Uncanny X-Men #172

"Scarlet in Glory"
Published August 1983
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: Paul SmithInker: Bob Wiacek

What's Going On?
The X-Men arrive in Japan to celebrate Wolverine's wedding in a few days time.  Wolverine is rude to his new teammate, Rogue, because of his friendship to her former victim, Carol Danvers.  Nonetheless, Wolverine's fiance, Mariko, welcomes Rogue without reserve.  Meanwhile, the Silver Samurai is observing the team's reunion from across the street, deciding when he should attack.  However, Yukio is watching Silver Samurai watch Logan and friends; she decides to attack the Samurai on the rooftops.  This gets Wolverine's attention (through his enhanced hearing, naturally), and the X-Men join the fray.  In the ensuing scuffle, Silver Samurai teleports away and Yukio meets Storm briefly.


After all that excitement, Mariko quietly prepares for a meeting with the Silver Samurai; it turns out that he is her half-brother and he wants to be the head of the Clan Yoshida.  While Mariko sneaks away for the meeting (not realizing that her chauffeur for the evening has been replaced by Yukio), Viper infiltrates Mariko's home and poisons the X-Men's tea, felling the entire group, except for Storm (who was too busy talking to drink hers).  At the meeting-place, Yukio takes Mariko's place and tells off the Samurai; it is apparent that he will kill Mariko if she does not abdicate her family's organization to him.  Yukio takes on Silver Samurai while Storm (who apparently also drove with Yukio and Mariko to the meeting place) takes care of Viper; after knocking Viper out, Storm attempts to help subdue the Silver Samurai, but she loses control of her lightning powers and sets the entire warehouse on fire.  The Samurai escapes with Viper (after promising revenge against Storm and Yukio, naturally) and Yukio escapes with Storm.

The issue ends with Wolverine recovering enough (but far from completely) to leave the hospital, determined to take the fight to the Silver Samurai and Viper.  Rogue offers to help, since she also healed quickly; Wolverine initially refuses her help because he hates her, but he eventually relents, acknowledging that he will need help.

Sub-Plots, oh the sub-Plots!
- Wolverine does not like the fact that Rogue has joined the X-Men.  Storm states that Rogue is a member of the team, but does not go so far as to actually defend her.  Wolverine thinks to himself that he will "never forget.  Or forgive" what she did to Carol Danvers.  Let's see how often he mentions Carol and Rogue after this storyline.

- Storm's control over the elements has been increasingly poor of late.  This is the worst display of that loss of control to date, although her understanding of the problem remains opaque to the audience; she explains that control of her powers requires inner peace, and implies that recent emotional stress (caused by what?) has led to her losing control of her powers.  She then follows it up with "the death of my soul is infinitely preferable to the alternative" explanation for her loss of control.  What the alternative is is left unexplained.


- The Oyabun, Nabatone Yokuse, has a panel where he observes Storm struggling with her powers, trying to not kill the Silver Samurai with lightning, and thinks to himself: "Splendid, mutant.  You have done precisely what I expected of you.  My trap is sprung --- your fate is sealed."  The Oyabun is not seen after the warehouse fire, so what this means is left unexplained.

- The fire at the warehouse takes the shape of a Phoenix.  Yukio and Storm witness this, so it is apparently not a hallucination...or is it?

- In Alaska, Havok confronts Cyclops as Scott is looking into the personnel file for Madelyne Pryor.  Alex argues that Scott is being self destructive and that he should take Madelyne's similarities to Jean Grey as coincidences.  Scott cannot let that go, though; he has discovered that Madelyne survived a plane crash at the exact same moment Jean grey died on the moon.

Writing!
This issue is basically two issues worth of plot squeezed into one.  I'm not saying that because so much happens in this issue (although it is a busy one); I am saying that because so many parts of this issue feel like they are missing a few pages of explanation.  Want proof?

•  - The Samurai is about to attack the X-Men at the beginning of the issue, but as soon as he comes face-to-face with them, he teleports away without fighting any of them.  So, the whole point of him spying on the X-Men  and preparing to attack them was...what?  You can argue that this is evidence that the Silver Samurai is cowardly, but that has never been a character trait for him.
• - Between scenes, Yukio gets Storm to help her protect Mariko.  How does she do this?  By calling Storm on the phone.  Of course, this happens after the X-Men have been poisoned; since the team winds up at the hospital, it is natural to assume that Storm accompanied the team there.  So where did Yukio and Mariko (neither of whom appeared to know about the poisoning) reach her? 
• - Mariko, who purposely avoided involving the X-Men in her meeting with Silver Samurai, agreed to let Storm and Yukio come with.  She even agreed to let Yukio pose as her!  You can argue that they did this for Mariko's protection, but if that was their purpose, then they probably should not have left her in the car, right outside the meeting spot.  And what was Storm's part in the plan?  To protect Mariko?  Again, that location is a poor choice.  If the meeting was important enough for Mariko to show up to, but dangerous enough to warrant protection, then why not simply have Yukio and Storm accompany her to the meeting openly, as bodyguards?  More to the point, what changed Mariko's mind to change from having zero protection to having a doppelganger and a fantastically powered mutant protecting her?

Despite all of those problems, this issue does effectively set the stage for a trio of duos next issue.  Wolverine and Rogue will go after Silver Samurai; Silver Samurai and Viper will go after Mariko; and Storm and Yukio will presumably do something, because they didn't seem too injured after the fire.

Art!
Paul Smith is still going strong with this issue.  I think my favorite scene is Storm's lightning freak-out:

Keep in mind that Magma has not been introduced yet in the pages of The New Mutants, so this was a pretty unique visual at the time.  As much as I enjoy flashy scenes like this one, Smith is at his best when he's being subtle.  Check out the unspoken connection he establishes between Mariko and Rogue:

They're both being painfully polite and are probably nervous (for different reasons), and this shot makes the Mariko's courtesy toward Rogue feel so much more natural than if it was just established in the dialogue.

Here's another subtle background scene:

A few panels before, this scene was drawn from a perspective set to Rogue's right; in that panel, it was clear where everyone was sitting, but the lack of perspective hid how far away Rogue was from the rest of the team.  Here is a nice reminder of her outsider status within this group of outsiders.

Smith also displays some of the storytelling fundamentals that he is so good at.  Here is some sequential art that does a very effective job telling a story:

Paul Smith has always shown strong storytelling skills (particularly in Storm's battle with Callisto back in Uncanny #170), so this is no surprise.  Still, it's a treat to read.

This issue is not flawless, though.  I still can't make out what the "standard" look for Yukio is supposed to be.  It must be tough adapting a character that has only been drawn by one artist (Frank Miller) with a very distinct style.  Still, there are some panels where she definitely looks like a grotesque elf, rather than a person.

Restrospectively Amusing:
- This story (published in August 1983) takes place right after New Mutants (Vol. 1) #5-7 (which will finish up in September 1983), and ten weeks after Wolverine (Vol. 1) #4 (which was published in December 1982).  The balance between comic publishing schedules and the demand for continuity sometimes makes for odd timetables.

- Kitty's naivety really comes and goes.  I love how surprised she was that Wolverine killed Lord Shingen.  Keep in mind that this is only a few issues after Wolverine was going to murder his teammates to keep them from turning into the Brood.

- Rogue explains that she healed fast from the poison due to being "half-alien."  This is apparently a reference to how she absorbed the memories and abilities of Carol Danvers, but it is (as far as I know) the only time she ever claims to have absorbed Carol's part-alien physiology.  I'm going to go ahead and say that is explanation is blatantly incorrect.  If you're feeling generous, you can argue that Rogue misspoke and meant to say that her nigh-invulnerability (which she absorbed from Carol) makes her resistant to toxins, which makes a little more sense.  Maybe Rogue just isn't too bright; if she had a clear understanding of her powers, she wouldn't need the X-Men's help, would she?

- Yukio still uses "Gotcha" as a catch phrase.  *Sigh*

- The Silver Samurai swears to kill Storm and Yukio, as soon as he kills Mariko.  To the best of my knowledge, this is never referred to again.

- After several months without one, the fan letters page returns --- with Kitty Pryde acting as a guest host, answering that month's mail.  The first letter (which may have been a prank --- it's hard to tell in retrospect) is from Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter, threatening to become a "killer vampire pervert" if the letter page is not reinstated.  Um.  What?

Worth Noting:
- This is the first time Silver Samurai and Wolverine are portrayed as enemies.  This is a big deal for Samurai, as this relationship more or less defines his character from now on.

Everything 80s:
- The back cover is an ad for the Intellivision version of Frogger, which has "all the enhanced, colorful graphics Intellivision is famous for."  Man, the past was awful.