In which EmperorNorton tries to read every X-Men comic ever

[EmperorNorton]

Uncanny X-Men #161: Xavier vs Therapy Ethics​

With Xavier still in a coma, we get an issue of him working his way out of it psychically. And by that, I mean we get a flashback episode to him in his younger days visiting Israel to help an old friend at a hospital for those who were traumatized from the Holocaust.

Here he meets Magnus (Magneto before he was Magneto) who is working at the hospital helping out where he can and Gabrielle Haller. Gabrielle is catatonic from memories of her time at Dachau during WWII. Xavier uses his powers to help her awaken from it, and all three of them become close. Charles and Magnus become friends, discussing the possibility of mutants (neither admit to the other that they are ones themselves), and Charles of course, ends up in a relationship with Gabrielle, the lady he was just acting as a therapist for.

He even admits IN the comic that this is a questionable action.

​

Anyway, the peace does not last as the entire place is then attacked by Hydra, who kidnap Gabrielle for some reason. Xavier is winged by a bullet and knocked unconsciously for a brief amount of time, but he wakes up to see Magnus ripping one of the fleeing vehicles apart with his powers.

They team up to rescue Haller, and it turns out that she was the key to Baron von Strucker finding some Nazi gold. After they rescue her, Magnus decides that humans can't be trusted and takes all the gold for himself to set up for his later plans as a villain.

After this, Xavier wakes up and they decide to all have a farewell banquet for Lilandra on the Shi'ar flagship. Just as it is starting, Lilandra passes out for no apparent reason. Then Deathbird shows up announces herself the new empress and knocks all the X-Men out with a bomb.

X-Tra Notes: This is a cool backstory issue to be honest. Other than the questionable relationship, this is a really cool addition to the story, introducing Xavier and Magneto being friends before he went all super-villain, and also introducing Gabrielle Haller, who will become important before too long.

 

[EmperorNorton]

Uncanny X-Men #162-164: Wolverine vs Survivor's Guilt​

We start the story in media res, with Wolverine on an alien planet, fighting to survive. He ain't feeling too hot. He's fighting brood warriors, and as he takes a tumble after one fight, we get a flashback to how he got here.

Turns out the Brood Queen was able to use illusions to make them all think they were still at the banquet, and everyone was completely fooled, except Wolverine. Logan's enhanced senses kept on cluing him in to the fact that something was just not right. Turns out, the Brood Queen wanted all the X-Men to use to create more powerful Brood. So all of them are implanted with eggs, only Wolverine, and at the last second, Kitty, seem to realize what was happening.

Wolverine then escaped into the planet to try to figure out what to do. He then wakes up from his flashback, and he comes across Fang (the Shi'ar Imperial Guard) and sees the egg wake up and turn him into a Brood. After that, he starts to realize they've all been implanted, and starts turning himself.

Fortunately for him, his healing factor saw the egg as a foreign body, so it attacked and killed it. But the other X-Men don't have that and Wolverine is now filled with the burning desire to fuck up some Brood and possibly mercy kill his friends.

Next we move on to Carol, who apparently had unique and interesting DNA from her whole Marvel thing, even with her powers gone, so they were experimenting on her instead of turning her into Brood, for the moment. Wolverine discovers her, and sets her free.

Then he proceeds to free the other X-Men, feeling guilty, he doesn't tell them about the eggs yet. They set up a plan to escape, and they split up to rescure Lilandra and to get her yacht. They accomplish both and just as Wolverine was about to gut the Brood Queen they are teleported aboard the yacht and make their escape.

During the escape, Kitty is injured when she has to go EVA to repair something, Storm, losing control of her powers blows up a ship instead of disabling it, to her horror, as she still refuses to kill at this point, and Carol is feeling a bit odd from the experimentation.

After the jump, Carol suddenly turns into Binary, a new set of powers that the Brood had unintentionally unlocked with their experiments, and saves Kitty from outside. And it turns out she is healing weirdly fast (they don't know it, except Wolverine, but the Brood egg is healing its host). Storm realizes the truth when she "feels a life inside of her" (Storm's whole "can sense life" thing never made much sense except for Claremont to make her more "godlike" and special but whatever), and flees the ship in a shuttle.

Wolverine finally explains to everyone about the eggs, and that that was why he was so adamant about killing the Brood Queen. And that he was sorry he didn't tell them earlier but felt guilty about being the only one to survive.

Carol gets so angry she goes Binary and shoots out of the ship to go massacre the Brood in revenge for her friends. Neglecting to actually consider that she breached the hull because apparently she not bright right now.

Throughout the background of these issues, we shoot back to Earth a few times. Corsair tells Havok he is heading out for revenge against the Brood, but leaves him behind because it will be a killing mission and he doesn't want to do that to him. And Xavier is horrendously depressed over the X-Men being "Killed". Also in the Xavier scene we reveal that Illyanna has some form of powers, but she isn't sharing with the class.

X-Tra Notes: I really like the start of the Brood saga. Wolverine being Wolverine, the drama of all of it, the high stakes. Let's see if it sticks the landing...

 

[EmperorNorton]

Uncanny X-Men #165-166: Deus Ex Ceto​

The X-Men quickly deal with the whole in the side of their ship, and Binary is off to go fuck up some Brood. While this is happening and the X-Men are going through their "what next", Storm who just, fucked off and forgot to tell anyone anything is trying to figure out what to do about the Brood in her.

As it starts to wake up she lights up like a star by using the power of a nebula because sure that is how her power works I guess? It kills her and the Brood inside her... but don't worry she'll be back in a bit.

Back on the ship, the various X-Men plus Lilandra are dealing with their trauma. Wolverine, Lilandra, and Cyclops all agree that going back and killing the Queen is the right plan. Then they all sit around and brood on the days to come.

Kitty and Colossus share a romantic moment, where Kitty wants to fuck because "you know, last days alive" but Colossus insists she is too young. Still a weird moment as she cries cause Piotr is keeping it in his pants.

Nightcrawler and Wolverine are drinking. Both sets of people start seeing weird visions of various versions of Storm. They all get together, panicking, and then a giant Acanti ship (the living ships that the Brood lobotomize and use for space travel) swallows them. But no worries, Storm has become one with this Acanti which is still a normal non-lobotomized Acanti so we're all good.

Anyway, here we just get a giant loredump about how the Acanti have one special Acanti called the Prophet-Singer, that their race relies on. This one is a baby Prophet-Singer, but it can't reach its full power unless the soul of the previous one is released (it is being used as the Brood Palace back on their homeworld).

After picking up Binary, who had been exploding Brood everywhere she could find them, they head to go release the soul to save the Acanti race, as they see that as more heroic than just avenging themselves.

They had to the planet, fight their way to the core, find out Cyclops was already turning and was a traitor, they all get captured except Kitty, Kitty meets a little dragon that helps her that she names Lockheed, Cyclops resists long enough to get everyone free, and Kitty regroups with them.

After that, they capture the Queen and force her to take them to the old Prophet-Singer's core. There she betrays them and starts attacking, but Carol uses her powers to free the soul, the new Prophet-Singer now fully powered turns the Queen and all the other Brood into Crystal and magically cures all the X-Men of their Brood eggs, the entire planet explodes right as Corsair beams them all up, and Storm's body is regrown inside the Acanti and she becomes normal again.

Oh and also it turns out that Xavier was implanted at some point (fucking when?) So they are heading back to deal with that. Also, during all this, depressed Xavier has been being convinced by Moira that there are still teen mutants who need his help. He had a letter from Reed Richards about Karma, and he decides he must move on from the "dead" X-Men.

X-Tra Notes: As much as I liked the first half of the Brood saga, the second half is... meh. Storm being a super goddess and then the whole super mystical space whales being the answer to everything and solving all the problems. It just. Idk, it was such an asspull ending. There are good parts of it, but man, the whole space whale thing being the answer to anything and everything was just boring. On the plus side: Lockheed! (who did make it on the ship to leave)

 

[EmperorNorton]

Also note: Man, I don't know latin well enough (at all) to know if Deus is Deus Ex Machina is in nominative or vocative case, I'm assuming nominative to do cetus, becuase unlike deus, cetus has different forms for the two cases. Though I suppose technically the joke should be Deus ex Ceto, God from the Sea Monster, rather than Sea Monster from the Machine? Idk, the joke is still funny to me.

 

[EmperorNorton]

Dazzler #17-24: Angel Is A Stalker​

Dazzler is back. What dumb bullshit is she up to now?

Dazzler #17: Angel has shown up because he is bored with Candy Southern apparently and just decided he should date Dazzler cause she is hot. He harasses her, Dazzler shoots him down, then uses him to make Lawyer boyfriend jealous. Then they accidentally team up to take down Doctor Octopus. Angel is the most entitled asshole ever in this comic. Oh also, Dazzler's dad is totally spazzing out.

Dazzler #18-19: Dazzler versus the Absorbing Man. But wait, there is a bunch of other stuff first. We have to see Angel moving on to annoying Dazzler's grandmother (as he learned Dazzler was looking for her mom and needed a new way to stalk her). And Dazzler's father going even more spaz than in the last issue over the secret of Dazzler's mom. Anyway fight versus the Absorbing Man, Dazzler tries to call for help because he has absorbed her light, Jarvis thinks it is a prank call, and the FF aren't in. She runs to the Baxter Building and pushing random buttons manages to get ahold of the Inhumans. Black Bolt comes down via Best Boy (Lockjaw), and then he uses his voice to power up Dazzler and overload Absorbing Man.

Dazzler #20: Dazzler's Dad has gone full catatonic, mumbling about Dazzler and her mom wanting to destroy him. Dude has gone out of his gourd. But don't worry that isn't what this issue is actually about, this issue is about making babies cry. Dazzler is hanging out at one of her bandmate's apartments when the band's nemesis show up (I think it is hilarious that both her band and her manager have nemeses yet Dazzler somehow doesn't). It's Doctor Sax and Johnny Guitar! One is a blind saxophone player who can play music so bad it hurts people. The other is a Guitarist who can destroy stuff with sound. Also Doc Sax uses his powers to torture a baby.

​

Anyway, she beats them and saves the day. Also, there is a whole background plot going on at this point with a backup singer that Dazzler knows is taking lessons from this voice coach who also turns out to really be Dazzler's mom. Also, Dazzler has a half sister. And Angel going to find Dazzler to try to shock her dad back to normal.

Dazzler #21: She confronts her dad, who snaps out of it and goes ballistic. Cause he is shitty. Also we learn that her mom was a performer and her dad wanted her to quit now that he had a "real job" and that is why they split up. Also, apparently the guy she left him for was an asshole. That's it. That is the whole reason he went psychotic. She might find out that they just split up because she wanted to keep going with her career and he was an asshole about it. That's it. This was not worth this amount of dumb bullshit. Oh and then she has a concert and both her parents end up going and sort of make up (in the sense they don't hate each other anymore, not get back together) and say they understand Alison better now. Oh and a whole gaggle of super-heroes break into her apartment to throw a party.

Dazzler #22: Angel gets attacked by a flock of trained hawks. Turns out that Mystique had trained "anti-personal hawks" no seriously that is what she calls them in the comic to try to capture Angel to get to the X-Men. Anyway, this turns into a big fight and Dazzler and Angel face up against Mystique, Rogue, and Destiny and Dazzler just embarrasses Rogue. Oh and afterward at Dazzler's apartment her half-sister Lois shows up.

Dazzler #23: Dazzler is targeted by an arsonist. She thinks it is the Brotherhood (or well Sisterhood), so she hires Iron Fist and Power Man. Turns out it was just the owner of her building trying to collect insurance money. At any rate, she manages to get help in time so the arsonists, a "supervillain" named Flame attacks her personally. It doesn't work out for him.

Dazzler #24: Rogue wants revenge on Dazzler so breaks into her apartment and waits for her to come home. Luckily for Alison, a neighbor saw it happen and warns her. She sends Iron Fist and Power Man to deal with it and it is kind of a nothingburger fight where neither side wins and Rogue just leaves. Later Rogue tracks down her sister from an address written in the apartment. She ambushes Lois and Dazzler together and Dazzler beats her down with light again with the help of Iron Fist and Power Man.

X-Tra Notes: This whole section is stupid yet somehow still more grounded than past stories. Her dad is a nutcase for freaking out over a completely mundane breakup. The whole section is pure Angel character assassination. It's definitely not the worst section of Dazzler though.

 

[EmperorNorton]

Marvel Graphic Novel #4: So I Started Blasting​

The introduction of the majority of the New Mutants! Illyana and Xuân (Karma) had already been introduced (though Illyana doesn't join until a good bit later), but now we get to see quick vignettes of each of the others dealing with their problems.

Rahne is a Scottish girl who can turn into a wolf. Also she is very religious and the asshole local reverend is a mutant hating jackass. Like, lead a mob with torches after her jackass. Anyway, Moira saves her and takes her to see Xavier. She becomes Wolfsbane.

Roberto is a half black Brazilian heir to a vast fortune who loves soccer and gets superstrength by the power of the sun and it is denoted with this cool black glow look. He powers up the first time during a fight in a soccer match while being watched by a ton of people. He becomes Sunspot.

Sam is the oldest son of a Kentucky coal miner. His dad has died and he's abandoned the plan to go to college to work in the mines himself to support his family. During a cave in, he uses his powers to blast into an invulnerable rocket and saves his boss. He then ends up working for the Hellfire Club because he needs the money. He becomes Cannonball.

And finally, Danielle is a native American girl who has lived on her own for a long while as her parents are dead and her powers pull peoples fears out of their head and makes them visions. Her grandfather is a friend of Xavier's and has sent him a letter to take her in and teach her to use her powers. She becomes Psyche (a name that is used so little I forgot that was her actually code name at this point).

Her grandfather is killed by Hellfire Club soldiers right before Xavier shows up with Rahne and Karma. Luckily, with their help, Dani is able to avoid capture. Xavier has to stop Dani from just gutting one of them with a knife. Understandable on her part to be honest.

Turns out the Hellfire Club is also after Roberto, so the next day Moira, Karma, and Dani travel to Brazil to get in touch with him. Unfortunately, the cops take it as a threat that they are trying to contact him (cause Roberto's father is wealthy and kind of an asshole so probably bought them off to harass them) and tries to arrest them. Karma and Dani escape, Moira is arrested.

Anyway they rescue Sunspot, who was actually trying to rescue his girlfriend. His girlfriend died protecting him unfortunately. Also, Cannonball working for the Hellfire Club captures Xavier. They all track them to the Hellfire Base to learn it is Donald Pierce. It was all a huge anti-mutant agenda thing.

They break in, rescue everyone, including the Hellfire Club's Tessa, who assures them that she will take care of Pierce. Sam learns he was being duped and decides to join them.

X-Tra Notes: I really really liked the New Mutants when I was younger. I still like them today. It is a way better done version of the original concept of the X-Men: teenage mutants being trained to handle their powers while also you know, being teens. This is about as good of an intro to a group book as you could do as well.

 

[EmperorNorton]

New Mutants #1-2: Xavier's Baby Momma​

The New Mutants have made it to the X-Mansion, and they get to know each other a bit more. Also, Dani accidentally recalls Karma's memories of the Vietnam War, and it gets a bit nasty. Stevie Hunter is there to tell them to knock it off though.

A bit later we see them all going to the Danger Room for the first time. Xavier insists that they are not meant to be a superhero team (let's see how that works out for him), but they should be able to use their powers when needed, as the world is dangerous. Each of them face the task of crossing the room. Of course it won't be that easy as there are obstacles in the way. One by one they all fail, until it is Dani's turn, and she is too scared to even try and runs away.

Later, the rest of the New Mutants go with Stevie to the mall, and Dani decides to try it on her own. You know, like she shouldn't do cause that is a dumb idea, because she was afraid of failing in front of everyone (even though they all failed right before her). But oh no, the machines are mysteriously set with the safeties turned off and she is in way more danger than she thought, and she keeps seeing the Brood, and eventually she is knocked unconcious.

While this is going on, Gyrich is starting Project Wideawake, you know, from back when President Carter authorized attacks on civilian mutants way back in Uncanny X-Men #142. While they are leaving the movie theater, US agents try to arrest the New Mutants, but Michael Rossi (I'll forgive you if you have no idea who this guy is, he was Colonel Rossi who was the Lang's government overseer back 4-5 years ago, who was going to shut down the Sentinels, and later was a love interest of Carol Danvers in her books), had warned Stevie Hunter, and they go and rescue the kids.

Unfortunately Wideawake includes Sentinels but the New Mutants beat them down. Seriously, the later Sentinels are straight up bad compared to the ones Bolivar Trask made.

Anyway, they get back to the X-Mansion to discover Dani unconscious in the Danger Room, and she tells them about the scary Brood attack.

Oh, also in a background scene, Moira and Illyana talk to Gabrielle Haller in London. Apparently, she has a problem. Her son is a mutant with crazy powers, but she doesn't want Xavier involved, cause Xavier is the father! This will go quiet for quite some time, but we'll see how it goes.

X-Tra Notes: A lot going on in this one. I'll say that in the more recent work, there is just MORE to cover. It is hard to include a lot of the details that were easy to include early on, cause there weren't that many details. I'm glossing over a good bit of stuff in characterization for instance. Which New Mutants has very strongly recognizable, if one note for the moment, personalities. Roberto tries to be suave and is a rich kid. Sam is a country bumpkin, Rahne is traumatized by her religious upbringing and worries that her mutant powers make her bad. Karma is a bit more bland, and Dani hasn't really hit a groove yet, currently she is "afraid of my powers but also really contrarian for no real reason".

 

[EmperorNorton]

New Mutants #3: Xavier Is A Dick And It Surprisingly Isn't His Fault​

Dani is having creepy dreams of the bear that killed her parents (more on that bear in later issues), and wakes everyone up. Xavier determines that all is fine and that she should go back to sleep.

But Dani gets up in the middle of the night and pulls out her knife, that still has blood from when she stabbed the bear in her dream. Wait a minute. He then hears Xavier on the phone with Moira telling her that Dani is mentally ill and he might have to send her away.

Dani talks to Karma and has her secretly summon the rest of the New Mutants and they try to figure out what is going on. But then the whole landscape goes wild, and they are attacked by the Brood and other crazy monsters. Eventually she realizes that all of it is projections of her powers. She has Sam knock her out and all the problems disappear.

But why were her powers going wild like that? Hmmm... maybe we'll figure out soon. (Or really in the next Uncanny issue: it is because Xavier is being influenced by the Brood egg he has in him.)

X-Tra Notes: You know, for once, Xavier is being a massive asshole, but at least he has a real excuse. Also considering all she could do before were illusions, and it is all she can do for a while after this, this kind of shows how powerful her abilities ACTUALLY are when she has full grasp of them.

 

[Silverlion]

Man, I loved the New Mutants, they're well thought out comparatively.

 

[E-Rocker]

Likewise. That Marvel Graphic Novel No. 4 was a prized possession of my youth.

 

[Tulpa Girl]

Another fan of the New Mutants here.

 

[hawkeyefan]

It wasn't until the New Mutants came along that I actually felt like Xavier's was a school.

 

[Silverlion]

It wasn't until the New Mutants came along that I actually felt like Xavier's was a school.

Totally agreed!
I remember the sleepover when Warlock showed up.

 

[EmperorNorton]

I also really like New Mutants. Like I said, it feels like a better version of the original concept of the main X-Men comic. and yeah, the first time it really feels like a school outside of the first few issues of Uncanny X-Men.

 

[EmperorNorton]

Uncanny X-Men #167: Xavier Stops Brooding​

The X-Men arrive at the mansion while the New Mutants watch Magnum PI (that really dates this issue, huh), and bust in the door looking for Xavier. Confused, as the X-Men are "dead" the New Mutants attack.

There is a fight, the New Mutants make a good showing but of course the X-Men win out with experience. During the fight Kitty sneaks upstairs to try to deal with the Brood Xavier, but she gets blasted down the stairs as the Brood takes him over.

They all fight, the X-Men win, Xavier regains some control and asks Cyclops to take him out, but instead Cyclops takes him to the Starjammer, where Moira and Sikorsky (the Starjammer doctor) clone him a whole new body to transfer his mind into. (Wait, that was an option? We didn't need a whole ass magical space whale? Was it just because he was a psychic and could like, astral plane walk over to the new body? No, no, they actually comment that they do a brain transplant...)

After that we get a few scenes like Storm observing Kitty with Illyana and Piotr and feeling sorry for herself, which is a weird reaction to be honest. And Nightcrawler cheering her up. And Scott asking his dad about maybe joining the Starjammers when he leaves. Then Corsair is like, oh but don't you want to visit your grandparents first. Wait, what? HE HAD GRANDPARENTS. ALIVE. THE WHOLE TIME.

Let's just not think about that one too hard. Anyway, Xavier is all good in his new body! He can even walk, though some psychosomatic pain keeps him from being able to do it too often. He then announces that Kitty can now join the New Mutants, to everyone's surprise.

X-Tra Notes: This story is really odd. It is like a quick wrapping up of a big threat so quickly and bizarrely fast. They made a big deal about this and just... wrapped it up in one comic. Really like the first half of the comic. Oh, also there is a scene where Lilandra calls up Reed Richards to tell him he is going on trial for saving Galactus. This was part of the ongoing Claremont v Byrne snipe fest of the era, an attempt to force him to write his way out of the situation. It was specifically a retaliation to Byrne making the Doom that showed up and tried to enslave Storm a Doombot.

Uncanny X-Men #168: Professor Xavier Is A Jerk!​

Ok, was there really anything else I could name this entry?

​

The panel is honestly a meme at this point, and this is the issue it came from. So Kitty has been demoted to the New Mutants (which she insists on calling the X-Babies, honestly the New Mutants are more mature than she is), and she wants to get back into Xavier's good graces to rejoin the X-Men.

All the other X-Men agree that she should be with them, but none are going to override Xavier. Anyway, the main story here is that after trying every possible way to convince Xavier (begging, reasoning, flattering), she ends up running into an intruder. The Sidrian Hunters apparently left an... I don't know egg sac? down in the maintenance tunnels and now it has hatched. She fights it off, joined by Lockheed who makes his presence on Earth known, and then Colossus arrives to help. In the end because of how well she handled it, Xavier agrees to let her stay with the X-Men, on a provisional basis.

In the background is a whole bunch of other things going on. Logan is preparing for a vacation to Canada. Xavier is trying to exercise his legs and get over the problems he has with walking with Lilandra's help. They discuss how she needs to go back home to the Empire, and that he says he can't leave with her as he is needed here. Storm finds herself less in control of her emotions than before. Nightcrawler goes to visit Amanda Sefton and announce he is actually alive.

And finally, we get to the end of the comic, where Scott goes to Florida to tell Lee he is alive. Then heads to Alaska with his dad and brother, only to discover that the pilot picking them up to take them to his grandparents house, a woman named Madelyne Pryor, looks identical to Jean Grey.

X-Tra Notes: This is another of the "let's wrap up a bunch of little things, while also advancing a lot of small plots for the future" issues that I've noticed Claremont likes to do. The main plot is throwaway, and just used as a backdrop to all the little stuff like Logan leaving for a bit, Scott meeting Madelyne, Storm getting a bit more wild, etc. Also, just to say: I'm not going to include this in the "Xavier did a bad thing" list, as to be honest, I get where he is coming from with trying to put her with the New Mutants.

 

[EmperorNorton]

Marvel Graphic Novel #5: God Loves, Man Kills, Kitty Says Slurs​

Continuity Note: This comic is pretty much impossible to fit into the timeline anywhere. Pretty much every place you could put it would have some bit that contradicts something else going on, but this feels like probably the best place for it.

This story introduces Reverend William Stryker, a bigoted televangelist who preaches that mutants are abominations against God, or whatever bullshit excuse he comes up with. He leads a group called the Purifiers, who stoke anti-mutant sentiment, and even directly kill mutants and string them up with signs saying "Muties" hanging on them. (Magneto finds a pair like this, you can imagine this did not go over well with him). He goes on TV after hearing back from some of his followers and hints heavily he is about to destroy the X-Men.

At this point we jump to Stevie Hunter's dance studio, where Kitty has gotten into a fight with another student for saying some anti-mutant nastiness. They get into it a bit, and Piotr, Illyana, and Stevie break it up, and the other student calls Kitty a mutie-lover and leaves. Stevie tells her to just ignore it, because it's just words. Kitty asks her if she would be so magnanimous if he had called her a n*****-lover instead. Except you know, she says it uncensored. I get the point she is trying to make, and the point is not wrong (even if I don't like how she made it), but that is definitely a sign of the time there that that made it to print, and it definitely is jarring to read nowadays.

Anyway, Stryker debates Xavier on TV, who has been accompanied to the station by Scott and Ororo. After they leave, they are attacked by purifiers who capture them all and fake their deaths by exploding the car with some bodies in it.

Next we split up into two groups. Group 1 is Illyana and Kitty at the X-Mansion mourning the deaths of their three friends. During a walk around the grounds they find a weird scanning device. Through a few scenes, we end up with Illyana captured, and Kitty locked in the trunk (she attempted to phase in to follow Illyana, but then got gassed. Seriously who gas-boobytraps their trunk?)

Group 2 is Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Colossus, who investigate the scene of the crash. Wolverine tells them that it wasn't an accident, and that that wasn't them in the car. Nightcrawler finds that they are being watched. When they are attacked, Magneto pops up to say "fuck your shit" and stop the Purifiers by himself.

Back with Stryker and the captured X-Men, it turns out he is using Scott and Ororo's suffering to attempt to brainwash Xavier, who he is going to power up and then use to kill all mutants in the entire world all at once. He also explains the reason for both his hatred, and his hardcore conversion to faith: When he was in the military, he was driving his pregnant wife and was in a car accident. He had to help her give birth to their son on the side of the road. Turns out his son was visibly a mutant. He then killed his son for being a mutant, then his wife for birthing him, and put them both in the car and set it on fire. Yeah, he's a nutjob. Anyway he manages to get Xavier to "kill" Scott and Ororo, but it turns out that they are just pushed to near death.

Jumping to Kitty, she manages to escape, get attacked by Purifiers and then is saved, again it is Magneto doing the saving.

The X-Men and Magneto rescue Storm and Cyclops, plus Magik who was with them, and then Magneto shocks them back awake.

We finish with a whole bunch of tussling, rescuing Xavier before he plus the machines can kill all mutants, and then confronting Stryker on live television. They don't fight him. Instead they just talk. Sharing their beliefs on mutants and humans working together for peace.

Stryker pulls a gun on Kitty and then a police officer in the crowd shoots him before he can fire. Everyone then goes their separate ways. On television later they learn that Stryker's reputation is in the gutter after everyone saw him try to shoot a teen girl on live TV. But as we know... that won't be the end of it.

X-Tra Notes: Ok, this one is a big big big deal among X-Fans. And I do understand where they are coming from. There is a lot to like about the issue. The use of human bigots as the main villains. Confronting him with words rather than just attacking him. Magneto on the side of the good guys for the first time. BUT, I will say for all that there is to like about this comic, I also feel it has some weaknesses. It definitely feels very dated, and is in some ways a bit too preachy for my tastes. That said, overall I still think this is a good distillation of what I think X-Men SHOULD be.

 

[Silverlion]

X-Tra Notes: Ok, this one is a big big big deal among X-Fans. And I do understand where they are coming from. There is a lot to like about the issue. The use of human bigots as the main villains. Confronting him with words rather than just attacking him. Magneto on the side of the good guys for the first time. BUT, I will say for all that there is to like about this comic, I also feel it has some weaknesses. It definitely feels very dated, and is in some ways a bit too preachy for my tastes. That said, overall I still think this is a good distillation of what I think X-Men SHOULD be.

Agreed, I do love parts where a politician is revealed to be a mutant (because he bleeds from Xavier's mind boojum), and a perfectly normal cop faces down Stryker.

 

[EmperorNorton]

I will say though that I don't like Stryker's Purifiers as much as later human bigot enemies like Cameron Hodge's The Right or Graydon Creed's Friends of Humanity.

I will admit though that my love of The Right comes from the absolutely ridiculous smiley power suits and Robo-Hodge being absolutely unhinged.

 

[Voros]

Marvel Graphic Novel #4: So I Started Blasting​

The introduction of the majority of the New Mutants! Illyana and Xuân (Karma) had already been introduced (though Illyana doesn't join until a good bit later), but now we get to see quick vignettes of each of the others dealing with their problems.

Rahne is a Scottish girl who can turn into a wolf. Also she is very religious and the asshole local reverend is a mutant hating jackass. Like, lead a mob with torches after her jackass. Anyway, Moira saves her and takes her to see Xavier. She becomes Wolfsbane.

Roberto is a half black Brazilian heir to a vast fortune who loves soccer and gets superstrength by the power of the sun and it is denoted with this cool black glow look. He powers up the first time during a fight in a soccer match while being watched by a ton of people. He becomes Sunspot.

Sam is the oldest son of a Kentucky coal miner. His dad has died and he's abandoned the plan to go to college to work in the mines himself to support his family. During a cave in, he uses his powers to blast into an invulnerable rocket and saves his boss. He then ends up working for the Hellfire Club because he needs the money. He becomes Cannonball.

And finally, Danielle is a native American girl who has lived on her own for a long while as her parents are dead and her powers pull peoples fears out of their head and makes them visions. Her grandfather is a friend of Xavier's and has sent him a letter to take her in and teach her to use her powers. She becomes Psyche (a name that is used so little I forgot that was her actually code name at this point).

Her grandfather is killed by Hellfire Club soldiers right before Xavier shows up with Rahne and Karma. Luckily, with their help, Dani is able to avoid capture. Xavier has to stop Dani from just gutting one of them with a knife. Understandable on her part to be honest.

Turns out the Hellfire Club is also after Roberto, so the next day Moira, Karma, and Dani travel to Brazil to get in touch with him. Unfortunately, the cops take it as a threat that they are trying to contact him (cause Roberto's father is wealthy and kind of an asshole so probably bought them off to harass them) and tries to arrest them. Karma and Dani escape, Moira is arrested.

Anyway they rescue Sunspot, who was actually trying to rescue his girlfriend. His girlfriend died protecting him unfortunately. Also, Cannonball working for the Hellfire Club captures Xavier. They all track them to the Hellfire Base to learn it is Donald Pierce. It was all a huge anti-mutant agenda thing.

They break in, rescue everyone, including the Hellfire Club's Tessa, who assures them that she will take care of Pierce. Sam learns he was being duped and decides to join them.

X-Tra Notes: I really really liked the New Mutants when I was younger. I still like them today. It is a way better done version of the original concept of the X-Men: teenage mutants being trained to handle their powers while also you know, being teens. This is about as good of an intro to a group book as you could do as well.

Loved the NM and should revisit the early books. If nothing else I know the artwork was often excellent.

 

[EmperorNorton]

Magik - Storm and Illyana: Taking Kitty Too Literally​

Continuity Note: This happens during Uncanny X-Men #160, set from the time that Kitty lost Illyana's hands going through the portal, to the time she pulls her out.

Now we get to see what happened to Illyana during the ~7-8 years that Illyana spent in Limbo. The story starts with Old Storm teaming up with "Cat" who is an adult Kitty Pryde from Old Storm's group of X-Men and is also apparently now a Ninja, managing to get Illyana away from Belasco. But not before he could corrupt Illyana at least a bit, creating the first of five blood gems necessary for Belasco's dark masters to come to the main reality.

Anyway, there is some disagreements between Cat and Old Storm. Cat thinks they should just off her, saving the world and saving Illyana the trouble that would be growing up in Limbo. Ororo thinks she should teach her how to use magic to defend herself. Ororo teaches her some (for about a year), but then Cat takes off with her.

Cat then decides to try and get Illyana home instead, training her to fight along the way (it takes two years to get to Belasco's citadel), and also revealing that under her mask she has a feline look. They get to the castle to try to send her home, but then Belasco easily, I mean stupidly easily, overcomes them, and turns Cat into a non-sentient feline creature and takes Illyana as his disciple to try to finish her corruption. Illyana accepts as she feels the call of the dark side and another of the blood gems is created.

Over another couple of years, Belasco trains her in the dark arts. During this time she also experiments with the magic Storm taught her, the ability to create rather than destroy or corrupt, though she can never get it right. She also manages to manifest her actual mutant ability, the ability to create teleportation discs to step through space and time. She visits several locations, and finally discovers Cat and Belasco attempting to kill Old Storm. Protecting Old Storm, she kills Cat, but Belasco again overpowers them and insists that Illyana sacrifice Storm to create the third bloodstone.

Instead, she kills Storm to let her soul go free. She escapes with her stepping discs and buries Storm in her garden. Belasco then torments her, finally getting her to create the third bloodstone, taking away her power to teleport and stranding her in the ruins of Storm's gardens. There she attemps to create something again with magic like Storm showed her. But she fails over and over again. Until she realizes that she doesn't want to create an acorn like Storm, and that is why she fails. She instead creates the soulsword. It breaks Belasco's spells on her, and she confronts him.

She defeats him, draining all his Limbo imbued powers and becoming ruler of limbo. She then lets him escape, and leaves Limbo back to Earth.

X-Tra Notes: I can't say that this was exactly expertly written, but a lot of things established in it become kind of important, especially for Illyana's story, and it isn't exactly bad either. It's just kind of there. I really think it could have done with way more foreshadowing of the ending that she would win by taking over his control of Limbo.

Dazzler #25-28: Angel Shows Up Just To Get Shot​

And now, back to the madness that is Dazzler.

Dazzler #25: Dazzler deals with a creepy stalker that she lets get way too close to her because she was being a contrarian when her stage manager told her not to let random people get to close to her. Also the stalker tries to kill her dad and she barely manages to save him.

Dazzler #26: Turns out her sister has mutant powers, and she killed a random bum who was accosting her on accident when she melted his face. Oops. Also, this gets her on Gyrich's radar, and the sisters go on the run (though they are just running because of the killing the guy, they don't know government mutant hunters are after them). Oh also, Lois kills a cat.

Dazzler #27 + First Half of Dazzler #28: A random dude blackmails Lois and Dazzler with pictures of the killing, he wants Dazzler to murder someone in LA. Dazzler takes the job (but not really) and calls Angel for help. She shows up and it turns out that the person who was blackmailing her was a private eye that was hired by Lois's dad to find her and he was going to murder him to rob him. Oh also Angel shows up in time to just get shot.

​

He literally just flies in the window and gets shot. That's all he does. Anyway, Dazzler's lawyer boyfriend shows up with the police cause Angel called him and he solved the whole thing and it is all OK. Also that is the last we see of him, he just disappears into the same closet that all the other Dazzler abandoned subplots get kept. (Oh, also the first full half of #27 was actually just a dream sequence of Dazzler and Lois fighting Rogue).

Rest of Dazzler #28: Turns out Lois's dad is a big deal (and also possibly criminally involved) in LA. He is the producer of some famous singer Roman Nekoboh. Oh and then Rogue attacks and Dazzler lays her out AGAIN. After a lengthy car chase and powering up using the sound of a jet engine.

X-Tra Notes: Dazzler is currently in a transition phase, cause Dazzler's comic was always seemingly in a transition phase. This will set up the beginning of the next "status quo" of the comic, where she is staying in LA. Also, the lawyer guy deserved better cause he was a legitimately just good dude.

 

[EmperorNorton]

Uncanny X-Men #169-170: Storm Stabs a Bitch​

Angel is kidnapped by the Morlocks! This will be the first appearance of the Morlocks (with the exception of Caliban, who was retroactively made a member), a group of mutants who are mutated in ways that make them less acceptable to the surface world, so hide in an abandoned government built nuclear shelter built under NYC.

Anyway the team heads underground in chase (minus Wolverine, who is still in Japan), and run across a few of the Morlocks. This leads to Kitty getting infected by Plague, and she gets separated from the group and is deathly ill. Caliban finds her and tries to take care of her, but can't do much about it as Plague's powers are just deadly as hell.

The rest of the team gets captured, and the leader of the Morlocks, Callisto, apparently intends to force marriage on the captured Angel, cause you know, he's pretty and she is a selfish twat. The X-Men escape momentarily, and Nightcrawler holds Callisto captive, but then Plague hits Storm with her whammy juice, forcing Nightcrawler to surrender.

After this, Caliban shows up with Kitty because she asked him to save the X-Men, and she agrees to stay with him if he does. He asks Callisto to heal Kitty, but she refuses and says the only way to do it would be to beat her in 1 on 1 combat to take command of the Morlocks. Storm challenges her, and in a fight without powers, just stabs her in the heart.

She takes command of the Morlocks at this point and commands them to release everyone and heal her and Kitty. They then leave.

Along the way, we have multiple sideplots happening in the background. Scott is getting to know Madelyne Pryor and it is a super fast romance plot. He also reveals he is the mutant superhero Cyclops, and she is fine with it. There is also a sideplot happening involving something mysterious going on, Emma Frost was put into a coma by some mental force, Destiny is having some futures hidden from her. Also Rogue has ran off and Mystique isn't sure why.

X-Tra Notes: This is a pretty good story, with the first introduction of the Morlocks, and the beginning of "Mohawk Storm" (not the outfit, but the more wild and less "I am above everything" personality). Though honestly, I still feel the fight makes zero sense and is another case of "Storm is better than everyone at everything" that unfortunately a lot of X-Men writers, including Claremont, love. Seriously she fought one on one with no powers against a trained combatant who was both physically superhuman and possessed superhuman senses, while incredibly sick from Plague's powers (which hit Kitty so hard she couldn't even walk). It's honestly bullshit.

 

[EmperorNorton]

I am back! (my keyboard broke... plus I've been playing too much RE4R)

New Mutants #4: Rahne Shows Up To School Dance Inappropriately Dressed​

And now time for a very special episode. Stevie Hunter is getting creepy phone calls, and the New Mutants are determined they are going to figure out who it is. Xavier makes them submit a report a plan of action to him to approve.

They trace the call, and then a bunch of shenanigans happen that I'm pretty sure Xavier would not approve happen. Rahne tracks him to a nearby school dance (that they were invited to in a previous comic, as they were local kids they met in the mall), and she busts in in wolf form and chases him out.

Anyway there is a lot of property destruction (oops they caught a building with explosives on fire). They catch him and it turns out it is just a student of Stevie's who is super messed up (he is one of her dance students who associates love with abuse because his parents are shitholes, so he was upset cause Stevie was always nice to him).

Xavier has him taken in by child protective services and promises that he will get him therapy and such. The end.

X-Tra Notes: This one really pushes nothing forward. It's just a one off storyline. It has such a weird vibe to it, and doesn't feel very much like any other story.

Uncanny X-Men #171: X-Mansion Roof Destroyed By Rogue Projectile​

The X-Men head back to the mansion after dealing with the Morlocks, and have a new surprise to deal with.

Rogue has arrive cause she is having problems dealing with her powers, and the memories of Carol Danvers. And she wants to get help from Xavier. Which makes sense if you don't know how questionable Xavier is I suppose.

The X-Men are unsure of letting a villain, even if reforming, on to the team, they go to blow off steam in the Danger Room, and Illyana for some reason brings up an image of Belasco in his throne room, and pulls out her Soul Sword and everyone is just generally WTF.

Anyway, Carol comes back from her parents (who she knows who they are intellectually but has no emotional attachment to and then sees Rogue in the foyer. She proceeds to punch Rogue straight out the roof. They tell her that Rogue is now part of the team and she basically says, nah, fuck this, I'm out.

We also have some background scenes of Scott and Madelyne together. She had a nightmare about a plane crash that only she survived. That happened mysteriously at the exact same time as Jean Grey's death...

X-Tra Notes: You know, this is one where I can see everyone's point of view. Rogue does deserve a chance to rehabilitate. But also Carol deserves to be able to be pissed about what was done to her. And there is some questions about whether Rogue should be punished in some way for her past villainous ways, but this is going to be a continuing theme in X-Men over the years.

 

[EmperorNorton]

Wolverine #1-4: 1980s American Interpretations of Japan​

Wolverine is taking a vacation in the Canadian Rockies when Mariko starts dodging his calls. So he heads to Japan to find out that Mariko is now married to an abusive asshole because her father (Shingen) showed back up and is now in charge of the family because "tradition and honor". Cause you know. Japan. Wolverine then gets into it with her dad in a duel, but her dad is a cheating asshole and beats him. Then Wolvy gets attacked some more, cause her dad is in league with the Hand. He is saved by Yukio, who is secretly an assassin working for Shingen, it is unnecessarily complicated.

It's all some convoluted scheme to get Wolverine to help Shingen consolidate his power over the Japanese underworld. Anyway, it all goes back and forth, Logan decides to take down Shingen's empire, learns Yukio was a spy, but also that she turned on her employer and they become friends (after briefly being a bit more after he was sad about Mariko and before he realized she was working for Shingen).

He dismantles Shingen's plans, and eventually ends up killing him. And also Yukio killed Mariko's asshole husband, so you know, she's free now. At the end, the X-Mansion receives an invitation to Logan and Mariko's wedding.

X-Tra Notes: This is a good read, but man, the overly ridiculous 80s pop culture view of Japan is layered on thick. (And of course, we are no where close to done with that, it will be back in the future, cause Ninjas).

Marvel Team-Up Annual #6, Marvel Team-Up #135, Vision & Scarlet Witch #4: Kitty is a Terrible Babysitter​

Marvel Team-Up Annual #6:Cloak and Dagger, the New Mutants, and Spider-Man all team up when Sunspot and Wolfsbane are kidnapped by people who want to use them to go after Cloak and Dagger. They get shot up with a variation of the same experimental drug that created the vigilante duo. They lose control, and in the end Cloak is able to absorb them into his cloak and "pull the darkness" out of them to cure them. I'm sure this will never come up again...

Marvel Team-Up #135: Kitty Pryde is babysitting a pair of kids who are really into fantasy board games, because Professor X decided she needed to do some "normal teenage things". At the same time, Spider-Man is stopping a train hijacking. He succeeds but is knocked out and taken by the Morlocks. The kids Kitty is babysitting escape to go have an adventure, and end up in the Morlocks domain as well. Kitty goes to save them, and her and Spider-Man end up teaming up to get everyone to safety.

Vision & Scarlet Witch #4: Magneto learns that Magda was pregnant with twins when she ran away, and surprise, it turns out that the twins were Wanda and Pietro. He seeks them out to discuss this with them. It goes mediocre for him.

X-Tra Notes: None of these are particularly amazing, but MTU Annual 6 has some further consequences down the road, and V&SW 4 is the beginning of the "oh, they were his kids all along" thing. Though at this point I'm not sure if they have retconned that away again or established it as true again.

 

[EmperorNorton]

New Mutants #5-6: And Now For Our Corporate Mandated Toy Based Crossover​

We open with Xavier dealing with his psychosomatic pain and getting all flustered because his attempt to work out his legs disrupted his psychic connection with the New Mutants, who are attending a local fair. Lilandra tells him to chill.

Anyway, Roberto is excited because "Team America" a motorcycle stunt group is going to be performing. During the show, a group of armed people attack, trying to draw out a mysterious Dark Rider, who appears whenever they are in trouble. Anyway, the New Mutants and the attackers tussle, then Silver Samurai shows up, beats the shit out of them, then the Dark Rider appears and SS beats them too, and unmasked the Dark Rider is... Dani? He escapes with the captured New Mutant.

Viper and Silver Samurai show up to Team America and insist that they steal some crystal they want in exchange for their hostage. But then, Xavier and the New Mutants show up to explain who the Dark Rider is: Apparently Team America is a mutant that can project their combined experience on to one person. They had instinctually used it on Dani in the earlier fight. Xavier intends to train them to steal the crystal, so they can get enough time to get the X-Men involved.

Karma has other ideas though. The New Mutants attack her uncle, the corrupt General to convince him to tell them about Viper's whereabouts, when threats don't work, she agrees to serve him for one year in exchange for the information, much to everyone else's objections.

With everything set up we get two action scenes. Team America infiltrating and stealing the crystal, and the New Mutants attacking Viper's stronghold. Both are successful, but in the middle of each, Xavier and Karma were attacked by some mysterious psychic entity.

With Dani saved, Viper's base explodes with the team still inside...

X-Tra Notes: Team America is dumb. It was 100% just a thing to sell toys, as the toy company that got Marvel to make them had all the molds from when they did an Evil Knievel toyline, but no longer had the rights to it. The storyline itself isn't great, but it does set up the "death" of Karma and the return of a one off villain thought dead.

 

[EmperorNorton]

Uncanny X-Men #172-173: Engaged Couple Should Just Communicate​

The X-Men have all travelled to Japan to attend Logan's wedding (minus Scott, who is still in Anchorage). Unfortunately, things don't go swimmingly. Unfortunately Silver Samurai is apparently Mariko's half-brother, and claims he should become family head and not her. He and Viper poison the X-Men (except for Storm, as Wolverine stops her before drinking it and before he himself is knocked out).

Mariko, rather than telling them what is going on, decides to go on her own to negotiate with Silver Samurai, with a person named Nabatone Yokuse acting as the arbiter. Turns out though that Nabatone was really Viper. Oh but the Mariko was really Yukio (who had replaced Mariko's driver covertly). Also Storm shows up to protect Mariko who was still in the car, and help Yukio confront Silver Samurai.

Storm starts to notice her powers are getting a bit more out of control, as she is losing a bit of her "perfect control over her emotions" since the Morlock stuff, and accidentally blows up the building that was conveniently holding explosives. Yukio saves her, while Silver Samurai escapes with Viper.

Back in Anchorage, Scott is looking into Madelyne's past to try to find a connection to Phoenix, and Alex calls him out on it. After that quick scene we rush back to Tokyo, where Wolverine (due to his healing factor) and Rogue (due to having Carol's powers) have recovered, while the rest of the X-Men are still in intensive care. They go off to try to find out where Viper is (though Wolverine is reluctant as Rogue you know, stole one of his friends memories). But afterwards they realize it was a trap, they were being drawn away from the hospital.

They rush back to fight, Rogue takes on a bunch of assassins while Wolverine takes on Silver Samurai. But then Viper shows up with a ray gun and Rogue jumps in front of Logan and takes the brunt of it until it overloads. She is dying, but Wolverine respects her attempts to be a better person, and lets her take his powers to heal herself.

Yukio, Storm, and Mariko though make their way back to the hospital on foot and Storm is starting to find hurting her attackers fun. They make it back safely.

Now it's time for a wedding! Scott and Madelyne have arrived, and everyone is shocked at her resemblance to Jean. Storm arrives with her now iconic mohawk look, which Kitty hates.

And then Mariko declares there will be no wedding cause "Wolverine isn't worthy". And the story ends. (Oh also there is a mysterious man in the background manipulating things, but we'll get to that in the next issues).

X-Tra Notes: The story is a pretty fun adventure, introduces Mohawk storm proper, establishes the Wolverine/Rogue relationship, and more. But there is one thing I do hate about it: So many issues could be fixed if Mariko would just TELL LOGAN WHAT IS GOING ON.

 

[Voros]

Uncanny X-Men #172-173: Engaged Couple Should Just Communicate​

The X-Men have all travelled to Japan to attend Logan's wedding (minus Scott, who is still in Anchorage). Unfortunately, things don't go swimmingly. Unfortunately Silver Samurai is apparently Mariko's half-brother, and claims he should become family head and not her. He and Viper poison the X-Men (except for Storm, as Wolverine stops her before drinking it and before he himself is knocked out).

Mariko, rather than telling them what is going on, decides to go on her own to negotiate with Silver Samurai, with a person named Nabatone Yokuse acting as the arbiter. Turns out though that Nabatone was really Viper. Oh but the Mariko was really Yukio (who had replaced Mariko's driver covertly). Also Storm shows up to protect Mariko who was still in the car, and help Yukio confront Silver Samurai.

Storm starts to notice her powers are getting a bit more out of control, as she is losing a bit of her "perfect control over her emotions" since the Morlock stuff, and accidentally blows up the building that was conveniently holding explosives. Yukio saves her, while Silver Samurai escapes with Viper.

Back in Anchorage, Scott is looking into Madelyne's past to try to find a connection to Phoenix, and Alex calls him out on it. After that quick scene we rush back to Tokyo, where Wolverine (due to his healing factor) and Rogue (due to having Carol's powers) have recovered, while the rest of the X-Men are still in intensive care. They go off to try to find out where Viper is (though Wolverine is reluctant as Rogue you know, stole one of his friends memories). But afterwards they realize it was a trap, they were being drawn away from the hospital.

They rush back to fight, Rogue takes on a bunch of assassins while Wolverine takes on Silver Samurai. But then Viper shows up with a ray gun and Rogue jumps in front of Logan and takes the brunt of it until it overloads. She is dying, but Wolverine respects her attempts to be a better person, and lets her take his powers to heal herself.

Yukio, Storm, and Mariko though make their way back to the hospital on foot and Storm is starting to find hurting her attackers fun. They make it back safely.

Now it's time for a wedding! Scott and Madelyne have arrived, and everyone is shocked at her resemblance to Jean. Storm arrives with her now iconic mohawk look, which Kitty hates.

And then Mariko declares there will be no wedding cause "Wolverine isn't worthy". And the story ends. (Oh also there is a mysterious man in the background manipulating things, but we'll get to that in the next issues).

X-Tra Notes: The story is a pretty fun adventure, introduces Mohawk storm proper, establishes the Wolverine/Rogue relationship, and more. But there is one thing I do hate about it: So many issues could be fixed if Mariko would just TELL LOGAN WHAT IS GOING ON.

The Paul Smith art in these issues is magnificent.

The climatic fight between Logan, the Silver Samurai, Rogue and Viper is one of my favourites.

The Wolverine film (2013) draws pretty heavily from this arc and was the strongest X-Men film since 2 until Logan came along.

 

[EmperorNorton]

Uncanny X-Men #174-175: Madelyne Pryor With The Right Hook​

The Dark Phoenix is back... no really... ok, not really. Technically 174 is a bunch of vignettes that lead up to the story in 175, so let's work through all of those:

Scott & Madelyne are hanging out on the Starjammer before it leaves to head back to space to do their normal getting up to shenanigans. Corsair asks if Scott wants to join, but he isn't sure. Carol Danvers has decided to join the Starjammers though cause she doesn't really have anything left on Earth.

Xavier and Lilandra are together as he is trying to do physical therapy, and she is helping. They discuss her needing to return to the Shi'ar Empire, but that he has to stay due to his responsibilities to the X-Men and New Mutants.

Back in Japan, Logan is demanding to know why Mariko called off the wedding. She repeats the "you are not worthy" so he throws down her clan honor sword that she had given him earlier. Silver Samurai retrieves it at Mariko's command.

Kitty kisses Colossus, but also shows him that she can now phase other people. And also finds out that Storm's attic full of plants no longer is full of plants, as Storm doesn't feel the plants reflected her new attitude on life. This upsets Kitty.

And finally we have Scott who proposes to Madelyne. Then they fly home where a priest on the plane home hands him a picture of Jean that he "dropped" that Cyclops swears wasn't his. Then back home in Anchorage, Scott straight asks Madelyne if she is really Phoenix. She responds by decking the shit out of him. After he puts on his spare glasses, he can't find Madelyne anywhere, but then he is attacked by Dark Phoenix!

We now jump to the double sized issue 175, with the "return of Dark Phoenix". A huge fire bird appears in the sky over the X-Mansion, and Cyclops is seen falling out of it. Rogue catches him and he informs them that Dark Phoenix has returned. When he tries to use Cerebro to confirm, Xavier is knocked unconscious as the machine had been tampered with. Then Dark Phoenix rises out of Cyclops (who falls unconscious) and attacks. They are easily defeated and she leaves saying she will return.

They attempt to call for help but everywhere they call is cut off. The Starjammer is destroyed, the entirety of NYC has been demolished. Cyclops awakes in the infirmary to discover that it isn't Dark Phoenix at all, but the return of Mastermind! Unfortunately he isn't able to tell them, as Mastermind is projecting an image of Dark Phoenix over Scott.

He fights the whole team, isolating each one and taking them down, using the Danger Room's tech to his advantage. Eventually he is able to use Rogue's powers to take Xavier's abilities so that he can communicate with everyone telepathically what has happened.

They then take care of Mastermind, and Scott and Madelyne get married.

X-Tra Notes: I actually really like this storyline, though it has some issues. The whole Scott/Madelyne romance always seemed insanely rushed. Additionally, it goes way over the top in "shock" value, "oh the Starjammers are all dead! The Avengers are all dead!" like it is so unbelievable that it doesn't work as feeling "real". Had they lowered the stakes a little bit, it would have been more believable before the reveal.

 

[Silverlion]

X-Tra Notes: I actually really like this storyline, though it has some issues. The whole Scott/Madelyne romance always seemed insanely rushed. Additionally, it goes way over the top in "shock" value, "oh the Starjammers are all dead! The Avengers are all dead!" like it is so unbelievable that it doesn't work as feeling "real". Had they lowered the stakes a little bit, it would have been more believable before the reveal.

Oh, yeah very very rushed. One of the reasons I never felt it was 'real' even before they did their later shenanigans with her backstory. I also wanted to mention that while has an ahem uncanny resemblance to Jean, it's not identical.

 

[EmperorNorton]

Oh, yeah very very rushed. One of the reasons I never felt it was 'real' even before they did their later shenanigans with her backstory. I also wanted to mention that while has an ahem uncanny resemblance to Jean, it's not identical.

Also the fact that she looks so similar to his dead girlfriend makes the fact that it was all super rushed seem much more unhealthy.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Issue 175 was my first ever issue of X-Men. Loved that book. Somehow my young brain was able to process all the backstory… I had no idea who Jean Grey was at that point, except for what’s explained in this issue.

Cyclops is great in this issue, and it’s one I always think of in conversations about him. He’s a character that’s really had some ups and downs, but I prefer hyper-competent Cyclops. Ironically, this issue, though a high point for him in itself, set him up for some real low points.

Paul Smith is a very underrated artist. So clean.

 

[Tulpa Girl]

Found this article on aging and the passage of time during the Claremont years that you might find of interest, EmperorNorton .

X-Chronology - Aging and Time in X-Men comics (1975-88) - Article

An explanation of how time progresses in the classic Claremont run on Marvel Comics' X-Men books. His writing of it is subtle, but coherent and effective.

www.writeups.org

 

[Gabriel]

Uncanny X-Men #173 was my introduction to the X-Men and also the wider superhero world of Marvel Comics. I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on. The only character in the comic that I recognized was Rogue. I had seen her some time earlier in an issue of Rom Spaceknight with the half Wraith/half mutant villain Hybrid.

The two things that made an impression on me that issue were Rogue, and the fight between Wolverine and Silver Samurai.

I would have followed up on the story, but I didn't see X-Men on the racks of the convenience store for several months after that.

 

[EmperorNorton]

man I got busy and took a break and it has nearly been a month! I'm going to write up a few more this weekend I think

 

[Tulpa Girl]

Uncanny X-Men #171: X-Mansion Roof Destroyed By Rogue Projectile​

The X-Men head back to the mansion after dealing with the Morlocks, and have a new surprise to deal with.

Rogue has arrive cause she is having problems dealing with her powers, and the memories of Carol Danvers. And she wants to get help from Xavier. Which makes sense if you don't know how questionable Xavier is I suppose.

The X-Men are unsure of letting a villain, even if reforming, on to the team, they go to blow off steam in the Danger Room, and Illyana for some reason brings up an image of Belasco in his throne room, and pulls out her Soul Sword and everyone is just generally WTF.

Anyway, Carol comes back from her parents (who she knows who they are intellectually but has no emotional attachment to and then sees Rogue in the foyer. She proceeds to punch Rogue straight out the roof. They tell her that Rogue is now part of the team and she basically says, nah, fuck this, I'm out.

We also have some background scenes of Scott and Madelyne together. She had a nightmare about a plane crash that only she survived. That happened mysteriously at the exact same time as Jean Grey's death...

X-Tra Notes: You know, this is one where I can see everyone's point of view. Rogue does deserve a chance to rehabilitate. But also Carol deserves to be able to be pissed about what was done to her. And there is some questions about whether Rogue should be punished in some way for her past villainous ways, but this is going to be a continuing theme in X-Men over the years.

A bit late responding to this - and I don't know how much of these you're reading digitally, and if/when it would be available in that format - but with the recent announcement of the classic Marvel run of Rom being reprinted, maybe you can eventually see where Rogue's face-turn first started, a year earlier in Rom #32. Although I don't think the X-books ever acknowledged that, even before they lost the rights to Rom.

 

[Gabriel]

but with the recent announcement of the classic Marvel run of Rom being reprinted,

!!!!

The first volume is slated for January 2024 and will include Rom Spaceknight #1 - #29 and Power Man and Iron Fist #73.

That's an insta-pre-order as soon as Amazon lists it.

 

[SoManyRats]

This is exciting news! (Maybe there might be hope even for a Shogun Warriors trade someday?)