The World Tour is the name of an X-Men storyline that occurred in Uncanny X-Men #111-121 written by Chris Claremont and drawn (and co-plotted) by John Byrne & inked by Terry Austin.
Mesmero kidnaps the X-Men and hypnotizes them into circus freaks. The team breaks free, only to encounter a worse adversary: Magneto. The Master of Magnetism takes the team to his base (inside a volcano), defeats them one by one, and imprisons them. Again the team free themselves and fight Magneto to a standstill. Unfortunately, the battle damaged the base’s shields, causing the molten lava that surrounded it to tear through. Separated from the team, Phoenix and Beast make it to surface, believing the other X-Men were killed. They return to Professor Xavier to tell him the sad news.
However the X-Men did survive by tunneling to the nearby Savage Land. Thus starts a World Tour as the Mutant team go from Antarctica to Japan to Canada, encountering future allies & adversaries like Zaladane, Mariko Yashida, and Alpha Flight.
For completist sake, this page will include the Murderworld story from Uncanny X-Men#122-124. The team return home to find the mansion closed. Getting everything back up, Logan encounters Mariko and Storm looks up her birth neighborhood. Then the team gets kidnapped by the assasssin mercenary Arcade and his Murderworld.
The storyline consisted of tropes like:
- Artistic License – Geology: In truth, the lava seeping through Magneto’s base would have emitted enough heat to fry the X-Men without making contact.
- Asshole Victim: Angus Mac Whirter breaks into Moira’s Research Center in Muir Isle intent to blow it up (as payback to the X-Men for taking his hovercraft in UXM#104). He becomes Proteus’ first victim.
- Attack Backfire:
- Of course, in a fight against Magneto, Colossus and Wolverine are the most vulnerable.
- Storm tries to freeze Magneto by creating a blizzard, but Magneto uses the cold as a super conductor and shocks her unconscious.
- In Canada, Banshee spots Vindicator (whom he remembers accidentally injured Moira). He attempts his Sonic Cry, but breaks down due to his throat injuries.
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Badass Decay: Inverse. Colossus suffers several defeats and mistakes in the storyline, getting beaten by Magneto, Mandroids, and Moses Magnum. This is part of his storyline as his doubts as an X-Man and homesickness is affecting his work. - Bearer of Bad News: Jean has to tell Professor Xavier that the X-Men were killed at Magneto’s Volcano base.
- Bittersweet Ending:
- The Savage Land story has the team & Ka-Zar defeat Garokk & Zaladane and save the Land’s environment, but Storm is unable to prevent Garokk’s Disney Death.
- The Japan story has the X-Men stop Moses Magnum from leveling the country, but Banshee loses his powers.
- Brainwashing: The first story is devoted to this, with Mesmero putting the X-Men under this: he turns them into carnival people with no memory or personality traits of their real selves. Wolverine and Nightcrawler become wild freaks. Banshee is a Carnival barker with no Irish accent. Phoenix and Storm become showgirls. Cyclops a bouncer. After a few weeks, Wolverine is able to break his brainwashing via a primal urge of personality. He subsequently frees Phoenix, who then telepathically restores the others.
- Call-Back:
- Issue 112. Nightcrawler notes the similarities of their previous fight with Magneto (from UXM#103) and the present one.
- Issue 115. Cyclops notes that Sauron is planting illusions in Wolverine’s mind as he did with Angel during their first encounter.
- Character Focus: Issue 117 focuses on Professor Xavier.
- Clothing Damage:
- Twice Magneto’s cape gets ripped by Wolverine’s claws.
- Phoenix’s clothes get ripped after making it through the surface. She restores them immediately.
- The X-Men’s costumes gets holes and rips during their escape to the Savage Land. They stitch up the holes.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Magneto trumps eight X-Men.
- In the real world, Xavier’s battle with Farouk would look like this.
- The X-Men do this to the Mandroids.
- Flashback: Issue 117 deals with Professor Xavier’s past and his encounter with Amahl Farouk.
- Excessive Mourning: Averted. Although Scott mourned the (to his belief) death of Hank, he finds himself feeling nothing about losing Jean.
- Floating Bubble: Magneto encases the wagon carrying him and the X-Men in a magnetic bubble that protects them in their flight near the stratosphere to his base inside a volcano. Magneto emits this protection to enter or leave his Space station or Volcano base.
- Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Wolverine slaps Jean/Miz Destiny to break her free from the personality Mesmero forced on her. It works, but not before the enraged Phoenix telekinetically/telepathically blasts him.
- Foreshadowing:
- Peter’s homesickness, which will lead to his brainwashing in UXM#122.
- Amahl Farouk, who will be the series’ big bad in the end of Claremont’s run.
- Angus Mac Whirter’s death in Muir Isle would lead to the Proteus Saga.
- Fully Absorbed Finale: The Savage Land story involving Garokk and Zaladane concludes an unfinished storyline from the cancelled Astonishing Tales.
- George Lucas Altered Version: Classic X Men made some alterations & additions to the reprinted issues:
- Issue 111. A backup story on how Mesmero captured the X-Men.
- Issue 113. An added line showing that Magneto had begun his altering of the magnetic fields to limit Professor Xavier’s telepathy (which made its first appearance in Issue 144).
- Issue 115. A backup story on what happened with Colossus and the native girls.
- Issue 119. A backstory on Moses Magnum getting his powers from Apocalypse.
- Issue 121. Scenes of the Canadian Prime Minister getting protests from politicians & the Japanese Ambassador compelling him to drop their plans to recapture Wolverine.
- Hallucinations: Sauron causes Wolverine to see his teammates as monsters harming Jean. He is able to break the illusions with his belief that Jean is dead and therefore can’t exist.
- Heroic R Ro D: Banshee loses his mutant power of sonic scream from injuries sustained in stopping Moses Magnum from destroying Japan. He will remain powerless until the final storylines of Claremont’s run.
- Hostile Weather: Shaman manipulates the weather to force the X-Men to travel to Calgary Canada. Later he summons a great wind to fight the X-Men. Unfortunately this warps the weather patterns, causing a dangerous blizzard that threatens the populace. Storm has to enter the weather’s nexus to restore things back to normal.
- Human Sacrifice: Garokk captures Cyclops, Banshee, and Colossus and has put them up to be sacrificed.
- Hypnotic Eyes: Used several times. Mesmero uses this power- his mutant ability- to mesmerize the X-Men (offscreen). He uses this power on Beast before he is interrupted by the X-Men’s rebellion. Later Sauron uses this power on Wolverine.
- Killed Offscreen: Storm, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine sneak into Garrok’s city. They encounter a guard keeping watch. Wolverine kills him (to the disgust of his teammates). His first recorded kill in the comic, it had to be off panel due to 1970s comic codes.
- Language Barrier: Cyclops suffers this in Japan.
- Living Dinosaurs: The X-Men deal with them in the Savage Land, such as Pterodactyls.
- Love at First Sight: Moping about returning to civilization, Wolverine spots Mariko Yashida and is immediately smitten.
- Not Your Problem: Ka-Zar asks for the X-Men’s help to fight Garokk, but Cyclops turns him down, thinking their priority is to return to the US and protect Professor Xavier from Magneto. However, when it becomes clear that Garokk is threatening the stability of the Savage Land itself, the team helps out.
- Oh, Crap!: Cyclops’ reaction when Magneto reveals himself.
- Personality Swap: Cyclops and Wolverine in the Canada story. The stoic Cyclops is aggressive to Alpha Flight stalking and fighting them. Wolverine is the calm one, at one point stopping Cyclops from punching Northstar.
- Phlebotinum Overload: Subverted to a non-fatal/individual aspect. In the Savage Land, Karl Lykos stalks the X-Men to feed on their power. He touches Storm, intending to drain a little of energy from her. Unfortunately he takes too much and the overload transforms him into Sauron.
- Phyrric Victory: Defeated before individually by Magneto, the X-Men use teamwork for the rematch. They come very close to beating Magneto, but are interrupted by the molten lava seeping through his base (being inside a live volcano, protected by a force shield rendered inoperable from damages in the rematch). Magneto takes the advantage to escape.
- Plot Hole: The problem of maintaining the “The X-Men are dead/Jean and Hank are dead” plot line reaches this in the Japan storyline as Misty Knight who knows Jean is alive doesn’t mention this to Scott during the adventure, nor does Scott make any comments to her either.
- Power Incontinence:
- Despite her phenomenal abilities, Phoenix finds she can only summon a specific amount of power. This would be due to her subconscious placing psychic circuit-breakers into her power to keep it on a limited basis she could handle.
- Power Nullifier: Magneto manacles the X-Men to devices that neutralize their motor skills, leaving them with the physical abilities of six-month-old babies. Only Storm- whose mystical-mutant abilities allowed her to develop advanced coordination at six-months- is able to bypass this condition.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated:
- The main crux of the storyline is that after the destruction of Magneto’s base, Phoenix and Beast are convinced Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Banshee were killed. This information is shared by Professor Xavier, Moira, and others. Turns out the X-Men survived the destruction intact, but are on the belief that Phoenix and Beast were killed. This mutual belief will last until the Proteus Saga.
- In the Savage Land, the team meet Sauron, whom Cyclops thought had died back during the first team era.
- Removing the Crucial Teammate: Professor Xavier takes a vacation with Lilandra, and later goes into space with her. This absence keeps Xavier from aiding the X-Men in this storyline.
- Sex Slave: Averted. Mesmero turns Jean into a sleazy circus showgirl, and it is implied to be in a relationship with him. Later, Claremont would do an
Author's Saving Throw in ‘’Classic X Men’’ revealing that Jean (by the Phoenix force) subconsciously resisted any sexual commands by Mesmero, who found that pressuring his command on her would break it completely, forcing him to leave her alone. - Surprise Party: Released from the Hospital on Christmas, Banshee heads to the Yashida residence, convinced the team has forgotten him. He is greeted by a party the X-Men put together for his return.
- Take My Hand!: Averted. Garokk falls into a pit. Storm flies down after him. She gets very close to achieving this trope, when falling debris hits her, triggering her claustrophobia and causing her to fly back up, abandoning Garokk.
- Teethclenched Teamwork: As he was in the first mission, Sunfire is resistant to working with the X-Men to save Japan. He gets better by the story’s end.
- The Rebound: In his flashback in UXM#117, Xavier gets dumped by his fiancée Moira. Heartbroken, he travels the East.
- Shirtless Scene: Issue 114 could apply, with Cyclops, Wolverine, Banshee, and Colossus all lacking a top.
- Super Team: The X-Men are forced to Canada, where they meet that country’s official team Alpha Flight- Vindicator, Snowbird, Aurora, Northstar, Shaman, and Sasquatch.
- Threatening Mediator: Garokk wants unite the Savage Land to live in peace. His method is that the inhabitants live in his city. Any refusal will be met with death.
- Time Skip: After leaving the Savage Land, the X-Men board a Japanese ship and spend six weeks there.
- Took A Level Of Kindness: Sunfire is as arrogant as ever to the X-Men when they arrive in Japan, refusing their help. Once Moses Magnum is defeated, Sunfire shows concern to them and allows them to spend Christmas at his home.
- True Companions: when this storyline began, this X-Men were a team. By its end, they became a family.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Xavier’s decision to leave for Space leaves Jean vulnerable to the future manipulations of Mastermind, leading to Dark Phoenix.
- Weird Weather: Garokk’s Sun God city is warping the weather patterns of the Savage Land, lessening the heat, and causing the Antarctic cold to come through.
- Volcano Lair: Both Magneto and Moses Magnum have their HQ there.
Uncanny X-Men#122-124 features tropes like:
- Addled Addict: Going to the apartment where she was born, Storm is shocked to find the place a slum full of this trope.
- Big "NO!": Spider-Man fears Arcade is targeting the X-Men. At a pay phone he calls the mansion, only to get Arcade answering the phone. Spidey responds with this trope, destroying the pay phone.
- Involuntary Group Split: The X-Men are together, each imprisoned in a ball, and then separated through Arcade’s pinball machine, forcing them in different places:
- Cyclops is in a Monty Hall Problem- three doors to choose while the wall behind him comes closer. The wrong choice will cause the wall to accelerate its move and crush him.
- Colossus finds himself in an interrogation room full of hypnotic lights, accusing him of betraying his homeland for joining the American X-Men. This situation brainwashes Colossus into the menacing Proletariat.
- Wolverine is in a Funhouse Mirror room, where the twisted reflections become real.
- Nightcrawler is in a room, trying to evade buzzsaw-equipped Bumper cars.
- Storm is in a tightly sealed room filling with water.
- Banshee is in a reenactment of a war battle, where the artillery could either be illusory or real; added to the threat is that Banshee has been Brought Down to Normal, and can’t use his sonic powers.
- Undressing the Unconscious: Arcade captured the X-Men in their civics and had their unconscious forms garbed into their costumes.
- Karma Houdini: Arcade.
- More than Mind Control: Colossus’s homesickness makes him easy prey to Arcade’s brainwashing, convincing him that he is betraying his homeland by being an X-Men.
- Nipple and Dimed: John Byrne’s depiction of Arcade stun-blasting Storm shows shapes and imprint despite her being in a robe.
- Possessive Wrist Grab: As Storm holds back a group of hostile addicts in the den that once was her home in infancy, she overlooks one of them, ready to stab her in the back. Fortunately Luke Cage comes from behind, executing this trope.
- The Power of Love: The brainwashed Colossus strangles Storm and Cyclops. Storm manages to break the control by telling Colossus that the X-Men are as much his family as his real ones.
- Psychotic Manchild: Arcade.
- The Shadow Knows: In Muir Isle, Jean encounters a gentleman named Jason Wyndgarde. His shadow reveals his true form.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: Although Spider-Man shows major concern for Arcade kidnapping the X-Men, his character is dropped from the story.
