The X Marathon

49. Uncanny X-men 139

Aug 19th, 2023

Thoughts

One thing about reading this in Omnibus format is that it sticks this issue after Annual 4. Now this is really the only place that the annual fits in terms of continuity but it does really lessen the impact of this issue being her debut.

It’s a fantastic start for Kitty Pryde/Ariel/Sprite. Once again Claremont brings his A-Game when it comes to downtime. It’s when the X-men relax after a Danger Room session, or when Kitty and Storm check out a dance studio that the characters seem to come alive. And more importantly, make you want to follow them all the more.

There also four more debuts (of sorts). Firstly the Angel returns to the team. He’s added to the faces on the front cover too, alongside Kitty, making it feel like its long-term. I’d forgotten he gets another stint in the team at this, which probably reflects on the fact that they didn’t really find much to do with him as a character.

Secondly Wolverine gets a new costume, a visually far more striking brown and yellow number. It works instantly and pretty much remains his look for the rest of the Claremont Run.

Thirdly, and rather fantastically, there’s the debut of Nightcrawler/Wolverine working as a duo. Their friendship is one of my favourite aspects of this run and its great to see it really start here. I mentioned in the previous blog that Nightcrawler hasn’t really come into his own so far in the title. But set against Wolverine he gets the chance to really define his character. (His internal monoligue in the face of Kitty’s unease around him is another great piece of character work from Claremont)

Fourthly there’s Heather Hudson, the wife of Alpha Flight’s James Hudson aka Vindicator. As a characgter she really comes into her own in Byrne’s Alpha Flight run – but its a neat little introduction. In just a few panels – we’ve got such a strong handle on the character.

Finally there’s Stevie Hunter. Kitty’s dance teacher. As with Heather, Claremont is building a strong stable of female supporting characters on the title. There’s instantly well-drawn, and already feels like this should probably be reflected on the actual team itself. Which is maybe why bringing Angel back didn’t work so well. It’s not the sort of characgter or direction Claremont wanted to take the title.

Fun Panel

You and your best friend should always aspire to Wolverine and Nightcrawler levels of cool.

Any Googling

The issue refeneces Hulk 180/181. Aka Wolverine’s debut. Aka some of the most expensive comics an X-fan might wish to buy.

It also surprisingly referenced Hulk 162, which I’d not really heard of. A quick search revealed was the first appearance of Wendigo and his rather grisly origin.

But also it mentions that half of Alpha Flight are off in Machine Man 19 having Steve Ditko drawn adventures. Marvel Unlimited suggests that this, in fact, is Machine Man 18. The cover of which features a surprisingly blond Northstar and Auroroa.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

“Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

You meant so much to me

Hast though heard my Song, Jean Grey?

I shed a tear for thee”
48. Uncanny X-men Annual 4

Aug 18th, 2023

Thoughts

One thing I’ve spotted with this re-read is that I’m surprised how little Nightcrawler there is. He’s one of my favourite X-men but he’s really only a background player. Other members of the team have developed their own stories, and had their own cool moments. Wolverine as the break-out star has already had his Japanese angle, as well as some pretty striking panels. Storm has had her (admittedly convoluted) backstory explored. Colossus had his angst at not assisting the team, resolved with some striking heroic moments. Even Banshee had his storyline, even if it did end with him leaving the team.

But apart from being there, looking cool (because Nightcrawler most definitely looks cool, and I’ll brook no argument on this score) and bizarrely dropping random German words into his English sentences – he’s not really done much or been important to anything that happens.

So at last, finally, we get a story about him. And its an Annual too. And its.. Durchschnitt.

The story sees the X-men teamed up with Doctor Strange journeying into Dante’s Hell because someone has stolen Nightcrawlers soul. As a journey it fits the format of a Marvel Annual with its slightly pretentious chapter headings. But beyond the slight mystery that this might not be what it seems to be there’s very little peril.

When the issue finally focuses on Nightcrawler (I mean, its his story and he didn’t even get an appearance on the cover!) its pretty much all exposition and backstory. We learn of Nightcrawler’s past, which again does not seem to take place in any recognisable sixties or seventies Germany but in deepest, darkest nineteenths century Ruritania.

Nightcrawler persuades his tormentor that he’s actually a good guy and everything goes back to normal Except that we learn that Nightcrawler’s girlfriend is actually his adopted sister. And he’s overjoyed. It’s all very weird.

It’s still a very readable issue. The art is solid, although it does seem mostly to be quite a pedestrian vision of Hell. It’s nice to see Nightcrawler get some focus, but as a huge fan of us he deserves better.

Fun Panel

A nicely little chilling moment when Nightcrawler’s soul is taken.

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

Nightcrawler’s habit of uttering random German words in the middle of English paragraphs really is a curio. I guess its to regularly remind readers he is German. Which is, at least, preferable than Marvel’s usual ragbag of stereotypes in this era. We’re spared big moustache Nightcrawler in lederhosen at least.

But it really doesn’t make sense. Speakers of foreign languages don’t do this, although its a stereotype much loved in Hollywood. Kurt Wagner speaks fluent English. Why drop in random German words?

This does raise the question – how does Nightcrawler speak English? Of course by the sixties and seventies, the younger generation of West Germans were gaining a great proficiency in English. But Nightcrawler seems to come from rural Germany circa 1800 where English speaking would have been rare.

So perhaps an explanation can be the fact that Xavier taught him to speak English telepathically. This is hinted at when he assembles the international team. And maybe, he’s just not quite perfected the process. So occasionally, like a faulty Google translate page, the odd incongruity slips through.

Lets go with that!

Any Googling

There’s an interesting aside in this issue that got me googling. Wolverine’s words suggest that Claremont had already, in his mind, had Logan as a WWII veteran.

Now we’re at the beginning of the early eighties here. So the battle being referred to is around forty years earlier. The numbers aren’t completely unworkable for Wolverine to be a veteran without a supernatural/superheroic explanation – in theory Wolverine could be very healthy man in his late fifties. But I think this works best as Claremont’s first hint that Wolverine is much, much older than he looks.

None More Claremont
47. Uncanny X-men 138

Aug 17th, 2023

Thoughts

The cover to this issue does not lie. Cyclops leaves the X-men, in a story that is part his grief and part a potted history of the team.

One aspect of geekery that has been transformed beyond all recognition since the eighties is the availability of the stuff we nerd about.

Nowadays, if you want the full back catalogue of the X-men. You can get it on your phone or on deluxe hardback volumes (or even less deluxe trade paperbacks) If you’re into something – be it a comic, a film or a TV show there’s immediate access.

But I’m old enough to remember a time when being into something was as much a matter of what you didn’t have. You were a massive fan of a film, because you saw it in the cinema one time – but your fandom had to do without seeing the film all the time. Fan of a TV show? Better not be out when it’s broadcast. (I missed Peter Davison’s final ever episode because promises were made about a friend’s birthday party that were not kept and no I AM NOT STILL BITTER ABOUT IT)

ahem

When this comic was published, you could be one of the growing army of X-men fans but the chances of actually *reading* all the issues were virtually zero. So buying this comic would have scratched an itch that must seem weird to young readers.

You get all the history of the X-men. You get all the facts about the story. It’s like buying a Doctor Who target book novelising a story you can’t see – or a Star Wars figure for a film you caught once in the cinema.

In its own nerdy encyclopaedic way, this is a thrilling issue. Scott’s narration of the past allows Claremont to get us to the emotional trigger of Scott’s departure.

And then the final page and the arrival of Kitty Pryde is just perfect. A glorious grin in panel form.

Fun Panel

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

Any Googling

Its a shame that, while we get reprints of the Letters page, we don’t always get reprints of the adverts. Especially in relation to this issue. A poignant, tragic elegy of a comic, written about memory and grief. AND A PRIZE!

OK. So I don’t really want the adverts recreated in the issue. (although, maybe stick a few in the back with the Appendices, eh Marvel?) It would break up the flow. But having always seen this advert screaming at the top of the issue I resolved to finally find out what the competition was.

How underwhelming. No quiz, no challenge. Just send us your contact details so we can shower you with junk mail. And its not even available to anyone outside the US. Nor in the year 2023. And especially since there are no more Toys R Us branches. WHAT A SWIZZ!

It was a Product of its Time

I blogged recently that it’s the cameos of contemporary real life celebrities that most dates these comics. I was wrong. It’s when they actually just put the date in.
46. Uncanny X-men 137

Aug 16th, 2023

Thoughts

I’ve mentioned before that a couple of these Claremont/Byrne multi-part stories seem incredibly cinematic. Ironically this issue, heralding the end of the Dark Phoenix storyline, feels far more like a season finale.

From the cover, to the opening narration, the issue sets up that you’re going to read a conclusion here. And as with a finale, not knowing the Epic Fate that you’ve been told is coming is the driving force of the issue.

Plot-wise, there’s a huge amount of spinning wheels. The X-men have been transported to Outer Space where a united front of Cosmic Forces have gathered to deal with the Phoenix. We’ve got this far by the fourth page, and what follows is an exercise is setting up a slugfest to fill-up the pages.

Thanks to an incredibly convenient Shi-Ar law, Xavier declares that before Phoenix can be condemned by the Galactic Court, they have a right to basically do a bit of fighting.

This sets up a couple of sections that play to Claremont’s strengths as a writer. Firstly all the X-men have one night before the big Nonsensical Justice Fight, and this downtime is used to give us a moment with each of the characters.

Then we get to a Absurd Trial By Slugfest, and Claremont has fun pitching the characters together.

Both sections are pretty good, although not the best examples of Claremont’s character-building downtime nor inventive comic-book combat. But the excitement is sustained by that finale feeling – that everything is heading for a Big Ending.

When it comes, it doesn’t disappoint. Over many issues we’ve known something big is coming, and so when it does it feels even more Epic. And it works for the character, too.

Fun Panel

Another nice dynamic team panel – with Phoenix centre-stage.

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

“Arin’nn Haelar” is honestly just gibberish. So, under Shi-Ar Law, facing a trial a character can demand a duel of honour. And even though the stakes are such that the Universe is at stake, it is granted. This is pure contrived Pulp Sci-Fi – where the civilisations in Space are full of the arcane rituals that fifty years earlier would have been the domain of Pulp Adventures in Johnny-Foreigner Land.

None More Claremont

The ending of this issue is insanely verbose. Not only do we have the Watcher insisting on telling us what a huge event we’ve just witnessed was, in dialogue straight out of a portentous fifties Sci-fi film where stentorian voices expound absurdly trite philsophy. But even Phoenix’s death is undercut by having Cyclops patiently explain to the reader how this suicide has clearly been planned all along.

Also, and this is possibly an illustration of how the Claremont/Byrne partnership was maybe starting to fray – the key moment that brings back Phoenix happens off-panel. We’re told about it, with more words. Seeing Cyclops overpowered is – according to the text – the trigger. According to just the visuals it just happens – the inevitable final stage of this conflict.

It was a Product of its Time

The ending of this issue was down to an editorial decree – Phoenix had killed billions. She could not be allowed to get away with that. She had to die. The Omnibus volume reprints the original ending, where Phoenix simply has her mind wiped to erase the connection with the universal power, and a seemingly-permanently comatose Jean Grey is taken back to Earth by her friends.

It’s an odd issue – you can spot the moment of the change, where the same panels gets different speech bubbles to massively different effect. And the sequence feels much less like a season finale, merely just another issue. OK, Phoenix is going to be gone for a bit, but the capacity to bring her back whenever the writers might fancy to is all too obvious.

The editorial line that cost Jean her life is an interesting moment where the editorial line is more about the Comics Code than pure profit, or even keeping a popular character around. Some distance further down the line with this blog we’ll see this go very much the other way.
45. Uncanny X-men 136

Aug 15th, 2023

Thoughts

The fact that Comic Book History is now so full of retcons and resurrections can make reading old comics slightly weird. You end up reading a story which has been undone, or recontextualised maybe even more than once. When you go back do you try and read it with all that future knowledge? Or engage with it as what it was at the time of publication.

There is no single retcon that poses that question quite as hard as the final of the Dark Phoenix storyline. Reading the issue its the tale of Jean’s attempt to recover control her Dark Phoenix persona, a personal story about a character with a long backstory in comics.

Later on, *all* that gets junked. This isn’t Jean, so the latter retcon tells us. It hasn’t been Jean for a while.

And bluntly, re-reading this issue that retcon still stinks.

It stinks because it blunts this story in the fundamental way it is interesting. I mentioned the absence of an internal monologue for Dark Phoenix as she rampages through the cosmos, but in this issue its back. And it tells us the story of a human terrified by their powers and what it will become. Her ability to maybe stand a chance to stop this transformation are the focus of this issue – her family, her friends, her lover. It’s those personal ties that are at the heart of saving her.

And none of that really works if you buy the later retcon that this isn’t really Jean. Claremont is at his most melodramatic and sentimental in this issue, but if you don’t keep an actual human drama at the core of the story, all of that heavy emotion just becomes silly.

So on the re-reading of this story, and I think with this blog, I will try and stick with the story we’re being told as my key reference point. So when judging this, I’m judging this as a story about Jean. Because, for the reasons I’ve given, it works as that story. If I were to try and judge it with the knowledge of how Marvel retcon this story, its a strangely empty experience.

Fun Panel

Sometimes you’ll never top the first page.

It was a Product of its Time

Nothing dates comics more than appearances from “real world” figures at the time of release. Rooting the comic in the contemporary at the time, but also very quickly making it seem from another time.

Political figures are especially strange because alongside the cameos of “real life” politicians, comics will also create fake Presidents/Prime Ministers/Senators for the purposes of stories. Creating a list of political leaders of Marvel nations would, I think, create a convoluted contradictory mess.
44. Uncanny X-men 135

Aug 14th, 2023

Thoughts

This is another issue that exists to raise the stakes, but its one that takes a very different tack. It focuses almost entirely on the threat. Dark Phoenix has been born and this issue is all about illustrating what a hideous and terrifying prospect that is.

In doing so, its something of a bloodbath. The D’Bari supernova causes the death of 5 billion, instantly murdered by a Dark Phoenix we’re explicitly told does not care. Then a Shi-Ar spaceship is obliterated and then we’re told this peril is heading back to Earth.

I think its a shame that Claremont doesn’t maintain our insight into Jean’s mind with her internal monologue. The scale of destruction and corruption is so alien that having an insight into what a human who has become God could be some great writing. That said, I can understand why it is done instead using narration – getting inside the mind of an star-destroying entity isn’t going to be easy.

But I think these three panels show how narration allows the text to be incredibly clear about the scale of what is happening is huge. Claremont indulges in hyperbolic prose on the Cosmic scale but this time Byrne’s art can keep up. There is no doubt at the end of this issue that there has been a terrible disaster and – cue cliffhanger music – its not over yet.

Fun Panel

In an issue steeped in death and destruction, it’s surprising not an issue of supernova and planets crumbling that best capture things. But rather this gem.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

As an aside though, it’s a bit of a shame that the reprinted letters pages in this second omnibus are all so beautifully clear. I miss the fading classic comics yellowing of these pages in the first omnibus. Maybe Marvel can bring this page. And sell omnibus editions with tiny bottles of mildewing paper aroma for the full back issue experience.
43. Uncanny X-men 134

Aug 13th, 2023

Thoughts

The last few issues saw the Hellfire Club give the X-men a royally good kicking, so it’s enjoyable here that this issue sees the X-men turn the tables on the villains . The team have clearly learnt from their defeat, and now, with a better knowledge of what their opponents can do, they bring them down.

Alongside this, though, is Phoenix’s escape from Mastermind’s control. Her revenge on him is a well-drawn sequence that feels both like justice but also ominous. Then the fact the X-men seem to have won keeps getting undercut by Phoenix’s internal monologue. Something is still up. Giving Phoenix her own voice, aware of the doom she’s facing – rather than just limiting it to those around her realising something is wrong – works really well in conveying the tragedy.

Fun Panel

Make your bloody mind up Nightcrawler!

None More Claremont

Claremont’s back in epic language mode, and Byrne is more than up to the task.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

Chris Claremont is on hand to answers readers’ questions this issue, and he makes a comment that provides an interesting insight into what co-plotting with Byrne might mean. Asked to show off different X-men in future battles, Claremont accepts that several characters didn’t get “equal play in the climactic battle” he points out that this is due to reasons of space but also “because of the way the visual structure evolved in John’s head as he pencilled the story”. Of course, its not a detailed breakdown of who did what, but as someone whose enjoying the fights in these issues its probably fair to say that I’m admiring Byrne’s creativity in these, not just Claremont’s.
42. Uncanny X-men 133

Aug 12th, 2023

Thoughts

You can tell from reading the letters page that, of all the new X-men, Wolverine has built up quite a fan base by 1980. Elements of his character seem to have really struck a chord – whether its his recklessness, his dislike of being told what to do or his outsider nature (or a combination of all three).

The Eighties was to see the character continually grow in popularity, becoming one of Marvel’s big hitters. And I don’t think any of that was guaranteed. I think it follows on directly from the clever way the character was written and presented over the decade. Claremont knew what made the character work, and just kept building on it.

Those three concepts mentioned in the first paragraphs were, let’s be honest, always going to find an audience with those teenage at heart who resent being told what to do, feel they don’t quite fit in and feel the urge to sometimes go a bit wild. But in the next few years, Claremont builds on those, adding elements that just make what seems cool about him even cooler. (awesome friend to have, steeped in Japanese warrior culture)

This issue feels like part of all that. Wolverine the cinematic adventure hero, sneaking into a building to rescue his friends. Taking out villains when required, moving gracefully in the shadows at others. And all against incredible odds and seemingly unstoppable.

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

Remember that lovely moment last issue when Cyclops and Phoenix were alone on that rock in the desert together? Yes indeed.

And the moment where Phoenix used her powers to hold back Cyclops’ blasts and allow them to be together without him having to wear his glasses? What a beautiful moment, of course I remember.

And then that bit where Phoenix proposed they create an eternal psychic bond based on total intimacy and total trust? Ye… hey! hang on!
41. Uncanny X-men 132

Aug 11th, 2023

Thoughts

The X-men go on the offensive against the Hellfire Club, and walk straight into a trap.

As ever Claremont scripts inventive fights – and in this case not only does he have another team of supervillains and their powers to play with – in this case Shaw, Leland and Pierce of the Hellfire Club – but he also gets to show the X-men getting absolutely walloped. The cover in this instance is no hyperbole, its basically the plot of the issue.

More crucially when it comes to the bigger Dark Phoenix story arc this is the moment where Jean Grey embraces her Black Queen alter ego and sides with the villains. It’s a fun twist in this issue, and Byrne gives the Black Queen a nice gallery of “evil faces” as she sides with the villains.

Does Jean Grey’s turn to the Dark Side make sense? This is a cruel and wicked Jean, clearly enjoying being a villain. The basis of this is not mind control, but something she has embraced, the end result of two key emotional drivers. The first is her increasingly coming to terms with the scale of her powers – this has been cleverly teased over a number of issues now. Jean “fixes” Kitty’s parents opposition to her joining the Xavier Academy, while telekinetically showing off her ability to transform her look. She’s enjoying this power.

This doesn’t amount to wickedness, though. The other key driver on that score is her passionate desire for Wyngarde. From the outset, their timeslip encounters have been about as clearly a sexual relationship that the Comics Code could allow. Jean is indulging a fantasy life, free from the rules of society, where she can indulge her power and sexual desire free from the confines of morality.

This raises a question as to whether there’s been anything in the portrayal of Jean in the comics thus far that would indicate that she would have such a secret fantasy. And on a storytelling level I think its fair to say that there hasn’t been. There’s not been a single hint that I can see in the earlier issues – Jean’s a pretty two-dimensional well-behaved token female on the team for far too many issues.

But I don’t think this is a fatal flaw. Its not a huge leap to suggest that just because we never saw anything that remotely hinted at it when following her adventures as the token female on a team of boy scouts that it wasn’t there. Indeed, I think you can make the narrative justification that, of course, she wouldn’t reveal that side of herself. Socially it just wasn’t acceptable.

The sequence where Wyngarde points out that he had been all the friendly strangers Jean encountered while travelling after believing Scott to be dead suddenly makes a lot more sense. From the friendly vicars, to the young lovers – its credible that he would have learnt more about her than she had revealed to her friends (or on-panel in their adventures) and discovered that she had exactly this fantasy around power and corruption.

So, on balance, I do buy the embrace of the wicked side. And it makes for quite a cliffhanger.

Fun Panel

The defeat of the X-men in this issue does have a final caveat. A thrilling final panel.

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

The revelation that Wyngarde has been Mastermind all along is an odd moment. Why does he suddenly show his true face when he never has had before? I guess its a spot of super villain gloating, but there’s something about the fact that we’ve seen Wyngarde as Wyngarde many times now, removed from the context of affecting Jean’s fantasies. His whole appearance seems to be a permanent illusion he’s sustaining even when there are no minds to warp into seeing him in his handsome form. Unless, of course, he’s also warping the minds of the Reader. Uh-oh.

We’re also told this issue that the White Queen committed suicide after her confrontation with Phoenix in the last issue. Rather than what was implied at the time that Phoenix killed her, or at least she died in the fight when things got out of hand. I’m guessing they decided a Phoenix murder at this stage wouldn’t quite work with the trajectory they wanted the story to take, so changed her demise in the recap. There’s another in-story explanation though – Phoenix has lied to Cyclops, given what its eventually revealed did happen. But that’s another story…

None More Claremont

Being owned “body and soul” is going to become something of a Claremont staple, and this is its first really big outing. Jean Grey is owned by Mastermind “body and soul” and dresses in an iconically BDSM outfit. This is something that Claremont comes back to time and again – taking the overt use of sexual imagery in comics, especially women – and taking it to tell stories where the sexual is an intrinsic component.

I think there is definitely something hit and miss about the execution, or that it isn’t always quite as progressive as Claremont hoped, but its definitely an integral feature of his era.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

Another insight into plans that never materialised in this months letters page. Brian M Kane from 142 Altman Rd, Jeannette suggests that the X-men go to Russia. Claremont replies that the X-men will be going there soon. Maybe next fall.

Was this still a Claremont/Byrne planned storyline? Did they intend to explore Colossus’ apparently dead brother? Would be interesting to find out why this never happened.
40. Uncanny X-men 131

Aug 10th, 2023

Thoughts

The tale of three introductions – Kitty Pryde, Dazzler and the White Queen comes to a conclusion, with it never quite being clear what the Hellfire Club were actually up to.

But whatever the vague plan was it’s thwarted when Phoenix turns up her powers and seemingly kills the White Queen. The implication here is that she’s dead, primarily to stress how dangerous Phoenix has become. But a hot evil woman in a BDSM outfit is not going to stay dead for long in a Claremont comic.

Dazzler decides she doesn’t want to join the X-men after suffering an attack of “Corporate Marvel Still Not Having Any Idea What To Do With The Character”

So it’s only Kitty Pryde who has an ending that sets up her joining the team. But even that isn’t going to happen quite yet.

Fun Panel

Another nice cinematic team picture with a What If line-up of X-men going forward.

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

It’s hard to make sense of what the Hellfire Club were up to. Still their plans are only just getting started…

Any Googling

Doing some cursory research to see if Emma Frost appeared in any comics before her return in X-men I discovered her own (much later) comic series and it’s own very weird photoshop-style art covers that give off a strong self-published vibe.