Chronological X-Men - Dazzler The Movie Review

Dazzler – The Movie!

The New Mutants #22 – The Shadow Within

Sam is still trying to learn how to control his abilities and is undergoing training sessions with Kurt which doesn’t go over well with Rahne. The main plot of the story revolves around Rahne writing a story in which she’s a beautiful princess who needs to defeat an evil sorceress. In the story Rahne ends up stopping the sorceress and taking a necklace from her and when the issue actually ends we see Rahne asleep in her bed holding the very necklace. The sub plot introduces us to a new character: Friedrich von Roehm who is one of Selene’s High Priests. Speaking of Selene she has decided to take up a permanent residence in New York and uses Friedrich to find her a suitable place to establish a new power base that would allow her to continue her human sacrifices and feeding off of people. Naturally Friedrich suggests the Hellfire Club and arranges a meeting between Sebastian Shaw and Selene in order to put a bid in for her to become the new Black Queen – it’s as good of a time as any considering Roberto’s father Emanuel DaCosta is about to undergo his initiation into the Inner Circle. It was a good issue I just wish that they would have focused a little bit more on Selene and less on Rahne’s storytelling.

The Uncanny X-Men #189 – Two Girls Out To Have Fun

Okay I just need to get this out of the way – how sad and creepy was it seeing a book that was published in 1985 have a character who traveled back from the 21^st century and one of the things she remembers is the destruction of the Twin Towers. That was just… wow. Okay beyond that the story picks up right where The New Mutants #22 left off with Selene going to Sebastian Shaw to apply for membership to the Hellfire Club and the Inner Circle. She offers to give Sebastian a gift so it would help put her in better standing and of course she decides to give him Rachel and Amara. The two of them are in the city basically bonding and they end up crashing the Hellfire Club when they see Selene. After a heated battle Amara and Rachel are let go and the X-Men and the Inner Circle come to an agreement and the X-Men leave Selene in Sebastian’s hands. The other plots that run through this book is the fact that Alison Blaire has just been publically outted as a mutant (I’ll get in to that later since all of these issues in this review take place during the events of Dazzler – The Movie so they run concurrently); Ororo decides to leave the X-Men since she feels that she can no longer lead the team after the lose of her mutant abilities, and finally the magical necklace that the dock worker found a few issues ago ends up releasing an evil warlock – Kulan Gath -  who intends on exacting his revenge on the world.

The New Mutants #23 – Shadowman

The New Mutants #24 – The Hollow Heart

The New Mutants #25 – The Only Thing To Fear…

Well this set of issues manages to tie up some old plotlines so that’s good. We find out that Rahne wasn’t exactly dreaming her story but it was an interpretation of events that happened while she transformed into her wolf state and attacked two people – who are later recognized by Sam and Dani to be none other than Cloak and Dagger. Roberto ends up loosing control of his abilities and attacks Piotr and later Charles and Moira. It turns out that Roberto and Rahne are suffering from lingering side effects from the time Cloak and Dagger used their abilities to purge the drug from their system back in Marvel Team-Up Annual #6. Piotr comes to the realization finally that he actually didn’t love Zsaji and he figures out that he lost her and Kitty. We touch base with Father Michael Bowen who had been taking care of Leong and Nga Coy Manh ever since Xi’an had died. In a nice little twist he’s revealed to be the uncle of Dagger. I liked how Sam and Dani played off of each other and it was nice to see the little Star Wars reference. Charles learns of the magical armor Illyana and he and Rogue visit Limbo for the first time. The whole internal Illyana is going through while being in the church is a nice touch and a good little nod to exactly what would be going on with her considering half of her soul has been corrupted and given away to black magic in order to create the bloodstones. The other plot with Magneto and Lee was good, but it felt kind of off. This was one of those types of stories that I really liked, but I don’t really picture myself ever going back and reading it a second time. I've got to say though that I'm really digging the art. On some stories it seems a bit choppy but combined with this type of plot (or The Demon Bear plot) the style of the art really helps to set the tone of the book.

Marvel Graphic Novel #12 – Dazzler the Movie

Well eve get a whole hell of a lot of characters here Alison, Colossus, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Storm, Wolverine, Roman Nekoboh, Ziggy (roman’s butler) Mr. Witwicky and new characters Eric Beale and Freddy Stanacheck. It’s kind of hard to explain what happens here but I’ll try. Alison ends up having to quit her job after Eric buys the club and makes sexual advances on her. Roman continues to pursue Alison and the two of them eventually pretend to date in order to garner publicity and create a name for Alison. The duo eventually finds out that they do care for each other which is really cliché but oh well. Roman decides to make a movie that stars Alison and himself. Anti mutant hysteria continues to rise, so much so that Ororo calls up Alison and offers to let her come stay with the X-men so she can stay safe but she refuses. Roman decides to reveal to the world that Alison is a mutant (a fact he just recently found out himself) so it would help generate publicity and bring in more money. There’s a new aspect to Alison’s powers, originally she needed to hear sound in order to transmute it into light but now she can also apparently store up sound as well. It turns out that the person financing the movie is none other than Eric who as it turns out orchestrated this entire series of events just to get Roman on contract and to ruin Alison’s life because she turned down his sexual advances. So by the time all is said and done the movie doesn’t get released because Alison destroys the only copy left because she refuses to be Eric’s ‘slave’ (for lack of a better word) and leaving her alone in a world in which she can no longer hide. I wanted this story to be a lot better than it was, but at the same time it wasn’t bad – even with all the clichés.

The Uncanny X-Men #190 – An Age Undreamed Of

The Uncanny X-Men #191 – Raiders of the Lost Temple!

Yeah I don’t really know where to start with this one. Kulan Gath has transformed all of New York into a barbarian era and has essentially brainwashed everyone. It turns out that he has clashed with Selene in the past and she gathers the X-Men, a few Avengers, Callisto and Amara and Illyana to storm Kulan Gath’s palace to stop him. Since the way to fix this is a form of mystical time travel – thanks to Doctor Strange and Illyana it’s hard to tell who really died because the events end up never having happened. I do like that we get the continuation of Selene trying to make Amara and Rachel her slaves, and I’m glad that Charles FINALLY spoke to Doctor Strange about Illyana and I enjoyed the interaction between Ororo and Callisto. Overall though – I’m not really a fan of this story. It seems random and out of place and like it was a very large event that had already been plotted out and then they pulled the idea but had to use a condensed version of it for two filler issues. The big thing here obviously is the fact that we get the first appearance of Nimrod and he’s been a staple in the X-Men mythos for some time now. I guess aside form the book time devoted to Illyana that was the saving grace. I never have read the first few sets of Nimrod storylines so I never fully understood why all of the mutants seem to be more afraid of him/it than all the other villains combined so it will be nice to see if after reading those stories I still think he’s really overrated.

The New Mutants #22 – The Shadow Within: B

The Uncanny X-Men #189 – Two Girls Out To Have Fun: B

The New Mutants #23 – Shadowman: B

The New Mutants #24 – The Hollow Heart: B

The New Mutants #25 – The Only Thing To Fear…: B

Marvel Graphic Novel #12 – Dazzler the Movie: B+

The Uncanny X-Men #190 – An Age Undreamed Of: D

The Uncanny X-Men #191 – Raiders of the Lost Temple!: D

Chronological X-Men - The Dark Phoenix Saga Part 3 Review

The Dark Phoenix Saga!

 Uncanny X-Men Annual #4 Nightcrawler’s Inferno

Well this issue borrows heavily from La Divina Commedia, so it’s basically Dante’s Inferno X-Men style. We do get some things cleared up here – not that they needed being cleared up, because by this point things that I’m aware of haven’t yet happened. Kurt celebrates his 21^st birthday which is odd because the new team is supposed to be older age wise than the first team and Jean was 24, yet Kurt is 21? Anyway this issue takes place directly after Scott leaves the team so it’s still part of The Dark Phoenix Saga. Kitty is struggling to find her place at the Institute – so that only helps to ‘date’ this story. We see Margali Szardos for the first time and learn of ‘The Winding Way’ both of which play larger roles much farther down the line. We learn that Margali had a biological son Stefan and daughter Jimaine in addition to taking in Kurt as a baby. Stefan had become corrupt and in a heated battle with Kurt Stefan ended up breaking his neck and Kurt takes the blame for his death. We find out that all of this happens prior to Charles finding Kurt, and that’s why the villagers were chasing Kurt. It turns out that Jimaine is actually Amanda Sefton – the girl Kurt has been dating. They explain the reason why Kurt couldn’t recognize her was because she had used a spell to mask her identity. One thing that isn’t explained though is why Charles couldn’t sense that Amanda wasn’t who she had claimed to be. Granted he didn’t have much interaction with her (or any on panel at all) but Jean did, she should have been able to tell even without the additional power of Phoenix. Another thing that seems odd is that Margali mentions finding a newborn Kurt who was laying next to his dying biological mother.. granted this gets retconned out when they reveal that Mystique is Kurt’s mother.

What If? #27 What If The Phoenix Had Not Died?

Well this is interesting, mostly because part of this ‘What If’ stems from the original end to The Dark Phoenix Saga in which Jean doesn’t commit suicide but instead is basically lobotomized by the Shi-ar. Jean stays with the X-Men, struggling with her place within the team (so is Kitty, who since Jean is alive Ororo has a friendship with her instead of her friendship with Kitty) eventually becoming the person who runs the danger room programs and sort of acts as the teams pilot. The team goes off to battle Galactus and his herald Terrax the Tamer. Jean witnesses Scott get hurt and that unleashes Phoenix yet again. She depowers Terrax and is offered the position of Gelactus’ new herald she turns him down and the team returns to Earth. Jean struggles with her power and eventually ventures out into space and starts feeding off of asteroids eventually working her way up to a small star. Meanwhile Kitty has been spending all her time with Charles and the two form a close bond – especially when Charles begins to suffer bouts of illness, during a monitoring exercise Kitty and Charles watch Jean feed off of the star and kitty confronts Phoenix when she returns to Earth. This is where it all goes to hell… Phoenix quickly turns to Dark Phoenix when confronted with what just happened and incinerates Kitty in front of the X-Men’s eyes. Next Dark Phoenix destroys Charles’ mind leaving his body nothing but a vegetable, she telekinetically crushes Warren’s skull, buries Ororo alive, crushes Bobby, sets Kurt on fire, uses Logan’s claws to puncture Piotr’s heart and then burns Logan to death,  she also incinerates Lorna, she uses Scott’s powers to kill Alex. Finally she uses her powers to kill Scott but that proves too much for Jean and she regains control over Phoenix and in her grief destroys the entire world.

What If? #33 What If The Phoenix Had Not Died?

This ‘what if’ also comes from the original plot of Phoenix not committing suicide but instead had been lobotomized. However unlike the story before this one we see yet another scenario. This time Scott stays with the X-Men, only he divides his time with his new wife Jean. Jean hasn’t been doing well at all, she feels as if part of her soul had been ripped from her and relives the time she ate a star leading to the deaths of over five billion people. This leads Jean to a suicide attempt that fails, partly because Scott stops her and partly because Magneto crashes their honeymoon and takes Jean to Asteroid M. He tempts Jean with the offer to bring back her powers as Phoenix. While the X-Men battle Magneto Jean almost gives in to temptation but destroys his machine. Later back on Earth Jean returns to the mansion only to find it empty, and shortly after she is confronted by Mastermind who wants his revenge on Jean. Only it’s not Mastermind it is in fact the Shadow King who has sensed that The Phoenix Force will be more than enough to sustain him. He kills Jean and takes her newborn daughter Rachel.  The physical death of Jean’s body leads her to discover that she isn’t Jean at all; she is in fact Phoenix and always has been. She goes to the underwater location where she had stored the real Jean’s body. Afraid that Phoenix will lose Scott forever she simply wishes that she didn’t exist and Jean dies.

What If? #34 What If Phoenix Rose Again?

While this story basically picks up right where the last issue left off it could also stand as a singular issue given the basis of this series. Phoenix battles Shadow King who now possesses an aged version of her daughter Rachel who also contains the Phoenix Force. Phoenix finds that her own ability cannot work against her daughter because she is a ‘chosen heir.’ Phoenix changes her tactics and focuses strictly on Shadow King and expels him from Rachel’s body. After de-aging Rachel Phoenix finds that Mastermind has killed himself rather than have to fight Phoenix again. Phoenix and Rachel return to the mansion only to be surprised by all the X-Men, she lies to Scott about what happened. Phoenix struggles to be as human as possible; Robert Kelly is elected president and begins his anti-mutant hysteria. Phoenix mind wipes the president and forces him to take a pro-mutant stance. Shortly after Kelly is assassinated on live TV, this leads to the reinstatement of the Sentinels who have been programmed to kill all super heroes – mutant or not. While the super powered population shrinks Rachel begins to have memories of what happened when she was possessed by the Shadow King and had to fight her mother and tells Logan about it. Logan goes to confront ‘Jean’ and after becoming enraged Phoenix reveals her true self. It turns out this was all a set up between Scott and Logan and after being ‘outted’ Phoenix leaves seemingly for good. The mansion becomes a haven for all mutants while the world is falling apart. The Sentinels soon ambush the mansion and kill several mutants in the process, after going on the run Phoenix arrives yet again and works out a plan where she will destroy all of the Sentinels with the X-Men’s help. Once destroyed Phoenix asks Destiny what her possible futures hold, once Destiny reveals that all of the paths of Phoenix’s future lead to death and destruction Phoenix leaves for the deep end of space wondering if it would be best if she had just allowed Jean to die.

Marvel Treasury Edition #27 Joyride Into Jeopardy!

The final leg of this journey is a brief back up feature in the Marvel Treasury Edition showing Warren just before he rejoins the X-Men. This isn’t really anything major, and it’s not supposed to be. He’s flying around and is attacked by a man who lost everything he had once Warren’s father shut down his company. It’s just a quick battle, there’s not room for much of anything considering it is only six pages long so before you can even get really into it the story is over. While I probably never will read this particular story again I wouldn’t be opposed to them going back and telling an extended version of this tale. With it being as short as it is it suffers from of a case of ‘what it lacks in plot it makes up for in lack of plot;’ this could easily be fixed by fleshing it out and making it a bit longer. Personally I wouldn't have chosen to close out this storyline with this particular story, but it is the final time we see Warren before he rejoins the X-Men so this is the only place that it would have fit.

 

Uncanny X-Men Annual #4 Nightcrawler’s Inferno: B

What If? #27 What If The Phoenix Had Not Died?: A

What If? #33 What If The Phoenix Had Not Died?: A

What If? #34 What If Phoenix Rose Again?: A

Marvel Treasury Edition #27 Joyride Into Jeopardy!: C

Chronological X-Men - Part 07 Review

Part seven- FOUR MORE ISSUES! FOUR MORE ISSUES!

(The Uncanny)X-Men #30 The Warlock Wakes!-

This time around the X-Men battle ‘The Warlock,’ a science/magic-based mutant who claims to be none other than Merlin from King Arthur’s time period. Now this is something I know about from future events in the Marvel Universe, so I know that he’s not really Merlin but an immortal from a different time period that fights the X-Men a few times, but spends most of his time in the Thor and Doctor Strange books. Speaking of Thor and Doctor Strange, the flashbacks in this issue features scenes from previous Thor and Journey into Mystery issues. This is pretty much a stand alone issue that really doesn’t do anything at all for the overall plot of the series, there are a few throw away comments about Factor Three, but that’s about all we get this time out.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #31 We Must Destroy… the Cobalt Man!-

A few more returns here, Vera, Zelda and Ted are all back; ‘Bernard the Poet’ is back as well and he’s sort of becoming a running gag here, other than that I don’t really see him contributing much to the plot at all. We also get two new characters, first Ted’s brother Ralph – who ends up becoming Cobalt Man, a sort of evil version of Iron-Man, and an old friend of Warren’s Candy Southern. We get some things resolved here, we finally find out why Ted pushes himself so hard, and there is somewhat of a resolve to the whole Scott-Warren-Ted/Jean thing. It was a little odd to see Charles play matchmaker between Jean and Scott, but that’s beside the point. Finally it seems that Ted has learned that Jean is really Marvel Girl. This issue was alright, but I'm kind of tired of this theme where the bad guys from other books pop up here in an X-Men book. Bring back the Brotherhood, The Sentinels, Magneto, Juggernaut or the Mimic back- this is an X-Men title, I don't want to see characters from Fantastic Four, Thor, Iron-Man or Spider-Man show up unless it's for a major event. Just don't put them here to have them pop in and pop out serving no point other than to fill the gap before they start the next storyline.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #32 Beware the Juggernaut, my son!-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #33 Into the Crimson Cosmos!-

Vera, Zelda, Candy, Bernard the Poet, Cain Marko/Juggernaut and in a way Factor Three all return to the book with this issue. We also get a few new characters in the form of Dr. Strange, Xorak the Outcast and the Ancient One. Once again we get another series of flashbacks and for what is either the third or fourth time we see Charles’ life in danger yet he takes the time to stop and tell a story. It’s a little odd this time because it’s a story that has nothing to do with him, yet at the same time it makes sense because he has had access to Cain’s mind. This issue also marks Bobby’s 18^th birthday, so now the ‘youngest X-Man’ is now technically an adult. It does make me wonder exactly how big the age gap was supposed to have been considering Jean is in college and Warren tells Candy that they are taking ‘college level’ courses, so that puts the two of them between 18-20. Also Jean tells Candy that she’d love it if she enrolled at the school so she wouldn’t be the only girl there anymore. I know this was just Jean paying lip-service to Candy, but it hasn’t officially been said that Jean left Metro College and returned to the Xavier Institute, yet her comment implies that she has done just that. Through the plot it is made a point to pair off the X-Men Warren with Candy, Bobby with Zelda, Hank is with Vera and by default leaves Jean and Scott to pair off with themselves. Taking aside everything (that even someone who has only heard of the X-Men in passing) known about Jean and Scott’s romantic pairing, it isn’t that much of a shock to see them paired off like that since in the previous issue the Ted-Warren-Scott/Jean love triangle turned love square had been narrowed down to just Jean and Scott. The issue ends with the X-Men returning to the mansion only to find that Factor Three has abducted Charles which I’m sure sets up the plot for the next few issues at least. One thing I found to be a bit odd is the fact that the reason the door in the basement was locked was because Charles had been keeping Cain in there. That’s odd because it means that basically Charles has been holding Cain (even though he was in a coma) against his will for some time now. The thing that they use to explain it is that Charles had convinced the government to give him custody of Cain, which makes no sense either because that would mean that either Charles had used his abilities to wipe the minds of the people holding Cain and ‘convincing’ them into letting him keep his step-brother, or the government knows that the identity of the Juggernaut is really Cain Marko and Charles went through the proper legal channels to obtain custody of his step-brother. That doesn’t seem too likely because that would put Charles’ identity out into the world. I guess that could be done considering it still wouldn’t connect Charles or Cain to the X-Men, but it would make it easier to connect the dots if someone bothered to. So this has Charles acting a bit out of character because the most likely scenario means that Charles mentally manipulated multiple people into basically kidnapping and holding Cain Marko prisoner in the basement of the Xavier Institute.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #30 The Warlock Wakes!: B-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #31 We Must Destroy… the Cobalt Man!: B-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #32 Beware the Juggernaut, my son!: A-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #33 Into the Crimson Cosmos!: B+