“GREATER LOVE HATH NO X-MAN”

Thoughts

Eight blogposts in, and we’re on issue 100! It is indeed strange that such a milestone issue occurs so early in the Claremont Run. The “Classic X-men” get crowbarred into the story to create a fight with the new guys, but it’s pretty obvious from the outset what’s going on here so the event has little impact.

After the rollercoaster of the last issue, having to crowbar the X-Sentinels in leads to a pretty underwhelming conclusion. Robots defeated, Lang blows up. It doesn’t really feel like an ending worthy of a landmark issue. Heck, it doesn’t even feel like much of an ending for the Sentinel Trilogy….

And then…

It’s here that the Dark Phoenix has its genesis. Faced with trying to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in a damaged shuttle bombarded by a solar flare, Jean Grey steps up to sacrifice herself and save the day. On paper its a cheesy moment, but Claremont knows to root it in the interactions of the character with her friends, and lover. At the time a great cliffhanger is the start of a story that is definitely worthy of a landmark issue.

Fun Panel

Across the Cockrum run, the colouring has a fantastically trippy visual quality. Kudos to Bonnie Wilford for a great job.

None More Claremont

One thing going back to these early issues is the realisation that there aren’t anywhere near as many interesting women. Only Storm is the female regular, and in these early issues she’s frequently just a sexily-drawn distant goddess. But adding Jean Grey in the last few issues helps address that and you can already see Claremont’s style coming through.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

Another fascinating mailbag page. This time, the editor assures the readers that the fact that Colossus was referred to as an “orphan” in a previous letters page was not a mistake, but something the story will get to. As with his cosmonaut brother was this a storyline planned that never saw fruition? Or just trying to save face over a mistake?