Uncanny X-Men #178

"Hell Hath No Fury..."
Published February 1984
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: John Romita Jr.
Inkers: Bob Wiacek and Brett Breeding
Cover: John Romita Jr. and Dan Green

What's Going On?
It is X-Men vs. the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants time!  After doing harm to Colossus last issue, the Brotherhood (Avalance, Blob, Destiny and Pyro) try to ambush Nightcrawler and his girlfriend, Amanda Sefton.  Storm and Wolverine act as the cavalry and manage to subdue the Brotherhood with surprising ease.  Surprising, that is, until Blob reveals that their attacks were just a distraction to allow Mystique to attack Professor Xavier.

Meanwhile, Rogue convinces Mystique that she joined the X-Men of her own free will in an effort to learn to control her powers; this helps convince Mystique to not kill Xavier.

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- Cyclops has sent the Professor a letter from his honeymoon; his (and Madelyne's) post-X-Men plan is to work for his grandparents' airline in Alaska.  But who took this photo of them in their honeymoon bed, and why did Scott send it to his father figure?

- After the attack last issue, Colossus is still a chunk of frozen metal.  Kitty Pryde breaks into the Baxter Building to grab one of Reed Richards' inventions that could help Peter, but something surprises her as she tries to escape; it appears as though she fell from the roof of the building and died.

- Callisto has Masque alter the body of a dead junkie.  From their conversation, it sounds like he is going to create a doppelganger for Kitty Pryde.

- Xavier suffers another strong psychic blow, although this one is foreshadowing the Beyonder and Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars. 

- Mystique seems to accept Rogue's claim that she is willingly trying to learn control over her abilities under Xavier's tutelage.  I'm reasonably sure this is the last time Mystique's Brotherhood acts as (potentially) deadly enemies of the X-Men. Sure, they later become Freedom Force and are still enemies, but from this point forward, Mystique's team is usually trying to arrest instead of murder.

Writing!
Chris Claremont does a good job making Mystique out to be a legitimate threat.  I liked the tactics and attitude of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants; they showed teamwork that X-Men villains rarely display, and I liked the joy Blob seemed to get out of Colossus' injury.  It is interesting to see Claremont starting to round out Mystique's character; his run is famous for his evolving treatment of Magneto, but this change with Mystique feels kind of like a dry run for that.

Art!
The very first page shows off the difference between the inking styles of Bob Wiacek and John Romita Sr.; compare the roughness of Colossus on this page and compare it to the final page of last issue. 

Personally, I think Romita Jr.'s pencils look better with inks that leave the art looking a little rough, so I actually like this change quite a bit.  Romita Jr. still has a couple of panels where he gives the female characters some unfortunately prominent cheekbones, but that is something he will continue to do for the rest of his career.  Overall, though, I think JRJR is a great action artist, and this issue plays to his strengths well.  Something I particularly liked was how he drew Amanda Sefton's magic spells.  How has he never drawn a Doctor Strange series?!?

Retrospectively Amusing:
- Apparently, when Wolverine shows up to a danger room session, he brings his jacket and a six pack of beer.

- Angel answers the letters page in this issue.  Keep in mind that Angel has not been an active team member since the All-New, All-Different team was launched.  It seems like a weird choice, but the last words on the page are a reminder to X-fans to check out Angel's further adventures in the pages of The Defenders, so I guess that explains that.

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?

Uncanny X-Men #169

"Catacombs"
Published May 1983
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: Paul Smith
Inker: Bob Wiacek

What's Going On?
When former X-Man Angel is kidnapped from his ritzy apartment by forces unknown, the X-Men are ready to track him down.  The team is shy a few members at the moment --- Wolverine is in Japan for his limited series and Cyclops has retired to Alaska --- so it is up to Storm to lead Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Kitty Pryde to hunt down their friend.  The trail leads the team to a vast network of underground tunnels (or "catacombs," if you want to swipe the issue's title), filled with hostile natives.  These humanoid underground dwellers (no telling yet if they are cannibalistic or not) call themselves the Morlocks.  Their leader, Callisto, had Angel kidnapped to serve as her trophy husband.  Naturally, the X-Men fight to save their friend, but they are overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the opposition.  Things don't look good for these X-Men, and it doesn't seem like help will be on the way.

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- The White Queen has been struck down by an unknown psychic attacker, and is now in a catatonic stupor.  Her fellow Hellfire Club member, Sebastian Shaw, admits that only Charles Xavier could have done such a thing, but seriously doubts that Xavier would act like a villain.

- Xavier mentions some psychic interference that prevents him from keeping in contact with the team as they enter the Morlock tunnels.  This appears to be unrelated to what happened to the White Queen.

- Kitty hates her code-name, Sprite.  With yet another costume debuting here, is it time for a new code-name as well?

- Storm is having difficulty handling her emotions as leader of the team.  She is forcing herself to be cold and detached, which is disturbing her teammates greatly.

- Kitty winds up getting extremely sick, thanks to Plague, and is found and cared for by Caliban.  Caliban is still super creepy and wants to keep Kitty with him, underground, forever.

Writing!
This issue is a bit uneven.  There are things that I really like --- particularly the objectification of Angel in this issue (he doesn't even get any dialogue!), which turns the tables on your typical comic book gender roles.  I also liked Nightcrawler's naked trek across town; it was a fun use of his powers that shows both how far he has come in mastering them and an unintended disadvantage to being able to leave places immediately.

I was not crazy about the Morlocks, though.  I understand their appeal from a writing perspective --- mutants, like the X-Men, but not lucky enough to have "sexy" powers --- but I really think Claremont went in the wrong direction, introducing them this way.  Having an overly aggressive outsider culture --- they kidnap Angel and throw his girlfriend, Candy Southern, out of a skyscraper --- makes them automatically unsympathetic.  When you combine that with Callisto's ridiculously verbose introduction and her rapist undertones, this issue has a lot more "ick" than your typical X-Men issue.

Art!
Paul Smith does a good job making the Morlocks ugly in this issue, and the fight scenes look pretty good.  I like Kitty's new uniform better than anything she's had since her original outfit.  Domino masks are cool.

But when I think back on this issue, the one image that keeps popping into my head is a helpless Angel wearing what appear to be cloth diapers.  Was he not wearing underwear when he was kidnapped?

Retrospectively Amusing:
- Amanda Sefton comments that her mother taught her how to care for dragons, when Kitty leaves Lockheed in her care.  Ignoring the fact that Lockheed is an alien that may or may not match up with our understanding of "dragons," how does she say that and not have anyone react?  I know, her mother's a sorceress, but still...!

- With Angel kidnapped and Wolverine on leave, Storm asks if she can use borrow Wolfsbane to act as a tracker.  Xavier tells her absolutely not --- the New Mutants are not to be taken on "missions."  The message is that the New Mutants are to be kept out of danger.  Keep in mind that this is one month after they fought mutant-hunting Sentinels.

- Check out what Xavier is reading in bed:

Yes, that's an Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe gag.  Ha ha?

- Apparently, all it takes for Plague to make you deathly ill is for her to infect a single molecule on your person.  Yay, ridiculously over-powered characters!

- Callisto takes out Storm with a slingshot.  A SLINGSHOT.  Way to lead the team, Storm.

Worth Noting:
- This is the first appearance of the Morlocks, specifically Callisto, Masque, Plague, and Sunder.  Caliban made his first appearance back in Uncanny #148.

- Callisto's bravado reminds Storm of someone from her past that apparently wanted to rape her...

Pictured: six eyes, zero pupils

... which is a bit of a downer.  I believe this gets retconned by Claremont later on to explain why Storm doesn't kill, but it seems that the first take on this story is that she ran away.