X-MEN #78: Stormfront Part 2

Psylocke goes another round with the Shadow King!

Originally Published August 1998

We begin in a world of chaos: cars driving into museums, people accosting one another with violent obscenities, cats and dogs peacefully cohabitating... no, it's not an average day on the website formerly known as Twitter, but reality as envisioned by the Shadow King, who is eating up this sudden pandemic of hate.

Now, you may be asking yourself -- where did the Shadow King come from? Last I checked, the X-Men were fighting the African trickster god Ananasi, and the Shadow King had long since been defeated years ago.

As those of us who don't need every little minute detail spelled out for us by some kind of, I don't know, on-page dramatization, are already aware from page 1 of this comic, the Shadow King was Ananasi, disguising himself in order to lure the X-Men to Africa, in hopes they would happen to bring a telepath with them who he could manipulate into freeing him to run amok over the psyches of an unsuspecting populace. And it worked!

The plan literally could not be simpler

As the King boasts, the removal of Charles Xavier provided a key opening for him to make his move, and now he seeks to corrupt the newly-recruited X-Men by offering what Taylor Swift might call their "wildest dreams," whether that means a successful medical career, a chance to be a true-blue, non-grotesque hero, or an opportunity to bone up with Cannonball.

When Cecilia inquires about the other X-Men, Shadow King claims, somewhat dubiously, that he's simply helping them improve their lives too.

Back in the psychic plane, Psylocke has recovered from her twisted, degraded state and found herself transformed -- yet again!! -- into some kind of Shadow Ninja Warrior. She deduces that this is not the doing of the Shadow King but in fact yet another crazy, heretofore unseen outcome of the Crimson Dawn, which, admittedly confusingly, gave her shadow powers.

Now shielded from the Shadow King (a handy side-effect of being a Shady Lady) she shares some of her dark mojo with Ainet and they go to rescue Storm from her psychic hell.

Back on Earth, more over-the-top goofy hate occurs.

Psylocke and Ainet seem powerless to liberate Storm's mind from the torture chamber. Instead they encounter Kid Ororo, who explains that all this is clearly a well-deserved punishment for failing to save her parents from the collapsed building that claimed their lives.

Ainet, being the person who knows Storm best, has some words of encouragement, reminding her of her days as a supposed weather goddess. She notes that yes, when she first tried to bring rain to a parched land it would cause a drought elsewhere, but in time, she learned how to even things out, and how to make amends for that which she had done wrong.

With that, Ororo forgives herself and is freed from the prison of her mind. Psylocke is inspired, learning a new approach with which to attack the Shadow King.

The Shadow King gloats that he's already won, and that while he certainly appreciates Betsy's new look, he can still offer her her heart's desire by making her a queen.

A Shadow... Queen? Can they do that?

 

With the Shadow King distracted by his flirtation, Ororo and Ainet free Marrow, Cecilia and Maggott. Storm tells them to wait for the signal, but Marrow has waited long enough and tromps off to free Sam from his nightmare prison.

Shadow King notices that his prize has been freed, which threatens The Plan. Betsy improvises by sending the X-Men and Ainet back to their corporeal forms, ostensibly so they won't "ruin" her chance at being made Shadow Queen. SK sees through the ruse, however, and, now opposed by only one X-Person on the psychic plane, moves to infect every person on Earth.

Unfortunately, all the attention the King is paying to Everything Everywhere All At Once leaves his psychic essence, his nexus, his "soul" unguarded -- flood on one plane means drought on another, after all -- leaving him vulnerable to attack.

Shadow King disagrees that he is defeated -- after all, it would take all of Psylocke's power (perhaps the focused totality of it?) to keep him imprisoned, and if she ever uses her psychic power for so much as a blink, he'll be fre again. 

Well, she says, then retirement it is.

Back on solid ground, the X-Men recover from their trip through the psychic plane, some more easily than others.

...While Sam and Sarah have their version of a flirt.

As for Betsy, it really does mean the end: with the entirety of her psychic powers used up in imprisoning the Shadow King, there's nothing left for her to do (even though she also has cool shadow powers now, and is allegedly a badass ninja fighter.) Farewell, Betts!

Further Thoughts:

Despite being labeled "Psi-War" on both covers, the internal titles of this and the previous issue is "Stormfront" (actually "Storm Front" here, but having "Stormfront" and "Storm Front Part 2" seemed unusually stupid even for this editorial regime.) 

I've read a lot of comics, so maybe I'm a hard person to impress, but I'm actually fairly easy to please. If a comic can give me some quality villain-thwarting, a bit of superpowered gaga, and interesting character moments without tripping over its own feet to get there, I'm happy.

Shadow King is one of my favourite X-Men villains. He exudes pure evil and nastiness and corruption. As corny and cliche as it is to be, like, this psychic hate monster that feeds on global misery or whatever, I think it's perfect for the medium of comics and is always refreshing when contrasted against human villains that are often in some way redeemable or excusable. Clearly Joe Kelly has a ball writing him too, as whether in his Ananasi guise or as himself he is the perfect flavor of campy, self-aware chatterbox.

SK makes such a good foe that I'm surprised this was "merely" a 2-parter. It came almost out of nowhere without any indication that the Shadow King was making a return, then was wrapped up in two tidy, overachieving issues. It made for a strong follow-up to his previous star turn in the Muir Island Saga, and in fact works as something of a curative to the fact that that story occurred as the Claremont Run was literally disintegrating overnight and thus came out a little jumbled and messy. 

It's also a star turn for Psylocke, who hasn't had anything close to one since her initial transformation into Asian Bikini Ninja Mode (we don't talk about Revanchegate.) She's been on the fringes of the story for years, to the point you could forget she's an X-Man at all, and her biggest moment of the 90's is being nearly killed. She was not an active participant in the Crimson Dawn story (being that she was clinging to life in a hospital bed), she was on the edge of the Trial of Gambit, and she has had moments where she is kinda-sorta on leave or whatever with Warren. I made note in the previous issue how impressed I was that Kelly had really captured her character, for all her bravado and insecurity. This story follows that thread capably, and has a few spectacular moments. Her shadowform powers are reasonably cool and it's something of a shame they've never come up before and are destined to go into storage with her as she faces "retirement," but what a way to go out.

I have been hard on these 1998 X-Men and Uncanny issues, but it's only because it really doesn't take a lot to please me, and for six months or so both creative teams were simply falling short. Now we've got momentum at least on one side, and it's just a shame that that has to come on the back of a character who will seemingly not be appearing going forward. If Joe Kelly could keep that same energy with the rest of the cast, he might be able to carve out a nice little run here in the late 90's. This two-parter represents some of the best X-Men comics in a year.

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