New X-Men #139-141 (2003): Murder at the Mansion

For several issues across Grant Morrison’s run, Scott Summers and Emma Frost have been psychically having an affair where Emma dresses up like Phoenix.

In this arc, Jean finds out and psychically tortures Emma, while Scott does a Scott thing and runs away.

Wolverine chases him and they end up doing shots together, and then going on a mission with Fantomex, while the rest of the story moves along, back at the mansion. Their mission reveals a whole bunch of “Weapon Plus” backstory. It’s definitely a must-read if you’re a Wolverine fan.

We learn that Emma wasn’t just doing this to be a dick. I mean, she started doing it for that reason but then she actually fell in love with Scott.

And while the team is figuring this out, Emma is literally shattered to bits–shot by a diamond bullet.

And then we have a murder mystery! (Except that Emma’s not dead–Jean fuses her pieces back together.)

Sage and Bishop serve as the investigators, and they uncover multiple false confessions, seed bits of future storylines, and finally identify one of the Stepford Cuckoos as the shooter–and Xorn as the person who forced her to do it.

Between the beginning of the “big” Logan story and the romance of Scott and Jean, this arc has two of the big plot points that lasted long after Morrison’s run.