Loving the alien: Longshot Appreciation 2019

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

ARTHUR ADAMS ART IMPEL MARVEL UNIVERSE 45 CARD LONGSHOT 1990


Published piece


Longshot

by FeydRautha81

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Uncanny X-Men #241 Feb 1989
Inferno: Part 2 of 7 - "Fan the Flames!"
Madelyne refuses to believe that Mr. Sinister is her creator.
Instead she and her pet "Grey" demons attack him, because he is the mastermind behind the Marauders, who stole her baby.
But the orphanage is Sinister’s headquarters, he has built in defensive systems, that chain the Goblin Queen
and use her own energies against her. She calls to N’astirh for help, but he remains hidden in the shadows.

In the transforming New York, the X-Men continue to fight the remaining Marauders.
Colossus is shocked to see Riptide among them, for he killed him during the Mutant Massacre.
The police, riding demon-transformed police cars, interfere.
Polaris / Malice destroys one of the vehicles and hurls the debris against the X-Men,
while Vertigo uses her powers to create a general nausea. The X-Men are almost defeated when Longshot
throws randomly a blade, which hits a sign over Vertigo's head; it falls down and knocks her out.

The fight continues and the X-Men fight more aggressive than ever. Havok even uses his power in full force.

The Goblin Queen continues to ignore Sinister, she thinks of herself as a normal person with parents and a past.
Mr. Sinister asks her that she tell him of her past memories to prove it.
Madelyne tries to remember and comes up with an incident at the age of ten;
she was playing with her best friend Annie, but suddenly she was hit by a car.
Mr. Sinister finishes the story, the ten-year old redhead holds her friend in her arms,
and suddenly she found herself in her friends head, sharing her last thoughts as they went out. Madelyne asks how he knows.
Mr. Sinister explains that this is a memory of Jean Grey, actually it is the day when Jean’s power manifested.
Back then Jean was put in the care of Professor X who trained her.
Originally Sinister had planned to kill her parents, that Jean would have been brought to the orphanage,
but he was to late, so he came up with the plan to steal a blood sample of Jean and clone her.
Later though, when the clone hit puberty he was disappointed to see that she did not develop mutant powers.
Then one night her incubation chamber exploded in a bird of fire, and the clone shouted "Scott" before passing out.
In the shadows N'astirh thinks that if he saves Madelyne, she would be totally under his control. He leaves.

In Manhattan some of S'ym's techno-organic demons recognize the X-Men and the Marauders; they join the fight and shoot Prism.
The X-Men kill off the whole squad, besides one who is captured by Colossus. He recognizes the species from his stint in Limbo.
Colossus interrogates the demon and is surprised to hear that his sister Magik is no longer Limbo's ruler, because she was overthrown by N'astirh and S'ym.
They also plan to transform the whole earth into Limbo, casting a special spell on the Empire State Building.
Colossus smashes the demon to pieces and as his teammates cheer at him, he realizes that the demonic surrounding has a bad influence on them,
only he is protected by his armored form, because iron shields against magic. He decides to search for his sister, because saving her might end Inferno.

Mr. Sinister continues his story. He researched that the exact instant "Jean" aka Phoenix sacrificed herself on the moon
and it was the moment when the bird of fire appeared at the clone tube. He thought that they were connected like twins
and now with potential powers he wanted to create the perfect child with her and Cyclops, so he designed a cover identity
and memories for Madelyne and organized for the pair to meet. Everything happened as Sinister foresaw and wanted,
untill Jean Grey was found alive at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. He knew that if the two would ever meet,
Jean would telepathically discover the truth, so he ordered the Marauders to kill Madelyne and steal the baby, but they botched the job.

In New York, the X-Men dealt with all Marauders except for Polaris/Malice who got away.
Longshot is concerned, how his teammates become more and more bloodthirsty.
Suddenly N'astirh appears and bites him in the arm.


Havok tries to nail him with a blast, but the demon vanishes, promising to feast on the X-Men’s souls like he just had Longshot.
During the fight, Dazzler seems more concerned with her beauty.
The X-Men prepare to follow N'astirh, but suddenly Wolverine’s senses pick up someone he knows.

In the orphanage in Nebraska, Sinister tells Madelyne that the failed assassination did not matter since she died a short time later in Dallas.
To his surprise, she is now back alive and invisible to all technical sensors as well as she has displayed powers he never knew that she had.
He plans to dissect her, to discover what changed her. The Goblin Queen gathers more and more energy till she overloads Sinister's defense systems.
Before the two start a fight, N'astirh, now techno-organic, arrives on the scene again. He hands the baby over to Madelyne.
The Goblyn Queen is thankful and loyal to N'astirh. She tells Sinister that she will destroy the baby, for it represents all of Sinister's manipulations
and all of Scott Summers' hopes and dreams, and with this sacrifice she will give herself completely to the fire, to Inferno.

Story by Chris Claremont. Art by Marc Silvestri and Dan Green.

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Rejected all of Exiles in your canon? May I ask why?

Uh-- *ahem* Well-- Maybe because I haven't read it? Only a few issues, and I wasn't interested to be honest.

Anyway, that canon list didn't pretend to be exhaustive, just a panoramic view. For example, I should have included Mephisto vs. X-Men in 'Embraced canon', since it's there where it was stated that Longshot's got no soul (no human soul, at least).

I'd really like Longshot and Mephisto to cross paths again in the pages of whatever marvel comic(s) and have Mephisto expand upon his revelation regarding Longshot's soul.

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Longshot Saves The Marvel Universe #2 Jan 2014
"Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe Part Two"
After Longshot rewrote reality with the Cosmic Cube, SHIELD wants to execute him.

Escaping from SHIELD with help from Dr. Strange,

Longshot learns from Dr. Strange that the In-Betweener has been split into Order and Chaos.

Longshot, Dr. Strange, Ghost Rider, Scarlet Witch and Deadpool decide to
raid the SHIELD helicarrier in order to free Chaos and rejoin him with Order.

(W) Christopher Hastings. (A) Jacopo Camagni.

[Ricochet Rita]

I'd really like Longshot and Mephisto to cross paths again in the pages of whatever marvel comic(s) and have Mephisto expand upon his revelation regarding Longshot's soul.

That was actually the plot Nocenti wanted to develop in that never published Graphic Novel/Limited Series at the beginning of the 90's :/

[Ricochet Rita]

Ah, this few panels are really so relevant about Longshot in so many ways! It reconciles me with Claremont and his past writing skills: he may be often unable now to start a decent story up, but back then --wow, he did so much with so little!

First, it shows how Longshot's psychometry makes him kind of an empath, which might in certain situations be overwhelming for him (remember his experience in the Reavers' cave) and could explain why he (subconsciously?) keeps his power at a low level.

Second, it is explicitly stated that Longshot doesn't understand why his relationship with Dazzler should be 'different' and 'unique' beyond sex (that he seems to comprehend that must be preferably reduced to the same two persons, although we don't know what would have happened if someone else would have asked him*). Romance pairing has no meaning at all for him, since he's got friendly feelings towards everybody and love feelings towards all of his close friends --that includes Alison as well as Rogue or Alex or Piotr. His two hearts are wide and warm enough for everybody, but it seems that, in exchange, they haven't got the boost to grow and develop a sense of 'falling in love' with a particular person and no other. Like in many beliefs such as Buddhism, which I often connect with Longshot, complete harmony has frequently a price: rejection of personal attachment.

Third, N'Astirh detects a soul (or something that he calls a soul) in Longshot, while Mephisto, a true professional about this stuff, said he lacked it. Obviously they're talking about different things and it would be interesting to explore this.

Four, N'Astirh recognizes this 'soul' as torn. As Longshot may seem so joyful and happy-go-lucky in the outside, but he's been through real hellfires although not even himself recalls it in its whole.

Five, every X-Man (even the noblest) has been spontaneously affected by now by the evil of Inferno, which surfaces the wicked side of them. There are only two exceptions: Colossus, who's made of steel, a material who uses to be anathema for magic...and Longshot. Is it because of his natural pureness? Is it because he's not an earthling? The fact is that the 'scatterbrained' X-Man is the only one who remains sane, and N'Astirh has no choice but physically bite him and directly inoculate him the evilness in order to corrupt him. What's more: while his teammates play dumb about all what happened at the end of the warfare, Longshot is so devastated about his own 'rotting' that he will not get his head above the water and he will quit the team a few issues later.

During the fight, Dazzler seems more concerned with her beauty.

She's obviously under Inferno influence, and the scene is kind of a joke. But. BUT. [See my considerations above]

* Did somebody asked him?

[The Mighty Alice]

Thank you for making this forum, I actually joined just to keep track of this thread! Longtime reader of comics and fan of this character (all of Mojoverse) - no matter what anyone said! I actually love Mojo too, though I appreciate their rivalry; he was the last X-men villain that really captured my attention.

[Ricochet Rita]

Why, I thank you! Welcome, Mighty Alice --and in case your name comes from that Alice, I can assure you we'll get on well!

Please feel free to post here anything you want about Longshot and any other aspect or character from Wildways/Mojoverse: spineless, Arize, Major Domo, Minor Domo, Quark, Gog N'Magog... You can still visit the old threads, the links are in the Original Post.

Plus, I've opened a thread only for Spiral, since she's much more popular than the others, but you can also talk about her here.

Longtime reader of comics and fan of this character (all of Mojoverse) - no matter what anyone said!

That's the spirit

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Uncanny X-Men #242 Mar 1989
Inferno: Part 4 of 7 - "Burn!" Guest-starring X-Factor.
Story continued from X-Factor #37...

To be sure that his senses are not fooling him, Wolverine kisses Marvel Girl, confirming for him that she is still alive.
Now for the first time ever, the X-Men and X-Factor have crossed paths as they are
gathered around Madelyne Pryor who has her and Cyclops's son Nathan Christopher.
With the X-Men having arrived, Madelyne has hidden her Goblin Queen form from them.
Marvel Girl pushes Wolverine away when he refuses to stop coming on so strong, prompting her to tell Storm to control her people.
When Iceman and Beast attempt to grab Christopher from Madelyne, Havok gets in their way.
Tempers begin to flare out of control due to the X-Men's manipulations by the Inferno,
and their continued belief that X-Factor are mutant hunters.
This causes Wolverine and Dark Angel to come to blows. Warren manages to strike down Wolverine with his wing feathers.
Rogue flies in and attempts to stop Warren by kissing him to absorb his strength, powers and memories.
However, she only sees the image of Apocalypse in his mind and is shocked when Warren is capable of pulling away from her embrace.
Before she can do anything about it, she is blasted from behind by Cyclops.
This leads to a full out fight between the X-Men and X-Factor.
As Iceman attempts to ice up Havok, he uses his powers to melt the ice sending a flood.
When Dazzler and Longshot get caught up in the water, the two
-- having been affected by the Inferno spell -- start making out in the middle of the battle.
As Cyclops pulls Madelyne out of the water, she berates him for abandoning her.
When Scott tries to defend himself, his brother Alex appears and begins attacking him,
telling him that he betrayed his marital vows to Maddie the day that he left her.

Just then, N'Astirh appears before them and swats Havok away, and then unleashes two demons on Marvel Girl.
The moment the creatures make contact with her, MG realizes -- to her horror -- they are her parents transformed into demons.
As the battle rages on, N'Astirh summons a demonic stage-coach and is about to leave with Madelyne,
putting Cyclops in a position where he must make a tough choice:
Does he save his wife and child from being taken into the clutches of the techno-organic demon,
or save Marvel Girl from the creatures that are her parents transformed.
Cursing himself, Scott chooses MG, and N'Astirh picks up Maddie and little Christopher and flees the scene.
Havok, cursing his brother as well jumps onto the back of the coach in the hopes of rescuing her himself.
Scott runs to Jean's side and Jean condemns Madelyne as a being of pure evil.
Scott and Jean then go to where the members of the X-Men and X-Factor are still battling it out.

While speeding through the city, Madelyne drops her innocent appearance and readopts her Goblin Queen uniform.
Havok meanwhile holds onto the coach for dear life. As the wind rips through his costume,
he feels as though that it's doing something worse to his soul.
When the coach finally stops at the transformed Empire State Building, he reveals his presence to N'Astirh and the Goblin Queen.
Maddie remarks how his tattered uniform now resembles her and asks for his loyalty.
Giving it willingly, she christens him her Goblin Prince.
As they enter into the building to prepare for the sacrifice of young Nathan,
they are watched by Colossus who begins to scale up the side of the building in order to stop them.

Back in Central Park, the battle between the X-Men and X-Factor rages on, as the members of X-Factor learn that

the X-Men still believe that they are mutant hunters and are unaware that they revealed themselves as mutants.

As Wolverine and Dark Angel fight it out, Cyclops wonders where Storm is,
hoping that he can talk her into getting the X-Men to stop fighting.
Storm has spent most of the battle floating above Central Park looking at the transformed Empire State Building
and wondering how the Inferno has affected her and her comrades. The obscene obelisk reminds her of the butte from the
other dimensional world that the Adversary banished her and Forge not too long ago and wonders about it's significance.

While high above the tower, N'Astirh, the Goblin Queen and Havok prepare for the coming sacrifice by creating an altar.
N'Astirh is shocked to see how quickly Madelyne is adapting to her newfound powers.
When the demonically transformed Grey parents arrives with young Christopher Summers,
Madelyne is disgusted by their ability to sense that the child is somehow related to them.
As Madelyne finishes commenting about how only the baby is truly hers,
she is angered to find that young Christopher has telepathically communicated to Marvel Girl about his impending sacrifice
launching her into a fury and deciding to hold off on the sacrifice until she can destroy MG once and for all.

Down below in Central Park, Marvel Girl's battle with Rogue is cut short when winds carry her up to where Storm has been watching the battle.
When the two are finally reunited, they agree to get both of their teams to stand down so that they can save Christopher from his insane mother.
However their reunion is cut short when N'Astirh teleports before them and attacks.
Despite the combined efforts of both X-Men and X-Factor, none prove to be much of a match against the newly techno-organic demon.
However, when he grabs a hold of Rogue and attempts to infect her with the Transmode virus,
he learns that she had developed an immunity to it thanks to her encounter with the Technarc named Magus.
While atop the Empire State Building, Colossus reaches its peak and when he attempts to stop the Goblin Queen, Havok blasts him away.
As he flies across the city he is saved from a nasty landing by Iceman,
who uses an ice slide to send him flying into N'Astirh, weakening the creature
due to its natural weakness to iron, forcing the demon to teleport away.

With the X-Men and X-Factor unified, Storm orders Psylocke to boost her
psi-powers over the static created by the Inferno by psi-linking with Marvel Girl.
This is a pleasant surprise for MG, who for months has not had the benefit of her telepathy.
They exchange information regarding Rogue and Colossus's encounter with the Magus in order to learn the weaknesses
of techno-organic beings so that they can better deal with N'Astirh when they make their final assault on the Empire State Building.

Sending Colossus up the tower again to distract N'Astirh, the Goblin Queen and Havok, he finds himself bound by strange tentacles.
When Dark Angel and Wolverine join the fracas, they injure N'Astirh
and save Colossus giving Storm and Iceman an opening to freeze N'Astirh in ice.
As N'Astirh boasts that the cold allows his computer systems to operate at peak efficiency he attempts to cast a massive spell.
However, this is when Cyclops and Dazzler chime in with their powers along with Storm
increasing the humidity under the ice barrier causing N'Astirh's circuits to overheat.
As the final salvo, Storm unleashes a powerful torrent of lightning bolts
that quickly overload N'Astirh's circuits causing him to explode.
Unfortunately for the two groups of mutants, even though N'Astirh was seemingly destroyed, the Inferno spell still appears to be intact.

Cyclops is appalled at Storm's willingness to slay their enemy, and this begins a
debate between the two groups' different methods in striving for defending mutants.
In the middle of the argument, Marvel Girl is suddenly caught in a mystical noose and pulled away.
When the X-Men and X-Factor turn to see who has attacked MG, they are shocked to see that the Goblin Queen is still alive
and possessing all her magical might and demon hordes and that she now intends to destroy them all.

Story by Chris Claremont. Art by Marc Silvestri and Dan Green.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

X-Factor #38 Mar 1989
Inferno! Giant-Sized Spectacular! Part 5 of 7 - "Duet!"
Continued from Uncanny X-Men #242...

With the demon N'Astirh seemingly destroyed, the combined forces of the X-Men and X-Factor
are surprised to not only find that the Inferno spell is still in effect over Manhattan,
but that the Goblin Queen still has all her powers and is holding Marvel Girl as her hostage.
Before the two groups of mutants, Madelyne tells her estranged husband Cyclops that she is doing all this for revenge against all those
who destroyed her life, which she maintains was nothing more than borrowed from others,
alluding to the fact that she was not born by conventional means.
When Colossus points out that the gate to Limbo has been closed and N'Astirh defeated he tells her to give up her mad quest.
Madelyne refuses, having her own horde of demons to command and that she still intends to sacrifice her son Nathan.

When the two teams attempt to attack, Longshot's tainted luck powers cause the group bad luck,
causing them to bump into each other, while fighting the Goblin Queen's demons.
This leads to the two groups getting into blows once more.
As Cyclops and Storm battle, Storm once more calls X-Factor mutant hunters saying that they had
recorded media reports following their missions to allow them to keep tabs on X-Factor's operations.
When Scott wonders why they didn't know that X-Factor revealed their true purposes recently,
he asks her who was keeping the recordings for them.
Storm realizes it was Madelyne who did, and sees how the woman had deceived the X-Men,
and has likely been making sure that he two groups would not come into contact with each other for quite some time.
When Cyclops attempts to attack the Goblin Queen, the evil sorceress uses her powers to move the demonically
transformed father of Marvel Girl to deflect the blast. Storm's similar attempt to try and strike Maddy down is blocked.

The Goblin Queen then convinces Dazzler and Longshot (still tainted by the Inferno spell)
to help her in exchange for being "stars" of the battle.
With magically created spotlights following them wherever, the two agree to help,
attacking Dark Angel, blasting him out of the sky and in Maddy's proximity.
She uses her magical powers to break Warren's resolve and transform him into a demonic form before he passes out.
She then unleashes her full magical fury and sends the demons after the X-Men and X-Factor.
As the mutant groups fight through the demon hoards, the Goblin Queen orders Havok to slay his brother Cyclops.
Alex, very much in love with Madelyne now and under her thrall, willingly attacks his brother.
When Longshot and Dazzler attempt to try and kill Cyclops they are swept away by Storm.

Dark Angel meanwhile manages to shake off Madelyne's influence and uses his wings
to cut the magical restraint that has been keeping Marvel Girl under Maddy's thrall.
This also causes some sort of magical feedback that allows Wolverine to shake off Inferno's influence on him and regain his control.
As the other members of the X-Men and X-Factor are busy keeping Dazzler and Longshot under wraps, Cyclops and Havok battle it out.
Havok does not listen to any of Scott's attempts to talk sense into him and when Alex puts himself at risk of being buried under rubble,
his gambit works out when his brother saves his life allowing Alex to knock him out.
Marvel Girl meanwhile has shaken free of the Goblin Queen's control and the two are locked in mental combat,
and Maddy creates an impenetrable force-field around the two women and young Christopher Summers
so that the others cannot interfere with their final battle together.
As the two women battle it out, Madelyne once more begins to allude to the fact that she was artificially created.
MG wars on, furious that between the Phoenix Force and Madelyne, portions of her natural course in life have been usurped by other people.

While not far, Cyclops is about to be blasted by Havok when Dark Angel fires his razor sharp feathers at Alex,
sending him over the edge of the Empire State Building. Despite this, Havok unleashes a powerful blast
in the hopes of sending Cyclops over the edge of the cliff as well.
Cyclops manages to grab onto a ledge and save himself, while Havok is rescued by the Dark Angel.
Inside the force bubble, Madelyne reveals to Marvel Girl the horror that they both share:
the experience of Jean Grey's school friend Annie Richardson's death.
As MG struggles to free herself suddenly a portion of the Phoenix Force appears.
The portion of it's power explains that following it's death on the moon, it attempted to send a
portion of itself (with it's memories and experiences) to MG as she was healing below Jamaica Bay.
However MG refused it when she learned the genocide it caused in her image and it instead found a host in Madelyne.

Outside, the regrouped X-Men and X-Factor begin determining a means to find a weak spot in the telekinetic shield.
They manage to convince Dazzler to help by pointing out to her that Madelyne has tricked her and that she is not the star of this battle.
Havok is also convinced to help, however still angry at his brother for how Madelyne was abandoned,
he only does so to help his brothers estranged wife over anything else.
With a common cause the two groups begin attacking the field in an attempt to break through and rescue MG.
Inside, MG learns the shocking truth about Madelyne Pryor:
That she is in reality a clone of MG herself created by the evil mutant known as Mr. Sinister.
Sinister had intended for Madelyne to be the perfect mate for Cyclops in order to spawn a child for some unrevealed reasons.
When she fulfilled her intended purpose and after Cyclops abandoned her to join X-Factor, Sinister sought to eliminate her and take the child.
He would send the Marauders to assassinate her.
However she would join up with the X-Men who seemingly sacrificed their lives to save the world.
Eventually her seething hatred would lead to a deal with N'Astirh.

Outside, Psylocke manages to convince the depressed Longshot that he still has his good luck power

and has him toss one of his daggers at the shield to find a weak point.
Finding it, the teams manage to burst through just as Madelyne attempts to kill both herself and Marvel Girl.
With this distraction, the Goblin Queen tosses young Christopher, sending his father diving for his boy.
Attempting to kill them all in the chaos, Madelyne is over powered by MG, who's love for the X-Men gives her the strength to fight back.
MG then decides the only solution is to accept the portion of the Phoenix Force that resides in Madelyne,
and in the process also absorbs all of her clones memories and is restored.
The power of the Phoenix Force manages to break the Inferno spell
and make MG a complete woman once more. However Madelyne dies in the process.

With the battle over, Jean goes to Scott who is both in mourning for the
death of his wife but also eternally happy to finally be reunited with his son.
In the aftermath, everyone gathered notes that the X-Men haven't been restored to normal following their exposure to the Inferno spell
and wonder if this will cause problems to them in the future. Beast commends Warren for his selfless acts that day and his ability to
fight against his evil impulses and rechristens him Archangel. Cyclops tries to make amends with his brother,
however Alex still resents Scott for what he did to Madelyne and tells him that if he could join her side again he wouldn't do things differently.
In the end Marvel Girl looks at the lifeless body of the woman cloned from her DNA and realizes the pure evil that is Mr. Sinister
and rallies both groups together to hunt Sinister down and put a stop to him before he causes this sort of travesty again.

Story by Louise Simonson. Art by Walter Simonson and Al Milgrom.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Longshot Saves The Marvel Universe #3 Feb 2014
"Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe Part Three"
The In-Betweener has split into two different entities: Order and Chaos.
Order now runs SHIELD and operates it as an anti-magic organization.
Doctor Strange recruited Longshot to fight against Order's control
along with Scarlet Witch, Ghost Rider and a wand-wielding Deadpool...
but the entire team, bar Longshot, fell under Order's control.

Now, as the SHIELD helicarrier barrels at full speed on a colision course with Brooklyn,

Longshot lies right in its path, certain he will be lucky enough to survive.

Chaos, wanting to see more of how lucky Longshot can get, summons from random timelines and universes

Dracula Lord of the Vampires, a dangerously unstable Magneto from the future, Wolverine King of the Vampires and WolfCap, to face Longshot.

(W) Christopher Hastings. (A) Jacopo Camagni.

[Ricochet Rita]

The fact is that the 'scatterbrained' X-Man is the only one who remains sane, and N'Astirh has no choice but physically bite him and directly inoculate him the evilness in order to corrupt him. What's more: while his teammates play dumb about all what happened at the end of the warfare, Longshot is so devastated about his own 'rotting' that he will not get his head above the water and he will quit the team a few issues later.

Precisely, this:

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

I always resent it very much whenever a pencil artist draws Longshot's hand with four fingers and a thumb instead of three fingers and a thumb

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Uncanny X-Men #243 Apr 1989
Inferno: Part 6 of 7 - "Ashes!" Guest-starring X-Factor.
Story continued from X-Factor #38...

On top of the Empire State Building, the X-Men mourn for Madelyne Pryor and talk about everything that happened during Inferno.

Suddenly Jean Grey cries out. She forms a telekinetic bubble around herself and lets nobody in.
Psylocke uses her telepathy to bring herself, Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine inside Jean's mind.
There they are at the Blue Area of the moon and witness the last instants before Phoenix sacrificed herself.
She perishes shouting Scott's name. The X-Men see that her energy does not dissipate, but rises towards earth.
Cyclops wonders how Jean knows of these events since she is in suspended animation at Jamaica Bay at the time.
Suddenly a large fist appears and smashes the memory. It is Sinister.
Psylocke tells the others that if he destroys all memories, Jean's soul and mind will be completely obliterated.
The X-Men float through more shards of memories, which are clearly Madelyne's.
In the center, they find Jean's memories loosely assembled around an image of the mansion, which is guarded by a redheaded figure.
As the X-Men approach she looks like the Goblin Queen and fires a blast. She then turns into Jean as Marvel Girl and asks for forgiveness.
Betsy understands that Jean's condition is a result of trying to integrate two powerful individual psyches.
Storm suggests to bring Rogue into the mindscape too, since she faces a similar effect each time she uses her powers,
but Psylocke discovers that an outside force blocks her from going outside of Jean's mind.
A huge image of Sinister appears and he destroys another memory shard. The X-Men try to fight him, but physical powers are useless.
Only Betsy's telepathy stands a chance and she succeeds in building a barrier, keeping Sinister at bay.
The others try to talk some sense into Madelyne's personality, who gained the upper hand again.
Both Scott and Logan fail. She refuses to help and is glad that the X-Men might die along with her.
Storm realizes that this isn't Madelyne at all, it is Jean who is about to give up;
she was terrified about the Phoenix force's offer and denied it with her every being.
The results were Dark Phoenix and the Goblyn Queen. Maybe it would be better if things ended right now.
Psylocke's shield breaks and Sinister gets through again. He heard the last part of Jean's fears and offers
her to break the terrible cycle by stripping her of memories and identity that have caused nothing but pain.
Madelyne refuses. She changes into Dark Phoenix, then into Jean and tells him that this is
her mind, her soul, her life and she means to keep them herself and she blocks Sinister out.

In Xavier's mansion, which he uses as a hideout, Sinister tells Malice to alert the others, since the X-Men are on their way.
Jean learned of his location during their final battle for her mind. The X-Men and X-Factor have split up into smaller teams.
The first, consisting of Jean, Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine and Archangel enter the mansion through Storm's former attic.
Psylocke and Rogue use the hangar bay as their way in.
Meanwhile Beast and Longshot brought Mr. And Mrs. Grey and baby Christopher to the X-Factor ship.

They argue which one stays behind to guard the Greys and who may go to help to fight Sinister.
The remaining mutants, Colossus, Iceman, Havok and Dazzler, approach the mansion through the Morlock tunnels beneath the Xavier estate.
They cover forty miles without a problem, but right before the mansion, they run into a demon-transformed Blockbuster.
He is faster and stronger than they remember and knocks Colossus and Iceman out before they can do anything.
In the narrow tunnels, Dazzler shoots a full force laser beam, but she has no effect.
Blockbuster grabs her, but suddenly Havok unleashes a plasma beam and kills him. Alison wonders,
because he was always afraid of doing that. Alex replies that Inferno changed him.
In the hangar bay Sabretooth sneaks up on Betsy and slams her into the ground.
He wants to rip her throat, but Psylocke reaches into his animalistic mind and stops him in mid-air and fries his mind.
Upstairs in the mansion, the first group discovers that Sinister has searched
through everything, personal and private rooms, even the Professor's office.

While they are most distracted Malice strikes and hurls metallic debris around and Jean and Ororo quickly defeat her.
The X-Men gather in the main room and start to interrogate Polaris/Malice, who is held in one of Jean's telekinetic fields.
She refuses to reveal any information about Sinister. Storm orders Psylocke to mind-probe her and then try to separate the two women,
but Malice says that would surely kill her because the bonding is permanent.
She turns to Havok, claiming that she still loves him, and Alex asks her to prove it by giving them the needed information.
The mansion explodes, all lie around unconscious. The only one who is unhurt is Malice.
Ironically the field that held her shielded her from the impact. Sinister comes out of hiding
and pulls Jean from the debris, now he has the original to tamper with and he orders Malice to kill
the other members of the X-Men and X-Factor as Longshot arrives on the scene to stop them.

Story by Chris Claremont. Art by Marc Silvestri and Hilary Barta.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

I have to admit that it took some adjusting on my part when Longshot joined the X-Men in Uncanny #214

I myself never had to. I liked the character from the start and loved the way Mojo dumped him into the danger room in Uncanny X-Men Annual #10.