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Quote1 Bedee-Bedee-Bedee--th-that's all folks! But I'll be back! Quote2
Mojo

Appearing in "Performance"

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Synopsis for "Performance"

This issue takes place before Mutant Massacre[1]

The X-Men are playing a unique style of tag in the Danger Room, trying to get one of them to 'touch' the master of magnetism, Magneto, but they fail. Cypher, Betsy, and Sunspot are watching from the control room. This necessarily means that Mojo is also watching.[2] Mojo decides he needs to increase ratings, so he sends in Longshot and a blast of ectoplasmic goop directly into their danger room session. Longshot is unconscious, clearly not human (he has two heartbeats, and three fingers on each hand), and is taken to the medical lab. The goop disappears before it can be analyzed. The X-Men go to bed.

In the morning it quickly becomes apparent to the New Mutants (but not the X-Men themselves at first) that the X-Men are getting younger. The female X-Men mostly fall in love with Longshot, while Warlock and Cypher do some investigating in the Danger Room. Betsy figures out who the bad guy is, and Magneto and the X-Men leave to find him, getting younger and more childish all the time, knocking out the New Mutants when they try to stop them (Warlock and Cypher also figure out who's responsible on their own).

The X-Men drive the X-Mansion's Rolls Royce to Central Park (Kitty apparently going poop in her costume at least twice due to her de-aging), and when they hop out, the older X-Men are about the size of 6-year-olds, while Kitty is not much more than a diaper dependent baby. Magneto helps them escape New York police, and they run off through the park. Storm heads off on her own, and the rest follow her to a building, where she's already picked the lock before they got there. Then they find Mojo and the nine children become all too eager to listen to him.

Back at the Mansion, Lockheed wakes Dani up, just in time to answer the door. It's the police, reporting that the car is in Central Park. Later after all the New Mutants are up, they resolve to go after the X-Men. Dani gives them all their graduation costumes, and Illyana tries to teleport them to Central Park... except they end up on-stage in a theater thanks to Spiral. There, the rapidly aging X-Men, clad in new costumes and brainwashed by Mojo, attack the New Mutants, Warlock quickly being taken down by Magneto. The battle occurs, with the audience captive thanks to Spiral's magic, and the X-Men are winning. But things soon turn to the New Mutants' favor when Rogue uses her power on Sunspot, only to discover something is wrong when her thoughts and Roberto's memories of her don't match, which starts to release her from Mojo's brainwashing. Nearby, Magik, after staggering Logan with her Soulsword, realizes that whatever Mojo and Spiral have done to control the X-Men must be a form of sorcery as her sword can only effect magic and/or arcane objects and beings. She decides to take the fight to Mojo, only to be quickly captured by him upon teleporting to his location on the stage.

Down below, Karma tries to possess Logan in order to free him, only for Wolverine to resist. However, before he can injure or kill her, Karma manages to snap him out of Mojo's control by encouraging him to remember his real self. Nearby, Doug does the same with Psylocke by revealing his romantic feelings for her via telepathy, resorting Betsy to normal as well. A few minutes later, Kitty notices Illyana's situation which breaks her free of Mojo's brainwashing as well as she moves to aid her best friend. The other X-Men (Magneto, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus and Longshot) are then released from Mojo's control after Kitty disrupts Mojo's chair while saving Illyana. The X-Men and New Mutants turn their attacks on Mojo, doing some damage, but he teleports away before he can be seriously injured. They do capture Spiral, however, and she undoes the effects of the battle.

And Mojo, off in the Wildways, smiles as the approval rating of his X-Men show goes through the roof.

Notes

Giant-Size X-Men Vol 1 1
  • This issue's cover is an homage to that of Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975).
  • According to Marvel Comics' Essential Series, this issue was published between Uncanny X-Men #213 and Uncanny X-Men #214. Continuity-wise, this causes some issues as this issue was published in the aftermath of the Mutant Massacre event. During that event Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and Colossus were all seriously injured, and Psylocke joined the team. Most notably of all, Longshot was absent during the entire Mutant Massacre event and first appears in the regular Uncanny X-Men Series in issue Vol 1 214. Suffice to say, this story likely takes place before the Mutant Massacre event, even though Longshot does not make an appearance in that storyline.
  • This story will be reprinted in the trade X-Men: Ghosts.

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. See notes
  2. Mojo restored Betsy Braddock's sight by replacing her eyes with cybernetics - cybernetics which contain mini-video cameras - revealed in New Mutants Annual #2. Betsy lost her sight during the events of Captain Britain (Vol. 2) #13 and 14.
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