Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men #107, Uncanny X-Men #108
Cover Date: Oct-Dec 77
Title: "Where no X-Man has gone before!" / "Armageddon now!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Dave Cockrum / John Byrne - Penciler
Dan Green / Terry Austin - Inker

Review/plot:
This two-part arc is essentially the hand-off between Cockrum's first run and Byrne's run on the issue (Cockrum will be back for one more fill-in issue, and then won't return until issue #145).

The X-Men arrive to find Lilandra being sacrificed to an otherworldly demonoid creature by her brother D'Ken, the mad Emperor of the Shi'ar. The Emperor is defended by a, well, legion of super-powered beings.

It is my understanding that these characters are based on the Legion of Super-Heroes. Being oblivious to all things DC, that is meaningless to me. The fight scene is a bit chaotic with all of these new characters, who aren't really properly introduced. It is possible that if readers were more familiar with the Legion, the fight would be a little easier to track. In any event, it almost seems impossible for the X-Men to hold their own due to being hopelessly outnumbered and facing at least one opponent, Gladiator, with Superman-level powers.

In an extended "here's what's been going on flashback" we see a silhouette of an unmasked Eric the Red talking to D'Ken, and based on that chin, i'm going to go ahead and reveal that he is, in fact, Clay Quartermain.

Wolverine's costume gets destroyed in the fight and he bothers to take time out to beat up a Wolfman character named Fang and take his costume. While he doesn't keep the design, that color scheme will become a standard alternate for Wolverine.

Eventually a group called the Starjammers show up and help even out the odds.

After defeating D'Ken's Imperial Guard, the X-Men still have to contend with the Emperor himself. His scheme involved sacrificing his sister in order to activate a device called the M'krann crystal (Oddly, the flashback scene showing D'Ken telling Lilandra about the crystal actually seems to have him discovering a Shogun Warrior).

Its activation causes the universe to blink out of existence. This is detected on Earth, and we get one of those lovely scenes with other heroes reacting to the events.

D'Ken fades away, leaving the X-Men to contend with the crystal's guardians. The first one is a bit of a muppet...

...but he packs a mean punch, knocking Wolverine into orbit to be rescued by the Starjammer's robot, Sikorsky. The second is a big robot, but the X-Men manage to slip past it and enter the crystal.

From here, things go cosmic, and are basically out of all of the X-Men's league except for Phoenix, who is left to repair the crystal.

Jean also learns that Corsair of the Starjammers is actually Cyclops' father. She informs Corsair of the relation, but Scott is unconscious at the time. After the crystal is repaired, the X-Men return to Earth with Lilandra, but not the Starjammers. Lilandra says that she needs to wait for the Shi'ar High Council to sort things out (D'ken has been driven catatonic - offpanel - by the events within the Crystal) so she can return home and claim the throne; in the meantime she'll be hanging out with Xavier.

There's nothing wrong with Cockrum art, but i really like Byrne. There's just something about seeing the standard Byrne facial expressions that makes me go "Yeah!".

This story is very overtly taking advantage of the sci-fi/fantasy wave set off by Star Wars. It really doesn't fit very well with X-Men themes, but it was the right story at the right time because it is around this time that the X-Men started becoming very popular. Of course, John Byrne's art was also a major factor, but the Claremont/Byrne combo alone didn't help Iron Fist. A line by Nightcrawler in the Classic X-Men reprint makes the Star Wars connection even more explicit. Personally, I find the whole M'krann Crystal thing to be kind of dumb, and the big fight with the Starjammers and the Imperial Guard was too chaotic, and i'm not a big fan of the whole 'X-Men in Space' thing, but i'm obviously in a minority on that. There's no arguing with the fact that Byrne's art is awesome and Claremont is great with characterization and dialogue.

Additions to the main stories in the Classic X-Men reprints are mostly harmless. Issue #107 is given an extra scene in the beginning showing the X-Men traveling through the portal, and another with a little more focus on the Starjammers. Issue #108 shows Jean fighting off a Dark Phoenix image as she uses her powers to repair the crystal. Mostly harmless, but steals a bit of the thunder of the real first appearance of the Dark Phoenix. The extra scenes were unnecessary, in any event.

The back-up stories are equally unnecessary. The first shows recent events from Lilandra's point of view, mainly showing when she connected with Xavier's mind. She thinks about her sister Deathbird as well, considering her an evolutionary throwback. The second gives the backstory for Corsair, showing how he met up with the other Starjammers.

Issue #108 ends with a tribute to Dave Cockrum, followed by a note from Cockrum saying "I'm not dead".

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 6 - more on the Shi'ar race. First M'krann crystal. First Imperial Guard, including Gladiator. First Wolverine in brown and tan (Fang) costume. First published Starjammers (i.e., discounting Classic X-Men continuity inserts).

Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place before the X-Men's appearance in Iron Fist #15. It's also worth noting that the editors of Classic X-Men did not bother to reprint Uncanny X-Men #106, which was 1% Xavier dealing with Firelord back on Earth, and 99% a flash-back fill-in, showing the X-Men fighting illusions of the original X-Men from an overstressed Xavier's mind. The scene with the other heroes is relatively context free. The Avengers line-up includes Cap, Beast, Black Panther, Wasp, and Yellowjacket, and the Wasp is wearing a costume i haven't seen before, but that doesn't really mean anything. The Index has the Avengers here after Avengers #166. Note that the FF decide to break up in Fantastic Four #188, which is prior to this arc. But the break-up isn't official until Fantastic Four #191, so they could still be together for this emergency. Mr. Fantastic is not showing his powers.

References:

• Banshee ponders how quickly events have occurred since they were attacked by Mageneto in Uncanny X-Men #104.
  
• Lilandra became aware of Xavier when he marshaled the collective will of humankind to fight the alien Z'Nox in Uncanny X-Men #65.
  
• Jean became the Phoenix in Uncanny X-Men #101.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? P - (Classic X-Men Reprints add new scenes)

My Reprint: Classic X-Men #14, Classic X-Men #15

I don't think they ever did expain why that Shi'ar guy dressed up like and called himself Eric the Red, given that that was a late 1960s Cyclops fake identity.

Some of the Imperial Guard costumes were rejects Dave Cockrum had submitted to DC while on Legion of Super-Heroes.

Here's a guy who's put a lot of thought into the Eric the Red mystery. Pretty sure i don't agree, but it's an interesting read:

http://fanfix.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/who-claremont-originally-intended-eric-the-red-to-be-a-disguise-of-part-1-in-a-series-of-3/

Hey fnord12,

Thanks for plugging my fanfix.

Feel free to drop by and comment or review my others as well.

Thanks,
Nate.

The title to #107 is a Star Trek reference: "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

There's a panel here in Uncanny #107 where Davan Shakari is shown with a male human profile (albeit in shadow).

So was Eric the Red originally intended as a Shi'ar, or something else?

This relates back to Uncanny #97 where, after thirty-six years we still don't have an answer for who was observing Lang! Who was that dude?

I've added the scan of Eric the Red in silhouette.

Clay Quartermain!

You know from my recollection of the profile, I'd almost agree.

Had Cockrum ever illustrated Quartermain before so a comparison can be made?

If Clay, how would you explain him being Shakari, let alone his connection to the Shi'ar?

The exclamation "Sharra!" by some of the Shi'ar refers to Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Darkover" stories.

The Starjammers were supposed to get a 2-part Marvel Premiere shot, but Dave Cockrum never got around to drawing it.

Claremont actually was accused way back then of lifting from Star Wars, but he made clear that this was plotted out before George Lucas met anyone at Marvel.

Mark, I suspect Cockrum's 2-part Starjammers tale is what later became the X-Men Spotlight Starjammers limited series in 1990.

What I never got about the Phoenix retcon is, the whole point of the Dark Phoenix story is that the power corrupted her. So - if you're saying there was never a her, it was really just the phoenix force the whole time - how was it corrupted by absolute power? It was corrupted - by itself? I just don't get it. I know there's the explanation that it immediately convinced itself it really was Jean, and maybe this can technically make the thing make sense, but not really. Here's this force that presumably is Dark Phoenix-y all the time (prior to contact with Jean), that just goes around being forceful and devouring things and making a big show, and - isn't the aberration for this being in fact not its being itself, but its initial interest in playing human? And its decision to commit suicide?

The story simply DOES NOT WORK with the retcon. Even if you get it to technically make sense, or something like sense, the story still means completely different, and perhaps completely OPPOSITE, things, once you make that switch. It remains the worst retcon in the history of comics (though 2nd Genesis is up there).

Here, with the M'Kraan crystal, the macguffin involves "nine deathstars" whose alignment apparently allowed the force inside the crystal to escape. Years later, Claremont did the story involving the Adversary, and we were told that the Adversary first got a foothold in our dimension when Forge cast a spell using the souls of the dead members of his army unit, the Marauders. And then in issue 227, we are told explicitly that there were NINE SOULS used in the spell. When Forge casts the counter-spell with the X-Men, it is depicted as their souls seeming to come together (or align) and becoming a star. So, nine souls/stars align, and in two cases it is to allow for the release of some great, destructive force. Hmmm!

Byrne's first X-Men art(the Beast) was in FOOM#7. Weirdly, he does not appear in the actual New X-Men issue(#10).

FOOM#16 announced a possible X-Men/Avengers battle to happen around this time.

I wonder who stopped it from getting a leg up at the time!?

I really love the Imperial Guard battle and loved it because it was chaotic. It felt like how two teams of superheroes would be fighting, yes there was cordination and orders barked but it felt like I was in the thick of it all when I first read it.

It's interesting when you speak of the standard Byrne facial expressions so positively. I've always found John Byrne's art to be truly exceptional - but (admittedly from my limited experience) unless he's being inked by, say, Jerry Ordway or Kyle Baker, then Byrne's distinctive style of drawing faces has never been my cup of tea. (I wish I knew quite why.)

This is the beginning of an epic run, though... for script/art fusion, the Claremont/Byrne mix is difficult to beat!

I'm in agreement with you, fnord. I like Cockrum, but I absolutely love Byrne. This is the start of my favorite writer/artist run on any comic unless you count the Claremont / Jim Lee first three issues of X-Men as a "run".

I especially like Byrne's art in the scene with the FF and Avengers. I love when major earth-shattering (or universe-shattering) events actually get reactions from other heroes. It's always so ridiculous when a major event happens and it seems like all the other heroes in the MU are unaware of it.

For us who are both Marvel and DC readers, it's easy to spot the Legion of Super Heroes analogies - basically every member of the Imperial Guard has a Legion counterpart. Not surprising, since Cockrum loved designing new costumes when he was on Legion, that he would create a whole Marvel version of them all.

I just realized that Emperor D'Ken's name is basically pronounced the same as "daken", Japanese for "mongrel" (and of course also the name of Wolverine's son). Since the "shi" in "Shi'ar is also a common Japanese word, I wonder if Claremont was dipping into a Japanese/English dictionary for name inspirations at this time.

@Andrew: Yes but which "Shi"? Death, four or city? And if so, what does the 'ar suffix mean?

In The Comics Journal #50 (1979), Claremont reveals that Dave Cockrum and he intended Raza Longknife to be D'Ken's brother who had been almost assassinated, and resurrected as a cyborg.

Do we recall how he acted around Deathbird, since it would seem likely the assassination attempt had been the same one that took out Lilandra's mother and older sister? That is, if Raza was more feral toward D'Ken than Deathbird, this would seem to suggest he was aware that Deathbird was not the one responsible for the attempt on his life and assassination of his mother and sister.

I thought this had already been mentioned here, but I can't find it...

Apparently this introduction and battle with the Imperial Guard was yet another unofficial DC/Marvel crossover, with the Legion simultaneously battling a version of the X-Men in the form of the League of Super-Assassins.

I believe it was said in an interview with the late great Cockrum or maybe it was Claremont, that it took 3 months to script and pencil one book so this three issue arc involving the Shi'ar Empire probably took the better part of a year to plot out. Starting in mid to late 1976 by my estimations, thanks to an interview with Claremont I remember reading a long time ago that mentioned it usually took 3 months to script and finish the art of one issue. Being that Claremont has said the reason for putting Jean in the hospital for 3 issues was due to the X-team not knowing what to do with her, and how to deal with her power set without having the other members of the team seem superfluous, I tend to believe Chris when he said that Shi'ar was in the planning stages prior to Marvel's Star Wars deal.

As for Cockrum leaving, the man was a great artist but it had to be hard for him to balance not only the art duties on X-Men but a lot of the covers for Marvel at the same time. The guy must have been on the verge of a burn out.

Doing some digging, I think Erik the Red was very likely supposed to be Peter Corbeau. It seems he knew way more than he should have regarding various parts of the galaxy, although he did say that the Starcore Staion mapped at half the Milky Way. Of course,his profile matches Erik the Red's shadowy profile. He was also a bit of a longtime character, as he first appeared in an issue of INCREDIBLE HULK that Claremont plotted some time before this, and given his numerous appearances in early issues of the X-Men, he was an old friend of Xavier's and an ally of the X-Men. Him being Erik the Red would have been a big deal. We never saw Erik and Corbeau in the same place at the same time, or in two different places at once. In addition, in UNCANNY X-MEN #107, Erik the Red vanished in the big battle. It's very possible he teleported away using a portal...or maybe his armor had a teleporation device...and went back to the Starcore Station, where he saw him at the end of the same issue. Very curious.

I have always preferred Byrne but Cockrum is excellent. That opening spread blows away anything Byrne did maybe until
The Dark Phoenix saga. I think he is a better draftsmen and better at character design.If only he had been faster he may have become a superstar but that is often what comic art boils down to: speed.

As a Legion fan reading these for the first time, it took me a while to make the connection with the Imperial Guard. The first obvious one was Hobgoblin, a shapeshifter with deely-bobs on his head, which is exactly what Chameleon [Boy] is. I noted the similarity, and then when Wolverine attacked Fang, who looks exactly like Timberwolf, I started looking more closely. At that point you can pick some out -- there's a guy who shoots lightning bolts, and the dude with the starfield on him must be Star Boy -- but nothing as flat out obvious as thise first two, since as you wrote, none of these characters are particularly introduced, nor their powers described in most cases.

Apparently this introduction and battle with the Imperial Guard was yet another unofficial DC/Marvel crossover, with the Legion simultaneously battling a version of the X-Men in the form of the League of Super-Assassins.

This doesn't seem to be the case, as the League only made its debut in 1979, two years after this story was published. Also, while the League has some minor similarities with the X-Men, their powers don't really match the way Imperial Guard matches with the Legion, so most likely it's all a coincidence.

At the time the conjecture (reflected in the letters column of issue 111), was that the Starjammers were stand-ins for the Fatal Five. That would almost make sense, since they were created by now-Marvel-editor Jim Shooter, and you could see a Raza=Tharok, C'hod=Validus, maybe thing going on, but Marvel denied it, and of course there were only four Starjammers, unless you count the robot doctor.

This doesn't seem to be the case, as the League only made its debut in 1979, two years after this story was published. Also, while the League has some minor similarities with the X-Men, their powers don't really match the way Imperial Guard matches with the Legion, so most likely it's all a coincidence.

Point taken on the timing. I thought they occurred much closer together.

But as for the contention that their powers don't seem to match, a big reason for that is due to half of the team being mashups of two different X-Men instead of one-for-one homages. Presumably they just didn't want to deal with nine bad guys over the course of a simple two-part story.

Blok is an obvious Colossus analog. Lazon and Titania are somewhat less-obvious stand-ins for Sunfire and Thunderbird.

But the others...

Neutrax has vision-based powers and the requisite visor like Cyclops while being bound to a chair like Professor X (and did I mention he's the team leader?)

Silver Slasher has Wolverine's blades but actually uses them to propel herself through the air a la Banshee's use of his powers to do the same.

Mist Master combines Storm's weather powers (albeit on a very limited basis) with Nightcrawler's teleportation abilities. Whereas Kurt disappears in a puff of smoke, Mist Master actually becomes that puff of smoke... or more accurately, fog.

Once you see it, you can't NOT see it.