Uncanny X-Men #187 (Nov 84): Wraithkill!Creative Team: Chris Claremont, writer; John Romit, Jr. & Dan Green, artists; Tom Orzechowski, letterer; Glynis Wein, colorist; Ann Nocenti, editor; Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief
Starting Line Up: Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine (flashback only), Colossus, Sprite (DNA), Rogue, Rachel
In New Mutants #21:
The New Mutant girls host a slumber party with their friends from Salem Center; Warlock destroys Asteroid M and lands near Xavier's school; after some chaos, the New Mutants bring in Doug to communicate with Warlock, and invite him to join the school.In Kitty Pryde & Wolverine #1:
Kitty goes to Japan to rescue her father but finds he is in some shady business deals with Japanese thugs.Synopsis: Storm walks away from Forge's building as the Dire Wraiths attack it. They come in the form of FBI agents and take over the body of the security guard. Outside, Storm runs into a wraith. She gets away from it and flees back inside of Forge's building. The wraith follows her and attacks, but she's saved by a man with a shotgun - Naze, a shaman from Forge's old Cheyenne tribe. Naze convinces Storm to help him save Forge. She calls up to his penthouse, but is too late. The wraiths start pooring in through the windows. Storm and Naze take the elevator shaft up to the penthouse. Storm is attacked by a wraith and her leg attached to the elevator cable. She gets pulled upward at a deadly speed, but slips out and onto a ledge at the last second. Naze decides to take the stairs. Storm opens a door to the outside and there's suddenly an unexplained ice storm outside. She's attacked by a wraith, so escapes into the bitter cold outside. The wraith follows her. She fights it off and heads back inside, locking the wraith in the cold. It bangs on the door, but it's strength slowly fades into nothingness. Storm is unsure of how to feel about causing the wraiths dead. Suddenly, the mind of Storm, Forge, Naze, and a wraith become linked briefly and they all scream in pain. Forge's automated defenses are keeping the wraiths from getting to him. Storm finally gets to him, but acts extremely cold towards him. They fight off some more wraiths, but one creates an illusion to make Storm and a wraith exchange appereances. The wraith tries to talk Forge into killing Storm, but he's starting using his ancient mystic ways to see through the deceptions of the wraiths. Naze catches up with them. Colossus and Rogue burst onto the scene to help. A whole hoard of wraiths arrive and the heroes go into action. Naze ducks off to find Forge's sanctum sanctorium and begins a mystic enchantment. The heroes arn't faring well, so Forge creates holograms of ROM and Starshine and scares all the wraiths off. The heroes have just enough time to catch their breath and ask where Naze is before they are attacked by shadow wraiths.
Yeah, but is it good? Claremont has done a great job of turning Storm into a bitch, but I don't think that's what he's going for. Everything Forge says is refuted. Someone asks a question, Forge answers "I don't know", Storm quips "yeah right, liar". I hate snotty bitches like that. The story itself is pretty good, considering it's about sorceress aliens, not my favorite topic for X-Men comics. As far as the minds of Storm, Forge, Naze, and the wraith being combined... I have no idea what that's supposed to be about. Naze? a wraith? the Beyonder? no idea. But the mysterious snow storm is from a Thor storyline going on in his title. Actually, it was a few months before this, but so was the Dire Wraiths storyline in ROM, so I guess we're supposed to believe the X-Men comics (and by association, New Mutants) is a few months behind the rest of the Marvel Universe. The ending felt a little rushed. Maybe it would have worked better if instead of Forge chasing the wraiths away only be re-attacked, the heroes just go on the losing end of the fight. But I guess these are supposed to be different types of wraiths. I don't really understand everthing about them, nor do I care.
Significata: Forge is revealed to have the mystic abilities of a powerful shaman, but he denies his heritage. Storm is revealed to be a great shot, taught by Wolverine.
