X-Men #160 “Chutes and Ladders” (December 1982)



Creative Team: Written by Chris Claremont. Pencils by Brent Anderson. Inks by Bob Wiacek.

Theme: Kidnapped by Satan



The Story: The X-Men are living in the Bermuda triangle on the island of R’lyeh from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu horror stories of the early 20th century. (It’s not called R’lyeh officially, but it obviously is, what with all the giant statuary of squid-headed aliens.) Six year old Illyana Rasputin follows a creepy voice down a darkened hall, and she disappears. Kitty Pryde follows her, with the same result.



One of Storm’s many public showers is interrupted by Peter, who can’t find either Illyana or Kitty. Everybody ends up heading down the darkened corridor, and just as with Kitty, discs of light beneath their feet teleport them to separate places in another dimension, Limbo. It’s a creepy maze of heavily carved walls, with the corpses of alternate-universe versions of Wolverine and Colossus decorating various parts.



We first catch up in Limbo with Kitty. She meets a creep version of Kurt who feels her up and then chases her into the throne room of Belasco, Lord of Limbo, who imprisons her in crystal and then tortures her, magically removing her skeleton from her body to leer back at her.



Storm and Colossus arrive in Limbo together at first, but he quickly vanishes, leaving her to attack by a tentacle monster. She loses consciousness and awakens alone in a spa-like environment. Time for another bath! Always concerned with hygiene, that’s Ororo. Rather than put on her dirty uniform, she opts for an even skimpier loincloth she finds nearby, and yes this is as gratuitous as it sounds. To be fair, Wolverine spends most of the issue shirtless as well.



Nightcrawler finds Belasco’s throne room but thinks it unwise to attack him solo. Instead, he tracks the pervy Limbo-version of Nightcrawler and defeats him (kills him?), taking his clothes and feigning his identity in Belasco’s throne room. Wolverine and Colossus find a battle with S’ym, servant of Belasco and a parody of Dave Sims’ ill-tempered aardvark Cerebus. They figure out that the circles of light everywhere are teleporters, so they push S’ym into one to get rid of him for a few minutes.

An old lady version of Ororo teleports Wolverine and Colossus to Belasco’s throne room just as young Storm arrives there as well. Outnumbered, Belasco flees for the moment, giving old Storm a chance to reunites Kitty’s skeleton and body magically, then free her from the crystal. Belasco returns with S’ym and a bunch of other demons. Old Ororo holds them all off while the X-Men teleport back to Earth using an amulet that Storm had found.

At the moment of escape, Belasco is able to grab Illyana for just a moment, and by the time the X-Men pull her through the closing dimensional portal after them, she has aged from six to thirteen. She also has an amulet given her by Belasco. The vertices of its five-pointed star were empty when she received it in Limbo as a child, but now we see that three of the five vertices have been filled with Bloodstones, and clearly something bad will happen when the other two slots are filled.







My Two Cents: Brent Anderson inked by Bob Wiacek? Yes, please! If this counts as a fill-in issue, I’ll not complain. Claremont was known for his elaborate soap operatics unspooled over many issues, but despite having alternate versions of all the heroes except Kitty Pryde, this issue would be an excellent point of entry for any new reader, while introducing elements clearly intended for future use.

Belasco was a relatively new character at the time, having debuted in Ka-Zar #11 (1982). That one was penciled by Brent Anderson, who was also drawing the X-Men Graphic Novel “God Loves Man Kills” (Jan 1983) around the same time. Perhaps this is why he was tapped to draw this “Belasco vs X-Men” story as well. Belasco is as stereotypical a Satan-stand in as could be imagined, with pointy ears, small forehead horns, and a spade tail flickering around his ankles. The only “Belasco” of note outside X-Men seems to be an American theater impresario of the early 20th century who was namechecked by F. Scott Fitagerald in The Great Gatsby.

The idea of an evil “Bloodstone” may have come from the 1975 fantasy novel by that name by Karl Edward Wagner, a medical student who somehow found time to be a novelist in his spare time. I haven’t read the book, but apparently its Conan-like protagonist, Kane, goes on a quest to find a valuable relic (the eponymous gem) only to find that it houses a dark demon god that wants out, or something. It sounds like the kind of thing that Chris Claremont would have read in the 1970s.



The teleportation discs came right out of Larry Niven’s 1970 novel Ringworld, as Kitty Pryde acknowledges on Claremont’s behalf.



Illyana’s rapid aging opens all sort of obvious new opportunities. She’s a brand new character with a connection to established characters yet a mysterious past to be doled out over time. Marvel must have liked the results of this trope, because it was used again repeatedly – for both Nathan “Cable” Summers and Hope Summers, for instance. It’s a pretty obvious idea that doubtless has many previous examples, but if Claremont cribbed it from somewhere, the 1981 film version of Excalibur is as likely a single source as any, since it features Morgan Le Fay aging up Mordred, the child of her incest with her brother King Arthur, to serve as Arthur’s nemesis.

Here’s a weird thing: I somehow acquired the Magik limited series in both trade hardback and trade paperback. The former lacks this X-Men story which is essential to the plot, but the latter contains it. What’s up with that, Marvel?

I suppose since the groping was mentioned (in an oblique way) but not shown, that's how it could pass muster.

Hey, genius IQ and "terrible dresser" can go together! I should know!

I've been debating whether to include the Kitty and Wolverine series. I probably will just for completeness. Others in the pipeline include Beauty and the Beast, Longshot, Firestar, and Fallen Angels, since they all impact New Mutants significantly. The X-Men/Micronauts and Nightcrawler and Wolverine mini-series will not be covered though, at least for now. Some of those were even non-Claremont.

I only bought the first issue of Beauty & The Beast, but I had all the rest. I think I liked K&W in spite of the poor art, although now, yeah, the ninja thing seems a bit much.

I had always though Illyana was kinda useless.. until a few years ago I read this mini.. it's one of my favorite X-Men stories. I'm a suck of alternate versions of stuff of course, but it's also a great tragic story with fantastic character development... it definitely made me a Magik fan.

I have probably read the fewest X-Men comics of anyone who can make a legitimate claim to being a comics fan. My only issue of UNCANNY came from the 'comic packs' back in 1978 or '79...it had Sunfire on the cover...and it didn't last long, as I was 'rough' on comics if I didn't particularly like them!
Never collected the title, spinoffs, etc.(or tried to, even when it was actually possible to follow the saga). Anything I know about the X-Men comes from guest appearances and the 'Official Handbook'(or the 'X-Men-Teen Titans' one shot...and, yeah, 'Obnoxio vs. The X-Men.' There, I read it. ).