Thoughts

Having noticed how little paneltime Nightcrawler gets early in the run, he’s really coming into his own now.

He opens this issue in a great full page panel – and it’s obvious Cockrum enjoys drawing him as his escape and his return to try and rescue his friends is superb visual swashbuckling.

He isn’t quite the finished article as a character though. It’s made clear a number of times that, alongside his appearance, he has a Demonic aspect to him that comes out in growling and howling when riled. A potential Mr Hyde subplot that never really materialises.

Overall, this is a fun finale to this epic Cockrum relaunch three-parter. The ending is a little bit lightweight – it all just stops because Doom decides it does, and Arcade seems fine after an apology. But as an exercise in twists and traps, and Claremont’s endless inventive fun with super powers it’s great.

Last but not least – Angel finally gets to do something. Good for him!

Fun Panel

Big fan of the sequence where Nightcrawler and Wolverine take down Doom. Cockrum captures just the right mix of goofy but with a real sense of threat.

None More Claremont

As the front cover trumpets – this issue Storm goes rogue. Which isn’t quite accurate. In reality Storm goes Dark Phoenix.

Claremont writing another female X-man go Godlike/Crazy/Hysterical/Weird so soon after that classic storyline does feel like a rehash. Her power is unleashed and uncontrollable, she denies herself and becomes even cruel, possessing only a vague sentiment towards her closest friends.

It’s a sad cliche in comics that female super heroes that become too powerful seem to inevitably become hysterical and dangerous. Phoenix and the Scarlet Witch being the two biggest examples. This issue hints at the same well-trodden path is being considered for Storm.

I’m glad they ultimately don’t go down it. One of the implications of this issue – the power levels displayed are Storm’s innate power potential – gets quietly dropped going forward. It’s a shame that they couldn’t just reconcile a woman with Godlike powers and not going insane in the story. Instead she’s de-powered (literally for a time).

Interestingly Claremont was going to explore a character embracing incredible powers and the consequences of it when he brought Rachel Summers into the story. It’s an intriguing experiment and we’ll come to that later but ultimately it probably illustrates just how hard this character is to write without falling back into establish cliches.

It was a Product of its Time

Oh – and obviously Storm’s clothes mostly fall off when she becomes a God. Because Reasons.