I'm loving this Fan Fic. In an alternate timeline, it's July of 1980 and my 14 year old self is catching the bus home from Geppi's comics at Baltimore's Harborplace with a BIG smile on my face.

Never thought you would use MODOK in a X-Men comic. Just goes to show me that you can make ANY CHARACTER work.

Thanks for bringing back that love for comics that I had 39 years ago.

...if I only had some penny cookies and a cold bottle of Coke......

I am a long-time reader and a first-time poster on this forum.  I am late to the party since the most recent comments on number 1 are more than 4 years old by this point.  It is such a wonderful gift to have new pencils and story by John Byrne on these classic characters!

This first chapter is a lot of fun.  I love the organic storytelling here with a nice balance between the story being told visually, without too many captions and thought balloons intruding to describe what you can already see in the artwork.  Since this picks up after the original unpublished version of number 137, I might have expected this story to dwell more on Scott's angst at the loss of Jean's adult persona.  This story is more interesting for not giving us what we expect, and it is consistent with Scott's professionalism as a leader in dealing with crises first and rarely, if ever, letting his personal feelings interfere with the best interests of his team and their survival.  The aftereffects of Jean's situation are not ignored either as we see her parents and sister asking Xavier questions for which he has no answers.  This chapter begins and ends with Lilandra foreshadowing future developments which reminds me how the original series was rich with emerging subplots.  It is interesting to see how Sprite and Nightcrawler's powers are slightly different here from later versions of the characters.  These characters still ring true to the ones I remember from so many years ago but there are some unexpected twists and turns in their interactions together.   Who knew that Wolverine tripping Sprite would result in her phasing out of the Blackbird and lead to a search for her in the Savage Land?  Like others have commented, I also really appreciate the staging on panel 5 of page 26 where Nightcrawler teleports from one point to another in the same panel.  John used this technique before in the original series and it always works well because the eye is drawn from left to right as we experience the artwork.  The panels on page 28 where Peter transformed gradually from metal to flesh and blood were also a nice touch.  The plot here delivers several surprises for the reader, and the story is that much more interesting as a result.

The appearance of MODOK and A.I.M., and their experiments on Karl Lykos are also interesting.  Sprite trapping MODOK in a wall with her phasing abilities was clever and a good example of the X-Men succeeding through teamwork.    You mean to tell me there are thirty-some more chapters after this?  I cannot wait!  Thank you, John Byrne!