This nonsense again?
Originally Published August 1977
When we last left off, the X-Men had just jetted off into space parts unknown by way of stargate while an incensed Firelord (see what I did there?) was bearing down on Professor Xavier. The Fiery One is still under the impression the benevolent telepath is a ruthless world conqueror, thanks to some deft manipulation by Eric the Red. (Well, the truth lies somewhere in between "benevolent" and "ruthless.")
Xavier, who has been under a lot of stress lately, has an attack of mental anguish as his "nightmares" resurface, and he retreats to the safety of a flashback. He mentally recounts events that occurred a few months ago, just following the arrival of Moira MacTaggart and the beginning of his mysterious nightmares.
While Xavier sleeps one off, the recently-grouped X-Men are in the Danger Room honing their skills, and as per usual, not really getting along. However, their arguing is cut off abruptly... by none other than Angel, who had quit the team just weeks earlier. Apparently he's stopped by purely for the purpose of chirping the new X-Men on their performance.
I know what you're thinking, and yes, we're really doing "New X-Men vs. Old X-Men" for the literal third time since this saga began. FML.
Warren is backed up by Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl and Beast. Obviously we know something's off, because they're sporting the "school uniform" look that hasn't been in fashion since the mid-60's. And each of the X-Men notice, in their own way, that even though these former X-Men can talk trash and hurt them, it's somehow like they're not there. This makes sense for Wolverine, who has keen animalistic senses, but it's also apparent to Storm, who just, you know, like, "gets" these things I guess.
They fight, and they fight, and they fight, and we're not really sure why this is happening, until Xavier arrives to put a stop to it. This was so urgent Xavier had to get out of bed and crawl all the way down to the Danger Room on his belly rather than get in his chair. But he still put on his suit and tie, for whatever reason.
Xavier reveals this to be the work of his Dark Side, who looks just like the regular Xavier except for the following differences:
- Pale green glow a la Mr. Burns
- "Evil" face (really just Charles' normal face)
- Badass cape
- Can walk
Xavier quickly disposes of his Evil Side by turning the fake X-Men against him, which I think is a visual representation of clearing his mind and taking a deep breath. Xavier explains - via thought balloon to us the curious readers, but not to his students who might want to know - that the accursed nightmares he has been having had caused his mental control over his dark impulses to lapse and unleash the cruelty and malevolence we know resides within, just barely under the surface.
Back in the present, Xavier reflects that now that he's met Lilandra and his nightmares have subsided, there is no longer any risk of this happening again, and he feels at peace... and hopes that the X-Men succeed in their mission so that he lives long enough to enjoy it.
Also, Firelord is nowhere to be found, probably because he thought better of executing a sleeping opponent. And that's that.
Further Thoughts:
On the surface, this issue is very much worth dumping on. This is a bad time for a flashback with the X-Men having just jumped through an interstellar portal to space parts unknown on a very exciting universe-saving mission. It goes back to the well of the New X-Men fighting the Old X-Men for the third damn time since we started this thing. It ends with Xavier basically saying "Oh, my dark side got out, let me pop that back in." And it cops out on the threat of Firelord bearing down on Xavier, which I called an unnecessary flourish to begin with. Not so good, Al. But there's a reason for all this.
As you can tell because we suddenly have a new artist for one month, this issue was a fill-in meant to stall while Dave cockrum finished work on the next issue. In fact, I used my extensive research prowess to discover that Bob Brown and Bill Mantlo banked this story over a year earlier - indeed, right around the time it was supposed to have taken place. Whether it was always meant to be put in the freezer and reheated at a later date, or if Mantlo was in the running for what became Claremont's job, we know how it worked out - Chris and Dave found a direction and ran with it, and a story very much like this ended up happening, except it was robots instead of imaginary frienemies. In fact, this was published several months after the passing of veteran artist Brown, who had worked for Marvel since its years as Timely Comics.
Under those circumstances, I suppose props are deserved for wedging it all in to the actual ongoing story even as speciously as it did. But if I'm picking this one up off the news racks without any context, hoping to read about the X-Men in spaaaaaace, I'm thinking "Yikes." Now, a 12-year-old probably wouldn't notice, but Marvel was fully in the business of providing comics for late teens, twenties, and 30-year-olds by now (and that average age would continue to creep up in the ensuing decades.)
Dave Cockrum was a talented artist and had rare gifts as a font of ideas, but by most accounts he wasn't great with deadlines. And that's a shame since I hear if these New X-Men catch on they might let the series go to a monthly schedule. Guess they'll have to find some other artist who can keep up...
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