"And The Dead Shall Bury The Living!"
Last issue, we were left to a last page reveal of Magneto, and this issue brings us back to the topic---only this time, in flashback, as Professor X stares at his computer monitors and explains just who Magneto is in soliloquy. This serious business thinking is interrupted by the appearance of Kitty Pryde, wearing a ridiculous, Dazzler inspired costume complete with roller skates, striped socks, and flared orange gloves with green stars. Text can't communicate just how ridiculous this costume is. Comics are a visual medium, but the characterization of Kitty's brashness is continued as the X-Men are sent away by the Professor on a mission to Magneto's secret base in Antarctica...a mission that Kitty Pryde sneaks away on. Despite her youthful impetuousness, Kitty proves useful as the X-Men discover that the base is inhabited by one of Magneto's minions who they thought dead. Despite the X-Men's attempts to save him in an earlier issue, he blames them for an accident that transforms him into a rock monster. Luckily, Kitty Pryde discovers a new ability---that her phasing power can disrupt not just machines, but certain living creatures. The X-Men return from their mission successfully--- and on the last page, we are returned to Magneto and Cyclops, with Magneto revealing that he knew who the "disguised" Cyclops was, all along.
In some ways, this issue is a return to basic comic book plots. The heroes explore a secret, abandoned base, foolishly split up, are threatened, and manage to use their powers at the last moment to defeat the villain, a mook with a grudge. Several issues ago, Kitty defeated a villain by finding her self-confidence in a character building moment. Here, the revelation is more just that she has a new use of her powers. So this returns us more to standard comic book fare, with a little nod to the silliness of it all when we see Kitty's new costume. But also: in one of his explicatory thought bubbles, Professor X thinks "Mutants are hated and feared", and the reintroduction of Magneto seems to be leading towards what became the central theme of the Chris Claremont X-Men: mutants as a metaphor for marginalization and tolerance. Will our fun secret base crawls be derailed by long philosophical arguments? I guess I am about to find out...