Why is Storm running back to Forge? What’s Nazé’s stake in it? Will the Dire Wraiths successfully invade Earth? Where are the other X-Men?
Click here to read my opinion-free Uncanny X-Men #187 issue summary instead!
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MARVEL STAFF Editor-in-Chief – Jim Shooter Cover Artist – John Romita Jr / Dan Green Writer – Chris Claremont Penciler – John Romita Jr Inker – Dan Green Colourist – Glynis Wein Letterer – Tom Orzechowski Editor – Ann Nocenti
FEATURED CHARACTERS Storm Forge Rogue Nazé Nightcrawler Colossus
ANTAGONISTS Dire Wraiths Hellhounds Deathwings Shadow Beings
Uncanny X-Men # 187 is titled “Wraithkill”, and it’s a pretty wild issue. The Dire Wraiths have stormed Eagle Plaza and they are doing their damndest to kill Forge, and will have no mercy on anyone who gets in their way.
The whole issue is basically one big battle between the X-Men and the Dire Wraiths, but the pacing is partitioned really well between high-energy, fight scenes, and slower, introspective character-building scenes.
The cover art promises some mutant-on-alien action, and we certainly get a lot of it, but it’s never at the sacrifice of plot. It’s not just a lot of fighting, it’s fighting with purpose and with reason and even with character growth.
There are some overarching throughlines that get woven into this story, like Storm adjusting to powerlessness, and Forge finding balance between mysticism and technology, and of course their pained relationship with each other, but all of it fits seamlessly into the fabric of the issue’s framework and feels as though the story couldn’t be told without them.
It’s not entirely an easy, straight-forward issue to read though. It goes off the rails a bit with a sudden psychic merging of souls between the 4 main characters and 1 mysterious “other”, that’s pretty much over as soon as it begins, and it’s not really explained how or why it happened.
I can’t explicitly tell if any of the characters are really changed by the merging, so it felt like a pointless complication that didn’t need to happen, but I’m hopeful that it leads to something.
I am sure it’s a build-up to something greater that will have implications in a future issue, but I didn’t really get it here, and it was the only part of this story that really detached me from its otherwise clear-cut pacing and storytelling.
I can’t say that this issue is one of my all-time favorite ones, but it’s certainly not bad.
I think that I give it a hard time because I don’t really see the Dire Wraiths as x-villains, and so this issue just feels like the X-Men are fighting a battle that isn’t really their own to fight. It feels like Marvel is trying to make the Dire Wraiths and ROM happen, when in reality they should just stop, because the Dire Wraiths and ROM just aren’t going to happen.
Marvel never learns this lesson of not force-feeding us editorial mandates though, and it continues to try to manipulate our tastes in future years.
The most notoriously recent one for us is when it tried to cancel the X-Men in favour of the Inhumans. Inhumans was getting its TV show and Fox wasn’t budging the X-Movie rights and blah blah blah, money money money. Luckily that blew up in Marvel’s faces though, and no matter how hard they pushed, the Inhumans could not eclipse X-Men as a fav-favourite franchise.
They eventually let the Inhumans crawl back to their blue area of the moon in shame, and now we are in a golden era of X-content with like 12 new series on the shelves.
Anyway, this issue is a good read, if not a favorite read, and there’s lots of stuff to enjoy in it.
Here are my highlights from Uncanny X-Men # 187
STORM
This issue marks Storm’s first adventure in powerlessness. Her powers were stripped from her by Forge’s neutralizer gun in Uncanny X-Men # 185, and she has been coming to terms with her new normal ever since.
It took her a while to find herself in the last issue, but she eventually got there, and now she’s acting like her old heroic self again.
This issue showed just how much of a crutch Storm’s powers were for her. She can’t rely on them to help her survive anymore, and she realizes now how dependent she was on them.
Luckily for her though, she has friends like Wolverine who prepared her for a situation like this, and she recalls a time when he taught her the ropes of armed combat.
I hate seeing Storm use something as primitive as a gun, but I think that’s kind of the point.
Wolverine mentions that no one would expect Storm to use a gun, and the even just the sight of her holding it completely disorients me from the Storm that I know, so it’s definitely doing the trick of catching me off-guard.
She may not be able to control the natural elements anymore, but she can still do wonders with the element of surprise.
But navigating the depowered life it’s not just about tapping into new skills. Storm also has to change her baseline way of thinking and how she approaches situations.
There’s a scene when she lures a Dire Wraith outside into the snowy cold, and she ends up nearly freezing to death herself out there. She’s only wearing like a light summer frock in this issue, and It’s totally unsuitable for a blizzard.
In the past that never would have mattered, because her body adjusts to temperatures naturally as a bi-product of her weather control powers. But NOW, without her powers, she’s at the mercy of the same freezing temperatures as the rest of us are, and she has to learn to put that into consideration as she makes decisions.
There is a gross panel in this scene that happens after she grabs a pipe to fight off a hellhound. Her hands freeze to the metal, and she literally has to tear her skin away to pry them loose.
Ugh, it’s so gross, and it never would’ve happened to her if she had her powers, but it’s just, like, more evidence of her new reality, and so she’s gotta find a way to adapt to her new limitations.
The one upside of Storm being powerless is that it’s helping her feel alive. It’s like it’s feeding her soul with new energy.
I can see old, unused neural networks of her brain suddenly firing up and sparking to life. She’s doing things she’s never had to do before, and the new experiences are giving her a new lease on life.
It’s most apparent in this issue after the Dire Wraiths manipulate the elevator cable to grab hold of her. She’s turned upside down, and is separated from Nazé, and even loses her gun in the process, so she’s really gotta do some quick thinking to get out of it, or else she’s toast.
Storm is resourceful and barely misses a beat getting herself untangled. She feels exalted at having survived a life-or-death situation without having to rely on her powers.
She says that it reminds her of her time as a bad girl with Yukio in Japan – and I gotta say, that’s totally the vibe I was getting too, before she even mentioned it!
This issue really shows how competent Storm can be on the field without her powers.
She doesn’t really have time to acknowledge how well she’s doing because she’s too busy fighting for her life, but I doubt she would have patted herself on the back anyway even if she could’ve, because that’s totally not Storm’s style.
She definitely deserves some kudos though, because not just anyone would actively seek out and engage an alien threat, with only their wits and natural strength to defend themselves, especially not in the service of protecting someone who just betrayed you (aka Forge).
Storm is swiftly reunited with Forge after their blowout from last issue. The hurt is still raw for her, but she commits to her role as a hero and protects him.
Things are awkward between them, and Storm doesn’t trust Forge in the slightest, but in her heart she knows that she could never live with herself if she just let him become Alien-dust.
She also wants revenge against him on her terms so to see someone else try to take him out doesn’t really jive with her long-term goals. Oh the complicated lives of mutants…
FORGE
Forge is the Dire Wraith’s main target in this issue, and my god, they hold nothing back. He’s got Dire Wraiths, Deathwings, and Hellhounds all in his penthouse, vying for him.
Forge is the only one on Earth with the power to stop the Dire Wraiths, so that’s why they want him dead.
His mutant ability lets him create any weapon, like the power neutralizer which the Dire Wraiths fear, and it could effectively end their invasion of Earth before they really even get started.
This issue starts to get to the heart of Forge’s character.
Apart from his love/hate problems with Storm, his other big storyline is in regards to him rejecting his past. He comes from a mystical tribal shaman background, but he’s turned away from it all in favour of machines and technology.
The comics haven’t revealed why he’s done this yet. They’ve been hinting that something regrettable happened the last time he used his magic, and it’s clear that there are forces at play pulling him in both directions – some back toward his mystic roots, and others forward with his inventions.
Nazé acts as the anchor to his Cheyenne tribe, whereas people like Val Cooper and the Government are the ones pushing him to be more involved in tech.
Both of his skillsets come in handy in this issue, which is great, but I don’t think it does anything to help him consolidate these two competing aspects of himself. If anything, I actually think that seeing both tech and magic be effective in their own rights complicates things even more for him in deciding which path he should focus on.
The first evidence to support his tech-focused path is when Forge is momentarily incapacitated after the psychic soul-merging.
The Dire Wraiths think they have the jump on him, so they go to attack, but as they approach, his security system flares to life and starts defending him. For all their vaunted power, the Dire Wraiths are surprisingly vulnerable to lasers and gunpowder, and Forge’s machinery really does a number on them.
But then there’s a different scene where Forge uses magic to get the drop on the Dire Wraiths.
One of the aliens casts a glamour over Storm hoping to trick Forge into killing her, and he has to tap into his Spirit-Sight to show him who Storm really is. That’s him using his sorcery and getting results that his tech couldn’t help him with.
Even later, when it looks like dozens of Dire Wraiths have appeared, Forge’s magic eye does it again, and he’s able to see that most of what the X-Men are now fighting are just illusions.
He’s using his sorcery for the first time in years, and even though he swears that it isn’t reliable for some reason, it seems to be doing the trick here.
There’s no way to say which direction is the “right path” for Forge, be it magic or tech. They are both aspects of who he is, so it’s really about him integrating these two halves to make himself whole.
He needs to come to terms with whatever trauma happened to him in the past that turned him away from magic. Somehow, he’s gotta find a way to turn his past failure into a lesson that can inform his present, and better shape his future.
I don’t see him turning away from tech any time soon, so the sooner he comes to terms with his issues, the better and more wholly complete he’ll be.
I think Forge will only ever be as strong as his resolve in this respect, and being divided like the way he currently is, leaves him way too vulnerable and susceptible to enemy attack and manipulation.
DIRE WRAITHS
Even though the Dire Wraiths aren’t really my cup of tea in terms of X-Men villains, I do like them as overall characters, and we get to see how formidable the Wraiths really are in this issue.
They use a lot of different kinds of sorcery, like shapeshifting, and casting illusions, and object manipulation, and generating shields… It’s fun seeing aliens use magic, especially ugly looking ones that aren’t humanoid in the least.
There was a time in Marvel history where Dr. Strange was looking for someone new to take up the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme. There were lots of people nominated on the ballot, including some x-peeps like Magik, Spiral, and Selene.
Brother Voodoo was eventually named the successor, but after seeing what these Dire Wraiths can do, I kind of wish one of them had been in the running, too. It would have been crazy to see a Dire Wraith as Marvel’s next Sorcerer Supreme, and I am all for it.
In this issue, the Dire Wraiths are ridiculously murderous.
They are here to kill Forge, but first they get rid of his security guard, and then they also try to maim Storm & Nazé. There’s no talking out your problems here – either you’re a Wraith or your dust!
The one thing I will say about these Wraiths is that they don’t seem to have very strong defenses. Many times throughout this issue we see them get pulverized by a mere gun blast.
First Forge’s automated security destroys one that teleports in, then Nazé shoots them dead a few times, and then Forge’s security yet again gives them trouble.
For such a powerful species, they certainly are one-and-done in terms of HP.
Maybe that’s part of who they are though – like, since they are mystically-endowed, they are super susceptible to inventions of science and technology, and so that’s why things like guns and lasers are like the best offense against them.
I dunno, if that was the case then I think Val Cooper would’ve just unleashed the military against them to ward off their invasion instead of cooking up a deal with Forge, so I doubt my theory is correct.
If they aren’t inherently weak against Science & Technology, then maybe it’s just a testament as to how powerful Forge’s security tech really is.
Even though these aliens seem super well-educated to me, they are a bit naive in terms of their attack strategies. They keep getting bested in fairly easy ways, like triggering security alarms and falling for holographic projections.
They haven’t spent a lot of time on Earth as far as I know, so I guess they aren’t really familiar with the various ways that humans defend themselves, but sending in a huge horde of their infantry without doing their homework first really put them at a disadvantage in this invasion.
I dunno how much of their species has been depleted after this battle, but if they weren’t facing extinction before, they’re certainly on track for it now, because it looks like so many of them die in this issue.
Even though they came in sorcery a-blazin’, it wasn’t enough to best resourceful humans, and the Dire Wraiths had better retreat and regroup and reconsider before attacking Earth again.
NAZÉ
Nazé is very suspect in this issue.
He saves Storm after her initial fracas with a Dire Wraith, and claims to have had a dream that warned him something terrible was going to happen to Forge, hence why he showed up out of the blue.
Storm buys it, and they team up as they go to rescue Forge, but they get separated and Nazé goes off hunting on his own.
I don’t know a whole lot about Nazé. I think the most we’re told about him in these early issues is that he’s a Shaman from Forge’s tribe, and that he taught Forge everything he knew in terms of sorcery and magic.
He’s the one who is trying to get Forge to reclaim his roots, and is hinting at something terrible to come, though we don’t know what that is.
Apart from saving Storm a few times, Nazé doesn’t really have any other explicit involvement in this issue, except for what appears to be a subtle corruption that creeps over him.
Nazé is the only one who doesn’t exactly seem to be himself anymore after the psychic soul merging between him and Storm and Forge and a Dire Wraith and the mysterious other. But then again, we don’t really know anything about him to begin with, so it’s kind of hard to imply that he’s been changed when we don’t even really have a baseline origin set for him yet.
But I think something fishy did happen to him, because he just abandons the crew in the heat of the big battle against the Dire Wraiths totally unannounced.
It feels out of character because literally the only reason he came to Eagle Plaza in the first place was to save Forge. He’s packing a big gun that he’s ready to use, but when the time comes, he’s nowhere to be seen, and that’s a little bit sus to me.
It turns out that he’s snuck off to Forge’s Eagle’s Nest, which is basically like Forge’s Sanctum Sanctorum – so the nexus of all his power – and he’s doing something…well…we don’t know what he’s doing, but the tone that the comic uses to describe him while he’s there suggests that he’s not doing something very pleasant.
He looks like he’s been possessed with those darkened eyes, and either he’s siphoning off Forge’s power for himself, or he’s manipulating it as a means to achieving his own end.
At the end of the issue after all of the Wraiths have been destroyed, Storm wonders where Nazé is and then like clockwork some Shadow Beings appear from out of nowhere and start attacking the team.
To me, that heavily implies that Nazé was casting a spell to summon these Shadow Beings and attack the X-Men, meaning that either Nazé is now possessed by whatever psychic merging happened earlier, or that Nazé was a bad guy all along.
I like both of those twists.
I feel like there’s a lot of juice in Nazé being cast as a secret villain who’s looking for Forge to re-embrace his mystical ways, only so that he can use Forge in his own evil machinations
COLOSSUS / ROGUE
Colossus & Rogue aren’t in this issue for very long. They arrive just in time for the big boss battle at the end, which is kind of like a trope for the X-Men during this era.
I’ve been noticing that when neither Colossus nor Rogue are the focus of an issue, and if there’s a battle at the end, then suddenly one or both of them can be seen smashing through a wall with reinforcements to help save the day.
There’s a funny Instagram feed that highlights a different Xtrope everyday, and I wonder if they’ve noticed this too? I feel like “#XtropeWallSmash” has gotta be a thing already.
Anyway, Colossus and Rogue show up and join the fray in battle, and even though they don’t make a ton of difference in terms of evening out the odds, it was nice to see more X-Men on the page by this point.
The comics have felt very Storm & Forge heavy over the past couple issues, so seeing more of the cast of characters is definitely welcomed.
I think the main reason why these two show up from a narrative perspective is to re-address Storm’s de-powerment.
Colossus questions why she’s using a gun instead of a lightning bolt to fight off the Wraiths, and so Storm spills the beans on what happened to her, and Rogue immediately feels guilty because she knows the power neutralizer was actually meant to be used on her.
I really love that moment for Rogue. She feels guilty, but it’s not Storm who is laying down the blame. She’s putting it on herself, and that means she really does care about the X-Men and is starting to see them as her family.
Family members sacrifice for each other, and Rogue seeing what Storm gave up for her really hammers home what Rogue must mean to Storm and to the X-Men as a whole. She’s an important member, and even though Rogue lacks the self-confidence to see herself as heroic, the others can see that quality within her and they’ll do anything they can to protect her.
I’m sure Storm would never call it out to Rogue that the only reason she’s depowered in the first place is because she was trying to save her, but I kind of hope that we do get to see that conversation between them. I feel like it would be worthwhile, and one that would help to strengthen this Storm/Rogue relationship that the narrative team has been building lately.
PANELS
Here are some of the fun panels I liked in this issue. There was nothing really subtly funny to highlight, but hey, them’s the breaks sometimes.
5 – Hell on Heels
Storm fighting back against a Dire Wraith with just her wits! She’s a smart cookie to use every weapon at her disposal, and even though actually calls out later in the issue that her heels are holding her back and she ditches them in favour of going barefoot instead, I’m happy that they got to see a little bit of action in the beginning and for Storm to see that they aren’t totally useless.
4 – Death Becomes Him
The Security Guard turning to dust after the Dire Wraiths absorbs him. Yiikes this looks harsh. It makes me feel like something that would happen out of Hellraiser, especially the way the yellow boxes describe it — a moment of exquisite agony and then oblivion. The Dire Wraiths must have such sights to show us!
3 – Wraith Yuck
Storm covered in Wraith Guck! It’s right after Nazé shoots the brains out of the alien attacking Storm, and though she may be safe, there’s now a part of her that will never feel clean and it’s that side of her head right there. What a day to wear the mohawk!
2 – ROM & Starshine
ROM and Starshine showing up out of nowhere to save the X-Men! When this moment happened in the middle of battle I was like, “What?! You’ve gotta be kidding me” They turn to be holograms casted by Forge, which is good because, because it would have been laaaazy writing if they had literally just flown in to save the day. But the hologram tricks the dire wraiths into shooting themselves so it was definitely worth the momentary confusion
1 – Wraith. On. Me.
Storm being ambushed by a Dire Wraith! I think this panel looks really cool, and shows how imposing the Wraiths can be. Their anatomy can sometimes come across as goofy, especially with their long thin razor tongues, but I think the scaling of this panel really goes to show just how scary one would be to see in real life.
NIFTY NOISE
My favourite noise lettering in this issue is the fading “Pom pom pom” of the Dire Wraith trying desperately to get back inside after Storm locks it out in the blistering cold. The way the sound just slowly dies off heavily implies that the Dire Wraith followed suit, and it eats away at Storm a little bit because she has just knowingly killed something and didn’t even think twice about it.
It was a desperate move for her, but also a smart one, because if she didn’t kill the Dire Wraith then the Dire Wraith would most certainly have killed her. Now that’s a Dire situation!
FASHION
There aren’t really any solid fashion moments in this issue, but I’ll give it up to Storm’s Rambo couture.
After she and Nazé find the remains of Forge’s security guard, Storm takes his discarded gun into her possession and straps a whole belt of ammunition around her chest.
There’s something so off about seeing Storm decked out this way. It feels like it’s militant and war-hungry, neither of which term aptly describes Storm at all.
But I think because she wears the belt as a bandolier across her chest, and it hangs like sash around her flimsy white summer frock, it gives me like a sexy huntress vibe. It’s like she spent the day at the park, but also had to hunt for her snacks.
I think it’s fun in like a makeshift momentary panicky sort of way, and definitely not a sustainable costume in the least, but goes to show that there’s still an aspect of fashion to be had even in the most Dire Wraith of circumstances.
ADS
This issue I’m highlighting the official Stuntmen’s Association T-Shirt Ad. Have you ever been so thrilled by action movie stunts that you wanted to wear a t-shirt bearing their organization’s name and logo? Well now you can, with this great offer!
No, it’s not the shirt that the stunt people wore in the movies that you’re buying – it’s the shirts they wear while they are lazing around on set. So even though you may think the shirt can help you survive a burning vehicle accident or a fall from a very tall building, it’s really just meant to be worn while eating donuts and waiting for your call time.
Shirt colors come in black, light blue, or red and they cost between $9.95 and $12.95 depending on your preferred style, T-shirt or baseball length. I love a good ¾ length sleeve, but without at least some measurements here how am I supposed to gauge if we’re dealing with the same sizes? My medium might be your small and etc etc.
I hate ordering clothes online because of fit issues, and lord help me if I ever had to order via comic book ad. Without a return policy, I guarantee the only stunts I’ll be pulling will be turning the page.
X-MAIL
Yet again, there is no X-Mail in this issue. Does anyone out there know why some issues have X-Mail and other issues don’t? I literally thought that every comic book had this page at the end, but it doesn’t seem to be the case on even an alternating issue schedule.
I doubt that they didn’t have enough letters to print, so it’s gotta be something editorial, right? Maybe they just ran out of characters who were willing to be used as mail-call staff. I bet the next time we see the letters page they will be answered by Marvel staff instead of by an X-Man, just you wait and see.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to watch the video version of this post over at my YouTube channel or at the video below:
And in case you missed it, be sure to check out my Uncanny X-Men #187 summary for all the juicy spoilers without any of the opinions!
Uncanny X-Men # 187 – Summary
GREAT TASTE
Use my Amazon affiliate link to buy a copy of this book, or the gorgeous X-Men Omnibus volume 4 collecting this issue and lots of other 80’s treasures!
Storm & Nazé need to save Forge from the attacking Dire Wraiths ; The X-Men show up to help, and then things get even worse!
Uncanny X-Men # 186 – Summary
Storm stays with Forge while she comes to terms with the loss of her powers ; Rogue wants revenge on Val Cooper ; The Dire Wraiths begin their attack on Earth ; Professor X searches for the missing X-Men!
Uncanny X-Men # 187 – Videos
Uncanny X-Men #187 spoilers, summary, and review videos!
Additional Info
Grader Notes
VF/NM (9.0)
UPC
No
Publisher
Marvel
Character
X-Men
Grade
9.0 VF/NM
Genre
Superheroes
Certification
No
Signed
N/A
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