UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #33
“Wild Ride, part 1: A Different Kind of Prison”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: Rogue and Gambit alongside guest star Gabriel the Devil-Hunter. Yes, he’s a pre-existing character. We’ll get to him.

THE X-MEN: 

Rogue and Gambit seek Gabriel’s help in dealing with Gambit’s possession. Gambit is co-operative, but still feels an urge to eat human flesh, and bites Gabriel without apology when he comes near. Gabriel is able to get a lesser demon out of him – Thenassil – but this seems to be only part of Gambit’s problem, with the real issue being to do with his Eye of Agamotto itself. He turns into Wyvern again, to fight off Thenassil.

The Eye’s unnamed true owner is apparently Thenassil’s master, and Thenassil suggests that he is so awful as to explain why the Vishanti “refus[e] to touch this particular Agamotto’s Eye”. As we’ve mentioned before, there are multiple Eyes of Agamotto; the other main one is normally associated with the Sorcerer Supreme and is currently in the possession of the Scarlet Witch. The Vishanti view it as belonging to their chosen sorcerer, although how far they can dictate that is a storyline over in Sorcerer Supreme.

Monet. Having been invited to cover for Rogue and Gambit back in issue #29, she’s finally spent her first night at Haven House. Adjusting to a normal bed after months in Graymalkin seems to be a strain. She assumes that Alice St Croix is a servant, which doesn’t go down well, although she seems happy to accept the arrangements once she understands what they are. The New Mutants don’t like her, but she seems to win them over somewhat by giving them a chance to wear their new costumes.

Quicksilver. He’s still primarily there to support Monet. He makes a reasonably sincere effort to be supportive to Calico, which she absolutely rejects on the grounds that he’s not Gambit. He gets irritated by the New Mutants’ rejection, and grumbles that Gambit and Rogue wouldn’t have “abandoned” them if they cared so much.

Calico mentions that he’s “not even a mutant”. Quicksilver’s back story is an utter mess; the current version of history, from Uncanny Avengers vol 2 #5, is that he and Wanda are orphans who were given powers by the High Evolutionary. This retcon was driven in part by a desire to separate him from the X-books for film licensing reasons, and it’s been widely downplayed since, with stories reasserting Wanda and Pietro’s relationship with Magneto as their father figure. Nonetheless, Calico is correct that, in the current state of continuity, Quicksilver is not a mutant.

Jubilee is tactfully keen to make sure that Monet is okay after her time in Graymalkin. Money mentions that Jubilee was briefly a prisoner there too – that was in issues #7-8.

Nightcrawler is praying for Gambit’s soul. Wolverine joins him, possibly more to show support to Nightcrawler than anything else.

GUEST STAR:

Devil-Hunter. Father Gabriel is a pre-existing character, though quite an obscure one. He was created by Doug Moench and Billy Graham and appeared in four issues of Haunt of Horror in 1974. His back story is that he turned to the priesthood and became an exorcist following the horrible death of his wife; his missing eye is a self-inflicted injury during a period of demonic possession. He made his debut the year after The Exorcist was a hit, and it’s not a coincidence.

Following his brief run in Haunt of Horror, he made some very scattered cameos, before winding up as a supporting character in Hellstorm in 1993-94. In that series he had lost his faith and become an alcoholic, and he wound up as an invalid. He hasn’t appeared since, though, so he’s had plenty of time to recover.

In this story, he’s a defrocked priest and seems to be back to being a grumpy exorcist. He seems pretty unimpressed by Rogue and Gambit and doesn’t regard either of them as good people. When bitten by Gambit, he has a vision of a transformed Gambit having apparently killed the X-Men. He claims to be unable to help, implying that it’s because Gambit’s possession is nothing to do with Christian demonology (he says that Gambit’s evil is “of a language I do not speak”). However, when Rogue mentions something called “the Iron Cathedral”, he reluctantly agrees to help. This doesn’t seem to be a reference to anything in particular.

Thenassil claims that Gabriel is holding a copy of the Darkhold. (It can’t be the original, which is currently merged with the Scarlet Witch.)

Once Thenassil is driven off, Gabriel declares Thenassil’s master to be out of his league, and points Rogue and Gambit elsewhere.

SUPPORTING CAST:

Calico. She’s gone back to sleepwalking, as she did in issue #8. Quicksilver’s attempts to offer support to her are firmly rejected, seemingly on the basis that he isn’t Gambit and she sees him as trying to take Gambit’s place. When Quicksilver takes umbrage and says mean things about Gambit, she lashes out at him and has to be stopped from seriously injuring or even killing him. As usual, Ember is with Calico.

Ransom, Deathdream and Jitter are also unreceptive to the newcomers, though they warm up a bit after being allowed to wear their new costumes. M seems to be winning them round a bit by the end. I don’t think they actually get referred to as the New Mutants in this story, but they were given the name last issue.

Alice St Juniors. She’s grumbling about the fact that Haven House still hasn’t been repaired since having a hole blown in it (in issue #28).

Waffles. M enlists it to help in training.

VILLAINS:

Thenassil. The demon that Gabriel exorcises from Gambit identifies itself as Thenassil, Tormentor or Thieves. It’s not an existing character. It manifests as a sort of large black fly with other flies around it. Gabriel initially calls it a lesser demon, but later says that it’s a “named member of an infernal court”. Gabriel and Thenassil both seem to agree that he’s a mere servant of the Eye’s owner.

Mutina. She’s hanging around on the fringes, watching the New Mutants train and wishing she could join in. That fits with her storyline of continually helping the team out while keeping up her obnoxious front.

Sabretooth. According to Deathdream, the spirits of mutants can “wander a bit” from the Dark Artery and “get confused”. Somehow, Sabretooth has wound up in this category despite dying on Krakoa in Wolverine #50 in 2024. It may be that there are mutant spirits connected to the Dark Artery even though they aren’t physically interred there. In Sabretooth’s case, he remembers fighting Wolverine, but doesn’t know where he is, and believes that he’s in a confusing fogbank. He accepts Deathdream gently leading him back. The implication seems to be that Sabretooth hasn’t moved on to an afterlife of any sort.

Three other ghosts are also seem in the cemetery – also apparently in limbo. Two of them are clearly Feral and Rusty Collins, both of whom died in X-Factor vol 5 #1. On that basis, the third one, who appears simply as a blank face in the corner of the panel, is presumably their teammate Cameo, who died (and debuted) in the same issue.