Primarily concerned with setting up a Big Event Issue 150, the story here is secondary. What this issue is all about is Magneto.
We get a potted history of his status as the team’s first and greatest foe. We get the X-men returning to Antarctica to confirm that the villain is very much alive and plotting something. And we get reminded that Cyclops is currently the “guest” of Magneto on his Atlantic Cthuloid Atlantean Castle Complex.
All of this conveniently frees up space in the next issue to not go over all this old ground and get straight to that issue’s story. Job Done.
Fun Panel
Kitty’s teenage exuberance shines through in this issue. From her outrageous teen skating costume, to her reckless stowaway routine and finally her insecure internal monologue as she tries to come good.
That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense
Quite how Magneto rescued Garokk when he tumbled to his doom is not quite clear. Those previous issues seemed to make it pretty clear he’d fled long before the X-men’s Savage Land adventure.
If we squint a bit at the plot, I guess you could suggest he was sneakily hiding nearby all the time. But even that doesn’t quite explain why Garokk- an ancient God with his ruthless utopian ideals to rule the Savage Land – seems to have accepted becoming Magneto’s shuffling servant Igor
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.
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.
The Cockrum Relaunch Story continues, with the All-̶N̶e̶w̶ Quite Old Actually X-men going on a mission in Murderworld. The issue wastes little time in getting to what Murderworld stories do so well, individual heroes caught in their own personal deathtraps before breaking out and into each others and generally building the chaos.
It’s great stuff, and once again, reinforces my idea that this version of Arcade would be great for a modern MCU movie. I am struggling to think who they might cast, though. I initially think of someone like Sam Rockwell, Ryan Gosling or even Simon Helberg but they’re probably too old now. Arcade has to be a young spoilt brat. Someone on a Disney or Nikolodeon kids TV show suddenly given a darker edge. Half the cast of Glee turned out to be one the Dark Side, so maybe there’s someone working in those type of shows today that could fit the bill.
Fun Panel
The ending to Don’t Look Now We could have had.
It was a Product of its Time
I’m a big fan of Polaris’ costume. Even by the standards of comic book heroes, its insanely impractical. It doesn’t even feel like a product of the early eighties. It has real fifties vibes. In an awesome way.
After last months excursion into weirdness, this issue is the one that really feels like the launch of the post-Byrne era. Cockrum’s back. And he’s brought Doom. And Arcade.
Indeed, the whole Cockrum relaunch story reads like a mini-Giant Size X-men* – we have folk being kidnapped, and a team assembled and summoned to help rescue them. Difference being this team isn’t all new – its bringing back older character for another adventure – Iceman, Polaris, Havok and Banshee.
Meanwhile the existing X-men go on a mission to confront Doom. It’s been a while since we had a fun action sequence where the X-men walk into a trap and get whupped by a superior villain and it still works. Cockrum lacks the precision of Byrne, but there’s still dynamic cartoon action to be enjoyed.
Having dominated a number of recent storylines, Kitty Pryde gets sidetracked with the flu this issue. In her place, Storm gets to step up, launching the issue and enjoying a little flirtation with Doom. The Evil Villain being a condescending prick in the face of a beautiful woman is a bit of a lazy cliche, but it’s interesting in this case we get the inner thoughts of Storm as it happens.
* which, I guess, makes it all appear normal sized.
Fun Panel
Is it wrong that the changing faces of Crystalised Dead Jean makes me laugh?
Also anyone who’s worked in editing will recognise leaving a gap to check something and come back to it to fill in, and then forgetting to!
That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense
Offered the help of the Avengers, Professor X declines because he prefers to keep it in the family. That would have been an interesting conversation to have if he’d failed. “Yes, I could indeed have got Earth’s Mightiest Heroes involved when we took on an enemy as dangerous as Doctor Doom but then I’d probably have to extend my Christmas Card list so decided not to bother.”
None More Claremont
One very minor issue with Claremont is the tendency to have big developments happen “off camera”. Dark Phoenix being awakened by seeing Cyclops struck down is the most striking, but there’s another example of this here.
Last time we saw Cyclops he was with Ship Captain Lee as they escaped a fire. Presumably – if the storyline was going to return to these characters – they’d return to Lee’s ship – the Arcadia and its crew we met last issue.
Instead we see Cyclops stranded on a beach. Only for the narration to tell us that he and Lee were swept overboard from the Arcadia in a storm. I guess juggling so many characters and plot lines, eventually you have to pass on an action shot to get the story to fit into the required page count, but its a noticable omission.
Mutant Mailbag Mayhem
You get a sudden jolt into the era when this comic got published when the letters page has Michael McCarthy of (no address) mention the recent murder of John Lennon. It’s one of my earliest memories seeing that on the news, with just that reference the comic gets a new cultural context from an era i can vaguely remember.
In the Big Giant Book of Claremont Does The Last Thing You’d Expect there is definitely a section highlighting the fact that the story chosen for the first issue post-Byrne is not some epic business-as-usual slugfest, but a dark, melancholy solo Cyclops story. Guest starring Man-Thing, one of the oddest characters to ever carry a Marvel title. And Marvel once had a Coneheads comic.
It’s a genuine oddity, but with some lovely moments. There’s a brief segment away from Cyclops where we see the X-men back at the mansion cleaning up after the events of last issue. Wolverine and Nightcrawler teasing Kitty without realising she’s taking it personally highlights that the inclusion of a teenager in an X-team of adults is going to cause problems.
Also Cyclops’ stint with the crew of the fishing vessel Arcadia is nicely done, slowly revealing more of the character when he no longer has to bother with being a leader.
I find the fantastical side of the story is less successful – D’Spayre seems a ludicrous villain and in its creation of an “imaginary” Hellish landscape it feels too close to the most recent annual.
I remain to this day clueless as to what Man-Thing is meant to be about. This issue is no help whatsoever.
Fun Panel
Beware Giant Sized Jean Grey!
That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense
The sequence where Cyclops decides to shoot Pool with his Optic Blasts. Because nobody is looking. But also to impress them. It slightly breaks up what’s a really nice plot of the character enjoying downtime and getting on with a the crew of the Arcadia.
Any Googling
More fool me! I genuinely thought this was Claremont as narrator, picking out a genuine quote from an actual philosopher, or at least a character from actual myth who is quoted from elsewhere in the World.
So I decided to find out more about him. Turns out he’s a character from Man Thing continuity. Reading any profile for the character you can find online doesn’t really tempt me to read more Man-Thing.
This is how one of the profiles I found starts. It then gets weird and complicated.
And so we come to the end of the Claremont/Byrne era. It’s a great little finale, the story of Kitty Pryde alone defeating ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶A̶l̶i̶e̶n̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶A̶l̶i̶e̶…a Demon from the Cairn we previously saw in issue 96.
It also serves as a great summary of the era. Firstly Byrne’s visual story telling has always been dynamic and incedibly cinematic. And in this story he really captures the tension of the chase. I compared Kitty Pryde to Sarah Conner last time, but here she’s gets to be teenage Ripley.
He also gets one of action-packed dynamic single page panels, opening the title with Storm at war with demons.
It’s not just Byrne’s strengths on display here. We get Claremont delivering on what he does well. There’s a few pages as everyone prepares to leave for Christmas, and it’s a study in how he can deliver character stuff in just a panel or two. The dynamics between all the characters is succinctly caught here, a snapshot as to how they’ve all developed and where they’re going.
There’s even time for Claremont to continue adding yet more women to the supporting cast with ship captain Alettys Forrester. Little by little the time of the book is changing.
And finally it’s a story about Kitty Pryde. Still an unsure awkward team trying to find a place in the team. Combined Byrne and Claremont capture that awkwardness – in the way her action scenes are drawn alongside the inner monologue she’s given. It’s a neat little encapsulation of how they work well together.
And, alas, the issue comes to an end. An era comes to an end. Re-reading their run again just shows how brilliantly they knew how to deliver a team book.
Both Claremont and Byrne separately are going to go on to many interesting things. As the nature of this blogs suggests, I prefer what Claremont gets up to. The route Claremont takes with the X-men is going to deliver so many more fascinating and unique takes on characters in a comic book. But – as with Byrne’s later stuff – it never quite capture what this era does: a cinematic team book – a general standard for mainstream success, repurposing existing ideas brilliant well while also adding a truckload of their own creativity. Anyone who wants to write a superhero team book would do well to read this run. Cheers raconteurs!
Fun Panel
The closest a comic can get to a great cinematic jump cut. Fabulous.
None More Claremont
Another death of innocent bystanders. But even more this death sees the victims consumed “body and soul”. It’s really not quite clear what’s meant by that, but it’s a concept Claremont is going to keep coming back to. Poor Douglas and Ellie Moore are pioneers of Claremont’s interest in Clive-Barker-lite death/possession.
Mutant Mailbag Mayhem
A pre-fame Kurt Busiek gets quite angry over a good comic. Fingers crossed nobody ever gets him to maybe undo what’s powerful about this story…
Although Kitty Pryde joined and Angel rejoined the team in the same issue – its pretty clear which character Claremont and Byrne are interested in. Just a few issues in, and we’re being told the tale of Kate Pryde – her future self – a warrior who has spent a lifetime fighting for mutants when the world has gone to Hell.
Just as readers were getting to know this young teenager, it’s a brave choice to introduce her much-older self. It runs the risk of alienating the audience from seeing her as an identification figure. She’s the newest X-man, from seemingly a normal life, suddently discovering the world of being a superhero. So far, so conventional.
But now we’ve got this whole new angle. She’s a hardened warrior. She’s a proven hero from a strange future in the far off year of (ahem) 2013. She’s the Sarah Conner of Terminator 2, just a few issues after introducing her as a quirky teen Sarah Conner of Terminator.
But Claremont makes it work by focusing the story on the friendships. It’s less a convoluted time jump story, as a sudden window into a future Kate who misses all her friends and has a chance to see them alive again. Not only is that relatable, but I think it adds an element of wish fulfilment to the story. We learn that Kitty Pryde, despite her current awkwardness, is going to be great friends with all these heroes. Which is exactly what many readers want when they like heroes.
This means that despite the bleakness, this story doesn’t really belong within the eighties trend of comics becoming grim and girtty. The underlying story of a dark future is there – but the heart of the story is friendship.
Fun Panel
Wolverine actually dying! There’s a thrill in any What If story it getting to see the final fate of an icon.
Any Googling
Mystique’s appearance in these two issues sets up where she first appeared. Designed as a character by Cockrum, Claremont saw the drawing and dubbed the character Mystique and she appeared in Ms Marvel. After a few appearances of Ms Marvel villainy, she’s reinvented into the new leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Where even at this early stage, Claremont mines the fact she looks like Nightcrawler.
It’d be interesting to find out what Claremont’s plans were at this point. Later Claremont was to imply that Mystique was Nightcrawler’s father, with Destiny the mother. One of the worst things of the post-Claremont era was the way that this was wiped over with a much less interesting origin for Nightcrawler. Honestly, if I had the money to buy Marvel Comics, and write whatever title I could, not only would it be the X-men but I’d very quickly retcon Nightcrawler’s origins and bring it back to Claremont’s plan.
Obviously I don’t have that kind of money, but I’d happily buy Marvel a slap up dinner somewhere fancy if they promised to do it anyway. Come on Marvel! You can name the restaurant!
In the early seventies, the BBC TV show Doctor Who featured a story where future freedom fighters travelled back in time from a dystopia to assasinate a contemporary political leader. A leader they blame for causing the Future Hell they live in.
A late night viewing of this on US TV inspired Claremont and Byrne to build a similar plot into the X-men. And so the classic “Days of Future Past” storyline was born. I mentioned before when it came to the Hellfire Club appearing in ITC’s The Avengers that its fascinating how these ideas get taken and just transformed into something very new.
A lot of the Claremont/Byrne era is built around two-part stories, and this is no execption. Indeed its still striking that this story is covered in just two issues. Everything about it feels on an epic scale. A Summer Crossover across all the Marvel titles would work on this basic concept. A future World where all the heroes are in danger of dying, while time travellers inhabit bodies in the past to try and prevent that future from happening.
In other words, you could easily tell a three/four issue mini-series for each of these characters – how they died (or were thought to have died) Instead the issue just teases this incredibly vast story.
It’s also the first appearance in the X-titles of one of my favourite ever characters – Mystique. It’s an incredible debut, she looks awesome and she seems incredibly dangerous. Magnet-who?
Fun Panel
Another in my ongoing series of just striking team panels.
That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense
The Evil English Mutant Pyro is introduced in this comic. Which was quite a shock to me when I started reading the back issues – given that the title at the time featured the Evil Australian Mutant Pyro.
Characters often go through subtle revisions between appearances, as the writers get to grips with what makes them tick. But the reworking of Pyro seems on another level, a complete reboot after his original appearance.
Now that all this stuff has enjoyed fancy deluxe reprints, its possible to spot this jarring change. But back then, I guess the ephemeral nature of the medium made it seem far more possible that the desire to create more international characters led to just changing the nationality of an existing one.
At the end of the last issue, we left Nightcrawler under attack and a month on the comic delivers with another fun slugfest as the German mutant, aided by Wolverine, Snowbird, Vindicator and Shamen take on the Savage Wendigo.
Last issue was all character-based build-up, with Wolverine returning to Canada, Nightcrawler joining him in a budding bromance, and them interacting and resolving his outstanding issues with Alpha Flight. All that while building up the story of a terrible threat – a savage, cursed beast that feasts on human flesh.
This issue, by contrast, is all action. The Wendigo arrives and the heroes have to take it down. Its a fun fight, and yet again Nightcrawler is playing a major part. Having pointed out how surprised I was by how little actual screentime (paneltime?) he was getting in the comic as I did this blog, I’m being more than compensated now.
That he’s with Wolverine when this happens is no accident. Nightcrawler is being defined as a character by contrasting him with his fellow X-man. Both heroes take on the Monster in this issue. Nightcrawler’s tussle is all internal monologue, the character struggling with doubts and strategies as he tries to evade his attacker and find a solution. Wolverine by contrast simply goes for the Wendigo, with caption box narration explaining what’s going on. The dialogue between the two also emphasises the difference. Wolverine is a Killer, Nightcrawler questions whether this can ever be justified.
His Christianity has been mentioned before in the title, but this is the first time that his morality and personality have lain at the heart of an issue. Indeed, we’re really seeing Nightcrawler in his well-known form becoming realised in these two issues.
Fun Panel
There’s loads of great action panels in this – but this is a great one.
Any Googling
It’s a cliffhanger for Alpha Flight at the end of the issue. It really feels like its setting up a spin-off as if the plans are in the works for an immediate comic. In the end Alpha Flight doesn’t get launched till 1983, with John Byrne as writer/penciller. Such a gap means they probably didn’t have any immediate plans. Or if they did they didn’t quite work out.
Mutant Mailbag Mayhem
The reprints of the letters page have now started including the Mighty Marvel Checklist. A little snapshot into where all the other titles were at the time. I used to love reading these at the back of the title, even if the issues maybe couldn’t quite live up to the blurb. I mean “Death-Duel with the Shadowqueen”? Dr Strange 44 sounds awesome.
The X Marathon 