Readthrough: Uncanny X-Men 98

[sheliak]

This issue opens with the X-Men celebrating Christmas! They’ve gone out in a group to the city, and are about to split up, largely along romantic lines: Jean and Scott together, Sean with Moira, and Piotr and Kurt off with some ladies they just met. (Or in Kurt’s case, “just met”. But we’ll get into that later.)

Wolverine is not onboard with the festive spirit of the day. Before going off to be grumpy alone, he responds to Jean's polite inquiry about his plans with, “What about me, Miss Grey--? I got no use for Christmas.” That line amuses me way more than it has a right to.

There’s a new page added in Classic, in which Amanda Sefton’s thought bubbles reveal that she knows way more about Kurt than he does about her, and Piotr thinks wistfully of Anya Marakova. Apparently, this issue marks the point when Dave Cockrum was no longer able to draw the add-ons; instead, they’re done by James Fry. (I didn't end up scanning anything from his pages, but still wanted to mention it.)



Stan Lee and Jack Kirby do not approve of this behavior, but they no longer get a say in the matter. Alas, the pleasant evening is interrupted by Sentinels.

Scott has amazing ruby-quartz glasses with fold-up sections, letting him control the strength of his blasts. It seems odd that he didn’t keep using them; maybe they were hard to draw?

The Sentinels shrug off Scott’s optic blasts, but Jean is able to throw them out of the building (with corresponding collateral damage) because she’s stronger now than the last time they fought, and they didn’t take into account that mutants grow and change. And once Jean gets them out of the building, Scott is willing to cut loose with his own full power (also greater than the Sentinels anticipated, in part due to Krakoa).

Alas, Jean is captured anyway, and Scott left perilously dangling from the mostly-destroyed skyscraper. Luckily, Storm (who is paying absolutely no mind to Banshee’s warning that “To a mutant, Ororo—Sentinel’s another name for death!”) manages to rescue him from this precarious position, and then singlehandedly destroys the Sentinel that comes after them with a localized hurricane.




Storm is the uncontested powerhouse of the team at this point. She also has perfect control, which she points out to Cyclops when he panics about the whole ‘hurricane over NYC’ thing.

Meanwhile, Professor X is out sailing with his friend Peter Corbeau. It’s not just that he went off to take a vacation from the X-Men, though—Corbeau is an astronomer (among many other things) and he’s been asking after a particular binary star. He’s disappointed and frustrated to learn that as far as Corbeau knows, that star doesn’t exist—at least, definitely not within the Milky Way. Their conversation is disrupted by a Sentinel emerging from the water. (Well, if they can fly, it’s no more unreasonable that they can swim…) Xavier’s telepathic blast effects it, which is odd, but it does manage to overpower him when his nightmares distract him from the fight, and it carries him away to places unknown. Corbeau is left clinging to wreckage in the middle of the sea…

Meanwhile, Steven Lang is gloating at his captives like a proper supervillain. (That’s Jean, the Professor, Banshee, and Wolverine—the last two are captured off-panel in the original, though Classic adds a page in which they lose that fight.)



Lang hits Jean, and Wolverine (driven by a crush or possibly a sense of chivalry) breaks out of his restraints, wrecks a Sentinel, and frees Jean and Banshee while Lang and his lackeys flee. This is the first time Banshee, at least, realized that the claws weren’t just part of his gloves (which is how they’re drawn at this point).

At this point the “evolved wolverine” thing is still a potential backstory for Wolverine; there’s a hint as to it that wasn’t removed in Classic (though it could easily have been changed to them WTFing over his metal skeleton). They manage to escape—or so they think. (The narrator, of course, takes a moment to gloat.)

There’s one last new page after that, back at the X-Mansion; most of the team is in the Danger Room while Cyclops attempts to use Cerebro to find their missing friends and teammates. (I was startled to see a non-psychic using Cerebro, as I remember later versions as requiring telepathy, or at least psionics of some kind, to work—but then, Cerebro has been through a lot of iterations.)

(There is also a three-panel inset of dark dealings at the Hellfire Club, which serves mainly to introduce Sebastian Shaw and hint that someone is about to double-cross him and his mutant allies. This is a subplot original to the Classic run; it’ll be followed up on fairly shortly.)

Cyclops is angsting about the fact that Cerebro can’t find the missing mutants—a fact he attributes to them being dead—when Corbeau finds his way to the door. (He’s quickly brought in and wrapped in a blanket and given cocoa, giving the impression that he was still soaking wet when he made it there.) And Corbeau has put the pieces together: the missing X-Men are in space! Cut to a cliffhanger, the three escapees in vacuum…

Poll #21328

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

View Respondents

Should Professor X be able to mind-blast Sentinels?

View Answers

No, they don't have brains for him to blast!
3 (37.5%)

Yes. Sentinels are jerks and have it coming to them, whether or not it particularly makes sense.
0 (0.0%)

How do we know that they don't have brains? They were built by comic book scientists, who are not logical beings.
5 (62.5%)

In your understanding of (Claremont-era) canon, how does Cerebro work?

View Answers

Only telepaths can use it.
3 (37.5%)

Other psychics can use it.
2 (25.0%)

Any mutant can use it.
0 (0.0%)

Anyone can use it.
0 (0.0%)

It's inconsistent.
3 (37.5%)

I have a different theory and will explain it below.
0 (0.0%)

Did Steven Lang build his sentinels to be sexist jerks?

View Answers

Yes. He built them in his own image.
6 (75.0%)

No. They're still basically Silver Age robots, and would have been that way anyway.
2 (25.0%)

Favorite moment this issue?

View Answers

Stan and Jack disapproving of this kissing nonsense.
4 (50.0%)

Scott and Jean's short-lived date.
2 (25.0%)

Professor X and Peter Corbeau's equally short-lived fishing trip.
0 (0.0%)

Ororo wipes the floor (well, sky) with a Sentinel.
7 (87.5%)

Professor X vs. Sentinels that swim.
1 (12.5%)

Lang's short-lived gloating.
0 (0.0%)

Logan sticking up for Jean.
2 (25.0%)

Something else, which I will detail in the comments.
0 (0.0%)

Next Sunday: Jean was really looking forward to that date, damnit.
Next Thursday: Space adventures! Although alas, not the fun kind.