Uncanny X-Men #175 (Nov 83): Phoenix!Creative Team: Chris Claremont, writer; Paul Smith (1-29) and John Romita, Jr (30-38), pencilers; Bob Wiacek, finisher; Tom Orzechowski, letterer; Glynis Wein, colorist; Louise Jones, editor; Jim Shooter, chief
Starting Line Up: Storm, Cyclops, Nighcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Sprite, Rogue
Guest Stars: Captain America (cameo)
In New Mutants #9:
The New Mutants and Amara are taken to Nova Roma, a hidden city near the headwaters of the Amazon, where they are caught in a power struggle involving Amara's father; the boys are forced to fight in the arena; and Wolfsbane is hailed as a god.Synopsis: The X-Men are working together to cut down a dead tree when they see firebird Phoenix affect in the sky. It startles the Hell out of them. They see a man falling from the sky and Rogue catches him. It's Cyclops and he tells them what they already know - Dark Phoenix has returned. Xavier summons everyone inside. Cyclops explains he always suspected Madelyn was really Phoenix. Xavier uses Cerebro to detect where she has gone, but is overwhelmed with feedback. Nightcrawler rushes him to the infirmary while Kitty checks the equipment. She discovers it has been tampered with and set up to send Xavier's mental pulses back at him. As the ponder what could have happened, Phoenix appears out of Cyclops' body, knocking him unconscious. The X-Men battle Phoenix and promptly lose. She leaves to take care of some errands, but promises to return and finish the fight. The X-Men try to contact Lilandra and the Starjammers, but find that Phoenix has already attacked them. Corsair is the only one left alive, but then they witness Phoenix destroy his ship. The X-Men then contact the Avengers. As they try to explain things to Captain America, Phoenix launches an attack. The X-Men check satalite photos and see she has destroyed all of New York City. Later, in the infirmary, Storm and Nightcrawler check over Cyclops. His body shows absolutely no signs of damage. He starts having an out of body experience. But then he realises it's his soul heading toward the light. Amidst all the souls, he seeks out Jean's, but doesn't find it. Before he reaches the light, he stopped by a woman who tells him to return to his living state. As he goes, he realises it's his mother. Cyclops wakes up in the infirmary alone. He realises this is the second time he's been attacked by Phoenix and suffered no physical damage. He also clues in that it took her twelve hours for her to fly him to New York when Phoenix should have been able to do it in seconds. He finally clues in that Mastermind is behind it all. Before he alerts the X-Men, he makes some preparations to flush Mastermind out in case he tries to use an illusion to stop him. Later, when Cyclops tries to alert the X-Men, they see him as Phoenix and attack. Cyclops actually manages to take on all the X-Men at once, using his tactical knowledge, and knowledge of their weaknesses. When he tackled by Kitty, he uses it to his advantage and gets her to phase him to where he wants to go - the Danger Room. He knocks her out cold, then has then room circuitry mildly electrocute Nightcrawler, knocking him out. He then uses a remote to set the room scenario to the Savage Land. Meanwhile, Madelyne wakes up to find herself in the Dark Phoenix costume by Jason Wyndarge's side. Mastermind explains his plan to her in typical supervillain fashion: After Phoenix made his mind touch all knowledge in the cosmos, he went catatonic, but eventually recovered. Now he's tormented by the constant yearning to achieve that state again but knows he never will. So he wants revenge. Since Phoenix is dead, he's taking it out on the ones she loved. First he ruined Wolverine's marriage, and next he will have the X-Men kill Cyclops' love, thinking it's Phoenix. Back in the Danger Room, Cyclops takes out Wolverine, Colossus, then Storm. Having no way to physically defeat Rogue, he has the room emit a gas that would even knocked her transformed body out. He takes Rogue to the infirmary and has her absorb a little bit of Xavier's powers. He then has her read his mind to prove it's really Cyclops. When the X-Men arrive, she convinces them. But then "Phoenix" appears. Cyclops proves her attacks cannot harm if you know it's all an illusion. So Mastermind shoots him with a gun from somewhere in the room. Luckily it only grazes Cyclops' arm. Storm creates a flash flood in the room so terrible she scares the rest of the team, but she manages to finally flush Mastermind out. Wolverine goes for the kill, but Storm stops him. He argues Storm looked ready to do it a minute ago, but she explains that was in the heat of battle. Mastermind is defeated now. Rogue, still posessing Xavier's powers, caught Storm's thoughs during the flood and realises not only would she have killed Mastermind, but would have sacraficed the X-Men to do it. Cyclops finds Madelyn face down in the water. He gives her CPR and she recovers, happy to see him. Some time later, Cyclops, in a tux, visits Jean Grey's tombstone. He finally realises Madelyn is not her and Jean is gone forever. He says his final goodbye his old love and goes to marry his new one. At the wedding (with more cameos than I will list), everyone is gathered and happy... except Wolverine, but he does crack a small joke about his own wedding. Scott Summers and Madelyn Pryor are joined in holy matramony.
Yeah, but is it good? Ok so I did this one instead of Annual 7. That one comes later anyway. Cyclops finally marries a red haired love of his... just not the one everyone expected. As far as major villains to use on in a double sized special, this is an odd choice. Phoenix is a big deal, but it wasn't really Phoenix. Mastermind wanting revenge on the X-Men, sure. Creating a fake Phoenix, sure. Taking advantage of Madelyn looking exactly like Jean, sure. Ruining Wolverine's wedding... I'm not so sure about that. Ah well. At least Cyclops' wedding went off without a hitch. Few superhero weddings do. Cyke becomes the first X-Men to get married. As far as the action in the issue, it was good, and neat to see how Cyclops can use strategy to hold off the entire team. But he seemed to stragize a little to perfectly. He created this plan to reveal his identity, as if he knew Mastermind would make him appear to be Phoenix, and it worked out perfectly. Sure Cyclops is one of the battle smartest X-Men, but this is a little much. While it's never officially states anywhere, I'm removing Cyclops from the roster, since, now that he's married, he won't be around much. And next month is the start of the Magik mini-series. It's a four partner about the seven years Illyana spends in Limbo with the Belasco, evil Nightcrawler, and witch Storm. Sounds like I'd hate it, but I'll include brief synopsis like I do for New Mutants.
Significata: Cyclops marries Madelyn Pryor. Madelyn revealed to be neither Jean nor Phoenix. Mastermind was behind the Phoenix appearences, Wolverine's wedding disaster, and the White Queen going into a coma (not stated, implyed). Double size issue sold for $1.00.
