The Uncanny X-Men#200

The Uncanny X-Men #200

Dec 1985 · Marvel

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★ Milestone — Scott Summers★ Key event — Scott Summers

About this Issue

Uncanny X-Men #200 represents arguably the single largest shake-up to the X-Men's core status quo between the introduction of the all-new, all-different lineup and the end of Claremont's run: Professor Charles Xavier — the founding pillar of the entire franchise — departs Earth entirely, leaving his former arch-enemy Magneto as headmaster of Xavier's School and mentor to the New Mutants. That structural reversal, years in the making through Claremont's gradual rehabilitation of Magneto from flat megalomaniac to morally complex Holocaust survivor, forced readers to question the nature of heroism, ideology, and redemption in ways rare for mainstream superhero comics of the era. The issue also marks the first appearance of Fenris (Andrea and Andreas Von Strucker), and the simultaneous sub-plot of Madelyne Pryor going into premature labor quietly launched one of the most consequential character trajectories in X-Men history — the birth of Nathan Summers, eventually revealed as Cable. Its thematic weight — a war criminal voluntarily submitting to an international tribunal while extremists try to spark a mutant-human war — gave the mutant-as-minority allegory unusually pointed real-world texture for 1985.

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History

The issue was scripted by Chris Claremont, penciled by John Romita Jr., and inked by Dan Green, with Ann Nocenti as editor and Jim Shooter as editor-in-chief; it was published with a December 1985 cover date and released in September 1985 as a double-sized, 52-page anniversary special. To ground the Paris setting authentically, Claremont traveled through France, England, Spain, and Holland in May 1985 with Romita Jr. and Nocenti on Marvel's expense account, conducting location research. A layer of abandoned ambition lurks beneath the finished issue: Claremont had been quietly building toward a massive multi-year storyline centered on Sir James Jaspers — the reality-warping Marvel UK villain from Alan Moore's Captain Britain run — who appears here as the prosecution attorney and was intended as a teaser for a planned Earth-616 crossover on the scale of DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths; those plans collapsed primarily due to Alan Moore's legal disputes with Marvel, and this cameo is all that remains of the scheme.

Trivia · 8 facts

Published December 1985 (on-sale September 1985) by Marvel Comics; written by Chris Claremont, penciled by John Romita Jr., inked by Dan Green, colored by Glynis Oliver, lettered by Tom Orzechowski; editor Ann Nocenti, editor-in-chief Jim Shooter.
Double-sized anniversary issue at 52 pages — a deliberate milestone format choice for the series' 200th issue.
First appearance of Fenris: Andrea and Andreas Von Strucker, the twin children of Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker, who attack the Paris courtroom to avenge their father.
Professor Charles Xavier departs Earth aboard the Starjammer with Lilandra and Corsair for Shi'ar medical treatment, beginning an absence that spans roughly issues #200–273 — with Magneto installed as headmaster of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and mentor to the New Mutants in his place.
Magneto stands trial before the International Court of Justice in Paris — defended by Israeli Ambassador Gabrielle Haller and Xavier — for crimes against humanity, with Marvel UK character Sir James Jaspers serving as the prosecution attorney (a deliberate teaser for a Claremont storyline that was ultimately abandoned).
Madelyne Pryor goes into premature labor at the X-Mansion during this issue, setting up the birth of Nathan Christopher Charles Summers (who first appears as a newborn in the very next issue, #201, and is later retroactively revealed to be the time-traveling warrior Cable).
The issue directly continues from X-Men Annual #9 and New Mutants Special #1 (the Asgard crossover), with the X-Men and New Mutants teleported by Loki to Paris at the story's opening.
The issue has been reprinted extensively worldwide, including in Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 12, Essential X-Men #6 (in black and white), and in numerous international editions spanning Scandinavia, Spain, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands.