Uncanny X-Men #180 (Apr 84): Whose Life Is It, Anyway?Creative Team: Chris Claremont, writer; John Romita, Jr, Dan Green, & Bob Wiacek, artists; Glynis Wein, colorist; Tom Orzechowski, letterer; Louise Jones, editor; Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief
In New Mutants #14:
S'ym follows Illyana to earth and battles the New Mutants; they learn that Illyana is a mutant, with the power of teleportation, but she keeps her sorcery a secret; Doug gets a scholarship to the Massachusetts Academy, the school run by the Hellfire Club.Synopsis: Xavier, now with his legs fully recovered, plays some basketball by himself. He is once again hit with the mental scanning wave. Storm checks on him. Xavier explains he used to play sports when he was young, but had to stop when his mutant powers gave him an unfair advantage. They then discuss her transformation. Storm says it's a reflection of a darker side of herself emerging. Xavier scans her and reveals no mental illness. He wants to help her with her issues, but she feels it's something she must do on her own. In town, Kitty and Doug Ramsey are playing at an arcade. They do so well it overloads the machine. The owner kicks them out. They go for lunch. Kitty tells him about her concern over Storm changing and her feelings for her have changed. Doug and Kitty get very close. He tells her that he's been invited to attend Emma Frost's Massachusets Academy and he wants her to come with him to check it out since she went there for a week. Back at the school, a recovering Colossus chops down a tree one handed. Wolverine watches him. They have a chat about Kitty. Colossus starts to think she is too different from him, that someone like Doug Ramsey has more in common with her, that he's just a simple farm boy who would have liked to just get married, and that it probably won't work out in the end. At a greenhouse, Storm visits her old plants she donated. She finds some punks mugging an elderly couple. She beats the Hell out of the punks and scares the couple she saved. Xavier summons her home. Kitty briefs them on the situation with Doug and the Academy. She wishes to go with him since the White Queen is in a coma and Xavier can moniter her mentally the whole time. Both Xavier and Storm agree. Xavier reveals Doug is a mutant, his power is the ability to learn and language or code without trouble, but doesn't feel he should have to know since he might never be detected as a mutant. As Kitty walks away, Storm sweeps her outside for a long overdue talk. Storm explains to her that something in her is changing and she needs to express herself instead of keeping it bottled up. She realises her responsibility means she must do thing she used to hold against her beliefs. Her feelings for Kitty havn't changed and she hopes Kitty's havn't changed for her. Kitty finally accepts her change. The X-Men see Kitty off at the airport. She and Doug get to take a private jet. Once they're in the air, they are greeted by the White Queen. Kitty calls for help. Xavier doesn't hear it because at that moment, he and the X-Men have tracked down the source of Xavier's mental attacks. It's a giant structure in Central Park. The X-Men enter the structure and disappear.
Yeah, but is it good? Maybe it's just me, but the speach from Storm about her transformation is a little underwhelming. Sure it got the points across why she did it, but it still felt lacking. I'm at a loss to say how or why. The relationship with Colossus and Kitty is starting to crumble a bit. He no longer feels she is right for him, or more accurately, he is right for her. Doug Ramsey shows up for the first time in X-Men (he's previously been a supporting character in New Mutants), and not only is shown as an obvious rival for Kitty's affection, but it's revealed he's a mutant. But what really bothers me with his issue is... street punks mugging people in a greenhouse? What? The conclusion to the Kitty story will be concluded in the next New Mutants issue. This would mark the first time the two titles had a plot cross over in such a way.
But now... the X-Men enter that gate, and are transported away to... the Secret Wars! For a full review with comments, check out this site: http://members.tripod.com/~MitchellBrown/xover/marvel_secretwars.html
Hopefully he gives you an idea of the scale, hope, and failure that was the Secret Wars. The only reprocussion that majorly affected the Marvel Universe is that's where Spider-Man finds his alien costume that becomes Venom. The biggest affect on the X-Men is during the battle, Colossus is injured (he's pretty injury prone). He's treated by an alien of Battle World which he falls in love with. She is later killed, but his feelings remain. How will this affect Kitty? We shall see. Oh, and Lockheed meets a female dragon who falls in love with him. Claremont does a decent job of building the Secret Wars' epicness with Xavier's mental attacks. It's just too bad it never panned out. But that didn't stop them from writting a sequel. That has more impact on the X-Men. But we'll get to that later. What I never understood was all the heroes joining the series have some sort of exit sequence in their respective titles the month before Secret Wars #1 and are all back by their next issues. Their individual reprocussions from the series are revealed... before the corresponding issues are released. So Spider-Man is back from the Secret Wars with his new alien costume before he finds it in the Secret Wars series. If you read the title of every hero that was in the Secret Wars, you'd probably be able to piece together the entire plot before it's released. It would have more sense if the heroes leaving was shown before the release of the LAST issue of Secret Wars, so they can all return after the final issue is released. It would prevent any spoilers. But anyway. What's done is done.
Significata: The X-Men enter the Secret Wars. First X-Men/New Mutants plot crossover begins here. Storm and Kitty finally discuss Storm's change and Kitty comes to accept her. Doug Ramsey revealed to be a mutant with language/code decipherin abilities. Colossus begins to doubt his relationship with Kitty. Xavier can now walk.
