Uncanny X-Men #174-175: Madelyne Pryor With The Right Hook

The Dark Phoenix is back... no really... ok, not really. Technically 174 is a bunch of vignettes that lead up to the story in 175, so let's work through all of those:

Scott & Madelyne are hanging out on the Starjammer before it leaves to head back to space to do their normal getting up to shenanigans. Corsair asks if Scott wants to join, but he isn't sure. Carol Danvers has decided to join the Starjammers though cause she doesn't really have anything left on Earth.

Uncanny X-Men #172-173: Engaged Couple Should Just Communicate

The X-Men have all travelled to Japan to attend Logan's wedding (minus Scott, who is still in Anchorage). Unfortunately, things don't go swimmingly. Unfortunately Silver Samurai is apparently Mariko's half-brother, and claims he should become family head and not her. He and Viper poison the X-Men (except for Storm, as Wolverine stops her before drinking it and before he himself is knocked out).

New Mutants #5-6: And Now For Our Corporate Mandated Toy Based Crossover

We open with Xavier dealing with his psychosomatic pain and getting all flustered because his attempt to work out his legs disrupted his psychic connection with the New Mutants, who are attending a local fair. Lilandra tells him to chill.

Anyway, Roberto is excited because "Team America" a motorcycle stunt group is going to be performing. During the show, a group of armed people attack, trying to draw out a mysterious Dark Rider, who appears whenever they are in trouble. Anyway, the New Mutants and the attackers tussle, then Silver Samurai shows up, beats the shit out of them, then the Dark Rider appears and SS beats them too, and unmasked the Dark Rider is... Dani? He escapes with the captured New Mutant.

Marvel Team-Up Annual #6, Marvel Team-Up #135, Vision & Scarlet Witch #4: Kitty is a Terrible Babysitter

Marvel Team-Up Annual #6: Cloak and Dagger, the New Mutants, and Spider-Man all team up when Sunspot and Wolfsbane are kidnapped by people who want to use them to go after Cloak and Dagger. They get shot up with a variation of the same experimental drug that created the vigilante duo. They lose control, and in the end Cloak is able to absorb them into his cloak and "pull the darkness" out of them to cure them. I'm sure this will never come up again...

Wolverine #1-4: 1980s American Interpretations of Japan

Wolverine is taking a vacation in the Canadian Rockies when Mariko starts dodging his calls. So he heads to Japan to find out that Mariko is now married to an abusive asshole because her father (Shingen) showed back up and is now in charge of the family because "tradition and honor". Cause you know. Japan. Wolverine then gets into it with her dad in a duel, but her dad is a cheating asshole and beats him. Then Wolvy gets attacked some more, cause her dad is in league with the Hand. He is saved by Yukio, who is secretly an assassin working for Shingen, it is unnecessarily complicated.

Uncanny X-Men #171: X-Mansion Roof Destroyed By Rogue Projectile

The X-Men head back to the mansion after dealing with the Morlocks, and have a new surprise to deal with.

Rogue has arrive cause she is having problems dealing with her powers, and the memories of Carol Danvers. And she wants to get help from Xavier. Which makes sense if you don't know how questionable Xavier is I suppose.

New Mutants #4: Rahne Shows Up To School Dance Inappropriately Dressed

And now time for a very special episode. Stevie Hunter is getting creepy phone calls, and the New Mutants are determined they are going to figure out who it is. Xavier makes them submit a report a plan of action to him to approve.

Uncanny X-Men #169-170: Storm Stabs a Bitch

 Angel is kidnapped by the Morlocks! This will be the first appearance of the Morlocks (with the exception of Caliban, who was retroactively made a member), a group of mutants who are mutated in ways that make them less acceptable to the surface world, so hide in an abandoned government built nuclear shelter built under NYC.

Anyway the team heads underground in chase (minus Wolverine, who is still in Japan), and run across a few of the Morlocks. This leads to Kitty getting infected by Plague, and she gets separated from the group and is deathly ill. Caliban finds her and tries to take care of her, but can't do much about it as Plague's powers are just deadly as hell.

Dazzler #25-28: Angel Shows Up Just To Get Shot

And now, back to the madness that is Dazzler.

Dazzler #25: Dazzler deals with a creepy stalker that she lets get way too close to her because she was being a contrarian when her stage manager told her not to let random people get to close to her. Also the stalker tries to kill her dad and she barely manages to save him.

Dazzler #26: Turns out her sister has mutant powers, and she killed a random bum who was accosting her on accident when she melted his face. Oops. Also, this gets her on Gyrich's radar, and the sisters go on the run (though they are just running because of the killing the guy, they don't know government mutant hunters are after them). Oh also, Lois kills a cat.

Magik - Storm and Illyana: Taking Kitty Too Literally

Continuity Note: This happens during Uncanny X-Men #160, set from the time that Kitty lost Illyana's hands going through the portal, to the time she pulls her out.

Now we get to see what happened to Illyana during the ~7-8 years that Illyana spent in Limbo. The story starts with Old Storm teaming up with "Cat" who is an adult Kitty Pryde from Old Storm's group of X-Men and is also apparently now a Ninja, managing to get Illyana away from Belasco. But not before he could corrupt Illyana at least a bit, creating the first of five blood gems necessary for Belasco's dark masters to come to the main reality.

Marvel Graphic Novel #5: God Loves, Man Kills, Kitty Says Slurs

Continuity Note: This comic is pretty much impossible to fit into the timeline anywhere. Pretty much every place you could put it would have some bit that contradicts something else going on, but this feels like probably the best place for it.

This story introduces Reverend William Stryker, a bigoted televangelist who preaches that mutants are abominations against God, or whatever bullshit excuse he comes up with. He leads a group called the Purifiers, who stoke anti-mutant sentiment, and even directly kill mutants and string them up with signs saying "Muties" hanging on them. (Magneto finds a pair like this, you can imagine this did not go over well with him). He goes on TV after hearing back from some of his followers and hints heavily he is about to destroy the X-Men.

Uncanny X-Men #168: Professor Xavier Is A Jerk!

Ok, was there really anything else I could name this post?

Uncanny X-Men #167: Xavier Stops Brooding

The X-Men arrive at the mansion while the New Mutants watch Magnum PI (that really dates this issue, huh), and bust in the door looking for Xavier. Confused, as the X-Men are "dead" the New Mutants attack.

There is a fight, the New Mutants make a good showing but of course the X-Men win out with experience. During the fight Kitty sneaks upstairs to try to deal with the Brood Xavier, but she gets blasted down the stairs as the Brood takes him over.

New Mutants #3: Xavier Is A Dick And It Surprisingly Isn't His Fault

Dani is having creepy dreams of the bear that killed her parents (more on that bear in later issues), and wakes everyone up. Xavier determines that all is fine and that she should go back to sleep.

But Dani gets up in the middle of the night and pulls out her knife, that still has blood from when she stabbed the bear in her dream. Wait a minute. He then hears Xavier on the phone with Moira telling her that Dani is mentally ill and he might have to send her away.

New Mutants #1-2: Xavier's Baby Momma

The New Mutants have made it to the X-Mansion, and they get to know each other a bit more. Also, Dani accidentally recalls Karma's memories of the Vietnam War, and it gets a bit nasty. Stevie Hunter is there to tell them to knock it off though.

A bit later we see them all going to the Danger Room for the first time. Xavier insists that they are not meant to be a superhero team (let's see how that works out for him), but they should be able to use their powers when needed, as the world is dangerous. Each of them face the task of crossing the room. Of course it won't be that easy as there are obstacles in the way. One by one they all fail, until it is Dani's turn, and she is too scared to even try and runs away.