'Ou La La... Badoon!' features the return of the barbarian king Arkon, a reminder of that pre-Star Wars era in which sword-and-sandal comics ruled the roost. Arkon first appeared in Avengers #75 (1970, by Roy Thomas and John Buscema), in which he tried to claim Scarlet Witch as his queen. Chris Claremont brought him back in X-Men Annual #3 (1979) in which he... tried to claim Storm as his queen. At least he's consistent! But he'll have to stand in line for Ororo behind Loki, Doctor Doom, Dracula... seems every noble villain was after her in the early 1980s.

Anyway, this time around Arkon himself is captive of the Badoon, the scaly aliens who debuted in Silver Surfer #2 (1968, by Stan Lee and John Buscema). Also captive are three members of the Fantastic Four. Sue Storm escapes their clutches and brings the X-Men to free her family.

On this page, thirteen pages into the story mind you, the adventure begins in earnest. Six X-Men (plus Sue Storm, facing away from us) have just arrived in Arkon's realm and receive sorrowful greetings from Sashia, one of Arkon's courtiers. What a massive pony tail! Princess Leia would be proud. Sashia is rocking a utility belt with pouches, a laser pistol, and not one but two daggers evident in the first panel, though neither dagger is seen in the second panel. Notice too her fingernails, barely protruding beyond the tips of her outstretched fingers in the third panel, with Zip-A-Tone adding metallic texture to her forearm bracer. That panel also plays tricks with its boundaries, with an incomplete border along the edges, and the pony tail barely overlapping the first panel above.

Anderson takes care that each figure in the group shot strikes a distinct pose. Storm is depicted as taller than Cyclops, a little shorter than Colossus. This is consistent with the group shot on the previous page (see additional image). Nightcrawler, portrayed upright for a change, is about as short as 13 year old Kitty, while he was taller on the previous page. Storm's cape billows dramatically behind Cyclops. So impractical, but it always looks cool.

It has its own chapter heading 'The Sundered Realm,' consistent with the Silver Age feel which permeates this one-shot story. The back of the page (see additional image) has a practice version of this cursive title, presumably to get the size and spacing right. However, 'Sundering' was misspelled as 'Sondering.' This error was initially replicated on the front of the page as well, then whited out and corrected. It happens!

The ruined castle backdrop gets plenty of attention in this establishing shot to communicate the devastation which the Badoon have wrought. Check out the fluted columns and the gargoyle head on the wall, and the laser blast craters. The stairwell correctly curves counterclockwise so that ascending attackers have to contend with the wall impeding their sword hand, while descending defenders can swing their right arms freely.

Claremont's typically florid prose is in full effect in the captions. The bottom right margin even has a wry comment in blue pencil about the dialogue-laden panel of Ororo hugging Sashia: 'OBLIGATORY CLAREMONT SCENE.' Hey, it meant that the comic book took more than five minutes to read, OK?

This issue has special significance for me since I had just started collecting X-Men one month before, with issue #149. I was still learning who all these characters were and had no idea about the artists and writers. But I always have remembered this page, particularly the expressive face on the third panel. Note that the monthly book at this point had 'Uncanny' on the cover, but annuals had 'King Size Annual X-Men' on the masthead instead. Both artists would go on to pivotal work in Claremont's X-kingdom, with Anderson producing the seminal 'God Loves, Man Kills' graphic novel the following year, and McLeod co-creating the New Mutants.

It's been noted how ineffectual the FF are in this story, particularly Sue, who despite escaping initial capture proves more of a hindrance to the rescue effort than an asset. Claremont's version of the FF is also distinctly Silver throughout this issue; on the opening splash page, absentminded Reed smokes his pipe, while Sue is in the kitchen fixing everyone dinner. Recall that John Byrne had left X-Men the previous year and was now both writing and drawing the FF. Was this issue some sort of poke from Claremont at Byrne's attempt to modernize Marvel's First Family? Perhaps those details came from Anderson though. Whether that's true or not, the subtext here is that the X-Men of the early 1980s had replaced the FF as Marvel's premier super-team, and it's hard to argue with that.

The top margin reveals that once upon a time, this page sold for $45. It page was auctioned twice in 2022, for rather more than that amount. I thought I won it the first time, but somehow it didn't turn out that way. Second time's the charm! There will not be

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