Classic X-Men #6

Issue Date: 
February 1987
Story Title: 
<BR>Merry Christmas, X-Men ... (1st story)<BR>A Love Story ! (2nd story)
Staff: 

Additional pages of First Story :
Chris Claremont (writer), James Fry (penciler), Mike Esposito (inker), Elaine Lee (colorist), Bill Oakley (letterer), Ann Nocenti (editor), Jim Shooter (editor in chief)
Second Story :
Chris Claremont (writer), John Bolton (artist), Glynis Oliver (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer), Ann Nocenti (editor), Jim Shooter (editor in chief)

Brief Description: 

First Story :
The main story is a reprint of X-Men (1st series) #98.
Second Story :
Jean prepares for the date with Scott. She is happy and she expects a lot more to happen than just dinner. Misty Knight is gone for the weekend, so they will have the appartment for themselves. Rigfht on time, Scott picks her up, but the evening ends different than expected; Jean gets captured by the Sentinels. The effects of the battle are felt at Jean’s appartment, as windows shatter and several things fall down. A picture of Jean and Scott shatters beneath a movie poster of “The Phoenix and the Carpet“.

Full Summary: 

First Story :
This main story reprints X-Men (1st series) #98, however there are three additional pages :
One page is set in the battle and follows Banshee and Wolverine into the air. They get attacked by three Sentinels, and Banshee is hit by a blast making him drop Logan. Wolverineis able to slice up one of the robots but then knocked out too.
Later on, we see Piotr and Kurt with the ladies at the South Street Seaport. Betsy and Amanda are flight attendants. They pass a ballett poster with the image of Anya Makarove and Colossus gets sad, remembering his brief relationship with the ballerina. Kurt believes to have met Amanda before, but she says she doesn’t know him. Actually no wonder as Kurt is using his image inducer, yet from her thoughts we find that she does indeed know who he is. Moira MacTaggert locates the two X-Men with her portable cerebro unit, and tells them that they are needed. They excuse themselves to the ladies and leave.
At night while the X-Men do their bast to locate the X-Men we gain insight to the Hellfire Club. New member Sebastian Shaw and his aide Tessa are checking the progress of Lang’s Sentinels, and Shaw thinks that the X-Men will soon be eliminated as a threat. The hooded chairman of the Circle thinks to himself that once the X-Men are finished, he will use the robots to dispose of Shaw and his mutant friends too.
Second Story :
Jean Grey has bought supplies and groceries and is carrying her bags through the snow to her appartment. Once she has closed the door behind her, she uses her telekinesis to lift the bags, and then unpack them all at once, sending the food and bottles flying to their places in the kitchen.
It’s 6 p.m., Jean undresses and takes a hot bath. Half an hour later she is finished and is wearing a bathrobe and a towel on her head. She finds a note of her roomate Misty Knight, telling her that she is gone over the weekend and that Scott called to pick Jean up at 7:30.
Jean takes a look at her calender. The entry reads “Scott Dinner plus ... ??“ She touches a picture of Scott and then telekinetically turns on some music. She takes a pair of jeans, a sweater and some sunglasses and makes them float, resembeling a human figure. Jean then dances with her construct until she hears the clock bonging. It’s time to get ready.
Jean goes upstairs to her bedroom. On the wall is a movie poster “The Phoenix and the Carpet“. She sits on the bed and decides to hide the photography of herself and her parents ina drawer. Lying on her bed, she opens her locker with her powers and has some dresses floating out. Finally she chooses a long black one with a very revealing back. She gets dressed and right at 7:30 she hears the doorbell. Scott is there and he has brought Jean a rose. They embrace and kiss and then Jean telekinetically grabs her coat. They leave the building and she shields them both from the snow.
Later that evening, a large BOOM is heard – it’s the battle between the X-Men and the Sentinels. Apparently Jean’s appartment is very close to it. The window shatters and also a lamp and the pictures fall down. Through the window we see a Sentinels flying upwards, propbably the one who captured Jean. The glass of a picture showing Scott and Jean is shattered, it’s lying beneath the Phoenix poster.

Characters Involved: 

First Story (additional characters that were not seen in X-Men #98)
Edward “Ned“ Buckman, Sebastian Shaw, Tessa (all Hellfire Club I)
Second Story :
Jean Grey, Scott Summers

Story Notes: 

Additional pages of First Story
Piotr met the russian ballerina in the back-up story opf Classic X-Men #5. On the poster her name is mispelled Marakova, though it’s really Anya Makarova.
Shaw’s first name is mispelled as Sebastion, but it’s Sebastian.
Second Story
The story is set immediatly before Uncanny X-Men #98, the last page happening at the same time.
Their is no dialogue in the story, only written notes and sound effects like the clock, the doorbell and the Sentinel blast.

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