Issue Information

Title- Uncanny X-Men Annual (Volume 1) #7

Release Date- December 1983

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- Michael Golden & Bret Blevins

Major Notes

Features the Impossible Man

Brief Summary

Scavenger Hunt

The X-Men are playing a game of baseball while Professor Xavier and Lilandra watch on. Colossus hits the ball and it flies up into the air out of sight. They suddenly see something large coming down towards them and Lilandra is terrified when she sees that it is the ship of Galactus. The being himself soon appears and claims to come in peace. Xavier tries to probe the mind of Galactus but a feedback knocks him out. Galactus demands to have the home of the X-Men but the team aren’t willing to give it up without a fight but their efforts are for naught. There is a flash of light and the next thing the team see the X-Mansion is gone along with Galactus and his ship.

Later the X-Men are attempting to track down Galactus as they fly in the X-Jet. They are unsure whether they should be attempting to battle a being of such power but Xavier’s telepathy can pinpoint his exact location. It takes them to the S.H.I.E.L.D hellicarrier although the team are surprised that Galactus can even fit in the hellicarrier.

In the private quarters of Nick Fury he is sharing some personal time with his love Valentina Allegro. They go to kiss as someone tries to grab Nick, Kitty Pryde then phases in through the roof goes to grab the stranger but he transforms into a snake. Nick is very surprised and Lockheed bursts through the wall as the stranger transforms into a wooden Native American and escapes. Kitty realises what is happening inside the room and she tries to apologise to the very unhappy Nick Fury. He demands answers as Nightcrawler teleports in, grabs Kitty and Lockheed before teleporting away. S.H.I.E.L.D agents soon come investigating but Valentina notices that Nick’s eye patch is missing.

A short time later in the Savage Land the X-Men arrive trying to locate this strange person who has stolen the X-Mansion and Nick Fury’s eye patch. They are met there by Ka-Zar and Shanna who ask for their assistance finding Zabu who has been taken. Rogue begins to think that whoever is behind the thefts is performing some kind of bizarre scavenger hunt. The team dismiss this as a silly idea but Xavier thinks that there is some merit to it.

Later at the Avengers Mansion She-Hulk is the only Avenger present and she sees the Fantasti-Car filled with the stolen objects on the screen. The intruder alarm is going off and Avengers Butler Jarvis is there as well. She-Hulk sees Rogue and Colossus right next to the Fantasti-car and she believes that they are the intruders and she runs outside to confront them.

When she reaches outside Rogue and Colossus are looking for the thief who has stolen Wasp’s various costumes and escaped. She-Hulk attacks Rogue and then goes to punch Colossus but he is able to block the punch. Before he can counter he is shot in the back by Iron-Man who is floating above.

At the Sanctum Sanctorum Doctor Steven Strange is looking over a book when Sigil window is suddenly stolen without warning. Without it being there all manner of ghosts and demons begin to escape.

The escape is heard at the Avengers mansion and with She-Hulk and Iron-Man distracted Rogue grabs onto She-Hulk and begins to absorb her powers. Rogue’s costume begins to tear as her muscles expand and Iron-Man tries to blast her with not effect. Colossus then grabs him and slams him to the ground, he isn’t very happy that they were attacked without reason. But before they can fight Kitty phases up through Iron-Man causing him to short circuit. She apologises for causing it to happen but she tells her teammates that they must leave and they quickly do leaving the two Avengers down.

A little later the X-Men break into the basement of the Hellfire Club where they see a still unconscious Emma Frost. For her crimes the X-Men consider killing her in her sleep and Wolverine even goes to perform the act but is stopped by a water pistol suddenly appearing him and squirting him in the face. Sebastian Shaw comes bursting through the door and Rogue goes to punch him. He absorbs her punch and attacks her back almost knocking her unconscious. Nightcrawler tries to distract Sebastian to save Rogue but unseen the thief transforms into a balloon and steals the costume that Jean Grey wore while she was in the Hellfire Club. Storm is particularly angered that the thief has gotten away and creates a tornado that lifts the X-Men out of the room leaving Sebastian in there with the unconscious Emma Frost.

At 575 Madison Avenue the Impossible Man is inside and is disappointed to find that it is empty. He does find a flyer on the ground while not so far away the X-Men travel to his location. Xavier tells the X-Men not to harm the thief and that he is sensing him moving downtown.

At Marvel Comics HQ at Park Avenue staff members Eliot Brown and Editor Mark Gruenwald are just about to enter the elevator when what seems to be Ghost Rider fly through on the back of Zabu. They are very confused but the X-Men then burst in so that they can corner the thief before he gets away again. They burst through the Marvel Comics offices and they eventually find the thief who has transformed into a pop-up head of Stan Lee. When he sees the team the thief transforms into a plane and tries to fly away. Inside another office Michael Hobson and Jim Shooter are having a discussion when they hear the commotion taking place outside.

The team have figured out that the thief is after Stan Lee although he is in California and that the thief himself is the Impossible Man. They merely want to stop him and Rogue figures that her mutant abilities could do the job. She lunges at the Impossible Man as he is jumping around and there is a flash of light that causes her to fall down to the ground. The Impossible Man is angered that she tried to hurt him and Wolverine is up for the fight. When the team call him a monster the Impossible Man states that he is not a monster and that Rogue is still breathing. When she had attacked he had panicked and that the thefts had all been a part of a game. The objects that he has taken are safely tucked away and he is genuinely sorry for what he has done. He takes the X-Men away so that he can show them where the stolen items are leaving a bemused Marvel Comics staff.

The X-Men soon appear in the Gobi Desert where the Impossible Man has hidden all of the items that he has stolen. When he is asked why he stole all the items he begins to explain that after his home planet was eaten by Galactus his people couldn’t decide who should be their leader. This led to the scavenger hunt and the X-Men begin to go through some of the items that were stolen. But as he continues to explain a horde of space crafts flying above them.

Suddenly a small army of aliens arrive on the ground. They demand justice on the Impossible Man and his people for what they have stolen. Wolverine is up for a fight but Lilandra thinks that a more peaceful solution is the best idea. She introduces herself to the aliens who know of her and allow her to speak. She assures them that everything will be returned in the condition that they were taken. At first the aliens still want retribution but the thought of going to war with the Impossible Man’s people is a daunting thought so they reluctantly agree.

Later Kitty and Illyana are sitting by the pool at the X-Mansion with the Impossible Man sitting by them. He is crying after giving up everything that he has stolen and he sees the two girls eating ice creams. He transforms into Magnum P.I and the two girls look at him lovestruck, they hand him their ice creams and as he transforms into Garfield the Cat all three of them exclaim that this is the end of the story.

My Thoughts

Now we are here at the seventh annual of the Uncanny X-Men series (The fifth original annual since the first two were simply reprints). This is a very odd and whacky story that did confuse me at some points. It features the Impossible Man who is most associated with Marvel’s first family the Fantastic Four. Basically he has the ability to do almost anything hence the name, he can do what is considered to be scientifically impossible (like many Marvel Characters).

I think in this month since the main editors were away the writers were free to be able to write more whacky, self contained stories. I admit that this story is very different to what you would normally see in an X-Men comic, it had its pros and its cons and it is something that you like to see every now and again but not on a regular basis.

The comic also featured other characters that you don’t normally see in an X-Men comic. Like Nick Fury, She-Hulk and more importantly the Impossible Man himself. We also got to see many of the creators of the Marvel Comics that were being released at the time. It is sometimes a little fun to see them appear the odd time in a book, kind of like a director of a film having a cameo appearance but they featured just a little too much for my liking. Although I do think the man himself Chris Claremont did make an appearance. That was pretty cool.

I believe that this is the first time that we see the team playing a game of baseball. It seems out of all the sports the X-Men seem to enjoy playing that one the most although I have seen times when they play football (the American kind) and basketball. I wonder if they have ever played Ice Hockey or football (the one that the rest of the world is familiar with). I think I have seen a couple of them playing tennis though.

This is also an issue that you could consider the team actually break the fourth wall when at the end Kitty, Illyana and the Impossible Man all state that it is the end. You can also see just how popular Magnum P.I was at the time since he has been mentioned numerous times in New Mutants and a few times in the Uncanny X-Men. Just too bad that Tom Selleck couldn’t play Indiana Jones or else his career wouldn’t have stalled.

The overall story was very whacky and I did get a little lost at a few places. It had some things going for it and a few things going against it but it was an enjoyable read. Not up to the same level as the rest of the Uncanny X-Men series but it is still worth reading.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue a 6 out of 10. It was alright but not up to the same standards as the rest of the series.

Next Issue

Daredevil (Volume 1) #197 (A little late)

Issue Information

Title- Daredevil (Volume 1) #197

Release Date- August 1983

Writer- Denny O’Neil

Artist- Larry Hama & William Johnson

Major Notes

First appearance of Yuriko Oyama aka Lady Deathstrike

Brief Summary

Journey

Matt Murdock is asleep at his desk and dreams about Bullseye. Foggy Nelson wakes him and also sees that he was writing a will on his typewriter. Foggy assures him that he’ll live for a long time and he tells him that he should take some time off. Matt states that he is going to Japan and Foggy soon leaves so that he can get to his cab. When he arrives he realises that he forgot to tell Matt about one of the corrupt policemen who trashed his home escaped them. He doesn’t notice that the man walking past the cab is the man himself and he is carrying a stick of dynamite.

At the office Matt feels just how tired he is and decides to go home so that he can rest before the flight. As he walks the street at first he doesn’t notice the corrupt cop following him. The cop lights the dynamite stick and throws it at him, Matt is able to hear the dynamite stick coming and he bats it away. It then explodes and although he survives he is still injured.

A little later Foggy is in bed and awoken by a phone call. He is told that Matt is in the hospital and he quickly gets out of bed and goes to see his friend. Thankfully Matt has only suffered a slight concussion and will be fine. Foggy recommends him to stay in bed for a few days but Matt states that he still has to go to Japan.

The next day Matt is on the plane to Japan and as a stewardess asks him if there is anything he needs he thinks about his love Elektra who was killed by Bullseye. He is going to Japan to find the villain and they soon land on the ground.

A short time later Matt has walked to the nearby port where a ship is located. He believes that Bullseye is on the ship but he still has a headache due to his concussion. Before he knows it he is confronted by three thugs. They attack him but he is easily able to defeat all three of them.

With them defeated Matt changed into his into his Daredevil costume and sneaks onto the ship. It is mostly empty and down a corridor he is able to hear someone in the sick bay. He discovers someone in a bed and when he removes the covers he thinks it is Bullseye but it turns out to be a woman.

The woman can speak English and she tells him that she knows where Bullseye is. She is chained up to the wall but with Daredevil’s help she is freed. Before they can leave a guard tries to attack them but Daredevil is able to defeat him. They try to exit the ship but are confronted by more guards but with some effort he is able to defeat them.

They try to flee once again but Daredevil’s concussion causes him to hallucinate somewhat and when he asks the woman where Bullseye is they are suddenly lit up by a spotlight. Daredevil throws a monkey wrench at the light destroying it but more guards attack. In the darkness he has an advantage.

Daredevil defeats many of the guards and spots the woman trying jumping into the water. He jumps in after her and he thinks that she might be a criminal herself and is able to catch up with her when she goes onto shore. She tells him that her name is Yuriko and that she fled because she thought that he was done for. They eventually end up at a rice shop and decide to lay low in there.

Inside the rice shop the pair stop to get something to eat and he starts asking her about Bullseye. Yuriko tells him that he was dropped off before the ship made it to port and that he was taken to an island.

In a mansion just on an island just off the coast Bullseye is beginning to recover from his treatment. A man named Darkwing is there and he is happy to see that the surgery was a success. There is still some way to go and Bullseye must submit his will to Kami who is the God of the household. At the end of it Bullseye will die or make a rapid recovery.

Back in the rice shop Yuriko explains to Daredevil who Darkwing is and how he had been a kamikaze pilot during WWII and that he survived a bombing mission he saw it as a disgrace. He is looking to atone for it but before she can continue thugs enter the shop and attack Daredevil. With help of the shop owner the thugs are defeated and he leaves with Yuriko so that they can locate Bullseye.

Daredevil notices that Yuriko keeps part of her face hidden and at first she refuses to reveal it. She reconsiders however and shows him that she has Japanese letters burned to her face. She thinks that she is ugly but Daredevil disagrees.

My Thoughts

Now we are with the first issue of Daredevil in this blog. Before you ask me, ‘Why the hell is there a Daredevil comic in an X-Men blog?’ well the answer to that is that little Yuriko Oyama is none other than future X-Men (mainly Wolverine) villainess Lady Deathstrike. It is funny to think that a character who is thought to be exclusive to the X-Men actually made her debut in a Daredevil comic.

In this issue we see Lady Deathstrike before she became a cyborg bent on the destruction of Wolverine. At this point she isn’t even considered to be a villain but not quite a hero as well. It is funny to think that after this storyline had finished that it was likely that she would have faded away and never seen again. Instead she was transformed into a character who questionably might be more well known than Daredevil himself. Her father is Lord Darkwing who is the one who created the process of bonding adamantium to bone which was picked up by the Weapon X project. It is a little fun to see her as what seems to be a damsel in distress before she became an unstoppable killing machine.

The overall comic was pretty good although I did notice that this is after Frank Miller’s run had ended. I haven’t read any comics in his run but I did enjoy his art in the Wolverine LS, never the less it was a good set up for the story although I think I would have understood it a little better if I read some of the previous issues.

Daredevil seems to be pretty good at beating up bad guys much like every other superhero although at the end of the issue he did have a little help from a shop owner. I wonder who would actually win in a fight between him and Wolverine, the answer of course being Wolverine. No offense to Daredevil but he isn’t in the same league as many of the Marvel Characters and many people consider him to be weak. Personally not a fan of the character myself.

Although this wasn’t an X-Men comic I still did enjoy it and it was overall a great Daredevil comic with him trying to track down the man who killed the woman that he loved. He suffers a normal injury although he did receive it in an unusual manner but it just shows that the writers are showing that heroes can come down with things that normal people can suffer from.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue a 7 out of 10. By X-Men standards it isn’t at the same level but it was a pretty good read.

Next Issue

Magik (Volume 1) #1

Why the hell is there a Daredevil comic in an X-.....oh. :)

I am assuming you wrote this wrong and you meant that its funny to think that a character that is heavily associated with the X-Men debuts outside of an X-Men comic......which is actually nothing new.

Claremont was known for taking characters from other books.....sometimes to the dismay of people (Ann Nocenti), lots of characters that have become intrinsic to X-Men lore during his run debuted in other books across the Marvel Universe; Longshot, Spiral, Mojo and all characters within that whole universe debuted elsewhere, Sabertooth who of course while created by Claremont was originally an Iron Fist villain, same with Mystique, who was initially a foil for Ms. Marvel, Malice...or at least a version of her first shows up in Byrnes Fantastic Four run, even Silver Samurai, who appears in most X-Men related media is another guy who debuted in Daredevil and was created by Steven Gerber....I believe.

I honestly enjoy when characters debut in other franchises, it gives the Marvel Universe connectivity.

Issue Information

Title- Magik (Volume 1) #1

Release Date- December 1983

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- John Buscema

Major Notes

Features alternate versions of Storm and Kitty Pryde

Brief Summary

Little Lost Girl

Outside the X-Mansion Illyana Rasputin is watching as the sun rises. She thinks about her brother and of Russia. She has the locket that Belasco gave her in her hands and today is her birthday. She is supposed to be eight but instead she is fourteen and she believes that she is eternally damned.

A few months before the X-Men along with Illyana were trapped in Limbo fighting the demonic being known as Belasco. The older Storm is casting a spell that will take them home while Belasco attacks with his demon horde. He is able to grab Illyana but Kitty Pryde is able to grab her other arm and a tug of war begins. Unfortunately Kitty loses her grip and Illyana is in the hands of Belasco. This is noticed by the older Storm who is able to follow Belasco to another part of Limbo.

Belasco casts a spell on Illyana while Storm tries to stop him with little success. He separates her astral form from her body and ages it until she is a teenager. He then turns her astral form demonic and then encases it into a ball of energy. After that he turns the energy into a bloodstone and places it in his amulet. When all the bloodstones are within the amulet he can finally escape Limbo and the Elder Gods will come forth.

Belasco knocks Storm down and is about to kill her under a throwing star comes right passed him. When he looks he sees an older version of Kitty now calling herself Cat leap down and confronts him. She is armed with sword and tries to attack him but he simply teleports her away. With Belasco gone Cat tends to Storm and they pick up Illyana before teleporting to Storm’s sanctuary.

When they arrive Illyana is put to bed as Storm and Cat discuss about what has been happening. Cat apologises for not coming to her aid earlier but seeing her younger self made her feel ashamed. In their history Illyana was saved and the X-Men were trapped in Limbo while it has happened again but the outcome has been reversed.

Illyana wakes up and gets out of bed. She sees Storm who knows that she is there but Storm is very weak and Cat has to help her to her own bed. Storm wishes to sever the ties between Illyana and Belasco but Cat believes that it is impossible in her current state. The simple solution is to kill Illyana but Storm doesn’t want to do this.

Quickly Illyana returns to her bed as Storm and Cat check on her. Illyana wants her brother and Storm tries to reassure her. She also tells the young girl that she will find her a way to get home but when Illyana speaks about Storm and Cat coming with them Cat herself is greatly angered. Storm then begins the spell that will start the that will hopefully begin to sever the link.

Storm enters the mind of Illyana and finds herself before what seems to be a dark castle. A demonic version of Illyana rides towards her on a horse and attacks her. Storm is able to knock her off of her horse but she is knocked down herself by Illyana’s whip. She is able to use her magic to free herself but demons emerge from the ground to grab her. The demonic Illyana begins to turn Storm more demonic and she is resorted to using her mutant abilities to produce a tempest. This is able to distract the demonic Illyana for Storm to make her escape.

In the real world Storm is weakened but Cat is there to help her to her feet. Storm dives into a nearby pool and they go over their options. She couldn’t rid Illyana of Belasco’s corruption and if she finds a way to return her to Earth Belasco will use her as an anchor. She thinks that it is best to teach her the ways of magic so that Illyana can fight the corruption herself but Cat is strongly against it. She thinks that it is a path that will make her more vulnerable to Belasco and she still thinks that killing her is the best option. Storm is against this but Cat believes that if Belasco died that Storm would simply replace him. When Storm asks why she believes this Cat removes her mask and glove revealing that she is more cat like thanks to Belasco’s magic. She would rather see Illyana dead than become a sorceress. She then leaves leaving Storm there by herself.

Later Storm walks Illyana through her garden and they stop right next to a large oak tree. Illyana marvels over the tree and asks Storm where Cat is. Storm tells her that she must pass knowledge down to her. As they sit at the tree Storm casts a spell that allows them to enter the astral world. They see the garden in a new life and she begins to explain to Illyana the importance of the realm. They see a bush corrupted by the evil of Limbo and Storm casts a spell to purify it. Illyana is impressed but it is draining for Storm. Illyana wishes to have magic to change things but Storm angrily tells her not to and grabs her arm. This hurts Illyana and as Storm apologises she is told that Belasco never harmed her and that he loves her. Storm assures her that Belasco is evil and as they look within her they see the corruption within Illyana. They look at Storm and see the same corruption but hers is bigger.

When they return to the real world Illyana notices that she has grown. A year has passed and they return to the sanctuary but they fail to notice that the bush that had been healed wither away and die. Storm’s spell failed and she doesn’t know it.

That night Storm is awoken by a sound as an intruder enters the sanctuary. Storm searches the sanctuary and knows that Cat is the intruder. Cat knocks her out and as she falls into the pool Cat saves her since she doesn’t want to kill her friend. Cat then goes to Illyana’s room and awakens her, she offers her a way home but the road will be hazardous. Illyana knows there is evil within Storm and as both girls leave they are unaware that Belasco is watching them. He has a plan to use Cat’s wish to ensure his victory and also damn the entire human race.

My Thoughts

Now we are with what is really the second X-Men limited series (The first being Wolverine). Basically this series takes place over what seemed to be seconds but in the realm of Limbo was actually six or seven years. This series explains what happened to Illyana while she was trapped in Limbo.

The issue takes place within a few moments of Uncanny X-Men #160. In that issue the X-Men lost the toddler Illyana for a few seconds but when they got her back she had aged to around 13 years of age. It was an interesting concept and was a story that has been hinted a couple of times in both the Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants and we have been given a few pointers to what is going to happen.

We see the beginning of Illyana’s path into sorcery that she is probably best known for, (above her mutant abilities). It wasn’t an easy step for her but it is the beginning of a feature that will define the character and make her extremely popular. Unfortunately it will cause her to lose what made her innocent but that is what happens when people grow up and Illyana is no different.

We saw more depth into the Storm that we first met in Uncanny X-Men #160. We see that she is not as pure as she was before and we also meet an alternate version of Kitty Pryde who didn’t appear in Uncanny X-Men #160. She calls herself Cat and has a hatred towards magic due to its corruptive nature and the fact that Belasco mutated her so that she is more cat like. This is most likely because of her name and Belasco saw this as a fitting punishment. She is a skilled warrior and although she is still good friends with Storm they are still at odds. She is definitely more ruthless than regular Kitty Pryde.

Storm’s scene’s with Illyana were thought provoking and you began to think whether she is right or wrong. Would training Illyana make her more susceptible to Belasco or is Cat right. I guess we’ll find out over the next few issues.

Belasco is definitely the villain of the series and his evil seems to have no bounds. His amulet is his key to achieving his goals and Illyana is the tool that he will use. Already we have seen that he is capable of great evil. We’ll have to wait and see what kind of influence he has on Illyana.

In conclusion I’m giving this issue an 8 out of 10. A great start to a must read series for any X-Men fan.

Next Issue

Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #177

Issue Information

Title- Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #177

Release Date- January 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- John Romita Jr

Major Notes

Features Arcade. First mention of Doug Ramsey

Brief Summary

Sanction

Mystique is walking through a fairground when she is attacked from behind by Wolverine. She is able to dive out of the way and attack him, he then extends his claws and tries to stab her. She is able to dodge and his claws stab into a ticket booth. He is vulnerable for a moment and she slashes his throat and lets him bleed to death.

Moments later Kitty Pryde arrives and sees Wolverine’s dead body and goes to check on him. She is in disbelief that he is dead but when she checks he has no wounds, that is when she is stabbed in the chest and she falls down dead. Wolverine stands up and transforms back into Mystique but before she can catch her breath Colossus bursts through behind her. He is greatly angered over Kitty’s death and goes to attack Mystique, she is forced to throw a skull bomb into his face which harms and blinds him. As he tries to recover Mystique is blasted from behind by Cyclops. She is hurt and retreats into a house of mirrors.

Cyclops follows Mystique but Colossus has also followed her. They seemed to have lost her but Mystique uses a device to create a hologram of herself. Cyclops blasts the hologram but it goes through her and also goes through several amplifiers that make his beam strong enough to pierce Colossus. Cyclops is in horror that Colossus is dead but Mystique suddenly comes up from behind and strangles him with a metal wire.

As Mystique steps outside she is attacked by Storm. She uses the winds to fling Mystique into the air and then attack her with a lightning bolt. The suit that Mystique is wearing is able to absorb the energy and redirect it towards a fuel tanker right next to Storm. It explodes killing her instantly as Mystique falls through a big top tent.

Mystique is able to use the trapeze bars to safely bring herself to the ground where Rogue attacks her with one of the tent’s support beams. She doesn’t hesitate in using a gun that vaporises Rogue, this greatly saddens Mystique and as she cries out she is grabbed by Nightcrawler. He teleports her around thinking that it will disorientate her but she elbows him in the gut. She goes to stab him but she hesitates and he responds with a powerful punch that knocks her out.

A short time later Mystique is being nursed by Destiny. She is unhappy that she couldn’t kill all the X-Men and how she hesitated with Nightcrawler. Destiny tries to reassure her as Arcade and Miss Locke enter the room. He is impressed with her skills since her fight had been a Murderworld simulation and the X-Men had merely been robots. Although the robots had the same powers and personalities of the X-Men Mystique knows that they would have fought as a team rather than individuals. She wants him to train her Brotherhood to fight the X-Men and she knows with each victory over the robots Arcade will make the challenge more difficult. She wishes to face the X-Men and bring Rogue back to her, Destiny thinks that Rogue left on her free will but Mystique refuses to believe this and strictly believes that Professor Xavier used his telepathy to manipulate Rogue.

At Stevie Hunter’s dance studio Kitty finishing off her dance class but Stevie has noticed that she isn’t her usual self since her return from Japan. Kitty comments that someone she cares about has changed drastically and Stevie knows that she means Storm. She thinks that it is merely a change in her appearance but Kitty states that it is more than that. Storm herself enters the room at moment and asks Kitty what has replaced her then. Kitty says that she is not the same as she was and walks away to change her clothing, she even phases through Storm’s arm. Stevie thinks nothing of it but Storm fears that Kitty might be right.

Thousands of miles above the Earth the Starjammers ship orbits the planet. Xavier is on the observation deck with Lilandra as they enjoy their last moments together before she returns to the Shi’Ar Empire to take the throne from her mad sister. They believe that they will see each other again but the road will be long and hard.

In the transporter room Corsair says goodbye to his sons Cyclops and Havok. Neither are going with him and in a way he is glad. He is heading to a war and doesn’t want to lose them. They soon teleport down to Earth with Xavier as Corsair and Lilandra talk about their chances of success. They know that they might not survive and rocket away from Earth.

A short time later at Lincoln Centre in Manhattan a few of the X-Men attend the ballet that is taking place there. Colossus and Kitty drive the car around to a space while Nightcrawler walks towards the entrance with Amanda Sefton. He begins to question her about how he was found and who exactly is his real family. Amanda tells him about how he was found in a roadside shelter in the Black Forest and how their mother took him in. He reveals that when he asked Mystique why she looked like him she told him to ask his adoptive mother.

A short distance away Colossus have parked up the car and are walking towards the Lincoln Centre. They are talking and she mentions about her new friend Doug Ramsey. He is good with computers much like her but suddenly a nearby building’s top floors instantly explode. Colossus tells Kitty to call the emergency services while he goes in to find survivers.

Colossus armours up as he runs into the building. It is abandoned and he doesn’t think that there will be many people there. He also finds it strange that there is no signs of fire. As he runs into another room he is confronted by the Blob. Colossus realises that it is a trap but is struck outside the building by the Blob.

Colossus goes flying and as Kitty tries to call the emergency services from a distance away she sees him captured by a flame dragon. Pyro is the one responsible and he heats up Colossus which makes him turn red hot and then white hot. Colossus then falls down to the ground like a meteorite. He thinks that his struggle caused Pyro to dissipate the flame dragon.

Avalanche makes his appearance as he uses his powers to cause five nearby trucks filled with liquid nitrogen to move toward Colossus. Kitty hears the impacts of the trucks and rushes to his aid but much to her horror she sees that he has been frozen to the spot and seems to have been in agony.

My Thoughts

Now we are back to the Uncanny X-Men with a very well done issue although the first half of the comic was more or less a simulation. It was still an entertaining read nonetheless and we got to see how much of a badass Mystique could be and how she would kill each of the X-Men.

The issue is further stating that there is kinship between Mystique and Nightcrawler. It will be a further ten years (maybe less) after the release of this issue until we discover that Mystique is actually Nightcralwer’s mother. It was a question that was looming for a number of years. The reader can understand his frustration about the issue of his real family and it is very understandable.

One thing I did find a little off with the simulation is that Wolverine was killed by having his throat slashed. In future comics he has survived such injuries and even had been stripped down to his adamantium skeleton and he was still able to heal (Because his brain was undamaged). Maybe this was something that Arcade didn’t know and didn’t apply to his robots.

The issue is also the last we will see of Corsair and Lilandra for a short time as they go to fight Deathbird for the throne of the Shi’Ar Empire. I’m not too sure if what exactly happened was actually printed or if it happened off panel but it would have been a great set-up for an LS if it was never printed. It seemed like something that would have been a great story and if it was printed I want to read it.

The material with Kitty was fun to read and you could see that she is becoming more estranged from Storm after her radical new look. We also see her developing relationship with Colossus and the first mention of Doug Ramsey who will become her dear friend and a member of the New Mutants. Whenever I hear his name I think of Ramsey Snow (see if you know where he’s from). Is that normal or am I just making links?

It was great to see Mystique and the Brotherhood in action, it has been some time since they have really threatened the X-Men. Mystique did pop up a couple of times and they even tried to use Angel to try and exact their revenge in the Dazzler series. Ultimately her goal is to bring back Rogue but she is too blind to see that Rogue left on her own free will. It is understandable that she thinks that Xavier is responsible and it is the only way she can conceive of her adoptive daughter leaving her.

The cliff-hanger ending makes us wonder if Colossus has perished at the hands of the Brotherhood. It is endings like that which makes the reader want to buy the next issue so that they can discover what happened to their favourite character. It’s one way to sell comics.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue an 8 out of 10. A good issue that should be read by all who love comics.

Next Issue

Dazzler (Volume 1) #30

Issue Information

Title- Dazzler (Volume 1) #30

Release Date- January 1984

Writer- Ken McDonald

Artist- Frank Springer

Major Notes

Only issue written by Ken McDonald. Last appearance of Lois London for twenty five years

Brief Summary

The Debt

In the stricken plane Dazzler is trying to wake Hack the pilot up but he is still unconscious. She walks over to Roman Nekobah and as she wakes him up she asks him if he can fly the plane. He responds that he can’t and believes that she should melt in his arms since they are doomed. Dazzler refuses to believe this and she straps a parachute to him. She makes him get up onto his feet and helps him jump out of the plane as he knows how to use the chute. She then straps a parachute to herself and the unconscious Hack and jumps out before it crashes. As they descend to the ground she uses her powers to create a flash of light that attracts the attention of nearby policemen.

A short time later Dazzler and the police race into a hospital where Hack and Roman have been taken. She expects to see a scene of sorrow but instead she sees the hospital staff tending to Roman and wanting autographs off of him. He says that Hack will be alright and that he is tied up there. She is told that she will be taken home.

Later the policemen drive her to the home of Nick Brown and as she goes inside she sees the man himself. He isn’t all that pleased to hear that she squandered a publicity opportunity by staying in the hospital longer. He thinks that she could have stayed longer and people would think that she was injured, it would have been an opportunity to progress her career. Dazzler is disgusted with what he is suggesting and Nick states that she could become bigger than Roman and that she needs him. He doesn’t believe that Harry Osgood can progress her career any further and as they argue Lois London enters the room, she knows that Dazzler will be leaving and she heard everything that was said. Even though she knows that her father isn’t a saint Lois still wants to stay with him. She begs Dazzler not to leave but her sister has made up her mind and she walks out of the house.

As Dazzler walks in the streets it begins to rain. She has no umbrella and a car pulls up right besides her. The man inside asks if she wants him to take her anywhere and that although it is not a good idea to accept a ride from strangers he is doing it out of kindness. Dazzler does accept and states that she wants to be far away from LA. He is driving to a comic book convention in San Diego and also introduces himself as Ralph and he is an editor.

Two and a half hours later they arrive in San Diego and Ralph realises that Dazzler has no money. He gives her a twenty dollar bill and although she doesn’t want to accept it but he isn’t taking no for an answer.

Meanwhile miles away in a secret military base the pilot who tried to shoot Dazzler’s plane down arrives and enters the war room. There a general questions how he wasn’t able to bring the plane down, they knew that Dazzler was on the plane and that she was a mutant. The general has to leave for the pentagon and leaves a man named Crespi in charge. He has an idea to use a device to flush out Dazzler as she will be their first mutant victim.

At the Marvel Headquarters in New York a man named Bob waits for Ralph to call him. The editors are away and the writers want to take advantage of the situation. At first he doesn’t want to go through anything without having the authorisation from Ralph but the assistant editors and writers are able to convince him otherwise. He sees the potential of writing comics without editors and rubs his hands in glee.

The next day Dazzler wakes up in her room at a YMCA and is able to make a phone call to her agent Harry Osgood. He is more than happy to renew her contract although his receptionist thinks that she is trouble.

At that moment at the San Diego Comic Convention Ralph arrives and is swamped by people who want autographs and he enters the convention. He hasn’t been able to contact Bob and he hopes that everything is alright. He doesn’t know exactly what is happening in New York.

Outside the military personnel have been able to track Dazzler as she enters the convention. They park up and start to take the boxes of equipment inside. As they take it in they assemble it and they are able to build a large machine with it. It is designed to send out waves that disorientates mutants but is harmless to humans. As they switch it on Dazzler feels its effects and has to use all of her willpower to stop herself from shooting random beams of light.

Unseen to the military personnel at first one of their own soldiers named Zalme is also effected by the waves. They discover that he is a mutant and he transforms into a large lizard like creature. This terrifies everyone in the convention and as they flee Dazzler knows that she has to defeat him so that no one is harmed. The armed forces also attack Zalme but he is able to bat them away. With all of her concentration Dazzler is able to destroy the device which lifts the strange feeling that she felt but Zalme is still transformed.

Zalme attacks her and she responds by using powerful light blasts. She is also trying to reason with him but he is completely mad. During the fight Zalme knocks a support pillar causing the roof to begin to fall. Dazzler has to duck out of the way and is able to find Ralph. She hurries him to safety. She gives him his money back and she also knows that Zalme has most likely reverted to normal.

As Dazzler leaves Ralph makes his way to a phone so that he can call Bob. At that time Bob is going over with the assistant editors all the craziness that will happen in the comics. As he picks up the phone and listens to what Ralph tells him all these plans are dropped and everything will go back to normal.

A short time later Dazzler boards a bus bound for LA. She is determined not to run away again and make her career there as a singer and a movie star.

My Thoughts

Now we are back with Dazzler in an issue where we say goodbye to another character who had been in a supporting role for the last near dozen issues. Yep we say goodbye to Dazzler’s half sister Lois London who will not make another comic book appearance until the Necrosha storyline that will take place a quarter of a century later. It makes me realise that practically all of the original characters from this series hardly or ever appear again when they are finished in Dazzler. When the series itself finally ends only Dazzler really remains and all of her original enemies and supporting characters either stay in comic limbo for some time or are never seen again.

Keep in tune with the Marvel Editors having the month off there is a bit of wackiness in this book like many of the others (Like Uncanny X-Men Annual #7). That was alright but it was something that I felt was really out of place in this series. If there was a Deadpool series at the time it would have been perfect but not for Dazzler.

The issue also marks the only time that we see the penship of Ken McDonald in the series and the only time when we see the mutant named Zalme. Ken McDonald did an alright job with this issue but he did split up two sisters and we will not see Lois for some time now which is a shame. Zalme never made another appearance after this issue and it seems like he is an Hulk like character but when you have a big green guy to compete with I can see why he was never used again. I do believe that he was named after one of the members of staff at Marvel.

I can understand Dazzler’s need to get away from Los Angeles and at least she was able to go somewhere where I’ve always wanted to go to (along with many more people) and that is the San Diego Comic Con. Even after more than thirty years it is still held annually and draws in a huge crowd every year.

I still think that Roman is a bit of a sleaze since even though he was about to die he still wanted Dazzler to hug and kiss him instead of finding a way to save their lives. He seems to be trouble for her and I can only imagine what’ll happen. He does have his celebrity swagger at least so that did help him out a little.

Now we know that the plane was after Dazzler and not Roman. I think that the military personnel who were trying to kill her were a part of Project Wideawake. I doubt that this is the last that we will here from the program in the Dazzler series and we will most likely see them again in either the Uncanny X-Men or New Mutants.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue a 6 out of 10. It wasn’t too bad but it had too much wackiness for my liking in this series.

Next Issue

New Mutants (Volume 1) #11

Issue Information

Title- New Mutants (Volume 1) #11

Release Date- January 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- Sal Buscema

Major Notes

Brief Summary

Magma

A newly transformed Amara attacks Selene with a beam of molten lava while the villainess shields the attack. She creates two rock giants that catch Amara by surprise and she falls into the lava pit. Mirage cannot believe what she has seen and she sees that Selene has aged exponentially. Using her powers like this has caused Selene to age and she uses her abilities to form rock columns to push her followers into the lava. She is able to absorb their life force and she is able to revert herself to her younger form. She intends to turn Mirage into an energy vampire much like herself and the young mutant is under her spell. Mirage however is able to fight the spell and at that moment Amara rises up from the Magma pit and attacks Selene. The villainess is seemingly defeated and Mirage tries to get to Amara so that she can try to help her. She can see how scared Amara is and she tries to help calm her down even though she accidentally creates an image of Amara losing control of her powers. But before any progress can be made Selene attacks Amara causing her to revert to normal as her life force is drained. Amara falls down seemingly dead and Selene still wants to turn Mirage into an energy vampire like herself.

Elsewhere at the home of Senator Lucius Aquilla the man himself and his surviving guards are being taken away. Marcus looks on in delight as Cannonball and Sunspot are unsure if they did the right thing. They tell him that Mirage is missing so he sends a search party to find her even though he knows that his wife Selene most likely has her. Marcus gives kind words to Wolfsbane but as Lucius is led away he shouts that Marcus will betray her and he gets a strike in the head for his troubles. Sunspot also notices a woman that looks like his mother being led away with the other prisoners and he tries to follow.

A short time later Sunspot knocks a centurion out and steals his armour for a disguise. His hunt leads him to a dungeon with the door left ajar. He peeks inside and sees Castro with his mother chained up to a wall. Castro tells her how her husband and Sunspot’s father Emmanuel plans to exploit the riches of the land, she is not meant to die but he can’t make any promises.

Sunspot enters the dungeon and at first Castro thinks that he is a simple guard. When Sunspot transforms and bursts out of the armour Castro sees that it is him and pulls a gun out on him. Unfortunately for him Sunspot knocks him down before he has a chance to use it. He then frees his mother who explains that she almost drowned but was saved by the amazons. They go to escape and they know to defeat Marcus’s forces they need the amazons, the New Mutants and Lucius’s men. He is also ashamed to learn about his father’s ambitions and what he would do to achieve them.

At the home of Marcus the man himself watches as his enemy Lucius is whipped. Cannonball and Wolfsbane are sitting by his seat and they are disgusted with what they are seeing. In Latin Marcus orders the teenagers killed with poison since they have served their purpose to him. They are about to drink the poisoned wine that they have been given when a transformed Amara bursts up through the ground. Everyone is in shock but Lucius recognises her voice and sees that it is his daughter.

Before Marcus’s guards can react the house is attacked by the combined forces of the amazons and Lucius’s remaining forces. Sunspot has also arrived and the three New Mutants attack Marcus’s guards. They are doing well but when Sunspot further uses his powers he tires and is about to be stabbed in the back but Cannonball is able to save him. Wolfsbane is doing well but is knocked out by a surprise attack by Marcus. He goes to kill her but is stopped by Lucius. The pair then engage in a one on one sword fight which ends when Marcus has a sword stabbed right into his belly. Lucius is the victor even though he seems to be physically inferior to his opponent.

By now Amara has reverted to normal and she tells the team about Selene and what she plans to do with Mirage. She also explains that she had been dead but when she touched the ground it had rejuvenated her and the team know that the tunnel that she has created will take them to Selene’s lair.

As the team along with Amara travel down the tunnel. Wolfsbane is in her full wolf form and is trying to track Mirage but suddenly the tunnel behind them seals shut. The team find themselves trapped in a layer of rock that sprouts from the ground and smothers them. Amara transform to break free while Cannonball rockets his way out. He breaks Sunspot out and he rockets towards Selene’s location.

As they reach their destination the team see Mirage shackled to the wall while Selene is about to start the process. A rock dog is attacking Wolfsbane but Amara is able to destroy it. Selene then uses her abilities to subdue the team and as she gloats Sunspot transforms and tries to attack but is repelled. Mirage focuses her abilities and is able to take Selene by surprise with creating an image of her death. This gives Sunspot the opportunity he needs to stab her in the heart, she doesn’t die and instead grabs him and begins to absorb his life force.

Cannonball creates a hole in the wall that allows the sunlight to enter the chamber. This gives Sunspot the energy he needs to transform again causing Selene to lose her grip on him. Amara creates a magma pit and Sunspot is able to grab Selene and throw her down. The team is horrified with what he has done and he is able to break the rock to cover the pit up. He knows he did what he had to do and he doesn’t think that he has killed Selene but has merely stopped her for now. Amara is still terrified and doesn’t know whether she will become a New Mutant or more like Selene.

My Thoughts

Now we return to the New Mutants which I more or less call the finale to the Nova Roma arc. There is one more chapter but that one is more like an epilogue. This more like a suitable finale since this is where most of the action takes place and the events of the arc have been leading up to this.

Although Marcus seemed to be the main villain of the arc I feel that it was his wife Selene who was the main villainess. She’s become a widow for what is probably the hundredth time at least for her. I’ve seen now that on top of her life energy vampire abilities she seems to have the ability to manipulate rock although the vampire like powers are the ones that she is remembered for the most. Although she seemingly died in this issue she will return very soon.

I would say that the New Mutant who stood out the most in this issue was Sunspot. Not only did he save his mother but he had more panel time than the other New Mutants. He also showed that he was more ruthless than the other New Mutants although the knowledge that he wasn’t truly killing Selene probably does compensate for that. I don’t think that he would intentionally kill someone like that or if he does right now that he’ll progress. He certainly has the biggest temper out of the team and it will get him into trouble over the years.

The whole battle at Marcus’s home was really well done and the one on one fight that he had with Lucius was entertaining to read. You would think that the seemingly more athletic opponent would have won but instead we have the fat and seemingly unfit man win. This shows that you should never judge a book by its cover and that Lucius although seemingly weak is very skilled with a blade.

I wasn’t too sure how exactly Mirage was going to be turned into an energy vampire. Most likely Selene knew some kind of technique that would have allowed the process to happen, I also thought that it would be a bad idea on her part having a fellow energy vampire since most likely in the future they would both come at odds and most likely fight one another. It would be a long fight since they would more or less be immortal and there could a competition for prey if the human race would somehow diminish.

The big question at the end of the issue is what will happen to Amara? Will she try and rebuild Nova Roma or go back to New York with the New Mutants? These are all questions that will be answered in the next issue.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue an 8 out of 10. A great read overall and am looking forward to the rest of the series.

Next Issue

Magik (Volume 1) #2

bump

Issue Information

Title- Magik (Volume 1) #2

Release Date- January 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- John Buscema

Major Notes

Death of Nightcrawler (sort of)

Brief Summary

Cold Iron - Hot Blood!

Cat has come face to face with a demon while Illyana cowers in the background. It is able to take Cat by surprise and knocks her down. It then turns its attentions to Illyana who begins to run away. Cat is able to recover and throws some throwing stars at the demon, it doesn’t harm him but only attracts its attention. As it charges towards Cat she stabs it in the chest killing it. Illyana is happy to see this but another demon tries to grab her, in her panic she falls into a teleportation disc and disappears.

Illyana finds herself in a dark room and as she gets up she is horrified to discover the corpse of an alternate version of her brother Colossus. She turns and sees the demon S’ym who is the loyal servant of Belasco. He intends to take her to him and even mocks her with how he killed her brother. She tries to flee but he is able to grab her, she is at his mercy but he suddenly feels a sharp pain in his tail causing him to drop her. When he turns he sees that Cat has stabbed him in his tail. He tries to attack her but she phases through his arm and she grabs Illyana. They then phase through a wall and find themselves in another part of Limbo.

This part of Limbo resembles the Savage Land but has been corrupted by Belasco. Using Cat’s phasing abilities they float down near the ground and she explains how her mutant abilities work when Illyana questions her. Cat drops Illyana into a pile of sticks and attacks a two headed Sabre Toothed cat. Illyana thinks that Cat will be killed but the warrior woman is able to take the sabre toothed cat by surprise and kills it with ease. After the cat is dead Cat herself takes off her mask and gives out a roar of triumph. This scares Illyana and Cat reminds her that she is not like what she used to be when she was human.

That night the pair eat the sabre toothed cat and Illyana asks about going home. Storm had told her that taking her home was dangerous but Cat disagrees that no sorcerer can be trusted. She also tells Illyana to go to sleep since her training will start in the morning.

The next morning Illyana wakes up and Cat makes her put on a suit that will be more fitting for their training. She points that a faraway mountain range is their destination and when Illyana asks how they will be getting there Cat responds that they run as she uses her sword to knock Illyana.

The pair begin their journey but Illyana has a hard time keeping up with the taller and more athletic Cat. Every time she falls down from exhaustion Cat taunts her and forces her to get up and keep going. There are fierce creatures who could turn them into mincemeat so Illyana is forced to run simply to stay alive.

When Illyana can’t go any further Cat decides it is time for them to duel. Illyana is given a sword while Cat uses her knife. At first Illyana has no energy but when Cat cuts her cheeks she gains a second wind and is able to fight back. Cat is able to disarm her but she is happy with how the duel went. She explains to Illyana that she must stay strong and that she will return home. Suddenly an astral image of Storm appears and she demands that they return to her sanctuary. Cat refuses stating that Belasco and be killed using swords and although Storm can stop them with a thought she decides that if she did she would be no better than Belasco himself. Her astral image disappears but before she leaves she states that they will not meet again.

Over the next year or two Cat and Illyana continue to travel to the mountains and train. Illyana is becoming more skilled with a blade and she is even able to cut cat during one of their duels. Cat is proud of Illyana and they have reached their destination which is the citadel of Belasco and Illyana’s ticket home.

They are able to climb up to the citadel but they are confronted by a twisted version of Nightcrawler who attacks Cat. He is able to gain the upper hand on both girls and Cat phases through the ground seemingly to safety. Nightcrawler’s teleportation abilities give him an advantage and he duels with Illyana. She is not able to touch him but as he stands confidently he doesn’t notice Cat phase up behind him. She grabs his ankle and phases his foot into the ground. As she lets go his foot solidifies in the floor causing him great pain but Cat stabs him in the chest killing him. Illyana is saddened since she remembers what he had been like and not what he had become.

With Nightcrawler out of the way the pair walk to Belasco’s alter where walls between Limbo and Earth are at its weakest. Cat intends to use her abilities to phase them through the dimensional barriers and take her back to Earth. As she begins to travel through the walls with Illyana they see a flurry of different colours but they soon find themselves in what seems to be Earth. They see the X-Men and Illyana thinks that she is home but as she grabs the hand of Kitty it is revealed that they have fallen into Belasco’s trap.

The pair find themselves before Belasco and his demon hordes. He knows that Illyana was somewhat glad to see him since he believes that she is bound to him. He looks at the dead body of Nightcrawler and is disappointed to see him dead, he states that since Cat killed him that she will take his place. Cat tries to attack Belasco but he stops her with a simple spell. Much to her horror her body is no longer in her control and she hands him her sword on his command. Belasco then uses his magic to mutate cat further until she is much more like a cat, she grows hair over her body and a tail along with cat ears and whiskers. Her free will has also been taken away and she is completely obedient to Belasco.

Illyana hides in the background but a part of her is excited by what she has seen. She approaches Belasco when he asks her two and he gives her a blade, instead of attacking him Illyana cuts herself and uses the medallion that she was given to allow some of her blood to pour into it. This forms the second blood stone and she is seemingly under Belasco’s influence.

At her sanctuary Storm is watching the events from a crystal ball and she smashes it in rage. She is horrified with what has happened and despite her vows she vows to destroy Belasco, Cat and Illyana.

My Thoughts

Now we come back to the Magik Limited Series with the second issue out of four. I really enjoyed this issue because this is one of the first issues that is almost entirely dedicated with the friendship between Illyana and Kitty Pryde. Ok it isn’t the Kitty Pryde that we all know and love but it was still very nice to see.

In this issue we also see the return of Limbo Nightcrawler who is as demonic inside as he is outwards. I did notice that his fingers and toes look more like claws and this is a beautiful reminder that he is not the Nightcrawler that has an enormous fan base but instead a more twisted version who is truly demonic. It was a shame to see him killed although we can take comfort in knowing that normal Nightcrawler is still alive and well.

We get to see Illyana gain skills as a warrior thanks to the training of Cat, it will come in handy when she manifests the Soulsword. We also saw the beginning of her friendship with Cat which will carry over into the real world with Kitty. Before Kitty had been like a big sister to her but with Cat it was more out of friendship as she tries to train Illyana for if they faced Belasco. She did do things to Illyana that would seem barbaric but it was ultimately to help her, it made her stronger and more skilled. The only thing that ruined what they had was that the light at the end of the tunnel was a trap.

I do find it somewhat hard to believe that it took them almost two years to reach Belasco’s citadel if the mountains were their ultimate destination. I admit that it would take them a while to get there from their start point but not two years. Maybe his citadel was beyond the mountains or they went at a slower pace since they were training as well as travelling. Either way it was a way to kill a bit of time during the seven years that Illyana was trapped in Limbo.

Storm’s presence was only minor in this issue but they were still important as she tries to sway Cat from her fool’s errand. I wonder what would have happened if they had returned to Storm, would Illyana have fallen into the hands of Belasco or would all three of them have been doomed. This is something that we might never know but one thing we do know is that Storm is not bluffing and that she is giving up all that she held sacred to rid the universe of Belasco.

I was sad to see Cat’s efforts come to naught and then further transformed into a cat like creature. We knew that something bad was going to happen to her and the other Limbo X-Men thanks to a few quotes from Illyana in both the Uncanny X-Men and the New Mutants series and we more or less know that their stories will not have a happy ending.

In conclusion I’m giving this issue a 9 out of 10. I thoroughly enjoyed this issue from start to finish.

Next Issue

X-Men and the Micronauts (Volume 1) #1

Issue Information

Title- X-Men and the Micronauts (Volume 1) #1

Release Date- January 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont and Bill Mantlo

Artist- Butch Guice

Major Notes

Crossover series between the X-Men and Micronauts. Features the New Mutants

Brief Summary

First Encounter

In the Microverse an armada of space ships fly towards a battle. They are led by Bioship which is the ship carrying the famed heroes the Micronauts. On board the Micronauts led by Commander Rann go over the situation as many planets in the microverse have been destroyed by an unknown villain. Their arch nemesis Baron Karza is also on the ship as they have joined forces to battle the unknown enemy. There is a fleet of ships blocking their path and they must go through them to get to the unknown enemy. With some reluctance Rann gives the fleet the command to attack.

The fleets begin to attack each other as the Baron Karza’s fleet go into battle with the fleet of the D’arnellians who up until now had been pacifists. As the Micronauts watch the battle they can see that the forces are evenly matched, they watch numerous troops on both sides die and they are somewhat ashamed of what is happening.

Suddenly one of Karza’s troops appears inside the ship and he reports that the enemy fleet isn’t fighting out of anger or for conquest but out of absolute fear of the being urging them. Karza knows that they have to flush out the unknown enemy and bring him into the open. The Micronauts are still not happy with the alliance but realise that the power of the unknown enemy is too vast for either one of them to tackle alone.

The team armour up and are beamed into the heart of the battle and as they fight the enemy soldiers Karza watches on from the safety of the Bioship. The Bioship is able to sense the unknown enemy and they discover that the unknown enemy is from Earth.

The Micronauts see a glowing asteroid within the battle and from the asteroid they see the golden armoured figure of the unknown enemy as he is able to kill the fleet with a strong psychic attack. He then confronts the Micronauts and when they ask him why he is destroying the planets he responds that it is simply fun. With a click of his finger the homeworld of the D’arnellians is destroyed.

The planet’s destruction causes a meteorite shower that Bioship has to shield itself from and as it scans for life the Micronauts are mere playthings to the Unknown Enemy. As he gloats over his victory he senses that the Bisohip watching with Karza inside. He begins to attack but the Bioship retreats quickly and with warp speed engaged they make their way to Earth.

On Earth itself it is a sunny afternoon as Kitty Pryde watches Nightcrawler and Storm relaxing at the pool while she and roommate Illyana Rasputin have to finish their work before they can have they can relax. Kitty isn’t too happy with the fact that Professor Xavier is making them work all the time. Xavier is able to pick up Kitty’s thoughts and he punishes her to an extra half an hour work on psionic shielding. This is so that she can protect herself in battle from telepaths.

In the control room of the Danger Room Xavier is preparing a lesson for the New Mutants. It will be their quarterly examination. They feel confident but there are no right or wrong answers in this test and it is to see where they need improvement.

Suddenly the team is attacked and are flung into the Danger Room itself. The culprit is Karza who has been able to trace the energy of the Unknown Enemy to Xavier. Even in his enlarged size he is only the size of a toy in comparison to the New Mutants. Sunspot is the first to try his luck but is subdued by the villain. Cannonball is the next and he recognises Karza from a range of toys that one of his sisters has. He is too defeated along with Wolfsbane and Sunspot once again. Mirage attempts to create an image of his fear and Karza sees the man that he had once been, he is able to counter this by creating an image of her feat which is the bear that killed her parents.

With the New Mutants defeated the unconscious Xavier is at the mercy of Karza but he is attacked by Storm as Nightcrawler teleports in and gets Xavier to safety. Wolverine and Colossus also arrive so that they can join in and as the battle goes on the team begin to get the upper hand on their tiny enemy. Wolverine is able to damage his armour and as he attacks to try and defend himself his zaps Nightcrawler knocking him out. She tries to phase through Karza there is a large explosion of energy as the X-Men go to her aid. As she recovers they don’t realise that her mind has been transferred with Karza’s and her actual mind is in his body although it is unconscious. He turns this to his advantage as Bioship materialises a few feet away from them and it tells the team that he is not here to fight.

After a short while Karza begins to explain what has been happening in the Microverse. The team don’t realise that the armoured body is being controlled by Karza who is in Kitty’s body. Storm does notice that Kitty has acted strangely since the phasing incident. Xavier is able to detect from Bioship that they are telling the truth but can’t read the minds of Karza or most importantly Kitty. He sees that the X-Men have a duty to the innocent people in the Microverse and they are ready to go. As Illyana enters the room with Lockheed, the dragon breaths fire at Kitty and she reacts negatively.

The X-Men have never seen Lockheed like this or seen Kitty so frightened of him. Since the team are too big to fit into Bioship it fires a beam at them shrinking them to toy sized and then zaps them inside him. With everyone on board Bioship itself shrinks until it is out of sight and travelling back to the Microverse while Xavier wishes he could have joined them and he fears that they might not return. He also fears the link that he has with the Unknown Enemy and he thinks that he might be able to sever that link.

My Thoughts

Now we come to what I consider to be the first X-Men crossover Limited Series. In the future we see Limited Series where they are either paired up or fighting against heroes like the Fantastic Four, Avengers, the Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man, but this is the first of their crossovers. It does involve the little known team (in both memory and stature) called the Micronauts who originate from the Microverse. It is also the first original limited series that had the X-Men name in it if you take away the first series of X-Men Classics which was just reprints. It also marks the third original X-Men related Limited Series behind the first volume of Wolverine and the Magik series which was actually going at the time of this issue’s release.

Not only did the issue feature both the X-Men and the Micronauts but we also got to see four members of the junior team known as the New Mutants. We do discover that Amara aka Magma has joined the team although she doesn’t appear in this issue but this was something that was going to be answered in the New Mutants series in the following month.

This is not the first time that the X-Men have crossed paths with the Micronauts however since around a year earlier they featured (especially Nightcrawler) in an issue of the Micronuauts. You could say that it is a tale of two teams in a way, one has gone onto superstardom while the other has faded into obscurity. I don’t think Marvel are even allowed to reprint Micronauts comics and because of this the X-Men and the Micronauts Limited Series has never been reprinted (and still remains to be one of the few 80’s X-Men LSs to never be reprinted).

The battle in the Microverse did take me a little to fully understand. I did feel that I would have understood it more if I actually read the Micronauts series. But it seems that the Unknown Enemy is basically an evil astral version of Professor Xavier who is as powerful as Galactus. But the difference between them is where Galactus needs to devour the planets to keep himself alive this evil astral Xavier does it purely for fun.

The Micronauts team is also slightly different to the one who had a brief team-up with Nightcrawler as now they have Bioship and a couple of members have joined and left the team. We still see regulars like Rann, Bug, Acroyear and Marionette but we see a new member in the form of Fireflyte who is toy sized compared to them so that would make her really small.

I felt that the most used X-Man in this issue was Kitty Pryde (although they misspelled her name). She has once again had her body inhabited by another mind which was the same as what happened to her during the Days Of The Future Past storyline and I believe that it will happen a few more times. She is shrunk like the other X-Men but one fun fact is that almost thirty years later the Ultimate version of her will change size again but this time the other way making her the only X-Man to have both shrunk and enlarged.

The other X-Men did play vital roles in this issue as well as they have gone head into the Microverse to try and save a universe that is too small for them to even see. That does show some level of heroism since not everyone would be wanting to help people who were literally too small to be noticed. At least for them they get to travel to a different universe that they would never have been able to travel to otherwise.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue a 7 out of 10. It was a pretty good start and I look forward to the rest of the series.

Next Issue

Moon Knight (Volume 1) #35

In the Magik series, it is further hinted that Storm has some sort of mystical background, which is further teased in issues of New Mutants and X-Men. I believe she is supposed to be a member of the Faltine and her being somehow connected to magic was intended to be the reason that Shadow King was supposed to be so obsessed with her. I don't think anything ever really comes of it though.

Issue Information

Title- Moon Knight (Volume 1) #35

Release Date- January 1984

Writer- Tony Isabella

Artist- Kevin Nowlan & Bob McLeod

Major Notes

Features the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. First appearance of Bora

Brief Summary

Second Wind

With the help of his pilot Frenchie, Moon Knight is flying over New York City. He spots the villain known as the Fly breaking into the apartment of a millionaire. Moon Knight lands inside the apartment and attempts to take the villain by surprise but the Fly sees him and attacks. The Fly can see in every direction but Moon Knight attacks seemingly knocking the villain off the apartment and falling towards the ground. Moon Knight is worried that the Fly is falling to his death but the villain can stick to the wall. He bolts up and uses his wings to send Moon Knight flying towards the wall. With Moon Knight down the Fly makes his escape as Frenchie comes to his aid. But as he tries to move Moon Knight realises that he can’t stand up.

Moon Knight is taken to the hospital where doctors tell Frenchie and Moon Knight’s girlfriend Marlene. The damage that he suffered was severe and the doctors doubt that he will ever walk again.

In Paris a Russian ballerina named Mariya is running for her life but a strong cold wind hits her from behind and she is pinned to a wall. The towering figure of another woman comes up and accuses her of abandoning her home of Russia and allowing her talents to be used elsewhere. Mariya is begging for her life but the woman shows her no mercy as she uses the winds to send the young woman flying high into the air where she will fall to an untimely death.

Later at Moon Knight’s mansion the man himself is going through therapy on a pair of bars. It is not the pain of his injuries that bothers him but the fact that he failed against the Fly and if he were to fail again innocent lives might be at stake. Marlene is there with him and as she helps him back into his wheelchair the butler Samuels enters announcing that they have a guest. Suddenly their friend Gena walks in and goes to see how Moon Knight is. Then another friend Jake also enters.

As they sit down for a drink Gena reveals that she will be leaving soon after all the trouble she has run into and to find a better place for her kids to grow up in. Jake wonders if Moon Knight will need his services since he is in a wheelchair now. Jake is having a little financial trouble but he thinks that he will be fine and leaves. Moon Knight is angered and decides that it is best to retire from being a superhero.

Later Moon Knight is sitting in front of the statue of Khonshu and asks if he can finally be one person and not the other personalities that live within his head. He wishes to stay as Steven Grant but Marlene is there for him and he decides to start living his life rather than being Moon Knight.

The next day Moon Knight and Marlene go to a dance studio where he has been funding a production headed by famed Russian Ballerina Sergey Valberg. He is a cheery man and as camera equipment is been taken to the practice studio no one notices the figure of the tall woman entering from behind.

A short time later Sergey is inside the practice studio with an audience watching. Sergey begins his dance which is almost like nothing that the crowd have ever seen but suddenly a gust of cold air opens the nearby door and the tall woman enters the room, she is after Sergey and Moon Knight is helpless to stop her. She enters the cubicle where Sergey is and he recognises her as one of his former students Bora. He also realises that she killed his other student Maiya and when he asks her why she is doing this she begins her explanation. She had been his top student but when her body began to change he had fled from Russia and she had to go through it alone. She discovered that she was a mutant and when her transformation was finished she found that she was seven feet tall and thus too tall to be a ballerina. Her dreams had been shattered and she believes that his talents belong to Russia itself. She begins to generate ice cold winds and Sergey knows that he is going to die but at least he can die doing what he loves. He begins to dance while Moon Knight watches helplessly but eventually Sergey drops dead and Bora calmly leaves the building.

That night Moon Knight is on the roof of his mansion and although he is still in a wheelchair he is also still in his costume. His friends are there with him and he remembers the good that he did as Moon Knight. He tries to stand from his wheelchair but falls down, he prays to Khonshu and slowly he gets back up to his feet and although he is in pain he knows that there is work to be done.

The next day Moon Knight travels to the X-Mansion and talks to Professor Xavier about Bora. He gives her some small amount of information but it is not all that good for him but Moon Knight knows that she will strike again since the Ballet Company has four more defectors. There is a ballet performance that night and they know that Bora will most likely strike there. He then leaves but the conversation was overheard by Colossus and Nightcrawler. They want to help Moon Knight but Xavier tells them that this is something that he needs to do himself but they do decide to go to the ballet anyway as a form of back-up.

Frenchie has been outside trying to chat up Storm but when Moon Knight comes outside they have to leave. Frenchie thinks that it is too cloudy to fly but when he looks up to his astonishment it is clear skies. He doesn’t realise about Storm’s mutant ability to control the weather.

That night Nightcrawler is sitting himself down in the hall where the Ballet is taking place. He feels a tap on his shoulder and when he turns he sees the Thing from the Fantastic Four. The Thing reveals that he knows about Bora and Moon Knight asked him to come as a back up. As Nightcrawler looks he sees that the rest of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men are in attendance.

In a viewing box Moon Knight watches as the production starts. He is nervous but waits for Bora to strike. Suddenly a strong gust of ice cold wind goes through the stage and Bora makes her appearance. She intends to kill the ballerinas and the heroes want to take her down but they hold back knowing that Moon Knight has to handle it.

Moon Knight jumps down and confronts Bora but he is blown away by her icy winds. He is able to recover and has his friends Marlene and Frenchie activate bright lights and loud sounds that disorientate Bora. As she panics she begins to generate more icy wind which puts the crowd in danger. This is when the Fantastic Four and X-Men step in the save the crowd from being harmed. The two teams work together to save everyone in the hall.

Moon Knight is seemingly at the mercy of Bora and she is on the verge of killing him. She is pushing him with icy winds but suddenly Nightcrawler teleports right in front of her. This catches her by surprise and as she slaps him away Moon Knight takes advantage and puts a cloth laced with chordophone over her mouth. This knocks her out and the fight is over.

Later Moon Knight is sitting in his mansion in front of the Khonshu statue. He vows to never quit being Moon Knight and he kisses Marlene as they have gone through a tough trial together.

My Thoughts

Now we come to a series called Moon Knight which features a character who is not too dissimilar to Batman. He relies on weaponry and hand to hand combat skills over having actual powers and he is super rich. One difference between the two however is that Moon Knight suffers from multiple personality disorder and it is something that is very unusual amongst superheroes.

The issue introduces a mutant named Bora who has the power to more or less generate icy winds that can be so cold that it can kill a person. Her body did change which is somewhat common with mutants when their powers manifest. We have Polaris with green hair and various members of the Morlocks. In Bora’s case she grew in height until she was seven feet tall that made her too tall to be a ballerina. I can see how her dreams were crushed but she could have moved into basketball. She would have most likely been the tallest player on any team and would have been a great addition to any team. Unfortunately she doesn’t appear too many more times (I think she appears in a Spider-Man story and mentioned in another comic) but I think that she could have been a great adversary for the X-Men if she had been kept on.

The main point of this issue is Moon Knight falling into self-doubt and how he was able to regain his sense of purpose. He did temporarily become handicapped and it was his perseverance that allowed him to return to crime fighting and the push from an angry Russian mutant did help as well. This is supposed to be a character defining issue and if I had read the rest of the series I think that I would have been more impressed.

The issue featured both the X-Men and the Fantastic Four in supporting roles as they helped the crowd while Moon Knight concentrated on Bora. Their appearance in this issue didn’t take anything away from Moon Knight himself and it was just right for him not to be overshadowed. Ok Nightcrawler did help a little by causing a distraction for Moon Knight but other than that the two teams didn’t really interfere in the fight. I did notice that Kitty Pryde’s name was misspelt again.

I did find it a little funny that Moon Knight was knocked down by a two bit villain like the Fly. It does show that he isn’t invincible however and since he didn’t do much research on his foe it cost him. It is stated that the Fly gets his comeuppance more or less immediately after his fight with Moon Knight. But rather than Moon Knight taking the spoils the victory belongs to Spider-Man.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue a 7 out of 10. It was a pretty good read but not too essential for people only interested in the X-Men.

Next Issue

Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #178

Issue Information

Title- Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #178

Release Date- February 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- John Romita Jr.

Major Notes

None

Brief Summary

Hell Hath No Fury…

Kitty Pryde looks on in horror as Colossus is frozen in place after being superheated and then rapidly cooled. She is very sad but she tries not to panic as she concentrates her mind to call out for Professor Xavier.

At the X-Mansion Xavier is in the sitting room looking at a letter from Cyclops who is still on his honeymoon. Rogue is also there but she is keeping herself to herself. He picks up Kitty’s mental cries for help and she tells him exactly what has happened. When he learns that the Brotherhood are involved he decides to keep Rogue in the dark since their leader is her adoptive mother.

Wolverine and Storm are training in the Danger Room. Storm is taking more risks than she used to and this is picked up by Wolverine. She is becoming more like her friend Yukio but the pair receive Xavier’s mental command and Storm grabs Wolverine as they fly towards New York City. Xavier is still feeding them information when he feels what seems to be a mental attack. He gives a small cry of pain and Rogue comes to his aid, he doesn’t let on that anything is out of the ordinary as she goes and gets him some aspirin.

In New York City Kitty knows that her mutant abilities will not be of much use against the Brotherhood. She is still saddened by what has happened but she remembers reading an article in a magazine recently which stated about Reed Richards inventing a device that could help Colossus. She quickly goes to a payphone but when she calls the Baxter Building she discovers that the team are away. With no other choice she phases herself into a taxi cab and heads to the Baxter Building.

Meanwhile on the East side of the city the Morlocks Callisto, Masque and Sunder look upon the dead body of a young homeless woman in an alley. She is perfect for their needs as Masque uses his powers to begin to change the dead woman’s facial features.

Outside the Lincoln Centre Nightcrawler and Amanda Sefton are having some personal time together. They soon realise that Kitty and Colossus have been taking their time and they begin to get somewhat worried. Their fears are realised as a fire dragon comes down towards them but Nightcrawler teleports them both away. But when they reappear Avalanche is waiting for them and creates a powerful earthquake which shifts the ground up. Nightcrawler has to teleport them up where Pyro’s fire dragon is waiting for them. Amanda is able to use a spell to shield them from harm but Blob lands on the ground right next to them and grabs her. He threatens to snap her neck causing Nightcrawler to surrender and he is grabbed as well.

Storm and Wolverine have arrived at the battle and she throws a lightning bolt at Blob which causes him to drop Nightcrawler and Amanda. Pyro and Destiny watch the battle from above and she thinks to herself that Nightcrawler is safe. Blob throws a heavy chunk of debris at Storm who is able to reflect it back at him.

Meanwhile Kitty arrives at the Baxter Building and goes up to where the Fantastic Four are stationed. As she leaves the elevator the robotic receptionist is about to activate the security until she phases through it and short circuits it. She phases herself up the floors as she goes to reach the lab of Reed Richards. Unknown to her the robotic receptionist has recovered and it activates the security systems.

Back at the battle Wolverine is fighting Blob while Nightcrawler is squaring off with Pyro. They are having mixed results and to extinguish Pyro’s flame dragon Storm conjures up a powerful rain storm which neutralises his powers.

Inside the Baxter Building Kitty is feeling a little guilty with sneaking into the Baxter Building but she is able to find the device that she is looking for. She grabs it and phases up to the roof. She concentrates on walking on air down to the ground but she hears a noise behind her. It is a security widget and it causes her to fall from the top of the building.

At the battle Nightcrawler teleports behind Avalanche just when he is using his powers and is able to divert the attack to Blob. This knocks the big man off of his feet and Wolverine moves in to make him surrender. The team notice that the Brotherhood aren’t too bothered that they lost as Blob laughs at them and tells the team that their attack was nothing more than a diversion.

At the X-Mansion Xavier is still trying to discover the nature of the mental attack he suffered. He soon realises that it wasn’t an attack but a device set to block his telepathy. He realises that Mystique must be the one responsible and as Rogue returns with a tray he realises that it is an attack as she fires a gun at him. He is able to move his body so that the wound isn’t fatal but at that moment Rogue transforms into Mystique.

Just then the real Rogue returns to the room and realises what is happening. Mystique intends to kill Xavier and take Rogue back into her fold, she can’t believe that her adopted daughter would leave her unless Xavier used his telepathy to cloud her mind. Rogue reveals that she left on her own free will because she can’t control her powers. Xavier was her last hope. She demands that Mystique respect her decision and leave her be.

In New York a hologram of Mystique appears before the X-Men with Xavier on the ground by her feet. She demands the team release the Brotherhood or else she will kill Xavier. The team have no choice but to agree but as the Brotherhood leave Destiny reveals that she senses something wrong with Kitty.

Outside the Baxter Building police have been called in as a young woman lies dead. There is a crowd around the area and by the woman’s body is the smashed device. The body seems to be that of Kitty.

My Thoughts

Now we return to the Uncanny X-Men after the longest month in my blog (We had six issues reviewed last month). This was a good issue, not the best I’ve read but definitely one that kept me interested from start to finish. By the end of it we believe that two X-Men are out of action and possibly even dead.

We get the classic keep the X-Men busy while someone else attacks Xavier angle. I think it has happened a couple of times but it is still a plan which is pretty effective. It was a well-conceived plan by Mystique and she could have killed Xavier there and then but it seems that she is allowing him to live for Rogue’s sake. Many years later it is revealed that they had a deep relationship which I won’t go into any details but she did all of this because she loved Rogue. You can’t really blame her for that but maybe she chose to believe that Xavier brainwashed Rogue rather than her leaving on her freewill.

The female members of the X-Men really stood out since it was Rogue who saved the life of Xavier. Storm was a deciding factor in the battle against the Brotherhood while Kitty Pryde did everything that she could to try and save Colossus. This shows that the women of the team are not inferior to their male counterparts. Of course the male X-Men did have an essential role in the issue but the female X-Men were the ones who showed the most initiative so to speak.

One thing I did find a little funny in the issue is that Kitty commented about becoming Reed Richards’s assistant. Funnily enough almost fifteen years after the release of this comic Kitty did almost become Reed Richards’s lab assistant/babysitter for his son Franklin Richards. The X-Men spinoff series Excalibur had been cancelled and Chris Claremont (who was penning Fantastic Four at the time) wanted to use Kitty in his series but he was overruled by those above him who demanded that she re-joined the X-Men. It would have been fun to see and it always made me wonder what would have happened if Claremont had his way.

We are left with a cliff-hanger ending as we don’t know what will happen to Colossus or if Kitty is really dead. This throws many things and if you haven’t seen the cover for the next issue we don’t know Kitty’s fate. From reading the issue it seems that the Morlocks are somehow involved but to what extent still remains to be seen. A couple of issues ago we did discover that they intend to make her stay with Caliban just like she promised when the X-Men first encountered the Morlocks.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue an 8 out of 10. It was a good issue that was a good read from start to finish.

Next Issue

New Mutants (Volume 1) #12

Mystiques Brotherhood was actually a competent group of super villains. Maybe not in this issue but they do defeat the X-Men or put up a really good fight in later issues. It's always strange that characters like Blob, Pyro and Avalanche are always either written or portrayed as chumps in cartoons and future stories in the 90s.

Issue Information

Title- New Mutants (Volume 1) #12

Release Date- February 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- Sal Buscema

Major Notes

Magma officially joins the New Mutants

Brief Summary

Sunstroke

At the headquarters of Da Costa International in Rio De Janiero Emmanuel Da Costa enters the building and makes his way up to his office. When he arrives he discovers his son Sunspot sitting behind the desk. Sunspot remembers when he was young and how his father said that all of Rio will one day be his. He is angered by his father for sending the assassins and trying to exploit the hidden city of Nova Roma. They begin a heated argument and when Emmanuel raises his hand to strike his son Sunspot transforms and tells his father that if he tries to exploit Nova Roma again the New Mutants will find out and stop him. As he turns to walk out Emmanuel states that if he does walk out he will disown him. Sunspot doesn’t care and walks out anyway.

In anger Emmanuel smashes his cup of coffee, he then calls Sebastian Shaw in New York and accepts his offer to join the Hellfire Club. Sunspot leaves the building remembering his last meeting with his mother who has decided to stay in Nova Roma. She reminds him that his father was once a gentle man and has simply lost his way.

Meanwhile on a nearby beach Mirage and Magma are enjoying themselves but Magma is having a particularly difficult time. She is not used to the culture or the sun and she remembers her last meeting with her father. He is making her leave Nova Roma with the New Mutants, he knows that Nova Roma’s isolation will soon come to an end. He wants her to go to the outside world and learn about their ways. He also wants her to learn how to control her mutant abilities. She becomes angered thinking that he wants to get rid of her due to her powers and accidentally creates a small fissure in the ground. She is quickly remorseful and he tells her that Professor Xavier can help her like he did with the New Mutants.

Mirage and Magma are then hassled by a small group of men who want to take them on a date. Both women refuse but one of them grabs Magma and gives her a kiss, in her rage she creates a small volcano on the beach that panics everyone.

Some distance away Wolfsbane is entering a church but she feels uncomfortable since it is a Catholic church rather than a Protestant. She begins to pray to God and in her head she goes over how she has feelings for Cannonball but he seems to love Magma. She is seemingly losing her friendship with Mirage and she fears that her friends only care about her for her wolf form and not for her. Suddenly Cannonball runs into the church and tells her that Magma has disappeared and that the team need her wolf form.

Elsewhere in her disorientation Magma has walked into the middle of a road and cars are honking at her. She is beginning to suffer from sunstroke and she is powerless to help herself. A policeman goes into the road and helps her to the path. When he asks her where she lives she doesn’t understand him and speaks English. This makes him think that she is foreign and that her condition could do with drugs. He grabs her arm and intends to take her to the police station. He is hurting her and in her confusion Magma creates another small volcano in the middle of the road.

This is heard by the New Mutants who are nearby and when they rush to the scene they see the destruction that has been caused. They intend to give the emergency services a hand but they realise that they have to find Magma before she does anything else happens to her and she causes a major disaster. Wolfsbane transforms into her wolf form to pick up Magma’s scent but the sulphur in the air causes her to sneeze and instead they decide to follow where Magma has been.

Magma herself has found herself in a derelict part of the city and she is still suffering from sunstroke. She is beginning to lose her mind and she transforms as she seemingly creates more volcanos, even one that dwarfs the city but as she realises that she will be no better than the villainess Selene se reverts to normal and falls. She loses consciousness as she begs for strength but a group of people come to her and decide to take her away,

A short time later the New Mutants arrive and thanks to Wolfsbane they know that she Magma has been taken away. Cannonball rubs her head but she reacts negatively to this stating that she is not his pet. The team also notice that there is something odd in the air and they deduce that everything has been building up to one big cataclysmic event.

Magma has been taken to a shantytown where a group of children have taken her to receive aid. She is being treated by a woman named Flor who believes that she should be taken to a hospital. Suddenly the door bursts open as a transformed Sunspot enters but as he sees that they are merely children he reverts to normal. This scares the occupants but he is able to calm them down.

The other New Mutants enter as Mirage sees that Magma is suffering from Sunstroke. She needs ice to cool down her body temperature but there is none in the neighbourhood. She tries to create a snowstorm with her powers but instead she accidentally creates an image of Magma’s fear. They suddenly feel an earthquake and they know that they have to do something soon.

Cannonball and Sunspot fly out over the city where they find an ice truck. Using both of their mutant abilities they are able to pick it up and fly back towards the shantytown but they notice a large fissure opening up in Rio Harbour.

Later as Magma begins to wake up she is on a block of ice and it seems to have done the trick. Her friends are happy to see that she is alright and when Magma asks if the city is destroyed she learns that the damage is minimal. She agrees that she needs training and agrees to go with them to the X-Mansion and to Xavier himself.

My Thoughts

Now we come back to the New Mutants in an issue that I consider to be the epilogue to the Nova Roma arc. The last issue was the finale but this issue was just a filler before the New Mutants return to New York and have to deal with a lot more crazy business before they can have some peace.

This issue marks the end of the New Mutants’ first year first year of publication. So far it has been a really good read and has been a fitting year for the first X-Men ongoing spin-off series. It is shaping up to be a fitting side series to the Uncanny X-Men and is a great way to see up and coming mutants.

The issue mainly focuses on Magma who is suffering from Sunstroke and the confusion of the outside world. For anyone it can be a difficult period of their life but for someone with Magma’s powers it can be downright terrifying for everyone else. If the New Mutants had not have rescued her she could have destroyed the entire city. We all know that she wouldn’t have done this intentionally but still it begs the question, just how powerful is Magma and could she be the most powerful member of the team?

At the beginning we do see an unfortunate confrontation between Sunspot and his father Emmanuel. You can definitely understand Sunspot’s point of view and it is hard to believe that a father could be willing to sacrifice his own son. Maybe he didn’t fully intend for it to happen but he wouldn’t be too bothered if it did. This shows the type of man Emmanuel is and even though he has more money than he could ever hope to spend he still wants more and this is typical for many big businessmen.

We also get more insight into Wolfsbane who fears that her friends only care about her mutant abilities and not for her. This is most likely not true but in her mind it is a very real possibility. She has the fear of God within her and although her mutant abilities are natural she still thinks that she is destined to go to hell. It gives us some sympathy towards the character and it also shows us that she has feelings for Cannonball although he doesn’t really return her love.

Also we see Sunspot in particular not looking before he leapt when he burst through the door in his transformed state without really looking who was behind it first. Luckily no one was hurt but maybe this will teach him how to approach a situation without going in guns blazing.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue a 7 out of 10. It was a good issue and I am looking forward to see Magma with the rest of the team.

Next Issue

Magik (Volume 1) #3

Issue Information

Title- Magik (Volume 1) #3

Release Date- February 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- Rob Frenz

Major Notes

Death of Cat. First time that Illyana uses her mutant abilities.

Brief Summary

Soulquest

Belasco is watching as Illyana uses a spell to transform her pet named Squidge into a demon. She has raised it from birth and it trusts her completely but she still moulds it and it becomes a reflection of her soul. It attacks her and scratches her face. She swats it away and as it tries to flee Cat leaps down and grabs it. She quickly devours the small demon and after she has finished she looks at Illyana. Belasco laughs at this and also thinks that Illyana should wear her scratches as a scar to teach her a lesson. He commands her to return to her room so that she can cast a healing spell but as she runs Cat chases her intending to eat her if she is caught.

Illyana runs through the castle and makes it to her room but when she closes the door Cat simply phases through door. Illyana retreats to her bed and as Cat leaps onto it she calls out for help. With what little humanity Cat has she says Illyana’s name and enraged by what has happened to her best friend Illyana throws a pillow at Cat and uses a spell to cause her to flee. Cat retreats and Illyana knows that her friend had tried to communicate with her but she has struck her away.

That night Illyana gets out of bed and she is able to create a pentagram on the ground. Rather than being red like Belasco it is silver like Storm. She concentrates on a spell and with much concentration she is able to create an acorn, but when the acorn is seemingly complete it is destroyed causing her to lose concentration and it also breaks the spell. She had been levitating but she falls to the ground and is a daze.

When Illyana comes to she sees Storm standing before her. They talk for a moment but Illyana realises that it is simply the astral form of Storm. The older woman vows that she will be with her shortly and Illyana reveals that she has been learning of a way to destroy Belasco. Storm forbids it but Illyana knows that his influence is growing on her every day and soon she will be completely his. She believes that she has nothing to lose but as the astral form disappears Storm states that she has more than she thinks.

Illyana returns to bed and considers that the astral Storm had been a trick by Belasco. She considers fleeing but she knows that she will be caught by either Cat or Belasco’s other servant S’ym. She wishes that she could teleport like Nightcrawler and suddenly she notices a light disc appear. She concentrates again and another one appears on a wall. She knows that Belasco knows what she is doing and she is able to create a disc that transports her bed. She knows that these discs came from her but are not part of her sorcery.

Illyana appears in a tunnel that is located below Limbo and as she tries to figure out what has happened her bed is struck by a car. The New Mutants step outside the car and see that it is her but they quickly disappear. She is even more confused but she creates another light disc and steps through it.

Illyana finds herself in Belasco’s library and as she approaches Belasco’s grimoire she sees Storm who uses a gust of wind to push her back. She is able to get onto her feet and makes her way to the balcony. Outside she can see Belasco battling a younger Storm, she is able to defeat him with what seems to be ease but as Belasco is slain the younger Storm becomes like him. Belasco is not really dead but her actions have led her to become his servant. In Limbo he cannot die and the young Storm’s opponent had been the last shreds of her innocence. He is pleased about his victory over a powerful X-Man.

Illyana uses another light disc to transport to the castle’s battlements and as she looks down S’ym grabs her from behind. She is able to deflect him with a light spell before creating a light disc that makes him disappear. She notices that the castle’s walls have been breached and with the lightning outside she knows who is responsible.

As she runs downstairs she sees Storm battling Belasco. Illyana wants to use a light disc to send both herself and Storm to the sanctuary where they will be safe but before she has a chance Cat attacks Storm from behind critically wounding her. Illyana attacks Cat with a torch and Belasco is disappointed with Illyana’s betrayal and commands Cat to give her a few scars. At first Illyana is unwilling to fight Cat but as she is attacked she has no choice but to grab Cat from behind. She remembers what happened when Cat fought the sabre toothed cat armed only with a knife. She admits to herself that Cat is her best friend before she snaps Cat’s neck. With that Cat falls to the ground motionless.

With the fight over Illyana tries to tend to the fatally injured Storm but Belasco stands before them. He demonstrates that Illyana is his as he brings forth the medallion from her neck. He had claimed the soul of Storm some time ago but she had gotten it back but she couldn’t regain her innocence. He wishes to create the next Bloodstone for the medallion and then give Storm’s soul to the Dark Ones so that she will be eternally damned.

My Thoughts

Now we return to the penultimate issue of the Magik LS as the number of surviving X-Men in Limbo goes down again. This issue sees the death of the Limbo version of Kitty Pryde named Cat and also Storm becomes fatally wounded. We knew that they were going to die anyway after what Illyana said in both the Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants we know that they all die.

I have noticed with the covers of this series is that Illyana in the upper square has been getting older. On the first cover she is still six years old where over the course of the series she has been aging which marks the passage of time in each issue. This issue took place a couple of years after the previous issue so the Illyana in this upper square is older than the one on the last issue.

One of the most important things to point out in this issue is this is the first time that Illyana demonstrates her mutant abilities. She has the ability to create light discs that allow a person to teleport. This has nothing to do with her sorcery and in truth makes her a more powerful teleporter than Nightcrawler. At least with Illyana she doesn’t have to see where she’s going.

Also chronologically this is the first time that Illyana met the New Mutants. In the New Mutants series she has met them before now but at this point in her history she hasn’t met them before. I do wonder how she was able to understand them since she could only speak Russian at the time but I guess with Limbo anything can happen. There is a story that will come from this meeting and that will appear in New Mutants #14 which comes out a couple of months after the release of this issue.

We see more of Illyana’s corruption as at the beginning she completely looks seems like Belasco’s apprentice. We do learn that she is resisting him but over time she is becoming more and more corrupt. We saw how willing she was to corrupt a pet that she had raised from birth. We cannot blame her for that but it does show that she is not the innocent little girl that she once was and that like the other X-Men Limbo is beginning to corrupt her like it did to them. She does show will power by resisting him but she knows that it is only a matter of time before she is his completely.

With this issue we have we see the death of Cat. She is slain by Illyana’s hand and the situation was above all else tragic. Before these girls loved each other and were even the best of friends but Belasco was the one who robbed them of this friendship and this is the end result. In a way it was a mercy killing since Cat hated her enslavement and in a way this was what was best.

We also got to see another version of Storm but this one completely became corrupt by Belasco. I would question how this Storm came to Limbo but since time and space don’t really apply there it can be explained like that. Just how there were two different versions of X-Me in Limbo. It does get a little confusing but since Limbo is a confusing place in general it is understandable.

We also learnt that while in Limbo Belasco is more or less immortal so that makes me wonder how can Illyana or anyone else hope to destroy him. This makes their fight with him almost obsolete but there are ways of stopping him without him being killed. Not sure what they are but it is possible.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue an 8 out of 10. A great issue from a great series which unfortunately ends next issue.

Next Issue

X-Men and the Micronauts (Volume 1) #2

bump

Issue Information

Title- X-Men and the Micronauts (Volume 1) #2

Release Date- February 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont & Bill Mantlo

Artist- Butch Guice

Major Notes

Brief Summary

Into the Abyss

The Micronauts are wandering in a nightmarish land. They have been imprisoned by the Entity and as they try to find their way out they are attacked by a psychic assault that sends them falling down a small mountain like landscape. When they reach the bottom they are confronted by a group of aliens that are trying to kill them. Bug is sent into a ball of slime and when he enters he transforms into a full insect and crawls away. Fireflyte is also battling the aliens back and she uses her songs to keep them away. Unfortunately the sound is sucked away from her body and she falls to the ground helpless.

A short distance away Acroyear is fending off the aliens but as he looks up a small hill he sees a woman climbing up. She looks just like his betrothed who is heavy with child and he fights his way up to her. When he reaches her he is horrified to find that she still hates him and that their newborn son is Albino. In his culture Albinos are the harbingers of a holocaust and she is naming the baby Shaitan after Acroyear’s twin brother who helped destroy their home planet of Spartak. Acroyear falls down the hill in despair.

In what seems to be a swamp Huntaar is surrounded by the aliens. He knows that he is outnumbered and he wishes for them to kill him quickly. Instead the aliens keep their distance and state that they will not slay him since he is as much of a horror as them.

Elsewhere Marionette climbs up a mountain and when she reaches the top she discovers an arena that is much like one from her home planet. As she steps into it she remembers how she went from Princess to Warrior but much to her horror she finds herself not in control of her own body. In the crowd her friends and enemies watch on as they cheer on for her to continue.

Finally Commander Rann finds himself in a graveyard and as he looks around he sees that the open graves are occupied by the Micronauts. He is in despair and as he takes a step back he falls into his own open grave and as he falls he is joined by the other Micronauts as they all land outside of a doorway.

The Entity welcomes them and with little choice they approach him. He states that he doesn’t intend to hurt them but instead to heal them. He reverts Bug to normal and restores Marionette’s movements. With his command they accept servitude but he suffers a bout of weakness as on Earth the loudness of the New Mutants bothers the sleeping Professor Xavier. This lasts for a moment and as he recovers he vows to never feel the weakness again. He knows that the X-Men are there to stop him and he transforms the Micronauts so that they are wearing the Original X-Men uniforms. He intends to use them to ravage first the Microverse then Earth.

Elsewhere the X-Men approach Homeworld on Bioship. They comment how somewhat bleak the planet looks and Baron Karza comments that it is so there are no rebellions. The team begin to question if helping him is the best course of action. He reminds them that it is worse than being destroyed by the Entity. None of the X-Men realise is that Karza has transferred bodies with Kitty Pryde and he is using his mental powers to keep control of his original body. The X-Men don’t fully trust him but they know to defeat the Entity they have no choice.

Karza tells them that the Entity is linked to the X-Men and they are the ones who most likely know how to combat him. Karza wishes to remain on Homeworld so that he can build a new army if the X-Men fail. He wishes for Kitty to remain with him but Storm refuses stating that she is needed. He then teleports away as Bioship heads towards the Entity’s position.

Seconds later the body of Karza reappears at the Body Banks on Homeworld and Kitty’s mind is active. She hates her imprisonment but she still cannot move. Karza’s chief scientist Degrayde approaches him and he knows that the body is nothing more than a shell. He thinks of betraying his master but suddenly the astral image of Karza appears and orders him to create an army of Dog Soldiers immediately and if he tries any treachery again he will be slaughtered.

Bioship flies to the destination that he has been led to. It has a link to Commander Rann and it is following his signal. Storm is starting to be suspicious of Kitty but doesn’t have any evidence to prove her suspicions. As Bioship lands it lands hard on the ground as the X-Men exit it they discover that it is more or less in a coma.

The X-Men find themselves in a field of giant grass and as Storm flies up into the air she sees what looks to be an enormous X-Mansion. It is as if the X-Men have returned to Earth but are only six inches tall.

They approach the door to the X-Mansion and Colossus smashes a hole in it so that they can get through. For Wolverine the sights and smell of the mansion is the same as before and they begin to think that the X-Mansion has been shrunk into the Microverse.

They walk towards the library where they find what seems to be Xavier along with the Micronauts who now seem like giants in comparison to the X-Men. He orders the Micronauts to attack the X-Men and at first the X-Men gain the upper hand. But due to the X-Men’s lack of size and confusion the Micronauts defeat them. Kitty tries to flee but is stopped by Commander Rann and knocked out. Xavier transforms into the Entity and picks up the tiny X-Men. He intends to use them just like he did with the Micronauts.

On Homeworld with the mind of Karza knocked out in Kitty’s body Kitty herself is able to gain control of Karza’s body. She announces that she is now free to move and more importantly to act.

My Thoughts

Now we are back with the X-Men’s first real crossover series and the story is somewhat confusing but I am just rolling with it for now. It is an attempt to crossover two teams that otherwise don’t have much to do with one another.

One thing I did notice about this issue was that Cyclops and Rogue are missing from the X-Men line-up. I can understand Cyclops not being there since he is still on his honeymoon with Madelyne Pryor but I can’t see a reason why Rogue wouldn’t be there. She has nowhere else to go. Maybe she just didn’t decide to go or she could just be on a shopping trip. I’m not too sure but I’m just shooting in the dark here. We do know that the story takes place during the current issue of the Uncanny X-Men because Magma was mentioned to have joined the New Mutants that has only just happened.

The story of the issue was basically the corruption of the Micronauts and the failed attempt of the X-Men to free them. I was somewhat surprised to see the Micronauts agree to join the Entity but I guess that their wills were sapped. We knew that we would see the two teams go head to head thanks to the cover and also that the X-Men would be the small ones while the Micronauts were the giants.

We learn that there is definitely some kind of link between Professor Xavier and the Entity. I think the Entity can only be in existence when Xavier asleep but I could be wrong there. It would make sense since a conscious Xavier keeps his mind in check but when he is asleep it wonders into the mciroverse and causes all kinds of trouble there. We saw the Entity get weakened when Xavier was slightly disturbed by the New Mutants. If the X-Men and the Micronauts learned of this I feel that they could definitely use it to their advantage.

Not only do we have the battle with the X-Men against the Micronauts and the Entity we also have the subplot of Kitty Pryde having her mind transferred with that of Baron Karza. For now the villain has been able to keep both bodies in check but now with him defeated Kitty has gained control of Karza’s body. It is definitely much like the body of Darth Vadar although I think Kitty is far too worried to make Star Wars puns.

The only explanation for the seemingly giant X-Mansion in the Microverse is that it is the creation of the Entity. I think it was able to enlarge both itself and the Micronauts so that it could seemingly be giants. I was wondering since the Micronauts can increase their size until they enter Earth why in the Microverse they haven’t just made themselves larger for battles. I guess this is something that has been explained in the Micronauts series that I’ve missed.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue a 6 out of 10. It was alright but not the best X-Men comic I’ve read.

Next Issue

Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #179

Issue Information

Title- Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #179

Release Date- March 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- John Romita Jr. & Dan Green

Major Notes

First appearance of Leech

Brief Summary

What Happened To Kitty?

Beneath the streets of New York the Morlocks are preparing for a wedding. With Callisto leading the way they prepare a young girl to be wed to her prince. They change her into a torn wedding dress and as she is presented to the other Morlocks the girl is none other than the X-Man Kitty Pryde.

Meanwhile at a morgue nearby Wolverine, Storm and Rogue are there to identify what seems to be Kitty’s dead body. As the doctor reveals the dead body to the team they see that it looks exactly like Kitty right down to fingerprints. At first they think that it is truly her but Wolverine is suspicious. He is able to intimidate the doctor enough to leave for a few minutes and as the doctor leaves Wolverine tells the two women that the dead girl isn’t Kitty. Her scent is wrong and with that Storm starts to suspect who is behind the crime.

Meanwhile at the X-Mansion Nightcrawler is trying to find any vital signs in the injured Colossus. He cannot find any but in Colossus’s armoured form he doesn’t have any vital signs, Professor Xavier is also mentally scanning his mind while Amanda Sefton and Illyana watch on. His scans aren’t revealing anything but it could mean that Colossus is in a state of deep shock.

Suddenly Xavier picks up the thoughts of Storm who tell him about the situation at the morgue. She Wolverine and Rogue are going to track down those responsible and bring Kitty back to the mansion. Xavier agrees but suddenly overwhelmed by a mental force, it causes him to project mental bolts in all directions. Nightcrawler comes to his aid. Xavier is able to tell him that he has felt this scanning wave a few times and as he falls unconscious Nightcrawler commands Amanda to take him to the infirmary and they have to warn the others.

Meanwhile Kitty is walking through what seems to be a grand hall, she is wearing a wedding dress and the people looking on are from the high end of society. She walks up to her groom and she bows to him. But as she looks up to him she sees the groom is Caliban and that she is in the Morlock tunnels. She pushes him away and tries to flee but Sunder comes up from behind her and grabs her. Callisto approaches her and when Kitty demands her release she is reminded of the vow that she made to Caliban the last time that she was in the Morlock tunnels. She has to marry Caliban but she begins to remember about Colossus and she begs Callisto to let her go so that she can help him. She would promise to come back but Callisto doesn’t believe her word so Kitty has no choice but to flee. She has also discovered that she cannot use her mutant abilities.

As Kitty runs through the tunnels she realises that none of the Morlocks tried to stop her. She still cannot use her mutant abilities and she has no idea which way will take her back to the surface. She cannot see through the darkness and trips over. As she tries to pick herself up she understands what she promised Caliban and that he truly loves her. She turns and sees a young mutant who looks somewhat like a monster. Instead of running away she allows the young mutant to lead her back to the Morlocks knowing that she can’t run from her conscience.

As Kitty is taken back Callisto she is happy that she is keeping her word. Kitty begs Callisto to help Colossus so the dethroned Morlock leader sends the young mutant now called Leech to find the healer while Kitty is cleaned up before being taken to Masque.

As Kitty awaits Masque he intends to change her appearance since she is too pretty to be a Morlock. First he changes her face so that she looks like him, then Callisto, then Caliban, then Storm and until it is blank. She pushes him away in disgust and in his anger Masque deforms her face so that she cannot breathe. Callisto watches on but commands him to change Kitty back to the way that she was so that she doesn’t suffocate.

Later Kitty (now reverted to normal) is by the side of Caliban as Callisto goes through the marriage ceremony with the other Morlocks looking on. The ceremony is interrupted by Wolverine, Storm and Rogue, Kitty tells them to stay out of it but Storm attacks Callisto anyway. Leech lunges towards Storm and the X-Man finds her powers gone. Rogue and Wolverine try to join the fight but while Kitty tries to warn them they discover that Leech has also robbed them of their powers.

Storm and Callisto continue to fight as Wolverine draws his claws. He intends to kill Callisto but Kitty stops him stating that she is doing this out of her own free will. She states that she has brought enough pain and that by allowing her to do this she can stop the fighting. The Morlocks are also their only means of saving Colossus and she agrees to go through with the wedding.

A short time later the Morlock Healer is brought to the X-Mansion where the injured Colossus is waiting. Rogue has to absorb Colossus powers so that he reverts to normal and then the healer can heal him before he bleeds to death. As they perform the manoeuvre Rogue finds herself in Colossus’s petrified form while the man himself reverts to normal. The healer then moves in and heals Colossus, his powers only go so far but Colossus will survive and eventually make a full recovery.

The next day Kitty stands outside the entrance to the subway with Illyana. She hugs her best friend and gives her a two letters, one addressed to her parents and one to Colossus. They think that they will never see each other again as Kitty walks down the subway steps.

When Kitty reaches the bottom she accepts her fate and she walks up to Caliban. She tries to find the best of the situation but Caliban calls off the wedding and frees her of her vow. She is shocked but Caliban tells her that he realises that her place is in the sun while his is in the shadows. He knows that she doesn’t truly love him and that he must let her go. He hopes that one day she will come down to him on her own free will or that he musters the courage to come to the surface to be with her. She is honoured by this and is glad to call him her friend and before he walks away he gives her a rose. He asks her to look upon it and think of him not as a Morlock monster but her prince.

My Thoughts

Now we are back with the Uncanny X-Men in a story that has been hinted for the last couple of issues. This is where Kitty Pryde has to fulfil the promise that she made in Uncanny X-Men #170. It was a very touching issue that I enjoyed thoroughly from the very first page all the way to the last.

This was a very important issue for Kitty as despite the fact that she is repulsed by Caliban that she was willing to fulfil the vow that she made to him. She was willing to sacrifice the life that she has known not only for her conscience but for the man that she truly loves Colossus. I don’t think that there is many fourteen year old girls who would be willing to do what she did and it was touching. It shows that she is more mature than an average teenager and if she had gone through with the wedding I think she would have eventually found some happiness with Caliban.

The issue was also the first to introduce the mutant known as Leech. He is a young mutant who is most like in his preteen years. His mutant ability is to basically nullify the powers of any mutant around him. I think that he can also nullify the effects of other superpowered beings (such as Spider-Man) but I can’t confirm this for sure. He is a minor character in the X-Men franchise but is also considered to be a mutant’s dream if they absolutely hate their powers.

Colossus was also restored to health this issue after the injuries that he suffered in issue #177. I’m not too sure if there had been some way of helping him without the Morlocks. He was lucky to not have died after what had happened to him but I wonder if he will ever mention what Kitty had to go through to save him. I think it would bring them closer but sadly their relationship won’t survive for much longer.

The scanning wave that Professor Xavier has been picking up is that which is being created by a being called the Beyonder. All of that will be the topic of the upcoming Secret Wars Limited Series which began two months after the release of this issue.

Rogue also proved herself a team player as she helped Colossus return to normal despite the danger to her own life. This shows that she has truly turned away from her life as a villain and proved herself an X-Man. She has more than proved it to Storm who was originally against her joining the team.

The unsung hero of this issue was Caliban as he sacrificed his own form of happiness to release Kitty of her vow. Once again I don’t know many people who would have done that but he saw that she would be happier on the surface. It would be nice to think that one day that they do live happily ever after together but this is something that unfortunately will never happen.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue a 9 out of 10. It was a truly great issue that should be read by all.

Next Issue

Dazzler (Volume 1) #31

Bump

Issue Information

Title- Dazzler (Volume 1) #31

Release Date- March 1984

Writer- Jim Shooter

Artist- Frank Springer

Major Notes

Last appearance of Harry Osgood, Lance Steele and Cassandra Ferlenghetti. Only appearance of Bill Remington

Brief Summary

Tidal Wave

Dazzler is watching on at a movie set. She is amongst a crowd watching on as a train stunt scene is being prepared. The woman that she is standing next to is the mother of Bill Remington who is a stunt performer. As they watch the scene take place Bill fights two men on top of a moving train and when a grenade explodes he leaps into a nearby moving car. The car goes off a cliff and explodes but Bill was able to get out in time although he has some minor injuries.

When the scene is completed Bill walks up to his mother who then introduces him to Dazzler. She is in disbelief over what happened and he asks her to marry him. Dazzler is stunned by this but he also asks her for dinner but she politely declines him. He gives her his card and walks away while his mother apologies for his behaviour. Dazzler found him to be charming but she needs to leave so that she can check out a new apartment.

Later Dazzler is meeting with the landlords of the apartment that she is interested in. They seem to be nice people and she likes the apartment itself. Unfortunately she discovers that they don’t like mutants but they do not think that she is one and she takes the apartment. She knows that she should get herself a job so that she can pay for the rent while trying to get her movie career off the ground.

The next day Dazzler goes to the LA Health and Racquet Club where she is able to sign up for some classes. As she prepares to leave she bumps into Bill who goes there to work out. He tries to ask her out again but she politely turns him down but she still finds him charming and even considers calling him.

Later Dazzler receives a phone call from her agent Harry Osgood. He regrets to tell her that he can no longer be her agent. He cannot do much for her from New York and he states that she needs an agent in LA with film connections. It is hard for both of them but after the phone call Harry walks out of his office while Lance and Cassandra look on. Lance is sad to see Dazzler go but Cassandra thinks that it is good riddance. Lance reacts angrily to this and calls her a selfish witch as he walks out of the office and slams the door. Dazzler on the other hand hears a knock on her door and when she answers it she finds a bouquet of roses and a note from Bill. She finds this sweet and it makes her feel better.

The next day Dazzler meets up with Bill at the health club and she agrees to go on a date with him. They go to a diner but Bill finds that it is a little cheap. He tells her that a short but merry life is what matters and he invites her to another daring stunt performance the next day.

A day later the rain is falling as Dazzler watches Bill at a film shooting. He is gets onto a motorbike and as she gives him good luck he drives down a slope while the backstage people start the fire. Unfortunately Bill travels down the slope too fast and crashes into the burning building. Quickly fire fighters rush to help him and as Dazzler goes to his aid she discovers that he is fine thanks to the suit that he was wearing. He thinks nothing of the accident and sees it as another day of work. They agree to have dinner together at Dazzler’s new apartment.

Later she is using her powers to set up the dinner and when she hears the doorbell she answers it. It is Bill and as he enters he notices that the lights are off, he doesn’t realise that she had been using her own powers to light the room before he came.

They enjoy their dinner together and they rest on a sofa but she is somewhat reluctant to kiss him. He reacts somewhat angrily and stands up. He thinks that she is not too attracted to him but she states that she is and wishes to talk. They decide to go to Bill’s house on the pacific coast although there is a large storm outside.

As they drive towards the house they see hundreds of cars heading in the opposite direction while they are the only ones going their way. They discover that there has been an earthquake near Hawaii and that a tsunami is heading their way. Ignoring the danger Bill drives on anyway stating that he needs to get to his house, he offers to drop Dazzler off but she refuses to leave him.

As they approach the house Bill starts to explain how when he was young that he was poor and his father did everything that he could for his family. Unfortunately luck was not on just side and when his father died he took up stunt acting until it gave him a reasonable amount of money.

They enter the house but the tsunami is only minutes away, Dazzler believes that they should leave but Bill wants to remain behind. At first she refuses to leave without and they go to kiss but she realises that it is a mistake and leaves. Bill stands alone for a few moments before trying to go after her.

Dazzler runs away but realises that she cannot truly leave Bill to die. She goes back to the house but discovers that he is not there. She tries to run away but sees the tsunami approaching. She knows that she has to somehow dispel the wave and she concentrates on absorbing all the sound around her. She powers up and shoots an intense beam of light that weakens the wave enough around her immediate area. It saves Bill’s house but she is clobbered by water and her world goes black.

Bill is able to find her and gives her mouth to mouth to make her breathe again. He carries her to safety inside his home.

Sometime later Dazzler has regain consciousness and they begin to talk again. Bill realises that he was trying to destroy himself through his life choices. He is even astonished that his house survived while every other house in the area is swept away. They depart with a kiss and he promises that he will contact her when he has sorted out his life. She hopes to see him very soon as she walks away towards the sunrise.

My Thoughts

We are back with Dazzler that feels like an ending in a way. This is the last time that we ever see supporting characters Harry Osgood, Lance Steele and Cassandra Ferlenghetti. I am somewhat saddened knowing that we won’t see these characters ever again although they are still alive. I think that Harry did appear in a Dazzler centred issue of X-Men Unlimited roughly 15-20 years later but other than that it is the last that we see of him or his members of staff.

This issue was also the only appearance of Bill Remington who seems to not have been able to sort his life out. That is of course if he did and that when he contacted Dazzler things didn’t go so well. He did seem to be on a self-destructive path but I wonder if he ever truly was able to sort himself out but unfortunately this is a question that we’ll never know. A little nod in the future might be nice, even if he didn’t have to appear, just so we knew what happened to him.

This issue also furthers my belief that original characters of this series don’t amount to anything after their time in the Dazzler series. The supporting characters that have been seen hardly or never appear again after their time in Dazzler and the original villains again either never appear again or if they do have very limited appearances. This saddens me in a way to know that the original characters didn’t amount to anything. It also makes me see why some view this series as inferior.

The overall story was quite well written and I was surprised to see that Jim Shooter was the writer, he did this issue and I think he did the OGN for Dazzler as well. He is the writer of the Secret Wars Limited Series which comes two months after this issue so this could be thought to be his little practice before the big one.

The whole tsunami angle to the story was something that we haven’t seen too much of and it wasn’t a simply, superhero trying to prevent a natural disaster. Instead Dazzler was trying to save a man who had lost his way and almost died in the process. We see once again that when fully powered up that Dazzler can be a very powerful mutant. Not many mutants would be able to weaken a tsunami like that, ok maybe Storm could but do you think Wolverine could? I think not.

Unfortunately I’m counting down to the end of the series now. There are eleven issues, one Limited Series and one OGN to go before Dazzler’s solo life ends and she joins the X-Men for a few years before falling into comic book Limbo for a decade and a half. I still really feel that the series is being pushed although it is still not selling very well at this point in time.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue a 7 out of 10. It was pretty good and as I said did feel like an end of an era for Dazzler.

Next Issue

New Mutants (Volume 1) #13

Issue Information

Title- New Mutants (Volume 1) #13

Release Date- March 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- Sal Buscema

Major Notes

First appearance of Doug Ramsey aka Cypher. Features Kitty Pryde

Brief Summary

School Dayze

At the X-Mansion the New Mutants are introducing their new teammate Amara to Professor Xavier. He leads her to her new room and as they’re making their way there they talk. He tells Amara about mutants and when they reach her room she sees that it is just like the one she had in Nova Roma. He tells her that he used images from her mind to recreate the room and she feels a little violated by this. He assures her that he wouldn’t read her mind without permission and as he leaves she tries to adjust to her new surroundings. Her anxiety causes her to create a small earthquake but she quickly calms herself down enough to prevent a catastrophe. Xavier has picked this up and was about to mentally intervene but with the danger over he decides to keep an eye on her.

Later the New Mutants are preparing a barbeque for Amara. Stevie Hunter is there as well with Xavier and when Amara arrives they are surprised to see that she is wearing a formal gown. Despite the outfit confusion Sunspot still properly welcomes her as Cannonball flies overhead with a box of soda. He shows off by performing some manoeuvres but he is not as experienced as he thinks and slams into the ground. This causes the box of soda to explode all over Amara. He gown is seemingly ruined and in her rage she accidentally causes a fissure to grow in the ground. Mirage almost falls into it and Sunspot has to throw a tree that has been set alight into the lake.

Amara flees but is followed by Mirage and Wolfsbane. They are able to catch up with her but when they find her sitting by a large rock crying they decide to leave her be for a while. They want to keep an eye on her but not bother her at that moment in time. Amara herself is very remorseful about what has happened and if Xavier cannot help her control her powers she doesn’t think she can live.

Meanwhile at an undisclosed location Sebastian Shaw and Henry Peter Gyrich are watching over the activation of a new Sentinel. There are a team of workers around but when the Sentinel is activated it seems to go crazy attacking everything in site. The servers have been hacked and it is not responding to controls. They have no choice but to destroy the Sentinel and Henry demands that the hacker be tracked down and dealt with.

At that moment at the home of Doug Ramsey the teen himself and X-Man Kitty Pryde are the ones responsible for the hack. They have covered their tracks so that they can’t be traced but Kitty hasn’t told Doug about the Hellfire Club’s goals or about the X-Men. Happy with their success they walk downstairs to get some snacks. They talk as friends but when Kitty realises the time she quickly leaves.

As she leaves she receives a mental call from Xavier who tells her to return to the mansion immediately. As she makes her way to the mansion she comes across Amara who is still by herself. She tries to help Amara but the new mutant shuns her away angrily and Kitty walks away.

She eventually runs into the New Mutants who still aren’t happy about how she viewed the team. They throw small insults at each other but suddenly the astral image of Xavier appears again demanding that Kitty see him immediately and everyone present knows that she is in trouble.

When Kitty does reach Xavier’s study he tells her that she has missed her training session and not for the first time. She tells him that she lost track of time with Doug and although Xavier is happy that she has made a friend her own age he reminds her of her responsibilities to the team. He also tells her to end the hostilities between her and the New Mutants. He tells her to think of their position and what it was like when she first discovered her powers. She leaves on that note and Xavier thinks about what happened to Amara, what happened to Sunspot and Wolfsbane during the team-up with Spider-Man and his love Lilandra. He feels another scanning wave and he knows that he needs to solve the mystery of the scanning wave soon.

The next morning the New Mutants are in the computer lab having a lesson. Cannonball and Wolfsbane are having a particularly difficult time getting their heads around computers. Sunspot is cruising through the class while even Amara is getting the hang of them. Wolfsbane feels stupid and that she is only a value to the team in her wolf form. Xavier picks up on these thoughts and disagrees.

Later the team are at Stevie’s dance studio, they are practicing their dancing with Stevie as the teacher and Kitty watching on. Wolfsbane shows off a little and transforms while she is dancing. Cannonball scolds her for this but Kitty steps in to calm the situation down. At that point Doug enters the studio and he leaves with Kitty. Wolfsbane admits to the others that she should be more careful, especially after how she was treated in her homeland.

Later Amara prepares for her Danger Room session while Xavier is by her side. He explains to her the functions of the Danger Room and even gives her the codename Magma. Everything is going fine until he tells her that he will be monitoring her telepathically she feels that he lied to her about not reading her mind and she storms out in anger.

Later Amara is in her room and she knows that Xavier is a good man since he didn’t force her to return. With regret she goes out of her room and goes downstairs so that she can speak to Xavier. She finds him talking to a hologram of Lilandra, she is still fighting her sister for the Shi’Ar throne and due to the conflict they cannot talk again for a while. This is heart breaking for both and as the hologram disappears Xavier notices that Amara was watching. She apologies and asks him who Lilandra was. He explains about Lilandra and her struggles and when Amara asks why he didn’t go with her he explains about his responsibilities on Earth. They talk for a short while and Amara agrees to stay and try to learn how to use her mutant abilities.

My Thoughts

Now we are back with the New Mutants in an issue that kicks off the second year of the spin-off X-Men team. This issue felt more like a connecting issue between arcs so to speak and although nothing of any true importance happened it was still a nice issue to read and showed Amara trying to adjust to her new home.

The first thing I should mention is that this is the first physical appearance of Doug Ramsey who will become a member of the New Mutants in the future. He was first mentioned in Uncanny X-Men #177 but this is the first time we actually saw him. He will play a very important role in the series in the near future and his ability to understand any language makes him a great computer hacker as we saw in this issue. We see that he has a connection with Kitty Pryde which Colossus actually seemed jealous of when he first heard about Doug.

The issue also features X-Man Kitty Pryde in her first appearance (of about a dozen) in the New Mutants series. This issue shows that she has started a friendship with Doug Ramsey and because of him she is starting to miss a couple of practice sessions. The issue was also the start of her resolving her issues with the New Mutants which started when Professor Xavier placed her on the team. She was more than vocal against joining the New Mutants and this has shown with how the team treated her. She also appeared on the cover wearing her Ariel costume (although for some reason it is coloured blue rather than green). I’m not sure if this was intentional or a colouring mistake.

The main point of the issue is definitely Amara trying to fit into the X-Mansion and basically her world jumping forward by two thousand years. She shows that she is afraid of her powers and how uncomfortable she is with Xavier’s telepathy. She isn’t above losing her temper as we saw on a couple of occasions and she almost destroyed the X-Mansion in the process. Thankfully she is able to come around and it is the making of a great addition to the New Mutants. She also picks up the codename Magma in this issue that has stuck all the way to the present day.

The scanning wave that Xavier keeps experiencing is part of what will become the Secret Wars which starts in a couple of months after this comic. Although the New Mutants play no part in the crossover they will have their own adventure because of the event which will introduce a mutant who will eventually become a teammate.

I do regret that I haven’t picked up Marvel Team-Up Annual #6 which involved the New Mutants since it was mentioned in this issue and I discovered that there is ramifications to what happened in later issues. I really wish it had been reprinted in the New Mutant Classics GNs but alas we were not so fortunate.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue a 7 out of 10. It was a great issue to read and it had its moments.

Next Issue

Magik (Volume 1) #4

Somebody should really tell Xavier that the scanning wave he keeps experiencing is an incoming sub par, pointless crossover designed to sell toys.....

Issue Information

Title- Magik (Volume 1) #4

Release Date- March 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- Sal Buscema

Major Notes

Death of Limbo Storm. Final issue in Limited Series

Brief Summary

Darkchild

In Limbo, Belasco confronts Illyana who is tending to the fatally injured Storm. She begs him to save Storm and first Belasco intends to use Illyana to conjure the third bloodstone and then sacrifice Storm’s soul to his masters. He passes Illyana a dagger so that she can complete the ritual but instead she plunges it into the heart of Storm killing her and thus saving her soul. With her death a lightning bolt rains down as Belasco angrily condemns Illyana to a life of pain and misery. Before he has a chance to do anything she conjures a light disc that sends both her and Storm’s lifeless body away.

A short time later Illyana is burying Storm in the garden that she had created and loved. Illyana is greatly saddened but suddenly she notices the garden around her dying. With Storm dead there is nothing stopping Belasco from ripping it apart. The wind is making her cold and as she looks towards the grave a zombified Storm rises up and tries to attack her but Illyana teleports away.

She finds herself in a cave ad as she tries to remember the way that Storm was, Colossus breaks through a wall and tries to attack her but again she teleports away. She ends outside what seems to be her parents’ house in rural Russia. She runs to the door and sees her mother but when she tells her that she is Illyana her mother refuses to believe her since she is too old. Her father also arrives and he too refuses to believe that she is their daughter so they slam the door on her. She then drops to her knees and realises that she can never truly go home and when she feels a tap on her shoulder she turns and sees zombie versions of the X-Men. This causes her to faint.

When she wakes up she is confronted by Belasco and the zombie X-Men. Colossus is holding onto her arms and stretches them so that she feels pain. Belasco then uses a spell to dig into her soul and before Illyana’s eyes a demonic version of herself comes forth and is turned into the third bloodstone. With his use for her temporarily finished Belasco banishes Illyana to remain in the remnants of Storm’s garden. He removes her mutant abilities and also despite what happens to her she will not die and afterwards he might bring her back to his side. He then disappears with the medallion and the zombie X-Men also fade away.

When Illyana wakes up she is in the middle of a snow storm and she makes her way to Storm’s dacha but it is completely destroyed. A powerful gust of wind sends her flying into the oak tree that had been the garden’s centrepiece. It is all that remains in the garden and of Storm’s magic. Illyana has to use it as a wind shield and tries to draw from its power and she tries to conjure her own acorn but unfortunately it splatters.

Illyana spends a year by this oak tree and she is sad that she has been drawing its life force. One last time she tries to conjure up an acorn but again it splatters since she has been too corrupted by Belasco. She leans on the oak tree but it tumbles over and begins to wither away. In her anger towards Belasco Illyana pounds on the ground but eventually she knows that it will not do her any good. With all the power she can muster she creates a sword that she can use as a weapon against Belasco. She finds it easy and she feels incredibly powerful with her soulsword and discovers that the enchantments keeping her there have shattered. She uses a light disc to teleport away from the garden.

At Belasco’s citadel the man himself is planning another escape attempt from Belasco using his dreaded enemies Ka-Zar and his allies. Suddenly Illyana appears and destroys the statues of Belasco’s enemies and then confronts him. She is able to deflect his attacks and uses her light discs to nullify Belasco’s size and strength advantage. He summons S’ym to defeat her but she is easily able to put him down.

With S’ym incapacitated Illyana destroys Belasco’s precious spell books and as they continue to battle she grows horns, a tail and her skin turns red as he reverts to human. He is severely weakened and she is able to corner him. She prepares to kill him but she suddenly realises that she is becoming like him and chooses to spare him. He is angry since she is giving up much power and he teleports away but not before throwing her the medallion. With Belasco gone Illyana herself reverts to her normal self.

Illyana then travels to Belasco’s alter where Cat had taken her some time before. She thinks about her new soulsword and the medallion in her hand. She knows that she can now no longer stay in Limbo and she uses a light disc to teleport towards Earth. Only seconds have passed since she left and as she grabs the hand of Kitty Pryde she is pulled up and Illyana has already made sure that she was dressed for the occasion.

A year later at the X-Mansion Illyana is still standing looking over the horizon as she thinks about the X-Men who had been trapped in Limbo and eventually died. She vows to be worthy of their sacrifice and as she walks towards the X-Mansion she feels the snow storm and sees the New Mutants playing outside. She wonders what would have happened if she had a normal life but it is something that she will never know.

My Thoughts

Now we come to the final issue of Magik in overall what has been a great Limited Series. We finally see Illyana free herself from Limbo (which we knew was already going to happen). It was a great series that explained what happened to Illyana in Limbo and also sets up a few things that will happen to her over the next few years.

In this issue we see how Illyana developed the Soulsword that will one day become her greatest weapon of choice. It is extremely powerful and is built up of both energy and magic. It can be used to either harm the body or the spirit and in a way I think it can heal as well. One thing to mention about it is that it can harm Kitty Pryde even when she’s intangible. That has to count towards something and it also shows that it is a weapon of great power.

I was saddened to see the death of Limbo’s Storm since she had been a mentor for Illyana and might have even been able to save her if Cat had not taken her away. It does make me wonder what would have happened if Illyana had stayed with her but I think things would have turned out badly anyway, not because of Storm herself but more so about Belasco eventually pulling out all the stops.

I believe the point that was raised in this issue about how Illyana’s parents would react if they saw her as a teenager rather than a toddler I think was going to be picked up in a future Limited Series. I think there was going to be a Colossus/Magik Limited Series which would have dealt with them having to travel to Russia. Sadly this series I don’t think went passed the planning stage and thus was never created.

This is also the first time that we see Illyana’s Darkchild persona and although I’m not sure exactly what it means I believe it might appear when she is delving into Dark Magic. I would have a better idea about it if I had read more issues of New Mutants but that’s the beauty of this blog. I’m getting to read the New Mutants (up until the end of Classic Volume 7) and then I might have figure what to do after that (I’m thinking Marvel Unlimited maybe).

The final confrontation between Illyana and Belasco has the classic hero won’t kill villain moment but it did show that she had broken his grip on her. She will never truly be free of him but it showed that she was mightier than him. If she had of killed him though her soul would truly have been damned.

I did find it odd that a year has taken place between Uncanny X-Men #160 and what that month would be #179. A year passing in twenty issues is very unusual since I didn’t think time passed that quickly in comics. But then again with a floating timeline almost anything is possible.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue an 8 out of 10. A fitting end to an all-round great Limited Series.

Next Issue

X-Men and the Micronauts (Volume 1) #3

Issue Information

Title- X-Men and the Micronauts (Volume 1) #3

Release Date- March 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont & Bill Mantlo

Artist- Butch Guice

Major Notes

Features the New Mutants

Brief Summary

Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory!

While Professor Xavier is asleep he sees the combined forces of the X-Men and the Micronauts attacking an outpost in the Microverse owned by the villain Baron Karza. They are under the influence of the Entity and with ease the two teams are able to defeat the Dog Soldiers while what is called an Archivist records everything and beams it back to Karza. The Dog Soldiers soon surrender and at first the teams do not wish to execute them. Kitty Pryde (who has the mind of Karza himself in her body) goes to kill the prisoners but is stopped.

Just then the Entity himself appears and both teams bow to him. He is disappointed that the Dog Soldiers remain and when Commander Rann speaks out of turn the Entity grabs him and ages him until there is nothing left but dust. Knowing that Rann has learned his lesson the Entity quickly resurrects him. Rann falls back in line and the Entity notices that only Kitty had the ruthlessness he desires in his pets. He promises her a special reward as he uses his powers to kill the remaining Dog Soldiers. Only the Archivist remains.

On Earth the still sleeping Xavier screams and falls out of bed. The New Mutants come to his aid and help him back to bed. He is still asleep and they are very worried about their mentor. They do not suspect what is happening inside his mind and as they leave a tear rolls down his cheek.

In the Microverse the Entity has the Archivist at his mercy. The only reason he let him live was so that he could transmit everything back to Karza. Using a small portion of his power the Entity begins to destroy the asteroid that they are on. He and the two teams safely teleport away as the asteroid crumbles to nothing.

At his citadel Karza (who has the mind of Kitty Pryde) is told of what has happened by his Chief Scientist Degrayde. Karza shows concern towards the X-Men, Micronauts and Dog Soldiers which catches Degrayde by surprise and when he orders the Body Banks to be shut down Degrayde protests and gets mechanical glove to his throat for his trouble. He does as he commands but he thinks that Karza as changed.

Now along Karza thinks of some kind of way to return to her original body. The mind Kitty Pryde hates being in this body and even considers suicide. She realises that she only merely had to think about silencing Degrayde and the glove did the rest. She considers what else she can do and accidentally transforms into a rocket powered centaur. This horrifies her and as she removes her helmet she shouts that she is Kitty Pryde.

Elsewhere Kitty’s body still being possessed by Karza wakes up and finds himself in a Roman like villa. He discovers that he wearing revealing clothing and as he looks on he sees the Entity approach him. Not realising that the villain has switched bodies with the young X-Man the Entity begins to seduce him seeing how their personalities seem to match. Knowing that he is powerless against the Entity, Karza plays it cool although he still plans on overthrowing the Entity and ruling himself. When he asks the omnipotent being what has happened to the other X-Men and Micronauts he discovers that they are in a large cell since their personalities are not yet to his liking.

In the cell itself the two teams are sleeping and Wolverine is the first to wake up. They are for now free of the Entity’s influence. He doesn’t see a way that they can be truly free so he extends his claws and goes to kill the sleeping Storm. He is stopped by Colossus and when Wolverine questions why he is told that if they die that the Entity will simply resurrect them. The Entity wishes to crush their hope completely to give him his final victory over them. By now the others have woken up, they begin to decide how to escape and locate the source of the Entity’s power. They even make a small joke and laugh which Huntaar finds unbelievable. He is told that they laugh because they can and it is shows that they still have hope.

On Earth Mirage is tending to Professor Xavier who is still asleep. She is very worried about him but he grabs her arm and produces a mind link with her. He was powerless to do anything to battle the Entity in his body and is using her abilities to enter the Astral Plain. At that moment the Entity enters the Astral Plain himself and the two enemies confront one another.

In the Microverse Karza has noticed that the Entity has ceased moving and uses the opportunity to seemingly kill him by stabbing him in the back. With the Entity seemingly dead Karza decides that to rule the Microverse he needs to return to his original body and then kill the X-Men and the Micronauts.

On the Astral Plain Xavier and the Entity duel. With the seeming death of his body the Entity weakens and Xavier takes the opportunity gain the upper hand. He is able to restrain the Entity and as he takes off his helmet Xavier realises that the Entity is him. The Entity is the dark side of Xavier who has been lingering in his heart. He has been growing stronger and originally could manifest himself into the Microverse when Xavier was asleep. Now he is powerful enough to manifest by himself and as he breaks out of Xavier’s hold their body forms switch. The Entity now has a hold of Xavier’s body on Earth while Xavier himself is stuck in the Microverse.

Elsewhere the X-Men and the Micronauts walk through home of the Entity trying to find their way out. Acroyear loses faith and refuses to go on. He feels absolutely hopeless and he believes that he has truly failed his name. The wise words of Storm bring him back a short amount and as they continue on they are unaware that Karza has them in his sights and is about to kill them.

On Earth the New Mutants discuss about Xavier’s condition. Mirage believes that there isn’t anything wrong with him. She does decide to keep an eye on him a little longer but as they go to bed they don’t realise that Xavier’s body is now being controlled by the Entity who has big plans for them.

My Thoughts

Now we are back with the penultimate issue of the X-Men’s first crossover Limited Series. I did feel that this one was the best so far and by the end of it things looked pretty bleak for both the X-Men and New Mutants and it sets things up for the final issue that comes out the following month.

Not only in this issue do we have the Entity more or less a threat to the X-Men and the Micronauts but we also have Baron Karza himself is now trying to kill the two teams. One advantage that he has is that he is in the body of Kitty Pryde. This gives him an element of surprise advantage over them. He has showed his ruthlessness and given the chance he will kill them.

The big revelation that the Entity was Professor Xavier himself was no surprise since it has been hinted a few times over the series. The Entity is Xavier’s evil side who has already popped up in X-Men #106 but back then it wasn’t sure if what happened in that issue was real or not. This is the first true confirmation of Xavier’s evil side and it shows what he would have been like if he allowed himself to be evil. In truth he could be even deadlier than Magneto.

In this issue the Entity shows his god like powers by actually being able to resurrect Commander Rann after he was killed. When you face a foe who can do something like that you often wonder how you can beat him. This is something that the two teams will have to find out on their own but if they discover that Xavier is the key can the X-Men kill the man who is their mentor. We also saw that the Entity took a liking towards Kitty Pryde (although Karza) possessed her body. I wonder if things hadn’t gone the way that they did would he have had his way with her? I think that if Kitty had been in possession of her own body she would have gone against him but most likely she would have found herself in the same cell as the others.

The New Mutants did play a pretty important role in this issue, especially Mirage since she was the one who helped Xavier go into the Astral Plain. The other members were not all that important but it was nice to see Magma on the team and it showed continuity with the New Mutants series at that time. If that is the case I’m still wondering where Rogue is in all of this.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue an 8 out of 10. As I said the best issue in my mind so far and I am eager to read the finale.

Next Issue

Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #180

As far as I know, her Soulsword used to only work on mystical things. I remember she used to distract people by swinging it at them while another team member attacked, unless of course, the person was magically possessed or they were a sorcerer themselves, then it would cause damage to the person. In any regard, it is a cool weapon, especially when magical characters are usually absurdly powerful in the Marvel U.... helps balance the scales.

Issue Information

Title- Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #180

Release Date- April 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- John Romita Jr., Dan Green and Bob Wiacek

Major Notes

Secret Wars tie-in (at the end). Return of Emma Frost

Brief Summary

Whose Life Is It, Anyway?

Professor Xavier is practicing playing basketball in the X-Mansion’s gymnasium. He has recently regained the use of his legs and is having fun while playing. His fun is shattered when he feels another scanning wave and he keels to the floor in pain. He still wonders where it is coming from and who is responsible. Storm arrives to see how he is and although he is fine he tells her how he had been an athlete in college but because he could read the minds of his opponents he knew what their plans were and it took the fun out of the game. He senses something wrong with Storm and she begins to explain about her recent changes and how Kitty Pryde has pushed her away. Xavier scans her mind and finds no mental illness but he does offer his help, Storm turns him down stating that she needs to go down her own path.

Meanwhile at the nearby mall Kitty and her friend Doug Ramsey are playing at the arcade. They are having a lot of fun but unfortunately they score too many points causing the game to crash. The owner of the arcade throws them out since they are too good at the games and are ruining his business. They have been kicked out of every arcade in Westchester and they decide to go and get something to eat.

They go to a fast food restaurant and Doug notices that there is a lot on Kitty’s mind. She tells him about Storm and how she isn’t the woman that she was before. She admits that Storm scares her and now she seems like a stranger. Doug also tells her that he has been accepted into the Massachusetts Academy and he was hoping that she go along with him since she had been a student. She tells him that she quit after a week but doesn’t tell him about the Hellfire Club or of Emma Frost.

At the X-Mansion the still injured Colossus is chopping down a tree to take out his frustrations. Wolverine sits down and watches him and he knows that his frustration is about Kitty. He is in love with her deeply but he believes that she doesn’t feel the same about him despite the fact that she gave herself to the Morlocks to save him. He thinks that she has more feelings towards Doug Ramsey, he thinks that Doug is more like her and he is alien to her. Wolverine tells him that if he believes that then he has lost more than he already knows.

At the Bronx Botanical Garden Storm walking through and she goes up to some of the plants. She is glad to be around plants again and she remembers her time in Kenya and her life before the X-Men. She even uses her powers to water some of the plants but her concentration is broken when she hears an elderly couple being mugged by a group of thugs. She tells them to leave the couple alone and as one goes to attack her she grabs him and throws him through the glass. The others try to attack but she uses her hands rather than her powers to defeat them. She then uses her powers to conjure up a storm to scare them into turning their ways. As the thugs flee Storm tends to the elderly couple who are more terrified of her than they were of the thugs. She then receives a mental command from Xavier to return to the mansion.

That evening the X-Men have regrouped at the sitting room as Kitty explains about Doug Ramsey and the Massachusetts Academy. She believes that Emma Frost is still in a coma and that the Hellfire Club are in disarray. She thinks that Doug will be fine but she should check it out in case there is trouble. She wants Xavier to keep a mental tab on her so that if there is any trouble the team can come and rescue her and stop whatever the Hellfire Club might have planned. The plan is somewhat risky but the team agree to it. Xavier also believes that Doug’s talents with languages both computer and verbal is a mutant power.

Later Kitty is walking through the corridors of the mansion and thinks about the possibility of Doug being a mutant and Xavier’s ability to walk. She suddenly feels a strong gust of wind behind her and she realises that Storm is behind it. Kitty is flown outside of the window and taken up into the air where Storm is waiting for her. She tells Kitty that it is time that they had a talk away from prying ears and minds. Kitty realises that they are over a mile above the ground.

They begin to talk and Kitty doesn’t understand why Storm has changed. The older woman explains how she has slowly been changing since she joined the X-Men and that her beliefs have started to subside and being replaced by new ones. The fact that she is the leader of the X-Men has also been a factor and it has caused her to make difficult decisions. She these feelings for a while and the trip to Tokyo was the release that she needed to truly change. She is scared herself of the road that she is going on but she admits that she loves Kitty and they hug each other as Kitty comes to terms with Storm’s change. They promise to be there for each other as much as they can.

A week later Kitty is dropped off at La Guardia airport where she is boarding a private plane to Massachusetts. She says goodbye to the team as she boards the plane and when they’re in the air she talks to Doug who is on the jet with her. She hears a woman’s name calling her name and she is frightened when she recognises the voice. She looks up the aisle and sees Emma Frost walking towards her and she has something planned for the two teenagers. Kitty realises that she’s in trouble and mentally calls out for Xavier.

Elsewhere the X-Men have driven to Central Park where Xavier has been able to pinpoint the location of the scanning waves that he has felt for weeks. When they arrive they see a fantastic gate like opening before them which is as tall as a skyscraper. Knowing that something big is about to happen they enter before Kitty’s message can reach Xavier and the team disappear from Earth.

My Thoughts

Now we come back to the Uncanny X-Men with an issue that felt more like a prologue meaning that it was leading to different things rather than having any big action in this issue. It primarily sets us up for the Secret Wars Limited series but the secondary story will be the New Mutants going to the Massachusetts Academy to rescue Kitty Pryde and Doug Ramsey from Emma Frost.

Before I go on any further I’m just want to mention that I’m changing my read through order. I’ve been noticing that events in the New Mutants series precede the events of the Uncanny X-Men since that issue is released earlier in the month. Whenever I started a New Month I always began with the Uncanny X-Men but starting from the next month I will start with Secret Wars (for the duration of that series), then go with New Mutants (since that was released before that month’s issue of Uncanny X-Men), then the Uncanny X-Men and then I will finish the month off with whatever else there is (Dazzler, Annuals or any LSs or guest appearances in other series). I made this decision since Xavier’s ability to walk happened in New Mutants #14 which I will read next and it is obvious that this issue of Uncanny X-Men takes place after this. Also at the end of this issue it said that the New Mutants will be released two weeks later while the Uncanny X-Men will be a month. For Secret Wars I could in theory complete that entirely before reading the next issue of Uncanny X-Men but I still prefer to do it by month. Unfortunately the reason for this mix up is because my sources for release dates only give me the month and year rather than the actual week of release. I hope this makes the blog more realistic).

Ok back to the issue at hand. The first thing I want to pick up on is that this is the issue where the whole rift between Storm and Kitty began to heal. The talk that they had took us deeper into Storm’s psyche then we ever have seen before. We could see that she truly spoke from the heart and it proves that she is a great character that has been written very well (probably better than she’s being written right now). I don’t think that it is fully repaired the rift between the two characters but it is a start.

I did notice how Rogue was absent in this issue and she didn’t go through the same gate that took the X-Men to Breakworld. I know that she is amongst the team in the Secret Wars series but I can’t see how she was able to regroup with them. It might be explained in the first issue of Secret Wars but I have checked thoroughly and she definitely wasn’t with the X-Men that went through. Also to quickly point out is that in the original promotional art for the Secret Wars Kitty was supposed to be with the team as well but she has been left behind and her ordeal will be shown in the New Mutants series. Also I know that Lockheed was in Secret Wars for a brief time but he also didn’t go through the portal with the X-Men so again I’m wondering how he got there.

We also see Doug Ramsey for the first time in an X-Men comic and the revelation that he could be a mutant isn’t really surprising since this is the X-Men. It does make things more interesting with him and he definitely shows that he has feelings for Kitty which makes Colossus jealous. He shows that he is just as intelligent as Kitty and that they are more alike than they probably realise. I know that they never have a formal relationship but it is nice to wonder if they had of done, what would have been the outcome?

It was pretty funny to see the normally serious Xavier pretending to be a world class basketball player. It is a little something that I didn’t expect to see but it is understandable since Xavier can now walk without pain. I will talk about the matter a little more in the New Mutants #14 write up.

Storm taking down the thugs with mainly her bare hands shows that without her powers she isn’t defenceless. It is also an omen for what is to come in my mind. There is a lot things coming up for her very soon which will change her forever and also increase her popularity amongst fans.

The fact that Colossus is jealous of Doug Ramsey and he also mentioned that if they lived in Russia he could actually marry Kitty right there and then and raise a family. I feel this is all due to the fact that Chris Claremont is being forced to break the couple up due to the fact that Kitty at this point in time is only a minor while Colossus is in his early twenties. This is understandable and we will see what happens to all this in a couple of months’ time. This is not the end of the Colossus/Kitty Pryde relationship however.

To see Emma Frost returning at the end of the issue also makes me wonder how she recovered from her coma but I think this will be something that is explained in the New Mutants series. It was a bit of a shock first time I read it and I had to wait a couple of years before finding out what happened in Massachusetts. We will also see that she has formed her own version of the New Mutants.

In conclusion I’m giving this issue another 8 out of 10. It was a good issue to read and as I said it sets us up for what is to come.

Next Issue

New Mutants (Volume 1) #14

Issue Information

Title- New Mutants (Volume 1) #14

Release Date- April 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- Sal Buscema

Major Notes

Illyana aka Magik more or less joins the New Mutants. Features the X-Men and Doug Ramsey.

Brief Summary

Do You Believe In- Magik?

Illyana is outside the X-Mansion looking at the Medallion that Belasco gave her while she was in Limbo. She knows that she will never have the life that she used to have and she is angered by this. She knows that Belasco will one day come for her and she isn’t sure if the world will be safer with him or her. It is her birthday today and she walks back to the mansion as it begins to snow.

Due to the snow Professor Xavier has allowed the New Mutants’ class to finish early and they go outside to play in the snow. All the New Mutants have fun but Magma is feeling a little uneasy with the snow since it is alien to her. Pulling from her memories Mirage is able to create an image of a palm tree to make her feel better. Magma reveals that things happened under that palm tree. Illyana watches from the side since she is unsure how to ask to play with them. She is also being watched by Xavier from inside the mansion who still can’t read her mind and has no idea what happened to her in Limbo.

The New Mutants notice that the Professor is looking glum and Magma reveals about how he misses Princess Lilandra. They decide to throw him a party to make him feel better and they invite Illyana along with them to pick up some supplies. She agrees to go with them but no one notices the shadowed figure of S’ym watching them.

With Stevie Hunter the team travel to the Mall where they were attacked by the Sentinels and it is still undergoing repairs. Before they leave Kitty Pryde’s friend Doug Ramsey arrives at the mansion to see her. Since she is on a mission with the X-Men he leaves and states that he’ll return later.

After a short while of shopping the team have gotten most of what they need and Cannonball is trying to show some machoness by carrying both bags. He accidentally knocks into Wolfsbane who reacts negatively to this. They are even able to bump into the teenagers who they had met the last time they had come to the mall and they begin to chat for a short time.

At the X-Mansion Xavier is still considering the best way that he can help Illyana. He considers contacting Doctor Strange and Nightcrawler’s stepmother but suddenly he is confronted by S’ym. He knows that he is no physical match for the demon and attempts a mental attack but S’ym swats him away as if he were nothing.

Later the New Mutants with Stevie return to the mansion but outside they notice that it seems to be empty. Illyana decides to go inside while the New Mutants admit to themselves that she creeps them out. Illyana hears this but realises that they’re right. She calls out Xavier’s name with no answer and then suddenly S’ym grabs Illyana’s hand and he tells her that he is there to take her back to Limbo.

In her desperation Illyana creates a light disc around the car and the New Mutants outside and at first they travel to Limbo where they briefly see a younger Illyana but before they can do anything they reappear inside the X-Mansion’s sitting room. There they see S’ym with a seemingly unconscious Illyana and without thinking Cannonball rockets towards the demon but he bounces off the brute. Sunspot transforms and tries to outmuscle S’ym but he is thrown out of the mansion.

Wolfsbane also transforms and attacks but S’ym swats her away with his tail and Mirage tries to use her abilities. She is able to conjure a large image of Belasco which terrifies S’ym. The image transforms into Illyana’s Darkchild form while Stevie grabs Illyana and tries to flee with her. Magma creates a volcano within the room which covers S’ym with molten lava over him seemingly defeating him. She is confident of victory but the demon is able to break free.

Stevie has been able to get Illyana down to the subbasement but S’ym begins to pull the elevator back up so she is forced to jump out with the unconscious Illyana. They fall on the ground hard but Stevie gets up and keeps going. Unfortunately her knee goes and she falls to the ground.

S’ym catches up with the two women but before he can attack Illyana uses a spell to keep him back. He is able to corner her and she manifests the Soulsword and is able to bring him under her mercy. S’ym begs her to spare him and she accepts as long as he renounces Belasco and serves her. S’ym accepts these terms but when he wants to kill Stevie she banishes him away. Stevie is confused with what has happened and Illyana reveals some truths before casting a spell to wipe her memory of the event.

Later the X-Men return from their mission to find the New Mutants are throwing a party for Xavier. The volcano and car are still in the room but Illyana is standing by the window sad. Xavier goes over to her and he gives her some guidance. He then stands up from his chair and begins to dance with her. It is then that everyone realises that Xavier can walk again.

Kitty hears a knocking on the window and when she looks she sees Doug. When she asks him what he wants he tells her that he has been given a scholarship at the Massachusetts Academy and wants her advice since she was a student there. Kitty doesn’t want to reveal anything about the Hellfire Club and she is deeply concerned for her friend.

My Thoughts

Now we return to the New Mutants in an issue that is basically the epilogue to the Magik Limited Series which concluded the previous month. This issue started exactly where the last issue of Magik left off so it is a little like the fifth issue which took place on Earth and featured the New Mutants.

As you can imagine Illyana aka Magik was the main focal point of this issue as she and the team had to deal with the threat that was the super strong S’ym who could possibly be the stronger than the Hulk. We learned that for now she doesn’t want the others to know about her sorcery abilities and hasn’t even told them about her mutant abilities yet. At least she showed somewhat that she can interact with the New Mutants despite the fact that she creeps them out. She has also gained a new pawn in the form of S’ym which she could probably use to great effect.

Also we found out that there was something between Magma and Sunspot when they were still in Brazil. Not exactly sure what happened but we can kind of guess what it was. But still seeing a palm tree in the middle of a snow storm was pretty funny to see. It is just so out of place.

It was also nice to see hints towards previous issues since we saw the Mall where the battle between the New Mutants and Sentinels took place in the first couple of issues and they even saw their friends there. It is always nice to have these little things every now and again so that we can remember events of previous issues.

The most important X-Man to feature in this issue was Kitty Pryde who Illyana has stated to have accepted her with no strings attached. Something that she is very thankful for but also because of Doug Ramsey and the acceptance that he has gotten from the Massachusetts Academy which will be the main focus of the next three issues (which take place during the Secret Wars event).

Also revealed in this issue is that Xavier can now walk again without feeling any pain. He has been practicing this ever since he regained the use of his legs in Uncanny X-Men #167 but this is when he can finally walk again. It is a little odd seeing someone you’re used to seeing in a wheelchair walk again but it does show that Xavier has been hard at working recovering from his disability.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue a 7 out of 10. It was a pretty good issue and I’m really looking forward to the next arc.

Next Issue

X-Men and the Micronauts (Volume 1) #4

I would have liked to see a mini series where Professor X uses his sick b-ball skills to get a spot on the NY Knicks or teams up with Larry Bird to fight evil.

Issue Information

Title- X-Men and the Micronauts (Volume 1) #4

Release Date- April 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont & Bill Mantlo

Artist- Butch Guice

Major Notes

Final issue. Features the New Mutants

Brief Summary

Doppelgänger

Mirage is sleeping at her desk as the Entity possessed Xavier approaches her. He uses her powers to enter her mind and as she wakes up she gives a cry of terror before falling to the ground. When he asks her if she enjoyed it with an evil smile she says yes and he tells her to help him manipulate the New Mutants and she will be rewarded further.

In the Microverse the combined teams of the X-Men and the Micronauts are still making their way out of the Entity’s citadel while unseen a Baron Karza possessed Kitty Pryde fires at them from a rock formation. The shot is targeted at Commander Rann but Colossus is able to get in the way and he takes the shot without being harmed. Nightcrawler teleports to her and knocks her down before realising that it is his team mate. In his confusion Karza phases away from his grasp. The two teams suddenly have to repel falling rocks above them and they think the Entity has returned.

In reality it is Kitty in the body of Karza who has ordered her fleet to attack the planet. The Chief Scientist Degrayde is by her side but he notices that his commander seems to have changed in both mannerisms and behaviour. Kitty suddenly receives a thought image of Professor Xavier and she decides to teleport down to the planet. She commands to halt the attack as she teleports to the planet’s surface. Degrayde ignores this order however and ensures that the attack continues.

Meanwhile Karza phases into the Entity’s citadel where the seemingly dead body of the villain still lays. He realises what has happened and suddenly Kitty appears and uses the glove in her armour to shoot out and grab him by the neck. Suddenly both teams burst through the wall and they’re unaware of the mind switch as they go to attack Kitty who is still in Karza’s body. Suddenly the body of the Entity rises up to his feet but his voice is that of Professor Xavier. He is able to explain that Kitty and Karza have swapped bodies but he also reveals that the Entity is in possession of his own body on Earth.

On Earth itself the Entity has gotten access to Cerebro. He begins to amplify his power so that he can destroy the Microverse and in the tiny dimension itself both teams have to defend themselves from the bombardment. Thankfully Bioship is on his way towards and when he arrives he beams them into him and they flee. But a beam of energy comes down towards them and Bioship’s energy shield is able to protect them. The beam does destroy the planet that they were just on and the attacking fleet. Degrayde and all the soldiers under his command are killed instantly.

The Bioship tries to flee the destruction and the only way it can escape is to try and escape to Earth but he doesn’t have enough energy. Fireflyte uses her own powers to help the Bioship pass into Earth without him needing to drop his shield.

When they reach Earth they find themselves outside the X-Mansion although they are still stuck at a tiny size. The teams have been shaken up a little in the Bioship as the X-Men realise that he is actually a living ship. Rann explains about Bioship’s origins and he tends to Fireflyte who has severely weakened herself. They notice Karza has constructed a new costume which upsets Kitty as she fears that she will never return to her own body.

As Bioship stands up he is struck from behind by Cannonball as he is attacked by the New Mutants. Sunspot throws him into a tree but the X-Men and the Micronauts join the battle and hold their own against their larger opponents. Bioship cannot restore the X-Men to their true size without exhausting what little energy he has left so Storm accepts that they must stay small for a little more time.

Inside the Bioship Nightcrawler is tending to his mentor Xavier. His body is dying but he tells Nightcrawler that the teams must keep the New Mutants and the Entity distracted and to keep his body alive until he tells him otherwise. Even kill him if need be.

Outside the New Mutants are falling to their tiny foes causing the Entity to focus his mind on them. He doesn’t notice the astral form of Xavier slip into mansion as Magma uses her powers to burn the already injured Bioship.

As Xavier moves inside the X-Mansion he finds Illyana unconscious on the ground with Kitty’s pet dragon Lockheed by her side. He is able to communicate with Lockheed and the dragon fly outside to defend Kitty as Xavier enters his study where the Entity is using Cerebro. He enters his own mind and sees memories including one of the Dark Phoenix.

At the battle Lockheed has reached where Kitty and Karza are located. He senses that they have swapped bodies and attacks Karza despite the fact he possesses Kitty’s body. The Entity picks up on this and he is angered that he has been played a fool and causes Kitty to use her armour to attack Karza. They know that the Entity is behind this but they don’t know why he doesn’t just destroy them with a click of his finger. Xavier realises that on Earth the Entity only has his power and is in fact weakened.

Karza tries to phase through the glove but he cannot and Kitty is trying to will the glove loose. They begin to phase into each other as Fireflyte sees a way to swap their minds back and she begins to sing. The Entity realises that there is someone in his mind and at the battle the mind transfer works as Kitty returns to her own body while Karza returns to his. He teleports away as Colossus tends to Kitty.

Bioship is close to death as he sacrifices his systems to keep Nightcrawler and Xavier alive. Nightcrawler has no choice but to teleport out of the stricken Bioship and he hopes that Xavier will make it out alive.

Inside Xavier’s mind he has come face to face with the Entity and although he seems to be weakened Xavier intends to sacrifice himself by causing himself to suffer from a stroke. That way he and the Entity will both be destroyed. With little option the Entity goes back to his own body but it has already been destroyed.

In the aftermath the X-Men and the Micronauts tend to one another but the X-Men remain small while the Micronauts are stuck on Earth. Fireflyte reveals that she can get them back to the Microverse but they must leave quickly. Bioship is too injured to make the trip and with his last remaining energy he enlarges the X-Men back to their normal size before he dies.

The teams say their goodbyes to one another as Xavier explains how he was able to defeat the Entity. Fireflyte uses her own abilities to transfer the Micronauts back to the Microverse. The X-Men’s struggle is over for now but the Micronaut’s continues on.

My Thoughts

We return for the fourth and final issue of this crossover Limited Series. It was a pretty fun series to read, not the best X-Men crossover I’ve ever read but not the worst either. What I do find a little funny however is that this crossover has finished but the following month the X-Men were involved in another crossover of even more epical proportions. I think you know what I’m talking about.

I still question why Rogue wasn’t in this series at all. I don’t think there was any explanation to why she wasn’t there for its entirety. We do know that the Limited Series takes place after she joined the team. She’s too attached to the X-Mansion to have gone anywhere else so I wonder where she is throughout this entire crossover. If she had been involved could things have gone differently?

I did find it a little confusing how exactly travel to and from the Microverse works. I thought it meant having to shrink to microscopic size but it seems that one has to go through some kind of space wall to get there. In the first issue we saw the X-Men get there by shrinking but it seems that it isn’t enough. I think if I read the Micronauts series the answer would become a lot clearer.

The battle between the pint sized X-Men and the Micronauts against the New Mutants was especially humorous to read. Especially seeing Wolverine and Bug taking down a seemingly giant Mirage. It makes me wonder what would have happened if the X-Men had stayed at being six inches tall. Like Nightcrawler said the ladies might not like it but I think that he would have found some advantages.

It was confusing as well all about the body swapping part of the story. Not only did you have Kitty Pryde swapping bodies with Baron Karza you also had Professor Xavier and the Entity. I don’t think I’ve seen two body transfers like this in a single issue. It is something that isn’t seen all that often but I do feel that they went a little too far this time and I think it could have been done better in a different way. Maybe having the X-Men not seem to be normal size in the Microverse. That was just a random idea but I think you get what I mean

The finale was somewhat fitting as we saw the Entity basically destroyed by his own cowardice. He tried to jump into his original body when it was destroyed and thus killing him. Xavier’s dark side will flare up again the future. For now there will be no more evil Xavier for a good long time.

In conclusion I’m giving this issue a 7 out of 10. It was an alright issue but as I said there have been better.

Next Issue

Secret Wars (Volume 1) #1

Issue Information

Title- Secret Wars (Volume 1) #1

Release Date- May 1984

Writer- Jim Shooter

Artist- Michael Zeck

Major Notes

Features the X-Men, Avengers, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk plus numerous villains. First issue in crossover and first appearance of the Beyonder.

Brief Summary

War Begins

In the distant reaches of the universe many of Earth’s heroes find themselves on a strange space station. The heroes include the Fantastic Four, Avengers, X-Men, Spider-Man and even the villainous Magneto. All are unsure how they exactly got there and they begin to introduce each other although many of them have already met before. They also notice an identical space station.

On this ship there are numerous villains including Doctor Doom, Galactus, the Wreaking Crew, Ultron, Enchantress, Doctor Octopus, The Absorbing Man, Kang the Conqueror, the Lizard and the Molecule Man. They too are wondering what us going on but on the Heroes’ space station they notice that Magneto is amongst them. Captain Marvel calls him a murderer but Magneto defends his actions as he is fighting for his people.

They all look out into space and see the stars around them disappear and the entire galaxy that had been in view was destroyed. There is only one star remaining and they watch in horror as a planet forms.

On the villains’ space station Ultron attacks the other villains since they are all living things. Doctor Doom realises that Ultron is extremely powerful and he commands the Molecule man to destroy the machine. Molecule Man refuses. Doom is able to convince him other wise and the machine slams into Galactus. The towering being notices this and forces Ultron up to his eye level. Ultron threatens to destroy Galactus but the cosmic being absorbs all the energy from Ultron’s body and it then drops to the ground.

Suddenly a rift opens in the blank space and beams down at the space stations. A being calling itself the Beyonder and informs both heroes and villains that by slaying their enemies they will receive whatever they desire and nothing is impossible. Galactus takes this to heart and he doesn’t care about the task. All he wants it to no longer have his hunger and he flies up towards the rift. Doom flies up with him since he is impressed beyond measure by the Beyonder’s power and wishes to obtain it for himself. As soon as the pair get close they are forced away by the Beyonder and fall down to the planet.

The heroes are amazed by the Beyonder’s power and the space stations travel down to the recently formed planet and then the heroes are teleported onto the surface. They try to work out where they are but some are still not happy that Magneto is amongst them. Wasp calls him out for killing the sailors on a Russian submarine that had tried to attack him. He stands by his actions and the X-Men even try to defend him stating that they might need him. The other heroes see this as sympathising with the enemy and a few of them even try to attack Magneto. He is able to use his powers to defend himself and despite the arguing between the heroes Magneto flies away so that no mutant blood is spilled.

With Magneto gone the heroes begin to decide who should lead. Mr Fantastic’s name is the first to be given consideration but he turns it down since his wife the Invisible Woman and unborn child are still on Earth and he will be thinking of them instead of the others. Both the Hulk (who now has the mind of Bruce Banner) and the Avengers leader Wasp turn down their opportunity to be leader. They decide upon Captain America even though Wolverine is against it.

Far away Doom wakes up and sees that Galactus is still unconscious. He walks away from the fallen giant and comes across a fortress where other villains are staying. He knows that they can’t play under the Beyonder’s rules.

As he goes inside he sees the other villains who want to make him their leader. He doesn’t want to go for the prize and instead wants the Beyonder’s power. Molecule Man tries to convince him otherwise but is swatted away. The other villains go to battle him but he uses his gauntlets to collapse part of the fortress and walks away. He gets upon a ship and flies away so that he can find a way to rob the Beyonder of his power. He is watched by Kang who uses a cannon mounted on the fortress to destroy Doom’s ship.

This is spotted by the heroes who rush to where the ship had crashed. When they arrive they find that Doom is still alive since his shields were able to protect him. He is still injured and they although Wolverine wants to put the villain down Captain America offers him a hand to get up. Doom sees this as an insult and attacks them. He swears vengeance on the heroes and the Beyonder.

Doom escapes and as the heroes recover they see that the remaining villains are heading right towards them. They intend to kill the heroes and receive the prize that the Beyonder has offered them.

My Thoughts

Now we come to what you could call the first Marvel Crossover event that involved many of the company’s A-List characters. Not only do you have the X-Men but you also have the Fantastic Four, Avengers, Hulk, Spider-Man and a couple of others. We also got to see many of the top villains from the Marvel Universe although a few top ranking villains were absent (like Loki and the Green Goblin) either due to their deaths or other causes.

Although we couldn’t see him in this issue the Beyonder makes his presence known in this issue. He demonstrated power that is literally God like and maybe even Dark Phoenix pails in comparison to me. If I remember correctly about him it turns out he does originate from Earth. I think he is a Mutant Inhuman who has god like powers. Although for now the point of this crossover hasn’t been explained I think that we’ll find the answer in due time in the series.

Hero wise the Fantastic Four is minus the Invisible Woman and has been replaced by She-Hulk. The Invisible Woman is pregnant so has been left behind and this makes sense. X-Men wise Kitty Pryde is left behind and is in her own trouble that will be picked up in the New Mutants series. Her dragon Lockheed, Cyclops and Rogue are with the team even though I don’t think that we ever saw them go through the gate that led them to Breakworld. Maybe it happened off panel.

This Incredible Hulk that we’re seeing in this series is far more intelligent than the Hulk that we’re used to seeing. I believe that at this point in the Incredible Hulk series the Hulk retains his intelligence when he transforms so in a way he is no longer a monster. I’m not sure the reason for his increased intelligence but I guess I would have found out if I read the Incredible Hulk series.

The premise of the series is the Beyonder creating a world where the heroes and the villains fight one another and whichever team is left standing gets their desires no matter how big fulfilled. I don’t think the heroes would be too bothered about fighting but the villains but of course on the opposite end of the scale the villains want nothing more than to kill their hated enemies.

One thing I did find a little funny to see is that Wolverine had no respect at all for Captain America. It is later stated that they have teamed up in World War II and that they’ve had each other’s back for years. The outburst took me as being odd but maybe Wolverine has simply forgotten (he did still have those memoires at the time however) or for some reason he wanted to keep their friendship a secret.

I’m also wondering why Magneto was amongst the heroes since he is considered to be a villain. I think he was as confused with this as the heroes but again I think that it’ll be explained at some point in this series. It is interesting to see however as he isn’t a typical villain. It is also interesting to know that this is the first time that the X-Men have even encountered him since Uncanny X-Men #150. We did have that Texas State Fair special but since that was non-canon it doesn’t actually count.

In conclusion I’m giving this issue a 6 out of 10. It felt like too much was trying to happen in a short amount of time.

Next Issue

New Mutants (Volume 1) #15

Ugh....The Secret Wars. This was the first line wide crossover for Marvel and it was designed specifically to push a toy line. Most of the X-Men are written horribly in it and nothing much comes out of it other than the ruination of Colossus and Kittys relationship......I guess this story is intrinsic to Magnetos road to redemption but he is kind of all over the place in this series, as we will see....

@hysteria: Chronologically Magneto tried to become a part of his children's life in the Scarlet Witch/Vision mini and "God Loves, Man Kills" happens between this series and issue 150 also, that story kind of portrayed Magneto in a more positive role. He also interacted with Xavier in that story, so, that's imaginably why he is placed with the heroes.

Issue Information

Title- New Mutants (Volume 1) #15

Release Date- May 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- Sal Buscema

Major Notes

Features Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost and Doug Ramsey

Brief Summary

Scaredy Cat!

Very early in the morning at the X-Mansion Illyana Rasputin is casting a spell in her room. She is worried about her best friend Kitty Pryde who has not contacted her since leaving to visit the Massachusetts Academy with her friend Doug Ramsey. As Illyana casts the spell her astral form leaves her body and travels the distance over to the Massachusetts Academy. There in one of the subbasements Illyana sees Kitty strapped to a chair with the villainess Emma Frost before her. Kitty’s mutant abilities are being blocked. Emma intends to make Kitty renounce the X-Men and join her. The X-Men can’t save her since they have gone missing and Emma has placed Doug in trance where he believes that Kitty is by his side and he kisses her. This is when Kitty learns that Doug is in love with her. Emma explains how she recovered from her catatonic state and gives Kitty the option of joining her or else she will use her influence to ruin her parents. It is then that Kitty sees Illyana’s astral image and when she looks up at it Emma senses it and destroys it with a mind blast.

Back at the X-Mansion the New Mutants are awoken by Illyana’s scream and they rush to her room. When Cannonball kicks down the door they are confronted by demons. The demons are originating from Illyana and they begin to run through the mansion. The other New Mutants leave so that they can track down the demons and stop them from escaping while Mirage remains behind so that she can help Illyana.

The New Mutants attack the demons throughout the mansion but whenever they come into contact with the demons they fade away. In his personal battle with a demon Cannonball accidentally rockets out of a window but so far the team as a whole are doing relatively well.

In Illyana’s room Mirage tries to get close to her but the demons begin to overwhelm her. In her panic she uses her mutant abilities to project the one thing that the demons fear, Illyana herself. With the sight of their demonic mistress the demons disperse but Mirage begins to hallucinate herself as she feels herself be carried away by the demonic Illyana. The next thing she knows she is in bed with the real Illyana by her side. The other New Mutants then enter the room to demand an explanation from Illyana.

A short time later the team have regrouped in the kitchen and Illyana explains that not only is she a mutant but also a sorceress. When they ask her why she cast the spell in the first place she explains that she was worried about Kitty and has discovered that her best friend is in danger. She tells the team that they must go and rescue her but rules set by Professor Xavier state that a situation like this requires the X-Men, Avengers or Fantastic Four. Unfortunately all three of those teams have mysteriously disappeared meaning that it is up to the New Mutants to rescue her. At first the team are unwilling to fight the Hellfire Club but Magma stands by Illyana and eventually the rest of them agree to rescue Kitty. Unfortunately none of them are qualified to use the X-Jet or even drive a car. Illyana is unwilling to use her mutant abilities and Stevie Hunter is away on vacation. In the end they have to raid their piggy banks to get enough money to take the bus to the Massachusetts Academy.

A short time later the team travel to Port Authority Bus Station where they buy their bus tickets. Magma is somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of people there but the team also notice Sunspot and Wolfsbane travelling up to the observation deck. When they get up to them they seemed to have been in a trance and they had been looking at the church which is the base of operation for the crime fighting duo of Cloak and Dagger. The pair snap out of the trance and they’re unsure how they got up there.

Later the team are on the bus heading to Massachusetts and Cannonball goes over to Mirage who is trying to devise a strategy. They also go over what happened to Sunspot and Wolfsbane during the team’s team-up with Spider-Man, Cloak and Dagger. They had been injected with a serum that had turned them into monsters but they had seemed to be cured. Cannonball fears that they might have traces of the serum still within them but Mirage reminds him that they have a more pressing concern to concentrate on and that is to rescue Kitty from the clutches of the Hellfire Club.

Cannonball moves over to Wolfsbane who feels that Illyana is a witch and a spawn of the devil much like herself. Cannonball reminds her that she is not a spawn of the devil because of her mutant abilities. He too is very religious and they go over how they have lost those that they have loved and that God still loves and judges them. He even invites her to go with him the next time he visits home and she more than willingly agrees.

That evening in the subbasement of the Massachusetts Academy the New Mutants enter as Magma has used her powers to tunnel them in. Wolfsbane transforms so that she can pick up Kitty’s scent but there are too many different scents for her to pick up. Thankfully Illyana still remembers where she saw Kitty so the team make their way to the lab where she had seen Kitty.

When they arrive they see Kitty still strapped to the chair. She is happy to see them but when they go to release her they realise that she is just a hologram. Suddenly a series of bright lights blind the team and moments later they see an oversized hologram of Emma with a dejected Kitty by her side. Emma states from the team belong to the Hellfire Club and that Kitty already belongs to her. Illyana vows that she will destroy the entire academy if Kitty is harmed.

My Thoughts

Now we return to the New Mutants in what might be one of their most treacherous capers yet. As we saw in Uncanny X-Men #180 Kitty Pryde has been kidnapped by the Hellfire Club and it is up to the New Mutants to save her. They might not like her too much but the heroes that they are doesn’t allow them to give up on her. They also don’t have any of the A-List superhero teams to fall back on so since they are all taking part in the Secret Wars crossover event.

The first thing I have to mention is that I’ve seen a superhero team travelling to battle in a wide range of transport. I think this is one of the very few times that I’ve ever seen a team travel on a bus to battle. It is things like that which gives the series a sense of realism since the team can’t drive and they have no one else to depend on. I could even imagine them being late for a battle because the bus was late. But thankfully in the future the New Mutants won’t have to rely on public transport.

We saw a nice scene between Cannonball and Wolfsbane who have feelings for each other and it seems like they’re expressing their feelings towards one another. As it has been mentioned several times Wolfsbane sees herself as a devil spawn due to her mutant abilities and the teachings of her local vicar who doesn’t seem to like mutants. The scene was great in the way that we saw the pair begin to draw towards each other.

Mirage also shows the leadership skills that she will be widely remembered for as she was the only member of the team who was doing research while on the bus. This shows that even when she loses her powers twenty years later that she will still have skills that will make her an extremely valuable member of the team. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ultimately becomes the team’s leader.

Illyana further shows her loyalty to Kitty as she is the one who was most worried about her when she didn’t call the mansion. The other New Mutants still don’t particularly like the young X-Man who refused to join their ranks but Illyana refused to leave Kitty to her fate. This is a friendship which will last for many decades and it seems that there is a link between the two characters since Kitty was able to see Illyana in her astral form. I’m not sure if this is ever explained but it could probably mean that they are Best Friends Forever in the literal sense.

Emma Frost portrayed a great villain in this issue and it still makes me wonder from appearances like this how she was able to redeem herself. She doesn’t seem to be an unwilling villain or misguided. She seems to be evil through and through with no redeemable qualities. I prefer this Emma Frost over the one that is in the comics right now. Maybe one day we could see her return to her old ways.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue an 8 out of 10. It was a good set up and the ending makes the reader want to skip to the next issue immediately.

Next Issue

Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #181

Issue Information

Title- Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #181

Release Date- May 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- John Romita Jr. and Dan Green

Major Notes

Tie-in with Secret Wars. First appearance of Puff the Dragon and Amiko Kobayashi.

Brief Summary

Tokyo Story

In Japan five children look into the sky as a giant green dragon flies above them. They look through their monster book to try and identify it but they see that it is a new monster. Suddenly the X-Men appear right underneath it and they fall down to the ground. The children go to the team and they watch as the huge dragon flies away.

As the X-Men recuperate they are confused to why they have not returned to New York where they had been taken from. Thanks to the children Wolverine learns that the team is in Japan and are only a few miles away from Tokyo itself. Cyclops is missing from the team and the X-Men identify the huge dragon as the one that Lockheed had fallen in love with on Breakworld. It seems when returning to Earth the dragon had somehow grown to monstrous size. Professor Xavier learns by reading the minds of the children that a week has passed since they left. The team decide that they must stop the dragon from going on a rampage but Rogue heads back to the X-Mansion so that she can check if Kitty Pryde and the New Mutants are alright. Wolverine notices that there are some leadership issues between Xavier and Storm, he remembers when this happened between Cyclops and Storm and he thinks this could have caused her recent change in personality.

At the War Room at the National Command Centre the defence forces are surprised by the sudden appearance of the huge dragon. They prepare the defences against such a monster and in the War Room itself Mariko Yashida is there along with her cousin Sunfire. When she hears that the X-Men have also been spotted she sends Sunfire help with the defence efforts. At first he questions her command but since she is the head of the Yashida Clan he has no choice but to accept.

In Downtown Tokyo the dragon has ripped part of a skyscraper causing rubble to begin to fall. The X-Men begin to protect civilians from the falling rubble but there is too much for them to stop completely and people get crushed. Xavier commands Wolverine to find survivors and he tries to tap the mind of the dragon to learn why she is acting in this manner. Unfortunately the dragon takes this as an attack and causes the entire skyscraper to fall. Xavier is about to be crushed but Sunfire intervenes and destroys most of rubble. Unfortunately he doesn’t get it all and Xavier has to take cover as the rubble topples onto him. By now the National Guard has appeared and starts attacking the dragon while the X-Men look on powerless.

In Tahiti Madelyne Pryor is sitting at the steps of a hotel worried about Cyclops who disappeared a week earlier. Suddenly Cyclops himself appears out of thin air and lands on the ground right besides her. She is happy to see that he returned but is angry that he disappeared right out of her arms. She tells him how worried she has been but he tells her that because of his powers things like this can happen. They hug and try to put the whole event behind them.

Back in Tokyo the Dragon is carrying rubble and using her wings to create strong gusts of wind that topple the tanks. Storm tries to combat her but accidentally creates a tornado that shoots her up into the sky. It causes her to fly too high and she eventually loses consciousness.

Meanwhile Xavier tries to recover from being struck by the rubble but he can’t feel his legs. In his panic he fires out mental distress signals. This is picked up by both Wolverine and Colossus, as the Russian mutant frees his mentor Wolverine continues his search for survivors. Xavier points him in the right direction but his injuries are not serious and he feels ashamed that he panicked. He can see now that he isn’t fit to lead the X-Men on the field.

Wolverine locates a mother who has been crushed by the rubble. She is dying and she has a baby daughter in her arms. She asks Wolverine to care for her daughter and Wolverine accepts this responsibility. With the knowledge that her daughter is safe the woman slips away as Wolverine holds her daughter.

Elsewhere Sunfire has caught Storm before she falls to her death and attacks the dragon. His blasts seem to have no effect on the monstrous beast and she beats him down with her wing. He and Storm both fall to the ground but Sunfire takes the brunt of the fall. They are back on the hill where the X-Men first landed and the children are still there. They tend to the two mutants but the shadow of the dragon appears above them. The dragon goes in for the kill but then Lockheed flies up to her eye stopping the attack.

The pair begin to communicate as Lockheed denounces her in his own way and breathes fire on her nose. This does no damage physically but mentally she is distraught. She flies away and at the War Room she is picked up on a radar. There is a flash of light and her blip disappears.

A short time later the X-Men help more survivors and begin to think of what to do with the baby girl that Wolverine has agreed to care for. This is watched on a screen by Mariko who is happy to see that Wolverine has survived without injury. She still loves him but she is duty bound to her position and cannot marry him until her task is completed.

Later on the hill the X-Men regroup as Sunfire explains that the dragon’s energy disappeared. Xavier can’t use his mental probes on Lockheed to discover what happened to the other dragon. He thinks that Kitty is the only one who has any chance of truly communicating with him. Xavier does know that the enormous dragon loved Lockheed and on a nearby hill the team see that she was using the skyscraper rubble to build a nest.

In Washington DC Senator Robert Kelly brings forth a bill to his fellow Senator Phillip. Senator Kelly reminds his colleague about the dangers of mutants but Phillip thinks the bill is more or less legalising slavery. The Bill is that of the Mutant Registration Act which will have the government controlling mutants.

My Thoughts

Now we return to the Uncanny X-Men which comes later in this blog than the norm since New Mutants actually came out before this issue in the same month. This issue is basically the aftermath of the Secret Wars Limited Series which at this point has only had one issue so far). It didn’t reveal that many spoilers from the series, it only revealed that Lockheed fell in love with a dragon that he met on Breakworld. It also reveals that Colossus lost his love on Breakworld and since Kitty Pryde is still on Earth we know that he must be referring to someone else.

It was nice to see that the title didn’t get bobbed down in the company wide crossover event of the Secret Wars. In all the comics that featured the heroes who were involved one issue had them going to Breakworld and then the next issue would be them returning. In big crossover events today you have a lot of tie-in issues and LSs to go with the crossover. Back then there were no real tie-ins and so made the original Secret Wars LS very easy to follow and it didn’t get overly complicated.

The issue introduces a dragon who is nicknamed Puff after the song about the magical dragon. She is a green dragon that was roughly the size of Lockheed but when they were transported to Earth she somehow grew in size. She was much like Lockheed but even though it appears that she died in this issue she does pop up again in the Kitty Pryde: Shadow & Flame Limited Series which was released around twenty years later. By then she had shrunk back down to her original size and was peaceful once again. Just to note as well that although it is listed that her first appearance was the last issue of Secret Wars, chronologically that is true but when it comes to release date this is actually the first. It is like saying Origin #1 was the first appearance of Wolverine rather that Incredible Hulk #180.

Also first appearing in this issue was Amiko Kobayashi who although not named in this issue becomes kind of like Wolverine’s adoptive daughter. He has been seen as a father figure to different young women over the series but this girl he is like her father. I think she isn’t seen again until a few years later and I believe that eventually she might become a ninja like character although I’m not entirely sure.

It was funny to see that the Japanese National Guard was actually used to fighting giant monsters. Well the country is infamous for creatures like Godzilla and I’m pretty sure that he has had his own Marvel series at some point. They actually joke about the giant monster business and it gives you a sense of absurdity with the entire situation.

Although many of the X-Men fought valiantly in this issue it was Lockheed who truly saved the day as he was able to stop the much larger dragon from destroying the city and killing the X-Men. We might not fully know what he said to Puff there’s no doubt that he saved Tokyo and when Kitty finds out I think she’ll give him the biggest hug in the world. It would be like heaven to him.

We also saw that Professor Xavier isn’t above going into a panic. When he thought that he had become a paraplegic again he panicked and almost lost control of his powers. It can be understandable and it also shows that the most powerful mind on the planet isn’t above having moments of weakness.

One other thing that we saw for the first time is the Mutant Registration Act which is a bill that Senator Robert Kelly is trying to push forward. It basically means that every mutant in the country will be named and you can imagine just what kind of backlash there will be if such an bill was pushed through.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue an 8 out of 10. It was a good read which was simple yet entertaining.0

Next Issue

Secret Wars (Volume 1) #2

Booomp.

Issue Information

Title- Secret Wars (Volume 1) #2

Release Date- June 1984

Writer- Jim Shooter

Artist- Mike Zeck

Major Notes

None

Brief Summary

Prisoners Of War!

The heroes are taken by surprise from a sudden attack by the villains who are also armed with hi-tech weaponry. The initial attack takes down half of the heroes but those who remain mount a counterattack but the villains seem to have the upper hand. Mr Fantastic tries to protect the heroes that have fallen while the villains continue on with their attack.

Miles away Doctor Doom is flying through the air as he remembers the events that have taken place to him since coming to Breakworld. He eventually comes across the still unconscious body of Galactus. He lands on the ground and is amazed to see Galactus rise up and begin to walk away, Doom tries to communicate with him but he simply walks away completely ignoring the Latvarian ruler.

Doom walks away towards the Villains’ fortress as he contemplates his next move. He knows that the Beyonder is all powerful and how he is insignificant in comparison. As he enters the fortress he notices that there is no one else there but then he is attacked by defence drones. Doom is able to destroy them and then destroys the defence control system. He discovers the still deactivated Ultron and he devises a way that the mechanical being can be of use to him.

Back at the battle the heroes begin to gain the upper hand over the villains. The Hulk and Cyclops take down the tripod that a couple of the members of the Wrecking Crew were using as She-Hulk goes toe to toe with the Enchantress and wins. The battle is wrapped up after this and they allow the remaining villains to flee so that they can regroup and deal with their own wounded. Storm is ordered to perform a reconnaissance mission and she notices the air on this planet is extremely easy for her to manipulate. It seems the Beyonder has created the perfect fighting conditions.

A short time later the heroes have discovered a huge defence fortress which will do as their shelter. They explore around as the X-Men realise that Kitty Pryde’s dragon Lockheed is missing. It takes them sometime to explore the base and they have discovered a suitable place to house the fallen villains and healing chambers to heal their wounds. Captain America is satisfied that there are no immediate dangers and he requests that the heroes gather at the dome that is part of the base.

Later in the dome Captain America begins to go over strategy with the other heroes. He tells them that they have won the battle but not the war, he knows that there are several powerful villains still out there and he commands that the base be further explored while he sends Thor, the Human Torch and Iron Man on a perimeter mission.

Elsewhere Magneto has found his own fortress hundreds of miles away. He stands looking over the alien landscape and considers the events taking place. He wonders if humans share the same feelings as mutants right now in this strange place.

Hours later elsewhere the defeated villains of Doctor Octopus, the Absorbing Man, The Wrecker and Molecule Man return to their base where Doctor Doom is waiting for them. They are surprised to see that he is still alive and he refuses to let them inside until they bend to his will. At first they refuse but a power bolt from the rebuilt Ultron puts them in their place. They unwillingly accept and they are allowed inside the fortress, as they enter the villains notice that Doom is being particularly nice to the Molecule Man. They know that he is the most powerful one of the group but they still have the problem of Galactus to deal with. Doctor Octopus knows that Doom is up to something beyond the goal of the Beyonder and he wonders if anyone will survive his grand plan.

Sometime later at the base of the heroes Magneto is able to approach it and use his powers to enter. Wasp and She-Hulk are in another room and they are discussing how they are keeping themselves together after all the craziness that has taken place. They don’t realise that Magneto has entered the base and has made his way to the power core.

Elsewhere inside the base Cyclops and Ms Fantastic talk to one another. Cyclops tells him how he was on his honeymoon when he was taken away. He hadn’t even had his costume on at the time and yet he arrived on Breakworld with it on. The other heroes have had little things fixed for them by the Beyonder. Cyclops is saddened that his chance of happiness has been dashed. Mister Fantastic reveals to him that his own wife is still on Earth expecting their child. At this point the Thing approaches but after hearing their conversation he walks away since he doesn’t think that he’ll ever see his girlfriend Alicia again.

Magneto begins to manipulate the power core so that it will draw the heroes to him. Unaware of this Spider-Man and the Human Torch talk about whether they will return home. Suddenly they hear an alarm from the power core and Spider-Man races to the core while the Human Torch gathers the other heroes.

When they arrive Magneto has defeated Spider-Man and he uses the nearby equipment banks to try and crush the heroes. This distracts them as he tries to finish his business but the Thing and Wasp break through the blockade. Magneto wraps the Wasp up in debris and flies away with her as his captive. The Thing chases after them but he suddenly reverts to human as the other break through the blockade. They are all deeply surprised that he has returned to normal after all of these years but they also notice that none of the X-Men have arrived. Unfortunately they can’t go after Magneto in force since they have many other problems to deal with like Galactus.

My Thoughts

Now we come to the second issue of the original Secret Wars Limited Series in what I have to call an improvement on the last issue. I felt that the previous issue tried to do too much in a short amount of time where this one felt right. There was quite a bit crammed in there but it didn’t feel as rushed as the previous issue.

The first thing to point out is that this is when the Thing discovers that he can change from the Thing into Ben Grimm, something that he can’t do on Earth and this will be one of the factors for him staying on Breakworld after the end of the Secret Wars (His adventures there are documented in the Thing solo series which was printing those adventures at the time). If I believe correctly he always had the ability to switch from one to the other but a mental block prevented him from doing this.

X-Men wise there wasn’t too much for them in this issue as most of them were knocked out in the villains’ surprise attack and the others didn’t have too big of a role. We did see Cyclops have a moment with Mr Fantastic and the team realising that Lockheed had disappeared (and he won’t reappear until the very last issue of the series). You did get Wolverine complaining in this issue and I feel that he isn’t being penned right at this moment in time.

We also see that Doctor Doom has a lot more up his sleeve than many of the other villains realise. So far it seems that Doctor Octopus is the only one that suspects that he’s up to something and he has right to worry. Doctor Doom is definitely up to something much grander than simply winning this war and the reader is left to wonder how exactly he will try and achieve his goal.

I would say that the most important villain of the issue is Magneto and although we don’t know what he’s up to we can suspect that it can’t be anything good. Now he has his hands on the Wasp and I wonder what will happen between them. The battle also created a bigger rift between the X-Men and the rest of the heroes since they were not present during the battle and I do wonder where they were.

Also despite being more intelligent the Hulk definitely acts a lot more like an ass in this series. At least when he was stupid he wasn’t an ass to everyone, he seemed like a misunderstood creature who was a victim of circumstance. Now he is strong and smart and thankfully this didn’t last all that long as we now know that he returns to his more simple ways.

In conclusion I’m giving this issue a 7 out of 10. It was an improvement and I hope to see the improvement continue.

Next Issue

New Mutants (Volume 1) #16

Issue Information

Title- New Mutants (Volume 1) #16

Release Date- June 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- Sal Buscema

Major Notes

First appearance of the Hellions (Warpath/Thunderbird, Empath, Tarot, Catseye, Jetstream and Roulette). Features Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost

Brief Summary

Away Game!

Continuing from the previous issue the New Mutants have been confronted by a large hologram of Emma Frost with a disjointed Kitty Pryde by her side. Guards move in on the team but Magma uses her powers to create a bright flash of light a small earthquake which damages the area. The lights go out but when the guards switch them back on the team are gone. They contact Emma Frost who already knows the situation and she tells them that she will deal with them herself.

Emma Frost is in a fancy room with Kitty Pryde sitting at a chair. There is a mental block in her mind that prevents the young X-Man from using her phasing abilities or even being able to move. Emma explains to Kitty that she intends to use her and the other mutants to take over the world along with Sebastian Shaw and the other members of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club. Kitty has no choice in whether she joins or not and Emma intends to capture the New Mutants and begin to brainwash them as she did to Kitty.

The New Mutants have escaped to a store room and they begin to figure out their next move. They decide to take out the main facility’s reactor so that they can rescue Kitty and make their way out of the school. For now Emma has not been able to pick up their thoughts and they hope that their training will prevent her from reading their minds. They do capture two female guards who are outside the room but they refuse to talk. Mirage uses her powers to conjure a demonic image of Emma which terrifies the guards enough to talk but Mirage herself is distraught. She hates having to use her abilities like that. Illyana tries to help her but they both have to put on the guards’ uniforms since they’re the only ones who fit. The team then split up into pairs so that they can cover more ground and Cannonball is surprised to see Magma’s control of her abilities.

A short time later Magma is able to disable the main and back up generators which causes power in the school to shut down. Kitty is happy with the New Mutants’ progress but Emma is unmoved and states that the battle has only just begun. Outside students of the school are I some students are out of their dorms wondering what is happening. They are issued back inside by school security as someone calling themselves Jetstream flies above and sees Cannonball and Magma.

Elsewhere the disguised Mirage and Illyana wonder through a corridor as they try to find Kitty. They are caught by surprise when they run into other guards but thanks to their disguises the guards believe that they are with them. Illyana tells Mirage about her teleportation powers but she doesn’t want to use them unless she has no choice. Mirage suddenly hears something but they can’t see anything and they carry on. They don’t realise that there is someone on the ceiling watching them.

Elsewhere Sunspot and Wolfsbane are tracking Kitty’s scent. They come to a door where Kitty had gone through and when Sunspot rips it open he is blinded by a magnesium flare before being knocked down by a powerful fist. The man responsible looms over him and he is a mutant named Thunderbird. Wolfsbane transforms and takes him by surprise but as soon as she senses victory another mutant arrives named Roulette. Using her powers she causes the shelving by Wolfsbane to collapse on top of her. Sunspot recovers and tries to free Wolfsbane but Roulette uses her luck powers to make him pull a muscle and roll around in agony. She enjoyed doing this much to the dismay of Thunderbird.

In the corridor Mirage picks up on Wolfsbane’s injury and cries out in pain. Illyana tries to comfort her but they are suddenly attacked by the mutants known as Catseye and Tarot. Illyana is seemingly knocked out as Tarot uses a card to conjure up a devil to attack Mirage.

In the dorms Cannonball and Magma are trying to find Doug Ramsey when they run into a mutant named Empath who uses his powers to manipulate their emotions. Doug suddenly appears and creates a distraction for Cannonball to knock Emapth down. He is suddenly attacked by Jetstream who causes him to fly out of the dorm and towards a tree. Cannonball is able to rocket up before he strikes the tree and flies through the air. Empath then manipulates Magma’s emotions causing her to attack Cannonball. He is able to dodge the attacks but one of them strikes Jetstream causing him to fall. Cannonball saves him from falling to his death but Magma strikes him with another lava bolt sending him to the ground. Emapth believes that he has won but Cannonball attacks him and knocks him out.

Doug runs out and is in disbelief over what he has just seen. Emma Frost uses her telepathy to make Cannonball see his ideal image of Magma while Magma sees her own mother. Emma mind wipes Doug so he doesn’t remember what he has seen and she takes the two New Mutants with her who are still in a trance.

Elsewhere Illyana and Mirage are seemingly at a disadvantage but when Illyana conjures the Soulsword she uses it to free herself from Catseye. She then uses it on the devil image to save Mirage and as Tarot flees she conjures up a mounted skeleton that knocks her down. Emma makes her appearance and Illyana has no choice but to conjure a light disc that takes both her and Mirage away and to safety. Emma is disappointed that they have escaped but she thinks that it will not be long before they are recaptured and brought back to her.

My Thoughts

Now we return to the issue of the New Mutants that introduced one particularly important character to the X-Men Franchise. This is of course James Proudstar who has also gone by the name of Warpath and Thunderbird. Unlike the other members of Hellions he eventually joins the X-Men.

As you can see this issue introduces the Hellions who are basically Emma Frost’s answer to the New Mutants. Although all but one has had any true significance is Thunderbird for now I will mention about the others. Catseye is basically the Hellion’s answer to Wolfsbane as she can transform from human into a cat and anywhere in between. Empath reminds me a lot of Karma who is still missing at this point and is assumed to be dead. He had a really long name and you could tell that he was from a high class Spanish family. His mutant ability is to manipulate the emotions of others which can come in handy in many situations. Tarot reminded me a lot of Mirage and she has the ability to conjure up beings from tarot cards hence her name. We have Jetstream who from this issue I can’t really see him as being a mutant but he is definitely a lot like Cannonball. You are have Roulette who really reminds me of Illyana and she has the ability to twist the luck of a person whether it be good or bad.

The main Hellion introduced in this issue is James Proudstar aka Warpath/Thunderbird. His mutant ability is super strength, enhanced reflexes, enhanced healing and even enhanced tracking skills. Not sure if that is mutant or just because of his Native American heritage but it depends from version to version. If you haven’t picked up already he is the younger brother of the John Proudstar who was the original Thunderbird and member of the second generation of X-Men. Sadly he died during the team’s second mission and this will drive his brother for his first few appearances but eventually he will become a member of the X-Men and fill the boots that his brother left behind. In this issue he seems to be the Hellions’ answer to the Sunspot.

Things looked pretty bleak at the end of this issue for the New Mutants as most were defeated by their Hellions counterparts. Emma Frost still has Kitty Pryde hostage and without the X-Men to come to their aid the New Mutants seem to be in serious trouble. True that the Hellions did take the team by surprise but at least Mirage and Illyana both escaped and in truth they are the two most savvy members of the team. They’re the ones who can come up with plans and ideas where although the others can do that they are not quite up to their standards.

We further saw that Cannonball has affections towards Magma. Emma Frost was able to use her telepathy to manipulate him into seeing a Magma if she was born in Kentucky. If he truly hooks up with her and they become a couple I believe that would break the heart of Wolfsbane and it would be fun to see a catfight between her and Magma. (Since in future issues I’ve seen what happens to Wolfsbane when she becomes really mad).

Once again Emma Frost portrays a great villainess in this issue and as I’ve already stated I still can’t see how she was able to redeem herself. I’ve seen villains who become heroes and even when they were villains they weren’t truly evil. Emma Frost on the other hand just seems to be a complete sociopath who loves nothing more than to demonstrate her power in both her mutant abilities and status.

We also saw a bit more of the fact that Mirage hates using her powers in the manner that she has. We can see that it tears her up inside and you can’t help but feel some sympathy towards the character. Maybe one day she will learn to better control it but she hasn’t always used it for fear. She did use them to help Wolfsbane when she suffered from heatstroke so its not all bad.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue an 8 out of 10. It was really good with the last issue of the arc coming next.

Next Issue

Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #182

Bumping

Issue Information

Title- Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #182

Release Date- June 1982

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- John Romita Jr.

Major Notes

Features Nick Fury

Brief Summary

Madness

Rogue is flying through the air on her way back to the X-Mansion while the other X-Men are still in Japan. She enjoys flying through the air and even goes passed an aeroplane but after having her fun she makes her way to the X-Mansion.

She lands in the attic and notices that she is feeling particularly tired after her flight and participation in the Secret Wars. There is no sign of either Kitty Pryde or the New Mutants and she makes her way to Professor Xavier’s study where there are messages on his phone. The first is from Madelyne Pryor who reports about Cyclops’s sudden disappearance but since she knew that he went to Battleworld with the other X-Men she isn’t worried. The second message is from a man named Colonel Rossi who is on the S.H.I.E.L.D hellicarrier. His message cuts off before it can finish and she immediately becomes concerned about him and flies away completely forgetting about the others. The next message is from Illyana Rasputin reporting about the New Mutants’ dealing with Emma Frost and how they might need help. Since Rogue has already left there is no one to hear this message.

At the hellicarrier two S.H.I.E.L.D agents question Rossi who is refusing to talk. Agent Price roughs him up despite the fact that Colonel Nick Fury wants him unharmed. Rossi had been snooping in the computer system when he was caught and Agent Garwood leaves the room stating that he needs air.

Garwood goes to his own room and transmit an unrecoverable link to Sebastian Shaw of the Hellfire Club. He reports about Rossi but the Shaw who decides that he is somewhat dangerous and must be eliminated. Just then an astral image of Emma appears telling him that she has acquired the New Mutants. He agrees to meet up with her the following day.

Outside the Hellicarrier Rogue has arrived and she throws a coin into the bridge. Thanks to her enhanced strength the coin bounces around the bridge damaging vital equipment. She makes her way inside where she is confronted by a small group of agents but she is easily able to defeat them. She then rips out more vital equipment that further damages the Hellicarrier and also traps the agents in their room. Knowing that the agents will concentrate on keeping the Hellicarrier from crashing to be too concerned with her.

Inside his room Garwood dives out before the bulkhead door traps him inside. He goes to where Rossi is being beaten by Price. Not knowing that he is a mole Price asks for assistance before Garwood shoots him dead. He plans on killing Rossi and then blaming him for Price’s death. Before he can pull the trigger Rogue makes her way in by easily lifting the bulkhead door. Garwood fires at her but the bullets harmlessly bounce off of her. He goes to shoot Rossi but Rogue is able to disarm him and knock him out before he had the chance.

Rogue quickly goes to Rossi who is injured. Although they haven’t met he recognises her voice as she picks him up. She is easily able to break out of the Hellicarrier and she flies through the air where two fighter jets follow her. They attack her and Rogue uses another coin to disable one of the jets. The pilot bails out before crashing and she is able to give the other one the slip as she flies to safety.

Rogue touches down at Cape Cod Massachusetts at a cabin that she believes belongs to her parents. She places the unconscious Rossi on the bed before going into the kitchen to make him some soup. When he begins to wake up she brings in the soup and even calls him Ace. Rossi has heard about Rogue from Xavier but he thought that she was from the Deep South but she has a Boston accent. The soup is unique to a friend of his but Rogue claims that the friend is her and this only furthers his confusion. When she keeps calling him Ace he questions the nickname and she states that it was her who gave it to him. She even talks about their first mission together even though it is the first time that they have ever met and when he asks her why he has been brought here she states that this was where they were happy.

Rossi tells her that she has gotten the wrong man and when he asks about how she knew that he was in danger she tells him about the message and how he had broken her out of a KGB prison with Wolverine. He asks her when they first met and she replies that it was when she joined the Air Force when she was eighteen, eight years ago. She then realises that it can’t be true because she is only eighteen now and her accent shifts to that of the Deep South. She remembers building this cabin with her father and brothers and she cut her hand in the process. She takes off her glove and sees that there is no scar and she remembers about her own father and Mystique. She looks into a nearby mirror and she is in disbelief. Rossi grabs her and tells her that she is not Carol Danvers, this causes Rogue to storm out of the cabin.

Rogue tries to fly away but her foot gets caught on a chain and she falls onto the beach. She sees a flashback of a young Carol with her two brothers playing brothers. She believes that they are her flashbacks and she gets up and tries to catch the imaginary ball that the children are playing with. Her memories shift again and she sees Carol as an adult and then she suddenly remembers the events that took place on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco where Rogue had absorbed her powers and memories permanently.

Rossi hears Rogue screaming and comes to her aid. She tells him to stay away from her as she fears that she could do to him what she did to Carol. She cries and tells him how she absorbed Carol’s memories and how Xavier is trying to help her. He is angered and asks her why she had done it and she responds that she was a different person back then and didn’t know the extents of her powers. She has been able to keep Carol’s personality in control but due to her fatigue her control has slipped. She calls him Ace and Rossi tells her to not call him that since she is not Carol. She states that she is Carol where it counts but she is slapped by Rossi. He walks away as he wishes that he had the power to kill her. She cries and states that she loves him.

Sometime later on the Hellicarrier Nick Fury is by the bedside of the injured Garwood. His lover Val is there as well and they have a photo of Rogue which Garwood confirms to be the woman who attacked him. They don’t know that he is a mole and they believe that Rogue killed Agent Price. Nick Fury commands that Rogue be found and if she resists to use deadly force.

My Thoughts

Now we return to the Uncanny X-Men in what is more or less a solo story about Rogue which didn’t feature any of the other X-Men. They were all dealing with the giant dragon in Tokyo while Kitty Pryde and the New Mutants were in trouble with Emma Frost and the Hellions.

This was a great solo story for Rogue as she shows what the effects of absorbing Carol Danvers’s psyche is doing to her. For a good portion of this issue she truly believed that she was Carol Danvers and it wasn’t until she was confronted by Colonel Rossi that she realised what was happening. As we saw it was very scary for the character as she was losing grip of her sanity since she is suffering from a form of Multiple Personality Disorder (maybe Moon Knight can give her some tips on how to cope with MPD).

A good portion of the issue also took place on the S.H.I.E.L.D Hellicarrier as many people know is the main base of operations for S.H.I.E.L.D. Seeing Rogue easily break in and out made me feel that they should have some kind of improved security. These guys deal with superhuman threats regularly so I would have thought that they would have had more sophisticated defences but then again Rogue is a very powerful person. Even if there were enhanced defences I think she would have cracked them anyway. Her Carol Danvers’s side did help since she knew how to cripple the Hellicarrier.

I could understand Rossi’s anger towards Rogue since she basically robbed him of the woman that he loved. When he struck her it is extremely unlikely that Rogue actually felt any physical pain but mentally it damaged her more than anything else in the world. It makes me wonder how Rogue can cope with what she has inside of her and how she can truly redeem herself for what she has done.

We also learn from the issue that the Kitty Pryde and the New Mutants are still dealing with the Emma Frost and the Hellions. From the sounds of this issue it sounds like she has been victorious and wants to show her trophies to Sebastian Shaw. We also learn that Wolverine has rescued Carol from a KGB prison but I’m not sure if this story was ever printed or if it had it somehow slipped under my notice.

Also from this issue we learn that Rogue is eighteen while Carol Danvers is twenty six. Sometimes in comics it can be a little hard to know the exact age of a character (Like what is Spider-Man’s true age right now). If they aged at the same rate as normal people I think the Fantastic Four would be close to their eighties by now.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue another 8 out of 10. A great issue for any Rogue fan to pick up and a good read in general.

Next Issue

Dazzler (Volume 1) #32

Issue Information

Title- Dazzler (Volume 1) #32

Release Date- June 1984

Writer- Mike Carlin

Artist- Mark Bright

Major Notes

Features the Inhumans, Quicksilver, Moonstone, Mr Fantastic and Blackout

Brief Summary

Moon Lighting

At the LA Health and Racquet Club Dazzler is teaching an aerobics class when the Inhuman named Medusa and Lockjaw suddenly appear in the class. This panics most of the people causing them to flee as Medusa states that Dazzler is need on the Inhuman city of Attilan. She apologises for disrupting Dazzler’s class but the mutant songstress declines stating that she can’t run off and help every time there’s danger. Medusa reminds her of when she and Black Bolt came to her aid with Absorbing Man. Dazzler remembers but she still can’t leave so Medusa walks out disappointed with what has happened.

Dazzler drops down to the ground and thinks about the situation. She knows that she owes the Inhumans but she can’t run off after it took her this long to get this job. She suddenly remembers about the class and rushes to the changing rooms where the others are. She tells them that Medusa and Lockjaw are performing artists who like to make dramatic entrances. They agree to come back and Dazzler is able to finish the class.

After the class is finished Dazzler grabs a coffee with one of the attendees named Janet who is trying to become a professional dancer. They talk about Roman Nekoboh and how he is helping Dazzler achieve her film career. They talk for a short while and they seem to get along.

Dazzler pays the bill and when she leaves the café she sees Medusa and Lockjaw walking the streets. At first she thinks that they are trying to ask for her help again but Lockjaw needed time to recover from the first teleportation jump. Dazzler agrees that she will help them as long as she is back by a certain time the following morning. Medusa agrees to this and within moments Lockjaw teleports both women away.

They reappear at the city of Attilan which is located in the blue area of the moon. They make their way to Black Bolt and Medusa explains to Dazzler why she has been brought there. Black patches have been appearing recently and it has been moving closer to Attilan itself. None of the Inhumans have been able to discover the origin of the black patches and they feel that Dazzler’s light powers could help.

They eventually reach the Inhuman Royal Family and Dazzler notices that things around the city aren’t as bad as she thought and how many of the Inhumans look normal. She greets Black Bolt but before she can really do anything they see the black patch coming towards the city and so they must act quickly.

Inside the black patch itself are the villains known as Moonstone and Blackout. Blackout is the one causing the black patches as he and Moonstone move closer to Attilan. They remember the last battle that they had with the Avengers. They plan to take revenge on the Avengers by reaching the blue area of the moon where they can find more stones to fuel Moonstone’s powers. What Blackout doesn’t realise is that she plans to betray him when she gets what she wants. They didn’t plan on Attilan being there and the patch is the only thing allowing them to breathe.

Dazzler steps onto the balcony where she can see the black patch approaching. She doesn’t realise that Blackout can see her and he thinks that she is beautiful. This distracts him causing the patch to shrink for a moment but Moonstone reminds him to keep up his guard. He too plans to betray her when the job is done.

Black Bolt steps up and with the others shielding their ears quietly mutters a few words. Due to his powers they would be enough to cause a lot of damage but Dazzler absorbs it and fires a beam of light down at the patch. This clears the patch and the Inhumans see the two villains. Dazzler continues to light show as Quicksilver runs down and tries to attack the pair. He is repelled by Moonstone and her energy bolt damages the palace. Dazzler is able to save the Inhumans from falling rubble.

Blackout tries to keep the patch around himself and Moonstone so that they can breathe. She knows that they are close to failure so she unleashes an energy attack that mixes with Dazzler’s light beams and create a large flash of light that can be seen on Earth.

This is picked up at the Baxter Building in New York by Mister Fantastic. He quickly communicates with the Inhuman known as Crystal. He offers his and the Fantastic Four’s services but she tells him that the situation is not that severe. She does state that the situation could go either way and the team might be needed.

Dazzler continues her struggle against Moonstone and Blackout as her powers seem to be counteracting theirs. The strain is too much for Blackout who falls down unconscious. Quicksilver runs out and grabs him as Moonstone tries to blast him. Unfortunate she has no oxygen and she too falls unconscious but Quicksilver still rushes her inside the city before both villains suffocate.

Dazzler is hailed a heroine by the Inhumans and she even considers staying in Attilan. She knows that Earth is her home and she requests to be taken back. They agree to allow her to leave and with the help of Lockjaw she is taken back to her apartment while Moonstone and Blackout are returned to Project Pegasus.

After everything that has happened Dazzler tries to get some sleep but unfortunately she needs to get to work. When she arrives her boss Mr Witwicky notices that she looks tired and reminds her that she needs to keep up her image. She apologies as she walks away and prepares for her next class.

My Thoughts

Now we return to Dazzler which was released a month later than I believe that it should have. It has been three months since the last issue rather than two months like the norm. It feels much like it has been ages since I last read an issue and I can see why since there has been a long period of time.

This comic once again features the Inhumans and this time there is Quicksilver by their side as he has left Earth to be his wife Crystal and his young daughter. He acted much like an Inhuman and even called them cousins when he is only a cousin through marriage rather than blood. I know there is a lot of doubt nowadays that Quicksilver is an Inhuman rather than a mutant (Thanks to that God awful twist in the Axis storyline and Marvel’s attempts to push the mutants to one side and replace them with the Inhumans). But still he did have a pretty big part in this comic.

Dazzler’s role in this comic was to basically help the Inhumans with their black patch problem. I could see how she was needed but this felt like another forced crossover so that they could boost sales. At the time it did have some pretty stiff competition and the series was not doing as well as many other Marvel series (nowadays it would be considered a great success). I still believe that she should stay away from crossovers and have her own decent characters to fall back on. A series which depends on the appearances of outside characters isn’t one that can last.

Moonstone and Blackout feature as the main villains of the issue. Moonstone is a relatively little known villainess while Blackout has more or less faded from the comic scene all together. Their recent run-ins with the Avengers have led them to this issue and I think that they could have used other well-known villains instead. It did give the pair a chance to shine in a way.

There was a little bit of controversy with the whole dark side of the moon and Dazzler’s line of ‘no pain, no gain’. Both got some rather aggressive fan letters and it makes me think what the writer was thinking. But still sometimes you just write things like this and not really consider if it is actually right or just an oversight.

I did notice that we had a different writing/artist team with this issue and I’ve also noticed that this issue has had absolutely nothing to do with the Secret Wars series. Dazzler has had nothing to do with that series where with the Uncanny X-Men we have seen them leaving and returning. In the New Mutants we’ve seen them trying to rescue Kitty Pryde since the X-Men are missing but Dazzler has been completely left alone. I think this is a good thing since I don’t think she would have fit into the Secret Wars series.

We also see that Dazzler has gotten herself a job as an aerobics teacher. This is just to make ends meet until her film career takes off (Which I don’t think ever does) and you can tell it’s the eighties with what she and the others are wearing. I wonder if she ever looks back and thinks that it was a little foolish but then again it was the style at the time. I did notice that she needed to return home at 7 am but actually arrived at 8.44 am. I guess she forgot what time her class started.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue a 6 out of 10. It was nothing special in truth and I am looking forward to moving on.

Next Issue

Secret Wars (Volume 1) #3

Yeah, as you wrote, Carol is revealed to be twenty six in that X-Men story, which is odd considering it's later revealed that she had this full life. Its mentioned that she is a former Air Force pilot, former government agent that worked with Wolverine, and former SHIELD agent, and now she has super human abilities and rolls with the Avengers. That is a lot of advancements for a person in a short amount of time......she must be fictional or something ;)

Issue Information

Title- Secret Wars (Volume 1) #3

Release Date- July 1984

Writer- Jim Shooter

Artist- Michael Zeck

Major Notes

First appearance of Titania and Volcana

Brief Summary

Tempest Without, Crisis Within!

Outside Magneto’s fortress a wild storm is brewing. The man himself watches from the safety of his fortress and as he sits down he uses his powers to disperse the metal shards that are imprisoning Wasp some distance away. As she is freed she grows back to her normal size and walks to where Magneto is waiting for her. She attacks him with an energy blast and she states that she could bring the ceiling down on him. He reminds her of the storm outside and how since neither of them can leave any time soon that they should have a truce and even be able to talk. Wasp reluctantly accepts as he apologises for her imprisonment earlier, he even compliments her beauty and intelligence even though she isn’t impressed.

Meanwhile at the heroes’ fortress the same storm is causing floods and landslides. Thor is able to destroy a monstrous boulder that comes their way as She-Hulk moves heavy equipment inside the fortress as she talks to Hawkeye. Iron Man and Captain Marvel are still patrolling outside but he has to turn back due to the weather.

Inside Captain America, Mister Fantastic and the Hulk are looking over some footage of the goings on around Breakworld. Galactus remains exactly where has for some time and hasn’t moved a muscle. The villain’s fortress is absorbing some amount of the storm’s power and Mister Fantastic suspects that something is going on there. He also misses his son and wife and he fears that he will never see them again. The Hulk is unsympathetic and Captain America suspects that the villains will attack when the storm ends but he is assured that they will be victorious if everyone fulfils their roles.

Mister Fantastic walks away and is spotted by Spider-Man. He feels Mister Fantastic’s sorrow and he swings away and makes his way to a hall where the X-Men have holed up. He overhears the X-Men talking with their mentor Professor Xavier. They don’t feel like they fit in with the other heroes and they even agree to join Magneto. Xavier senses Spider-Man’s presence causing the hero to leap down and knock him down. In the close quarters Spider-Man is able to get the upper hand on the team and flees so that he can tell the others about what the X-Men are planning.

Spider-Man runs into Mister Fantastic but before he can tell him anything he forgets what he was about to say and webslings away as Cyclops approaches Mister Fantastic. The leader of the Fantastic Four considers Spider-Man’s odd behaviour as simple fatigue but in truth Xavier was able to wipe his mind his memories although he didn’t like doing it. Cyclops talks to Mister Fantastic about the loved ones that they have left behind but he receives a mental command from Xavier and he rushes to his mentor’s side.

A short time later the X-Men stand before a ship. Xavier can operate it through telepathy and despite the storm the team intend to leave the fortress as soon as they can and travel to Magneto’s stronghold.

At Magneto’s fortress the man himself is turning down an allegiance with Doctor Doom. They are speaking through a screen and Doctor Doom is unhappy that Magneto has turned him down and he now considers the Master Of Magnetism an enemy. After the conversation has ended Magneto returns to Wasp who is glad that he is back. The storm has unnerved her and he goes to her and holds her. At first she is against it but with everything that has happened they kiss as they think that they could die at any moment. She even finds him handsome.

At the villains’ fortress Doctor Doom uses an alien device on two women that have been discovered on Breakworld. Using the storm’s energy he empowers them and as they step out they have been changed. Skeeter McPheran has grown considerably taller and is superhumanly strong and Marsha Rosenberg has strange energy all around her body.

Doom demands a demonstration of the women’s power as Marsha melts a large piece of equipment. She also calls herself Volcana as Skeeter lifts up what remains of the equipment and hurls it out of a nearby window. She calls herself Titania and both women follow Doom to where the other villains are relaxing. He introduces the women to the villains and he walks way as he tells them that they will strike the heroes at dawn. Titania walks up to the Absorbing Man and demands that they fight since he is the strongest of the group. He refuses and she walks away in anger.

Volcana is seeing to Molecule Man and she is impressed by him. They begin to talk and he speaks about how his therapist would react to the situation. He can’t help but follow Doom and he believes that the villain is his only way home.

At the heroes’ fortress Thor walks to where the captured villains are being housed. They are kept in suspended animation and he goes to the pod which contains the Enchantress. He wakes her up and she believes that he is there to gloat. Instead he wishes to speak with her since they are the only Asgardians on the planet. She agrees but creates a portal so that they can talk somewhere away from the prison.

The next morning the Hulk is struggling to come up with any useful ideas and he believes that it is the events of the last few days that have gotten him on edge. Nearby Captain America wakes up and when he sees that it is dawn he realises that an attack is likely and sends the Hulk to raise the alarm.

Outside Doom’s ship rams into the side of the fortress and quickly the villains disembark so that they attack. The heroes are taken by surprise and one by one they are taken down by the attacking villains. Out of the heroes present only Hulk and Captain America escape as the captured villains are released. Doom is happy with the operation but there are heroes missing and he also notices Enchantress is also missing. He commands the fortress be levelled so that it can be of no use.

My Thoughts

Now we return to the Secret Wars in an issue that kind of made the X-Men look like villains. Their page time in this issue wasn’t too great but from the cover we could figure that they would have some kind of confrontation with Spider-Man. We also learn that they are planning to join up with Magneto but for the moment we don’t know why. Are they turning their backs on the heroes since they are human or is it something else entirely? Either way we’ll find out in due time.

This issue is also the debut of the Volcana and Titania. Ok so Volcana didn’t amount to much after the series and has only appeared every once in a while thereafter her friend Titania has stuck around. She is mainly known for her run-ins with She-Hulk since I believe she is stronger than the Emerald Giantess (and an inch shorter). Volcana has volcanic like powers to put it simply while Titania has super human strength. Also there is no explanation as of yet where Doctor Doom was able to find them but again I suspect that we’ll find out over time.

One of the most surprising moments of the issue was when Magneto and Wasp kissed. It is almost like something out of a soap. It was definitely something I was not expecting to see and we can put it down to the fact that the events of the Secret Wars have gotten them to a point where they think that it doesn’t matter. They could be wiped out at any moment, even so we can see where Wasp possibly developed her mutant fetish.

I did find it somewhat funny that Spider-Man was able to get the better of the X-Men. In truth I don’t think he should have stood a chance against the team because despite his powers their combined might should have overwhelmed him. He did have surprise on his side and with it being close quarters it gave him another advantage. We saw Xavier wipe his memories and although the mighty mutant telepath regrets his actions I can see why it was necessary.

The heroes’ defeat at the end of the issue can again be factored down to a surprise attack but this one was more successful than the first since this time they were being led by Doctor Doom himself. It looks bleak for the heroes but they are not down and out since a few of them (mainly the X-Men) were not defeated.

It is also hinted that the Hulk is slowly losing his intelligence and reverting back to his old ways. He is definitely more prone to violence and general rudeness in comparison to the other heroes but I definitely think it is a sign of him losing his mind. We know that he won’t be smart Hulk for too much longer.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue an 8 out of 10. It was a good read and it raised several points.

Next Issue

New Mutants (Volume 1) #17

Issue Information

Title- New Mutants (Volume 1) #17

Release Date- July 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- Sal Buscema

Major Notes

Features Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw

Brief Summary

Getaway!

In their training room the Hellions watch as Jetstream attacks Empath for almost allowing him to be killed during the battle with the New Mutants. The pair continue to fight until Empath uses his abilities to force Jetstream to apologise. Emma Frost then enters the room and forces an end to the hostilities she demands that they sit down for class. She notices the arrogance of Empath and decides to keep a closer eye on him.

A short time later they begin to discuss their next cause of action. Thunderbird isn’t too happy that they have the New Mutants since he wants revenge on the X-Men for the death of his brother. Empath even apologises for his actions which Emma finds odd and she also notices that Tarot trusts her cards too much.

In another room Kitty Pryde and four members of the New Mutants are trying to think of a way to escape. The room nullifies their powers and Sunspot is still suffering from his back. Kitty massages his back for him and she wonders why the New Mutants came instead of the X-Men. This is when she learns that the X-Men are missing along with many other heroes. She also tells the team that Emma Frost plans to brainwash them and force them to side with her. Just then an astral image of Emma Frost appears telling them that the missing members of the team will soon be found and that they will all be under her power very soon.

In Limbo Mirage and Ilyana are unconscious on the ground as a hoard of demons closes in. Mirage wakes up and attacks them with a club. She is confused with what is happening but she uses her powers to produce an image of the demon S’ym which causes the other demons to flee. She thinks that she has won but she turns to see S’ym himself.

When Illyana wakes up she finds herself in a bed with both Mirage and S’ym by her bedside. Both Mirage’s and Illyana’s clothing has been changed and Illyana realises that when she teleports she goes through Limbo. Mirage learns that Illyana is the ruler of Limbo and she also feared that they might be trapped there. Illyana then uses a light disc to send S’ym away and she casts a spell to heal herself. Mirage notices that the pentagram that Illyana has manifested is white for white magic but in her position it is that of dark magic. The effort is a little more than Illyana expected but she is healed and they teleport back to the Massachusetts Academy.

When they arrive they are able to hide but they spot other New Mutants along with Kitty Pryde walking and chatting like friends with the Hellions. They are all wearing the same uniform and the two girls discover that almost a year has passed since they left. They try to figure out what to do next and why Professor Xavier hadn’t done anything to rescue them. Suddenly Emma Frost enters the room, she used her telepathy to find them but before they can be captured the girls teleport away.

The girls reappear more or less in the same building and they notice that it is winter outside. Illyana checks a nearby calendar and discovers that a week has passed since the team came to rescue Kitty. Mirage tries to call the X-Mansion and she even admits that she misses Xavier. They have no choice but to continue on by themselves.

Later the New Mutants are asleep in their room when they are awakened by Mirage and Illyana. They are happy to see each other again but suddenly the light comes on and the Hellions enter. An alarm sounded when the two girls teleported into the building. They don’t like that the New Mutants are being forced to become a Hellion and offer them a way of escape. If they can best them in a one on one duel they’ll be allowed to leave. Illyana has been knocked out by Thunderbird but Mirage has no choice but to accept their terms. Emma Frost herself is away in Boston so they think that she can’t read their thoughts.

A short time later both teams are in the Training Room. Cannonball will be the one duelling with Jetstream. They agree on a few basic rules before starting off. The room is activated as pieces of machinery try to harm the two combatants. Cannonball is powerful but Jetstream keeps outmanoeuvring him. Jetstream is making Cannonball look like a fool but he eventually is able to use the room’s equipment to his advantage as he is able to knock Jetstream to the ground. He is defeated but still won’t surrender.

Just then Emma enters the room along with Sebastian Shaw. She is horrified with what is happening and since she didn’t agree to this duel she refuses to allow the New Mutants to leave. Cannonball tries to create a distraction by rocketing into Sebastian but he is easily repelled. Mirage tries to use her powers but Emma uses her own telepathy to force the horror images back to her. Sunspot attacks Sebastian but he is easily overpowered.

Out of sight Kitty phases into Training Room’s control room which is identical to that of the Danger Room. She phases her hand into control panel causing it to short circuit. The Training Room goes crazy as both the New Mutants and Hellions escape. Wolfsbane and Catseye work together to drag the unconscious Sunspot away from danger. Catseye is invited to come with them but she refuses as Illyana teleports the New Mutants and Kitty away.

They reappear outside of the X-Mansion which is still empty. They spent a short time in Limbo and the weather is still very cold on Earth. Since they don’t have keys Kitty phases into the mansion to open the doors. They also comment that if they stayed the adults would have defeated them. Just then Mirage hears a voice and she turns to see a cloudy image of the bear that took her parents and it claims that it will take her friends.

My Thoughts

Now we return to the New Mutants in the last issue of the current arc. We see that the New Mutants have been able to escape from their captors and returned back to the X-Mansion. It has been a good arc and also had the team fending for themselves with the knowledge that the X-Men can’t run in and save them if they really need to.

The issue also shows that the Hellions aren’t entirely evil since they gave the New Mutants a chance of freedom in what was actually a fair fight. The New Mutants didn’t expect to be freed despite the outcome of the duel but I feel that if it hadn’t of been for Emma Frost they would have been allowed to walk away. I think if it were truly up to Empath and Roulette I think they would have kept the team there but they were simply outvoted. We also learn that Thunderbird has a grudge against the X-Men which will pop up again in the very near future.

We also learn more about Illyana’s powers in this mission. Although it is not revealed yet with Nightcrawler like him when she teleports she goes through a different dimension before reaching her destination. For Illyana she travels through Limbo every time she teleports, for Nightcrawler I can’t exactly remember which dimension he teleports into but I can see this as being a stable rule in the Marvel Universe.

There is a set-up for the next arc of the series which features the Demon Bear. We have already seen it pop up before in the third issue of the series but if I remember correctly it will be the main villain for the next few issues of the series. We don’t know all that much about it, only that it was the creature that too Mirage’s parents. I think this arc was considered one of the best in the series.

The battle between Cannonball and Jetstream shows that there are big similarities between the two characters. A few times Jetstream seemed to be a little arrogant but he paid for it when Cannonball defeated him. I truly think he would have let the New Mutants go but unfortunately Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw prevented this from happening.

I am also wondering at what point the end of the issue takes place with the Uncanny X-Men. I think it takes place after Rogue went to the mansion to check on them (as seen in the last issue of Uncanny X-Men) but before the team returned from Japan. So there’s a good chance at this point that Rogue is ripping up the S.H.I.E.L.D Hellicarrier and losing her mind at the same time.

One thing I am wondering is why none of them have keys to the mansion. How would they have been able to lock up in the first place when they left to rescue Kitty? Even if the doors do somehow lock behind them shouldn’t at least one of them have thought of picking up a set of keys before they left? The only other means I can think is that they were confiscated from them when they were captured. Even so I wish it had been explained.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue another 8 out of 10. It was a fitting end and showed that the team still have a way to going before they are fully competent with their powers.

Next Issue

Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #183

Bump

Title- Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #183

Release Date- July 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- John Romita Jr. and Dan Green

Major Notes

Features the Juggernaut. First mention of Forge. Kitty Pryde temporarily leaves the X-Men.

Brief Summary

He’ll Never Make Me Cry

Kitty Pryde and Colossus are sitting near a cliff overlooking a lake near the mansion. They begin to talk about the X-Men being kidnapped and taken to Breakworld. He admits to her that he fell in love with someone else. This takes her by surprise and he tells her that she was an alien being who gave her life to save him. Kitty bottles her emotions and doesn’t show just how hurt she is by his confession. He also confesses that the love he once had for her isn’t there anymore although he still deeply cares for her. After hearing everything she stands up and walks back to the mansion as if she were fine.

When Kitty reaches the mansion she sees Storm in the window and she thinks about what she was told by her shortly before the X-Men were kidnapped. She then walks into her room, lllyana is there at the computer and asks her how it went. At first Kitty puts on a brave face but after a few moments she begins to sob uncontrollably as her roommate and pet dragon Lockheed try to comfort her.

Storm travels down to the Danger Room where she sees Rogue is facing two deadly robots in a simulation. They get the upper hand and the final robot is destroyed by Storm before it can seriously harm Rogue. When Storm asks her what is going on Rogue acts coldly, Storm knows that she has been acting this way since her encounter with Michael Rossi. She offers her hand to Rogue but she gets up by herself and tells her to leave her alone. Storm knows that there is inner turmoil in Rogue and it might push her back to the Brotherhood.

Upstairs Colossus walks back into the mansion when he is confronted by Wolverine. Colossus is in no mood to talk but Wolverine demands that there are things that they need to have a serious talk about. But rather than having it at the mansion Wolverine decides that they will go out and as they leave Nightcrawler comes along with them so that he be the level headed person in the debate.

Elsewhere Storm enters Kitty’s room where she sees her packing. Kitty has had a talk with Professor Xavier and has been given time away so that she can get her thoughts together. She is going back to Chicago to see her parents and she isn’t sure when she will be back. She refuses to let Colossus see her cry and she is angry that she can only be mad at a ghost rather than a living person. The two women hug and Kitty admits that she both hates and loves Colossus.

In Dallas Doctor Valerie Cooper is in a car with Raven Darkholme. She doesn’t realise that Raven is Mystique in disguise, they discuss about Senator Kelly’s proposed bill which will more or less enslave mutants to the government. They are on their way to see a person named Forge who can help them locate mutants but Valerie doesn’t realise what Raven is planning.

Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler have gone to a bar in Manhattan where they can talk. No one takes notice of Nightcrawler’s appearance and they begin to talk about the way that Colossus broke up with Kitty. Wolverine states that he showed no thought for her feelings and how he had been scared to see things through. Colossus believes that he was trying to spare her. He even asks if he truly loved her then why did he fall for another and Wolverine tells him that fear can make the body do stupid things. Wolverine wants to make him understand exactly what he has done and face the consequences.

Wolverine then notices someone familiar at the bar. It is a very large muscular man and this pops an idea into his head. He demands Colossus to stand up and as he does Wolverine pushes him over making his drink spill onto the muscular man. Colossus apologises but the man pushes him into a wall with such force that it would have killed him if he had not armoured up.

Nightcrawler is about to get involved as the two big men begin to rumble but Wolverine keeps him out of it. Colossus and the man continue to fight and it is obvious that the man has superhuman strength and a hatred towards the X-Men as they tear up the bar. The man soon reveals himself as the Juggernaut as he gains the upper hand on the young X-Man. The people inside the bar flee as it is too dangerous to remain. Juggernaut had not come looking for a fight and instead he wanted to relax after escaping from his last imprisonment.

They continue to fight as Wolverine and Nightcrawler stand back and watch it happen. Wolverine knows that this is for the best and they watch as the incredibly angered Colossus takes it to Juggernaut. Unfortunately he is overpowered and punched through a wall. Eventually Juggernaut brings the entire bar down on top of the young X-Man pretty much ending the fight.

Wolverine and Nightcrawler are unharmed and Juggernaut believes that they want to fight but instead they stand down. He warns them that he won’t be nice the next time they meet and even throws them a roll of money so that the bar can be rebuilt. He then walks away as the two X-Men get Colossus out of the rubble.

Colossus is angered that they didn’t help him. He feels like they betrayed his trust and Wolverine states that is exactly what he did to Kitty. She had saved his life by agreeing to marry Caliban and if he hadn’t of released her she would be in the sewers living with him. Colossus didn’t even thank her for this and as the two X-Men leave him to think. Nightcrawler thinks that Wolverine was too harsh but the Canadian Mutant explains that he owed it to Kitty. He explains how Colossus owed her a blood debt and how he had been thoughtless with her emotions. Nightcrawler wonders if Kitty and Colossus can ever be together again.

Unseen to the X-Men a woman is holding a homeless man on a roof just above them. The man is a withered corpse and the woman responsible is Selene. She looks down at the destruction and she plans on feasting on the X-Men and then she plans to rule the world.

My Thoughts

Now we return to the Uncanny X-Men in what was a very emotional issue that is definitely different from the norm. We did get the typical good guy vs bad guy battle but it was much different than we expected. This issue was mainly to deal with the break-up of Kitty Pryde and Colossus.

As just stated this issue is mainly about the break-up of Kitty and Colossus after the events of the Secret Wars LS (the woman he fell in love with hasn’t even appeared yet). Although this is the reason for their break-up the real reason was because of the age difference between them and the editor at the time thought that it was inappropriate. Kitty on the surface seemed to take the news well but inside it shattered worse than any injury that she could have received. You did feel really bad for the poor girl in this issue and the fact that she left the mansion soon afterwards shows just how terrible she felt. This is in fact her last appearance in the Uncanny X-Men series for some time and her story continued in the Kitty Pryde & Wolverine LS which started about four months after this issue was released. The series won’t be the same without her or Wolverine for some time.

Interestingly enough this issue is the first that we see the Juggernaut in an X-Men comic for a good long while. They last we saw him in the series he was hiring Arcade to take down the X-Men back in like #124 or something like that and the last he actually fought the X-Men was back when they visited Cassidy Keep. That was just after Jean Grey became Phoenix so you can see it has been some time. He has had a run-in with Spider-Man since then as he has mentioned.

We also hear the name Forge for the first time and I believe that he will be the fourth Native American introduced in the X-Men franchise. I will talk a little more about him in due time but I thought that it was interesting to let you know that this was his first mention.

The whole bar scene took a lot in the thought as Wolverine showed Colossus the error of how he broke up with Kitty and even stood back as he fought the Juggernaut. I can definitely see his POV and it makes the reader realise that Colossus did the wrong thing. It was beautifully written by Chris Claremont and it shows his deep knowledge of the characters and how they interact.

One big part of the issue of course was Juggernaut’s fight with Colossus. It is true that Colossus is incredibly strong but he is not as strong as the Juggernaut. It was just what he needed to let of some steam and to be taught a lesson. Colossus did well and even won some respect from the Juggernaut but in the end he wasn’t up to the task. We can only hope that it knocks some sense into the big Russian.

Storm although only having a minor part in this issue actually had great interaction with both Rogue and Kitty. Rogue is still dealing with what happened in the previous issue and Kitty is leaving the team so that she can have some air so to speak. Much like Nightcrawler as well since he was also minor but acted like a referee between Wolverine and Colossus.

At the very end we saw the villainess Selene who first popped up in the New Mutants series recently. She will no doubt cause trouble for the X-Men in the very near future and it will be interesting to see how she is used.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue a 9 out of 10. It was really well done and there wasn’t much that could have been improved.

Next Issue

Secret Wars (Volume 1) #4

If not for the accidental, intervention of the X-Men, Selene would have killed Juggernaut. What a lucky bloke.

Issue Information

Title- Secret Wars (Volume 1) #4

Release Date- August 1984

Writer- Jim Shooter

Artist- Bob Layton

Major Notes

First appearance of Zsaji

Brief Summary

Situation: Hopeless

With a gesture of his hand the Molecule Man is able to destroy the heroes’ fortress. The villains then begin to look through the debris but the heroes have vanished. Doctor Octopus is able to spot them fleeing with their injured comrades some distance away. Some of the super strong villains begin to throw debris at the heroes but even they know it is a futile ide. Instead the Molecule Man uses his powers to rip up a nearby mountain range.

A few miles away the escaping heroes see the debris beginning to come their way. Although most of them are injured they are able to destroy the debris. It is Iron Man, Hawkeye and Captain Marvel that destroy the debris and at first they think that they’re in the clear but they soon see the mountain range floating in the sky right above and then it slams to the ground seemingly crushing them. The villains begin to celebrate thinking that they have won but Doctor Doom isn’t convinced.

On the other side of the planet Thor and the Enchantress are having a private chat. Enchantress plans to use her wish from the Beyonder to make Thor fall in love with her. He does find her beautiful and he doesn’t know whether he could love her. Their conversation is shattered when they feel a major earthquake. They realise that it is not a natural phenomenon and so teleport back to the Heroes’ base.

When they arrive they are confronted by the villains. Thor demands to know what happened to his comrades and Doom responds that they have been destroyed. Despite the overwhelming odds Thor battles with the villains as the Enchantress walks away. At first he does well but eventually their numbers begin to overwhelm him. He is able to unleash a powerful lightning bolt which keeps the villains at bay but when Ultron is unleashed Thor is seemingly disintegrated. All that is left of the mighty thunderer is his helmet and cape. Once again the villains think that they have won but Doctor Doom knows that the X-Men and Magneto are still at large. He also orders Ultron to destroy Kang for trying to kill him earlier before the villains return to their own base.

Many miles away the X-Men are flying towards Magneto’s base. Each member is deep within their own thoughts especially Professor Xavier. He is still guilty with using his telepathy on Spider-Man and it is weighing heavy on him. Cyclops is worried about how this partnership might turn out. If Magneto turns them down they might be in for the fight of their lives.

In his base Magneto creates a metallic comb for Wasp. She misses some of the little things in life. They are also wondering about the people who created the base when suddenly the X-Men enter the base. At first Magneto believes that they are there to fight but Xavier explains that he wants them to form an alliance. Magneto intends to slay the villains so that he can have his wish of a golden age on Earth where humans and mutants live in peace. If the other heroes stand in their way he believes that they must too be slain.

Magneto thinks that Wasp agrees with him but she reveals that she has been playing along with him to try and find out what he was planning. She then attacks Magneto and the X-Men leap to his defence but she is able to use lack of size and speed to knock them down and flee. She uses the X-Men’s ship to escape and Magneto goes to use his powers to stop her but Xavier prevents him from doing this. Xavier explains the guilt that he felt for what he did to Spider-Man shows that noble ends do not justify evil means.

Meanwhile beneath the mountain range, under billions of tons of rock the Hulk is the only thing keeping it from crushing the heroes. They are amazed by his strength but they do not have much room and very limited air. Mister Fantastic begins to formulate a plan and gathers various pieces of equipment from the other heroes. This helps him create a power lead that connects to Iron Man’s armour and he also taunts the Hulk to make him angrier. The Human Torch and Captain Marvel begin to power up Iron Man allowing him to create a uni beam which is powerful enough to burst a hole right through the side of the mountain fuss saving them.

When they walk out through the hole they are met up by Thor who explains that he fought against the villains and used a flash of light to escape them. Captain Marvel is sent to explore the planet to find a source of food and shelter. She flies over the planet and is surprised to see how varied the landscapes are and even comes across Galactus who still hasn’t moved. Just below him is a village and she knows it is the best place for the heroes to recover.

Several hours later the heroes arrive but the alien villagers at first seem to reject them. They speak in a language that the heroes can’t understand but one of the alien women is able to convince the chief to allow them to stay. Over time she use her own powers to heal the wounded heroes.

The now human Thing begins to talk with Mister Fantastic about the fact that Galactus is only a short distance away. He assures his friend that they are in no danger but suddenly the Thing reverts to his rocky form much to his displeasure. Mr Fantastic has a theory of how it happened but is keeping it quiet for the moment. The Thing walks away as he leaves his leader time to think. Mr Fantastic thinks about his own wife and then looks at Galactus. He sees the gigantic being move and he gives out a cry of terror.

My Thoughts

Now we return to the Secret Wars in another issue that could very possibly annoy an X-Men fan. As Wolverine stated in the space of two issues they have been on the receiving ends of defeats by Spider-Man and the Wasp solo. I can understand the two heroes giving each individual member a run for their money in solo fights but facing the X-Men as a team they shouldn’t have stood a chance. I’m sorry I’m just ranting along right now, I think I’ll move onto a few other pointers.

The first thing to mention is that this is the first appearance of Zsaji. For those of you who don’t know who she is she is the alien woman who helped heal the heroes and is the one that Colossus fell in love with. In the comics she is the reason why Colossus and Kitty Pryde broke up (although behind the scenes it was due their age difference). After reading the last issue of Uncanny X-Men we already know what becomes of her and it also makes me wonder what would happen if she ever came across Kitty. I can imagine that there could be a cat fight.

Also we see two incredible feats of power in this issue. Not only did we see Molecule Man drop a mountain range on top of the heroes but we also saw the Incredible Hulk actually keep it from crushing them. We all knew that Molecule Man had that kind of power but to see the Hulk lifting billions of tons of solid rock is probably one of the most impressive feats of strength ever seen in comic books. After reading this issue you can truly see why he calls himself ‘The Strongest One There Is.’

It is also interesting to see the heroes having to flee and lick their wounds. So often it is the villain that has to do that but in a war like this it would be boring if one side was to have an easy advantage and just steamroll through the competition. At least with this it makes it a lot more interesting and there is nothing worse than reading a boring story.

Once again we get a cliff-hanger ending with Galactus finally making a move after being knocked down by the Beyonder. It is true what Mister Fantastic said about him that if he had noticed them he would have obliterated them immediately. Instead the heroes are like gnats to him but it also makes us wonder what exactly is he about to do and what it means to the heroes?

One thing I don’t get that much as well is Professor Xavier’s guilt for using his powers. He has done it in that manner in the past. Just look at the second and third issue of X-Men when he used his telepathy to wipe the minds of the Vanisher, Blob and numerous carnies. Ok they were villains but he didn’t show much guilt back then but maybe something has changed within him.

Doctor Doom also shows that he is truly ruthless and calculating. He didn’t show any emotion in destroying Kang for trying to kill him. He was also the only villain that didn’t rest on his laurels when the heroes were seemingly destroyed. He is definitely up to something big and over the series we will find out what that is.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue a 7 out of 10. From an X-Men fan’s POV it was pretty poor but in general it was a pretty good read.

Next Issue

New Mutants (Volume 1) #18

Issue Information

Title- New Mutants (Volume 1) #18

Release Date- August 1984

Writer- Chris Claremont

Artist- Bill Sienkiewicz

Major Notes

Return of Rachel Summers. First appearance of Warlock and the Phalanx. First issue drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz

Brief Summary

Death Hunt

Mirage is in bed as she has a terrible nightmare about the demon bear. Elsewhere the X-Mansion is seemingly being attacked and a young woman named Rachel Summers runs through the mansion to Professor Xavier. The military are surrounding the mansion and he tries to use his telepathy to convince them that they are not a threat. Unfortunately Rachel watches as he is gunned down.

That was in her own reality and Rachel is standing outside the X-Mansion as she remembers being captured and enslaved. She finds it odd that these events have yet to happen and if her plan works they never will. She sees a policeman who is concerned about her and when he asks her what she is doing she responds that she is there to see Xavier. He lets her on her way but informs her about a snowstorm that is on its way.

Inside the mansion Cannonball, Sunspot and Magma are training in the Danger Room while Mirage and Illyana watch on. Cannonball is having a particularly hard time against the robots and is even knocked towards Magma. He is able to stop himself and rocket away. The distraction allows Magma to be grabbed by a robot and taken up into the air. She is able to melt it and Cannonball saves her from injury as she falls.

Inside the observation room Mirage and Illyana begin to talk about their teammates’ performance. Mirage admits that she doesn’t know if she can trust the others since they were at the hands of Emma Frost for a week and they don’t know what kind of mental manipulation they have undergone. Illyana suggests that she could try and go back in time and discover what happened but she thinks that it could do more harm than good. Xavier is not there and Mirage wishes that he was so that he can help her with her nightmares about the Demon Bear.

Suddenly they hear the doorbell and Illyana goes to answer it along with Lockheed. When she answers the door she sees Rachel who asks to see Xavier. She notices that Illyana looks familiar and when she learns her name Rachel runs away in shock. She doesn’t even leave a message and she knows that time is happening different here since Illyana is much older than she should be.

Meanwhile in deep space a fugitive alien named Warlock is hiding out on a barren planet. He has been running and is very drained, he thinks he has escaped but he is then bathed by a bright light. He looks up and sees another member of his race who has come to exterminate him. It throws a powerful blast at him but before it strikes Warlock flies away. The planet is destroyed in the process but the alien vows that he will find Warlock and take his life since it was he who gave it to him.

On Earth Mirage is hunting with her bow and arrow in a snowed forest. She comes across a bear but she is able to kill it before it can attack. There is a second bear and she only has one arrow left. She is able to duck under its attack and then strike it with an arrow right in its neck killing it. She then sits by a tree and tells Illyana to end the simulation. The room changes as Illyana approaches and asks her what she is trying to prove. Mirage replies that if they were to face another villain that is immune to her mutant abilities she wants to make sure that she isn’t deadweight. They leave intending to get something to eat but as they leave a streak of the Demon Bear appears.

Later that night it is snowing heavily as Mirage looks out of the window. She wants the New Mutants to help her with the Demon Bear problem but she feels that it is something that she needs to do herself. She thinks about her parents before donning Native American face paint and steps outside into the snow.

Mirage demands the Demon Bear show itself and it does as a gigantic bear with red eyes. She creates an illusion of herself which the Demon Bear attacks but she fires an arrow into its neck. The arrow should have killed it but all she has done is made it mad and it grabs her. She uses another arrow to stab it through the mouth and fires another arrow seemingly killing it. She looks at it and she thinks that she has won but its eyes open.

Moments later Wolfsbane wakes up after feeling Mirage’s pain and terror through their mental link. Seconds later the New Mutants are running into the woods at the mansion trying to find Mirage. They find her in a pool of her own blood and they believe that she has been killed.

My Thoughts

Now we return to the New Mutants in an issue that you could say ushered in a new era for the series. Not only is it the first part of the infamous Demon Bear arc but we also see a new character who will have a lot to do with the team, one character returning after just over three years and a new artist.

First I will talk about the artist who is Bill Sienkiewicz who brings a unique blend of art to the series. I have to admit that it somewhat took me by surprise at first and it had a very abstract feel to it. His run on the series will last a good while and he is remembered fondly by fans and critics alike of this series.

The issue introduces future New Mutant member Warlock who is from a race of beings known as the Phalanx. You could describe them as electro-metallic like beings who assimilate. They have a varied amount of abilities like shape shifting and stretching but I don’t think it is the only things that they can do. Warlock himself will eventually join the New Mutants and will have a strong bond with Doug Ramsey. Not much is known about him in this issue but he is running from his father who seems to be able to destroy an entire planet.

Returning in this issue is Rachel Summers or Grey. I’m not too sure which name she goes by nowadays but this is her first appearance since the Days Of The Future Past storyline back at the start of 1981. For now we have no idea how she got to this time and exactly why she wants Xavier but we already see that her reality is an alternate timeline since Xavier never walked again and Illyana never went to Limbo.

The issue itself was definitely a good read and was from the POV of Mirage. She has been having these nightmares of the Demon Bear and even goes as far as to confront the being itself. We know that it killed her parents and she wants some manner of revenge and the opportunity to put their souls to rest. I can fully understand her wanting to do it alone but as she saw it is too powerful for her and she has seemingly been killed because of this.

We also saw that Lockheed has a strong bond with Illyana as well as Kitty Pryde. I can see this happening since Illyana is Kitty’s roommate so they spend a lot of time together. I remember there even being a figure of Illyana in the late 90’s that came with Lockheed. She is somewhat like a second mistress to him but there is no doubt that he still values Kitty over her.

The ending was definitely shocking and at the time it threw into question whether Mirage would survive. Nowadays we know the end result but back then it was a reason for the reader to buy the next issue and discover the fate of one of the best characters in the series. It won’t be the first that a member has been seemingly killed off. Even so it is definitely a good way to end an issue.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue a solid 8 out of 10. A great start for a very famous arc for this series.

Next Issue

Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #184

Claremont and Sinkeiwicz is the perfect combination of art and story. Pretty much the apex example of why one would enjoy the comic book medium.