The X Marathon

9. Uncanny X-men 101

Jul 10th, 2023

“LIKE A PHOENIX FROM THE ASHES”

Thoughts

The cover and title of this issue make you think that its about Phoenix. But while the character gets introduced in this issue, its really about all the other characters and their reaction to the fact that Jean Grey is seemingly injured.

Claremont does especially good work when it comes to Scott Summers and the (still-unnamed) Wolverine. Both of them, in their reactions to Jean’s predicament, have some beautifully written character moments. In particular, Wolverine buying flowers for a woman who has already had an impact on him, only to casually drop them in the bin when he realises that all the other X-men are waiting in the hospital. And also Nightcrawler closing the door to give Cyclops privacy after he’s learnt Jean will be fine.

Then the new X-men go off to visit Banshee’s new Castle. This is obviously in an Ireland about as credible and Nightcrawler’s Germany, but again there’s some nice character stuff between the heroes when they think they’re going to get some downtime. So much so that I find the villains revealing themselves at the climax of the issue to be slightly disappointing. I already just want to spend more time with these characters.

Fun Panel

Yes, it’s a goofy panel. But it makes me grin like an idiot.

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

The issue opens with a “prologue”. Which then doesn’t really seem to ever end and transition to the actual story. You can pick a couple of moments where maybe that’s meant to happen, but the issue resolutely won’t tell you.

Any Googling

Banshee exclaiming “Hannigan’s bog!” when a trap is sprung had me trying to find out where he might have got this expression. I’ve certainly never heard it before, so wondered if it was maybe an antiquated one. Google has no record of it anywhere, so I guess it’s one Claremont coined. I did end up learning quite a bit about bogs though.

None More Claremont

This issue really is quite a showpiece for Claremont’s narrative style. The opening is pure “Twilight Zone”, before shifting to his third person narrative style teasing/questioning the character he’s talking about. Before finally narrating a travel montage. It’s probably a good early issue for people to try to see if they can take his style of storytelling, but I love it.

It was a Product of its Time

Storm gets naked again. For some reason. For every step forward she seems to get in terms of characterisation, she also seems to get a retrograde one of this nonsense.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

Sam Mandel of 353 Park Avenue, Highland Park, Illinois really doesn’t hold back in his complaints. Ditch the new X-men (bar Wolverine) by marrying off Storm and Colossus, killing off Nightcrawler and exiling Banshee. Also replace Claremont and Cockrum with “anyone”.

As I’ve said before, I love that they print these type of letters in the comic. In the absence of the adverts, its the one bit that really evokes another age in comics.
8. Uncanny X-men 100

Jul 9th, 2023

“GREATER LOVE HATH NO X-MAN”

Thoughts

Eight blogposts in, and we’re on issue 100! It is indeed strange that such a milestone issue occurs so early in the Claremont Run. The “Classic X-men” get crowbarred into the story to create a fight with the new guys, but it’s pretty obvious from the outset what’s going on here so the event has little impact.

After the rollercoaster of the last issue, having to crowbar the X-Sentinels in leads to a pretty underwhelming conclusion. Robots defeated, Lang blows up. It doesn’t really feel like an ending worthy of a landmark issue. Heck, it doesn’t even feel like much of an ending for the Sentinel Trilogy….

And then…

It’s here that the Dark Phoenix has its genesis. Faced with trying to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in a damaged shuttle bombarded by a solar flare, Jean Grey steps up to sacrifice herself and save the day. On paper its a cheesy moment, but Claremont knows to root it in the interactions of the character with her friends, and lover. At the time a great cliffhanger is the start of a story that is definitely worthy of a landmark issue.

Fun Panel

Across the Cockrum run, the colouring has a fantastically trippy visual quality. Kudos to Bonnie Wilford for a great job.

None More Claremont

One thing going back to these early issues is the realisation that there aren’t anywhere near as many interesting women. Only Storm is the female regular, and in these early issues she’s frequently just a sexily-drawn distant goddess. But adding Jean Grey in the last few issues helps address that and you can already see Claremont’s style coming through.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

Another fascinating mailbag page. This time, the editor assures the readers that the fact that Colossus was referred to as an “orphan” in a previous letters page was not a mistake, but something the story will get to. As with his cosmonaut brother was this a storyline planned that never saw fruition? Or just trying to save face over a mistake?
7. Uncanny X-men 99

Jul 8th, 2023

“DEATHSTAR RISING”

Thoughts

A relentlessly paced issue, this is Claremont not messing about when it comes to storytelling. Last issue’s cliffhanger is quickly resolved, alongside getting the remaining Earthbound X-men into Space, setting up a future storyline and bringing us to another cliffhanger.

Indeed, the whole shebang feels incredibly cinematic. Cockrum’s art captures a swashbucking action adventure tone, while the structure frequently cuts between players as the various storylines come together.

There’s not actually a huge amount of story here. Nor much by way of characterisation. But a collection of set pieces that lead nicely to a truly unexpected, and slightly odd, cliffhanger.

Fun Panel

This is the first issue I noticed that the cover collection of faces doesn’t have Thunderbird. Which made me think when had they removed him. Turns out, he was never there. A clue that he was never going to be on the team long term!

Also the old Nostalgic in me misses these on the cover. The little faces of the heroes you could expect to follow inside always seemed intriguing. It also, in a good way, reminds me of the faces that used to appear at the start of classic Hollywood cartoons. “Hey! This comic doesn’t feature Bugs Bunny or Droopy, but we can promise you the adventures of these freaks!”

None More Claremont

Claremont is rightly famous as a writer for his long-running story arcs, but in these early issues he’s dropping ideas and concepts that had the potential to be developed but which never actually are. Last issue we saw the abandoned concept of Wolverine being a mutated animal, and this issue we learn of Colossus’ lost cosmonaut brother. It’s a story Claremont never got round to telling, so its interesting what he ever had in mind for it.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

One of the joys of having seventies letters pages in the reprints is that it always feels like seeing into another era. This isn’t a page designed to push the corporate line, but instead to reflect the feedback they’re getting and earnestly trying to answer genuine questions. There’s a great question highlighting the somewhat sappy Lorna dialogue a few issues back, and the response builds a credible answer to this valid criticism. Maybe its coming from the age of Twitter but its fun to see disagreements aired like this.

You also get complete addresses printed with the letters! I wonder what happened to Murray Baughnon?
6. Uncanny X-men 98

Jul 7th, 2023

“MERRY CHRISTMAS X-MEN”

Thoughts

A great thing about reading from the start is noticing elements that emerge in Claremont’s writing that were key to getting you hooked on the book. The opening of this issue has a great few pages of the characters in downtime. Their interactions are relaxed, and natural. Each panel, each caption just giving you fun details about the character.

Of course, it can’t last and three pages in The Sentinels arrive, heralding a slugfest that Cockrum executes perfectly. And after that the pace is relentless. As giant mutant-killing robots, the Sentinels are pure b-movie sci-fi threats, led by a cackling b-movie Bad Guy. This issue illustrates why both those concepts have so much mileage.

Fun Panel

I’m a big fan of costumes that can only real work in comics. Storm’s outfit definitely falls into this category. It looks absurd, impractical and just a tad male-gazey. But you also great simple panels such as this

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

It feels a bit mean putting this here, because its not really bad writing. But its a definite WTF (WTX?) moment when it happens. In reality it was meant to be setting up a fascinating storyline where Wolverine was revealed not to be a human mutant with an animaloid mutation – but a mutant wolverine with a humanoid mutation. I love this idea, even though I can understand why it was dropped. (I think it emerges later on in the Hellions as the character of Catseye, but that’s never been confirmed.)

Any Googling

I guess I should google the Sentinals backstory in all the earlier issues. But to be honest everything that seems important about them is established in this and the previous issue. So don’t really feel the need.

None More Claremont

Claremont’s commitment to Banshee’s Oirish accent is an ongoing source of amusement – but definite points in this issue for “An’ on that note, me boyos, Moira ‘n’ I’ll be movin’ on ourselves… we’re t’be showin’ each other the sights o’ New York“
5. Uncanny X-men 97

Jul 6th, 2023

MY BROTHER, MY ENEMY

Thoughts

I don’t know why but I’ve always had a soft spot for Havok. He’s flawed, he’s always had difficulty keeping the lid on his powers (and his frustration), he’s forever defined as being Not Quite His Older Brother and whatever relationship he ever finds himself in, the narrative will find a way to turn it into a torture for him.

It’s possibly because I’m a younger brother that some of that “not quite the eldest” pressure is relatable. It’s also the fact that – bar the obvious fact that evil manipulative villain types keep twisting and destroying it – Lorna and Alex have one of the nicest relationships in the title. I genuinely used to root for them, hooked by desperately hoping they could overcome the barriers they faced.

This is also the first issue when reading from the Giant Size relaunch where I really feel the lack of reading the earlier run of the title. Who is Erik the Red, and more crucially, why on Earth should I care? Faced with the revelation that this Erik guy is the villains and, for some reason, Cyclops used to be him, the only backstory the comic gives us is via a footnote. That asks if we remember issues 51 & 52. No I don’t Marv! Thanks for asking. Now what does this all mean?

Fun Panel

I love looking at Dave Cockrum’s Space Art, there’s such a sense of fun here. I reckon he enjoyed drawing it just as much.

Any Googling

I mean, obviously X-men 51 and 52. The original Erik The Red appearance. Which you really have to do if you want the backstory here, because the next few issues are in no rush to give you any of this information.

It was a Product of its Time

Storm getting referred to by a villain as “The Ebon Witch” has not aged well. And steel yourself, because its a turn of phrase that’s going to run in the title for some time.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

Thunderbird’s death hits the mailbag, and there’s a fascinating letter complaining about the heroes demise given how cool it was to see a Native American – “America’s First Citizens” represented in the team. The answer is equally interesting – he had to die because he just wasn’t distinct enough in power or personality. This isn’t really that convincing, especially when we’re going to see one of the main characters go through a reinvention that is literally one of the most famous storylines in super hero comics. Fair enough they decided they could think of anything to do with him, but they had Sunfire disappear in about two panels. Still, yet again, kudos to the Editor for giving a question that deserves an answer one, even if I don’t quite buy it.

Also, anyone else hankering for a collectible Marvel Stamp of some legs? You too? Well, you’re in luck in this issue!
4. Uncanny X-men 96

Jul 5th, 2023

NIGHT OF THE DEMON

Thoughts

X-men meets Cthulhu meets MR James, by way of 1957’s “Night Of The Demon”. With this issue, its obvious the title is still clearly finding its feet in relation to the type of comic it wants to be. After the pulp action of defeating the nefarious Count Nefaria, we’re onto mild comic horror. A sinister Runed stone that just happens to lie near the X-mansion gets damaged, releasing an Evil Demon. Who gets defeated by the end of the issue. Job Done.

But while the main plot is a one-shot standalone, already the title has cutaways hinting at things to come. We meet Stephen Lang, and get introduced to his fanatical hatred of mutants, culminating in him disposing of those government types who might stand in his way. I love the way this is covered in just a single panel on the final page. We also get Claremont already building in the backstory of the characters, in this case Storm’s Cairo past. This might some somewhat complicated given how she was introduced as a sub-Saharan Africa Goddess, but complexity-wise things are only just getting started.

Fun Panel

Kierrok The What!!?!

Any Googling

I quickly looked up the N’Garai, learning that this was there first ever comic book appearance so I wasn’t really missing any backstory around the Runic Stone. Although Claremont had used them previously in a prose story in 1974’s Horror magazine “The Haunt of Horror 4” featuring Satana. Sadly I wasn’t able to find a copy of this online.

None More Claremont

“Autumn’s come early this year — the September apples hanging heavy in the Orchards, the trees on both sides of the Hudson River ablaze with a thousand myriad fires… a thousand myriad shades of… DEATH!

You know him well, don’t you Cyclops — this Dark One, this Great Destroyer — you and your fellow X-men have walked with him all your young lives — Flaunted him, Taunted him, Tilted with him — and you’d always gotten away with unscathed…

…Until Now

…Until Thunderbird”

We’re only a few issues in, and yet the glorious purple prose of Claremont is already here. Right on the first page. This isn’t even an elderly, wise cliche character talking to Cyclops in the comic. This is the *narrator*.
3. Uncanny X-men 95

Jul 4th, 2023

“WARHUNT”

Thoughts

There’s something odd about an X-man dying in the third issue of the relaunch. Readers are introduced to all these new characters that seem interesting and worth exploring as the title continues and then BANG (or more accurately in this case WHOOM – RAKA THAMMM!) one of them is dead.

It’s also not really a heroic death. The arrogant Thunderbird isn’t redeemed by a heroic act. Nor does he save the day. As a complete nerd, it reminds me more than anything of the death of Adric in “Doctor Who”. The finale writing out a character that just feels completely pointless.

Apparently the reason for killing an X-man so quickly was to underline how dangerous life for this team can be, upping the peril stakes. I’ve never really bought this idea. It would make more sense if Thunderbird’s death wasn’t solely the result of his own thoughtless actions. Because OF COURSE being a super hero is dangerous if you’re going to do utterly stupid, suicidal stuff in an adventure. And unless you’re team is going to be made up of suicidal hotheads, it doesn’t really make things seem more perilous for those left behind.

That said, as with Adric, it is surprisingly memorable. When I started reading the X-comics originally, Thunderbird’s younger brother was a character and his backstory and resentment of Xavier were fascinating. I really wanted to see more of the younger Proudstar and that’s, in part, testament to what happens to the older version. So, in the end, I do think it dramatically pays off.

There’s also a wonderful “uh-oh there’s only so many pages left!” quality to the defeat of the Count’s nefarious plan. When everyone thinks he’s won and the Earth is doomed, Professor X appears to explain that, no everything is fine and it turns out the plan has failed. Sometimes you have to tie things up quickly

Fun Panel

Cockrum continues to crush it with these big opening page single panels.

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

Given all the talents in the team, don’t think too hard as to why Thunderbird isn’t rescued, or pulled away from the plane before it goes WHOOM – RAKA THAMMM! They absolutely could have rescued him.

None More Claremont

With the benefit of hindsight, its interesting that Claremont never did more with the Ani-Men. On one level there a basic pulp villain squad of half-human, half-animal but there’s multiple hints that they’ve been forced to become half-animal by Count Nefaria and that by completing this mission they might be returned to being human. Given how fascinated Claremont gets with transformation and possession, there’s potential here. Although it could have all gone wrong and just led to “Inferno For Furries”*

*the moment I typed that I realised that I would absolutely love to see “Inferno For Furries”

It was a Product of its Time

A blessed relief in the death of Thunderbird is at least it puts an end to his annoying habit of calling his team mates by the wrong name. Cyclops is “One Eye” and Banshee either “Shamrock” or “Irish”. Whatever Claremont was trying to illustrate about the character with this isn’t that great, and thank heavens we didn’t get him around for longer to find nicknames for the rest of the international cast.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

The fact the Omnibus editions also include Letters Pages, and sometimes the accompanying Editorial Boxes, is great stuff. Although the first one is slightly underwhelming. Kudos though to Richard Heim of Nebraska for pointing out the fact the finale of Giant Size X-men is absolute nonsense. And the editorial team for printing it!
2. Uncanny X-men 94

Jul 3rd, 2023

THE DOOMSMITH SCENARIO

Thoughts

And so we get Claremont on board. Albeit still working on a Len Wein plot. The striking thing about this issue is that, like the Giant Size comic it follows, it has Chapter. Albeit only two, that effectively divide the issue in half. The first half sets up the new X-men line-up. The second begins their first mission.

Hot on the heels of pulling together so many X-men, this issue proceeds to ruthlessly cut the numbers down. Sunfire buggers off right away, which I always feel a bit sad about. Yes, its understandable that they’d want to cut down the number of angry, male Hot Heads on the team but Sunfire is such a fun, arrogant prick that I want to see more of him. But within a couple of pages, he’s gone.

Closely followed by most of the classic X-men line-up. I love the fact Cyclops stays, and how that plays out with his old team mates who are off back to their regular lives or, even, to find one. And he can’t. Claremont does interesting things with Scott Summers, I think, albeit his plans are stymied by editorial decree. But more of that later. Much later.

Chapter Two kicks off with the most generic pulp hero mission imaginable. An evil count, who is straight out of Evil Count Central Casting, has a nefarious plan. In case there’s any doubt about that, they call the evil count Count Nefaria. He’s blackmailing the entire planet, under threat of nuking the world. With his monocle, cape, and fancy cigarette he’s the type of villain they don’t really do any more. Reading this you can see why.

Fun Panel

I will always have time for a Danger Room montage

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

Count Nefaria intends to blackmail all the nations of the world. If they pay him what he demands he won’t destroy the planet. Of course, if they do pay him, what then? How can he spend any of this stuff?

Fair enough, he’s a moustache-twirling, cape-swishing super villain cliche, so it doesn’t really have to make sense. But come on!
1. Giant Size X-men 1

Jul 2nd, 2023

SECOND GENESIS

Thoughts

Of course, any attempt to tackle the Claremont Run ironically starts with an issue he didn’t write. Len Wein was charged with relaunching the X-comic, with a view to turning it into an “international” team of super heroes.

This he does with incredible efficiency. The early pages sees Charles Xavier travel around the world, assembling his new team of mutants. Then the new kids get sent on a mission, to rescue the previous X-men. Which they swiftly and efficiently do.

This comic could be taught as a way to relaunch a title. You get enough of all the characters to want to stick around and learn more. And they all seem so different at this stage. The cliché of “I’m putting a disparate team together” is a staple in adventure fiction is a staple, and for good reason. It nearly always works. And here it works brilliantly.

Fun Panel

When in doubt, just rehash the awesome cover on the front page. (and get the Beast right)

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

Honestly, I still am none the wiser on how Krakoa gets defeated. Something about combining powers and the Earth’s core and something something. Best not to think about it.

Any Googling

None at all. Just carried along by the pace of a great issue.

None More Claremont

As he didn’t write this, nothing to see here!

It was a Product of its Time

Assembling the team does mean Xavier takes in quite a collection of stereotypes. The German village of “Winzeldorf” is straight out of a period horror film rather than anything recognisably German of 1975. Storm’s introduction as a Goddess seems to take place in an Africa of Imperial pulp fiction. I guess at least we can be relieved that Sunfire isn’t in the middle of a Kung Fu fight.
THE X-MARATHON START

Jul 1st, 2023

The release of Uncanny X-men Omnibus 5 has, finally, meant that Chris Claremont’s entire original run on the title is available in Omnibus format. Or at least all of it apart from that final mess of a crossover when everything behind the scenes at Marvel didn’t seem to happy.

In celebration of this, I’ve decided to re-read the lot, and record my thoughts as I go along. The “Claremont Run” is one of my favourites in all of comics. Not just in terms of scale, but also in terms of its inventiveness, its quirkiness, its glorious prose most purple and the way that all of those elements are welded together to tell progressive stories.

As a teenager I started reading the X-men in around 1987 and was instantly hooked. I didn’t know most of the heroes in the titles, and the story was slap back in the middle of what had already become Claremont’s trademark of labyrinthine plots. Yet despite that, I was hooked. I wanted to know more about the characters. I wanted to know both what was to happen to them next, but also what had got them to this moment.

This meant buying back issues and then the latest issues. Following the story inevitably led into buying X-Factor and The New Mutants, and get into a lot of what Louise Simonson was doing on those titles. Broadly speaking my aim in this blog is to stick to the issues reprinted in the Uncanny X-men omnis. But I do own a few Epic Collections of the spin-offs and so I’ll dip into those when the stories seem nicely tied together.

Broadly speaking, each entry should mainly be my thoughts on the issue. I’m going to try and have a couple of running sub-headings for the blog, picking out a fun panel, or a particularly Claremontian turn of phrase. Maybe something spotted in the letters pages also reprinted in the Omnibus. And especially anything the issue made me want to hunt down.

The last is a frequent part of any re-read of old comics for me. As you read, a character gets mentioned, or developments in another title being published at the time. And it makes me intrigued as to what happened to that character or what was happening elsewhere. And so I’ll head to Google or even Marvel Unlimited to find out. Which is probably worth a mention.

Anyway, lets get things going…