Thoughts

Sometimes with Claremont’s comics you come across an issue that you know has the same page count as all the other comics. and yet even as you’re reading the issue it just seems to go on and on. But in a good way.

There is just so much stuff in this issue. It’s not an epic in terms of plot, it’s not a wordy, lengthy exploration of an idea. It’s just packed full of ideas, character moments, settings and storylines. Halfway through you feel like you’ve already covered a normal issue and a half of these things, and yet still it ploughs on. Before ending on a great cliffhanger.

It reminds me of Issue 122 – Trial of Colossus, which knitted together a load of interesting minor moments – but this one ever finds time to add a plot, of sorts, to the mix. Namely the first appearance of Caliban, nearly causing an incident in a nightclub. It’s a relatively minor plot, but Kitty learns a simple message from it that feels important to the character.

Meanwhile Angel leaves. His brief return to the title ends with his just casually flying off a few pages in. Cyclops got a whole issue of flashbacks and he’s still not really left the title! It does feel like whatever plans they had for bringing Angel back ultimately never came to fruition, maybe it was just a hangover from the Byrne era?

Fun Panel

Trying to capture the awesome Atlantean Cthulu Island Complex with the thick spine of an omnibus proved impossible.

Any Googling

Tracy? Tracy?? Who on Earth in Tracy??

None More Claremont

The developing friendship between Nightcrawler and Wolverine remains a joy, this issue devoting a couple of pages to it. Claremont does a great job avoiding any Odd Couple cliches. They are fundamentally different, but they are also becoming friends.

It was a Product of its Time

Obviously I don’t entirely know what was huge at the time, but this feels slightly dated already. A Seventies Disco Blast that maybe felt very last decade in August 1981.

Time the great levellers has done away with the ins and outs of what’s hot and what’s not, and now it’s just something great from yesteryear.