Thoughts

Kitty Pryde returns to the centrestage with this issue, in a tale that takes another well-used sci-fi/fantasy idea – that of body swapping – and uses it to reintroduce Emma Frost. It also adds to her mythos, setting her up as a Headmaster to a rival educational establishment – the Massachusetts Academy.

Last time we saw he she was killed by Phoenix. Or, as revised just a few issues later, committed suicide. Now we’re told the X-men assumed she was slain but somehow might have survived.

By having Storm and the White Queen swap bodies, the story has fun playing with Emma Frost enjoying her new weather powers as she tricks Storm’s friends. Meanwhile Storm has to deal with the issues of being a prisoner, a telepath and trying to convince Kitty she’s not her enemy. The resourceful of both characters is emphasised – either in dealing with the Hellfire Club’s internal politics or simply surviving on wits.

Claremont/Byrne demonstrated a way of taking stock genre ideas and reinventing them to tell fresh stories that seem perfect for these characters. This issues shows Claremont alone still has that skill.

Fun Panel

Emma Frost enjoying being Evil Storm leads to some great images.

None More Claremont

Nightcrawler’s girlfriend appears in this issue. Indeed she’s now been seen a few times, hinting that she’s joining that increasingly long list of second string female characters.

There’s just one issue – she’s also his stepsister. Both raised by Margali Szardos. The text wants us to equate that with being childhood sweethearts rather than anything mildly incestuous. More than that, when their relationship started, Nightcrawler had no idea that Amanda Sefton was the daughter of his stepmother. A fact she was fully aware of. Which raises the ick factor even more

It all feels like something intended as a romantic twist that wasn’t thought through properly.

It was a Product of its Time

New artists working on this issue. New artists with a fondness for ahem figure hugging clothing. Once again, this feels like something where the detailed nature of Marvel restoration highlights a problem that is much less clear on aging second hand comics.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

Another fine example of X-Mail Honesty. We get fill-in artists on this issue, and we’re told why.

When I started reading comics, there wasn’t any internet nor did I even know about publications that gave you previews of what was going on behind the scenes. So whenever artists/writers changed on a title I had no understanding why, whether it was a one-off, permanent. I missed the Letters Page giving you this sort of information.