Just a little speculation about Brian Michal Bendis and Chris Bachalo's Uncanny X-Men #31...
Before the spoilers, a general observation: I've been enjoying Bendis' X-Men books tremendously since he launched them following the Avengers vs. X-Men event. His talent at writing character moments and witty banter serves this property well, especially with the each of the two books focusing on a younger subset of the group (the Original Five in New X-Men and the new students in Uncanny X-Men). While I think he overstayed his welcome a bit on Avengers, he seems to leaving X-Men on a high note, for that I salute him (along with his uncanny artistic collaborators).
OK, spoiler time...
In this issue, time-traveling mutant Eva Bell brings a young Professor Xavier back from the past to see the consequences of his actions: trying to suppress a nearly omnipotent mutant, Matthew Malloy, who, after Xavier died, was relinquished, losing control of his powers and killing numerous humans and mutants, including Cyclops, Emma Frost, and even ones people would miss. (I kid, I kid.)
Seeing no way to restrain the runaway mutant, Eva takes Xavier ever farther into the past to stop Matthew's parents from meeting, effectively preventing the entire incident from happening. Eva returns the young Xavier to his original time, where he promises to wipe his memory of everything he knows about his future. Eva returns to our time as the only person alive who remembers Matthew's rampage—until she tells Cyclops, who just doesn't feel bad enough about his life right now.
Does this sound a little familiar? Think, McFly, think!
My son loves Back to the Future like I love bacon, and as a result, I've seen it more times than I can count. We all know how the film ends: Marty tries to leave a note for Doc Brown in 1955, letting him know that he will be shot in 1985, so he can take action to prevent it. Doc rips up the letter, pleading to Marty that it's dangerous to know your future, so when Marty returns to 1985 and sees Doc gunned down by Libyan terrorists, he's afraid his mentor is dead. Of course, after the terrorists leave, Doc sits up, reveals his bullet-proof vest, and takes out the letter, taped together from the tiny fragments. It's a great YOLO moment for the entire family.
Now back to Bendis and the X-Men... Xavier said he would wipe his mind of the knowledge of his death at the hands of his protege, Cyclops. But what if he didn't, and he actually took some steps before his death to save his life, such as transferring his consciousness elsewhere at the last minute?
I think this would be a brilliant way for Bendis to bring Xavier back before he leaves the X-Men titles and make good use of all the headache-inducing time-travel shenanigans. Of course, it might retcon the Axis storyline out of existence... which would just be icing on the cake.
So, what do you think?
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