The X-Men hit the underground scene!
Originally Published May 1983
We begin at the penthouse apartment of Warren Worthington III, aka the high-flying sometime-X-Man Angel, last seen quitting in a huff over the continued employment of Wolverine. His girlfriend Candy Sothern, who has gotten an ill-advised 80's hairstyle since the last time we saw her, arrives...
As you can see, she has reason to be concerned about fowl play when Warren won't answer her calls, and when she finds stray feathers scattered around the penthouse, she is somewhat ruffled. She quickly manages to call Professor Xavier, but before she can give any specifics, the call is interrupted...
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| Hope she's able to duck |
Say what you will about this Sunder, but he doesn't obfuscate his point.
Professor X places a quick mindcall to Nightcrawler, who is currently canoodling with sorceress/stewardess/stepsister/girlfriend Amanda Sefton, f/k/a Jimaine Szardos (seriously, she is never called by that name again.)
Kurt teleports, naked and wet, through Manhattan in the cold December night air, until he arrives near the penthouse, only to find Angel being fireman-carried into a subway tunnel by a person unknown (presumably Sunder.)
However, before he can follow...
Quickly he returns home with Candy in tow, not having the decency to not teleport directly into the tub.
Later, the X-Men have gathered at Amanda's apartment to discuss next steps, ie going down into the tunnels to look for Angel - very magnanimous of them considering he deserted them for completely immature reasons.
With Wolverine off in Japan (which you can read about in the Wolverine Mini-Series) and Cyclops visiting family in Alaska, the X-Men are short-handed. Storm asks if Professor X would lend them Rahne "Wolfsbane" Sinclair from the New Mutants for tracking purposes, but Xavier is adamant that the New Mutants are only students, and are not and will never be superheroes, fighting villains and having adventures and putting their lives at risk, no way, no how, thank you very much for asking, good day, I said good day.
I'm sure this oft-repeated line has an overall positive effect on sales for the New Mutants' ongoing series, where the lead characters just hang out, train in the Danger Room, study history and math, and maybe do a little light flirting. (They're teenagers after all.)
Also not going along will be Lockheed, who is staying behind with Amanda and Candy in case of further danger.
Down in the subway system, the X-Men blatantly disregard MTA Safety Protocols by wandering down a train tunnel, following the Mini-Cerebro programmed with Angel's brainwaves. Even Xavier is having trouble reading their thoughts down there due to interference from sources unknown (could this be the work Magneto did in mucking with the Earth's magnetic field? Or some other thing?)
In any case, completely unsurprisingly, a train comes roaring by, and Storm, the claustrophobic, has a moment.
While Storm claims that her claustrophobia (which would seem to be a great hindrance on this particular mission) is "very much" under control, note that she is not claiming it is gone, as our glimpse at her inner thoughts indicates otherwise - she's just getting better at coping with it, which is cool by me. While we've seen lots of instances of it over the years, again this refreshed storytelling mode for the X-Men makes this well-worn facet of the story feel fresh and organic again.
As they explore the tunnels, Colossus expresses his disbelief that anyone would want to live here, and Storm reflects, implicitly, on her time as a Cairo street urchin. But in the midst of all this navel-gazing, they are suddenly attacked!
While the X-Men battle these groundlings, Kitty phases through some walls to try to find where they've come from, only to discover the Garbage Pail Kids' Leadership committee:
Kitty runs off after being discovered, but not before being touched by the one called Plague, who as you can imagine is nothing to sneeze at. Although she was phasing at the time, we learn that "if one molecule of the disease" remains in Kitty's person when she solidifies, "She's as good as dead," which... yikes. Talk about social distancing, right?
Back at the scene of the fight, the roustabouts are beaten and run off, taking their unconscious brethren with them to avoid questioning. The three remaining X-Men are concerned for Kitty, but Storm makes the call to press on and hope they reconnect with her later. Kurt suggests they call for backup, but Storm points out that they have basically nobody left to call, so scratch that one too.
Elsewhere, Kitty, in a daze, has been phasing randomly through walls, lost in the catacombs amd delirious. Luckily, she's found - by a familiar face!
Yes, it's Caliban, the freaky-deaky underground mutant who tried to kidnap Kitty sometime ago! And it would seem he has some connection to these other sewer-people. It's a small world underground.
In another part of the sewer, the X-Men finally get where they're going, just in time for a grand entrance...
Yes! This is our formal introduction to the Morlocks, the subterranean culture of mutants that have been spurned by normal society (and are shockingly numerous considering there's never been more than like a dozen X-Men at once.) They are led by the one-eyed Patti Smith-lookalike Callisto, whose powers are... um... honestly, I don't know if that's ever credibly addressed, but it's actually kind of incidental.
As you can see, Callisto has taken Angel as a sort of twisted prize/concubine, which is flat-out amazing. She begins to clip his wings so that he can't escape, and to the X-Men that means fisticuffs; the Morlocks are all too happy to oblige.
Before long, the sheer numbers and environmental advantage overwhelms the X-Men, and the fight is seemingly over.
Elsewhere, Kitty awakens, delirious, in Caliban's studio sewer-apartment, not knowing where she is or who brought her there or what is going on at all. Caliban vows to find the cure for Plague's disease, which will surely engender such gratitude that she will stay underground with him forever!
Classic Nice-Guy Caliban. To be continued!
Further Thoughts:
Of note - Kitty is wearing yet another new costume, this time a flowy, majestic elfin themed green pajama number. Furthermore, she also objects to being called "Sprite," as a kid's name. As you may have noticed in this blog, I usually default to referring to her as "Kitty." For whatever reason, codenames have never really stuck to her, and her identity feels like it's more about being a "real kid" in a superhero world than a comic book hero, despite having saved the X-Men's bacon more than enough times to qualify as a superhero in her own right.
Within this issue, there is also a brief interlude at the Hellfire Club, with Sebastian Shaw and Tessa the waitress observing Emma Frost, who has been struck catatonic by an unknown outside force - but whom? Seemingly only Charles Xavier would have the telepathic prowess to execute such a strike, but he would seem to be too "high and mighty." Hmm.
I love the Morlocks. While they are obviously supposed to be villains, at least for this story, it's not hard to read them as sympathetic: unwilling combatants in the mutant-human/hero-villain dichotomies. They aren't bad, but they aren't nice either: they have let their lot in life turn them hostile and even cruel, as a means of survival. In particular, Callisto's twisted desire for Angel, which Storm correctly pegs as distinct from "love" the way Colossus understands it (see also, Caliban.) The whole concept is very layered and quite advanced, befitting the literary allusion in their name.
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