X-Men (2nd series) #7

Issue Date: 
April 1992
Story Title: 
Inside ... Out !
Staff: 

Jim Lee (plotter, penciler) Scott Lobdell (writer), Art Thibert (penciler, inker), Tom Orzechowski (letters), Joe Rosas (colors), Bob Harras (editor), Tom DeFalco (editor in chief)

Brief Description: 

Sabretooth is carrying Maverick to a holding facility and mysteriously keeps repeating the same sentence over and over again. In the labs, Dr. Cornelius and Matsu‘o Tsurayaba are monitoring Wolverine as they try to read his past memories again. Matsu‘o Tsurayaba gets mad and accuses the doctor of not going fast enough and the Cornelius explains that too fast of a memory extraction could kill Wolverine. Tsurayaba doesn’t care and forces him to speed the extraction up. Wolverine remembers the past when he placed the C-Synthesizer in Janice’s lifeless body to hide it from the rest of Team X. Matsu‘o now knows where the synthesizer is and commands Dr. Cornelius to kill Wolverine. As Wolverine screams Psylocke stops her ruse of being under Tsurayaba‘s influence and attacks Omega Red and Tsurayaba. Elsewhere Maverick hears the commotion and breaks free of his captors. Turns out that Sabretooth was under Psylocke’s mental hold the whole time. Maverick and Sabretooth reach the X-men’s prison and they try to free them, but as Psylocke gets defeated. Sabretooth becomes himself again and fights Maverick. Luckily Beast breaks free releasing Jubilee in the process and she blinds Sabretooth with her powers. The escaping X-men get to Logan and Psylocke in time, as they are being torn apart by Omega Red. Together they defeat Matsu‘o Tsurayaba, Omega Red, and Fenris and escape in the Blackbird as the base explodes. They go to the German Embassy where Maverick and the X-Men part ways. Wolverine has some unfinished business though and next we see the Hand trying to dig up Janice’s body, but Wolverine was waiting for them and attacks them saving the C-Synthesizer and giving it to Maverick. In the Mojoverse, Dazzler witnesses both Lila Cheney and Longshot getting captured by Mojo, she decides that she needs help to battle him.

Full Summary: 

Wolverine has been recaptured by Sabretooth and is brought to and put back in restraints in Fenris’ lab. Dr. Cornelius says that he is putting a lot of strain on Wolverine’s “already fragile psyche” and Matsu‘o Tsurayaba tells him to proceed anyway. Wolverine say’s that it would be easier if someone just asked him a question instead of putting him through all that torture. Omega Red asks him, then where is the C-Synthesizer him and his group had stolen from him thirty years ago? Wolverine says he does not know but thanks for asking anyway. Omega Red gets mad and says he would rather rip the information from Wolverine’s skull than wait for the doctor’s machine to figure it out. Matsu‘o tells Dr. Cornelius to continue and the doctor says that Wolverine will probably not survive the memory extraction process much longer.
(flashbacks, about thirty years ago)

Team X was standing on the rooftop of the lab where Omega Red was being created and they knew that the scientists were fixing to perfect the art of making their own version of the super soldier. Creed told Logan to grab the C-Synthesizer and for Maverick to find Janice (the double agent) and he would give Omega Red a good birthday present.
(present)

Sabretooth and members of the Hand are taking Maverick to a containment area. While they are on their way the Hand members comment on Sabretooth’s only thing he has said since he captured Wolverine and Maverick was: “Nobody told me the kid was out o’ sorts. Practically keeled over before I got the chance to bruise him.” While on the last scene we see Maverick still awake and smiling.
(present / flashbacks simultaneously)

Matsu‘o Tsurayaba is watching Wolverine’s memories through a special helmet and tells Cornelius that he needs to speed up Wolverine’s memories. Dr. Cornelius tries to reason with them but Andrea Strucker hits him and tells him if he does not do it he will regret ever meeting them. So reluctantly Cornelius increases the speed causing Wolverine to see the point in his past after Team X had fallen the ten stories to the ground, when Wolverine placed the C-Synthesizer in Janice’s dead body telling her he had one last assignment for her. Matsu‘o Tsurayaba realizes where the C-Synthesizer is and tells Dr. Cornelius to kill Wolverine, that he is not needed any longer.
(present)

Dr. Cornelius remembers to himself that it was him and a handful of other scientists who at one time had killed the mutant named Logan and replaced him with a killing machine named Wolverine so in his mind killing Wolverine was helping him and not hurting him. The doctor raises the speed of Wolverine’s memory extraction and as Wolverine screams, Psylocke stops her ruse of still being under Tsurayaba’s control and attacks Omega Red and Matsu‘o Tsurayaba. Omega Red grabs her with his tentacles and thinks he releases his death spoors but Psylocke had really used her telepathy to only make him think he had done it. Psylocke then breaks free and pierces one of her swords though Omega Red’s left lung. Dr. Cornelius sets off the alarm alerting the other Hand members.
Hearing the sirens, Maverick knows that he doesn’t have to play like he was passed out any longer. He knocks the guards off balance allowing him enough time to pull out his gun and kill one of the guards and scare the other one into telling him where they were keeping the rest of the X-Men, then he shoots the other guard members. Maverick asks Sabretooth if he is still under Psylocke’s mental powers and he says reluctantly yes, then they both head off to find the rest of the X-Men.
Back in the lab Psylocke puts her psi-knife through Andrea Strucker’s head and offers everyone the chance to surrender. Andreas Strucker of course says never and Omega Red takes Psylocke’s attention away long enough for Matsu‘o Tsurayaba to sneak up on her and take her out of the fight.
Sabretooth and Maverick run into the X-Men’s holding cell and Cyclops comments that he thought the rescue team would be comprised of at least one X-Men. Maverick explains that Sabretooth is under Psylocke’s control, while he is trying to figure out how to open the Beast’s restraints. Meanwhile Psylocke loses control of herself and passes out, she also loses her connection with Sabretooth and he becomes free and attacks Maverick. Luckily Beast‘s leg restraints are loose and he smashes Jubilee’s arm restraints and tells her to blind Sabretooth, which she does.
Matsu‘o stands over Psylocke and says that now that the last bit of resistance is out of their way they can go find the C-Synthesizer for Omega Red. Wolverine who has gained some of his strength back by now breaks free of his restraints and attacks Omega Red. Omega Red gets the upper hand and comments on how the only way it would be better is if Sabretooth was there to share Wolverine’s fate. Sabretooth is then blasted through the wall by one of Cyclops’ optic blasts near Omega Red, and Wolverine tells Omega Red that “this must be your lucky day then.” Looking for Psylocke, Cyclops finds her and takes out Matsu‘o Tsurayaba who was standing above her. Gambit takes out Andreas von Strucker and Rogue takes on Omega Red saying how he can not release his death spoors in so close a proximity to Dr. Cornelius and Matsu‘o Tsurayaba, who he is in between. An explosion knocks Rogue away from Omega Red and Maverick says the best thing to do is retreat because there are to many chemicals in the building ready to explode. Beast summons the Blackbird and the X-Men, plus Maverick escape from the exploding building. Cyclops thanks Maverick for his help and Maverick says “no problem” although (he thinks to himself) if they knew why he was there they would “be significantly less appreciative.”
In the Mojoverse, the rebels have been fighting Mojo and most of them have lost their lives. Mojo holds Longshot by the hair with Lila Cheney passed out by Mojo’s feet. From her hiding place, Dazzler is watching all the events transpiring and says that if the rebel army lost with only two rusty X-Men leading them let’s see if they can match an army of X-Men, as Meek transports Dazzler away.
Somewhat later, at the German Embassy in Berlin, Maverick tells the rest of the X-Men to not mention his mission to anyone and he wouldn’t reveal their whereabouts to anyone. Wolverine decides to leave the X-Men for a short time and settle some old scores by himself. Cyclops tries to talk Wolverine out of going in his condition but in the end he just tells him if Wolverine needs help his family, the X-Men, would be there for him then Wolverine leaves and Maverick secretly follows him.
Later that evening Dr. Cornelius and Matsu‘o Tsurayaba are watching members of the Hand dig up Janice’s grave to find the C-Synthesizer. Wolverine comes busting out of the coffin taking the Hand members out and slicing Matsu‘o Tsurayaba’s chest open. Dr. Cornelius asks for Wolverine’s forgiveness as he is holding a gun to Wolverine’s head and as Matsu‘o Tsurayaba is running away. Wolverine says that he is forgiven and from the shadows Maverick shoots Dr. Cornelius in the head killing him. Wolverine says that Maverick did not have to kill him, then he throws Maverick the C-Synthesizer. Maverick starts to thank Wolverine and when he turns around Wolverine is gone.

Characters Involved: 

Beast, Cyclops, Gambit, Jubilee, Psylocke, Rogue, Wolverine (all X-Men)

Dazzler, Longshot (former X-Men)

Lila Cheney

Maverick
Sabretooth

Omega Red

Matsu‘o Tsurayaba

Fenris

The Hand

Dr. Cornelius

Mojo

Major Domo

Meek
In flashbacks:

Creed, Logan, Maverick (all Team X)

Janice Hollenbeck

Omega Red

Story Notes: 

This is the first appearance of Meek, a mutant from the Mojoverse that has the ability to transport / teleport. He appears in this issue as an ally but in X-Men (2nd series) #10 he will betray the rebellion for Mojo.

Issue Information: 

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