Uncanny X-Men #104
April 1977
That cover is a bit misleading. It implies that the X-Men were actually able to put up a legitimate fight against Magneto. This is not the case. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Our story starts with our heroes sticking some anti-mutant assturd up on a pole because he won't let them take out his hovercraft boat even after they've already paid to rent it. Colossus however is able to reason with him. So to speak. They then head out to their friend Moira MacTaggert's laboratory on some island off Scotland. Some guy has been looking after it while she's in New York helping to take care of Jean, but he hasn't been heard from in a few days, so the X-Men are checking it out.
No sooner do they near the island than their hovercraft is ripped apart by some unknown force and they wash up onshore, only to be trapped in some kind of air bubble that is never satisfactorily explained. The bubble then rises into the air and shoots toward the walls of the laboratory, though the combined might of the X-Men is enough to destroy the wall before they can be crushed by it. Apparently Nightcrawler can now punch walls.
Use the Force, Kurt.
Within the laboratory the X-Men are finally confronted by the terrifying power of Magneto's cheesy villain introduction speech. And also Magneto himself. Things quickly turn to **** at this point, as it doesn't take a genius to figure out what's wrong with battling a guy who is known as the "Master of Magnetism" when half your team is made out of metal.
Smooth move, Exlax.
Even Storm and Nightcrawler are helpless, as Magneto can use magnetic hoodoo to reflect Storm's lightning back at her, and "sense disruptions along the magnetic lines of force" to predict where Nightcrawler will teleport. Not sure of the scientific validity of any of that, but I'll go with it. There are some pretty imaginative uses of Magneto's powers in this fight, and none better than when he pulls iron dust from the wreckage of the hovercraft to basically encase Banshee in carbonite. The only problem is that with all this clever stuff going on, Claremont must of course explain everything in minute detail. Still, its pretty much what I was hoping for in a fight with Magneto.
Banshee was not looking forward to his new job as Jabba the Hutt's wall ornament.
All is not lost however, for Cyclops and Moira have just arrived in the Blackbird (or astro-jet or whatever the **** they're calling it right now). They quickly find the man who is supposed to be looking after the laboratory, who reveals that it was Eric the Red who attacked him and freed Magneto, who was being held prisoner here after his last defeat by the X-Men. A defeat that left him as a child. I... okay. Going with it. So after Eric de-childifies Magneto they decide that Magneto will wait for the X-Men to show up, while Scott realizes that Eric has likely gone to attack Professor X while the rest of the team is across the ocean.
Scott finds the other X-Men just in time to distract Magneto with his optic blast before he can finish them off. With a few seconds of breathing room Cyclops gathers his teammates and they retreat to the Blackbird in order to make it back to Professor X. This results in yet another pissing match between him and Wolverine, who is none too pleased at having to puss out of the fight. I suppose he's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.
The issue ends with a last page packed with foreshadowing. At the top we see the first ever appearance of the man we will find out is Scott's father, whose headband, large earring, and porn star mustache clearly show him to be a space pirate. Below that we see Lilandra finally arriving at Earth only to be attacked by another space ship. And finally we see Eric the Red watching Professor X and Jean Grey on a monitor and shaking his fist in a villainy manner, right about a caption that reads: Next Issue: PHOENIX UNLEASHED!
****. Yeah. Magneto certainly provided an excellent battle, though its shortness was kind of anti-climactic, but I imagine it's just supposed to be a taster for their next confrontation anyway. He's still a placeholder villain though, but with the revelation that both he and Black Tom and Juggernaut were just diversions in the first place at least we know why the X-Men were getting so much busy work. Well, whatever the case, next issue looks like when the real **** finally hits the fan.
Deuces, true believers!