The Uncanny X-Men #345
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeUncanny X-Men #345 is the first appearance of Maggott (Japheth), one of the most unconventional mutants Scott Lobdell and Joe Madureira ever designed — a blue-skinned South African X-Man whose sentient, exo-digestive slugs, Eany and Meany, gave 1990s body-horror aesthetics a distinctly political dimension rooted in Apartheid-era Africa. The issue also serves as the closing chapter of a Shi'ar space epic (the Phalanx war arc beginning in #341), pivoting the team's return to Earth while simultaneously opening two slow-burn threads — Gambit secretly brooding over his role in the Mutant Massacre, and Maggott mysteriously hunting Joseph — that would pay off in the landmark trial issue #350. As an artifact of Joe Madureira's celebrated manga-influenced run on the title, it represents the visual peak of the mid-1990s X-office's push to introduce radically strange new characters to diversify the team's roster beyond its classic lineup.
In "Moving On," the X-Men face their next trial just as they're returning home, their ship caught in the wreckage of a massive crash near a stargate—leaving them stranded and vulnerable. With Lilandra’s envoy Deathbird at their side and Maggott reemerging to protect a nun tied to Joseph’s past, the team is pulled into a mystery that follows them from the stars back to Earth. Written by Scott Lobdell and Ben Raab, with dynamic art by Joe Madureira and Melvin Rubi, and a striking cover by Joe Madureira and Mark Morales, this 1997 issue blends cosmic stakes with personal threads, all unfolding in a story that’s as much about what comes next as it is about what’s left behind.
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The issue was plotted by Scott Lobdell and scripted by Ben Raab, a division of labor common in the busy late-1990s X-Men editorial office under editor Bob Harras and associate editor Mark Powers. Joe Madureira — who was in the final stretch of his celebrated run on the series — drew the first fifteen pages, while Melvin Rubi handled the back half; the split-artist format reflects the production pressures of the era's bi-monthly X-Men output. According to the Marvel Database, Lobdell originally conceived Maggott as Australian rather than South African, and the Afrikaans slang that came to define the character was developed by subsequent writers working from Madureira's striking initial visual design, which emphasized a body-horror grotesqueness deliberate in its contrast to the decade's muscle-bound mutant norm.
Trivia · 7 facts
- First appearance of Maggott (real name Japheth), a Zulu mutant from South Africa whose exo-digestive system manifests as two semi-sentient slugs, Eany and Meany, that exit his body to consume matter and return nourishment to him.
- Created by writer Scott Lobdell and penciler Joe Madureira; the issue is plotted by Lobdell with script by Ben Raab, and the interior is split between Madureira (pages 1–15) and Melvin Rubi (pages 16–25), with Tim Townsend, Juan Vlasco, and Harry Candelario on inks.
- The cover is penciled by Joe Madureira and inked by Mark Morales; Bob Harras served as both editor and editor-in-chief.
- The Gambit subplot — in which Remy LeBeau secretly digs graves for fallen Shi'ar soldiers and privately agonizes over his alliance with Mr. Sinister and his role in the Mutant Massacre — directly foreshadows the revelations in Uncanny X-Men #350 (December 1997), the 'Trial of Gambit.'
- Professor X appears only in cameo; Deathbird is assigned by Lilandra to escort the X-Men back to Earth following the defeat of the Phalanx, ending the Shi'ar space arc that began in #341.
- This issue was later collected in the X-Men: The Trial of Gambit trade paperback (and its omnibus expansion), which gathers Uncanny X-Men #341–350 along with related tie-in series.
- The issue was reprinted internationally in De X-Mannen (Juniorpress, 1983 series) #182.
Cast · 11 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Gli Incredibili X-Men #94 (1998), X-Men [Χ-Μεν] #9 (1999), X-Men #32 (1999), X-Men: The Trial of Gambit #[nn] (2016), De X-Mannen #182
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