Writer Chris Claremont
Penciler John Romita Jr.
Inkers Bob Wiacek & Brett Breeding
Colorist Glynis Wein
Cover Dated April 1993
Reprinted from Uncanny X-Men 178
Cover by Joe Madureira, I like how he took the original cover and turn the perspective around to make Wolverine the center of the cover.
I never heard of the Burt Reynolds’ vehicle “Cop and a Half.” I see Henry Winkler directed, so that’s cool.
Last issue ended with the Brotherhood turning Colossus into a statue.
This freaks Kitty out and she mentally calls out to Xavier.
Poor Xavier is reading a card from Scott. Somehow he got a picture taken of him and Maddie in their honeymoon suite. Then he sent that photo to Xavier. So weird.
Storm and Wolverine are in the Danger Room. Xavier sends those two off to rescue the rest of the team. Storm is holding Wolverine in her arms and he is not thrilled about it. Pretty impressive on Storm’s part, as he must be three times her weight, even with the wind at their back.
Xavier doesn’t tell Rogue, as he doesn’t want to test her loyalty with her new family against her old family.
Kitty is staring at Colossus. She wants to help, she just doesn’t know how. Then she remembers an article regarding a device Reed Richards created that should help Colossus. She calls the Fantastic Four, they are of course out on an adventure. She decides to steal the device and apologize later.
Kitty phases through a taxi and the driver thinks to himself, that no one is going to believe him at the garage. Which is weird, as he is a New York City taxi driver. The city that has Galactus showing up every couple years to eat the planet and constant threats from Dr. Doom. I am sure the guys at the garage will be curious and believe that a young lady phased through your cab and paid for her fare.
We cut to three Morlocks – Sunder, Callisto and Masque as they stand over a young lady who died from drugs. Just don’t do them kids! Masque starts messing with the lady’s face, as nothing is scared to him. Apparently they have a plan that involves Kitty.
Meanwhile, Kurt and Amanda are making out at the fountain. They completely forgot about the show, and the young couple they came to see it with. They are attacked by a giant fire dragon. Kurt teleports them away, unfortunately, Avalanche is there waiting for them. Xavier mentally warns Kurt of an attack as Kurt figures out that he is up against the Brotherhood. Amanda remembers that she isn’t a damsel in distress and starts helping, she fights back against Pyro’s fire dragon.
Blob lands behind them, and chokes Amanda. How they don’t hear Blob falling to the ground, or the giant shadow he creates, I don’t know, heat of battle, I suppose. Kurt teleports away but comes back and now Blob is choking both of them.
Storm shows up, blasting lightning and tells Wolverine that she will direct him to where she thinks he can be used best. Kurt teleports himself and Amanda away. Blog shouts to Destiny why she didn’t forsee this happening. We get Destiny thinking to herself that Kurt’s safety should make Mystique happy.
We cut back to Kitty in the Baxter Building. She is thinking about how she would love to intern for Reed but breaking into his place wasn’t the best choice for a first impression. Lucky for her, all of the Fantastic Four’s defense mechanisms (and their receptionist) are robotic, so Kitty has no problem getting through all of those, thanks to her power. Too bad Reed wasn’t doing the Future Foundation at this point, as it makes total sense to have Kitty be one of his students. I know Claremont was trying to get Kitty over to the Fantastic Four for a while, when he was the writer of that series. That would have been awesome. Not sure why Kitty has never been an Avenger or replacement member of the Fantastic Four. Once she joined Excalibur, one would think she could have joined any number of groups afterwards.
Kitty finds the tool she was looking for and proceeds to the roof. Once up there, she is getting herself ready to airwalk down when all of a sudden, she notices someone is behind her. The next panel of her being pushed off the roof is a moment that when this was first published, I would have lost my mind in anticipation of the next issue. I’m not sure if the next issue reveals how the person who pushed her off got pass all the defenses.
The X-Men fight the Brotherhood for a couple pages, Storm starts wondering if this fight is too easy, the Brotherhood seem to be not pushing the attack. Blob hints that there may be a larger plan in place.
We discover why Xavier is having such migraines. He remembers the last time he felt this sensation, Mystique was trying to block his powers. Right then, Rogue pulls out a gun and shoots Xavier. Luckily, he had that thought a mere moment ago and slightly dodges the attack. Not fully, as he is knocked out but he could be dead.
Rogue enters the room as Mystique morphs back to her traditional look. Rogue is upset, and Mystique is shocked to learn that Xavier isn’t brainwashing her adopted daughter. Rogue needs help with her powers and Mystique was not helping with that, she was just using Rogue for her own goals. Mystique is pretty embarrassed by this whole affair and promises to leave Rogue be.
Mystique sends a message to the Brotherhood to stand down. They do, and Destiny warns the X-Men that they might want to go check on their youngest member. That final page of Kitty dead on the ground, is horrible. Just imagine falling from a giant skyscraper. Poor poor Kitty.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 