Chronological X-Men - God Loves, Man Kills Review

God Loves, Man Kills

Marvel Graphic Novel #5 – X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills

Okay this is one of those stories that have been praised for being so strong and so ahead of the times and all that jazz – it’s one of the stories where when you mention the X-Men people know this story. Anyway, it was a little hard for me to place this story because currently Logan isn’t with the X-Men, he’s in Japan and Scott is off in Alaska, yet the X-Men are all together back on Earth so this takes place after the Brood Queen Egg that Charles was carrying had been destroyed.  Kitty has already switched to the Ariel codename (she was currently Sprite – but given that all this is going off of the Purifiers files it’s possible that they only knew her as Ariel – even though that doesn’t make any sense because she only used that codename for like 10 seconds when she first joined the team before switching to Sprite) and Ororo hasn’t gone through her own extreme makeover et. This is one of those stories (much like when Jean died) that you can’t help but go ‘$..! just got real.’ Not only were there quite a few deaths but there was torture, violence, execution style killing of children – and it wasn’t done in a way like the Brood story was where it just happens with this story there is a lot of shock value that makes the story extremely heavy. The plot revolves around the introduction of William Stryker and his Purifiers who believe that they have been commanded by God to purge the world of all mutants and they intend on using Charles own mutant powers as a way to destroy all the mutants. The only other (like there weren’t enough major events going on already) big revelation is that Stryker’s mutant detection device doesn’t know what to make of Illyana she registers as human yet not human, mutant yet not mutant so that’s interesting. I really don’t have anything bad to say about this story I can see why it gets all the hype that it does.

The Uncanny X-Men #168 – Professor Xavier is a Jerk!

I put this story here because it seems to fit after everything that the X-Men recently went through with Stryker it would make sense that Charles would still be hesitant to put Kitty back with the X-Men. Logan has left the X-Men to go to Canada (so this takes place after God Loves, Man Kills) and Scott leaves for Florida to meet up with his kind of former girlfriend Lee before he takes off for Alaska with Alex and Corsair so Scott and Alex can meet their grandparents (we haven’t seen them yet) and meet a pilot Madelyne Pryor who looks identical to Jean. Kurt goes to visit his girlfriend Amanda and Kitty tries her best to prove to Charles that she deserves to be an X-Man. Unfortunately that leads Kitty into a not so pleasant encounter with a nest of Sidri hatchlings that have just been born – the good news is somehow the dragon (that kitty names Lockheed) managed to follow her back to Earth and he destroys most of the nest.

Dazzler #25 – The Jagged Edge

This is another story that felt like it belonged in this plot line simply because of the story matter. Alison continues her rise to stardom and fame only to gain a brand new fan that turns out to be a psychopathic stalker army vet who lost his grip on his sanity and reality once he heard that his father had died. It was a good story when you lump it in with the current plotlines and I actually think it was almost strong enough to stand on it’s own too which is saying a lot because there aren’t that many issues of this book that I would ever read again but not only is this an issue that I can picture myself reading a second time – it’s actually a story that I would want to read again and for this book that is a huge deal. There isn’t really anything negative that I can say about this issue which is a good thing. The only downside I can think of is that this is the final issue of the series before it switches from monthly to bimonthly. And given certain plots this book has had in the past even this could almost be considered a good thing.

Marvel Graphic Novel #5 – X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills: A

The Uncanny X-Men #168 – Professor Xavier is a Jerk!: A

Dazzler #25 – The Jagged Edge: A

Chronological X-Men - The Brood Part 4 Review

The Brood.

Dazzler #18 – The Absorbing Man Wants You!

Dazzler #19 – Creel… and Inhuman Treatment!

Like with almost every Dazzler issue we have a bunch of guest stars, in present time as well as flashbacks. Alison visits the Fantastic Four for an impromptu jam session with Ben and Johnny, while Reed works on a device that Alison can use to augment her powers into a better defensive weapon and Sue and Reed lecture Alison on why she should become a fulltime hero and stop running from it. Warren continues to dig into Alison’s past and tries to find out what happened to her mother by questioning Alison’s grandmother Bella. Meanwhile Carter begins to have a nervous breakdown, Vanessa rants and raves about her vocal coach and The Absorbing man tries to capture Dazzler and use her as a hostage to call out the Avengers and get his revenge on them. Alison tries to get away and uses Reed’s weapon which augments her powers too much and actually causes The Absorbing Man to turn into a giant being of light. Alison breaks into the Baxter Building to try to get the Fantastic Four’s help in saving the Avengers, after learning that they aren’t there she ends up contacting Black Bolt, Lockjaw and Medusa of the Inhumans for help. Carter continues his descent into madness and is focusing on Alison and his wife Katherine’s ‘betrayal;’ and Vanessa stumbles onto a room that holds something shocking at her vocal coach’s home. We get the first appearance of Barbara London – the vocal coach; and we see Medusa, Black Bolt and Lockjaw for the first time in an X-book. This story was alright I guess, it was better than usual but I can’t help but think that Carter’s nervous breakdown was rather sudden and could have benefited with a more drawn out build-up. I do hope that they bring Black Bolt back into Alison’s life, they do make for an interesting duo and their powers play well off of each other. There was actually very little to complain about with this storyline so that’s always a plus.

Dazzler #20 – Out of the Past!

Carter is now completely delusional – living in his mind where he is attacked and killed by Alison who does it for her mother. Warren and Bella go against the psychiatrist’s wishes and refuse to put him in a hospital and agree that they need to find Alison because they both believe that she can help bring Carter out of his current state. We get new characters Johnny Guitar and Doctor Sax who have an old score to settle with Alison’s band, and now that they’re both out of prison and have received special weapons from Techmaster they’re more than ready to get their revenge. We also meet Hunch’s wife Dora and their son Justin for the first time. The secret of Barbara London’s room is that it’s sort of a shrine to Dazzler’s career. She claims that it’s her daughter’s room and she is a huge Dazzler fan but soon Barbara breaks down and admits to Vanessa that the clippings are hers and that she’s Alison’s mother and that the girl in the picture is her other daughter (which would make her Alison’s half sister.)

Dazzler #21 – Alison Blaire, This Is Your Life!

There’s a whole lot going on here – almost too much to talk about. There are tons of guest stars this issue: Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, Daredevil (first time in an X-book – I’m pretty sure, it’s been a while since I did reading other issues because I was sick for a while;) Spider-Man, Beast, Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Thor, Wasp, Wonder-Man, Iron Fist, Power Man, Misty Knight, Quasar and Harmony Young. Angel has become a staple of this book now so he doesn’t really count as ‘guest star’ anymore – on top of that all the usual suspects are back. In a series of flashbacks we meet Nick Brown and Lois London for the first time. So the big secret of Alison’s mother is that she was a singer, she had an affair with Nick while she was married to Carter, she ended up leaving Carter for Nick who ‘let’ her continue her music career but he basically turned Katherine into an alcoholic and a drug addict in addition to beating her on a regular basis. She got pregnant by Nick and had another girl (Lois) and one day simply had enough of Nick and left him – this time taking her child with her instead of leaving her behind (like she did with Alison and Carter.) Alison is able to reach her father and pull him out of his catatonic state and the duo fight more. Alison holds a charity concert for a local hospital – which is why all of the guest stars (the X-Men didn’t show up because they’re still making their way back to Earth) and Vanessa blackmails Barbara/Katherine into going. Alison decides to quit showbiz after being offered drugs – but she quickly changes her mind and decides to continue her career. Alison, her mother and her father all reconnect and all seems well by the end of the issue. Oh this issue also features another first… this time we have a photographed cover instead of a drawn one, the photograph was taken by Eliot. R. Brown and is of a Canadian model named June MacDonald. The story was good, a little over packed and there were a few clichés I could have lived without them using. I like what the did with Alison’s mother because it makes sense for the character and fits the storyline but I would rather have had her been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent or some criminal or a spy or something instead. The leaving her husband for another man and getting pregnant by both of them is a little bit too soap opera-y for my tastes.

Dazzler #22 – The Sisterhood

Mystique, Destiny and Rogue have managed to escape from prison (Mystique was taken away at the Pentagon the last time we saw her) and are now after the X-Men for revenge. Since the trio doesn’t know how to get to the X-Men on their own they target Angel (who is still hanging out in Dazzler’s book) so Rogue can absorb his memories and they can learn the location of the X-Men. The girl that Alison saves from being hit in traffic ends up being Lois London – her half sister that she hasn’t met yet – so that’s kind of interesting; actually it’s the most interesting thing to happen the entire issue. There are two mistakes one very odd and noticeable – on page three two of the panels are printed out of order – which is weird, the other mistake is that it seems that Angel and Rogue have encountered each other before, but this is actually the first time they’ve ever met. The story wasn’t bad per-say but it would have made more sense if the female members of the Brotherhood went after Dazzler since she has times to the X-Men and the Avengers instead of just going after Angel.

Dazzler #23 – Fire in the Night!

Alison is now living scared that the ‘sisterhood’ will target her since she stopped their plan to learn the location of the X-Men. So naturally when Alison’s apartment building catches fire and then later her recording studio  she begins to panic, meanwhile Angel is on the run and has no one to turn to (Charles is still too depressed after the X-Men were kidnapped by Deathbird and ‘killed,’) so he just sits and mopes for no real reason - he could go to the Avengers or anyone really for help but he chooses not to. Barbara (formerly Katherine) tells her daughter Lois all about her older half sister Alison and Lois decides it’s time she get to know her new sister. We get the first appearance of Flame – an arsonist hired by the owner of Alison’s building. He’s the one that has been setting the fires, not Rogue, Mystique or Destiny- because he wants to force the renters into buying their units and converting them to condos. This is kind of an odd issue, we’ve never been given the impression that Alison’s landlord is really a slumlord, if anything he’s been portrayed as freakishly nice because Alison has almost always been more than one month behind on rent and he’s never kicked her out. Speaking of money, I know Alison’s career is taking off but less than twenty issues ago this girl was eating ketchup for dinner because she couldn’t even afford a can of soup and now she can afford to pay for superhero body guards that are costing her a hundred dollars a day?

Dazzler #24 – A Rogue in the House

Well, the title pretty much says it all; Rogue finds out where Alison lives and then trashes her apartment and waits to attack her to get revenge on Alison for stopping the Sisterhood’s most recent quest for vengeance. Alison is still using Power Man and Iron First for protection; Angel is still running around scared – only he’s not too scared anymore because he’s renting out entire gyms just so he can fly around indoors; and Lois is still trying to get to know her sister. This issue was a little odd, mostly because while it serves as the end of the current storyline it feels like it’s mostly filler. We didn’t need shots of Warren flying around or really need any of Alison and Ken’s date but its there. There’s a little mistake, Alison asks her neighbor Frank if the woman in her apartment had red hair with white streaks and he says yes. I never really considered Rogue to have red hair… so that’s kind of odd. I didn’t really care for this issue but I do like that they’re starting to build this headache/passing out thing with Lois hopefully that will have a better and less soapy (– translation Lois better not have a tumor or be pregnant) payoff than the secret of Alison’s mother.

Marvel Graphic Novel #4 – The New Mutants - Renewal

Okay this story obviously takes place before Uncanny X-Men #167 so this fits in around 165-166. We get many new characters – Roberto DaCosta, and his father Emmanuel DaCosta (who is a member of the Hellfire Club;) Samuel Guthrie (Cannonball,) Danielle Moonstar and her grandfather Black Eagle; we get the first published appearances of Rahne Sinclar and her guardian Reverend Craig (they were both retconned later to have been introduced at earlier points of their lives but this is Rahne’s first actual appearance. Xi’an “Shan” Coy Manh/Karma also appears and it is revealed that she’s actually the oldest of this new group coming in at 19; we also see the return of Moira MacTaggert, Donald Pierce and Tessa. Donald has taken Tessa captive and is planning on taking out all of the mutants on Earth. So it’s a race of sorts between Charles, Moira and Pierce to make contact with the mutants before the others can. Sam ends up joining the Hellfire Club, Roberto is almost taken captive but escapes unfortunately not before his girlfriend Juliana is murdered, Moira saves Rahne from angry townspeople who believe that she is possessed by the devil, Xi’an meets with Charles willingly and Danielle ends up teaming up with Charles so she can avenge her grandfather’s murder by Donald Pierce’s crew. Honestly I’ve got nothing bad to say about this story at all – I’ve always thought Dani’s powers were cool, Sam’s been one of my favorite characters for years, and I’ve always been partial to Tessa even if I haven’t liked certain things that they’ve done with her character My only wish is that this story were longer because I wasn’t ready for the story to end when it did.

The New Mutants #1 – Initiation!

The New Mutants #2 – Sentinels

This story takes place roughly two weeks after the end of Marvel Graphic Novel #4. Danielle has taken on the codename ‘Psyche,’ Roberto now goes by ‘Sunspot,’ Rahne has chosen ‘Wolfsbane,’ Sam and Xi’an have chosen to go by their previous names: Cannonball and Karma. Stevie Hunter – Kitty’s friend and dance instructor has apparently gotten a teaching job at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, serving mostly as their gym coach Charles is of course teaching these new students how to use their powers and the basic school stuff. Moira has been called away to London (and has taken Illyana with her) to meet with an Israeli Ambassador who turns out to be Gabrielle Haller who needs Moira’s help dealing with her autistic son who has telepathic and telekinetic powers. The big shocker here is of course the reveal that her son’s father is none other than Charles himself. Back in the states Dani is having trouble being around so many people and controlling her powers which leads to her accidentally using her abilities on Xi’an. Stevie decides to take everyone out to see a movie but Charles and Dani decline. Dani crashes the Danger Room and tried to complete a session on her own since she feels like she failed when she became scared during the earlier training session – unfortunately something goes horribly wrong and she ends up trapped in one of the X-Men’s training sessions and ends up encountering one of the Brood’s Queens. The Brood Queen deems Dani to big of a threat to be allowed to continue to live, or to risk implanting her with a Brood egg so the Brood Queen throws Dani off of a cliff. At the mall Sam, Xi’an, Rahne, Roberto are attacked by Sentinels and Stevie is taken by Colonel Mike Rossi – who it turns out didn’t die back in Uncanny X-Men #99 he simply used his presumed death to his advantage. Sebastian Shaw continues to plot to turn against Henry Peter Gyrich so there’s some progress there with the whole Project Widewake plot. A shot of the screen shows the ages of most of the New Mutants – Rahne -14 years old (though later retconned into her being only 13,) Roberto 13, Sam 16, and Xi’an is 19. Oh and there’s an official statement about Roberto’s father being a member of the Hellfire Club although not so involved in it to be part of the Inner Circle. The team returns to the school to find Dani unconscious on the floor of the Danger Room. Much like before I don’t really have anything negative to say at all about this story. The only weird thing for me was it didn’t really make sense why Illyana was with Moira – but given all that’s going on that’s not that big of a deal. My only real complaint is the art, I know it’s the style of the book and all but Sam looks goofy and Xi’an… uhh yeah half the time she looks older than Charles – just saying.

The New Mutants #3 – Nightmare

The Uncanny X-Men #167 – The Goldilocks Syndrome! (or: Who’s Been Sleeping in My Head?)

This story obviously takes place roughly at the same time as Uncanny X-Men #166 since Illyana is honoring the memory of her best friend on her birthday (Sean reveals that it is currently Kitty’s birthday.) Dani is trapped in what amounts to a living hell for her, she is constantly tormented by ‘The Demon Bear’ that killed her parents and Charles believes that she is going mad. It turns out though that Dani isn’t insane – she’s actually being tormented by the Brood Queen who alternates between trying to get Dani to kill herself, die, leave the team and access her powers to the extent where she pretty much creates an alternate reality. There are a few things here that seemed a bit off Charles behavior for one – but that’s because he’s been taken over by a Brood Queen. I wish they would explain why Illyana was with Moira first in London and now she’s on Muir Island…. For the love of God why hasn’t anyone taken the girl home? Or at least mention that she had been home at some point – it’s just odd. The story concludes in the Uncanny X-Men with the team arriving back home right after the New Mutants have fought the Brood Queen and are watching TV. The X-Men try to stop the Brood Queen Egg from hatching but it’s too late and Charles transforms – that’s when we learn that Charles while possessed specifically gathered the New Mutants to implant them with Brood Queen Eggs as well. There are a few things here that just felt odd – Kitty can suddenly phase objects with her. Piotr states that Sam looks to be the same age Piotr was when he joined the X-Men but recently he said that he’s 18 – so that means that he’s been with the team for 2 years which doesn’t really track since Kitty joined the team when she was 13 ½ but is now 15. I’m assuming that Illyana was sent with Moira because the Brood Queen didn’t want to risk implanting someone who has been touched by magic. Lilandra’s threatening the Fantastic Four seemed out of place and not really required – given how quickly the whole idea of cloning Charles’ body and transferring his mind into the new body so his old one can be killed/destroyed now that the Brood Queen has hatched within him literally came out of nowhere and so late in the game you almost couldn’t even call it the eleventh hour anymore and everything just gets this big old happy ending – except for Kitty who has now been kicked off the X-Men and is a part of the New Mutants. It seemed like a really cheap payoff to a story that had been going on for some time now it was like the writer just got bored with it too. I could have done without the SORASING (it’s a term used mostly with soap operas or TV shows ‘soap opera rapid aging syndrome’ where a character literally ages years over night) of Kitty (Illyana makes sense) and the de-aging of Piotr just so they can legally pair them up and there needed to be a stronger payoff.

Dazzler #18 – The Absorbing Man Wants You!: B

Dazzler #19 – Creel… and Inhuman Treatment!: A

Dazzler #20 – Out of the Past!: B

Dazzler #21 – Alison Blaire, This Is Your Life!: B

Dazzler #22 – The Sisterhood: C

Dazzler #23 – Fire in the Night!: B

Dazzler #24 – A Rogue in the House: C

Marvel Graphic Novel #4 – The New Mutants – Renewal: A

The New Mutants #1 – Initiation!:A

The New Mutants #2 – Sentinels: A

The New Mutants #3 – Nightmare: A

The Uncanny X-Men #167 – The Goldilocks Syndrome! (or: Who’s Been Sleeping in My Head?): C

Chronological X-Men - The Brood Part 3 Review

The Brood.

The Uncanny X-Men #160 – Chutes and Ladders!

Despite the fact that Illyana is in my top five favorite Marvel comic book characters (and possibly just top 5 favorite comic book characters ever) I’ve never actually read this issue before. I had always known the basics though Belasco abducts Illyana and corrupts her and steals her soul piece by piece to form bloodstones so he can rule Limbo and through all the various Magik and Limbo-centric issues I’ve read I’ve fleshed out most of the story on my own, but it was interesting to read it. We see for the first time in an x book (in publication order) Limbo, Belasco makes his first appearance here (but he’d been in other books) and we see S’ym for the first time. Kitty gets tortured by Belasco and in a sort of alternate timeline with in the dimension Storm learns magic to save Illyana, Piotr and Logan die and Kurt becomes corrupted by Belasco and becomes a creature of pure evil. All that being said though the X-Men with the older Ororo’s help manage to free Kitty and rescue Illyana but they lose track of the little girl and once Kitty finds her again and pulls her through the closing portal that the older Ororo created Illyana is no longer a young child but a 13 year old girl. The story is very good – don’t get me wrong but it does have two things going against it for me. First of all, I think I’ve built it up so much in my head that I thought it would be better than it was. Secondly, the book feels very disjointed, in general – I’ve spoken of this before but the plots hop around a lot recently and it can be a bit confusing because it feels like there are things that have been left out. But in the end, even if I didn’t love the character so much, this issue will always bring a smile to my heart because it’s the August 1982 issue, and that’s when I was born.

Marvel Team-Up #100 – Karma!/Cry - Vengeance!

Okay this next story doesn’t really fit here because in the backup feature with Ororo Charles is up and about (but currently he’s in a coma) but I couldn’t really think of where else to fit it in. Starting with the first story we have Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four we see Xi’an “Shan” Coy Manh (Karma) for the very first time and we meet her family: her uncle General Nguyen Ngoc Coy, Xi’an’s twin brother Tran and their younger siblings Leong and Nga. Xi’an uses her mutant ability to possess Spider-Man and uses him to attack her uncle and twin brother in an attempt to take her younger siblings back from them.  After much confusion and a huge battle Xi’an ends up teaming up with Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four to battle her uncle the crime lord. Xi’an goes toe to toe with Tran and ends up absorbing his essence forever bonding the two (she then takes on the name Karma) and rescuing her younger siblings from being ‘tested’ for mutant abilities and then have to suffer either growing up like Tran or a fate much worse if they were normal. The backup feature has Ororo being attacked by a sniper who was hired by Andreas deRuyter who has harbored a grudge for years after he lost a battle between himself and Ororo and T’challa when they were only twelve years old. Honestly I don’t have much to say about this story because it was kind of a weak follow up to Karma. Plus it was a little too much of the same thing: both stories involved war torn countries, attempted stealing of children and in both stories the bad guy ends up dying. It almost would have been a better plot if they swapped out Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four with Black Panther and Storm and just made it one massive story.

The Uncanny X-Men #161 – Gold Rush!

More jumbled stories here. Scott, Corsair and Carol are all around – Carol just seems to come and go, she would have done well to be in the last issue since she has had previous ties with Limbo but they left her out, yet she’s around for this issue and just a background character. Scott and Corsair have returned from visiting Alex, but there’s no mention of why Alex didn’t come back with them to see their father off. Last issue there were only mentions of Charles and the focus was on the horrible things happening to Illyana, and now this issue it’s the other way around – a brief mention of Illyana and the focus is on Charles. The ‘flashbacks’ show us Gabrielle Haller for the first time and we see what Charles did directly after his battle with Amahl Farouk and meeting Ororo as a little girl. Now there is something that bugs me we learn that Charles does indeed known Magneto (going by Magnus) and that he was in a concentration camp yet during the previous issues Charles states that he doesn’t know Magneto’s origin and even then it fluctuates between that and not knowing Magneto exists and then founding the X-Men for the soul purpose of fighting Magneto. Another thing but this is just a pet peeve of mine, I’ve gone into it before with Scott’s mother; is the name changes: Magneto, Eric, Magnus… PICK ONE! It’s different with Kitty because they are all variations of the same name and only specific characters call her specific things… Anyway, that’s not really the point. I guess the issue was good I mean the whole point of the flashbacks were to tie in to how Charles wakes up from his coma and it’s all just justification to have a big party to get the bulk of the characters together so Deathbird and the Brood can crash the party and attack everyone.

The Uncanny X-Men #162 – Beyond the Farthest Star

 

Okay this issue itself is pretty trippy, but given what’s going on it’s supposed to be. This is the first time we see just how powerful Logan’s healing factor can be when his body starts fighting off an egg the Brood Queen implanted within him. The issue switches between what is currently going on and a sort of drug induced haze while the egg tries to take control of Logan’s mind. One thing I find odd is why in Logan’s mind he saw Kitty figure out that ‘Lilandra’ was really the Brood Queen – maybe his brain worked it out that since Kitty is the smartest member of the team that naturally she would figure it out on her own also. We see that Deathbird also gave the Brood (at least) one of her faction of the Imperial Guard that turned against Lilandra. Fang was also implanted with a Brood egg and when it hatches we see what happens. You know, I’ve always been freaked out by the Brood but I’ve never considering the fact that when an egg hatches the hosts’ body transforms into the Brood as part of the reason why they bug me. The issue was fine but with things switching from reality to fantasy would have been easy to follow if I hadn’t been taking cold medicine for the past week.

The Uncanny X-Men #163 – Rescue Mission

Logan continues his search for his friends and stumbles on Carol who is being ‘examined’ by the Brood. I’ve always known that wasn’t entirely human but she’s not a character I’ve ever been invested in so finding out the full extent of it – but it would have been nice for a little more of a build up to why she can’t be implanted with a Brood egg. The bulk of the issue is devoted to the X-Men waking up one by one on their own with Storm clearly taking the recent events the hardest. That is until Kitty wakes up and is forced into a life or death standoff and is put in a situation where one of the Brood dies. I find it kind of interesting that now essentially every member of the current team has taken a life; it’s not surprising because the tone of the book has changed quite a bit since the series first began but it will be interesting to see if this knowledge bothers Warren as much as it did when he found out Logan ‘killed’ a robot.

The Uncanny X-Men #164 – Binary Star

The ‘testing’ that Carol underwent by the Brood activates a latent aspect of the results of her genetic code being combined with that of the member of the Kree race. Kitty almost dies in the middle of a space shootout but is saved by the Brood egg she’s carrying and Storm begins to lose control of her powers. At first she thinks it’s because she’s in space and away from the Earth but she quickly discoverers that she is carrying a Brood egg and that pretty much cases her to go crazy and in a panic Storm takes off in one of the ship’s rescue pods. Back on Earth Charles and Illyana have dinner together and it’s… odd. Charles tries to read Illyana’s mind buy he can’t – he even goes as far to question why he can’t but then decides that he just doesn’t have the time or energy to care about finding out why he can’t read her mind. There’s one scene where she asks Charles if she could be a mutant and Illyana hints that she ‘can do neat things too.’ One thing that I didn’t really care for with this issue was the fact that suddenly Carol’s new powers (and new codename ‘Binary’) just appear exactly when the team needs more firepower.

The Uncanny X-Men #165 – Transfigurations!

Well a lot happens this issue, and at the same time nothing happens too. Storm decides to commit suicide in space and technically she ‘dies’ for the first time in this issue so that’s important. But the Acanti find her and ‘join’ the two of them together. I wouldn’t really mind this and the sudden (temporary) shift in a character in space if only it hadn’t been done the issue before this with Carol and then many issues ago with Jean. It seems all the X-Men do is go into space and die, be brought back from the dead and get their powers magnified beyond their control. Back on Earth be see that Mr. Fantastic has reached out to Charles about Karma and at first Charles wants nothing to do with her until Moira suggests that they allow Magneto to train her or enroll her in Emma’s Massachusetts Academy. It turns out I must have been right in figuring out Moira’s timeline – she was indeed pregnant with her son when she and Charles were dating and when she found out she was carrying the child she left him. Kitty makes her move on Piotr, which I knew was coming. It’s not as creepy as it was a few issues ago because now they state that she’s fifteen; so 15 and 18 aren’t that far apart but it is funny how Piotr is getting younger each year and Kitty is getting older. They never should have made such a big deal about Kitty being thirteen and a half and Piotr being ‘older than the original team’ as much as they did.

The Uncanny X-Men #166 – Live Free or Die!

Yet another giant sized issue brings us yet another giant sized space battle. There are a few contradictions here that I don’t really understand. Lilandra was all ‘Phoenix must die!’ when she fed off of a star and destroyed people to live yet now that it personally effects Lilandra she’s all for killing an entire planet. This time it’s Kitty’s turn to be ‘altered’ by a space being – this time by the soul of the Acanti Prophet-Singer, although her change is the most temporary change of all (only like 2 pages maximum) by this point 4 ‘X-Men’ over the course of roughly 60 issues have experienced similar circumstances. It’s averaging out to be one every fifteen issues…. They really need to give this particular plot point a rest for a while. Broodworld is destroyed and along with it the Brood Queen, but we are far from over with this story.. she states that her death will not be ‘her true death’ and that there is someone else implanted with a Brood Queen Egg and that will hatch soon. Of course it turns out to be none other than Charles Xavier, and now It’s up to the X-Men to return to Earth in time to save him. Oh yeah, and we see Kitty's pet dragon Lockheed for the first time - although at this point he has no name and isn't Kitty's 'pet' but he does save her life.

Dazzler #17 – The Angel and the Octopus!

Doctor Octopus and the Absorbing man make their first appearances in an X-book which is okay – I guess. There are a few things here that just don’t really make any sense. First Warren just randomly shows up and wants to date Alison because her being a mutant can give him a better sense of adventure that he hasn’t gotten from dating Candy. This is weird mostly because I didn’t know that Candy and Warren had broken up to begin with, but for Warren to show up and act the way that he acted in this issue seems very out of character for him. He comes off very smarmy and forceful. The other odd thing is that Alison doesn’t recognize Warren at first, but she should know who he is. Not only is his identity public, he’s a public figure and on top of that he was an X-Man and Alison knows their real identities.There really isn't much to say about this issue, the whole plot of it involved Alison in a love triangle and I really don't want to read a 'romantic' comic but it was a decent break from the Brood saga (this story takes place while the X-Men are in space) and Warren finding the note from Jessica Drew and his desire to win Alison over by finding her mother will move that plot along so I'm thankful for that.

 

The Uncanny X-Men #160 – Chutes and Ladders!: A

Marvel Team-Up #100 – Karma!/Cry - Vengeance!: B

The Uncanny X-Men #161 – Gold Rush!: C

The Uncanny X-Men #166 – Beyond the Farthest Star: B

The Uncanny X-Men #163 – Rescue Mission: B

The Uncanny X-Men #164 – Binary Star: B

The Uncanny X-Men #166 – Live Free or Die!: B

Dazzler #17 – The Angel and the Octopus!: D

Chronological X-Men - The Brood Part 2 Review

The Brood.

Dazzler #14 – Without Getting Killed or Caught…!

Harry gets Alison and her band a gig opening up for Bruce Harris in LA so Alison, Beefer, Hunch, Marx and Lance all head out for the gig. Meanwhile the mob hires LaFarge; an assassin, to take out Joe Cartelli who is also in LA at the time at Dazzler’s concert. Naturally Alison stops the hit and creates enough of a distraction for Joe to leave and come back as Blue Shield. There’s some confusion and the mob in LA actually thinks Lance is Blue Shield since he was seen running around shortly before the hero arrives, so Lance and Alison are taken hostage. It turns out that the mob has She-Hulk (her first appearance in this book) under a form of mob control and is using her to try to kill Lance. We basically see a retelling of the time Alison fought Hulk but this time with She-Hulk. The issue is a fun little story and I’d probably read it again, its fun for what it was because it didn’t really try to be anything but what it was. One thing I’m sick of is the whole ‘Alison could have been a lawyer’ thing, does it have to be mentioned practically every page? I can’t really complain though because She-Hulk had a similar struggle so at least this time it makes sense.

Dazzler #15 – Private Eyes

Alison and her band continue to open for Bruce Harris, this time the tour takes them to San Francisco which just so happens to be the home base of Spider-Woman. Alison sees a truck that has the same symbol of the piece of her mother’s jewelry she recently found and decides to investigate. After a rough start she contacts Jessica Drew and hires her to look into her missing mother. It’s a little odd that Alison didn’t know that Jessica was Spider-Woman, but that could be just me. I assumed that since the X-Men know Jessica’s secret and Alison’s, and that Jessica knew the X-Men’s secrets, and Alison’s, and that Alison knew the X-Men’s secret that she’d naturally know Jessica’s as well. The animosity between Jessica and Alison, and later Alison and Spider-Woman is a bit odd considering they didn’t fight the last time they met up. Anyway, it turns out that the truck leads to a S.H.I.E.L.D. training facility that Alison and Spider-Woman barely get out of unscathed. So Alison’s mom might have had government ties… that fits in with her father being a lawyer, and it might explain the distaste he has if he thought his wife operated outside of ‘normal’ laws – but I’m not sure how that would translate to Carter hating Alison picking music over being a lawyer….

Dazzler #16 – Black Magic Woman!

Alison meets up with Ken (I guess those two are on their way to being a couple now) after Bruce has Dazzler and her band fired (from upstaging him) and make their way back to New York. On the plane Alison gets kidnapped and taken to Asgard where the Enchantress has been plotting her revenge. It makes sense that Alison pretty much held her own in the physical combat between herself and Enchantress since she is powerful enough for Galactus to use her for his own needs. And I like the idea of Alison battling Gods, it kind of puts her on a whole different power level and takes away a rather large chunk of the cheesiness that comes with her character – but my problem is that the epic battle between an evil God and a mortal suddenly turns into a sing-off. This is just as bad as Alison defeating the Techmaster by beating him senseless with her purse, this time she won a battle against a God by singing. What’s next, Alison besting Dark Phoenix in a roller skating competition?

The Uncanny X-Men #158 – The Life That Late I Led…

The X-Men are back on Earth now, along with Lilandra, Oracle and the Starjammers. Charles is still out of it and Oracle tries to wake him unsuccessfully. Scott and Corsair have taken off and gone to visit Alex and Lorna to tell them everything that has happened and that Corsair is Alex’s father. The remaining Starjammers go toe to toe with Carol and Senator Robert Kelly officially declares the X-Men outlaws. Logan and Carol use their military clout to get themselves (and Ororo) into the Pentagon so they can erase all the files the government has on the X-Men and set loose a computer virus that Kitty designed. At the Pentagon the three of them bump into Rogue (I’m not sure why she’s there, but she is) and they fight which draws the attention of Mystique (who works there under her Raven Darkholme identity) who then follows Carol and attempts to kill her. The issue is good, but it does raise more questions than it answers. Why was Rogue at the Pentagon? Why did Carol only erase her files and not the X-Men (she does implant the virus though)? With Mystique in custody how will it be explained that Raven isn’t around? Why has no one still returned Illyana to her home? – Yes, that still bothers me.

The Uncanny X-Men #159 – Night Screams!

Well for this issue we see the first (X-book) appearances of Harmony Young (Misty Knight’s roommate) and Dracula – though I’m not entirely sure why. The title has felt very disjointed lately and I’ve found myself often looking back at the issue numbers to make sure that I hadn’t inadvertently skipped an issue without knowing. Last issue the X-Men were on Magneto’s island and then they were in the Pentagon and now all of a sudden the issue starts with them at Misty’s apartment while Kitty goes to visit her parents. I don’t know why Dracula was chosen to be the villain of the piece here but he is. It’s interesting because for the first time we really see how important God and religion is to Kurt (and Kitty, although as the series progresses that particular plot obviously is more Kurt-centric) and how Logan doesn’t really have faith in anything. Dracula tries to turn Storm so most of the issue is about Ororo slowly recovering from her attack and then her humanity slowly being eaten away. One thing I found interesting was the mention of Ororo’s age, the paramedics state that she’s in her mid twenties which makes sense sort of – if you forget that  through the years various titles (I’ve covered here already) alternate between Ororo being younger than Bobby and her being older than all of the original X-Men. We get a continuation of sorts with Scott, Lorna, Alex and Corsair reconnecting but that’s not really the focal point of the story and honestly it’s barely the ‘c’ plot. What makes this issue feel even stranger for me is that it wasn’t even an October issue, so I can’t even just wrap this up to being a Halloween issue. I know I don’t talk much about the art of these books – mostly because I am so far behind that I choose to ignore it, but some times something just sticks out for me. I spoke about it briefly before with the whole Nightcrawler teleporting and not going ‘bamf’ scene before so this isn’t unheard of, I guess I’ll keep it up if something really grabs me. Like this image here... the art over the course of the book seems to go from being good to looking weird, but this image here – to me I looked at that and was stunned. I don’t know what it is about it, but it’s breathtaking and it really pops on the page for me.

The Uncanny X-Men Annual #6 – Blood Feud!

Well this particular annual features a sort of follow up to the recent encounter between the X-Men and Dracula. We see Rachel van Helsing and Dracula’s daughter Lilith for the first time in an x-book and we learn that Kitty’s parents are planning on getting a divorce. The plot is pretty straightforward Rachel has a book that contains a spell which will destroy all vampires so Dracula turns her in order to force her into giving him the book. Once he learns that Rachel has placed safeguards around the book which will prevent a vampire from getting it Dracula uses his bond with Storm to compel her into doing his bidding, and once she breaks herself of his spell he simply threatens her into doing his work. Meanwhile Kitty starts acting very strangely, and it turns out she has been possessed by Lilith, Dracula’s daughter who exists to destroy him. The X-Men eventually slay Dracula and Lilith leaves Kitty’s body and soul intact, the only loose end is Rachel who is now a vampire. Ororo tries to kill her, but Logan spares her from carrying the weight of that on her shoulders. Now free of Dracula’s power Ororo and Logan (who was also bitten) are left to wonder if the battle is truly over.

What If? #24 – What If… Wolverine Was Lord of The Vampires?

This issue brings us an alternate universe in which Ororo was turned into a vampire when she met Dracula the first time and didn’t turn on him which allowed Dracula to turn Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler into vampires. To make a long story incredibly short, Logan doesn’t like taking orders from Dracula so he challenges him for the position of Lord of the Vampires, after a heated battle Logan wins and begins his reign of terror. Pretty much this entire story can be summed up by saying: “in this story everybody dies… which teaches us that everybody dies.” It would take way too long to list all the characters that were killed, turned, and staked so I won’t get into that. The resolve of the issue is a little too quick, Punisher dies and the spirit of Doctor Strange convinces Logan that part of himself is still human and uses the spell to destroy all vampires.

Dazzler #14 – Without Getting Killed or Caught…!: B

Dazzler #15 – Private Eyes: A

Dazzler #16 – Black Magic Woman!: B

The Uncanny X-Men #158 – The Life That Late I Led…: B

The Uncanny X-Men #159 – Night Screams!: B

The Uncanny X-Men Annual #6 – Blood Feud!: B

What If? #24 – What If… Wolverine Was Lord of The Vampires?: B

Chronological X-Men - The Brood Part 1 Review

 Brood.

The Uncanny X-Men #153 – Kitty’s Fairy Tale

The X-Men are still recovering from the recent attack from the Hellfire Club and the Sentinels and they’re trying to rebuild the mansion. All of the team has their roles to play, including Kitty who basically gets regulated to babysitting Illyana. There are a few things here that seem odd Carol Danvers is back with the team, the former Ms. Marvel just seems to show up at random ever since she lost her powers. It seems like whenever she could be a central character and benefit from her being included in a situation she’s not there, and when they need someone for filler she is. Also for the life of me I can’t figure out why no one has returned Illyana to her parents, she’s just a little girl (at the point still far younger than Kitty) and no one brings her home? Moira and Sean have returned to Muir Isle – they could have dropper her off, and Amanda works for an airline for crying out loud… there have been ample opportunities to bring her back to Russia. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about it since I love Illyana, I just wish they would explain it. Another odd thing is in the story that Kitty is telling Illyana the blackbird (now a living dragon called Lockheed – now I know why she named her pet dragon that in the future) keeps calling Kitty ‘Colleen’ and it’s never really explained why. I like the story, it’s a nice little break from the larger storylines that have been in the book recently (and will start up again with the next issue) but I can’t help but feel cheated. I remember reading in multiple places that this story got a lot of praise, but I just don’t see why. Maybe it was one of those things that you had to read when it was first published to truly understand the uniqueness of it.

The Uncanny X-Men #154 – Reunion

Scott and Ororo remain at the now destroyed mansion while Charles, Kurt, Kitty, Piotr, Logan, Carol and Illyana have traveled  to Magneto’s island in the Bermuda Triangle to use that as a new base of operations so they can learn about Magneto as well as remain hidden from all the people who seem to always attack Charles’ school. I still don’t know why Scott and Ororo stayed behind other than for a plot point so oh well…. Corsair returns to Earth after being hounded by the Shi-ar Empire who now believe him a traitor and responsible for the kidnapping of Lilandra. He arrives at the mansion and along with Scott and Ororo battle the Sidri who are basically contract killers. Corsair admits to Scott that he is his father and tells him about what happened with the plane crash. I’m kind of over the constant name changing of Scott and Alex’s mother. First it’s Katherine Anne, then it’s Katherine, then Kate, then Anne – some times the name changes in the middle of the page. Just pick a name and stick with it already! We do see Carol struggle to put her life back together, which is nice I just wish we’d see more scenes with Carol and Logan – especially since their circumstances are somewhat similar. One thing I found odd was the fact that the X-Men have spent so much time working on repairing the mansion over the past few issues and then all of a sudden they just decide to uproot themselves and live on Magneto’s island. It’s pointless to pick on that though because by the end of this issue the Sidri have completely destroyed the entire mansion anyway.

The Uncanny X-Men #155 – First Blood

The Uncanny X-Men #156 – Pursuit!

The X-Men are all transported to the Shi’ar ship where they are told about Lilandra’s kidnapping and how it all points not only to Corsair but also to Earth, and that the Sh-ar plan on destroying the planet unless Lilandra is returned safely. We get the first appearances of N’Rill’Iree a new member of the Ipmerial Guard, Sikorsky – a member of the Starjammers,The Brood (who have always freaked me out, even now they just look damn creepy) and their ship Acanti; Deathbird and Tigra also make their first appearances in an X-Book. Thanks to Deathbird we get the near death of Piotr. There are a few things that just didn’t add up for me here, I get that the Shi’ar teleported the X-Men to the ship, but why Kitty? She has had little to no interaction with them at all, why did they leave Tigra behind once they saw that she was helping the X-Men fight Deathbird and The Brood? You can kind of excuse Carol being left behind because someone had to take care of Illyana, but why did they leave the two of them also? We get a bit of a retcon here when they announce that Piotr is eighteen – it had previously been stated that the ‘new’ X-Men were all much older than the original team, so it’s hard for him to suddenly be younger than Bobby (who is now 21) but I understand that since they’re going full force with a Kitty/Piotr relationship that they need to lessen the age gap a bit, but she’s still 14, four years isn’t that much of a gap except that Piotr is 18 and that’s a no-no, they should have just made him seventeen if they were going to mess with it at all. Another thing that kind of bugs me is how involved the Shi'ar Empire is becoming. I like them to some extent but it's hard to get attached to any particular character because they introduce us to a few but keep most of the others background characters and some of the background characters seem more interesting than the main ones. The Shi'ar as a whole weren't really needed the story could have been just as well if it was just the X-Men/Starjammers VS. Deathbird/The Brood.

The Uncanny X-Men #157 – Hide ‘n’ Seek!

The X-Men have rescued Lilandra but the Starjammer’s ship has been severely damaged. The team races to repair the ship and contact the Shi-ar ship to call off the destruction of Earth. Chancellor Araki receives a transmission from Lilandra but before he can do anything about it Admiral Lord Samedar kills him. Charles contacts Kitty and Kurt telepathically and they hatch a plan to convince the Imperial Guard who still remain loyal to Lilandra to help them. We get the first appearances of Webwing and Blackthorn members of the Imperial Guard. Kitty uses the clothing device she was given (basically to play with to keep her busy while she was being held by the Shi’ar) to pose as Dark Phoenix to create a large enough distraction for Kurt to teleport out Oracle and convince her that they are telling the truth. In the end the X-Men, Lilandra, the few members of the Imperial Guard who are loyal to the empress and the Starjammers are able to stop Samedar from destroying the Earth. Deathbird and the Brood manage to escape, but their ship is almost killed in the process, and Charles remains mentally crippled after attempting to contact Kitty and Kurt telepathically earlier.

Dazzler #12 – Endless Hate

Okay, honestly it was extremely hard for me to take this issue seriously for several reasons – the main reason being this felt like it was written in the fifties. Alison spends time getting ready for her date with Paul which turns out to be a double date with Paul’s boss and his wife. Alison fails to impress and Paul says that he really didn’t want a promotion anyway, there are little comments about Alison being bored while the men talk about work; and to top that off back at Alison’s apartment we get a very 40-50s sitcom moment where the housewife messes something up and she apologizes for not being the proper woman and the man is all ‘it’s okay I still love you’ between Paul and Alison. The main plot with Techmaster seeking his revenge on Harry and Dazzler is pretty good, but it was hard to get past the things I mentioned earlier. I was all in to the plot because lets face it, the book had been pretty decent recently but then all that seems to be thrown away with this issue. Alison defeats Techmaster BY BEATING HIM WITH HER PURSE! Seriously, I couldn’t make that up if I tried. I really doubt that I’d ever read this issue again even if my life depended on it.

Dazzler #13 – Trial… and Terror!

Alison goes home to dig through her mother’s things and finds a brooch that catches her eyes so she takes it. One thing that kind of confuses me about Alison’s mother is that one minute they make it seem like she died when Alison was a baby and the next they make it seem like she mysteriously vanished and with how much Carter Blaire seems to resent his daughter’s free spirit being so much like her mother’s it kind of seems like she just showed up at Carter’s doorstep one day and dropped off a baby and said ‘here this is yours now.’ The plus side is it is starting to interest me, so hopefully it will have a rather decent payoff. Paul and Alison break up so hopefully I won’t have to deal with another story as bad as last issue. The main plot revolves around Alison being taken to prison to await a trial for the murder of Klaw. I guess it’s to be expected because he was ‘killed’ in self defense by Alison in a Federal facility. We get a new supporting character for the book – Kenneth Barnett who serves as Alison’s attorney. I guess the story overall is alright, I do like the idea of Alison just being taken and charged with murder even though nothing about those events technically exist within public knowledge.. but I think I’m still bitter over the last issue because this thing just feels off. Not good, not bad – just off.

The Uncanny X-Men #153 – Kitty’s Fairy Tale: B

The Uncanny X-Men #154 – Reunion: B

The Uncanny X-Men #155 – First Blood: A

The Uncanny X-Men #156 – Pursuit!: A

The Uncanny X-Men #157 – Hide ‘n’ Seek!:  A

Dazzler #12 – Endless Hate: F

Dazzler #13 – Trial… and Terror!: C

Chronological X-Men - The Phoenix Saga Part 2 Review

The Phoenix Saga!

Marvel Team-Up #53 Nightmare in New Mexico

Marvel Tales #262 Nightmare in New Mexico

This story takes place right after the events of Marvel Team-Up Annual #1, the X-Men and Spiderman are on their way back to New York after dealing with their recent battle only to have find out that The Hulk is fighting Woodgod in The Dead Zone. Charles and Phoenix are too weak to take part in the battle so they head back to the Xavier Institute leaving Banshee to help deliver Spiderman to the battle. It is a little odd that Banshee just drops Spiderman off and then leaves, but I guess that’s good considering it means I don’t have to follow the Hulk plot. Meanwhile the X-Men are shot down by the mysterious Sunstroke of the Desert Dwellers. It’s an all out smash up battle between the X-Men (sans Banshee who is traveling back to them as this is happening, Charles who is still too weak from recent events and Jean who only lasts a few moments before tapping into the power of Phoenix drains her) and at first Sunstroke but he is later joined by Cactus and Butte. Banshee shows up and basically saves the day before Gila the final member of the Desert Dwellers shows up. When all is said and done the X-Men continue to head for home while the Desert Dwellers wait for their master to summon them again.

Iron Fist #15 Enter, The X-Men

Hey it’s a party at a recently dead but not dead girl’s house! The X-Men are now back in town, only recently have landed which is obvious I guess because of the fact that Logan is still wearing Fang’s costume – although this makes no sense when you think about how in Marvel Team-Up he’s back to his regular costume. The X-Men want to celebrate having lived through the recent events out in the middle of the Shi-ar Empire’s homeworld. Of course there’s some misunderstandings when Iron Fist shows up at his friend Misty’s apartment at roughly the same time as Wolverine and each of them think the other is after their respective friends. Soon Kurt and Piotr show up and join the battle. Next to enter the fight is Storm, for quite possibly the most ridiculous reason of all… a plate of potato/egg salad falls on her face. Things are finally worked out and Iron Fist joins Jean’s party just in time to save her from being evicted from her apartment due to all the recent damage. It’s a fun little issue but honestly considering this was the last issue of Iron Fist it was a let down- so many dangling plots and unresolved issues- I can imagine how hard it would have been to swallow for someone who was actually a fan of the book and it’s characters.

The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine #1 At the Sign of the Lion

This is just a standard reprint here of Wolverine’s first appearance. There’s nothing new to cover which is good because I did say that I probably wouldn’t ever re-read this particular story. The new feature is okay for what it is. Logan is itching for some action – I guess the freedom he experienced while battling D’Ken and the Imperial Guard got to him now that he has to show restraint now that he’s back on Earth. It doesn’t take Logan long to find some action because as soon as Hercules shows up at the same bar the two of them get into a huge bar brawl. It was kind of fun to see how ticked off Logan got when Hercules kept taunting him about his height. Eventually the two of them decide that they’re wasting their time and start drinking again. I actually liked this issue, it wasn’t strong enough for it to have been stretched out into a full length storyline, but for what it was it was really good.

Marvel Team-Up #65 Introducing, Captain Britain

Marvel Team-Up #66 Murder World

This is an odd one here because while this is Captain Britain’s first appearance in the ‘American’ Marvel Comics publishing he’s been around in the UK Marvel Comics for a while now. And again while this is his first appearance in the American it’s still not his first appearance in an X-title so I have no idea where or how to categorize this. The same could be said about the ‘Siege Perilous’ which is tied to Captain Britain and later is part of a major X-Men event. It was interesting to see a young and inexperienced version of Brian and I wish that they kept him in this mindset for longer than they did, but there isn’t anything I can do about that. The whole story revolves around Arcade and his assistants Miss Locke and Mr. Chambers being hired to take out Brian Braddock who is believed to be one of fifty people who might be Captain Britain. We see an abridged version of how Brian came into his powers and we actually get the first real appearance of Arcade, Miss Locke and Mr. Chambers on any side of the pond, and since this is the first time we see Arcade this is by default the first time that we see Murderworld which is sort of Arcade’s playground. I liked the issues and I was glad that it was a two-parter. Normally I don’t like crossovers because this early in the game it’s with books that aren’t X-titles so I have no idea what’s going on in the mythology of the other half of the team up but considering this was the first time we see Captain Britain and Arcade it didn’t matter that I didn’t know what was going on in Peter Parker’s life because the whole aspect of the team up involved shaking up the events of their individual lives and starting a new chapter so I didn’t feel like I had been weighed down by some unseen mythology.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #109 Home are the Heroes!

Classic X-Men #16 Dearest Friend

Well it had to happen sooner or later but the X-Men have FINALLY arrived back to the Xavier Institute. The X-Men are all dealing with the recent events in their own way: Scott is brooding, Jean is telling her parents all about what happened on the space station and how she became Phoenix (I’m assuming that she also is telling them that she’s a mutant too, but since there is no dialogue for this particular scene it’s hard to tell, it could be argued that she’s not telling them about that, just that she died and became Phoenix since it is later retconned that Jean’s parents knew she was a mutant when she was a little girl and Charles came to seal off her telepathic abilities.) Kurt, Moira, Sean and Piotr go on a picnic which is soon crashed by Weapon Alpha (later known as Vindicator and Guardian) who has come to reclaim Wolverine/Weapon X. It was a little odd that Logan says that James Hudson was there when Logan left (what later becomes known as ) Weapon X considering that James didn’t appear at all in Giant-Size X-Men #1. The additional pages show more of James before and after he targets Logan, including a scene between himself and Heather (still not her first official X-Men appearance though) and Lilandra exploring the mansion and learning how to use the shower. The back up story shows us a little of Sean in his teen years when he was growing up with his cousin Tom. We see them battle over Maeve Rourke (which get this.. this is actually her first appearance period, she shows up again later in the 90s and once more in X-Men: First Class, but this was published before either of them happen;) while she’s not a ‘major’ character there are important events that surround her; the first being the more fleshed out feud between Sean and Tom.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #110 The X-Sanction

This is just a filler issue so it’s hard to judge it because only one major event (that we’re supposed to know about right now) happens: Jean rejoins the X-Men. The bulk of the issue is devoted to Mitchell Tanner (Warhawk) breaking into the mansion in order to test the X-Men’s abilities and monitor them for his as yet unknown, unseen boss. We get to see Colosso 2.0, mostly as an excuse to get all the X-Men in the Danger Room long enough for Warhawk to trap them in there. We do get to see something now for the first time that later becomes a recurring staple in the X-Men’s lives when they need some time to unwind; we see the first ever X-Men baseball game. Half the time in the future this is used as a fun little outlet and other times it’s used to just get everybody together long enough for something bad to happen. I really don’t know what to say about this issue, it’s kind of forgettable but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a bad issue. The whole thing just stinks of ‘filler’ and things that will later be explained. This is just a hard issue for me to rate.

Marvel Team-Up #53 Nightmare in New Mexico: C

Marvel Tales #262 Nightmare in New Mexico: C

Iron Fist #15 Enter, The X-Men: B

The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine #1 At the Sign of the Lion: A

Marvel Team-Up #65 Introducing, Captain Britain: A

Marvel Team-Up #66 Murder World: A

(The Uncanny)X-Men #109 Home are the Heroes!: B

Classic X-Men #16 Dearest Friend: B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #110 The X-Sanction: C