Alright! We get a break from The Brotherhood and back to expanding the mutant universe...I hope.
Today's issue brought to you by:
This week's team:
As The Brotherhood goes quiet on the X-Men, things seems to settle down and get back to normal. The X-Men are back to their training regiment, this time lead by their new captain, Cyclops.
Cyclops is a new leader feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he wants nothing more to impress Professor X and keep the team in tip-top shape, so he pushes the X-Men far beyond their limits. However, he also rewards them as well.
After a particular grueling training session Cyke gives the team the afternoon off. The Beast and Iceman decide to go into Greenwich Village again to blow off some steam and relax. Just before they reach their first destination, they spot a crowd of people looking up at a boy stuck on top of a water tower on top of a building.
Beast, not being one to stand around and wait, takes action...even though he doesn't have his costume on. He pulls his shoes off and runs up the side of the building, taking the boy in his arms and presenting him back to his parents.
Not wanting to be detected, The Beast lands back on the ground and darts off with Iceman. The group of people, even after just watching him save that boy, somehow get the idea that because The Beast ran off without showing his face, that he is an evil mutant and that saving the boy was just a ruse to trick them into thinking he was nice (assumptions and hunches have a 99% accuracy in X-Men books).
The once peaceful group turns into an angry mob and chases the two superheroes. When they return back to the mansion, The Beast promptly quits the team.
Scott kind of, sort of tries to stop him by asking him "are you sure you want to quit?", and Iceman just wishes The Beast luck on his own. Wow, with teammates like that, who needs The Brotherhood?
So The Beast leaves and sets out on his own.
A few days later, The Beast is now posing as a professional wrestler...called The Beast. He is wearing a fur cloak and is carted to the wrestling (or rasslin' as they say in this issue) ring in a cage. He is set to wrestle the untouchable Unus.
Beast takes his training into account and gives Unus all he can...but each attack from every angle deflects Beast, not even leaving a scratch on Unus. Beast's last attack is so strong he bounces himself out of the ring. As he lay in the fray of people and wooden chairs, he notices the profile of Brotherhood member Mastermind watching Unus...and Unus staring down Mastermind.
Mastermind speaks with Unus after he wins the "rasslin" match against The Beast. Unus wants to join Magneto and The Brotherhood, but Mastermind puts him up to a test. To find, or defeat the X-Men for the Brotherhood.
Unus is deep in thought as he walks down the street contemplating what Mastermind told him when he comes across a bank robbery in process. Deciding that he could use the money for far better things than what these lowly criminals can, Unus robs the robbers!
While all this is happening in the city, Cyclops has used Cerebro to locate Professor X deep in the heart of the Balkan mountains as he looks for Lucifer. After providing Professor X an update on The Beast leaving the group, Xavier reassures him he did all he could, and that so long as The Beast doesn't join The Brotherhood he's in a "no harm no foul" situation.
As Cyclops finished speaking with Professor X, Cerebro went off again alert him (via a very informative light one can only assume) that a new mutant was on the loose in the city. So the X-Men hop into their second helicopter and fly into the city to see what is going on.
Angel scouts the city and finds Unus red handed with the large sack of money. Angle charges and bounces right off of him. When Cyclops arrives he aims his optic blast on Unus...which also bounces off of him. I think we're finding out why he is called "The Untouchable"...but that also begs the question...can he touch himself? I mean, it's gotta get lonely being untouchable. I'm just saying!
Unus ends up wrapping himself around Angel, and Angel flies to the top of a tall building and drops Unus off at the top. The X-Men retreat back home after that, only to see upon arrival that The Beast has returned and is working on a device that will enhance Unus' powers.
Seeing The Beast as a threat, and not stopping to listen to reason, Cyclops declares Beast as an enemy and commands the X-Men to capture him and stop him from contacting Unus with his strengthening beam. The Beast escapes, finds Unus, and zaps him with his beam.
Unus is now stronger than ever...in fact...he's almost too strong. Now, Unus repels all objects that even come close to him. He can't even eat!
Unus must have fasted all day because now he's suddenly starving and just wants to eat a piece of cake. Using this man's suddenly starving appetite as his motive, Beast tells Unus he will revert him back to normal, pending he never joins The Brotherhood.
Unus agrees and goes back to life as a "rassler".
Ho-hum, back to the flavor of the week.
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So let's quickly recap here....
Xavier is looking for the devil (Lucifer is the fallen angel of light who became Satan after being cast out of heaven...we don't know who or what Lucifer is in the comics yet).
Beast had a temper tantrum because the people he was fighting to save assumed he was bad and just up and quit the X-Men.
All the other X-Men were there too.
I mean honestly that's kind of how these books go right now. Without Xavier there to use his Obi-Wan Kenobi mind tricks to pull them out of every tight spot they get themselves into the X-Men turn into a superhero version of the TV show House. Instead of using their minds, they first use their fists and just run into fights without doing any research on the mutant.
This usually allows Jack Kirby to draw about 4 pages of straight fighting panels where the X-Men narrate what they are doing. That seems like a really shit tactic. I mean, sometimes they yell in code, like when Cyclops called out training maneuvers like he was setting up a basketball play...but then he instantly tells them what that maneuver is! I don't think they know that bad guys can listen too. I mean none of these mutant villains have been noted as deaf yet. So it's no wonder they get their asses handed to them repeatedly.
I also love how Beast is a critical member of the team, until he quits...and really, nobody tries to keep him around. It's like Beast said "I quit!" and after he left the room Scott whispered "No, wait, don't..." to himself, but then he went to Xavier with a story about how he really fought to keep Beast on the team. Sounds like what a sales manager does.
If Cyclops would have given Beast a chance to just say "Guys, I figured this out, if we totally make him stronger, his repellent powers will be so extreme he won't be able to eat and we will win!" Bam! Problem solved!
Honestly, Unus should go into finding a way to harvest his power and selling it. I mean he essentially has a really cool force field around him at all times. He would have been a millionaire very quickly. Or, Mastermind should have taken him back to the Brotherhood and found a way to harness his powers. Now all the Brotherhood would have a personal force field. Dude they would be unstoppable then!
Sadly "rasslin" sounded better to Unus. I feel like he's the John Cena of X-Men "rasslin", you can't touch him.
Next issue looks like a good one, as the X-Men face off against The Avengers!
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