Thoughts

The slowly ticking bomb that seemed to be underpinning the last few issues goes off in style at the end of this one. The Phoenix returns in a way that suddenly feels like a genuinely terrifying threat.

Reading this run all together for this blog makes it even easier to spot the clues building towards the reveal. When Cyclops encounters the kindly vicar that had been Mastermind before, it all points to the return of this nemesis. He is setting something up – and that includes Cyclops’ new girlfriend.

The issue walks a clever tightrope, plenty of clues as to the supervillainous scheming going on, set against a sweet and credible romance between Cyclops and Maddie. The growing affection between them seems real enoiugh that you don’t want Cyclops’ concerns to be true and they still sometimes seem like they might be his own paranoia.

Then it all culminates in an absolutely wonderful panel. A shot that hits the reader with the same force Cyclops gets struck with.

And then the final reveal. Dark Phoenix is back – she’d been Maddie all along it seems. But why is she here now? What is her plan and what does it have to do with Mastermind? And just how screwed are the X-men. Great cliffhangers can end on a moment of great peril, but they can also make you hungry for the inevitable exposition. This is a very good example of the latter.

Fun Panel

It’s another gorgeous Smith issue, setting in multiple beautfully drawn locations. But this moment between Cyclops and Maddie is both lovely to look at and help make the readers really care for the couple.

None More Claremont

The Colossus/Kitty romance seems to take another step in this issue, with them reaching the stage of making out alone together. Until Storm disturbs them.

The storytelling so far has intimated that they are quite a chaste partnership, Collosus having put his foot down given Kitty’s age. So the fact that things are progressiving physically seems like quite a bolt. Is this the next comic book romance being developed? Setting up a storyline that wouldn’t age well?

Or alternatively, Marvel’s Secret Wars story arc is probably brewing right now. This issue came out July 1983, half a year before the first Secret Wars issue in January 1984. Were the storyline to be told in that saga being percolated round the Marvel office. Is this development here, primarily to remind us of their couple status given the bombshell thats going to hit it?

Or maybe had Claremont had further plans for the couple, that were derailed by Marvel’s Secret Wars plans?