An Australian X-Men Christmas

Uncanny X-Men #230
“'Twas the Night...”
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciler: Marc Silvestri
Inker: Joe Rubinstein
Colorist: Glynis Oliver
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Editors: Ann Nocenti
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco
Released: Feb. 16, 1988

The X-Men are known for their Christmas issues, and this one's a personal favorite.

Despite being released in February of 1988 with a June cover date, the story takes place in late December, as the X-Men – believed to be dead after sacrificing their lives to stop the demonic Adversary three issues earlier – are settling into their new headquarters in the Australian Outback.

I wasn't actively reading X-Men at the time and discovered this issue in Essential X-Men Vol. 8. But I was aware of their adventures Down Under because I was an '80s kid and Crocodile Dundee taught us Australia was awesome. It wasn't until I became a parent and discovered the Wiggles that I learned it wasn't all sunshine and duck-billed platypuses down there.

The X-Men claimed their new digs by defeating the Reavers, a band of cybernetic thieves and miscreants. Below the complex they called home was an immense chamber where they stored their ill-gotten loot from around the world.

Longshot is drawn to the room by mysterious voices while the rest of the team tests out the compound's defenses in a training session without the Danger Room's technology. Besides luck and acrobatics, Longshot has a seldom-remembered power described as “psychometry.” Basically, he can read the histories of objects. This leads to a tidal wave of heartbreak as he senses the stories of those from whom the Reavers stole.

Overwhelmed, Longshot loses consciousness, only awakening a day or so later. He tells the X-Men what happened and Psylocke telepathically lets the team see what he sees. The naturally cynical Wolverine thinks they have bigger fish to fry than returning the stolen items, but his teammates argue that it isn't enough to punch, stab and blast the bad guys – they should help those who suffered at the Reavers' hands.

With Longshot providing the information and the mysterious Gateway the transportation, the X-Men load up their sacks of loot and return them all around the world in one night – Christmas Eve.

Longshot's unable to trace the owners of some of the items. Among those is a motorcycle on which Dazzler had her eye. The team gives her the bike in an effort to help ease her transition from music star to believed-dead-wilderness-dwelling superhero.

Santa Claws?

I was so taken with this issue after I read it in the black-and-white Essential volume I tracked down a copy at a comic shop. It's a wonderful, between-the-battles story that I associated with Scott Lobdell's X-run before I ever dove into Claremont's classic work.

On a reread, the idea that returning objects brings people happiness initially rang a little hollow. But characters raise that issue in-story, and it's clearly the feelings and connections those objects represent that are important. I like to think the items Longshot couldn't track back are the ones that held little meaning beyond material value, so the people the X-Men delivered to were the ones most touched and affected by the Reavers' crimes.

There's a nice subplot of Rogue extending some holiday kindness to Gateway and managing to communicate with the mysterious, silent mutant. Madelyne Pryor's inner monologue catches the reader up on her situation and makes me feel even worse for how she was treated in the opening arc of “Hellions” (for my money the best X-book being published today. At least until it ends at issue 18).