Uncanny X-Men #107
October 1977
Well, they managed to wash the taste of #106 out of my mouth. This is pretty much the no-holds barred romp that was promised with the end of #105 when the X-Men all jumped through the stargate. The only thing that doesn't happen is some Phoenix action, Jean being too tired from powering the stargate to be any help. Other than that though, they deliver on their promise of fun.
From the very beginning the X-Men step out of the stargate into what looks like an intergalactic Gay Pride Parade, but is in actuality the Shi'ar Imperial Guard surrounding the emperor D'Ken as he keeps Lilandra captive right next to what looks like the universe's largest Ring Pop.
They called me mad when I tried to put acid into Studio 54's water supply!
I'm sure we can all guess what happens next. Someone tries to reason with someone else and it doesn't go well. These are superheroes meeting for the first time after all. These things never do. Sci fi action ensues...
The best has to be when Wolverine gets his clothes burned off by a Fire Lord knockoff, throws the dude's girlfriend at him, and then steals the Wolfman's caveman outfit.
Honestly I think this may have be his best character moment yet. It's the first time where Wolverine really feels like Wolverine and not just the guy who I know is Wolverine.
Nightcrawler is also great to watch in a battle. A guy like Colossus just has to punch his way through, but Kurt's powers are only really useful for evasion unless he uses his noggin, so if he's on panel it's usually right before he's about to do something clever, such as when he uses his holographic image inducer to trick a shapeshifter in the form of a giant monster into thinking he's an even bigger monster. If he weren't so ****ing cool looking he'd be easy to overlook as an underrated character.
I don't know what kind of porn that's referencing, but I'm sure I've seen enough of it.
He's also the only one who can rescue Lilandra, who is about to be... eaten(?) by some soul-stealing demon to whom she is being sacrificed by D'Ken. In the nick of time Nightcrawler manages to teleport her away, which I would assume would stop the whole bad thing that's about to happen, since D'Ken makea it sound like only Lilandra's soul will do, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference in the end, so... I guess it's just an arbitrary damsel in distress kinda thing. It's cool though, since it shows for the first time that Kurt can teleport somebody else, of which he wasn't yet aware, though it nearly kills him to do it.
Now with Lilandra in hand she drops about two pages worth of exposition that has just enough bitchin' spaceships and creepy aliens to make it not boring. So... brother D'Ken wanted supposedly lost ancient ultimate evil weapon and she was all like "You're a douche" and he arrested her and there was civil war and she lost but managed to escape, and theeeeen... for no apparent reason she accidentally formed some kind of psychic-soul mate connection with Professor Xavier and decided to head for Earth. So far there is no explanation for how this occurred. All of a sudden they were just OTP 4 life. So basically the entire catalyst for this plotline is that love transcends time and space.
As excellent as the action is, I'm starting to doubt the magnificent brilliance of my man Chris Claremont. It's one issue from the end of the first part of the Phoenix Saga, and he's still making me facepalm. The whole "evil weapon that might accidentally destroy the universe" thing is supposed to be brought about by the alignment of nine "death stars" that activate the giant Ring Pop (M'Kraan Crystal) and... well that's next issue. But unless Claremont pulls something out of his ass we're dealing with phlebotinum. And supposedly the whole "Phoenix as an intergalactic entity" thing was a retcon, with Jean originally just getting her powers supercharged by cosmic rays, Fantastic Four-style. So at this point there isn't even an actual "Phoenix". Jean is just a bit wonky in the head.
The ending is saved to an extent by the appearance of the Starjammers, the space pirate team of rebels led by Cyclops' dad, Corsair, who arrive to turn the tide against the royal guard, thought too late to stop the M'Kraan Crystal from activating. At least we know that he's actually Scott's dad even at this early point, as Jean reads his mind and discovers the truth. The issue ends with that astronaut guy who was supposed to be piloting the space shuttle in #100 talking to Mr. Fantastic about how the fabric of reality just hiccuped or something. Spooky.
I'm glad Josh Byrne is coming on next issue as artist, not that I have anything against Dave Cockrum, as he's done a fine job so far, but if Byrne is the other half of the writing team that really made this series the best thing going on in comic books throughout this time period, then he needs to show up as soon as possible. Claremont obviously has great ideas, and despite some shortcomings in his ability to write the kind of ambitious story arcs he's aiming for, he really does have a flair for engaging storytelling. But an extra set of hands would not go amiss.