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 #174

"Romances"
Published October 1983
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: Paul Smith
Inker: Bob Wiacek

What's Going On?
This is one of those "juggle the sub-plots" issues.  The only "main" plot here deals with Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor.  They get engaged and consider leaving Earth to join the Corsair and the Starjammers in space.  Before they can make that decision, though, Cyclops asks Madelyne point-blank if she is the reincarnation of Jean Grey/Phoenix.

Her response seems pretty definitive, but the illusionist Mastermind made an appearance just before this, so is everything what it seems?  Well, no, probably not.

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- Carol Danvers / Binary is joining the Starjammers, and will be in deep space with them for the foreseeable future.

- Lilandra and Xavier discuss their future.  She still plans to join the Starjammers in space and he still plans to stay on Earth and run his mutant teams.

- Xavier is still having difficulty walking.  Lilandra confirms that the problem is not mental, but physical.  That seems like an odd and less interesting choice, right?

- Corsair repeats his offer to have Cyclops join him and the Starjammers (last mentioned back in Uncanny X-Men #167), but Scott is having second thoughts, probably (but not explicitly) due to his increasingly serious relationship with Maddie.

- Wolverine confronts Mariko about calling off their wedding.  She basically tells him that she loves Logan the man, not Wolverine the beast.  In addition to insulting Wolverine, Mariko has also forgiven Silver Samurai and he is now her heir.  Since the man vs. beast idea seemed to have been resolved with the Wolverine limited series, I'm a little confused with Claremont's direction here.

- Kitty Pryde and Peter share another kiss, and this time, it's not because they think they will die.  The sexual tension is mounting...

- Storm got rid of all the plants in her bedroom, as yet another "subtle" hint as to her physical and mental change. You might have thought that the mohawk and leathers were the end result of her changes, but apparently Storm isn't done changing yet.

Writing!
Chris Claremont does an impressive job juggling sub-plots here.  The main plot doesn't get much attention until the end of the issue, but there are a lot of quality character beats here.  After the emotional turmoil of last issue, this is a good "calm before the storm" issue, especially since next issue will be an over-sized anniversary event.

Art!
Paul Smith has already shown that he handles character moments well, and this issue plays to that strength.  

Retrospectively Amusing:
- Nightcrawler, who has been shown as a stuffed animal before (back in Uncanny X-Men #168), receives a stuffed version of his girlfriend, Amanda Sefton.  It's a cute idea, but who is making these custom stuffed animals?

- Nightcrawler is identified as the team's medic.  Apparently, Moira MacTaggert and Xavier are not qualified?


Worth Noting:
- Xavier notes that Madelyne Pryor's mind is closed to him.  He comments that it is unusual, but doesn't seemed too concerned about it.  Rogue's mind is closed because she has multiple personalities (one part alien, too) and the helmets of Magneto and Juggernaut protect them, but I don't know if Xavier has ever had trouble reading a supposedly "normal" brain before this.

- Kitty's power set is expanding.  This issue shows her phasing someone else through a wall with her and having them walk on air together.

- Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor get engaged off-panel in this issue.

Everything 80s:
- Kitty is reading Marvel's Star Wars comic in this issue.  The back cover appears to be a Kool-Aid ad.

- Marvel felt the need to take up an entire page of space to justify their change in cover format.  They sacrificed a page of ad space to say, "Look, we have slightly more artwork space now!"  The 80s were a different time...

Uncanny X-Men #166

"Live Free or Die!"
Published: February 1983
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: Paul Smith
Inker: Bob Wiacek

What's Going On?
Instead of following up immediately on the rather confusing cliffhanger of last issue, this issue picks up with Binary, who has been MIA since exploding out of the side of the X-Men's ship.  In the meantime, it seems that she has been taking her frustrations out on the Brood empire, blowing bases and ships to smithereens.  You might think that she will never find her friends again in the vastness of space, but you would be wrong.  It turns out that Storm --- who is now a hologram projected by the consciousness of an alien Acanti that has swallowed the X-Men's spacecraft --- is able to track Binary down fairly quickly.  And the X-Men, who are all incubating Brood children inside their bodies, are all in pretty good spirits, considering that they are all going to die.  But instead of going on a revenge-fueled suicide attack to bring down the Brood, once and for all, they are given an alternative.  Instead of just trying to kill stuff, the X-Men could choose to free the Acanti alien race from the slavery that the evil Brood have imposed upon them.  How do they do that?  Mostly by killing stuff, but they are also going to free a soul from its eternal prison...somehow.  The end result is bye-bye Brood.  Oh, and the Starjammers arrive, just in time to contribute very little to the battle.

Subplots, Oh the Subplots!
- Finally!  We are returning to the subplot introduced in Uncanny #161, where it is revealed that Professor Xavier also has a Brood gestating within him.  Since this has already been used as a surprising twist, months earlier, I don't know what it is being used as a cliffhanger here, but I'm tired of the X-Men fighting aliens and am ready for this storyline to finally end.

- Hey, it turns out that the X-Men didn't completely forget about Binary blowing a hole in the side of their spaceship a few issues back!  Even better, they don't seem to mind at all that one of their friends almost killed them.

- This is the first appearance of Lockheed, although we don't get a name for him just yet.  It's a pretty sweet first appearance, too:

It gets even better when we see the relative size of the dragon:

What a fun introduction to this completely superfluous --- but lovable --- character.


Writing!
It's nice to see the X-Men given a way out of the suicide run that this storyline initially set up for them.  Granted, it's not a whole lot better than suicide, but I suppose the change of intention is worth a lot.  I'm not a fan of the Storm/Acanti subplot, but it was short enough to keep the ridiculousness of it from being irritating.  Really, at this point, I am just happy to have the X-Men coming back to Earth.  This is definitely one of the best "X-Men in Spaaace!" storylines, but I prefer supervillains to personality-free aliens.

One of best moments of this storyline comes in this issue, with the climax of Wolverine's conflict over whether or not to kill his infected friends. 

Yes, Wolverine is a badass for being willing to make the difficult and probably wrong choice here.  And yes, Carol's hair in this scene is pretty funny.

Art!
Paul Smith is clearly still getting used to some of the character designs here, specifically Binary's.  He doesn't seem sure what to do with her, especially when she is in her Carol Danvers form.  It's a minor point, but it still gives a few giggles looking at the various hairdos she has in this issue.  Smith does a solid job with the action in this issue without getting graphic.  I could have done with more alien guts, but that's just personal preference.

One of the cooler visuals in this issue comes when the Brood are crystallized.

Granted, this is a comic that features Iceman on a semi-regular basis, so it's not like the readers have never seen a character looking like this, but it is still well done and pretty cool looking.

Retroactively Amusing:
- Carol's hair.

- I love that Storm's body being regrown inside an alien that resembles a catfish is never really brought up again.

Holy crap, that should be a trauma that sticks with a character for ages, or at least results in her having short hair or something for a while.  But no, Storm's back to business as usual when the X-Men return to Earth.  Oddly enough, this experience isn't referenced as even a possible partial cause to Storm's extreme makeover Uncanny X-Men #173 in a few months time.

Worth Noting:
- This is the first appearance of Lockheed, although he is not named here.

Everything 80s:
Check out Spider-Man hawking a puzzle toy.

Fun fact: this relatively unknown toy is actually a follow-up invention from the creator of the Rubik's Cube.  I don't know if they meant to imply that only criminals would want to play with this toy, but I suppose theirs is an untapped market.