Scott marries Jean Grey lookalike Madeline Pryor, and Paul Smith resigns as artist. The wedding issue is drawn half by Smith and half by John Romita, Jr., the take-over artist. His work on X-Men would become one of the best runs of his illustrious career.
On their honeymoon, Scott fights a giant octopus.
But before all that, Cyclops, Madelyne Pryor, and Binary are out in space with the Starjammers.
Scott has cold feet. Binary joins the team.
Cyclops is struggling to get over Jean by marrying a woman who looks exactly like her. They return to Earth together, where Cyclops asks her if she is the reincarnation of his former girlfriend. That pisses her off. She leaves, and then suddenly…
Jean appears and blasts Scott unconscious.
It’s not really her, of course. It’s Mastermind.
And as usual, he gets the team to fight each other.
He explains why he hates them.
OK, sure, I get that. Being driven crazy will make you mad. But…Mastermind was a dick before all that, too….
It’s all resolved before the big wedding.
Overall, the story deals a lot with Jean Grey’s absence–obviously. Lots of excellent character moments like the one above. Nightcrawler tells Rogue about the history of Phoenix.
Wolverine is in Japan where he is struggling to get over being stood up at the altar by Mariko because he killed her daddy.
And…
Romance!
Cross-promotion!
More romance!
Also, Henry Peter Gyrich–who had been a government handler for both The Avengers and the X-Men, meets his future replacement, Valerie Cooper.
