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The X-Men #108

Dec 1977
Chris Claremont, John Byrne

The X-Men #108 cover

Story Name:

Armageddon Now!


Synopsis

The X-Men #108 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4.5 stars
On the nameless alien world, the X-Men and the Starjammers have defeated the forces of Emperor D’Ken when suddenly the light from the nine mystic Deathstars struck the M’Krann Crystal causing the universe to blink out of existence for a second. Meanwhile, on Earth Dr. Peter Corbeau is briefing the President, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four on this dire threat to the cosmos. Back on the nameless world, the X-Men confront the first guardian, Janf, a gnomelike creature with astonishing strength, who sends Wolverine into orbit with a single punch. Not even a falling meteor can stop Janf; it takes a strongest most focused scream from Banshee to disrupt the creature’s programming. The second guardian then arises, Modt, a massive robot a thousand times stronger than Janf, creating another cosmic blink. Raza seizes the Emperor and hurls him into the Crystal and suddenly the X-Men and the Starjammers are transported inside the Crystal to confront a glowing sphere. There they confront the final guardian: beams of light piercing their minds and recreating their worst nightmares. Jean Grey, however, has already faced and overcome her worst fear: death. She alone has the presence of mind to confront the sphere, but first she must stop Cyclops whose eye beams are out of control. She renders Scott unconscious but his beams have damaged the sphere. Jean enters it in her Phoenix form and discovers that the lattice of energy that binds the universe is breaking down, which will lead to the destruction of the cosmos and the birth of a new one. Jean must draw upon her power to repair but lacks strength; she draws upon Ororo and Corsair (after revealing to him that Cyclops is his son Scott) for the support she needs to reweave the patters to rebind the universe. The X-Men return to Earth through the Stargate, where Firelord tells them that Professor X has explained everything so he remained as guard. Lilandra also arrives through the Stargate, telling them that the experience has driven the Emperor D’Ken mad, and she will stay on Earth while her legal right to succession is established.

Additional Summary by Anthony Silvestro:

The X-Men stare in awe as the M’Kraan Crystal radiates energy, lighting up the sky. The others demand that Cyclops give them all the details about what Lilandra told him in the last issue. So Cyclops summarizes how Emperor D’Ken, Lilandra’s insane brother, has seemingly realized his goal of ultimate power by activating the M’Kraan Crystal, to serve as a gateway to an infinite power source that could wipe out all of reality! Over at Starcore, the United States’ premiere spacelab, Peter Corbeau confers with the Fantastic Four and the Avengers about what the energy readings from the M’Kraan Crystal could mean for the universe, though the source is of course unknown to them. Back with the X-Men, Phoenix wrestles with the information she learned about Corsair last issue when a small being called Jahf makes himself known as the guardian of the gateway, tasked with making sure no one gets through. Wolverine underestimates the tiny creature, allowing Jahf to punch him all the way into orbit, where Wolverine is collected by the Starjammers’ ship.

Meanwhile, Jahf is tossing all of the X-Men around with ease. They try to reason with him, but he claims that his programming means he can’t let them leave. Phoenix pulls an impressive stunt, though still weakened, by telekinetically snaring a nearby meteor from space and dropping it directly on the creature! This turns out to have had no effect and so Banshee swoops in on the creature, with a plan. Having heard Jahf’s comment about his programming, and figuring he’s a robot, Banshee delivers the tightest, strongest sonic scream he’s ever attempted point blank to the creature’s face, finally taking him out! The others check on Banshee, when a second guardian appears, a large mechanical being called Modt, who reveals that a new guardian will appear with each one defeated, until the X-Men are finally stopped!

DKen basks in the glory of his defeat of the Starjammers and his acquisition of absolute power. Colossus points out that the guardian will only kill D’Ken too and the Starjammer called Raza confirms that the Emperor is beyond reason at this point. Raza takes matters into his own hands, throwing D’Ken into the Crystal. There’s a huge flash of energy and suddenly everyone present, aside from the guardian, find themselves in a strange ethereal city with a strange, glowing sphere in the center. Phoenix confirms that they’re now inside the crystal, as she feels life, pain, and beauty emanating from the sphere. Just then, beams of light shoot from the sphere, passing through each person and sending them each into their own personal nightmare. D’Ken sees himself being consumed by his own Soul-Drinker, Nightcrawler witnesses his own friends hunting him down and killing him, much like the villagers tried to do in Giant-Size X-Men #1, and Corsair sees the memory of his murdered wife.

 So it goes for each person, until we see Jean’s nightmare, her own death. However, Jean has already faced this nightmare, having died and been reborn as Phoenix, breaking the sphere’s effect on her. She notices Cyclops, his optic blasts firing wildly, as that would be his nightmare, when his beam turns upon her! It passes straight through her, however, as she finds that she is now ephemeral, knocking out Cyclops to keep him from accidentally hurting anyone else. She enters the sphere, which cancels the nightmare effect on her friends, and finds a lattice of energy, the absolute power D’Ken was after. She senses that it’s dying and sees a vision of the energy imploding all of existence.

Determined not to let that happen, Phoenix attempts to knit the lattice back together, but finds she doesn’t have the strength. Storm then offers for Phoenix to draw energy from her and Phoenix requests the same from Corsair. Pheonix reveals to Corsair what she learned last issue, that he is Scott’s father, as she heads inside the sphere once more. Phoenix uses her power to reform the lattice, with the help of her friends’ energy, with the Phoenix’s bird form spreading out throughout space in a mesmerizing display of power! Their job now done, the X-Men return through the stargate portal to the very roof they left, to find Firelord waiting for them! He reveals that Professor X explained the whole situation to him and that he was guarding the gate until their return. The gate opens once more, and Lilandra comes through, revealing that she is now exiled to earth until the legal matters of her banishment are wrapped up, and admits her love for Xavier. For now, all is peaceful.


 

Review / Commentaries


The X-Men #108 Review by (July 16, 2010)
Comments: This issue marks the first of a long and distinguished run by one of the greatest creative teams ever assembled - Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Terry Austin. Conclusion of a four-part story. Guest stars: President Jimmy Carter; for the Avengers, Captain America, Beast, Black Panther, Wasp, Yellowjacket; of the Fantastic Four, Mr. Fantastic and the Human Torch.

Additional Review and Comments by Anthony Silvestro:

Review: Here we have the big, epic finale of the first big arc in Claremont’s X-Men series. And what bigger stakes could there be than the fate of the whole universe? The most notable thing about this issue is actually that it’s John Byrne’s first issue as penciller, known for being one of the best X-Men artists of all time, and possibly my favorite. His skills are immediately apparent, bringing an extra flair to the art and visuals. Banshee gets a rare shining moment, taking out the first creature guarding the Crystal, and Corsair is revealed as Cyclops’ father! Quite the coincidence they both ended up here, huh? Cyclops also won’t find this out for quite some time, and it’ll similarly be some time before we get more details about the how and why and when.

The section where Phoenix re-ignites the energy source and stops the universe from imploding is a sight to behold, the big fire bird flowing across the universe, expertly drawn by Byrne for maximum effect. It’s a whole bunch of poetic sounding, confusing sci-fi jargon, but it looks and sounds cool and makes for an epic finale, so it gets a pass. This really does feel almost like the ending to a season of a show, with the big epic conclusion, and the promise of a new chapter for the X-Men on the horizon. And what a new chapter, as the John Byrne section of Claremont’s long tenure is often considered the very best of the bunch! There are some truly classic stories right around the corner!

Comments: John Byrne’s first issue as penciller, taking over as the regular artist for the next few years.



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Main/1st Story Full Credits

John Byrne
Terry Austin
Andy Yanchus
Dave Cockrum (Cover Penciler)
Dave Cockrum (Cover Inker)




Characters

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Banshee
Banshee

(Sean Cassidy)
Colossus
Colossus

(Piotr Rasputin)
Cyclops
Cyclops

(Scott Summers)
Lilandra
Lilandra

(Lilandra Neramani)
Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler

(Kurt Wagner)
Phoenix
Phoenix

(Jean Grey)
Professor X
Professor X

(Charles Xavier)
Storm
Storm

(Ororo Munroe)
Wolverine
Wolverine

(James Howlett)
Plus: Corsair (Christopher Summers), DKen, Starjammers.

Thor

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