she was in London? Excalibur #21 establishes that they're in a witness relocation programme and that Kitty decided against joining them in hiding. 5. General. Illyana and the Demon, Illyana not being in Russia, and Peter telling the folks about Illyana. 5. General. Illyana never returning to Russia after Arcade kidnapped her, and various related questions. Since Illyana's stone cold dead, this is about as closed as it can possibly get. Anyhow, Peter presumably did tell his parents at some point that Illyana was in the USA, and the New Mutants dropped her off in Siberia again after she reverted to childhood. 6. General. Mastermind's power increase re defeating the White Queen. And his ability to influence dreams and operate on all levels of space and time. Opinion is split on this - either he retained some power from the Phoenix force, or he was still using the White Queen's old device. Whichever, it no longer matters. 7. General. Madelyne Pryor's plane crash on the same day that Jean Grey died on the moon, and Xavier's inability to read her thoughts or trace her history before the crash. Resolved in Inferno. Madelyne's memories were implants given to her by Mister Sinister. 8. General. Wolverine knowing about Jean [presumably her return from the grave], the Marauders pursuing Madelyne, and the fate of baby Nathan Summers. Mostly resolved during Inferno. 9. General. Are the X-Men still wanted by the US Government? No, the government is now turning a blind eye. 10. General. What is the source of the enmity between Carol Danvers and Mystique? I'm getting conflicting reports on this one. Some people are telling me that it's from the story that would have appeared in Ms. Marvel #24-25 had the series not been cancelled, and eventually appeared in Marvel Superheroes, Fall 1992. This story apparently concerned Carol breaking up an arms ring run by Mystique. David R Henry, however, doesn't think that this story really explains the enmity fully. Incidentally, this story contains the legendary first battle between Rogue and Sebastian Shaw. 11. General. Who is Mister Sinister? Where did he comes from? What are his aims? I never thought I'd see the day when I could declare this one closed. While gaps remain, the Alter-X storyline establishes that he sold his soul to Apocalypse several hundred years ago (before the Alter-X timeline diverged) in order to gain power and to continue his experiments. He wants to move humanity onto a higher evolutionary level, and believes that Scott and Jean's child is instrumental (for reasons that remain unclear). 12. General. Who are the Marauders? Where did they all come from? How did they survive death? Well, they were all employees of Sinister. Their backgrounds are undefined but appear to be irrelevant. They survived death at the hands of the X-Men because Sinister cloned new bodies for them. 13. General. Ororo's jealousy for Kitty's dance teacher, Stevie Hunter. This was built up and totally dropped. Owen Erasmus suggests that Storm's personality change is to blame, and also refers to a scene in UX #180 which went some way to resolving this. Whatever, it's clearly never going to be reopened now. 14. General. What happened to Aleytys Forrester? What did she think of Scott's marriage? She's still working on the Arcadia and she doesn't seem all that bothered, respectively. 15. #102. Storm's lost years in Africa. Did she suffer amnesia that made her forget about the outside world and its customs? Answered in issue #186, p. 30 - Storm had to inhibit her feelings and "awareness of herself as a woman" because they were connected with her powers, which had to remain controlled. 16. #104. Dragonfly escapes Muir Isle. Whatever happened to her? She showed up in Quasar #15 as a prisoner of the Stranger. 17. #139-140. Hints of a romance between Snowbird and Wolverine. Well, she's dead, so it's a moot point. 18. #150. Storm refers to cutting the throat of someone as a child in order to save her life. This was shown in flashback in issue #267. 19. #158. The X-Men destroy the US government's computer records of them, but what about the paper ones? X-Tinction Agenda confirms that the US government has no records. Presumably the paper ones are either destroyed, lost or so classified that even the government can't see them. 20. #171. Will Rogue ever come to terms with the Carol Danvers personality inside her head, and the one without? What happens if a Carol-dominated Rogue meets the real Carol? Although this was never really resolved, the Carol Danvers personality was apparently destroyed by Magneto when in the 240s, so it's now a moot point. 21. #176. Mariko Yashida and her ties to the Clan Yashida and the Yakuza (Japanese organised crime). This was tied up by Larry Hama in Wolverine's title. 22. #183. Is Rachel's face tattooed or just made up? Tattooed, according to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. She psychically disguised them when she didn't want people to see them. Eivind points out that in Fantastic Force, the adult Franklin Richards also has these tattoos, which only show up in times of stress. This would be an alternate explanation for Rachel's tattoos continually appearing and disappearing, and would explain how she disguised them while she was in the Sentinels' concentration camp and didn't have access to her powers. 23. #194. Gospodin Colonel Vashin spends a page talking to Sasha at KGB HQ about starting a Soviet superteam. The Colonel resurfaced in issue #263 in a plot that bore no resemblance to the original dangler. However, the USSR in fact did have its own super-agents, which made Claremont's first intended plot somewhat pointless. 24. #200. What is Magneto's real name? Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, according to X-Men Unlimited #2. Some correspondents have suggested that this is a retcon; technically, of course, it doesn't contradict anything that went before, although the way in which everybody suddenly started using Magneto's real name once the writers had worked out what it was is a slightly different matter. 25. #206. Nightcrawler's relationship with Judith Rassendyll. She showed up again in Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem. It's fairly clear that there's nothing more happening between them. 26. #208. Nimrod worries about the Rodriguezes and feeling emotions. Nimrod attained sentience in issue #247. 27. #213. The romance of Betsy Braddock and Doug Ramsey. Lost in the shuffle when Cypher got killed and Psylocke was shunted off to Australia. 28. #219. Will the X-Men rescue Polaris from the Marauders? Polaris was freed in issue #250. 29. General. Why did Mister Sinister destroy all the documentation relating to Madelyne Pryor? Because Jean Grey returned and he couldn't risk the two meeting as Madelyne would be exposed as a clone. He needed to eradicate all references to Madelyne to ensure this. 30. General. When will Madelyne and Jean meet? What's going on between Scott, Madelyne and Alex in their love triangle? Is Madelyne from Genosha? What about the little girl from Avengers Annual #10 who was called Madelyne Pryor? Madelyne and Jean met in Inferno, in which Madelyne died (thus wrapping up the second plotline). Maddie was a clone, so no, she wasn't from Genosha. And the girl in Avengers Annual #10 has no significance other than the fact that they're both named after the lead singer of Steeleye Span. David R Henry points out that the little girl was used as the model for a flashback that appeared in Madelyne's dreams during the Genosha storyline in issue #238. Chalk it up to false memories and a visual joke for long-time readers. 31. #222. Is Sabretooth related to Wolverine? No. They took a blood test in Wolverine #42. This was the original plot intended to link the two characters, which was dumped when Wolverine was extremely popular and Sabretooth was a nobody, on the grounds that it would look silly. Previous references to it were explained away as memory implants in the Wolverine title. 32. #227. Will anyone other than X-Factor and Polaris and the New Mutants find out that the X-Men are alive? Yes. Their trial in Genosha during X-Tinction Agenda revealed their survival to the rest of the world. 33. #227. Does Psylocke have real eyes or the mechanical ones? After going through the Siege Perilous, Psylocke retained her mechanical eyes. When her body was swapped with Revanche's, Revanche got the mechanical eyes. So at present, Psylocke has real eyes. See X-Men Vol. 2 #31 for more details, but prepare to be confused. 34. #229. Pretty Boy, Bonebreaker and Skullbuster escape the X-Men's defeat of the Reavers. And they show up again with the new Reavers in issue #248. 35. #238. When will the X-Men do something about Genosha? Resolved in X-Tinction Agenda. 36. #239. Where did the Reavers come from? Donald Pierce allegedly built them. They're dead, anyway. 37. Inferno. How did Xavier steal Scott from Sinister? And how did Sinister know that Scott's experiences would have to be suppressed so that telepaths could not detect them? Resolved in Classic X-Men #41-42. Mr. Sinister harasses Scott in the orphanage, but Xavier and Jean intervene at the last moment. 38. Inferno. Is there any significance in the fact that "S'ym" plus "N'Astirh" makes "Sinister"? No. Actually, S'ym's name and costume are an oblique reference to Dave Sim, the creator of Cerebus the Aardvark. 39. Annual #13. Who killed Jubilee's parents and why? This was more or less resolved in Wolverine #73-74. 40. #245. How did Lorna Dane know how to telephone the X-Men's base in Australia? According to Chris Claremont, she actually called the X-Men's mansion in Westchester. The computers there forwarded the call. This contradicts Damage Control #4, however, in which the power supply was shut down. 41. #245. What happened to Malice after Zaladane separated her from Lorna Dane? She showed up again in X-Factor #102-103, as a separate being, and got herself killed. 42. #246. Sebastian Shaw tries to persuade Henry Peter Gyrich to start building Nimrods. And one duly shows up in X-Force. 43. #253. Magneto tells Moira that he's going to pretend to be a villain for publicity reasons. This was probably Claremont trying to explain away Magneto's participation as a villain in that year's Acts of Vengeance crossover (plot: there's a really big fight). Claremont was probably trying to find a way to let this happen while keeping Magneto in character. Whatever, it's obviously now a moot point. 44. #254. Did Alysande Stuart and Amanda Sefton remain prisoners of the Reavers after their attack on Muir Isle? Although it's not clear from the story, the answer is no. Apparently Claremont had something more planned for this storyline but it got axed by the editors. (Certainly, the conclusion to the Muir Isle Saga that actually saw print is some way distant from Claremont's version.) 45. #255. What happened to Nanny and the Orphan Maker after their fight with the X-Men? How did the juvenile Storm escape from them? See issues #266 and #267 for details. 46. #255. Destiny foretells that Forge and Mystique are going to be an item. Considering that they hated each other at the time, this was an interesting premonition. And it's been more or less fulfilled. There seems to be more to come over in X-Factor, however. 47. #256. What happened to Rogue and Carol Danvers? Why does Psylocke's vision show them both being dead? Issue #270 reveals that the Siege Perilous split them into two beings, but that neither could survive individually. 48. #256. Why did Mojo and Spiral appear in Psylocke's hallucinations? Because Spiral was carrying out the procedure to change Psylocke's appearance. See X-Men Vol. 2 #31. 49. #257. Wolverine's hallucinations show Carol Danvers and Nick Fury, apparently because they're important figures to him. We know about Carol, but why Nick? Of course, Wolverine is one of those characters who seems to be a close and intimate friend of half the Marvel Universe, so there might not be any more to it than that. 50. #259. What happened to Callisto after she was captured by the Morlocks? She was transformed into a beautiful model by Masque. 51. #266. Who is Gambit? For the most part, answered by various origin flashbacks. 52. #269. Rogue promises to come back and rescue Gateway from the Reavers. This became a moot point when most of the Reavers were slaughtered by Trevor Fitzroy's Sentinels in issue #281. 53. #269. What was Magneto doing in the Savage Land when he rescued Rogue? Resolved way ahead of schedule in issue #275. He was preparing to fight Zaladane. =============== Still Dangling -------------- 1. General. Why did Eric the Red have the same name and costume that Cyclops used as a disguise way back in the original series? Eric the Red was a character who hadn't been seen since 1977 until he showed up in a panel in X-Men Vol. 2 #41 in 1994. Fabian Nicieza's intended plot regarding Eric and X-Treme has followed him over to Captain Marvel Vol. 2, so answers may be forthcoming over there. 2. General. Who's responsible for Wolverine's adamantium skeleton? The Weapon X project - but the Weapon X storyline makes it clear that there's somebody else behind the scenes. 3. General. Why did Xavier and Moira MacTaggert break up, and how did they become friends again? It's quite probable that Moira left Xavier because she had met her first husband, but this has never been absolutely confirmed. 4. General. How does Wolverine's time in Japan, his skeleton implant, and him and Carol in Russia fit into his chronology? 5. General. Were Mystique and Destiny lovers? Yes, Claremont intended them to be. See Marvel Fanfare #40. The intended plot was to have them as Nightcrawler's parents, with Mystique as the father. Marvel's policy on gay characters prevented this story from being run. 6. General. What exactly is Mister Sinister's plan involving the Summers family? The combined brainpower of the net has been unable to come up with any entirely consistent explanation of Sinister's actions. Given his expertise in cloning and genetics, why did Sinister bother sending Madelyne out to marry Scott - why not just create the child through genetic engineering? How does Rachel fit into all this? The inconsistencies in Mister Sinister's plan have generally been ascribed to poor writing, but we all live in hope that one day the writers will wake up with a staggering and original idea to explain it all away. 7. General. Where did the Reavers' computer complex come from? Why did it keep doing such strange things when the X-Men were living there? 8. General. Who is Gateway, and what can he do besides teleport and play the flute? Since Gateway is now a regular character in Generation X, this plot will probably be resolved there. Various readers have pointed out that some information about Gateway's powers is given in Weapon X #3, in which he was shown to be "the repository of the knowledge of humanity, the living index of every hard earned scrap of information gleaned in our ascent from mindless savagery." This might also explain where the Reavers' computer system came from. 9. General. Whatever happened to the X-Men's invisibility to mechanical sensors? It was used frequently and then totally forgotten about. Several readers have suggested that it was wiped by the Siege Perilous. This is wrong. Storm, Dazzler, Colossus and Psylocke all retained their invisibility for some time after passing through the Siege. 10. Giant-Size X-Men #1 - issue #102. Colossus's love for Storm is built up in some detail, and then completely dropped. For example, in issue #99, Nightcrawler thinks "He's so emotional... like -- a man in love!" 11. #98. Why are Wolverine's readings entirely different from Jean Grey's, Sean Cassidy's and Xavier's? This was going to relate to Claremont's first idea for the origin of Wolverine, where he was going to be a real wolverine artificially evolved by the High Evolutionary. You can see why he dropped it, can't you? Anyhow, this was never referred to again. But X-Men readers never forget. 12. #122-124. Scott Summers' romance with Colleen Wing. Built up in some detail, and Colleen even gave Scott the key to her apartment. Then it got forgotten about in the aftermath of the Dark Phoenix Saga. 13. Annual #4. Is Wolverine referring to World War II when he talks about having been at Monte Cassino? Quite possibly. Various other references place Wolverine in World War II in his own comic, specifically the Normandy landings. 14. #160. Storm picks up a magic necklace and silver arm cuff while the X-Men are in Limbo. 15. #169. Why was Mastermind interested in Mystique and Rogue? His plan was for revenge on the X-Men, and they weren't connected. This was intended to be foreshadowing for a plot planned for Ms. Marvel, which Claremont also wrote at the time. When Ms. Marvel was cancelled, the plot was dropped. Mastermind wanted revenge on Mystique because her arms shipping business was siphoning profits from the Hellfire Club. 16. #171. What is Rogue's real name? How did she meet up with Mystique? Classic X-Men ran a back-up which did not answer these questions. X-Men Unlimited #4 is somewhat more helpful, but since Mystique was feigning insanity at the time, her comments must be treated with extreme caution. The net consensus is that that issue was extremely badly written and breaches continuity in many places; consequently, it is of very little value in resolving danglers. 17. #172. Storm and Yukio's relationship. What happened to it? It was picked up on vaguely in issue #314, but nothing was done about it. Yukio is now one of the multitudes who form the supporting cast of Wolverine. 18. #173. The Viper and the Silver Samurai exit uttering threats. Well, the Samurai shows little interest in revenge these days. The Viper appears to be regarded as a Captain America villain, and current Marvel policy discourages crossovers between families, so we're unlikely to see a resolution soon. 19. #182. Where did Colonel Rossi go after this story? According to the letters column, Rossi was infiltrating the Hellfire Club to find out more about their involvement in SHIELD. The stories have yet to confirm this, of course. 20. #191. The necklace containing Kulan Gath's essence falls into a subway tunnel. What happened to it? Anyone picking up this necklace will be transformed into Kulan Gath, a powerful sorcerer who transformed New York into a Conan-type environment the last time he was released. The story clearly leaves these questions open. 21. #209. Phoenix is abducted by Spiral. What happens between this story and her appearance in Excalibur Special Edition #1? A graphic novel was promised, but never appeared. 22. #215. What happened to Sarah Grey and her children? Sarah disappeared a few years back and was never heard of until her essence showed up as part of the Phalanx in X-Men Vol. 2 #36. The kids, Joey and Gailyn, were rescued in a plot in X-Factor and were last seen in X-Men Vol. 2 #30. 23. #217. Alex & Lorna meet a Brood ship in the desert. This is then never referred to again. 24. #229. The Siege Perilous. Where did it come from? Why did it keep showing up by accident at important points? Did Donald Pierce really destroy it just by crushing it? 25. #234. What happened to the two Brood left alive in Denver? Owen Erasmus suggests that it's probably them who went on to appear in the New Orleans Brood story. 26. Annual #12. It is clearly implied that Nereel's son Peter is Colossus's son. Ken Arromdee assures me that several lines of dialogue make it clear that Peter knows this. Yet he's done nothing about it. 27. #236. Wipeout erases Rogue's powers, yet her eye colour changes from brown to blue when Carol Davners's personality takes over. In #239, Rogue, with Carol Danvers in control, has flesh-to-flesh contact with Psylocke with no apparent effects. According to Claremont, this was deliberate. Tom Galloway puts forward the thory that Rogue's lack of control over her powers is psychological in nature, and that consequently Carol is not affected by it. This seems to be the most likely explanation. 28. #238. Wolverine refers to having been a slave. What's he talking about? 29. #242. Wolverine finds something familiar about Archangel's scent, in such a way that it seems that it's the difference he finds familiar rather than the base. Where had he met up with Apocalypse before? Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure implied that Apocalypse gave Wolverine his adamantium skeleton. However, that's by no means conclusive, and most of the stories suggest something different entirely. 30. Inferno. What were the changes in the X-Men caused by Inferno itself, and why did they stay around after it was over, unlike the changes on everyone else? The X-Men all become more demonic in appearance and commented at some length on the change. After Inferno, it was totally ignored. 31. #244. Why couldn't Psylocke detect Jubilee? Psylocke fails to detect Jubilee on several other occasions, as do the Reavers and the X-Men's computers. This suggests that it was intended to be a superhuman power. Blindside of the Harriers also suggested that there was something about Jubilee's mind that made it particularly hard to interact with telepathically. Oh, and the cyborg dingos in issue #252 don't react to her either. 32. #245. Dazzler's "basic luminescence has been upshifting along the spectrum" from yellow into white. Any significance? The original plot for this storyline had Dazzler die in battle with the Master Mold, and this was intended to be foreshadowing. Claremont changed his mind at the last minute, leaving this vision wholly unexplained. (Dazzler fans can thank Marc Silvestri for suggesting the movie storyline and thereby saving her.) 33. #246-7. Nimrod and the Master Mold merge and then explode. Both of them can recover from explosions, so what happened next? Despite appearances in the art, Claremont claims that they did not go through the Siege Perilous. 34. #249. Zaladane claims to be Lorna Dane's sister, but offers no proof for her assertion. Moira MacTaggert later claims that for the power-switching procedure to work, Zala and Lorna must have highly related genetic structures. So what's the story? Carl Rigney points out that they have the same last name. This is almost certainly what Claremont had in mind. Sadly, Lorna was adopted as a child, and Dane was the name of her adoptive parents, so there must be more to it. 35. #251. Was Psylocke under some sort of control when she talked the remaining X-Men into the Siege Perilous? Her hallucinations under reprogramming by the Hand seem to lend some credence to this assertion. But then again, maybe not. 36. #252, page 18. The X-Men's computer appears to be alive. It's also been shown to be able to repair itself. 37. #257. Where did that photograph of Logan and Ruby in a futuristic city come from? Some contributors have suggested that it's Uptown Madripoor. However, Jubilee's dialogue clearly shows that she doesn't think it's like anything on Earth, and Uptown has never been described as futuristic. 38. #257. The Harriers are given a big introduction, and then never heard of again. What was the point? 39. #260. Who tipped off Fenris that Forge and the Banshee were on the aeroplane that they attacked? Probably the Shadow King, but this has never been conclusively resolved. 40. #261. How was Donald Pierce tipped off that Cylla Markham was in need of cyborg body parts? Did he know that she used to be friends with Banshee and Forge? Since Pierce and Markham are both dead, this is no longer a live issue. However, it was never resolved. 41. #263. More of Forge's background is revealed, but still missing major details. What is his name? And how did he lose his hand and leg? I think he lost it in the air raid that he called in Vietnam in issue #227, trying to kill off the demon hordes that he had summoned. By the way, isn't that a rather crude way to kill supernatural entities? 42. #266. Gambit clearly demonstrates in his early appearances that he has the psychic ability to make people trust him. This was dropped in a tacit retcon. Mike Collins, who drew this issue, has confirmed that Gambit's psychic power was mentioned in the script. 43. #268. What sort of alliance did the Hand and Fenris strike while Wolverine, Psylocke, Jubilee and the Black Widow were chasing around after a fake meeting? 44. #270. Where did Dazzler go after leaving Lila Cheney's home in Malibu? Yes, I know she showed up back in California in early issues of X-Men Vol. 2, but what happened in the interim? 45. Annual #14. Ahab briefly turns Cyclops and the Invisible Woman into hounds and sets them about hunting down their children (Rachel Summers and Franklin Richards respectively). The Invisible Woman has no problem following these orders, since Ahab's set them up to be able to psychically locate their children. But Scott can't trace Rachel. Why not? A commonly voiced theory on this question Rachel's father isn't Scott, it's Logan. Obviously there's no conclusive evidence on this one way or the other. In case anyone was wondering, both Scott and Sue were trying to trace counterparts of their children from alternate timelines, so it can't just be that Rachel's not from this Earth. ------------------------- end of part two ------------------------