Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men #220
Cover Date: Aug 87
Title: "Unfinished business"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Marc Silvestri - Penciler
Dan Green - Inker
Terry Kavanagh - Assistant Editor
Ann Nocenti - Editor

Review/plot:
Storm decides to go force Forge to give her powers back, and she tries to put Wolverine in charge of the X-Men while she's away. Wolverine doesn't want the job, in part because of the way he's feeling (after the dual hits of Malice and the scents of Jean Gery) and it part because he's not the leader type. Storm nonetheless all but forces him to accept. Their conversation gets quite physical.

The rest of the issue is Storm exploring Forge's now derelict building, which replays holograms of scenes we've scene before. Mostly from the original Forge/Storm meeting in #186 (to the point where you feel like Claremont may be indulging in reliving past glories a bit)...

...but also the scene where we see demons against the backdrop of the Vietnam war, with Storm emphasizing that the two pieces do seem to be part of the same event.

Storm finds a champagne bottle that she thinks may have been the same one she drank from during that first visit with Forge (which could be the case, but it would mean that Forge doesn't clean up after himself, considering he had a number of ROM appearances after that)...

...and then she finds a hologram of Forge bound to a wall and obsessing over her.

She then encounters what seems to be Naze, the old Native American who we know from issue #188 was first killed and replaced by a Dire Wraith and then possessed by a greater demonic force. But he's still pretending to be Naze here, and he convinces Storm to accompany him on a mission to save Forge and the world from a being known as the Adversary.

Which is in fact what Naze really is.

My complaint here is similar to what i've been saying about X-Factor. Seven issues after the Mutant Massacre, the team is not at all engaged in searching for the Marauders. It's all well and good for Storm to want her powers back, and perhaps - although it's not said - it's because she thinks she'll need the added power to fight the bad guys, but looking at this from a plotting perspective it's a long ambling road to nowhere similar to a 1970s Roy Thomas saga. Storm's adventure here will lead to the next big X-Event, Fall of the Mutants, but that just makes matters worse in terms of any resolution to the Massacre storyline. The Massacre has simply become a Thing That Happened instead of a thing that the heroes will respond to. Their own injuries and the deaths of many Morlocks aside, we also have Sara Grey missing, Karma's siblings missing, and Polaris missing (which either the X-Men know about or, worse, Havok hasn't called home since joining the team). When the plotlines do advance, it's happening by accident. Next issue, for example, we'll see a return of the Marauders, but it's not due to the X-Men's search (for example, they're not acting on the information that Wolverine and Psylocke worked so hard to get in issue #213). Instead, Wolverine gets a call from Madelyne Pryor. And last issue we saw Storm saying "The X-Men must die" but that's again not something that will happen due to a choice on their part; it's unintended fall-out from Fall of the Mutants. Claremont isn't letting the heroes act of their own accord - he's instead cluttering up their time with these other events, like this one which has sat idle since issue #188 - but he's nonetheless dragging them to where they need to be according to his broad outline. It's especially ironic in light of Storm's resolution at the end of issue #216 to be proactive.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - info on the Adversary and Forge's background

Chronological Placement Considerations: Four days pass during the course of this issue as Storm travels to Forge's building in Dallas. Storm leaves the team beginning this issue and not returning until Fall of the Mutants, meaning that any X-Men appearances that include her in other books (namely Uncanny X-Men annual #11 and X-Men/Spider-Man #2) must take place prior to this. And since X-Men/Spider-Man takes place after Kraven's Last Hunt, so must this.

References:

• Storm lost her powers in Uncanny X-Men #185 thanks to a Neutralizer that Forge designed.
  
• Uncanny X-Men #186-188, said to have occurred "months ago", contain the Lifedeath story that has Storm and Forge's first meeting and burgeoning romance and then the attacks by the Dire Wraiths and the Adversary.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Storm is really gullible in this story- Naze admits that he set the automated defenses on her and she isn't suspicious. I get the point- Storm is too bitter over Forge's actions to think rationally- but it gets ridiculous in future issues.

Boy, the Summers brothers sure have problems keeping track of their significant others. First Scott with Madelyne, then Alex with Lorna.

This is where my interest in the X-Men flatlined. Too many unfinished plots, Silvestri's unimpressive art--Storm's gigantic Mohawk, the Blob becoming a 12 foot giant, caricature faces, etc. I never really did get back into this title after that.

Well, we did see in the previous issue of this title that Havok did try to call home when he got to New York and that he couldn't get through. We also saw that the Marauders destroyed their house. He assumed that it was the typical bad connection problem they've had with phone service out in the desert. Again, it seems, like in X-Factor, they keep getting hit with crisis after crisis and never get around to finding out what happened to the person they can't get ahold of.

That's a good point Jay. I did like this period because both x-books had a Summers family member in it. It did get a little weird when Alex hooked up with Maedelyne later on during Inferno.

Amazing Heroes #115 joke listing:"If you liked the New X-Men and the Classic X-Men, you'll love this issue, which introduces...Diet X-men and Caffeine-Free X-men."--Claremont/Davis

plus:
TEXAS CHAINSAW MUTANT MASSACRE #1"In this six-issue mini-series, more mutants bite the dust!"---Claremont/Starlin/Milgrom

Amazing Heroes #117 stated that this issue was part one of a 6-issue story called "The Reality War", but I don't think it was actually referred to that way in any Marvel publication.

And, a full screen later on fnord's 1987 page, we finally go from #219 to #220. They really shouldn't have made it so widely known that Alex would be joining the team. Since it took Claremont months to actually getting around to doing that, so many damn issues have to be shoved between last issue and this one, because here Ororo leaves and the next time they meet up with her, they all die. So every time an X-Men team with both Alex and Ororo appears it has to be between these two issues.

This wasn't the last time something like this happened- in Excalibur's run, a lot of stories had to be shoved after Girl's School From Heck because it's the only time in over a year that Kitty was (a) on Earth and (b) with Excalibur.

@Erik: Claremont himself bears some direct responsibility for that since he wrote two of those stories, FF/X-Men and Annual 11.