Uncanny X-Men #106
August 1977
What the crap? I feel like I just read the comic book version of a clip show. It starts out where the last one left off, with Xavier on the roof of the building with the stargate. Jean's parents and her roommate, Misty Knight (aka Foxy Brown), are all looking rather concerned, while Fire Lord, fresh from New Jersey, is demanding to know the license plate of the Phoenix that just ran him over. Before the scene can get very far Xavier passes out, seemingly due to Lilandra's disappearance and the psychic connection that she forged between them for an as yet unexplained reason.
I guess Jean's parents are hoping that the alien with the flaming head will save them from the black woman with the gun.
All well and good. Sounds like a nice way to build some tension, right? Well, perhaps you can forgive me for instead seeing the entire rest of the issue as a rehash of the new X-Men vs. old X-Men fight in #100. Cut to the inside of Charles Xavier's mind, who is now dreaming of the X-Men in the Danger Room. They don't seem to be getting along very well, until the old X-Men show up and give them the same "We think you guys suck, so we're going to kick all of your asses and go back to being the
real X-Men" speech that they used six issues ago. And so ensues the rehashed battle sequence.
Oops! Silly me, this is from #100.
I get the basic point. Even aside from Charles' issues, it's been established that the new X-Men are rough around the edges as a team, and the writer is trying to compare and contrast them with the old X-Men, but they've done this. If Claremont wanted to reinforce this idea, then he should have come up with something that wasn't just plagiarizing himself.
So they all fight, yadda yadda yadda, and then Xavier shows up and reveals that this is all just a figment of his imagination. But of course, since Claremont is creating a filler issue to deal with a problem (Xavier's mental state) that doesn't really need it's own book, he's going to fall back on goofy pulp, and what pulp comic book would be complete without a goofy pulp villain? And since we already have rehashed doppleganger X-Men, then logically the villain should be a doppleganger Professor X, who is apparently Xavier's selfish side who's been allowed to run rampant now that his mind is all out of whack.
Evil Xavier confronts his most hated foes: the Fashion Police.
And then there's a fight, and Xavier retakes control of his mind, and who really gives a ****? Good lord, Claremont. You've been winning me over more and more and now you drop this turd at the exact moment I'm expecting for the pace to maintain its pace? You can't keep doing to this to me, and if you are, don't suck at it.
NEXT!