Uncanny X-Men #124 (1979)
By Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Terry Austin
Background: The X-Men have been imprisoned in Murderworld by Arcade.
So, What Happens? While Arcade tells his origin story to Colleen Wing and his other prisoners, Cyclops and Wolverine face a brainwashed Colossus and end up flying against secret revolving doors taking them elsewhere in Murderworld. Scott lands where Nightcrawler is and helps him against the deadly bumper cars, while Logan ends up in Banshee's room and manages to cut an exit through the wall, only to be attacked by robots of the Hulk and Magneto. Elsewhere, Storm is about to drown but manages to find an underwater pipe and use her lightning to break free. In the main control room, Arcade realizes he has lost Cyclops and Nightcrawler, but is unaware that Scott has run into Wolverine and Banshee, and more importantly that Kurt is right outside. The elf breaks in and destroys the control panel before being downed by gas, right whilst water from Storm's broken prison is cascading through the rest of Murderworld, taking the unconscious Ororo with it to the room with Wolverine and the others. With the team almost reunited, Cyclops saves Ororo with mouth to mouth resuscitation, only for the four of them to be attacked by Colossus, who quickly despatches Banshee and Logan before grabbing Cyclops and Storm by their necks. Both too weakened to fight back, they manage to get through to him with words and break the brainwashing. Finally, Arcade concedes the contest and unceremoniously ejects the five X-Men, Nightcrawler, Colleen and the other two prisoners from Murderworld, miles away in an abandoned amusement park. Logan would prefer to go back and finish the fight, but the others convince him to let it go for now and call it a victory.
Something Silly This Way Comes: Cyclops mentions Wolverine's unbreakable skeleton, but the X-Men shouldn't be aware of it yet.
Review: Commenting last issue, I wrote it suffered from too much introduction and too little Murderworld, so it's not too surprising that this one more than makes up for it by virtually devoting its entirety to the X-Men facing the various traps prepared by Arcade. However, the result is a rather jerky story whose best achievement is highlighting Cyclops' skills as both fighter and team leader. More often than not, Scott will be defined by his relationships or by his rivalry with Wolverine, so seeing him being not only the sole X-Man to escape his own trap unaided, but also to virtually rescue all of his comrades one by one is a powerful reminder of why he has been an efficient leader pretty much since the early days of the Uncanny X-Men.
Conversely, the others don't fare too well, especially Colossus and Nightcrawler. According to interviews, apparently Kurt was a favourite of original creator Dave Cockrum but not of then current co-plotter Byrne, while Peter had been getting the short end of the stick for some time, with a few stories mentioning his growing insecurities and uncertainty at being an X-Man, something that gets brought up twice here in the space of 15 pages. The line between character development and character sabotage is often thin, especially with Byrne at the helm, but considering that Peter was reluctant to join from the start and that it will all get resolved eventually, I consider this brainwashing only as a step in his personal arc.
Character development aside, the story pretty much jumps from room to room as the X-Men deal with the various traps. It's not bad per se, but it keeps feeling like the preparation for a big confrontation against Arcade, so it's disappointing that all of a sudden they are just set free because the villain concedes. A physical battle against Arcade would have been pointless considering he's just a regular guy with no special powers, but nevertheless the ending feels anticlimactic and the entire story is a little rushed, giving the impression it would have needed a third chapter to be told completely and satisfactorily. Arcade will return in Uncanny X-Men #145, with a far more entertaining little three-story arc also featuring Dr. Doom.
Final Verdict: Some nice bits, but certainly not the best Arcade story ever told. 3.5/5
Something Silly This Way Comes: Cyclops mentions Wolverine's unbreakable skeleton, but the X-Men shouldn't be aware of it yet.
Conversely, the others don't fare too well, especially Colossus and Nightcrawler. According to interviews, apparently Kurt was a favourite of original creator Dave Cockrum but not of then current co-plotter Byrne, while Peter had been getting the short end of the stick for some time, with a few stories mentioning his growing insecurities and uncertainty at being an X-Man, something that gets brought up twice here in the space of 15 pages. The line between character development and character sabotage is often thin, especially with Byrne at the helm, but considering that Peter was reluctant to join from the start and that it will all get resolved eventually, I consider this brainwashing only as a step in his personal arc.
Character development aside, the story pretty much jumps from room to room as the X-Men deal with the various traps. It's not bad per se, but it keeps feeling like the preparation for a big confrontation against Arcade, so it's disappointing that all of a sudden they are just set free because the villain concedes. A physical battle against Arcade would have been pointless considering he's just a regular guy with no special powers, but nevertheless the ending feels anticlimactic and the entire story is a little rushed, giving the impression it would have needed a third chapter to be told completely and satisfactorily. Arcade will return in Uncanny X-Men #145, with a far more entertaining little three-story arc also featuring Dr. Doom.
Final Verdict: Some nice bits, but certainly not the best Arcade story ever told. 3.5/5
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