Shadow and Flame with Magik

By Chris Claremont & Leinil Francis Yu

Inks Mark Morales

Letters Richard Starkings & Comicraft

Colors Liquid!

Cover Dated May 2000

Cover by Leinil Francis Yu, the proper cover for the issue

With this copy of the issue, I now own five covers of it.  This one, Yu’s variant, Dave Cockrum’s variant, Paul Smith’s variant and Art Adam’s cover.  I still want to own the Dynamic Forces variant.  I’ll post those covers as time goes by, I’m sure.

This was branded as, Revolution, which was part of the shake up with the X-Titles after the Twelve and Ages of Apocalypse, so this was an attempt to bring new life into the titles.

There is a joke there about Clarmeont being brought back to breathe new life into the titles, but it is beyond me.  Claremont is back on X-Men (and Uncanny) after ten years.

Issue opens with Nightcrawler fully embracing his Catholicism, as he is now a priest.  While reciting a prayer, he gets shot in the back of the head.  He bamfs out of there, wounded.

We get a double page spread, that first introduces the new villains, The Neo.  As they openly talk about their goals, Kurt is in the shadows and overhearing everything.  Kurt isn’t a priest, yet, he is a student in training.

I was going to look this up but Claremont did the work for me.  Kurt is studying at St. Michael, which is located in Vinegar Hill, the neighborhood hard by the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The Neo member, Jaeger, is a tracker and once he tastes Nightcrawler’s blood, he can track him anywhere.  The Neo were like Mike Carey’s The Children, but they came first.  They grew up in a space that had thousands of years of advancements in a very short time.

Kitty Pryde is the first active X-Man that we see, as Kurt is retired.  The current X-Men are in space, as the very last storyline before Revolution was the High Evolutionary story where he took away all mutant powers.  It has been six months since that storyline, which was the rule for the rebranding, that six months was skipped (and very few stories of the missing time, have been told)

Here are two links to help explain Revolution and the six month gap.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_%28comics%29

 http://www.uncannyxmen.net/continuity/six-month-gap

Editor Mark Powers provides the editor note, that this story took place in X-Men 99 and Uncanny X-Men 379 & 380.  In those issues, the X-Men destroyed the smaller satellites that took away the powers but the main one is still out there in space.  Chalk this issue up there with times with Kitty didn’t have a good time, in space.

The X-Men and their old friend, Peter Corbeau, are trying to make the base into a habitable space station.

Psylocke wants to know who put Kitty in charge, being the genius of the group, it just makes sense.  The X-Men are hurrying as the permanent crew are on their way to live on the station.

Psylocke pushes a beam too hard and it is up to Rogue and Colossus to stop it before it hits the station.  Thunderbird is also part of this team.

Rogue is trying to get the beam in place but Kitty phases through it, quicker.  Rogue notices the ‘knife’ Kitty is using.  Wolverine had bone claws for a while (years, really) and Kitty scavenged several of them when they broke off in fights.  Which I really like that concept being added to Kitty, she could use a weapon.  Makes her a little closer to her Generation Next counterpart.  Wolverine hasn’t joined the team at this point, that will come in issue 102.  103 is one of my favorites, as it has Rogue v Wolverine, for the leadership of the X-Men.  It isn’t anywhere nearly as good as Uncanny X-Men 201’s duo with Cyclops and Storm, but still pretty fantastic.

Apparently, they are above Genosha, during the six months, Kitty went there and didn’t have a good time but a life changing moment.  From the UncannyXMen.net website, there was meant to be a miniseries to cover her time there but it most likely dealt with her father, who lives there.

The Genoshian government isn’t happy about the space station.

We finally get to see Yu’s new costume designs for the team, plus the entire team, for the first time.  I do like Shadowcat and Rogue’s new designs.

Psylocke gets to repeat the old adage, that they live in a world that hates and fears them.

Back on Earth.  Nightcrawler teleports to old ally, Doctor Celica Reyes’ medical clinic.

In space, the crew are all celebrating all of their hard work, finally paying off.  The astronauts can live in on the space station.

Bullpen Bulletins.  Titles out on March 22nd – Amazing Spider-Man Annual 2000 / Deadpool 40 / Gambit 16 / Thunderbolts 38 / Warlock 8 and Webspinners : Tales of Spider-Man 17.  Deadpool is being written by Christopher Priest, such a fun run.

Betsy is dancing with Thunderbird, Neal Shaara.  Colossus is watching them, thinking about dumb thoughts.  Rogue tries to get him out of his own head.

The worst part of this celebrated anniversary issue, right in the middle, is Fast Lane, Part Four of Four, the anti-drug storyline starring Spider-Man.  It is eight pages and a real bear to keep flipping pass it.

Colossus catches up with Rogue and touches her bare face with his metal hand.  She doesn’t absorb his power and he kisses her, right on her lips.  Don’t worry, true believer, this romance dies as quickly as it showed up.

Brooklyn.  Celicia Reyes is patching up Nightcrawler.  A priest in training is called, a postulant.  Somehow, while she is tending to him, she is shot in the back with a dart.  She has a force field, I suppose it isn’t on all the time but still, one would think it would be casually on with what is going on around her.

The Space Station.  Colossus is gotten Kitty, as she isn’t in the mood to party.  Once in her room, she criticizes Colossus for wanting her to be the 14 and a year old that he originally met.  Kitty is owning her womanhood.

She phases through the floors of the station, until she meets her current love interest – Seth.  They have gone on a few days.  The first, they argued quantum physics.  The second, spent it at Cocoa Beach.

Unfortunately, her state of lame guys continues.  As soon as they kiss, her nervous system is torn to sheds.  During the confrontation, Kitty smartly phases one of her earrings into her cheek – she is planning ahead already.

Seth mutters that his actions are going to save her, and only her.

Brooklyn.  Jaeger tries to overpower Reyes but she starts using her force field aggressively.  She repeats something she did back in her first stint as an X-Man – as a doctor, she swore to do no harm but as an X-Man, she has to hurt fools so much.  Jaeger starts beating on her force field, trying to break her concentration.  Kurt jumps into the fight and is handed his arse for his troubles.  Reyes saves Kurt by turning her force field into spikes and ramming them into Jaeger, possibly killing him.  She goes into shock, as that is the exact opposite of her training.

The station.  Oh Claremont and his insistence on putting his strong female characters into bondage situations.  She slowly starts breaking her binds.  Meanwhile, the party goes forward, and Colossus is painting Rogue – where can that go?

Seth, in a Mantis like space suit, reports in to the NEO’s leader, Domina.  Domina isn’t happy with Seth’s decision to not kill Kitty.  Seth reveals that Kitty is NEO (she isn’t), he loves her and wants her to survive this.  Domino reveals that Jaeger has been killed.

The only other time Kitty being a NEO is referenced is in X-Men Declassified.

Kitty kicks Seth to his dumb face!  Chris Sims style!

Kitty catches up to the others, Seth has placed bombs all over the station.

The X-Men start using their powers in full view of the crew members.  Kitty tells them to get to the shuttles.

Seth starts attacking Kitty but Rogue comes from behind, for the assist.  Rogue absorbs some of Seth’s powers and starts wailing on him.

Seth taunts Kitty as he free falls out of the station, back to Earth.  That Mantis suit must be something else!

The X-Men turn their attention to the remaining shuttle.  Kitty has to stay behind, as it is her job to phase the shuttle away from the base, then Thunderbird is going to ignite the boosters.

Kitty, of course, is successful and the shuttle is free to go back to Earth.  Later, I’m sure, the crew will joke about how that was a waste of a few hours.

Kitty goes searching for a second suit, like Seth’s, which is pretty bold an assumption.

She is right, as he did want her to come with him.  She looks much better in the suit than Seth did.  The suit has an autopilot, so Kitty will be at its mercy.  We still, to this day, have no idea where she went.  She radios to the shuttle, to let them have this information.

Brooklyn.  The issue ends with Domina swearing vengeance!   We learn that the NEO have titles, as Dax (a young boy) is now the new Jaeger.

Back cover ad is for Calvin Klein jeans, featuring Moby – which seems so weird.

All of this work to get Kitty Pryde on his team and Claremont takes her off the title and put her in character limbo for nine months.  She still appears in the character box for the next following issues (but with long hair, for some reason), 101, 102 and, 103.  Then the first X-Men film comes out so the character box is replaced with that in the square.  Oh Marvel really missed having the titles tie better with the films.  Kitty is back on the character box, still with long hair, for issue 107.  108 is the Dream’s End crossover and 109 has a reference to Kitty, it is also the Christmas issue.  110, course, is Kitty back in the title and celebrating the death of Colossus – who died in Uncanny X-Men 390.   Lobdell wrote 110, so Claremont doesn’t even do anything for or with her until 109, when he writes that she is doing okay.  Then she shows up out of nowhere for 110.  From there, the Eve of Destruction crossover happens, then the Grant Morrison era kicks in and Kitty isn’t seen in the pages of X-Men until issue 157.

Kitty has the long hair in the character box as they didn’t change the character box heads to reflect the new looks.