With anti-mutant activist Lydia Nance using Mesmero to trick the X-Men squad into attacking a SWAT team, Kitty, Rachel, Kurt, Peter and Ororo have all been sent to the Box, a prison designed especially to contain mutants. Writer Marc Guggenheim also works for the Arrowverse set of series on the CW which recently had the Flash in prison plot going on, though I'm sure this is entirely coincidental. I'll admit, I've been dismissive of the writer's pillaging of Chris Claremont's back catalogue but he does seem to be hitting his stride now and this arc had some nice banter and action as the X-Men did Orange is the New Black with Kitty, Rachel and Ororo having to fight Crazy Maisie and her gang for top dog status while it was also nice to see Morlock leader Callisto back for a cameo. With the main New York team in prison perennial bridesmaid Bobby Drake, AKA Iceman, finally gets the nod to lead his own team to protect New York until the others get out. He's given the experienced Rogue to help him lick into shape younger members Ink, Armor and Magma, while the witch Magik is also on hand. They're soon called into action when Inhuman eco-terrorist the Shredded Man runs amok in the city. The team have another member by then, however, with former Brotherhood member Simon Lasker, the new Pyro. Iceman bends to Rogue's view that a villain deserves a chance to be a hero, as that's the chance Professor Xavier gave her all those years ago. I quite like this new squad, especially having Rogue back in the core books (with Gambit returning as well in X-Men Red) while Ink and Armor have bags of potential.
Things escalate, however, when the Negative Zone alien god Scythian makes it to Earth and starts destroying Paris. The new squad have some help, with Captain Britain and Meggan pitching in as well (did they fly or use the Channel Tunnel?) to repel the monster. Paulo Siqueira and Jose Luis's pencils captured the epic nature of this dust-up, with 12 mutants to factor in once the imprisoned Gold squad decided enough is enough and left the prison, Storm having had enough after being put in solitary (she's claustrophobic, remember?) and shorting her restrictor collar. Issue 25 was a full-on 'Storm as badass' spectacular, actually, the Weather Witch's fury reawakening Stormcaster, the Asgardian hammer Ororo has wielded now and again over the years. Let's hope she gets to keep her hammer and the fine Asgardian duds that come with it. Overall, I really enjoyed this arc, the harking back to former glories is a little cloying but the scripts are getting more ambitious and we have the wedding of Peter and Kitty to look forward to in the next arc 'Til Death Do Us Part'. Is it coincidental that both X-Men Gold and Blue have introduced back-up squads, the original X-Men being lost in space and Polaris collecting together her own temporary squad including Daken, Xorn and Bloodstorm? Could Marvel be able to launch more squads alongside Gold, Blue and Red? I'm already looking forward to X-Men Beige.
70s Rating: ***
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