X-Men annual #10, JAN 87 (writer) Chris Claremont (artist) Arthur Adams
Numbers are up, but Mojo’s recent setbacks with the New Mutants in the Wildways are just beginning to even out. Why not spice things up for their friends the X-Men? Mojo and friends are watching intently and do the only thing they can figure by a long shot: send in Longshot!
Landing at their feet in a puddle of ectoplasm, it’s only a few pages before the X-Men themselves are reverted to child-like stature. It’s silly, as is the ladies’ infatuation with Longshot himself, but they’re young again, that’s when these feelings are front and center.
Cypher and Warlock take the initiative to again try and figure out what’s happening, and again Cypher and Warlock do their melding trick. It’s neat to see the characters interact this way, both visually and storywise, and I’m anxious to see what/if there’s any holdover in the New Mutants issues. They find that this regression for the X-Men is similar to that which happened to the Bratpack, but before they can warn them, the X-Men steal the car and are off to New York.
The New Mutants follow in some spiffy uniforms that were only meant to be used after graduation. They’re slick-looking, and for all intents and purposes, adult. Mirage herself is even having adult thoughts about all of this happening too fast for them. It’s a neat little moment.
The New Mutants spar with the X-Men, and it’s fun, especially since the X-Men have been reduced to little brats and don’t even know why they’re fighting. So yah, there’s some fighting, but it isn’t until Rogue takes Sunspot’s powers that a wrench is beginning to get in ol’ Mojo’s plans. Sunspot has memories of a decidedly different Rogue. Much of the same is happening amid the other confrontations, and a neat scene where Cypher and Psylocke end up legs and arms all twisted up together. Cute, and hoping to see the affair go far. (I think I said so last night, but it’s the only one in the books I’ve read thus far. Other than the Wolverine/Jean Grey thing, but that gets old real quick.)
Great art again by Arthur Adams. Missed him since last year’s crossover. Mojo seriously looks appropriately evil, and the most of any characters I’ve seen in the last nigh-forty days. Good stuff.