Uncanny X-Men #12 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Message boards indeed!

OK, many, many thoughts.

First, I totally get what Storm's saying here.  In fact, I think that she's absolutely right that they were all so overjoyed by the presence of the original X-Men and by the remembrance of the way things were supposed to be that they let those emotions overrule their better judgment.  I also think that she's right that Kitty's attachment to the title of "Professor" comes from her grief over the loss of Professor X.  However, it doesn't mean that Kitty's wrong.  The X-Men's response to the kids not wanting to return -- physically attacking them rather than talking to them -- does represent the worse of the X-Men.  She's totally right that the way to handle the situation was to tell the future X-Men to go shock themselves, to use 2099 slang, and to sit down with the scared kids for a series of conversations about their future.  Instead, the X-Men threw in their lot with a bunch of alleged X-Men from the alleged future, despite original Jean's suspicions, and then hunt down original Jean and original Scott like dogs.  (You can see why Rachel, in particular, wasn't thrilled with that part.)  At this point, I really have to take off my hat to Bendis for telling such a nuanced tale that both Storm and Kitty can be right.  It's really scripting at its absolute finest.

Moreover, I similarly loved the opposing yet sensible positions that Emma takes here.  She thinks that Scott is acting too emotionally (understandably) to be able to make the right decision, to send back the kids.  However, it doesn't mean that she's going to let future Jean attack her younger self and force her into the past against her own will, particularly given that future Jean is hiding behind Xorn's mask.  In fact, future Jean's assault on herself raises all sorts of issues, making you wonder, of course, if it really is Jean and, similarly, why her first response is to use violence to get the kids to return to their past.  The answer is either it's not really Jean and the future X-Men aren't acting in the kids' best interest or it is really Jean and their future is just that horrible that they don't have the luxury of time.  Bendis continues to play his hand close to the vest on that front.  Either way, Emma clearly smells a rat and shines in confronting future Jean.  After all, Emma's probably the only person there whose emotions over seeing Jean alive aren't going to cloud her judgment (at least not in the direction of trusting her).

This event is starting to read like some sort of future business-school case about the ethics of space/time manipulation.  In that sense, I couldn't be happier.