X-Men Daily Art: X-Men 195

 

This is a very sad issue. The kid team Power Pack are kidnapped by the underground mutant society, The Morlocks, so they can be raised by Annalee, whose kids were killed. The youngest, Katie, escapes after being disfigured and is rescued by the X-Men. The team, led by Shadowcat, gives her a jacket to make her an honorary X-Men and bolster her spirits, but she is terrified and alone. The heroes fight the Morlocks and rescue the other Power Pack kids, and Katie takes pity on Annalee and prevents her from being punished by the Morlock leader, Callisto, who didn't know of the plan to steal kids. 

 

So we have kids who run the gamut from transformed, scared, kidnapped, and killed. Not fun. And this sets the table for a later, sadder Morlock and X-Men story coming up in about 15 issues. But this is the X-Men comics: sad and brutal and heavy. They don't fit in the world, and they are frayed to the bone. But the cover image doesn't happen at all, and in fact the entire team gets to show their caring sides to Katie that we don't get many chances to see.

X-Men Daily Art: X-Men 194

 

 

Nimrod finally makes his move against Juggernaut, a mutant bad guy, as the latter tries to have a normal day in NYC. The X-Men are scouting him to make sure he behaves himself when Nimrod attacks. In the fight, Kitty has a brainstorm of using Rogue as a one-woman team, and Rogue absorbs the powers of Kitty, Nightcrawler, and Colossus. The ensuing look doesn't make a lick of sense, but she damages Nimrod enough to make him run away. Meanwhile Storm goes to Africa to see if her powers can be salvaged, and she saves a villager from the twin offspring of Baron Strucker (but we don't know that yet, don't tell anyone).