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The Uncanny X-Men #144

Apr 1981
Chris Claremont, Brent Anderson

The Uncanny X-Men #144 cover

Story Name:

Even in Death...


Synopsis

The Uncanny X-Men #144 synopsis by Anthony Silvestro
Rating: 4 stars

A man named Jock Forrester sits in a Florida swamp, having just been told he has inoperable cancer. The creature called Man-Thing approaches, drawn to the man’s increasing negative emotions. A black smoke creeps across the ground and Jock Forrester picks up a gun. Spurned on by the smoky voice, Jock ends his suffering and shoots himself, the smoke overtaking him and reforming into the evil being called D'Spayre. Man-Thing lunges at D’Spayre, who makes Man-Thing feel fear, causing Man-Thing’s own power to cause things that feel fear to burn to effect itself, as D’Spayre takes on the appearance of Jock Forrester, ready to feed on even more pain.

We cut to the ship, Arcadia, where Scott Summers has taken a job on the crew, captained by Jock’s daughter, Lee Forrester. The ship heads ashore to relax at a local bar, where Scott reads a letter he received detailing Kitty’s little adventure last issue. Speaking of, at the Xavier Institute, the X-Men work to get the place in working order again, with Storm leading the others in fixing up the Danger Room. Professor X summons Angel to his study and asks for Warren’s financial assistance in getting the place back up and running. Kitty Pryde arrives with refreshments and Nightcrawler and Wolverine tease her a bit about her destruction of the mansion last issue. Colossus attempts to console Kitty, but she takes their jokes seriously and runs out of the room in tears. Kitty makes it all the way outside where Nightcrawler reappears with her parka. He apologizes for their remarks, reassuring her that they couldn’t be more proud of how she handled things. His words seem not to reach her, and Kurt chastises himself for being so cruel, wondering if perhaps he meant to hurt Kitty, unconsciously.

Back at the bar, the other guys offer Scott to play pool with them and he takes the opportunity to practice his optic blasts. While no one is looking, he very lightly shoots the cue ball with an optic beam, perfectly knocking all of the balls into the pockets in one shot! Lee then asks Scott to accompany her to see her father. They arrive at the big house to find Lee’s father replaced by D’Spayre, who morphs the surrounding area into a tall, foreboding castle. D’Spayre sends out a flash of light and Scott finds himself reliving some of his worst moments. First, Scott finds himself a child once more, having to jump out of a burning plane with his brother Alex, while his parents seemingly perish after the plane explodes. Scott lands and realizes he remembers everything about that day, after the memories had been locked away from him for so long.

Scott then finds himself with Alex, surrounded by Sentinels that look like the new X-Men. They’re forced to destroy them until Alex is struck down and he and the X-Men rise again and taunt Scott about killing them. Scott then finds himself on a familiar cliff-face with Jean, which soon morphs into a church. Jean cycles through her various incarnations, from Jean, to Marvel Girl, to Phoenix, to Dark Phoenix, as she and Scott are set to be married. Jean lifts his visor, much like last time, but this time Scott accidentally kills her with his beam! D’Spayre continues his mental torture of Scott, until Scott jumps out of the window of the castle into the swamp below. There, Scott encounters Man-Thing, and the two take the fight back to D’Spayre. Scott realizes how to beat D’Spayre and thinks of Jean, and the hope she brought him, having shown him the best and worst humanity has to offer. Scott’s refusal to give in to despair causes him to be unaffected by D’Spayre, and his emotions free Man-Thing as well. Man-Thing and D’Spayre burst into flames and Scott escapes with Lee as Man-Thing and D’Spayre seemingly perish, the audience only finding out later that both survived after all.


 

Review / Commentaries


The Uncanny X-Men #144 Review by (October 9, 2024)

Review: Last issue was a Kitty focused one, and this issue we get a Cyclops focused story. It’s the first time we have seen a lot of him after leaving the team, outside of a brief appearance last issue. This issue starts off surprisingly dark, with D’Spayre influencing a man to kill himself, before taking the man’s appearance, all while guest star Man-Thing watches. It’s very grim. The man happens to be the father of Lee Forrester, the captain of the ship Scott got a job on, and so of course they get pulled into D’Spayre’s schemes when they go to visit. There’s some great psychological character stuff for Cyclops, as he’s assaulted with various bad moments in his life. Silver lining though, being forced to go through the plane crash that separated him and Alex as kids caused him to remember the entire event, after the memories had been locked away for most of his life.

Scott ends up prevailing by remembering his love for Jean and the hope she instilled in him. Though he still feels pain over the negative experiences of his life, he doesn’t give in to despair over them, causing D’Spayre to no longer be able to affect him. It’s a very sweet way to show Scott honoring Jean’s memory and the impact she will always have. Scott also gets a chance to show off his secondary power of insane spatial geometry skills, sinking all the balls on a pool table at once with a single, controlled shot. There’s also an interesting little moment where, after he and Wolverine tease Kitty about destroying the mansion last issue, Nightcrawler reflects on his behavior, questioning if he might have meant to hurt her unconsciously. Kurt continues to be the most introspective X-Man, and I’ve always found this interaction memorable, and a natural progression of his and Kitty’s uncomfortable current relationship (it soon improves greatly). Overall, a solid Cyclops focused issue with some great art by guest artist Brent Anderson.

Comments: Art by guest penciller Brent Anderson. D’Spayre mentions he last encountered Man-Thing in Marvel Team-Up #68, also D’Spayre’s first appearance (and also written by Chris Claremont).



> The Uncanny X-Men comic book info and issue index

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Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Brent Anderson
Joe Rubinstein
Glynis Wein
Brent Anderson (Cover Penciler)
Joe Rubinstein (Cover Inker)
Joe Rubinstein (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Angel
Angel

(Warren Worthington III)
Colossus
Colossus

(Piotr Rasputin)
Cyclops
Cyclops

(Scott Summers)
Kitty Pryde
Kitty Pryde

(Kate Pryde)
Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler

(Kurt Wagner)
Professor X
Professor X

(Charles Xavier)
Storm
Storm

(Ororo Munroe)
Wolverine
Wolverine

(James Howlett)

Plus: D’Spayre, Lee Forrester.

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