A great Christmas issue, and one where creators Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum have a blast with buried treasure–starting on the splash page. Dr. Doom is iceskating! And Kurt goes “undercover” where he hits on Amanda Sefton, in her first appearance.
Then there’s an appearance by D.C.’s Lois and Clark, and D.C.’s editor Julie Schwartz!
Then, they kinda rub it in that Stan and Jack couldn’t make the mutant thing work
And not only that…
The Sentinels return! And artist Dave Cockrum pays tribute to Neal Adams (from X-Men #57)…
And they deliver the first-ever X-Men boat crash.
And the fight moves to space, where it will pick up next issue. The mutants can’t ride in anything without it getting destroyed.
Great stuff.
I agree! Great stuff! However, you got a couple of your details wrong- 1) Dave Cockrum’s page three homage to Neal Adams was based on the splash page of issue#58, not #57, as you stated. 2) It’s not that Stan and Jack “couldn’t make the ‘mutant thing’ work”, as you stated. They most certainly and DEFINITELY could have “made the ‘mutant thing’ work”, had they simply had the integrity to not QUIT on the series!!! As for my own appreciation of this issue, it features my all-time favorite ‘Storm’ sequence, where she totally annihilates a squad of Sentinels on the rooftop of a Manhattan skyscraper without really trying, while delivering a great speech about doing it at the same time! “So- you’re a ‘Sentinel’, eh, monster-?? Well, I am Storm- and I ‘defy’ you- and I will NOT-BE-DESTROYED!!!!!!” BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!! ( no more Sentinels ) Cyclops: “Jesus GOD, Storm-!!! You didn’t TELL me you could do THAT!!!” Storm: “You never asked.” X-cellent!!! Just X-cellent!!! Ororo is totally Stormalicious!!!!