Thoughts

The Dark Phoenix is Back! Apparently.

Riffing on the titles most famous saga so far (if not ever?) this is such an enjoyable issue. Indeed, for me personally, I think this saga is even more entertaining than the earlier one.

Struggling for a name for this adventure, it did get republished in 1990 as the “From The Ashes” trade paperback. It’s how I first came across this story, so its hard not to see issues 168-176 as its own thing. But I also remember how much I enjoyed it – more than the (hugely entertaining) Dark Phoenix Saga.

Both contain a lot of similar elements – they introduce important elements of the mythos, either the Hellfire Club or the Morlocks. They both feature new characters coming into the comic, Kitty and Rogue. They both feature important guest spots from established X-men not on the team, Angel and er.. Angel. There’s Romance, with a dark threat bubbling under and there’s also Wolverine being cool.

The Dark Phoenix Saga takes those elements – and fashions out of them a proper Seventies space epic. It’s pretentious, sure, but it has fun in that universe. But what I enjoy even more about the From The Ashes saga is that while it has all these seemingly epic moments at the heart of it is a very human level story.

Arguably the self-sacrifice of Jean Grey in the earlier saga was very human. But it was All Too Human in the Epic Science Fiction sense. The moment she chooses to die it is framed in the sort of cosmic philosphical terms of this is what makes humans humans. Like a sixties Star Trek adventure, its pomposity is part of the charm.

But “From The Ashes” is all too human because its just about a very human level romance. A romance that been has hijacked by a supervillain to get revenge on the heroes. But there’s something sweet in the way that it’s the realisation that this romance is so real and human that undoes all the vast supervillainy. Cyclops working out what is going on, is a great moment – as is the way that the story sees him unravel the whole thing and bring everything back down to a very human level. And a couple.

Sadly there’s one final parallel with the Dark Phoenix Saga that isn’t great. Just as the finale of that story and its tale of sacrifice is later retconned in a fundamentally flawed way, so the happy ending enjoyed by the loving couple in this is also going to be written out and retconned by editorial decree stupidity. Both sagas, it seems, share a bittersweet, unintended conclusion.

Fun Panel

Another interesting take on a team shot.

Any Googling

This issue marks the departure of Paul Smith from the title. I enjoy his art, so it feels like all too brief a run. Did it end early after more Byrne/Claremont style creative differences?

From what I can find on the internet, no. Smith’s tenure was intended to last this long, reflecting the contract he signed. Indeed his work on the upcoming X-men/Alpha Flight crossover was apparently covered in the sage contract.

Smith’s tenure is so memorable because, on top of a great talent for clear striking pop art visuals, he overseas a redesign for the look of the team, shifting them into the eighties.

Storm is perhaps the most famous and most radical. But there is so much more here – characters casual looks are changing. When they dress to go to the mall they look like good looking mid eighties people heading to the mall.

This is especially noteworthy because the revamp works for the characters even when they’re being super heroic. Simple, effective colourful heroes that again seem tailor made for the eighties.

Whereas other superheroes that might have tried to move with the times back then might look superficially eighties, all too often this feels like a middle aged parent _trying_ to fit in with the times. By contrast the X-men feel like they are living in 1985. What’s more that they’re pretty cool for 1985. And while, like anything cool in 1985, this makes it all look very dated it doesn’t stop it being brilliant.

None More Claremont

This is a absolutely cracking issue for Cyclops. Especially how Claremont has really made the character tick. But i’ll save my comment on all that for the next X-men issue.

Thoughts

The slowly ticking bomb that seemed to be underpinning the last few issues goes off in style at the end of this one. The Phoenix returns in a way that suddenly feels like a genuinely terrifying threat.

Reading this run all together for this blog makes it even easier to spot the clues building towards the reveal. When Cyclops encounters the kindly vicar that had been Mastermind before, it all points to the return of this nemesis. He is setting something up – and that includes Cyclops’ new girlfriend.

The issue walks a clever tightrope, plenty of clues as to the supervillainous scheming going on, set against a sweet and credible romance between Cyclops and Maddie. The growing affection between them seems real enoiugh that you don’t want Cyclops’ concerns to be true and they still sometimes seem like they might be his own paranoia.

Then it all culminates in an absolutely wonderful panel. A shot that hits the reader with the same force Cyclops gets struck with.

And then the final reveal. Dark Phoenix is back – she’d been Maddie all along it seems. But why is she here now? What is her plan and what does it have to do with Mastermind? And just how screwed are the X-men. Great cliffhangers can end on a moment of great peril, but they can also make you hungry for the inevitable exposition. This is a very good example of the latter.

Fun Panel

It’s another gorgeous Smith issue, setting in multiple beautfully drawn locations. But this moment between Cyclops and Maddie is both lovely to look at and help make the readers really care for the couple.

None More Claremont

The Colossus/Kitty romance seems to take another step in this issue, with them reaching the stage of making out alone together. Until Storm disturbs them.

The storytelling so far has intimated that they are quite a chaste partnership, Collosus having put his foot down given Kitty’s age. So the fact that things are progressiving physically seems like quite a bolt. Is this the next comic book romance being developed? Setting up a storyline that wouldn’t age well?

Or alternatively, Marvel’s Secret Wars story arc is probably brewing right now. This issue came out July 1983, half a year before the first Secret Wars issue in January 1984. Were the storyline to be told in that saga being percolated round the Marvel office. Is this development here, primarily to remind us of their couple status given the bombshell thats going to hit it?

Or maybe had Claremont had further plans for the couple, that were derailed by Marvel’s Secret Wars plans?

Thoughts

Spinning directly out of the Wolverine mini-series, the main title sees the team head to Japan to see their Canadian colleague get married. Only to get embroiled in the ongoing Japanese crime syndicate conflict. The Silver Samurai and Viper get to drop in on the action from the recent issues of New Mutants. The whole thing really feels like a nice exercise in pulling a whole load of ideas together. Not just plot strands, but also storytelling styles. Smith gets to have his own go at recreating the way Miller drew epic fights and does a fantastic job.

But he also excels at the personal in this issue. The best illustration of this is the moment that an awkward Rogue waits at the door. Faced with a hostile Wolverine and not sure if she’ll be allowed in. It’s a beautifully realised moment.

This is such a fun issue, full of twists and turns. On one level its quite low key, but everything feels like its building towards something.

Fun Panel

Another fun new team image.

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

It’s hard enough to try an work out what the plan was, if any, with the fact that Karma disappears off-panel between two issues of New Mutants. But this just confuses things. Karma is dead? That’s not the impression we’ve been given.

Especially since this is just a meeting of close friends, it doesn’t make sense to argue that this is the “official” line given the dangers Karma was said to be in. The earlier issues makes it pretty clear that the really the New Mutants are being fobbed off from finding Karma is because its a job for the X-men. Now the X-men are telling each other that she’d dead.

None More Claremont

The fact that this feels like a low-key issue in many respects doesn’t stop it foreshadowing something epic is coming.

In terms of the mythology of the relaunched X-men it still doesn’t get anymore epic than the Phoenix. Nowadays, the Phoenix is a regular returning concept in the mythos of the whole Marvel comics universe – but back then the hint of a return must of felt exciting and intriguing.

How could the Phoenix be back? Does this mean that Cyclops’ new partner is Jean Grey reborn? These teases all hint at endless possibilites at this stage. And as the ending of the Wolverine mini-series has already illustrated, Claremont doesn’t make the obvious decisions in resolving this.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

This issue starts the beginning of a short run where they answer the letters page in character, with different X-men taking it in turns to answer the letters. This managed to be both cringingly twee but quite fun at the same time.

And yes, I am such a giant nerd that it worries me how this could possibly be made to work in terms of the in-comics continuity.

Thoughts

In my opinion the best Claremont issues manage to balance a number of distinct stories within the limited page count. They won’t just include action and excitement, but quiet, personal moments. As the reader we’ll learn something about the characters, maybe when one of them makes a decisive decision – and the characters themselves might learn something about each other. There’ll be a touch of romance, melodrama and a genuine sense of threat and death. For all these reasons, I think this is one of my favourite issues.

Also the best issues have Mystique and Destiny in it. Another plus for this one.

And finally the issue will dangle a brand new idea/concept that the title will go on to develop, and which is genuinely inventive and intriguing.

From the first page to the end, this is a great issue.

Fun Panel

Paul Smith’s creative visual use of “Bamf” as Nightcrawler attempt multiple teleports is subtle, yet striking.

Any Googling

This issue tells the story that Rogue has run away from Mystique and Destiny. As a member of their Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, she’s only featured in the comic before, when Carol Danvers and the X-men come across her on an espionage mission in the Pentagon.

This blog has also taken in her appearance in Avengers Annual 10, primarily because its such an important development for the character that is so important to who she is during the Claremont Run.

But, as the text boxes make clear, this is only a fraction of Rogue’s story up to now. In the Avengers Annual 10 blogpost I mentioned the planned issues of Ms Marvel that were to see Rogue attack Carol Danvers and steal her powers (we only seem the aftermath in comics published at the time). This time I went and researched the Dazzler issues pointed to in this issue.

It’s fascinating to explore this early Rogue history. Especially in issues not written by Claremont. It’s hard to see any indication of Rogue’s upcoming repentence here. She’s a hot tempered bad girl, in a comic that frequently feels incredibly dated in its visuals and dialogue. Dazzler is the fifties Good Girl, conventionally good looking and charming to everyone. Rogue the angry fifties beatnik who (gasps) doesn’t even seem to like men.

It’s slightly surprising that all these early Rogue appearances do not appear to have ever been collected into a single volume. Or even been a time periods that a subsequent writer has decided to do a flashback mini series about. They make for interesting reading, and probably do belong in a completists collection.

One aside from reading the Dazzler issues is that we learn that Rogue is only after Dazzler to get to the X-men. And that she is (briefly) placated by being told that the X-men (currently out on their Brood space adventures) are Dead. Alongside the origins of the New Mutants, the suggestion that the X-men are Dead seems to be important here. Which is curious because its something that you don’t get the impression that anyone thinks the X-men are really dead if you just read Uncanny X-men. They’re off on an adventure. I guess the dead angle was more useful for those other stories – and wasn’t really needed in the main one.

Anyway – here’s the last of Rogue from the Dazzler title. Finally defeated, apparently, by Alison – and dumped into a car and returned to Destiny and Mystique. The next thing she does is flee and get on a bus heading for Westchester…

Thoughts

The big Epic Brood saga definitely positivey really we-mean-it honest ends with this issue – which also sees the X-men return to Earth and meet the New Mutants. And take on seemingly the last of the Brood, inhabiting Professor Xavier himself.

The issue moves at a fantastic pace, and milks the Brood for a few final creepy moments. Not least the seemingly final transformation of Xavier. When he slumps in his chair, it seems like a terrible irreversible moment.

It turns out to be not only reversible bit the beginning of a reinvention of Xavier, taking him out the wheelchair. One of the mantras about comics – being an ongoing medium that has spanned decades is that the stories should give the “illusion of change”. But one of the fascinating features of the Claremont Run is that he makes change seem real. The characters are so well defined that any developments feel important. Xavier stands up (briefly) here and it feels big.

Alongside the defeat of the Brood, the issue is full of brilliantly written tiny moments that help define the characters of the X-men and the New Mutants. I could pick half a dozen, but I’ll just focus on this one that says so much with so little and some striking Paul Smith Pop Art.

Fun Panel

All Hail The Fantastic Paul Smith Point

None More Claremont

Another beautiful Paul Smith drawing, capturing some lovely Claremont moments. These aren’t the sort of grim/gritty heroes that were to become popular in the Eighties. Nor are they the earnest heroes of the golden age. These are just sweet characters you’d want as friends.

Thoughts

Paul Smith begins his all-too-brief but incredibly influential run on the Xmen mid-story. But what a story! Claremont is building an intriguing and inventive sci-fi tale here, while never losing sight of the fact that the X-men seem doomed.

The writing here is especially strong for Storm. She gets a tale where the events are driven by her ideology. By her reaction to a dilemma. A reaction that feed nicely into a Big High Concept Sci-Fi Idea. While at no time ever feeling po-faced or as if we are being lectured by the narrative.

I do wonder whether the film Solaris was the inspiration behind Storm’s attempts to manifest to the crew. It’s a great sequence though, where the mystery of it all drives another beautifully paced issue.

Away from the focus on Storm, we get to see all the X-men face what might be there death. As ever, Claremont uses this to build bonds between characters and we get more of the friendship between Wolverine and Nightcrawler. Some comic writers make their characters friends by having them dwell on what they have in common, but I think this friendship is so affecting because thats not the route Claremont goes down here.

It all builds to a great cliffhanger, setting us up for the finale in a special Double Sized issue.

Fun Panel

Paul Smith’s art impresses from the off with his simple, colourful designwork. If there’s a minor criticism it is that a few of the panels where characters interact feel strangely static. Not this one though – a beautifully energetic yet dark moment captured perfectly.

None More Claremont

Claremont returns to the teen romance of Kitty and Collossus here, as we see them face the prospect of Death together. This issue goes straight to the heart of their relationship and what feels awkward to read about it. Facing death, Kitty effectively propositions Colossus. If they are going to die, why not? Colossus says No, due to the age difference.

To have a character who is still, in the comics, thirteen years old talk in this way feels like new ground – but new ground that it feels troubling that the comic is breaking into. It’s not an easy moment to read and yet, character-wise it feels utterly genuine. There is nothing unrealistic here, and it feels like it gives us an insight into both characters that could not have been illustrated any other way.

This isn’t treating the matter coyly – or even trying to nudge nudge wink wink to the audience something that would not have aged well at all. Just a genuine scene of human emotions.

Thoughts

The Marvel Fanfare run ends with Paul Smith’s first X-men adventure. It’s great to see his first take on the characters, given his future brief but highly influential run as main artist.

Ka Zar returns from an impossibly convoluted absence (it gets explained in this issue but I still don’t really understand it) and helps the X-men defeat Not-The-Tolkien-One Sauron. Angel once again gets more to do than at any time while actually getting his face on the top left box of the X-men front covers.

One big disappointment with this issue is that after the first two issues set up the fact that the Bag Guys have an Evil Laser that can turn you into a Monster appropriate to your powers, and with the last issue ending with Colossus being transformed by that Evil Laser, there is virtually none of that in this issue.

There’s so much visual and storytelling fun that could be had with Evil Mutated versions of Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm and Wolverine on the loose. Maybe taking on Angel, who’d finally get to be centre of a heroic story. Instead we learn they are being mutated, only for Sauron (Not-The-Tolkien-One) to restore them to normal as a food source. And then the normal X-men escape. And win.

Karl Lykos gets cured of being Sauron (although that’s obviously not going to last) and we get a happy ending to a pretty inconsequential four issue story.

Fun Panel

A brief glimpse of cool monster Nightcrawler.

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

Sauron (Not-The Tolkien-One) is going to increase his power geometrically. How exactly is that going to work? He’s going to be better at geomatry? Super shapes?

It was a Product of its Time

There’s something dodgily colonial in the presentation of “ignorant swamp savages” and the way the text wants us to hate them. As if White Saviour Ka Zar wasn’t bad enough.