Shadow and Flame with Magik

Writer Chris Claremont

Artist Alan Davis

Letterer Tom Orzechowski

Colorist Glynis Oliver

Cover Dated 1986

First American appearance of Psylocke!

Last Year.  Chambeaux, Switzerland.  Psylocke is skiing about.  Apparently, she was Captain Britain and it came at a huge price.  It cost her her eyes.  A sense that I never want to lose.  Mojo and Spiral bring her to the Mojoverse.

Last Month.  Over with the New Mutants.  Doug is irritated with his current lot in life. Dani comes in the room, offering to talk to him.  I really like the idea of these two being friends.  Poor Doug, once he became Warlock’s friend, it seems like that was his only friend he was allowed to have.  Doug is upset as he can’t relate to his old friends anymore.  Which I really like the idea of this concept finally being addressed.  Doug is from Salem Center, so he has friends nearby but he never talks about them or is seen coming back from hanging out with them.  Doug has met the Norse gods, he has saved the world – so regular teenage problems don’t even register to him anymore.  He is detached from regular people.  Which makes the New Mutants his only friends.  Apparently, he still hasn’t told his parents about his mutation – which is so weird to me.

Dani can relate, she doesn’t know who she is.  Cheyenne, mutant, Valkyrie, plain old ordinary girl.  She has a lot of hats.  She awkwardly mentions how she can see when Death is approaching a person.  It is awkward as Doug will die in New Mutants 60, which is still two years away, but she doesn’t see Death coming for him.  Another hat she wears is co-leader of the team.

Last Week.  A new animated series comes to the airwaves.  Wolfsbane enjoys it.  Brian Braddock and Meggan are shock to see it.  Others seem to enjoy it as well.  Betsy Braddock is the star of the series.  The show is called, Wildways, like seen on the cover.  She does play Psylocke on the show.

Sunspot enjoys the show more than Magnum PI, so that’s saying something.  Magik finds that funny.  So nice to see her smile.

Last week.  Captain Britain, Brian, crashes through an abandon school in Manhattan.  He believes he tracked his sister to that location.  He starts being berated by his parents.

Last Night.  Sunspot calls what I imagine is a fan hotline for the new show.  Major abducts him.

Now.  Cannonball is in the Danger Room, being supervised by Dani.  He is not on his game, no one is since New Mutants 31 and Secret Wars II 9.

Illyana is on kitchen duty.  She gets the ‘wise’ idea to just send the table and the dishes to Limbo and have her demon servants not only clean the dishes but set up the table for lunch.  Of course, they are demons from Limbo so they have some fun setting the table.  Illyana is going to have to box their ears.

Meanwhile, Magma is writing her father a letter.  How is that letter going to get to him?  They still think its Roman times there, and even though his daughter is away at a fancy new school, it isn’t like they completely changed their way of life so that they can accept mail.

Because this issue is written by Claremont, Doug, Warlock and Sunspot are going to get rid of a dead tree.  Warlock is being worn like a suit of armor by Doug.  Warlock also notices that there is something wrong with Sunspot.  Doug-lock turns their head and hear a scream.  The dead tree fell over Bobby and now he is dead, as well.

Later, Cannonball can’t get in touch with Magneto.  Someone should be calling Bobby’s parents but Magma thinks they should wait until morning.  Which is pretty smart, as they should know by now that death doesn’t have to mean that is the end.

Doug is shaken up by the whole ordeal.  Dani is confused why her Valkyrie powers didn’t kick in.  Doug-lock decides to examine Bobby’s body and they discover that it is a fake.  A very well made fake.

Meanwhile, no one must have noticed that Wolfsbane is missing.  Over with Mojo and Spiral, they have a few hostages.  Wolfsbane, Sunspot, Karma’s nephew and niece – Leong and Nga (whatever happened to them?), plus some kids from the Longshot special.  Mojo blasts them with a ray and now they are no longer teenagers but adults.

Later after explanations, reactions, some rousing and a teleport, the team is in front of the school Captain Britain was last seen at.  Some guy with a blue jacket, red pants and crazy bug eye like sunglasses (its the boy from the Longshot miniseries).  For some crazed reason, Cannonball pushes Dani aside.  She was just going to ask a basic question.  He calls her a high-an-mighty, dumb-bunny-girl.  He’s a boy and should be in charge.

The team starts turning against each other, except for Magik.  She sees Sunspot coming towards them.  She sees that he is older, very large and very handsome.  He is a definite yummy improvement.  So, she is clearly being mind controlled as well.  Sunspot smacks the ground, causing a bit of a tremor.  Cannonball tries to grab Magma but she activates her powers and burns his hand.  To make matters worst, Wolfsbane shows up and starts attacking them, as well.

They pile on top of Wolfsbane.  Magik just straight slaps Dani’s face, calling her a barbarian cow.

Then a lady shows up and blasts fireworks in front of their faces.  Sometimes you will see Jubilee’s name as, Jubilee II – that’s because this gal is known as Jubilee.  I like how Claremont really liked the concept and used it later to even bigger success.

Dani and Magik are still fighting, shouting that they hate each other.

Karma’s niece and nephew show up and tell them to stop.  The team thinks they are their collective parents.  Warlock apparently isn’t under the mind control, and knows that they have to leave.  He only takes Doug and runs off with them.  Is there a collective word for – niece and nephew?  Either way, they transform Magma into a little girl.  Its weird.

Warlock got scared as where he comes from, parents kill their children, so that’s why.  They try to come up with a plan.

We learn that if Karma’s peeps ever age, that they will have the mutant powers to transform flesh.  Which is what they do with Magik, Magma, Cannonball and Dani.

Doug and Warlock come across a naked Brian Braddock, who is now a teenager.  We learn that the yellow underwear that the team wears as their costume, as seen above, is not just a colored portion of their pants.  We learn this as Doug gives Brian his shirt and those weird yellow boxer briefs.  So they have to put on their black pants, and then they put their briefs on over those.  That’s so weird.  If I had to make the decision, I suppose I would do the same thing.  Keep the pants and give up the shirt.

Magma fights off the additional mind control, though by doing so, she reverts back to the little girl.

 Magma wants the others to shake off the mind control.

I really like Magik’s costume there, I’m not sure what is is though. Maybe its the white and how I don’t associate the color with her, sadly enough.

Straight-arrow, another Longshot kid, finds Magma.  Brian swoops down and saves her.

Doug-lock come across a lady Mojo, which is an unattractive sight.  She doesn’t care about having an audience, which makes sense as that is what that race enjoys the most.

Brian and Magma are trying to outrace their pursuers.

Doug-lock are looking around, searching for anyway to reverse what is happening.

By the time they catch up to their teammates, they have been transformed into horses for a carousel.  Look at that crazy face Magik has!  Man, Alan Davis really brought it with this issue.

Doug-lock starts getting under the sway of Pyslocke’s control.  Doug fights not only the effect but also his connection to Warlock.  Spiral shows up and forces the carousel to spin faster and faster.

Doug starts saving people.  First, he pulls out Captain Britain from the vortex.  Everyone is back to their proper forms.

Psylocke is free of Spiral’s control and sends her back to her Body Shoppe.

Doug and Psylocke are back in the school.  Doug is still shirtless and Betsy is as naked as one can be.  She’s super excited to have working eyes again.  Doug, being a bit of a jerk, tells her that they are bionic and artificial.  She wants to rip her eyes out, to not have anything relating to Mojo or Spiral but she can’t bring herself to do it.  She does tell Doug that, as a telepath, that she was never really blind.

Dani finds them, and I guess with the lights off, Doug didn’t realize that he was in front of a naked woman.  Warlock becomes a robe and covers Psylocke.  Which is weird, reminds me of when Plastic Man takes the form of Big Barda’s dress.

Betsy is super excited to see her brother again.  Cap gives Doug a big ol’ hug.

At the Xavier Mansion.  Betsy tells Brian that she is going to stay at the school for a while.  Cap flies off.

Betsy sees Doug watching her.  She thinks to herself how she knows how much Doug like her and how much she like him.  It is a real shame that this relationship was never given a chance.  Where is that What If story?

I like how the story ends the way it started with Dani checking on Doug.

Look how happy Illyana is hang out with Betsy.

. . .

Thanks to these two websites for most of the images :

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/4004526.html?thread=133121198

http://clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com/2012/11/beware-brain-blasted-bratpack.html