A
couple days late, but here goes…
UNCANNY X-MEN #493 (2008)
We’re
knee deep in the Messiah CompleX crossover here, and I’m also a few months into
my tenure as a freshly minted Marvel employee, so this is a book I actually
worked to promote. The plans for what was going on in X-Men were already pretty
pat at this point (I knew the next year or so of stories even when I was back
at Wizard) and I was still getting my sea legs as far as Marvel.com, so we didn’t
do a whole lot on this—instead getting g ready for what was coming after,
working a few months out—but it was cool to be involved. I was particularly
enjoying this storyline both as a fan and somebody on the inside because it
reminded me a lot of X-Cutioner’s Song and big crossovers of that ilk, where
all the teams were involved, various masterminds were working at cross purposes—some
villainous, some more shades of gray—and heavy emotional stuff was broken up by
big fights, like the one in this issue where the Sentinels placed at the Xavier
Institute by the government go haywire. Even though I don’t think any of the
writers involved in Messiah CompleX were big X-Cutioner’s Song fans—I believe
at the least Ed Brubaker and Mike Carey weren’t that familiar; I could see Chris
Yost and Craig Kyle digging it; and of course Peter David actually worked on
both stories—editors Nick Lowe and Will Panzo were (and are) big time. I really
love David Finch’s cover here and also was a big fan of the New X-Men “kids”
like Gentle getting a chance to shine against the Sentinels, as that was
another thing I always liked about X-Men crossovers: the characters you didn’t
expect to getting their moments.
UNCANNY X-MEN #416 (2003)
Another
relatively standalone issue near the beginning of Chuck Austen’s run as Uncanny
X-Men writer, and while I really dug both his opening arc and the Northstar
story I discussed last time, I think this was the first time he overdosed a
little on the soap opera (and this is coming from the world’s biggest Melrose
Place fan). One piece of drama that seemed a bit forced was Nightcrawler asking
Iceman if he wanted to go to the brothel Stacy X used to work at to help
retrieve her belongings and then Bobby going off on Kurt kinda out of nowhere
about how the original five X-Men were the only “real” X-Men, despite the fact
I’m pretty sure Nightcrawler had logged as much if not more time than him on
the various teams at that point. There are also several scenes in the school
infirmary focusing on new character Annie, a nurse who has fallen in love with
the comatose Havok, having gossipy conversations with Stacy, Northstar and
others that come off as belonging somewhere else. There’s a nice subplot with
Juggernaut and Sammy the Squid Boy where they bond over how crappy their childhoods
were or something, but it wasn’t particularly memorable. I appreciated what
Austen was trying to do, as he kind of had a lot of the same melodrama
sensibilities I do, but it sometimes felt like he was trying to fit a lot of
square pegs into round holes with his subplots and abrupt changes in characters’
personalities. Probably more interesting is seeing Manga artist Kia Asamiya’s
take on the team, which was really unique and cool; I dug it even more when he
got to open up with more action in the months to come.
UNCANNY X-MEN #352 (1998)
I
picked this issue up on eBay sometime around 2004 when I was trying to fill in
the holes in my collection, particularly the mid-90’s stuff. I love that it
boasts right front and center on the cover “Featuring possibly the most artists
ever on one title!” It’s a crazy awesome array of artists who would become big
a couple years later like John Cassaday and Tommy Lee Edwards plus folks on the
cusp like Terry Dodson and J.H. Williams III rounded out by the likes of Darryl
Banks and Cully Hamner. The story is a bit of a throwaway, with Cyclops and
Phoenix, who recently left the X-Men, flying back to Alaska and foiling a weird
A.I.M. plot; meanwhile, back in Westchester, Archangel gets yelled at for not
being around much and Cannonball gets a letter from Meltdown as he’s being
budged off the team back to X-Force.
UNCANNY X-MEN #297 (1993)
One
of my very favorite issues from when I was a kid that I think still holds up
today as this is the epilogue to X-Cutioner’s Song—one of them at least—by
Scott Lobdell and a young Brandon Peterson following three stories involving
pairs of X-Men in the fallout of all the chaos. First up, Beast and Archangel
fix the damages done by Caliban to Harry’s Hideaway, the local bar and
restaurant the X-Men are always going to, and reminisce about their formative
years at Xavier’s School, including a great bit where Warren remembers how he
paid Hank to write one of his papers for him and got screwed when Professor X
asked them to deliver the reports telepathically, then Hank admitting he tipped
off Xavier—after he cashed the check—leading a stoic Warren to spray him with
wood varnish. It’s a nice sentimental bit, and especially neat to see the
at-this-time ansgty as all hell Archangel get razzed by his old buddy and smile
a bit (they also get caught roughhousing by a cop and use their image inducers
to pose as normal construction workers). Second there’s a short but sweet and
crucial interlude with Rogue and Gambit where, for the first time, their
flirting of the past couple years goes to the next level as she calls him out
on the fact that he always teases her knowing they can’t touch, he walks away,
then returns with a blanket to keep her warm and they share a tender moment. Last
but not least, Jubilee encounters Professor X, who has regained his ability to
walk temporarily, and convinces him he should try rollerblading, only to pull
off a pier in a playful way (not a “trying to kill him”) way. They have a
conversation about how he normally intimidates her but she’s seeing he’s
actually pretty normal, which he takes as a compliment. At the end, he starts
walking back toward his wheelchair, the lingering effects of the Techno-Organic
virus cure wearing off, and when he starts to stumble, after initial
reluctance, she helps him in the silent final panels. Since Jubilee came
onboard during the period Professor X was away and never really had much of a
bond with him, this was a neat idea. This issue was truly Lobdell at his best.
UNCANNY X-MEN #226 (1988)
The
penultimate chapter to Fall of the Mutants; I picked it up during that same
eBay X-Men run, but it’s back in Boston and just looking at the cover, I
honestly can’t recall much about it. I remember more about the actual finale,
where Forge screws everything up as usual and the X-Men fly up to where the
Adversary is by using a combination of Storm’s winds with Longshot’s hollow
bones and good luck powers (Longshot would end up being the big hero at the end
of Inferno as well, so I guess Chris Claremont really liked him). Honestly, the
thing that stands out most to me about this was that for some reason this issue
was double-sized and the last chapter was not; I also liked the subplot with
the reporters going into the war zone with the X-Men because they wanted to
show the world mutants were ok.
UNCANNY X-MEN #166 (1983)
Another
extra-sized issue that was technically only the second to last chapter of a big
story, although #167 was really more epilogue anyway. This was the finish
proper to the awesome first real Brood epic by Claremont where Paul Smith has
taken over on art at this point and is doing a stellar job (just look at that
cover). Cyclops gets taken over by the Brood egg inside him, screwing the X-Men
big time (and leading to a great Cyclops/Wolverine fight), but ultimately gains
control long enough to help turn the tide along with the newly-repowered Binary
and Storm riding a big ol’ space whale. Lockheed also makes his debut (I think)
here, saving Kitty Pryde and helping her head back into battle. Overall it’s
just a satisfying story to read, as Claremont had done a great job really
making me hate the Brood because of the gross and horribly invasive way they
had gone after the X-Men and because our heroes had been through so much over
the past several issues, so their win feels earned and good. It’s also a story
with consequences, as Kitty in particular does not feel like the same character
who came in, very much scarred and battle hardened by the experience, but
struggling to hang on to her innocence. Finally, there’s a great cliffhanger,
as the X-Men realize that there’s one Brood egg left, and it’s incubating in
Professor X back on Earth…
X-MEN #109 (1978)
The
X-Men are freshly back from their first real space adventure with the Shi’ar,
and while Jean Grey tells her parents about becoming Phoenix, Wolverine along
with Storm, Colossus, Banshee and Moira MacTaggert get ambushed on a picnic by
Weapon Alpha, aka James Hudson, Wolvie’s old boss in what would become Alpha
Flight as well as the future Guardians of that same team’s fame. It’s the first
real hints of Wolverine’s past beyond the scene where Xavier recruited him from
Canadian intelligence back in Giant-Size X-Men #1, and also the doorway to a
bunch of great characters, as Mac would return not long after with Northstar,
Sasquatch, et al. in tow. To this day, Dave Cockrum’s design for Weapon
Alpha/Guardians stands out as a really slick one that you don’t need to be
Canadian to appreciate, I don’t think. This issue was more or less faithfully
adapted by the 90’s animated series in the “Repo Man” episode (they probably
had Rogue and Gambit doing all the Colossus and Banshee stuff, I don’t recall).
