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Uncanny X-Men #204Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men #204 Review/plot: ![]() Because of his mood, he gets into a dumb fight with Amanda. ![]() To help get him back into a swashbuckling mood, the story then has him notice the characteristic "Sflanng!" of Arcade's kidnapping dump trucks... ![]() ...and he heads off to rescue the kidnapee, who seems to be an ordinary New Yorker out for a jog. Arcade's tricks and traps are notably more illusory and larger scale than his normal robots and wacky devices... ![]() ![]() ...which allows Nightcrawler to play the dashing hero role better. But in the end, he defeats Arcade by setting his robot X-Men against him. ![]() After taking Judith home, we learn that she's actually the last of the "Elfburgs" (no word on whether or not they were fuzzy Elfburgs) and Queen of Ruritania. ![]() On the Secrets Behind The X-Men, it's said that this was going to lead to an origin story for Nightcrawler: Uncanny X-Men #204 had been advertised in Marvel Age #36: "It's the start of an epic adventure that will take Nightcrawler from the wilds of Central Park to the back woods of Europe." Even going no further (which seems like the right decision) this story serves its purpose of allowing Nightcrawler to react to the religious implications of meeting the Beyonder and then get back to his core self, and i like the Brigman/Portacio combo. Here's the scene Michael refers to below, which i'm adding mainly because it give me an excuse to include the creepy-weird image of Arcade's face superimposed over a phony brothel madam's body. ![]() ![]() Quality Rating: B- Chronological Placement Considerations: Amanda tells Nightcrawler that she got a phone call from the X-Men saying that they'll be home from San Francisco soon, which seems to ignore the fact that Nightcrawler was reunited with the X-Men in Secret Wars II #9, but it's entirely possible that the X-Men returned to San Francisco References:
Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: X-Men Classic #86 Inbound References (2): showCharacters Appearing: Amanda Sefton, Arcade, Judith Rassendyll, Miss Locke, Mr. Chambers, Nightcrawler CommentsNo outrage over the robot offering Judith a chance to survive if she becomes a hooker? I'm disappointed, fnord. Posted by: Michael | December 6, 2013 10:33 PM The brothel scene didn't bother me at all. Maybe because it's just Arcade, who i never take too seriously, or maybe because i don't really know/care about Judith, or maybe because she just immediately rejects the idea and isn't forced into anything. Interesting that here Amanda says the X-Men will be home soon but in #206 they're considering staying in SF. Some sort of coordination problem related to the aborted Nightcrawler story or just a change of heart on the X-Men's part? Posted by: fnord12 | December 7, 2013 1:52 PM As far as I care I'm siding with Claremont's original origin for Nightcrawler, his father is Callipso who took the form of a male. Hell, as a kid I would have liked it because we wonder about these things with some super powers. Like if Thing has rocky geneitals or what, or if the Pyms used their powers for some naughty things. Posted by: David Banes | February 7, 2014 5:52 PM It was Mystique that Claremont intended to be Kurt's father (Calypso's Kraven's girlfriend). The problem is that Mystique doesn't become stronger when she adopts the appearance of a stronger person, so why should she be able to father a child when she turns into a man? Posted by: Michael | February 7, 2014 7:48 PM It's kind of weak that Nightcrawler's longstanding relationship with Amanda comes to a sudden halt here. It's reflective of the swift and ongoing cast changes the book is about to go through, but because this is her last appearance with Kurt for several years realtime, it makes her come off worse than Kurt in retrospect, which I doubt was Claremont's intent. Kurt says a mean thing and she's just gone and they don't meet until like almost a hundred issues later in Excalibur. Amanda seemed like a more level headed person than to let a single comment to drive her away so long. Posted by: Brian C. Saunders | March 24, 2016 1:37 AM If your girlfriend accused you of roofieing her, would you find it easy to forgive? Posted by: Michael | March 24, 2016 7:35 AM Credit to June Brigman for drawing actual Japanese ideograms rather than scrawling a few squiggles, even if they're just random words. (The yellow banner beneath Nightcrawler saying "fanfare", for example, says 'shop' and 'opposite'.) Posted by: Oliver_C | March 24, 2016 8:51 AM @Michael Depends on what kind of girlfriend she was, how long I knew her, and whether she was going to press charges. My point is, this is like the first fight they ever had on panel, and she's like "Outta here!" She's known him since they grew up together. After a couple weeks Marvel Time, she should have cooled off, since she knows him better than most gfs would. Like Fnord said, it was a dumb fight. Posted by: Brian C. Saunders | March 24, 2016 12:24 PM It's a dumb fight, but she's obviously headed off to work immediately, so she probably won't be back for at least a few days. He was in such a whiny self-absorbed mood, deliberately insulting her, that she probably wasn't eager to pick up the phone immediately. And then Kurt gets thrashed by Nimrod and put into a coma by the Marauders, so that ends that. Why none of the X-Men thought to call her, we'll never know. Posted by: ChrisW | July 10, 2016 8:53 PM Ruritania is the fictional country in Anthony Hope's THE PRISONER OF ZENDA and its sequel RUPERT OF HENTZAU. The Elphbergs (spelt thus) are the country's royal family. Rudolf Rassendyll is the novels' hero. He is British, and his brother is a lord. The Rassendylls are illegitimately descended from an 18th century Elphberg, so Rudolf is a double of the current king, Rudolf V. The first book's chief villain is the king's illegitimate half-brother Duke Michael. The swashbuckling Rupert of Hentzau is one of his agents. So perhaps Claremont intended to reveal Nightcrawler was the son of an equivalent of Duke Michael, and an Elfberg himself (but one without a claim on the throne); or of an equivalent of Rupert. Posted by: Luke Blanchard | October 10, 2017 4:12 AM Comments are now closed. |
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