Chronological X-Men - Legion Review

Legion!

The New Mutants #26 – Legion

The New Mutants #27 – Into the Abyss

The New Mutants #28 - Soulwar

This is a small little story but it’s a pretty big one so that’s why I decided to separate it into its own little section. We do get a draw on some recent history as well as a few things that up until this point had seemed to have been forgotten. The most recent events that are covered are the fact that Thunderbird (II) kidnapped Banshee to exact revenge on Charles Xavier, Charles getting jumped and beaten nearly to death only to be saved by Callisto and Emma Frost not being happy with Empath’s recent actions which played a role in ruining Emma’s plans to use Firestar to assassinate Selene. The stories that seemed long forgotten were Tom Corsi and Sharon Friedlander being transformed by the Demon Bear and Moira and Gabrielle keeping the fact that David Haller is autistic and Charles’ son. The little things really helped to fill out the story - it was nice to see Jamie Madrox show up, he has been MIA for quite some time now. The aftermath of Empath’s actions was surprising because of Emma shutting down his powers. She has always been ruthless but to take away someone’s powers like that is a new level of sadistic even for Emma. Of course this leads to Empath reaching out to a mysterious group to seek revenge on Sunspot and Magma – although I’m not sure why he didn’t go after Emma, Thunderbird (II) and Angelica instead. We touch bases briefly with Magneto and Lee who have started up a romance that appears to end within this particular storyline. The cast is pretty full as it is but it would have been a nice touch to have Illyana present for this story because she was with Moira when they first met Gabrielle. We finally see David Haller for the first time and meet three of his stronger personalities: Jack Wayne – who is a telekinetic, Cyndi who is pyrokinetic and Jemail Karami the telepath who was part of an assassination team sent to kill Daniel Shomron (David’s godfather,) Gabrielle and David. Unfortunately Gabrielle wasn’t there and David’s psychic powers manifested after he witnessed Jemail murder Daniel. David killed the assassination team and unintentionally managed to absorb (at the very least) Jemail’s mind. The main story revolves around Charles and the New Mutants trying to help cure David similar to the way that Charles cured Gabrielle years ago but in the process: Charles, Gabrielle, Dani, Rahne, Doug, Moira, Tom and Sharon all get pulled into David’s mind which is a battlefield. At first we’re led to believe that Jemail has taken over David’s mind and is trying to destroy the boy and take over his body but we learn that Jemail actually wants to help knit David’s fractured mind back together and that Jack Wayne is the one who is trying to keep everything the way it is. Ultimately Jemail and Dani combine their powers to return all of her friends to their physical bodies and Jemail and Jack (under Dani’s threats) piece together David’s mind. However after Dani returns to her physical body Jack built in a failsafe that kept himself, Cyndi and Jemail all separate personalities within David who is now awake and finally comes face to face with the father he thought had abandoned him and Charles remembering that he felt the Beyonder probing David’s mind while they were all trapped in there. It was a good story, nothing really to pick on – there was one little mistake where there’s an image of Gabrielle and Moira with David as a little child but that’s easy to over look. I do wish that they had more time to play up the betrayal factor of the two women he loved the most keeping such a thing from him. Once again the art really suited the story, but I wish it was a bit darker and I’m not really a fan of David’s overall look in the ‘real’ world.

Marvel Graphic Novel #50 – The Scorpio Connection

I put this one in here mostly because I didn’t feel comfortable just doing three issues here and Wolverine/Nick Fury: The Scorpio Connection was the easiest to place. Sure it happens a bit further in the continuity since Dazzler is an X-Man, however she’s only really in one panel so it’s very easy to ignore. Plus Kurt and Ororo aren’t around and that makes sense since Ororo lost her powers and since Nightcrawler is about to go off on his own little adventure thanks to Kitty (who is also not present) and Illyana. The story itself is all about Wolverine and Nick Fury teaming up to take down a man who killed a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents and left a calling card in the shape of the Scorpio Zodiac sign. Logan wants revenge because one of the men that Scorpio killed was an old friend of his that once saved his life; Nick wants in on this not because of the dead agents but because the original Scorpio was Nick’s younger brother. Now the big problem for Nick is that he witnessed his brother killing himself so there’s no way it’s possible for Scorpio to be back. Through the story we have the first appearance of Mikel Fury – Nick’s nephew but we find out that he’s actually Nick’s son. We have the first and only appearance of Amber D’Alexis – Mikel’s mother and an outright ruthless woman who manipulated her son into thinking another man was his father just so she could secretly train him to kill his actual father. I really liked the story despite me not being familiar with the bulk of the characters within the story; the only problem I had was the art and coloring. It just wasn’t my thing and all those red panels kind of hurt my eyes with how they’d pop in and out.

The New Mutants #26 – Legion: A

The New Mutants #27 – Into the Abyss: A

The New Mutants #28 – Soulwar: A

Marvel Graphic Novel #50 – The Scorpio Connection: B

Chronological X-Men - Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars Part 1 Review

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars!

The New Mutants #15 – Scaredy Cat!

The New Mutants #16 – Away Game!

The New Mutants #17 – Getaway!

Well this particular story takes place right after the X-Men vanish. Kitty is being held captive by Emma Frost – who has woken up from her coma with no real explanation as to why, and Doug is now at Emma’s Massachusetts Academy and being telepathically controlled by Emma.  Wet get several new characters thanks to Emma’s own team of teenaged mutants The Hellions: Catseye, Empath, Jetstream, Roulette, Tarot and Thunderbird (II) – who is really James Proudstar who has joined Emma’s team to take down the X-Men and Charles Xavier whom he blames for his older brother’s death. Some of the team’s powers act as direct opposition to the New Mutants- Catseye can switch from cat form to human, but she performs her feline form, so she’s their version of Rahne. Jetstream’s abilities are similar to Cannonball’s only Sam is stronger, but Jeatstream has better control over his abilities. Thunderbird is the powerhouse, much like Sunspot is for the New Mutants. Tarot who can create psychic visions based off of her tarot cards is Dani’s counterpart. Empath and Roulette are kind of just extras, and since Emma didn’t know about Amara or Illyana she never recruited counterparts for them. The plot revolves around the New Mutants (which now includes Magik) going after Kitty and Doug to rescue them from Emma Frost once Illyana spies on the Massachusetts Academy while in her astral form and sees what is really going on. There are some interesting things here: Illyana’s ability to use astral projection (so far only a few characters could do this, and with the exception of Magneto they all had telepathic powers,) Dani’s growing ease with using her powers yet they’re taking a toll on her soul – it would be really nice to do some bonding with Illyana and Dani, I always wished the two of them were closer and this would have been the perfect opportunity to do it. I really love Tarot’s powers and I wish she would have had a more visible role over the years. There are a few things though that I wished they cleared up, or explained. Illyana wants to keep her sorceress side hidden from everyone, then maybe she shouldn’t have chosen the codename Magik (the secrets out now though), another odd thing was the fact that Kitty could see Illyana’s astral form, yet Kitty has no psionic powers. How did Emma wake up? Why did she want Doug so badly, when even Charles Xavier didn’t consider him ‘worth’ recruiting? Why did Emma go through all this trouble of taking Doug just to let him go? Why does the team have such a hard time even being in the same room as Magik because they’re afraid of her and what she is and can do, yet the team watched Roberto kill Selene and bury her in her temple? The plot was good, it got us some good new characters and it will provide future material for people to pull from – but there were a lot of unanswered questions that created too many loose ends. One thing I’m really excited for though is to see where they’re going with the whole Demon Bear. It was rather surprising to see him suddenly appear in front of Dani and tell her that he’s coming to claim her soon.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1 – War Begins

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #2 – Prisoners of War!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #3 – Tempest Without, Crisis Within!

Okay let me get one thing out of the way first: this is a huge massive event that was created back in the 80s in order for Kenner Toys to have a publishing event to help promote the sale of their Marvel properties toys. That being said, the cast is HUGE: Captain America, Captain Marvel II (not the original guy, but a new lady taking the name), Hawkeye, Iron Man, She-Hulk, Thro, Wasp, Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, Colossus, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Professor X, Rogue, Storm, Wolverine, Lockeed, The Hulk, Spider-Man, Magneto, Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, Enchantress, Galactus, Kang, Lizard, Molecule Man, Ultron, Absorbing Man, Bulldozer, Piledriver, Thunderball, and Wrecker. That being said we get (so far) three new characters introduced: The Beyonder, Titania and Volcana. All this and I’m only on issue three. It turns out that The Beyonder has been responsible for the recent disappearances on Earth and he has also been the one who was behind the psychic probing of various characters over recent months. There’s a lot going on here which at times makes the series a bit hard to follow, but I don’t know if it would be easier if I was up to date on the books of the non X-characters. I’m going to try to be more objective about this story until I read all of it. I mean the storyline is pretty popular, but at the same time it was created just to sell toys so it’s either going to be awesome or awful.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #4 – Situation: Hopeless!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #5 – The Battle of Four Armies!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #6 – A Little Death…

As the first half of this story closes out we get two apparent deaths – Doom kills Kang for questioning his orders and in the process of trying to bring Lizard back into the villain’s fold it appears that the Wasp was killed trying to save him. We get the introduction of new characters in the form of Spider-Woman II aka Julia Carpenter – but it’s just a cameo, and we meet Zsaji – a healer who fixes Johnny’s broken arm, heals up Spider-Man and saves Colossus. I did find it a little odd that Johnny and Peter have apparently fallen in love with her after she healed them. It’s not odd, but it would make more sense if Spider-Man was also affected by this weird love obsession – especially if it is caused by Zsaji’s healing abilities. Speaking of odd, Piotr’s love for Kitty comes off a little like he’s obsessed with her. It definitely amps up the creepy factor that was always there because of their age differences. We also get the resurrection of Klaw (who had been killed by Dazzler) – honestly I don’t mind this one at all. I know that over the years quite a few of the X-Men have had to kill people but still. I mean out of all the ‘active’ mutants pretty much the only ones who hasn’t killed someone are Sam and Rahne. I do find it a little odd that Charles is so upset that he manipulated Spider-Man’s mind only because over the years he has done that to quite a few people. His guilt over it starts to ring a little hollow when he keeps doing it. So the story has really picked up: why does the Thing keep changing from human to ‘thing,’ is Wasp really dead, is Kang really dead, who is in the shadows watching everyone, is Galactus really about to eat the planet?

The New Mutants #15 – Scaredy Cat!: A

The New Mutants #16 – Away Game!: A

The New Mutants #17 – Getaway!: A

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1 – War Begins: C

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #2 – Prisoners of War!: B

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #3 – Tempest Without, Crisis Within!: B

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #4 – Situation: Hopeless!: A

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #5 – The Battle of Four Armies!: B

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #6 – A Little Death…: A

Chronological X-Men - Magik Review

Magik!

Dazzler #26 – Against the Wind

Dazzler #27 – Fugitive!

Dazzler #28 – Vendetta!

This is one of those plot lines that is kind of a wash. I liked it, but I didn’t; it was good, yet it was flawed. Alison continues to grow closer to her half sister Lois who continues to suffer from headaches and black outs. We finally learn why – it turns out Lois is also a mutant and when her powers manifest she accidentally murders a homeless man who tries to attack and sexually assault her in a deserted street. This causes Alison and her sister to go on the run because thanks to Stryker Anti-Mutant hysteria is at an all time high and they both fear that Lois will never get true justice simply because she might be a mutant. On the run Alison is forced to create a disguise to keep from being recognized now that she’s famous. After Lois’ powers manifest again and lead to the death of a cat they take off again and head to LA. Meanwhile Rogue hasn’t taken too well to her many recent defeats at Alison’s hands and has begun hunting her down to exact her own revenge even though Mystique and Destiny both believe she should let it go. Everything comes to a head when in LA Alison receives pictures of Lois killing the homeless man and they are blackmailed into killing someone else – it turns out to be Lois’ biological father Nick Brown. The two of them kind of reconnect and Alison seems to like him, but she can’t get past the things her mother said he did to her – not that she has much time to because Warren has been shot (he’s recovering at a nearby hospital though) and Rogue is chasing her through Nick’s home trying to kill her. Ultimately Alison defeats Rogue and this time it must have sunk in that being with the Brotherhood/Sisterhood of Evil Mutants doesn’t pay off because she officially leaves the group off panel but this is the last time she’s an actual member of the team.

The Uncanny X-Men #169 – Catacombs

The Uncanny X-Men #170 – Dancin’ in the Dark

This storyline brings us the first appearance of the Morlocks (who are named after the subhuman group of subterranean from H.G. Welles’ ‘The Time Machine.’ We’ve seen Caliban before but this is the first time we see Callisto, Masque, Plague and Sunder – there are other Morlocks but they haven’t been given names yet. There were a few things that seemed a bit off, mostly because it is a bit hard to keep track of every single action every character makes in every book – the fact that there are some things that don’t exactly fit make me concerned that it will only get worse when they add in more X-books. Right now there are only three, but for a huge chunk of time there is a period of time where there are no less than 6 X-books at any given time. Now for the odd things.. Angel is kidnapped and taken to the Morlocks’ tunnel to be married to Callisto – this is odd because in the story he is with Candy yet for like the past year’s worth of comics he’s been off in the Dazzler book where he pretty much walked out on his relationship with Candy so he can pursue a romantic relationship with Alison Blaire, on top of that there is no mention (not like Warren has the chance what with being strung up, knocked out and having large portions of his wings plucked out) of him being hounded by Rogue, Mystique and Destiny nor the fact that he was recently shot. Another thing that’s ‘off’ is the fact that Storm says she knows what Angel is going through only the way she says it makes it sound like she ran away and escaped from the man who raped her when she was twelve and that she would never kill anyone because she would become a monster like that man when the whole build up over the years has been the fact that Ororo had killed her rapist and swore that she would never take another human life. There are a few more things that are … off … Mastermind has been tormenting Mystique through nightmares where she is the animal that he and Lady Jean Grey killed when he was trying to corrupt Jean. I don’t really understand why he’s after Mystique because up to this point Jason has never crossed paths with Raven or Irene. Rogue goes missing –which places this story right after the recent Dazzler one. The change in Ororo’s behavior is interesting, I wish they’d explain it though – I’m betting it had something to do with things that happened to her during the Brood storyline. We get much more interaction between Scott and Madelyne which is nice (because by now you all should know how I feel about her character) but it seems really sudden. It would have benefited from a slower build up. The story wasn’t bad but it was far from being very good and it left me wanting a lot more than it delivered.

The New Mutants #4 – Who’s Scaring Stevie?

This story almost could fit better during the whole God Loves, Man Kills plot simply because of the subject matter but it doesn’t really fit that time line. This story revolves around the New Mutants trying to figure out who has been harassing their teacher Stevie over the phone for a period of time. It’s one of those stories that is a good read but it’s not really an issue you’d jump at the bit to read again. I don’t know why, but for some reason I’m still fonder of the New Mutants stories than the Uncanny X-Men – maybe it’s because it’s a whole new set of characters. I still have issues with the art – it isn’t bad but it’s hard to look at things for example how Sam is drawn and not laugh or think he looks like some 40 year old country singer but that’s how he’s supposed to be portrayed so I can’t find too much fault with it. I don’t really have anything bad to say about this story my only complaint was the little mistake where Dani said that they were invited to the dance when at the time that the team was invited Dani was busy being locked in the Danger Room and assaulted by the Brood Queen that had taken over Charles.

The Uncanny X-Men #171 – Rogue

Ororo offers the Morlocks a home at Xavier’s school if they ever want it and she promises to continue to look in on them as she is now their leader. We see a little of Carol struggling with her life and lack of emotional connection she has to her newly recovered memories. Logan is still off on his own, and Scott is in Alaska busy starting up his own relationship with Madelyne. Speaking of Madelyne we learn that she was the lone survivor of a fiery crash that happened on the exact same date that Phoenix died. Granted you have too look at the event not the actual year because the yearly scale is a sliding one because even assuming that all the characters were 20 in the early 80s they would all be at least 50 now. The main plot involves Rogue having difficulties dealing with Carol’s mind trapped within her own and she goes to the X-Men for help, none of the X-Men take it well but Carol takes it the hardest leaving the X-Men behind for good since Rogue has been given status as a member of the team. Kitty has officially given up her codename of Sprite and gone back to Ariel which is like okay.. whatever. Illyana programs in a new training session for the X-Men (who are in need of blowing off steam while Charles examines Rogue) and somehow manages to program in a recreation of Limbo and particular events that happened there. Kitty tries to comfort Illyana who has started to panic and draws out the Soulsword for the first time and actually scratches Kitty with it while she is phased. The big thing with this though is that seeing Limbo again has forced Illyana to remember everything she had so far blocked out.

Magik #1 – Little Girl Lost

Magik #2 – Cold Iron – Hot Blood!

Magik #3 – Soulquest

Magik #4 – Darkchild

This is one of those stories that gives you a big bang for your buck. Illyana is contemplating her life and how to figure out exactly how old she is. It is her birthday but if she had stayed on Earth she’d only be turning seven but thanks to being trapped in Limbo and time moving differently she is actually turning 15. Of course she’s still struggling with her newly resurfaced memories. We learn quite a bit with this story – not only how Ororo learned how to tap into magic but how Belasco initially planned on using her and using her soul to make a series of bloodstones with. We see how Piotr died trying to protect his sister, Kitty becoming ‘touched’ by Belasco’s magic and first becoming a cat/human hybrid before being ultimately changed and transformed into a cat. We see Ororo try to teach Illyana white magic before she runs away with Cat (Kitty) and trying to use the stepping disks to return to Earth. Cat ends up killing a totally corrupted version of Kurt and as punishment Belasco makes her his new servant. A series of spells, trials and events allow Belasco to teach Illyana black magic eventually corrupting her and pulling portions of her soul into a new series of bloodstones that he intends on using because there’s something about Illyana’s soul that will allow Belasco’s masters a way to destroy all of the Earth. Illyana slowly learns how to control her magic, eventually learning that the stepping disks are actually her own creation – which finally solves the question of if she is a mutant or not. She is, and her powers are similar to Kurt’s – this is a bit odd though because I’m not sure why she would have blocked out the fact that she has mutant abilities once she returned to Earth considering pretty much all Illyana ever said before going to Limbo was asking questions revolving around the fact that she might be a mutant, and she continued those types of questions once she returned to Earth. We finally get an explanation as to why Illyana hasn’t seen her parents – when she attempted to escape Limbo with Cat she managed to escape briefly and returned home to Russia and encountered her parents. Her mother and father ended up rejecting her (not aware of the fact that time moves differently in Limbo) thinking she is no more than an unruly teenager who is wicked and pretending to be Illyana just to torment them. It still doesn’t make sense to me as to why she hasn’t gone back to them, or why Piotr hasn’t visited them and told them what happened. Things drastically spiral out of control and Illyana ends up snapping Cat’s neck and killing her and shortly after that killing Ororo. According to a dying Ororo though these were mercy killings and didn’t end up costing her soul anything – unfortunately this causes the third (there needs to be five total) bloodstone to be created which leaves Illyana more evil black magic than white magic. Illyana tries a spell that Ororo did once only to find out that it will never work for her since she has become more corrupted than Ororo ever is – Illyana cannot create life like Ororo did, instead she focuses her magic to create the Soulsword to use as a means of preventing others from ending or perverting life. A heated battle with Belasco leads to Illyana transforming into Darkchylde for the first time only the good in her rejects the transformation and won’t allow herself to kill Belasco. She realizes that if she stays in Limbo she would be able to make it better but the ultimate price would be the destruction of her soul and would lead to the re-corruption of Limbo so Illyana decides to leave Limbo and return to Earth. In the End we see Illyana wandering around the mansion finding the New Mutants and she realizes that just maybe the ending of her innocence was only just the beginning of her life. I’ve got to say I really love this story, I could read it again now, and then when I’m finished I could go right back and re-read it. There honestly is not a single bad thing that I can say about this story, and if Illyana wasn’t in my top 5 favorite X-Men characters of all time I would still want to read the story three times. I wish that Illyana was given a real series at some point. It’s been a major gripe with me, she’s gotten a few miniseries over the years but when you see characters like Captain Brittan, Rogue, Blink and Gambit get multiple series over the years I just wish that they gave Magik one.

Dazzler #26 – Against the Wind: B

Dazzler #27 – Fugitive!L B

Dazzler #28 – Vendetta!L B

The Uncanny X-Men #169 – Catacombs: B

The Uncanny X-Men #170 – Dancin’ in the Dark: B

The New Mutants #4 – Who’s Scaring Stevie?: C

The Uncanny X-Men #171 – Rogue: B

Magik #1 – Little Girl Lost: A

Magik #2 – Cold Iron – Hot Blood!: A

Magik #3 – Soulquest: A

Magik #4 – Darkchild: A

Chronological X-Men - Days of Future Past Part 1 Review

Days of Future Past.

Wolverine: Days of Future Past #1 Ill Winds

Wolverine: Days of Future Past #2 Uneasy Alliances

Wolverine: Days of Future Past #3 Chain Reactions

This three part story takes place directly before the events of Uncanny X-Men #141-142 – this issue serves as sort of a prequel as well as a retcon to throw in all the new characters that have appeared long after the original story was first told. The retcon part I’ll deal with first.. the Sentinels are no longer the regular version but they are mass produced versions of Bastion’s Prime Sentinels. Wolverine is off on his quest to find Amiko (although she wasn’t introduced until roughly forty issues after the original Days of Future Past), the story now includes Emma Frost, Synch, Jubilee, Leech, and Psylocke – who has joined Shinobi Shaw and taken up the position of The Red Queen within the new Inner Circle. We see that Pietro, Sam (Cannonball) died along with Kurt and Archangel (which prompts Betsy to go bad and turn traitor.) Something happened on Genosha which is never revealed happened, something so bad that Magneto becomes unhinged if anyone even mentions ‘Genosha’ to him. We see Wanda being tortured by Shinobi and Betsy in order to use her Hex powers to destroy what little is left of civilization so they can take over. Eventually Wanda dies, but not before Magneto is crippled trying to save her. Emma restructures Betsy’s mind and sends her off for ‘rehabilitation’ that will involve her spending time with her brother Brian. The main thing about this story is it shows how and why Magneto joined the few X-Men that are left and how he was crippled – so in that respect it’s a prequel, plus the fact that it happens directly before the events of the main storyline. I haven’t read the Days of Future Past storyline yet so I don’t know how difficult it will be to deal with the retcon aspect when all of these characters that were in this particular miniseries aren’t around and since they don’t exist yet aren’t mentioned at all.

The Uncanny X-Men #141 Days Of Future Past

The Uncanny X-Men #142 Mind Out Of Time!

Alright, we’re in to the main story here… We see a lot of new things, but we get some resolutions as well. Blob meets the new Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants – consisting of Mystique (she had already appeared in Ms. Marvel’s book but this story right here begins her long standing reign of terror in the X-books) the rest of the Brotherhood is made up of Avalanche, Destiny and Pyro – this is the first time they appear anywhere. Mystique plans on killing off Senator Kelly, Moira MacTaggert and Charles Xavier to teach the world to be afraid of mutants. Initially she succeeds which sends the world spiraling into a dark and twisted world where Sentinels rule, mutants are either killed off or kept in concentration camps and the entire world is on the verge of nuclear war. In the future the only ‘X-Men’ that are left are Ororo, Piotr, Kitty – who now goes by Kate and is married to Piotr, the two had children that were at some point murdered by the Sentinels- Magneto – for the first time he is called Magnus, and is crippled, Franklin Richards – the mutant child of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, and his wife a redheaded telepathic/telekinetic mutant named Rachel. (We know from Wolverine: Days of Future Past that Jubilee, Psylocke, White Queen, Synch and Leech are all still alive too) Logan is alive, and ‘free;’ he’s been feeding Kate pieces of equipment that will disable the collars that cripple their mutant powers which then allows Rachel to send Kate back in time switching her mind with her younger self Kitty. Back in the past the X-Men battle the Brotherhood, only to find themselves evenly matched, Kurt squares off against Mystique and is taken aback by how much they look alike. Mystique doesn’t reveal too much, only that Kurt should seek out his ‘mother’ Margali for the truth. Kate in the past is able to stop Destiny from killing Senator Kelly which drastically changes this future timeline (which is a good thing because by this point in the future Ororo, Logan, Magneto, Franklin and Piotr have all died leaving just Kate/Kitty and Rachel. Kate returns to the future bringing Kitty back to the past with no memory of anything that has happened. Kelly and the newly elected president (we don’t see his face, just a shadowed outline) have teamed up with Sebastian Shaw to contract Henry Peter Gyrich to create a new breed of Sentinels to control mutant kind.

Dazzler #1 So Bright This Star

Dazzler #2 Where Demons Fear To Dwell!

Well… this as published around the same time and mentions of it lead us to believe that it takes place directly after Uncanny X-Men #142. We learn Dazzler’s real name is Alison Blaire, of course considering this is the first issue we get a bunch of new characters: Stevie Wildfire (the owner of the club Alison and Enchantress are auditioning for,) Joseph R. Ercoli (who essentially introduces Alison to her new agent,) Harry S. Osgood – her new agent, Cassandra Ferlenghetti – Harry’s secretary, Alison’s father Judge Carter Blaire, and her Nana. Since Alison appeared in Uncanny X-Men, and is a mutant this is essentially the first X-book spinoff so it’s the first time we see The Enchantress in and X-title. There are a TON of characters in this first story which almost makes this book more of a ‘Team-Up’ title rather than a ‘real’ book. So for guest stars we get: (aside from Enchantress) Human Torch, The Thing, Spider-Man, Angel, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Professor Xavier, Sprite, Storm, Wolverine, Beast, Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron-Man, Wasp, Jarvis and Spider-Man. I’ve got to be honest this is going to be a hard book for me to get through, while I’ve always liked the idea of Dazzler, I’ve never been a fan of what they had done with her character over the years and I think that’s going to drag the book down for me. Part of me hopes I’m just remembering how she was portrayed in the 80s wrong because I was only a child then, but I’m not hopeful that the book will contain anything that will want to make me come back to the book and read the stories over again. I don't mean to bash the book - there are elements that are good but I don't really need to see parts of the book devoted to Alison putting on her make up, or running around on roller skates, or even really talk about how hard it is to sing because she can't get paying gigs, but she doesn't want to quit because it's her passion. Okay sure the struggle with her life choices should be touched on, but they don't need to be brought up every single issue- and unfortunately I think they'll keep it up for a while.

Dazzler #3 The Jewels of Doom!

Dazzler #4 Here Nightmares Abide!

So here we have the second story... Carter Blaire, Allison’s Nana Bella, The Human Torch, The Thing, Cassandra and Harry are all back. We met Lancelot Steele who is acting as Harry’s field representative so I guess that makes him Alison’s manager. We continue the floating in and out of characters from other books which brings us Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, Dr. Arturo Frazen and Dr. Doom. Alison is scheduled to perform at the United Nations benefit concert and she’s so excited about it that she tries one more time to reach out to her father – it doesn’t go well. Of course just before it’s time for Alison to perform as Dazzler comes the Latverian jewels are in the process of being stolen, Alison tries to stop them only to end up being captured by Dr. Doom. Seeking a second Merlin Stone Doom transports Dazzler to the dimension he has tracked it down to in order to use her as a pawn to draw out whoever is guarding the second stone. Allison enters a stand off with her anti-self who feeds off of darkness. Alison outwits her dark self and then has to battle the real guardian of the stone. Thankfully he is also afraid of light and she quickly bests him and takes the stone and is transported back to Doom’s lair. She manages to escape the prison Dom is holding her in and uses her powers to destroy both Merlin Stones, a furious Doom destroys the building, crushing Alison underneath it and when Johnny Storm finds her he can’t revive her. Okay this story was actually more my speed than the first one but the series still has a long way to go before it becomes a good book (in my eyes at least.) One thing I think that the second issue had going for it was I remember having it as a kid. I have distinct memories of the cover, yet I don't remember reading it at all so it did bring back memories of when I was younger (I still hadn't been born when this issue was published but I remember going to the 'Giant Comic Book Warehouse' and spending like 3 hours digging through the back issue boxes with my older brother and finding this one on clearance for 30 cents so I grabbed it up.

Wolverine: Days of Future Past #1 Ill Winds: A

Wolverine: Days of Future Past #2 Uneasy Alliances: B

Wolverine: Days of Future Past #3 Chain Reactions: A

The Uncanny X-Men #141 Days Of Future Past: A

The Uncanny X-Men #142Mind Out Of Time!: A

Dazzler #1 So Bright This Star: C

Dazzler #2 Where Demons Fear To Dwell!: B

Dazzler #3 The Jewels of Doom!: B

Dazzler #4 Here Nightmares Abide!: A

Chronological X-Men - Proteus Part 2 Review

Proteus.

The Uncanny X-Men #129 God Spare the Child…

Classic X-Men #35 Paper, Not Paper

Okay things are starting to heat up here. The X-Men finally leave Muir Island, only they leave Sean behind to help with Moira. Scott asks Lorna and Alex if they will come back to the team but they refuse so he tries his luck with Jamie who also turns him down. Jean’s flashbacks to ‘her other life’ are coming more frequently and are starting to get harder to snap out of, however she decides for now not to tell any of her friends about it. Charles is now back on Earth at the mansion and after learning of everyone’s survival he steps back up as the leader of the team. This doesn’t go over too well with Logan who ends up storming out, and Scott doesn’t fare much better because Charles basically calls him a failure and tells him he is disappointed in how he has chosen to lead the team in Charles’ absence. Cerebro goes off detecting two new mutants and Charles decides to split the team up to go after each of the emerging mutants. Meanwhile we get the first official appearances of The Hellfire Club, The Inner Circle, and Emma Frost – The White Queen herself. In a shadowed meeting we also meet Harry Leland, Donald Pierce and Sebastian Shaw, but they’ll have their first full on appearances soon enough. In this issue we also see Kitty Pryde and her parents Carmen and Terri for the first time. I find it interesting that according to Kitty she’s only thirteen and a half – this is a little creepy considering that Piotr is well over eighteen and I know eventually the two of them get together. On another note though if this is 1979 and Kitty is 13 ½ which means she was born in 1966 and as of today that would make her 44 years old. Man comic book timelines are screwy. Speaking of screwy there are a few things that don’t really track… why doesn’t Cerebro register Jason Wyngarde or Emma Frost? Why doesn’t Charles recognize Emma as a mutant and a telepath when they briefly encounter each other when they both attempt to recruit Kitty for their ‘schools.’ The issue ends with Emma ambushing  and kidnapping Logan, Ororo and Piotr after the failure of three armored units to kidnap Kitty Pryde. Emma informs a man named Cutler – it will be hard to keep track of anyone in the Hellfire Club since all of the Inner Circle’s henchmen wear the black and red outfits with the expressionless masks – that failure is not something The Hellfire Club will accept and triggers bombs planted within each of the three armored units… well armor. The back up issue shows exactly how Kitty ended up stowing away on Emma’s hovercraft. Again we get some funky art which once again I can excuse because it’s a dreamscape of a thirteen year old girl who just experienced the shock of her life… I do find it a little odd that everyone in Kitty’s dreamscape was female, including a wheelchair bound woman who was clearly supposed to represent Charles. Despite the fact that the Classics cover bills this as part of The Dark Phoenix Saga it is still largely considered to be part of the Proteus storyline because The Dark Phoenix Saga doesn’t officially start until Uncanny X-Men #132 when Jean becomes The Black Queen of The Inner Circle.

The Uncanny X-Men #130 Dazzler

Classic X-Men #36 Outside In

I’m not really sure where the back up story is supposed to fit in but obviously it takes place after the X-Men return to the states. Moira is naturally having trouble moving past the deaths of her son and husband is using all of her previous research to try to find a way to bring Kevin back and give him a peaceful powerless life. The story does clear up a little bit of the confusion with this retcon of her being married. Now it’s clear that Moira married Joe, he was an abusive man to the point where one night he raped her and got her pregnant – I’m assuming that since he knew nothing about the child that this is when she took off for the states and sought out a divorce and met Charles and she leaves him before she starts showing. It helps to flesh out her background and explain why she suddenly left Charles back in the day, but over the years Charles' backstory gets so muddled with that I almost hate this one simply because I know it's only the start of historical retcons yet to come. The main story shows Scott, Kurt and Jean off to find the other mutant that Cerebro discovered – this time it turns out to be a young woman who is a disco singer going by the name Dazzler. We learn that the reason why The Hellfire Club knows so much about the X-Men and how their abilities work is because they used Warhawk to bug the mansion when he attacked them 20 issues ago. Jean is continuing to experience her time slips each one is getting progressively worse, now it’s at te point where they are happening right in front of Scott and it’s getting harder and harder for Jean to snap out of them. Scott and Jean save Alison Blaire (Dazzler) and she agrees to help them rescue Kitty and the rest of the X-Men from Emma Frost.

The Uncanny X-Men #131 Run For Your Life!

Classic X-Men #37 Was Not What Will Be

What the heck, I’ll start with the back up feature again. I didn’t really like it. A lot of it was used to ‘date’ Alison to stress that she character is all about the late 70s and 1980 – I could have done with out it. The other half of it was used to show that Alison isn’t your typical rock star, that she keeps up with current events and can engage in a well spoken debate. Honestly I would rather have had this just be a few additional pages in some story instead of it being an entire back up feature. The big confrontation between the X-Men and Emma frost continues. Alison, Kurt, Jean, Kitty and Scott storm Emma and her troops to free Ororo, Piotr, Logan and Charles. Kitty gets her first interaction with Logan – which will build into him eventually mentoring her, and is smitten with Piotr. Emma faces off against Phoenix in a battle to end, ultimately Emma proves no match for Phoenix and she uses the last reserve of her power to bring down the entire building they are in. At the end everyone is safe and accounted for except for Emma and the X-Men believe that she committed suicide rather than become the X-Men’s prisoners. Back at Kitty’s house Jean uses her abilities to completely wipe out Kitty’s parents memories and create new ones for them in which they are very close to allowing Kitty to join Charles’ school – this doesn’t go over well with Scott and Ororo. Meanwhile Alison decides that her place isn’t with the X-Men and Charles trusts her enough not to reveal any of their secret identities and she departs off on her own adventure and her own title. I do find it just a little bit odd that Jean would go to the lengths of doing that to Kitty's parents, yet she doesn't do anything about the fact that Dazzler knows the identities of the X-Men. And it is a little odd that everyone is so concerned with Jean wiping out people's minds when Charles has done that in the past before for example with Blob and they didn't even bat an eyelash at that.

Amazing Spider-Man #203 Bewitched, Bothered and Be-Dazzled!

Welcome to the pit stop Alison makes before she starts her own title. Dazzler is performing in New York and is chased through the city by a giant ball of light, Spider-Man tries to save her but she wants nothing to do with him. It turns out that the giant ball of light is Lightmaster who has been trapped in a different dimension and is being called back to Earth by Alison’s powers. He plans to use her like a living battery that can keep him on Earth and in power for the rest of his life. Spider-Man interferes and as a result it causes Lightmaster’s device to backfire and instead of using Dazzler as a battery he is now possessing her. The now possessed Dazzler and Spider-Man fight but he quickly gets the upper hand and uses the device once again to separate Dazzler and LIghtmaster and send him back to the light dimension. The problem with this issue is that it is in a main title so a lot of it is devoted to aspects of Peter's life that don't really move the 'mash up' plot along which leads to an all too quick resolution for the plot. We spend a large part of the issue dealing with Alison being chased and then possessed and then in one page Peter solves the problem.

The Uncanny X-Men #129 God Spare the Child…: B

Classic X-Men #35 Paper, Not Paper: D

The Uncanny X-Men #130 Dazzler: A

Classic X-Men #36 Outside In: A

The Uncanny X-Men #131 Run For Your Life!: A

Classic X-Men #37 Was Not What Will Be: D

Amazing Spider-Man #203 Bewitched, Bothered and Be-Dazzled!: B

Chronological X-Men - Phoenix Rising Part 1 Review

This begins the tragic tale of a young woman’s fall from grace- Phoenix Rising.

Classic X-Men #5 Prison of the Heart

(The Uncanny)X-Men #97 My Brother, My Enemy!

I’m going to start with the back up story here since it’s really just a filler thing and doesn’t serve any real point in the whole overall Phoenix arch. It’s basically just the story of what Piotr does on his ‘day off’ while he’s missing Russia. He ends up running into some men who are trying to kidnap a young woman and he saves her from them, the two of them end up growing close due to their connections to Russia and both of them being artists (Anya is a ballerina and Pitor is an artist.) The men, who are working for Anya’s father in an attempt to bring her back to Russia attack Anya and Pitor again and he is forced to use his powers in front of her. Anya doesn’t take it well at all and the pair of them end up going their separate ways. Now for the main story, a whole lot is going on here…. Charles is suffering from nightmares of a war in space and has visions of people in bug-like space suits; Eric the Red is back, only it’s a different Eric he attacks and brainwashes Alex and Lorna (who is now going by the codename Polaris, and has learned how to use her powers to fly,) and is using them to attack Charles before his plane takes off. The issue ends with Dr. Lang having watched all of the events unfold on his video screen, only to further show us that someone is watching Lang watch the X-Men. So not only do we have the first appearances of the Shi-ar Empire but we also have Lorna being brainwashed by someone she thought was Scott, so this chips away yet one more piece of Lorna’s soon to be fragile mental state.

Classic X-Men #6 A Love Story

(The Uncanny)X-Men #98 Merry Christmas, X-Men…

Starting yet again with the backup feature in Classic X-Men but this time it will be quick since the story contains barely more than 40 words, if that much. The whole thing is just Jean going about her normal routine as she prepares for a night out with her friends that will end (if all goes according to plan) with a romantic date with Scott. We see the return of the Sentinels, this time Steven Lang designed them, Logan calls Jean ‘Red’ for the first time and the X-Men learn that Logan’s claws come out of his body and are attached to him. We see the first appearance of Amanda Sefton (one step closer to Magik!!! Woot!) and Elizabeth “Betsy” Wilford (I’ll bet anything she’ll be long gone by the time we get to the much more recognizable Betsy.) We see Charles go to Dr. Peter Corbeau, an old friend of his who has had experience with space travel to see if he can be of any help in identifying the images from Charles’ dreams. The additional pages – which I wouldn’t exactly consider them to be a retcon since the original issues and the ‘reprint’ with additional stories and pages were both written by Chris Claremont, so I guess they’re almost like ‘deleted scenes’ more than a retcon… anyway… We get our first peek at The Hellfire Club and a few of its members: Edward “Ned” Buckman, Sebastian Shaw and Tessa. The story itself was good, and all huge epics like The Phoenix Saga have their high and low points so as pat of the big picture the story was alright, but it would have been a lot better if it were more self contained. The little cameos by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and even Nick Fury and Contessa Valentina were nice but not needed.

 (The Uncanny)X-Men #99 Deathstar, Rising!

 Classic X-Men #7 Out with the Old

The X-Men go off into space to save Charles, Jean, Logan and Sean from Steven Lang’s Sentinel space platform. We see the first appearance of Black Tom Cassidy and we get an interesting little scene with Ororo when she feels that she has ‘killed’ a Sentinel, it almost makes you think that she’s killed someone before. I did find it a little odd that while she was drifting through space she’s thinking about if she should go back to Africa in order to avoid the potential of having to kill someone or if she should stay with the X-Men. I just think it’s weird because it’s not what you think would be running through someone’s mind in that situation. The extra pages show us that Steven has been working with The Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle to use Project Armaggedon to isolate the X-Factor that turns people into mutants in order to give out mutant powers to whoever they see fit. In reality Steven and Lang are secretly using this as a way to systematically exterminate all mutants (Inner Circle members included.) The back up feature takes place right in the middle of the main story. Ned sends the Sentinels after Harry Leland and Emma Frost who have found and taken in the severely injured Mike Rossi and have learned the truth of Ned and Steven’s plans. We meet Lourdes Chantel, but she is quickly killed by a Sentinel which leads Sebestian, Tessa, Harry and Emma into action. Emma uses her powers to force Ned to kill all of the members of the Inner Circle, including Ned’s own ‘White Queen’ Paris Seville before he himself dies. Emma shows a rare moment of compassion (well rare at the time, much more common later on down the line) where she shuts off the portion of Lourdes mind that can feel pain so she can pass peacefully. With the Inner Circle and Lourdes dead Sebestian, Harry, Tessa and Emma step up and take control becoming the new Inner Circle and vowing that the Hellfire Club will make sure no other mutants become victims.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #100 Greater Love Hath No X-Man…

 Classic X-Men #8 Phoenix

The X-Men’s epic battle in space concludes (for now) with the new breed of Sentinels – that actually look like the original X-Men destroyed and the whole crew try desperately to return to Earth in a damaged space ship in the middle of the largest solar flare to ever have occurred. The additional pages clear up the possibility that Jean might have murdered Steven by showing her pull him from the wreckage. I wish they would have used the extra pages to show how Scott was captured by Steven though, that was kind of odd to show him suddenly captured but no explanation as to why or how that had happened. The back up feature is where it’s at though and it’s a bit of a let down only because it takes away the surprise that Jean wasn’t really ‘Phoenix’ but put into a cocoon to heal. But other than that it was great to see Jean and The Phoenix Force come face to face for the first time and Jean’s actions to save the X-Men and willing to let herself die in the process. One thing I really liked was that as outlandish as it was event wise there was this moment just before Jean takes in the Phoenix Force where she’s talking about how she’ll die to save the X-Men and how important they are to the world and how much she loves Scott and then all of a sudden there’s this brief moment of selfishness where Jean whispers that she wants to live. That really rang true and I’m glad that they threw that in there, and as much as I hate the retcon of Jean not being Phoenix in my mind I like this idea I have where The Phoenix Force being both good and evil knew that it would corrupt Jean and a part of it wanted to spare her therefore it separated her. I don’t know, it makes sense in my head at least. The art though, wow that was creepy to go from page to page watching Jean’s body be slowly destroyed by the exposure to the radiation and it end with her body actually dead but Jean holding on with her mind refusing to leave the body until she knows her friends are safe.

Classic X-Men #5 Prison of the Heart: D

(The Uncanny)X-Men #97 My Brother, My Enemy!: A

Classic X-Men #6 A Love Story: D

(The Uncanny)X-Men #98 Merry Christmas, X-Men…: C

(The Uncanny)X-Men #99 Deathstar, Rising!: B

 Classic X-Men #7 Out with the Old: A

(The Uncanny)X-Men #100 Greater Love Hath No X-Man…: A

 Classic X-Men #8 Phoenix: A