Uncanny X-Men 229 - Inferno Prologue

And so the X-Men enter an all new era starting with... a battle in the Australian outback.

Uncanny X-Men #229

Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciler: Marc Silvestri
Inker: Dan Green
Colorist: Glynis Oliver
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Editor: Ann Nocenti
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

After last issue's interruption we now come to one of the most significant issues of Uncanny X-Men as it establishes the "Outback Era". One of the features of Chris Claremont's writing of the series has been the way things have rarely stood still with a constant sense of flux and turmoil providing a strong backdrop to character development. Now we have things turned on their head as the apparent death of the X-Men at the end of Fall of the Mutants becomes the basis for a fixed line-up in a highly unusual setting.

The issue is taken up with conflict with the Reavers, a group of cyborg criminals who launch raids around the world teleporting from an abandoned town in the Australian outback. We see first one such raid on a bank in Singapore as they capture both the contents of a bank vault and one of the bankers and then conflict in Australia as the X-Men attack and take over the town. It's surprising how all of this takes place in a single issue but it works to quickly get the new status quo set-up. Less convincing is the way the mysterious entity Roma arrives to introduce the "Siege Perilous", a jewel that can grow to become a magical gateway that individuals pass through to be judged and reborn. At this stage it primarily serves as a way for most of the Reavers to be dispatched instead of being killed by Wolverine. More intriguingly Roma explains how the X-Men are now invisible to all scanning devices save their own.

With the help of the mysterious aboriginal mutant Gateway, who can teleport them to and from wherever they wish to go, the X-Men are now set up for the next year and a half. Under the cover of being believed dead and invisible to sensors they are able to operate in secret and continue to carry out Xavier's dream seemingly safe from the menaces that have threatened them. The setting also locks in a pretty consistent cast of Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Rogue, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot and Havok with only Madelyne Pryor and Gateway as their regular supporting cast. As a result there's the opportunity to do some unusual things with the characters without the turmoil of new arrivals and departures or overspill effects from adventures of other occupants of the mansion. We'll see in later issues just how effective this is and there's also the problem of three of the Reavers who escape but for now this is a quick strong start for what is one of the most unusual periods of the team's history.

If there's a problem with the issue it's the way Roma just turns up at the end of the issue to provide an alternative resolution to what to do with the captured Reavers when Wolverine suggests killing them is the only way to preserve the X-Men's secrecy. It feels all too convenient a solution rather than having the X-Men figure out something themselves even though Roma's presence allows the completion of the set-up. But all in all this is a strong real start for the X-Men in this overall look.