The Uncanny X-Periment # 14: "In-Between"

The Uncanny X-Men # 139-148

According to Storm, it's been a few months since Jean's death. A wise decision, if you ask me, to put some space between the emotional "Dark Phoenix Saga" and what we got here. I think it really allows for some air to breath into the X-Men again.

With the exception of 3 issues, I found this peroid of the X-Men to be rather mudane. Here's a quick run-down of what we have:

Uncanny # 139 and 140 handles Wolverine's position with Alpha Flight. Things get cleared up for him when he and Nightcrawler help the Canadians handle Windego. In the meantime, new recruit Kitty Pryde gets some screen time and some early development.

Uncanny # 141-142 takes us into the "Days of Future Past," which shows us a bleak future for Mutants and provides us with a hard-nosed look at what could be in store for the X-Men if they don't shape up. Needless to say, it's the best this part of the X-Men's saga has to offer.

Following this is Uncanny # 143, which has Kitty taking on a N'Gari on Christmas Eve. It's a little stupid and I couldn't help but be reminded of "Gremlins," but what we find is that this story (at its heart) is about Kitty's rite of passage into the world of the X-Men.

Unfortunately, it's also John Byrne's final issue on X-Men.

Uncanny # 144 has Cyclops and his current squeeze Lee Forrester facing off against the villain D'Spare (if I misspelled that, I don't care) with the help of Man-Thing. It's always cool to see Man-Thing. But it's not always cool to see him in a sub-par issue of X-Men.

Uncanny # 145 - 147 are fairly interesting, just because all of the previous X-Men (except for Mimic, Sunfire, and Thunderbird [psst! He's dead!]) show up and tussel with Doctor Doom and Arcade. What bogs the story down? The fact that it's later revealed that this isn't the real Doctor Doom and that it's pretty much the same Arcade story as before.

Finally, Uncanny X-Men # 148 has an appearance by Dazzler. Also, Caliban shows up for the first time. I've always liked Caliban. I've always been kinda neutral on Dazzler. And honestly? That's all there really is to this story.

Overall, there's the feeling that Claremont was trying to gather his thoughts on the future of the X-Men. There's some hits ("Days of Future Past," for one) and some misses (Doom/Arcade?). Cyclops gets a nice sub-plot and with the fact that its established time between his leaving the X-Men and now, it's kinda neat to see him sans X-Men. Kitty, likewise, gets some moments of glory as she learns the tricks and trades of the X-Men. Storm, too, gets some of that spotlight. Unfortunately, the rest of the team gets very little development.

Up next? Magneto-ness, some Shi'ar craziness, and other crazy stuff.

~W~