Awesome / X-Men (Chris Claremont)

The Phoenix Rises from the Ashes.

X-Men (Chris Claremont) is absolutely chock-full of incredible and exhilarating moments, usually with tons of set-up before hand.

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• Shortly after we meet Moira McTaggart for the first time, a monstrous N'Garai demon calling himself Kierrok the Damned busts into the X-Mansion. What does Moira do? Cower like a good Damsel in Distress? Nope! She pulls out her machine gun and cuts loose.
  • Incidentally, Moira's OHOTMU profile gives her a "fighting skills" rating of 2 precisely because of this, rather than the 1 a normal research scientist would normally merit.
• Colossus in the story arc "Mutant Massacre". When both Nightcrawler and Shadowcat are disabled, he slowly walks to Riptide, who is launching deadly projectiles at incredible speeds, grabs him by the neck and snap it, killing him. The cold look of steel (pun not initially intended) is his CMoA.
  Colossus: "HARPOON! Make peace with your gods, little man! YOU. ARE. NEXT."
  • Doubles as a Tearjerker: This is Colossus. The Heart of the X-Men. Seeing him driven to literally murderous rage…well, this was a tough storyline all around, but that line really sells it.
  • Shortly after that, Storm is leading the injured X-Men and Morlocks out of the tunnels, and tells Wolverine to take one of the Marauders as a prisoner for interrogation. He asks about the rest. Storm's response: "One prisoner is sufficient. The remaining Marauders are yours."
  • There's also Psylocke holding off Sabretooth. This was before she got ninja skills - she had no particular combat skills back then. Sabretooth chases her, and despite taking some serious injuries, she stays alive long enough for Wolverine to arrive. Then, as Wolverine fights Sabretooth, she uses the opportunity to read Sabretooth's mind. Her actions were enough to get the rest of the X-Men to accept her as a member.
• Another Colossus moment fairly early in his career. After evading or defeating all the other X-Men, the incredibly powerful body-snatcher Proteus is about to kill his mother, Moira only to be hurled aside by Colossus into a wall, which destroys the rotting body he is inhabiting and revealing his true form. Proteus retaliates by simultaneously turning the air around Colossus into living flame and telepathically making him relieve the memories of his brother dying in a fire as well and then promising to kill his friends after he's done with him. Colossus, who hadn't transformed before Proteus' assault, is on his knees and Proteus is going in for the kill...
  Colossus: "You...enjoy causing pain...death. Before I met you, I never understood...evil. You are evil, Proteus. But you have made a fatal mistake. You toyed with me when you should have slain me, allowing me time to change from Peter Rasputin...to Colossus! That mistake will be your last!"
  Colossus slams his metal fists into Proteus' energy form (which is vulnerable to metal), destroying him instantly in a spectacular explosion.
• Kitty Pryde tends to collect these:
  • The first is in Uncanny X-Men #143, in which Kitty is staying alone at the mansion on Christmas Eve. A N'garai demon attacks the mansion and, after spending most of the issue doing escape-and-evade through all the walls and floors of the house, and luring the demon through a maximum-hazard Danger Room sequence that still fails to put it down, Kitty finally manages to sucker it into following her into the hangar — where she punches the engines of the X-Men's SR-71 "Blackbird" to full afterburner. While the demon is standing directly behind the plane. Final scorecard: Kitty 1, N'Garai 0, X-Mansion minus several million.
    • Parenthetically, Wolverine's gaping shock at the beginning of next issue at just how thoroughly "one cute kid" managed to total the entire mansion was also a Funny Moment.
    • What makes this moment even better? Earlier, Xavier was thinking of demoting Kitty to the New Mutants, thinking she wasn't ready. In one issue, she proved that she was cut out to be an X-Man.
  • The second is a non-violent example of a CMOA, in ''ComicBook/NewMutants'' #45. The whole issue is sort of a Very Special Episode about racial slurs/labels, because the story deals with a transfer student named Larry Bodine who is secretly a mutant but attempts to crack "mutie" jokes with the New Mutants; he thinks it will help him to fit in. Naturally, this backfires and they all start ignoring him, which culminates in Larry committing suicide when he thinks (due to a cruel prank by some of his classmates) that the "mutant extermination team" X-Factor is coming to get him. The last few pages contain Kitty's speech to her classmates at Larry's memorial, concluding with the words:
    Kitty: You want to know who I am? I'm Katherine Pryde. That's the only thing that matters. The rest are just labels.
  • In the ''God Loves, Man Kills'' graphic novel, Kitty pwns (and seriously pisses off) popular anti-mutant preacher William Stryker. The scene so far: Rev. Stryker is making a speech to an admiring crowd at Madison Square Garden. The X-Men, having won through various obstacles backstage, confront him on-stage. Cyclops tries to argue with him, contending that mutants, while different, are as human as anyone. An outraged Stryker indicates a particularly demonic-looking Nightcrawler.
    Stryker: Human?!? You dare call that — thing — human?
    Kitty (passionately): More human than you! Nightcrawler's generous and kind and decent. He had ever reason to be bitter — every excuse to become as much of a demon inside as out. But he decided he'd rather learn to laugh instead. I hope I can be half the person he is. And if I have to choose between caring for my friend and believing in your God, then I choose my — my friend!
  • A somewhat minor one, but Kitty calls Professor X a jerk directly to his face.
• Storm getting at a lockpick in her headdress and opening her shackles with her mouth while reduced to the physical level of a six-month old. Absolutely. Awesome.
• Tied somewhat to the one above, during the "X-Tinction Agenda" story arc, Gambit took a projectile spike to the thigh, hindering his mobility. Later on, the depowered X-Men are shackled to the wall, about two feet from the ground. Cyclops looks over at the Cajun and says "It's time, Gambit." (Which was pretty awesome of Cyclops, incidentally, figuring out Gambit's plan and calculating the time Psylocke would need to make her move.) Gambit proceeds to lift his lower body upwards into a jackknife position, pulls the spike out of his thigh WITH HIS TEETH, lowers his body, spits out the spike...and catches it between the insoles of his feet! He then proceeds to lift his body into a jackknife position again, and using only the insides of his feet, PICKS THE LOCK WITH THE SPIKE. As he clicks free, he smiles at the others and goes "Voila, mes braves! Beat that, Stormy."
• On the non-powered side, Dr. Peter Corbeau sneaking the X-Men onto the space shuttle and arranging an emergency launch to save their friends. And flying both the positions of both Pilot AND Commander.
  • Also, he crashed the shuttle right through the wall of the bad guy's space station. And there wasn't a blasted thing the Sentinels could do about it.
  • Corbeau was the one who realized that the Sentinels' base was on a space station to begin with and got the news to the X-Men after surviving a Sentinel attack that sunk his motorboat and swimming miles to shore through shark-infested waters.
• X-Men is full of Crowning moments of awesome that are hardly remembered because they aren't done by the characters the writers give all the 'good powers' to. Examples?
  • Also of note, the nameless police officer who shot Reverend Stryker during the God Loves Man Kills storyline. Nobody's going to shoot a defenseless girl on his watch. Granted, if Stryker had actually shot Kitty, she would have phased, but still.
• In the issues directly following the original Wolverine miniseries, the entire team was poisoned by The Viper as part of a Yakuza plot. Of the team, only Wolverine, Storm, and Rogue are even halfway functional. Each has their own CMOAs in this issue:
  • Storm teams up with Yukio and leads the Yakuza oyabun (actually Mastermind in disguise) on a wild goose chase.
  • Meanwhile, Wolverine, though badly ravaged by the poison, gives the Silver Samurai a definitive No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, even taking a katana to the gut.
  • Rogue then flies in and takes a sustained laser blast from the Viper, using herself as a human shield to buy Wolverine and Mariko time to flee. She holds it, even though in visible agony and at the very limit of her invulnerability, until the Viper's laser explodes, and she and the Samurai escape.
  • Finally, Wolverine, who throughout the two issues had been seriously contemplating killing Rogue or allowing something else on the mission to kill her for him (the former due to her treatment of Carol Danvers, an old friend, the latter due to her cavalier attitude making her something of an albatross around Wolverine's neck) kisses her to transfer his healing factor to her, even though he too was in severe danger of death. He did this because of her unconditional willingness to sacrifice her life for Wolverine's fiancee. To his mind, that act cancelled all previous grievances he had with her.
• While Carol was acting more on Revenge Before Reason, there is still the Catharsis Factor of her (in her Binary form) punching Rogue (with her old Ms Marvel powers) into the orbit when she meets her for the first time in years.
  • The scene just hits you like bomb. One panel, Binary walks into the room where rogue is. The second, Rogue is in orbit.
  • Rogue gets one for not retaliating in kind when realizing who her attacker was, especially when she was livid with anger moments before. Carol is almost entirely justified in her action, and Anna knows it.
• In 1985's X-Men Annual #9, Kitty Pryde doesn't hesitate for a second to threaten Loki with all sorts of trouble if he won't let the X-Men and New Mutants return to Earth. Even Loki is grudgingly impressed.
• Don't forget the time while Professor Xavier was comatose and Mastermind made everyone believe he was the still-evil Phoenix, he lured every member into the Danger Room, and took them down one by one - including Storm and Wolverine - but more importantly, he made them start doubting their eyes. And in a pure stroke of genius, Cyclops forced Rogue to touch Xavier so she can could read everyone's mind and realize what's really going on. This my friends, proves why Scott is the Leader of the X-men. See the fight here.
• Also, one from decades ago, when the X-Men have been defeated by Proteus, Scott picks a fight with the entire team — starting with Wolverine — and defeats them single handed in order to help them focus. While knowingly risking being carved to giblets by Wolverine (who he deliberately fights hand-to-hand).
• Scott had an awesome moment at the end of God Loves Man Kills. Professor X was hooked up to send his psychic energy out to kill all nearby mutants and time was running out. He gives Wolverine the okay to have Nightcrawler teleport him next to Charles and kill him and then turns his head to the side and fires a beam. Cue that beam bouncing off reflections while Wolverine's attempt fails and he is mind bolted. With Xavier distracted he doesn't realize until too late that the optic beam will hit him and is hit across the jaw and knocked out. Wolverine was just a distraction and Cyclops pretty much created a plan before Xavier could detect it and before Cyclops himself could think of it!
• ''X-Men#96.'' Storm destroys the Cairn.
• ''Uncanny X-Men#97.'' Storm dueling with the brain-washed Polaris. When Polaris condescends the confrontation, the enraged Storm completely defeats her:
  Polaris: We're too evenly matched, Storm. I guess we'll just have to call this game a draw.
  Storm: A...Game? Is that all this is to you, Polaris- A Game?! You attacked us without warning, without provocation. You sought our deaths without a thought for the innocents that might be endangered- even slain- by your attack! And you dare call this- A Game!?! This is No Game, Polaris!
• ''X-Men#103.'' Storm is rendered catatonic by her claustrophobia and chained up with the rest of the X-Men. One look at the real sky, however, breaks Storm from her funk. She instantly summons up a hurricane and frees herself and her teammates.
  • When Colossus is finding difficulty removing Wolverine's Leg chain, Storm- a past lock-picker- simply opens it.
• ''Uncanny X-Men#142.'' Storm reasons with Wolverine about using his claws on an unarmed opponent:
  Storm: Wolverine. Sheathe your claws.
  Wolverine: Not a chance. We're in the middle of a fight, Storm. I'm in no mood fer debate.
  Storm: Sheathe them, or use them on me.
  Wolverine: That can be arranged, Babe!
  Storm: I am leader of the X-Men. While that is so, you will use your claws when I command. No other time.
  Wolverine: I wouldn't take that from Cyclops!
  Storm: You will take it from me. You possess speed, strength. Your unbreakable adamantium skeleton makes you nearly invulnerable. You should not need your claws except in the most extreme of situations. Against the deadliest and most powerful of foes.
  Wolverine: All right, Storm. I'll do it yer way. For now. But this conversation isn't finished. Not by a long shot.
• ''Uncanny X-Men#159.'' Standing up to Dracula.
• ''Uncanny X-Men#170.'' At the beginning of their duel for Morlock leadership, Callisto gives Storm her knife, arrogantly throwing it beside her. Without breaking her expression or pose, Storm catches the knife.