Readthrough: Uncanny X-Men 102

[sheliak]

The X-Men quickly get into costume (even Storm, who’s pretty out of it at this point) and a fight begins. Alas, it’s a pretty-one-sided fight: the X-Men were caught unawares, with their guard down, and now their strongest member is incapacitated. To make matters worse, Black Tom Cassidy is immune to his cousin Sean’s powers. As for the Juggernaut, at this point he can only be defeated by psychics—and both of the X-Men’s telepaths are on the other side of an ocean.

The X-Men aren’t even working very well together, arguing with each other instead of focusing on their very dangerous foes. Wolverine takes exception to Colossus focusing on Storm instead of the enemy, calling him “Russkie” and generally being rude. Piotr angrily tells him not to come between him and his friends, implicitly (and fairly enough) leaving him out. I think this exchange might be the first example of the “Peter Pureheart” (later Petey) nickname, which will stick around even after they’re on good terms. (Wolvie also calls Kurt “Spock-ears” during this scene, which did not stick.)

We then get a POV shift to Storm, and we learn her backstory for the first time.

Ororo remembers her parents leaving Harlem when she was a baby. Her dad says she seems to understand a lot more than a six-month-old usually would, and her mom says yes she does, she’s special.

Five years later, they’re in Egypt; her dad is a reporter. There’s an attack; before they can head to relative safety, the house is bombed. Ororo is the only survivor, trapped under rubble with her mother’s corpse.

She goes on to have a very eventful life:



Classic extends the flashback a bit, with more details of Ororo’s parents’ final moments and some new lines about how good her dad was at his job. There’s also a new page in detailing her learning to use her powers, and the origins of her “goddess” role, helping out during a drought.

Back in the present, although Ororo is still paralyzed by her claustrophobia, she does manage to psychically contact Xavier, who maintains a bit of a psychic rapport with all his students. (Presumably, Storm’s concentrated angst gets his attention while relatively normal fighting-emotions do not.)

He’s at Jean’s sickbed; as he and Scott leave, Misty asks Jean what’s wrong, and if there’s anything she can do to help. Jean’s response is memorable.

So tell me, Misty Knight…

How would you feel if you’d…died. Then brought yourself back to life?

The reader follows Xavier and Scott away from Jean’s bed, so we don’t get to see Misty’s answer.

X tells Scott to go to Ireland; Scott refuses. He’s done putting the X-Men before Jean, and anyway he knows that he couldn’t get there quickly enough to make a difference anyway.

In the midst of yelling at Scott over this decision, Xavier is overwhelmed by a vision of a weird person in a SFnal space suit. This sequence is only two panels long in the original; Classic adds another page, in which Xavier demands to know what this stranger wants with him (against a fantastic-looking backdrop of stars), Moira goes to his aid, and Scott announces that he doesn’t believe she’s really a housekeeper.

The narrator apologizes (insincerely, I feel) for changing scene immediately to Cassidy Keep and the X-Men’s losing battle against the Juggernaut.

Kurt is quickly knocked out; luckily for him, he lands in shadow. Even luckier, someone other than Black Tom and the Juggernaut is watching…



(In the original, he has a power of becoming invisible in shadows; the rewrites edit that out, but honestly it made more sense with it included…) He’s then removed from the fight by some very short people wearing green.

Black Tom hints at an unknown patron (cough: Erik the Red) who’s freed him and the Juggernaut from prison and given them the money and the knowledge to retrofit the Keep into a deathtrap. He’s satisfied; the Juggernaut, though, won’t be happy until Xavier is dead.

After Colossus is taken down, Storm manages to fight through her panic and make an attack… but the Juggernaut redirects her power at her. Fight’s over. One X-man, though, is unaccounted for…


As well as adding new pages and dialogue, Classic X-Men had new front and back covers (usually, the front cover was related to the reprint Uncanny story, while the back cover was related to the new backup), and even illustrated tables of contents. So far I've ignored these (aside from the Erik the Red one), but some of them are pretty.


Like the Erik the Red a while back, these are drawn by Art Adams.

Poll #21542

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

View Respondents

Favorite Scene

View Answers

Ororo's backstory flashback
4 (66.7%)

The X-Men's fight against the Juggernaut and Black Tom (part 1)
0 (0.0%)

That same fight, part 2
0 (0.0%)

Jean and Misty
0 (0.0%)

Professor X and his doooooooom (well, that's what he thinks it is right now!)
1 (16.7%)

Professor X and Cyclops
1 (16.7%)

Leprechaun rescue!
3 (50.0%)

Streamlining Nightcrawler's powers: yea or nay?

View Answers

I prefer the original: Nightcrawler has the power to disappear into shadows.
2 (33.3%)

I prefer the revised version, in which he is only as hard to see as one would expect a dark-furred person in shadow to be.
4 (66.7%)

How do you like Black Tom and the Juggernaut as antagonists? And what did you think of Ororo's backstory as presented here?

Next Sunday: Wolverine has a terrible birthday, courtesy of Sabertooth.
Next Thursday: Leprechauns! (I mean it this time!)