Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men #172, Uncanny X-Men #173
Cover Date: Aug-Sep 83
Title: "Scarlet in glory" / "To have and have not"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Paul Smith - Penciler
Bob Wiacek - Inker
Danny Fingeroth - Assistant Editor
Louise Simonson - Editor

Review/plot:
Despite the cover copy on the X-Men Classic reprint, the title of neither issue in this arc is "Altar-cations". But it is about the disruption of the wedding of Wolverine and Mariko. The X-Men arrive for the wedding...

...bringing Rogue along with them. Wolverine isn't happy about that but takes it in stride.

Soon after that, the X-Men are attacked by Viper and the Silver Samurai. First, a direct attack by the Samurai, but Wolverine and Nightcrawler chase him off with an assist by Yukio.

But then the entire team is poisoned by Viper, who has infiltrated Mariko's house dressed as one of her servants.

Meanwhile Mariko herself has left to respond to a summons from a criminal associate of her late father, who is now in cahoots with her brother, the Silver Samurai.

Storm and Yukio help Mariko (Storm is somewhat influenced by Yukio's wild behavior).

Storm's powers have been getting out of control especially since she fought Callisto in the Morlock tunnels...

...and the battle ends in an explosion that seems to represent the Phoenix Force.

Meanwhile, Wolverine and Rogue are able to resist the poison and Wolverine reluctantly agrees to bring Rogue with him to hunt down the pair of terrorists.

The fight ends with Rogue taking blaster shots from Viper that were meant for Wolverine and Mariko.

Wolverine kisses Rogue, forcing her to absorb his healing power. Viper and the Samurai escape.

"A week later", the rest of the X-Men are out of the hospital, and Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor arrive for the wedding. Storm shows up sporting leather clothes and a mohawk, symbolically accepting the fact that she can't always keep her emotions and powers in check.

Kitty is overly offended or hurt by the change in look. Meanwhile, Storm is shocked at Madelyne's resemblance to Jean Grey.

That is quite a reaction if this is just meant to be a casual coincidence, but it's not explored here. It's possible that this is meant to just be part of Mastermind's attack for next arc, but we've seen similar reactions from other characters. As Michael notes in the Comments, there's a similar (if more violent) reaction from Lilandra a little earlier.

There's a cute scene where Kitty asks Maddy to take care of Lockheed for a while, and Maddy's a little freaked out to realize he's a dragon, not a cat.

Then Mariko arrives, only to tell Wolverine that there will be no wedding. "Because, Gaijin -- you are not worthy."

There's enough hints to let a clued-in reader know that a lot of this - Scott's distrust of Maddy, Storm's visions of the Phoenix, and Mariko's sudden reversal on the wedding - are the manipulations of Mastermind.

But there's still a good element of "What the--?" while reading all of this. Good stuff. And Paul Smith's art seems to keep getting better.

Quality Rating: A

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - Despite the fact that they'll later realize it's Mastermind's fault, this issue pretty much puts an end to Wolverine and Mariko's marriage plans. Plus, Storm gets a mohawk.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place after Wolverine #4. The X-Men are in Japan for these issues. Also takes place after New Mutants #5-7; the Silver Samurai learns about his sister Mariko's wedding engagement in those issues and then appears here to disrupt the wedding.

References:

• Storm recognizes the Silver Samurai from the recent confrontation in New Mutants #5-7.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: X-Men Classic #76, X-Men Classic #77

The Marvel Handbook also stated that Sunfire was related to Mariko and the Silver Samurai, which I found a bit too convenient.

Sunfire is described as Mariko's cousin in Uncanny 118.

Mark, it actually has a certain plausibility to it, if we think about there being a strong genetic component to being born a mutant. It's a good way to explain away the seeming coincidences of there being so many mutant relatives.

One scene that you didn't post is Lilandra's reaction to Maddie- she tries to kill her. It's a nice way of suggesting that maybe Lilandra has more in common with her family than she wants to believe.

Wolverine's distracted right now, but it would have been good to get his reaction to Maddie here too.

Rogue's invulnerability--not absolute, but remarkable--is well demonstrated here. Oddly enough, this is a power she gets from Ms. Marvel, but I don't recall Carol ever demonstrating such resistance.

I suspect one reason Colossus gets so much stronger as the years go by is that he has to compete with Rogue: otherwise he'd have the Thunderbird problem of being outclassed by a teammate in every respect. She's tougher and stronger and can fly and absorb powers

Oddly, while Rogue seems more physical than Carol did, she never exhibits any of Ms. M's rather ambiguous precog powers. (Maybe 'cause they'd have made Destiny redundant?)

Nightcrawler tests Rogue for Ms. Marvel's seventh sense power in Uncanny X-Men #192, and the results seem to be positive, but nothing came of it (as far as i know).

Marvel placed an ad for #173 in some fanzines that read: "If you were upset when Dark Phoenix died...you'll really hate what happens to Storm!". I don't know if it appeared in any Marvel books. So, leather and a mohawk is worse than death?

Funny! And odd that they would put the superfluous "Dark" in there. Dark Phoenix going was a good thing; it was Phoenix or Jean Grey we lamented.

My favorite weird ad from that era was the one of Spider-Woman saying, "Hiya, kids! Buy my book!"

Regarding the above post on Colossus, I haven't read comics since the 1980s, but if he has gotten much stronger over the years, that might (accidentally?) be good continuity. In my time, it used to be emphasized that he was not at his peak yet because he was so young; in time he would be a true Marvel Universe strongman contender. (Of course, if he's still being written as "so young" in comic-book non-aging fashion, and he's much stronger...)

At about this time, Marvel announced two other X-Men related mini-series: "Magneto"(no creators listed) and "Angel" by Owsley/LaRocque. I think an Angel story by that team appeared in some anthology book somewhere, but I'm probably wrong.

I can't place any Angel solo stories by Owsley.
Nocenti wrote one in Marvel Fanfare, and I believe the next Angel solo story was by Milligan sometime in the 1990s.

In Defenders #125 and #126, there were references to an upcoming Marvel Fanfare story that never happened. It was supposed to show him recovering his confidence after having been Callisto's prisoner.

So, is it because of Paul Smith or is it because Rogue is now an X-Man that she suddenly is drawn to be much more attractive than in any previous appearance?

These are a couple of great issues but I have to say my favorite part is Lockheed's yawn.

Erik, neither. What happened was this. Rogue's first appearance was supposed to be Ms. Marvel 25. The script to that issue made it clear that Rogue was supposed to be a young girl. Unfortunately, Ms. Marvel was cancelled with issue 23. Unfortunately, and it's not clear if this was Claremont's fault or the editors', in Rogue's early appearances, some of the artists thought the stripe in Rogue's hair was supposed to be a sign of middle age. When Rogue was made an X-Man, the editors made it clear to the artists that Rogue was supposed to be a teenager.

Michael, I'll still chalk at least part of this up to Smith, though. Simonson made it clear not long after this in Thor that he could draw really attractive females (e.g. Sif, Lorelei), but Kitty and Rogue look way batter in these two issues than they did in 171.

On a totally different note, I wonder if the Byrne / Claremont feud is a reason why Jim and Heather Hudson aren't invited to the wedding. Surely Logan is closer to them than he is to Scott, even given their history as teammates.

Though, as I write that, I realize another continuity problem in this period (see also my comments in Marvel Team-Up #135). In the final panel of the Wolverine mini-series, someone who is presumably Cyclops (although his glasses are the wrong color) is with the other X-Men looking at the invitation. Are we supposed to believe that he flew back from Alaska, got the invitation with the rest of the team, then either flew back to Alaska or met Maddy in Japan?

As I read this in real time, mohawk haircuts had long since stopped being shocking. Shortly after this, Jaime Hernandez did a funny bit in Love and Rockets where a bunch of teenagers, one of whom has a mohawk, are trying to scrounge up enough spare change for an adult to buy them beer. Maggie points out how in comics having a mohawk always makes you a bad-ass.

Recently, I looked these issues over for the first time since around when they were published (32 years ago, hard to believe). It surprised me that the big fight between Wolverine and The Silver Samurai occupies only a few pages. In my memory, it stood out so much that I expected it to be more like half an issue. At the time, it seemed shockingly brutal for the comics. Now, probably not so much.

I quite liked Paul Smith's art. Although I enjoyed Cockrum's initial run on the New X-Men, after Byrne (and a guest appearance by the excellent Brent Anderson), Cockrum's work wasn't doing it for me, so guest artists like Sienkiewicz (#159) and Anderson again (#160) were always welcome. Smith helped get me back into the spirit of things with this mag, which had previously seemed so central.

The title of the second issue ("To Have and Have Not") is borrowed from the title of a Hemingway novel, of course ... or, if you prefer, from the much superior Howard Hawks film adaptation with Bogart and Bacall.

That's a good point, why didn't we get Wolverine's reaction to Maddie? Ever. He sliced up a robot Jean in #100 because he knows people by scent. Whether or not Claremont had retconned the Scott/Jean/Wolvie love-triangle by this point, surely Scott, or somebody shocked by the similarities, would ask him. "So Logan, what do you think about Scott's new girlfriend? She smell right to you?" He obviously memorized Jean's scent, recognizing her several times after her 'reincarnation' without actually seeing her.

Considering how much work Claremont put into the title, it's understandable that it takes us decades to recognize the flaws, and it's probable that the title wouldn't have been as good if he wasn't under the restrictions of Shooter-era Marvel and the Comics Code, but yikes. How do the X-Men not talk about this stuff, even off-panel?

I recall a passing acknowledgment in some issue of Uncanny circa Inferno (or possibly X-Factor) that Sinister had disguised Maddie so even Wolverine couldn't tell she was a Jean clone.

I don't recall such an acknowledgement, and I really did try to think of one. Not enough to actually look through my Essential collections, but I really can't think of anything. I think Mr. Sinister said something in the pre-Inferno issues about putting enough work into Maddie to fool a telepath, but fnord's point that we never got Wolverine's reaction is just mind-blowing. Especially with all the retcons.

Is a clone's scent really so different from the original that Wolverine, of all people, never gives it a second thought? Even though Madelyne looks exactly like the woman he loves in a retconned love triangle? And at no point do we see him making the connection?

"Every time I see Madelyne," Wolverine thinks in some random moment in Australia, "she reminds me of Jeannie. But Jeannie died. Yet I smelled her in the Morlock tunnels, and again at Sarah Grey's house. But her scent is totally different. How can two people be so alike yet not smell the same?" Or "Madelyne is clearly not Jeannie, yet they smell so alike. No, I can't think about that. Mariko is the woman I love." Just, you know, give us something.

At the very least, realizing that Madelyne turned out to be Dark Phoenix Resurrected after all, he should have smacked himself in the face and thought "Dammit, I should have seen that coming." Or, as fnord points out, just said "Wow, you look exactly like Jean Grey," and given Maddie a character-building moment to respond. She could have been another Moira Mactaggert. "Why do people keep saying that? I'm Madelyne Pryor and I'm proud of who I am. You wanna make something of it, shorty?" And then show up in her lingerie with a machine gun to help the X-Men fight demons.

Marvel does not treat biology with anywhere near enough seriousness for that to matter, but... it is not really all that surprising that a "designer" clone might have a significantly different smell from that of his or her template.

Madelyne's origin is to this day less than clear to me, but if she was meant to be a clone designed by Sinister in order to look like Jean's living image yet have a conceivable claim at being her own person, it is not inconceivable that he might tinker a bit with her phenotype by way of, say, adjusting her nutrients intake, the bacteria in her body, or whatever.

I don't know however why a telepath would find a clone similar to its template when they have led entirely different lives.

As for Wolverine noticing a similarity of body smells... well, are we to assume that Wolverine has a good grasp of the body odors of women he is not involved with as a matter of course? Personally, I find the implications more than a bit disturbing.

On the other hand, it could make for some interesting interactions with Spider-Woman and her pheromone problem. I know that the two of them have interacted fairly often, but I don't think that matter was ever brought up.

Writers have always downplayed Wolverine's senses when they need an "impostor" plot to work, and with Maddie there's the added complication that she *wasn't* written as a clone originally, which means she must have "smelled different" in the writer's mind.

And by Inferno, where the "clone" retcon is in place, there are so many psychic and supernatural influences messing with the team -- including Maddie herself -- I suppose it can be handwaved as subtle mind control or something.

But Scott DOES say that Maddie smelled like Jean in X-Factor 38.

Yeah, but I don't think he's being that literal. Just bad writing is all.

It's possible to retcon the Wolverine/Maddie relationship. I'm not so much bothered by that, as I am flabbergasted by fnord's point that we never ever see Wolverine meeting Madelyne and giving the slightest thought to who she looks exactly like. Xavier, Lilandra, Storm, and Scott himself flipped out over the resemblance, but Wolverine? Nope, nothing to see here, move on.

Off the top of my head, did Wolverine appear on-panel with Madelyne before #201, when Scott and Storm face off? I know they were in the "X-Men/Alpha Flight" crossover, but I don't really count that story. Other than that story, I'm hard-pressed to think of Wolverine and Madelyne interacting up through the X-Men rescuing her from the Marauders. It wouldn't surprise me if I'm forgetting something, but I'm not forgetting much, and basically Wolvie and Maddie hung out for a long time in the Australian desert without him ever connecting her to Jean Grey. Even though they're clones.

Claremont did not originally mean for Madelyne to be Jean's literal clone? Did we ever learn that?

I don't particularly doubt it so much as doubt that Claremont had a specific goal in mind.

The original early appearances stopped just a hair short of saying outright that Madelyne was in some unexplained way Jean's second coming. To the best of my understanding Claremont intended to leave that very ambiguous for as long as he could.

Claremont has claimed in interviews that no, Maddie wasn't supposed to be Jean.
And aside from X-Men/ Alpha Flight (why doesn't that count, Chris?), in X-Men Annual 9, Wolverine suggests that Loki might be behind the New Mutants' disappearance and Maddie replies that Loki promised never to do them harm, in Uncanny X-Men 221, Logan says he was the one that got the call from Maddie, in issue 222, Logan and Longshot are the X-Men that rescue Maddie. Issue 224 has a memorable scene where Logan doesn't want Maddie to come with the X-Men to Dallas and she insists on coming.

Going by the story alone I've always assumed Claremont's original intention was that Maddie was more or less a normal woman, possibly a latent mutant, who just looked like Jean Grey.

By this point Cyclops was on the way to being written out and I think Claremont wanted to give him a happy ending send-off with a wife that looked like his dead girlfriend. The resemblance to Jean grist for the story mill leading up to the Mastermind fight in #175.

The reason I think she may have been intended to be a latent mutant is because surviving that plane crash unharmed was part of her backstory from the beginning, at the time mostly done to build up the is she/is she not Phoenix reborn mystery. It is also heavily implied in #201 that she used some kind of subtle pyschic influence to cause Cyclops to lose his fight against non-powered Storm.

@Red Comet- no, it isn't. You're probably thinking of a scene in issue 201 where Maddie notices that it was raining as Storm fights Scott. That's explained later in issue 226- although Forge's gizmo prevented Storm from consciously using her powers, the weather sometimes reflected her unconscious moods.
The retcon that Maddie influenced the battle in X-Factor 38 came out of left field. What caused some people to think that it was implied in issue 201 was they remembered the "Maddie and the rain" sequence but forgot that it was already explained- understandable since Claremont waited over two years to explain that scene.

I have no good or rational explanation of why I don't count the "X-Men/Alpha Flight" series. I can't even think of a bad or irrational explanation off the top of my head, except maybe that it always seemed like Marvel was trying way too hard to reunite Claremont/Byrne, and when Byrne wasn't interested, Claremont went ahead anyway. I understand there were publishing issues which put it behind schedule as well. I dunno.

Makes a nice prelude to the X-Men/New Mutants Asgardian adventures, but something about it had never felt as 'real' to me as those Asgardian adventures. Maybe it was the premise. Loki's not going to do a good deed unless he gets something out of, that was blatantly obvious. [Maybe that was the point of ending the Asgardian adventures, that Amara would regain her humanity, but he wasn't so cruel as to make Shan fat again.]

Or maybe it's just that I didn't read it until many years after I'd read X-Men Annual #9 and New Mutants Special Edition #1, so there's the difference in my own age which changes my affection/interest in the story.

Anyway, so it's now established that Wolverine was never seen on-panel with Madelyne until the Asgardian Wars, and he never ever commented on any similarity to Jeannie?

About Maddie, I can take her being a lookalike of Jean, but flying planes just like Scott's dad and living in Alaska just like Scott's family is a bit much for me to accept!

I'm not sure if anyone realizes this or not, but the old guy seen on the pier during the fight between Storm and the Silver Samurai is Mastermind in disguise.

Rogue knew that Wolvie needed a back-up, she helped him sift through the information to figure out the solution, and then there's her 'sacrifice play,' she sounds like Rogue, but acts more like Carol.

"Professor X is a Jerk!" (Ex. #48573)

Why does Xavier decide to send Rogue with the rest of the X-Men to Japan? She had just been accepted at the School. If he's going to send her on ahead of him with the other X-Men (for her safety? Theirs? Or his?), then maybe give Wolverine at least a courtesy heads up? It is his wedding, after all. Surprise uninvited guests are bad enough, but when that guest is someone who almost killed one of Logan's close friends... way to think that out, Professor.

I know - she HAD to be there for the plot. But it just makes Xavier look like he has even less social intelligence than he normally does.

Agree, Rogue should definitely have been assigned to the New Mutants. If Carol is at all dominant, then she'll help train the kids. If Carol isn't there, then Rogue is young and inexperienced enough that she really shouldn't be a burden on the X-Men. Graduate Sam and Dani if the main team is running low on active members, but Rogue should not be an X-Man at this point in her life.

I love Rogue and think she's one of the greatest X-Men ever, but if we treat her remotely realistically, she should absolutely not be an X-Man.

@ChrisW I think maybe the reasoning could be that 1) the X-Men already had some experience training up a less-experienced character, almost like an intern, with Kitty Pryde, who at this point had "graduated" from that status so they could take on another one, and 2) much more importantly, that Rogue could be way too dangerous, because of both her unpredictability and her villainous past, to be added to the New Mutants. Think of the children!

My point wasn't that Rogue didn't belong on the X-men team, but why Professor X felt the need to send her along with the others as an uninvited guest to Wolverine's wedding without even a heads-up. It's almost like he was making a passive-aggressive move to "trigger" Logan in front of Mariko. But this was after the Brood egg had been removed from the professor, so he definitely only has himself to blame for this complete social faux pas.

I was thinking Rogue was over 18 of course she would be on the X-Men and not the New Mutants. But then again Karma was 20 and on the Muties, and I think Cannonball is meant to be 18 too. So I guess the answer is "for reasons."

Rogue is said to be 18 in issue 182, so she might have been 17 when she joined.

J-Rod, that could go either way. Kitty was always getting into trouble. Yeah, she always saved the day, but she was Claremont's pet, and by this point, she'd proven herself. Realistically, the X-Men are usually juggling too many things to handle Rogue as an unpredictable factor as well, and it basically makes the X-Men's job more difficult, as in Dan's example of not even giving Wolvie a 'heads up' or the mystery of what happened when she returned home from "Secret Wars" and met Michael Rossi. I forget, did the X-Men learn anything about #182?

But you're right, she's also too dangerous and untrustworthy to be left at home alone with the X-Babies. I guess Muir Island wasn't an option either. Rogue just doesn't fit in anywhere. :(

Karma was 19 as of New Mutants #2. Sam was 16.

@ChrisW: I think it's that there was no other option for her. Muir Island wouldn't have worked because she needed Xavier's specific help to, basically, get her shit together. Way too dangerous for the New Mutants. And it's generally well within both Xavier's and the X-Men's general ethos to take on mutants who need help. I think her joining issue (171) was really well-handled in that way. So I think it makes sense that she'd end up there, though she probably needed more of a probationary period first. And I definitely agree about sending her to Logan's wedding unannounced. Dick move, Chuck.

On another topic, I really like Madelyne Pryor in these early appearances. I just think her personality is great, as exemplified in that page with Lockheed. And I like her and Cyclops' happy ending. I think it's a shame that so much of that got lost so quickly thanks to editorial. By the time X-Factor was in the works (not even after its launch, but just a bit before that), I think her pleasant personality is largely gone, driven away by Cyclops' absence and emotional unavailability. And of course, when she pops back up again she is effectively a different person, totally understandable given the trauma she's been through. Just kinda sad to see a character like that derailed.

Bringing Rogue onto the X-Men was handled well, and to her credit, she proved very quickly that she deserved to be there, without any Carol Danvers interference. And no, my point was that Muir Island wouldn't have worked either. If Xaviers was run even remotely like a real school, I picture Xavier, Storm, Sam, Dani and Moira in conference with Mojo-like grins plastered on their faces and thinking 'I'm not going to get stuck with Rogue, you guys are!'

For a 1980s superhero comic, the right decision was made. Yay Rogue, we love Rogue! It just takes very little thought to see how this could be a huge disaster the first time there's a fight.

Hahaha, that conference is a fun mental image.

Ultimately, Rogue's joining is problematic any way you slice it. But I can gloss over it all because she turned into one of the greatest X-Men ever. I just write this strangeness off as "Claremont gonn' Claremont."

That's pretty much all you can do. Above, people are citing her age, or Sam and Karma's ages. Those changed too, and it's not really possible to include birthdays to explain it. Both Rogue and Peter are shown to be of drinking age in various issues of "X-Men," Kitty's age regularly got changed around, I think Illyana's did as well (and not for the obvious reason ;) .) Throw in all the other inconsistencies, yeah, Claremont's gotta Claremont.

Kitty's age continued to get changed around a lot long after Claremont. In an issue at the end of Alan Davis' run on UXM and adjectiveless, in 2000, she is stated as being, like, just over 16. I couldn't believe that less than three years had passed since her initial recruitment. Way too much happened in between UXM 129 and UXM 380ish (IIRC, it was either 379 or 389, or X-Men 99). Plus, she was sleeping with Pete Wisdom for a while in that stretch of time. Um.

So yeah, ages for most of our characters are wildly inconsistent. The only thing that really carries through is that Kitty, Rogue, and Peter are on the younger side of the X-Men (at least, until Jubilee), and Sam, Dani, and Karma are on the older side of the New Mutants. That's about it. Exact ages are totally unreliable. Which to continuity nerds like all of us is really annoying.

I think UCM #172 the first issue where Rogue has a single white stripe in the middle of her hair instead of two stripes on the sides? I remember when reading these stories as a kid, it bugged me that there was no explanation for that change, cos I always assumed the stripes were a result of her mutation, so they shouldn't just change place like that! (Has it ever been established whether the stripes are indeed caused by the mutation, or whether Rogue simply dyes her hair?) As discussed above, some readers and even artists seemed to interpreted the two stripes as meaning Rogue is middle-aged (since white hair on the sides is used to denote middle-age in comics, like with Reed Richards or Nick Fury), so I wonder if they were changed to make it absolutely obvious Rogue is still young?

Rogue's entry in the '80s deluxe handbook describes her hair as "brown with a bleached white streak." An unusual fashion choice, but with the streaked area changing as you say, it being bleached makes more sense than being mutation-related would.

Of course, the 2000 X-Men movie had part of her hair turn white from using her powers. It wouldn't surprise me if that made it into the comics at some point, like the dumb idea of Magneto's helmet working like Juggernaut's did.

It's funny how much does this comics plus Wolverine mini before it rely on Japanese stereotypes.

They are really all there. Family Honor. Ninjas. Samurai. Buddha. Japanese mafia. Kabuki. "You are not worthy, Gaijin!". They just missed Sumo fights, Godzilla and something with World War II.

It's never a real Japan, just a western imagination.

But it comes from a good place and not an evil place, so I give it a pass.

I don't think Rogue went to Japan unannounced. Logan seems pissed but not surprised. It seems reasonable Xavier called to say, hey, Ligan, Rogue is a X-woman now and I'd like her to go to Japan with the resto of the team. Not only for bonding sake, the New Mutants are on vacation in Brazil and I don't trust her enough to leave her in the mansion alone.

The question is, where is Illyana? I think she may be in Russia visiting her parents who still haven't met her as a teenager.

Illyana's parents met her as a teenager during Magik #4 which didn't work out. She's either still in the mansion or at Muir Island.

X-Men #173 has one of my favorite covers.

http://marvel.com/comics/issue/13714/uncanny_x-men_1963_173