X-Men #102 (Dec 76): Who Will Stop the Juggernaut?
Creative Team: Chris Claremont, writer; Dave Cockrum, artist; Sam Grainger, inker; John Costanza, letterer; Bonnie Wilford, colorist; Archie Goodwin, editor
Starting Line Up: Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Banshee, Storm, Colossus
Guest Stars: Marvel Girl, Misty Knight
Synopsis: The battle begins! Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Colossus tackle Juggernaut while Banshee battles his cousin, Black Tom. Storm continues her claustrophobia attack. Colossus tries to help her, but Wolverine makes him fight instead. They get clobbered by Juggernaut. Nightcrawler tries to help Storm, too, but gets clobberd when he isn't looking. Storm curses herself for being unable to do anything. Then she flashes back to her childhood. She was born in Harlem, NY. Her father photo journalist and her mother and African princess he brought back. Then they move to Cairo. During the Suez War, Cairo is bombed by the British, French, and Israalis. Their home crumbled, her parents dead, and a very young storm buried in the rubble. The young storm is taken in by thieves and trained by master theif Achmed El Gibar. When she turned twelve, she walked across the Sahara to Kenya and lives as a goddess until meeting Xavier. Meanwhile, in the hospital in NY, Xavier tries to mentally contact the X-Men and learns of their predicament. He tries to tell Cyclops, but a now conscious Jean is trying to introduce them to her roommate, Misty Knight. Xavier dismisses her and take Cyclops outside the room to tell him. Xavier orders him to go to their help. Cyclops refuses, choosing to stay with Jean instead. Xavier is about to snap at him, when he looks in a mirror and see the face from his dream, much clearer this time. Meanwhile, back at Cassidy Keep, the X-Men are getting trounced. Nightcrawler is blasted by Black Tom and falls into shows... and partially disappears. He's then discovered by Leprechauns, who take him away from the battle. During the battle, Black Tom mentions someone had freed both Black Tom and Juggernaut from prison and paid them to kill the X-Men. The X-Men are soundly defeated, and when Storm finally make an effort to help, she's easily thrown aside by Juggernaut. The two then reveal the one they're really after is Xavier. And the way to get to Xavier is to go through his X-Men. He has a constant telepathic rapport with them. Torture the X-Men, and Xavier will feel it.
Yeah, but is it good? Yes, but it's just X-Men getting their asses handed to them. The cover shows Colossus vs Juggernaut and it would have been a great battle, but the real showdown never happens. We finally get Storm's backstory, and it's really interesting. But Claremont uses actual historical events as part of the story. The problem with that is, he just declared Storm was five in 1954. That was fine at the time, making her 21 in 1975. In 2004, it makes her 50. In the current comics, she's depicted as being nowhere near that, as comic time flows slower than real time (approx 3 times slower). Using real historical events tends to fuck everything up.
Significata: Storm's history revealed. Colossus remains very protective of Storm, to the point of nearly figting Wolverine. Wolverine still doesn't tolerate weakness in his teammates. Cyclops chooses Jean over the X-Men. Xavier's visions are getting clearer and clearer. Misty Knight, a regular in the Power Man & Iron Fist series, is revealed in the X-Men series as Jean's roommate. Nightcrawler disappearing in the shadows is shown for the first time. It's announced someone is paying Black Tom & Juggernaut to kill Xavier.
