UNCANNY X-MEN #489 (2007)
This
was (I believe) the penultimate chapter of “The Extremists” by Ed Brubaker and
Salvador Larroca, where Masque was trying to twist ancient prophecies to serve
his own ends and rally the Morlocks around him while Storm and the X-Men were
trying to stop him. This was the issue with the “Skids is an Agent of
S.H.I.E.L.D.” reveal I liked. That would be a neat plot thread for somebody to
follow up on even today. Skids is an interesting character in that she was
something of a blank slate personality-wise when she first showed up in
X-Factor (spunky teen girl), but probably because she was seen as expendable,
she’s been subjected to so much trauma through the years (getting brainwashed
by Stryfe, getting brainwashed by Magneto, watching Rusty get killed, getting
kidnapped after trying to start a normal life) it makes her a potentially
interesting character by default, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. angle would be cool to
explore.
The
Morlocks are another X-Men standby that to the best of my recollection have
been recently untouched, possibly even since this story. They’re a great
classic Claremont creation—the mutants so ugly and disenfranchised they make
the X-Men seem accepted—who have actually always translated well to other
mediums for my money (I love the Morlock episodes of the 90’s animated series
and there was some great stuff in X-Men: Evolution as well). I’ve also always
been intrigued/disturbed by Masque, who doesn’t seem to have a particularly
dangerous power, but uses it in aggressive ways like taking away people’s
ability to breathe, and makes up for physical shortcomings with a cult of
personality approach.
This
issue also guest-starred The Thing, as Storm was part of the Fantastic Four at
the time. That was a fun era that flew by too briefly, but what I liked here
was getting to see a relationship between Ororo and her new teammates, as her
hubby The Black Panther got the bulk of the attention elsewhere.
UNCANNY X-MEN #410 (2002)
With
the first part of a story arc called “Hope” began the controversial X-Men
writing tenure of Chuck Austen, so because while he had some fans, he had more—or
at least louder—detractors who point to his run as among the weakest in
franchise history.
I’m
not going to talk about that run as a larger body here, though, but rather this
issue, which I dug at the time and felt represented a great jumping on point
for new readers and a nice more classic super hero alternative to what Grant
Morrison was doing over on New X-Men (and Joe Casey had done in his preceding
work).
The
issue began with the introduction of Sammy, a boy with a squid head who would
become the poster child for those who did not enjoy Austen’s work, but here
represented a mutant living with an outward curse and no real awesome gift to
balance it—he could breathe underwater—tormented by bullies and without a
stable home life. Professor X and Beast come to retrieve him and bring him to
the Xavier School, basically his wish fulfilled, and in the process Austen
gives a nice microcosm of what X-Men is all about: outcasts who are able to
find safety and grow in a safe haven populated by those with similar
experiences.
On
the action end of the spectrum, the X-Men team Casey left behind of Archangel,
Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Iceman and Stacy X plus somewhat random addition M
respond to a distress call from Muir Island and end up crashing. Professor X
must psychically coach Stacy to save the lives of the others and then
Juggernaut shows up for the cliffhanger.
There
was a lot more character development and soap opera than fighting, which would
become a knock on Austen’s run, but I still like this 10 years later as a
decent comic to hand to a neophyte and say “Here, this is X-Men.” One of the
best of all-time? Not even in the discussion to be in the discussion, but a
story that accomplishes what it set out to.
UNCANNY X-MEN #348 (1997)
I’m
pretty sure I’ve read this issue. I may even own it. But I don’t really
remember it. It came out during the period I wasn’t reading comics in high
school, so it’s likely I picked it up during my binge attempt to fill any X-Men
gap I had around 2003-2004 (still haven’t read much of Claremont’s second run
or the next issue on this docket).
What
I can recall from context is, given that it’s two issues prior to #350 and
Rogue and Gambit are on the cover, it probably focuses in large part on the
latter’s secret past finally being revealed as a result of machinations by
Magneto. I can also see from the cover that this group of X-Men was still clad
in the weird Shi’ar space miner outfits Joe Madureira put them in for an outer
space storyline—which also means this issue had sweet Joe Madureira art!
Searching
the Internet tells me this issue was significant due to Rogue and Gambit having
their powers dampened and thus sleeping together for the first time (or so it
was heavily implied in those innocent days!), so there’s that, but this was
really during the period where Scott Lobdell seemed to be spinning his wheels
after the awesome run that extended over most of my childhood, so not much more
to say.
UNCANNY X-MEN #293 (1992)
Another
issue I’ve never read, and another Morlock story, in fact (billed as “The Last
Morlock Story,” which, if you didn’t make the odd choice to start reading this
post from this section, you know was not true). I believe this was the story
where Colossus and Magik’s crazy brother, Mikhail Rasputin—who was first
mentioned way way back around issue #98 or so as an astronaut who died on his
big mission but was revealed to be alive, living in another dimension and a
mutant like 15 years later because X-Men—drowned most of the Morlocks because
he had been named their leader and though that was a the only solution to their
suffering. I know this mostly because I just read a flashback about it in Cable
Classic Vol. 3 recently.
I
would like to someday get to checking out the brief blank spot I’ve got from
between Bishop’s arrival and X-Cutioner’s Song, and I believe the Essentials
should allow me to do so soon if not already.
To
be continued…
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