The X Marathon

Thoughts

We’re cast headlong into a Space Epic with this issue. So much so that the opening panels can be quite jarring. I remember when I was reading these titles as back issues initially thinking that I must have missed a comic bridging the gap between the Xavier flashback story and where this story begins.

All becomes clear as you read the issue though. An issue that very much puts the spotlight on Wolverine. It’s a showpiece for everything that has made the character the breakout star of the new X-men by this point. He kicks arse, he’s wild yet thoughtful and he’s a loner who now cares deeply about his friends.

As we journey an Alien landscape with Logan, the gap from the ending of the last issue gets told via flashback. And it’s a genuinely unsettling sequence where the Brood have bewitched the X-men into thinking everything is fine. All while something horrible has been prepared for them.

I’ve joked before about how the Xenomorph of the Alien franchise has clearly fathered (Queen smothered?) a couple of antagonists in the Claremont run so far. But this a new level of darkness.

Truth by told, while I think Aliens is an incredible film, the final Act of the film does the Alien dirty. Whereas before this point, the Xenomorphs have been something mysterious and unstoppable. A deadly danger of unknown origin, a near-unstoppable horro lurking in the depths of space. And then, near the end of Aliens, they just become Bugs. Nasty Bugs. But still just Bugs.

It’s a decision that I think scuppers the sequels. We know they are just poweful bugs now, the horror is comprehendable and their defeat viable. There’s no scope to play with the idea that we still don’t know what they are capable of. How sentient they are. What new ways to kill they might have.

And this sequence gives a possible clue. Howabout the Aliens can give off a chemical that lulls humans into a false sense of security. That you can no longer trust your senses. All to allow them to implant into you. That would be horrifying.

So having gone from ripping off the Xenomorph, Claremont now potentially shows where the creatures could go from here into a new direction. Which is paying back a creative debt with interest.

Fun Panel

Near the end of his tenure – Cockrum gets some excellent full-page fun.

None More Claremont

Claremont’s back in Clive-Barker-Lite territory, with Fang’s fate. A complete total absorbing, including memories, powers and “genetic potential”. Surprised the soul didn’t get mentioned.

Suitably nasty though, and this is the fate awaiting our X-men.

Thoughts

The recent run of diverse single issue stories comes to an end with this flashback issue. A flashback that serves to finish Claremont’s radical reinventon of Magneto. After this issue the once-two-dimensional ranting cartoon bad guy will never be the same again.

After reinvention, Magneto has become “Magnus”. A holocaust survivor who lost his entire family. A tragedy that has radicalised him into violence and mutant supremacy.

It’s all wrapped up in a tale of Nazis, survivors guilt, trauma and stolen gold. Claremont balances the need for an adventure with developing the new backstory for Magnus and adding more to Xavier. Nazis get punched and buried in collapsing caves, which is all good fun – alongside the completely realigned Xavier/Magneto dynamic. At the end of this issue, you can’t help but look forward to the next time these two characters will meet in the present day, because it simply cannot now be a retread of anything that went before.

At the end of the issue, there’s a cliffhanger that’s going to take us back into space for a multi-issue storyline. Although I’m excited by the prospect of more Space Saga action, it is a shame to move on from a run of single issue stories that has been genuinely an exciting and varied experience.

Fun Panel

None More Claremont

It feels both brave and foolish that Claremont goes all the way to unambiguously bringing up Auschwitz in a super hero comic. Issue 150 dropped it in a single speech bubble, but here it is presented clearly and unambiguously as part of the story. It marks a genuine shift in what the comic is willing to do. It is now going to play with serious concepts and ideas in a way that seems a world away from the assault on Count Nefaria way back in his furst few issues.

I think its a fair comment on Claremont that the shift to incorporate genuine real life evil in the comic does not always work. It’s hard to find a balance between the demands of a comic book super hero adventure, and exploring the genuine darkest actions of humanity. But its indicative of a new level of ambition on the title. And that’s something I am a huge fan of.

It was a Product of its Time

Eewwwwww!

Xavier embarking on a relationship with his patient when he knows how vulnerable she is really feels dodgy. And curiously ironic in an issue where Xavier has been arguing against Magneto on the need for freedom and to not determine whats best for others you deem weaker.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

The Elfquest references in Kitty’s Fairytale inspire a response from its creators. Which is nice. Also since writing the blog on that episode I discovered that the couple who wrote Elvenquest met when one wrote to the other after seeing their letter in a publication, including the full address. I wonder if this happened often back then? Whether getting a letter published meant you’d get unsolicited mail. Some of which wouldn’t be dreadful.

Thoughts

If there’s a defining trait to this era of Claremont’s era is that, while it retains the scope of the Claremont/Byrne run – even arguably widening it – it also has incredibly tonal, stylistic and even genre jumps in the type of story it tells from issue to issue.

Last issue ended with space opera. This issue is espionage and US army base skullduggery. It’s an abrupt change, but one that works. A sort of pleasing tonal whiplash.

After seeing her own solo title cancelled, Claremont seems to be making Carol Danvers into a player on this team. She’s an important driver of this story, and Rogue’s appearance in the title seems to be to stress their rivalry. The implication seems to be that Rogue is a Ms Marvel antagonist, so shes now going to be semi-regular villain in the X-men.

Claremont doesn’t just set-up a Rogue/Danvers ongoing rivalry here – but also teases yet another sub-plot of an insanely super powered woman. Yet again a scientist is shocked by the potential in Danvers after investigating her potential. Dark Phoenix Mark 2 anyone?

It does raise the question as to whether it was after this issue – and particularly the set-up of Rogue as a recurring antagonist – that Claremont decided to not make Danvers a permanent character on the team but bring in Rogue instead. There doesn’t seem to be any groundwork laid for a sympathetic Rogue at all here. She’s delightfully cruel and awful.

Fun Panel

This is the first time i’ve owned this issue where you can actually make out the yellow Ms Marvel outline. On the old back issue i had it had faded away. Then the black and white epic collection just had a huge space there. It’s nice to finally get to see it!

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

I guess if you can absolutely shapeshift to look like anyone, you probaby stop trying too hard – but its pretty incredible that Mystique infiltrates US security using her actual name. And not some contrived alias to go with the disguise.

None More Claremont

A long-time Anglophile Claremont references the actual BBC current affairs show “Panorama” in this issue. It’s a nice touch that adds reality to an attempt to make things seem more serious.

Indeed this issue also marks something of a change in the way that mutants are being treated by the book. While before Mutants were feared, the villains that expressed their hostility to mutants were always Comic Book Villains, ranting and coming up with insane Super Villainy schemes to defeat Mutants. Schemes that inevitably invoice giant robot sci-fi sentinels to get smashed by the mutant heroes.

But Claremont is now changing the presentation of this. Mutants aren’t a menace to inspire frothing super villainy. They are phenemonon that is having a realistic societal impact. The scare is becoming one with roots in the way politics and society are hostile to change and to the other. There isn’t a super villains screaming mutant hate from his underground super villain lair. There’s a serious current affairs TV programme discussing the fact that the World is having to deal with the emergence of mutants.

All this is now such a defining feature of any X-franchise, its interesting to see when the comic started treating the mutant menace this way. Taking its cues not from the need to give a ranting villain an OTT motive, but from recognisable media, politics and societal attitudes. With this issue – subtley – Claremont is changing the whole X-universe.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

It’s been a while since we had a letter that out-and-out slagged off the very title its printed in. Steve Spzak of David Avenue in Hamilton is not a happy man at all. I wonder if he did stick around?

Thoughts

After last issue’s set-up plot infodump – the story really starts rtacing along at a cracking pace. The X-men get teleported into space. Some return on a mission. There’s a fight, nice character moments and the scale of the threat gets amped up.

Kitty and Nightcrawler get some nice moments together in space. And there’s a lovely moment where Kitty gets her first glipse of the cosmos. And not just any cosmos – Cockrum Cosmos!

Meanwhile back on Earth, the X-men have 24 hours to turn this case around and find the kidnapped Lilandra. Which means coming up against the second Xenomorph-style creature of the Claremont Run. Visually the similarity is there, but these Aliens feel much less threatening with their B-movie bad alien patter. But they do come across as a credible antagonist.

All these different storylines are deftly handled, and its a great issue. The only slight downer is the ending that pretends Colossus is dead. The exact same trick was pulled with the finals panels a few issues ago where Storm, trapped in the White Queen’s body, “kills” Kitty at the very end of an issue. It feels like a cheap and lazy cliffhanger. Maybe, at the time, readers with no knowledge of what happened next would have seen the cover and thought that it was just possible that this was the Russian’s final issue. But here its a bit of a damp squib at the end of the great issue.

Fun Panel

Cockrum designs great costumes – the type that can only really work in comics. But he also designs a great outfit in this issue for Storm to wear. Almost wish they’d use this as the basis for a brand new costume.

Any Googling

Deathbird turns up in this issue, and I initially assumed that this was her first appearance. Clearly Shi-Ar and up-to-no good, it fits to be a villain created for a plot about a kidnapped Lilandra.

Only the issue mentions her appearance in a relatively recent Avengers issue, which then mentions her as a Ms Marvel antagonist. Following this rabbithole, she first appears in that title in 1977 – not long after Lilandra’s first appearance – and is already clearly alien.

That’s also a Claremont title and its tempting to think that this was planned at the time. An avian villain exiled to Earth around the time Lilandra appears. If so, its fun to finally see it get a pay-off!

Thoughts

This issue feels like its doing two things. The first of which is be the opening chapter in another long story arc. Sci-Fi stuff is back, which means Cockrum is back drawing spaceships, aliens and all things cosmic. Something that is always welcome.

Corsair is back, chased by Aliens. And it’s revealed that he – and the Earth – is in trouble thanks to a terrorist attack on the Shi’Ar Grand Council. Lilandra has been kidnapped, and the Starjammers have been blamed. All this information is dumped at the very end of the issue, as if setting up this plot is practically an after thought.

The other purpose of this issue seems to be setting up a radical reinvention of the status quo. The X-men temporarily relocate to the Atlantean Cthuloid Island in the Carribean while coincedentally the X-mansion gets destroyed. All of which feels like a permanent change for the team. In time, this isn’t the case at all but I wonder if the idea was entertained at the time. X-men relocated to a safe island? It’ll never catch on.

Outside of these developments, there’s not much to the issue beyond some solid action sequences, as Corsair is chased by a giant gestalt alien creation. There’s something oddly silly about the presentation of the Sidrian hunters, but at the same time they’re inventive. Simple spindly blocks, that form a similar basic, undetailed spaceship I can see why they never really come back – but its a shame. Even though the alien villains do become more conventional, more detailed – better fitting the universe.

Fun Panel

Dynamic Sidrian mayhem.

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

Back in Issue 114, we saw Cyclops realise Corsair must be his father by seeing himself reflected in a puddle while shaving (yeah – me neither)

This development seems to be completely forgotten here where Cyclops is angry and confused as to how Corsair could possibly have a photo of his mother and sons.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

Whatever happened to Ryan Scott of 1010 Greenwood Avenue? I hope he one day found his own Kitty.