Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #149

Issue Date: 
September 1981
Story Title: 
And the Dead shall Bury the Living
Staff: 

Chris Claremont (writer), Dave Cockrum (penciler), Joe Rubinstein (inker), Glynis Oliver (colorist), Janice Chiang (letterer), Louise Jones (editor), Jim Shooter (editor in chief)

Brief Description: 

Kitty makes herself a costume and intends to show it to Xavier but accidentally shortcircuits his computers when she phases into his office. She gets yelled at and the other X-men try to cheer her up. Later Xavier sends the team to check out Magneto‘s antarctica base and Kitty stows away in the Blackbird. Once there they run into Garokk, who survived the fall into the shaft from which Storm could not save him (Uncanny X-Men #116). He quickly defeats the team and attempts to throw the unconscious Ororo into a similar shaft, but when Kitty causes him pain by phasing through him, both he and Ororo fall. The X-Men are able to rescue Storm since her fall was stopped by a ledge. On the mysterious island in the Bermuda Triangle, Magneto provided Scott and Lee with clothes and says that he knows who they are so Cyclops could remobve his blind fold, as his mutant powers won’t work anyway.

Full Summary: 

Xavier reviews all the data that they have on Magneto. Though they haven’t heard from him since his base in antarctica was destroyed by lava, Xavier is sure that Magneto is alive and up to something. Kitty phases into Xavier's office calling herself Sprite. She wants to show him her new costume that she's designed (it’s modeled after Dazzler’s outfit, Kitty saw her perform last issue). She phases through Xavier‘s computer and short circuits it in the process. Xavier yells at her. Kitty offers to help him fix it, saying that she's a whiz at computers, but he telepathically yells some more and tells her she's done enough, and that a personal costume is something that is earned.
Kitty leaves angry. She phases into the Danger Room, where the X-Men are making repairs. Storm notices Kitty first and they all try to cheer her up. As Nightcrawler wants to say something about Kitty’s costume he gets a samll electric bolt from Storm, remining himn to say nothing if he can’t say anything nice about the outfit.
Later Xavier sends the X-Men on a scouting mission to search the remains of Magneto’s antarctica base. Kitty hides in a locker and tags along. Wolverine finds her and Storm reprimands her for sneaking aboard.
Once they reach Magneto's old base (beneath a volcano) they enter it through their escape tunnel from the last time they were there. Apparently the base is not as destroyed as they thoughht, and also somebody must habve been there in the meantime, as the place has been cleaned and machines have been removed. The team splits up to search more space at once. While alone, Storm hears her name whispered by a familiar voice : Garokk, whom the X-men encountered when they last where in the Savage Land. Storm remembers how he fell down a shaft, she tried to save him but paniced because of her claustrophobia and failed to rescue him. Ororo can‘t see anyone around and plays the voice down as her imagination.
Colossus and Kitty went off together and end up being attacked by Garokk. He knocks Colossus out, but Kitty phases through him to get away, in the process hurting him. He smashes a hole in the wall to release lava and kill Kitty. Elsewhere Storm realizes what's happened when she feels the wave of hot air and whips in some cold air to freeze the lava. Ororo’s power stop the lava, but Garokk takes out Storm by throwing the unconscious Colossus against her. Nightcrawler and Wolverine come to her aid, but are attacked by the villain too. Evidently he fell into some hot lava and half his stony body melted into some crystal form, which he now uses to create blinding light. Having surprised the two X-Men, Garokk can defeat them.
Kitty survived the lava by phasing into a wall. When she catches her breath she heads off in the distance of the fight she can hear going on. Garokk is about to throw Storm into a pit as a revenge for her failure, when Kitty has Wolverine throw her at him. She phases through him causing him more pain and both Storm and Garokk end up going into the pit.
Kitty air walks down with a flashlight to see if she can find Storm, and she does so on a ledge. Garokk lunges at her and Kitty phases, he falls to his death. Kurt 'ports Storm to safety and they return to the Blackbird.
On Magneto's Island Cyclops and Lee are dressed up in bizarre outfits for some reason. Cyclops thinks to himself that if Magneto finds out who he really is that they're both dead. Magneto shows up and asks if they slept well, he then shocks Cyclops revealing that he does know who he is by saying that he can remove his blindfold because as long as he's on the island his optic blasts won't work.

Characters Involved: 

Colossus, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde / Sprite, Storm, Wolverine, Professor Charles Xavier (all X-Men)

Aleytis “Lee“ Forrester, love interest of Cyclops

Garokk

Magneto

Story Notes: 

While thinking about Magneto, Xavier makes flashback references to :

Uncanny X-Men #1 (first battle between X-Men and Magneto)

Uncanny X-Men #4 (first battle between X-Men and Brotherhood of Evil Mutants)

Defenders #16 (regressed to an infant by Mutant Alpha)

Uncanny X-Men #104 (restored to adult by Eric the Red)

Uncanny X-Men #111-113 (battle at his antarctica base)
Storm failed to save Garokk from a deep fall in Uncanny X-Men #116.

Issue Information: 

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