Shadow and Flame with Magik

Script Chris Claremont

Pencils Brent Anderson

Inks Bob Wiacek

Letters Tom Orzechowski

Colors Glynis Wein

Cover Dated October 1991

Cover by Mike Mignola

Originally presented in Uncanny X-Men 160

So crazy, from Dracula to Limbo!  Fans back in the day, must have been going out of their minds!

This issue gives us . . . Teenaged Illyana Rasputin, mere issues away from becoming Magik!

Mignola gets to draw Kitty but opts to just draw her skeleton!

This issue also gives us Brent Anderson art outside of God Loves, Man Kills.

Inside front cover ad is for Bill & Ted’s Excellent Video Game Adventure, now on Game Boy.

Issue opens with the X-Men, now on Magneto’s island base from Uncanny X-Men 160.  They are being watched by a mysterious person.

The X-Men are having their first training exercise in quite some time.

A six year old Illyana gets tricked to follow a voice.

Kitty notices Illyana wandering off.  She shouts for her to slow down.  Kitty also shouts at the X-Men that she is heading after Illyana.

Kitty follows Illyana into a temple and onto a stepping disc.

The X-Men finish their exercise.  Wolverine cutd a can of beer open.  Storm still feels tired from her ordeal with Dracula.  Kurt recommends she take a shower.  Experience a shower?  To bathe herself via a shower.

Storm really likes the idea and proceeds to shower herself in front of the team.  How use to her naked body must have the boys gotten?

After the show(er), Colossus wonders where his sister and Kitty are. Wolverine remembers Kitty saying something but that was a while ago.

Wolverine follows their trail and the X-Men enter the temple and each one gets their own stepping disc.

Elsewhere.  Kitty wakes up.  She references Larry Niven’s “Stepping Disks.”

http://larryniven.wikia.com/wiki/Stepping_disk

Kitty gives a shout for Illyana.  Kitty is surprised to see Nightcrawler right behind her.

Kitty goes to hug Kurt.  Apparently he touches her in a very inappropriate place.  As a kid, I thought he touched her boobs but maybe now he touched her vagina.  As from his arm placement, it looks like it is extended.  But then when she walks backwards, we see that his hand is being phased away so he clearly must have touched her boobs.  Which makes this evil Nightcrawler, the first guy who got to do that.

Kitty runs away from him and trips over a rock.  When she lifts her head, she sees Belasco, the Lord of Limbo.  How she didn’t see him before tripping is beyond me.

Storm and Colossus are looking around.  Storm gets tangled by some tentacles.  Colossus moves forward to help her and gets teleported away.

With all of these discs, was Illyana’s initial mutant power going to be teleportation via stepping discs?  Seems odd that that is also the power of the temple.

Storm has an armlet on, and it cloaks her in Colossus’ metal skin, Wolverine’s claws and Nightcrawler’s feet.

Meanwhile, Belasco is taunting Kitty.  Evil Kurt is getting too close to Illyana.  Belasco doesn’t like that and teleports him away.

Belasco summons S’ym, who is a tall purple demon.  Who might look like Dave Sim.  In front of the two of them, is Wolverine’s skeleton.  S’ym cleans his teeth with one of Wolverine’s claws.

Belasco references how he was banished to Limbo in the issues of Ka-Zar, 11 & 12.

Belasco moves Kitty’s skeleton out of her body.  She is inside of a crystal (from the cover) so that keeps her alive.  The panel of her skeleton waving at her body, is pretty creepy.

Belasco gives Illyana her medallion with the bloodstones.  It currently has zero of the five slots full.  If she gets it full, she will be able to ascent to a glorious destiny.

Our Kurt is watching from the rafters.

Elsewhere.  Storm wakes up in a strange room.  She decides to take a swim in the pool, which wouldn’t be my first reaction.  She dons an outfit out of the third story from Heavy Metal (but pretty PC).  A cloaked figure sees Storm fly off.

The two Nightcrawlers fight.  I like how it ends with a double Bamf, and how we don’t now who won it.

A Nightcrawler goes to Belasco and reveals he killed the other Nightcrawler.

Wolverine comes across a dead Colossus with his chest caved in.  Next, S’ym throws Wolverine across the room, tearing his shirt off.  I like how fiercely Wolverine tries to fight but S’ym just throws him to the ground.

Colossus shows up and S’ym throws the claw from earlier into Colossus’ arm.  S’ym pulls the claw out of his green trunks.  That must have been uncomfortable.  S’ym starts wailing on Colossus until Wolverine shows up.  The only way they ‘win’ is because S’ym goes through the stepping disc.

They step on another one and show up right where Kitty, Kurt and Belasco is.  Her skeleton waves at them, and it is still creepy!

Belasco is ready to attack with Kurt reveals he is our Kurt and punches Belasco to his face.  Storm shows up as Belasco runs away.  She is ready to go after him but the cloaked figure appears.  She is the Storm that did go after Belasco.  In Limbo, the rules of time and space don’t apply.  They can be dead or alive at the same time, or good and evil at the same time.

Old Storm casts a spell and Kitty and her skeleton are reunited and it feels so good.

August Coolometer –

• Terminator 2
• James Brown
• Jeeps
• The Adventures of Captain America
• Billiards
• Kim Basinger
• Mondo Marvel, The Talk Show
• Bagels
• Global Warming
• Robin Hood
• Star Trek : The Next Generation
• Laser Kiroke
• Polo Shirts
• Flossing
• Bungee Jumping
• The Metric System
• Andrew Dice Clay
• TV Talk Shows
• Yuppies
• Hudson Hawk
• Skateboards
• Political Correctness
• Record Albums
• Day-Glo Clothes
• The Cosby Show
• Nuclear Winter
• McLean Stevenson

Belasco’s entire scheme is to use a stepping disc that is centered on Illyana (which may explain why that is her mutant power) but Older Storm blocks him.  He comes back and she keeps fighting him.  She tells the X-Men to take Illyana and leave.

They step on a disc and are about to leave when Belasco grabs Illyana’s arm.  Kitty grabs her and pulls as hard as she can.  Then she loses her grip on Illyana.  With the turn of the page, the entire Magik miniseries takes place.  One of these days, we will review them here.

Kitty regrabs Illyana and with the entire team helping her, they pull Illyana out.  she’s now 13 years old – so now her and Kitty are the same age.

In a great moment, Colossus wishes he never met Charles Xavier as Illyana has lost her entire childhood.  She spent seven years in Limbo – with no idea what happened to her there.  It clearly couldn’t be good.  She eventually falls to sleep and Colossus sleeps in a chair next to her best.

Illyana’s medallion opens up and we see that there are three bloodstones.

I like how, for once, the original cover from Uncanny X-Men 160 is shown at the back.  Not sure why that isn’t always the rule.

Back cover ad is for the Toy Biz X-Men Action Figures.  I’m sure I had the Storm one.

Next, we go to Issue 107!