The X Marathon

19. Uncanny X-men 111

Jul 20th, 2023

Thoughts

After last issue’s fill-in nature – X-men now starts a run on that has justly gone down in Comic Book history. This is classic stuff, the benchmark to what a great team book can do.

Everything clicks into place with this issue. It’s just so well told – the hook of having the Beast return to a mystery and then trying to find the X-men lets the issue indulge itself in the fun of the X-men as circus performers, all exhibiting interesting new personalities.

Byrne’s art complements Claremont’s writing perfectly, although he’s still being credited as the “penciler”. That’s a title that soon gets an upgrade and given how well the two seem to work together already if his input was already greater than the title “penciler” suggests.

The issue cracks along at a great pace, before reaching a great cliff-hanger. It’s an issue that must have impressed so much back in 1978, but is still astonishingly readable today.

Fun Panel

Circus Jean and Scott are a fun couple concept and there’s a trashy quality to this image that just captures it.

You know if they’d just been left alone, there’s a parallel universe where these two live a happy trashy life together.

Any Googling

The issue teases events in Marvel Team-Up 70, featuring Havok and Spider-man. Looking into it, it seems likely this is actually the story featured in Marvel Team-Up 69, but its all part of what looks like a Claremont/Byrne run on the title that leads to Byrne joining Claremont on the X-men. I’m surprised this isn’t more well-known and its definitely been put on my list of titles to investigate at a later date.

None More Claremont

“The Strain is murderous — the links and shackles forged of the hardest steel money can buy guaranteed unbreakable — yet Wolverine never yields –as images explode against the miasmic fog enshrouding his mind. The Fight has sparked a response deep within him. A Primal, elemental need that’s been at the core of Wolverine’s being all his life. A need to be Free!”

This is a great issue for sharp, snappy dialogue alongside Claremond possessing a great handle on the Beast’s style of internal monologuing. But even within all that, still room for some fantastic text boxes as Wolverine escape.

It was a Product of its Time

Wolverine slapping Phoenix to break her out the trance feels a bit much, although the story does a good job of justifying it
18. Uncanny X-men 110

Jul 19th, 2023

Thoughts

Another fill-in? Just when things were getting really interesting in the last issue with so many dangling story ideas regarding the likes of Phoenix and Wolverine?

That said, while this is clearly a standalone issue – it is still one that fits quite well into the continuity. There’s a scene that pretty much crystalises the fact that Wolverine has fallen for Phoenix, while Nightcrawler’s developing ability to teleport with passengers gets shown.

After the riches of Cockrum and Byrne in the last few issues – the art here is a bit underwhelming. Everything seems a bit static, with the frame capturing characters in poses that don’t seem either credible or exciting.

Story-wise, though, it works well as a one-shot and the defeat of the enemy is nicely inventive. Plus, of course, Xavier tells his pupils at the end that he was just working for greater evil forces out there. Which is just a tiny hint as to what’s coming.

Fun Panel

For one issue only, Phoenix acquires a curious Telepathic Vomit ability. Can’t imagine why it never came back.

Any Googling

The main villain in this story seems a relatively lame character called “Warhawk”. I wondered whether he was just a character created for this story – but he’s got quite a backstory. A Vietnam Vet, he was experimented on with a variation of the Super Serum that gave Luke Cage his powers. Becoming a CIA agent and then an increasingly erratic killer. There’s really none of that here, though.

None More Claremont

The “X-men Play Baseball” is a trope linked to the team, but Claremont only has it happen three times in the Claremont Run. Which is surprisingly because its an event that plays really well with his strengths. Firstly, it portrays the characters interacting while on downtime – last issue demonstrated how good he is at that. Alongside when he has different powers interact creatively with the action, normally in a slugfest. Still its nice to see it.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

As ever the honesty of the Mail page is just heartening. We’re told why this issue is another fill-in, in an almost apologetic tone. I genuinely appreciate that they treat the readers in this way.
17. Uncanny X-men 109

Jul 18th, 2023

Thoughts

First things first – I love this cover. I miss speech bubbles on comic book covers. Tantalising words are a great hook just as much as the image. The look of Vindicator is striking, but the text pulls me in. Alongside the “WANTED: WOLVERINE DEAD or ALIVE” box*, you get everything you need to know to want to read the issue.

And it is absolutely an issue worth reading. I mentioned at the end of the last issue how rushed the conclusion of the Cosmic plot was. By contrast the opening of this issue takes its time with the X-men returning home. And its absolutely glorious. Claremont does this downtime beautifully well, the characters all getting their moments that just make us like them more.

Of course, the storytelling feels relaxed as the characters are enjoying this downtime, but the writing is economical and razor sharp. Just take in the pages where Nightcrawler bamfs from Colossus to Cyclops. Not a word is wasted, and so much story and character in conveyed.

Even when they go on the picnic, the mutants letting their hair down is scope for more of this excellent storytelling. Storm and Colossus have their own conversation, subtly different to his one with Nightcrawler, the contrast illuminating more about their characters. And then the action kicks in.

You would think “Canadian government sends hero to recover their wayward agent at a picnic” would be the sort of plot from a parody, a dig at what an underwhelming storyline might be. Except its not. Its original and gripping. We learn more of Wolverine’s backstory and we get an antagonist who clearly isn’t a bad guy. It’s a quick, but as ever visually interesting, fight and the unresolved nature of it at the end doesn’t feel like a cheat. It feels like a promise of great things to come.

*I mean that box is not strictly accurate. They don’t want Wolverine dead at all. Still, it works so well as a hook.

Fun Panel

Sometimes going the basics right is all you need! Glorious.

None More Claremont

“We are what we are Scott — wishing won’t change a thing. Nor will feeling sorry for yourself. I learned very early on that I must either accept what I am, or go mad and though I am now occasionally crazy I am not insane.”

It’s a great issue for Nightcrawler’s character this, alongside preaching a very Claremontian holmily

It was a Product of its Time

Oh look. Storm gets naked again.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

The arrival of Phoenix gets lashings of praise, but the biggest revelation here is that Claremont is just twenty-six years old. Why, Chris, you’re just a whippersnapper! Realising that with all the great issues coming up we’re dealing with someone in their twenties is pretty humbling.

And keeping with the page’s admirable dedication to honesty and transparency, they finish by warning us all that the next issue is going to be another fill-in.
16. Uncanny X-men 108

Jul 17th, 2023

Thoughts

And suddenly we’re in the Claremont/Byrne era!

It’s striking that he jumps in mid-story. We’re rocking along nicely with a Cockrum drawn Space story and now there’s this new guy. It’s a confident debut. Cockrum had been such an integral part in defining the look and feel of this relaunched X-title that it seems unlikely this could survive an artist change.

And yet Byrne’s style both complements what Cockrum did before him, but without just copying it. His take on all the lead characters fits from the outset, there’s not a single jarring moment. His Cyclops, his Wolverine, his Storm, his Nightcrawler, his Phoenix – they all look right.

By having the X-men face two Guardians of the Crystal one after the other means that this issue avoids the over-stuffed feeling of the last one. Claremont really does inventive fights well, and these are both great examples that Byrne has fun visualising. Then the action shifts to Phoenix and the Cosmic scale.

And then the issue comes to an end with a rushed conclusion. Universe is saved and the x-men are back on Earth in two quick panels. A couple more deal with all the outstanding plot lines. It’s a shame because I want to learn more about the Cosmic world and characters these last few issues featured. But I guess we’ll get back to them in time.

And it’s hard to complain about the ending when it features one of the funniest tribute moments ever published. Cockrum’s “I’m not dead” is comedy genius.

Fun Panel

Byrne’s visuals are great from the off, but this panel is a highlight.

None More Claremont

Claremont does let rip with the text when Phoenix saves the universe. This section is Text-box-heavy – Claremont laying it on thick what exactly is happening and how the Universe is being saved. It’s a key moment for the storyline to come, so such verbiage is excusable to stress the enormity of the event but its something that the visuals can’t really hope to convey. Especially with just a few panels of art.
15. Uncanny X-men 107

Jul 16th, 2023

Thoughts

Huzzah! We’re back into Space with Cockrum! And he’s brought lots of new friends!

The All-New X-men are testament to Cockrum’s visual creativity when it comes to designing new heroes. But this issue takes that talent and turns it up to eleven. Its a visual feast as The Imperial Guard and the Starjammers burst into the story. All looking awesome and all ready for a smackdown.

Pages 2-3 of this issue are a double spread that features the Imperial Guard and its a page I could look at for ages. All the Guard members look distinct, and interesting. You could give this to a kid and they’d have endless fun devising a name and powerset for all these characters. And when I say kid I, of course, mean me.

And if that wasn’t enough, in burst the Starjammers. Another fun visual creation, with the added bonus of being rebels.

Cramming all this into an issue something has to give, and to be honest its in the story. There’s almost too many characters for the limited pages the slugfest gets, and then we get a huge amount of exposition. The issue needs to go over exactly why the X-men are in space. It then has to cover who exactly Lilandra is and why the X-men are rescuing her. It then explains to us who they are rescuing her from (and the underwhelming mystery of Erik The Red get’s explained yet again) as well as the backstory of the location she’s been take to before finally telling us the kidnapper’s evil scheme.

It’s a lot and the issue does creak at times, but ultimately I rather an issue did too much than too little and when the narrative is flagging I’m more than compensated by Cockrum’s toy box of all new super characters.

Fun Panel

That thick spine of the omnibus means that this photo can’t do justice to this double spread!

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

At the finale of the issue, we learn that the evil villain’s plans with an Ancient Cosmic Power Source cause the entire universe to blink out of existence for a fraction of a second. In the final few panels, this sets up a cliffhanger where scientists back on Earth detect this blink and panic that the universe is on the edge of destruction. But how could they possibly detect this if the whole universe blanks out of existence. Any equipment that could use to detect this would blink out of existence to?

Any Googling

I did have a quick check to see whether the Starjammers had much of an independent life in comics. This is 1977, the year of Star Wars. So much potential for an ongoing Starjammers comic. Slightly shocked they didn’t get one at the time. What were you thinking Marvel?!?
14. Uncanny X-men 106

Jul 15th, 2023

Thoughts

Ah – the dreaded fill-in issue. At the end of the previous issue, we were left on a great cliffhanger with Lilandra kidnapped and hurled into Space, with the X-men in pursuit. A great tease for what’s next, especially given that we know this is going to be Cockrum’s Space which is certainly going to be awesome.

And this issue… well, we don’t see any of that. Instead getting a fill-in issue. The plot of which – Fake versions of the original X-men turn up to attack the new X-men was already done just six issues earlier. We’re introduced to the Evil Xavier / Mr Hyde to Xavier’s Dr Jekyll, a slightly batty concept that Claremont clearly never comes back to.

I remember how annoying fill-in issues could be when collecting monthly titles, but it must have been even worse back in 1977 when this comic only came out every two months. Fans were going to have to wait a whole third of a year to get to what happened next after the great cliffhanger.

None of that matters too much in an Omnibus. You can sail through this fill-in and on to the next one in a matter of minutes.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

Kudos once again to the Letter’s Page, the Editorial staff and even Chris Claremont for giving a blunt and honest explanation of the fill-in issue on the letter’s page. They even remark that this issue was effectively drawn with the hope that it would never be necessary to actually print it! It’s a nice touch, especially as it allows Claremont to pay tribute to the artist who had recently died.

Another nice touch that not all fill-in issues had is that they actually take a few pages to add new art to at least turn the fill-in story into a genuine flashback. We open with Firelord, and we slip into Xavier’s memory of Evil Xavier, before returning to basically leave us back at the same cliffhanger. With the promise of Dave Cockrum Space Adventure next time!
13. Uncanny X-men 105

Jul 14th, 2023

Thoughts

The slightly underwhelming Erik The Red mystery finally gets solved in an issue that does a really good job of getting the X-men into a Space adventure. Which given where they previously were – on the run from Magneto – is some sharp writing.

It opens with Erik The Red facing the X-men before a neat bit of flashback fills in the detail of how he got there. There’s another fun fight, the alien in Xavier’s dream arrive and X-men are whisked off on a rescue mission into Space.

We’ve had a run of issues now where the X-men have squared off against a Powerful Antagonist, and I think its worth mentioning that Claremont and Cockrum do a great job in making them always interesting. Taking advantage of having a team with such different powers, the fact that there’s always new invention in how the fight goes.

And also, while the Erik The Red mystery left me cold, the revelation at the end of Xavier’s dream alien plotline delivers. I did not see sexy bird princess as the face behind the mask when it was first introduced, but I want to know more.

Fun Panel

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I love Cockrum’s Space stuff and I think he’s having fun with it too

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

Does the Erik The Red mystery really make sense? Given the revelation as to who he is, its hard to quite work out why he did all the stuff he’s done in his previous appearances. Or indeed why he decided to adopt a former Cyclops alter-ego. It seems an absurdly elaborate plan given that all he really needed to do, as he quite successfully does in this issue, is zap the princess and leap through a Space Gate.

I’m guessing he concocted a super elaborate scheme because he’s working on his expenses. The more elaborate the plans and the longer he’s on Earth, the more he can claim from his Employer. Nick on old second-hand Scott Summers costume and claim for a brand new Villain Armour from the boss. Smart.

None More Claremont

The first of a number of cameos. In the days before the internet, the only clue I had about what Chris Claremont looked like came from these little Hitchcockian moments.
12. Uncanny X-men 104

Jul 13th, 2023

THE GENTLEMAN’S NAME IS MAGNETO

Thoughts

When I started reading the X-titles, Magneto was already quite evolved in his status as an Anti-Hero. His background as a Holocaust survivor was an established part of his character, as had his stint as headmaster of the Xavier Academy.

So when you start going back and reading back issues, its quite striking to discover quite how straightforwardly villanous he is. But he’s the sort of arrogant, boasting megalomaniac seeking to defeat the X-men and conquer the world that its quite jarring.

And while there’s nothing wrong with Megalomaniac Villains, he just doesn’t seem a very interesting one. It’s still an entertaining issue, though. The build up to his return is handled nicely – even if the cover and title prevent it from ever being a surprise. The fight is inventive and, again, there’s something interesting in it ending with the X-men realising they are indeed out of their depth and need to flee. This sets up the idea of a rematch quite nicely.

Fun Panel

Full-page-tastic

Any Googling

This issue has a number of potential internet rabbit holes. As a fan of Madrox its good to see him in his first X-appearance here, and to go hunting online for the Fantastic Four Annual he comes from. Another intriguing title referenced is Defenders 16. The whole Magneto gets turned into a baby and then reborn becomes an important plot point later so its interesting to go back to it.

Finally this issue makes a point of telling us that the bug-eyed Dragonfly from the Ani-men has escaped imprisonment on the island. Which is odd given that I don’t really recall her turning up again. Turns out she was released to appear in an all-female title Dave Cockrum was working on called “The Furies”, which is an intriguing prospect (or a terrifying one depending on what Marvel writer might have ended up with the gig). She was to turn up in an army of super-powered villains called the Femizons that take on Captain America. The Marvel Fandom page wouldn’t tell me what issue the Femizons take on Cap, and I’m reading that as a mercy on their part and won’t seek out the issue.

None More Claremont

“Look on me, X-men. For I am your oldest, deadliest foe. Master of the Legion of Evil Mutants — and soon to be Lord Of All The World”

Claremont commits to shouty arrogant villain nature of Magneto here. I’m slightly sad that we never really got Ian McKellen to spout those type of lines.
11. Uncanny X-men 103

Jul 12th, 2023

Thoughts

Way back in Giant Size X-men, I remarked on the journey through dated stereotypes that forms part of the Professor assembling the team. At the time it seemed that Banshee had been spared. Xavier just meets him at a show in Nashville and in the space of two panels, he’s hired!

It really seemed like the title had dodged a bullet.

Oh dear.

These three issues where the X-men visit Banshee in Oirland, at his old ancestral castle (??) filled with leprechauns (!!!) really is just too many lazy stereotypes. I don’t want to be too mean about it – I realise that accuracy and social realism isn’t ever going to be a goal for a fun comic, that any trip is going to focus on what tells a fun and fantastical story. But Ireland has so many fantastic myths and legends – Selkies, the children of Lir, Fomorians, the Morrigan and the undying land of Tír na nÓg that part-inspired Tolkien. There is so much to play with that the fact we get Darby O’Nightcrawler and the Little People is a letdown.

Fun Panel

Oh well, may as well embrace the lunacy!

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

For three issues now the story has stressed that, in Juggernaut, these new X-men face a foe well beyond their talents. The level of peril seems high and how they might defeat him seems the purpose of the story.

Which makes his exit, diving after Black Tom because there’s only a few panels left in the issue and this needs to be done with impossible to take seriously.
10. Uncanny X-men 102

Jul 11th, 2023

“WHO WILL STOP THE JUGGERNAUT”

Thoughts

This issue is mostly a rather generic rumble between the X-men and Juggernaut, that does at least have the interesting conclusion that the X-men are comprehensively beaten.

This issue, though, also has “the origin of Storm” in the sense that we get her backstory fleshed out over three pages. Often with comic book characters, their convoluted back stories stem from years of contradictory references and asides that a writer decides they want to pull together into a single, twisting narrative.

By contrast, Claremont seems to want to drop us an incredibly convoluted backstory right from the start. Born in New York to an American and an “African Princess”, her parents move to Cairo for his work. Where they are killed leaving her an orphan on the streets, where she becomes a skilled child sneak-thief for an underworld Fagin-type. Then she walks the Sahara to become a Goddess. It’s just a little bit insane.

It’s like they had three ideas for Storm. A New Yorker from 112th Street, a street urchin from an African city, and a Goddess from the Serengeti. And rather than pick one, decided to go for all of them.

Over time Claremont finds a use for all of them, although its more interesting that its her in-title development as a character that I find far more fascinating than any of this. And I think it is fair to argue that there is no reason why a character in a comic can’t have a complex background like some people in the real world do. But it really is a crazy three pages in here. Before we even get to setting up her crippling claustrophobia.

Fun Panel

This is how you get a convoluted backstory covered in three pages. Panels like this.

It was a Product of its Time

To be honest, the sequence where the British and French are shown bombing civilians in Cairo as part of the Suez crisis is way ahead of its time. Even if the elderly leader of the street urchins seems to come straight out of the Arabian Nights.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

A gushing, and deserved, mailbag of praise this issue. Truncated to make room for Howard The Duck stuff. A phenomenon that just seems mystifying to me now.