The X-Men are making new friends all over the place.
Originally Published January 1980
It was January, 1980-something, and the X-Men were ready to depart Scotland after defeating Proteus. Sure, it was tough, using lethal force to defeat a reality-warping psychotic body-possessing monster who also happens to be the son of one of the team's closest friends, but after a little R&R time they're ready to head out.
Banshee, of course, is opting to stay in Scotland. Without his powers, he's just a useless old washed-up ex-Interpol agent with the body of an Olympic-calibre athlete and a past as an international art thief - you know, a regular Joe, not much use to the X-Men. Really, he just wants to help Moira through the, erm, grieving process (yeah, that's the ticket.)
Likewise, Madrox the Multiple Man is uninterested in putting his skills to use X-Manning full-time, and prefers to stay on as several lab techs on Muir Isle. And don't even ask Lorna and Alex, who have turned down every offer to become permanent teammates, as if they just know they'll end up mind-controlled or encased in cement or forced to fight for their lives in a deadly game of Skee-Ball or what-have-you.
On the flight, the X-Men have a lot on their minds, particularly young Piotr, who was forced to slay Proteus once and for all. However, our attentions are directed to Jean, as her secret admirer Jason Wyngarde prepares to send her a-tumbling back through time once more.
Once again, Jean finds herself Outlandered back to the past, where she is not herself, but some ancestor, a noblewoman on a voyage to America to be with her betrothed, the dashing Jason. To us, Jason gloats that he is unleashing Jean's wild side, slowly drawing her out with temptations too enticing to resist.
When Jean is woken from her fantasy, she sees Cyclops. They discuss his recent fling with Colleen ("She's a friend, no more, no less" - yeah, tell that to the key she gave you, Cyke) and how Cyclops processed Jean's apparent death in Antarctica - by closing himself off. This is a slight revision from Cyclops' take on it from the Savage Land issue, but peoples' feelings evolve, sure.
They reconcile, spending the rest of the flight talking (we are treated to a timeskipand assured it was a super deep, meaningful conversation.) Pointedly, Jean does not tell Scott about this weird thing that keeps happening to her where she travels through time and makes out with a mutton-chopped prettyboy, but hey, it's probably not important.
Eventually, our heroes arrive back on American soil, to find an unexpected visitor at the X-Mansion:
The Prof is back! And he's very keen to get back to training the X-Men again. And they're happy to have him as teacher...
Okay, well, the Prof has been gone for a while and the team dynamic has evolved a little without him. He and Cyclops have a discussion, where Scott's point of view is, "Hey, maybe don't treat these X-Men like newbies, they're pretty good and they don't respond well to that approach," and Xavier's is, "Maybe you should have tried sucking less."
This meeting of minds is interrupted when Cerebro - potentially sensing the awkward, ugly argument at hand, beeps in. Scanners have found two new mutant presences, which require urgent attention - one in Chicago, one in New York. Xavier splits the team in two and heads off.
Meanwhile, something sinister is afoot. Wyngarde is watching from afar with some mysterious shadowy cronies from the enigmatic Hellfire Club. They - specifically their chairman, a man named Shaw - were the ones who had Warhawk infiltrate the mansion (way back in #110 - Rog.) to place a bug in Cerebro. Now they know the X-Men's every move, and surely plan to use that knowledge to destroy and/or recruit them.
Beyond that all we know is that Shaw is one of America's most powerful industrialists, that Wyngarde seemingly has some experience with the X-Men, and the Hellfire Club employs a woman known as the "White Queen," who favours white corsets and underpants as a fashion statement.
In Chicago - specifically suburban Deerfield - we meet 13-year-old Katherine Pryde ("Kitty" to her friends) comes home from dance class. Her parents introduce her to their guest...
One Ms. Frost, headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy
Katherine has a lot on her mind. She's suffering from terrible headaches lately. Plus, she suspects that her parents are thinking about splitting up, hence why they'd want to send her away to school. And furthermore, that Frost lady looks like an evil witch who eats children. Kitty goes upstairs to lie down but it only gets worse until...
Mu-tant Pow-ers! (clap clap clapclapclap!)
Seemingly having missed Kitty's trip through the ceiling, Ms. Frost leaves the Prydes with her brochure, leaving just as a group from another school arrives - this time from New York's Xavier School
Feeling slightly better, Kitty agrees to go to the Malt Shoppe with Xavier's students, where Storm immediately reveals they are in fact the X-Men, and Kitty reacts like any normal 13-year-old.
Which of course causes Storm to recall fondly the years she spent wandering the desert aimlessly, near death. Ah, youth.
While Wolverine threatens the shopkeep for asking him not to just stand around reading Penthouse (you know, without even having the decency to pay for it first) in burst a trio of armored goons in power suits, as per the uzhe.
Each of them seems to have a defense for the X-Men's powers, but they didn't think to equip all three with the same defenses, so the X-Men use the old "switch opponents" strategy and it works like a charm.
Unfortunately, the trio are soon blindsided by a psychic attack that renders them unconscious, courtesy of the White Queen...
...Whom I'm beginning to suspect was Ms. Frost, the headmistress from earlier, all along!
Frost's Hellfire goons scoop up the X-Men (one exhibits insane strength by casually carrying a limp Wolverine, Adamantium skeleton and all, under his arm like a Corgi) while Frost demonstrates how the Hellfire Club motivates workers by blowing up the Malt Shoppe, with the dispatched agents inside.
Luckily, Kitty had tumbled through the wall in the melee. No word on what became of the shopkeeper.
 |
| In Memoriam |
As the Hellfire Club's putty patrollers stripsearch the X-Men for any signalling devices, Frost muses that there's no need to worry about the Pryde Kid's whereabouts since the X-Men were their original targets. But at that very moment, we see Kitty secretly slipping through the wall of the rear compartment, the X-Men's only hope of rescue!
To be continued!
Further Thoughts:
The return of the Prof's demerit system! That will keep these mutants in line and truly take them to the next level as a unit.
This is the kind of issue I always praise, bridging two huge stories and addressing several subplots. The Prof is back from space, Scott and Jean are on-again, and the team has a new bunch of foes. The way Wyngarde had been seeded throughout the previous story was key, but that only leads to further intrigue with Shaw and Frost, revealing layers upon layers.
Of course, this is notably the first appearance of young Kitty Pryde. She's the first real "plucky everykid gets to join the X-Men" and her intro really lets the reader get to know her. So far, most the X-Men we've met are ready-made action heroes, but this is possible the first time we've seen someone thrown into mutant adventuring seemingly against their will. (Lorna had a similar introduction, but they took it in a different direction for sure.) The real question is whether a plucky 13-year-old will be a chara ter fans can relate to and latch onto for years to come, or if she's just an annoying kid sister to the grown up X-Men. Time will tell...
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