Uncanny X-Men #259-#260: Whatever Happened to the Children of the Atom?

Uncanny X-Men #259-#260 sets aside Wolverine and Jubilee, Storm and the Muir Island set to look mostly at a couple of other X-Men: Dazzler and Colossus. They are opposite sides of the North American mainland, in familiar surrounds (LA and NY respectively), but without their specific memories.

Both of them have enormous luck: Dazzler that she's ended up at Lila Cheney's LA house, where Guido (making his second appearance) is able to tell her basic informationa about who she is. And someone digs up footage for Dazzler: The Movie and releases it. Not showing up on cameras makes a publicity tour rather difficult, though. In New York, Peter Nicholas finds himself in a loft apartment with a bunch of friends, acting as handyman for the building.

Of course, both plots have some action: Eric Beale is trying to assassinate Dazzler; while Colossus's friends are mutant refugees from Genosha being persued by a Press Gang. That, of course, has some diplomatic implications that are more readily apparent when your illegal paramilitary group are operating in the urban United States than in the Australian outback.

Both our X-Men retain their essential qualities of selflessness and heroicity after passing through the Siege Perilous.

We have the briefest of scenes to do with the Muir Island gang: Legion is now trusted enough to be hooked up to a Cerebro. And Moira is definitely acting weird, it's just not the penciller: Banshee and Forge have gone on a Special Mission to avoid her and try and find the rest of the X-Men, as per Lorna's intel. This is I take it the first hint of the Muir Island Saga?

This is the last daily post in the current run. Posts will resume at a more measured rate (like I'd originally warned would be happening back in November!)

Uncanny X-Men: #228: Inconvenient Fill-In Blues

There's never a great time for a fill-in issue. Remember that one in the middle of the first Phoenix saga? Uncanny X-Men #228 picks, however, the worst possible time: the series is between status quos. The Fall of the Mutants has happened and the X-Men are believed dead, but they have yet to set up their new base (to come in #229).

What's an editor to do? Well, dig out an inventory issue, apparently. A Dazzler-centric one, with the device being a letter written to O.Z. Chase, a member of the supporting cast in late-period Dazzler. I have nothing so say about it, other than that it is fairly bad, and makes me glad I didn't add the Dazzler solo to my list of things to read. I suspect if I'd have read this in 1988, I'd have wanted my 75¢ back.

Uncanny X-Men #214: Malice Aforethought

Uncanny X-Men #214 starts soon after #213. Cerebro was trashed, Psylocke has joined the X-Men but is still dealing with the fight with Sabretooth. It's to her credit that she merely survived. What's next? Apparently, a trip to Dallas to warn Dazzler about the Marauders - for Psylocke, Rogue, Storm and Wolverine, anyway. Dazzler is there as part of Lila's tour, but it misses a trick and treats Lila more as a generic singer; the interaction with them and Lila is bereft of anything real. Have they told Lila about the Massacre, and what happened to the New Mutants? (Are they back yet?)

Again, the X-Men find themselves incapable of using telephones. It's contagious? It works out well, though, as Alison has been possessed by a strange entity called "Malice", which is associated with the Marauders somehow. It's able to flip between hosts, but makes a mistake when it tries to get Storm: who is developing power self-control, now that she is recovering from her fall. In the end, the real reason for the visit becomes apparent: it's a recruitment drive. Dazzler accepts the offer of membership in the X-Men, and she's off to Westchester with the rest of them.

Uncanny X-Men #148: Featuring Dazzler and Spider-Woman!

There was once a time that comics would feature gratuitous Spider-Woman, promoted on the cover. Who knew? That time was August 1981, and that comic was Uncanny X-Men #148.

It's an issue of two halves. Some domestic stuff, some superhero stuff. First we get a few pages of Scott and Lee's continuing adventures in what I can only assume is the formerly sunken city of R'lyeh, but we'll come to that if something finally actually happens. A thing they're doing here is having Scott be separated from his glasses for a protracted time, and having to wear a blindfold, which is pretty cool and I'm surprised it's taken them this long to do.

It then picks up the aftermath of #147. Angel angrily quits the X-Men in protest at Wolverine being on the team. The idea of Wolverine being a kind of murderous rampager got a boost in the last issue, when he had to stop himself going berserk but then beheaded an android duplicate of yon Storm. Angel wasn't in the room at the time, so he must be relying on the account of either Arcade, DOOM, Storm, or Wolverine himself. Anyway, Angel leaves, not wanting to be part of any team that has Logan on it. (Little does Angel know that one day he'll be helping Wolverine cover up his little unsanctioned death squad.)

Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) is visiting after the events of Spider-Woman #38, which introduced young Theresa Rourke, Banshee's daughter by his dead wife that he didn't know he had. Moira, who's over from Muir, is a bit jealous (she and Sean have discussed having kids already! - but she daren't, not with Kevin having turned out the way he did). Little Illyana is still at the mansion, they're wondering whether she might be a mutant, too.

This is then followed by a sequence at a nightclub, where Jessica, Stevie, Ororo and Kitty (because 13½ year olds are totally allowed clubbing in NYC), to watch Dazzler perform. This bit manages to pass the Bechdel test incredibly well, as FOUR WOMEN have a GROUP DISCUSSION about LOTS OF STUFF.

We then get our action bit, in the form of Caliban, who can smell mutants, but only wants a friend, having lived underground alone. He eventually runs off, declining their offer for him to join up. The fight sequence is fairly well thought out, although of course it has to be contrived so that Dazzler can actually help. Turns out that Kitty can walk on air (i.e. fly, really rubbishly), which is a perfectly sensible corollary of her being able to phase and not fall through stuff.