The Uncanny X-Men #217-218: Folly's Gambit / Charge Of The Light Brigade

Writer: Chris Claremont
Artists (#217): Jackson Guice & Steve Leialoha
Artists (#218): Mark Sylvestri & Dan Green
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorists: Oliver & (#217) Scotese

Author Chris Claremont appears to have spent part of his life in Scotland.

Narration: "This time of year, this close to the top of the world, the nights are long, the days mostly twilight. Roughly 500 miles from the arctic circle, the air is raw, searing the lungs and shocking the system fully awake with the first breath. It hurts... yet, perversely, it also feels good."

This somewhat personal account segues two scenes featuring the star of our two-parter - Alison Blaire, aka the Dazzler.

I say it like that perhaps because I'm the sort of forgetful reader who needs these namechecks, especially since every time I see this character, she seems to be drawn differently. I'm not aiming that at any artist in particular, just all of them except the very first one. There really should be some more continuity to this girl's appearance.

After all, comic-readers love continuity and, by extension, crossovers. These make all the isolated stories seem a lot more believable. After all, real life has oodles of continuity, and crosses-over into other people's real lives all the time.

The Marvel Universe is astonishingly good at this, particularly in the mid-1980s era that I've been reading recently. I guess I shouldn't really have been so surprised then, when issue #218 featured not just Dazzler, whose Secret Wars II crossover I'd recently read in October, but also the jammy Longshot, whose entire mini-series I'd perused about a week later.

AND Elizabeth Braddock, now calling herself Psylocke, after her adventures with (and without) her brother in Captain Britain Monthly, also enjoyed late last year. Unexpected one that - she had arguably become the property of Marvel UK by that point.

AND THEN I spotted Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart off of Doctor Who...


Also to be uncovered like Easter eggs, are Sergeant Benton, the Juggernaut, a line about Captain Britain, and even Edinburgh's Dark Carnival science fiction and fantasy bookstore. (I assume it was a real shop)


All in all, Chris Claremont seems to have been writing about whoever and whatever made him happy.

I sincerely hope so. I think that's usually the best attitude.