I went through Uncanny X-Men #235 - 272 over the past week, Those issues cover the end of the "outback" era of the team, and paves the way for their eventual return to the status quo at Xavier's school.

The run is actually better than I remembered, if read in isolation. At the time, I was annoyed that so many sub-lots had been left dangling after the game-changing Morlock Massacre; not so much that we didn't get a resolution for them, but that it was as if they had never existed in the first place. It would have been enough to have Storm or Logan say, once in a while, "gee, I wish Kitty and Kurt are getting better after we left them in critical condition way back when", but they were never even mentioned.

The first major arc in that run introduces the island nation of Genosha, and what an excellent concept that was! In its first iteration, Genosha was a comic-booky version of South Africa, with mutants being exploited. We get to see how the "the end justifies the means" mentality can lead to a societal nightmare, in that while regular Genoshans enjoy a standard of living comparable to that of Singapore, it is only thanks to the slave labour of mutants... mutants who are not only used as biological machines and denied any human rights, but also often deprived of their identity, memory and personality. I loved how this horrible reality didn't stop other "freedom-loving" countries to still be pals with Genosha, as it is a precious ally on the international scene. Great combination of infuriating politics and super-hero action!

Then we segue into one of those terrible cross-over events that usually mean we lose several issues to pointless action and the equally pointless sacrifice of major characters so that the event will be "relevant". Here the event is "Inferno", a bloated storyline devoid of real drama that results in both Illyana Rasputin and Madelyne Pryor dying. Because clearly, a Marvel universe without Illyana and Madelyne is more interesting than with them. Or something. And don't get me started on how the character assassination of Madelyne is supposed to make the X-Factor fisaco all better...

We follow with a pair of humorous issues (one capably drawn by Rob Liefeld, a parody of DC's own Invasion crossover) and move on to the dismantling of the team that replaced the New X-Men after issue #211. Said dismantling makes use of an ad hoc Deus ex machina (so much latin!) plot device, the Siege Perilous, which is a jewel capable of removing a character from a comic and bringing them back in whatever form the writer decides a bit later. (That's not the way it's described in the comic, but that's how it works). The first ones to suffer its effects are Rogue and the villainous Master Mold (the top sentinel, dontcha know) and the villain-slowly-turning-into-a-hero Nimrod. In the case of the latter it was an absolute pity, as the evolution of Nimrod had been something pretty rare and interesting. Nimrod was a sentinel from the future, sent back in time to kill Sara Connor to catch Rachel Grey, who was alas unavailable. Nimrod had assumed a human idendity (he can shape-change convincingly) and his advanced A.I. had begun to develop a conscience; to the point that he had decided his original programming, leading him to hunt mutants, was ridiculous. He had even begun to fight local crime to protect society. If a character from that period was to have been preserved, I would have chosen that one. (He'd eventually come back, I believe, as the evil Bastion... but that was long after I had stopped reading).

Next we lose Storm, who's thought dead bu was actually captured by that annoying villain Nanny. I hate Nanny. If a character from that period was NOT to have been preserved, I would have killed that one. (Or the Shadow King. But let's not anticipate).

After that we visit the Savage Land again, where Zaladane is once more causing trouble and where we learn that she's supposed to be Lorna Dane's sister. I kid you not. Zaladane, Lorna Dane... they must be related! The only worse name-based revelation I can think of would be if Galactus wanted to eat the Earth because he needed galactose.

Zaladane uses one of those magical devices that "steal" superpowers to gain Polaris's magnetic power, and somehow that causes Lorna to become a She-Hulk and lose her Malice persona. As Ryan Goerge would say, "a very convenient power-changing machine".

Fed up with facing villains that always come back and noticing that the villainous Reavers have reoccupied their HQ, Havok, Psylocke and Dazzler get the Siege Perilous treatment. Longshot had quit on his own previously, and Wolverine was away on business, so that's that for this iteration of the X-Men. Leaving Logan a note would have been nice, though, because as he returns to the outback HQ he's captured by the Reavers and tortured to within an inch of his life. Even the reference to Savage Sword of Conan #5 (Logan nailed to an X-shaped cross) doesn't make this appear less gratuitous. It's a superhero comic, for crying out loud! Even a code-approved one!

A very badly hurt Wolvie is saved by the new character Jubilee, and then we partly reset the book again! Issue #253 brings back Magneto, Banshee, Forge, Moira McTaggart, Mystique, and all the things that had been put on old three years earlier. 1989 me was quite happy by this turn of events, even if it meant killing off more characters (Destiny and Stonewall. Well, I didn't mind Stonewall dying; he was a new arrival, and just the kind of dude you can kill off for dramatic impact without having to revive him later).

Sound the trumpets, that's about the time Jim Lee showed up on the book, for a trilogy that's part of the "acts of vengeance' crossover. In hindsight, I find Lee's art from that era to be rife with posing, aged aesthetics and impossible anatomy... but there's no denying its dynamism. He definitely had a huge positive impact on the book's popularity when he became the regular artist. Oh, and Psylocke shows up again. The Siege Perilous robbed her of her memory, and the Hand changes her into a ninja overnight (complete with Asian physiognomy). Now I'm no strategist, but it seems to me that if the Hand can produce ninjas that easily, magically, they shouldn't waste their time training kids. But maybe they're like the Jedi... when the plot demands it, you must start training when you're a fetus; if the plot doesn't, a three days crash course is enough. Oh, and no mention of what happened with Psylocke's bionic eyes, the ones given her by Mojo, and which caused her to act as a camera for his other-dimensional media empire. That's a subplot that was abandoned pretty early! Anyway, good trio of issues here. 

Next we learn that Colossus has returned as an amnesiac too, and is now a famous New York painter named Peter Nicholas. He helps two people from Genosha and falls in love with Callisto, the erstwhile Morlock leader, that the villainous Masque (who can mold bodies like clay) is "tormenting" by making her a top model. After that we get a focus on Dazzler, which as an X-Men fan doubtlessly annoyed me, even if this is actually a pretty decent Dazzler issue. (Dazzler also reappeared without her memory at the doorstep of her old boss, rock singer and cosmic teleporter Lila Cheney. Don't they say that what distinguished Marvel comics from the other is how relatable they were?)

Issue #261 is artist Dan Silvestri's last (I think he'd move on to Wolverine) and as a story it's pretty underwhelming. It seems to be a spotlight for a new GI-Joe like team, the Harriers, who are a collection of 1980s action movie stereotypes. It's unfortunate that Dan leaves as that precisely moment, because the book was bi-weekly over the summer, and so we get a lot of fill-in artists who must work very quickly on a pretty bad plot. Remember how Masque had turned Callisto into a top-model? Well, now Masque has decided to turn the surviving Morlocks into grotesque abominations and he decides to do the same to whichever X-Men he might lay his hands on, in this case Jean Grey and Banshee. Fear not, gentle readers: Forge is there to save the day, as he has kept "a sample of everyone's genetic material" which he uses to give the heroes their original form back. That is clearly science used as another word for "magic".

We still must bring back Storm, who's been turned into a child by Nanny. She meets this new kewwwwl dude, Gambit, who honestly had some potential at first but was eventually squandered as a character. I had forgotten that was of his powers was his quasi-hypnotic ability to be charming; was that used in later years? Storm and Gambit must face a returned Ahmal Farouk, the Egyptian telepath that Xavier had killed in X-Men #115 and who had been killed again in The New Mutants. Can't keep a nasty villain down, so he's back... possessing people, and (this being a Christ Claremont book), corrupting them body and soul and having them dress in bondage outfits. Farouk would start calling himself the Shadow King.

The only character left to reintroduce is Rogue, who doesn't lose her memory. She reappears buck naked at the Reavers' HQ, deprived of Carol Danvers powers and memories. Carol has apparently regained her own existence, but it's not clear whether this is Carol's actual body reunited with her psyche or a doppelgänger. I'd opt for the latter, but anyway it's academic; as both women were going to die if kept separated, Magneto (yes, Magneto! convoluted plot twist, here) fuses them back into Rogue.

We conclude this run with three issues that are part of yet another crossover, the X-tinction Agenda, in which Cameron Hodge shows up in Genosha to cause trouble for the X-people. Cameron Hodge! Heck, there's another villain I never want to see again! Especially since he was merged with demonic alien shape-shifting technology from limbo! I really can't stand these bad guys who have next to no personality except being evil, and who for some reason can never be destroyed despite never managing to be more than temporary problems. Oh, and I had forgotten about Havok (Havok never gets any respect, does he?) The Siege Perilous brought him back as one of Genosha's super-powered mutant Gestapo. This crossover would needlessly kill off Warlock (the robotic one) and change Rahne Sinclair into a permanent werewolf. Definitely not a good crossover.

What strikes me reading this whole batch in one go is how the earliest issues (the outback ones) hold better on their own than the latter, despite Jim Lee's art. I know that's not the way I felt back then, but in hindsight those issues were less self-referential. The X-tinction Agenda in particular is incomprehensible if you don't read every issue and if you don't have an extensive knowledge of everything that happed in the X-books over the past few years; and even then, it's not even enjoyable.

John Buscema takes over the penciling duties with Fantastic Four #107, and it seems like he's making a concerted effort to draw Kirby faces (or perhaps it's Sinnott trying to keep the look of the book consistent.) Issues #107-109 are built around a Kirby story that Stan had rejected for unknown reasons. Kirby's pencils are reworked into a flashback story in issue #108 with Romita and Buscema working on the framing sequences. It's a bit of a mess, as you can imagine. The original story was later published as Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure in 2008. Naturally, there are folks who are skeptical about Marvel using a Kirby inventory story just as New Gods was about to debut, but personally, I'm more skeptical of whether Stan had any original ideas up his sleeve. I doubt very much that Big John Buscema is going to produce stories on the level that Kirby did. Buscema does a terrific job of penciling the action sequences, and his women look just as attractive as Romita's, but aside from some of the work he did on Conan, I don't think Buscema has a tremendous reputation as a plotter. Stan is well aware that the story's a mess, as he keeps adding captions apologizing to the readers about how confusing the story is. It's interesting that after the short-lived policy of one and done stories that Lee is stretching this out over three issues. That lends weight to my theory that Stan was struggling for ideas. Jack's original story was a one issue deal and pretty forgettable by Kirby standards. In fact, it's fairly typical of late period Kirby Fantastic Four. Jack was clearly saving his best ideas for the Fourth World. Sometimes I imagine how incredible it would have been if those characters had been part of the Marvel Universe, but I digress.

Ben can now change into the Thing at will, which leads to disturbing panels where he's midway through the transition and becomes the Thing with Ben Grimm's hair. It's making him act like a jerk, though. Johnny suddenly remembers that Crystal has left and is tormented. Reed is a complete asshole to Sue and goes on a sexist rant that's pretty common during the Stan Lee years. Sue mentions how strangely everyone is behaving lately, but it's not clear whether it's a plotline. It's kind of weird that Reed and Sue leave their son with creepy Agatha Harkness. Lee is struggling with how to write Sue as a mother. She gets left behind to fret when the boys go off on an adventure in the Negative Zone and loses her shit when Harkness scolds her for skipping her visit with Franklin. I thought this was the reason Crystal replaced Sue in the team in the first place? Sue as damsel in distress is tough reading these days. Annihilus gets shoehorned into the plot, but that's okay as I suspect he scared the crap out of most children.

These issues aren't terrible, they're just messy. This isn't going as well as Spider-Man post Ditko, that's for sure. 

Re-reading the Justice Society stories from the 70s All-Star Comics and Adventure Comics series. Like catching up with old friends I haven't seen in awhile.

This may smack of hearsay, but fwiw:
Some years ago, a long-time contributor on one of the Silver Age listservs I'm part of said he'd spoken with people who knew/worked with Bridwell and that Bridwell told them (separately) who Mockingbird was during that original 1968 series, and also told them of the big clue that appeared in issue #1.  I'll put it in spoiler brackets, proceed at your own risk   

that's pretty interesting Farrar!  I can see it!

I did a cursory google search, and I found a snippet from an interview where  Bridwell said Pasko's reveal was not who HE intended, but it didn't say who it was.