UNCANNY X-MEN #495 (2008)
The
first post-Messiah CompleX issue with the Xavier Institute once again
destroyed, Professor X presumed dead (though not for long) and the X-Men having
disbanded, though they’re all still in contact so it seems more like a quick hiatus
than anything else, backed up by the plots that unfold here. I was a few months
into my tenure at Marvel when this came out, and X-Men editor Nick Lowe was one
of the folks from editorial I quickly got along with (especially after he made
me host a company-wide “mustache pageant” in front of four dozen people like my
second day on the job), so both through talking with him and his office as well
as being privy to upcoming plans, I had a pretty good idea of where the X-Men
were headed, which altered my reading of issues like these a bit just as
starting at Wizard a little over three years earlier had. I really dug Cyclops
and Emma Frost’s Savage Land vacation, with Ed Brubaker taking the lead on
making Scott Summers a more likable relatable but simultaneously take charge
character with a mix of humor and focus; it was a baton passed to him by Grant
Morrison and Joss Whedon that he’d in turn hand off to Matt Fraction, Kieron Gillen
and today Brian Michael Bendis. In the other two subplots, Wolverine takes
Colossus and Nightcrawler on a Russian road trip that felt like a throwback a
bit to the Claremont days while Angel investigates a freaky time portal to the
60’s in San Francisco that would lead to big, cool changes. Mike Choi and Sonia
Oback did the art on this arc, and it’s gorgeous.
UNCANNY X-MEN #439-440 (2003)
By
this point, Chuck Austen’s tenure on Uncanny X-Men had gone full-on soap opera
tilt, with these two installments of the “She Lies with Angels” arc being a
pretty prime example. The story had Husk—Cannonball’s younger sister Paige—bringing
Angel home to Kentucky where one of her other siblings, Josh, has gained wings
and other similar-to-Warren powers and anti-mutant unrest has cropped up. It
ends up being a country version of Rome & Juliet with Josh and the daughter
of the mutant-hating sheriff being in love, some of the bigoted good ol’ boys
getting high tech weaponry they plan to use to kill all the Guthries, and the
X-Men getting caught in the middle. Parallel to this, Paige and the far older
Warren have feelings for each other and are trying to find the courage to admit
as much. As a dyed in the wool fan of Melrose Place and other such adult
melodrama, I didn’t mind this period of X-Men history, though I know others got
annoyed that there was a lot of angst and kissing without as much punching and
kicking (I’m actually surprised the aforementioned Nick Lowe, who loves angst
and kissing, wasn’t editing at this point). Regardless, you had beautiful
Salvador Larroca art—with Danny Miki and UDON knocking it out on inks and
colors respectively—and he’s a guy who can draw proclamations of love as well
as he does big battles.
UNCANNY X-MEN #354 (1998)
I…don’t
think I have this issue. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever even read this
issue. It was during the Steve Seagle/Joe Kelly period, which Kiel raves about
but was one of my bigger blind spots. I’ve tracked down some stuff from this
era, but not all, and not this; too bad, looks like a fun one.
UNCANNY X-MEN #299 (1993)
I
remember this issue well, coming as it did a couple months post-X-Cutioner’s
Song, right before the big issue #300, and just prior to Fatal Attractions. These
quiet months between big events are some of my favorites from when I was a kid
as it allowed Scott Lobdell to slow down and focus on some of the emotional
connections he was making between characters while also ramping up the drama to
come. The story kicks off with Forge being called in on an excavation of a
crashed Asteroid M and making the discovery that Magneto’s body was not among
the wreckage. I basically had started reading X-Men comics regularly only a
couple of months earlier, so I had never actually encountered Magneto, what
with him being “dead” at the time, so my only knowledge came from trading cards
and the like; this seemed like a much bigger deal for me than it likely did to
the more seasoned fan trained to expect such resurrections. We also learn more
about the Upstarts and the Gamesmaster—more folks I only knew because I had
their trading cards—including the introduction of Sabretooth’s son, anti-mutant
rabble rouser Graydon Creed. My most vivid memories of this issue, though, are
of two characters that appear out of nowhere and then were never even mentioned
again for as long as I was collecting regularly through high school: a waitress
whom Bishop thinks “seems familiar” and a campaign aide working for Senator
Kelley who tips to Jean Grey that he’s a telepath. Only very recently via
Marvel Handbooks and the Internet did I learn that the waitress was revealed as
Fatale—who?—during around Onslaught when I stopped reading and the aide
returned years later during Joe Kelly’s Deadpool run as Noah Dubois.
UNCANNY X-MEN #228 (1988)
Bridging
the gap between the end of Fall of the Mutants and the X-Men’s rebirth into the
Australian Outback, this is a one issue flashback tale—probably an inventory
story—featuring Wolverine and Dazzler helping a bounty hunter character from
the Dazzler solo series clear his name. Not much of note aside from Rick
Leonardi on fill-in art, always a delight.
UNCANNY X-MEN #168 (1983)
A
memorable issue for multiple reasons, first and foremost that it opens with the
famous “Professor Xavier is a jerk!” splash page with Kitty Pryde whirling
around and pointing her finger at us, as perfectly rendered by Paul Smith. Following
the lengthy Brood epic, the X-Men have returned to Earth and met the New
Mutants, and since there’s now a team specifically for mutants her age,
Professor X wants to bump Kitty down off the adult roster. A pissed off Kitty
spend the first half of the issue pouting like any teenager, than discovers and
defeats—with Lockheed’s help—a nest of alien Sidrian Hunters, proving her worth
and earning a spot back on the X-Men. Wolverine heads off to Japan for his
first limited series while the rest of the cast check in with their loved ones;
just good, classic Claremont stuff. The last big moment, however, comes on the
final page, with the introduction of Madelyne Pryor, an Alaska-bound pilot who
looks exactly like the deceased Jean Grey.
UNCANNY X-MEN #110 (1978)
Another
seeming inventory issue—or close to it—with another legendary guest artist:
Tony DeZuniga. Iron Fist villain Warhawk, a Claremont co-creation, storms the
mansion, trapping most of the X-Men in the Danger Room while he goes one-on-one
with Wolverine until the others bust free (Warhawk would return years later in
a Maverick back-up story drawn by Mark Texeira that I didn’t understand at all
when I was 10). There’s some relationship advancement with Wolvie and Jean Grey
as well as Banshee and Moira MacTaggert, but mostly a downtime story coming off
the original Phoenix Saga. There is one big moment here though: what I believe
is the first X-Men baseball game, which would become a tradition in the
franchise—and one I daresay we’ve gone too long without. Where’s that Nick Lowe
character?
