|
Post by spoon on Mar 24, 2024 18:56:58 GMT -5
I'd have loved to have been there, but I was out gigging this afternoon and early evening. Bet it was a fun session (as always). I was only able to join the chat for about 35 minutes. It would've been great to talk to you about X-Men topics that came up in the Read Lately thread though.
|
|
|
Post by spoon on Mar 23, 2024 22:20:26 GMT -5
I read Alien Worlds #2, the sci fi anthology series from Pacific Comics. It's been in my backlog of unread comics for a while. I decided to read it now in part because I enjoyed reading some of Bruce Jones's Ka-Zar comics. The cover feature is "Aurora" by Dave Stevens. The editorial implies that the story was drawn several years before (with Stevens credited for the story), so it sounds like Jones scripted the story years after it was drawn. The art is beautiful, whether it's the femme fatale protagonist or the alien sidekick. It's also something that was crying out for a follow-up rather than one and done.
The second story is "Vicious Circle" by Ken Steacy. I've read only a few Steacy stories, but it has his distinctive visual style. It concerns a space traveler who stumbles on a damaging, drifting spacecraft. It has a great twist. It's also wordless, except for sound effects. The drawback is that the lack of scripting leaves some confusion for me at the end. I think I know what's depicted by I'm not 100% sure. I think the final panel is supposed to be a conceptual draw like a splash page would be, rather than a depiction of a story event.
Finally, there's "A Mind of Her Own" both written and drawn by Bruce Jones. For someone I think of (in my admittedly limited knowledge) as primarily a writer, Jones is such a great artist. This story is somewhat horror-tinged with a twist. I saw the twist slowly creeping in, but that doesn't diminish the effectiveness of the story.
The house ads which run between stories rather than interrupting them rouse my curiosity about other Pacific titles like Ms. Mystic by Neal Adams and Edge of Chaos by Gray Morrow.
I also read Blue Beetle #1-2 and Captain Atom #87-88 from the Action Heroes Archives vol. 2, reprinting Charlton stories. Captain Atom #87 features a villain with the cheesy name the Fiery-Icer. The story in #88 is significantly better. It's a space travel story that has elements of hard science fiction in that it tries to grapple with the difficulties that extreme distances between planets would play in travel and communications. There's a cameo by two scientists named Andy Yanchus and Frank Justice. I know Yanchus was a color. It's ironic that his name is slipped into the story this way when there was a letterer credit but not a colorist credit. The lettering of this story (and several others in the HC) looks like typing, is in balloons that are too big, and is credited to A. Machine. So basically there's a credit for no actual human for lettering but not for the human colorist. The story has a Ditko-esque sort of moral toward the end, but the way the story plays out makes me question the ethical premise and its attitude toward life.
With Blue Beetle now in his own title and no longer a backup in Captain Atom, the page count seems a little light. It turns out that Nightshade was given the backup slot, but this HC didn't even bother to reprint those stories! That sucks. Is Nightshade not a Charlton action hero? Also, those stories were drawn by Jim Aparo. The silver lining is that I have one of the later issue, so I can at least read one of those Nightshade stories.
The Blue Beetle story in BB #1 has a solid plot, although there seems to be a retooling of Ted Kord's relationship to his assistant Tracey from the backup stories. The Ditko style of fight choreography really works well with Blue Beetle. The Blue Beetle story in #2 finally gives us the origin of this Blue Beetle with the adventure on Pago Island with the previous Blue Beetle Dan Garret. I read the post-Crisis version of the story of Pago Island many years ago, so it was interesting to see this version.
The backup stories featuring the Question are solid but not great, although the one in #1 is better than the story in #2. Vic Sage is portrayed as an incorruptible media figures (a counterpoint to the reporter Abby in Captain Atom's stories). He's very strident. He's like that friend who's so pushy in his political that even if his reasoning might strong on a particular issues, he might push people away with his style.
|
|
|
Post by spoon on Mar 23, 2024 18:59:50 GMT -5
I have a Wolverine question. In the opening pages of Giant-Size X-Men #1, when Wolverine first appears, one of Claremont's captions says "The agent cipher-known as Weapon X...but better known to us as -- The Wolverine!" My question is, would Wolverine actually have been that well known to your average Marvel reader or X-Men fan on 1975 when that comic came out? I know he had appeared in a couple of issues of The Hulk the year before (#180 and 181), but had he been seen anywhere else prior to Giant-Size X-Men #1? Wolverine also appeared in Incredible Hulk #182. Like #180, where Wolverine had a cameo on the last page to set up #181, he appeared briefly at the beginning of #182 to wrap up events from #181.
|
|
|
Post by spoon on Mar 21, 2024 20:25:17 GMT -5
I'm reading The Action Heroes Archives vol. 2. So far, I've read Captain Atom #83-86. Steve Ditko handles the pencils (sometimes with other inkers) on these stories. He's also usually credited with plot or "concept." Dave Kaler scripts the Captain Atom stories while Gary Friedrich scripts the Blue Beetle backups.
The Captain Atom stories here tend to run about 18 pages. This allows for real plots and real villains rather than the duplicative simple stories that predominated in Archives vol. 1. We have the return of the Ghost, plus Punch and Jewelee, and Iron Arms. Captain Atom gets his power reduced, which is kind of funny because the extent of his powers was nebulous to begin with. An interesting subplot has some of public turning on Captain Atom because they finally realize he's radioactive. There's some cool visuals, like Cap walking through a wall and getting stuck. We also get the return of Nightshade and a new costume for Cap.
The backup stories are the first appearances of the Ted Kord version of Blue Beetle. It's fascinating that these came out only a year or two after a series of Dan Garrett Blue Beetle stories (which I haven't read). The stories don't avoid the change. Rather, Dan Garrett has gone missing and the scripting implies that Kord know more about it than he lets on about it. Is it possible to be nostalgic for a story you haven't read before? My twin brother collected the post-Crisis DC Blue Beetle series, so I read a lot of them. So based on that, I love these stories. I've read a couple of Chartlon Blue Beetle stories after he gets his own series, but I hadn't read most of these backups before. I love Blue Beetle aircraft/watercraft, the Bug. It's very cool see the panels that show the path the Bug takes to leave his headquarters. The post-Crisis version was apparently more reboot than continuation since it seems both versions had a take on Pago Island, although so far I just have hints of the pre-Crisis version.
The downside in this volume is the casual misogyny. One thorn in Captain Atom's side is a shrill angry female reporter. It feels like the Ditko-esque message is critical of the press criticizing men of action. In Blue Beetle, Ted Kord actually laments that he hired a woman to be his secretary.
|
|
|
Post by spoon on Mar 20, 2024 21:54:45 GMT -5
There's also an Epic Collection that covers #46-66. I'm speaking of what on the US market, as I don't know what's published in the UK versus what would be imported. All of the Epic collections are available over here in the UK. Not that I've bought that many, but I am in the process of replacing my Essential Daredevil TPBs with the Epic volumes. I really need that good old American comic colour! I'd love to replace my Essentials with color TPBs or HCs, but I have so many Essentials that it would hard to justify on a large scale. Interestingly enough, one of the few I did get in color is a Daredevil (Going Out West). I also bought Wolverine Epic Collections and an Avengers Omnibus covering issues I already had in Essential format.
|
|
|
Post by spoon on Mar 20, 2024 15:22:45 GMT -5
I bought the Visionaries TPB back when it originally came out. It's nice to have all the Adams X-Men issues in one book. It skips over #64, where Don Heck does one heck of an Adams impression on Sunfire's first appearance. I remember there was some controversy because Neal Adams did not like the new coloring that was done on the TPB. It sort of uses color to provide texture, like shading. Whether you're a purist on something like that is up to the individual. There's also an Epic Collection that covers #46-66. I'm speaking of what on the US market, as I don't know what's published in the UK versus what would be imported.
If it's like what I've seen in other reprinted editions I'm in full agreement with Adams on the colouring. I don't see it as being a purist, just a spontaneous reaction: I don't like the way it looks.
True. I just meant that it's up to confessor how much he just wants to read the stories versus a certain version of coloring. I think Adams's problem with it was both: he felt it change the art from what it originally was but also didn't like how it looked. I ended up buying the Epic Collection as well, so I have the Thomas/Adams X-Men stories with two different styles of coloring.
|
|
|
Post by spoon on Mar 20, 2024 13:27:20 GMT -5
I think a collection of X-Men #50-59 would be an interesting read, but it's a bit of an arbitrary cutoff. It starts in the middle of an ongoing storyline, I guess because #49 doesn't have Steranko interior art and #50 does. Also, stopped in #59 just takes you a bit into the Neal Adams run, but it's around when one arc is wrapping just as another one is starting. Yeah, the selection of issues in that collection does sound a bit random. I am a big fan of Steranko's artwork though, so that's definitely a good reason to pick it up. Maybe I need to get this in conjunction with the X-Men Visionaries: Neal Adams collection that EdoBosnar mentioned, just to finish up the Adams part of the story. I bought the Visionaries TPB back when it originally came out. It's nice to have all the Adams X-Men issues in one book. It skips over #64, where Don Heck does one heck of an Adams impression on Sunfire's first appearance. I remember there was some controversy because Neal Adams did not like the new coloring that was done on the TPB. It sort of uses color to provide texture, like shading. Whether you're a purist on something like that is up to the individual. There's also an Epic Collection that covers #46-66. I'm speaking of what on the US market, as I don't know what's published in the UK versus what would be imported.
|
|
|
Post by spoon on Mar 20, 2024 9:55:36 GMT -5
Speaking as a fan of that era of X-men, God Loves, Man Kills is definitely worth a read, although it's an out-of-continuity story. The Marvel Chronology Project places Marvel Graphic Novel #5 in continuity after the first 21 pages of Uncanny X-Man #168. Around Uncanny X-Men #167 and #168 is one of those great spots to slot in graphic novels, annuals, guest appearances, etc. for continuity purposes, because if you move a story a little earlier or later you run into trouble fitting it with events in Uncanny.
|
|
|
Post by spoon on Mar 20, 2024 9:21:56 GMT -5
There's lots of more recent X-Men I haven't read, and I rarely re-read any post-Claremont stuff (as in after his first run). However, I do know this was revisited. I know for sure it was a big part of the story in X-Men Unlimited #4 in the early 90s. That was a quarterly usually with a single big page count story, like an annual on steroids. Prior to that I don't recall it come up. I might need to re-read the Brotherhood story from around #177-178, because I can't remember whether it's mentioned there. Oh, OK....I was thinking that this was something that would've been resolved or answered during Claremont's run. In the next dozen or so issues, I think I assumed. Claremont is famous (or infamous) for dangling subplots, so something that is briefly teased in one of his issues could be resolved in the next issue or it could be years later. Since you enjoyed some of the John Byrne's stuff, I would recommend the rest of Byrne's run and Dave Cockrum's first run that proceeded it. So that would be Giant Size X-Men #1 and X-Men #94-143. I re-read all of it other past few months. Also, you may like the later stories that involve Rachel starting around Uncanny X-Men #188. The From the Ashes TPB reprinting #168-176 is also worth checking out. I have actually picked up the "Second Genesis" collection, which collects Giant Size X-Men #1 and X-Men #94-103, and I'm planning to read that soon. I'll have a look at the From the Ashes collection too. God Loves, Man Kills is excellent. I highly recommend it. I consider it in continuity, and I think Marvel does as well, so I wouldn't worry about that. I'm not sure what the rationale of considering it out of continuity is, since it does contradict continuity. It has a more mature tone, and it's not referenced in the regular monthly issues of the time, but I don't think that makes it some What If/Elseworlds. I believe in the 2000s, it got referenced in other X-Men titles. I think a collection of X-Men #50-59 would be an interesting read, but it's a bit of an arbitrary cutoff. It starts in the middle of an ongoing storyline, I guess because #49 doesn't have Steranko interior art and #50 does. Also, stopped in #59 just takes you a bit into the Neal Adams run, but it's around when one arc is wrapping just as another one is starting. The general consensus of Silver Age X-Men is that it's strong in the beginning and the end of the era, but long doldrums of mediocrity in the middle. A collection with #50-59 would be when quality is picking up again toward the end of the Silver Age X-Men.
|
|
|
Post by spoon on Mar 19, 2024 22:30:37 GMT -5
I read The Uncanny X-Men #141 and #142 in the "Days of Future Past" trade paperback last night... Traditionally, I've never been much of an X-Men fan, but in the last year I read the "Dark Phoenix" saga and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The events of these two issues take place only 2 or 3 issues after the "Dark Phoenix" story, which is some going on Chris Claremont's part: two extremely well-regarded and influential storylines within the space of a year! I was a little shocked when I got the trade paperback collection that this arc is only two issues long; I think I was expecting it to be a good five or six issues. Still, despite being disappointed at the length of the story, "Days of Future Past" certainly packs in a lot into a short space. These are two very dense comics, with a lot of dialogue, a lot of big ideas, and quite a lot of panels per page. Even though much of the story takes place in the present, going to a possible future for more than 2 issues isn't something they'd do at that point. Part of the impression that DoFP was big might come from the fact that like Dark Phoenix: (1) there are echoes of it in future stories; and (2) it's been adapted in other media. Like even though Rachel is a future character, Claremont is far from done with her. One interesting part of getting older is seeing so much futuristic sci-fi now back in the past. I remember when Transformers: The Movie took place in the far future of 2005. I think the criticism of Claremont as verbose, cliche-ridden, etc. can be blown of proportion relative to his skills. There's lots of more recent X-Men I haven't read, and I rarely re-read any post-Claremont stuff (as in after his first run). However, I do know this was revisited. I know for sure it was a big part of the story in X-Men Unlimited #4 in the early 90s. That was a quarterly usually with a single big page count story, like an annual on steroids. Prior to that I don't recall it come up. I might need to re-read the Brotherhood story from around #177-178, because I can't remember whether it's mentioned there. Yes, Claremont did his share of pastiches of other works, but I think Terminator is a good example of major fictional work that seemed to draw on Claremont's previous X-Men work, whether intentionally or just coincidentally. Since you enjoyed some of the John Byrne's stuff, I would recommend the rest of Byrne's run and Dave Cockrum's first run that proceeded it. So that would be Giant Size X-Men #1 and X-Men #94-143. I re-read all of it other past few months. Also, you may like the later stories that involve Rachel starting around Uncanny X-Men #188. The From the Ashes TPB reprinting #168-176 is also worth checking out.
|
|
|
Post by spoon on Mar 16, 2024 20:24:24 GMT -5
I finished off the rest of the X-Men Epic Collection: The Fate of the Phoenix by reading Uncanny X-Men #139-143, the Wolverine/Hercules story from Marvel Treasury Edition #26, the Angel story from Marvel Treasury Edition #27, the Storm/Black Panther back-up story from Marvel Team-Up #100, and Phoenix: The Untold Story. The story from Treasury Edition #27 is the only one I haven't read before. Actually, I didn't re-read every word of Phoenix: The Untold Story. For those who don't know, it was a one-shot that printed the intend original version of Uncanny X-Men #137, before Jim Shooter took umbrage at the fact that Phoenix wasn't going to die for her crimes and forced changes for the version that actually saw publication. Since the published version of #137 is in the same TPB, this time I just flipped back to note and read the changed parts.
Uncanny #139-140 is a two-parter where Wolverine and Nightcrawler work with half of Alpha Flight to fight Wendigo in Canada. Meanwhile, we get various character bits with X-Men at Xavier's mansion, particularly Kitty Pryde starting out at the school. People will debate whether Claremont's X-Men (or specifically the Byrne era) is phenomenally good or overrated, but the cover to #139 is one of the simple joys of the series. It's the "Welcome to the X-Men, Kitty Pryde. Hope You Survive the Experience" cover. It's a really amusing combination of bright colors and life-or-death stakes of super-heroes comics, particularly with Kitty's big grin surrounded by musing about her possible demise. Also, Angel seems to have casually drifted back on to the team after helping them in the Dark Phoenix Saga. There's a bit of Untold Story dialogue that was altered in #137 that would've helped to set this up, with Angel noting he misses being a super-hero. He also get Kitty being weirded out by Nightcrawler again (he's sad about it), the debut of Wolverine's brown and tan costume, and the first appearance of dance teacher Stevie Hunter. Like a psycho, Storm is already jealous of how much Kitty likes Stevie.
Also, Heather Hudson, the wife of Vindicator (eventually renamed Guardian) makes her first appearance. We also a bunch of Wolverine's back story about the Hudsons discover a feral Wolverine in the woods and sculpted him into a Canadian super-agent. We're also told that fighting the Hulk was his first mission. This should've made readers wonder how he ended up a wild mess in the Canadian Rockies, since there's been scripting (like the reference to Monte Cassino in Annual #4) that his experience in the civilized world predates that. When Heather calls Wolverine Logan, Kurt says he never knew his real name. Logan counters that the X-Men never asked. I'm sorry, but this is a pile of revisionist obviously driven by the creative team's decision to make Wolverine the new star. Kurt is such an amiable gentleman; he literally bows to Heather in the next panel! It's totally implausible that he would avoid asking Wolverine's real name. I think any teammate would, but Peter and Sean also seem like people who couldn't avoid but be friendly. And Scott would ask because he'd feel like he needed to know. Anyway, it's too bad Byrne wasn't such a Nightcrawler, because he does a great job of conveying Kurt's character in moments like the bow. We also learn more about Alpha Flight member like Snowbird. The change in Wolverine's character is demonstrated when he calms Snowbird down from the effects of one of her animal transformations. In the Cockrum era, he'd probably fight her instead.
Claremont and Byrne had been credited as co-plotters for a while. Interestingly, this Canadian story has Byrne credited as the sole plotter.
Uncanny X-Men #141-142 is of course Days of Future Past. It also gives us the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, led by Mystique who debuted in the Claremont written Ms. Marvel a couple years earlier. The roster is filled by old school foe Blob and three new characters (Destiny, Pyro, and Avalanche). It's nuts that they'd eventually become a U.S. government team, given that they're first mission was to assassinate a prominent U.S. Senator. How do you trust them? The X-Men versus Brotherhood fight sequences are very well done. It's great when Byrne gets to draw the X-Men against another team rather than a single foe or random henchmen. It's ironic that #142 has one of the most famous Byrne era covers, but it was drawn by Terry Austin (because Byrne's cover got lost in the mail). Of course, the cover for #141 may even more famous. Oddly, Jean Grey's mostly obscured head appears on the wanted poster and then we get Rachel in the story. She doesn't get a surname in the story, but the redheaded telepath/telekinetic suggested her eventual origin as the daughter of Jean Grey. How could this be? Was it because it was already plotted before the old ending to #137 was scrapped, and they just decided they're weren't going to rewrite this one two? Was this already supposed to be an alternate Earth that Kitty went back to even though she thought it was her own past? Did they already want to hint that a Phoenix could always rise again? Also, how dumb does Sebastian Shaw's greed make him that he's push to start a new Sentinel program? The story is also uses the future as a chance to foreshadow without being committed to it. Kitty and Peter are a couple, and Magneto is a nicer guy than he used to be.
Uncanny X-Men #143 is Kitty Pryde alone against a N'Garai demon. The opening scene is a flashback to a scene with Storm from the original N'Garai story. It's interesting to see that Claremont repeats much of his original script verbatim, but also alters portions of it. Some of that is changing spoken dialogue to thought balloons. It's cool to see one-off stories like this. It's a little odd that after Wolverine tries to slice Nightcrawler open for kissing Mariko Yashida under the mistletoe, her reaction is not to immediately dumb the boyfriends she's seen behave like a violent psycho. Then again, Sunfire is her cousin.
Given that Cyclops had been a centerpiece of the series for the past 5 years, editors notes in some of the issues when Cyclops is gone from the team insist he is on a leave of absence. After being gone for #139-142, Scott gets a cameo when he speaks to Kitty on the phone to wish everyone back at the school a Merry Christmas. He also seeks a job from the beautiful fishing boat captain Aleytys "Lee" Forrester. How soon is too soon for a rebound relationship under the circumstances? The Marvel Treasury Edition stories are from 1980, but placed after a trio of 1981 issues of X-Men. The chronology doesn't work for the Wolverine story, because Logan is drowning his sorrows at a bar because Jean is into Cyclops, who Wolvie thinks sucks. This is more like a Cockrum era story. There's not much to write about the Angel story except it features the unusual art pairing of Brent Anderson and Bob McLeod (I feel like they are tonally different) and Angel's boots look weird.
I'm not too excited by the Storm/Black Panther story, but it is a Claremont/Byrne tale. It turns out Ororo and T'Challa have a backstory from their childhood days. The villain is an evil Afrikaner (South African of Dutch descent). One of his henchmen who spouts racial slurs has dark skin, which seems more likely a coloring error than self-loathing.
The main change from The Untold Story to the published #137 is the ending when Phoenix is depowered instead of dying. It's seems weird until a realize that Lilandra's dialogue about destroying Phoenix and insuring she does not exist anymore don't explicitly include stating that Jean will die. There are dialogue changes sprinkled throughout the issue, but the most concentrated and interesting are in the scenes of individual X-Men the night before the trial by combat. In Untold Story, the characters reflect more on their own situations, while in the published #137 their musings are more Jean-centric. For example, in Untold, Nightcrawler thinks more about his workout, Angel about how he misses being a hero, Wolverine about Mariko, Colossus about his deceased brother (retconned back to life in the 90s), and Scott about the orphanage. Scott's musings lead Jean to say she likes who he's grown to be. The revised dialogue, I'm guessing at Shooter's insistence, have the characters all musing on the morality to protect Jean with the horror of what Phoenix has done. In another move that seems to be about promoting Wolverine's star status, he has one of the more pro-Jean opinions.
|
|
|
Post by spoon on Mar 16, 2024 11:23:42 GMT -5
The difficulty of a hypothetical is figuring out what's the sliding door moment that would allow the counterfactual to exist. There's cause and effect; it's not just like flipping a switch. I've been browsing through The X-Men Companion (a couple of books of interviews of creators published in the early 80s) as something informing my views.
One of the ingredients for the creation of the All-New, All-Different X-Men was that the series had been revived as a reprint series for several years and there were also several guest appearances by X-Men during the reprint era. Both were apparently received well enough to create interest in a revival, so does the history get massaged enough for the just a 60s relic scenario? "Just a relic" is an unusual assessment, because the X-Men were an existing thing in the early 70s, albeit in the reduced reprint and guest appearance capacity.
Also, Wolverine's creation according to Roy Thomas may partially have created because his pitch for an international team of X-Men was out there, so creating new characters who could might be used in that new series was encouraged.
So if relic means that X-Men never even had a period of reprints, than it would probably mean the team/characters would go the guest appearance route, but those appearances would be less frequent as there would be less interest among readers. If all past events happen and it's just at the end they don't decide to go with the pitch of a new series, then I think the X-Men continue to make guest appearances. They either get revived at a later date with the original members (but probably not Beast), Havok, and Polaris as potential members, with the possibility that Sunfire and/or Banshee get folder in. Or if were not allowed a revival of the series under the thought exercise, then after a while some of the characters may end up as Defenders or Avengers.
Also, keep in mind that the new X-Men weren't created out of whole cloth when the pitch started. A lot of it came from sketches that Dave Cockrum had been working on potentially to use for Legion of Super-Heroes or a LOSH spin-off. While Storm was a combination of elements from different characters, the visual for Nightcrawler was largely unchanged from work Cockrum did before he was assigned to X-Men. So at some point we'd probably get characters that had elements of those sketches in whatever series Cockrum is working on instead of X-Men.
|
|
|
Post by spoon on Mar 11, 2024 23:17:43 GMT -5
I re-read X-Men Annual #4 ("Nightcrawler's Inferno"), by Claremont, Romita Jr., and McLeod. The art team is a sort of sneak preview, because years later JRjr and McLeod would be the pencilers of Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants. It's interesting to read a story with a convincing fake of Dante's Inferno shortly after reading a similar story from Ka-Zar that was published about a year later.
This story has been slotted into the Epic Collection immediately after Uncanny X-Men #138, so it has the first in-story mention that Storm is the new team leader. She doesn't get to do much leading though. She's taken out of commission for a while, but when she is in the fight, she doesn't seem any different from the other members.
This is the story where it's revealed that Nightcrawler's girlfriend, unbeknownst to him, is actually his adoptive sister Jimaine Szardos. She also a Romani witch. It's quite amazing that Kurt didn't recognize her, since it appears she changed her clothing and hairstyle, but not her face. Ethically, I don't know how I feel about tracking down Kurt without feeling who she is. It also kind of sucks that Kurt realizes that Amanda wasn't weirded out by his appearance because she was raised alongside him. Wouldn't it have been awesome if Amanda was okay with Kurt's appearance because she was a normal person who just like him and wasn't freaked out by mutants. I do like Amanda being a witch, but Claremont could've still done that without making her Kurt's long lost adoptive sister. For some reason, these annuals often don't stick with me like the regular monthly issues. I had totally forgotten that Kurt killed his adoptive brother in a fight because the brother, Stefan, had been murdering local children. It's retconned that the villagers chasing Kurt in Giant-Size X-Men one suspected him of being the murderer. I'm not sure I like this retcon either. Isn't it better to be purely prejudice about his appearance rather than misjudging the evidence of a genuine threat. Also, Kurt kills Stefan because when they were kids Stefan made Kurt promise he would kill him if he ever turned evil. What a bizarre thing to say! What strange hole did Claremont pull that plot point out of?
There are a couple of interesting bits of trivia in this issue. Doctor Strange is a guest star. While he is examining the seemingly dead Nightcrawler, he mentioned that he assumed by his appearances that Nightcrawler was some human/demon hybrid, but examination reveals him to be fully human. That undermines the retcon I've heard Chuck Austen made in his maligned run decades later. Also, when Wolverine was first depicted unmasked, he looked older than the young hothead he's seemed to be. There have also been some references in scripts that suggest he's older than his teammates (e.g., he did this or that years ago), but nothing that requires him to be significantly beyond the age of a typical human's physical prime. I believe this issue may have the first reference that really dates Logan. At one point, he thinks to himself that he hasn't weather like a storm in the fake Hell since a winter he spent "below Monte Cassino." To me that suggest he means the World War II Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944. If he didn't seriously lie about his age, that would mean he's over 50 years old when this story takes place.
|
|
|
Post by spoon on Mar 10, 2024 14:17:10 GMT -5
My re-read of Giant-Size X-Men #1 through Uncanny X-Men #138 in late 2023/early 2024 has now linked up my late 2021 re-read of Uncanny x-Men #139-167. That project was based around Cockrum's second run, but I included the end of Byrne and the beginning of Paul Smith as I thought those were cleaner breaks in the story arcs than the changes of pencilers. On this re-read, I'm reading from recently purchased Epic Collections rather than the floppies, so I plan to read the rest of this Epic, which concludes the Byrne run and has a couple extras.
|
|
|
Post by spoon on Mar 10, 2024 13:56:35 GMT -5
I re-read Uncanny X-Men #132-138. This is the rest of the Dark Phoenix Saga plus the aftermath/funeral issue "Elegy" (#138).
We begin with a short respite when Cyclops, against Xavier's orders, brings the X-Men to Angel's mountain home in New Mexico. Cyke is worried about the Hellfire Club somehow knowing non-public information about the X-Men. We get the famed butte scene where Jean holds back Scott's optic blast with her powers to see his whole face. As revealed by a thought balloon later in this issue and then in a flashback, this is where Jean finally reveals her "time slips" (really illusions) to Scott. Angel is a member of the Hellfire Club (but not its secret evil Inner Circle) due to inherit a membership, so he arranges invites for the X-Men to a format party at the Club's NYC mansion. Scott tells Jean (through his thoughts) that he likes her dress; I wonder if it's because of the big cutout in the front. Jean is running rignt into her black formal gown jinx. Anyway, we have Scott, Jean, Ororo, and Piotr at the party, while Logan and Kurt are sneaking in through the sewers while setting up Chekhov's Gun through some exposed wiring. Disaster unfolds for the X-Men as Jason Wyngarde takes full control of Jean, with the explicit Mastermind reveal to both the readers and Scott. Meanwhile, Inner Circle members capture all of the X-Men, except for Wolverine whom Harry Leland assumes is out of the picture after being dropped through several floors.
Wolverine has his famed star turn as he fights back alone in #133 while the rest of the X-Men are captive. We get a lot of Jean's illusory life created by Mastermind, plus Cyclops trying to rescue her via an astral plane sword duel with Mastermind. Scott is seemingly killed. But I guess the dying on the astral plane kills you in real world isn't an ironclad rule, because Scott gets up after a few seconds in #134 and it's the key to the X-Men's victory. The shock of seeing Scott "die" shocks Jean out of Mastermind's control, although she keeps it on the down-low at first. Scott and Jean telepathically arrange a comeback. Colossus nearly tears off Donald Pierce's arms off. Piotr also reacts to a remark from Pierce that doesn't reference mutation as an anti-mutant bigotry. I guess Claremont was trying to set up Pierce's bigotry (despite teaming with mutants) and forgot to make the dialogue clear. Wolverine serious wounds Leland. Jean leaves Mastermind a drooling mess, after discovering But the X-Men flee because the police are coming as part of the Club's plan to frame them. Wolvie doesn't give Cyke a hard time about the decision to flee, maybe reflecting the respect he gained for him during the Proteus arc. Beast, on Avengers monitor duty, flouts Avengers protocol by going to the aid of the X-Men without alerting Avengers.
The cliffhanger of #134 has Phoenix becoming Dark Phoenix - her costume now comes in red. I find the rampage of Dark Phoenix in #135-136 to be the least satisfying portion of the Dark Phoenix Saga. For one, Byrne's art is uncharacteristically weak in #136, perhaps because he had to make time for the double-sized #137. Jean is oddly thin in many panels, although I think that was probably a stylistic choice. The destruction of D'Bari is grim, but the scripting is much better executed than the art. There were aspects of Jean's visit her family that I liked, but the action sequences weren't as well executed as the battle with the Hellfire Club for example. Angel flies Xavier to New York, where he manages to defeat Dark Phoenix by putting psychic circuit breakers in place. It only works because the inwardly conflicted Jean was helping him against herself. In the end we get a telepathic marriage proposal from Scott to Jean which is accepted, so I guess that counts. But then they're all teleported to a Shi'Ar spacecraft.
What can I say about #137 that hasn't already been said? Byrne has talked about his secret ambition to try to work all the originals back in the roster. Of course, it has epic scale, inner conflict with the X-Men between their love for Jean and the horror at what she did, and Jean's final sacrifice. The story manages to work Angel and Beast into the action, with only poor Bobby missing out. While much better artistically than #136, I think #137 has a few odd-looking panels. In the last couple issues, the explanation for Phoenix did migrate a bit toward the retcon explanation of the Phoenix. We were previously told that Jean's love for Scott causing her to tap into something inside herself during the fateful space shuttle flight to access the full potential of her powers. The scripting now has suggestions of tapping into a cosmic force, and there are couple mentions of a destructive power in Shi'Ar legends.
In #138, Jean's funeral serves as a framing sequence for flashbacks of Scott telling the story of Jean and himself. This issue holds a special place for me. As a relatively new X-Men fan when the Classic X-Men reprint of this issue came out, this issue along with the Wolverine Saga mini were my main guideposts in learning about X-Men history and what back issues I wanted to track down. Claremont and Bryne do tweak past events a bit, but they do a great job weaving everything together and telling a compelling history. It also has a classic, often imitated cover of Cyclops departing. I'd like to figure out what all the old covers in the background are, because many are larger obscured by the foreground art. It's kind of funky that Nightcrawler hops out of a tree at the end of the funeral. Maybe a compromise to continue to forgo the image inducer while not revealing anything to mourners who don't know who the X-Men are. In Marvel Time news, Jean's tombstone reads 1956-1980. A previous issue noted that she isn't even 25 yet, and the tombstone would make her either 23 or 24.
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning end, so the last half page of #138 has Kitty arriving at the mansion. This pays off the end of #131 when it sounded like Kitty's parents had agreed to let her attend. No one is there to greet her. Shouldn't the X-Men have notified the unaccompanied minor they'd all be at a funeral? Kitty is wearing a t-shirt with a word on it in rhinestones. The beginning and end of the word are obscured by her jacket, but I read in an interview somewhere it supposed to say "bitch." It's kind of hilarious. I wonder if it's a liberal parenting style of if her parents' rough marriage means they're not really paying attention.
|
|