The Uncanny X-Men #153-158

The Uncanny X-Men #153-158

Originally released in 1982

Written by Chris Claremont

Art by David Cockrum

Chris Claremont's run on Uncanny X-Men continues with a brief interlude where Kitty Pryde tells a bedtime story to Colossus's younger sister, Illyana Rasputin, which loosely retells the Dark Phoenix saga, though with a happier ending.  I know that, at some point, Kitty gets a pet dragon named Lockheed, though I was surprised to learn that the concept originated from here, with the X-Men's ship the Blackbird being adapted into a dragon named Lockheed in this fantasy world.

It's a fun little side story, and while there seemed to be some hints of it beforehand, the story makes it seem like there was intended to be a love triangle between Kitty, Colossus, and Nightcrawler.  These issues have some unexpected pop culture references, such as the Muppets and Star Wars, which is interesting since this was long before Disney bought Marvel, the Muppets, or Star Wars, putting them all under the same umbrella.

In between this story, we get little reaction shots of the X-Men as they gather outside the closed door to listen.  All in all, it's a refreshing little slice of life, and a nice break from the extensive battles and threats to the world that the X-Men often have to deal with.

The next issues jump straight into a conflict with the Shi'ar Empire, the space pirates known as the Starjammers, a race of alien parasites called the Brood, and a Ms. Marvel villain called Deathbird, who is the eldest member of the Shi'ar imperial family, though murdering her mother caused her to be exiled, leading to Lilandra taking the throne instead.  I'm not sure if her ties to the Shi'ar Empire are revealed for the first time here or were always present, but it's interesting to see Claremont taking characters from his earlier run on Ms. Marvel and repurposing them, like how Carol herself became an ally to the X-Men recently.

Among the Starjammers is Corsair, also known as Christopher Summers.  Jean Grey already knew that he is Cyclops's father as a result of mind-reading, and she confided that to Storm, but neither one wanted to tell Scott, with both men believing the other to be dead until very recently in Corsair's case, and Cyclops is unaware.  Of course, the truth comes out eventually, and while Cyclops is upset at both Storm and his father, he manages to relate to Corsair's reasons for staying away from Earth for twenty years - he believed that Cyclops and his brother Havok to be dead when their parachute caught fire during the plane crash that he and his wife were abducted from, and his wife was later killed by a villainous Shi'ar known as D'ken.

To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about the cosmic side of the X-Men.  On one hand, it's a nice change to see a (mostly) benevolent alien empire in Marvel, especially when compared to the Kree and the Skrulls.  While the Brood are pretty obvious in their inspiration, they are still extremely creepy, especially when it's confirmed that one of the Brood that had attacked Kitty months ago managed to infect Professor Xavier, and now he has a Brood parasite growing within him.  The looks inside Xavier's mind as the parasite tries to defend itself and Xavier seemingly begs for someone to kill him are incredibly creepy and effective.

On the other hand, it feels a little out of place, at least to me.  Lilandra and Xavier falling madly in love with each other due to a psychic connection feels kind of forced, and it kind of takes away from the concept of the X-Men being feared and hated for reasons outside of their control but continuing to fight for humanity and mutantkind regardless. (the idea of mutant extinction loses some teeth if their leader is the imperial consort to the ruler of a massive galactic empire; with a mere thought from Xavier, mutantkind could find a new world to live on, or call in the forces of an empire to defend them)  Maybe it's something I'll get used to over time.  I feel like the more grounded X-Men movies have given me a specific idea of what the franchise is "supposed" to be like.

Kitty and Nightcrawler have a fun dynamic as they're left on-board the Shi'ar battlecruiser and have to stop the empire from bombarding Earth in retaliation for the kidnapping of Lilandra, and the disturbing organic nature of the Brood technology allows for some interesting and creepy designs, such as their lobotomized living ship.

Upon returning to Earth, the X-Men are reminded that Xavier used to work for the FBI, and as a result, the government would have files on the X-Men.  With the relationship between humanity and mutants breaking down, Wolverine, Storm, and a mostly-depowered and amnesiac Carol Danvers have to infiltrate the Pentagon and delete those files.  It's here that Mystique is brought back into the series, and Rogue is introduced to the X-Men for the first time.  She started out as Mystique's minion (and adopted daughter), and it's a little jarring to go back to these issues; she looks quite different in her villainous days, with her face making her look much older and her hair resembling Wolverine's at least a little bit.

Mystique was originally the arch-enemy of Carol Danvers, and that animosity remains as Mystique sets out to kill Carol directly - Rogue draining Ms. Marvel's powers was the result of Mystique sending Rogue after Carol.  I like seeing how the connections between characters has evolved over the years - while Rogue draining Carol's powers was traumatic for Carol, and is something that still comes up every now and then, Mystique is far more associated with the X-Men these days, with her status as Carol's original arch-enemy seeming more like trivia.

While the X-Men blow their cover as a result of Rogue's attack, Carol manages to reach the databanks of the Pentagon and delete the files on the X-Men.  Upon discovering the files on Carol Danvers and Ms. Marvel, she deletes those as well, justifying it with the idea that she's not either woman any more, and she needs to move forward.  This idea is kind of nonsensical, and will almost certainly come back to bite her when her memory is restored, but at this point, she seems to have given up on that happening.

Despite my mixed feeling about the space material, and my questions about the logic behind Carol's decision at the end of #158, I generally enjoyed these issues.  In particular, I was initially worried about how #153 would go based on the premise, but I ultimately found it to be charming.  I was tempted to read more issues (the preview at the end of #158, pictured above, speaks for itself), but this seemed like a natural stopping point.  It makes me wonder how some other major Marvel characters were introduced, and how different their original appearances were compared to their best-known versions.