UNCANNY X-MEN #96: Night of the Demon!

In the wake of tragedy, the X-Men must face their demons. Not their inner-demons, mind you, just literal otherworldly monsters.

Originally Published December 1975

It's fall now, and there's a crisp chill of gloom in the air. It's been a minute since Thunderbird's untimely demise, but Cyclops is still wracked with guilt, which manifests itself as extremely heady Claremontian narration. But at least he has a healthy way of processing...

Yes, Cyclops lets out a manly, cathartic blast of optic power into the woods, then feels more guilty about potentially letting off a stray blast that could hurt somebody. Personally, I'm more distressed by what he has done to that ancient stone obelisk that happens to be situated on Professor Xavier's property.

Now, wait, what? This is not drawn attention to or explained in any way but we can clearly see it there during Cyke's tantrum. And he's not confused by this thing we've never seen before; its presence must be common knowledge to all Xavier Students. On Day 1 they are handed a pamphlet explaining how the Danger Room works, what hours they can use the kitchen and TV, and advised not to disturb, look at, or discuss the Obelisk.

Pictured: Nothing to worry about

Back at the mansion, the X-Men are enjoying a sparring session in the Danger Room and we get a little bit of insight as to how seriously this Wolverine guy takes his job:

The Prof also introduces the new housekeeper, one Moira MacTaggart, whom Banshee assumes is going to be a dogfaced 80-year-old widow "with 40 years of service in the Scots Guard." He's delighted to open the door and find out she looks like Rose Byrne.

A cheap, old gag, but you go with what works.

Elsewhere, at a top secret government site, one Dr. Stephen Lang discusses his project with a Col. Michael Rossi, who has come to blow the whistle on the inoccuously-named PROJECT ARMAGEDDON. Lang froths rabidly that they (the mutants) killed Bolivar Trask and his son LArry, but they won't get him. Hm, wonder what his big plan is.

At the X-Mansion - and I tell you, I'll really have to figure out how to make these transitions work if I'm ever going to keep up with Chris Claremont's subplots - Professor Xavier announces it's time for his own personal vacation. The timing is actually perfect. It's been a whole month since he formed these new X-Men and only one of them has died. But before he can scamper off, there's another visitor to the X-Mansion:

That's right, Kierrok the Damned is here, and he wants to know who fucking broke his Obelisk!

This is all extremely random, but I'm into it, as the X-Men must band together to destroy this cosmic evil that has popped by.

In fact, the brawl gives us a glimpse of the full extent of Wolverine's Berzerker Rage™, in a way that would not be permissible on the page with human foes.

For half a second it seems like Wolverine's claws were actually enough to destroy this monster, but he regenerates to full health and the battle resumes.

Xavier, who is luckily not yet on vacation, probes the demon's mind, and gets this for his troubles:

Uh, heavy.

Okay, who's next?

Wow, Moira. You've worked there for five minutes and you already know where the armory is. Do not upset this woman.


When Xavier comes to, he instructs Storm to destroy the cairn from whence Kierrok came. As she approaches, she is surrounded by lesser demons who threaten to pull her into the netherworld. This triggers her claustrophobia - which is depicted in an uncharacteristically subtle and elegant series of panels, causing her powers to go haywire, thus providing the necessary 1.21 gigawatts to destroy the obelisk cairn once and for all.

Somehow, despite the cairn being his prison, or cage door, or something, destroying it sends Kierrok back to the other plane, rather than trapping him here to be our problem forever. I don't get it, but I suppose it's just one of those things.

Further Thoughts:


It could be easy to write this issue off as just a bit of monster-punching filler as Chris Claremont starts to get into his groove, but there is a lot going on here, from Cyclops brooding over the death of a teammate to the first true demonstration of Wolverine's deadly rage.

Claremont introduces Moira Mactaggart as a supposedly-ordinary housekeeper figure, quickly establishing her as a gun-wielding action hero who is all-too-comfortable in the life-threatening situations that the X-Men find themselves in. Claremont, who was heavily invested in portraying powerful, confident, capable female figures was probably not excited about inheriting a book with only one female character, with Jean and Lorna having been shooed out before he got the assignment (and while they never really demonstrated that Claremontian power before, maybe, just maybe, there could be a way to tweak these characters into something Chris might be interested in writing. We'll see.)

Chris Claremont's ideal woman, according to John Byrne

Lastly, we see the seeds planted here for some of the stylistic traits Claremont will exhibit over his 16-year run with these characters, already seeding the next bad guy before we're done with the current issue. It's a soap operatic form of storytelling that, not having read too many 1970's Marvel comics, I'm not sure if it was the way things were usually done, or can be credited as a uniquely CC style. But in this case, it would make the book impossible to quit reading for over a decade, and be adopted by many of the most prominent ongoings of the pre-2000's, for better or worse.