Uncanny X-Men #170

"Dancin' in the Dark"
Published June 1983
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: Paul Smith
Inker: Bob Wiacek

What's Going On?
Picking up after their defeat last issue, the shorthanded X-Men have been captured in their attempt to rescue Angel from Callisto and the Morlocks.  Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler try to brawl their way out of their mess, but the Morlocks are too many and are too unknown to the X-Men for them to really have a chance; while Nightcrawler easily defeats Callisto by teleporting her around Morlock Alley...

he and Colossus are forced to surrender when Plague infects Storm and threatens to kill her.  Meanwhile, Kitty's Plague-induced sickness gets worse, and Caliban brings her to the rest of the Morlocks and the X-Men.  As critical as her condition is, though, Callisto will not allow anyone to take Kitty to get medical help.  The only way Callisto's decision can be overturned is by challenging her to one-on-one physical combat, to the death.  Storm, weakened by Plague's sickness as she is, still decides that she should be the one to challenge Callisto.  Despite Callisto's experience and physical prowess, Storm wins the fight by stabbing her in the heart like a bad-ass.  After winning the fight, Storm declares herself leader of the Morlocks, invites them to live in Xavier's mansion, and frees the X-Men. 

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor are interested in each other, romantically-speaking.  Cyclops confesses his two biggest secrets to Madelyne: the fact that he's a mutant, and the fact that Madelyne appears to be an exact duplicate of his late girlfriend, Jean Grey.  Madelyne is okay with both secrets.

- In her hurry to help the X-Men, Kitty promises Caliban that she will stay with him and live in the Morlock tunnels.

- Mystique has a nightmare featuring Jason Wyngarde and Jean Grey.  She awakens in a surprisingly nice house, where fellow Brotherhood of Evil Mutants member Destiny is already awake, having foreseen the nightmare's occurrence.  Mystique is certain that the dream was an attack on her, but Destiny convinces her that Charles Xavier is not the cause; according to Destiny, the person responsible for the nightmare is an entity that "operates on fundamental levels of space and time." 

- Rogue has run away from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.  But to where...?

Writing!
I can't say that I'm a fan of starting the issue with a B-plot (Scott and Madelyne) instead of with Storm's team in peril, but whatever.  Claremont makes up for that, in my mind, by putting together Storm's finest moment yet: her duel with Callisto.  This is the first noticeable change with her character in years and, while there have been some hints in recent issues that she's getting tougher, this is a shocking scene. 

The idea of Storm leading the Morlocks and the X-Men is an interesting one that could open the door to a lot of atypical plots (the obvious bigotry ones, but also social issues and street-level crime, etc.).  If memory serves, Claremont doesn't really do that, but it's an interesting broad idea, nonetheless.  I do think that having none of the Morlocks choose to live at the mansion was just poor and lazy writing, but whatever.

I'm starting to get wary of the "powerful unknown psychic" subplot.  The logic of it (put the White Queen in a coma, but give Mystique a bad dream?) doesn't really work, and neither do the targets.  I really, really hope this pays off well soon.  I'm pretty sure that it's going to be Mastermind --- who else would make Mystique dream of his Jason Wyngarde persona? --- but I'm really hoping it's not.

Art!
I'm not a big fan of Paul Smith's rendition of the Morlocks --- I much prefer John Romita Jr.'s more grotesque take --- but he did one hell of a job making Storm look like a bad-ass in this issue.  She had never really seemed all that tough (formidable, per haps, but not tough), but this 3-page sequence was just fabulous:

 The knife toss-and-catch was pretty cool --- and very well-conveyed --- but Callisto's surprise was just priceless.  The next page shows how well Smith can do action scenes:

...and then we have Storm's "drop the mic" moment:

She just stabs Callisto and walks off the panel, the winner.  As far as I'm concerned, this is the most interesting moment in Storm's entire history, and a lot of that depends on how Smith drew it.

Retrospectively Amusing:
- Madelyne Pryor is the hardest person in the world to frighten.  She learns that her boyfriend-to-be is a mutant with dangerously destructive and difficult to control powers and she learns that his last girlfriend looked exactly and creepily like her, but she barely bats an eye.

- I know this isn't what Chris Claremont was going for, but it would have been extremely funny (to me) if Paul Smith drew Madelyne Pryor differently, and the X-Men just thought she looked like Jean Grey because they can't tell the difference between redheads.

- The Morlocks, who fought against Colossus and Nightcrawler in an all-out brawl, seem ill-prepared to keep them contained.  Maybe you can make the excuse that the X-Men played possum the first time, and surprised the Morlocks:

The second time, though, with the exact same situation and exact same results is just shame on them.

- So the person who gave Mystique a bad dream "operates on fundamental levels of space and time," eh?  I don't remember who wound up being responsible for this, but I'm going to go ahead and call bullshit on that one.  That is just overselling a character's power set to an unbelievably comic degree.

- The Morlocks have been invited to live in the X-Mansion, but Caliban refuses on their behalf.  So you're telling me that not even one of them would rather live in a mansion than in the sewers of New York City?

 - This issue was published a year before Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" single was released.  We'll just pretend that this is proof that Bruce was reading X-Men that year.

Worth Noting:
- Storm is now leader of the Morlocks and the X-Men.  I wonder which she will spend more time with?