Era #8, Part 20: Hunt for Xavier (Part 1)

Grade: C+

Steve Seagle and Joe Harris assemble a new roster with some familiar faces. Archangel, Beast, Iceman and newcomers Maggott and Cecilia Reyes are gone while Colossus, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, and Gambit are back! It is essentially the classic X-Men of my youth (yay) -- plus Marrow (meh).

This run is the first part of the Hunt for Xavier collection. It starts with Professor X leading a completely new X-Men team. He isn't acting like himself, and he is leading his new students against the real X-Men. I would list these strange new mutants, but they don't last long enough to care.

The remaining issues continue the normal, regular comic stories that marked Steve and Joe's time. 

[3-Stars] Uncanny X-Men #360 - "Children of the Atom" A controversial rocket launch at Cape Citadel (the site of the X-Men's first appearance battling Magneto) attracts even more attention when longtime X-Men ally Dr. Peter Corbeau is kidnapped.  A much colder Professor X forms a new team of X-Men, and he sends them on their first mission is to bring him Kitty Pryde. These new X-Men attack a cruise liner where Kitty, Nightcrawler, and Colossus are relaxing after Excalibur's disbanding. The unwanted public attention has again cast the actual X-Men as criminals for the kidnapping and the unwarranted destruction of a luxury ship. Valerie Cooper secretly provides them with transportation to Cape Citadel to stop the fake X-Men.

[3-Stars] X-Men (v2) #80 - "Children of Atom" Professor X needs Kitty's help eliminating a computer virus that is somehow limiting his ability to function effectively. She is concerned something has happened to her mentor, and she doesn't trust his new X-Men. Her fears are realized when she discovers that they kidnapped Dr. Corbeau. With Nightcrawler and Colossus back on their team, the actual X-Men confront their fake counterparts.

[3-Stars] Uncanny X-Men #361 - "Thieves in the Temple" Storm and Kitty Pryde reluctantly agree to help Black Tom Cassidy retrieve the Crimson Gem Cytorrak for Juggernaut. They travel to Seoul, Korea and find Gambit. He is back from his exile in the Antarctica and working again as a thief. He was also hired to retrieve the mystical gem. The three work together and track the missing artifact in the temple of a Cheju-do cult who plan to use it to wreak havok on the world.

[3-Stars] X-Men (v2) #81 - "Jack of Hearts, Queen of Death" The X-Men attempt to get their lives back to normal with the addition of Colossus, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and Gambit, but tensions from the new team dynamics  quickly surface during a Danger Room exercise session. Gambit and Rogue's attempt to reconcile is cut short when the "Goddess" Kali attacks them.

[3-Stars] X-Men Unlimited #22 - "Cat & Mouse" Marrow often spends her nights roaming the tunnels under Manhattan where she noticed Flash-Smasher leading a terrorist group known as Ultimatum. The X-Men go to investigate.