Thoughts

The mythology of the X-universe takes another leap this issue as we are introduced to the Morlocks (the name Ugloids teased last issue never ends up being used). A whole peoples hidden below New York – mutants that due to their looks and powers are completely ostracised.

So far most of the mutants we’ve seen have been the cool kids with super powers. Students that can hide in human society thanks to their looks. Only Nightcrawler doesn’t fit that bill, but his demonic look marks him out as both quite stylish and pretty cool. Plus when required he can bust out an image inducer.

Set against these heroes the Morlocks present a true underclass. They are drawn as freaks, reminiscent of the homeless. As outcasts, their emnity has been directed towards the “pretty” mutants and Angel in particular.

So this issue sees Angel return to the title. Last time he was on the title he didn’t really get anything to do. He celebrates his return then by still getting absolutely nothing to do. Meanwhile, we are informed in this issue that Wolverine is away, off on a solo adventure in his own spin-off mini series. Without wishing to sound like a rose-tinted nostalgic its fascinating that this is an era where a spin-off featuring a title’s most popular character means that this character isn’t featured in the main book anymore.

In his absence, though, this is a great issue for a trio of the new X-men. Colossus, Nightcrawler and Storm make a fascinating small team and there really isn’t enough of them here. Paul Smith is especially great at stressing how visually distinct they are as a trio, while also capturing what makes each individual character design awesome.

Still, this is another of those first chapters that sets up the story by having the X-men seemingly defeated. The moments where the X-men go down fighting feel suitably grave and serious. This, alongside a seriously ill Kitty, makes for a great cliffhanger.

Fun Panel

I only noticed when I started this issue that the gallery of faces have returned to the top left of the front cover. In recent issues, this had been replaced by a dynamic team shot by (I think) Cockrum. It’s insanely busy but it works quite well. That said, it does rather set the team line-up in stone. If one of that exciting group where to be replaced by someone else, you’d need to get a whole new dynamic shot done. Or employ some suitably Stalinist phototampering skills to replace the Nikolai Yezhov of the team

I wonder if any keen readers at the time spotted the change and predicted that the new headshot logo would make it easier to alter the line-up on the title. Because big changes are coming!

Any Googling

This issues marks the debut of one of the X-universe’s more interesting minor characters. The Morlock leader Callisto.

Now, as a Sci-Fi nerd I understood the reference to The Time Machine in the name of the mutated underground tunnel dwellers. But why Callisto?

I knew it was a name from Myth. And also a moon of Jupiter. But does this name mean anything related to her role in the title?

Googling meant it was hard to tell. Callisto in Greek mythology was a Nymph who is raped by Zeus and becomes pregnant. This angers a female god – who exactly it is is inconsistent across the various tellings of the myth – who turns Calliso into a bear. A bear that ends up having a child and then – through various different explanations – the two of them become the constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

It’s hard to see much of this Callisto in there – although several of the myths do mention that as a nymph she flees into the wilderness to live with the wild beasts. This feels like a stretch and there’s possibly an obvious cultural reference I’m missing here. I may have to come back to this.

One side-note that clearly does not apply in this instance is that Callisto – as a famous nymph who hangs around with other nymphs and in some versions of the story is seduced by Zeus disguised as another nymph – was a popular subject for renaissance painting. But one of the reasons for this is that scenes from her story could be used as a pretext to paint groups of busty, naked women, teasing a hint of lesbian erotica. This doesn’t seem Claremont’s style, even if that suggest an obvious revamp in the nineties that was thankfully avoided.

None More Claremont

Claremont is upping the sexy quotient quite a bit in the title right now. And Paul Smith is along for the ride!

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

During the Claremont/Byrne run, the letters page teased the fact that a Colossus returns to Russia story was just around the corner. It never turned up. And now they promise another one coming soon. Claremont never really got round to telling his Colossus/Russia story. Nor developing the dangling plot line of a dead Cosmonaut brother. I wonder what he had planned?