Shadow and Flame with Magik

Writer Chris Claremont

Artist Allen Milgrom

Letterer Tom Orzechowski

Colorist Glynis Wein

Cover Dated November 1984

The Road to Shadowcat begins here!  Also, Ogun’s first appearance!

The polybag I have the comic in, informs me that I bought this comic for four dollars.

This is the direct sequel to the first Wolverine miniseries.  Smith’s Uncanny X-Men 172 & 173 is Kitty’s first time in Japan and deals with the direct aftermath of that miniseries.

Another signal of how this is a direct sequel – and now that I’ve typed this a couple times, I’m not sure if anyone is arguing that it isn’t – is the titles.  Wolverine had solo word titles – I’m Wolverine / Debts & Obligations / Loss / Honor, which I own that issue.  This series has – Lies / Terror / Death / Rebirth / Courage / Honor – of course, I own all six issues of this.  I’m just reviewing the first issue, for now.

This issue takes place after Uncanny X-Men 183 as well as after Secret Wars.  Which is where that stupid Colossus fell in love with Zsaji, she died (spoilers!), he came back to Earth (mistakenly so!) and breaks up with Kitty.  Wolverine has Juggernaut beat the tar out of him, and Kitty goes home to Chicago.

The inside front cover ad is for Mario Bros, now on Atari!

Kitty’s narration box implies that her first appearance was years ago, so she’s probably sixteen or seventeen.  Which conflicts with Excalibur wherein she turns 15 (issue 24, in 1990 – six years after this comic and nine years after her first appearance.  That is one long year!  Though she started off as a 13 1/2 year old, but that doesn’t add up.  But that’s the Marvel Sliding Timescale at work.  She should have turned 17 or 18 in that Excalibur issue.

Kitty’s parents are officially divorced.  It seems like her mother moved away and Carmen Pryde got to keep the house.

Uncanny 183 took place a week ago.  She’s been in Chicago for a week.

Carmen has been working long hours for this past week.  Kitty’s been skating with her new pair of skates that she got for Channukah.  Since she was so close to her father’s bank, he’s a banker apparently, she went by there to visit him.  In front of the bank, Kitty seems a stretch limo.  Her mother and her exchange letters but from Excalibur Annual 2, we know that those letters eventually don’t continue.

Carmen has been working long hours so the two Prydes have not had a chance to really talk.

The bank is closed.

Kitty phases through the door and surprises the security guard.  I like how she has this pressure to keep her mutation a secret.

Kitty gets to her father’s office door and overhears some voices.  Carmen is the president of the bank.

Carmen is definitely in trouble with some people.  He then gets slapped (a grown man being slapped, just feels wrong in any decade, what a silly thing to do to anyone!) and Kitty barges into the room.

Before she can get into the room though, a big Japanese dude blocks her path.

I like seeing Carmen’s shame face in that third panel.  He’s probably thinking about how he got to this point.

The man with the cigar in his mouth, that’s Ogun’s first appearance!  I’ve made a point of scanning all of the pages that Ogun is seen and mentioned.  Maybe it is just a very long cigarette.

I really like Carmen trying to protect his daughter, and not wanting to introduce these goons to his daughter.  Would that be an interesting What If? Kitty didn’t go to the bank that evening?  She wouldn’t have known the stakes and would have just missed her father for the weeks he was gone.  Which really means she would have just flown back home and not missed out on any of the stories the X-Men had while she was gone.

If that big guy was the one who slapped Carmen, then that must have really hurt!

Kitty’s thought bubbles gives us a glimpse of her background that we hadn’t known before.  The Prydes have had a long history in the banking community.  Carmen’s great-grandfather opened this bank and it has been in the family ever since.  Poor Carmen has now sold shares of it to a Japanese tycoon.

Ogun’s “It is a very great pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Pryde” is so creepy, with where this story is going.  Made worst with how Kitty knows Ogun’s eyes ‘linger on her’ and he reminds her of Wolverine.

There is an ad for Dazzler the Movie, Marvel Graphic Novel # 12, which I still really want to know.  The ad states that, whatever happens next will affect every living mutant . . . forever.  Which I’m not sure it even effected mutants at the time.

Pretty mean spirited how the investors laugh at Kitty.  Carmen tells her that he has to meet the chairman of the board and Kitty expects him home in time for breakfast but Carmen has to go to Japan.  He could be gone for weeks.  Which, I can’t even fathom what that type of meeting could be.  I can see maybe a few days but weeks?  That’s a lot of hours!

Kitty has a gut feeling that her father may not come back alive from the meeting.

Carmen wants to send Kitty back to Xavier’s.  Which is odd, you would think that he would have called Charles and asked for a loan from him, before getting into business with the Yakuza.  After all, Xavier is raising and supporting Kitty, the least he could do is finance Carmen’s bank.

Kitty doesn’t want to involve the X-Men.

Ogun keeps the creepiness going!  He offers for Kitty to come along with them.  The chairman is quite fond of children (!).

Kitty knows she can handle herself and agrees to those terms but Carmen doesn’t like the idea.  Makes me wonder if he even knows that his daughter is one of the legendary X-Men and that she faces life and death, all of the time.  Heck, this is Post-183, so she has survived the Brood Saga of the 160s!  She’s gone up against Magneto in 150.  Just let her come along, but he might just think the school is a school with adult students.

Carmen rightfully apologizes for snapping at his daughter, he just wants to keep her safe and not get her involved in his nonsense.  He isn’t proud of his actions that led him to this moment and he doesn’t want to tarnish his daughter’s opinion of him.

Though if I were to forbid my wife from doing something, that would guarantee that she will do it – just to show me what was up.  So we can’t be that surprised when Kitty goes to Japan but I’m getting ahead of the story.

He gives her money for the flight home, in cash, which is pretty impressive, also for the taxi ride to the airport.  Which is weird as they are heading to the airport, so they could have driven together but I suppose Kitty would have to home first to gather her things.

Kitty suspects that her father is in league with the Yakuza.

Kitty’s slight delay is enough to miss out on the private jet her father is on.  She has to sneak onto another plane.  Good thing she is in a popular city, so international flights are not that hard to come by.

We now start multiple sequences wherein we see Kitty using her powers and smarts to figure out what her next steps should be.

Kitty sneaks onto a modular luggage container, with international flights, the crew doesn’t put bags on the plane, they load entire trucks with bags and various other items.  Once the plane is in the air, Kitty carefully phases into one of the seats.

The flight attendant recognizes that Kitty wasn’t always on the plane, as her skating outfit really sticks out.  The pilot has called the authorities and they will sent Kitty back once they are on the ground.  Once they land, Kitty phases back through the plane and is off and running.  She gets through the airport and onto a bus.  Since she knows Japanese, she is able to communicate with people.

Now that she is on her feet in Tokyo, I wonder why she doesn’t look up Yukio.  I get why she doesn’t want to ask Lady Mariko, as she would call Logan as soon as she could but Yukio knows how to keep a secret.

Kitty is trying to figure out where her father could be.  She remembers that Ogun did name his employer, Mr. Shigematsu, and locates his office building via information.

Kitty gets to the building and it is a giant skyscraper.  Kitty takes stock in what she has.  A hat, four dollars and some gum, she isn’t very prepared for anything.  Kitty skywalks up several floors and finds a couch to sleep on.  Sometime later, a maid finds Kitty and starts screaming.  One of the guards start shooting, to kill.  Kitty phases out of the window and to the ground.

It is raining now, and Kitty left behind her hat and her favorite skates – that also have her name on it.  It won’t take much to link Kitty Pryde to Carmen Pryde.

Kitty locates a compu-teller, what they called ATMs back in the 80s, and Kitty phases her hand through the lockbox and gets some cash.  She smiles for only a second when police officers start chasing her.  She drops the money, but that doesn’t help matters.

Kitty quickly phases into the ground and lands in the sewer.  The water takes her to Tokyo Bay.

The Bullpen Bulletins has a letter from Jim Shooter.  In Hype Box, Kitty Pryde and Wolverine 1 / Starriors 1 / Black Panther 1 / Graphic Novel 12, which promotes a Howard the Duck story by creators Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik, instead of the Dazzler story.  There is also an Official Marvel Comics Tryout Book, which i believe is the one that gets Mark Bagley his foot in the door.

The Checklist has Muppets 1, 2 & 3, Secret Wars 7, New Mutants 21, Indiana Jones 23, Power Pack 4, X-Men 187, ROM 60, Alpha Flight 16, Kitty Pryde and Wolverine 1 and Doctor Who 2.

Kitty gets to dry land, and cries.  She is a thief like her father.  They both got caught and are now in horrible situations.  Kitty calls the Xavier School, Wolverine answers the phone (so we get to see him in a comic that bears his name in the title) and quickly hangs up the phone.  We’ll have to wait until we review the second issue to figure out how he knows to come to Japan.

Kitty sees her face on several television screens, the police are looking for her due to the robbery attempt.

She gets back to Shigematsu’s office.  She overhears Shigematsu tell Carmen the terms of the agreement.  Carmen is going to launder their money from their illicit operations through the bank.