Uncanny X-Men #240, Inferno pt. 1

"Strike the Match: Inferno Part the First"
January 1989

Chris Claremont (writer), Marc Silvestri (penciler), Dan Green (inker), Glynis Oliver (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer), Bob Harras (editor), Tom DeFalco (editor in chief)

Madelyne Pryor and Alex Summers have a midnight date at the Rainbow Room, which is ruined by a group of temperamental scientists investigating paranormal activity at the Empire State Building. When they're thrown out by the maitre d', something bizarre and seemingly fatal happens to them in the elevator, which was apparently caused by the silent command of a vindictive Madelyne. Afterwards Madelyne slips back to New York and fully assumes the mantle of the Goblin Queen on N'astirh's behalf. She shows off her new powers by turning Jean Grey's parents, who very much just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, into demons. Afterwards N'astirh takes Madelyne, who wants to be led to her kidnapped son Nathan, to Sinister's “orphanage,” where she begins to piece together the truth of her origin and runs into Sinister himself, who claims to be Madelyne's “father.” Meanwhile the X-Men finally manage to track their old enemies, the Marauders, to the abandoned Morlock sewers. The inevitable battle eventually erupts into the streets of New York City, where they discover that something rather odd has happened to the city...

What's Important?

Well, on the title page itself the issue is marked as the first chapter of "Inferno", but that doesn't mean much since only issues of Uncanny X-Men are counted, despite the fact that the same core story runs through X-Factor and New Mutants. This issue also has the first appearance of Madelyne Pryor as the Goblin Queen, but that's about it.

Comments

I'm not sure what Chris Claremont originally intended to do with Madelyne Pryor and her marriage to Scott Summers/Cyclops, but I think it's safe to say that what happens in "Inferno" wasn't it. While Claremont might have had his own ideas for Madelyne, there came a bit of a problem when an editorial decree demanded that Cyclops join the other original X-Men, including his freshly resurrected love Jean Grey, in a new spinoff title, X-Factor. How could you make Cyclops join that team, with his previously dead girlfriend, without making him seem like a callous ass for leaving Madelyne? The answer apparently was reveal that Madelyne was Jean's clone the whole time (which was not the original plan), make Madelyne into a homicidal sociopath, and eventually kill her off.

Like I said, even though her costume (which is so scanty one would assume that she needs her telekinetic abilities to keep it on) is absolute cheesecake and her motivations are pure soap opera, I've always liked Madelyne Pryor, even in her 'Goblin Queen' phase. She's actually pretty well-written here, if only on Chris Claremont's side of the storyline. For the most part he succeeds in making her sympathetic, a daunting task what with her scheming to murder her own infant son as part of a plan to turn the planet into a literal Hell. Unfortunately, Louise Simonson later does her best to undermine it over in X-Factor.

As an aside, it's interesting to see the X-Men being quite blunt about the fact that they aren't after the Marauders to stop them from future crimes or to bring them to justice, but for revenge. Claremont is probably just highlighting how traumatized the team was by the Marauders' past attacks during the “Mutant Massacre” storyline, but in a way it presages the new militant “superhero ethos” that would be shown in X-Force several years down the road.

Footnotes

Page 3, Panel 2-Page 4, Panel 5: This is foreshadowing for #244. The bungling scientists, despite all indications, survive the Inferno and, due to its effects on their physiology and equipment, become a team of super-powered mutant hunters, the M-Squad. They never become important except for being the villains in the issue that debuts Jubilee, so...well, they really were never important.

Page 14, Panel 6: The conversation between the Marauders Prism and Scrambler is a hint that when one Marauder dies, they are simply cloned a new body. More on this next issue.