Bizarre Adventures #27

History

The issue was published under Marvel's black-and-white magazine imprint — the successor to Marvel Preview, which had been renamed Bizarre Adventures beginning with issue #25 in March 1981 — and was edited by Dennis O'Neil with Jim Shooter as editor-in-chief and Ralph Macchio as associate editor. The three stories were produced by separate creative teams: Chris Claremont wrote the Phoenix lead with pencils by John Buscema and inks by Klaus Janson; Mary Jo Duffy wrote the Iceman story with art by George Pérez and Alfredo Alcala; and the Nightcrawler story was plotted by Duffy and Bob Layton, scripted by Duffy, and drawn by Dave Cockrum with Ricardo Villamonte on inks. Paul Gulacy provided the full-color painted cover. The magazine format, unbound by the Comics Code, allowed a more measured, graytone storytelling pace than the standard monthly X-Men book could typically accommodate.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First solo story for Phoenix (Jean Grey), written by Chris Claremont with art by John Buscema and Klaus Janson, framed as Sara Grey visiting Jean's grave after the events of X-Men #137.
• First appearance of Annie Richardson — the childhood friend whose death in a car accident first activated Jean Grey's telepathy — a piece of Jean's origin that Claremont would reference in 'Inferno' and which became foundational to her backstory.
• First solo story for Nightcrawler in the Marvel magazine line, written by Mary Jo Duffy and Bob Layton with art by Dave Cockrum; plot elements carried forward into the Nightcrawler limited series.
• Iceman solo story written by Mary Jo Duffy with art by George Pérez (inked by Alfredo Alcala), set during the Winter Carnival at Dartmouth College; later reprinted in color in the X-Men Rarities trade paperback.
• The Phoenix story established that Jean's telepathy was innate and native to her mutant biology — not 'borrowed' from Xavier — and that Xavier suppressed those abilities with a mental block until she was mature enough to handle them.
• Issue also constitutes the first appearance of Sara Grey in a substantial speaking role, with her concern about her children being mutants seeding continuity later resolved in X-Factor.
• Each story was preceded by a proto-Official Handbook 'data log' character profile — an early example of Marvel systematizing character information inside a story package.
• Stories from this issue have been collected in multiple formats: True Believers: Phoenix – Bizarre Adventures #1 (2018, first time the Phoenix story appeared in color), Phoenix Omnibus (2021), X-Men Epic Collection Vol. 8 (2021), and The Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 2 (2014).

Cast · 17 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Bizarre Adventures

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#25 1st appearance — Lady Daemon