X-Men #106 (Aug 77): Dark Shroud of the Past!
Creative Team: Claremont, Mantlo, Brown, Cockrum, Sutton, Rosen, Yanchus, Goodwin (no credits give for what, explanation below)
Starting Line Up: Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Banshee, Storm, Colossus
Guest Star: Misty Knight (cameo)
Synopsis: Firelord demands to know where Pheonix has gone. Xavier explains she and the X-Men are far away, but then his mind is taken over by the nightmares again. Firelord's anger receades when he sees Xavier in pain. Xavier hallucinates and thinks Misty is Moira McTaggart and asks her for help, and he begins to dream of events that occured between issues 96 and 97. The X-Men are working out in the danger room. Colossus saves Wolverine from being crushed, and he doesn't appreciate the help. Cyclops gets on Wolverine's case about the angry loaner act all the time. Wolverine tells him its no act, and he should get off everyone's case just because the new X-Men don't do things the way the old X-Men did, wish Banshee agrees with. Storm then stands up for Cyclops, telling Wolverine he's free to leave the team any time. Angel then appears, in his original X-Men costume at that, and tells them they should all leave. The rest of the old X-Men, also in their original costumes, show up and visciously challenge the new team. The two teams go at it, with the old overcoming the new thanks to teamwork, which the new still hasn't mastered. During the battle, Banshee uses his scream on Angel to knock him out, but he says it has no effect since he's wearing ear plugs. Cyclops sees right through the lie, since the vibration, not the sound, would have knocked him out. Cyclops realises the old X-Men they're fighting arn't human, and they're a lot stronger. Xavier then interrupts the battle, realise they old X-Men are mental projections he created with his mind which is slowly going mad thanks to the nightmares. Then Xavier's dark side of his psyche takes form and challenges the X-Men. The real Xavier then recreates the projections of the old X-Men to defeats his evil side.
Yeah, but is it good? It's confusing. The flow gets majorly interrupted here. The X-Men and Pheonix went through the warp gate last issue to find Lilandra, and this issue... is a flashback? I'm taking it they wern't finished yet with the story, so they ran an unused story from a few months ago with a new into with Firelord to give it a vague connection to the real story. Why would this story remain unused? I'm guessing because it's the old vs new story that they ended up saving for issue #100. Neither one was really the old X-Men, though. This also explains why the credits given are just a bunch of names with no connction to what. Obviously it was written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Dave Cockrum, but the rest of the creative team has never been stable for X-Men. A different inker, letterer, colorist, and probably editor were used for the new part stuck on the front. So by throwing out the names with no work association, nobody wonders why there were two of each. Aside from that, was this any good? It was fun. The action was a lot like the action of the old X-Men. It really does drive home the point of the new X-Men not working well together as a team. It's not just something they say, it's something you can see in how the battles go. New X-Men battles typically go one character attacks, fails, the next one attacks, fails, etc., until Cyclops develops a plan. The old X-Men used to attack as a team, using their powers to compliment each other. One's not necessairily better than the other (when it comes to reading, it's written as if the new X-Men's way isn't as good), it just seperates the style of the two teams.
Significata: Filler issue. Continues to the point of the new X-Men not fighting well as a team. Fit into Xavier's dream making him go mad. Cyclops and Wolverine don't get along now or then.
