Thoughts

Another cracking issue, and its interesting to consider that ever since the return from Secret Wars this has increasingly not functioned as a standard team adventuring book. It’s barely about heroes going on missions at all. It is events that are happening to characters we like.

I’ve raved before about Claremont’s ability to craft “downtime” issues. Single comics where we follow the characters between the adventures as we watch them develop before heading off on another mission. This has some of the elements of that, but its now also fired up by grand plots. Major things are happening in this issue to key characters. Honestly, for me its the best of both worlds and I’m enjoying this re-read tremendously.

Fun Panel

John Romita Jr once again excels with a collection of faces across a number of panels that beautifully capture the emotion of the scene.

Any Googling

This issue has Mystique and Destiny plotting, as ever and its stuff that I always enjoy. But on the reread I noticed that there’s an aside on one of the panels, a reference to a future comic that would tell the story of an encounter between Storm and Mystique.

At the time it took four years for this aside to see publication, but thanks to collected anthologies the meeting can be enjoyed right after finishing this issues.

The little story is striking for quite how absurdly horny it is. It is set in the world of transgressive nightclubs, honing in on both Storm’s new look and countless hints that have been dropped about Mystique and Destiny.

Maybe the extent to which this story delves into this world is the reason for the four year delay? Or maybe the story as originally envisaged just was never completed and it ended up being told when Claremont was increasingly open about sexual imagery and implications.

If this sort of stuff had been the original intent, we’re getting out first glimpses of the direction thats going to take the title all the way to Inferno