Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men #123, Uncanny X-Men #124
Cover Date: Jul-Aug 79
Title: "Listen -- stop me if you've heard it -- but this one will kill you!" / "He only laughs when I hurt!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Script
Chris Claremont & John Byrne - Plot
John Byrne - Penciler
Terry Austin - Inker

Review/plot:
Again, Arcade is a villain that just shouldn't work in modern comics, but somehow Claremont and Byrne make it possible.

I'm a little disappointed by the fact that Colleen Wing, a samurai, doesn't manage to escape her trap package and extract a little vengeance.

I'm with Wolverine on this one.

I should note that issue #123 has the scene with Storm coming out of the shower where, in the b&w Essentials, her nipple is clearly drawn, but it was covered up in the original colored books (and my Classic X-Men reprint). No need to reproduce the images here; you can see it at Comic Book Legends Revealed if you are interested.

The Classic X-Men backup in #29 has Colossus going back to the USSR to visit his family...

...and he ends up being accused of being a traitor. The KGB lets him go.

Apparently the use of enhanced power beings in the armed forces is illegal based on a treaty with the US, so it's easier to let Colossus remain a part of the outlaw X-Men (although we know that both sides are in fact in violation of the treaty). The back-up is by Claremont, and it's pretty good. Colonel Alexei Vazhin is a minor repeat character, but his hair isn't usually colored red (which makes him look a lot like Henry Gyrich here).

Issue #30's back-up is by Nocenti, and it's not very good. It's got Arcade being attacked by his own Murderworld program which he apparently set in his sleep.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Spider-Man sees Colleen and Scott walking in NYC and swings down to say hello. Colleen knows Spider-Man from the fight with the Steel Serpent in Marvel Team-Up #64, and Scott last saw Spidey in Marvel Team-Up annual #1.
  

• Spider-Man also recognizes the sound of Arcade's garbage trucks from Marvel Team-Up #65. He thinks to himself "I'll take time out for a quick search -- and then I'd better start making phone calls. I've got a lot of folks to warn." But he's too late in contacting the X-Men - Arcade picks up the phone.
  

• Banshee's vocal chords were injured in Uncanny X-Men #119.
  
• Facing a robot Hulk, Wolverine says he's been waiting for a rematch with the real thing since Hulk #181.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? P - (Classic X-Men Reprints add new scenes)

My Reprint: Classic X-Men #29, Classic X-Men #30

That's Dr. Strange's house in the background of the garbage truck panel.

The title to #123 refers to a 1960s Avengers TV episode.

"Issue #30's back-up is by Nocenti, and it's not very good."

..."Nocenti" and "it's not very good" in the same sentence is redundant, IMO...

This is probably the story that provided the inspiration for the "Spider-Man & X-Men in Arcade's Revenge" video game, but I'll try not to hold that against the comic.

"I been waiting months for a rematch with the Hulk."

And that, right there, is why there is the sliding timescale. Because that battle happened before Wolverine joined the X-Men and we had Christmas in #99 and Christmas again in #119. Years is more like it.

Interestingly, Uncanny X-Men 124 might be one of the first official mentions of the sliding Marvel time scale. In the letter's page, an editorial response to a letter notes that at Marvel, the staff operate under the assumption that only 5 to 6 years have passed since Xavier formed the X-Men, instead of the approximately 15 years of actual publication time. Roger Stern, who was the series editor at the time, probably wrote the response.

We've known Logan's claws are adamantium, but is page 6, panel 4 of #124 the first reference to “Wolverine’s unbreakable bones”?

In issue 116, Wolverine says "The beast ain't been born that can break my bones".

Ah, forgot about that--thanks so much.

Probably the worst issues of the Claremont/ Byrne run, though #114-116 might take it. You've gotta try pretty hard to be a worse villain than Mojo, but Arcade accomplishes it.

Byrne has said he and Claremont felt they could toss off a silly story (not his exact words) because they knew the big, heavy storylines they had coming up. I remember reading this in real time. I had enjoyed Arcade's first appearance in Marvel Team-Up, but I felt a second story would be repetitive, and it would be ridiculous if a team of heavyweights like the X-Men couldn't beat Arcade in ten minutes. I was right on both counts. But of course the worst of the Claremont/Byrne X-Men is still way above almost anything else at the time.