Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men #167
Cover Date: Feb 83
Title: "The Goldilocks syndrome! (or: Who's been sleeping in my head?)"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Paul Smith - Penciler
Bob Wiacek - Inker
Louise Simonson - Editor

Review/plot:
The X-Men return from space, meet the New Mutants for the first time, and stop the Brood Queen in Professor X.

In order to save Xavier, the Starjammers are able to clone his body and transfer his mind to it.

The upshot is that Xavier should be able to walk again, although he's got a psychosomatic block that prevents him from doing so without pain.

While on Earth, Lilandra is contacted by Gladiator...

...who is on Earth because he recently followed some Skrulls to Earth and wound up in a fight with the Fantastic Four. However, he later learned from the FF that they saved the life of Galactus. Lilandra is not at all pleased with this, and she appears to the FF in holographic form, telling them that the Shi'ar will hold the FF responsible if Galactus eats any more worlds. "It is past time the people of Earth realized they do not stand alone in the cosmos, and acknowledged their responsibility to their fellow sentient beings." Haughty and a bit unreasonable, but definitely a cool scene.

Finally, Xavier decides to demote Kitty Pryde to the New Mutants, something she isn't happy about at all.

This was a great issue, wrapping up a couple of plotlines. It would have been cool to see a little more of the meeting between the X-Men and the New Mutants, but there's too much other stuff going on and that will have to happen off panel.

The issue starts off with the New Mutants absolutely riveted by an episode of Magnum, PI.

As Paul mentions below, it's interrupted by the X-Men's unnecessarily dramatic entrance.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - Professor Xavier gains the ability to walk. X-Men return from space, meet the New Mutants.

Chronological Placement Considerations: The X-Men return from space this issue. Has to take place after the Gladiator's appearance in Fantastic Four #250. Generic X-Men appearances have been on hold for quite a while due to the fact that Professor X has been sick and the X-Men have been in space, but with this issue they can start appearing in other books, including Contest of Champions and Hulk #277-279.

References:

• The New Mutants fought the Xavier-Brood in New Mutants #3, but they didn't know what they were dealing with.
  
• Gladiator fought the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #249-250.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: X-Men Classic #71

Not mentioned in your review, but this issue begins with one of the most nonsensical splash pages and fights I can remember. Did the X-Men think the New Mutants were infected as well? Why not just knock?

No mention of the on panel feud between Claremont and Byrne that began in this issue?

I discussed it in the FF #261-262 entry.

This is a case where the illogic of the splash page is contrasted against its awesomeness. I've always loved it.

No mention that Sue Richards sleeps naked? Ironic that this wasn't drawn by Byrne, since he draw Wanda sleeping naked in Avengers.

I seem to recall some complaints in the letters page over Rahne saying Dani's comment was "na' proper" and one sentence later agreeing that Selleck is handsome.

I think we may be supposed to get the impression that Reed and Sue may have earlier engaged in, shall we say, activities that normally take place while naked...

I like the way Byrne and Claremont sparred at each other long-distance like this. That's the sort of thing that helped make the Marvel Universe feel like an on-going event. Not sustainable even for Claremont and Byrne at their peaks, and completely unworkable if other comics had done the same thing, but it helps the sense of realism if the writer of an Imperial Majestrix realizes she's going to be pissed that the writer of Earth's Smartest Man saved Galactus' life.

The scene still works even if this is driven by petty creator rivalry. Even if Reed is ultimately justified because Galactus is "necessary" to the cosmos like the force of gravity is, Lilandra's outrage is totally believable.