Just whose life is it, anyways?

Welcome back, everyone and Happy Friday! Today, we're reading UXM #180- a brief interruption from our two weeks of New Mutants stories as we move Kitty and Doug's Massachusetts Academy adventure forward.

This era of Claremont's work is among...

...some of my favorite X-stories. Claremont manages to pack a lot of content into his scripts, and it's always a pleasure to read a Claremont issue whose main antagonist is... feelings.

Our story opens with the Professor, reveling in his rediscovered ability to walk. There's...

...something honestly hysterical about the fact that not even an issue ago the man danced for the first time and has since immediately commission an Xavier School Basketball team banner. https://twitter.com/ConorReadsXMen/status/1380365381639008257?s=20

His game is cut short, however, when a powerful psychic scanning wave knocks the man to his feet.

For the last several issues, there have been random moments of Charles being psychically overwhelmed by some unseen force, a plot seed that will come to fruition by the issue's end.

Uncanny X-Men might be an ensemble book, but there's no denying that Claremont always intended Ororo to be the series' star.

Since her redesign after her flirtatious encounter with the mercenary Yukio, Ororo's identity crisis has only grown...

...despite her best attempts at sincere self-discovery. Kitty's rejection of her new identity- a major component of the story- surely hasn't helped the cause, either.

Ororo is genuinely concerned that something is wrong with her, and it seems like no matter how strong Charles...

...reassures her, her doubt will only continue to balloon.

Over at the mall, Kitty and Doug are kicked out of yet another arcade for being so good at the games that they've driven profits down.

The growing friendship between Kitty and Doug has been a refreshing reminder of...

...Kitty's age, and it's great to see her begin to build a group of peers her age despite her preference toward the older X-Men.

Claremont builds a natural openness and vulnerability between the two- and addresses the emotional confusion building inside Kitty because of it.

Following her parents divorce, Kitty's certainty in the permanence of love has been considerably shaken, but the struggle isn't only hers...

At the mansion, Piotr is chopping down trees to work through his ever-complicating emotions since the team's return from Japan...

Unlike Kitty's openness toward vulnerability, Piotr's resistance to sharing his feelings with Logan is subtly handled by John Romita Jr., who choose to depict the mutant as hiding behind his literally hard exterior, the transformation only taking place as Logan pushes the man.

This era of Claremont's storytelling is greatly elevated by its artists, and John Romita Jr. was an excellent way to follow up on Paul Smith's character-redefining time on the run.

Since swapping out her attic-greenhouse for a colder vibe better suited to her punk look, Ororo...

...has made it a habit of visiting a local greenhouse. For all of her concerns of being disconnected from life, it's clear that the weather witch is still very much in touch with at least some elements of her credo.

The only moments of physical action in the issue...

...take place in the greenhouse, where Ororo intervenes on an active mugging.

Given their civilian nature, Storm holds back her weather manipulation abilities against the muggers. Despite this, we are assured that Ororo is in fact a bad ass and hand-to-hand combat...

...which I guess is just a random thing to include about the character that is DEFINITELY NOT pointing at any soon-arriving future plot lines for the character.

The tragedy of the scene though is in watching a woman formerly worshipped be recoiled from instead.

Returning the the mansion, Ororo listens in to Kitty's plan to safely escort Doug to the Massachusetts Academy.

While her earlier moments in the issue centered her young age, her speech before the team centers her maturity and a fledgling adeptness at strategy.

In an easily missed pair of panels, Charles reveals that the Academy's interest in Doug may in fact be derived from his mutant identity.

Kitty is shocked, and I wonder if Kitty would have preferred Doug stay human and separate from her world.

Ororo is uncomfortable...

...with letting Kitty march off into danger, but ultimately supportive of her plan.

But, before she can leave for Massachusetts, Ororo sweeps Kitty miles into the sky for a wildly overdue confrontation about her rejection of Storm's new identity.

Kitty's emotional response- while definitely disproportionate given the circumstances- is compounded by her parents' recent divorce and her own fears that love (including the platonic kind) is impermanent.

Her grief over Storm's transition has far less to do with fashion...

...than it does with an overwhelming fear of change.

Kitty is still trapped in that all-consuming self-centeredness of adolescence and personalizes Ororo's change in a way that makes complete sense for the character while being completely irrational.

Admittedly, I am glad...

...that UXM #180 brings some form of resolution to the tensions between the two, because if I'm being frank, Kitty's attitude was quickly becoming... grating.

The two women embrace- not as mother & daughter- but more importantly, as friends.

Kitty still might not understand...

...but she's at least willing to try.

Kitty & Doug board the plane for Massachusetts (which given the fact that they live in Westchester is completely unnecessary but I digress...) and arrive at the Academy, only for Kitty's worst suspicions to be confirmed:

Emma Frost is back.

But we'll have to deal with that in another issue, because it seems like the team is headed ...somewhere?

(They're heading to space for Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars, a 12 issue toy commercial written by Jim Shooter that I will not be covering.)

Tomorrow: NM #15! Bye!