Byrne and Claremont end their run by featuring The X-Men.
It’s fantastic. Last issue, they introduced Sabretooth, and now he meets Wolverine. And they have a solid fight. Based on Iron Fist trespassing in Misty’s apartment.
Wolverine is wearing the costume he stole from Fang in X-Men #108. It looks an awful lot like Legion of Super Heroes member Timberwolf.
The rest of the X-Men join in the hunt for Iron Fist.
Colossus throws Wolverine into the fight with Iron Fist. It’s not called a fastball special yet, though.
And then it’s Iron Fist vs all of them–and is this a Superman reference?
Including Storm.
Who he humiliates.
The X-Men capture Fist.
But ultimately, the cooler head of Scott Summers realizes Iron Fist is a hero, not a villain.
He has the X-Men stand down.
Storm’s pride is what made her jump to conclusions. I like that this shows why Cyclops is the leader–he has more experience–and also shows that Storm has the humility to be a future leader.
The story doesn’t resolve all the loose ends. Fist’s ongoing battle with Steel Serpent gets concluded, by Claremont, in Marvel Team Up #63-64. The fate of his villain Bushman is continued in those issues and then is resolved in Power Man #48-49, which turns into Power Man and Iron Fist with issue #50.
Also: Wolverine is a loner.
So what’s he doin’ moonin’ over a lousy frail? And who’s the frail?
And speaking of unrequited love…
Claremont’s dialogue was fairly stilted at this time–early in his career. Although this scene of Scott coming home is pretty funny:
There’s a cocktail party at the end, where John Byrne, Dave Cockrum and his wife Paty, along with Chris Claremont, talk about how hard it is to keep all the X-Men straight. You think it’s hard now? Just wait until the ’80s!
And here’s the final panels of this series:
I have three points to offer on this issue: 1) I do not care for Martial Arts characters, or Martial Arts comics. The dramatic exception here is Bruce Lee’s character Kato from ABC-TV’s excellent, underrated, and lamented “Green Hornet” television series. Kato was cool, professional, and deadly efficient in his job. He was not an arrogant, aggressive idiot, as many Martial Artists tend to be. I have always found the idea of having a deadly efficient hired man to do my fighting for me to be highly attractive and logical. 2) Does anyone draw a sexier Storm than the legendary John Byrne?? When I need Storm ( which is often ) I need John Byrne to draw her. Dave Cockrum and Paul Smith’s renditions come in at a very, very close two and three. 3) Despite Wolverine’s rock-star status popularity with comics fans, he is still a jerk, and that comes through quite strongly in this issue. Turning the door of Jean and Misty’s apartment into kindling was a real mature way of approaching the problem of a suspected burglar. Dollars to doughnuts the door was unlocked anyway, since Iron Fist had no logical reason to lock it behind him when he entered the residence. Did Wolverine even try the knob before he smashed his way through??? I wonder who he expected to pay for the replacement door. Now I will concede that Iron Fist’s face-mask makes him look awfully suspicious in that apartment, but Wolverine could have at least offered the man a chance to identify himself, considering how commonplace masks are in the New York City of Earth-616, before he tried to KILL him!! And Professor X considers this man to be an asset-?!?! Finally, Wolverine’s attitude towards Jean Grey/Marvel Girl/Phoenix is highly inappropriate, considering that A) He KNOWS that she belongs to Scott Summers, and B) Considering that he was born in the mid-Nineteenth Century, the age-difference is just GROSS!! Captain America’s taste for young women several decades his junior is ALSO unsettling. I think the LEAST that these guys could do is curtail their prospects to women who are of at least a certain age, fifty-sixty or so. Otherwise, they come across as predators! As of the early days of the New X-Men, Jeannie/Phoenix was still just a sweet young thing, and Wolverine is a super-old man!! Yuck!! Yucko-bucko!! At least Captain America and Agent Thirteen had commonality!! ( which is something that Cap did NOT have with Diamondback, and, double-especially, with Bernie Rosenthal, which is why their relationship eventually-and mercifully-expired! ) In closing, to reiterate my initial point, fads die hard, the Martial Arts fad eventually died, which was fortuitous, because all I could see it was accomplishing in this country was to teach young kids that violence is the way to resolve conflict and problems. It produces WAY too many jerks like the antagonist from the first “Karate Kid” movie. Speaking of Legionnaires, it was fun watching Wolverine rock Timber Wolf’s pajamas for a few issues, considering that the feral X-Man owes more than just a bit of debt for his creation to the Legion of Super-Heroes’ own feral brawler. A little over a decade ago, the FOX-KIDS Network produced a pretty faithful- and intelligent-‘Legion of Super-Heroes’ cartoon, which featured a great scene between Timber Wolf and Superboy ( who, for some reason, was being called “Superman” by everybody throughout this very fine series- perhaps, in the 31st Century, people have to grow up “super” fast! ) where Timber Wolf, upon his admission into the Legion, receives his first “superhero” uniform-the same one Wolverine sports throughout these issues: Superman: “How do you like your new uniform, Timber Wolf-??” Timber Wolf: “It’s……..a little SNUG.” Superman: ( smiling broadly ) “I know! You’ll get used to it!” Any super-jock/jockette is only as sharp as their outfit!! Word!!