X-Men and the Micronauts #3

"Mine Eyes Have Seen the Gory!"
Published March 1984
Writers: Chris Claremont and Bill Mantlo
Penciler: Jackson "Butch" Guice
Inker: Bob Wiacek
Cover Artist: Jackson "Butch" Guice

What's Going On?
Under the control of The Entity, the X-Men and Micronauts conquer a Microverse military outpost.  While they all kill their enemies, only Kitty Pryde (whose body is secretly being controlled by Baron Karza) is acting bloodthirsty enough for The Entity's tastes.  The teams (minus Kitty/Karza) are punished and sent to a dungeon, where they appear to be operating under their own willpower once again; they escape confinement and decide to take the fight to The Entity, despite their slim chances of winning.

Meanwhile, Xavier has been asleep, unable to wake, even when he falls out of bed and is lifted back into it by the New Mutants.

He sends his astral form to find and battle The Entity.  He notes that The Entity is wearing the psychic armor her used in Uncanny X-Men #117; he does not note a similarity, he states that it is his armor. 

Well, that makes sense when it is revealed that The Entity is the manifestation of Xavier's dark side. 

By defeating Xavier in psychic battle, The Entity is now free to control Xavier's body and attack the...hmm.  The Microverse?  Again?  Let's just assume that's a typo and he means that he will attack the main Marvel Universe (does that make it the Macroverse?)

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- The Entity kills Captain Ranin of the Micronauts (by turning him into dust!) for daring to have his own will...only to revive him in perfect health a few moments later.

- Deciding that life under The Entity's control is too horrible to contemplate, Wolverine decides to kill his friends while they sleep.  Colossus stops him by reasoning that --- since The Entity can revive the dead if Wolvie kills them --- if they despair, The Entity wins. The only way the heroes can "win" is to hold on to hope.

- Baron Karza (in the body of Kitty Pryde), after seemingly killing The Entity, decides that his next step toward Microverse domination is the death of the X-Men and Micronauts.

Writing!
Unlike the previous two issues, the X-Men and Micronauts share their scenes together, so we don't see as much of a focus on the Micronauts this time around.  The scene with Kitty/Karza and The Entity is shockingly awful and thankfully is never brought up again in any other Kitty Pryde comic I have read.  Giving The Entity the ability to revive the dead (or at least those he is responsible for killing) looks like it will serve as a convenient backdoor to erase any of the deaths the X-Men caused in this issue, but we will have to wait until next issue to see.  For the most part, though, we see heroes getting ready to be heroes and villains being villainous, so the writing is doing its job on a very basic level.

Art!
The art is not fantastic, but it tells the story well enough.  My personal highlight was Guice showing off how destructive an evil Kitty Pryde could be. 

It's not especially cool-looking, but I think this is the first instance of Kitty being show killing someone, so it's fairly unique in that regard.  A lowlight of this issue is The Entity appearing to have a 72" waist. 

I'm not much of a fan of this issue's cover, either, with The Entity being superimposed over the rest of the cast in bright orange inks.  I don't like the practice when it's used to exhibit Psyche's powers, and I don't like it here.  I do like that Guice wrote "Trapped" on the wall, but it would have made more sense if that was the title of the issue.

Retrospectively Amusing:
- At this point, it's still a rule that X-Men don't kill (except when they do), so it's kind of a big deal that the team are killing folks while under The Entity's sway. 

Gee, I wonder if The Entity's ability to revive the dead will help erase their misdeeds from history?

- Baron Karza has a mustache and mohawk beneath his fearsome Darth Vader-esque helmet. 

Oh, and he's apparently also a "rocket-powered centaur?"  I realize that is something taken from the toy line, but that made me tear up with laughter.

- The Entity has romantic plans for Kitty Pryde (controlled by Baron Karza) as a "reward" for her ruthlessness in battle.  While having the still extremely young Kitty engaged in a sexual scene with a grown man is certainly disturbing, it gets a lot creepier after it is revealed that The Entity is Charles Xavier's repressed feelings.  For my money, because The Entity is trying to act on these urges, this is creepier than the Stan Lee-era scene where Xavier revealed that he is secretly pining for the then-teenage Jean Grey.  On the bright side, Kitty/Karza stabs The Entity in the back, so it's not like Kitty is portrayed as a victim here.  How much of that is due to a man's mind controlling her body, I prefer not to speculate on right now.

 Everything 80s:
Check out this ad for some Masters of the Universe merchandise:

Please note that these are not the toys from Mattel --- these are hobby kit versions (think model cars) of the toys that people can purchase and assemble.  I can't imagine the intended audience for this.

Magik (Storm and Illyana Limited Series) #4

"Darkchild"
Published March 1984
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciler: Sal Buscema
Inker: Tom Palmer
Cover Artists: Bret Blevins and Tom Palmer

What's Going On?
Picking up where last issue left off, Belasco intends to corrupt Illyana's soul a little more to generate the third Blood Stone; after that is done, Illyana (at Belasco's behest) will strip the soul from the dying Storm and offer it as a sacrifice to the Dark Gods.  At the last moment, Illyana rebels and kills Storm to save her soul.  This upsets Belasco, who renounces her as an apprentice and proceeds to corrupt her soul to make the third Blood Stone.

He casts her into the wilderness of Limbo to suffer, all the while knowing that as long as she is in Limbo, he can summon her to his side in an instant and force her to do his bidding.  Separated from Belasco and without either Cat or Storm to help her, Illyana endures harships, but continues to train herself until she is ready to battle Belasco as an equal.

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- After having her soul corrupted by Belasco and acting as his nemesis, Storm finally dies.  Thanks to Illyana, though, she dies with what remains of her soul intact.

- Illyana realizes that she can use her mutant power to teleport back to Earth.

- Illyana returns home to her parents, only to be shunned by them because she is far too old to be their daughter, thanks to all the time she spent in Limbo.  So in case you ever wondered why Magik and Colossus never visit their family in Russia, here's your answer.

Writing!
The good news: Illyana finally battles Belasco.  The bad news: it is not an all-out, drag-out fight where two sorcerers make use of their most bizarre magics.  Instead, it's a sword fight (and not a very exciting one, either).  What makes this such an unsatisfying conclusion to the series is that Illyana spends half of the issue trying to figure out how to challenge Belasco, and then she is suddenly extremely powerful. 

Art!
The art, once again, is not terribly impressive.  It tells the story well enough, but there's nothing exciting or cool to be seen in this issue.  I would have loved to see some cool artwork to accompany Illyana's magic spells, but this is not the kind of art team to make cool, weird stuff happen.

Retrospectively Amusing:

- In case you ever wondered at what age a young woman is considered ogle-worthy by Marvel Comics, the answer appears to be thirteen years-old.  Consider these two images taken from this issue.  Here is pre-pubescent Illyana...

...and here is teenage Illyana:

Woo!  Fur bikini in inappropriate weather!  In case you're wondering about her age, the climax of this issue occurs one year before Illyana's framing sequence at the end of the issue, which takes place "now"/1984, and she stated that she was aged fourteen back in issue #1.  

- Belasco calls Sheena the She-Devil a slut.  Aside from being inappropriate for both this era of comics, as well as for the intended audience (which back in the 80s was younger than today), it's just an odd choice of an insult for this situation, which is not at all sexual.  What makes it even stranger is the fact that Belasco is insulting a character that isn't even a part of this series.

- Belasco's demonic power is the inverse of Illyana's, apparently.  As she gains power, he loses his.  Does this ever come up again?

- The last panel proclaims "An ending...can also be a beginning."  That would make a lot more sense if they teased her upcoming appearances in New Mutants or if she interacted with them at all in this series.

Worth Noting:
- This cover was drawn by Bret Blevins (who also drew the cover to New Mutants this month, too), who will eventually be the artist that drew the climax of Illyana's narrative in the Inferno crossover.

- The title of this issue, "Darkchild," refers to Illyana's corrupted demon-ish potential, and will become a major part of her character arc through the years...except that in just about every future mention of the title, it is spelled "Darkchilde."

- While Illyana drew her Soulsword first in Uncanny #171, this is the first time we see any explanation of what it is.  It is also worth pointing out that this design will change over time.  Here it is in this issue:

Here it is in its first appearance:

Notice that Walt Simonson drew a much thinner blade, with a heavier-looking hilt design that featured a guard.

- I am 99% sure this will be the last mention of the Bloodstones until after Magik's mid-2000s revival.  I could be wrong, but I'm not seeing any other 80s appearances listed in the Marvel Database.