Fresh from the Secret Wars, the X-Men must save Tokyo from a giant green dragon!
Originally Published May 1984
We begin with...
Right. We are in Japan (again!!) where a group of school children espy this mysterious giant dragon floating overhead. Not an uncommon sight in the land of the kaiju I'm sure, but still something to be awed by. Perhaps more unexpected is the sight of the human figures plummeting to Earth from beneath the thing!
Yes, our X-Men have returned at long last from their stint in the Marvel Comics Secret Wars, where they disappeared to at the end of last month's issue. We don't yet know just what happened in these Wars - it's a Secret after all - but somehow it led to the X-Men riding home inside the tummy of a giant Robert Munsch character.
There's a moment of confusion, given they are not back where they started in central park and seemingly a week has past, but thankfully they have their resident otaku, Wolverine, to ascertain their current whereabouts, which is just outside of Tokyo.
Realizing they have been gone for a week, the Professor bids Rogue to fly back to New York to see if Kitty ended up needing any help with that whole "Probably getting kidnapped at the Massachusetts Academy" thing (she did, but you can read about it in the New Mutants series.)
This seemingly innocuous errand is fraught with melodramatic underpinnings. Wolverine privately notes how conflict of command is bad for any outfit, and Storm just got through having to compensate for Cyclops' presence (which he suspects led her to become a leather-clad dominatrix punk type) and now that Charles is mobile, he's really eager to get into the mix in these away missions, and his natural tendency toward micromanagement can't be suppressed. (Charles himself has thoughts of "I shouldn't have done that, and yet it felt so good!")
The remaining X-People are concerned with this giant dragon that has followed/led them home from the Secret Wars, which was apparently romantically involved with Lockheed while they were over there. The beast is making its presence felt in Tokyo, as giant monsters tend to do. We get some winky-wink dialogue from the Japanese military officials about how strange it is to get an attack in the "off season" (and 'why couldn't they be attacking Los Angeles?') before they send in the fighter jets.
For reasons never adequately explained, the Japanese base is hosting two members from one of the Great Noble Houses - Lady Mariko of the Clan Yashida, sporting a new gangbuster hat, and her cousin, Japan's one and only superhero, Shiro aka Sunfire. Maybe they should get involved! Specifically him. She'll just watch.
 |
| Does it matter, Shiro? |
In the city, the X-Men get to work doing the standard hero things - blast falling debris, rescue innocents, that sort of thing, as Sunfire joins the fray and Professor X directs traffic. However, the creature is seemingly far too much for the combined might of the X-Men, Sunfire, and the Japanese military.
In the fray, the dragon topples a building on Xavier. Given this is exactly how he became paralyzed in the first place he does not exhibit grace under pressure.
Being that Charles is a telepath in constant communication with his teammates, his anxiety is broadcast loudly and shrilly to all the other X-Men.
Colossus frees the Professor while Wolverine continues to search for trapped bodies in the debris. He encounters a woman who has shielded her child, Amiko. Wolverine swears that if need be, he will raise the child as his own, which seems like a big promise from someone who has spent half of the last year in space.
The X-Men's attempts to combat the dragon remain fruitless as it is too ginormous for their powers to have any effect. (Sunfire notes that thankfully it does not have any fire breathing ability or else they would really be in deep shit.)
As the dragon closes in for the kill on the helpless little kids from earlier, who are somehow in the path of destruction despite being 20 KM away from Tokyo, Lockheed steps up to the mic to make his voice heard.
Taking this as a sign of rejection, the green dragon slinks off, never to be seen again.
 |
| Be strong bitch, be strong |
The X-Men discern that the green dragon loved Lockeed, but he did not love her her back. The entire attempted destruction of Tokyo was for her to build a nest for the both of them, but once he sent her away it was no longer necessary and she reluctantly moved on
 |
With that all ti⁰⁰ed up, the scene flips to Washington DC where Senator Kelly presents his latest proposed bill for Mutant Oppression to National Security Advisor Judge Petrie before introducing it to the Senate floor. Petrie is kind enough to mention what a pal and a stand up guy Kelly has always been before likening his proposal to slavery.
Kelly agrees to disagree, moving forward with whatever his horrible plan is. To be continued!
Further Thoughts:
One notable thing about this issue is that it sees John Romita Jr. really starting to put his artistic stamp, on the characters and on the book's development. His crisp, angular style isn't that jarring coming after Paul Smith's, but still manages to be distinct, favouring decorative linework and classicist layout grids.
As previously mentioned, between the last issue and this one, the X-Men were absconded into space and fought in the conflict known as the Secret Wars, as depicted in the limited series MARVEL COMICS SECRET WARS, on sale now (in 1984.) Part of the gimmick with Secret Wars is that some of the characters would emerge slightly changed from the experience, and you would get a glimpse of that, but need to buy the Secret Wars comic to find out the details. Why are the X-Men riding around in the underside of a giant dragon, which is apparently in love with Lockheed? And what is Colossus talking about when he says this action will distract him from the "love and happiness [he has] lost forever"?
Other changes heralded by the Secret Wars were Spider-Man's black costume and She-Hulk joining the Fantastic Four, so overall the X-Men managed to escape relatively unaffected, despite whatever it is Colossus is going on about.
As previously mentioned, Cyclops also got himself mixed up in this Secret War, much to the dismay of his new bride Madelyne. He is returned to his honeymoon to find her waiting for him, rather upset at having her husband vanish just days after their wedding, especially to go do the superhero stuff he seemed to indicate was behind him. Cyclops' rationale is "Look, I don't want to be a superhero anymore, but when you shoot lasers out of your face, sometimes people are just going to kidnap you to an alien planet, okay? That's something we need to accept for the health of our relationship."
This individual issue may not have the most engrossing story (the preponderance of huge panels seems to indicate there was a lot of room to pad these pages) there are some really nice grace notes within. With Professor X walking again, he wants to be a true part of the team, but leaves the members - and Charley himself - wondering exactly what that means. His presence really throws off the dynamic, being eager to be part of the action yet clumsy and lacking experience when it comes down to it, to say nothing of the org-structure difficulties presented by both his and Storm's presence. It's fortunate that, despite all of this, he doesn't end up being a straight-up hindrance.
It seems every few years Xavier regains the ability to walk (usually sometime after coming back from the dead.) I think this angle is the best way to cover the walking, bringing with it natural conflicts between characters and within Charles himself - Wolverine even also muses, for our benefit, that it makes him seem more human, a side Logan likes to see in his boss. Charles, as written by Chris Claremont, has this great mix of distant authority, gentle spirit, and utter priggishness in just the right measures, so that the humanity within isn't always visible, but is quite refreshing when it comes out.
No comments:
Post a Comment