#storm-uxm

[bynightafangirl]

Uncanny Storm (9/-) - Uncanny X-Men #101 (1976)

Artist: Dave Cockrum

Story arc: “Like A Phoenix, From The Ashes!”

[ffverr]

Family 🥹

[racefortheironthrone]

Do you worry Marvel will do a reboot of some sorts to the X-Men to align it more with whatever the X-Men will look like in the MCU in the coming years? Make the Krakoan Age meaningless?

Not really, no. For one thing, coordination between the comics and the MCU is pretty loose, especially these days - yes, they might line up as with Ms. Marvel becoming a mutant, but that's much more the exception to the rule.

For another, I don't think that's the direction they're going with the post-Krakoa relaunch. Yes, to a certain extent they have to put the toys back in the toybox for the next team, but there are ways to do that without rendering a critically and commercially successful run "meaningless," and I trust that the creative team handling FOTHOXROTPOX will nail the dismount.

Moreover, the choice of the name is telling to me. "From the Ashes" is rightfully a legendary arc of the Claremont run - it's got Paul Smith doing some of the best art in the history of the X-Men, it's got Claremont introducing Callisto and the Morlocks, Punk Storm, Wolverine's Japanese wedding, Rogue becoming a member of the X-Men, the love story of Madelyne Pryor and Scott Summers, some epic Jason Wyngarde gaslighting, it's got everything!

But you know what else is significant about "From the Ashes"? For the most part, it's not really a Westchester X-mansion set up. So whatever this relaunch is going to be, I don't think it's going to be a retread of UXM #273.

[roguestorm]

Is Jean grey close friends with Sue Storm and Janet? I always thought of them as a trio because they were the only female in their respective groups and they bonded over that haha but did they ever interact in comics?

Good question!

I don't off the top of my head remember any Jean/Janet interactions at all. They probably have interacted at some point, but I don't know when.

For Sue, a couple of places spring to mind:

First, Fantastic Four #286, when the FF + Hercules and Captain America find Jean at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. Jean fights the other heroes, including Sue, believing them to be robots. But when Jean realizes they're real and realizes that she's lost her telepathic powers and also been gone for several years, she starts to have a breakdown, and Sue intervenes on her behalf.

And then Sue also chimes in with Captain America to reassure Jean that her human spirit saved the world from the destruction posed by Dark Phoenix. And then we get this cute moment at the end, where it seems like they're sort of getting to be friends! Yay!

So this issue positions them as mostly strangers before this but on friendly terms by the end of it. (Also, I love the way Byrne draws Jean.)

The next place is Days of Future Present, specifically UXM annual #14. This has Sue explaining Jean's feelings on the subject of Rachel and children and how Jean feels like her life has been laid out for her to Scott.

This makes sense to me given FF 286, where Sue saw firsthand how badly Jean reacted to finding out what had gone on in "her" life without her. This is in 1990, 5 years after FF 286. (They were also abducted together in the Atlantis Attacks crossover the previous year, but I think that's less important to their dynamic.)

But then when Jean expresses these same issues to Sue, Sue points out that she has to think of Rachel.

This casts Sue as an older mother giving advice to a younger mother. Sue understands Jean's frustration, but she's trying to remind Jean that Rachel is having a hard time too and she is underscoring that Jean might have some sort of responsibility to Rachel.

And the last interaction that comes to mind is a retcon, from someone who went, "Wait, these characters should have interacted more than they did!" and that's in X-Men First Class (2007) #1. Professor X asks Sue to come and mentor Jean. From the beginning, Jean is very taken with Sue and very glad to get to go with her.

And she's extra glad to be around Sue when Sue gets what it's like for Jean to be a woman and a superhero (since Jean is the only girl on an all-male team).

Maybe not revolutionary or anything, but certainly cute.

All three of these scenarios have Sue acting as mentor or protector to Jean. I wonder what Sue would get out of a friendship with Jean, especially now that Jean is more established and more confident. There is a foundation that current writers could build off of if they so wished, and it would be cool to see it explored more!

[synergysilhouette]

Remaking "Wolverine & the X-Men" (Roster)

I made a rewrite of WATXM almost a year ago, and I wanted to post the roster/costumes I'd put them in! I'd also change the body types of the show, making the females less paper-thin (their legs were like twigs), and making the guy's scrawny lower half match their buff upper bodies.

Note: I will be reposting my rewrite, but as one post rather than the two separate posts they were originally.

Wolverine's classic outfit can stay--though I'd prefer it to be cowless, especially since the setting removes the need for masks. I definitely like Beast's feline look (with glasses, though), as well as Angel in blue and white. Forge's design in the show felt too juvenile, and I'd prefer a more mature--albeit casual--look for him; I'd want Shadowcat's Mekanix/X-Treme X-Men costume, but perhaps a different color, and this seemed like the right show for Iceman's black and red outfit (but use pants instead of shorts, and go for the sleeveless look). I loved Storm's WATXM outfit, though I wanted to be unique and chose one of her 90s looks (IDK if it's supposed to be blue or black, but I'd make it black), Emma's look can stay, I'd give Quintin his traditional costume, Cyclops' revolution outfit fits perfectly here, as does Rogue's green hood. Nightcrawler's classic look can stay, and I like Jubilee's HoX costume and the black version of Manifold's suit.

BTW, this is just who stays at the mansion; this full roster doesn't always go into the field.

Quicksilver's blue looks do NOT get enough attention, Polaris' recent outfit is amazing, and Wanda's "Axis" costume is glorious. I'd like the modern take on Kwannon's iconic look (though in the show, she and Betsy Braddock are conflated into one person), Gambit's Hellfire Gala look deserves attention (albeit covering the skin for practical reasons), and Domino's solo outfit feels a bit more energetic, visually. Avalanche's UXM outfit is his best, and Toad's WATXM look can stay. And Magneto's "X-Men: Blue" look is underrated, though I'd make sure the black is noticeable and make Mr. Sinister's blue outfit a brighter shade to avoid similarities.

Here are the current rewrites (which I'll delete after I post the new one):

Part I

Part II

[popculturebuffet]

House of Claremont: Warhunt! (UXM #94-96)

Hello all you happy mutants and after far too long, welcome back to the House of Claremont, my long look at the Chris Claremont era of x-men! We're finally back peforming to you after the senses shattering debut and just in time too. This year marks the 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNCANNY X-MEN and i've been chomping at the bit to get back to the strangest heroes of all. And while I have something bigger planned for their anniversary in july, for now you'll be hopefully getting a monthly does of mutant mayhem from here.

So when we last left off, despite the title of this feature, Len Wein kicked us off with Giant Sized X-Men #1 as a new generation of x-men was brought in to save the previous one, crabs were killed, islands walked like men and our story ended with 13 x-men and some questions as to what they were going to do with such a thing. This time we get our answer as most of those x-men leave, one who stays dosen't have long for this world, and a narrator is a real dick to cyclops. To me my x-men!

Warhunt:

So with this issue we begin Chris Claremont's actual tenure on the book… KINDA. See while Warhunt is scripted by Claremont Len Wein still plotted it for Giant Sized X-Men #2, where it was planned to have the All-New All-Diffrent X-Men continue. But the book was such a MASSIVE hit, they couldn't resisit bringing it back from reprints, and with Len Wein busy with editing AND the hulk, he passed it on to Chris, and the rest is history.

Warhunt picks up shortly after Giant Sized with, as so perfectly Claremontily put, the breaking of a man's heart: While Charles Xavier gladly congradulates the x-men, Sunfire decides to tell them all to fuck off, and while true to form Shiro is a dick about it.. he does make a point: he agreed to help for one mission, he did that. He never agreed to join the team and given he stormed off before the mission even began and only came back out of honor, I honestly don't know what Charles expected

The rest of the All New All Diffrent X-Men now have to decide if their staying or not: Storm is the first to agree to stay, deciding that "two days is nothing", fitting Ororo's spirit perfectly and marking a nice shift to the character we know and love, whiel Wolverine figures "Eh beats waiting around for action and shit. " Nightcrawler just sorta stands there and Colossus isn't sure.. which Xavier takes as a yes apparently as he never goes back to it and later considers it setteld after dealing with our last new member:

Xavier is a Jerk: 4

Banshee is said last one and his response is "I"m too old at 40 somethign to be doing this! Begorah or something!" but Xavier goads him with a "Well if you can't hang with these 20 somethings then bawk bawk chicken man bawk bawk" and Cyclops makes the more persuasive argument that he woudln't have to run anymore, he' dbe among friends. Banshee agrees and Xavier has an x-man and assumes it's settled.. onlyf or angel to drop this bombshell

The original x-men, minus Cyclops have all decided to leave as their adutls now and want to live their own lives. The reasoning isn't terrible.. but the execution is abrubt as hell. It's just "Whelp we were doing this yesterday but now we don't have to piss off old man!" I don't mind the original x-men leaving: Scott , as we'll get into in a moment, gives us a represntive for the old guard, and most of them come back in some form with Jean, Warren and Alex all rejoining eventually at diffrent points. It allows the new characters to breathe. But for fans of the original roster it had to be a small slap in the face ot see the originals just decide

I get this was originally supposed to be a large one shot, but for such a big event you'd thinkt hey'd of left more than about a page worth of explination. Even for the more action heavy bronze age, this is abrubt.

We do thankfully get some Pathos as there's one X-Man who isn't so sure he's getting the fuck out of there: Scott Summers. His brother.. is a bit of a dick saying "I don't mean to push you big brother but…" then you do Alex. You do mean to push him. You a'll made this decision without talking to him or asking what he wanted.

God Dammit Alex: 1

Trust me.. i'm going to need this. I"m also going ot need this

Go Fuck Yourself Wolverine: `1

Yeah early on Wolverine's main personality is being a prick and trying to murder anyone within claws range, so expect this to shoot up real quick. Case in point he gets mad that… 3 people who genuinely love and repsect professor xavier find it hard to break it to him their leaving. And alex and lorna too I guess.

So it's up to Cyclops to stay or go and we get this gem of a line

Comedy. Gold. As is the fact that to signify he's not leaving he wears his full costume to say goodbye to his friends. Oh and I almost forgot this key part of this feature

God Hates Scott Summers Count: 2

For his CURSED MUTANT ENERGY BLASTING EYES

What ends up working though is his goodbye.. and his first words outline the character arc Chris has planned for him and really speaks to WHO scott is when written at his best

Scott.. is a man of duty. This can often be poorly translated to adaptations as "boring stick up his ass man with CURSED MUTANT ENERGY BLASTING EYES action", but when written right he's the first belieiver in xavier's dream and his best student. He's a man whose trained himself and his powers to their peak and will fight to the last person, a master tacitcian who is hard to take out even if he's easy to disarm and will not give up. He's batman if batman had CURSED MUTANT ENERGY BLASTING EYES instead of cool gadgets. He's a good man doing his best for the world and his people. But he's also at the end of it.. alone. He found love, but ultimately his duty comes first because it has to. Because someone has to fight for this, someone has to keep going. The question Claremont poses, at least before things go off the rails thanks to editorial but we'll get to that is can Scott give it up? Coudl someone else do the job he's chained to? We'll find out as we go.

For now though we soon see after why he has the job as once the original class is off to form a failing superhero team or show up in just three or four issues, Scott gets the x-men to training and while I can't show it here as it's too big, we see a glorious one page spread of him pushing the x-men to their absolute limits int he danger room over the next few weeks. To quote the page

"And so it begins, the days, the weeks, of training. Six horus a day, five days a week, week in, week out until the halls of this old, venerable mansion echo and re-echo with the suonds of battle, until these neophyte x-men begin to wonder if there was ever a time when they weren't fighting for thier lives. And when they falter, give in a little, give up, a voice snaps them back into line. A harsh voice, an angry voice, biting, merciless. The voice of the man named cyclosp who drives the x-men hard and himself harder, who takes six proud unique indviduals, six loners and outcasts.. and forges them into a team "

It's a whopper of a narration and speaks to Claremont's strength: to many back then narration was just part of how comics were done. But Chris goes all out , making it every bit as descriptive and flowery as he can, every bit as gripping. Is it a tad cheesy sometimes? Oh yes, and we'll get to the shining example of that soon, but when it works, it works. Instead of feeling like he's explaning what your seeing with your eyes, it helps enhance it, adding an extra grandeur to the procedings.

At any rate eventually the training gets tiriing and Thunderbird gets cut by a laser and Cyclops yells at him, he yells back and Charles yells at both of them to "cease this shameful display"..

Professor Xavier is a Jerk Count: 5

This one is a bit .. milder though. While HOW he did it was stupid, he's right that Cyclops can't just blow up at his teammates, though Scott is just as right that Thunderbird NEEDS to be careful.

We then cut to Valhalla Military Base, the headquarters of Norad in this universe and home of several dozen missles. It's likely based on actual miltary bases, as Chris himself served in the RAF and thus likes to inject both aircraft and military stuff in where possible. So here we get one of the DUMBEST supporting characters i've ever seen. He gets an unmarked package and opens it, which itsel fis bad.. but then this happens

Okay it's actually a DIFFRENT bunch of weird animal persons with presumibly smaller dicks, but I need a minute to pick apart how much this guy deserves his darwin award. In a secure miltiary base, in a world where superheroes are a known quanitity to the point the goverment frequently calls the avengers for help and even does so with this very crisis, where supervillians are frequent and shield is likely a call away.. you decide to PRESS some random button you got in the mail. Yes his friends all joke and he assumed it was from them but even pre 9/11 i'm confident most goverment personel knew to actually.. check packages and make sure they were safe in the headquarters of fucking NORAD. I mean I get it a bunch of animal people, the ani-men naturally, teleporting in isn't what you expect but like.. someone could've set it to shut down their tech or to blast him in the face with acid or just explode in a cloud of knockout gas. There's a million ways this could've gone wrong without super furries.

What makes this somehow funnier and more agrviating? This was a PLAN. Count Nefaria's grand master plan for his Ani-Men's attack… was to pick the dumbest man in all of NORAD, to likely spend hours going over personel files he bought off HYDRA or something, just to pick the ONE GUY who would be stupid enough to do this and hope his buddies were equally dumb enough to not stop him. He likely tracked shifts, made sure everything lined up .. just so he could do a plan that as we'll see still ended up stupid because despite his detailed files he still didn't.

Anyways the ani men clear these guys out and we meet said count. Count Nefaria is a long time marvel villian, a chap in a dracula style suit and cape and i'll admite a dope ass monocle. Sadly despite said dope ass monocle… I really have never liked him. He later gained a crapton of superpowers.. but all he's ever been to this point is a generic bwahahaha villian who happens to just be powerful, and ta this point he isn't even that. Hopefully the currently running x-men: lethal legion fixes this, but for now he's just one of the more boring villians the avengers and x-men have fought despite his singifigance to both. It's not a huge shock that despite reinventing plenty of old x-men foes , this guy never showed up again and was brought in by his predecssor's plot. Anyways Nefaria puts the rest of the facility to sleep with some mmmmm drugs and makes his demands, which Charles calls the x-men in to hear. Turns out he was forwarded this by beast. As I mentioned last time Beast was an avenger at the time, so he wasn't there for the big goodbye and is also kinda confused all his friends are gone and Charles.. dosen't bother to explain

Xavier is a Jerk: 6

I get they only have three hours but he could you know say "I will tell you in a little bit but for now these are the x-men" I mean he probably did but there's exactly ONE person Hank knows in that group. He's bound to have questions like "are the others okay" "where did they go" and "why are you such a dick sir and can future me take lessons for you when I go into my mostly supervillian phase?"

Xavier ratchets up another

Xavier is a Jerk: 7

Right after as he forces Scott to take thunderbird with them despite being injured and planning to punch cyclops if he refuses. Because that will surely end well.

At any rate our heroes head in and we get our first instance of anti-mutant racisim in this run as the general was expecting the avengers, though while he's not happy about "You muties" the first apperance of Chris' fantastic slur that would become a staple of x-men from here on, he has no choice… and the x-men have only 45 minutes. So it's like metroid if ridley was a european count clearly doing some hard meth.

Our heroes encounter a big roadblock as Nefaria lobs missles at them while calling them his greatest enemies.. when at this point all they did was fight him once, while the avengers destroyed his castle, go thim deported to italy and thrown out of the maggia. IT's not a huge shock he went back to fighting them after this as it feels more personal and he started getting minons and such.

At any rate our heroes soon face the bases sonic disruptor.. aka SOME SORT OF DEATHRAY THAT COMPLETELY DESTROYS THE BLACKBIRD.

Also

Blackbirds Destroyed: 1

I have a feeling i'm going to need this.

We enter our next issue as the x-men are FREEEE, FREEEE FALLLIN. Cyclops, once he recaps the previous issue in his head, comes up with a plan: have storm and banshee each take two people, and nightcrawler just teleport. This.. is one of Cyclops less proud moments as said plan is tripped up by two things he really should've known after weeks of training or at least asked about before trying to field test them: Kurt CAN teleport… but the law of conservation of energy means his velocity sticks. This nicely not only adds a weakness to kurt's powers, but also explains why he can come out of it into a punch or what have you: his momentum goes with him, while Banshee can only carry one at a time and thus has to come back for scott. It makes Scott come off like a weak leader: I get not knowing EVERYTHING, no one will know about Wolverine's healing factor for some time, but it's weird to emphasis they've trained together for weeks.. and then not have Cyclops test one of the most vital manuvers a team needs to pull off, especially when you reguarly travel by jet and said jet can easily be batted out of the air by enemies. I mean the death ray is diffrent and their will be a good explination when we get to magneto why he wasn't on the roster for training, but getting out quickly and safely in case the jet crashes should be one of the first things he prepares for and feels weird he didn't.

As for colossus we do get a very ncie payoff ot that scene I drew attention to last time where Storm REFUSED to let him drop despite him asking to, and he was understandably annoyed. We find out why as this time with this delightful image.

It's a nice funny moment, and while everyone worrying h'ed killed himself is a bit.. much givne they haven't known him long and don't know what he can survivie, the payoff is genuinely hilarious. Everyone doubted him, but PItor.. is just fine. We also get a ncie little scene of Banshee rescuing cyclops.

Now their at the base Scott gets his braincell back and has a fairly clever plan, have Nightcrawler teleport inside: while blind telporting is incredibly risky for Kurt, here it's less of an issue as he at least has an idea since it is an access hatch. He soon encounters one of the Ani-Men croaker and we get mroe anti-mutant hysteria in an intresting way: despite bein ga mutate (i.e. a human given powers via a vat of radioactive cream of wheat or what have you instead of the x-gene), Croaker is still a bigot, considering Kurt a freak despite having every reason to sympathize, showing that bigory.. is often just blind stupidity. Kurt beats his racist ass though but he gets away and the X-Men deal with a few issues: murder gas, brainwashed soldiers, etc.

We then get a fight with the ani men, which is sadly short, but still fun. Honestly I like THEM even if I don't like the count as they have intresting desgins, a unique dynamic with the x-men as seen with croaker and the tragedy of badly wanting ot be human again. It's sad they didn't show up again even if it's good count chocula didn't. The fight also has a truly great moment when we see what happens when you try and use hypossi on a man whose control of his CURSED MUTANT ENERGY BLASTING EYES is the only thing keeping you safe.

So with that the team splits, most of them trying to shut down the doomsmith in time while Thunderbird and Banshee go after Nefaria.. and this… is where we get what this story is known for. Nefaria attempts to get away in a plane, but Thunderbird refuses to let him and jumps on it, recklessly attacking him while everyone BEGS him to stop from Banshee to Xavier. Granted Xavier also does the dick move of yelling at cyclops for focusing on the doomsmith.. despite Scott having no way to know Thunderbird is in danger nor the Doomsmith was destroyed in the fight until Xavier TELLS him these things

Xavier is a Jerk: 8

Seriously I didn't expect this to stack up so quick. At any rate the x-men run tos ave thunderbird from himself, but he refuses Xavier's warnings and the others ar etoo later… and all Charles can do.. is stay with him as the inevetible happens

Thunderbird is dead. The first x-man has fallen in the line of duty. And I know Changeling died as Xavier's body double, but this is the first example that was purely in duty. And it'd stick till 2021 which for comics.

As for WHY it happened it's simple: the team didn't need two argumantive tough guys. You only needed one to reguarly tell Cyclops

And since Wolverine was more popular and had more unqiue powers with his claws, Johnny was chosen to bite the bulet.. or plane.

I"m torn on this decision. On the one hand, I see why they choose Wolverine to live: he had a hell of an intro fighting the hulk, and while he wasn't exactly well liked at first, he fit the role of contrarian jackass better as unlike Thunderbird, he clearly HAD seen a lot of field duty so he had just enough cred to understand why he keeps checking cyclops, but just enough psychotic rage for you to pick Scott over him at this point. In contrast Thunderbird was just a punk kid who came out of nowhere and constantly got himself in danger. HIs death made more sense.

The problem is int he implications: they took a frustrated 20 something who hated white people.. and had him die for ignoring a white guy and that be all he's EVER known for for several decades. I get Len really didn't think these implications through, but the fact no one else ever thought to fix this till 2021 (though the Hickman era TILL then gets a pass as they likely had said revivial planned), is messed up. It's not the most messed up racial landmine the x-men have ever dealt with , but it's still pretty bad not helped by John being one of only two POC on the team at the time of his death and another POC character wouldn't join till 14 years later with Forge. He's also literally drawn with red skin. It was this fucked up coloring thign they did back then, Shang Chi's was gold at first. That's not Chris nor Len's fault, but it is profudly fucked that was marvel policy and shoudln't really go without mention. Chris would get slightly better at this as while he didn't add any more poc to the x-men, the new mutants were far more diverse, and Dani Moonstar would go on to be a fully fleshed out three dimensional native american character and not one who feeds into harmful sterotypes and dies in the span of three issues.

Overall Warhunt is.. eh. While Len did a great job plotting the first story this one feels way more rushed and really should've had another issue to breathe or two before they killed off John as while his death is presented well.. we barely knew him. It dosen't help that while the ani men like I said are intresting, Nefaria REALLY dosen't have a strong connection to the x-men or come off as much of a threat. They try , but his plan is so stupid and he does so little besides teleport in after his minons do the hard part and seemingly die in a plane crash, that it's no wonder Claremont had zeor intrest in having him come back despite having taken an x-man with him. The story is impotant historically.. but honestly reads fairly dry. Thankfully dry, rife with implications, or bad aren't things you can really say about our next story

Night of the Demon:

Now we properly begin Chris' run on the book with one of my faviorite single x-men issues. I mean there are a lot, Chris was great at longterm story but just as fantastic at making one off stories, but this one just has a great pacing, bonkers premise that ends up working, and some good character moments.

It also helps it begins with one of the most hilarious moments in x-men history that also somehow still works dramatically. The first page or two is the narration just.. berating cyclops, who naturally is taking his first casualtiy as a leader not at all well and while I get the intent, it's mostly just Scott beating himself up but since internal caption boxes weren't a thing yet , it instead comes off as the narrator yelling at him, cumilating in this glorious pile of panels.

The Narrator is a Jerk: 1

What keeps it from being just hilaroius though is scott following it up by letting loose with his powers for the first time, really letting it all out.. and destroying the surronding forest leaving a devistated husk.. and also destroying some old obelisk. Eh probably nothing to worry about.

And you can really tell Chris has been left to his own devices with scott… because we get ANOTHER graet character defining moment here.. not only does Scott berate himself for doing this.. but he also comes to term with the death quickly, but in a way that makes sense for him: He wanted to be the leader.. choose it over leaving..a nd this is what comes with it. Sometimes you train up a good man .. and sometimes he dies. You can't control it. John choose to stay on the plane… and Cyclops has to choose to go on living, wishing john a nice rest in piece.. while smoke rises behind him which can only mean one thing

While that goes on the x-men train and Logal reacts to a stray blow by cyclops like a sane, well put together indvidual

Yeah this is probably the most infamous of Early Logan's jackassery. He attempts to murder TWO diffrent teammates because one accidently hit him (and apologized and made sure he was okay) and another laughed at him. And his second would be victim is now his best friend.

Rather than deal with the fact one of his X-Men just tried to stab another in front of him Charles instead talks to Banshee about Scott's mental state…

I mean I can't fault him for worrying about Scott or the roving narrator stalking him, he's the closest thing he has to a son as far as he knows. But is he really going to say nothing about Wolverine trying to make Kurt into blue sauerkraut. Raelly? Well okay then

Xavier is a Jerk: 9 There is a layer to this I didn't notice till I started writing the review though: Charles confides in Sean… because he's likely the next one up if Cyclops needs time off to mourn or to set himsef straight. It's a great use of show don't tell, impliclty telling us Banshee is the x-men's second in command at this point. It also makes sense at this point: Storm , Colossus and Nightcrawler are all brand new to this and Wolverine just tried to cut up two diffrent teammates for looking at him funny. Sean by contrast has fuller control of his powers, has been at this a while and while new to x-manning has the stablity and experince needed. It's also intresting to already hint at something years down the line: the idea of an x-man lineup without cyclops. Keep in mind we're only on issue THREE of claremont's run and fourth of this era overall, but intentional or not the seeds for a later arc are there. Wethere this scene helped him decide on where Cyclops went during his run or something else, it's neat to note.

Finally for this scene Charles asks Sean to go meet their house keeper.. and meet her he does…

Moria MacTaggert, scientest, secret mutant , the love of sean's life.. and for this arc ostebnsible housekeeper, though Claremont already clearly has other plans for her.

More on that in a bit for now we cut to Project Armageddon.

Yes Project Armageddon is the brain child of Stephen Lang who weirdly is not , as far as we currently know, related at all to Scott Lang. For now i'm just going to assume he's Scott's deranged cousin he dosen't like to talk about. You can easily see why in this panel as he outlines the project to former friend and air force col micheal rossi, whose here to see if the goverment should scrap this..

Okay 1) if this wasn't the us goverment i'd be honestly shocked he embezzled a billion dollars and their just now caring about it, and 2) Ther'es nothing that quite sells your project like wide eyed ranting about how you need to 'KILL THEM BEFORE THEY KILL US KILL THEM ALL". Granted nowadays you'd have cable news talking about how your an upstanding indvidiual whose just misunderstood, so maybe Lang just pitched it in the wrong decade. At any rate Lang is convinced thanks to previous arcs the mutants are a threat, feeling they killed Bolivar Trask and Larry, his so. Both died due to his own creations the sentinels, who I assume need no introduction but for those who have never heard of the x-men apparently their giant killer robots designed to kill mutants.. who usuallyd ecide the best way to do that is to enslave humanity too, yet keep getting built because humans be smart. So yeah he's talking out of his racism hole and Rossi intends to shut down the project which Lang naturally responds to by saying he'll never get to washington.. ALIVE.

Lang is the first racist the x-men face in this run and feels like the blue print to most anti-human bigot antagonists afterwords: he bleivies "their going to replace us", uses sentinels, and has an elaborate plan for genocide done in secret. It's a blueprint the x-men will see a lot and most human villians from here on out follow in some way up to Orchis in present day, but with enough variety to not get too tiresome.

Back at the mansion Sean flirts with Moira, kicking off one of the most stable and enduring relatoinships in x-men history which surely won't end horribly and have Sean become a spooky ghost as a result, while Storm questions who the eff is this? Xavier says "tha'ts my affair" but assures her her secrets safe with him. Why dosen't he tel lher? Because

Xavier is a Jerk: 11

Anyways this party is interupted like most x-men parties… by Cyclops getting thrown thorugh the window, in a way that feels like a young kevin eastman and peter laird were taking notes… and as for what did it.. .well you'd think given what the x-men usually fought it'd be a supervillian, perhaps the juggernaught or one of 80 aliens they fought in the OG Era or maybe stephen lang got started early.. but no the result.. is gloriously batshit and out of left field.

Yeah for those less familiar with the x-men… Chris started an important trend: ANYTHING can go in an x-men story. The X-Men rival the TMNT in terms of "franchises that are a core part of me that really can do whatever the fuck I want. " Part of the problem with the films as they went on is they tried to tamp down on the inherent weirdness instead of embrace it which made sense for the first trilogy, as they were trying to sell superhero movies to an audience at all, but by the mcu era where the compettition was throwing out talking racoons it made less nad less sense ot not go to space or bring in a giant one eyed demon who happened to be sealed in Charles back yard for some reason. It' sone of the big charms of Claremont's Run: he knows Comic BOoks can be inherently goofy… and thus leans into it, decades before the 2000's made it more standard practice. He has over the top villians and set pieces but grounds them in character. I mean this demon what was sealed in Charles back yard.. came from Cyclops being in deep grief over his first casualty as a commander.

It also shows the gulf between Nefaria last issue and Kireok here. Kireok.. also dosen't really go on to be all tha timportant, with other demons taking his spot once we get into everything with Limbo here and over in new mutants. But where as Nefaria is a standard d-list super villian, Kirreok is an unstoppable, horrifying demon. A being who EAISLY steamrolls through most of the x-men's early attempts, shaking off Cyclops at full power, which we just saw decimate a forest, shurging off coloss and nightcralwer tyring to pummel him and easily downing storm. the only one who can harm him.. is wolverine… and it's only by sinking to the monsters brutal level

Once again Chris well sums up where the characters are at: in this case Wolverine is a murderous beserker, able to go after foes with a savage rage purely on instinct.. but as we've seen it also means he attacks his own allies, has no real friends ad this point.. and unlike how he'll be later he enjoys it. He LIKES being more beast than man and is glad for it.. the questoin is really.. how long will this stick?

At any rate Kirreok proves how deadly he is by regenerating, so Charles does the natural thing and tries to read his mind…. and we get one of dave cockrums best panels. I haven't talked much about his art but it's a thing of beauty..and it's at one of it's heights here

Cosmic Horror Nightmares distlled into one panel, breaking the usually inflappable heart of the x-men. Thankfully Charles recovers because he's been through some shit and sends storm to do it. We get another good character moment and it's incredible just how many claremont packed into one issue. It dosen't slow down the main story either, each one's baked in but we've got moments that clearly set up character arcs for Cyclops, Wolverine and now storm who flies to go face these demons. Oh and MOira who I amost forgot to mention goes after Kirreok with a convient gun from the conveient armory we'll convenetly neve rheard about again.

But Storm's scen eis a classic as she gets swarmed by demons and i'ts a shame Cockrum's two runs on the books didn't have at on of demons, as he's very good at horror artwork and the monsters look truly grotesque and alien. Thankfully he WOULD ge tto design several actual aliens, so it ballances it's just a shame. But what we do get is horrifying as storm is enricled… and then flashes back to a happy childhood.. before seeing herself buried in rubble. This will be crucial next time as her clastrophobia comes more into focus but for now it means sh'es free and can seal the cairn the demons came from with lightning. Our heroes one.. but Storm is convienced Kirreok will return while Col Rossi apparnetly died in a firey explosion. And that's where we leave it.

Next TIme: We find out Stephen Lang's evil master plan as the sentinels return just in time for christmas! Cyclops brother sucks suprising no one! And the Juggernaught returns but can the all new x-men stop this motherfucker? UNtil then, thanks for reading my x-men

[kurt-wagner-official]

Post #90: XF issue 11 and UXM issue 213

Picking up immediately after the Power Pack crossover, Hank and Bobby are ambushed by some Morlocks who think they're Marauders. Masque is one of them, joined by Berserker, an electrokinetic, Scaleface, who turns into a giant lizard, and Blow-Hard, my new favorite superhero, who blows on things really hard. The fight is interrupted when Scott, Jean, Artie, and the comatose Warren arrive and clear the air, inviting them to come with them. Just before this, Artie, attempting to convey the message Warren gave him for Jean, shows her a vision of Warren hugging her, which makes Scott get all stoic and angsty again. When they get back to HQ, Scott and Jean take Warren to a hospital, while Berserker and his gang, who don't trust X-Factor, sneak out. They run into some muggers, who tragically shoot Blow-Hard and get electrocuted in response. Scott and Jean see this on the news in the hospital waiting room and jump at the chance to go beat someone up instead of sitting around. There's a quick interlude at a veteran's hospital in Georgia, where Abe Kieros, a mutant in an iron lung with the power to make stuff blow up, is recruited by Apocalypse. Catching back up to Scott and Jean, they arrive on the scene just as the cops murder Scaleface and injure Masque, making Berserker go crazy. Scott tries to subdue him but accidentally knocks him into the water, where he electrocutes himself. To Scott, this is just more blood on his hands, but to Jean, they saved Masque's life, and that's worth something. They get back to the hospital, where the doctor tells them Warren will live, but they had to amputate his wings. In the teaser for next issue, Boom-Boom, the mutant girl from SWII, has been working as a thief for Vanisher, an old X-Men villain. She quits and threatens to call X-Factor on him. The best parts of this issue were the scenes of recovery from the Massacre, and I wish there had been more of that and less crazy Morlocks. But it was still good overall.

Betsy takes center stage in the finale to the X-Men side of the storyline. She's using Cerebro to project her psychic self through the mansion, checking on the wounded and on the rooms of the missing New Mutants. Speaking of which, she and Doug have a weird flirty thing going on, which is so very creepy. Luckily it never goes as far as Peter and Kitty. Betsy feels out of place, not fully accepted by the X-Men. Her scans of the mansion are cut short when she detects Sabretooth entering the ground and tries to scan his mind, but is knocked for a loop by how evil his brain is, I guess. In the tunnels, Logan tells Ororo that the lightning blast wiped out all traces of the New Mutants scent. It also destroyed every last bit of the Morlocks home. Ororo wonders if its her fault; lately, there have been a lot of storms around when she's in a fight, and she fears her powers are coming back in a way she can't control. There's an interlude in LA, where Malice continues to stalk Alison, this time taking possession of her body. Back at the mansion, Anna hasn't stopped patrolling the grounds, and she's exhausted- an easy target for Sabretooth, who takes her down. He makes his way inside and attacks Betsy, who runs to draw him away from the injured Morlocks. She fights back with every weapon she can get her hands on, determined to protect people, but she's no match for Sabretooth. Logan returns just in time, though, and starts fighting with Sabretooth. Max and Ororo plan to join in, but Betsy tells them that as long as Sabretooth is distracted with Logan, she can slip into his mind and get information. Ororo tells her to go for it, and she succeeds, although we don't get to see what all info she got. When Sabretooth realizes what happened, he jumps into the lake and escapes before the X-Men gang up on him. Ororo, Logan, and Anna, the only X-Men left, unanimously offer Betsy a place on the team, which she accepts.

This might be my favorite Marvel crossover ever. It's also, I think, the most complete loss the heroes have ever had in an event this big. At this point, mutants are Marvel's most successful franchise, and Claremont and Simonson could have just coasted on that. But instead, they chose to write a story that would take several of their most popular characters out of the books and set up a bunch of bold new plot threads. I think, more than any other evil team we've seen, the Marauders are the anti-X-Men. The way they synergize their fighting styles and have a bunch of different little interpersonal relationships is very reminiscent of what makes the X-Men so interesting, except they're also completely devoid of morals. They'll be a big part of the franchise for the next few years, and bring out sides of our heroes that we haven't seen before. And even beyond them, there were so many plots set up for all three books. I've been looking forward to getting to this story, and it did not disappoint.

[female-malice]

i just looked up what this shitty movie Kate is about. and uhhh basically they took the kitty pryde & wolverine x-men sidequest from the 80s comics. only they did it badly and terribly. magic ninja assassin revenge missions really only works in 80s comics ok. lets just leave it there.

[comicreadingorder]

Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont Reading Order

With each list made I felt better about trying harder ones, but this was still the most intimidating comic reading list there is. It encompasses so many years, titles, minis, GNs and characters that I didn’t know what to bother with and what not to, or where they led. It took me a long time and a lot of mixing and matching of other lists to find a basic framework that I could then nudge as I read it.

This is an attempt at presenting the entire mutantsphere as it evolves. When New Mutants/X-Factor/Excalibur start I add what you need to know to introduce them - things that you would’ve known about if you were reading at the time of release just because of the climate or through osmosis. That said, I only mention the basics for setting up the title before returning to UXM, rather than integrating them all. Because of that not everything is by Claremont, but I’d say at least 80% is, and if I included anything that isn’t then there's a reason.

I chose to start with Classic X-Men, a reprint comic published in the late 80s to catch people up. Each issue has some corrections and cleaning up of panels or dialogue, plus a new short story (usually by Claremont) taking place around the time of each issue. I read these instead of the original issues because of the extras and benefit of hindsight.

Bold=important parts of the main story Italics=optional (with explanations)

Classic X-Men 1

Giant-Size Uncanny X-Men 1 -- Even though Classic 1 is supposed to be a modified reprint, it skips a lot of stuff in here, so I think both portray a more complete picture. Not gonna lie, it’s pretty messy reading both of these back to back cause Classic rewrites like 2/3 of the story, but that kind of big overhaul and confusion is only for the first issue.

Classic 2-13 (UXM 94-105)

UXM 106 -- Wasn’t in the Classic run because it wasn’t part of the “main” story but it’s a fun one shot.

Classic 14-16 (UXM 107-109)

UXM 110 -- A fill-in story that also wasn’t included in Classic, which is a crime because it’s the first time they played baseball!

Classic 17-30 (UXM 111-124)

UXM Annual 3

Classic 31-44 (UXM 125-138)

Bizarre Adventures 27

Phoenix The Untold Story -- Sort of a high-end “what if” issue that contains round table transcripts of the creators and editorial team, plus artwork of how they came to the conclusion of the story, and other possibilities along the way.

UXM Annual 4

Classic 45 (UXM 139) -- The end of the reprints adding new content. They continue on but without bonus stuff.

UXM 140

Marvel Team-Up (V1) 100 -- Introduces a future new mutant plus a short backup story about the first meeting between Storm and Black Panther as children. Written by Claremont.

UXM 141-149

Avengers Annual 10

UXM 150

UXM Annual 5

Marvel Fanfare (V1) 1-4

UXM 151-153

Uncanny X-Men and the Teen Titans -- Out of continuity crossover written by Claremont. Takes place around this time but can be read anytime after the Dark Phoenix Saga.

Marvel Treasury Edition 26, 27 -- The short backups near the end of each issue.

UXM 154-166

The New Mutants Graphic Novel -- Introduces the new students.

New Mutants 1-3 -- Leads into 167 better than just the graphic novel.

UXM 167

UXM Annual 6

UXM Special Edition (1983) — Reprint of giant-size 1 but includes a new kitty Pryde backup story.

X-Men: God Loves; Man Kills -- Wasn’t meant to be canon but future writers retcon it in.

UXM 168-171

Wolverine (V1) 1-4 -- Relevant to the main story.

UXM 172-175

UXM Annual 7

Magik 1-4 -- Shows how Illyana grew up and what she went through.

UXM 176-180

NM 15, 16 -- These (and later 17) follow Kitty’s journey with the NM while the rest of the X-Men are on Warworld in SW.

Secret Wars One 1-12 -- If you’ve read this before or don’t want to read the whole thing you don’t have to, but you should at least skim it for the X-Men bits, as the Colossus parts are particularly relevant. Magneto and Prof X also refer back to it sometimes.

UXM 181, 182

NM 17

UXM 183-188

Kitty Pryde & Wolverine 1-6

UXM 189-192

UXM Annual 8

Firestar 1, 2 -- Introduction to the character from the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon into comics canon. It takes place over years which is why I cut UXM 193 in between.

UXM 193

Firestar 3, 4

X-Men and Alpha Flight 1-2 -- Muddy continuity things prevent it from clearly being put anywhere. Apparently the explanation is that it takes places between the middle and end of a single issue... Becomes relevant later.

UXM 194

Nightcrawler (V1) 1-4 -- Cockrum writes and draws Nightcrawler fucking around for four issues. Gets the briefest of acknowledgements later.

Power Pack (V1) 12, UXM 195

Secret Wars Two 1

UXM 196-198

Longshot 1-6 -- Introduces Longshot, Spiral, Mojo and Mojoworld.

UXM 199

NM Special Edition 1 (1985), UXM Annual 9

UXM 200, 201

X-Men: Heroes for Hope -- Special charity issue by every big name writer/artist at the time. Self-contained.

UXM 202-206

Avengers 263, Fantastic Four 286, X-Factor 1 -- These show how the Original 5 X-Men members come back together to form X-Factor. Can be read anywhere between 202 and 210, I just stuck them here for an attempt at pacing.

Marvel Fanfare 33 -- Doesn’t fit super well anywhere because this issue was meant as a video game tie-in. Other lists put it after annual 11 but that’s publication order and definitely doesn’t fit there.

NM Annual 2, UXM Annual 10

UXM 207-209

Mutant Massacre

UXM 210, X-Factor 9, UXM 211, XF 10, NM 46, Thor 373, Power Pack 27, UXM 212, Thor 374, XF 11, UXM 213 -- NM adds some backdrop -- like creating a medical area -- to the events but doesn’t progress the main story.

UXM 214-219

Fantastic Four vs The X-Men 1-4

X-Men vs Avengers 1-4 -- Provides closure to the story in 200.

UXM Annual 11

Fall of the Mutants

I dropped some titles you’ll see in other lists like Daredevil and New Mutants because they either add nothing or have their own, unrelated story that really just keeps you from the main title longer. Everything italicized is related to X-Factor, which also tells its own story but has some links to UXM which carry over into Inferno. It’s broken up with UXM issues for impact and spoilers. If you don’t care about X-Factor you can skip all that and just read 220-227.

XF 18-23, UXM 220-224, Incredible Hulk 340, XF 24, 25, PP 35, UXM 225-227, Captain America 339, XF 26, FF 312 -- Hulk is mostly a transition issue between 224 to 225, Power Pack just shows an extended version of a fight, Cap closes a loose end, Fantastic Four is an epilogue.

UXM 228-231

Excalibur Special Edition (1988) -- Alternate title “Excalibur: The Sword is Drawn.” This shows what happens to the leftover X-Men members who weren’t around for FotM and ties up their loose ends before launching Excalibur.  

Marvel Comics Presents 1-10, Wolverine (V2) 1-8, 10 -- These take place over the months between 227 and 232. They’re just Wolverine solo stories I included because there are a couple easter eggs that distinctly place them during this time and because Claremont wrote them.

UXM Annual 12

UXM 232-238

Inferno

UXM 239, X-Terminators 1-3, XF 36, UXM 240-241, NM 71, XT 4, NM 72-73, XF 37, UXM 242, XF 38, UXM 243, XF 39

UXM 244, 245

UXM Annual 13 -- Atlantis Attacks tie-in that’s pretty confusing if you’re not following the whole event. Jubilee backup that shows what happens to her between 244 and her next appearance. The Jubilee story is kinda worth it.

Havok and Wolverine: Meltdown 1-4 — I didn’t add this originally because it’s disappointing and self-contained but eventually it’s mentioned again, years after these lists end, in X-factor 112.

UXM 246-267

Days of Future Present: FF Annual 23, NM Annual 6, XF Annual 5, UXM Annual 14

UXM 268, 269

X-Tinction Agenda: UXM 270, NM 95, XF 60, UXM 271, NM 96, XF 61, UXM 272, NM 97, XF 62

UXM 273-274

Kings of Pain: NM Annual 7, New Warriors Annual 1, UXM Annual 15, X-Factor Annual 6 -- Story across annuals about NW and X-Force with backups about Freedom Force. Totally skippable unless you’re reading those. Put here for breathing room between it and the Muir Isle saga.

UXM 275-277

Muir Isle Saga: UXM 278-279, XF 69, UXM 280, XF 70

X-Men (V2) 1-3

For some epilogue stories, see also

X-Men (V2) 4-11 -- Jim Lee stuck around on pencils through 11. And while I have opinions about his effect on the series, he drew the hell out of the book.

Weapon X (Marvel Comics Presents 72-84) — Barry Windsor-Smith tells the original story revealing Logan’s transformation and escape from Weapon X.

X-Men/Spider-Man -- A series of one-shots about crossovers between the team and SM across their careers. It’s fine by itself but excels at finding points in each title’s continuity to unite them. Like 4 issues of fun references and interactions.

X-Men: Grand Design -- A truncated retelling of the X-Men’s years from the start up to Claremont’s exodus, including most future retcons. It might seem weird to suggest a retelling of stories you just read but this is done so well while seamlessly including retcons and making small adjustments with the benefit of hindsight that it is itself a great reading experience. Sort of like when you watch a movie series after finishing the books to compare.

X-Men Forever: Alpha, 1-20, Annual 1, 21-24, Giant-Size 1, XMF 2: 1-16 -- This was an ongoing that Claremont started in 2009, picking up from X-Men #3 to tell the stories he’d had planned as if nothing happened afterwards, which he does for some (like pairing kitty with gambit) while others he just kills off because he decides he’d rather add some stuff he couldn’t have done back then. It’s still fun to see all the rumored plotlines and hints coming to fruition. Or being somewhat confirmed. The story itself isn’t satisfying, but at least it’s interesting. Alpha reprints those 3 issues from 1991 but also has a short story bridging the gap between it and issue 1. You should read it before starting the first issue because they didn’t even include that in the trade. After 24 it then has a giant-size one shot and reboots into X-Men Forever 2, which lasts up to 16.

I’ll occasionally add some stuff so if you didn’t catch something last time it might not have been there! Like the X-Men Forever entry, which I read almost 7 months ago but didn’t decide to put in until now.

[fireincarnate]

Storm | UXM 273

[soldierbearluis-blog]

In a super distant decade It was 1963 There lived a guy named Charles Pretty different from you and me. He founded the Xavier institute Some students wore spandex yellow jumpsuits. They wanted to improve relations in race, But Erick didn’t like it and he said it to their face “I’ve got these evil mutants The worst I could find Lalala The human race is obsolete And racist and unkind” This Martin-Malcolm allegory brings conflict to no end But Charles can try with his mutant mind, that joined his mutant friends Mutant Roll call: Cyclops (nice shades) Storm (Hey Girl) Logan (the cool guy) Kuuuuurt (I’m blue) If you’re wondering how the whole thing’s changed in over 50 years, Just remember that it’s comics, which are super freaking weird. Sit back and relax for Uncanny X-Men

[bynightafangirl]

Uncanny Storm (10/-) - Uncanny X-Men #102 (1976)

Artist: Dave Cockrum

Story arc: “ Who Will Stop The Juggernaut?”

[arrhakis]

(via The City of The Dome - The Guardians Of The Soul | The City … | Flickr)

The City of The Dome - The Guardians Of The Soul by Daniel Arrhakis (2021)

 With the music : M83 - Waking Up (Oblivion Soundtrack)

https://youtu.be/UoEAMCz-UXM

The Cities of The Domes, initially built to protect us from solar radiation that reached extreme values ​​as well as the great millennial storms that devastated the Earth due to climate change were now used for the surveillance of all citizens.

The anarchist and revolutionary groups revolted against the new Cloud Governments of Autocratic ideology that kept the peoples under a regime of constant surveillance and censorship of social communications networks. Everything was controlled and predicted through navigation records, consumption habits, social and movement patterns. Large corporations dictated the prices of our lives and who deserved to live or die. Cults and Artistic or Mystical Orders were constantly monitored and, although tolerated, became increasingly uncomfortable as they often contradicted the State's Political Thought Standard and challenged the instituted social order.

We were, however, "The Others" that in the light we observed, recorded patterns and collected data. During the night we acted and met as brothers who swore to defend Freedom, Humanity and their mystical values, but mainly the most unprotected and persecuted. They called us "The Guardians of the Night" but we would like to consider ourselves more like "The Guardians of the Soul". Our objective - To restore the old traditions, the old arts and crafts but mainly to restore the ancestral mystical balance of Man with Nature in Freedom and Tolerance towards all creeds, religions, sexual orientation and races.

And to achieve our goal, the two mystical orders that had existed in the past were recreated: The Militar Order of The Silver Orchid and the Order Of The Golden Orchid.

The first, in  the Past was a Military Order of fearless and courageous warriors who protected the innocent against Tyrant Lords, their symbol a silver orchid that they wore always around their necks. His mystic faith was governed by Dharyehl's Commandments, the death of usurpers and tyrants their primary mission ...

At the top command of the order of the warriors are  Mystic and Powerful Guardians, Masters that  moving in the shadow disguised among the multitude, versing various arts. His ability to disguise was accompanied by very singular energies and powers, telepathic, intuitive mediumship and manipulation of the primordial elements without neglecting the study of the arts of body fighting, sword and bow. Yet in their commandments is not permitted the use of  firearms.

Their  costume, although sometimes diverse, is marked by the simplicity, of a dark color, the use of covers and hoods, an ornamental cane hides an often deadly sword. Body cleansing and fasting are often accompanied by prayers and meditation and are one of the daily duties of the Guardians of the Golden Orchid

[roguestorm]

Hi this is a really random ask but I’m curious, is your blog name a combo of rogue and storm‘s names, a reference to issue 147 of uncanny xmen that’s called rogue storm or another meaning?

In 2017 or so, Star Wars ship names were made by smushing two nouns together (stormpilot, rebelcaptain, etc.), and I wanted something that could plausibly be either a Star Wars URL or an X-Men URL. So it is just Rogue and Storm's superhero names put together. I didn't even make the connection to UXM 147 until someone pointed it out to me!

[duhragonball]

Babbling about Comics

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to get back in gear with my plan to read my entire collection of X-Men comics.   I had this big plan to do it in 2015, but I only made it about halfway, which put me around Uncanny X-Men #280 (September 1991).   That’s about 29 years’ worth of comics, though, so my plan was probably unrealistic.

Ever since I reblogged this, I’ve been thinking about how I used to be big into American comic books, but not so much anymore.  One person in that thread jokes about how complicated it is to start reading X-Men and Wolverine, and the thing is, I actually know how to do that, because I spent maybe a week in 2014 obsessively studying the Marvel Chronology Project website to come up with a good reading order.  Honestly, it’s kind of fun, but only because I’m a maniac.  I can’t see how any normal person would even want to bother untangling that mess.  The system was designed for only two kinds of immersion.

1) You bought the comics when they were published, and read them in more or less their intended reading order, because you had no other choice.

2) You’re a maniac like myself, who accumulated all this stuff after the fact and you’re determined to go back and figure out what happened.

Nowadays, it’s a lot easier for a new fan to dig into the past, because so much of Marvel’s back catalog is available in digital format, but it’s still a pretty big paywall when you think about how many X-Men comics they’ve made.   And even if you download torrents, you still have to read the whole thing, and who has time for that?  Generally, Marvel’s marketing strategy has been to try to make the new stories accessible enough for new readers to follow, while only reprinting the older material that’s important or popular.   As a collector and a completist, this always frustrated me, but I think I’ve finally begun to see the wisdom of that approach.

See, the real gateway to a franchise like this is to stick to the greatest hits.  For me, that’s Uncanny X-Men #94-167, which spans 1975-1983.  Then you jump all the way to Wolverine’s solo book, which started in 1988.  The first thirty issues of that are really, really good.   I like the stuff that Larry Hama did with Wolverine later, but it’s not for everyone.  If you want to read a crossover, I’d recommend “X-Tinction Agenda”, since it provides a decent snapshot of where the X-Books were at in 1990.  Now, I’m skipping over a lot of other material from the period, but a lot of it was pretty awful, and the good issues of X-Factor and New Mutants  were kind of inessential.   The point is that you have to sample the best stuff first, then decide if you care enough about the characters to go dumpster diving through the rest of it.   You’ll find some gems, but you have to be willing to put up with some real crap to get at it. 

For example, right now, I’m in the middle of 1992, which was sort of a defining period for the X-Men franchise.   Chris Claremont had ended a 17-year run as the writer, and they were trying to build everything around superstar penciller Jim Lee.  I don’t know what went wrong exactly, but by the end of the year Lee had left to start his own company, and a lot of the X-Men comics from that year have a long list of co-plotters, co-scripters, and guest artists.  The flagship title, X-Men v.2, held up reasonably well, but it’s sister Uncanny X-Men suffered from neglect.  UXM #281 was supposed to herald this bold new era, but instead it just looks like a tire fire, one that continued to burn until #293 at least.   But, those issues are notable because they introduce Lucas Bishop to the franchise. 

I never cared much about Bishop, except that he looks pretty cool, and he had a cool voice in the X-Men cartoon.  Otherwise, I only knew he was a guy from the future with a gun, just like the dozen other future-guys-with-guns in 90′s comics.    But when Bishop was introduced, he hailed from the year 2062, where he’s part of a Judge Dredd-style security force.  Bishop revered the X-Men as legends, but once he meets the real deal he quickly finds out they’re not what he expected.  Bishop sees himself as a peacekeeper, and he’s honored to join the X-Men, but he keeps finding his violent, hair trigger methods at odds with the X-Men’s rigid protocol. 

The thing is, I identify with the guy.   I used to write him off as a knock off of Cable, or one of the other loose-cannon hardcases the X-Men keep recruiting, but they actually found a way to make Bishop stand out from the crowd.   He loves the X-Men in theory,  but he really doesn’t understand what makes them work.  Which is sort of like me trying to read all these comics I only know by reputation.    A lot of of the things fans praise the X-Men for are vastly overrated or completely misrepresented.  The conventional wisdom I always got from the fans was that the X-Men were only great when Claremont wrote them, and then Scott Lobdell took over and Ruined Everything(tm).    The reality (from my perspective) is that Claremont ran out of mojo around Year Eight of his 17-year run, and he was running on fumes from ‘83 to ‘91.  I’ve seen fans carry a torch over what happened to Madelyne Pryor, but as far as I’m concerned Madelyne Pryor’s introduction was when the Claremont run jumped the shark.  Her whole character arc was a no-win scenario and their biggest mistake was in not ending it sooner.  I used to think the X-Men comics of the early 90′s were a creative train-wreck, but somehow it managed to generate Bishop, and that gives me hope. 

Also, there is something oddly comforting about reading these old comics.   Nothing ever really changes with the X-Men.   If a character gets killed, they just come back a few years later.   If a character quits or turns evil, it’ll get reversed later.  The X-Men never really win or lose any battles.  They just sort of show up and fight, and then something else happens and they get distracted by that for several issues.  Last night I read the issue where Forge gets upset because he’s in love with Storm and he hasn’t even gotten five minutes alone with her to rekindle their feelings from 1988.   He awkwardly proposes to her, and she punts, telling him she’ll think about it.   In the very next scene they have together, he leave the mansion before she can even give her answer.  Forge is convinced that Storm doesn’t really love him, and that she’ll never set aside her X-Men career long enough to make time for a serious relationship.   As he slams the door, she mutters “I would have said... yes.”    That’s classic X-Men for you.   All angst, all turmoil, no resolution.   We don’t know if Storm is sincere or not, and Forge won’t even stick around to find out.   Is he right about her, or is he just too afraid of rejection?   Maybe we’ll see in a later issue, but I bet we don’t.   It’s Schrödinger’s ship.   Everything sort of hangs in midair. 

Now, I might have said that this is why I’ve come to prefer anime lately, because the stories are more decisive.   Goku married Chi-Chi and that’s it.    Done.   There’s no hotshot editor trying to split that up or retcon it to clear the way for a fresh pairing.   The real tragedy of Storm is that she’s trapped in Comic Book Time, so she couldn’t have a long term relationship even if she wanted to.    If she had married Forge in 1992 they would have inevitably been divorced a short time later, because Marvel likes to rotate romantic partners around every few years.   Storm actually married the Black Panther later on, but I’m pretty sure that’s over now.   But Goku’s marriage to Chi-Chi is absolute.   I like certainty.   It helps make the characters feel more genuine, and less like imaginary dolls driven by editorial whims and sales charts.

But, having recently finished Revolutionary Girl Utena, I find the X-Men’s open-endedness kind of soothing.   I didn’t get what I wanted from the ending of the Utena TV series.  I’m not sure what I wanted, exactly, but what I got wasn’t completely satisfying.  I may warm up to it later on, or I’ll watch the movie version and see if that’s more to my liking, but that’s pretty much all I’m going to get.   With the X-Men, I’m not particularly invested in the characters, and I have a general knowledge of what happens to them, and that anything that happens to them is mutable and transient.  It takes a lot of the punch out of Forge walking out on Storm, but it’s still decent theatre, and I’m not in the mood for dramatic punch right now.   Utena was like getting dramatically punched by Star Platinum for five pages.   I’d watch one episode and then I’d have to take a break before moving to the next one.    Not everything needs to be like that.  Sometimes it can be Bishop possibly getting Storm on the rebound, only to discover that she’s not as good in bed as the history books said she was.

Nevertheless, I think this is something the comics industry needs to address.  I got fed up with following comics because the new ones are expensive and inconsistently produced, and nothing worthwhile ever happens in them either.  They keep relaunching series with new #1′s, or renumbering them every time they get close to a Big Round Number, so it’s probably even harder to keep the reading order straight than it was twenty or thirty years ago.   So it’s a lot of the same hassles you get from back issues, except my back issues are already bought and paid for, so I might as well waste my time reading them instead of paying for overpriced new stuff.   Their best bet is to introduce new characters, especially female, POC, and LBGT+ characters that are tough to find in the back issue rack, because that’s something novel they can use to draw modern audiences.   Because Thor’s dealt with Ragnarok about a dozen times already, and the X-Men haven’t accomplished anything tangible in 30 years, so eventually no one’s going to fall for the same corny “Nothing Will Ever Be the Same!” gimmick.

[comical-thoughts-blog]

Back to Basics

One of the main selling points of ResurrXion was the ‘back to basics’ approach in storytelling, a response to fans crying out for an approach to the X-Men franchise that seemed to get lost over time and between writers. But what exactly are the basics we’re getting back to, and just how far did we deviate from that particular norm?

The main component we decided was missing was the ‘element of fun’ , a nebulous concept and something which is entirely subjective. There’s no doubt the X-Men comics of yesteryear were fun, there was an energy and kinesis to the stories and characters that many would say has been missing over the last decade or two.

If we’re looking for the point when things started to change, Grant Morrison’s seminal run on New X-Men is probably a good place to begin – the X-Men’s usually large ensemble cast was whittled down to a core group, and gone were the bright, colourful costumes, replaced by the sleek leather uniforms of the on-screen X-Men. (This bit of synergy between comics and movies would be overshadowed by what would come with the inception of the MCU.)

Morrison’s New X-Men was definitely light on the fun, but it worked. It reimagined what the X-Men could be while also trying to ground our heroes in realism, a trend which continued for years after. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with bringing a little realism to a story, let’s be...realistic, these people snap mountains in half with the blink of an eye, there should be a limit to the realism. After a critically acclaimed 6 year run, the fans were starting to itch. The pendulum of change started its return journey to colourful superheroics in Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men. Whedon’s first issue brought back the spandex, while still retaining a trim cast the tone was certainly lighter, but was that overall sense of fun injected back into the franchise? Not really.

After Whedon’s run it all starts to get a little more frantic and little less memorable. Claremont reappears for a few issues, then we end up dealing with most of the mutants being de-powered, moving on to a sprawling space-opera under Brubaker. There’s Deadly Genesis, Messiah Complex, the move to San Francisco/Utopia, then the whole Dark Reign thing, before we end up with Avengers fighting X-Men, then the X-Men fighting Inhumans.  Oh yes, and at some point there’s also the little scuffle between Scott and Logan which sees the X-Men split into rival factions and living on opposite ends of the country. Really, since the schism, the focus shifted away from fighting bad guys, to fighting each other – again, another trend that Marvel would run with until we could stomach it no longer.

This is the main focus of ‘back to basics’ - good guys against bad guys,  but it’s not the entire picture. For many years it was thought continuity discouraged new readers and so gradually there were less call backs to earlier storylines and characters. If you need evidence of this, compare some 90s and 00s comics to anything from say, 2005 onwards, those familiar little * --See UXM 348 notes from the editor are virtually impossible to find.

On panel there was another shift - it was getting rarer to see the X-Men going about their daily lives in the mansion – Storm watering her attic garden (yes, remember that?), a training session in the Danger Room, all that fan-favourite stuff was usually interrupted by the Next Big Thing. It was during these quieter moments we got the melodrama that made the X-Men seem more like a family than even the Fantastic Four did at times.

All these little moments, these little familiarities, are what made the X-Men feel different to the Avengers or Fantastic Four. The Avengers didn’t have their own regular bar or background of supporting cast – back in the day, the Avengers defended the world against threats no single hero could, that was their schtick and there wasn’t much else to it. Over the years as these little details were forgotten, that element was lost, and we felt a slow disconnection to the characters as they started to change, and not always for the better.

As I’ve said before, the problem with superhero comics is the paradox which lies at the heart of them – they must be dynamic and static concurrently. We want fresh and new and different, but we want it to  feel old and familiar. Change too much, and those intangible details which make the X-Men, the X-Men disappear. Change in superhero comics is attached to a rubber band, it all eventually snaps back into place. From Alcatraz to the Outback, Shi’ar space to Utopia, it all comes back to Westchester.

With ResurrXion books, there’s more than just a callback in the naming – there feels like a smaller storytelling scope – which is a good thing. Not every story needs to be about reality falling apart at the seams. The X-Men have a lot more familiar faces, the Claremontisms are a nice touch, and the X-Men feel like they’re dealing with their own Rogue’s Gallery once again. It’s all new and not so different, which is probably a better balance to strike.

But there is tenet to this whole idea of ‘element of fun’ - as the stories grow and change, we grow and change. We are not the same carefree 12 year olds eagerly devouring X-Men stories, we’re world-worn and weary adults now. We all loved the X-Men cartoon as kids, it’s how must of us got into comics, but re-watching it, and well, the quality of the animation doesn’t do it any favours – but then, it was never designed to appeal to a 30 year old. Superhero comics are the same.

There are a lot of new Marvel books I don’t like, and you know what I do? I don’t read them – they’re clearly not written with a 30 year old dude in mind as the target demographic. Childish jokes, dodgy dialogue, toilet humour...it’s not aimed at us. The books need to continually juggle an appeal to younger reader, while still engaging life-long fans, no easy feat. If there’s an element of fun missing, it’s because we’re further along our journey with these characters and stories. We’re past the puppy-love-do-no-wrong-find-every-detail-out to the comfortable-with-disappointment portion of our marriage.

I still get excited with comics, but it’s just in a different way now – it’s when a writer does something clever with a character or story, like when they take a long-standing assumption and twist it. My excitement mostly comes from outside of Marvel. It’s reading Jeff Lemire’s Black Hammer and seeing all the wonderful nods to comic lore, or reading Mark Millar’s Jupiter’s Legacy and enjoying a big blockbuster of super-heroics.

Our insistence on returning the fun to the X-Men is another manifestation of our modern-day moratorium on maturing. As we get older, we need to realise these books aren’t written solely for us – that’s not to say we must stop reading them, or that we can’t critique them, we just need to accept there will be bits for us, and stuff that isn’t.

We can’t expect the books to cater to us forever.