Posted in: Comics | Tagged: chris claremont, christmas, uncanny x-men, x-men, X-ual Healing - The Weekly X-Men Recap Column

Celebrating The Time Kitty Pryde Ripped Off Alien for X-Mas in Uncanny X-Men #143

Merry X-Mas, dear readers! Or Happy Holidays if you prefer. During this happiest time of the year (relatively speaking), we figure it's as good a time as any to revisit one of the happiest times in comics, which is, of course, anytime the legendary Chris Claremont is writing the X-Men. Of course, there's no reason Chris Claremont couldn't still be writing an X-Men comic right now, since Marvel pays him a retainer to be exclusive to Marvel. Nonetheless, they choose not to assign him an ongoing book, presumably because, Grinch-like, they despise X-Mas and everything it stands for.

But we're not here to complain about that (today). In the true X-Mas spirit, we're taking a look at three classic Claremont X-Mas tales, plus one with no Claremont at all, in this X-ual Healing: A Very Claremont X-Mas special!

Look, you're the one reading comic book websites on X-Mas.

If you're just catching up, we already look at Uncanny X-Men #98 here.

This classic X-Mas tale by Claremont, John Byrne, Terry Austin, Glynis Oliver, and Tom Orzechowski begins with a flashback to Uncanny X-Men #96, where Storm battled the N'Garai demons on the grounds of the Xavier Institute, where, for some reason, there was a cairn that served as a portal to their dimension. The cairn was destroyed that issue, but apparently, it wasn't the end of the portal, as a creature resembling the Alien from the movie alien escapes and begins killing people, starting with a couple looking to cut down a Christmas tree.

In the present, at the X-Mansion, Professor Xavier makes the newest X-Man, Kitty Pryde, learn the ignition procedures for the X-Men's Blackbird jet. The X-Men all have plans for Christmas Eve, with Kitty staying home alone. Wolverine has brought his girlfriend, Mariko Yashida, to meet Professor X, and when Nightcrawler flirts with her, Wolverine goes nuts and tries to kill him.

Everyone calms Logan down, but if you thought the X-Men were relatively accepting of their teammate trying to kill his friend right in front of everyone, you should see the way Nightcrawler encourages Kitty after she uses that misseltoe to steal a kiss from Colossus. Kitty is thirteen here, and Colossus is an adult.

The X-Men all head out, leaving Kitty home alone. She fields a call from Scott Summers, who has taken a leave of absence from the X-Men, and who meets up with Captain Lee Forester for the first time, taking a job on her ship. Back at the mansion, Kitty does a training exercise in the danger room until she's alerted to a security breach coming from Storm's attic apartment. She heads upstairs to find the skylight broken and a hideous monstrosity ready to attack.

A chase ensues, with Kitty trying to outsmart the monster using her phasing powers, but it turns out the N'Garai is capable of reason. It can also hurt her, even while she's phasing, paralyzing her arm. Kitty leads it into the Danger Room where she uses the room to attack it, but the monster survives. Luckily, Kitty has recently seen a movie in theaters that might provide the solution to her problem…

So Kitty leads the N'Garai into the hanger, where she makes use of those Blackbird ignition procedures she was conveniently learning in the beginning of the comic to incinerate it with the Blackbird's jet. The next day, the X-Men return, and Professor Xavier has brought along Kitty's parents as a special Chanukah Surprise (apparently Christmas and Chanukah happened on the same day in 1981 or something.

Though an obvious rip-off of the movie Alien, Claremont and Byrne worked around it by admitting it right on the page, and Uncanny X-Men #143 went on to become a classic, even references as the codename for that Kitty Pryde movie Fox was going to make with "The Great One" Brian Bendis before the whole Disney merger thing. It's also one of Marvel's most beloved holiday issues.

Read this one on Marvel Unlimited.

We hope you're enjoying your holiday, and if you need another break from obnoxious relatives, check back here later as we look at more classic Claremont X-Mas comics.

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