Writer Chris Claremont
Artist Todd Nauck
Color Artist Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer VC’s Travis Lanham
Virtual Calligraphy got a new Letterer! Hopefully we didn’t lose somebody!
Claremont keeps finding a way to work around the silly rule that he isn’t allowed to write his greatest co-creation, the X-Men’s Shadowcat, Kitty Pryde! And I’m all for it! Now, if he could write in some Lockheed!
Back in the day. Kitty is in the Danger Room. Wolverine has made a special program for Kurt.
Nightcrawler is taking on a team of X-Men! Beast / Iceman / Storm / Colossus / Rogue, a team I am not sure hasn’t been gathered yet. I guess it is the current Amazing X-Men cast, but of those who were around in the 80s.
I really like Nauck in this issue but I think the credit should go to Rosenberg for making every page pop with her color choices.
Kurt tries to take out Beast but Iceman is there for the save. Which makes sense these two can work well together as they are both Original Five. This group of X-Men is a good combination of Originals / All New All Different plus Rogue.
Hey, after Marvel is done with All New blankety blank, do you think All Different will be the new pre-fix? Or would they be so bold to go with the full time, All New All Different? I wouldn’t put it pass them to try it.
Kitty tries to be supportive from the booth.
Storm starts a pretty good combo that goes from her, to Colossus and finishes with Rogue. Rather quickly, Kurt is taken out. Which makes sense, as much as I like him, and I really do, he isn’t Cyclops. Though Cyclops did have some time to plan his attack but so did Kurt, just not as long but he made a first move and should have been preparing the next three.
Kitty pauses the program as Wolverine over-emphasizes the point of the Danger Room, to make mistakes here rather than out in the field.
Present Day. Nightcrawler is having to fight off the Shadow King controlled X-Men, including Storm. Kurt takes out the telepaths – Rachel and Psylocke.
The title of the issue is, Shadow-X, which I feel like Claremont used during his New Excalibur run with the Shadow X-Men.
Kurt’s plan for Storm is to get her so angry that she shakes off the Shadow King.
Meanwhile, where Psylocke was left behind, she is fighting off some Bamfs and Bloody Bess from Crimson Pirates. She beats down Bloody Bess and turns the Bamfs onto her own shadowy side.
Kitty and Kurt are sharing some ice cream. Who makes themselves an ice cream cone, while at home? I’ve never had known such luxury!
Kitty thinks back to how they seem to always end up fighting each other more than they do their proper villains. She recalls how Ogun broke her, rebuilt her and set her to kill Wolverine but she wasn’t ready for such an opponent. Which I would say is probably Claremont’s way of addressing the Death of Wolverine and Ogun’s return to comics but he dealt with the death in issue seven. He probably just wants to remind everyone that he co-created Ogun with Al Milgrom and both should get the credit.
Once Kity and Wolverine defeated Ogun, Wolverine made a point of retraining Kitty, so she has been train by two ninja masters.
Back to the fight, Kurt is making Storm angry but not angry enough. He gets Iceman to foolishly take himself out. Colossus is also taken out like the doofus that he is. He sinks like a dumb log.
Storm finally gets angry enough but passes out, so she’s useless.
Shadow King shows himself and takes over the rest of the Bamfs. The issue ends with Psylocke back in the fight.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 