Issue #27 is all original X-Men stories.
The first story is about Phoenix, by Chris Claremont and the great John Buscema. And inked by Klaus Janson!
But it doesn’t look like these artists’ “normal” projects. It’s still great art, but together–and in black and white–they create something unique.
Storywise, this takes place in-continuity. So Jean is dead. It starts with her sister visiting her gravesite. She recalls a time she and Jean went on vacation together and were kidnapped by Attuma.
The “adventure” parts of this story are fine, but the real good stuff is the scenes of Sara Grey wondering if her own children will inherit the mutant gene–if they’ll have to leave home and become X-Men, like Jean. Sara expresses her concerns to her sister, and to comfort her, after they escape from Attuma, Jean erases Sara’s memory of the adventure.
But when Jean died, the psychic “spell” died with her.
In the late ’80s, Marvel would finally take this idea somewhere and give powers to Sara’s kids.
Note that Macchio’s name appears on one of the tombstones–making this a creator appearance.
The second story is about Iceman. It’s by Mary Jo Duffy, with art by George Perez and Alfredo Alcala. More terrific creators who don’t usually do X-Men books.
Bobby Drake uses his powers to put on a show for some Dartmouth students, and then saves some of them from a group of criminals.
Finallly, Nightcrawler gets a solo story–with a few X-cameos. Mary Jo and Bob Layton plot it out, Duffy writes it, and Dave Cockrum does the art. It’s the least interesting of the three tales. He rolls through alternate dimensions with Vanisher.
It’s swashbuckling and weirdness, and feels very derivative of Kitty’s Fairy Tale in X-Men #253.
