#with x-factor it is the peter david team

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

One thing I really miss about Claremont era and 80s X-Men in general is that we'd get years and years of a specific team together for them to really bond together and often become a family. Excalibur was just Rachel, Kitty, Kurt, Meggan, and Brian for ages and now when you think of Excalibur you think of that team. These days teams feel so randomly selected and barely last that long that it never feels like anyone really bonds unless they were already friends on a previous team. It's one of the reasons I struggle to remain invested in any of the titles lately. I know they'll either get cancelled or the team will get shook up so the writer can play with some other characters.

[bringbackwendellvaughn]

[kingnd]

I think Peter David is a good example of how sad The Comic industry is to it's more prolific creators. We knew for years the man was in trouble financially to a point he needed crowed funding to pay his medical bills, Which is kinda shitty since the guy basically defined Hulk for 12 years, Redefined X-Factor for 8 years, Created Spider-man 2099, Showed how much of an ass Bill Jemas was, redefined Supergirl during the big "Superman embargo" of the 90s, & Created Young Justice & showed how loyal the fanbase was when DC decided to do a "fandom hit piece" with the team in 2022 that you think he would've gotten a bit more royalties.

Either way rest in peace to an absolute legend in the industry.

[popculturebuffet]

Peter David Tribute II: X-Aminations and Parents Night

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to my salute to peter david, one of my favorite writers. One of my patrons Brotoman.exe gave me a sack of money and said do whatever and also future imperfect.. and having reviewed that, i'm now looking at a bunch of neat one off issues. It's a talent of Peter David's that dosen't get talked about much: the man liked to experiment and thus we got fun adventures like Rick Jones bachelor party or these fine issues.

We're doing a bit of a crossover sandwitch here: the classic x-aminations from his first run on x-factor, the young justice campout/parent teacher confrence spectacular parent's night and the second x-aminations done during his second and longer x-factor run, giving us a nice map of his career along the way. So if your ready let's begin.

X-Aminations (X-Factor Volume 1 #87)

X-Factor was peter david's second hit and if you've been on this blog before, you know my stance on most x-men books

And Peter David's x-factor trilogy are the most hook it to my veins of all. I like the middle and longest of the three the best, but his original is a damn fine work. It came after the big relaunch in the early 90's: with longtime writers Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson both bouncing after clashes with editorial. Editorital decided to disband x-factor, a team consiting of the original 5 x-men , and split the x-men into two squads to deal with the sheer mass of characters they now had. With New Mutants being greusomly restructured into x-force, this left X-Factor absent a premise and most of i'ts cast.

Enter Peter David who took a novel approach, one I feel takes some inspiration from DC"s Justice League international. Like that book it's a slightly lighter take on the property that largely focuses on lesser used characters. Like JLI he heavily tied it to the goverment though instead of being a team answerable to the UN with embassy's worldwide, the team was now a US backed team ran out of Washington. Val Cooper, the goverment's mutant liason, had previously wiffed the idea: she recurited mistique and her brotherhood of mutants after they came to her for amensty and then later recurited some nazi hunters who after wiping out enough nazi's turned to most dangerous game bullshit instead. The team was slaughtered, Mistque ran aground and it was a general disaster.

So Val went with the novel idea of finding mutants who actually wanted or needed a team, having them work actual cases instead of "Go beat up actual heroes". I mean they did once with X-Force, but X-Force were considered terrorists and had been framed for attempted murder when x-factor was sent in, so it's a bit more understandable than "Go arrest the x-men and x-factor because they haven't registered with the government because that always ends well for a margnalized group".

So the team was formed and while they lasted a while, the concept was brilliant after all.. Peter David didn't. He got tired of x-ediotrial trying to make the book more in line with everything else, i.e. not good and bounced mid story. He stayed on hulk till hulk ediotiral switched and became a nightmare, but X-Factor was left to blend in with the other books more. What we got though was excellent and the issue that always gets brought up, understandably so, is X-Aminations.

X-Aminations is a brilliant concept for a one off: X-Factor had just come off the x-crossover X-Cutioner's Song. It was best described by a review of the epic collection containing the crossover as the literary equivlent of smashing your action figures together. It's a pretty bleh crossover that's only notable for a few things:giving us Cable's origin and marking the transition from the more artist driven x-books.. to writers driving them again after most of those artists left to form image.

Still it was a good place to land this story, which has the team undergoing mandatory therapy, something for the team to do after paticuarlly stressful missions.

So we go through each member one at a time as they unload on a shrink who is kept anonomous till the end of the issue.. but frankly is obvious. The shrink in question is Doc Sampson, marvel's only superhero psychologist. Like She Hulk and Daredevil for law he gets brought in every time a therapist is needed and the fact Peter David was also writing hulk, which had a crossover with X-Factor early in it's run, makes it kinda obvious.

The twist however isn't what's important.. what's important is what each teammates session says about them as a person and as a character.

We open not with a session but with Rahne and Simpy, a parody of a certain cartoon I just can't qutie put my finger on it's so subtle starring Rahne SInclair and Feral from X-Force. It turns out this was a dream Rahne had.

Rahne is one of my faviorite x-characters. She's a scottish woman, at this point still a teenager, who was part of the inagural class of new mutants, xavier's training class in the 80's. She got dropped from the New Mutants towards the end of their run after ending up brainwashed in the country of genosha which treated mutants as property and genetically modified them to work as cattled. She was freed but still having some of her conditoning to be attracted to Havok, more on him later, she followed him to the team. As you can tell the poor girl's been thorugh it: in addition to having her body and mind tampered with, she was raised by an abusive revered who then tried to murder her when her power to turn into a wolf manifested, constantly worried said power meant she was doomed to hell, died by the beyonders hands and had to live with the memories of death, had her boyfriend Doug sacrifice himself to take a bullet for her, and recently in x-factor killed a man who'd kidnapped her in a bout of primal rage. And life has never really let up on this poor woman. I mean most x-characters go though it, as we'll see with most of the mutants here, but Rahne is one of Eternity's faviorite punching bags.

Rahne parrots what Guido, more on him in a moment, has told her about therapists: that they get paid making you do the work and say things. Sampson proves that wrong pointing out the dream's rahne's been having, a previous one we saw having her imagine herself in "Rahne's World" and as a big fan of both x-men and wayne's world I adore that whole sequence, is a lack of identity, a defernce to authority figures: Xavier, Storm.. and Havok. Part of it's the conditoning but part of it's likely a need to get their love.. something he tracks back to Reverend Craig, the man who raised her. She lashes out after this and almost leaves.. till he correctly points out the reason for her need for authority is likely to get the love Craig never gave her.. and she can only respond with a stunned Wow.

We then get Quicksilver. You probably know this one but just in case Quicksilver is the son of magneto.. and while he's currently not the BIOLOGICAL son thanks to a dumbass retcon, Al Ewing and Steve Orlando have both taken steps to make it clear that no, Pietro (and Wanda) are still his kids in every other way it counts thanks to the years thinking he's their dad and he still sees them that way.

Pietro is an arrogant son of a bitch, the team asshole, but this one issue completely explains WHY he's an arrogant shit head in a brilliant way: he tells sampson, after his usual swaggery how it feels: you know how you get annoyed when your stuck in line at say the grocery store or an atm and the person in front has no idea what the fuck their doing? You get that everyone struggles and it's not rational but your still more pissy than usual. That's what it's like every minute of every day for pitero, a world that's moving by slugishly while he has to wait for it to catch up. It dosen't make him less of an ass, but it takes his frequent assholery and mood swings in comics and puts them in perspective: he puts people at distance and lashes out.. because he has to live in a world where everyone is one step behind him and it takes a character who frankly can be a lot and makes him deep and complex and it's telling some of his best character work has been under david. Peter David was one of the only writers who REALLY got how pietro worked.

Next is Polaris and while she didn't know it at the time, long story covered in the other x-factor run, she's Magneto's other child, magnetic powers. And like Rahne the universe really likes to punch her in the throat. She was kidnapped by mesmero, told she was magneto's daughter, retired with her boyfriend Alex , more on him soon, both were kidnapped and brainwashed by aliens, then after several years of blissful retirement, Lorana was hyjacked by Malice, an enemy of the x-men who used her body like a puppet, got her powers shifted, then had her mind messed with a fourth time by The Shadow King. X-Factor is the first time in a LONG time she's been fully recovered and in control of herslef and as such she's combative with Sampson, avoids him and tries to make it about her apperance adn when he rightly points out why, she's afraid of being controlled again,s he lashes out and leaves. She comes back towards the end in costume to get him to admit she's sexy.

So next is strong guy, one of my faviorite mutants and his greatness is entirely down to peter david. Strong Guy was the muscular weird looking roadie for rockstar/partime theif and new mutants side character Lila Cheny, a mutant who can teleport interstellar distances. He showed up for one panel when the New Mutants were visiting her, then somehow ended up on Muir Island when the shadow king stuff that plauged Lorna happened. Look I have extensive x-men knoweldge.. but the last few claremont years were a mess. Point is he was in the right place to get a job offer.

So Peter David took a pretty minor character and made him the team's standout, a wisecracking goof who gleefully took none of the shit they were dealing with seriously. Granted this could backfire as coming up with the name strong guy was a joke that sadly stuck and he came up with the term "Geneticly challenged individual" or Geech as another joke that people took way too seriously.

Still up to this point he was just a man with a lot of money, a lot of connections and a lot of sass, who dosen't take the therapy seriously.. while he had his fun with Rahne, he has actually been to a lot of therapists both due to his troublemaknig and his parents death, so he's used to it... and he shares how his powers activated. He was a weakling weighing 98 pounds with sand in his face when kicked to the ground, specifically by the boyfriend of a girl he had a crush on. He was being wailed on when his power activated; absorbing kintentic energy and using it to make him a strong man. But honey the wrong man as it turns out.. his body looking like that is because he didn't release it in time and he didn't realize that till after his body was already bent out of shape

It's a pity few writers, david included have really done anything with this but it's a great swerve showing Guido isn't just the jokester or the strong guy.. but someone in pain who has been deeply alone his whole life and dosen't want the few friends he has to just pity him. he just wants to live.

We're up to Jamie next. Jamie "Multiple Man' Madrox is a jokester too, always trying to get attention.. but having a pretty fucked up backstory when you stop to think about it> he debuted in a fantastic four annual, his parents having died and only himself to keep him company as he can make a duplicate when hit or when making concusive force enough, i.e. stomping his foot slamming his hand down etc.

And David uses that here to inform WHY he's so starved for attention.. because he dosen't feel alone.. and for years that's all he was. Like with Guido , David takes a background character mostly noted for his unique costume and makes him a real person.

We're down to our final team member, the leader of the band, Havok. Havok is Cyclops brother, having also gone through it if not as much as Lorna and is not a character I enjoy. He's decent in this run as the straight man and coming off having been an amnesiac part of a horrifying facist regime (long story involving magic reincarnation stuff), and trying to do something better but as he relates to Samson he resents his brother slightly: he loves scott.. but Scott is this well respected by everyone looked up to leader.. and he has to constantly work to equal that and worris if he asked anyone he'd fall shortThe problem is most people just stick with that or him being a hot mess. David uses him okay, his time in krakoa with Hellions and Dark X-Men was xcellent. But 9/10 he's whining a lot, pining after Lorna, and generally being dead weight on whatever team he's on. He has potetial but i'ts almost never realized and writer's just won't let the character fucking change the way the rest of the x-men get to. THey sometimes get slotted back into their roles but X-Men normally has a better track record of not letting characters just slip back into the same old shit and if they do, they usually get broken out of it eventually. It's not 1:1, some characters do get stuck in Stasis like Gambit was for the longest time, but it's still better than most comics at letting things happen. Alex is usually either brainwashed, trying to prove himself better to scott or moping in the corner.

Finally we have Val Cooper... who in a nice bit sees everyone at surface value and misses every cue that Sampson picked up on and pressed. He leaves, she gets attacked by sock puppet demon things, see above Tim Robionson and this issue is excellent, a killer character piece I wish David had gotten to do more with. Some of these threads get picked up a little but with a decade between runs, and more for Havok and Polaris as they didn't join in till late in the series run, a lot had naturally happened under the writers after david so he was starting from scratch again. He did well.. but that's a story for a little later. For now let's mosy on to another company

Confrences (Young Justice Volume 1 #7)

Mosying over to DC and to Young Justice, Peter David's best book during his tenure over there. What i've read of Aquaman is decent and i'm giving Supergirl a second shot as I wasn't blown away the first time but Young Justice is something unique, fun and that fans DESPERATLEY want back, not helped by Bendis' half assed revival a few years back. People love these characters and this book, while not the only reason was a big reason why.

Young Justice was DC's Late 90's earliest 2000's teen team. If your wondering where the Teen Titans were, with both previous attempts to relaunch them failing DC instead relaunched them as the Titans, taking the original team , a few of the new teen titans and some new ringers and making a new team from it that I've badly wanted to read but DC hasn't reprinted because fuck me I guess. I"ll have to seek out the issues I suppose.

So with that they went in a diffrent direction for the actual teenagers: a run that blended humor with character growth: it let the characters go through wacky nonsense but didn't belittle them or minimize them. It'd serve as the Blueprint for the teen titans cartoon, albeit using the New Teen Titans roster instead for rights reasons... that just as ironically lead to a teen titans run most Young Justice fans weren't a fan of. Me, as someone who read it as it came out, still finds the JOhns run solid, but i'ts not as good as YOung Justice and it's treatment of Bart is questionable.

Young Justice is a treat and the kind of teen book we needed again, letting the teens be teens while also growing, and nicely dovetaling with whatever was going on in their own books.

The team consited of

Robin: Tim Drake, the third robin and the sane one of the initial trio, the superego to Superboy's ego and Impulse's id. This book is also where I learned that term reading the trade of the first few issues as a teen as Red Tornado, more on him in a second outright outlined them as such. Tim is a methodical planner who has to keep a little distance between himself and his friends on the team as Batman wasn't letting him tell them his identity for most of the book. There was also a dumbass policy batman was a myth at the time, something I went into more in the first part of my no man's land retrospective and that Peter David took the pis out of where he could. Tim is a thoughtful young man, trying badly to be the best future batman he can be and trying keep his friends from dicking themselves on their own ignorance.

Superboy: Conner Kent, Superman's clone made by shady goverment agency Cadamus. Shortly after superman died director Paul Westfield stole his corpse

And used what he thought was a mix of his own dna and superman's to create a clone bent to his will. Thankfully some teenage clones of scientests working at cadamus, I don't have the time or patience to get into whatever was going on there, freed him and he became one of four attempted replacements for superman. Once the original returned he bowed out, went to hawaii, and dated a grown ass woman and yes it's as fucked up as it sounds and no it wasn't intentional.. the first time they did it. It's fucked it happened twice.

Conner is the fuckboy of the group. While he'd mellow out in later appearences, at the time he's ego, swagger and ignorance, but with a hidden vunerablity and the good heart of clark buried in there somewhere. He's a jackass.. but he's their jackass.

Impulse: Bart Allen, the grandson of the second Flash Barry Allen who was raised in the future and grew up in virtual reality. As such his attention span is nonexistant, his grasp of reality is minimal, and his zanieness is off the charts. Bart is a nice kid.. but often distracted as combining super speed with undiagnosed ADHD and being raised on VR is a hell of a drug. His friends both love him and have to keep him on task.

Wonder Girl: Cassie Sandmark, a semi demi little mini god as her mother had a fling with Zeus. She somehow made it to puberty and became Wonder Woman's sidekick. She's insecure, uses a full wig to hide her identity, and a shy nerd with a massive crush on Superboy he dosen't notice because he's a bit of an ass.

Arrowette: Not related to green arrow mostly, Cissie King is the daughter of a failed arrow based heroine who is the superhero equilvent of a pagent mom, training Cissie to physical peak to be the best there ever was without considering maybe she just wants to be a kid or something. Cissie wasn't used much after as she retired mid series, story for another time but is a great character, a tad shy herself but a good friend to cassie even after retirment. Bring. her. back. dc.

Secret: A ghost who can turn into a dust cloud with a mysterious backstory I genuinely forgot if I ever knew it. She joined the team after they broke her free from the goverment. She's likeable but I don't have much else to say soooo.

Red Tornado: Not a team member but still part of the main cast. Red Tornado is a a former justice leaguer , a red android who can.. you can guess the rest, the point is he was sitting inert in the justice league's headquaters. He was alive he just felt detached from humanity till Young Justice annoyed him back into realizing he had emotoins. he reconnected with his stepdaughter, dealt with some custody issues (Long story), and served as the team's sponsor, advisor and man in the chair.

Issue 7 comes right after the team became fully backed by the JLA. While their mentors had given them the Justice Cave, the League's original base which tends to hot potato between whichever superhero team needs it having been HQ for the Challengers of the Unknown, The Doom Patrol and various spinoff Justice Leagues, they were less than pleased with their shenanigans and all stepped in to do something about it. Which strikes me as a tad hyporitical for Superman, The Flash and Green Lantern. Batman is Tim's mentor as is Wonder Woman Cassies, they have every right to be connerned even if they all overstepped trying to disband the team , with Cassie calling them all out and pointing out that yeah their goofing off and eating candy.. their teenagers. Their among friends. Dosen't make them any less effective as a team. But while looking out for Conner, Superman still largely left Superboy to his own devices and didn't seem to step in either time he dated a grown woman (it's own can of worms) until the Teen Titans era, The Flash handed impulse off to Max Mercury so it wasn't his call to make (Though I get doing so as Wally simply did not have the patience or time to deal with Bart), and Kyle Rayner far as I can tell hadn't trained anyone yet and had no real raeason to be there. I mean they couldn't get Connor Hawke , the green arrow at the time, to show up for Cissie? I get they have nothing to do with each other.. but she could use a mentor who isn't her dance mom.

The team still spectacularly proved themselves, with the danger they were given ending up being despero and thus were now fully backed. This meant the team could stay together.. but also meant that they had to have something any kid dreads: Parent Teacher Confrences

Before we get to that though, we get to the team. The issue takes place on the same night but nicely bounces back and forth between two groups:The parents/mentors at the confrence and Young Justice who are having a camp out.. which Arrowette and Wonder Girl have lied to their parents about, but we'll circle back to that eventually. Frankly as long as everyone sticks to their tents their fine. There's one obnoxious boy the girls can handle, Tim whose respectful and in a commited relationship at the time, and Impulse who was largely unintrested in girls or boys and everything outside inbetween and beyond that.

The team are using a generator with Cissie wondering why they don't make a campfire, as it's more fun. While Tim tries to point out it's more efficent he seeds the point and with bart's help, starts a fire. The team wonder how the confrence is going and Bart , as usual is wrongly assuming it's just a sedate boring meeting. With that cue you can probably guess where this is going

Okay so introductions are in order. The woman being shoved into the cake is Doctor Helena Sandmark, an archelogist and cassies mother. She's a rational woman who wasn't exactly thrilled to find out her daughter had super powers, but let Cassie continue on as she could see how much it meant to her.

The woman doing the shoving is the original Arrowette, Cissie's mom and a former heroine during the early days of the justice league. She dated Green Arrow for about five minutes and retired after being talked into it. She didn't get a chance to unretire thanks to arthritghtes so upon getting a sizeable insurance check after he husband passed, she decided to live vicariously through her daughter Cissie and was introduced in the pages of impulse. She was also relived of custody of her daughter as Max Mercury understandably took one look at this mother unheahtily forcing her daughter to live out her unfufilled dreams and went "nope".

Since i've mentioned him a lotttt let's talk about Max, the man in blue. Max is a golden age speedster, still around and spry at the time as his powers slowed down his aging. Max was a mentor to Wally, teaching him the zen of speed and being the first to have a theory the speed force, the force that connects all speedsters, existed. He became Impulses mentor because, like I said Wally lacked the patience for the job. A lot of it is that the two are just.. too much alike: their both impulsive, Wally can be childish (if still deeply responsible by that point) and both dont' have the world's longest attention spans with or without powers.

Finally we have the alien looking fella, Dubleix, a genetic clone thing made by Caddimus and one of the few people in the place after Conner's best intrests and who serves as the closest thing the kid has to a father till Superman takes a more active role.

Helena quickly prepares to fight back and the two end up fighting with Max deciding that the only thing you can bring to a cat fight is "popcorn and a drink" which feels like he's joking as Max has never been paticuarlly creepy. I mean granted I could see him, despite being 20 or years so older, having a shot with Cassie's mom. She's dated older men before and unlike Zeus max is actually a decent human being whose wife won't try and murder her for the crime of not knowing the man she slept with was married or Zeus, god of assholes. We also get the greatest line in comics history

The fighting stops as Tim's parent teacher rep arrives: Nightwing! My boy! If your curious why it wasn't his actual dad or his bat dad, his dad didn't know at the time and met a boomerang soon after he found out and Batman was busy. It still fits as while not as active a mentor, Nightwing was like a brother to Tim long before they actually became brothers. It was him or Alfred and Alfred would've raised all kinds of security risks.

Nightwing understandably asks how we got here. Before we get that story we're back to the kids as they play truth or Dare. Impulse is unitrested at first as he's not used to games that aren't on a screen, but once he finds out it's mostly daring people to do stupid shit he's as on board. This presents an issue as getting Bart to do stuff is as easy as saying LOOK BOY LOOK GO FETCH THE STICK, so Tim instead asks he say nothing for five minutes.. and is easily tricked into breaking. Secret goes next and is asked about the first time.. she kissed a boy. Her's is just.. sad and horrific as she brings up the time one of the technicanns at DEO, where she was held tried to kiss her.. but instead just couldn't stop screaming.

On that note, we get our flashback, with Red Tornado laying out the risks and talking frankly. When asked WHY he's doing all this he gives an honest answer: he agreed to for the JLA and has nothing better to do, having not reconnected with his daughter yet.

Mrs Arrowette has.. other priorites

She wnats to make sure Arrowette gets equal action figures pointing out how female figures in a line tended to be undersold if they existed at all. And she's not exactly wrong on this point: I remember a younger me being frustrated when the justice league toys came out as Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman were incredibly rare. I got everyone else and my sister did find a hawk girl for me.

And this proved true for the toys made for the comic as part of the Total Justice Toyline. Part of it was timing, but while Robin, Superboy and Impulse all got figures, as did Red Tornado, they never got around to the girls.

Still while she's techincally right on that her priorites understandably piss Helena off, whose nettled that Mama Arowette is more concerned about the t-shirt sales than the fact her daughter will be in serious danger and has already taken an arrow to the shoulder.. something that MA was not aware of and deflects with the cake thing.

Nightwing berates them for acting like kids. Mama Arrrowette tries to shut him up with "Well your not a parent".. which Dick no sells in the best way possible

This moment had me realizing something Special about Peter David's writing: everyone he writes is in character. This is a harder needle to thread with comics and even great writers have blindspots they make mistake with. Using another example from DC itself, Paul Levitz is easily one of the best writers of Legion of Super Heroes, DC"s team of teenagers in the future fighting crime with superman when he was a boy then without superman when they all grew up. Buuut... he had a habit of dunking on the Legion of Substitute heroes, the legion's backup who all had powers they either couldn't control or were too situational or weird to be useful enough to get membership, treating them as throaway jokes with no real value despite having years of experince. Or hopping back to marvel we have Grant Morrison's insitance on making magneto a genocidal douchebag instead of rerailing him to what Chris Claremont was doing before he became a generic villian again. Even the greats fuck up and while Peter David isn't without fault, no writer is, he did have a knack for getting his guest spot characters just right. I can't speak for everyone here, I haven't read any of John Byrne's wonder woman so I can't tell you anything about Helena Sandmark that I haven't read in young justice or teen titans, but the characters I do know he nails and when it comes to marvel he REALLY gets that down.

After a bit more shenanigans with the kids, Secret scarring some hutners and robin being dared to take off his mask, we get back to the meeting. The team talk with red with him making it clear that while he will join the team if the crisis is severe enough, he's not going on most missions: The team needs room to learn and grow on their own. He's there to support them. Both Helena and Max wonder if he SHOULD watch them full time, and I love that these are questions being asked. With most teen teams their out their on their own: if mentors are in the picture their at a distance and their parents generally aren't aware if they have any. Here.. the team's parents are all weighing in with understandable questions, not wanting to pull the team away but having genuine concern for their kids and proteges. I love the idea of one of these teams esssentially having a faculty advisor, not to fully babysit them but to watch after their personal growth and step in if they need help. It's like what the league itself is for the rest of the world

Red is there so the risk is mitigated and they have a mentor to turn to outside their usual ones if they need it, or in the case of Cissie and Secret, if they don't have one at all. As I pointed out with the previous issues sometimes a mentor can be wrong, and it's good for these kids to have an objective voice to vent to if they need it.

Of all people Mama Arrowette makes a valid point: that the kids decided to do this and NEED to be given the space to. That said... Dubbliex undercuts her, revealing she had no idea about the arrow , if innocently. As a telepath he can sense it and as a weird clone horn man while he's not without emotoins or wisdom, social norms aren't something your taught in a secret goverment bunker.

Back with the Kids... Tim cheated, having a mask under his mask just in case... he ... he really was prepared to be the next batman i'll give him that. If your curious why he wasn't any time bruce stepped down it's a long character journey to realize what Dick had and most robins do: No one wants to be bruce. I mean sure we WANT to be batman on paper, the money, the gadgets etc, but when you think about how much he throws away to be batman, how much he's destroyed his mental well being to do this.. yeah... I wouldn't either.

For now though the kids discuss something simple: would you quit if you could. Despite his gung ho attitude to being robin.. Tim says yes. Granted he then gives a whole speech about how it'd mean the world would be a better place that wouldn't need him.. but it speaks to why the kid's doing it: not for the glory.. but because he couldn't live with himself if he could help someone and couldn't.

Cissie says she'd ask her mom.. then do the opposite as it's hard to ignore the ingraned grooming her mom's done to her, while Cassie.. wants to trade moms not realizing how good she has it. She would NEVER give this up.. but Secret would. She just wonders around seeing other kids get to have normal lives she can never have. Impulse. .is normal. Your all freaks.

Finally we have conner and Secret reveals she found out from Reddy that conner CAN'T age. Thankfully this would be proven wrong later, but it's an intresting thing to explore and something the Young Justice cartoon did. While it didn't take much from the actual comic, going with a tone more similar to the johns era teen titans with a dash more melancholy and espinoge, it kept the idea of a team sponsor from the league and it being red tornado at first and explored the idea that Connor dosen't physically age. Here Connor tries to brush it off saying he's gonna live forever and crowing like a rooster.. but no one buys it

Back at the meeting everyone agreed off panel to keep their kids in.. and Reddy accidently lets slip that the camp out is co ed and both moms explode. They go to the camp sight where, suprise, Conner is seeing his shadow leave him behind, half dreaming... and clearly not in denial. He wasn't kidding them.. and he wasn't kidding himself. Thankfully the moms don't storm in as they find the girls both have their own tent and are conked out. Any scolding can wait and the two find common ground for once, while Conner muses that "To die would be a great adventure". Which hits even harder knowing Conner DOES die young. He gets better, comics and all, but it's still hard knowing that he DOES go through that.. AFTER both growing up a bit and realizing he needs to live.

This issue is excellent, where for a long time my young justice reading stopped.. but i'ts a nice pivot. The concept is brilliant and it allows both screentime for the team's various mentors and parental figures, but the team itself. Just a second to chill when not on a wacky adventure or a more serious life or death mission, a chance to decompress after the tension of the last issue. It's easy to see WHY this run is so beloved: it's a teen team book that treats the kids like kids, writes them like actual teenagers and mixes the angst of youth with the joys and perils of it. We REALLY need a book like this again, maybe not 1:1 but we've been in a bit of a teen team drought for a while now , with the titans mostly religated to being the older team, and the less said about titans academy the better, the legion reboot being anus, and marvel not really committing ot making any new teams till very recently and most of the Krakoa era, parts of new mutants accepted ignoring the youth. We're slowly getting more but I love a good teen superhero team and we need them back.

So back to Marvel. While David had a pretty long healthy tenure at DC, with his runs on Young Justice and Supergirl both lasting some time, both sputtered out due to editorial and sales, with Young Justice shifting into Teen Titans and Supergirl getting canned so the original super girl could return after low sales. Well something similar. It's complicated. Point is Peter David returned to where he came from for his greatest work

Re-Xaminations (X-Factor Volume 3 #13)

Peter David started his return with Captain Marvel, a run I want to read at some point, in large part thanks to having my boy rick jones in it. He even relaunched the title just to win a bet with editor Phil Jemas who created the infamous Marville as his contender. No prize for guessing who won that one.

His real lasting impact at marvel in the 2000's was far and away X-Factor. He wrote she hulk for a bit, wrote some other stuff and after this run went on to mostly do mini series having settled into a smaller schedule likely due to his health complications, but X-Factor stands as his magnum opus, the perfect sequel to his original run that stands alone just fine but builds off what he started.

The second X-Factor run brought back half the cast: Jamie, Rahne and Guido all returned and Jamie and Guido once again got the spotlight they richly deserved. For better or worse no writer after them has been able to really make the chacters glisten and Jamie mostly gets used as "he can make a lot of himself". I'm hoping someone someday finds a good use for these two. Rahne didn't fair as bad outside of that awful matthew rosenberg x-men run.

Havok and Polaris were in space shortly after this run started and for most of it's run, long story, and Quicksilver was busy kicking off the event that would define the first 20 or 30 issues of this run: M-Day. To make a very long story short, the Scarlet Witch had a mental breakdown due to bad writing forgetting she already dealt with the trauma that drove her into a depressive psychotic rage, killing her ex husband, ex and my boy scott lang all in one go.

Rather than get her therapy, most of the marvel superheroes elected to plot her death instead, so her brother Pietro had her make a reality where mutants ruled. When that fell apart, she wispered no more mutants and spent the next few decades after some time with Dr Doom, long story, trying to atone for it.

To the public and our heroes though...

Yeah the Avengers and X-Men elected to not tell any of the other heroes or the world at large. The latter.. is understandable as mutantkind was reduced to 200 people, more and less with time, and given one of the first things to happen after was a bus bombing of fromer mutants at xavier's schools, the world did not need to know a mutant did this.

The heroes did though and luckily superherodome had some detectives on the case. Jamie, wanting to live out his detective fantasies and figuring why not, used his powers to win who wants to be a millionare and started up his own detective agency shortly before everything went to hell. Upon getting his millions he added to Rictor, Siryn and M to the team, who we'll get to along with for better or worse Layla Miller. She knows stuff.

As the detectivity agency gives away, this X-Factor had a tinge of noir to it: our heroes started and finished as investigators. David got plenty of mileage out of the fact they could sometimes be half assed at the actual investigation part but they still got the job done and were more than a little nettled to find out the X-Men had been lying to them.

While looking into decimation was part of year one the main plot was Singularity Investigations, a rival far more well equiped detective agency that had far shadier motivations, first running into the team when they helped prove a woman's innocence after singularity tried to frame her for murder, then made personal when Siryn was brutalized by their head Damien Tryp Junior. This issue comes just after that storyline wrapped. While Tryp faced justice in the form of one of madrox's dupes making himself go boom, the prime trip, an older version of himself who had time travel powers and could become a living hurricane escaped and the team went through some serious damage over the course of that first year. So this issue's all about unpacking it. It also implies this was supposed to be a regular thing at the end, with Madrox hiring sampson and I suspect if he could've david would've. But sadly the hulk office didn't play ball, made sampson go evil for no raisn, and thus we just got this encore. Same as last time: interviews with each of the team. Let's go

We open with Guido who uncharctirstatlly hasn't been chatty in his session. When he finally opens up he talks about Hypnosis and how a hypnotist once told him tha tpeople don't do things they weren't capable of in some way.

The problem with this for Guido.. is that he killed someone under hypnosis recently. We find out WHY he went to a hypnotist in the first place; the constant pain that came up last time had gotten so bad jokes werne't cutting it so Guido tried a hypnotist... and was turned into a sleeper agent for singularity, killing an innocent man who had dirt on singularity. While the team's telepath M, more on her soon, freed him, the guilt weighs heavily as does the question of what it says about him he was capable.

Sampson helps dispell that this was due to some inner darkness: this wasn't garden variety hypnotism but well done brainwashing. He's not a monster.. even if it's clear Guido himself doesn't belivie that.

Next up is Layla Miller, the team's kid sidekick they didn't ask for but who knows stuff for reasons that aren't revealed at this point, so she's useful to the team.. btu also playing them, somethign their often aware of but can't really avoid. She's engmatic and weird which could get old... but works here as there's an ominousness to it and when we did find out... it made everything click into place. Just gonna rip the band aid off: Lila was told things by her future self, and due to that her knowing stuff isn't always 1:1 with the horrifying future she's trying to prevent. It's a nice way to have this kind of characte rbut plan it out. Make it so the auidence DOES get answers and have her be more than a macguffin.

Case in point she sees herself not as the queen or the bishop on the board when playing chess with Doc Sampson.. but a pawn. She's playing a diffrent game from everyone else, can see the end.. and she's expendible. Sampson tries to reassure her pawns can become queens.. but she's unsure. And given what hella waits her to get to adulthood, cannot blame her.

We get to Rictor, gay icon whose still in the closet and the only member of the team to loose their powers. Rictor was introduced in the original x-factor as during the first half of the run or so they took in varoius mutants who needed them as the whole point of the team was to continue xavier's dream since they didn't trust magneto to do it. Rictor was a brash loudmouth with earthquake powers dealing with an absuive father, a complicated past and as it'd turn out being in the closet.

Ric .. hasn't been coping well, starting the series trying to unalive himself before X-Factor talked him down and mostly being with them because it keeps him too busy to think about how miserable he is. he WILL get better with time, but it's gonna be a while. Sampson notes he has good days and bad days.. and the bad ones are when he wonders why me.. and today is one.

Next is Siryn, theresa cassidy one of my faviorites of the run whose going through a unique arc: Her father Sean, Banshee my boyo, died recently. He was hit by a plane. It is a storyline I still haven't read for a variety of reasons most of it being it sounds asinine. She's in denial, but makes a valid point that makes it intresting: can they PROVE he won't come back and this isn't some plan? In a world of superheroes where most come back at some point, how can you REALLY belivie someone is dead for good? And proving her point while it was over a decade later... Sean DID come back. First as a zombie then fully as himself again. Even before Krakoa death really was just a day trip and an ice cream sunday for most heroes.

Still it's done well as it's clear Sean REALLY is dead.. for now> As I said it took a while. Sampson also brings up her recent trauma: after singularity beat her a creepy man kidnapped and tortured her. SHe's doing her best but she points out a big issue with having super sonic screaming powers: she can't let it out or she'll demolish ab lock. She does have one bright spot thought: Jamie. They hooked up again. To explain the two were a couple once.. well she and one of Jamie's dupes was. It's a very long story.

Next is M, who like Theresa was reworked by David splendly and since she survived the run, she got to be a breakout in x-men, appearing in a decent pile of books. M was part of generation X, X-men's "you can guess the decade from the name" class. M has a messy as fuck history. She was introduced as a haughty daughter of a diplomat and David stuck to that: she's young, attractive and has a near unstoppable power set: super strength, flight, mild invunerablity and psychic powers. She's hot shit and you know she knows it becuase she'll tell you often. She's a massive ego and entertaining as hell for it as she can more than back up the hype.

This issue adds some vunerablity thanks to said messy as fuck history: the Monet we met early on.. was actually her twin siblings while peance, a red spikey mute girl the team took in was actually monet. This..w as not the original plan but you probably figured that out you clever bean you. This leads to some intresting character exploration here as we see under the armor in full for the first time.

First though she has to be herself.. and bring up Theresa who she correctly predicted is in denial.. something M isn't happy about as Sean was like a father to her> he was Generation x's teacher. She avoids breaking, confident Sampson's already made an opinon of her.. so he asks her to suprise him.. and boy does she

Yeah that line hit like a truck on re-read. See she was stuck like that due to her own brother, Emplate, who kept her to feed on her bone marrow... so she has a lot of trauma, deeply afraid she'll turn back into penace and barely holding it in. A lot of her ego.. is trying to be something that CAN'T be forced back , that he can't hurt again. She at least has Jamie though.

Yeah so Jamie. Jamie has been through it a bit since the last time we saw him. When X-Factor began his dupes got a new quirk that' sbeen a nightmare to deal with: they have their own personalities, splitners of his. So now while his power is still useful.. it's a crapshoot. he could get the right dupe for the situation, he could get someone who say, pretends to be helpful then pushes Rictor off the ledge. It's the x-factor.

And in this case he got drunk, already dealing with a lot and one of his dupes slep twith both women. He's in a bad place as he found out his parents didn't die in a freak accident: Tryp tried to come for him as a child , killed them when his parents understandably sia dno then wiped his mind of it. So finding out he's an earlier strain of mutant and his whole backstory is a lie is.. a lot. Sampson brings up that maybe he was lying.. but Jamie makes a valid point

Jamie's also depressed.. because he misses being a jokester, pranking people.. not having everyone count on him, having to grow up, havnig all this damn pressure. Sampson at least talks him into finally coming clean to the women.

Here comes the Rahne again, whose dealing with two problems. The first is her powers. When sh'es human she still deals with all the angst and issues before, like the ones mentiond last time. WHen she's in beast mode, she dosen't have to deal with any of that.. but is worreid she's becoming a monster... not helped by a vision of the future she almost refuses to share because it's weighing her down: a vision of her slaughting jamie and an adult layla. And being a catholic, she worries about the choice this gives her: commit suicide and go to hell or go to hell anyway for hurting people she loves. I told you the unvierse loves throat punching this poor woman.

Finally we have Quicksilver, who isn't on the team and has currently undergone a god complex. After stealing the terrigin mists from the inhumans he can give people powers, giving people their powers back.. but killing some and in his deluded mind he thinks their not worthy. He's confident he'll be mutant kind's savior. Spoilers: he is not.

So we end on Sampson reflecting on his sessions, preparing for more that wont' come.. and watching Jamie go out the window for something that REALLY isn't his fault. Same as it ever was.

Re-Xaminations is almost as strong as the first. It's only held back by having less time for everyone as the cast is larger here, but it's still an excellent issue that helps settle everyone for the arcs ahead and onboard new readers at the time. It's a wothy sequel and i'd highlyr ecommend all the isuses here as a good test run for their series if your curious. Please read these comics, their excellent. Thank you peter... I still miss you man.

[usafphantom2]

ONLY A FIVE-SECOND WINDOW TO HIT SR-71

Recently, SR 71 pilot Steve Grzebiniak wrote, “Deceptive jamming, essentially defeated the SAM ( surface to air missile) capability to successfully intercept the SR 71 as the window to acquire track and launch was very limited.”

Jim Goodall, a well-known author of books about the SR-71, responded in messages to me. Then, SR 71 pilot David Peters responds to Jim about the subject of the SR 71 jammers and the probability of being shot down by the Russians.

Jim said, “As for the “Deceptive Jammer,” when searching for Habu’s to shoot down, the enemy has only about five (5) seconds to find, lock on, and fire its ‘boost glide’ SA-2. And they would have to be looking for it.

When one drives this 34-ton Black monster, remember that it flies through the heavens at over 3,200 feet per second, or 43 miles a minute.

With less than a half percent of the atmosphere at 85,000 feet, the SAM would have to hit the Blackbird, an impossible task as the control fins on the Soviet SA-2 are useless at 85k.

The only way to take down an SR-71 was to try to F.O.D. the aircraft by detonating it in front of the flight path in hopes of FODing the engine or shattering the cockpit windscreen.”

Lt. Col.David Peters responds, “As I have said many times, we only feared the SA10 nuclear. That’s because of exactly what you are talking about. A nuclear blast in front of us would likely prevent evasive action, unlike a 2 or 5, which we could theoretically get around. But suicide was never in the Russian mind, so we felt it was more than improbable. The other factor was they didn’t have very many, and they were mainly deployed around Moscow. It definitely factored into our emergency war order mission planning, as most of those were post-nuclear BDA around Moscow.”

I am grateful that these men took the time to respond to me. This confirms what I thought before that there was really nothing to fear while flying the SR 71 so close to Russia. I am still and always will be amazed at the talent of Kelly Johnson of the Skunk Works and his team that built the amazing SR 71.

~ Linda Sheffield with David Peters,Jim Goodall and Steve Grzebiniak

@Habubrats71 via X

[morose-magnetrix]

Hi I saw that you’re a big Lorna Dane fan and that you’ve read a lot of her comics. Do you have a recommended reading list for her?

Hey there! 💚🧲 Thanks for the ask!

I use Travis Starnes’ reading order for my Polaris-athon (https://cmro.travis-starnes.com/character_details.php?character=426) but if you’re just wanting to get into her stories it’s way too much tbh. She has a lot of appearances and it can be difficult to sort through the meaningful ones and the ones where she’s just on the page as a recognizable cameo.

I haven’t managed to read all of her appearances yet - I’ve gotten up to the early 90s, and I’ve read most of her appearances from, like, 2016 onwards. I’m a little behind on Fall of X as well. So there likely are going to be some gaps here, but this would be my recommended reading list for Polaris 🧲 :

Krakoan Age (2019-)

this is the golden age for Polaris in my opinion, and where I’d honestly recommend you start reading!

Leah Williams’ X-Factor: This is where the modern revitalization of Polaris into the It Girl of Krakoa really begins. There is controversy surrounding the final issue of the series due to Prodigy's storyline (see here, here, and here for more info), but overall I really love this run. It’s very queer and does a great job of taking Polaris’ spotty characterization and having her begin a journey of self discovery.

Gerry Duggan’s X-Men: Gerry follows up on Leah’s work here and Polaris really starts to shine. Issue #5 is a standout and a personal favorite, if you only read one issue, it should be this one. She’s in vol. 1 as a main member of the team, and the spin offs from this period (Devil’s Reign X-Men and Death of Doctor Strange: X-Men/Black Knight) are really fun. Plus, Pepe Larraz’s redesign of her for this book is STUNNING.

Alex Segura's 'Control' arc in X-Men Unlimited (#96-99) : this is exclusive to the Marvel Unlimited app, but it’s really great. Lorna’s a cameo queen after leaving Gerry’s book, so it’s a nice centering of her and revisits some of her greatest villains.

Steve Orlando’s Scarlet Witch: Issue #3 is a must read in my opinion, particularly if you’re interested in Lorna’s relationship with her family (it builds off of Williams’ Trial of Magneto, which I love and establishes her PhD, but ultimately I think you can probably skip, it’s more of a Wanda focus).

The Lost Era (2010s)

This is the time period following the Decimation, where a lot of stories... tread water, tbh! Nothing here is essential reading for Polaris.

Lorna spends a lot of this era in the hands of Peter David, who is a vile scum sack of a person (see here for an example). I've read All New X-Factor (2014), where he characterizes her as someone who is completely unhinged and a danger to animals. It's not a fun time tbh. And again, it's Peter David - so I would skip this. You aren't missing much.

Cullen Bunn's X-Men Blue (2017): I've only read the first arc of this run, but it focuses on the time-displaced O5 X-Men (Jean, Warren, Scott, Bobby, Hank). Magneto is mentoring them, so Polaris steps in to keep him from making them too ~evil~. I haven't heard anything good or bad about her appearances in this book, so I can't really recommend one way or another. It's probably safe to skip.

Ed Brisson's Uncanny X-Men (2018): Again, I haven't read this one yet! It's the lead up to the Age of X-Man event, where she also appears. Similarly to X-Men Blue, I haven't really heard anything good or bad about this one. You can skip it if you'd like, it's right before Krakoa pops off which is a soft reboot from the entire franchise.

Decimation Era (2000s)

John Byrne's X-Men the Hidden Years: I haven't read this either yet, but I know some people really like it. It fleshes out a lot of the Silver Age stuff, and it's where Polaris uses the codename Magnetrix (where I got my blog name from lol).

Apocalypse: the Twelve: I have not read this. I have heard only bad things about it lmao. Polaris and Magneto are part of a prophecy about defeating Apocalypse, but it doesn't turn out the way they expect. Skip.

Grant Morrison's New X-Men #132: A transformative issue for Polaris and a HUGE milestone in her character. It deals with the Genoshan genocide, of which Polaris was one of the few survivors. Highly recommend.

Chuck Austen's Uncanny X-Men: So this run is very ~your mileage may vary~ - I haven't read it yet myself. BUT from what I know, Austen really builds on Morrison's trauma that they gave to Lorna, and really takes her away from the assimilationist characterization Peter David gave her. Plus, it has the iconic Magneto wedding dress panel (Uncanny X-Men (1981) #426)

House of M (2005): she's in it, she doesn't really do much! Skip.

Peter Milligan's X-Men: Polaris becomes Pestilence, the horseman of Apocalypse in the Blood of Apocalypse arc beginning in X-Men (1991) #181. I haven't read it, but tbh most Apocalypse storylines between the original X-Factor arc and the Krakoan age are bad, so it's probably safe to skip.

After her spin as Pestilence, Lorna goes to space and joins the Starjammers. I haven't read this yet either, but it seems like fun! Relevant titles would be Uncanny X-Men (1981) Rise and Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire (#475-486), X-Men: Emperor Vulcan #1-5 (2007), and then the War of Kings (2009) event.

1990s

Skip this entire era. She's basically just in Peter David's original run on X-Factor (1986). The artwork is pretty, but the writing comes off as very male gaze-y to me and her character arc is somewhat repetitive.

X-Factor (1986) #186 (eXaminations) is famous for being an in-depth character study of the entire team. It's where we first see Lorna's eating disorder pop up. It's well done, just, well - fuck the writer lol.

Claremont Run (1975-1980s)

Lorna's storyline is overall a little confusing and hard to follow in the Claremont era, mostly because she is a) mind-controlled for most of it and b) not the main plot. So she ends up appearing in random issues, sometimes gone for huge lengths at a time, and then reappears. It's really clear that Chris was interested in working with this character and had some great ideas for her, but she was never one of his main blorbos.

These are the issues you should check out:

Giant Size X-Men (1975): Claremont didn't write this, Len Wein did, but this is really the start of the Claremont run. It has some cool moments for Polaris, including an early example of a mutant circuit between her and Storm!

X-Men (1963) #97: Lorna and Havok are mind-controlled by Erik the Red (don't worry about it) to fight the X-Men.

X-Men (1963) #125-129: the Proteus arc, Lorna is on Muir island with Havok and helps out. Nothing super critical happens, she just sorta vibes (and enjoys not being mind controlled).

Uncanny X-Men (1981) #145-146: Arcade has kidnapped loved ones of the X-Men, tbh I would recommend reading this just for Polaris' outfit. It's this witchy purple thing that is INCREDIBLE.

Uncanny X-Men (1981) #218-219, 221-222, 239-241, 243, X-Factor (1986) #39: Polaris is possessed by Malice, so now she's fighting against the X-Men... and working for Sinister! It's not technically her, but it's iconic and is a prime example of a running motif of possession for her.

Uncanny X-Men (1981) #249-250: ZALADANE! An iconic retcon, we meet Lorna's long lost sister (again).

Uncanny X-Men (1981) #253-255, 257-258, 269, X-Factor (1986) #69, Uncanny X-Men (1981) #280, X-Factor (1986) #70: Big!Lorna and the Muir Island saga. It's very weird! But I love big!Lorna and her muscles, so we stan. This is also the very weird end of Chris Claremont's main run on the X-Men, where it's very clear the plots got messed with in the wrap-up.

After this, Peter David takes over X-Factor, and he's garbage!

The Silver Age (1960s)

So this is Lorna's debut era, she's an OG member of the X-Men! Unfortunately even here, they never quite know what to do with her. She's very much intended to function as Bobby's love interest, which... doesn't really work out lmao. But I do think this era is fun to read, especially knowing what retcons they're going to build out later on for her, particularly with regards to Magneto.

She's not in too many issues:

Arnold Drake's X-Men (1963) #49-52: Lorna's first appearance! It's super fun, definitely check it out.

Linda Fite's X-Men (1963) #57: Lorna fights a sentinel!

Roy Thomas's X-Men (1963) #58-62: Some more fun moments - Kazar/Sauron arc, and the first appearance of Havok!

Dennis O'Neil's X-Men (1963) #65-66: The Z'nox invasion, Lorna has some cool moments here. Still no codename tho lol.

I'll try to update this as I fill in my gaps, but happy reading!! 🧲💚

[racefortheironthrone]

What do you mean Quicksilver “falls between two stools” ?

The idiom "falling between two stools" means to try to do or be two things at the same time, and thus fail at both.

I think a big part of Quicksilver's problem as a character is that Marvel has never really been sure where to put him: he was introduced as an X-Men anti-villain, but left the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants after seven issues. He then becomes an Avenger as part of Captain America's "Kooky Quartet" and there for a couple years - but then goes back to the Brotherhood for a bit, then goes back to the Avengers, then kind of falls into the Fantastic Four and Inhumans' orbit when he marries Crystal the Inhuman princess.

Unfortunately for Pietro, his wife turned out to be a drama-seeking narcissist who deals with boredom by having affairs, and his in-laws were a bunch of racists - which causes him to become an Avengers villain under mind control.

Then Marvel went with the retcon that Wanda and Pietro were Magneto's kids - which I rather like as a progression and complication of their tortured relationship since the Brotherhood days - except that Marvel kept changing its mind about it and started retconning and re-retconning Quicksilver's backstory, which mired him in an endless loop of bad, repetitive storytelling from 1979 through to 2014. While the core group of Magneto, Pietro, and Wanda is a solid vehicle for soap opera drama, there are only so many permutations that you can do, and it was surrounded by an endless parade of Mount Wundagore, the High Evolutionary, and "the Whizzer" bullshit that no one likes or cares about, except for Bova the bovine midwife - Bova is cool.

Then Marvel shifted Pietro over to the X-books by having him become a founding member of the government X-Factor team in 1991 - which was the first time that he'd been a sustained part of the X-Men's world since 1965 - and he stuck around even after Peter David's run ended. However, in part because Pietro is, to be charitable, an aloof and anti-social dick (incidentally, why is it that speedsters in the Marvel universe are all assholes with anger issues whereas speedsters in the D.C universe are usually kindly goofballs?), his mutant identity was never really developed beyond his connection to Magneto until the Decimation when he went fully crazy and did some really unforgivable stuff to his daughter under the influence of Terrigen.

It also didn't help that in the interim between leaving the Brotherhood and joining X-Factor, the X-books got another arrogant hot-tempered speedster with a co-dependent relationship with his twin sister - except that Northstar is much faster and more powerful than Pietro, and has a way more interesting character arc as the first openly gay Marvel superhero, dealing with issues like coming out of the closet, AIDS, and gay marriage as well as more standard comic book fare like Quebecois separatist terrorism, whether his use of mutant powers during the Olympics constitutes cheating, and whether he has Ljósálfar heritage.

Sadly, I think Northstar ate Quicksilver's lunch while Marvel couldn't make up its mind where to put Pietro.

[esmecuckoo]

Hi there! 1 and 8 for the x-men ask game?

What's your favorite team? - Original Excalibur! Alan Davis is the best artist, and I loved the mix of humour and superheroes, and X-Men angsty soapy drama, with a pinch of British sensibility.

What book you want to have a new volume? - Original Excalibur, or more Peter David X-Factor.

[qnewsau]

The X-Men helped Courtney Act growing up as a queer kid

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/the-x-men-helped-courtney-act-growing-up-as-a-queer-kid/

The X-Men helped Courtney Act growing up as a queer kid

Courtney Act has shared how she related to X-Men comic books growing up and how that helped her as a queer kid.

“I loved the X-Men,” Act says in the clip of Shaun Micallef’s Eve Of Destruction: Christmas Special,

“I think there was something about the message of the X-Men that I loved,

“They weren’t necessarily accepted and had to hide their identities.

“I think as a young queer kid, there were parts of who I was that I didn’t really understand,

“But I felt like there was something about me that I had to keep a secret.”

Act compared how the mutants in the comic book got their power at puberty.

A time when many LGBTQ+ people are finding themselves.

“There was something about the X-Men that spoke to me.”

“I remember one episode of the cartoon,

“Iceman and his parents were there, and they were like, sweetheart, can’t you just try not being a mutant?

“And those sort of like a parallel of like a parent saying can’t you just try not being gay?”

Although that didn’t happen with Act’s family, she shares with Shaun Micallef that she still had those fears.

” I still sort of had all of those fears because, like, you grow up in a society that gives you certain ideas, hopefully, different ideas now.”

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Exactly how queer are the X-Men?

As someone who has read the X-Men comics since I was a teen, I’m no stranger to the parallels Courtney brings up.

The superhero comic has often been paralleled by the civil rights movement.

Giving creative teams countless opportunities to tackle hard issues.

From racism, ableism, sexism, the AIDS epidemic and more.

It hasn’t always been perfect, but as the characters have always had to survive in a world that fears and hates them, it has been a source of reflection for many.

Northstar was the first mainstream gay Marvel character who came out in Alpha Flight #106.

He made his first appearance in X-Men #120 in 1979.

The character married his partner in Astonishing X-Men # 51 in 2012.

In 2015, Iceman founding members of the X-Men came out as gay in Uncanny X-Men #600.

The character admitted he repressed his true self not wanting to be both gay and a mutant.

Betsy Braddock as Captain Britain is in a relationship with Rachel Summers/Askani in the current alliteration of X-Force.

Rictor is bisexual and Shatterstar is sexually fluid with the two in a relationship.

The writer of X-Factor Peter David took inspiration from fan fiction to make their relationship official.

Anole in NYX has always been openly gay since his introduction at a young age.

This year Mystique and Destiny married in X-Men: The Wedding Special for pride.

Together for over 100 years, the pair secretly married and renewed vows for the first time on the pages of the comic.

There are more queer mutants in the franchise, which just goes to show how queer comics can be.

Shaun Micallef’s Eve Of Destruction: Christmas Special – Stream from Tuesday 7.30 pm on ABC iview and ABC TV. 

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, and community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

[yetanothercomicbook]

Charon

X-Factor Annual #8

Above average.

Attacked by Charon!

Appearing on just 16 of the 32 pages here, X-Factor feel like supporting characters in their own annual. Focus is on a new villain who, it must be said, has a very flimsy reason for wanting to attack the team. His story ends really abruptly, too. And he's never seen again. There are some jokes here that work well. That's about the best thing that can be said about this script.

Wizard Top 100: #28.

Peter David (21 of 21).

7/10

[bringbackwendellvaughn]

[brettsinger]

X-Statix and More

This week comedian Pavel Zbornik returns! Why is it a good time to be a comic book fan? What is the Midnight Suns video game? Who is on the team? Who is in X-Force? We stan Peter David. Why is it hard when a comic you're reading gets into a major Marvel event? Is Kindle Unlimited a good service? What's the deal with Barbaric? What happens in Maniac of New York? What is X-Statix? Who is Doop? What are some bad superhero video games? What else has Peter David written? What are Gerard Way's comics bonafides? Do the movies inspire people to read comics? Why is it hard to own a comic shop? 

Video game list: Marvel's Midnight Suns Spider-Man Spider-Man 2 Miles Morales Guardians of the Galaxy X-Men: Next Dimension Spider-Man: Friend of Foe Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensons Ultimate Spider-Man The Last of Us

Reading list: Uncanny X-Force by Rick Remender *X-Factor by Peter David 80's Hulk by Peter David Civil War *Barbaric (Vault) Maniac of New York *X-Statix Wolverine and the X-Men (comic) Spider-Man and the X-Men X-Cellent What if? Magik Old Man Logan (free on Kindle Unlimited) Avengers of the Wasteland (free on Comixology Unlimited) Batman: Last Knight on Earth The Captain's Daughter (Star Trek novel) Hulk: Joe Fixit Star Trek Mirror Universe comics (some free on Kindle Unlimited) Immortal Hulk She-Hulk: Law and Disorder (free on Kindle Unlimited) She-Hulk by Peter David Moon Knight by Warren Ellis (free on Kindle Unlimited) Original Moon Knight X-Men: Worst X-Man Ever Gerard Way comics (some free on Kindle Unlimited) BRZRKR by Keanu Reeves (free on Comixology Unlimited) Sweet Tooth *Die by Kieron Gillen (free on Kindle Unlimited) Warhammer 40,000: Marneus Calgar (free on Kindle Unlimited)

Check out Comics Who Love Comic Books!

[afaimscorner]

Die besten X-Stories: Teil 4: 2008-2024: NYX No Way Home bis X-Men Red

78. NYX: No Way Home (2008-2009): (Majorlie Liu, Kalman Andrasofsky)

Die etwas verspätete Fortsetzung von „NYX“ kommt ohne X-23 aus, stellt dafür aber wieder Kiden Nixon in den Mittelpunkt der Handlung und beleuchtet das Leben von ihr und anderen Mutanten in der Welt nach M-Day. 90er Jahre-X-Man Cecilia Reyes feiert in dieser Serie ebenfalls ihre Rückkehr, nachdem sie das letzte Mal in der „Weapon X“-Serie als Insassasin des Neverland-Todescamps zu sehen gewesen war und ihr Bruder groß als Mitglied von ONE direkt zu Beginn des Decimation-Zeitalters nach M-Day in die X-Comics eingeführt worden war, aber niemals erwähnte was aus Cecila geworden war. Autorin Marjorlie Liu baute Cecilia absichtlich in diese Serie ein, nachdem sie die Spekulationen um den möglichen Tod des Charakters und den Wunsch der Fans nach ihrer Rückkehr in die X-Kontinuität mitbekommen hatte. In den 2000ern zeichnete sich Marjorlie Liu unter den X-Autoren dadurch aus, dass sie der Fan, der für andere Fans schrieb unter den X-Schreiberlingen war, weswegen ihre Stories von den Fans auch immer positivi aufgenommen und gerne gesehen wurden.

79. X-Force (3rd Series) 1-6 (2008): Angels and Demons (Craig Kyle, Chris Yost, Clayton Crain)

Die dritte X-Force-Serie stellte sozusagen eine Weiterentwicklung der Idee „Elitegruppe arbeitet für Geheimagenten auf pro-aktive Weise“ dar. Nur, dass man dieses Mal gleich aufs Ganze ging und die neue X-Force als Black-Op-Team unter der Leitung von Wolverine inszinierte. Nach der Geburt des Mutanten Messias Hope Summers im „Messiah Complex“-Crossover, in dem Professor X niedergeschossen und Baby Hope von Cable in die Zukunft entführt/gerettet wurde, autorisiert Cyclops dieses Team nicht nur, sondern setzt es bewusst ein um die Zukunft für die Mutanten sicherer zu machen. Neben Wolverine gehörten auch X-23, Wolfsbane und Warpath zu dem Team, denen sich im Laufe der ersten Stories Archangel und Elixir anschlossen. Peter David war wenig erfreut, als er erfuhr, dass er Wolfsbane auf Grund der neuen Serie aus „X-Factor“ schreiben musste (immerhin durfte Wolverine ja auch in mehreren Teams sein), wer „Angels and Demons“ liest, versteht aber warum das der Fall sein musste. Als Experten für Gewalt und Tod wurden Craig Kyle und Chris Yost als Autoren für die neu moralisch fragwürdige X-Serie angeheuert, und sie trafen genau den gewünschten Ton. Wie sehr eine Serie in diesem Stil der Idee hinter den X-Titeln entspricht mag dahin gestellt sein, die Leser waren zumindest zu Beginn von der neuen X-Force-Serie begeistert, doch im Laufe der Zeit sollten nicht nur Logan selbst Zweifel an der Grundidee und dem Vorgehen der neuen X-Force kommen.

80. War of the Kings (2009): (Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning , Paul Pelletier)

Auf die „Kingbreaker“-Mini-Serie, die „Emporer Vulcan“ fortsetzte, folge dieses galaktische Crossover als weitere Fortsetzung der Imperator Vulcan-Storyline. Waren bisher nur die Shi’ar in den Konflikt mit Vulcan verwickelt, mischen die Kree und die Inhumans nun mit (zusammen mit ein paar anderen galaktischen Fraktionen). Ein finaler Kampf zwischen Vulcan und Black Bolt führt zum vorläufigen Ende der Vulcan-Storyline und der beiden Charaktere und mischt die Karten für die Shi’ar vollkommen neu, als aus Mangel an Alternativen ausgerechnet Gladiator im Epilog-Heft zum neuen Majestor der Shi’ar wird. Später sollte er seinen Sohn auf das Jean Grey-Institut schicken um ihn auf seine Rolle als Herrscher vorzubereiten, hier nimmt er den Thron noch eher widerwillig selbst an. Black Bolt und Vulcan sollten beide nicht tot bleiben und später ins Marvel-Universum zurückkehren. Havok, Polaris und Rachel Summers konnten ihrerseits nun endlich zur Erde zurückkehren, brauchten für den Weg dorthin allerdings noch einige Zeit. „War of the Kings“ selbst sollte in dem Crossover-Event „Realm of the Kings“ fortgesetzt werden, doch ohne Summers-Bruder auf dem Thron der Shi’ar war dieses weit weniger X-Men-lastig als das vorliegende Event.

81. X-Force (3rd series) #21-25, X-Men Legacy #231-233, New Mutants (3rd series) #6-8, X-Necrosha One-shot, Necrosha: The Gathering (2009-2010): Necrosha (Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost u.a.)

Auch wenn Fans der Distinguished Competition anderes behaupten mögen, war es reiner Zufall, dass Marvel und DC ungefährt zur selben Zeit Events veröffentlichten, in denen tote Charaktere als Zombies ins Leben zurückkehrten. „Necrosha“ war auf jeden Fall schon von langer Hand geplant und lässt Lang-Zeit X-Men und New Mutants-Feindin Selene diverse verstorbene Mutanten wiederzubeleben, was natürlich einen harten Schlag für die Angehörigen und Freunde von diesen darstellt. Die X-Men, die New Mutants, X-Force und die X-Men-Schüler von Utopia müssen sich ihren toten Freunden und Feinden stellen. Zum damaligen Zeitpunkt hatten sich die X-Men zunächst in San Francisco und kurz danach auf der Insel Utopia angesiedelt, wo sie abgeschiedener von den Menschen in Ruhe und Frieden leben wollten. Utopia war der zweite Versuch einer Mutanten-Nation (durch die Dezimierung dieser durch M-Day allerdings in viel kleinerem Ausmaß) und war als solche natürlich eine Provokation für ihre Feinde. Passend beginnt das Crossover daher auch mit Genosha, wo sich Selene mit ihrer Zombie-Armee niederlassen will. Am Ende siegen unsere Helden und können sogar einen zusätzlichen Sieg einfahren, da New Mutant Cypher durch dieses Event zum ersten Mal seit seinem Tod während „Fall of the Mutants“ in den 80ern dauerhaft ins Leben zurückkehrt und die New Mutants so wiedervereint werden können. „X-Force“ verändert sich nach diesem Event ebenfalls und braucht ein neues Line-Up, während die X-Men mit Utopia mehr oder weniger wie zuvor weitermachen. Im Gegensatz zu den vielen weltbewegenden Crossover-Events war „Necrosha“ ein kleineres persönlich gehalteneres Event, das zu keiner dauerhaften Status Quo-Veränderungen für alle X-Titel führte, und vielleicht zählt es deswegen ja auch zu den besseren Crossovern des 21. Jahrhunderts.

82. X-Men Forever (2nd Series) (2009-2010): (Chris Claremont, Tom Grummet)

Anders als die ursprüngliche „X-Men Forever“-Serie war das zweite Volume keine Zeitreise im eigentlichen Sinne mehr, sondern eher ein Zeitreise im anderen Sinn. Denn in dieser Serie bekam der legendäre Autor Chris Claremont die Chance zu zeigen wie er die X-Men eigentlich hätte weitergehen lassen wollen, wenn er Anfang der 90er weitergeschrieben hätte. So werden etwa Sabretooth und Wolverine als Vater und Sohn enthüllt, Baby Christopher wurde niemals zu Cable, Scott und Jean haben sich getrennt, und Storm gibt es gleich zweimal. Die Rolle die Kitty, Kurt und die Avengers in dieser und der Nachfolge-Serie spielen, beweist allerdings, dass das natürlich nicht wirklich die Variante ist, die wir bekommen hätten, wenn Claremont weiter geschrieben hätte, da er keine Rücksicht auf andere Serien nehmen muss und mit allen Marvel-Charakteren machen kann, was er will. Nichtsdestotrotz ist die Serie aber ein nettes Gedankenexperiment und eines der besseren X-Men-AUs, das man besonders als Fan der klassischen Ära besonders genießen wird … außer wenn man ein Fan von Wolverine ist, möglicherweise.

83. Uncanny X-Force (2010-2013) (Rick Remender u.a.)

Ja, wieder ein gesamter Run auf dieser Liste, das muss in diesem Fall aber auch so sein, weil „Unycanny X-Force“ ein langer Roman ist, der sich keine wirklichen Pausen gönnt. Nachdem die Existenz seines Black Ops Team publik wurde, wurde die X-Force aufgelöst, doch Wolverine stellt ein neues Team zusammen, das sich wieder um Gefahren kümmern soll, die Utopia bedrohen könnten. Gemeinsam mit Psylocke, Fantomex und Deadpool und deren jeweiligen Anhängen stellt sich Wolverine jeder Gefahr entgegen, vor allem all jenen, die mit Apokalypse zu tun haben, und dabei verschlägt es das Team sogar in die Age of Apokalypse-Dimension, was zu vielen emotionelen Verwicklungen führt. Weniger brutal und mehr moralisch komplex als ihre Vorgänger-Serie präsentiert sich „Uncanny X-Force“, ein Comic, in dem sogar Fantomex ein Gewissen entwickelt, was aber nicht für alle gut sein könnte, oder doch? Niemals leicht und nicht immer moralisch integer ist diese Serie, die als Klassiker der modernen X-Comics gilt und die eine oder andere überraschende Seiten an scheinbar bekannten Charakteren offenbart.

84. X-Factor Forever (2010): Family (Louise Simonson, Dan Panosian)

Nachdem Claremonts „X-Men Forever“ so gut ankam, wurde Louise Simonson angeboten ebenfalls eine „X-Factor Forever“-Serie zu schreiben, in der sie präsentieren könnte wie „X-Factor“ weitergegangen wäre, wenn sie Autorin geblieben wäre. Vielleicht weil ihr zunächst nichts einfiel, blieb es aber nur bei einer Mini-Serie. In dieser wird eine alternative Herkunftsgeschichte für Apokalypse präsentiert, ansonsten erinnert die Serie vor allem an die Stärken von Simonson X-Factor Run mit ihrem familiären Setting und den starken Frauen an der Seite der männlichen Helden. Man hätte gerne als nur die eine Mini-Serie von diesem speziellen Alternativ-Universum gesehen.

85. Age of X (2011): (Mike Carey, Simon Spurrier  u.a.)

Wieder einmal eine umgeschriebe Realität präsentiert das „Age of X“-Crossover. Statt Utopia steht hier die sogenannte Fortress-X im Mittelpunkt, die heiß umkämpfte Zuflucht für die letzten Mutanten. Die X-Men wenden sich hier gegen ihre eigenen Leute um ihre scheinbare Realität am Leben zu erhalten und die hier zu findenden Konflikte werfen ihre Schatten auf die Zukunft der X-Men im 616-Universum voraus. Wieder einmal hat Legion eine neue Realität erschaffen, doch dieses Mal war es ein automatischer Verteidigungsmechanismus. Psychologischer und gefinkelter als „Age of Apokalypse“ und „House of M“ ist „Age of X“ ein guter Repräsentant für die Legion-Storylines der X-Geschichte, da das Crossover Event ein wenig leserfreundlicher ist als die mehr abgehobenen Legion-Geschichten, die Essenz und Komplexität des Charakters aber trotzdem beibehält. Am Ende wird die wahre Realität wieder hergestellt, mit ein paar interessanten Abweichungen, die noch Folgen nach sich ziehen würden und Rachel Summers endlich wieder mit den X-Men vereinten. Das Event bestand ursprünglich aus folgenden Heften:

Age of X: Alpha, Age of X: Universe #1, Age of X: Universe #2, X-Men Legacy (1st series) #245, X-Men Legacy (1st series) #246, X-Men Legacy (1st series) #247, New Mutants (3rd series) #22, New Mutants (3rd series) #23, New Mutants (3rd series) #24

 86. Generation Hope #10-11, X-Men: Schism #1-5; X-Men: Regenesis #1 (2011): Schism (Jason Aaron, Kieron Gillen u.a)

Es ist immer schlimmer, wenn Freunde miteinander Schluss machen, als wenn das Liebende tun. Lange liegen die Zeiten als Cyclops und Wolverine sich nicht leiden konnten hinter uns. Nicht nur wegen dem Tod von Jean Grey wurden aus den beiden unterschiedlichen Männern im Laufe der Jahre enge Freunde. Doch diese Freundschaft findet in „Schism“ ihr Ende, als Utopia durch eine Meinungsverschiedenheit auseinandergerissen wird, die offenbart, dass die Gräben zwischen den beiden wichtigsten Mitgliedern der X-Men tiefer sind als irgendwer wahrhaben wollte. Ausgerechnet Logan ist derjenige, der Xaviers Traum einer friedlichen Ko-Existenz fortführen will, während Cyclops keine Zukunft mehr für Schulen und Friedensträume sieht. Und so endet Utopia und die Ära der Jean Grey-Schule unter Direktor Wolverine beginnt. „Schism“-Autor Jason Aaron übernahm mit diesem Event die Herrschaft über die X-Men, und seine „Wolverine and the X-Men“-Serie ist das wichtigste Resultat von „Schism“. Cyclops und seine politisch aktiveren Anhänger blieben vorerst auf Utopia, das erst nach den Ereignissen von „AvX“ aufgegeben wurde, doch die Mutanten-Nation, die zuletzt alle gemeinsam hatten aufbauen wollen, gehörte der Vergangenheit an, da sich nun alle entscheiden mussten, ob sie an die Jean Grey-Schule in Westchester oder zu Cyclops X-Men wollten.

87.Alpha Flight (4th Series) (2011-2012): Pride of a Nation (Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente, Dale Eaglesham)

Der vierten „Alpha-Flight“-Serie war ein unfair kurzes Leben vergönnt, besonders wenn man die Prämisse bedenkt (obwohl vielleicht genau die Schuld am kurzen Leben dieser Serie war). Kanada entwickelt sich hier zu einem faschistischen Staat, der von vierzehigen gehirngewaschenen Leuten kontrolliert wird (nein, kein Scherz, so findet man heraus, ob jemand beeinflusst wurde, wenn er nur noch vier Zehn hat!). Alpha Flight merkt bald, dass etwas nicht stimmt und geht der Verschwörung auf den Grund, doch während Northstar seinen Freund Kyle retten kann, muss Mac dabei zusehen wie seine Frau Heather samt ihrem gemeinsamen Baby untertaucht. Nach dem verfrühten Ende von „Alpha Flight“ wurde die Storyline um Heather erst Jahre später aufgelöst, trotzdem gibt es für diese achtteilige Serie eine ungeingeschränkte Leseempfehlung von mir.

88. Astonishing X-Men (3rd Series) 51 (2012): Northstar’s Wedding (Marjorie Liu, Mike Perkins)

Hochzeiten sind bei Marvel immer eine große Sache, und die erste LGBT-Hochzeit eines Hauptcharakters war die von Northstar, der seinen Freund Kyle heiratete, und sie fand auf den Seiten von Marjorie Lius „Astonishing X-Men“ statt. Selbst wenn Kyle kein schwarzer Mann wäre, hätte eine gleichgeschlechtliche Hochzeit Wirbel ausgelöst. Abgesehen von „God Loves, Man Kills“ dürfte dieses Heft das sein, das am meisten Proteste ausgelöst hat. Immerhin machte Marvel keinen Hehl daraus, dass diese Hochzeit gleichwertig mit den Hochzeiten von Reed und Sue Richards, Peter Parker und Mary Jane Watson, Jessica Jones und Luke Cage, Jean Grey und Scott Summers und sogar Storm und Black Panther angesehen wurde. Natürlich konnten das die Hater nicht auf sich sitzen lassen. Offenbar war diese Hochzeit die erste gleichgeschlechtliche Eheschließung On-Panel der Comic-Geschichte (da Batwoman auf Grund der DC-Redaktion und ihrer Aversion gegen Hochzeiten nicht heiraten durfte), und am Tag der Veröffentlichung dieses Hefts gab sich ein schwules Pärchen in einem Comicbuch-Laden das Ja-Wort. Die Story selbst ist nett, wir sehen diverse Charaktere sozial interagieren und es gibt zur Abwechlsung einmal keinen unnötigen Kampf gegen einen Superschurken, aber dafür ein unvohegesehenes Killer-Ende.

89. X-Men: Season 1 (2012): (Dennis Hopeless, Jamie Mc Kelvie /w Mike Norton)

Dennis Hopeless Neuerzählung des Zusammenfindens der X-Men zählt zu den modernen Klassikern. Season 1 war ein Konzept von Marvel zu Beginn der 2010er, in dem bekannte Herkunftsgeschichten knackig für eine neue Generation neu erzählt werden sollten. Anstatt wie im Fall von „X-Men: First Class“ neue Abenteuer dazwischen zu erzählen, sollte neu geschildert werden wie alles eigentlich begann. Trotz seines unheilverheißenden Künsterlnamens war Dennis Hopeless immer einer der besten Autoren der Branche im 21. Jahrhundert, weswegen es um so erfreulicher war, dass Marvel ihn für diese Neuerzählung ans Ruder gelassen hat. „Children of the Atom“ mag besser sein, doch das hier ist knackiger.

90. Magneto (2nd Series) 1-6 (2014): Infamous (Cullen Bunn, Javier Fernandez, Gabriel Hernandez Walta)

Cullen Bunns „Magento“-Serie war ein unvorhergesehens Highlight der 2010er. Zuletzt hatte sich Magneto den X-Men auf Utopia angeschlossen und sich Cyclops Urteil unterworfen. Nach „Schism“ blieb er bei Cyclops Gruppe, doch dieser war es bestimmt zu zerfallen, und der Meister des Magnetismus war noch nie ein passiver Charakter. Umso schöner war es, dass ihm eine fortlaufende Serie gewidmet wurde ,und dass auch noch von einem Autor der den Charakter tatsächlich verstand. Magneot schwankt zwischen Held und Schurke und fristet sein Dasein als Anti-Held in dieser „Magneto“-Serie, deren erste Storyline schön den allgemeinen Charakter der Serie illustriert und zeigt warum X-Fans auf der ganzen Welt so begeistert von ihr waren. Zumindest hat seit ihrem Ende kein anderer Autor mehr versucht Magento kaputt zu schreiben, womit man sie wohl als doppelten Sieg ansehen kann.

91. Spider-Man and the X-Men (2014-2015), (Elliott Kalan, Marco Faillia)

2014 tat Marvel das Undenkbare. Sie veröffentlichten eine Mini-Serie namens „Death of Wolverine“, in der Logan auch tatsächlich starb, woraufhin er für einige Zeit aus den aktuellen Comics verschwand. Nun ja, zumindest fast, er kam in Rückblicken, AUs, früher spielenden noch nicht zur Mini-Serie aufgeschlossenen Serien, und als alte AU-Version seiner selbst, als Old Man Logan, immer noch ständig vor, doch „Wolverine and the X-Men“ fand ein apruptes Ende durch diesen Schachzug. Die Nachfolge-Serie war eine, die wohl niemand erwartet hätte: „Spider-Man and the X-Men“, eine kurzlebige Serie, in der Peter sein Versprechen an Logan am Jean Grey-Institut zu unterrichten wahr macht und dabei gleich einen Kriminalfall löst. „Spider-Man and the X-Men“ hat eine nette Dynamik, die der ihrer Vorgänger-Serie ähnelt, zugleich aber doch ihr eigenes Ding ist. Da der Netzschwinger chronisch überbeschäftigt ist, konnte er natürlich nicht auf Dauer bei den X-Men abhängen, doch es war nett solange es angedauert hat.

92. All New Wolverine 1-6 (2015-2016): Sisters (Tom Taylor, David Lopez)

Nach Logans Tod übernahm Laura den Mantel von Wolverine und bekam eine neue fortlaufende Serie namens „All New Wolverine“. Gleich in der erste Storyline lernt sie, dass sie nicht so einzigartig ist wie sie dachte, denn offenbar gibt es mehrere Klone von ihr in verschiedenen Altersstufen, die immer noch als Aufragskillerinnen arbeiten. Laura muss sich ihren Schwestern stellen und sahnt eine davon – die junge harmlos erscheinende Gabby – für immer als neuen Sidekick ab. Tom Taylor ist einer der besten Comic-Autoren der Gegenwart, der sich durch großes Charakterverständnis auszeichnet. Seine Serien sind immer Highlights und „All New Wolverine“ ist da keine Ausnahme. Mehr noch, er hat mit Gabby Kinney den wichtigsten neuen Break Out-Charakter der X-Geschichte der 2010er erschaffen. Und dafür werden wir ihm ewig dankbar sein.

93. Uncanny X-Men 600 (Jan 2016): (Brian Michael Bendis, u.a.)

2012 verfolgte eine Nachricht die X-Fans weltweit: Brian Michael Bendis würde die Autorenschaft der X-Men übernehmen. Das war ein Grund zur Freude, aber auch ein Grund zum Fürchten, wenn man bedachte, was Bendis ein Jahrzehnt zuvor mit den Avengers gemacht hatte. Seine Strategie bestand darin die Original Fünf X-Men aus der Vergangenheit in die Gegenwart zu holen um den nach „Schism“ immer radikaler werdenden Cyclops vor Augen zu führen, dass er sich auf dem falschen Weg befand. Die zeitreisenden X-Men steckten daraufhin in der Gegenwart fest, und der gegenwärtige Cyclops hatte nicht vor seine Methoden zu ändern. Daraus ergab sich ein durchaus ansprechender Run, der jedoch ein großes Problem mit sich brachte: Die Redaktion erlaubte Bendis nicht das zu tun, was er mit den Original Fünf hatte tun wollen, und zwang ihn sie in der Gegenwart zu lassen. Das gleiche Spiel trieb sie dann noch zweimal mit seinen diversen Nachfolge-Autoren, die ebenfalls ihre Pläne mit diesen fünf jungen Helden nicht umsetzen durften. Bendis selbst verabschiedete sich mit dem Jubläums-Heft „Uncanny X-Men 600“ von den X-Titeln, und da die X-Titel danach zu einer dämlichen Wiederholungsschleife von alten Hits in lauwarmer bis schlechter Form wurden, könnte man argumentieren, dass dieses Heft auch das letzte wahre „X-Men“-Heft ist. Hier bringt Cyclops zumindest noch einmal sehr schön auf den Punkt worum es bei den X-Men eigentlich geht, und alle sind friedlich miteinander vereint. Es ist ein Ausblick auf seine gute Zukunft für die Mutanten, der von dem, was darauf folgen sollte (der M-Pox-Ära) verraten wurde. Aber vielleicht ist das Heft gerade deswegen ein um so stärkerer Moment in der X-Geschichte, weil er der letzte wirklich starke Moment in einer „Uncanny X-Men“-Serie war. Außerdem ist hier dier Iceman-Moment enthalten, der leider nur bedingt Sinn macht, weil Bisexualität ja nicht sein darf und man nur Vamille oder Schokolade mögen darf, aber na ja, für alle jene, für die Northstar, Rictor und Shatterstar, Storm und Betsy und die diversen Teenager nicht genug waren, war das hier ein großer Schritt, also sei es ihnen vergönnt. Damit konnte Bendis die X-Men zumindest ein wenig verändern.

94. Generation X (2nd Series) (2017-18): (Christina Strain, Amilcar Pinna)

Nicht alles, was nach dem Ende von Bendis‘ Run kam, war schlecht. Es gab zum Beispiel eine wirklich gute zweite „Generation X“-Serie, in der die ehemaligen Gen X-Mitglieder Lehrerrollen einnehmen (ähnlich wie die New Mutants ein Jahrzehnt zuvor) und eine neue Generation von X-Schüler am Institut in Westchester, das nun unter der Leitung von Kitty Pryde steht, unterrichten. Die zweite Generation X-Serie lebte leider nicht sehr lange, war aber eine willkommene Pause von all dem Hick-Hack um mutantentötenden Nebel, zeitversetzte X-Men, und dem nicht endenden wollenden Hass gegen Mutanten, die viele Fans mehr zu schätzen wussten als sie bereit waren zuzugeben. Wenn die Serie zu einem Zeitpunkt erschienen wäre, an dem die Leserschaft den X-Titeln allgemein wohlwollender gegenüber gestanden hätte, dann wäre ihr vielleicht ein längeres Leben beschieden gewesen.

95. X-Men Gold 30 (Aug 2018) : Til Death do us Part (Marc Guggenheim, David Marquez)

„X-Men Gold“ und „X-Men Blue“ waren zwei nebeneinander laufende Serien der späteren 2010er. „X-Men Blue“ war die dritte Serie um die zeitversetzen Original Fünf X-Men, während Marc Guggenheims „X-Men Gold“ die X-Men in Westchester unter der Leitung von Kitty Pryde in den Mittelpunkt rückte. In „X-Men Gold“ flammte auch die durch Colossus‘ Phoenix-Bessenheit während „AvX „getötete Romanze zwischen Kitty und Piotr wieder auf, und die beiden verlobten sich sogar. Das Problem war nur, dass niemand aus der Redaktion die beiden wirklich verheiraten wollte. Wenn man die Hochzeit jetzt aber hätte platzen lassen, dann wären die Fans verägert gewesen. Ungefähr zur selben Zeit erschien bei DC das Heft mit der Hochzeit von Batman und Catwoman, aus der bekanntlich nichts wurde, was eine Menge Leute sehr verärgerte. Marvel löste das Problem geschickter. Denn ja, Kitty bekam vor den Altar kalte Füße und wurde undurchdringlich,  als Colossus ihr den Ring anstecken wollte, aber stattdessen beschlossen Gambit und Rogue den Moment zu nutzen und heirateten spontan. So gab es eine X-Hochzeit, nur nicht die, mit der die Leute gerechnet hatten – es sei denn sie hätten auf die Variant-Cover geachtet.

96. Mr. And Mrs. X (2018-2019): (Kelly Thompson, Oscar Bazaldua & Javier Pina)

Und wieder ein ganzer, leider aber nur kurzer Run, da alle X-Serien zwangsläufig eingestellt wurden, als Johnathan Hickman die X-Men-Autorenschaft übernahm und die X-Men und alles wofür sie standen zerstörte. Eines der prominensten Opfer dieser allgemeinen Cancellation-Welle war „Mr. and Mrs. X.“. Nach ihrer Hochzeit in „X-Men Gold 30“ musste man Rogue und Gambit auch als verheirates Ehepaar zeigen, denn wofür wäre sie sonst gut gewesen? Und dafür bekamen sie sogar ihre eigene Serie, die Kelly Thompson (auch bekannt für ihre überragende „Captain Marvel“-Serie) liebevoll und witzig in Szene setzte. Nicht nur für Shipper war diese Serie eines der letzten großen Highlights der jüngeren X-Geschichte.

97. X-Men Red (2018): The Hate Machine (Tom Taylor u.a)

„X-Men Red“ von Tom Taylor ist der letzte Titel auf dieser Liste. Leider nur ein Jahr lang, aber dafür als riesiger Zwölfteiler angelegt, lief diese Serie, in der die ins Leben zurückgekehrte Jean Grey feststellen muss, dass Scott tot ist und sie alleine weitermachen muss und prompt die Führung eines X-Teams übernimmt. Storm stellt richtig fest, dass Jean sich eine sehr große Last auflädt, und das tut sie auch wirklich - sie muss den Hass selbst bekämpfen, doch sie hat damit sogar Erfolg. Mehr Erfolg als ihre Kollegen zuvor zuletzt hatten und eindeutig mehr als die X-Men in sämtlichen Serien, die nach „X-Men Red“ erschienen, hatten. Schade, dass die erwachsene Jean als Anführerin der X-Men nur so kurz andauerte. Aber wir sind dankbar dafür, dass wir es zumindest doch noch irgendwann miterleben durften.

[popculturebuffet]

House of Claremont: Mutant Month: Marvel Graphic Novel #5: X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills (Comission Review for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy muties and welcome back to Mutant Month, my celebration of those mighty mutants of marvel. After a bit of a rough start with the X-Men's first animated appearance, i'm proudly taking a look at one of the X-Men stories ever,God Loves Man Kills.

This review also relaunches a feature on this blog that will likely exist as long as this blog does. It was supposed to be a full retrospective of Chris Claremont's 186 issue, 16 year run on Uncanny X-Men, also throwing in his 12 annual issues, various mini series, and other x-ongoing New Mutants. It was an ambitious idea brought about by me having collected almost EVERY issue of Claremont's run and various associated minis on comixology, with only a few stray issues and a few trades left to complete it. Thanks to that i'd seen what a deft, well crafted masterpiece this run is: while it has it's flaws, down periods, and various things that haven't aged well, it's a glorious nearly two decades long epic with lush character arcs, brilliant ideas, and tons of twists and status quo changes to keep things from getting too stale. While the run begins and ends at Xavier's School in between we have Thunderbird's tragic death, Jean becoming a living god before it consumes her and her apparent death, Scott leaving as a result and only returning on and off before leaving for good, one of their sworn enemies who'd done something truly unforgiable to a friend of theirs joining the team in desperation (More on that next week), Storm's slow change in personality and temproary (though still YEARS LONG ) power loss, the arrival of Rachel Summers from an alternate future, Rachel's departure coinciding with half the team being brutally decimated in the morlock massacre and Storm forced to rebuild the team from almost scratch, said new roster dying to save the world and being reborn in secret, and the ENTIRE TEAM scattered to the winds, leaving the book to focus on the individual members as wolverine slowly pulls them back together and Forge forges a new team to replace them, and finally the team merging with x-factor to create two new teams of x-men. And that was just what I could squeeze in reasonably A lot of great stories both noted forever and forgotten to the sands of time by all but those who read them in the 80s or read them all now are squeezed int his epic.

And that very reasoning.. is why I ultimatley coudln't do it. I tried streamlining the run and summarizing.. but at the end of the day i'm a man who likes to really analyze stuff. And make goofy jokes, but while I could do the latter as good as always it became clear the run was just too massive to quickly summarize it all and do it full justice, and doing it piece by piece in order would possibly take a decade. It's the double edged sword of relying on commissions and patreon reviews: it allows me extra money each month and comes in handy quite a bit, and allows me to meet nice respectful people who love my work enough to do it... but it also means I sometimes have to delay things I personally planned to do on my own time. And given my venture bros retrospective has already been a victim to this quite a bit, I decided an even LONGER project. There's also a simple fact: While I love this era of x-men and it's easily one of the best if not the best, no question... there are tons of OTHER great x-men and mutant stories out there and other retrospectives to do from peter David's masterful noir run of x-factor (and not to shabby government and corporate runs), to Leah Williams own great sadly short lived take recently, to the various epics currently spinning out of the krakoa era and into the fall of x from Hickman, to Gilleon to Ewing to Duggan to williams, and even OTHER x-books from the 80s and early 90's with Claremont's phenomenal new mutants, interesting excalibur, and Louise Simonsons deft work on X-Factor and later also New Mutants. There's just too much X for one lifetime of review work to spend most of it on one run.

So this is my compromise: instead of a long retrospective looking at it in order, i'll be taking ocasional looks at stories I like, and maybe the one or two I don't, here. Both on my own, with one of my faviorite parts of the run planned for next year if I can squeeze it in

And on comission's like this. If ther'es a stretch of this massive run or another x run you want me to cover i'm down for it.

And I was paticuarlly down for this one for two reasons: the first is God Loves, Man Kills is not only one of my faviorite x-men stories.. but probably the best of Chris Claremont's run. And given he had PLENTY of good work before and after this, the run of issues I just teased above was also happening around this time, that is saying a lot.

The other is the person who comissioned it: Kevin is both the first person to comisson work for this blog and the one who does it the most and has become a good friend. But while he's many things: great with duck triva, obessed with a lesbain owl, the #1 molibby shipper, and a great guy to work with... he's not really an x-men fan. Spider-Man yes, it's how I was able to spend a glorious half a year reviewing spiderman and likely will again in the future, both with a video game review planned later this year and tons of other stuff for the future. But when it comes to the strangest heroes of all he usually just shurgs and this month was something he wasn't really involved in at first. Which is fine, I don't do this blog just for one person and he dosen't have to like everything I do.

So it meant a LOT to me when he asked if I could cover God Loves Man Kills. He was curious after I mentioned this theme month coming up and looked into some famous x-men stories, thought this one was interesting as it's both rightly hugely aclaimed and still has echoes to the state of the world today. And since he watches and reads what he commissions it also got him to read some classic x-men and hopefully more eventually. He also has another one coming at the end of the month and much like this one it's a story I was bound to cover eventually. But you'll find out about that one later. For now join me under the cut to dig into one of the greatest x-men stories of all, a tale of frightingly realistic prejudice, tyranically faith, and perseverance in the face of overwhelming hate and a doubt if your dream will ever come true.

Purity: God Loves Man Kills comes to us from the Marvel Graphic Novel series, another thing i've been wanting to talk about. Marvel Graphic Novel was the brainchild of Marvel's Editor at the Chief at the time Jim Shooter. I'm not a huge fan of Shooter as while he WAS EiC during one of marvel's biggest boom periods, he was also a giant prick who was not great at the actual writing part most of the time but insisted on giving himself books, was a homophobic shithead who refused to let gay characters into his book (it's why Claremont had to imply as hard as he could Mystique and Destiny were a couple), and being behind famous writing debacles like Hank Pym's mental breakdown, the hobglin's true identity and of course the previously reviewed avengers 200. Aka

I'll be covering the followup to that next week, thank god. But for all the guys faults and serious lastingly damaging fuckups.. he still had his moments. For instance with X-Men itself he had Chris break up Kitty Pryde (14) and Colossus (19) which was both better for both characters in the longrun but the fallout of said breakup ended up being some of Chris' best work.

This is one of those moments: With Buisness picking up at the tale end of the 60's, Jim decided to capitalize on the "Album" format from European comics. So we go the marvel graphic novels, super sized stories following marvel's best characters, though usually not involving the main book's creative team for time purposes. We still got powerhouse names like David Michlinine, Chris Claremont, Frank Miller, JM Demattis, Larry Hama, Mary Jo Duffy, Ann Nocenti, Gerry Conway, Roger Stern, Doug Monech, Mark Gruenwald, Alan Davis, Jim Starlin, Bob McLeod, Walt Simonson, Jackson Guice, Mark Silvestri, John Byrne, Bill Sienkiewicz, Mark Evanier, Sergio Aragones, John Bucschema, Denny O'Neil, Bruce Jones, Mike Mingola, Paul Gulacey, and Ross Andru. And i'm sure I missed some. The books were a lot of things. They were a way for creators to work on characters they normally hadn't, to serve as an additional piece to big runs, or to launch less superhero oriented stuff and creator own books. Yes marvel actually did creator owned books at one point, something I never would've known without my good twitter friend Belle (Not caling it X, probably the only time something named x wasn't for me in any way shape or form), and was part of the reason for this line. It's also thanks to her getting me curious in this line again that I found out about oddities like an adaptation of willow by Power Man and Iron Fist's real mom Mary Jo Duffy, a full roger rabbit adaptation.. or a full SEQUEL to Roger Rabbit that I'm DEFINTELY looking at one of these days. It was mostly a marvel vehicle though.

Despite their isolated nature, most of these books are fully cannon to the main marvel universe and many of them had a lasting impact: New Mutants introduced the team to the marvel universe and took Donald Pierce out of the hellfire club, Spider-Man: Parallel Lives dealt with the revelation that Mary Jane had known peter was Spidey all along and showed her past with that new perspective in mind, Dardevil Love and War continued the vanessa fisk subplot from dardevil, the inhumans once shot introduced Black Bolt and Medusa's Son Ahurua, Dazzler: The Movie outed Allison Blaire as a mutant to the world, and the classic Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: triumph and torment finally ended the longstanding subplot about Doom saving his mother's soul from mephisto.

So that makes it a surprise that this story wasn't strictly considered canon till 21 years after the fact. Part of this is the standalone nature: while the book DOES have some important steps in Magneto and Kitty Pryde's character arcs, it's pretty much the ONLY comic chris wrote he didn't somehow later factor into his x-men run. That's not hyperbole either: X-Men and New Mutants regularly impacted each other, with Xavier's departure leading to Magneto becoming their teacher, Selene being introduced fighting the New mutants before becoming a thorn in the big kids side, and Betsy Braddock, the future Psylocke, ending up at the mansion and eventually on the roster thanks to a new mutants annual.

Beyond that , Chris loved bringing in characters from other books he worked on: Jean Grey roomed with Coleen Wing and Misty Knight from his book iron fist, Jessica Drew Spider-Woman guest starred in an x-men issue then later in one of her comics found Banshee's daughter Siryn. And not stopping there many characters chris created for other books became mainstays of uncanny x-men: Mystique started out as Ms Marvel (Carol Danvers) arch enemy, Arcade was a one off villian in an issue of Marvel Team Up and Wolverine's arch enemy sabertooth started out as an iron fist villian. Most notably, and something we'll talk about next week, after the disaster that was avengers 200, Chris was so pissed off he took carol and added her to x-men for some time via avengers annual #10.. and in the process also introduced Rogue. Chris used everything he had so the fact this story just.. happened with so much fanfare and two big character moments and never came up is odd.

The other problem is that Chris kept a very tight order of events and had a lot happening... and as a result WHEN this happened is nigh impossible to figure out. It's down to the roster; The roster in this book is Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Kitty Pryde. Cyke is the first issue as after Jean's death in the dark phoenix saga he was in and out of the team for a while: he left right after to find out if he even WANTED to go back, but this being the life of an x-man ended up stranded on Magneto's spooky elder god island he found and made into a headquarters, because I mean.. what else are you going to do with a spooky elder god island. After a fight with Mags in which he realized how far he nearly went and fled to parts unknown, the X-Men took the base for their own while the mansion was in the shop before Cyclops peaced out again to spend time with his dad who just got back, from outer space. To make matter's somehow even more complicated, the x-men were then kidnapped to space by the brood. Cyke would leave the issue after this adventure to go spend time with his dad and meet his long lost grandparents before he had to go back to space again and be a sexy mustache space pirate as earth had become too alien to him peter quill style.

And that issue is the other problem: the issue before that, after Xavier got his alien clone body.. he bumped Kitty Pryde, the x-men's cool teen who met the team during Dark Phoenix Saga and joined right after, down to the New Mutants. This is a problem as the only real window for this story to happen... is when she was busy convincing Xavier to repromote her.... and during that Window Logan implicitly left for his homeland of Canada before heading to japan to pick a fight with his girlfriend's abusive fiancé and even more abusive dad, who he of course murdered in a samurai duel.

So it' SEEMS impossible for this story to fit. And that's because it is. trust me I tried my best.. but going to x-men 168, aka

Logan leaves for the candian rockies.. and has Kurt drive him to the airport... taking Kitty and her bestie and colosuss sister who was aged up when she was kidnapped by a demon man on Magneto's Spooky Elder God Island, with them.. while Kitty was still campaning to join the x-men. Not only that Xavier's space girlfriend Illandra and the new mutants themselves are absent from the story, just to make ti clear

So yeah this story is canon , but fits nowhere really in canon.. and in an interview in the extneded cut (which I turned to to try and find out if it added anything to explain why it dosen't fit, which no it didn't it's just got some added wraparounds in the present day at the time continuity), that was by design. Chris wanted to make this story one that could be read by anyone, one and done. If you wanted to read more x-men great. if not , you still got your money's worth and got everything these characters were about.

The story itself came from the times: It was the time of Ronald Regan and a new wave of conservatives trying to bring back "the good old days" and morals and all the usual smokescreens "for when things were a lot WHITER and STRAIGHTER and we didn't have to reckon with our actions. " This call for moral panic nicely dovetailed into the rise of Evangelical Preachers, using tv as a means of indoctrination and trying to paint anyone against them as not in god's will and anything they didn't like as "not TRULY of god". Naturally given Chris wrote a book about a disenfranchised, if fictoinal group that happened to have a christian (Nightcrawler) and jewish (Kitty Pryde) person in their ranks and an arch enemy who lived thorugh the holocaust, the story was perfect.

To chris this kind of purity of purpose coupled with narrowmindeness was dangerous as hell, and made for a good story speaking out against it.. one that continues to resonate on as narrow minded assholes who GENUINELY think their doing the right thing by hurting and suppressing people and who they are haven't exactly gone away, simply changed shape. Heck while this still is mostly a one off story, the themes of someone trying to legislate opression and make it sound resonable were already in the main book with days of future past (which shows a nightmare world where this DOES happen.. and also gets hyjacked by giant robots), and would continue to be a key theme of the x-men to this very day.

So now the stage is set, we can finally begin a battle.. not one of the usual claws, optic blasts and thunder bolts.. but of survivial. Of ideas. Of one group trying to do the right thing in the midst of a direct call for them to be trotted out and murdered. To be wiped away in the name of some "higher purpose". It's a battle of faith. Let's see how it plays out shall we?

Not the First, Far from the Last:

The opening to God Loves Man Kills.. is one of the most chilling scenes i've read in a comic. And it's chilling simply because it could happen anywhere: Two black children are running for their lives.. but sadly don't make it, as their soon cornered by the purifiers, three people in black tactical gear. And why are they hunting these innocent children? Why have they already killed their parents?

It's an utterly haunting sequence. The fact the children are black isn't a remote coincidence, but to simply hammer home that this kind of shit happens. To draw parallels to the same sort of shit racist have done: killing innocent people.. then displaying the bodies as some sick trophy to show exactly WHY they just slaughtered innocents: they were not what these butchers considered a person and to them, they deserved to die. Thankfully before the Purifiers can get their intended show of stringing up the bodies, each with a sign saying "Mutie" on them, someone else comes along to take this horror show down so these children's bodies can at least have SOME dignity in death instead of being used as as sick prop

I love the small touches i'm only noticing now as I review this: the true PAIN on Erik's face after seeing this, him gently going over the body. It also speaks to his history: he's seen countless children die around him in his childhood in a concentration camp.. and saw his own daughter Anya die tragically simply because Mags himself was a mutant. It says a lot about who he is and that behind the vengeance, behind the vow of "Never again" he swears right after.. is a man whose simply seen too many of his peopled die... and will not let this happen again. And god help those who did this.

We then meet our main antagonist, Reverened William Stryker. Like the above.. this intro is brilliant. Stryker, head of his evangelcial "Stryker Crusade" is reading the bible in his office, before preparing to review some files and having some dinner sent up to eat while he looks over them. Said files are also a really neat way to show off the current roster of x-men and what they can do, with some really great art added. Stryker already has plans for them, but first he has to be at the studio: he has a show to put on.

We cut to Stevie Hunter's dance studio. For those less familiar with her Stevie was a major supporting character during Claremont's run. When Kitty joined the school, Charles, wanting to make sure she had a well rounded life outside of academics and surviving the experince, enrolled her in dances classes hosted by Stevie, a former professional dancer whose career was cut short by injury. He'd later do the same for the new mutants, and it's a nice character thing: it shows as gruff and standofish as Charles can be.. he wants what's best for his charges and wants them to have some normalcy in a life where that will be hard to come by.

Starting here , and with Kitty, isn't a coincidence: as Chris said in the aforementioned interview, the younger characters provided a vital viewpoint: the future and what exactly to do with it when it looked so bleak.

It's also a great way to start as once again Claremont makes sure things are well and grounded as Kitty.. is beating the shit out of some asshole named Danny.. to the point she's sent him out the door. He only gets a hit in once Peter, aka Colossus, mother russia's finest and kitty's crush, shows up distracting her. Kitty's held back by her bestie and borderline love intrest Illanya. Seriously why haven't they been a thing. Questions for later. For now Stevie comes out wanting to know what the hell is going on, her exact words. Kitty admits to starting the violence portion of the evening.. but only because Danny was talking about all the GOOD the stryker crusade is doing and how swell it is they want to commit mutant genocide. Peter suggests they end it there.. which is code for "You've said enough little bigot, just try me". It's also notable that peter is so angry: one of his defining traits is how he's a gentle, kind young man and abhors violence. He fights because he has to and because it's the right thing to do, not because he wants. So to get him angry takes a lot. Danny backs off.. but whispers once peter's around it's on because he has the self preservation of a goat. We also coincidentally never see him again. Maybe Logan gave him a talking to and he wisely left town after voiding his bowels. Who knows.

Stevie isn't pleased with Kitty and we get that moment I was hinting at the one part of the comic that dosen't entirely work for me

Now I GET what chris was going for and Kitty's point: that just because it's word's.. dosen't mean someone saying intolerent bullshit, ESPECAILLY since in this case the dipshit was advocating genocide, is something to just ignore or brush off. And it's MEANT to be a spur of the moment thing a teenager would say, hence it not ruining the scene.. but Chris STILL really shoudlnt' of had a privilaged white teenager say the n word to a grown black woman whose probably been through a LOT of this shit and has gotten used to having to ignore it. Even for the time the n-word should not have been used especialy in refrence to a fictional minority. The rest of the scene works.. but this REALLY dosen't and sticks out like a sore thumb in a work that otherwise holds up.

Kitty and Peter return home just in time for something on TV, greeted by

and Nightcrawler, everyone's faviorite sexy demonic looking christian. I LOVE Logan and Kitty's talk here too

I love everything about this. How casual logan is, how fatherly he comes off to her, and Kitty showing that Stevie's fears of her using her training unfairly were unfounded: Kitty was holding back and wouldn't use it on a civlian no matter how much he deserved to be ground into the pavement.

Turns out the show their all watching is the same one Stryker was preparing for: A debate with Xavier over mutant kind. And Xavier looses pretty badly as best summed up by this panel

It perfectly sums up hate groups like Stryker's best weapon: couching horrifying, nightmarish notions.. and making them sound ALMOST resonable. it's something I saw a few years back when JK Rowling tried to defend her transphobia; her "apology' letter TRIED to sound resonable.. but underneath you could see all the transphobia couched in her arguments and all the hate clearly there. It's just to some, sadly.. the argument is more pursasive and that's where the danger is: not in us who can see it.. but that some of us may not or may be indorcianted otherwise.

Kitty is understandably even more pissed after all of this and decides to break some stuff, so we get a few pages in the danger room. It's a fun sequence. I"m mostly glossing over it as story wise it dosen't really have a lot of function, but it's a nice way to slip in some more typical superhero action without undermining the story: the context of the heroes needing to work out how aggravated and scared they are with a good distraction makes it work, it's only a few pages so it dosen't take up much of the comic, and it has a fun solution: the heroes are all given individual assignments.. but only accomplish them when they help each other out, a clever exercise. IT's one of the reasons I love the danger room: it's a neat way to show our heroes training, something most superhero comics don't have time for and a fun way to interject action sequences into issues that may otherwise not have them.

Back at the Studio Stryker's preparing for his first attack on the x-men... and conviently Xavier brought Cyclops, team leader and certified badass, and Storm, also team leader and certified badass about to get even more badass during this time period with her awsome mohawk and change in character, with them. Xavier's already on edge as he noticed Stryker has Psy Screens.. which means he KNOWS Xavier's a mutant.. but sadly can't warn the rest of th eteam as they get ambusehd and Scott and Ororo are seemingly gunned down. It's part of what makes Stryker such an effective antagonist: while he does indeed have an evil over the top super villian plan... most of his methods are mundane. Simply using guns , subterfuge and careful cordinated strikes. Basic military tactics and espionge. He has fancy sci fi stuff to block xavier's mind reading and what not, but he uses pretty mundane stuff. It underlines that this is at the end of the day just a normal guy who happens to have a POWERFUl cultish following.. and that despite the powers, despite the training the x-men are as vunerable as anyone to a military strike.

We cut back to the mansion where Nightcrawler gets a night caller telling him the professor, jean and scott died in a car crash. The next scene is effective; Kitty mourns, and is baffled that something mundane as a car crash could take out her surrogate big sister, a genius tactician and her mentor.. and also Scott and Xavier. Turns out though Illanya isn't just there to comfort kitty.. and ask kitty about her crush on her brother Peter.. but to point out a weird survelnce divise. Kitty's response is clever as hell and speaks to how despite her age she's every bit an x-man: she disables the thing, then plans to wait to ambush whoever set it up.

At the scene of the accident Logan confirms Kitty's suspcions: the scenes for the bodies found at the wreck are all wrong and the wreck itself has all the halmarks of a staged accident.. a nice way to use Logan's CIA past as he admits to have done a few of these himself. He was also smart enough to have Kurt do survielnce.. and find the purifiers watching them ready to attack. It's a nice little show of Wolverine as leader: it dosen't come up a TON in this run early on, but under Ororo he's second in line to lead the x-men , wether he thinks he can or not.

The x-men turn the tables and ambush the purifiers for a change, in this case some goon Wolverine easily yanks out of a car and Anne, Stryker's right hand who tries ramming Nightcrawler with her car.. which fails horribly since you know, he's a teleporter and she should know this and colosus totals the thing with Nightcrawler saving her life with one heck of a line

Unfortuantley for our heroes not only does said attempted marytr escaped.. but she had some goons with her in powered armor who easily down colossus. Before they can get the rest of the x-men though.. they get some unexpected help.

It's one hell of a scene. Before this set of our heroes can react though, we cut back to kitty and yana. The goons arrive and Illyana is understandably scared: at this point, outside of the time in a demon realm, she's mostly a normal teenager and hasn't yet trained in her powers. So when Kitty goes to investigate and the purifiers find her, it's utterly terrifying to see.. and worse to see Anne shoot an unarmed girl. Her point blank shot somehow.. stuns Yana?

Thankfully not depriving us of one of the best new mutants... just kidding their all the best. It's hard to choose.

Kitty hides in the trunk, but turns out the Purifiers have sensors and spray some knockout gas in there.

Back with the X-men logan is using his usual charm and tact to interogate one of their suspects

Left one's charm, right one's tact, middle one's grace. Magneto suggets an alternative.. and procedes to somehow use magnetics to make the guy tell them what he knows

I love Magneto's line afterwrods too

It's a brutal line and sums up magneto in one line. Truly perfect.

While nightcrawler worries sinking to their foes level makes them no better we cut to

As you can imagine this scene confused the hell otu of Kev. It works thematically for me: Stryker is trying to brainwash xavier and is thus framing his students, his family, as murderous monsters. It's part of a brilliant and horrifying psychic ploy: their torturing Scott and Ororo, the only reason their still alive, right next to him so he feels their pain, but have doped Charles up so much he dosen't realize their not hurting him, letting his own inner guilt rationalize why they'd hurt him. Scott is especially a good pick for this: as I mentioned since Jean's death he's been questioning his place in the world and, after all the training Xavier's given him, if he can even LIVE a life outside the x-men. He's as much Xavier's son as his real son who he dosen't know about yet and thus his betrayal would sting the hardest while for Oroo he took her out of an innocent existence away from strife as a goddess to the harshness of the real world. His own fears of what he's done to his children, how he's weaponized them and the two he's lost.. .are the greatest weapon of all.

We then find out Stryker's back story.. and it is... utterly horrifying. Stryker was a decorated army guy who was driving home with his pregnant wife. She gave birth to their son and well...

That shot of the knife.. is haunting. It's something I never really focused on in previous reads.. and i'm not sure i'll be able to forget now. Stryker was so convinced his baby was an abomination, so unwilling to accept his child for what they were instea dof what he thought they were.. he murdered an innocent baby then SNAPPED his wife's neck for no good reason. All because in his eyes they were just a monster and the one who created. It breaks down Stryker and shows what he REALLY is inside: while he tries to frame this a sa crusade, that the birth of his child was God showing Stryker his new purpose in life, hence his founding of the crusade. But at the end of the day: he's a bigot. He saw his child was diffrent and stabbed him to death and instead of dealing with kiling his wife and child, instead of acccepting he acted on his worst instincts and did something truly horrible.. he convinced himself that no, GOD told him to do this. God told him this was the right path. and he should kill more, hurt more, do more. It's the real, pure danger of crusades like this: the absolute conviction that the horrible things your doing are right. People who just side with bigotry for their own self intrest are bad.. but it's the people who TRULY belivie what their saying who are the most dangeorus. To use JK Rowling the reason she's so dangeorus to trans people is that she GENUINELY thinks she's helping women. That she THINKS she's resonable and can convince other people.. and that like stryker she has the money and resources and influence to do real harm. It's easy to stop a hypcorite, just show them as they are to their followers if their not brainwashed enough. it's harder to stop someone who GENUINELY belivies the hate they speak and cannot be talked down or beaten with logic. The only way to beat them is with public opinon and that's a harder task than it should be.

We get a truly chiling ending to the scene as Stryker coldly orders Anne to execuite kitty and Storm, a surrgoate big sister to the girl can only wail in horror.

Lucky for kitty, she managed to phase the escond the gas hit, but some still got her.. so she escapes her execution.. but is still being hunted by Anne. And whiel she TRIES to get help.. she instead finds a gang who fully plan to assault her. Her only salvation is that Anne shows up and the gang is too busy with her and Anne's too busy killing them all for being in the way for either to notice her escaping. Kitty BARELY calls the school for help in time and even then all she can do is hide in a subway.. and watch as a police officer takes a bullet for her, the purifiers glad to let him die and blame it on her. Thankfully like her fellow x-men, Uncle Erik is here to save the day...

The x-men quickly clean up the rest of the Purifiers and Kitty's shocked to see Magneto on their side. He quickly proves his nobility though, saving the officer and giving the x-men a magic car door ride to go get the guy help

While he's showing them the world, shining shimmering splendor, he explains whose after them to the officer.

We then cut back to xavier whose finally been convinced to kill Scott and Ororo.. and stryker's plan becomes frightingly clear.. now he's capable of killing his two faviorite children.. what would he do to any other mutant?

Meanwhile Kitty and Kurt confront the guy who indocrinated Xavier, Doctor ramsey. I guess doug has a racist uncle? Anyway Nighcrawler gets some poetic justice, using his frighting facade to scare the crap otu of the racist. What I love about this is while the art makes kurt look terrifying.. we know him well enough, even just in this tsory to know he's bluffing. We saw earlier he was horrified with Magneto and Wolverine fully willing to toruture a guy. But this guy dosen't know that. And he's still wiling to mildly choke the guy, not at all sympathetic after all he's done. Kurtmay be one of the most noble souls ever put to comics.. but this scene is a nice reminder: he kicks ass for the lord.

At Stryker's headquarters, his goons and anne plan to take Scott and Roro to be cremated and Illayana to be examined.. but by now you know the bit: magneot is awesome, yanks the elevator out. His constant saves COULD get tiresome.. but they work as a show of power and the gap that still exists between him and the x-men: sure we get to see them all be awesome.. but these moments remind us WHY he can take on the whole team by himself, WHY he was such a threat.. and why him joining them is such a big deal. He could probably handle all this himself.. but despite being on opposite sides, despite having opposite approaches... he respects them. Okay sure he shoved them into a nanny robot prison a while back, but after they nearly sank him in lava he got respect.

He then proves the point by reviving scott and ororo. Turns out subcocnoiusly Xavier rebelled and thus only put them in a deathlike coma. Scott.. is naturally a bit nettled to see his arch enemy in front of him after he just nearly died, which leads to one hell of a speech from Mags.

Something that's really easy to forget, especaily after that.. is that Magneto started out.. as a pretty awful character. He was a bully, a dictator who wanted to conquer humanity because he could, cowed his subordinates into submission and kept Scarlet Witch in the brotherhood purely out of obliggation to him for saving her and pietro from an angry mob. And early on while Claremont had him as a BETTER villian, more intimidating and a larger threat, especially since two of the x-men were now weak to his powers, he was still a bit of an ass who decided the best way to get his revenge was to strap the x-men to chairs where they couldn't move and have a nanny robot feed them which gave me nightmares as a kid

It's only in his next apperance did Magneto shift from "Dr. Doom Clone" to "one of my faviorite characters in all of fiction. With I Magneto we not only found out his backstory as a survivor of asuchwitz but his next attempt to conquer the world, boosting his powers and giving the world an ultimatium: surrender or perish. And it's this version that's been the basis for the character ever since: a broken man defined by tragedy whose determined to conquer a world that hates and fears him so the tragedies of his past NEVER happen again. Never again.

It's this conversation that especially highlights that: Magneto asks WHY fight for people who hate and fear you, when he can change the world by force. It's a question superheroes in general struggle with and many mock superhero media for: how much should they do. Should they take the choice away from a humanity that's often misused their choices? And the answer is... no. While you can see WHY Max wants to do this, why he wants so badly to force a better world on everyone, to force a better future because he sees humanity as simply INCAPABLE of anything but hate and self destruction.. it's not the way. Humanity.. is fucked a lot of the time. True. But there's good in us and simply asking someone to fix all of the problems we, especially our goverments, should be working hard to fix isn't fair.

And as Cylclops points out it's just.. not sustanible. Even with Magneto's dream of the x-men joining him and following in his footsteps... what happens if someone decides to overthrow them? or take this world from them? And more importantly.. is it REALLY worth giving up all freedom and self control for a better tomorrow? It's why superheroes fight.. and it's why the X-MEN fight. The world their in is fucked up with tons of racists, multiple genocides and currently a giant hive of bigoted jackasses trying to wipe every last mutant out. But what makes the x-men so special.. is they fight on anyways. Against everything humanity does, against all their bigotry.. they fight for a better tomorrow. Even in the Krakoa era where they basically bribed their way to a homeland.. many of them still dont' abandon humanity, try to work with them and try and help. They may deserve a home after everything humanity's done.. but they don't deserve to be abandoned because of bad actors and hateful dipshits. It's why the x-men fight for a world that hates and fears them: because even if the dream's never been fully achived.. it's a dream worth fighting for. A better world. A dream that's always worth fighting for.

Magneto makes a point though: While this debate is engaging... they have bigger issues to worry about. Anne warns Stryker.. but his ego once again flairs up. "They're a handful of children annie and i'm a servant of the world. What can they do to stop me?" As I said before fraudsters, grifters, conmen.. their dangerous sure.. but it's the people who TRULY belivie their doing the right thing while advocating to destroy an entire people that are the most dangerous.

Stryker begins his sermon advocating for genoicde, with many other evangelicals apparently getting antsy according to a handy newsmans exposition. Granted it's likely less because they disagree with him calling for genocide, they just want him to say the loud part quiet again.

It's during this sermon Stryker's plan activates. And if you've seen x-2, which largely adapts this storyline but changes Stryker from preacher to soldier, you've likely figured it out: use Xavier to commit full on genocide of the mutant race. It's stronger CLOSER to him, so Nightcrawler's able to help a boy close to it.. but it's very clear if they don't do something SOON their going to die and the rest of mutantkind after. Wolverine poitns out the issue: they CAN attack but it'll make them look bad. And just to prove rule of three can suck his dick, Magneto once again saves the day, swooping in to confront stryker.. and thus providing a diversion. And to make his point for once Magneto .. dosen't attack. He breaks the roof to get in and make a minty fresh entrance, but he repairs it as poitned out by a sentator. Stryker,, high on his own hype, has Charlie strike him down. We get a really nice moment as Magneto has a revelation about his foe: all this time charles.. was holding back. And he's now seen just how dangerous his old enemy would be if he wasn't. Some protestors try to mob magneto, but some police break it up before they can win a collective darwin award for beating up a guy who in his previous appearance LEVELED AN ENTIRE CITY and a nuclear sub.

While the X-Men try to figure out how the hell to get to Charles before he kills them all, Annie goes to the reverned.. only for her ears to be bleeding like the other mutatns. She too is one... and instead of saving her like she begs for...

It's the final sign that there is no good left in Stryker, that even those loyal to him, even someone who tried their best.. must die simply because he says so. Not god. HIM. He killed a woman who did nothing but serve him faithlly and was wholeheartedly on his side.. and who he casts aside instead of even TRYING to save. After all if he would slaughter his own child.. why would Anne be saved? What makes this death all the more chilling.. is that after all Anne's done, her horrifying hate crime at the start, her attempted murder of kitty, and god knows what else we didn't see on panel... there's no catharsis. no joy in her death. There's no peace to be had. Just the senseless waste of her life doing nightmarisht hings in Striker's name, and the horrifying sight of her snapped neck. A life wasted in the name of a man who claims to speak for god.. but as our title tells us God Loves. Man kills.

We then pivot to one of the most awesome things Cyclops has ever done. So with so many people on the cusp of death, Wolverine feels they have no choice: they have to play it his way.. which means he teleports in and puts an end to the man who gave him a better life: to prevent charles from becoming everything he hates, Logan has to become everything he's tried to grow past. Thankfully.. Cyclops had a way around that.

And just to underline it right after, when Wolverine points out how close it is... Cyke explains his logic: He knew.. and also knew if his timing was even the SLIGHTEST bit off Charles might sense one of them too early. As for why let Wolverine attack it was simple: Charles is usually a non combatant. He doesn't have the countless hours of training nor the field experince and thus Scott correctly figured a two pronged attack would catch him off guard. If one side failed the other would succeed.. and Scott was FULLY aware that if Wolverine had to do it, his mentor would be dead. So to recap Scott pulled off a massive amount of precision ricocheting, with a backup plan that could kill his surrogate dad, all betting that he could both hit it and with the knowledge that if this failed everyone would be dead... and pulled it off without a hitch and with the utmost confidence. Just.. remember this the next time you hear someone call cyclops boring. Unless it's the movie version.. or the 90s animated series.. or wolverine and the x-men.. okay maybe just the comics and evolution.

So the day's saved right? Well normally yes. The villains foiled, Stryker outright killed someone on live tv. But in another awesome moment.. Scott notes.. it's not over. Ther'es one last thing to do.

It's the hard truth: in most other superhero stories, The X-Men already won.. but here if they back down now Stryker's message continues and he just picks it up, possibly even tries genocide again. Even if he gets arrested for Anne's murder i'ts not going to stop his message or him from preaching it. And I love how every x-man falls behind scott with not the slightest hint of hestation. Their walking right into an angry mob, no intention to use their powers, simply because walking away would let a bad man triumph and hurt other mutants. Because walking away is the easy thing.. but it's not the right thing and it damn well isn't what an x-man does.

So our heroes walk in.. and make their stand.

It's one last moment in a trilogy of awesome for Scott: tearing the fuck out of Strykers rehtoric and getting down to the core of most prejudice; Stryker thinks their less than human, that they don't deserve to exist.. and like any human .. they do. Their here. Their real. And he can't accept it. He'd rather destroy them. And when Stryker tries to fall back on the fact Nightcrawler simply looks diffrent.. someone steps up.

Now this moment's great on it's own, Kitty defying his trying to unperson kurt and standing bravely, pointing out what makes Kurt so awesome: he had every reason to turn in on himself after all the shit life's thrown at him: a mother who abandoned him, a step brother he was forced to kill in self defense, an angry mob nearly staking him before Charles saved his life... yet instead.. he's a jovial jokester. He loves, he lives, and he's a gentle soul. He's one who fears turning into his enmies, one who tries to take the righteous path. And like Stryker.. he believes in god. Nightcrawler is every bit as relgious.. the simple diffrence.. is that he dosent use his faith as a thin justification to slaughter everything he hates. To cast out what's diffrent. He uses it as faith should be used: to help others, to enrich his life, and to be kind.

What makes this moment for me beyond that though... is it pays off a long character arc for Kitty. When Kitty first met kurt.. it wasn't exactly a great relationship. She ran in fear the first time she saw him and even after finding out , no this is a good guy, she was still nervous around him for some time, gravitating more to the more human passing Roro and Peter. And yet over time.. the two became friends. They bonded.. and she felt ashamed, realizing Kurt.. is just a bit marshmellow. A kind soul who only wanted to be her friend. And this is the payoff for that: her going from a scared kid jumping to her assumptions about a man hwo just looks kinda spooky.. to being BEST FRIENDS with the guy and willing to take a bullet for him. Thankfully.. that blam we heard.. wasn't stryker's gun

The ending of this story.. speaks to it's tone. While our heroes still beat stryker morally and with words, they still won the battle.. what ultimatley strikes him down.. is a regular police officer. A cop simply not wanting a child to die. A normal person doing the right thing. And a ray of hope that maybe just maybe our heroes words got through to some people.

Said ray... dosen't last long as Magneto makes a valid point back at the mansion... and for once.. Charles listens.

It's a moment of weakness.. Charles accepting that maybe his dream isn't enough.. and it' smost fitting that the one to snap him out of it.. is the first person he brought that dream to. His son. And he makes the point I did earlier: this fight can't be won by brute force. This can't be won by FORCING people to accept them.. it has to be won through hard work. It may get worse (And it will), the tims may be tough.. but it's a dream worth fighting for. A better world not paved in blood... but in hope and hard work for a better tommorow. Is it idealistic? Perhaps. Unrealistic? entirely. But it's a noble ream: of a world of accpetince, kindness and love.. and one Scott and the others aren't willing to throw away. And as long as they aren't, charles realizes he can't either.

Naturally Max's response is to call them all fools.. but it's his last few words that really leave an impact

It's a nice touch that Kitty, who magneto nearly killed last time they fought not realizing she was a child and whose near death drove him to realize how far he'd fallen, is the one to speak up. And it's telling for where Magneto's arc is going under claremont.. that he relents a little. He can't fight for a cause he dosen't belivie in.. but he WISHES he could. He's gone from hating the x-men.. to badly wanting to be one of them.. but knowing his heart just isn't in it. From just seconds ago calling them all fools.. to deep down hoping they win. Showing that even if he still thinks eventually they will fall and it'll be his turn.. that maybe just maybe.. he won't have to. That maybe there's a future where he can fight for a better tommorow instead of forcing it.

So we end with Xavier tearfully thanking his students, and Ororo congradulating Scott for what he ddid. he tells her it's what he woudl've done for any of them and at the end o fthe day... it's love that drives this. Love for each other.. and hope for a world ran by love and not hate. But we're not there yet. But maybe... maybe someday.

So if it wasn't obvious.. God Loves Man Kills is a masterpiece. And having to go over it painstakingly for this review.. I stand by waht I said. This is the best x-men story ever. A story that sums up everything the x-men stand for in a neat package, pits them up agains ta unique an dhorrifingly real threat, and says a LOT. All in 60 bneautifully drawn pages. I ddin't mention him much in this review but Brent Anderson's art in this comic is next level stuff. Gorgeous, evocative, and hitting all the right notes. IT's some of the best art in comics and fits well with one of the best stories in comics. If you haven't read this one, do so immediatly. Even if you don't normally read x-men... this is a heck of a good way to start. Thanks for reading.

Next Time: We see the start for one of the x-men's greatest as she... steals an avengers powers and punches iron man in the face. So a bit of a mixed bag all things considered.

[usafphantom2]

The only way to stop an SR 71 was never tried .

Recently, SR 71 pilot Steve Grzebiniak wrote, “Deceptive jamming, essentially defeated the SAM ( surface to air missile) capability to successfully intercept the SR 71 as the window to acquire track and launch was very limited.”

Jim Goodall, a well-known author of books about the SR-71, responded in messages to me. Then, SR 71 pilot David Peters responds to Jim about the subject of the SR 71 jammers and the probability of being shot down by the Russians.

Jim said, “As for the “Deceptive Jammer,” when searching for Habu’s to shoot down, the enemy has only about five (5) seconds to find, lock on, and fire its ‘boost glide’ SA-2. And they would have to be looking for it.

When one drives this 34-ton Black monster, remember that it flies through the heavens at over 3,200 feet per second, or 43 miles a minute.

With less than a half percent of the atmosphere at 85,000 feet, the SAM would have to hit the Blackbird, an impossible task as the control fins on the Soviet SA-2 are useless at 85k.

The only way to take down an SR-71 was to try to F.O.D. the aircraft by detonating it in front of the flight path in hopes of FODing the engine or shattering the cockpit windscreen.”

Lt. Col.David Peters responds, “As I have said many times, we only feared the SA10 nuclear. That’s because of exactly what you are talking about. A nuclear blast in front of us would likely prevent evasive action, unlike a 2 or 5, which we could theoretically get around. But suicide was never in the Russian mind, so we felt it was more than improbable. The other factor was they didn’t have very many, and they were mainly deployed around Moscow. It definitely factored into our emergency war order mission planning, as most of those were post-nuclear BDA around Moscow.”

I am grateful that these men took the time to respond to me. This confirms what I thought before that there was really nothing to fear while flying the SR 71 so close to Russia. I am still and always will be amazed at the talent of Kelly Johnson of the Skunk Works and his team that built the amazing SR 71.

~ Linda Sheffield with David Peters, Jim Goodall and Steve Grzebiniak

@Habubrats71 via X

[levisgeekstuff]

X-Cutioner's Song

In 1992 zette de 'X-Cutioners Song' crossover, geschreven door Scott Lobdell, Peter David en Fabian Nicieza, de wereld van de X-Mannen op zijn kop. Deze verhaallijn werd gelanceerd tijdens de hoogdagen van de X-Men populariteit én de comicshype van de jaren ‘90. En geloof mij, niets ademt die periode meer uit dan 'X-Cutioner's Song'. Een verhaallijn boordevol actie met passend artwork (je weet wel, uniformen van de X-Mannen bezaaid met riemen en zakjes en geen mens die weet wat er in zit 🙂) van toen nieuwe sterren als Andy Kubert, Greg Capullo, Brandon Peterson en Jae Lee. Sowieso de moeite waard om eens te herlezen. Is dat makkelijk te doen met de Nederlandse uitgeven? Je ziet het in deze leesgids 👉 

Cable

Het verhaal begint op een moment dat de verschillende X-Teams al best veel tegenslag te verwerken hadden gekregen in hun series. X-Factor was ingelijfd door de Amerikaanse overheid en Colossus had net zijn broer Mikhail verloren aan zelfmoord. Psylocke probeerde Cyclops en Jean Grey uit elkaar te drijven en Wolverine werd gedwongen zijn geliefde Mariko te doden nadat zij was vergiftigd. 

Daarnaast was er ook nog Cable, die de New Mutants had overgenomen en ze omgedoopt tot het para-militaire X-Force. Dat gebeurde helaas nadat de Nederlandse uitgaven van de New Mutants al gestopt waren. Wel aan te raden om te lezen voor je in de X-Cutioners Song duikt, is de eerste miniserie van Cable: ‘Blood and Metal’. Die verscheen als limited serie achterin de reeks X-Mannen vanaf nummer 130 tot 138. Naast fraai tekenwerk van John Romita Jr biedt dit verhaal ook inkijk in de band tussen Cable en slechterik Stryfe.

Marvel Superhelden

Alsof al die bovengenoemde ellende nog niet genoeg was, worden de X-Mannen in het eerste deel van ‘X-Cutioner’s Song’ plots aangevallen door de Four Horsemen van Apocalypse én wordt een aanslag gepleegd op Professor X door Cable 😱. Dit verhaal uit de Amerikaanse Uncanny X-Men 294 verscheen bij ons gewoon netjes in X-Mannen 134.

Na dit eerste deel had je als fan van Nederlandstalige comics misschien kunnen vrezen. De ‘X-Cutioner’s Song’ sneed namelijk door vier lopende Amerikaanse series,  Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, X-Men en X-Force, waarvan er slechts 2 vast werden uitgegeven door Juniorpress. Om het allemaal overzichtelijk te houden én om de deeltjes uit X-Force en X-Factor niet te moeten missen of inpassen in de andere series, werden gelukkig enkele nummers van ‘Marvel Superhelden’ ingeschakeld door JP.

Conflict

Zo stappen we voor deel 2 van het verhaal, dat begint vlak na de aanslag op Charles Xavier, dus over naar Superhelden 55. Daarin lees je de vertaling van X-Factor 84, wat mij betreft één van de meest onderschatte comics uit de 90’s. Peter David zet hier de verschillende methoden en eigenschappen van elk X-team vakkundig tegenover elkaar. Die verschillen tussen de teams en personages zijn doorheen de hele crossover een constante. Zo zien we ook hoe de X-Mannen alles behalve tevreden zijn met de gewelddadige weg die X-Force is ingeslagen en krijgen we ook een gesmaakte confrontatie tussen Wolverine, Cable en Bishop, die andere tijdreiziger uit de 90’s comics. 

Verrassend goed einde

Het verhaal gaat zo afwisselend verder tussen de serie X-Mannen en de Marvel Superhelden reeks en bouwt steeds verder op. Een veelvoorkomende klacht bij grote crossovers is dat het einde tekortschiet. Dat is hier gelukkig niet het geval. Ondanks wat je misschien van een 90’s comic zou verwachten, ligt de focus hier niet op een massale vechtpartij met tientallen personages maar op de dynamiek tussen Cable en Stryfe. Mooi om te zien hoe de makers een omvangrijk conflict weten terug te brengen tot een intens persoonlijk gevecht. Maar er is natuurlijk nog meer wat de finale van dit verhaal legendarisch maakt. Denk maar aan het Legacy virus dat hier voor het eerst opduikt en nog vele jaren grote gevolgen zou hebben voor de X-Mannen en aanverwante series.

Epiloog

Na het hoofdverhaal volgde in Uncanny X-Men nog een epiloog met ‘Song’s End’. Een verhaal dat ook bij ons verscheen, in X-Mannen 137. In dit ontroerende verhaal zien we hoe Professor X tijdelijk weer kan lopen en op sleeptouw wordt genomen door Jubilee. Een hoogtepunt uit de geschiedenis van de X-Men vind ik zelf!

Checklist

Cable: Blood and Metal: X-Mannen 130 - 138 (limited serie achterin) X-Cutioner’s Song: X-Mannen 134 Marvel Superhelden 55 X-Mannen 135 Marvel Superhelden 56 X-Mannen 136 Marvel Superhelden 57

Epiloog: X-Mannen 137

Wil je het nog makkelijker? In Marvel Superhelden Omnibus 10 vind je het grootste deel van het verhaal ook terug. 😉