Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men annual #3
Cover Date: 1979
Title: "A fire in the sky! / Rogue in the house! / Land of shadow -- Dawn of death!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
George Perez - Penciler
Terry Austin - Inker

Review/plot:
Arkon shows up on Earth looking for Thor.

Failing to find him, his wizard directs him to Storm, who he kidnaps after a fight with the X-Men.

He needs someone with lightning based powers to recharge the devices that Iron Man built and Thor charged that keep Arkon's planet from perpetual darkness.

(The plot kind of hinges on the fact that something Tony Stark built just failed. It's unusual for Stark technology to just stop working - was he trying to kill off Arkon's warlike people without letting the other Avengers know?)

The rest of the X-Men head off after Arkon (using his cute little lightning bolts to travel to his dimension)...

...but after fighting through legions of Arkon's barbarian soldiers...

they're convinced to actually help to recharge the devices. Storm somehow super-charges Cyclops, who, on a world with no sunlight was running out of his energy blasts. Cyclops then powers the device.

It's a little odd to suggest that Cyclops can absorb Storm's powers but we'll chalk it up to them being in another dimension.

I'm probably over-interpreting it, but there's a cute scene where it seems Wolverine jumps into a fight with Arkon's soldiers while Cyclops is still mid-sentence through "Okay, crew if these guys want a fight let's give them one they'll never forget."

Overall, a fun little adventure story with nice barbarian art from Perez.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 2

Chronological Placement Considerations: A footnote places this story between Uncanny X-Men #124-125.

References:

• Thor is unavailable, with a footnote saying "For details, see Thor's own mag."
  
• The X-Men still think Jean Grey and the Beast died in Uncanny X-Men #113.
  
• Banshee's vocal chords were injured in Uncanny X-Men #119.
  
• Arkon previously appeared in Avengers #75-76, the events of which Cyclops saw on the news.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: X-Men: Danger Room Battle Archives TPB

"Rogue in the House" refers to the Conan the Barbarian story "Rogues in the House".

I know you've mentioned you dislike the Essentials line, but to read this issue in particular in black and white is to marvel at George Perez's work. The really staggering amount of detail on certain pages is obscured by the coloring.

Dave Cockrum was the originally announced penciler for this.

Per George Perez in Amazing Heroes #50(7/1/84): John Byrne inked p. 37(the one with the Colossus on a Dragon panel).

This book's unaltered cover appears in Amazing Heroes #55.

Not a fan of the Essential's Line? That's a shame since I appreciate a lot of the line art much more. Plus very economical for a college student. Very cool action in this and it starts off Arkon's character development.

I remember having to hunt this down since, annoyingly, the Classic X-Men series didn't reprint the Annuals. Very fun story with great artwork. And they'll return to Arkon's world in Annual #5.

The panel of Colossus riding the lizard is one of two pages inked by John Byrne.

Thank God for all X-Men comics published between 1975-1991

I love how Cyclops takes a broken piece of high tech Tony Stark technical mumbo jumbo planet saving equipment, puts it in front of Wolverine and Nightcrawler and says "here, fix this".

And the two actually fix it by fiddling with it for five minutes!!

That's teamwork for you.

This is the first X-Men annual to contain new material.

Annuals 1 and 2 were 100% reprints.