X-Men

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Claremont and Cockrum execute a sort of tonal segue into the Wolverine mini with Uncanny X-Men #162, a solo Wolverine story that utilizes the same first-person narrative captions, and also apes the miniseries’ use of Mariko Yashida as a touchstone for the deepening of Wolverine’s char...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Claremont gently segues readers into the meat of the issue – an extended flashback revealing how Xavier and Magneto first met. (When this issue was first published, that Xavier and Magneto had any history pre-Lee/Kirby’s X-Men #1 was a watershed revelation. But anyone reading this comic...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) If not immediately obvious from the opening seduction of Illyana, the theme is signaled in Claremont’s most shockingly explicit scene yet, when an alternate-reality version of Nightcrawler molests Kitty Pryde. Though the panels are conceived subtly enough to circumvent the Comics C...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Of course, the most significant aspect of issue 158 in X-Men history is that it contains the first appearance in the series of Rogue. She will go on to become the second member of the X-Men actually created by Chris Claremont (the first being Kitty Pryde), and actually emerge as a fan favorit...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Guest blogger Jason Powell continues his issue by issue look at Chris Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men Run. For more in this series, see the toolbar on the right.] I would love to see someone really make Dracula work as an X-Men villain. I wish Morrison had done it in some looney annual.]

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) As in the previous issue, the X-Men occasionally get lost in the shuffle of this one. Instead of assimilating the genre trappings – as occurred in the awesome sci-fi of “Days of Future Past” – the X-Men here get a bit swallowed up in the space opera elements so exuberantly delineated by Dave C...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) On the other hand, the tight plotting exhibited by Claremont in the previous two issues slackens a bit here. His impulse to again top himself by making the scope of the story even more vast now works against him, as the actual X-Men, who are meant to be the stars of the series, get lost among the...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Astonishing X-Men 26. Last month I said I was going to stick with this because of the art and Ellis being high profile, and the fact that I love the X-Men. But this issue just did not do it for me in a big way, and I think I am dropping this. Discussions take too long: Morrison had this scene in his X-Me...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) On the negative side, why is Kitty once again spending half the issue in a bikini? The repeated objectification of a 13-year-old girl is starting to become distinctly discomforting. (Kitty’s four-panel fashion show for Kurt is a joke for long-time readers, reprising Nightcrawler’s im...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) In mid-1981 – around the same time that Uncanny X-Men was seeing an expansion of the supporting cast in the form of such notable females as Stevie Hunter, Carol Danvers and Illyana Rasputin – Marvel’s black-and-white tabloid-size comic book Bizarre Adventures came out with an X-themed...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Claremont has some fun with the reactions of the eavesdropping “real” versions of Nightcrawler and Wolverine to their bedtime-story counterparts, but generally speaking proves incapable of matching his partner’s sense of whimsy. The author even admits as much in his intro to a reprin...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Also notable is the implied parity between the X-Men and the Hellfire Club in Storm’s dialogue of the final panel. Like Charles’ musing in issue 149 that he and Magneto are “uncomfortably alike” – which hints at Magneto’s eventual replacement of Professor X in issue 200 – the pointing out o...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Because Dave Cockrum’s style is so un-subtle, he’s easy to take for granted. But, as the tour-de-force of Uncanny #150 demonstrated, he is a superb comic book illustrator, one of the true innovators of the superhero genre. And his presence is badly missed in this and the following issue of t...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) As he demonstrated with the awesome Uncanny X-Men #150, Claremont has by now realized that the way to avoid turning into a hack who rehashes his own hits is to write stories that inherently prevent their own repetition. In “I, Magneto,” Claremont added a new layer of depth to Magneto that wo...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) The greatest single accomplishment of Claremont’s original 17-year X-Men run is his character arc for Magneto, transforming a previously one-dimensional villain into one of the most powerful and tragic characters in Marvel’s vast stable. “I, Magneto” is a key chapter in Magneto’s tr...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Uncanny X-Men 500. My local comic shop lost a box or something, so you guys are going to have to review this one for me, at least until I get it. The Wolverine / Kitty Pride Miniseries. I have not read this republished 80s story yet, but it is all part of my plan to read all of Claremont's X-Men. I have l...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) The best part of “And the Dead” occurs on the third page, when Xavier thinks to himself, “In too many ways ... Magneto and I are uncomfortably alike.” At this point, Claremont and Cockrum have already begun to devise the Holocaust backstory for Magneto that will make its first appearance next i...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Claremont was superhero comics’ first feminist writer. He clearly had an affection for Storm -- the “new” X-Men’s only female member originally – right from the start. Indeed, it is Ororo who saves the day in Uncanny X-Men #96, the first X-Men issue that Claremont plotted. (Cockrum’s favor...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) A noteworthy step in Wolverine’s development occurs in this issue when Wolverine employs an “old ninja trick” that he “learned in Japan” during a duel with Nightcrawler. Logan’s affinity for Japan was first introduced during Byrne and Claremont’s Moses Magnum arc (issues 118-119), an...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) From there, though, “Rogue Storm” settles into a fairly rote retread of the previous Arcade story: each member of the team busts out of his individual trap, and they all converge upon the villain. In spite of Dr. Doom’s inclusion, there is little to distinguish the story beats here from thos...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) The Murderworld sequence starring the secondary team is much more fun. Because my first exposure to the X-Men comic was a Murderworld issue, I do have some biased affection for the concept – and there’s something inherently chilling about the idea of a fairground carnival atmosphere wit...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Jim Shooter has commented in interviews that Claremont and Byrne became aggressively competitive once Byrne moved from X-Men to Fantastic Four, and that Byrne’s unprofessional ret-conning of Claremont’s story was a manifestation of that rivalry. It’s possible that Claremont’s sub...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) The perfunctory use of the other characters – who appear briefly at the start and end of the issue – also fails to inspire. Wolverine almost kills Kurt in anger (possibly another allusion to the earlier N’Garai issue, which contained a similar scene); Colossus blushes when Kitty kisses hi...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) As villain teams go, the new Brotherhood are a fairly strong and well-conceived group. Their powers are clear yet imaginative (Avalanche’s being particularly fun); the battle between them and the X-Men is once again beautifully choreographed by Byrne; and it’s cute that the lineup con...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) “Days of Future Past” begins in the year 2013 with mutants – including the last few surviving X-Men – living in a concentration camp. The specific year was possibly chosen deliberately as the 50-year anniversary of the publication of X-Men #1.

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Curiously, the same flashback also implies that it was the Canadian Secret Service that gave Wolverine his adamantium claws and skeleton, and Wolverine knows it. Over time, this idea will be tacitly ret-conned, but here it is given as Wolverine’s main reason for abandoning the Secret Se...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) John Romita Jr. has drawn hundreds upon hundreds of gorgeous images in dozens and dozens of Marvel Comics, including an underrated run on Uncanny (which I’ll cover eventually, of course). So it’s hard to imagine that he ever produced something that wasn’t beautiful. But, back in 1980, he pe...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) The b-sides of Classic X-Men issues 41 and 42 are two halves of a story set entirely in the past, when Cyclops was 12 years old and still living in the orphanage in Nebraska. Published in late 1989, it functions as both prequel and epilogue to the previous year’s “Inferno,” a much-maligned X-...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) John Byrne professes to have been a fan of the X-Men “from Day One.” That being the case, he was always keen – once he was assigned as artist on the “new” incarnation of the series – to eventually get all five of the original X-Men back into the comic. In the end, he managed to import all but Iceman (...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Masque" could just be an exotic spelling of mask. Or Claremont may know that the OED defines "masque" as "A form of courtly dramatic entertainment, often richly symbolic, in which music and dancing played a substantial part, costumes and stage machinery tended to be elaborate, and the au...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) A fine variation upon the structure exists here. After being trounced by the Hellfire Club in issue 132, the X-Men spent the following issue with all but Cyclops and Wolverine treading narrative water as prisoners, only to rally here in one of the most exciting superhero action sequences...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) The same can’t be said, unfortunately, of this issue’s final panel – Byrne and Austin’s phenomenal image of Wolverine emerging from a river of sewage. It’s the single most iconic Wolverine image ever, but it has become difficult to enjoy now that latter-day X-Men writers and artists have...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Kitty gets to use her phasing powers to rescue Wolverine, realizing in the process that when she phases through electronic equipment, she short-circuits it. (Byrne and Claremont clearly are already keen to have fun with their brand new creation.) Colossus has his moment in the sun when he...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) On the other hand, the feigned step backwards into the Silver Age might not have been Claremont and Byrne’s idea. Byrne complains in “Comics Creators on X-Men” that around the time that the Dark Phoenix Saga was just about to get underway, Marvel Editor in Chief Jim Shooter got a “bee in his b...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Worried that Wolverine needs to snap out of it or end up “permanently gun-shy,” Cyclops decides to pick a fight with him, in a scene that is simultaneously cool and, at times, humorous. (The panel with Cyclops emptying a mug of coffee into Wolverine’s face and Wolverine petulantly shoutin...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) It’s great to see Claremont and Byrne finally beginning to weave together these long-running threads, and the momentum will only increase over the next year’s worth of issues. There’s only one subplot page that will continue to dangle for quite some time: a surprisingly introspective i...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) The result for Colossus on a personal level are deeply tragic. He has to remain, officially, a traitor in the eyes of everyone, even his parents. He may return to the X-Men – Vazhin even encourages that choice, since the X-Men are international heroes – but once he does, he must stay out of Russ...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) For all its below-par plotting, the artwork in X-Men Annual #3 is jaw-dropping. It’s penciled by George Perez and inked by Terry Austin, arguably the two most detail-minded artists at Marvel in 1979 (or possibly ever). The result is that virtually every panel has dizzying amounts of detai...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) The issue gave the 10-year-old me everything I could possibly have wanted from a superhero comic. Right from page 4, with Wolverine and Cyclops fighting Colossus, I was in Heaven. Wolverine even says, “I always wondered if my adamantium claws would cut your steel hide, Russkie.” I had wonde...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Meanwhile, the superhero action of this issue – the X-Men trapped in Arcade’s Murderworld – is once again solid work from Byrne/Austin. A particularly neat and subtle art detail is the thick black border used around every panel set in Arcade’s control room. As for the story, Claremont esse...

By Geoff Klock To end the story, Claremont makes explicit his Cyclops/Wolverine role reversal from last issue. We’re again treated to a Cyclops who’s so angry he’s ready to beat an enemy who’s already down. Wolverine stops him, and Scott says, “What gives, Wolverine? I thought I’d be the one holding you b...

By Geoff Klock And in the final couple pages, some unexpected role reversal: Wolverine, while thinking about Mariko Yashida (who earlier became the first character in Uncanny to learn Wolverine’s real name), asks himself, “Love. Who needs it?” Then answers, “Me.” On the very next page, Cyclops closes...

By Geoff Klock We’re now entering the phase of the title’s history wherein almost every issue inches the series closer to the sublimely climactic nine-part “Dark Phoenix Saga.” Claremont and Bolton’s final “Classic” collaboration gets the ball rolling, with a Jean Grey solo story also featuring Jas...

By Geoff Klock This is the third such moment in the Claremont/Byrne run – not only containing a revelation about Wolverine’s character but, perhaps more importantly, conveying Wolverine’s casualness regarding the revelation. In issue #109, Storm told Wolverine she had “misjudged” him after she le...

By Geoff Klock Generally speaking, Claremont characters are not usually “cool.” They are many other things, of course – charismatic, dynamic, fascinating, sweet, adorable, intense, tragic – but the only consistently cool character in Claremont’s large menagerie of X-characters is Wolverine.

By Geoff Klock Byrne also continues his agenda to make Wolverine a fan favorite with the first half of “To Save the Savage Land,” as it depicts Wolverine displaying a new ability (to communicate with Ka-Zar’s pet sabretooth tiger), acting as a competent substitute leader when Cyclops is captured, and...

By Geoff Klock “First Love” expands on the tantalizing (if uncharacteristic) bit from Uncanny X-Men #114, featuring Colossus and two female members of the Fall People going to visit a “special island.” That thread is here woven in to a story that also works as a sequel to the Colossus solo story publishe...

By Geoff Klock The two-page spread on Pages 2 and 3, with Wolverine attacking Sauron, is a true widescreen visual treat. From there, the entire first half of the comic demonstrates Byrne’s talent for fight choreography, with Cyclops and Banshee in particular getting some good licks in. Cyclops blastin...

By Geoff Klock “I, Magneto” is my favorite X-Men story of all time. The b-story in Classic X-Men #12, “A Fire in the Night,” depicts Magneto’s life in the years immediately following his escape from Auschwitz. There, Claremont plants the seeds of Magneto’s villainy, in that we see several massive traged...

By Geoff Klock “Magneto Triumphant” is part one of a two-part story that is considered by a large number of X-Men fans to be the best straight-ahead “X-Men vs. Magneto” story. It is the last one Claremont will do – after this, Claremont begins the deepening of Magneto into a noble character, so the pure, “go...

By Geoff Klock The running gag here is that each dramatic turn keys off of Mesmero’s lack of imagination. He hypnotizes Jean Grey to have sex with her. When he can’t do that, he combines his hypnotic power with her telepathy to infiltrate the mansion and capture the rest of the X-Men. All he can think of to do th...

By Geoff Klock From here, the X-Men will face Magneto, then go to the Savage Land and team up with Ka-Zar, fight Sauron, go to Japan and team up with Sunfire, then fight Canadian superheroes (which is what Wolverine was when he first appeared in The Incredible Hulk). For good measure, Claremont and Byrne e...