Uncanny X-Men #144 (Apr 81): Even in Death...Creative Team: Chris Claremont, writer; Brent Anderson, guest penciler; Josef Rubenstein, inker; Glynis Wein, colorist; Tom Orzechowski, letterer; Louise Jones, editor; Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief
Starting Line Up: Storm, Angel, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Sprite
Guest Star: Cyclops, Man-Thing
Synopsis: In the Flordia Everglades sits Jock Forrester. He's dying from cancer. He came to the Everglades to live out his days, or if need be, take his own life without suffering. He's afraid. That fear draws out Man-Thing. Man-Thing feels emotions. Negatives emotions hurt him, most of all fear. He wants to end the fear of Jock Forrester, but he is beaten to the punch of a black fog. The fog takes all hope away from Jock's world. He loads his gun and shoots himself in the head. The black fog forms into D'Spayre, a demon, the manifestation of the ultimate evil. Man-Thing attacks D'Spayre, but the demon makes the monster feel terror, and that causes Man-Thing pain. D'Spayre then takes the form of Jock Forrester. Back in Shark Bay, Cyclops is working aboard the Arcadia, a fishing boat. One of the fisherman tries to take his glasses and it almost leads to a fight until Aleytys breaks it up. She invited Cyclops to come with the crew for dinner and beer. He accepts. Back at the mansion, the X-Men are cleaning up after Kitty's battle last issue. The damage is costly, so Xavier has to ask Angel for money. When Kitty brings them lunch, Wolverine and Nightcrawler start teasing her about all the damage she causes. She breaks into tears and runs away. Nightcrawler follows to appologize to her and on Wolverine behalf. She half accepts it and walks away. Nightcrawler wonders if he might have tried to hurt her on purpose. Back in Shark Bay, Cyclops is kicking ass at pool. Lee asks him if he'll come with her to see her father since he left and urgent message he needed to see her. He goes along. When they reach his home on the edge of the swamp, her father greats her, but soon reveals himself to be D'Spayre. He turns the house into a werid looking tower. Then he gets into Cyclops' mind. He makes him relieve the death of his parents, the plane explosion that only he and his brother Alex survived. This is the first time he's been able to remember this event (he still doesn't know his father is Corsair of the Starjammers). He then relives the events from when the original X-Men fought Larry Trask's Sentinels in the original series. All of the X-Men are dead except his brother, Havok. Then Sentinels in the form of the new X-Men attack them. They kill Havok, so he destroys them all. Then souls of the new X-Men come back to attack him. Next he relives the events in New Mexico when he and Jean made love in the desert. They're then at the later getting married. She lifts his visor to kiss him, but he blasts her, killing her. This snaps Cyclops out of the daze long enough for him to throw himself out the widow of D'Spayre's tower. Man-Thing then shows up, awakens Cyclops, then heads into the tower. Man-Thing battles D'Spayre, but it doesn't go so well for him. Cyclops tries to help by blasting D'Spayre, but he keeps teleporting himself around the room. He then gets a plan on how to catch D'Spayre. In his mind, he relives the horror of the first time he saw Dark Phoenix. This draws both creatures to him, but D'Spayre is first. Cyclops grabs a hold of him just long enough for Man-Thing to get there. Man-Thing cannot feel the fear, and therefor pain, from D'Spayre since he's feeding off the courage from Cyclops. Cyclops grabs Aleytys and escapes the building. In the collapses in on the two battling monsters. But Man-Thing is immortal as long as he lives in the swamp, so he is soon brough back to life.
Yeah, but is it good? God, no. This is NOT an X-Men story. Sure it stars (former) X-Men Cyclops, and features him more than anyone else, but this is no doubt a Man-Thing story. At least I assume it is. I've never read Man-Thing. I might be willing to with appropriate characters, but Cyclops is not an appropriate character. I find very little good about this issue other than we get some Cyclops again. But we don't get anyone else either. I guess they can't all be super classics. But damn, they don't have to be this bad. And why does Xavier ask Angel for money? He's loaded too.
Significata: Cyclops is still alive and fighting evil. He finally recalls the event of his parents' death. Aleytys Forrester is become very attracted to Cyke. Nightcrawler again tries to be friendly with Kitty, but this time after hurting her feelings. He begins to wonder if subconsciously he's trying out of frustration she's still freaked out by him.
