Paneling: Uncanny X-Men #194

New feature!

Some posts on Bluesky about individual panels in comics got me to thinking about panels that have stuck with me throughout the years. I decided it might be fun – mileage will vary on that – to occasionally take a look at some of those panels and explore what it is about them that entitled them to free rent in my head.

The idea for this was inspired by a post from Comics Outta Context that featured this panel:

I was just thinking about that panel and its misaligned word balloon the other day, which is something that I’ve done periodically in the 45 years or so since I first encountered it.

Even as a kid I was able to figure out that the “What in–?” was meant to be uttered by the gunman, but the idea of Batman being so surprised by his own actions that he felt the need to question them out loud has always made me laugh.

And so that panel has lived on in my memory for decades and will likely continue to do so until the dementia kicks in.

…fully.

However, that’s not the panel I want to discuss.

Instead, I want to look at a panel from Uncanny X-Men #194

Specifically, I want to talk about the second-to-last panel on page 18 of this issue.

Earlier in the weekend, this panel came to mind thanks to a prompt post in which people were asked to post the best panel of X-Men they could think of in that moment.

(Many people chose to stretch the definition of “panel” or just ignore that part completely.)

This was the panel that popped into my head in that moment.

Unlike the Bluesky account that inspired this post, I will provide some context.

Upon receiving news that their old adversary Juggernaut is back in town, members of the X-Men head into the city to keep an eye on him.

However, while they’re tailing him Nimrod, an advanced mutant-hunting robot from the future, makes an appearance, and launches an attack on Juggernaut as well as on Kitty Pryde and Rachel Summers who are near Juggernaut.

Kitty and Rachel escape, Juggernaut and Nimrod do battle, and the other X-Men soon join in.

After a failed attempt at using her phasing ability to disrupt what she initially thinks is Nimrod’s Iron Man-esque power armor – not realizing he’s a robot – Kitty is stunned and unable to speak and barely able to move and is rescued by her teammate Rogue.

However, she’s come up with a plan for defeating Nimrod which she needs to communicate to Rogue, and so as we see in the panel above, she does the only thing she can do.

Rogue’s mutant ability allows her to temporarily – permanently, if the contact goes on too long – absorb the abilities of anyone with whom she comes into skin-on-skin contact. She has no control over it, so it happens whether she wills it or not.

However, in addition to absorbing abilities, she also absorbs a person’s thoughts and memories.

Thus, by touching her forehead against Rogue’s cheek, Kitty grants Rogue her phasing ability and access to her thoughts, which includes her plan for defeating Nimrod.

It’s a great panel because of the cleverness of the idea, but there’s more to it than that.

Prior to joining the X-Men, Rogue was a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, sworn enemies of the X-Men. Sometime earlier, Rogue had attacked the hero known as Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), permanently absorbing her powers (as well as her memories).

Eventually, unable to deal with the mental strain of essentially being two people in one body, Rogue turned to the X-Men for help, and, by this point, had been working hard to prove that she was now on the side of the angels as her teammate Wolverine might put it.

Speaking of Wolverine, he was the first member of the team to really give Rogue a chance and to accept that she truly was seeking redemption.

At this point, Kitty, who is hardheaded, disinclined towards forgiveness, and clings tightly to grudges, is not aligned with Wolverine and is still very much not Team Rogue.

That’s what makes this panel so great to me. Kitty has to put aside her distrust and dislike of Rogue and be as vulnerable as it’s possible to be with her, sharing her every thought, every fear, every dream, her deepest desires and fondest wishes with a person she despises.

Yet she does it without hesitation, because it’s what needs to be done in that moment, which speaks to Kitty’s heroism, and to a wisdom that belies her years.

For her part, Rogue has to deal with this sudden flood of thoughts and feelings and has to become fully aware of exactly what the girl whose life she just saved really thinks about her, has to see herself through the eyes of someone who hates her, has to try to separate her mind – and the mind of Carol Danvers – from Kitty’s and has to extricate her own self-loathing from Kitty’s loathing of her.

Rogue then goes on to execute Kitty’s plan flawlessly, forcing Nimrod to exercise the better part of valor, and saving Juggernaut’s life in the process, proving, yet again, that she does deserve the trust that her teammates – especially Kitty – have, however reluctantly, placed in her.

Anyway, there’s just a lot going on in that panel, and it’s why it’s been stuck in my head for 40 years and why it popped up like a turkey thermometer in response to the prompt. It’s such a simple panel, but it reveals so much about the two characters in that moment, and it’s a great choice for this new feature.

How often will this new feature be, er, featured? Impossible to say. I would guess that it will be infrequent, with new installments appearing whenever something brings a specific panel to mind and I feel like talk about it.

But that does it for this first entry. Check back often for a new installment and for all of the regular features.

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