"Helmet."

AoA Jean alludes to the continuity/timeline changes, because like we mentioned there have been a few; but we're referencing a load-bearing piece of mainline Rogue's continuity, ROM #32! In the midst of a battle between the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (or the girl members, Mystique, Destiny, and Rogue!) and the monstrous Hybrid, Rogue had touched Rom, and seen his inner goodness. That changed her: Rogue had previously been kinda mean, and pretty obedient to Mystique; but it's a straight line from her touching Rom to becoming an X-Man. (By the way, we made a subtle change on the AoA Rogue figure for this one!) Read more!

"Events."

The Age of Apocalypse Forge appeared in X-Man, and died there: Jean encountered Nate Grey later and would've picked that up since he had been a father-figure to him. 

We might have to check out Immortal X-Men #7 one of these days; since it features Nightcrawler abusing the hell out of the Krakoan-reincarnation system. Think playing a video game and just plunking in quarter after quarter every time you die...with two rolls of quarters and a lot of determination.

I also think I might have backpedaled on an earlier notion, that someone would need to find another person from the Age of Apocalypse to scan for a return trip there; but Kurt indicates after going back and forth Zero would probably be able to do it again. 

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"Face."

We're extrapolating a bit, from something I remember from the Earth X/Universe X/Paradise X books: despite there being an infinity of alternate universes, there was maybe only one Hell, and Mephisto was maybe behind the proliferation of alternate universes, in the hopes of finding one where he escaped judgement. The idea of Rom's Limbo being the same across the multiverse was horrifying: imagine every Dire Wraith across the multiverse, dumped into the same hole. Is that a little much; do even the Wraiths deserve that? Forever, with no chance of escape or release? Having spent hundreds of years fighting them, Rom might say they have it coming. (I need to do that re-read, since Rom does make an appearance in those books; Cap gets the neutralizer from him!) 

 We've also hopefully established, Magneto does not seem to care for Rom; and we'll see why later: it's an in-continuity answer, or at least related to continuity?

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"Paranoid."

So, if the Age of Apocalypse didn't have the Fantastic Four (with powers, anyway) did a lot of things from the first 50 or so issues of their book just not show up there? Presumably Namor once again died a bum in the bowery, but would the Skrulls have turned up? Or was Apocalypse more a deterrent than we'd maybe care to admit? Read more!

Try to imagine meeting your mom for the first time, and she's wearing those pants. Unavoidable psychic damage!

I know I read X-Man from like the fifth issue, though at least #26, but I don't think I still have most of those, and a lot of the details are pretty vague. Still, it's way longer than I ever read Cable! From 1997, Cable #44, "Temptation in the Wilderness" Written by James Robinson, pencils by Randy Green and Allen Im, inks by Scott Hanna and Scott Koblish. 

In what appears to be a musty dungeon, in a hanging cage, Nathan Summers finally comes face to face with Madelyne Pryor, his mother. Who was wearing a slightly more modest version of her Inferno outfit! Those low-rise pants maybe aren't helping...They were on the astral plane, but at Mister Sinister's old lab: Madelyne had entered Nathan's mind while he was meditating, to introduce herself, and show him her life. She also got to Nathan just before Jean Grey could warn him, that Maddy had somehow returned as a "psychic ghost," in a really tiny editorial footnote, in X-Man #25, although she had been back since X-Man #5. There had been at least one other writer on that title since then, though; #25 might've just been the reveal of 'how.'

Anyhow, Madelyne takes Nathan on a magical mystery tour, of her depressing origin and life. She also tricks Nathan into fighting an imaginary monster at Sinister's lab, just to see how far he would go to protect her. They walk and talk for two pages that are positively Claremont-esque, in that the letterer (Richard Starkings and Comicraft!) deserves combat pay: I'm only scanning part of one of those pages, because I know you probably have other things to do today. Nathan tells Madelyne, while she had a rough start, that doesn't excuse the pain she caused, and he can't feel pity for her. She changes to a slightly more demure, winter outfit; to show Nathan where she was happiest: in Alaska, the brief window of a "normal" life between Uncanny X-Men #201 and X-Factor #1. (Maybe a month between those issues actually hitting stands? Really?)

Next, a visit to New York City, which they both hate: Nathan thinks of it as Babel, "...where no one takes the time to listen and understand." Maddy's just mad she died there, and Nathan points out, wasn't she trying to sacrifice him when she died? Maddy claims that was a lie of the treacherous X-Men, and Nathan throws her off the building. Really, but it's just to transition to something he wants to show her: real evil, that of Apocalypse. Of course, even here Nathan is still Johnny Tightlips about his real goals, as he mentions "he is the one I am sworn to defeat. Perhaps not in the manner you might think, but it is still a task that requires all my attention." Ergo, no time for Ghost Mom: he doesn't consider Madelyne, as she was then, even 'real.' Madelyne comes back, if that was his real goal, why hadn't he done it yet? Why was Apocalypse still alive? A cold glower is his only response, and Maddy then pushes too far: they could take out Apocalypse, Sinister, and the X-Men. She calls mutants "evil" one too many times for Nathan's taste, and he remembers Jean raising him in the future, as his mother.

Madelyne asks if Nathan feels nothing for her, and he grudgingly admits he felt a moment of peace in Alaska; so that would be neutral territory for them, if they needed to meet. Still, he warns if she threatens innocent lives, including the X-Men, he would fight her; but Maddy still seems to take it as a win. Nathan wakes up, with Scott and Jean there for him; a moment that makes him feel like a little boy again, and he welcomes it. Probably should've ended the issue there, but nope! There's two pages with villain Ch'vayre, who...yeah, I got nothing. From the context, he had been sent from the future, to make sure Cable stuck to the right path, but seems to have decided to change tactics, and work with Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club. (I would've thought Shinobi Shaw would've still been in power then!)

I wonder if this is just because I reflexively oppose Cyclops nine times out of ten, but I'm still Team Maddy? And I kind of dig her new costume as well. I'm not positive where she went from here, but I'm glad she's around again. Also, I'm not sure how long he stuck around, but this was Robinson's first issue here: I feel like a lot of this was editorial-driven, but the Babel bit definitely feels like his. That might be the first time I've seen Cable explain anything, though.

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