Writer Chris Claremont
Pencils Salvador Larroca
Inker Danny Miki
Colorist Alalon’s Rob Ro
Letterer VC’s Chris Eliopoulos
Cover dated February 2005, look how fun that cover is! And the issue delivers!
There is a giant vehicle crash in Salem Center, right at the X-Men’s door.
X-23 is wearing this horrible costume that Fang use to wear, and Wolverine wore once. She tries to save this one guy, and he straight up punches her in the face. She isn’t savage but she doesn’t want, or deserve, to be punched. Before she can strike back, Wolverine pulls her back.
January 14, Jennifer Garner’s Elektra is coming! Not very good.
Storm shows up to douse any flames from the oil tanker. Nightcrawler is on site to save civilians. Rachel Grey is there to telekinesis the heavier vehicles, as does Polaris.
Elixir does some on site healing. Iceman creates some ice slides to evacuate others.
Later, Wolverine tells Kitty, Lockheed and Rachel that they are getting a fourth roommate, X-23! Once Logan leaves, Kitty goes to introduce herself. X-23 flips the heck out. Kitty allows her to phase through her and both of them get some sort of bio-feedback. The reason for the backlash is that Kitty gets sick whenever someone with adamantium passes through her, or her them. The three of them realize that she is only a kid and has been through the Weapon Plus program.
We cut to a diner in Salem Center. We see Elixir, Hellion and Surge at the diner. Hellion is being a jerk as usual. Nightcrawler teleports in, grabs Hellion, and teleports the two of them into a fan with Bishop, Dusk and a few others. They are heading to Lambda Hospice. Apparently, Beast, some time ago, created a charity called, Mutants Without Borders. Which I really like that idea, as that is what Xavier’s dream is all about.
Hellion calls Kurt, elf, and Kurt is quick to tell him that only his friends can call him by nicknames. The X-Men are volunteering at the hospice. Dani Moonstar is there, Warren and Husk show up. This is during that time when Warren is dating her, a gal who is half his age, and maybe even a fourth of his age.
We cut to The Grind Stone, which is a cafe in Salem Center. Kitty and Rachel take Laura there to try to get her to open up. I guess Surge works there, which is odd to see any of these New X-Men having to work, I wonder what the story is / was there?
The ladies get a table, commenting on how much shopping they have done. I imagine Laura just stood around and was super confused by everything. Gambit and Iceman show up and sit with them. This might be the first time Kitty and Bobby are seen together, I doubt it, but the times are few.
Also, at this time, Gambit is blind. I am not sure how that happen but he wears this sunglasses that Sage is always wearing. Bobby has a pair and he gives Rachel and Kitty a pair. Also, he makes this grand statement about how the X-Men are great at saving the world, but off duty, they are a bunch of stiffs. And it is so true! It is probably the secret reason why we don’t get more issues like this, as off duty, what do the X-Men do?
Rachel and Kitty give Laura a pair of the Sage-glasses.
We get to the super fun part of the issue.
Back at the mansion, an alarm goes off. The entire courtyard has been frozen. Emma comes out, and gets a giant snowball to the face.
For the video game fans out there, the very first Kill Zone is being promoted.
Emma is shown, on the next page, on her butt and we see that Gambit, Iceman and Laura have made a snow fort.
Cyclops optic blasts a snowball out of Bobby’s hands. Bobby shouts, “no powers” and the battle is on! I do enjoy seeing Scott and Bobby in the same panel, the Original Five, as adults, seem to rarely ever be together.
Someone points to the sky, something is coming down. Something in the red and white suit and a blue face.
It is Santa-Beast! With his two elves, Kitty and Rachel with Lockheed along!
Santa-Beast has presents, the first two are for Scott and Emma. They both get clown noses. This makes Scott laugh so hard. Emma lets out a polite laugh. I really like how everyone is still in character. Also, that Claremont was given the entire cast of mutants to tell this story.
Lila Cheney’s band starts playing as Santa-Beast hands out presents.
We discover that Storm is making sure that there is snow on the ground but it is barely jacket weather.
Who is the bartender at this party? None other than Lockheed. He knows who is legal and he breathes fire. I wonder if Kieron Gillen read this issue for his SWORD mini? I must have missed this the first time around. So fun.
Magma is on cooking duty. We overhear Elixir speaking to somebody on his phone, the plan is all set. Hellion makes a stupid joke / comment about old wings and new wings and Warren challenges him. Hellion makes a reference to Icarus having better moves. Icarus is Husk’s younger brother. Speaking of which, her older brother, Cannonball, flies out to save a recently dropped Hellion.
We find Bobby with some mistletoe and he is trying to coax Laura out of a tree. Polaris shows up, sees the mistletoe, and kisses him on the cheek and flies off.
We transition to Gambit looking for Rogue, stumbling around in the woods. He finds a lady and kisses her. Turns out, he kissed Sage! He jolts away from her and turns out, he can see again! So, worth it?
Scott and Emma are discussing the Gambit turn of events and Scott is about to kiss her when Rachel shows up to give Emma a costume. Emma’s gift? A wear of silk white pants, with the word, X-Men, on the rear. Emma counters with introducing her to her grandparents, John and Elaine Grey. Which, one would think she met them once, but the one time I am thinking of, I believe she sneaked into the house and grabbed the Jean essence that the Phoenix left behind before the conclusion of the Dark Phoenix Saga. Also, it does not end well, much later for the Greys but we will get to that one of these days.
The folks the X-Men saved earlier have shown up to thank the X-Men in person. Laura comes out to apologize to one of the guys she scared earlier. She even offers to have them join the celebration. The humans join the celebration and everyoen has a good time.
We see Xavier and Magneto, on loan from Claremont’s Excalibur title.
We get an awesome splash page with as many mutants as Larroca can squeeze in.
Next issue, new year, new writer, new stories! As we begin, the Peter Milligan era!
Shadow and Flame with Magik 