The X Marathon

Thoughts

Things take a dark turn in the second issue, where teenage hijinks turn into ninja brainwashing. You can definitely see in all this why Al Milgrom was chosen as the artist, given that I wasn’t sure about it last issue. Here he captures a lot of the visually dynamic training/fighting that lies at the heart of the story.

Kitty is captured/brainwashed and retrained, being set up to take on Wolverine. We’ve been here before with Claremont’s brainwashing – its a trope he’s come back to a lot. And often it comes across as Clive Barker-lite allusions to Domination. All possession of souls, unleashing the evil and yet folk embracing this sexy darkness.

So its some relief that this issue doesn’t really do any of that. Kitty’s conversion to evil is done through a storyline of regression and training. There is a strict master – and Kitty turns into someone impulsive and evil, but I guess knowing the character is thirteen – Claremont this one time resists the urge to go all Hellfire on this.

As a result, it’s another fun issue but very different to the previous one. The contrast is part of the enjoyment. Where is it all going to go next?

Fun Panel

Kid Kitty Ninja!

Thoughts

Not too long ago, I blogged about the Wolverine miniseries. That comic was an almost perfect distillation of everything teenage boys at the time might want. Wolverine. Samurai. A romance where its all about the guy pining for a mostly silent woman. It knew its audience and it targetted them brilliantly.

Fast forward and I think it illuminates how the X-universe is changing that when the next miniseries comes along for Logan, the story adds front and centre Kitty Pryde. A thirteen year old girl off on spirited teenage adventures. Encountering all sorts of hijinks.

Issue one of this miniseries doesn’t mess about. This is wall-to-wall Kitty. And its great. This is all about the teenage girl getting in over her head as she tries to do the right thing. I’ve mentioned before how good Claremont is at pacing, and he’s in his element here as Kitty goes off on an adventure to Japan and discovers its not easy to go off on a headstrong whim.

The All Kitty All The Time plot does have one minor drawback in that Al Milgrom really seems to frequently draw her with the one facial expression, varying the size of the mouth only to denote different levels of shock. It’s distracting, but its interesting that she’s presented in very teenage terms. Hard to see a nineties comic telling this tale without undertaking the very dubious practice of sexing up the teen lead. You never get that icky vibe here, thankfully.

And, you know, sometimes Milgrom remembers his Dave Cockrum and manages to pull off a different facial expression.

Fun Panel

I mentioned before that Claremont has a knack with the X-men to keep things different and interesting for pretty bog-standard stories. His X-men attack any bases period was full of well-paced and inventive set-pieces. He translates that skill to here – Kitty’s ongoing hijinks constantly show her wielding her powers in fun and inventive ways. Not least in some striking sneaky skyscraper action!

Thoughts

In what is not an entirely unexpected turn of events, Cloak and Dagger decide to help the New Mutants – bringing the curse of their powers back on themselves and saving the kids from their fate.

You have to wade through a lot of Cloak moaning first, as he refuses to accept he’s any good. This begins to grate very quickly into this issue – its so obvious that he’s going to do the right thing that his complaining – and his “oh, I’m so useless” stance before he gets there just seems to be hammering home the same point over and over again.

It also renders the dynamic between the two just less interesting. Dagger is perfect, and kind and an insanely pretty partner who just wants to help her man. And he just moans. We can only read into this that Dagger loves Cloak because the story has her tell us this. There’s nothing that gives a hint as to the chemistry they might have. I want more on how they might support each other – not pretty girl fix damaged loser.

You also get the impression with this issue that deadlines might have been looming. Some of the art is great – and you can tell Sienkiewicz loves drawing Cloak and Dagger, but elsewhere – oh dear.

It’s an underwhelming end to the story – especially as Rahne and Roberto just go back to exactly what they were with seemingly no character development. There’s some nice stuff for Illyana to do. Claremont is clearly enjoying this character by now, and the storytelling opportunities she affords to take tales in whole new occult directions. And Illyana gets to develop more in this, the character seems richer by the end of the tale in a way that just makes the reader want to know loads more.

Fun Panel

Sienkiewicz really is in his element with Cloak and Dagger. Indeed I’m genuinely surprised he never got a good run on them in maybe their own title. His dark, inventive, surreal skills is perfect for their powerset.

Thoughts

The New Mutants/Cloak & Dagger saga continues in this issue – as things get worse for Roberto, but seemingly better for Rahne. Meanwhile the original Cloak and Dagger continue to unconvincingly make statements that they aren’t going to help the kids before deciding they will indeed help the kids.

This is an issue with a great collection of moments, strung together in a story that is clearly heading exactly where you’d predict it would. How the new mutations work out for Sunspot and Wolfsbane are inventive, especially how they further effect the likes of Piotr and Illyana Rasputin. Indeed there’s more than enough fun moments to distract from the fact that there isn’t really much of a story here.

There’s also the fact that when the Darkness kicks in with Roberto it looks incredibly like the Demon Bear, or even Warlock at their craziest. There’s a signature look to this title which is really striking, but its already becoming dangerously repetitive. There’s more to the artists than all-out bug-eyed craziness but that seems to be the well we keep coming back to.

Fun Panel

Mutated Sunspot and Wolfsbane create a great image in the exposition. Let’s have more fighting with these guys!

Thoughts

Hinted at in the last issue – Cloak & Dagger are BACK! A duo that hold an odd place in my heart. On one level I thin the characeters are fascinating and will often pick up a comic that hints that they might be guest starring. On the other hand, there aren’t actually that many great Cloak and Dagger stories. They get added, sometimes, to good ones – and even provide a nice dark twist to the storytelling when they’re added. But they rarely feel essential.

In a previous Team-Up, Cloak and Dagger helped Wolfsbane and Sunspot deal with the fact they were injected with the same drugs that had originally created them. This story seems to go back to that, suggesting that the cure enacted by Cloak and Dagger hadn’t worked. And even had left the mutants more cursed by these powers, while the original duo were cured.

Going back to this storyline – with their powers coming through in even more dark and distorted ways – seems like a fun storyline. And you can tell Sienkiewicz is having fun with it in his presentation of the Dagger-ed Rahne and the Cloak-ed Roberto.

The only misfire is the implication that Cloak and Dagger aren’t interested in helping the mutants because they’re cured. This is such an obvious jerk move that will clearly be reversed to solve the plot it just makes them seem lesser characters.

Also Sienkiewicz is back on the cameos again. I still find them jarring. Having thought about it, I think the reason these don’t work for me is that the title – and the storylines – are so wonderfully outlandish that it is entirely possible that the important plot of an issue would entail Inspector Clouseau turning up. So when you instantly recognise the famous cameo but then have to mentally withdraw from the idea that it means anything it just takes you out the comic.

At least for me it does.

Fun Panel

Absolutely love returning to this location and seeing Sienkiewicz’s take on it. Even if the Cockrum injoke is just a bit too obvious.

Any Googling

Another curio here is Dani’s injury. Whih led me desperately searching for the source. Had I missed another issue? Apparently she’s still recovering from the Demon Bear injury. Which I can understand bar the obvious fact she was moving around fine in the annual.

So at least glad I’d not missed a comic!

Thoughts

Claremont wrong-foots me with this issue, in a way that I really quite enjoyed. Half way through, Claremont returns to his characters telling a “fairy tale” idea. The visuals presenting us with the narrative the character wants to tell. There’s always a risk that these become just a bit too twee, and also in this instance its coming from Rahne. A character I’m still struggling to engage with.

So, when Rahne’s fairy tale begins I initially didn’t feel great about it. Rahne’s two-dimensional puritanism v guilt really isn’t doing it for me, and chuck a child-ish fairy story on top of that and it seems even less like my cup of tea.

And then the issue pulls a twist. One that you can deliciously sense coming as the twee storytale seems to be slightly off, that there’s something rotten here that even the narrator is unaware off. Culminating in a final panel that nicely teases the next issue.

Aside from that, this issue presents the New Mutants very much in the bosum of the X-men. They train with Nightcrawler and Colossus, Warlock is being studied by Xavier. It’s nicely understated stuff, albeit not the sort of material you’d bring Sienkiewicz at his wildest onto the title for.

That said – he even presents these simple concepts with some nice visual invention.

Fun Panel

Well, here’s the first stirrings of the visual imagery of Inferno many years earlier.

Any Googling

As the world of the x-titles become more entwined and more complicated, the inevitable is going to happen with this readthrough. Namely what constitutes chronological is hard to pin down. I’d forgotten when compiling this that this issue introduces Selene to the Hellfire Club. Something that becomes a big deal inUncanny X-men 189. Which I’ve already read.

That’s a screw-up on my part, although its also something that shows up the limitations of googling to check reading order. Nowhere online agrees on this stuff. It’s hard to know when to split between storylines now that the titles seem to happily hop between X-men and New Mutants. Sometimes compromises have to be made.

So I’m going to stick with this order. Even though I can see its flaws.

Thoughts

After the crazy whiplash caused by the abrupt change of art styles when Bill Sienkiewicz comes on the title – this annual feels even more jarring as we’re flung back into the old style.

And, actually, it proves quite a good illustration of how the more conservative style might have worked. This is a fun comic, with lots of big ideas and giant leaps in location, held together by a team that have a nice chemistry together.

I complained with some of the later New Mutants issues before Sienkiewicz came on board that the title did feel lost. The writing had got flat and it was hard to see what the title was really about, or even to care about some of the characters. There’s none of that here. All of the team get characterised enough to work as part of the team, and enough to make them seem interesting and to want to know more. In that respect, it really feels like the early issues of Claremont’s run on Uncanny X-men. Which is something that they never quite managed with the main titles often enough.

Fun Panel

Another great team shot. Also fun to see how a non-Sienkiewicz artist gets to grips with the very Sienkiewiczian (is that word!?!) character of Warlock.

It was a Product of its Time

Lila Cheney crashes into the Mutant World in this issue, a teleporting rock star that seems a weird combination of very early eighties and also very dated for the early eighties at the same time.

Like Dazzler, she’s a character doomed to date with virtually every appearance over the years. Her weird pop/Pat Benetar vibes presented here don’t last too long. She develops Cyndi Lauper vibes in the late eighties/early nineties (again, surely already dated for the time?) before morphing into a more indie performer in recent times. No soubt to change again going forward. Which I hope we see, as she’s an interesting concept thats been underused by the X-universe.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

Thoughts

While there’s huge amounts of visual and world building fun in this two-parter, there is a slight problem. The storytelling is a bit weak. Issue one has tons of exposition and issue two has a perplexing non-ending where everything gets reversed because Doctor Strange does A Thing.

While it’s a problem with the overall story though – the actual comic book is well scripted and cracks along at a fine pace. There’s action, scheming and a fair few twists that make it a great page turner.

Claremont’s take on Spider-man is also a curious one that i have a lot of time for. He’s perpetually doomed to just not quite know what’s going on, full of exasperated wisecracks. Not just here but in Claremont’s team-up too, Parker seems not quite of this world, someone too smart to really grab what’s going on when the world gets silly – but heroic enough to take a stand that’ll never get recognised. He’s not so much the awkward nerd or angst-ridden teen – but a teenagers ideal of themselves. Smart, brave, doomed to always be slightly out of synch with the world. This storyline is the most clear cut manifestation of that take.

Also while the ending is a little bit of a hand wave, it does nicely set up a new menace. Saving the day here seems to let in a new terrible threat to the X-characters. Like a dark little mid-credits scene at the very end.

Fun Panel

If we’re in a Conan-sequel Fantasy world, I wonder how they’re going to draw Storm?

Thoughts

I’ve mentioned a couple of times before how interesting it is that big story ideas in these early eighties comics get covered in a couple of issues. Whereas you feel now such a big idea would form the basis of a huge Crossover, with dozens of titles and spin-offs supporting its own dedicated storyline title.

Nowhere is that more apparent in this and the next issue. A two-parter built on an idea that could have comfortably kept a Summer Crossover going for months.

It’s really all here – New York is transformed into a Conan-esque fantasy kingdom, with the heroes themselves reimagined as time-period appropriate adventurers. There is so much stuff here that teases and tempts with hints about the vaster world out there. None of which the two issues at all delves into.

This is not a criticism. This is an absolutely great two-part issue. Pacey, exciting and action packed. The fantasy fun is exactly the sort of thing I hoped the previous stories with Arkon had been. It delivers so much on the fun Frazetta-style promise. Crossovers nowadays are so bloated it is impossible to read it all and you wish they would cut back. So it is so strange to read something and think “I wish they had done dozens of stories in this world”

Fun Panel

Any Googling

There is genuinely so much exposition in this issue – the scale of New York’s transformation outlined to the reader – that its really hard not to be convinced that there are issues out there that cover all this fun stuff. There isn’t. I checked. But everytime I read this story I think there might be something out there.

Thoughts

I’m not an artist so a lot of the incredible behind-the-scenes work that goes on in comics is a hidden art to me. Especially when it comes to the inkers, colourists and letterers and their contribution to the final issue.

You do get some insight into part of that here, as Steve Leialoha comes on to ink Romita Jr’s pencils and makes things look quite different. A lot more, well, Leialoha-ish. It’s not a bad job, and the art is still fun but its striking how different it looks to the issues immediately before and afterwards. An insight for me on how influential inkers can be.

Art aside this is another issue where Claremont is really expanding what the title can be. By this point the title is one of Marvel’s flagship team books and its leading characters recognisable comic icons yet the primary focus of the story is on two characters who have had barely anything to do in the title at all.

To focus the main x-title on a shared New York trip of Amara – recent new mutant team member and Rachel – recent arrival in this timezone feels like such an odd choice. But its atypical nature makes it work. This is what the X-books are now, a growing world of characters. And especially female characters. You have a feeling that editors now (or indeed most editors even back then) would have nixed a main title storyline so focused on two fringe players but Claremont’s got the standing to ask for it, get it and then pull it off.

Fun Panel

It is still jarringly weird to see Xavier up and running around as a team player. In his own costume. I do wish there had been more of this.

None More Claremont

Two young women dress as sexy maids to infiltrate a sexy villain HQ and get captured by a sexy mind control lady wearing virtually nothing, who then puts chains around their necks.

The funny thing re-reading this is I first read this as a child and I was fine with it. None of the subtext-that’s-basically-text was apparent to me. And it never did me any harm!

I think….