Uncanny X-Men #181 (May 84): Tokyo Story

Creative Team: Chris Claremont, writer; John Romita Jr. & Dan Green, artists; Tom Orzechowski, letterer, Glynis Wein, colorist; Louise Jones, editor; Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief

Starting Line Up: Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Sprite (DNA), Rogue

Guest Stars: Cyclops, Sunfire

In New Mutants #15: Magik sends her astral form to the Massachusetts Academy and learns that the White Queen has captured Kitty and brainwashed Doug; the New Mutants learn that Magik is a sorceress; they head off to the rescue, but are met by the White Queen.

Synopsis: A bunch of Japanese children watch in amazement as a giant dragon appears overhead. Xavier and the X-Men also appear and fall to the Earth, fresh off their return from the Secret Wars. They were supposed to return to the exact spot they left, but somehow ended up in Japan instead. The dragon that fell in love with Lockheed also somehow came with them, except she became a giant. Realising they've been gone for over a week, Xavier sends Rogue to fly home and check on Kitty and the New Mutants. Rogue checks with Storm first. Xavier realises taking command is wrong, but now that he can walk and join missions he can't help it. Wolverine picks up on this. The Japanese are alerted to the dragon's presence and send their special monster fighting army after it. Mariko Yashida is present and sends her cousin, Sunfire, to aid the X-Men. The dragon is causing the damage on purpose, it just doesn't know what it's doing. The X-Men start saving the people trapped or in danger of the destroy buildings. Sunfire and the army join them. Elsewhere, Cyclops returns to Tahiti and Madelyn after being abducted into the Secret Wars. Back in Japan, Xavier is trapped under some rubble. He starts panicking that his legs might be crushed again, but Colossus gets him out and he's ok. Wolverine finds a dying woman and her baby. He promises to make sure the baby is ok. The X-Men, Sunfire, and the army are having no luck against the dragon, so Lockheed talks to her. No one is quite sure what he says, but she flies off... and just suddenly disappears. The X-Men help with the city clean up. In Washington, DC, Sen. Robert Kelly is arguing with another senator about the bill he's trying to get passed - the mutant affairs control act.

Yeah, but is it good? And the political intrigue begins. This is the next major step in the X-Men's lives, and it's not a bad direction to go. Eventually, the X-Men fighting evil mutants, no matter how varied their motives, does get repetitive. But the X-Men fighting their own government for their right to freedom? Now that's a story! It'll take us a little time to get there, though. As for the main story, I'm less excited about it. Putting the X-Men in Japan after the Secret Wars seems to be just a way for Claremont to work in some Godzilla film references (Monster Island, the special army unit, children with a book on Japan's most famouse monsters) that he didn't want to do in his previous Japanese stories because their content was too serious. At least we were never given the indication we had to read the Secret Wars series to get what was going on. For that I am thankful. Putting the X-Men in Japan does give an excuse to have Mariko appear and restate that, not matter what she's done, she still loves Wolverine. Xavier as a field member is interesting. He clearly has a desire to lead to the point of undermining Storm's authority and confusing the X-Men, but panicks so easily when he thinks he might have lost his legs again. It's a selfish side of Xavier we've never seen before.

Significata: The X-Men return from the Secret Wars. Xavier tries to usurp Storm's leadership. Sen. Kelly introduces the Mutant Affairs Control Act.  ¶ 1:10 AM