Against A Legion of Enemies: X-Men 107

X-Men #107 (October 1977)
"Where No X-Man Has Gone Before!"
Writer: Chris Claremont
Artist: Dave Cockrum
Inker: Dan Green

Karen: We're back to a favorite series of ours, X-Men, and just in time to be dumped into the middle of a galactic civil war right along with our favorite mutants. To recap: the X-Men followed a kidnapped Princess Lilandra through a stargate and have arrived on an alien world halfway across the universe, confronted with a legion of super-powered beings!


Karen: The second and third pages comprise a two page spread with almost all the Imperial Guard (aka the Legion doppelgangers). I know there are guides out there on the net, but I'd rather just name off the guardsmen and their counterparts off the top of my head. Let's see:

• Gladiator stands in for Superboy
• Tempest is Lightning Lad
• Mentor doubles for Brainiac 5
• Hobgoblin for Chameleon Boy
• Starbolt is like a juiced up Sun Boy
• Fang fills in for Timber Wolf
• Oracle should be Dream Girl with that name, but I think she's more like Saturn Girl

Karen: There's also an obvious Colossal Boy clone, a Wildfire clone, and a chick who looks like Shadow Lass, but no names are given. Maybe next time. Got any more to add, Doug?
Doug: Yeah, I think the big guy in black and yellow (who actually looks a bit like Colossus) is a stand-in for Star Boy, the girl with the long red fringe on her boots and sleeves must be Phantom Girl (gives the impression of bell-bottoms, no?), and the guy in white/navy blue with the stylized T on his chest must be Ultra Boy. On the splash you mentioned, there's a girl in purple standing between Tempest and Starbolt. On the third panel after the Starjammers arrive, she's diminutive -- so there's our Shrinking Violet! Right below that is a woman in green with a blue cape -- she has white hair... Princess Projectra? So that's 15 "Legionnaires" if we got 'em all.
Karen: So of course with all these costumed nuts in one place, all hell breaks loose. The badly-outnumbered X-Men take the fight to the Guard. Cockrum does a great job of conveying non-stop mayhem. Claremont does an equally good job in throwing in bits of characterization all through the battle, keeping the Cyclops-Wolverine feud going, for example.

Doug: I agree. Scenes like this remind me why, as a kid, Cyke was always one of my favorite leaders. Yeah, he's sullen all the time, often even abrasive. But the guy is so focused, and has a plan ready for just about anything. I noticed in this issue, maybe it was the first time, that Logan referred to himself as "Wolverine", dropping "the".

Karen: Speaking of Wolverine, this is the issue where he gets the notoriously awful 'Fang' outfit. After his own costume is burned off of him by Starbolt, Wolvie beats up Fang and steals his atrocious suit because "it beats fightin' in the all-together." No, Wolverine, it doesn't! Really, would Wolverine even care if he was running around naked, as long as he was in a fight? That seemed a bit off, but obviously Cockrum or someone thought this would be a good costume for him. Now I've never been a fan of his John Romita-designed yellow and blue suit, but this one was a real stinker. That's the only real mis-step Cockrum makes though.

Doug: I love the scene in Iron Fist #15, which directly follows the goings-on in X-Men #108 and also which you already reviewed, when Wolverine burst in on D. Rand wearing these duds. Ugly, and a heckuva lot scarier than the yellow/blue outfit. But as long as we're talking "dressed for success" here, I never did care for his brown/beige outfit. Yuck! Give me the
original over that earthtoned disaster.

Karen: Really? I actually thought that one was more appropriate for him, more natural colors for an animal-based character.

Doug: Yeah, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Mantis, yes. Vulture, no.
Karen: Lilandra's brother, D'Ken, plans to sacrifice her to some sort of creature known as the Soul Drinker, a creepy-looking energy-type being with a forked tongue. Fortunately Nightcrawler is able to teleport to her side and free her. This is the first time Kurt would dare teleporting with another person, and the strain of it nearly knocks him out.
Doug: The scene with Kurt saving Lilandra was really well done. Probably a minor part of the story by the time it's all said and done, but it was carried out with some real drama, and served as a future plot vehicle knowing that he could teleport other people, too.

Karen: Lilandra reveals to Cyclops that her brother had discovered a source of 'ultimate power' (on the very world they are standing upon) and plans to take it for himself. Since he is a complete whack job, this would be a bad thing. She opposed him and civil war broke out. Lilandra escaped and fled to Earth, as she had formed a psychic bond with Xavier. Claremont tries to tie this in to X-Men 65, when Xavier harnessed the mental power of the entire planet to drive back an alien invasion but it's kind of weak.

Doug: It's comforting to know that megalomaniacs aren't just holed up on Earth...

Karen: The fight continues, but as it goes on, the X-Men begin to succumb to the Guard's superior numbers. All looks lost and then - the Starjammers arrive! Cockrum shows their arrival on a full page shot, with the team seemingly jumping down from the heavens. It's dramatic all right. Together, they make quick work of the rest of the Guard, and then manage some introductions. The Starjammers look a bit like pirates, and with the exception of Corsair, who is human, they are all alien beings. Cockrum was really at his creative height. All his designs- not just for characters, but ships, technology, backgrounds -are incredibly diverse and original.

Doug: As long as we're talking doppelgangers, didn't you think Raza looked a bit like Tharok of the Fatal Five? The arrival of the Starjammers was exciting, but mysterious as well. Ch'od identifies them as heroes, but that's about all they know. They've obviously tangled with the Imperial Guard before, and it seems like they, as these other teams we've discussed today, feature representatives from several intergalactic races. Jean's epiphany is a great bit of foreshadowing.

Karen: However, the worst is not over. The nine stars that power the M'Krann crystal that D'Ken covets are now in alignment. A beam of brilliant white light shines down from them directly into the enormous crystal. Back in orbit around Earth, Dr. Peter Corbeau and Reed Richards both detect that the universe has momentarily 'blinked' out of existence. If it happens again, the entire universe might cease to exist! Can you say 'high stakes' for our next issue?

Doug: Since Giant-Size X-Men #1, have you been hit with the notion that the "high stakes" these guys play for are coming much more often than they ever did for the original team? There have many cases in the first two years of the new team when the Earth, or even the universe, has been severely threatened. This is a bit beyond the Blob just causing trouble... But it's all good stuff!