Uncanny X-Men #143 (Mar 81): DemonCreative Team: Chris Claremont, writer/co-plotter; John Byrne, co-plotter/penciler; Terry Austin, inker; Ton Orzechowski, letterer; Glynis Wein, colorist; Louis Jones, editor; Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief
Starting Line Up: Storm, Angel, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Sprite
Guest Star: Cyclops
Synopsis: We're taken back to the closing moments of X-Men #96. Storm is fighting her way through an army of N'garai demon spawn to reach the cairn from where they're coming from. She destrots he cairn and all the demons disappear. The remains of the cairn are never touched again as the seasons go by. Then on one day, Christmas Eve, a N'garai demon comes from the cairn. He finds a happy young couple looking for their first Christmas tree together. The demon find them and slaughters them. In the X-Man mansio, Prof. Xavier is teaching Kitty how to go though Blackbird start up procedures. They're interrupted by Angel who tells Xavier the car is ready for him. Down in the foyer, Wolverine introduces Xavier to Mariko Yashida. Nightcrawler innocently flirts with her, and it sets Wolverine off in a berzerker rage. Colossus and Xavier have to calm him down. He appologizes and leaves with Mariko. Kitty cuts the tension in the room by kissing Colossus under the mistle toe. He become embarassed. Angel goes off to meet his girlfriend, Candy Southern, for a date, while Xavier, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus go somewhere in the car. Kitty is left all alone. She's never spent Chanuka alone before. She tries to call her parents, but gets no answer. She then gets a call from Cyclops, who was just wishing the X-Men a Merry Christmas. He's in Shark Bay, Florida. He then applies to a job on a fishing boat. He meets his new boss, Aleytys Forrester, and it's obvious she's attracted to him right off the bat. Kitty goes for a simple excercise in the Danger Room when she gets an intruder alert message from Storm's attic. She goes to check it out and runs into the demon. It chases her. Every wall she phases through, it smashes. She tries to hide from it, but it's smart enough to quietly wait for her next move. Kitty tries phasing through the demon, but learns it still causes her a lot of pain and her arm goes numb. She then lures it into the Danger Room and sets it maximum level, hoping the room will hurt the thing. Kitty, unfortunately, gets trapped in there as well. The only thing that seems to remotely hurt the demon is a blast of fire. But soon is trashes the entire room. Kitty then takes off for the underground hangar bar. The circuitry is destroyed by the demon, so she has to run on foot instead of taking the shuttle car. She gets in the Blackbird and starts the ignition sequence. She waits until the demon is right behind the Blackbird and slams on the throttle. The jets roast the demon, but over power the breaks and the Blackbird slams forward into the wall of the hangar. As she tries to leave, the demon makes one last desperate grab, but dies. Soon Xavier and the rest return to find Kitty overjoyed to see them. Even better, her parents are with them. It was a surprise Chanuka for the entire Pryde family.
Yeah, but is it good? If you're Chris Claremont and you need a story to finally show your newest X-Men is going to be a worthy addition to the team, how do you do it? A solo story. Ok. Can't be against anyone important since that will overshadow the rest of the group. Done. Maybe someone expendable so no follow up is needed. Check. And make it a somewhat familiar nemesis since the point is to introduce a new villain but to show off the character's abilities. Alright. We have a story. I know I've complained about X-Men fighting demons and mystical crap in the past, but despite the enemy here being a demon, it's not really a demon story. More like a big, mean monster story. Sure I prefer X-Men fighting evil mutants and anti-mutants (and the occasional trip accross the Shi'Ar Empire), but for a story intended to be a Kitty solo, this is good enough for me. I like circular story telling with Kitty learning how to start the Blackbird in the beginning and using it save her in the end. Lots of thought bubbles, though. It's pretty much a long Kitty soliloque. Oh, you may notice I used "Kitty" more than "Sprite" where as I usually refer to the characters by their codename, rather than their real name. Well I'm only using it as often as the writter does. Sprite never really caught of. It's eventually pushed aside until the codename Shadowcat comes along waaaaay down the line. I'm going to keep using Sprite in the line up, though, since it's "official". Nice to see Cyclops alive and well as well.
Significata: Kitty's first big battle (since she wasn't in her own body last two issues). Most of the mansion gets destroyed. Kitty kisses Colossus on the cheek and he was embrassed. Is love in the air? Wolverine is now pretty much officially with Mariko if she's in NY for the holidays. Wolverine still has berzerker rages towards his friends if he something sets him off. Cyclops meets Aleytys Forrester and works for her. She's attracted to him.
