Thoughts

We’re staying in the world of horror with this issue, but this doesn’t mean that the run of single issues radically different to the one before is over. Because while the last issue was a surprisingly bloodless and one-dimensional tale of Dracula, this is a much, much darker affair.

It begins with the abduction of a small child by a demon and ends with her having effectively lost her childhood. It feels like a genuine shock when a much older Illyana Rasputin emerges from Limbo, and is played as both a tragedy (Brent Anderson on guest art duties draws a truly haunted Colossus in the final panels) but also that the darkness is not yet over.

Claremont was to build on this tale of lost childhood a larger narrative that is full of implied subtext – with details that make the tale even darker – but even at this stage he’s not shy of the disturbing ideas and imagery.

One aspect that remains shocking is the corrupted Nightcrawler. As limbo plays with time, the X-men sent to rescue Illyana come across themselves many years after failing to rescue her. Wolverine and Colossus are dead but Nightcrawler was nearly killed in limbo. Then healed by Belasco, who now owns his soul.

This is presented in the comic as a truly evil character. He attempts to sexually assault Kitty, and delights in suffering. Is this meant to be some reflection of the true Nightcrawler?

Across his run Claremont asks questions about what such corruption and loss of soul actually amounts to. And sometimes it’s hard to know exactly what his answer is. At times the corruption reflects only on elements that were already there twisted and magnified. At other times the act of corruption itself is the erasure of the “good” self to be replaced by an Evil version. We don’t get enough of the story here to know what happened to Nightcrawler here, but it’s definitely easier to see it as the latter.

But it’s all part of what makes this issue work. It captures a uniquely dark, disturbing and genuinely unsettling tone. In Limbo it presents a Hell that avoids much of the cliche – Sym does not easily fit into the tried and tested presentations of Demonic realms. And it is a feeling that lingers after the final panel in a way that has lost none of its power.

Fun Panel

Brent Anderson has tremendous fun with the setting here. Hell is a great excuse to play with some truly dark and striking imagery.

Thoughts

In the Big Giant Book of Claremont Does The Last Thing You’d Expect there is definitely a section highlighting the fact that the story chosen for the first issue post-Byrne is not some epic business-as-usual slugfest, but a dark, melancholy solo Cyclops story. Guest starring Man-Thing, one of the oddest characters to ever carry a Marvel title. And Marvel once had a Coneheads comic.

It’s a genuine oddity, but with some lovely moments. There’s a brief segment away from Cyclops where we see the X-men back at the mansion cleaning up after the events of last issue. Wolverine and Nightcrawler teasing Kitty without realising she’s taking it personally highlights that the inclusion of a teenager in an X-team of adults is going to cause problems.

Also Cyclops’ stint with the crew of the fishing vessel Arcadia is nicely done, slowly revealing more of the character when he no longer has to bother with being a leader.

I find the fantastical side of the story is less successful – D’Spayre seems a ludicrous villain and in its creation of an “imaginary” Hellish landscape it feels too close to the most recent annual.

I remain to this day clueless as to what Man-Thing is meant to be about. This issue is no help whatsoever.

Fun Panel

Beware Giant Sized Jean Grey!

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

The sequence where Cyclops decides to shoot Pool with his Optic Blasts. Because nobody is looking. But also to impress them. It slightly breaks up what’s a really nice plot of the character enjoying downtime and getting on with a the crew of the Arcadia.

Any Googling

More fool me! I genuinely thought this was Claremont as narrator, picking out a genuine quote from an actual philosopher, or at least a character from actual myth who is quoted from elsewhere in the World.

So I decided to find out more about him. Turns out he’s a character from Man Thing continuity. Reading any profile for the character you can find online doesn’t really tempt me to read more Man-Thing.

This is how one of the profiles I found starts. It then gets weird and complicated.