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We kick off with Doom and Arcade celebrating their victory over a cup of mulled wine (fetched by Doom's Stormdroid, which he put together with suspicious speed). I still don't quite understand exactly what's going on here. Arcade is upset that the X-Men didn't beat Doom, even though he was never a prisoner in the first place. So what is this? A bet, perhaps? Doom implies that Arcade really is on his enemies list (for not being respectful enough). Is this a contest, somehow? I'll admit to being confused.
Not so confused as the X-Men are, though; they've been placed in another assortment of fiendish traps, this time designed by Doom. Presumably he wanted to show Arcade exactly how it was done, but whether or not these trials are any better designed than Arcade's efforts, they're certainly not any more interesting. Well, OK, I do like Nightcrawler's - he's just inside an opaque box, with no idea of where he is or how much air he has. Sooner or later he'll have to teleport out blindly, and hope he doesn't materialise inside anything. It's nice and simple.
Whilst her teammates are trapped in boxes, fun houses, and bird-cages, Storm is stuck inside the chrome statue Doom made out of her last issue. That's enough to mess with anyone's head, but Storm's severe claustrophobia is making it all the worse, and as a result, there's a hell of a storm brewing outside. It stretches all the way to the Bahamas, giving the shipwrecked Scott and Lee a fresh headache, and it's building all the time.
But what about the second team, sent to locate Murderworld? Turns out they did OK, using Polaris' magnetic powers to find the tunnel from the fairground the X-Men escaped too after their last tangle with Arcade, back to his HQ. Of course, finding an international assassin's hidden underground base and destroying an international assassin's hidden underground base are very different things, as Beta Team discover when they're captured almost immediately (though Lorna has enough time to severely damage the facility's power systems). This, of course, is Banshee's second involuntary stay at Murderworld Towers. I presume there'll be a complementary breakfast before he's slaughtered.
Muderworld might be new for everyone else on the team, but we've been here before. It's just more of the same. Which isn't a phrase you'd think I'd use about a comic in which a robot ice hockey team is dissolved by acid, but there you go. There's at least a twist this time, in that Miss Locke has seemingly released some of the hostages into the complex so they'll be squished unless the team can save them, but they inevitably turn out to be robots anyway (doesn't everyone these days)?
Eventually Havok gets loose, and destroys the control room, making mopping up pretty easy. By the time the team depart, however, they too are caught in the gargantuan storm building above the Eastern seaboard. Doom is watching that same Storm from his castle, musing on what it means. Arcade, however, has noticed something a little closer to hand: Nightcrawler has teleported from his cell...
Clues
Some of this issue takes place simultaneously with the second half of UXM #145, and the rest takes place immediately after.
Date
Sunday 6th to Monday 7th of February, 1983.
X-Date
X+4Y+313 to X+4Y+314.
Compression Constant
1 Marvel year = 3.63 standard years.
(Shadowcat is 22 years old.)
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| Doo DOO doo, doodleoo... |
Chrissie Hynde and Ray Davies become parents.
Michael Patrick Bilon passes away. He played the eponymous character in E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial.
Standout Line
"Thanks for the light."
I cannot for the life of me understand why Doom doesn't immediately kill him in outrage, but you have to give even the unlovable Arcade respect for using Doom's armour to ignite his matches.
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