It would be good for all readers of reviews to keep in mind that it is impossible to do a review without giving away some of the story. The reviewer has done his/her best to keep the "spoilers" down to a minimum. However, if you are the type that hates knowing anything about the plot of a story before reading it, you might not want to read this.

Through The Valley Of Shadows

Story by: Darqstar

Reviewed by: Alara Rogers

This is a completed story in 20 chapters, plus a prologue and an epilogue. It contains strong language and disturbing images.

Main X-Character(s) in the story:

Magneto

Secondary X-Characters: Wolverine
Cyclops
all of the New Mutants and X-Men around the time Magneto was headmaster

Original characters in the story:

Justine Miller (main character)
Victor Black (secondary character)
Justine's parents (secondary character)

Continuity?

This story begins during the fairly brief time period when Magneto was headmaster of the New Mutants and Scott Summers was still at the X-Mansion (between NM #35 and UXM #201.)

Basic Plot

Cerebro detects a new, extremely powerful mutant, and Magneto and Wolverine go to investigate. They find a girl, Justine Miller, who's been locked in the basement of her parents' home since her powers first manifested... but no one will say what her powers actually are, only that Justine is the Anti-Christ and must be kept imprisoned. Magneto and Logan persuade the parents to hand Justine over to them, and take her back to the school, where Magneto tries to help her overcome the emotional trauma of having spent her entire adolescence in a basement, and discover what her powers are. When he does learn what her powers are, however, even he is shocked...

Reviewer's Comments:

Firstly, I should say for those who are mostly familiar with Darqstar's X-S work that this is absolutely nothing at all like that. To be frank, I was surprised at how well Darqstar handles the light material of X-S, because I was more familiar with far darker works of hers like this one.

It's very hard to review this without spoilering Justine's powers, but Darqstar does such a good job building the mystery that I'm going to try. Suffice it to say, Justine is really powerful, in a way that disturbs the hell out of pretty much everyone in the story, including Justine herself. The major villain of the story is someone who may have been driven insane by the use of Justine's power, or may have been a bad egg to begin with-- it's left ambiguous.

This is a very powerful story. Unlike the usual "powerful mutant gets rescued by X-Men" tale, there are no blacks and whites in this story, and no easy answers. Justine's parents, who locked her in the basement for being the Anti-Christ, are committed, loving, religious people who do indeed love their daughter-- but they genuinely do think she's the Anti-Christ, and they're trying to protect the world from her as humanely as they can. Justine herself shows far less resentment of them than you might expect, having been indoctrinated to believe that she deserved it, and her insecurity and desire to make emotional connections and start living again, and her fear of doing so, are all very well drawn. Even the major villain is someone you can feel sorry for despite his heinous acts, as he's clearly nuts.

The portrayal of Magneto as a man out of his depth, desperately trying to do the right thing, is very well drawn. He reacts to Justine's hero-worship and crush on him by withdrawing emotionally, probably the absolute worst thing he could do, but he has no idea what to do-- he thinks her feelings for him are inappropriately intense (which they probably are, though it's certainly understandable why), and he's frightened of his own emotional response, of possibly taking advantage of or showing favoritism to her. Logan is also quite wonderfully drawn as the wise old man of the team, and the relationship between him and Magneto is, while perfectly in character, also very much more emotionally satisfying than the sniping at each other they used to do in the comics through this time period.

The mystery of Justine's powers is built well, and worth the hype when you learn what it is. There's also some great bits of real life intruding for humorous effect, like the scene where Cerebro keeps shutting itself down every time Magneto tries to shut off the "found new mutant" alarm. And the denouement is realistic, thought-provoking and chilling.

I have only a few problems with the story. My first is a mild problem with Scott Summers. This is one of the first fanfics to be out and about on the net, and its Scott is still far, far better drawn than the Scott seen later in the more extreme Scott-bashing fics... but Scott's role in the story seems a little forced. Basically, he tries to push Justine into doing something she doesn't want to, with her powers, when he's drunk and it's a subject he's obsessed with. The trouble is that it's logistically impossible for Justine to be able to do what Scott wants her to do, and it just feels to me like the writer doesn't like Scott and therefore is having him play the role of the obsessed manipulator here, briefly. My other problem is more global: except for Scott, who's drunk at the time and feels the same way as everyone else when he's sober, amd the villain, who's nuts, every single person in the story is terrified of Justine's power. I certainly consider it realistic that many people would be-- it's a scary power to have. But given Magneto's lack of religious beliefs, and his own personal obsessions with using mutant powers to fix every problem in the universe, I wonder at the degree of his own visceral horror. The portrayal seems a little imbalanced-- as if the writer herself is so deeply horrified at the thought of a power like Justine's that she can't imagine the mindset of someone who simply thinks it would be a wonderful idea, and why doesn't Justine use it all the time? Since I myself am someone who'd have no problem with Justine's power, and who would probably use it if I had it, it seems a little uneven to me that no one but drunk men and nutcases expresses this point of view.

Still, it's a marvelous story and I recommend it to everyone who likes fanfic that's well-characterized and makes them think.

Recommendations

If you like:

The Magneto-as-headmaster era of New Mutants/X-Men, Magneto, Logan, or thought-provoking, character-driven stories, you will probably enjoy this one.

Go to Through The Valley Of Shadows