Jeffries gets his face smashed in Uncanny X-Men #536

Uncanny X-Men #536
Jun 2011

A new arc that started last issue called Breaking Point continues with part 2 as the Breakworld aliens last seen in Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men return to seek refuge on Earth. Cyclops welcomes them to Utopia, of course, seemingly unbothered by the fact that these genocidal maniacs tried to kill us all by destroying the entire planet with a gigantic bullet. At the time, Kitty Pryde phased the bullet and seemingly sacrificed her own life to save the Earth as it passed through our planet harmelssly, sending her out into deep space, resulting in an insanity-inducing horror of lonely long-term imprisonment inside the bullet and a possibly permanent phased state. In Uncanny X-Men #’s 521 and 522, Magneto pulled the bullet back to Earth, rescuing her. In this issue, Mister Jeffries appears as a regular member of the X-Men Science Team, having joined up in issue #505.

You’d think Magneto, a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, would have the fiercest reaction to the very presence of these genocidal maniacs, but instead starts asking the genocidal maniacs about the unusual properties of the Breakworld metal – a fragment from the actual bullet itself that was used to try to kill our entire species! I can understand how Magneto could be highly interested in metallurgy, but just can’t swallow how readily he associates with Kruun, the former leader of Breakworld (and the one who sent the bullet to kill us all), to delve into the scientific mysteries of the metal without any sense of apprehension. Kruun performs a quick demonstration, then sends Magneto out of the science lab to gather more mass of the bullet. Jeffries makes the mistake of turning his back on the genocidal maniac.

Jeffries is drawn very similarly to how he was drawn in Uncanny X-Men Annual #3, with goggles and a well-stocked tool belt. Of course, someone with Jeffries mutant powers to transform metal and other materials into machinery has no need for a tool belt. It’s particularly unusual for the Dodsons to draw him that way, as the Dodsons have drawn Jeffries plenty of times and never had these elements. When Nicholas Bradshaw drew him with a tool belt in Uncanny X-Men Annual #3, that was a fairly jokey issue with plenty of silliness all around so Alpha Flight Collector gave him a free pass, but the Dodsons ought to know better.

Well, as soon as Magneto leaves, Kruun smashes Jeffries’ face extremely hard into a nearby console, taking him out fairly easily, ties him up, gags him and tosses him into a storage closet, apparently depowering him with an injection of “the cure” some time off panel.

Mmmf!

Though it’s not exactly clear if he were injected or not, one doesn’t lock Jeffries in a machinery-filled storage closet with his powers intact, so it’s pretty safe to assume he was depowered.

Unlettered preview art from Uncanny X-Men #534.1 showed Jeffries in the lab with Magneto and Kruun.

Here is the panel from that issue, which was reprinted in this issue with a speech bubble obscuring part of Jeffries.

An inset from the panel in close up:

Tags: Madison Jeffries