X-Men #101
October 1976
Well, I'd originally intended to do the whole arc in one post, but I imagine trying to do eight issues, let alone
these eight issues, would make my previous post look like a Post-It note. So, I'm doing this issue by issue.
Right from page one this issue goes big rather than going home. A shot of the space shuttle screaming through the Earth's atmosphere is set over a larger than life portrait of a terrified yet determined Jean Grey in vibrant shades of orange, yellow and red. Above her face is a caption that reads simply, "Welcome to the last moment's of a young woman's life." I wish I could find the entire page, but the only version I can find only shows about half of it. Good enough.
This is actually a reproduction based on the last page of the previous issue. Obviously the second pic has been... remastered or whatever, but even so, and even though the first is missing the top half I still think the page from #101 is the more dramatically compelling.
She proceeds to pilot the shuttle to a crash landing at Kennedy Airport, and then into the ocean, where it sinks. At no point do we actually see Jean, so her fate is unknown until she rises from the sea in the green version of her Phoenix costume, and declares to her astonished friends, bobbing up and down in the waves, "I am fire! And life incarnate! Now and forever -- I am PHOENIX!" So yeah, by page four the X-Men universe has pretty much been forever altered. I'd have flipped my **** in 1976. I wouldn't have known what the **** was going on, but I'd know it was about to get even more epic.
After a moment she collapses, and the X-Men take her to shore and make good an escape before the authorities show up to start asking uncomfortable questions. For the rest of the issue she is off-panel and unconscious in a hospital, though we're eventually informed that she will recover.
The first half of this issue is easily the most character intensive group of pages in the run so far. From the uncertainty of Jean's fate in the beginning, to the shock and mystery of her rising from the sea and calling herself Phoenix, and the strain her unknown condition has on her friends, it's an emotional roller coaster with real depth and maturity. Scott's reaction is what you'd expect. Shocked and miserable at his inability to do anything useful, followed by relieved sobbing in an empty hospital room when he learns that Jean will recover, revealing just how close he was to a nervous breakdown.
And we finally learn that Wolverine indeed has developed feelings for Jean as he spends an entire dollar on a bouquet of flowers to bring to Jean at the hospital. Unfortunately he didn't count on the entire X-Men team being there as well. So he does what any emotionally mature person would do; he throws the flowers in the trash and pretends that nothing ever happened.
The second half of the comic isn't quite so dramatic unfortunately. Apart from Professor X and Cyclops, the X-Men are ordered to go on a vacation to keep them out of the way of Jean's recovery. It's not exactly the most believable pretext to send them on an adventure, but let's just go with it anyway. It's a nice way to keep you guessing about what's going on off-panel, but I'd like it if Claremont didn't feel the need to put a bit of pulp in the middle of all of this to keep those fans who might not have the longest attention spans for this kind of drama from dozing off (i.e. dumb kids).
Apparently Banshee has just inherited a castle in Ireland, because who doesn't inherit a castle or two in their lifetime? So, the team heads off to Ireland to get their medieval on, but of course a pulp villain is waiting for them. On the bad side, he's some guy called "Black Tom Cassidy" who is also Banshee's cousin or brother or uncle or roommate's gay boyfriend or something, so he says Irish things that make it a tad hard to take him seriously. He's not so ridiculously Irish as Banshee, but he also has a shillelagh. Honestly, I'm too amused to take much offense at the shillelagh, but Black Tom still sucks balls. He's kidnapped the castle steward's family to get him to betray Banshee and pretend like everything is hunky dory, so the X-Men proceed to hang out in a castle.
The reason that this subplot isn't completely retarded is that it gives us some much needed character development. We've seen hints of Storm's claustrophobia, but being in a cramped stone castle really bugs her, so of course she strips naked in her room and starts a rainstorm. Sounds goofy, but it's also an interesting look into her psychology, as it shows her as an almost ethereal free spirit who really only feels at home among the elements.
To bring us back down to Earth, Nightcrawler then shows up to take her down to dinner. Colossus previously had shown interest in Ororo, and now Kurt is throwing his hat into the ring, setting the stage for yet another love triangle. Nightcrawler was already shown to be a bit of a ham, but he takes it to another level by trying to flirt with Storm with some cheesy impressions of Clark Gable, Groucho Marx, and some guy with a top hat, all with the aid of his holographic image inducer which allows him to appear like a normal human. It actually kind of works too. Get it, Nightcrawler.
Soon they all head off to dinner dressed in formal wear (which for Wolverine of course includes a cowboy hat), and being a comic book this also means that they all fall down a trap door into some dingy catacombs. For some odd reason Black Tom has a throne right next to where the X-Men fall. I mean, who doesn't have a throne in a dingy catacomb? The only thing not awful about all of this is that apparently Tommy has enlisted the help of the Juggernaut. That's sounds promising at least.
So, excellent first half, mediocre second half, but with good character moments to bring up some slack, and a hint of badassness at the very end. Oh yeah, and the castle was pretty cool too. Claremont is brilliant when he's trying, but I just don't know why he falls back on goofy pulp so often, as it just doesn't at all fit with the tone of what he's trying to do.
XXX-celsior!
And if you need evidence that Black Tom sucks then here is Exhibit A. Note the shillelagh.