The good news: Juggernaut returns, and he’s always good for a laugh.
The bad news: Roy Thomas and Werner Roth are still in charge.
Charles Xavier has, unbeknownst to his students, basically been keeping his brother Cain Marko locked up in a dungeon in an effort to remove the power and hold of Cyttorak gem that made him be Juggernaut. I’m sure you guess how this ends, right?
Yes, Juggy escapes and fights the X-Men, beats them, then loses to them.
Along the way, we learn that a being called Xorax actually lives inside the Cttorak Gem, banished there by The Ancient One. So, we get a Dr. Strange cameo.
Anyway, they travel into the Gem and fight Xorax, who throws cinnamon rolls at them.
Marvel Girl tries to stop him, but it’s so hard.
That’s what she said.
The battle ends with Cain Marko, along with his manifestation of Cyttorak power, being sent away to the Crimson Dimension.
And then Professor X gets kidnapped by “Factor Three,” a band of villains who have been showing up in the background since issue #26. We will later learn it’s really just a loose collection of X-villains like Changeling, Blob, Unus, Vanisher, and Mastermind–and they still don’t appear in this issue, either.
But don’t call it a cliffhanger. Professor X will stay kidnapped for a while, and we get some filler issues next.
I completely understand why X-Men was ultimately cancelled.