UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #36
“Wild Ride, part 4: Rights of Rage”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: Gambit staring vacantly in the foreground, with his Eye of Agamotto crying blood behind him.

PAGE 1. Flashback: The Iron Cathedral.

So yeah, I feel like sticking with this format again for a while. It’s probably a better fit for this issue anyway.

The Iron Cathedral. This was first mentioned by Rogue in issue #33, and was mentioned again by Repent at the end of the previous issue, which also showed an image of it. That panel was rather clearer than this issue in showing it to be in the open air, with other parts of the landscape visible around it.

It seems to be an iron framework in the general shape of a cathedral. Repent explains later in the issue that the iron repels demons, which presumably means that it helps to exorcise them.

The dagger. The one seen in this flashback is the same one that Gabriel had in issue #33, and gave to Gambit in issue #34. However, Repent is also holding it in his origin flashback in the next scene.

The dialogue. Translated roughly, it reads:

“Father, is there no other way?”

“She’s got the devil in her, as you well know.”

“Francesca, please.”

“It’s just that I know the Benatti family. They are good, God-fearing people.”

“I am innocent! I renounce the Devil!”

“Send the soldier home, brother. I need to return at dawn.”

“I understand. What do you want me to do?”

“Tie her to the [leggio]. And bring me the dagger.”

“Yes, father.”

The word leggio means “lectern”, but it clearly refers here to the platform that Francesca is being tied to, which looks more like an altar of some sort.

PAGES 2-4. Rogue, Gambit, Gabriel and Repent on the  train.

Frecciarossa. A Frecciarossa (“Red Arrow”) train is Italy’s high speed train service. Once again, we’re travelling by ordinary transport rather than risk using Gambit’s demonic teleportation ability.

Gambit is wearing sunglasses, which in theory could be to stop people noticing his eyes, but in practice seems more likely to be to do with him feeling ill. It’s not like he wears them normally, and it’s not like Repent is making any effort to conceal his pointed ears.

Repent. He gives his real name as Vicente Herrera. On his own account, his mother died in childbirth while possessed by a demon, which then entered him as the nearest available host. He says that he underwent multiple exorcisms which served only to drive him mad, and that he was incarcerated in the monastery from issues #33-34, where he studied for the priesthood. In rather vague terms, he then alludes to using the dagger to at least partially exorcise his demon at the cost of his left eye, his right arm and “my sanity” – though he seems sane enough in these issues.

According to Gabriel, Repent’s demon is still “partially inside him”, and gives him a charm effect on women in particular – the sort of effect Gambit would more normally have. This effect is specific to Repent’s demon. It doesn’t seem to work on Rogue, who regards him as vaguely satanic. That might be because she’s too preoccupied with Gambit to be receptive.

Quite what it means for a demon to be “partially” inside Repent isn’t explained further; there’s no suggestion that the rest of the demon is somehow hovering around the area, so apparently it’s been separated from the remainder. Or maybe the rest of the demon was somehow destroyed.

PAGES 5-10. The X-Men kill Calamity.

Meanwhile, over in the B-plot, we pick up with the X-Men’s attack on the compound that Howler escaped from, where they had just run across Calamity shortly before the end of the last issue. If you want to nitpick, the A- and B-plots are clearly running on different time frames – Rogue and co have time to get a train from Spain to Italy while the rest of the X-Men are still fighting Calamity – but that isn’t really a problem.

Calamity was described by a guard last issue as a mutant who was working for the compound. He insists that he isn’t being mind controlled and that he’s happy with his position of authority. Mind you, he also says that he’s 22 and “used to be one of them”, which surely implies that he’s had a fairly traumatic past himself and that this is more of a cycle-of-abuse thing. Wolverine and M don’t see it that way, and just kill him, even though subduing him seems like it would be possible.

As for the other X-Men present, Quicksilver seems shocked. We don’t see Nightcrawler’s reaction, but frankly, it’s not like Wolverine killing people is new to him – every so often he fears for Wolverine’s soul, but he never really seems to regard it as much of a problem beyond that.

PAGES 11-14. Rogue, Gambit & co arrive at the Iron Cathedral.

It’s not clear what’s making the sky red – it can’t be dawn, since it was already daylight in the train scene.

“Mutants didn’t truly begin with the atomic age, you know.” Back in the Silver Age, the idea was that mutants were the result of an upsurge in radiation levels caused by the development of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy – hence “Children of the Atom”, though that term was actually lifted from a 1953 book of the same name. However, it’s been clear for years that there have been mutants around on Marvel’s Earth for thousands of years, albeit perhaps in smaller numbers.

Repent talks in terms of Earth itself “attempt[ing] mutation as a viable evolutionary option”, which is a slightly odd way for a Catholic priest to frame it. The established Marvel history, to the extent that it matters, is that the human race were altered to gain the ability to become mutants by the Celestials.

The Darkborn. Repent says that this was a term used in the past for mutants who were persecuted as being demonically possessed. This is obviously a reference to the way in which various people, mostly women, were burned as witches in years gone by. An obvious difference here is that in the Marvel Universe, demonic possession is a real thing, so presumably a fair number of legitimate exorcisms also took place in the Iron Cathedral. Of course, this is hardly the only way in which the mutant metaphor gets a bit complicated when you look too closely.

Repent‘s mutant power is to transmute any liquid into holy water. This is one of those staggeringly convenient mutant powers that’s very hard to rationalise in terms of random mutation, but hey, he was possessed by a demon from birth – who knows how that’s affected him.

Rogue can use her powers to absorb the demon that’s possessing Gambit. Whether she’s literally draining it out of him or just weakening it by copying its abilities is hard to say, but either way it seems to weaken Gambit long enough for her to separate him from the Eye of Agamotto.

PAGES 15-19. Gunther’s compound is destroyed.

Tobe. He’s one of the two guards that Jubilee spoke to at the front gate last issue.

Word of Strength. Quicksilver seems struck mostly by the banality of the whole thing. He sees this simply as the torture of children for profit. That’s essentially how it’s played throughout this issue. However, we were specifically told last issue that this compound was associated with the Word of Strength cult from issues #20-21. That doesn’t get mentioned at all in this issue.

Nightcrawler mentions a “wealthy audience … attempting to flee”; presumably these were the vague figures in the balcony behind Calamity in the previous issue, though there was nothing to indicate that they weren’t cultists of some sort. The New Mutants stop them escaping, and they do seem to get carted away by the police on the next page.

Howler. We saw last issue that he had left Haven House to go after the X-Men. He takes the opportunity to kill Gunther and his driver. Everyone seems to regard this as pretty reasonable given what’s happened to him.

PAGE 20. The police arrive.

The New Orleans authorities are not particularly anti-mutant and are relatively pro X-Men after they fought the aliens in issues #30-32. One might assume that they don’t have any sympathy for Gunther’s compound anyway. They seem very willing to turn a blind eye to everything.

“You already done a stretch for our kind, M.” When she was undercover as a prisoner in Graymalkin.

PAGE 21.Gambit recovers.

Gambit now has an X-shaped cut in his chest – presumably this is what Gabriel meant by telling Rogue to “cut your symbol into his flesh”.

The Eye of Agamotto is taken into Gabriel’s care, and apparently Gambit is indeed completely free of the demon now, though Repent warns that the psychological impact will take longer to heal.