* 1ST APPEARANCE "CUTTHROAT" (Daniel Leighton)
* "NIGHTCRAWLER" (Kurt Wagner) Guest Appearance

A flight from Moscow to New York arrives on schedule at Kennedy International Airport at 7:30 p.m. As Amanda Sefton, a senior flight attendant on the plane, hauls her baggage through the airport door, she is suddenly greeted with a kiss from Kurt Wagner, also known as Nightcrawler of the X-Men. Hanging upside-down by his tail, he asks whether she missed him, but she chides him for startling her. Then, unable to stay angry, she returns his kiss with a longer one. As he escorts her to the X-Men's Rolls-Royce, she says she has a few days off before her next trip, and he replies that Cyclops, the X-Men's leader, has given him time off as well.

Just as Nightcrawler suggests that they spend this free time together, he notices a large, privately owned 747 Jumbo Jet. The stylized capital A on the aircraft's tail fin is the symbol of Arcade, a demented criminal who recently menaced Nightcrawler and his friends. He tells Amanda to stay by the Rolls and dashes off to investigate. When he scampers up the ladder into the plane, he finds no one inside. He sees an elaborate pinball machine parlor, and he recalls how, months ago, Arcade captured him, Amanda, Colossus, and Betsy Wilford at the Lincoln Center and victimized them with his bizarre and deadly Murderworld amusement park. Nightcrawler's thoughts are interrupted by the approach of a large limousine, and he hears Arcade outside having an argument with a man named Jardine over an assassination assignment. Evidently, Jardine hired Arcade to kill Spider-Man but then found someone else who would do the job for less money.

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