Uncanny X-Men #197 (Sep 85): To Save Arcade?!?Creative Team: Chris Claremont, writer; John Romita, Jr & San Green, artists; Tom Orzechowski, letterer; Glynis Oliver, colorist; Jim Shooter, editor in chief
Starting Line Up: Nightcrawler (DNA), Wolverine (DNA), Colossus, Shadowcat, Rogue (DNA), Rachel Summers (DNA)
Guest Star: Cyclops, Storm
In New Mutants#31:
The New Mutants (and friends) battle the Gladiators, and confront the ringleader, who turns out to be Karma (missing in action since issue #6); Karma escapes; the New Mutants decide to find out the truth about Karma, no matter what the cost.Synopsis: Aboard a Shi'Ar cruiser, Colossus and Shadowcat are chating when they are attacked by... Colossus? The attacking Colossus throws the other one out into space. Shadowcat turns into a Brood Queen so Colossus runs looking for help. He finds Zsaji, the woman he fell in love with during the Secret Wars and she turns into a skeleton. He runs and finds himself back home on the farm. He relives the tractor almost running over his sister and saves her, but this time she's a demon sorceress. The three women attack him. It was all a nightmare and Colossus wakes up. He finds himself in a strange room with Shadowcat. They are greeted by Arcade. In Alaska, Cyclops says goodbye to Madelyn as he's been summoned by Moira McTaggart to return to the mansion. Back with Arcade, Colossus, Shadowcat, and Arcade are having breakfast but are attacked by a smart missle. Colossus explodes it on his body and is unharmed. Arcade explains Dr. Doom is trying to kill him again and he needs their help. He threatens to have their loved ones killed if they don't. They reluctantly agree. Back in Manhattan, Nimrod (lethally) stops a robbery, and is hailed as a hero. Back in Murderworld, Arcade has created a WWII era New York. That is where Shadowcat and Colossus, along with a robot team of the rest of the X-Men, will fight Dr. Doom. A giant robot train and fighter plans arrive and attack them. More and more replacement X-Men robots arrive to help, but most of them get cut down by the robot train. Colossus destroys the train, but then they realise Dr. Doom is in the control booth with Arcade. Dr. Doom seemingly kills Shadowcat and sends Colossus into a rampage. But it was really just another robot and 'Cat uses her phasing powers to disrupt Doom's armor, rendering him motionless. Colossus feels silly for being duped by his own teammate, but Shadowcat wanted to know how he still felt about her. Arcade opens Doom's armor to reveal Miss Locke, his assistant, was inside. Apparently it's Arcade's birthday and he gave Miss Locke 24 hours to kill him in a sick, twisted game. Arcade drives the two X-Men home. Back in Africa, vultrues circle the fallen body of Storm, but she refuses and die and fights to live.
Yeah, but is it good? It's an odd one. It almost feels like Claremont was just killing time until issue 200 and didn't have enough quality stories to fill up the space until then. It's not a bad issue, though. It has its fun moments. It's just the definition of a "forgettable issue". In the course of the story, we do get to see how much Colossus still cares for Shadowcat. But as a teammate or more?
Significata: Colossus shows some remaining emotion for Shadowcat. Cyclops has been summoned back. Storm is not dead despite her gunshot wound.
