Uncanny X-Men #248

[iamrman]

Behold the focused totality of Betsy's swimming abilities!

Nanny also captures Dazzler and Havok.

Help! Nanny has fallen and can’t get up!

*slow hand clap

Well done, Alex. Okay, it turns out to be a Life Mode Decoy, but seemingly killing the leader isn’t going to do your reputation any good. At least we are spared any angst, because the X-Men yeet themselves through the Siege Perilous shortly after thus.

Comments

[blues32]

...waaaait, how did a Life Model Decoy control the weather?

[dianakingston]

It didn't - the LMD is just the body they find, Nanny and Orphan-Maker grabbed Storm and ran off with her

[blues32]

Ohhh...is she going to get de-aged or was that just a thing that happened in X-Men Forever?

[iamrman]

Storm does get de-aged and starts running around with Gambit.

[dan_ingram]

Not creepy at all!

[dianakingston]

That's pretty much her status quo from the end of the Outback era to X-Tinction Agenda, yes

[scorntx]

Y'know, sometimes I get this feeling that maybe, just maybe, Chris Claremont didn't like Havok terribly much.

[beyondthefringe]

This was so very much a Claremont story, oh yes.

Love how Dazzler didn’t just tan, she practically got a race switch from living in Australia.

[dan_ingram]

Well, his pet character Storm did propose killing Alex to protect him from the Marauders...

[onsokumaru]

This and Wolverine trying to murder Rachel were maybe the most WTF moments of Claremont's run. Like he wanted to add some drops of edgyness, but he accidentally droped the whole bottle.

[dianakingston]

Pretty sure that was Psylocke, not Storm. Not that Betsy was any less a pet character of his at the time, but still

[dianakingston]

Or, conversely, that he liked Havok very much - Claremont tends to put his faves through the wringer one way or another

[scorntx]

That's why I'm so uncertain.
It's hard to tell Claremont putting a character he likes through the wringer apart from Claremont putting a character he hates through the wringer.

But given how he treats Havok, not just here but in general, with the repeatedly doing stupid things, being a jerk, or getting brainwashed / manipulated (with an honourable mention to X-Men: The End), it really doesn't look like he likes him.

[dianakingston]

The thing is, Claremont was still very much the Big X-Cheese in the Australia era (Bob Harras was only just starting out as editor, they weren't butting heads just yet). So it's not like Havok joining the team was mandated from above - if Claremont sincerely didn't like him, why bother using him in the first place? He'd have given that spot on the roster to a different character.

[viridian5]

And those tendencies often stick with Havok even with other writers to this very day.

[onsokumaru]

I love pre-Image Jim Lee so much! For me, him and Silvestri were at their peak at that time.

[huntleyhaverstock]

Dear Chris Claremont:

Please stop de-aging women, physically or mentally, into children.

Love,
Everyone

[scorntx]

"Alright, fine. ... but I'm still going to keep having villains brainwash them! Mwa-ha-ha!"
- Chris Claremont, probably.