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 #177

"Sanction"
Published January 1984
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: John Romita Jr.
Inker: John Romita Sr.
Cover: John Romita Jr.

What's Going On?
Mystique is focused on taking down the X-Men, to the point of training herself and her team at Arcade's Murderworld so they can better anticipate their foes.  That training pays off an unspecified amount of time later, as they ambush Colossus and seriously injure him.

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- Nightcrawler asks Amanda Sefton about his early childhood, as a way to determine what connection he might have with Mystique.  Amanda does not have much information to offer, so Nightcrawler decides to ask his foster mother, Margali, about it the next day.

- Mystique makes some oblique references to Destiny, regarding her relationship to Nighcrawler.  Nothing definite is said, but she could not bring herself to "kill" Murderworld's Nightcrawler robot; she was able to kill Rogue without hesitation.  Clearly, he is important to Mystique.

- Kitty is still upset over Storm's punk rock makeover.

- Lilandra and the Starjammers finally leave to battle for the throne of the Shi'ar empire.  Lilandra and Xavier still pledge their love to each other.

- Kitty mentions Doug Ramsey to Colossus; this is the first time Peter has had anything approaching a rival for her affections.

Writing!
This is another fun issue from Claremont.  It's always interesting seeing hypothetical situations that would kill our heroes, so it was pretty cool seeing what Claremont saw as legitimate mortal threats to the team in this issue's Murderworld scene.  I don't know how plausible the kills are --- Colossus, Rogue and Wolverine all "died" under what I consider unlikely circumstances, and Storm's "death" required a very unique piece of equipment --- but it is still interesting to see some of the team's weaknesses.  It was also interesting to see Colossus given a legitimate physical threat for the first time in this series.

Art!
John Romita Jr. is inked by his father, the legendary John Romita Sr. in this issue, and it's an interesting look.  I think Romita Sr. has an appealing old-school style to his inks --- his work on Colossus's face is very reminiscent of his work on Amazing Spider-Man, circa 1975 --- but I'm not a huge fan of how he smooths out Romita Jr.'s lines.

Peter...Parker?

Romita Jr. is at his best with brutal action scenes (although he does very good character work), and his father's more polished approach reduces some of JR Jr.'s impact.  That doesn't stop the pair from creating one of the all-time best Colossus panels, though.

Retrospectively Amusing:
- In Murderworld, Mystique kills Wolverine by slashing his throat.  I actually laughed out loud when I saw that.  Before Paul Cornell's run on Wolverine, I think it had been 20 years since Wolverine would have been stopped by something as minor as a fatal neck wound.

- Apparently, the skulls on Mystique's outfit can transform into weapons.  I don't know if this is ever used in another X-Men comic.

- I've read a few articles about Chris Claremont's alleged plan for the Mystique/Nightcrawler mystery, and while I have no doubt that Claremont considered it --- you can read more about it here, but the gist is that Mystique is the father and Destiny is the mother of Nightcrawler --- I am confident that it was not always his plan.  Not in this issue, at least.  Why not?  1) When they argue, it seems more like an employer/employee fight than a quarrel between lovers 2) Destiny is about as ancient as Aunt May, and is too old to have birthed Kurt 3) Destiny refers to Kurt as "Nightcrawler" instead of his given name, despite Mystique knowing his name back in the "Days of Future Past" storyline 4) Mystique states that the X-Men have her child --- singular --- and is referring to Rogue.

- Havok does not get a line in the farewell to Corsair.  It's not like he has been in a lot of issues lately, but Havok has not had any dialogue since Uncanny X-Men #163.

- Stevie Hunter alert!  She acts as a sounding board for Kitty's whining about Storm.  This is her first appearance in the X-titles since New Mutants #4.

Worth Noting:
- According to the Murderworld scene, Mystique can imitate Wolverine's sharp claws.  That means that she can imitate more than a person's basic appearance.  How far that can go, we don't know...yet.

- This issue has the first mention of Doug Ramsey, although it will be another month or two before he makes his first appearance.

- This issue's contribution to Assistant Editor Month is a one-page gag about the Official Marvel Handbook.  It's not very funny, but at least it's only one page instead of an entire issue, right?

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?